Chapter 7

I watched as Bruiser cracked and fell apart, tears running down his face like rain. He dropped on his back and cried hard. Volta's eyes went big, looking at me as if I could help him. I had seen so many pokémon break down from enormous stress that I could predict what would happen. There was a chance his sorrow could turn into rage. I know, I've been through the grieving process before. Ray just looked on like he had seen this before. He must be used to seeing Bruiser distraught. The mutant mouse pokémon turned to me and I nudged my head toward Bruiser. Ray reached out with his one arm and scratched Bruiser's back. It did no good, the raichu just swat his hand away like it was a bug.

So I got down from the couch and crawled up to Bruiser. I reached out and massaged his yellow cheek with my thumb. "Bruiser, listen to me now."

Bruiser stopped crying and looked at me, his black marble eyes overflowing with tears.

"I've met a handful of raichus before, most of them weren't that nice. I had a brother of mine who was beaten up by such a bully, and I had battled another sometime around my early Westinghouse days. I always thought that raichus are mean sons of bitches that always demand power." I sat beside Bruiser and scratched the side of his white belly. "I did some research, picked apart textbooks about raichus. The more I learned about them, the more I began to realize that . . . they couldn't handle the power they had. Sometimes they were exiled by their lesser brethren because they were too strong for them to handle. I even dug up cases where raichus were demonized, fearing rape and oppression."

Bruiser stopped whimpering, I looked at him in the eye and said, "You are the first raichu I have ever met who wasn't trying to be aggressive. Your name is just an irony. You never wanted to hurt anybody, you just wanted to be their friend. I saw that in you when we first met. None of us here want you to change because of that. You're not a bully, nor are you selfish. If you're brother had any thoughts that you may be a scumbag, you proved that wrong when you tried to save him. He died knowing you were there for him in the end. I only wish my own brothers and sisters knew what really happened to me, I have no doubt they had passed knowing I was lost forever."

I looked away and glanced at my son. He fell asleep, resting on his side with his face tucked under his arm. "I know what's happening to your uncle here. He's dying. I've seen how death rows work and there's no stopping it once it starts."

Volta asked, "He was perfectly fine days ago, how is he dying?"

The youngster had no concept of death from old age, "His body is clogged up with waste and dormant cells. Those cells can no longer perform their function because they no longer have any suitable DNA to replicate, and the telomeres of his remaining cells could no longer hold them in place. This is why we all break down, and I know how to cure it."

"How?" Ray asked.

"Pull his blood out and attach artificial antibodies with iron to the useless cells, then take an electromagnet and strip them from the blood before putting it back in. The antibodies will also take care of all the waste that his system couldn't get rid of, so the healthy cells have room to grow." I got down and went up to the elder Dixierat and took his hand. "I bet all the cells in his system can be traced back to two or three of the original stem cells. He will need to receive a fresh set from a donor. Somebody that is really young, maybe not even hatched from their egg yet."

"Will it work?" Ray asked.

I shot a look at Ray. "It works, how do you think I'm still here?"

Bruiser sat up and stretched his legs, he wiped away his excess tears and asked, "So if there's a cure, where can we find it?"

"Faraday City."

. . .

We were on the move ten minutes later. Ray and Bruiser were a little hesitant on leaving Andy's old home, as they had made a lot of memories here. But it was time to move on. No longer welcomed in Dixie National Park and its corresponding town, the Dixierats have to find another place to live. We made our way toward the main rail line. Once there, we steered clear from the town. Dixie itself was almost barren of any life. A couple of pedestrians but nothing else. It looked cleaner than I had remembered, and newer somehow.

I asked, "What's the state of the police presence in Dixie?"

"Still low as ever," said Ray, "but ever since the URP came in and asserted their authority it became more hostile to us."

"Their pokémon center is closed," said Bruiser. "Nurse Joy and her audinos were reassigned elsewhere."

Ray nodded. "Aye, nothing left for us now. I don't even smell food from the town anymore."

I asked, "So when does the Experiment disembark from Kochi?"

"A day or two," said Bruiser. "Andy won't let it leave without us but he can't wait forever, the suspicion over his head is great and we don't want to give him any more trouble."

"You're going to hang on in there, Bruiser?"

"I will, Tesla. I'm just worried about Uncle, I don't know how much time he has left."

The elder Dixierat rode on Ray's back, propped up by his nephew's neck. Ray walked on his stubby arm while keeping his longer one tucked by his side. I wondered if walking on three limbs is uncomfortable for him, but it didn't seem to bother him. Volta kept a steady pace, showing no signs of exhaustion. She was on all fours, her gut hanging a fingertip away from the ground. As we left Dixie behind, we came across the welcome sign that stood not far down the track. The imprint I left behind after my stupid drunken leap of faith was still there, it hadn't been fixed yet.

