Case File #1093, Record Number 0796d3m-009:

Specimen responds well to mental stimuli. Upon contact with a host, specimen appears to remain dormant until host's death. Specimen appears to take control of host's central nervous system and entire body. Further tests needed to determine behaviour of possessed corpse.


Pokémon

Plague

The Exchange


"You killed him!"

She stares at the corpse of the child; the fresh-faced ten year old who'd probably only just managed to start out on his journey. Her hands briefly touch his eyelids and close them before she presses a finger tentatively on his chest, tracing the wound through his heart.

"You killed him," she echoes in a whisper as shock glues her to the floor.

The man glances out from behind a tree and tries to see their pursuers. His clothes are completely black, though covered in a slight film of dust.

"It doesn't matter," he says roughly. "He got in the way. Wrong place, wrong time. We can't stop. We'll get caught."

"You killed him…" she repeats, her hands covered in the dead boy's blood. "You shot him through his wee heart. What was he doing here?"

"Farrody!" the man barks and grabs her by the shoulders. His eyes are burning with anger. She doesn't understand why. He's just killed a little boy. He should be wracked with grief! He shouldn't become angry and try and take it out on her!

She starts to wonder just whether or not she's over her head.

"We've got to move!" he barks. "Take the kid's pokémon – I doubt he's had much of a chance to use it. Probably hasn't even trained it yet, otherwise he'd have sicced it on us."

She can't listen to this. Little thoughts about the kid, what he could have done in his life; what he won't ever get to achieve. She touches his face… his wee, delicate face and can't stand the fact he's died without a name. And now she's being told to mug his still-warm corpse! She isn't able to hack such a thought.

"What're you talking about, Liam?" She rises to her feet and presses her face right into her accomplice's. "You've killed this kid and now you want to rob his corpse for a pokémon? Shall we get his wallet too, while we're at it? He might have a few pennies that you could use for a cheap Cherrygrove whore!"

He settles her with a glare so cold she wishes he'd hit her instead. She can deal with violence. But the look feels like he was stripping her of her skin and playing around with every little molecule of her being.

"The kid has a pokémon on his body," Liam says with a careful glance around his cover. Her glances back to Farrody, sees her own black-clad form slowly soaking in the dead kid's blood. He curses and points at the sphere still cradled in the child's cooling hand. "He probably hasn't trained it. Might as well take it under our wing – it'll probably never know that it once had a master. Sides-" he flinches away from a loud gunshot and glances slowly around the tree once more. "Would you want to leave the pokémon in there? What if the kid isn't found for a few weeks? They might be in suspended animation in those things, but I'm not sure how long a young'un will last without feeding."

She shakes her head at him. She can't believe the gall of the man, to pretend like he cares about the kid's pokémon! Sure he cares after his own pokémon, but she's never seen him care about anyone else's.

"Kelsi!"

She flinches as he barks her name. Everyone calls her by her surname, they only ever call her by her given name when she's in deep shit. She wonders just how much she'll be called by it if her parents ever find out about what she's been up to.

How much she'll be chewed out if her bosses ever find out about it.

Some undercover cop.

She curses under her breath at him. She loves the thrill of these jobs – they were much more entertaining than paperwork. She's still uncertain as to what job she prefers more… but killing kids isn't a part of either. She's certain that no matter what she does, she won't be able to sleep at night anymore.

"Kelsi, listen to me," he hisses and grabs her shoulder once more. "You convinced me to take this job. We both know, if what we stole gets public, more people are gonna die. This kid probably wouldn't last two seconds if shit really went down. One life for thousands." He grabs a pocket, feeling the unknown vialled liquid that he stole. "We blew up the lab 'cause of what your intel said. We can't let this shit get out."

She hates to admit he's right. She can't let this kid's death be in vain. She scrunches her eyes shut, prays to God that the kid's at peace before she snatches the poké ball from his hand.

"Right," she says quickly and wipes her eyes dry. "Let's get the hell out of here. You remember where you parked the car?" She needs this to go right now. They need to find the car and get the hell out of Dodge as fast as they can. She can't let the police here see her. It's far out of her jurisdiction here, but she can't risk any of them identifying her.

