A Troubled Past...

"Haxorus! Grab what you can; we need to get back home now! Time's getting on and we don't wanna be outside when they come out."

She nodded in confirmation, as she picked up a bottle of long life milk off the nearby counter. Anything would be useful at this point.

Zipping up my black rucksack, and tossing it over my shoulder, I yanked open the shop door and shielded my eyes from the setting sun. Shadows from the nearby buildings were getting longer by the minute, and we didn't have many to spare.

After heaving the bag into the centre seat of my beat up truck, I stuck the keys in the ignition and revved the engine. Haxorus quickly jumped into the passenger seat, and slammed her door shut.

I can't tell you how bad it feel to break into a store or someone's home just to leave with a few cans of food, or something equally meagre, but we have to do what we can to survive; no-one else in this city needs what's left... well... none that we know of. As far as we're aware, Haxorus and I are the only two in Castelia unaffected by Pokérus.

It took a while for everything to sink in. My family and friends were part of the majority that were killed outright, four of my team were killed outright, and the fifth was my Aggron. He stayed behind to protect us from a brood of infected, both human and Pokémon. I was literally shouting at him to come with us, we'd all get out safely, but he wouldn't have any of it; roaring at Haxorus to make me get out of the area. To survive; if not for me, then for him.

My axe-jawed dragon dragged me away as best as she could, as I clawed at the ground begging for Aggron to come with us. I'm not ashamed to say I cried as I saw him fighting the masses of pale skinned, feral monsters. It's hard to keep going when you know you made it out with a few cuts and bruises and someone else lost their life, but I know that's what his intentions were in the first place.

Five Months Earlier

The air was hot and humid. The sun was at its highest point in the sky, and the infected were hidden deep away in the shadows of the cool surrounding abandoned buildings. The bodies of those who died upon contamination were seemingly untouched in their motionless state. The stench of the corpses flooded the streets, especially in the baking summer heat, made breathing without the need to gag near impossible, but there wasn't really anything we could do about it. The cityscape was abysmal at best and everything was blatantly run-down. Hard to believe things could pile up so quickly in a month.

Still mourning over the loss of practically everything I held dear to me, I knew that what I did have left was all that mattered. We'd managed to find refuge in a large apartment building where we could gather what we needed and wait out the night. 'We' being me, my Haxorus and my Aggron. We decided to pick a room that was halfway between the middle and the ground floors; that way we'd have a chance to escape out a window if things went tits-up since everywhere's considered a dead zone. Despite the gathering of dust and the strong musty smell, we were glad to have somewhere to rest instead of leaving my truck and sleeping in a cave or something. Aggron was satisfied with the height of the ceiling and the general space of the room, whilst Haxorus started inspecting the freezer for anything that could be of use.

Things weren't like how one would expect; enough time hadn't passed for the streets to become cracked and overgrown with plant life; water mains hadn't burst and become unusable. Electricity still ran through the lines and water was clean due to the filters along the system. The only immediate threat was the creatures that lurked in the shadows.

We're quite lucky to have such long days at the moment. Gave us more time to do things, like pick up some items. Judging by Haxorus' response to the freezer, I'd say that we were in dire need of some goods, and I doubt the store would be lit considering everything happened in the midst of night. Call me naive but it seemed quite cliché.

Haxorus slumped onto the chair next to me, grumbling. None of us had eaten since we left Opelucid City, and that was basically first thing in the morning. Even then, it was only a small portion of whatever we had to hand. Aggron tends to be a lot easier to feed since he literally lives off of metal, so the amount of abandoned vehicles and such prove invaluable for him. Nevertheless, we needed to stock up ASAP so I went back down to the truck to get my gear.

My 'gear' is in fact, what I call, my 'survival kit'. Things like medical kits, an assault vest with several pouches on plus a pouch for a five-litre water bag on the back, a multitool and my beat up old sidearm. I'm lucky enough to not have had the need to test it...yet. If it works like a normal parasite, a good shot to the head would be more than sufficient to down one for good.

Slipping the assault vest over my t-shirt, and filling the ammo pockets, I started up the engine, and let it purr for a while. My team jumped in the back, making the suspension lower several inches, and held onto the roof bar, before we headed off into the centre to look for some kind of general store. We needed to be fast; since the sun was starting to get low in the sky.

After a short drive, the temperature had dropped a fair amount and shadows painted the roads. We found a small shopping precinct which had various shops that'd prove pretty useful for us and, thankfully, they were well lit. I still wouldn't want to risk staying here for a night though.

Aggron was quite happy to charge straight through the glass that led to the supermarket, but I told him that the alarms are probably active, and setting them off probably wouldn't be a smart thing to do. Before travelling to the back door I had the two of my Pokémon stand watch at the front, and should groups of them arrive. To get out of here. Sidearm at the ready, I looked around for a power box, which I was expecting to be a small, grey, wall mounted outlet. Discovering that it was in fact a mess of tangled cables didn't help the situation. I'd never seen power cables in such a disorganised way.

