Cezar liked to think he was an optimistic person, but the current situation was hopeless to say the least. It had been almost a year now, almost a year since the infection started. Nobody knows for sure where or how it came about. Some say it started in India, others believe it was in Brazil, however, no one is sure, but honestly, it didn't matter anymore.

The whole world burned, there was no longer any safe place, there was no longer any place where they were not present. The dead walked, they were everywhere trying to kill everything that breathed.

It was crazy, dead people coming back to life and killing everything that moves. At the beginning of the infection it was thought that it was just a variation of rabies or something like that, but this theory soon fell apart when doctors examined an infected patient. The patient showed unusual aggressiveness, he was totally irrational and unable to speak, only managing to grunt. Despite this, what astonished the doctors most was that the man's organs did not work. The lungs, the heart, the kidneys, all of them had already stopped working. The blood clotted in the man's veins leaving them dilated under the skin, the more the blood clotted, the more the man's veins became dark, almost black, marking his entire body. All the doctors and specialists who analyzed the patient came to the same conclusion: the man was dead, but he was still moving and reacting to certain stimuli. Virus Mors as it was called or simply MR-1.

The virus spread quickly and uncontrollably. It was highly contagious, transmitted by the bite or scratch of an infected person, as well as the exchange of blood and body fluids between an infected and healthy person.

The government tried to control the MR-1's advance at all costs, but preventive measures failed and entire cities fell. Containment zones were built to house survivors, however, the lack of supplies and the government's inability to control the situation caused riots to erupt. With so many riots breaking out at the same time, control of some containment zones was lost to the military.

Armed militias and independent rulers emerged. With the death of the president, the government fragmented into three different factions, each taking control of a part of the country. At least in theory, its zones of influence were limited to a small part of the country due to lack of resources and manpower.

Cezar is a doctor, he was forcibly recruited to practice his profession in an outpost of an improvised army containment zone. In one day, unexpectedly, the containment zone was breached and destroyed by a large wave of infected. Cezar managed to get out, narrowly escaping, however, he got separated from the group that was evacuating by helicopter. Cezar was alone, they wouldn't come back for him. He had no supplies and no means of protecting himself other than a crowbar he picked up from the base floor while escaping.

The horde of infected would follow the survivors who left with the ground vehicles towards the army base located to the south. Knowing this, Cezar was heading north. Luckily, he hasn't encountered any infected since he fled the outpost. All of the stray infected likely joined the large horde that attacked the base.

Glancing at the watch on his wrist, Cezar knew he didn't have much sunlight time left before nightfall. It was already 3:00 pm, he couldn't stay out in the open during the night because he didn't know how long the luck of not finding the living dead would last. The undead have an advantage at night due to their sensitivity to any type of sound and their good sense of smell.

From studies carried out with infected people, it could be seen that the hearing of those infected by MR-1 has a significant increase along with the sense of smell. They don't see well, but they are extremely capable of tracking their victims using smell and hearing.

There was a gated community for the rich called Vila Verde 18 kilometers from the outpost and that was Cezar's destination. The property was never cleaned after the civilians were rescued, which means it likely has infected. However, despite this, it is also an area that can contain a good amount of resources.

Cezar could already see the entrance to the condominium and some houses in the distance. The first house seen by the man was a large white three-story house, the grass in the garden was a little high, but it was still green, there were some toys scattered around the yard, a tricycle, a doll, a ball, right behind the toys there was a black Mercedes in front of the garage.

Cezar approached the front door and reached his hand for the knob, and turned it carefully, but the door was locked.

"What the hell!"

Cezar couldn't help but curse his luck. Trying to break down the door would make a lot of noise and that was the last thing he wanted, so he headed towards the back of the house.

At the back was a large pool that was already green from a large amount of algae. There was also a large hot tub, however, what caught Cezar's attention the most was the back door of the house, the door was ajar . Cezar gave a big smile and started running towards the door, he almost slipped on the ceramic floor of the pool, but soon regained his balance and started running again.

Upon entering he saw a huge kitchen, it had been almost a whole day since he had eaten anything. Cezar was hungry and didn't think twice before running to the fridge, when he opened it he was surprised by the large amount of food, however, many were rotten and the smell was terrible.

He closed the door as quickly as he opened it and headed towards the kitchen cupboards to try his luck again. Luckily for her, she had some crackers and cereal, as well as some canned food. It wasn't much, but it's more than he could eat in weeks.

