Hello Again! Once more, sorry for the long pause in between chapters; I've been bad. :3 Well, anyway, hope ya'll enjoy.
Terror
Ash couldn't move. He stood frozen; staring at what had been Gary. Now it was just a lump of flesh. How? How could this have happened? He was sweating now and his lips felt dry; his legs protesting being forced into this cramped position. But he didn't notice any of that. Ash's senses were all smothered by an overwhelming feeling: terror. He was going to die. He was going to be killed just like Gary. He was going to be another lump of flesh on the floor.
One of the men had taken out a knife and was reaching down towards Gary's body. Were they going to mutilate the corpse? Were they going to do the same thing to him? The man grabbed Gary's hand. There was something clutched firmly in between those cold fingers. The man pried it out of his grip and cut off one of Gary's thumbs with the knife, then put it in a plastic bag. Then he looked once more at the object that Gary had been holding.
"Bah. Just a piece of scrap metal." He said, kicking it into the corner. It hit the edge of the barn and rolled into Ash's hiding place. It was half of a Pokeball, its white surface stained red with Gary's blood. Part of the Pokeball that he and Gary had fought over years ago. Ash looked away from Gary and reached down to grab the Pokeball half. The blood on it was still slick.
Then Pikachu sneezed. The sound ripped through the silence like stampeding tauros.
"What was that?" said one of the voices, tense.
"A sneezing Ratata, by the sounds of it." Said the other voice, slightly amused.
"We don't know that! We need to check it out." Said the first voice.
"No, newbie, you need to check it out. I'm going outside for a smoke." This statement was followed by footsteps and grumbling from the "newbie." They were going to find him. There was no place for Ash to escape.
But then he remembered the shi reza he was holding. Ash had never used one, but he knew about it. It was kind of similar to a Pokeball. It shot a thin ray that could basically disintegrate whatever it touched by turning that matter into light. But the ray was very small and too weak to do much damage to anything. What made it so notorious was its ability reconstruct the materials in human blood into a combustible compound. Deadly to humans with minimal impact to your surroundings. They were also extremely illegal, even to the police.
The footsteps were drawing nearer. Ash drew a breath and lifted the shi reza in front of him, his finger on the trigger. When the man showed his face, Ash would- The man's face appeared, he had olive skin with brown eyes and black hair. They eyes widened in surprise as he saw Ash, standing there. Then they saw the shi reza in his hand and widened even more with fear. Ash couldn't do it, he couldn't shoot someone. Even if they had killed Gary, even if they were going to kill him. He couldn't. But his terror could. It pulled the trigger for him. The nameless man's face contorted itself gruesomely, the olive skin bubbled and stretched as the blood beneath it began to combust, and then his head exploded in a shower of blood that sprayed all over Ash. All of this took three seconds.
Ash barely noticed the blood. Barely noticed the other man yelling as he sprinted past him, with Pikachu following. He ran through the bushes, paying no mind to the path, chest heaving but he barely felt a thing. He had to get away. Ash could hear the other man's strides thundering towards him through the brush, and he desperately shot the air behind him, but none of the rays hit. He kept running, Pikachu following close behind. It was now early evening, the sunset casting an red glow over the gathered clouds. Leaves smacked his face as he ran through the forest, but suddenly, the trees ended. He was back on the main path.
Should he follow this path, or should he run into the trees on the other side? His pursuer was about twenty feet behind him now, yelling into a walkie talkie.
"A damn kid with a gun was hiding in the place we dumped the body, and Marcus is dead. I need some more men to help me catch him!" More men, all searching for him so they could kill him like Gary. Suddenly the open road felt exposed and defenseless, and Ash ran into the trees on the other side, chest heaving. He couldn't keep up this pace much longer, even with his adrenaline boost. He had to find a place to hide. Suddenly his foot caught on a tree root, and he was pulled earthward.
"Ah!" he yelled, tears entering his eyes as his chin scraped the hard packed dirt. His ankle throbbed, and when he tried to get up he almost collapsed from the pain. But he had to keep going. The clouds above him began to open up as rain poured down, and Ash saw Pikachu growl at him, urging him to hurry. But he couldn't, he couldn't run anymore. He could barely even walk. The Pikachu took one last look at him and then ran ahead, away from Ash.