Ray looked up and saw the imprint. "You said you made that, Tes?"

"Uh, yeah. I did, I don't remember much about it now."

Volta turned and looked at me. "You hadn't been drinking at all, haven't you?"

The last time she caught me drinking, she threw a fit. I recalled that moment after Nobark and I got back after we raided Springfield. The PRA was celebrating and we had booze out the wazoo. "Well," I tried to explain. Realizing I had no valid argument, I merely said, "I didn't drank until I was shitfaced."

She head-butted my side for that, I reached out and pinched her love handles again. Volta squirmed, backing away out of my reach. "Don't do that!" she cried.

"But you're so cuddly," I said.

She glared at me for a moment, then lowered her eyes. Volta stood up on her hind legs and hugged me. "I had trouble sleeping on some nights," she said. "You just weren't there, even with Ray around I still felt . . . insecure, I think that's the word."

Ray said, "She screamed in her sleep one time, took an hour to calm her down."

Volta said, "You have no idea how glad I am to see you again, I thought you were gone forever."

"I do, Volta," I said. "I was feeling the same thing."

I heard Bruiser sigh. I turned to him, he looked up at the sky and said, "You know, to come to think of it I kind of wanted to know what all those chems feel like."

"What chems?" I asked.

"The chems I used to have," said Ray. "The first time felt orgasmic, then the next dozen or so just gives you a minor buzz. Withdraw sucks, but I can live without it."

"Never seen Ray angry nor scared," said Bruiser. "He's always happy, no matter how the situation turns out."

"I did feel down when you lost your brother."

Bruiser glanced at him. "Well, at least you know how to control your emotions."

"Takes years to master," I said. "Takes decades to sharpen, gets easier with age."

"You know, Tes. You don't seem so angry now, you're not frustrated or grumpy or feeling down."

"Had been for a while. Let's just say that I had finally gotten over it after Soho."

We heard the blast of a train horn coming behind us and dashed for cover. The train arrived by the time we were in the bushes. It was loud as it was vicious. The ground shook so hard that my son's one eye snapped open, he tumbled down from Ray's back and started screaming. I leaped to his side and grabbed him, I held his ears close until his screams overcame the train's roar.

"It's gone, son," I said. "The train is gone."

The elder Dixierat sobbed. "No trains! No trains!"

He breathed hard for a moment, then started going limp. I carried him back to Ray and sat mounted him on his back. "Gotta be from the train accident," I thought aloud. "Poor thing."

I patted him on the back until the elder Dixierat calmed down. Once his breathing was steady I asked in pokémon speech, "You're okay?"

The elder Dixierat shook his head. "I don't know. I don't feel hungry or thirsty. I couldn't remember when the last time I peed."

"Are you constipated?"

"Maybe, I hadn't pooped in three days."

"Best to assume he hadn't," said Ray. "We should get him prunes or something."

"And how are we going to do that?" Bruiser asked. "We walk into any town and we'll be back in a cage in no time!"

I asked, "Does Andy know about this?"

"No," said Volta. "This is just recent, like we said he was fine just days ago."

My son said, "I don't know what happened, I just woke up one day feeling something was wrong. We were out in the wilderness, hiding from poachers. I was looking to Ray for comfort when I collapsed, I didn't know how long I was out."

"Two hours," said Volta.

I said, "Well, let's get a move on. I don't wanna keep Andy waiting."

. . .

We stuck to the walking schedule similar to how I walked with the late Eric Mason. We walked for fifty minutes, then rested for ten. Time flew fast and eventually the sky got dark again. No train hadn't roared passed us for the rest of the day, which made it easy on the elder's nerves. My mind went blank for most of the time. I didn't really talk much, but Volta and Ray were quite chatty. Bruiser and I just lumbered along, half bored and depressed. Eventually we had small talk when the sky started turning orange. I wasn't sure about him, but I felt we have something in common. We both lost brothers and we both were kicked out of our own homes. Our lives were dramatically changed from poachers, and our families were displaced as so. He didn't admit it at the time, but I could tell in his eyes that he was recovering.

I asked him, "You ever thought of doing something, like taking up a cause?"

Bruiser shrugged, "Getting our family out of danger."

"No, that cause is because of circumstances. I'm asking if you had ever thought of taking up a cause on your own terms."

