How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

Huntington Beach was a city adjacent to the ocean, true to its name.

Most of the buildings constructed like a resort town catered to the beachside tourists, including the bar where Aiden was staying.

In the dead of night, Aiden quietly exited that bar’s storeroom.

The drunken ramblings could still be heard from inside.

However, after walking just a block or two further, that clamor faded away instantly.

What found Aiden instead was darkness and stillness.

And the night ocean, reflecting the twinkling stars and moon.

“…”

Gazing down at that sea, Aiden became lost in thought for a moment.

He still couldn’t discern the identity of those zombies he had seen in LA’s sewers.

Could they perhaps be controlled by a mutant like Fear?

Of course, if it had the ability to command other zombies, summoning them into the sewers would be plausible.

But then the doors leading into those sewers were peculiar.

Those doors were clearly being maintained by someone, likely people from LA.

Furthermore, if some entity like Fear did exist there, LA couldn’t have been unaware.

It was happening beneath the very ground they lived on.

They should have been able to investigate, and for that many zombies, there would be witnesses like Oliver too.

Then… did those zombies have ties to someone within LA after all?

While Aiden couldn’t readily answer most of the questions that arose, he could affirm that one suspicion at least.

More than anything, the CCTV camera there implied those sewer zombies were under someone’s control.

No matter how potent, a zombie mutant wouldn’t install CCTV in its lair.

“Hmm…”

But that was the extent Aiden could deduce.

The crucial identities and motives behind it all eluded him – something he couldn’t even begin to imagine.

So in an uncharacteristically vexed manner, he had come out to this beachside in the middle of the night.

“It’s been three days now, huh…”

Aiden counted down to his scheduled meeting with Arian.

He lacked leads.

And to obtain those leads, he needed Arian who was inside LA.

But the agreed date to meet her was still some time away.

This incident warranted urgently summoning her if possible, but he had no means to do so.

He now regretted not arranging any emergency contact contingencies.

Had he grown complacent, underestimating LA’s potential threats?

Aiden blamed his own lack of caution.

Then.

Wheeee-

A chilly breeze blew in from somewhere.

Fitting for a winter night by the sea, yet carrying the unmistakable scent of blood.

That faint odor of blood pierced Aiden’s senses with an eerie feeling.

An alarming occurrence for any ordinary person.

But to Aiden, this blood-tinged wind was more than welcome.

It signaled the arrival of the very colleague he had been waiting for.

“…Arian?”

At Aiden’s murmur, Arian’s figure manifested in the moonlight.

Her distinctive red eyes turned toward him.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“How did you get here?”

“You told me where you were staying before, remember? I just followed the map.”

Indeed, they had previously exchanged information about their residential areas.

Yet while Aiden lacked a way to reach Arian’s location, she seemed to have no such issue finding him.

Aiden immediately asked why she had come to see him.

Of course, he too had something to convey to her.

But it appeared the abruptly-arrived Arian also had urgent matters to discuss.

“There’s something I need to tell you urgently.”

As expected, Arian began recounting the events of the past few days with a grave expression.

Aiden too opened his mouth to speak.

The two proceeded to exchange information.

“The Mayor is a zombie?”

“You’re saying there really were zombies like that in the sewers?”

The revelations stunned them both.

However, if their degrees of shock were compared, Aiden’s was greater.

Zombies gathering in LA’s sewers was an anomaly, but one that could be somewhat rationalized through enough contrivance. But Arian’s testimony about the LA Mayor himself being a zombie was on another level entirely.

After becoming a zombie, Aiden had never encountered another sentient undead besides himself able to maintain their sanity.

But the very same phenomenon was exhibited by none other than Ross Preston, the founder of LA.

Had it not come from Arian, Aiden would have scoffed and dismissed such a claim outright.

“Are you certain about this?”

“Without a doubt. I even shook hands with Ross, he has no heartbeat.”

Arian stated it with conviction.

If she went that far, Aiden had no choice but to believe her.

“Then…”

Aiden narrowed his eyes.

As implausible as each revelation was, accepting them as fact seemed to provide answers to the previously baffling questions.

More than anything, those countless zombies in the sewers.

If the Mayor Ross Preston was truly a zombie himself, their relation to him was self-evident.

Not merely due to their shared undead status.

To gather zombies in the sewers and manage them continuously would require the power to silence witnesses and control information flow.

