Rio was a vibrant city. It didn't matter whether it was night or day, you could always find a party happening somewhere. Rios’s celebrations and parades were so famous that people around the world would travel just to have the chance to see them.
At night the city would light up the sky. Lights from houses would climb up the mountain like a sea of lanterns as the ocean would reflect the lights back bathing the city in a bluish glow.
Bars were filled to the brim, restaurants had tables and chairs lining the streets ready for more customers. People walked and justled around, soaking in the atmosphere around them. Parties would instantly form in the Lapa neighborhood and then just as quickly spread through the streets like water rushing through the canals.
So something that would quickly stick out like a sore thumb would be the absolute silence that crept from the industrial neighborhood. A dark spot sat right in the middle of Rio, lights were turned out, people were forced into their homes and criminals walked through the streets ready for war.
The Southern Angles had, out of nowhere, taken control of a mile radius of the city centering around Amazon lumber.
Grunts were let loose into the streets as snipers lined the roofs. Like a swarm of ants, the Southern Angels spread its workers down the mountains and into the surrounding neighborhoods, their fingers resting on triggers as hundreds of eyes tracked every moment, every rustle from the wind, every creak in the dark had eyes watching.
These people were so tense that at any point bullets could be flying.
Everyone was scared, never in the entire time of the Southern Angels was the entire force of the gang used. They never needed to, rivals were always taken care of as soon as possible, and signs of resistance were put down with extreme prejudice. But now word got out that they were about to be invaded, by people they had never heard of before.
But whoever the Hunter Cartel was, they would find that fighting on the Southern Angles home turf would be suicidal. While most people in the Southern Angels had never been in a real gang war they at least knew that the most dangerous thing to have was home-field advantage. They knew every street and alley around here, they had members all along the roofs and even in the houses. No one was getting through.
~whistle~~~~whistle~whistle~~whistle~
Everyone turned, almost breaking their necks with how fast they whipped their heads around. A figure was walking down the main road.
A young boy was walking right down the main road leading up to the warehouse. With his hands in his pockets, his hood up, and not a care in the world as dozens of guns soon became locked onto him.
Not stopping to even spare the grunts a look he just continued walking, whistling a tune the whole way. He was able to make his way past a couple of them when they finally broke out of their stupor and raced to surround him.
Guns were cocked and pointed, shouts rang out and over a dozen grunts on the ground crowded around stopping him in his tracks. Shouts came from all directions as they screamed “STOP RIGHT THERE !” “ WHO ARE YOU !” “ GET ON THE GROUND !”. This continued until one of them got so twitching from all the shouting, that he pulled his trigger, firing shots in the air hoping to shut everybody up.
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Everyone watched silently as he pulled the gun down from the sky. Trying to level it back onto the stranger with his two shaking hands he opened his mouth, and mustered up all of the courage he commanded.
“ Get down on the ground right now, this area is under curfew by the Southern Angels no one should be out right now !”
But the stranger just stood there, still bored out of his mind, not even making so much as a twitch when the shots rang out. He just stood there staring at them staring back at them with his shockingly gem-like purple eyes. For a second they wondered if he even spoke Portuguese, one of them even preparing to repeat what was said back in English when he threw back his head in a huff.
“ I really don't have time for you guys, -kill each other-.” Walking through the group of grunts, Issac continued on his way to the warehouse shoving his way past the dozen of frozen people in the streets.
Screams of pain and rage quickly followed, only to be drowned out by the sound of gunfire. Not even bothering to look behind him Issac continued walking forward, even as the streets filled with bodies.
***
Alex crouched down inside the guard house, hiding as his friends and fellow gang members turned on each other, killing everyone in their line of sight.
He couldn't understand it, just a few minutes ago they were all fine but then they all just stopped whatever they were doing, freezing like statues only to immediately turn to kill the person closest to them.
As Alex hid inside the little shack he tried to radio in any other members, hoping to get reinforcements to shut down this god-awful riot but no one answered back. Whatever was happening it was happening to everyone in the gang, maybe even to the entire city.
He didn't know how or why this was happening, for what reason did hell decide to sprout up turning brothers and friends into killers. But he knew it had something to do with the new boss inside the warehouse. Ever since he showed up strange things had been happening, people spontaneously combusting, others disappearing for no reason, moments when they would enter a weird trance as the work, and yet for some reason no one seemed to question it.
No one besides him and Enzo that is.
For some reason, the two of them were the only ones who questioned what was happening, who was this new boss, where did Manuel go, and why was everyone acting so weird. But where Ezno’s fear told him to run, Alex told him to stay.
Whatever was happening, as long as it passed over him then he and his family would be safe, all he had to do was weather the storm and everything would go back to the way it was.
Maybe that's where they differed, Enzo’s cowardice told him to get as far away from here as soon as possible, while Alex told him to stick his head in the sand. That's why Alex tried to stay away from Enzo, hoping that he wouldn’t draw any eyes back towards Alex. And when that didn't work the only choice left was to expose him. Again he hoped against all odds that his family could survive this storm.
Enzo’s car was found half a mile out of the city the inside entirely covered in blood and exploded body parts. It took the cops three days to say it was Enzo. He was trying to leave that night and they had found him, because of Alex.
He should have gone with him. He should have just picked up his wife and kids and left way back before Manuel had up and disappeared himself. And now he's stuck in this hell watching as everyone around him goes crazy killing each other.
“Hey, Alex right, do you mind letting the boss man know I’m here.”
Cutting through the sounds of screams and gunfire in the distance was a voice coming from directly behind him. Someone had somehow slipped inside the guard house while he wasn't looking, whirling around in surprise Alex found that behind him was a kid. Dressed up in all black a kid no older than fifteen crouching drowned right beside him.