"Five kilometres west, then head down the rocky path there for half a kilometre," he recites even as he fires a quick shot in the distance. "Car's near the miltank farm owned by Goldenrod's gym."

"Right." She nods and squeezes off two rounds quickly, aiming for the trees around the noise. She can't see the police coming at them, but she's fairly certain she can hear the arcanine. She hopes they don't let the pokémon loose anytime soon, otherwise she knows she'll be chow before she even sees the getaway car.

She glances to Liam, shares a nod and takes off running. The forest around them blurs into some unholy fusion of brown and green. Her thoughts remain on course; find the car, drive to the destination, give the package to the contact, get paid.

It should be a simple job.

She mentally laughs at her own naivety. There's no such thing as an easy job; four years with the Viridian Police taught her that. Even a routine drunk and disorderly arrest often goes horribly wrong.

Her body moves on autopilot as she runs. Fire gun. Run. Duck. Weave. Make sure they can't shoot you. They're getting closer. Move behind tree.

She stops and catches her breath. A glance around her cover tells her someone's nearby. She hisses a curse and shoots him as quickly as she can. He goes down screaming, a kneecap blown completely from his leg. She turns and runs, leaves him in his agony.

She can't kill the police. Just in case things go wrong, she needs to have her own job secure again.

She likes being a criminal though. There's the rush; the feeling of empowerment. With the police, she's constrained by rules. She's not allowed to put down the raping scumbags when they slip through the system because of some old-age loophole the priciest lawyers in Johto can find.

What moron really created the rule that poképhillia wasn't illegal if it was a ditto transformed into human guise?

She throws the thought away with a disgusted retch.

"You didn't kill him," Liam grunts as he runs alongside her. "He'll be able to tell them where we're going."

"If we killed him, the police would just hunt us all the harder. They take it hard if you kill one of their own."

She catches the smirk Liam throws at her. "Better hope you don't get dead then. Otherwise both worlds will be seeking bloody vengeance."

Her smile falters for just an instant, but then it's back up again. She can't believe he still buys the lie. She's known him since they were in diapers; he knows she joined the police at nineteen.

He believes she quit when things were too boring.

Sometimes, she wishes that were really the case.

"Don't try nothing then," she warns him with a wink. "Who knows what they'll think of to do to you?"

He rolls his eyes back at her.

Then he goes down screaming as a bullet blasts through his calf.

"Shit!" Farrody hisses, stops running and leaps to his side. She ignores his protests to take the package and complete the task. She knows he's trying to be masculine. She knows that his freedom is the thing he values more than anything.

More than her.

The thought stings just a little more than she hopes it would. She knows that if things did go bad, he'd lose his freedom.

And now they'll have the manslaughter of a child to add to all his crimes. He'd be one of the lowest of the low in prison and she knows that she can't do that to him.

He's a murderer, a thief and an arsonist.

She is too, now.

She can't throw him in prison for something she's also guilty of. She can't throw him in prison full stop. He knows too much. He can ruin her career.

Conversely, her police 'buddies' could ruin her thief career.

She's screwed either way. Her two worlds can never collide and she's not going to let them meet now.

"Quiet!" she hisses quickly. He nods and squeezes his leg, hissing at the pain and worrying about the blood. She works quickly, tears a sleeve off at the elbow and ties it around his leg in a bad, quick tourniquet.

"Stay down!" she barks, firing another two rounds from her gun.

It clicks empty.

Her stomach burns cold.

She can't believe she forgot to reload on the run. She curses the rookie error and shakes her head at her own foolishness.

The police are nearly on them now. She wants to scream, to throw herself at them, guns blazing, just to make sure the package gets delivered.

They may be thieves, but what they're doing is important! She knows the official channels too well; what they've taken would eventually end up in the hands of who they're keeping it away from, all through a few pulled strings.

She's seen the underworld of Johto and knows just how many of her bosses are in someone else's pocket.

"Can you stand?" she asks quickly and quietly.

Liam accepts her help up and stands shakily on his feet. His injured leg wobbles and he nearly falls, saved only by Farrody's quick reflexes.

