After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World

TL;DR: Final Galleon flashback Chapter! Sorry T_T

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”Shit—” Galleon cursed and pulled a few corpses to block their way before he blinked inside the room.

ROOAAAR!

He kicked the zombie that attacked him as soon as he entered, instinctively kicking it straight to the other zombie. He did not have the time to handle them, and he opened the door immediately, pulling his family in before the zombies could get them.

They closed the door, and he finally took down the remaining zombies, though the dog was quick and handled one of them.

From here, he could surmise that these two staff members had locked everyone out early on due to selfishness. They both still died in the end.

Anyway, things went quiet after this, and there were no more monsters that appeared, hungry for their flesh. His wife fell to the floor in relief, shivering, and his son embraced her in comfort.

Galleon sighed, wanting to join in, but his senses were still high from the previous fight, and he couldn’t find himself relaxing yet.

Instead, he walked around the small storage area and looked at the stocks there. Fortunately, there were plenty. ”Fill up your spaces with supplies,” he instructed, gathering some food with long shelf-lives into his space, including some fabrics and other things.

Like this, the family filled up their spaces with necessities, maximizing each cubic millimeter in there. Soon, the family settled down, with his wife leaning on him and their son resting on their lap. Their puppy was also there, right at their feet, occasionally asking for pats.

They ignored the distant screams and crashes outside. Galleon’s jaw clenched, and he just embraced his family, ignoring the pleas for help outside.

As a soldier, he was ashamed, but as a father, he could only be selfish and block his eyes and ears.

Later, he would look back at this exact moment and wonder if fate decided to punish him for it.

...

Things changed when they were only 3 hours away from the Migration.

It was a large group of survivors who had managed to congregate little by little in an area. Wherever they had been hiding for the past day, it was apparently compromised, and they were forced to head elsewhere.

A portion of that group ran in their direction. There were a bit less zombies in the area, so it did make sense. They managed to block the broken glass wall with some furniture and eventually, they found the pantry.

At this point, they could not lock out others, so they opened the door. The family already got their supplies in the space (as well as some in ecobags) before leaving the rest of the pantry for others.

The restaurant was filled now, but there was a line of people pushing the zombies trying to cross their makeshift barricades.

However, with their number, more and more zombies were bound to be attracted. At this, Gideon studied the place’s floor plan and its area.

It was actually a restaurant with a great view. The other side of the building was facing the sea and the cliffs, though the rooms there were VIP rooms.

This meant that there were fewer people in those areas. Further, even if the windows and doors were opened, there would be fewer or no zombies coming in from that side. He just had to focus on the zombies within the building, which was undoubtedly easier than handling them out in the open.

He couldn’t do it before because there were zombies everywhere. Now, with other people holding the monsters back, he could clear the way and wouldn’t have to worry about zombies from the back, at least for a while.

Eventually, the others found out about their plan and agreed to do the same, though there were conflicts. After all, they still had to hold back the hordes coming in from the back. Who’d be willing to do that?

Further, they also had to determine who’d serve as the scouts on the front side, which would be no less dangerous.

Galleon didn’t care who they chose to vanguard along with him. He just pulled his family along with him, clearing zombie after zombie at the rate that put people in awe.

At the time, he didn’t know that upgraded zombies had managed to go through and bite a few people. Within a few seconds, the already precarious situation completely developed into chaos.

”Kyaaaa!!”

”Helpp!”

The scores of people ran to the cleared hallways, and his wife was even pushed to the side. Gideon had no choice but to wrap his body around his family, pulling them to a corner and shielding them with his body.

”Stay back!” He screamed, slashing away and pushing away those who were getting too close.

Gideon slowly pulled his family away from the stampede, killing a few zombies that came their way.

”Kyaaa! Someone is bitten!” Someone yelled from the side, exacerbating the situation even more.

More and more zombies came, and more and more people transformed.

They could hear screams, yells, and the squelching sounds of innards being consumed, but this time they were much closer by.

Soon, they managed to open the door to one of the VIP rooms, taking care of the few zombies there. Before he could close the door, however, the panicking crowd pushed through, literally pushing their family to the balcony.

Worse, someone even pushed his son off the balcony to give ’space’!!!

”ALDRICHHH!!”

His wife screeched to the top of her lungs. ”My son! My son!!” If Galleon hadn’t stopped her, she’d have jumped to follow as well. Galleon was already planning on doing this, especially since he had his blink skill to help out, but who knew people would keep throwing people out—and this included his wife!

He managed to catch up to her by jumping down, managing to grab a root, and he pulled them both up, barely saving them. He didn’t dare use the blink skill while holding her, fearing that she wouldn’t be taken with him.

Settling his wife there, he then jumped down to attempt to find their son.

But...for the next few hours, there was no sign of him, and the next thing they knew, they were in another world.

They transferred together, and they managed to push through for a while, even if they were in such deep pain from losing their son.

After all, if one gave up, the other would be left behind. No matter how much pain they were in, they loved each other too much to throw the other to that kind of fate.

Fortunately, with Gideon’s skills and experience, he quickly rose as the leader of the group and the beloved right-hand man to a lord.

Things changed a few months ago when his strength was not enough to defend his village. They were no match against the aborigine villages, and they lost badly, and the Lord was beheaded publicly.

Then... he was forced to watch his wife molested in front of him, her dignity taken in public.

She survived and was taken to one of the aborigines’ homes while Galleon himself was beaten up day and night, completely powerless against the new enemies.

When they got bored of beating him, Galleon dragged himself to where he knew they were keeping his wife. But...it was too late.

His wife... couldn’t handle the shame and bit her own tongue. She was thrown out to the streets, and she bled to death in his arms.

Galleon screamed and sobbed, feeling the world had turned back on him and his family.

And at the present, he was still crying.

Power? Duty? Responsibility? What was the use of all these things?

What was the use of rationality when it meant accepting the fact that they were gone?