He ate plain cereal and drank tap water, as well as eating two cans of tuna with a spoon. It was a strange meal, but at the same time, satisfying. It was almost 5:00 pm when he plucked up the courage to check out the rest of the house. Cezar picked up a kitchen knife he found on the kitchen counter in one hand and continued with his crowbar in the other.

The first thing he should do is check if there was any infected inside the house. Cezar had already killed some undead, but he was not the most suitable or recommended person to do such a job. He started to do a room-by-room sweep, but luckily he didn't find anything. The last room he still hadn't checked was on the third floor.

The door was closed, he placed the knife on the floor, careful not to make any noise, and slowly started to open the door. He couldn't see anything through the crack in the door, which gave him a little more confidence, with a quick movement he opened the door and entered the room: it was an office.

Expensive looking pictures, a big red mahogany table, a big bookcase full of books. Despite that, what caught Cezar's attention the most was a large open safe attached to the wall. Cezar walked over and, to his surprise, it was filled with a large amount of cash along with an expensive-looking Rolex. Cezar didn't think twice before taking the watch and replacing it with his own.

Cezar rummaged through the notes inside the safe to see if there was anything else underneath. On the right side of the safe, covered by the money, he found a wooden box and picked it up, placed it on the table and opened it carefully and slowly. There was a .38 revolver inside, Cezar couldn't contain his emotion when he saw the gun.

The gun was loaded with six bullets in the barrel, and another 28 rounds in the box along with a holster. He holstered the gun, and put a few bullets in his pockets putting the rest of them in the battered backpack he found on the road as he fled. It was getting late and the sun had already set when Cezar finished checking the house. Cezar slept in one of the suites in the house, but it was a difficult night. The bed reeked of mildew, and besides, he was constantly plagued by nightmares of recent events every time he slept. The man wasn't quite sure what to do, he was alone and had nowhere to go. The plan for now was to scour the other properties and try to find a working car to get out of there as quickly as possible.

At dawn Cezar scoured the rest of the property in search of anything that might be of use to him. After a long search he managed to find camping equipment in the garage, a large backpack, a tent, raincoat and a flashlight along with a thermal sleeping bag. He also took some clothes from the owner of that house. Despite being a tall man of six feet, the homeowner's clothes served him well. Cezar was wearing a casual white shirt paired with a jacket he'd grabbed from the closet, along with black jeans and a pair of military boots.

In addition to the gun and camping gear, Cezar also got four cans of canned food, five granola bars, and some medicine and bandages from a first-aid kit he found in the bathroom cupboard.

There were many properties in Vila Verde, but Cezar wasn't confident in breaking into and looting them all, he may have been lucky not to have found any infected in the first house, but that doesn't mean he would have the same luck in the others. Besides, no one would guarantee that the horde that attacked the base would not come here, so he wanted to leave Vila Verde at least shortly after noon.

Cezar started scanning the nearest houses at 7:00 am. He didn't find any problems in the first three houses, but the fourth house was strange, he heard a noise coming from the bathroom as he searched one of the rooms. The man drew his revolver and pointed towards the bathroom and waited for a few seconds to see if he saw any movement. Not being able to hear anything at all, he then approached the bathroom slowly, being careful not to make any noise. The door was slightly open, he put his left hand on the handle and carefully pulled the door open.

"Haahahahah"

It was all Cezar could hear as something leaped at him and knocked him off his feet, the gun flew out of his hand and he did his best to hold back whatever it was that attacked him. Cezar put one hand on the thing's throat and used the other to hold one of its arms. The creature lashed out with its free hand and tried to scratch him, the hand passing just inches from Cezar's head, who couldn't help but let out a muffled gasp as he tried to push the thing away. Cezar used every ounce of strength he had in his body to push the thing away.

"SON OF A BITCH!"

Cezar screamed with all his might as he kicked the creature backwards, the kick was powerful and sent the creature flying some distance and hitting its back against the wall. Cezar wasted no time, he got up quickly and ran across the bed to the other side of the room.

Now, at some distance from the creature, Cezar was able to take a look at his attacker, it was a woman. She was small, probably five feet tall, her skin was completely gray and the veins in her body were bulging as if they wanted to burst and pop out of her body. moreover, they were totally black as if the blood that flowed in his body was black. The woman was extremely thin, and her eyes were blood red, which was greatly enhanced by the straw color of her disheveled hair and her gray-white skin: she was an infected.