"No good," he says. He glances back and curses. "They're pinning us down; trying to take us alive." He turns away and looks forward, cursing once more. "We're about twenty feet from the rocky path. If we can make it there, we can lose them on the trail; it's narrow and bendy."

"Right." She nods and forms a plan quickly. They need cover and something to carry Liam out. She knows her strengths; she may be able to carry him, but she definitely can't run whilst carrying him.

"Let out Eve," she instructs him. "She can carry you. Arthur will cover our escape."

He nods quickly. "Alright," he says and flicks a poké ball out from his belt. It explodes into brilliant white light, revealing the snarling creature from within. It looks like an angry gorilla, though is a dark yellow in colour, with multiple black marks across its arms and chest that look like lightning bolts. Its tail is cut short – the brutal scars of a botched operation still visible through the fur. Two long tufts of hair stretch from its face, almost like eyebrows, its flickering ears somewhat resembling antennae.

Its face is scrunched up in a snarl, two large canines protruding from its bottom jaw. It snarls quickly, hissing at the sounds of gunfire.

"Eve," Liam says quickly. "I'm hurt. Carry me to the car."

She snarls with a nod and lifts him over her shoulder quickly. Liam mutters something about 'lost dignity' as Farrody manages a small laugh.

Her own pokémon is out before her. It stands on four feet, with a long body covered in deep black fur. Its tail ends in a devil's prong split, with white patches of fur on its body, resembling broken ribs, with white markings on its head like a skull. Two long, red-boned horns stretch out from its head and its face is twisted in a canine grimace.

"Arthur," she says quickly to the houndoom. "Create a smoke screen."

The pokémon woofs and sniffs the air quickly. A gunshot makes him jump and snarl as sulphurous, black clouds burst out of its nostrils. It takes only a moment for them to be shrouded completely by thick, acrid black smoke.

"Thanks," she says quickly and recalls the pokémon. She turns quickly and chases after the electabuzz carrying Liam. She knows he's instructed her to run towards the car. He's injured now; he needs to get out of trouble quickly.

Farrody knows she needs to cover their escape. She prays the smokescreen is enough. Her hands shake as she tries to reload her gun. Shouts come from behind her. Snarls join in with the chorus.

Her heart leaps from her chest and she prays they're not loosing pokémon on them. She doubts she can take on a police force with only two trained pokémon.

She's just thankful the police aren't shooting straight at them. They know what's been stolen. They know how much shit everyone would be in if they hit the vial and it got loose.

That tells her it's definitely airborne.

It's one of her worst fears about it come true.

She knows nothing of science, truth be told, but she trusts her contact. He says it'll be trouble for everyone, she knows that if it got out, there'd be wide-scale death. He left them specific instructions for the job; sneak in, destroy the lab and bring back the smallest sample available. He made it clear he didn't want to use a sample, but he said if it ever got out, he needs to reverse-engineer it, all in the vain hope to create an antidote.

Far too much pressure, she decides. She's happy just to be doing the grunt work.

She hears the car horn and swears wildly at Liam. The car comes into sight and she leaps in quickly, shoves him out of the driver's seat and punches the keys into the ignition.

"Let me drive!" he demands.

"You're injured," she points out. She sees tell-tale yellow fur poking out from underneath a blanket on the back seat and frowns. She hopes that the pokémon has managed to do her seatbelt up, at least, because it's going to be a bumpy ride.

"The package still intact?" Farrody asks as she shifts the car into gear. She can't let all of this be for nothing. She just can't!

Liam touches a padded pocket on his chest. "Aye," he says quickly. "A-okay."

The car engine hums under Farrody's touch, speeds off down the rocky path and leaves a trail of ground-up dust in their wake.

"Good," she whispers quickly. There's hope for their job yet. "I'll take the quickest route there is. No side roads, you're bleeding out. There's bandages in the glove compartment, do your best. I'll take M39 through Ecruteak to Violet, then Highway 602 through to New Bark. We'll be there in just under two hours."

She sees Liam nod out of the corner of her eye as he sets to work on bandaging his leg. She knows he won't die from it, not unless he's horribly unlucky.