The position of LA’s Mayor was perfect for such purposes.

The treatment suffered by Oliver, who had been Ross’s bodyguard, was solid proof of this.

Ross had likely exiled him ruthlessly from LA at the slightest risk of the sewer’s secret leaking out.

“But what reason would the Mayor have to gather zombies?”

Arian raised this objection to Aiden’s deduction.

“Why bother hiding zombies in the first place? To you, they’re nothing but nuisances, right?”

“True. I have no ability to control zombies.”

“Does that mean the Mayor possesses abilities like Fear?”

At Arian’s words, Aiden clicked his tongue in thought.

After a brief contemplation, he continued speaking.

“Well, I can’t say for sure. But… it may even surpass that.”

Considering those dormant zombies in the sewers, it was clear the Mayor had some means of controlling them.

But Aiden’s speculation went one step further.

“I told you before, didn’t I? That LA was a city that received Fear’s salvation.”

The Mayor’s fabled accomplishments in founding LA that Aiden had heard.

Coupled with this revelation of the Mayor’s true zombie identity, that supposed feat of luck no longer seemed so coincidental.

“Fear led hundreds of millions of zombies out of the LA metropolitan area into the Arizona desert. And after that, it completely ignored LA’s existence.”

It was perplexing.

While Fear had razed the mere thousands-strong camp in Phoenix, it utterly disregarded the millions residing in LA.

Thanks to that, LA was able to safeguard and achieve so much.

Yet no one could explain why Fear had acted that way.

That was not the only peculiarity either.

“Plus, at some point, it started blocking survivors’ paths to LA. The timing coincided with when those evacuees began rebelling against the Mayor.”

“What’s that… are you saying the Mayor made some deal with Fear?”

“I don’t know. Just that the timing was rather convenient.”

Arian let out a dry chuckle at the idea of the Mayor colluding with Fear.

It seemed too far-fetched an assertion.

But she had no grounds to refute it either, so she simply shook her head repeatedly.

There was no point dwelling on such hypotheticals in any case.

“Forget it. Fear has lost its powers now anyway. Let’s ignore it for now. More importantly, what are those sewer zombies for?”

“…Hard to say.”

Even Aiden couldn’t easily answer that.

If Ross was simply an intelligent zombie masquerading as human, those zombies could be seen as an invasion force against LA.

But Ross had personally founded LA himself.

Whether he had been a zombie from the very start or became one later was unknown.

Yet he showed no signs of abandoning LA, still working for the city’s sake.

Ross had no reason to destroy LA.

Then why had he gathered those zombies in the sewers?

As Aiden pondered this, he spoke up again.

“Arian, is there anyone else who knows he’s a zombie?”

Arian shook her head at that question.

Ever since learning the Mayor’s zombie identity, she had used her spare time to observe his private life as well.

But Ross didn’t seem to meet with anyone outside of work.

The confidential conversations he had while on duty were only with his close aides.

No one else appeared to recognize Ross as a zombie.

“He’s concealing it thoroughly, it seems.”

“Of course. There aren’t any outward signs yet, unlike with you.”

While a zombie, Ross’s outward appearance resembled a human’s.

Arian could smell the stench of his rotting flesh, but not enough for ordinary people to notice.

Ross too employed various countermeasures like using preservative chemicals and attempting silicon skin grafts to halt his bodily decomposition.

“Then… it’s clear he has no intention of relinquishing the Mayor’s seat.”

Arian agreed with Aiden’s statement.

Ross’s ability to conceal his deteriorating body was only possible because of his position as Mayor.

“So the current situation isn’t very favorable.”

“Why’s that?”

“Calls for the Mayor’s resignation are growing stronger among the citizens. There are even rumors he’ll step down soon of his own accord.”

This made Aiden furrow his brow in concern.

Arian’s apprehension was justified.

If backed into a corner like that, there was no telling what Ross might do.

“For now, we need to ascertain his intentions.”

“How?”

To Arian’s question, Aiden promptly provided an answer.

“Arian, you investigate the research facility.”

“Research facility?”

“Yes, the one where the accident occurred. The Mayor is trying to conceal something there. Enough to risk jeopardizing his precious position as Mayor.”

Nodding at his words implying there must be clues there, Arian shared his skepticism about that facility.

Now knowing the Mayor was a zombie, even the supposed ‘accident’ that occurred there seemed suspicious.