"Wait, Pikachu! Stop, Please!" Tears he hadn't even noticed choked his voice, and he fell down again, clutching his ankle. The rain was a torrent now, pouring down in sheets. Through this torrent charged his pursuer, finally catching up to him. Ash pointed the shi reza at him and shot wildly, but it missed again. The man kicked the gun out of his hand and then in the stomach once, twice, three times. The pain was even sharper than that of his ankle's.
"That's for killing my friend." He said. Through Ash's fear clouded mind, the words pierced him. Killing his friend? They had killed Gary, they were going to kill him! And this man was talking about his friend? But then ash noticed the red blood sprayed across his hands and arms, soaking more of his shirt than the rain. His hands began to tremble.
"I've found him." The man said into his walkie talkie.
"Are you in an isolated place?" came a static-laced reply somewhere at the other end.
"Yes, unless you count leaves." The man said.
"Shoot him."
"Will do." The man put the walkie talkie in his pocket. It was over. Ash knew it, he was going to die. His first day of his journey and he was going to die.
"Sorry to have to do this to you, kid." Ash looked up at the man standing over him. He had a strong jaw and large forehead, with green eyes and dark brown hair. There was a scar running from his left ear to his chin. He was probably in his thirties or forties. But what surprised Ash were his eyes. In them, there was something almost like compassion, almost like regret. But it was really just the cold pity that you give to people living on the street. You're sorry for their situation and the hungry state they're in, but you really don't care enough to do anything to help them, and as soon as you look away and forget about them. "Even if you are the bastard that killed Marcus." He said. Ash's hands kept shaking. "Where did you even get a shi reza? What normal twelve year old boy carries around a weapon like that?" the man shook his head incrediculously. "And why were you even in that God-forsaken place?" he said. Then he sighed and crouched down next to Ash, so close Ash could feel his breath brush off his nose.
"You have my friend splattered all over you, boy. Was that body we dumped your friend?" he asked. Ash didn't respond. "Hm? Cat's got your tongue? You don't have to say anything, you can just nod." Ash didn't move. The man sighed again. "You're not very good company. This job gets lonely when the people around you are always disappearing; I thought we might be able to have a nice conversation before you died, but I guess not." The man picked himself up now, and pulled a gun out of a pocket in his coat. Here it came. Ash was done fighting. He didn't even try to run as it was pointed at his head.
"If all goes well, I'll never see you again." He said. Ash closed his eyes. He just wanted this nightmare to be over. But instead of the bang he was expecting, he heard Pikachu's voice.
"Pika-CHUUUUU!" the blinding light shone through Ash's closed eyelids, and his spine trembled at the power of the electrical current so close to him. Ash looked up when it ended. The surrounding trees were scorched from the lighting, smoldering despite the rain. The man's prone body lay on the floor in front of Ash, with Pikachu to the right of it.
"Pikachu," Ash said weakly, "thank you." He struggled to his feet, favoring his injured foot. "More of them are coming, we have to get away." he said, beginning to half-walk half-hop across the forest floor. Pikachu ran up ahead and then looked back at Ash, chattering nervously. "I'm coming." Ash mumbled to himself. He couldn't quit yet, he had to keep going. The wind howled and the rain fell like icy bullets on his skin. The sky was wreathed in black clouds that made it so dark Ask could barely see in front of him.
Ash had painfully hobbled about fifty feet, Pikachu always and few steps ahead, urging Ash to keep walking, when he heard voices in the trees behind him. The words were unintelligible through the smothering rain, yet Ash knew there was more than two. Fear clutched his lungs in it's icy grip and despair turned his limbs to lead. He was going too slow, once they began to search for him there was no way he could outrun them. Pikachu was still panting heavily from the previous thunderbolt; Ash didn't think he could reproduce it. And even if he could, how many times? Enough to defeat all of his pursuers?
But then Ash heard another, closer noise, almost indistinguishable from the rain: the river.
I'm hoping to get the next chapter out quicker than I have been, but no promises! I also hope you all get the shi reza thing, I kinda made it up on a whim, but if you have any questions about anything just ask me. (I won't give out any spoilers, though). As always, I appreciate your reviews! I print out each one and frame it! ...Not really :P But the point is I like them!
Aaaaand here's a song: These Days by Foo Fighters
Ciao