Crystal heard knocking at the door while sitting on the couch one late afternoon, bored out of her mind and waiting patiently for what Ray had planned two days ago. She perked her ears and saw Ray come from out his room, who she followed to the front door after hopping off the couch.
He'd thrown on a tee and shorts since he was in his boxers after coming home from school earlier. Ray opened the door and saw Leigh, the cutest girl in Sandgem and possibly all of Sinnoh— at least to Ray. She had cute lashes, greenish-yellow eyes, and shoulder-length brown, silky hair.
"Espeon pickup?" she said with a playful grin. She wore black and white shorts, a matching tee, and boots. "Just finished all my homework, so I ran over here." Leigh looked down at Crystal, who was looking up at her from behind Ray's legs. "Hey, Crissy."
"Espi," she replied with a sway of her tail, happy to go out with Leigh. She was always a lot of fun.
Ray glanced back into the kitchen. "Alright, just let me get you two a water." He let Crystal out before shutting the door.
Crystal yawned and outstretched her legs after having lazed around for hours, taking in the fresh air. The sun felt great hitting her back.
"Soo, what're we doing today? Forest or some serious hiking? We just can't tell–"
The door opened. "Here you go." Ray handed Leigh a cold bottle and grinned at her, which she returned. "Have fun, and listen to her, Crystal."
Crystal nodded up at him. She was always on her best behavior even without him.
"We'll be back in like an hour or two. See you." She turned and started walking, turning to wave.
Crystal trotted west down the road beside her, looking up at starly flying through the air and crying in flocks perched on roofs, and around at teens hanging out in town after school, some of which Leigh called to.
"As I was saying." She looked down at Crystal. "Up the mountain, right?" They were heading away from the forest and to a steep one by the outskirts of town. It didn't lead to much else but a grassy landscape with flower patches, but the fun was in the journey.
Crystal nodded with enthusiasm. "Pi!" She'd be exhausted after hopping rocks and ledges for an hour, but she loved a complete day. It made her feel accomplished. Ray took her out almost daily to keep her happy, but Crystal knew he got tired, so she was glad Leigh helped out sometimes.
Shortly, they stood before the slanted rocky mountain with scattered rocks, some jagged, leading up to paradise. It wasn't too steep, so one could climb it but had to be wary.
"Here we are," Leigh said while looking up the path. "Just… don't get hurt or die or anything, or he's gonna be mad and stuff."
Crystal nodded. She could do it. She was a confident espeon. She stepped onto the first few small rocks that shifted under her paws, meaning every step could be a slip that'd become increasingly fatal the more progress they made.
Leigh went with her, brushing rocks with her boot to ensure they were stable before walking up. "I'll try to practice what I preach. He won't be as mad if I get hurt, but he might get concerned," she chuckled.
"Esp…" Crystal would keep an eye on her then. If anything, Leigh was more at risk of getting injured. Crystal was light, agile, and had a tail for balance.
She primed herself a little and hopped over a pile of rocks to a bare spot, her paws landing on the mountain's smooth surface. The slant got steeper as they ascended, though the loose rocks weren't as present and instead were replaced with ledges one had to pull themselves up with.
Leigh was following behind, now on all fours to test rocks and give herself more chances to save herself if anything went wrong. "Showing off, huh? I'll–"
"Crystal... Crystal, wake up!"
She heard a muffled voice and gradually opened her eyes to see Ray sitting over her. His expression was one of horror. Crystal forced herself to wake up, her eyes full, and rolled onto her stomach. Some sunlight was present, but she was unsure of how early it was.
"Th-The bodies we saw in the Eterna building y-y-yesterday… They're outside. I knew something wasn't right, but I didn't... I didn't expect..." Ray went to the window and moved the curtain aside to peek again. Two members of Team Galactic stood idle outside and hadn't so much as moved a muscle. "Gh. What the fuck," Ray whispered. It was all he could say. He couldn't comprehend it. As much as he wanted to stay in this room, he knew he and Crystal had to leave Eterna in the dust. What he was looking at may not be the only two in the city.
Out of nowhere, gunfire resounded throughout the air, three consecutive shots, and both bodies slumped to the ground.
Ray closed the curtain and took several steps back. "C-Crystal, scan."
She shut her eyes and focused, feeling a presence nearby in seconds and opening them. One close to red. "Esp…" How unsettling. Were people coming back to life now? That didn't seem fair— or possible. A second chance for the sake of taking more lives, possibly.
Ray grabbed his pistol and backpack, stepping into his boots. "More than one?"
She shook her head. Crystal expected there to be multiple auras but wouldn't complain. One person meant she and Ray could take them on easily.
"Okay, good... I guess. Stay behind me." Ray disabled his pistol's safety and held it firmly. He left the room and stopped at the front door, pressing his ear to it. It was utterly silent, as it was last time. He was hesitant to progress but knew they were on a time limit since gunshots attracted terrible people unafraid of anything. He exhaled before pushing the door open and stepping back.
Crystal watched the doorway and was prepared to attack. She couldn't react to bullets, and her abilities only helped so much, so her only chance was shooting a projectile before they could pull the trigger.
Ray kept low and exited the house while checking every direction. To the far right were where the Galactic members lay lifeless, but what cut his breath short and froze him to his core was the backside of a person standing ahead wearing a familiar outfit, swaying slightly on their feet. When they turned around, it confirmed Ray's suspicion. The man was drooling with a slightly agape jaw and still had a nasty bullet wound in his head from which dry blood trailed. That would be near impossible to survive.