The raichu thought for a moment. "I spent the first ten years of my life undergoing experiments and testing. Every time I thought back to those days, I wondered if that was my purpose in life. Experimenting, testing things, for the greater good."

Ray added, "I was brought into the world because the scientists wanted a powerful chu, much like you, Tes. I say they succeeded, so I guess my life had been fulfilled somehow."

I asked, "Ray, you're deformed and have schizophrenia, how can you be sure it was a success?"

Ray isn't offended so easily, I don't think he is ever offended. He merely shrugged his shoulders and said, "Remember when we first met that you pumped enough electricity in me to wipe out a small army?"

"Yes, I do. I was fatigued because of that."

"I took it all without a scratch, if you were to do that on anyone else they would have been harmed to a degree. I can handle electricity like a rechargeable battery, and discharge it much like you can."

"Close enough, as your saying."

"Yeah, close enough to a master at electricity."

Master of Electricity, such a title I had earned a long time ago. No use for it now. I had taken up a cause to crush Team Rocket, or the bad parts that screwed me over. The more I pursued the goal, the more I realized that it wasn't worth it to pursue. I took down an HQ a couple of times, probably by sheer luck, since I never thought it was possible. I freed all those captured pokémon, but how were they going to live normal lives? Humanity has betrayed them, they were exposed to the fact that they were being used by humans. They threatened the integrity of the system with that thought, and so the blanket of society cast them out. Those who managed to make their way into the hands of good people never fully recovered. A part of them forever destroyed, I think that it eats into the minds of some. I heard of pokémon going mad and attacking people at random, usually because something was bothering them. I occasionally heard of a case where a pokémon with festering scars attacked their trainer and proceed to cause all sorts of destruction. None of them could match Nobark though, he took the concept of rebellion to the extreme and repeated humanity's mistakes.

So what are we, the pocket monsters, missing? What does humanity have that we don't?

When the sun went down, we find a little hideaway to set up camp. Bruiser gathered up as much firewood as he could. I built up a small tinder bundle and took out Mason's windproof lighter out of my drawcord bag. That got everybody's attention as I sparked the lighter and set the tinder bundle on fire.

"What is that?" Ray asked.

"Windproof lighter," I said.

"Where did you get it?" Bruiser asked.

I let the tinder bundle burn for a moment before adding it to Bruiser's firewood pile. "I scavenged for it. I didn't wanna exhausted my electricity reserves so I got a hold of a lighter. The last owner originally bought it for this purpose, let's not get into how I got it from him."

I closed up the lighter and dropped it back into the drawcord sack. The fire grew until the firewood was burning. Bruiser added a little more wood to the fire, I felt its heat against my face. "I used to spend winters by sleeping through it," I said. "I don't hibernate anymore when I went under Irvin's care. During my outlaw years I had to keep a roaring fire going every night in winter, because if the fire goes out I may not wake up the next morning."

Bruiser laid down and stared up at the sky. "Ever so true, hypothermia can be a major problem."

I think that made us scooted closer to the fire. I stared at the glowing ashes as it build under the burning firewood. My parents were sometimes hesitant about fires. They never told me why, or gave me an answer that made any sense. I wandered if they had went through a forest fire during their youth, cause they made sure the area was clear of all flammable material every time we were to start a small campfire. I never gave much thought of fires, I do know they burn and consume almost anything in existence. I just never seen how bad a forest fire was until later on in life, when one day I decided to research the topic in Irvin's old encyclopedias.

Fire is warming for the most part, but it can only be warming for so long. The night got really cold, so we started loading the fire with whatever burnable fuel we could find. We built the fire slightly taller and made it wider, forming a crude oval shape. We put our backs to a tree and all huddled as a group and watched as the fire slowly consumed the added material. Next thing we knew we had a raging campfire on our hands. Ah, it was such a pleasure to burn.

"Oooh," said Ray. "That's bright!"

I said, "That should last until sunrise, we should get some sleep as we still can."

Ray and Bruiser were on the outside of the pile, and my son, Volta and I were in the middle. I made sure the elder Dixierat got the very middle because I was concerned about his frail body. He didn't have as much meat on his bones as he used to. I was afraid he would freeze to death. Volta was a bit upset that she wouldn't sleep by my side, so Ray decided to sleep by her. I had Bruiser to my back and my son in my arms, and that was how we spent the night.

. . .

