After waiting for a while, the horde of zombies finally left the front yard of the three-story building for good.
Bayuda Gunawan let out a sigh of relief. Once he realized the area around him was empty, he lay on the roof of the car for a moment, staring up at the starry night sky.
"Oh, my God.... I didn't expect it to be this easy."
He then got up and looked toward the third floor.
"Hey, kid up there! Do you know why they left?"
Raiden Pratama was still standing by the railing, moving his camera lens around to check the distant surroundings.
"Boss, you're really talkative, you know that? Can't you be quiet for a second? If there were still zombies around you, they'd definitely target you."
Bayuda instantly fell silent. His face went deathly pale, and he swallowed hard.
Raiden surveyed the area. In the distance, there were an incredible number of zombies heading north. They weren't coming only from their direction, but from other directions as well.
He lowered the camera. His expression was more thoughtful than before.
"What was that explosion? It didn't sound like an ordinary explosion. Could it have been a bomb? Are there police or soldiers somewhere around here?"
Raiden muttered to himself as he considered all the possibilities.
The zombie apocalypse had been going on for more than a year. By now, the police and military should have been disbanded. All security personnel had been taken off duty.
The reason was simple.
No one could fight the undead. Their amnesia had also diminished drastically.
So their only choice was to survive as best they could as survivors.
When this chaos first began, their country fought desperately to hold on. In the end, however, death spread everywhere. It wasn't only civilians who fell victim; casualties also mounted among the country's security forces.
With around 250 million adults out of a population of more than 350 million, it was difficult to control everyone at the same time in different places.
Even though their people had been taught survival skills and given instructions on how to fight the undead, they still lost.
They weren't fighting criminals or terrorists who could be seen with the naked eye, but a virus for which there was no vaccine.
It was incredibly tiny, difficult to see, and impossible to predict where it might be. They said the virus responsible for all this could survive in the air for five hours. So in fact, even without direct contact with the undead, people could still become infected through the air or objects that had been contaminated.
The last news he knew of was that half of Indonesia's population had turned into undead.
An absolutely staggering number to have occurred in just one year.
"Hey, kid! What do you think? Shouldn't we investigate that explosion?" Bayuda shouted, preparing to climb down from the car roof.
Raiden turned toward him, set down his camera, and leaned against the railing, supporting his body with both hands.
"Boss, are you really that curious? If all that's waiting over there is death, will that make you happy?"
Bayuda was stunned. He grumbled furiously to himself, then slowly climbed down from the car after making sure the area around him was safe.
"I'm coming up. Wait for me!"
Raiden reached for his camera. He prepared to accept one more member into the group, even though he actually disliked having his boss around.
Below, Bayuda Gunawan took his supplies out of the car and turned on his flashlight.
Even though the situation could be considered safe, entering the building clearly carried a high risk. So he tried to find the emergency stairs. Fortunately, he found them quickly.
Step by step, he finally managed to climb to the third floor. Naturally, it took a great deal of effort. He was breathing heavily.
"You... you really are an insolent kid!" he said, bent over as he pointed at Raiden with one finger. His breathing was ragged, and sweat poured down his face.
He tried to support his nearly collapsing body. Climbing three floors was clearly the hardest thing in the world for a middle-aged man like him.
Raiden simply laughed when he saw him. He sat comfortably in a small chair while chewing on roast chicken. Then he offered Bayuda a piece with a playful expression.
At the sight of it, Bayuda immediately began to drool. He hurried over to Raiden and snatched it from him.
"You're really insolent, you know that? But I'll forgive you because of this roast chicken."
He wolfed it down like a man possessed.
"Delicious! So damn delicious! How the hell did you cook something this good? Oh, right, where did you get the chicken?"
Raiden answered casually.
"I raised it myself. Pretty impressive, right?"
Bayuda wanted to get angry and annoyed at Raiden's arrogance. But the honey-butter roast chicken was so delicious that he eventually sat kneeling on the floor and enjoyed the warmth of the campfire in front of him.
The city's facilities hadn't actually suffered much damage, so the solar-powered lamps still illuminated several places quite well, including where they were. But the nighttime air was colder than it had been before the zombie apocalypse.
"I felt like I was going to freeze to death down there."
After finishing the honey-butter roast chicken, Bayuda warmed his fingers, a blissful smile on his face.
"Oh, right. What do you think caused that explosion earlier?" he asked curiously.
Raiden was busy cleaning up the mess from his cooking. He tossed some trash into the instant fire pit, then said casually,
"It's none of our business. As long as those zombies are gone, the most important thing is having some peaceful quiet."
"Aren't you curious? What if there are other humans besides us? I've been wandering the streets for three months. I haven't met anyone besides you."
Raiden raised one eyebrow.
Actually, his situation was even worse. He had been traveling around for five months. He hadn't seen a single survivor. He thought he might be the only person who had managed to survive this long.
Still, seeing that his annoying boss had managed to survive was somewhat reassuring, though it also left him dissatisfied.
Why did someone as annoying and evil as him get a second chance from God?
But perhaps God had another plan.
Raiden let the thought go.
"Whether there are other humans or not, it's not safe to go check right now. If Boss intends to help other people at this moment, go ahead. Just don't force me to rescue you again."
Bayuda Gunawan's face immediately crumpled into a deep pout. He glared at Raiden irritably.
Raiden offered him a glass of hot chocolate.
"Drink up, Boss. This is a special recipe I created and perfected over the past month. The ingredients were hard for me to find. You'll never be able to find them again after this zombie apocalypse."
Bayuda Gunawan was startled. He suddenly remembered when they had still worked as employees at a leading insurance company. Every day, he would order the young man in front of him to make him coffee or tea. No matter what time it was, as long as Raiden was in the office, he would call him over to vent his stress. Sometimes, when he was in a particularly bad mood, he would make Raiden remake the drink. Not just once, either—sometimes as many as five times a day.
Bayuda's heart suddenly softened. He accepted the hot chocolate with a guilty expression.
"I'm sorry...."
Raiden looked at him with a bored expression. "Sorry?"