In what was formerly known as Malaysia, the land had become overwhelmed by zombies leaving little life in what was once filled by 40 million people strong. The population had surely declined since the Fall or so whatever the birds called it which left what little population Malaysia had as nothing but housepets, and a few more exotic animals.
A quadruped, a dog of mixed breed with white fur and brown spots watched with wariness as he looked over from the rooftop. His name was Bill, and he was currently the nominated leader of the little community of survivors they had. He had heard much of his ancestors of what the land looked like before... teeming with life and coexisting with the lost race. It was all history now, and even fewer in their community knew of it except him and a few older folks.
Forget them being a community, they would not even qualify as one as their population just kept on dwindling and their lack of self-sustainability would only prove them as nothing but a collection of drifters.
"Whatcha looking at?" Voiced by a crab-eating macaque, a local exotic beast naturally found within the lands. He was also Bill's second in command, and his name was Lari. "You'd want to kill them would you,? Damn undead... For some reason, they would not just stop no matter how many you killed!"
Bill and Lari had a few kills under their name as more often than once, the undead were able to sniff them and cause them trouble.
The mutated undead are especially troublesome. Normally, the undead would be a slow lumbering figure without any wit, and it was easy to avoid them most of the time. But occasionally, there were the mutated undead possessing abilities that showed cunning, superior strength, and even to some extent supernatural abilities.
Bill painfully recalled that one time when they confronted a fire-breathing undead who ambushed their settlement, a cabin hidden in the woods.
Now, they currently reside on the rooftop of a building built by the lost race.
Lari came beside Bill while playing with a knife. It was Lari's weapon and something he had learned to wield with great proficiency. If not for his lesser cunning, impulsivity, and temper, he would have been made leader of their collective. "So what would we do now? Would we go south? Go to Inezia and seek refuge to their lords." Lari sensibly suggested.
Bill looked behind him and watched his people. He saw a few cats, several dogs, different kinds of birds, and a few wolf cubs which they had rescued some weeks back from a horde of undead. The dog looked at his second, at Lari, and then back at the collective that had survived as far as 500 years.
"I have decided," He concluded. "We would go to Inezia."
Inezia was formerly known as Indonesia. It was shortened as a result of the passing of time. No one knew when the change occurred. It just happened, like mutation, and evolution. The nuances and phonetics must have played a strong part in the changes.
Indonesia aside...
The only thing Bill knew was that Malaysia had been part of Inezia now for some time. Few hunting parties and scout teams had appeared for some time already, they would go on supply runs so far from their home, which roused Lari's interest in the group.
Lari possessed a warrior mentality in which he wanted to test his mettle to just anyone... just like what the former leader thought of Lari, he was impulsive, but that would not discount his cunning. With sharp eyes, Lari acted as the loyal doubter just to make sure his leader was making the right choices. "Would you be so sure about that? We had encountered fearsome groups here, and they had not appeared for some time. I'd think they would have been hunted, and perhaps this was the reason why Inezia was expanding."
Hunted. The term was familiar to Bill. It was an act that either carnivores or omnivores partake in if left with no choice. The creatures left after the Fall were separated from omnivores, herbivores, and carnivores.
In this time and age, the species that had the hardest chances for survival were the carnivores since they'd lose the necessary avenue of their nutrition all thanks to the apocalypse. The herbivores had it better since they would be able to just eat grass and any plant life to survive. The type that had the best survival ability was definitely the omnivores as in general, their bodies generally had a trend of being more optimized both in combat and dietary needs.
Bill looked at Lari hard. "You might find yourself a mate if you joined Inezia."
"..." Lari was as tempted as he was the only monkey in their community. "But..." As the voice of reason, he still tried his best to dissuade Bill. Lari was not afraid of the danger and was even willing to risk it, but it was unnatural for Bill to act recklessly.
Bill explained his intention as he watched carefully at the particular bird playing with other more exotic bids with all sorts of shapes and colors. "The dove. If what she said was true, then it was worth the risk."
The bird in question was an agent of AviaNest tasked with delivering news and offering aid to the sapient as much as possible. Pigeon. Dove. The bird preferred to call herself Nia.
"It was unbelievable though. I'd rather cook the bird, and share its meat among us..." Lari suggested for Nia to be hunted. It was not below him as they had done something similar already in the sudden harsh cold winter a few years back. It was the survival of the fittest out there, and there was not anything wrong with eating meat.
Bill and Lari talked in a derived and evolved form of the Indonesian tongue, thus Nia would not know what they were talking about. The duo continued their conversation thinking hard about how to accomplish their journey further south. They were a small group. Food was getting scarcer as competition began to flow to their part of the land.
Malaysia was among the places that were hit the hardest since the fall. Bill knew some history of it but never knew how it really had spread. He only knew that it was hell on earth if he even knew what was hell like.
"Bird, talk..." Bill approached Nia and talked in broken English.
English had been quite a prevalent language before the fall, and it wasn't hard for the truly dedicated to trying to learn some of it. Bill directly learned the tongue through the pigeon called Nia. With a thick dog accent, he began to make his request to Nia. "Please. Bring fellow feathered. to your home. "
Lari left Bill alone.
The next day, the rest of the collective watched their winged compatriots led away by Nia to take flight and leave for another home.
Bill had decided. For their party to successfully come south, he requested Nia to take the feathered away. It took Bill a lot of effort to convince his feathered compatriots to go with Nia. He reasoned it would be difficult to feed the land animals considering the short supply of food. The avians were convinced of his reason and were forced away from what they had known as home. He felt sorry, but not for so long as he reorganized their collective in preparation for traveling south.
It didn't take as much time as convincing the feathered some time ago, but it was difficult nonetheless.
With his keen sense of smell, Bill led their party south. He used what he learned from the former leader to identify signposts and even maps though with great difficulty. They mostly avoided the undead, but occasionally, an undead would spring up from nowhere. That was where Lari came forth with a knife in hand as he slaughtered the undead.
Bill made a mental headcount as he watched over his charge. There was a total of four cats and three kittens. Then there were a dozen dogs, four puppies, and three wolf cubs. "Let's go, we were almost there. We only needed to cross that bridge." He muttered, hopeful... It was as that pigeon said.
The pigeon Nia had given him valuable information on what route o travel, and while at it, information about the Clans in Inezia. He hoped he had made the right choice. If they stayed, it would be either death from the undead or starvation. "Woof~! Woof!!" He yelped with a happy cry urging his group to move faster.