I second getting rid of them for now. They currently add nothing to the gameplay (and in fact take away from it by being so buggy) and it’s perfectly understandable to be alone in a zombie apocalypse. They’re a funny diversion for about two seconds, but as soon as they start breaking things it’s more trouble than it’s worth.
I could imagine that they could probably be brought back in the near future as more simplistic npc’s, which simply hide in basements/bunkers and trade/give you basic quests. In my eyes, there is a lot more that needs fixing before npc’s need to become fully autonomous skyrim-esque npc’s.