Ray opened his eyes and quietly yawned to himself. He attempted to sit up, but was stopped by Crystal's weight. He'd completely forgotten that she was sleeping on him. Ray watched his Espeon's body steadily rise and lower, watching her breathe; just knowing that she was still alive and healthy made him happy enough. He feared everyday that Crystal would somehow catch the aggressive virus, and if she ever did, Ray wouldn't dare leave her behind. He already had to leave his mother.

Upon looking out of the window, he saw that it was Dawn, and that was usually the best time for them to make distance. What cut that idea out of his head was the sudden yelling he heard that seemed to be coming from outside, and that definitely woke Crystal. "Stay here…" Ray set her beside him onto the bed and slowly stood up, there was no time to be afraid while living in these times, he had to know what was going on. Ray took his pistol from off of the nightstand and slid it into the back pocket of his blue jeans, he also had on heavy black boots that would be helpful if he ever had to fight anyone up close. Ray pulled the bottom of his black shirt over his pistol to conceal it and went over to the window to look outside.

Crystal was just as worried about her trainer as he was about her, Ray protected her most of the time, and even though she knew how to battle and defend herself and Ray efficiently, Crystal knew she would be weaker in a battle against a human with a gun. She sat up on the bed and watched her trainer with perked ears.

"It stopped…" Ray took a step back from the window, but as soon as he did, he heard the blood curdling yell again. He sighed and turned around to face his Espeon. "I need to go see what that is, stay put." Ray was fed up with living in darkness and continuously hiding from what was out there. He exited the bedroom and began walking down the hallway toward the front door, and Crystal followed behind him, she would let him go out there alone.

Ray slowly opened the noisy door and took his pistol out of his back pocket while looking around, nothing yet. He began to close the door behind him and saw Crystal run in between his legs and appear in front of him. "Crystal… I don't want you out here... ugh, just stay behind me." Ray took a few steps forward into the main area of the town and - there it was again. This time, he followed the source of where he heard the shouting coming from, and then he saw it. Right by Solaceon's main path, a man sat on the ground, and his poochyena sat right next to him. At a good distance, Ray watched the weakened male; he looked to be in his late 20's, and he wore an all black outfit.

"Shoot me!" He must have noticed Ray, because he was now looking right at him. That was when Ray saw his face, it looked as if he'd been set on fire and was severely burned all over. "Just sh-"

"Don't!... don't come any closer!" Ray had to keep him at bay as the man had weakly started to get up. "What happened to you?" He added.

"What do you mean kid, Have you been living under a damn rock?! I have the rapids!" The man picked up his pokémon and held it in his arms while rocking back and forth.

"The... what?" Ray lowered his weapon, which Crystal noticed, and she was now ready to attack at any moment.

"The virus! I'm done for, it took a week for it to start feeding, a single week! It's a cough at first… some itching, and then it starts you eating you from the inside out before you know it. It's torture… so please, just sh-shoot me!" The man begged in a raspy tone, and Ray felt horrible for him, but he had one more question.

"How…. how does it spread?" He asked, it would be very useful to know how to possibly avoid it.

"Direct contact, if I so much as tap you right now, you'll probably get it. The virus covers your entire body, and it reproduces so damn fast!... now please, use that pistol!"

Ray raised his gun and took just a few steps closer to the man and his pokémon. He couldn't leave him there to suffer for however long the virus took to finish him off. He saw the man close his eyes tightly and hold his breath as he braced for death. "I'm sorry this happened to you…" Ray made sure the barrel was properly lined up with his head, turned away so that he didn't see the initial shot, and pulled the trigger.

Crystal flinched, and her ears slightly flattened for a moment while she watched the man fall over onto his back with his pokémon.

The sound of the shot filled up and spread out across the entire sky. He looked back down after a few seconds and stared down at the infected male's lifeless body. His poochyena did as well, it no longer had a trainer. Ray walked back over to Crystal and exhaled, at least he knew some basic knowledge about the virus. He saw his Espeon staring ahead at the poochyena, watching how lost the pokémon had to feel with no one left to guide him. "No, Crystal, we aren't taking it, we can't take any chances, now come on." Ray leaned down and tapped the side of her body to get her attention before heading back over to the house that they had slept in overnight.

He got his backpack from the bedroom and went back out with his Espeon. "After that gunshot, we have to get far away from this town, there could be some group running toward the sound as we speak." Ray walked along the path to exit the city with Crystal, and he thought about how horrible that virus seemed to be. His mother had to endure that, but it wasn't like Ray would have been able to easily shoot his own mother in order to put her out of her misery. He then thought of either him or Crystal catching it, and he would have to see his sweet Espeon live through an unbearable amount of pain, and she would be left with no trainer if were to catch it. Ray wished that he could just leave Sinnoh with her, but it was a quarantined region, the ferry's stopped running as soon as the virus had started to spread. They just had to be careful, very careful.