Chapter 4: A New Land

I was thrown carelessly into the back of the thieves' car trunk, as was Miracle. I tried to speak, but my voice was muffled by the burlap bag. I continued to bite at the sides, hoping that the bag would somehow fall apart. I thrashed about until I was completely exhausted. With no more energy left, my eyelids began to close, and soon I was fast asleep.

I awoke from a dreamless sleep, and squinted my eyes, shielding them from the sudden change of lighting. I wished to see the surrounding area, but I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough. I gave a slight sigh and remembered what my mother had always told me, Good things come to those who wait.

Sure enough, with time and patience, my eyes slowly became used to the brightly lit room. I looked around as much as I could now that I was out of the burlap sack. Everything was new and frightening to me. The ceiling was painted a dull white, like a worn in pair of white sneakers. The walls were a beige color, closer to brown than they were to white. On the wall in front of whatever I was perched upon, cages were stacked sky high. Inside were Pokemon, all looking nervous, fearful, sickly thin, and tired. Some whimpered, but most didn't even have the strength in their frail bodies to do an easy task such as that. I shuttered at the idea of the horror that these Pokemon had went through.

My eyes began to scan the room again. On the wall to my right, a computer was on. Its screen was a bright blue, covered in white figures. I couldn't really understand all the medical abbreviations, nor could I understand the numbers that covered the screen. From its scientific looks, I guessed that they were at least keeping track of the sickly Pokemon, even if they weren't doing a very good job at it. I looked over to the left and saw the wall lined with cabinets. On top of the cabinets were a few blue and white pills beside a dish of water. My best guess was that someone had prepared the medication, but had forgotten to give it to the sickly Pokemon.

I shuttered at the fact that the same could happen to me. I could become a sickly Pokemon, bruised on the outside, and fighting to stay alive on the inside. I could be fighting god only knows what disease, and the people most likely wouldn't even notice. The thought not only made me frightened, but angry too.

Some people say it is better to be hated than to be loved because those who fear you will never harm you, but those who love you might try to harm you for their own good. The trick was not to get people to hate you, because if you truly hate someone you don't care what happens to you. Although I didn't live by the principle, I knew parts of it were true, and the people who ran this joint weren't doing a very good job at being feared, but not hated.

"Desire..." moaned Miracle. I looked over to see his body slowly waking up from what must have been a restless sleep.

"Shh..." I whispered to him, "Just in case someone is still here. With the thought in my head, I quickly glanced around, making sure that nobody was in the small room with us.

"Where are we?" he whispered, making sure that he was close enough to me so that only I could hear the slight sound of his voice.

"At this point in time, I'm not really sure, but we will know more soon," I informed him, knowing that what little information I possessed would not help him much.

"Oh my god," he stammered when he looked over to the sickly Pokemon across the room. "Is that what's going to happen to us?"

"No," I reassured him, putting a paw over his trembling back. I tried my hardest to be brave; to be like my parents had been when I was scared. I imaged that Miracle was the one who was scared of going to school, and I was his mother, comforting him.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I don't know," I whispered in response. I lay my head upon Miracle's, but quickly shot it back up when I heard dull footsteps, growing louder by the second.

"Are you coming Jake?" a female voice shouted.

"Settle down Kate, I'm coming," a male's voice shouted back. Both Miracle and I braced ourselves for when the duo would enter the room.