As much as she hates herself for it, she's glad the kid died instead of them. His life to save everyone's.

She prays it's worth it.


It's dark as they arrive in New Bark Town. Farrody slows the car and drives along the outskirts of the town before stopping a little bit into the woods surrounding the area.

"We're here," she says needlessly. "Fit to walk?"

Liam growls and presses his leg down tentatively. "It'll hold," he declares. "Let's just get in and out of there as quickly as we can." He glances to the back seat and touches the blanketed creature hiding underneath. "Back in your ball, girl. We can't use this car afterwards. Can't have you wandering around with us either."

Farrody watches the pokémon grunt lowly before it disappears in eerie red light. The whole process of pokémon appearing and disappearing is still freaky to her, she decides.

"Let's go," she says quietly. "We're meeting the contact at his lab; the back door will be open between eleven and eleven-oh-three."

"Three minute window," Liam snorts. "How amateur does your contact think we are?"

"Amateur enough to get shot," she bites back. He smirks at her temper and nods quickly, following her in silence.

Farrody is thankful for the silence. It gives her time to plan. After this job, she knows they need to get out of Johto for a while. She has contacts in Hoenn; she's certain she can get some work there. The problem is just Liam; he needs to get to a hospital. They can't risk anywhere too close; they need someone to fix him on the sly.

"This is your contact?" he asks suddenly, snapping her from her thoughts. He points at the sign above the laboratory, even as they creep around the back. "Professor Elm? How the hell did you ever get in contact with him?"

"Long story," she mutters. "Short version; there was a smuggling ring a few years back, kidnapping Johtoan starter pokémon and cage-breeding them to sell to the Trainer Initiative facilities. Kids starting out were getting horribly deformed and denatured pokémon. Took us a month to get it shut down."

"I heard about that," Liam whispers. "Guy I know in the slammer said something about the guy your old lot threw in there. Apparently he got put in the hospital on the first day; guy in there had a kid who got mauled by one of his 'special-bred' pokémon."

Farrody manages a small laugh. "Can't say I'm sorry to hear that." She raises a hand and points towards a heavy-security metal door. "There's our entrance. Time?"

"Eleven, on the dot."

She nods. "Good. Keep the package hidden until the deal's sealed – Elm's buddy-buddy with a lot of the officials; I'm still not sure if this job could turn sour or not."

He just gives her a blank look. "I got shot. I'd say it's gone pretty sour already."

"Quiet," she hisses as she cracks the metal door open. "It's far too quiet."

Liam's hand reaches for his gun instantly. "You smell that?" he asks.

Her face twists into a grimace as her stomach drops. Blood. She doesn't need to confirm it; they both know what it means. Someone's been murdered in there. No small spill would create such a strong smell. The air is hot and sticky as they creep inside, the buzzing of small insects giving sound to the deathly quiet lab.

They round a corner and find a large work station, computer lit up and many screens above it, all smashed and blinking randomly. A wheeled chair sits before the desk and a hand drops limply by the side.

What they see most is the blood splattered over the screens and pooling around the chair.

"Elm," Farrody whispers as she checks the body. His neck is torn open, wound still slightly fresh. His eyes are glassy and his head leaning back, not a defensive wound marking his body, she notes. Whoever did this did it quickly and quietly. Instantly the policewoman in here is forming the conclusions; a professional hit or a close betrayal.

"So much for our money," Liam grunts. "Who do we deliver the package to now?"

Farrody hisses a curse and thinks as quickly as she can. "Professor Oak, maybe. He trained Elm, maybe they were in correspondence about this job?"

"Maybe Oak set this up then," Liam grunts. "We better get out of here before-"

Police sirens suddenly blare from outside, filling the dark lab with flashing blue lights.

"-That happens."

Farrody curses the air bluer than the lights as she realies how trapped they are. Their three-minute window for the back door has expired. They can't get out that way. The front door is being swarmed. There's an apartment above the lab; she hears footsteps thumping on the ceiling. She knows that has to be police.

