PROLOGUE

     A Raven flew across the sky on an odd afternoon. It flew above the cloud and slowly descended to get the landscape of the ruined city of Brazil. The city itself was deserted and dead throughout. The Raven didn't care, because it was in search of food, having driven by hunger for days. It flew across the streets and flapped it's wings tirelessly. It perched upon a wooden bench and then hopped down upon a corpse. It studied the dead body and then proceeded to pluck out the right eye. As it held the eye with it's beak, it looked to it's left and saw a bar close by. Inside was a man sitting in beside the counter, three bottles of beer in front of him, and a fourth on his left hand. His right hand held a lighted cigarette, which found it's way to his mouth and out from it. Smoke puffed out from his mouth and filled the air, making him to cough and take another sip of his beer. Beside him was an AA-shotgun lying on the counter. His clothes were dirty, he didn't looked like he had a bath for at least a week, his long hair and beard was rough and covered in dust, and he had blood stains all over his clothes and face. His mind was wild, having horrible memories that corrupted his character. A series of past events had revamped him into a lunatic, with the recent ones driving him crazy. He was tired of life; he wished he could just die.
     I was that man, sitting on the long stool and staring straight into the bottle as if it had the answers to all my problems. I was drunk already, and finishing the bottle with one gulp was too easy. I blanched and beat my chest with my right hand. I stared at the empty bottle and tossed it away. It landed on a dead corpse disfigured with bullet holes all over it. I looked over and saw multiple of these bodies everywhere, and each one gave me a smile on my face. I took another pull at the cigarette and threw it away, releasing a cloud of smoke from my mouth.
     " Monsters, hehe... They're all dead", I muttered to myself and looked away.
     A noise suddenly drew my attention. It was coming from the right jeans pocket of one of the corpses. I got down from my seat and brought out a cellphone from the corpse. I stared at it with pure hatred and fear, knowing who the caller was. There's no helping it, I thought. He just won't leave me alone.
     I took a deep breath and answered the call, but the caller cut it off immediately. The phone rang again, and the same thing repeated itself. Finally a text came instead, and I opened it to see the message:" STILL WILLING TO LIVE JOE? TOO BAD. I KNEW THESE WERE SMALL FRYS FOR YOU, SO AT LEAST I PLANNED TO GIVE YOU SOMETHING THAT WILL MAKE THINGS EXPLOSIVE".
     I got the full meaning of the message immediately. A zombie carrying enough bombs on it bragged through the door and ran straight towards me. Without thinking twice, I darted toward my weapon, slide over the counter and at the same time tried to shoot the suicide zombie before it could come any closer. What followed was an explosion that almost destroyed the bar.

***

     The above events were as a result of some incidents that happened some weeks ago. Two weeks after I lost Blue, I stumbled into the country of Brazil. The dead silence greeted me harshly and immediately sought refuge in one of the neighbourhood's houses. The house was still neat and fresh, having no occupants and making it easy for me to move in. What braffled me however was the fate that it was packed with guns and food, with everything else needed for one to survive a siege if there was one. I didn't bothered wondering why someone built this type of house, I was just grateful for the fact that I was lucky enough to find it.
     My believe in God was killed with Blue. As such I had no faith in Him. I believed that I was made to be alone and forgotten, fighting against my fate and against the mistakes I've made. If there was a God, then He wouldn't have let Blue die right in front of me. Hell, He wouldn't have the virus spread across the world in the first place!
     I pushed my atheist thoughts aside and focused on inspecting the house. I found a dog cage in the kitchen, and inside was a St. Bennard dog, sleeping peacefully until it woke up and saw me. It whined and raised its nose towards me. I heard it's stomach growling and realised that it hadn't eaten for days. I freed it from the cage and immediately gave it some dog food from the fridge. While it ate happily, I discovered a book on the kitchen table and saw that it was book filled with dog trainings and the likes. Most of them had self defence methods for the dog, and the photos illustrating the methods were well drawn out. Seeing this, a bright idea sprang into my mind.
     I remembered once staying in General Max' home. He showed me an old photo of his old man, taking a family photo with him and his mother, all surrounded by dogs. Some fat, some thin, some huge, some small. Dogs of different shapes and sizes flooded in just to get their faces on the photo. I was amused and asked," Why do you have so many dogs here?".
     " My old man was raised by them when he got lost in a forest for a week", was the reply," Since that time he became so fond of them. So bad he became a dog trainer and still joined the military. He was so good at teaching 'em that they even knew how to cook without messing up the kitchen".
     I giggled," You must be joking right, sir?".
     " Dead serious, son. Once he showed them how war was like, they showed us the art of killing. So bad, that he would send them either as spies or assassins. Even I don't know how the hell he came up with those ideas of his".
     " So where are they?", I asked.
     " They're all dead".
     " What?!".
     " Yep. Some died in military operations, others got incurable diseases while the rest were slaughtered right in front of him by his arch nemesis. Ever since then, he was no longer himself, losing his mind in the process. His insanity killed him, and he was buried in a separate graveyard along with his puppies. Of course, that was his will".
     " Sorry to hear that sir".
     " Don't pity me. Kinda serves him right. He paid more attention to dogs than his family, that's why I took no interest in them".
     " Then why are you showing me this then?", I asked with a curious look.
     " Because of this", he replied and brought out a book from a drawer closest to him. He handed it to me and said," This is the book my old man left behind before he died. It contains all his teachings concerning the dogs. I've always wanted to burn it to ashes but I keep forgetting. See that you have a dog at home, I wonder if this will come in handy".
     " I don't think I'll want my dog to be a monster".
     " To be honest, I'm not suppose to give you this. But I believe you won't have the same mentality as my old man did. The relationship his dogs had with him was really interesting, and I believe yours will be a lot more interesting".
     " You really want me to give me that book sir?".
     " Want me to repeat myself?".
     I sighed and collected the book from him. I later found personal time to read it and became accustomed to it. I never got the chance to teach my dog all of it because of work but I memorized most of it in advance. Now it was going to be useful.
     Days flew by, and I was a surprised that the dog was a fast learner. It learned fast and met my expectations in a short matter of time. At the end I gave it a name, Quick Fangs. Quick Fangs became my only companion in this deserted wasteland, a hope of no loneliness. I understood why dog was man's best friend, because it is so loyal that it can even give it's life for man. And that was what Quick Fangs would do for me anyday(although I never want that to happen). It's killer move was simple and well planned. Kill the enemy as fast as possible, leaving no time for reaction.
     Once we were walking on the dead streets, taking a stroll and heading for a store. Quick Fangs heard a noise before I did and growled as it pointed it's nose to a building on my right. A zombie rushed out and ran straight towards me. I pretended to not notice it and snapped my fingers. Immediately, Quick Fang fling itself straight towards the zombie, bit it's neck without spilling blood and broke it before leaping away and immediately came back to me, leaving the zombie dead on the streets. I patted it's head while it licked my fingers. Besides Blue, Quick Fangs was my best friend.