[•°•apocalypse•°•]

Iara (Leader of the Pilgrims)

Age: 16 years old Appearance: Curly, unruly hair adorned with feathers and colorful beads. Warm, inviting honey-colored eyes. Cinnamon-colored skin covered in a map of faint road scars. Round, friendly face, but with a determined glint. Medium height (1.63m) and strong build. Clothing: Practical, layered clothing made from colorful scraps of recycled fabric. She carries a backpack with everything she needs and a leather-bound journal. · Personality: Positive: Empathetic, persuasive, resilient, and a natural mediator who sees the best in people. Negatives: Can be too trusting, sometimes naive about the depth of others' malice, and carries the weight of everyone's hopes. · Skills: Exceptional negotiator, linguist (knows various gang slang and signs), storyteller, and information curator.

Rex (Leader of the Iron Court)

Age: 18 years old Appearance: Shaved black hair. Intense, dark brown eyes that evaluate everyone with cold judgment. Dark skin, with strong features and a solid jawline. Ex-athlete's body: very tall (1.90m), muscular, and imposing. Clothing: He wears tactical uniforms recovered from police warehouses, kept impeccably clean. He wears an iron butt—a symbol of his authority—hanging from his belt. Personality: Positives: Disciplined, highly organized, a natural leader who creates order from chaos. Negatives: Tyrannical, cruel, devoid of empathy, and believes his word is absolute law. · Skills: Formidable hand-to-hand combatant, tactical military strategist, and expert in intimidation psychology.

Marco (Leader of the Ghosts)

Age: 17 years old Appearance: Blond hair so light it's almost white, cropped close. Gray, distant eyes that rarely look at anyone. Skin pale from living in the dark. Angular, androgynous face with an inscrutable expression. Average height and build (5'9"), making him easy on the outside. Clothing: Dark, tight-fitting, and silent clothing made of reclaimed technical fabric or wool. He wears hoods and masks to cover his face. His boots have soft rubber soles. Personality: Positives: Extremely patient, strategic, calm under pressure, and loyal to his close family. Negatives: Paranoid, emotionally disjointed, secretive, and confident puzzler. · Skills: Master of stealth, infiltration, and sabotage. Knows every inch of the underground tunnels and can move without making a sound.

Moon (Leader of Curious)

Age: 15 years old Appearance: Straight black hair cut to an uneven length, as if she'd cut it herself. Large, curious amber eyes, always magnified by the goggles she pushes up on her forehead. Pale, almost translucent skin from spending so much time indoors. Short (5'2") and light. Clothing: Wear a stained lab coat over comfortable clothes. Your pockets are always full of tools, pens, and notebooks. · Personality: Positive: Genius-level intelligence, curious, idealistic, and fiercely protective of her people's knowledge. Negatives: Socially awkward, obsessive, physically weak, and can be naive about the dangers of the outside world. · Skills: Vast knowledge of biology and chemistry, skilled in diagnosis and creating remedies from scavenged materials.

Silas (Leader of the Archers)

Age: 18 years old Appearance: Dark brown, wavy hair tied at the nape of the neck. Calm, observant brown eyes. Sun-tanned skin. Serious, wise face with a thin scar on the forehead. Tall (1.85m) and slender. Clothing: Practical, camouflage clothing made of leather and durable fabric. He carries a custom compound bow on his back and a hunting knife at his waist. Personality: Positives: Patient, spiritual, cautious strategist, and deeply connected to nature. Negatives: Suspicious, stubborn, reluctant to adapt to new ideas, and isolationist. · Skills: Master of tracking, bowhunting, and wilderness survival. Knows every plant and animal in its territory.

Julia, "the Flame" (Leader of the Solar Horde)

Age: 16 years old Appearance: Long, disheveled red hair, intense green eyes that seem to sparkle, and fair skin dotted with freckles and burn scars. Her face is angular and expressive, marked by a challenging smile. She is of average height (5'5") and thin, but with defined muscles. · Clothing: Wears a worn-out leather jacket covered in band patches, ripped shorts, and military boots. His most striking accessory is a modified welding mask hanging from his waist. Personality: Positives: Charismatic, courageous, decisive, and incredibly loyal to her pack. Negatives: Impulsive, short-tempered, arrogant, and prone to ego-driven decisions. · Skills: Exceptional motorcycle and light vehicle pilot, expert in quick ambushes and intimidation.

The Iron Court reigns from the most imposing and sinister structure they could find: a former maximum-security prison. They have occupied the cells, exercise yards, and guard towers, transforming a symbol of incarceration into their impregnable fortress. Barbed wire, steel doors, and narrow corridors define their territory, a place designed to control and oppress, perfectly suited to their philosophy of domination.

Led by Rex, an 18-year-old former athlete with a mind as tough as his body, the Court imposes brutal order through a rigid code of laws and exemplary punishment. They believe that sheer force and fear are the only pillars for rebuilding a functioning society. Their violence is not chaotic, but judicial and calculated: public executions, forced labor, and solitary confinement are their tools to crush any dissent within their territory, ruling with an absolute iron fist.

The Ghosts inhabit not the city itself, but its subterranean subterranean. Their base is a network of subway tunnels and service passages, a dank realm of absolute darkness and concrete that resonates with the dripping of water and the rustling of nocturnal creatures. They move through flooded corridors and abandoned stations, using secret passages known only to them, making their domain a dead labyrinth for any intruder. Darkness is their ally, broken only by the occasional beam of a flashlight.