Whether it had truly been an accident at all.

Or a staged incident orchestrated by the Mayor himself.

The thought that he might have been responsible for Ava’s sister Nora’s death made Arian’s gaze turn sharp.

“…Understood. And you?”

“I’ll head north.”

“North?”

“One of the exits leading out from that underground sewer cavern I discovered is in that direction. But… part of the wall there is still under construction.”

The northern mountain ranges adjoining LA’s massive perimeter walls were its most vulnerable area.

Yet LA had implemented a complete access restriction to those mountains under the pretext of ongoing wall construction.

“If he’s up to something shady… the answer may lie there.”

Arian nodded in understanding.

She too had visited the northern area before due to construction material transports, but never ventured into the mountain ranges themselves.

For LA citizens, entry into those ranges was strictly prohibited.

At the time, she had assumed it was simply for safety precautions. But revisiting it now, that directive seemed subtly suspicious.

“Got it. Then-“

Just as they finalized their respective courses of action-

Arian halted mid-sentence and abruptly turned to face away from the ocean.

“Someone’s coming.”

Arian said, peering into the darkness.

The direction of the bar Aiden was staying at and the Huntington Docks buildings.

When Aiden asked if it was just drunks, Arian shook her head.

“No, there are many of them. And they seem to be encircling the area while armed.”

Aiden’s expression hardened slightly.

This was the territory of the Huntington Docks gang.

So it was hard to imagine some nameless band of drifters brazenly coming to rob Aiden here.

In other words, those approaching Aiden now were none other than the Huntington Docks gang.

However, Aiden couldn’t figure out why they would seek him out in such a manner.

“What should we do?”

“Let’s hear them out first. As for you…”

“Yeah, I’ll stay well hidden.”

The moment he finished speaking, Arian’s figure vanished, blending into the darkness like magic.

But Aiden had no time to ponder that uncanny sight, because as Arian had forewarned, footsteps soon approached.

The clanking of metal and over a dozen sets of footfalls gradually neared.

Eventually, the one who appeared was Dirk from the Huntington Docks office that frequently issued Aiden contracts.

“There you are, Aiden.”

“…What’s this about?”

Aiden reacted sharply, leveling his pistol at Dirk’s nonchalant greeting.

He had no choice.

While Dirk was unarmed, the ten subordinates with him all had guns in hand.

They had shown up armed to the teeth in the dead of night – hardly a friendly visit meriting hospitality.

As if understanding this, Dirk calmly smirked.

“Right, this doesn’t seem like a joking matter, so I’ll get straight to it. Come with me. Of course, I don’t intend you any harm – I promise.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“Well… it’s understandable if you can’t just take my word for it. But what choice do we have? You see these guys here?”

With a wave of Dirk’s hand, the subordinates all aimed their guns at Aiden in unison.

“As the wise junk dealer you are, you know there’s no other way. Just listen to me.”

Dirk admonished Aiden in a patronizing tone.

Aiden glared at him intensely.

“And what’s the reason for all this?”

“Why else? It’s a contract, that’s all.”

“A contract?”

“There’s someone who wants to meet you.”

At Dirk’s words, Aiden finally seemed to grasp why they had come for him.

The clue was… that CCTV camera.

Someone who had noticed his presence in those sewers must have put a hunt out for him.

“Could that person be the Mayor, by any chance?”

“…”

So Aiden posed that question, but Dirk maintained a poker face without responding.

If so, Aiden had nothing further to say in return.

“I refuse that contract.”

Dirk’s expression soured.

“Hey, let’s not make this difficult. I don’t want to resort to rough measures either, but you’re leaving me no choice here.”

“Funny, I feel the same way, you see.”

With a sigh as if chiding Aiden’s bravado, Dirk’s demeanor turned cold as he addressed his subordinates.

“That one there, break his legs if you have to – just bring him in somehow. But don’t kill him under any circumstances, got it?”

The subordinates nodded and began slowly closing in on Aiden.

In response, Aiden lowered his pistol and calmly spoke.

“No need for killing, it seems. You heard that?”

“Yeah, I heard.”

Dirk’s eyes widened at the cheerful girl’s voice that suddenly came from the darkness.

Simultaneously, a crimson shadow-like entity rose up from the ground.

In an instant, a tidal wave of red blood engulfed the Huntington Docks subordinates.