She glances towards Elm again and figures he was probably killed roughly when they stole the package. Whoever did this set them up; they knew they'd be delivering straight to Elm. Otherwise the police wouldn't be hiding with a dead body on show.

She realises then and there that it's an inside job; someone in the police has set this up. Maybe the Superintendent, the Chief of Police… anyone.

She can't think about that now. She needs to get out. Her worlds are about to clash and she can't let that happen.

"Windows?" she asks quickly.

"Barred shut," Liam tells her. "Whoever did this knew what they were doing. We're blocked in completely." He grabs all three poké balls between his fingers and glances around the room, his head jumping about like a curious pidgey. "We're caught like rattata. Can we dig our way out?"

"Steelix-grade metallic flooring," Farrody says, her boots tapping the floor in demonstration. "Only way out is through the police." She listens quickly and curses once more. "Sounds like it's the whole of the Eastern Johto force. Unless you want to be torn apart by machine guns, that's a no-go. The pokémon here won't listen to us either. So using a flyer from here is out of the question."

Liam glances towards the ceiling. "Through the apartment. It's our only option. Take out the cops up there, run out the window. Maybe use some of the pokémon here as protection."

She nods. "Good plan." She runs towards the shelves lined with pokémon, glancing through them quickly. They need bigger pokémon to shield them, but not something too big for them to fight off if things go wrong. For the first time since things went wrong, she's confident they'll be able to get out of this all unscathed.

Then something cold and metal presses into the back of her skull.

"Don't. Move," the person growls.

She feels her heart sink and bile rise into her throat all at once. Behind her she hears cursing and the sounds of a fight; she knows Liam's attempting to fight them off. A loud crack hits her eardrums. She hears Liam scream. She knows they've broken something. She knows she's failed her task. The package is going to get compromised.

All of their work was for nothing.

But worst of all; she knows she's fucked up enough for her worlds to collide. One or both sides are going to be pissed at her; she doesn't know what ones will be worst.

She hears the tell-tale sounds of metal handcuffs.

"Liam O'Brien, I'm arresting you on suspicion of the murder of professor Elm, in addition to theft, terrorism, trespassing, in addition to multiple counts of theft, arson and murder."

Farrody feels herself flinch as Liam grunts in pain. She knows she's defeated, but she declares to herself that they'll find a way out.

They know Liam's name and his crimes. They were only in the other lab a few hours ago. There's no way that the police can have collected all that information in time.

She knows for certain that it was an inside job. Someone waited until they'd completed their task, all so they could get their hands on the package and sell it off to the highest bidder.

She relaxes a little as the gun pulls away from her head. Her body tenses once more as handcuffs slip around one of her wrists, then her arms screams in protest as they're yanked behind her.

"Kelsi Farrody," the man behind her grunts. "You're under arrest for-"

"All the same things, right?" she says cockily with a roll of her eyes. She hears the man hiss in annoyance and feels a small smirk on her face despite the situation. She glances back and sees Liam already out of earshot before her head is shoved back to facing the shelves.

"Eyes forward, murderer."

Her face is nearly slammed into the metal shelves in front of her. She tries to figure out just who this cop could be; if he is so intent on making so she doesn't see him. He's either new or high-up, probably with higher and more powerful clearance than her.

It has to be the latter. She knows they wouldn't let someone new in on a job like this.

She forces herself to remain calm. Her only option now is to reveal who she is; she just hopes that these police are clued-in enough to not break her cover. It's the only way she can get her and Liam's arses out of the firing line.

"You know my name," she says quickly and quietly. "That means you know who I am. Check in with Kanto Yard. I'm an undercover police officer."

The man behind her snorts and shoves her other wrist into the handcuffs. "Yeah right, heard that one before. Tell me then; who's your superior?"

She can practically hear the threat in his words; say Officer Jenny and I'll shoot you on the spot.

"Charles Gall," she says. "He's my superior and head of my operation. Want me to list all the people on my team; all those that have clearance enough to know about my case?"

The police man grunts once more, completely un-amused. "Don't push your luck. I'll check your story out when we get back to the station. Until then, you're remaining under arrest."