Cezar had already seen many infected, but he never got used to the feeling, it was a frightening scene, his hands were shaking and he sounded cold at the sight of the woman. Cezar drew the kitchen knife from his belt and screamed.

"COME ON BITCH, COME HERE!"

His voice spurred the woman on, she got up awkwardly from the ground while having some muscle spasms. She looked at Cezar with an insane and scary look for a brief second and then she ran towards Cezar with incredible speed.

"Haraharjarhar"

The woman launched herself towards Cezar, passing over the double bed and jumping on top of him. Cezar dodged with difficulty to the right, the woman hit the bedroom wall head-on. Cezar didn't miss this opportunity, he raised the knife and directed it at the woman's head, but she moved causing the knife that was going and its horizontal direction to dig up to the hilt in her right shoulder.

She didn't seem to have been affected by the knife stuck in her shoulder as soon after receiving the blow she turned and walked towards Cezar. The woman's sudden movement to turn and attack caused Cezar's hand to slip from the hilt of the knife, leaving him weaponless once more. Cezar couldn't help but curse her in his heart.

"Bitch!"

The man growled as he punched the woman in the face making her back up a few steps. That indentation was small, but it was enough to give him time to grab the lamp from the nightstand that sat beside the bed. he held the lamp in both hands and slammed it with all his might on the infected woman's head.

PAAA!

The impact was strong enough to knock her to the ground. Cezar wasted no time, in a fraction of a second, after the woman fell, he directed his foot to her head and began to step on her skull with all his strength.

SHOVEL! SHOVEL! SHOVEL! SHOVEL! SHOVEL! SHOVEL! CRACK!

The sound of Cezar's footsteps only ceased when the infected woman's skull cracked and his boot sank into her brain. Seeing that the woman had finally stopped moving Cezar sat down on the bed, exhausted, he looked at the woman lying on the floor.

"Damn damn! That was close."

Immediately, after uttering those words he feels his stomach turn and something acidic rise through his throat and then he vomits all over the bedroom floor. The smell of corpse and vomit was horrible and before he vomited again Cezar picked up his gun that was lying near the bathroom door and left that place. He didn't even think about trying to pull his knife from the woman's shoulder. This whole situation had been too much for him. Cezar leaves the room quickly and closes the door behind him, he slides through the door and sits on the floor.

"Damn I have to get out of this shitty place. I can't stay here alone, I'll end up being food for those damned bastards."

Cezar leaves the house quickly, he heads to the second house he explored, to the garage to be specific. Cezar hurriedly opened the garage door and inside was a large blue pickup truck, which he had already checked the tank for. The tank was full and the truck was working perfectly even after not being used for so long.

He takes the backpack off his back in a hurry and throws it in the back of the truck, he also took two 20 liters of fuel that were on the right side of the garage and throws them in the back of the truck. This fuel was taken from the cars that were in front of the other houses. Cezar headed towards the first house where he spent the night as he had left another backpack of supplies in the house so he wouldn't get too heavy while he searched the other properties. The house was at the end of the street and he could get there in no time, but Cezar was still a little paranoid after recent events. he made a lot of noise in their previous confrontation and this may have drawn unwanted attention to him.

As he walked along Rua Cezar, he heard a noise coming from the back of the house on his right. He really didn't want to check, however, he couldn't leave it the way it was, because an infected rushing at him was the last thing he wanted at the moment.

He drew his revolver and went towards the back of the house. the grass was taller than the others. Cezar saw something moving through the tall grass, it was small and white and had a few brown spots on its body.

Cezar then lowered the gun and came closer to see what it was: a dog. A beagle to be exact, the animal was all dirty and seemed to have an injured leg as he walked with great difficulty, he was very thin, malnourished, probably. Cezar approached, but the little one got scared with his approach and ran a little towards the backyard fence, however, he didn't go far as he ended up falling and rolling a little on the grass, letting out a growl of pain right after his fall.

Cezar stood there looking in the dog's direction for a while, he was pondering whether he should help the dog or not. Domestic dogs were not adapted for the apocalypse, they depended on the owner for practically everything, it was already a miracle that the little one has survived until now. If the man helped him, he would demand resources, a precious resource that Cezar did not have. So, after some thought, I got up and headed towards the front of the house.

