Throughout the coastal city of Kaelor, the central area was the wealthiest, and it had a neighborhood nicknamed the "Imperial Garden" due to its beautiful traditional mansions. Some of these were built almost two centuries ago, when Kaelor was nothing more than part of a conglomeration of countries controlled by dictators like the terrible Morales family.

The contrast between this neighborhood, which was not only well-structured, modern, clean, safe, and full of mansions, and the neighborhoods near the city's port, where citizens lived in houses made of old, rusty containers, with garbage scattered everywhere, was glaring to everyone's eyes.

When the apocalypse was about to begin, due to the many infected with the ZY virus variant initially spreading only through the air, a construction company building a gallery on the outskirts of Jardim Imperial was forced to hire additional labor in a hurry; therefore, they didn't properly check the backgrounds of some of the men…

Among the men hired was Marcelo "The Hammer¹," an ex-convict involved in crimes such as assault, extortion, and loan sharking, and 13 men who followed him as their leader. Marcelo knew that if he or his men didn't work from time to time, it could cause them to lose their parole and return to prison.

Two days after being hired as handymen on the construction site, Marcelo "The Hammer" and his men were having lunch at the construction site with their other coworkers when the Jyera apocalypse began.

Being all strong, hardworking laborers accustomed to violence, Marcelo's group managed to survive the initial chaos, and he easily assumed the role of leader of this group of survivors. But as time passed, as the zombies and animals evolved and became stronger, Marcelo's group suffered heavy losses until only 10 people remained.

With morale low, on the verge of a mental breakdown, suffering from lack of food, and the cold worsening, a worldwide message from a survivor named Rick saved Marcelo's group, who had repaired an amateur radio. Having discovered how to use crystals to become stronger, the group quickly grew stronger and began looting various places in preparation for winter, until they set their sights on the mansions of Imperial Garden.

The group invaded the mansion with the best strategic location and quickly settled in, beginning preparations to gather wood and collect vital supplies. To do this, they began looting the mansions in the surrounding area…

Today, in particular, the loot they found in one of the mansions was exceptional. Not only were there large quantities of food, but they even found a beautiful woman!

All the men in this group treated the woman as an even more valuable prize than the enormous quantities of food…

***

Inside his new office on the first floor of the mansion where they lived, Marcelo The Hammer continued taking inventory of the food they had found that morning; they had only brought a third of it and would retrieve the rest tomorrow…

Although the food found in Madame's house seemed sufficient, this criminal didn't trust the information that winter would only last a year. If necessary, he wouldn't mind killing one or two of his own subordinates to ensure that the stock they had now was enough…

After finishing counting another batch of canned goods and calculating how long they could last, Marcelo stood up from his desk, cracked his neck, and observed with lustful eyes Madame, who remained tied up and gagged in a corner of the office. Marcelo smiled at her and said:

"We'll have much more fun later, Madame…"

He remembered telling the other men that tonight, after him, they could all spend time with this beautiful woman. After all, they were all now level 2 mutants; if he dared try to monopolize the woman for himself, he could be stabbed in his sleep by one of his men… That's why he longed for more crystals to obtain the special power that the man named Rick said they would gain upon becoming level 3 mutants…

Marcelo was quite pleased with this apocalypse; the environment had become ideal for someone as unscrupulous as him. Despite having been arrested for some minor crimes, he was someone who had done worse things in the poor, container-filled area of ​​Kaelor and had a rather sinister reputation…

He could hardly wait for tonight's banquet… All that was missing now were the drinks Carlson had gone to fetch from Madame's mansion. But why was that idiot taking so long? If it weren't for the amount of food they brought on the first trip, they wouldn't have left the valuable drinks behind.

"Hey Duval!"

The man guarding the office door entered the room and asked:

"Yes, boss?"

"Where's that idiot Carlson? It's already getting dark, and he still hasn't returned with the drinks?"

"That… Do you want me to send someone after him?"

"You—"

"Boom"

An explosion caused a slight tremor throughout the mansion. "Ahh"

"Boom"

"Boom"

Screams and other smaller secondary explosions followed, leaving Marcelo The Hammer apprehensive as to whether this was an attack or an accident. He placed his hand on the back of his waistband, where he kept a pistol, but remembering that he barely had any bullets and how the noise could kill everyone there, he grabbed a short-handled black hammer covered in dried blood from the side of his tool belt, a weapon that earned him his current nickname.

As he was about to go downstairs to check what had happened, Marcelo realized that the only light in the living room, created by an electrician in his group, had been destroyed. Since night had already fallen, darkness had taken over the place, and only the flames of the fireplace, which also served as a stove, remained.

"Ahhh, boss, help me!"

The man climbing the stairs had his right leg completely mutilated, with bone fragments embedded in various places, and he limped as he climbed the remaining steps and approached them.

Duval, who had a crowbar in his hand, helped the man up the last steps while asking what had happened.

"Boss, Duval, we need to escape quickly…"

"Who did this? Was it another group of humans?"

While Marcelo asked, he cautiously looked downstairs for the attackers but couldn't see anything.

"No, boss, it's a monster… A White-Eyed Demon!" The man gasped in terror as he left them behind and limped away into the office.

At that moment, Marcelo, who was still searching for the attackers, finally saw, from within the darkness, slowly climbing the stairs, white eyes that looked like two pale suns watching him…

A chill ran down his spine…

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