Led by Marco, a 17-year-old stealth master, the gang is a legend of terror that looms over the city. Their tactic is psychological fear: they never attack head-on. Instead, they emerge from the shadows, disarm sentries without a sound, and make vital resources simply vanish in the dead of night. Their mere existence is a tool of paranoia, and no one feels truly safe, as the Ghosts may be listening from the darkest recesses or passing silently beneath their victims' feet.

The Curious occupy not a fortress, but a sanctuary of knowledge: the science lab of an elite school, whose armored doors protected them from the initial chaos. Hallways that once echoed with the hubbub of students are now silent, lined with shelves filled with textbooks, vials of reagents, anatomical models, and whiteboards covered in complex notes. It is a place of meticulous order in the midst of the apocalypse, where the greatest treasure is not food, but information.

Led by Lua, a 15-year-old girl with a keen intelligence and a quiet obsession, the group is made up of collectors and codebreakers. They scour the city not for ordinary supplies, but specifically for books, data files, laboratory equipment, and any trace that might help them understand the Erebos virus. Peaceful by nature, they avoid conflict, preferring the exchange of information. However, their research is dangerous; their base holds secrets that many powerful gangs would kill for.

The archers established their territory in the dense forests that now claim the city's fringes, living in an aerial village ingeniously constructed in the treetops. Their homes are camouflaged platforms connected by rope bridges, invisible to those unfamiliar with the paths. They have mastered the art of wilderness survival, hunting with homemade bows and arrows and gathering water and plants, becoming practically self-sufficient and green ghosts among the foliage.

Led by Silas, an 18-year-old tracker with infinite patience and a deep knowledge of nature, the gang operates with a philosophy of harmony and defense. They are extremely territorial and disruptive of any outsiders, viewing the concrete jungle as a place of corruption and death. Their violence is not loud, but precise and lethal: hidden traps, silent arrows from above, and the forest itself are their primary weapons, defending their green refuge with relentless ferocity.

The Solar Horde has transformed a truck parking tent into their chaotic fortress, a realm of twisted metal and constant noise. The site is a makeshift wall of stacked, thorny vehicle carcasses, with dozens of light wagons and customized motorcycles ready to depart at a moment's notice. Their base is an open field, a reflection of their philosophy: mobility and quick attacks are their greatest defense, allowing them to disappear down the road after a lightning strike.

Led by Julia, "the Flame," their strength lies not in strategy but in sheer destructive momentum. They specialize in noisy attacks on roads and highways, using the roar of engines, screams, and the clang of metal to terrify and disorient their press before confrontation. They penetrate the monetary chaos, valuing the loyalty of their pack above all others, but their hierarchy is fluidly defined by violence and bravado, making them unpredictable and dangerous even to their own allies.

The Steel Ravens reign supreme on the upper floors of a corporate tower, once a symbol of financial power, now their impregnable fortress. They've converted the helicopter into an observation post and the executive offices into their living quarters, connecting the floors with rope dividers and moving bridges known only to them. Their base is a vertical maze of broken glass and steel, protected by silent traps and ingenious alarms made of tin cans and wire, making any surprise approach a suicidal endeavor for intruders.

Under the calculating leadership of 17-year-old Kaio, the gang operates with almost military discipline. They value silence, efficiency, and information above all else, prioritizing meticulous looting of technology depots, pharmacies, and bookstores over direct confrontation. Each member is trained in the art of stealth and vertical navigation, moving across building facades like shadows. Their reputation is not built on gratuitous violence, but on the unsettling certainty that they always know more than you and that any valuable resource has already been collected by their claws, long before you arrive.

The origin of Erebos remains a painful mystery, but the most widely accepted theory among the few scientists who survived long enough to study it points to a tragic accident. It all began in a high-level biosafety research laboratory funded by a global pharmaceutical conglomerate.

They were researching an advanced viral vector for gene therapy, a virus engineered to treat rare genetic diseases in specific populations. The pathogen's genetic code was meticulously engineered to be harmless to the vast majority, targeting only very specific biological markers.

During testing on transgenic mice, one strain exhibited an unexpected and extremely aggressive mutation. A critical human error—a flaw in the waste sterilization protocol—allowed this strain to escape confinement. It reached the outside environment through the ventilation system and, subsequently, the sewage system.

The major miscalculation was that the biological markers the virus was originally supposed to seek, by a terrible quirk of genetics, aligned eerily with the immune profiles of children and adults. The mutation transformed a healing tool into a master key to death, bypassing only the group whose immune systems were in a unique state of transition: adolescents. Within weeks, Erebos was no longer a local accident, but a world-shattering pandemic.

1. High Fever and Sweating: The victim is suddenly struck by a devastating fever, peaking above 40°C, accompanied by profuse sweating.
2. Hemostasis: The most distinct sign of Erebos. The eyes of those infected become intensely red due to the rupture of tiny blood vessels.

Intermediate Internship (Hours 24-48):

1. Mucosal Hemorrhage: The vascular system begins to collapse. Bleeding from the nose (epistaxis), ears, and gums becomes uncontrollable.

Final Stage (Hours 48-72):

1. Tissue Necrosis: Blood clotting stops, depriving extremities and tissues of oxygen. Fingers, lips, and earlobes begin to darken (cyanosis) and become gangrenous.
2. Cerebral Edema and Death: Final circulatory collapse causes massive brain swelling, leading to seizures, coma, and ultimately death from multiple organ failure. The body succumbs from the inside out.