-= Rueben, First Leaf, 1015 =-
I backed up slowly. Why was he here? Why is a Team Rocket boss leading riots against his own organization? Why wasn't he attacking me? All of these questions swirled through my mind at once. None of it mattered. All I knew was that I needed to get out of here.
I frantically waved at Jorg and Elizabeth, motioning for them to follow me. They both got the message and started heading my way. I turned and started pushing through the crowd. Those who were once just part of the throng suddenly became very apparent to me, something that particularly caught me eye was a certain burly man with a claw-scar on his cheek. Other shady looking people were setting off so many alarm bells in my head that I had no doubt about who was behind these riots.
Jorg was still nowhere to be seen, but I saw flames flying elsewhere and hoped it was him. People who parted for Jorg and I on the way in suddenly looked ready to murder me for trying to get out. Thankfully, Elizabeth had caught up to me. She had to snap at quite a few people, and bite even more for them to finally get the message. A particularly rough looking group of people blocked our way. They all had pokeballs in hand. As they threw them van blew up to our side, sending them and all of the people nearby crashing to the ground. I nearly fell over, but caught myself before I could. Thank the gods that the van exploded. Elizabeth and I jumped over the rockets and sprinted to the edge of the crowd. Jorg ran to my side.
"We need to get away from here! Team Rocket might send people after us!" Jorg yelled.
"Where can we go?" Elizabeth shouted.
"Follow me!" I exclaimed, and with that I sprinted off into the forest.
We slowed down after a while when we discovered that no one was following us. We trudged on in silence, Jorg and Elizabeth both lost in thought. I was just focused on where we were trying to go. All of these trees looked the same, it was so hard to tell where we were going. Eventually, Elizabeth broke the silence.
"Rueben, I've seen that tree five times now. You're leading us in circles." She said. I looked up, the sun was starting to slink below the treeline.
"Let's make camp. We can figure out where we are in the morning." I said.
Night fell upon the forest. Beedril and Butterfree flitted from tree to tree, while the occasional Zubat would soar past nearly silently. We sat around a fire, courtesy of Jorg. He sat next to me. Elizabeth sat across the fire from us, looking into the darkness. Searching for something in the swaying of the trees in the light breeze, or the rustle of grass from a passing pokemon.
"Where are we heading Rueben?" Elizabeth asked.
"Diglett's Cave, and once we go through there we're going to head to Vermilion City." I responded.
"What's in Vermilion?" She asked.
"Well, it's the only place to go from here. Normally people head to Cerulean City next, but we kinda destroyed the path to get there."
"Oh."
We fell silent once more. Clouds passed, revealing a crescent moon in the sky above. Bright flecks of light speckled the night around it. Jorg fell asleep long ago, leaning on me. I didn't mind. I could see the exhaustion in Elizabeth. Heck, I was probably just as worn out as she was. I closed my eyes, just for a little while I told myself, a quick nap. I felt myself drifting off to sleep before I could put a stop to it. A twig snapping did the job for me.
What was that? I cracked my eye open. I heard it again. I looked up, only to see a furry purple head poking out of the tree across from me, staring off into the night sky, searching for answers in the stars. I smiled, and decided not to bug Elizabeth. Jorg shifted, snuggling into my coat. I closed my eyes once more, content enough to fall into a deep sleep.