"Fine," she says quickly. "I need you to do that regardless; if Liam twigs that I'm undercover and your case falls through, everything I've done is for nothing."

Though she's slightly certain everything may be for nothing anyway.


The bleach-white walls are the same in every police station, she notes. Farrody rubs her aching wrists as she sits across the desk from the policeman that arrested her; one Detective Harrison of the KJBI – the KanJo Bureau of Investigation.

"Our clearance far outranks yours," he says to her. His face is one that she can't help but hate; he has a twitchy nose and small squinty eyes, like a rat, with a pencil thin moustache and a hairline thinner than his milk-catcher. "We've been after the suspect for more than six months, you yourself too."

She manages a small shrug. "I did what I had to, sir. Although you think him nothing more than a thug, Liam is damn smart. I've known him since we were little; we grew up together and he knows me better than anyone. I know him more than anyone; that's how I managed to get in on this case. I got closer to him than anyone, but it came with the compromise that he could read me so easily he would guess if something was amiss."

"Murders and grand theft auto usually aren't covered by the limits of undercover work," the KJBI agent tells her.

Rules and regulations within five minutes of conversation. This is why she wanted out of the police in the first place.

"I know, sir," she says quietly. "But it was the only way to get close to him and his contacts. I managed to get details of fifty-three people he deals with – he wouldn't even trust me with the details of the jobs we did for the first few weeks. I made sure never to kill an innocent; everyone I shot was always a drug-dealer, a pimp or something worse. I had to carry out those murders, sir, to make sure we have evidence to bring down the big players in KanJo."

All his anger washes away suddenly, replaced by intrigue. Farrody smiles to herself, knowing that at least she has a leg to stand on now.

"And you have names of these people, I assume?" he asks quickly, leaning in towards her.

She nods and keeps her cool as she pulls away from him as subtly as she can. She's uncertain as to whether his intrigue is through a devotion to his career or whether he's in the pocket of someone she's able to expose.

"Of course," she says confidently. "But of course, you'll only be able to see the names in the report I need to submit to my superiors. If something were to happen to me before then, it only points at a double-agent inside the police, as only people in the force have any idea of what I know."

Harrison's eyes narrow on her instantly. "Are you accusing me of being in someone's pocket?"

She ignores the boiling terror in her heart, hoping his shock and anger at the accusations are genuine. "I'm saying that I don't trust you, sir. My undercover work has shown me that you can't trust other people, no matter their position. I've seen people sell their own children to get ahead in the underworld sir, just because you're a KJBI agent doesn't earn you my trust."

He scrunches his face up a second before he sighs and leans back. "Very well. The Viridian police department have arranged a helicopter transport for you that will arrive in an hour. You're expected to attend a debriefing before writing and submitting your report, upon which you can resume normal work."

"Okay," she says. "If I may, sir, I would like to see Liam first. He saw the other officers removing me from my cell and I have a feeling he's figured it all out by now. I need to talk to him, if only so I can calm him down. Otherwise he may just become a loose cannon that will be perfectly eligible for an insanity plea."

She sees the reluctant acceptance in his face and knows she's won. She needs to see Liam, to hope that he hasn't figured it out. If he hasn't, she may still be able to convince him she's working against the police and is able to spring him free.

Honestly, she's still uncertain as to whether that's true or not. Either decision will ruin her. She just needs to choose the one which will cause the least damage.

She finds Liam stewing in his cell, glaring manically at the small slot in the metallic door. She knows instantly by that look he's not just angry; he's furious. His face-mask is gone, revealing the short brown hair that seems to be dripping into his face and the five o'clock shadow that's on its way to becoming a beard.

"You bitch," he hisses dangerously.

He knows, she realises. Her heart sinks and she knows there's no way to recover. All she's done for the past few months is for nothing; the time an energy she spent getting to know Liam again, befriending him and actually enjoying her life for once - she sees it ripped away from her grasp in those two words.

She steps closer to the jail cell. "Liam, I-"

"Don't even try to explain yourself," he cuts her off with a dark growl that sends shivers down her spine. "You tricked me. You spent all that time getting to know me, pretending to be my friend and doing the 'right' thing, but it was all a lie! You got close to me, all so you could advance in your silly little career!"