The fire was reduced to embers by morning, but it was still hot. I woke up and found that we had been moving around in our sleep throughout the night. Ray and Bruiser were on their backs and had moved away from us. I was still holding onto my son, sort of. I noticed he feels a little cold. I got worried, I quickly checked his airway and his breathing. His airway was clear and he still had breath, but his pulse was low. I checked his circulation, his legs were cold to the touch, especially his feet. The fire wasn't warming him as it should. I checked for a pulse by his feet and could feel any. I nudged him up and dragged him toward the burning embers. I stirred him awake in the process and he started to squeal.

"Shhh," I whispered into his ear. "Go back to sleep, son. Everything's fine."

His one eye half-opened, looked around for a moment, and then closed again.

I laid him down in the casualty position and made sure his airway was still clear, then moved his feet toward the fire. Volta was laying on her back, half-snoring with drool bubbling from her mouth. I crawled over to her and smiled, she felt quite warm from the fire. Her extremities were warm to the touch, I think she slept well last night. I scratched her belly and she stirred, I laid down beside her and wrapped my arms around her. I whispered into her ear, "You awake?"

"Ugh," she muttered.

"I guess you're quite deep sleeper."

Volta cracked a smile and buried her face against my shoulder. She was awake, I gave the others a hour or two until the sun comes up, then get everybody moving again. I didn't need to wait that long. After thirty minutes, Ray was wide awake. He just sat up, let out a yawn, and his eyes were full of energy. No drowsiness or fatigue, he was ready to go. Bruiser however, needed a little encouragement, so Ray started pouncing on him without warning. I quickly sprang on my feet when I heard Bruiser barked, "Damn it, Ray! Why!?"

"It's morning," he says. "Come on, let's get moving!"

The elder Dixierat didn't seem to mind Ray scooping him up and plopping him on his back. My son grabbed onto his fur with his arthritic hands and hanged on. I didn't bother arguing with him for sleeping for another few minutes, his mind was set. I got up and started spreading out the ashes of the fire with a stick, I got out all the still burning wood when a stream of urine started pouring over the hot coals.

"Ahh," said Ray as he sprayed his peeper all over the fire.

I noticed his urine was a dark yellow, I said, "Ray, are you feeling okay? Are you thirsty?"

"I'm fine," he said. "Actually I feel fine, I see what you mean. There's a nearby town where we could stop and get a drink."

"My mouth is feeling dry," said Bruiser as he approached the fire. Like Ray, he popped out his penis and peed into the fire without discretion. I just looked away. I wasn't going to argue about dignity and matters with Bruiser. He's grumpy and isn't thinking straight since he was rudely woken from his sleep, so I left him at be. "Yeah, definitely dry. We need to stop somewhere and get something to eat, and I am not going to go drinking out a fucking pond."

I watched Volta went to the fire pit and knew what she was going to do, since she's female she turned around and squatted. I grimaced, here I stand with my relatives as I watch them urinate into a fire to put it out. Clouds of steam and smoke was billowing out of the hot coals and the air smelled like burning paint thinner. I waited until everyone was done before I checked the fire to see it was out. Yeah, it was out alright. Fucking idiots I call relatives.

"You need to use the bathroom, Tesla?" Ray asked with no regard.

I glanced at my son hanging on to Ray's back, he was half-aware of his surroundings and looked sicker than before. I didn't wanna stay here any longer, so I said, "No, I don't. Let's get moving."

. . .

Ray told me a story how he had wondered out of Dixie for a short time five years back. He said it was against the advice of Sheriff Jenny at the time, but he went along with the idea anyway. He went down the rail and found a few towns before heading back after sunset. He led the way toward this town. We didn't have to walk for long. The roofs of houses started cropping over the tree canopy, further down the rail was the corresponding station. Ray veered off the open rail path and dove into the forest. He led us around the town and made our way to the back. There weren't any fences blocking our way, we walked into the town and found ourselves in somebody's back yard.

Ray said, "So, I did good?"

"Perhaps you did," I said. "But what are we looking for?"

The houses were so close together that it was no wonder they didn't have any fences. Ray crept up to a garden house that was mounted to the side of the building. He unscrewed it from the faucet, before turning it on, then placed his mouth under it. I set my internal clock and timed him. Ray was 1.2 meters tall and weighing around 50 kilograms, a giant around mice pokémon standards. It took him a damn long time before he let go of the faucet and stepped back. Ray then set the elder Dixierat down and held him to the running garden faucet. He merely licked the stream as it poured by his mouth. Ray held him in place until he stopped drinking, then carried him away. "It's all yours," he said.

Bruiser went up first, drinking almost as much as Ray. He turned off the faucet and stepped away, panting. Volta went next, she reached up and turned the faucet on and drank until her belly is full. I think she drank until max capacity, cause when she turned off the faucet she stepped away looking queasy.

