Chapter 1071: The World Sorted Itself Out

Over the next stretch of time, Miles stayed behind to manage the compound, while Ethan led the others out, clearing zombies one small town at a time.

As the days passed, Tier 6 zombies started showing up more frequently. On average, they’d run into one or two a day.

But because small towns had low populations, these Tier 6 zombies didn’t have many underlings. Most of them had gathered the undead from nearby towns—some had around two to three thousand zombies under their command, others as few as seven or eight hundred.

Unlike the clustered towns out west, Redwood County’s small towns were spread out due to the terrain. Within a six-mile radius, you might only find one or two small towns, with the rest being scattered homes and farms. That made it hard for zombies to form large hordes.

Which, honestly, worked in Ethan’s favor.

With the firepower their team had, even two or three thousand zombies weren’t a problem.

Any Tier 6 zombie they spotted? Dead on sight.

Back at the compound, Ethan had Garrick dig a massive pit behind their housing area. They built a cage there, modeled after the one used by the Harlan family.

The area was marked as restricted—no one else was allowed near it. Even their warehouse was built nearby, guarded personally by Goldie, the mutant Bengal tiger.

Whenever they ran into a particularly strong Tier 5 zombie, they’d break its limbs and haul it back alive. Then they’d toss in the corpses of the Enhanced that Chris had killed earlier as food.

Under those conditions, it didn’t take long for Tier 6 zombies to start emerging.

They’d collected a decent number of Tier 6 crystal cores this way.

While clearing out zombies, they also scavenged supplies.

Small town farms often had stockpiles of food. Their barns and silos were packed with corn, wheat, or soybeans—tons of it, literally.

Sometimes, after clearing out a larger town, the FMTV military truck couldn’t even hold everything. They’d have to send Sean and the others back with a full load, then bring Miles over so he could use his [Pocket Dimension] to store the rest. Sometimes it took multiple trips.

Cities couldn’t compare to this at all.

They also found a ton of homemade goods—pickled and canned vegetables in glass jars and Mason jars, smoked hams, dried beef, sausages. Stuff that had long since been looted clean in the cities was still plentiful out here.

Honestly, post-apocalypse survival rates in small towns were way higher than in urban areas.

In fact, while clearing out these towns, they even found quite a few survivors.

These people had managed to stay alive for over a month—something that would’ve been unthinkable in a city.

Most of them had been hiding in root cellars.

Redwood County was big on potatoes and onions, and many homes had underground storage cellars for long-lasting crops.

After the world fell apart, those with enough food stashed away managed to ride it out underground.

But the moment those cellar doors opened and the survivors crawled out... Ethan and the others nearly threw up on the spot.

These people had been eating, drinking, and doing their business in the same cramped space for over a month. The stench was indescribable.

Mia actually puked on the spot.

And not from gore—this was pure, nose-burning, soul-crushing stink.

Ethan told the survivors to head to their compound on their own. The roads were mostly clear now, and the path back was safe.

The compound was still expanding fast, and they needed people. These survivors needed shelter. It was a win-win.

Besides regular folks, they also ran into a few Enhanced.

These ones weren’t particularly strong, and they didn’t have any ambition. They just wanted to survive.

Most of them had banded together in small groups—people brave enough to fight zombies—hiding out in some tucked-away corner of a small town, ambushing stragglers when they could.

But once they saw Ethan’s group in action, they were completely floored.

The sheer power on display left them speechless.

Ethan told those Enhanced to head to the compound as well.

Most of them were happy to go, but a few didn’t want to be tied down. They figured they could survive on their own.

Ethan didn’t bother arguing. If they didn’t want to come, fine. He wasn’t going to beg.

Honestly, if the compound wasn’t short on people, he wouldn’t have even asked.

Everything was unfolding just as Ethan had planned—steady, methodical progress.

But that didn’t mean there weren’t surprises.

Zombies were definitely fewer in small towns compared to cities, but mutant beasts? Way more common out here.

Most of the mutant beasts had retreated into the forests—probably instinct. Or maybe they were just avoiding the zombie-infested areas. After all, zombies and mutant beasts were natural enemies. When they crossed paths, it was always a bloodbath.

Still, not all mutant beasts were smart enough to stay hidden.

Take rats, for example.

One time, while clearing a field, Ethan’s group got swarmed by a massive horde of them.

That fight was brutal. Thousands of rats, packed tight like a living carpet, came pouring out of the fields. It took them two to three hours of nonstop killing to finally drive the swarm back.

The rats weren’t particularly strong, but the sheer number of them was overwhelming.

That battle made Ethan realize they couldn’t afford to ignore the little things.

It wasn’t just rats, either. Mosquitoes, cockroaches, and all kinds of insects had mutated to some degree.

But because they were so physically weak to begin with, the mutations didn’t make them much more dangerous.

Take mosquitoes—before, a bite barely hurt. Just itched a bit and left a bump.

Now? A bite felt like a needle jab, itched worse, and the bump swelled bigger. But that was about it. No real threat. Their tiny bodies limited how far they could evolve.

Still, when you had thousands of them going after one person, even a normal human couldn’t take it.

Awakened, though? No problem. Their skin was too tough—mosquitoes couldn’t even pierce it.

So in the end, the combat power of a mutant creature still depended on how dangerous it was before the mutation. Bugs like ants and mosquitoes weren’t worth worrying about.

But animals that could already hurt humans before the apocalypse? Those were terrifying after mutation.

Tigers, lions, crocodiles—mutant beasts like those were nearly impossible for humans to beat in the same Tier.

Thankfully, most of those big predators had gone back to the forests. That was their real home.

They didn’t need to eat people. The forest was full of prey. So they rarely came out.

Goldie had probably just been out hunting when she stumbled across a group of humans fighting zombies. Thought she could swoop in for an easy meal—only to end up captured herself.

In the apocalypse, the law of the jungle ruled harder than ever.

The strong got stronger—devouring others to grow.

The weak? If they wanted to survive, they had to band together and rely on numbers.

The world had split into three major zones.

Mutant beasts ruled the forests and national parks. Neither humans nor zombies dared enter those areas lightly.

Zombies had taken over the major cities. Most urban centers were now undead territory.

Humans had retreated to small towns and rural areas, surviving in the cracks between the other two.

Of course, there were exceptions.

Some capital-level cities and regions with heavy military presence might still be under human control.

After all, the military had a huge advantage early on. If they responded fast enough, they could’ve wiped out the zombies before they had time to evolve.

Maybe.