Calling to the two at the front, just to let them know what I was doing, I pocketed my weapon and opened my multitool to cut through the primary wire casing to get a closer look. All the secondary casings were the same damn colour... black. Sighing deeply I flipped the biggest blade out of the handle and readied myself to cut all the wires inside the main casing. Even then I was betting everything on cutting the power to everything before anything was set off.

My hands gripped the tool tightly as I placed the knife edge under the thin rubber coating and noticed I was breathing rapidly. Counting down slowly to myself, I clenched my eyes shut as i pulled up and backwards sharply on the knife, feeling it tug as the blade dug in, cutting the wires cleanly. Opening my eyes, I was relieved to hear nothing but the wind whistling around me. Standing up, I grabbed the door handle and gently pressed down on it, the internal mechanisms clunking quietly before the metal door swung inwards. I instantly retrieved the pistol from my pocket upon detecting the sudden lack of lighting, and cursed to myself.

"If there's nothing in here, it'll make everything a whole lot easier." I thought to myself, checking the corners of the small, dingy store.

I jogged the last portion of the aisle and knocked on the window to let Haxorus and Aggron know it was safe.

"Aggron, grab a mixture of frozen, fresh and canned food. Haxorus, see if you can find stuff we can drink, and some milk since we're probably gonna need a lot of it." I said, jogging backwards out the front door, "I'll bring the truck around."

Running back to my truck, which still had the engine running, I reversed it so the flatbed was practically in the supermarket, allowing the two to unload goods onto it.

Leaving them to that, I took a look around the rest of the stores. A lot could really help us, like the hardware store, but what really caught my eye was the gun shop that was there. Naturally the most barricaded store in the entire precinct but it would be worth getting a bigger weapon, after all, humans aren't the only infected we needed to worry about.

Keeping my 9mm in my left hand, I wiggled the corkscrew out of my multitool and began fiddling around with the lock on the security gate. I would have cut the power cables again, but it looked as though someone had already had already cut straight through them... there also seemed to be a small trail of, what looked like, dried blood. Shivering at the thought of the situation, I listened for the satisfying 'click' of the gates approval and slid it upwards, before doing the same with the door.

This store was far smaller than most; but then again, these places have the working guns stored underground in a giant concrete 'bunker'. Standard safety precautions I guess. I heard Haxorus talking to Aggron in the distance. She was most likely wondering where I'd gone, so I called my location to her as I looked for the stockroom keys. No way in hell was I going to be able to pick the lock on this thing; it must have been a few inches of steel thick.

The two of my team walked up behind me as I unlocked the door with a keychain that had an unholy amount of keys on it. As I swung the door open, the smell of stale and dust flooding my nose, Haxorus tapped me on the back making me nearly backhand her out of reaction. Apologising, I told them what I was doing and that it would be really worth going down here. I then turned my attention back to the stairwell and very nearly changed my mind. It was practically pitch black down there, apart from a few wall-bound emergency lights. You could never be too careful nowadays, so I grabbed a nearby tactical light from the wall and held it in my weaker hand, before descending into the musty storeroom. Sticking close to the walls, I called for Aggron to stay up top and for Haxorus to follow me down here, to watch my back...

Well... in all honesty, I called her down here because I reckoned that Aggron could handle himself. That and he was very vicious towards the undead bastards, whilst also being made of steel and a rock-like skin. He didn't think twice before crushing one under his weight, whilst Haxorus never seemed to understand the full gravity of the situation. It was almost like she was showing compassion for them, making it harder for her to do anything. Not that she wouldn't, no; I've watched her decapitate one that dared get to close to us once, and she was furious. I'd just rather not take the risk of her being up top alone, when Aggron has the power of a battle tank and the mindset to match.

Shining the light on the racks of weapons around the room, the store certainly had the best of the best. Inserting the pistol into its pouch, I grabbed a G36C off one of the brackets and slid the tactical light onto it. A perfect fit. I grabbed as many magazines for it as I could and stuffed them into my assault vest before grabbing a combat knife from a glass cabinet. It'd probably be a lot more effective than what I was currently using, plus I could use it in dire situations.

Calling to Aggron to let him know that we were coming back up, I slotted a magazine into the rifle and approached the exit.

There was a scratching noise from the opposite end of the room, followed by a scuffling sound.

Flicking off the light, I pointed my new rifle down the corridor, as I backed towards the stairs.

"Haxorus. Go with Aggron and get in the truck. I'll be there in a second."

She whined and gently tapped me on the shoulder.

"Don't argue!" I hissed, "Just go. I promise I'll be up in a second. I just need to make sure the door will be locked properly."

A rhythmic tapping sound began, before a strange murmur echoed off the cold concrete walls surrounding us.