Ray's hand shook. He hadn't felt so much fear and confusion since the outbreak began.
The man stepped toward him, and Ray didn't raise his pistol this time. Crystal would have to make up for it herself if necessary.
Ray tilted his head. "But I killed you..." He heard the same heavy wheeze coming from the man. How'd he even find them, or was it coincidental?
He pulled a weapon out of his pocket, a gray revolver while staring at Ray with bloodshot eyes.
Ray raised his pistol as the man did, albeit slower. His mind was far too hazy.
He trained his barrel on Ray and moved his index finger to the trigger, but an abrupt blinding beam of light saturated the immediate area before he could shoot, followed by its screech.
Ray shielded his eyes until it faded, and upon looking back, he saw another hole burned through the man's chest, which had disintegrated his organs.
His eyes were dilated while he struggled for air he couldn't gather, dropping his revolver that clacked against the ground. He fell for the second time with a thud.
Ray stared at the body and smoke rising from the wound. What took place felt surreal, and it made him wonder if that had happened to his mother too. He hoped not. It would break him to see an illusion of her living.
Crystal stood from her offensive stance and took a breath. That could have gone a different direction entirely. She was glad to have kept her head together in place of Ray's but was slightly upset that he was going to let himself die. Whatever. It was why she was here.
They took the cycling road from Eterna littered lightly with abandoned bicycles and a couple of cars that must have tried using it to ditch the city and arrived in Oreburgh before noon with no hiccups.
"I think I just wanna stay inside today. We'll be okay on supplies for a while." Ray wasn't too tired from their walk but had to slow down. He wasn't feeling it after recent events.
Crystal didn't mind either way, but she could tell the incident in Eterna had done something to him, rightfully so. She was glad he didn't have to kill the same man twice and that his pokémon wasn't with him. Crystal wouldn't have wanted to murder one of her own but would have for their safety.
Ray strolled the city's carved dirt trails among work vehicles and looked out at a grassy field littered with trees stretching south for miles. He saw the occasional wild pokémon scatter after he spotted them and multiple bodies off to the side or in cars against steering wheels, but that was all so far. He wondered if every corpse got another chance. If so, Ray wasn't looking forward to burning bodies whenever they wanted to stay somewhere.
They passed the Mining Museum and approached the residential area under the city's abandoned smokestacks to the west.
Ray used to want to work at Oreburgh's mine when he was younger. It helped produce this city's and a lot of the region's energy, which he always found intriguing, but that faded as he aged when he found out all of the tireless manual labor he'd have to do day in and day out for many hours, although the pay was nice.
Ray wasn't a sensitive city boy, but mining may be a bit much. He probably would have ended up giving it a shot. Even now, he wasn't set on what he'd do, and it felt nonsensical to think about. There was no economy or society existent, and he felt less and less that he was escaping at the rate things were going.
Ray ended up taking the house near a Poké Mart after having Crystal scan, which was a studio. Its bed was across the room under a window with a pink blanket.
Ray set his backpack on the floor beside the frame and nightstand. "I'll at least check the kitchen. Sit tight, sweetheart." He picked Crystal up and set her on the bed, which had a slight creak under her weight due to its age.
She yawned and lay on her stomach, bringing her tail up in her paw to groom it. Crystal couldn't get it out of her head that she'd killed someone— if that counted as a person. It was unlike her to murder, but she didn't feel much guilt under her and Ray's circumstances. If Crystal hadn't acted, he would be dead right now.
Plus, she would have to get used to it very quickly. If the dead were actually coming back, she'd have to melt organs on a daily basis. If anything, Crystal would just get tired of it after a straight month. It would become as routine as lapping up water.
He took a bag of Magikarp Crisps from his backpack and ate them while he searched. He wasn't a fan of seafood-flavored snacks, but it wasn't like he could afford to be picky. Soon enough, he'd have to resort to eating leaves and bark from trees or something while counting on Crystal to sniff out berry bushes and hope they weren't contaminated.
One of the cabinets held a single bottle of water and a few cans of food he gathered. "Still something..." Ray muttered. He put the items on the floor by his bag, then sat with Crystal. He slipped off his boots, set his pistol on the nightstand, then offered her a few chips from the pack, holding them before her mouth. "Magicrisps?"
She took them and munched. "Nsm." Crystal thanked him with a full mouth.
He grinned and lay on the bed while watching her. After what transpired earlier, Ray knew they would soon have zero chance of living their days out in Sinnoh, leaving a perpetual sense of grimness stirring in his chest. The virus had to be mutating or something, and if enough bodies came back to life across the region, how would they fight them off? The dead vastly outnumbered what little life still existed. They eventually would have no room to run either.
It just got better. Ray would definitely need an automatic weapon and a vehicle. He and Crystal were vulnerable on foot, and a pistol wouldn't be efficient enough, but where would he find those things? Their best bet would be coming across some murderous group of psychos stocked to the brim with rifles and ammo, killing all of them and taking what they own.
That wasn't reality, but they needed a break. Ray wasn't even trained to know the first thing to do in those situations, and the group could be infected, meaning everyone lost in the end. That's how it was, right? Who wins when everyone died to the virus within the same year?