"You're alright?" I asked.

"I'm just not used to this."

She didn't know what her limit was, I guess she had found out. Volta stepped away and sat down and I went up for a drink. I didn't waste any time. I was told by my mama that when getting a drink, you must drink enough water until you're pissing clear. So I drank until I felt I had enough, then shut off the faucet and screwed the hose back on. We walked back into the forest where we found a spot that was out of sight of the town, then took a moment to rest to give the water we drank a chance to work its way through our systems. Volta crept up beside me and rested against my side. She took my hand, pressing her nose against my armpit and proceed to sniff it. I had some thoughts on how she felt about me. Since she likes the smell of my scent, I guess she really liked me. A part of me, however, didn't want to know how much she liked me. At first I found it strange, until I recalled the night where Volta stopped me from drinking.

I filed the thought away and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. I thought about what I could talk to her about. I didn't wanted to say anything about her father, because that was a sensitive issue, especially for Bruiser who was quite hurt from his passing. I glanced at the raichu and found him sleeping against the trunk of a tree. Ray had my son in his arms, grooming his fur while occasionally checking on Bruiser. Suddenly Ray asked, "Hey, Tesla. How much did things change over the years?"

Now that was a question I could answer, I said, "A lot. Infrastructure was slowly changed from concrete to glass. Technology got smaller, packing more processing power. One thing I did notice was every year, humanity encroaches on pokémon land. I heard a lot of stories where environmental disasters and construction projects displaced pokémon residing in the area. That wasn't the case when I was growing up, it's much like Dixie, except more isolated and rural."

"No towns like this one?" he asked.

"Oh there were towns, but they were small and only had a few dozen people. I always wondered as a young pichu how they built their houses. That thought came around when I was in my forties, Irvin took me to a library and I researched the subject."

"What did you find?"

"Sophistication," I said. "Humans build their houses with sophistication. They take the wood from the forests and process them into boards of various measurements, they dig metal from the ground and use that for various buildings and wickets. I uncovered blueprints to prominent skyscrapers and popular home designs. They told me what bolt and nail I should use, what wire for the MIG welders, and what glue for door frames. I asked myself why we pokémon, as a species, don't build our homes like that. How much mental capacity does it take to pick up a rock and hammer a stake into the ground?"

Bruiser said, "Andy built the bunker himself, he said that every Faradian must know a thing or two about construction. Not sure why he built it out of concrete and steel, but it served its purpose."

I got up and stretched my legs, flexing my joints. "I feel like eating something, in fact I hadn't eaten anything in the past three days. We gotta get some food guys."

Ray sat the elder Dixierat down and stood up. "Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it."

"How?" I asked.

"Wait here."

Before I could object, Ray took off back into the town. I didn't follow him, he was a big chu and I didn't have the energy to stop him. He disappeared through the bushes and was gone. I stared at where he once was, fuming. Okay then, sure. Why not we let him do his own thing? Ray is smart and literate, surely he can discreetly pull this off.

. . .

I gave him five minutes for him to come back, he didn't. After ten, still gone. Fifteen, nothing. The look on Bruiser and Volta's faces were getting more worrisome. I was getting more impatient. Whatever Ray had in mind, he was taking his damn time doing it. I imagined him getting caught and was sealed in a cage somewhere and we have to go rescue him, I pictured me breaking his bonds and proceed to bitch slap him for being an idiot. In fact, forgive my language, I thought about ripping off his fucking huge dick and beat him shitless with it for fucking peeing in the fucking fire earlier. I didn't know why I was still mad at him for seeing his peeper out of its pouch. I didn't even know why I was still thinking about it. That has got nothing to do for Ray to go running off and leaving us here to wait for him.

The twenty minute mark passed before I heard a window smashed. I cringed when I heard a burglar alarm went off. Next thing I knew I heard a loud ZAP and the alarm was silence. A human started screaming, someone's dog pokémon started barking. Before I got to the point where I thought about getting up to investigate, the mutant mouse pokémon returned. My eyes went big, ears bellowing steam. He had a huge sack slung over his back. Black garbage bag, the kind people use for public trash cans. I didn't ask what was inside, we didn't have time. He got everyone up off their asses, screaming. "Come on, lets go! We don't have much time!"

"Ray," I barked, "what did you fucking do!?"

He didn't answer, he just took off. I glanced at Bruiser and Volta, they just looked at me and shrugged. The raichu scooped up the elder Dixierat and we were off, running as fast as our stubby feet could take us.

TO BE CONTINUED…