Haxorus whined again and swiftly climbed the stairs. Climbing the stairs backwards, I was satisfied to hear Aggron growling to her, as his heavy footsteps sounded in the distance. He was never harsh on her; he looked out for her as much as I did, so it was likely he was just reassuring them.

Aggron roared from outside, signalling they were in the truck, so I placed the weapon at my feet and took hold of the heavy stockroom door. As I was heaving the door shut, I heard a loud screech nearby. Looking through the gap in the door I saw a silhouette, but the general shape was too malformed. It stumbled up the first few steps, making me realise what it was.

What I was staring down was humanoid... I say that because they were so deformed that it wasn't right to call them human. The skin that hugged their body, making their bones visible, was incredibly pale; my best guess was an ash grey, but the lack of good lighting made it hard to judge. Their head was completely bald and their dilated eyes were sunk in their sockets; it was like watching a living corpse... that's probably the best definition I can give for anything that looked like this.

I was frozen in fear at what I was looking at. As I was picking details from it, the creature had slowly gained ground and was staring right back at me with its black eyes. Making me jump back from the door, it let out an ear piercing screech before slamming against the door, knocking it open slightly.

Steadying myself, I threw my entire weight back onto the door as the monster flailed its arm through the gap, desperate to open the door.

I heard the suspension on the truck squeak loudly; Aggron must have heard.

The creature slammed against the door again, opening it slightly despite my best efforts. To be honest I was more concerned with the noise it was making; frightened that it would attract more. Aggron began roaring loudly in the background, before I heard a loud crash. Straining to shut the door, I saw Haxorus run back in the store, surprise plastered on her face as she saw an arm thrashing around.

Unsheathing the knife I'd picked up, I slammed the sharpened edge into the beast's soft flesh, cutting through to the bone. As I pulled it free, I gave the door a sharp kick, before running out the store entrance, grabbing Haxorus' claw and pulling her with me. I shouted at her to get on the rear of the truck, before looking through a recently made hole in the supermarket glass. Aggron was inside literally crushing multiple infected under his feet and claws, but he was more than outnumbered.

Sideswiping one of the human ones, he grabbed another by the throat and threw them out the store; dead on impact. Taking hold of my assault rifle again, I charged back inside to give him a hand, firing off a few rounds, as Aggron continued to swing his tail around. Aggron saw me run in, as I downed a few of them, and bellowed loudly at me, obviously disapproving of my actions, but continued to spear more undead. As I readied my knife again, prepared to cut into (what seemed to be) a featherless Combusken, my arm was pulled backwards sharply. Twisting my head round, I was greeted with the withered face of a 'human'. Yanking my arm downwards, I punched them hard with my other hand, making them let me go, before I sunk the blade into the back of their skull, blood splattering onto my face.

Aggron kicked away a Gabite, and beckoned Haxorus to 'help'. Little did I know what his idea of 'help' was.

As I began to let off pistol shots, my legs got taken from underneath me, only to be met with the glint of Haxorus' armour and what seemed to be... tears. Grabbing my legs, she tried hauling me back to the truck, but I wouldn't have any of it. I tried to grip the floor as best I could, shouting for Aggron to come with us. He couldn't stay here forever fighting these things; we needed to get out of here as fast as we could.

He roared again at Haxorus, as the Gabite came back and bit down onto his arm making him cry in pain. Haxorus hesitated for a moment, before looking back to me. The fear and confusion in her eyes hit me so hard I can't even begin to explain how painful it was to be unable to do anything for Aggron.

Haxorus dropped my leg, grabbing my arms instead, and picked me up properly and ran as best as she could to the truck, before sitting me into the driver's seat; the engine still growling from earlier. Shifting to first gear, I looked into the rear view mirror one last time. Aggron was on the floor now, the creatures ignoring us entirely, seemingly teasing him. He let out one final cry to us before they silenced him...

Slamming down on the accelerator, I burst into tears as we hit the tarmac again, having to leave one of my last few friends behind. As we left the area, making sure we were safe again, I turned my attention to Haxorus. She sat motionless next to me, tears gradually dripping down her face and onto her smooth blades. She was sniffing quietly as we drove back to the apartment, where we first arrived.

Parking in the parking lot, I switched the engine off, and slumped in my seat breathing deeply. Getting out the vehicle, Haxorus following, I gestured for her to grab what she could from the back and we silently travelled upstairs, all the way back to room, and placed the things in the kitchen. Haxorus dropped onto the dusty old couch that sat in the middle of the living room.

Sitting down next to her, I noticed tears falling from her face again. Gently nestling my fingers in between her claws, I held her hand tightly in my own. Suppressing the lump in my throat, I removed my hand and loosely placed my arm around Haxorus' back. Breathing in deeply, she sidled closer and lent on my shoulder, crying even more.

Nothing was worth what he gave us...