She shakes her head and feels the tears already on her face. "No, that's not what it was at all!"

He snorts. "Like I'll believe anything you say. Do yourself a favour Kelsi; enjoy what you've got left of your life, 'cause I promise you; as soon as I get out of this place, I'm going to find you. I'm going to find you and I'm going to rip your lying tongue right out of your fucking mouth!

"So enjoy yourself, bitch," he says as he crosses his legs, his face becoming a picture of horrifying calm. "Clock's a-ticking."

Farrody backs away quickly and slams the little metallic flap of his cell door shut. Her hand squeezes her chest, trying in vain to mend her broken heart. She's certain her soul has been torn straight out and stomped upon.

Everything she's done in an attempt to change her life has led back to nothing. Now she has lost the damn package and had no clue what to do to find it again.

"Cheer up," says the officer standing guard nearby her. "It's not the end of the world."


The woman screams her lungs out. She runs, fear pumping through her veins. She's going to die, she's certain of it. She saw their faces – dear God their faces! It looked like they'd been ripped straight off – gooey flesh and bone exposed to the world, the person underneath not caring that maggots were crawling around and eating the flesh.

She runs out of her house and straight into the street, praying that someone is left to help her. The world has fallen apart, people are dying and she has no idea what the hell's going on any more.

"Get away!" she screams at the thing lumbering after her. It can't be human! It shouldn't be walking! It just shouldn't exist!

She stops running suddenly, bumps into something and feels all the breath leave her lungs.

She looks up and prays that it's not another decaying thing come to kill her.

It's a human, she finds out with a sigh of relieve.

Then his face explodes.

She screams again, leaps backwards and spits blood from her mouth. Her face is covered in blood. Her heart is thundering beneath her breath. That man, the man who was just stood before her falls to the floor, blood flowing free from his headless neck.

Little rattata scamper towards it instantly. Their little bodies are dead and exposed – ribs, skulls, organs and bone, all different on each pokémon, but all mark them as dead.

"No," the woman begs, disbelieving. "This isn't happening!"

She runs. It's all she can do now. The smell of death surrounds her. The things stalk after her in the midday sun; shambling towards her, arms hanging limply by their sides and moans coming out of their broken, bloody mouths.

Her heel snaps on the pavement and she falls forwards. She screams at the shock of it all, slips out of her stupidly high heels and throws them at the nearest thing stalking her.

She runs again. Her lungs are burning. Her heart is racing. Her blood is burning cold. She knows she can't run much longer. But she has to. She needs to survive. Those things broke into her home and ate her husband! They tore his stomach open then and there and feasted on his entrails, even as he lay screaming and dying beneath them. Their greedy hands kept grabbing and ripping at his body until there was nothing left but gooey flesh and bone.

Then he groaned and stood back up again, his intestines dropping to the floor and his lower jaw missing from his body.

She doesn't want that to happen to her. She hasn't saved her husband, but she can save herself.

She stops for breath in the middle of the busy street, leaning on a car abandoned in the middle of the road. She's unsure where she can go; how she can survive.

Then something grabs her ankle.

She screams and stamps down on it, but it's too late.

More hands grab her legs. They pull at her, ripping, tearing her skin from flesh and meat away from the bone. Pain blossoms up her legs; she screams bloody murder. The hands pull her to the floor, her face smashes into the pavement and dazes her. She barely registers the pain anymore as she slowly gets dragged underneath the car, greedy arms plundering her flesh.

Fingers probe her body, tear bones from her flesh, snap her bones and bring them to greedy, salivating mouths. The cannibals around her dying body moan in delight as blood trickles down their dead, dry mouths.

The last thing she sees is the rotting face of their local priest.

Then with a final sigh, she dies.

Two minutes later her corpse shambles out from underneath the car and rises back to its feet, moaning incoherently. Exposed bone snaps and brings her back to her knees, but she feels no pain. All she feels now is hunger. She needs to eat, sweet, fresh, untainted meet.

All around Johto, people scream for their lives as the dead rise and begin feasting on the living.