"Aum humum"

When he hears the dog crying behind him, his steps stop for a minute. Cezar looked back and saw the white and brown ball lying crying in the grass.

"Damn it! It's a bad idea."

The man turned around again making an angry face as he complained. he went towards the dog that, this time, didn't try to run away. Cezar was surprised to see that he was still just a puppy, he looked like he was six to seven months old and most likely born after the MR-1 outbreak. Cezar picked up the little one and brought him up to eye level. The dog began to struggle and bark and growl at Cezar.

"Wow, woof, woof!"

"You are a bit of a rebel huh, little one."

Cezar said making an expression of irritation, his face was that of someone who had eaten something and didn't like it.

"Oh, what the hell! I will probably regret this later."

Cezar smiled at the dog and resumed his walk towards the first house on the street. He's pretty sure he saw a bag of kibble in one of the houses he searched today, that kibble could be used to feed the dog in addition to food. It looked like the little beagle's paws were hurt so, upon reaching the first house, Cezar gave the little one a bath using the kitchen sink and dried him off with a towel he found in the bathroom.

The dog's two back legs were really hurt, the right one looked broken. Dogs weren't Cezar's medical specialty, but he was confident in his abilities, so he cleaned and bandaged the wounds, as well as splinting the broken leg.

"There, boy. How are you?"

Cezar asked as he raised the dog to eye level again. Upon being lifted, the dog looked towards Cezar and turned his head to the side without understanding anything that was happening. This fact brought a big smile from Cezar, perhaps the first in a long time. Still with the smile on his face Cezar looks at the puppy and says.

"You need a name huh."

"Um… How about Marley?"

The little beagle didn't seem to understand what Cezar was saying, but that didn't stop him from biting Cezar's hand, which earned another smile from the man.

"So you don't like that name hmm?"

Cezar said as he tried to remove his hand from the fierce dog's mouth that desperately sought to rip off at least one of his fingers.

"You are difficult huh!"

Cezar looked at the dog again as he placed a hand on his chin and smiled. The little dog was very feisty for his size, and once again, the beagle tried to bite Cezar's hand as he held it. The man let out a laugh as he stroked the dog's head.

The dog that stopped fighting and trying to bite Cezar's hand when he started being petted. He just closed his eyes and enjoyed the affection he was receiving, most likely the first of his life. It doesn't even look like he was trying to bite Cezar a few seconds ago.[GA1]

"You're thick-skinned, but you've got a soft side huh."

As if lightning had struck him, an idea popped into his head. He remembered a certain science fiction series he watched as a kid. "I am the captain, in a way, am I not?" Cezar couldn't help thinking. he brought his face a little closer to the dog and said with a grin from ear to ear.

"So what do you think of Spock, little buddy?"

The dog looked again without understanding what Cezar was saying, he tilts his head to the side yielding another smile from the man who looks at the dog once more and says:

"Spock, then. From today your name is Spock, little friend. I'm Cezar, in case you wanted to know, by the way."

Cezar had calmed down a bit because of the little beagle, leaving his state of panic, now calmer he could think better about his situation. The looting of the houses was enough to yield enough food for him to survive for a week, plus there was a 50 pound bag of dog food in the second house that had been explored and, considering Spock's size, it should last. a time.

Cezar thought a lot about where to go when he left Vila Verde and the best option he could think of was the summer camp his late wife, Caroline, inherited upon her father's death. It was an old camp in the mountains 30 kilometers from San Hernest, the ancient city of Cezar. If he follows the highway he can reach a dirt road that leads to the camp in an hour or two. That's with luck, of course.

At camp he will have access to an old radio owned by his father-in-law and, with luck, he might be able to get in touch with someone who can help him. In addition, the camp is remote, which will temporarily provide you with safe shelter. Cezar knows the area, which allows him to hunt and fish for food, and he can even go to Sam Hernest if necessary. The road would be dangerous, but it was the best option at the moment.

The man took everything that was left in the house and headed towards the truck. he put the rest of his stuff in the back of the truck and placed Spock in the seat beside him. Spock was very curious about this new environment, he was sniffing the bench as he turned his head to the side. Cezar smiled at Spock's actions and stroked the puppy's head as he accelerated the truck as fast as he could and as far away from that damned place as possible.

"Goodbye shitty place!"

Said Cezar as he waved one hand out the window and watched vila verde disappear in the rearview mirror.