Jenna lay in her bed one evening in a tee and light red pajama pants, snuggled with an asleep Bizzy on top of the blankets while blankly watching reruns of old sitcoms. Her other pokémon were in the garage, where they ate and whatnot. Her room was dark, with only the light from her screen beaming against the walls.
She'd been inside for several weeks now and had only her backyard to get fresh air and sunlight. The virus hadn't gotten anywhere, and society and humanity were declining at a rapid rate. Any crime one could think of had increased at an alarming percentage. A couple of her friends had died either from the virus or at the hands of awful people.
Her parents hadn't let her step foot outside, and she wouldn't fight it when the possibility of getting kidnapped, mugged, or worse was astronomically high, especially because she lived in Central Eterna. Jenna was terrified and had watched on the news major shopping centers and even some hospitals shut down and re-open as government quarantine zones, where no soul wanted to be.
She lay back and sighed, staring at her pink ceiling and fan blades spin. This made her realize just how scary civilization and massive cities were. People stayed in line either because of their own morals or fear of being apprehended by the law, but what happened when even a fraction of civilians begin to ignore the rules that everyone agreed to follow? That was reality, and Jenna could feel the scale tipping in her being. Her world was falling apart in real-time, and she could do nothing but watch in horror.
She heard the volume on her TV cut off abruptly and her screen turn a solid blue, so she lifted her head and looked at it, puzzled. Then, Jenna heard a series of low, eerie rings, ending in a long monotonous beep. That was Sinnoh's EMS system, and she knew it wasn't a test. She could feel it. Subtitles appeared on the screen, and the voice of a male read them aloud:
"This is not a test. The Sinnoh government has released a national emergency. Please follow the on-screen instructions carefully." There was a pause. "The Sinnoh government has officially declared martial law regionwide as crime increases at an exponential rate. For your safety, every citizen is ordered to stay in their homes until further notice. Units will be deployed and established shortly and have the right to search homes and apprehend individuals as necessary."
More subtitles appeared under it:
"Hospitals will no longer accept patients infected with SRC-1 and will escort them to official government quarantine facilities for care. If you believe yourself or a relative is infected with SRC-1, please transport yourself or them to your local government facility."
"Why? No, no, no... Whyy?..." Jenna felt her body chill with a cold warmth, listening to the broadcast repeat. She was hit with an instant headache and a rapid, stammered heartbeat. Forget falling apart. Jenna felt like her world was ending. Everything spun. She wished to be anywhere but Sinnoh. However, flights and ferries had been cut off already.
She didn't want to overreact or have a panic attack, but absolutely no progress had been made. It was getting worse. Jenna got up and slid out of bed, which woke Bizzy, and ran out of her room, entering the living room. "M-Mom! Dad!" She looked around and saw no one present.
"Jenna?"
She turned and saw Chris exit the kitchen with his phone, staring at him with a frantic expression. He was tall with short black hair, wearing a black jacket and jeans with a pistol in his waistband. Jenna couldn't get a word out. What she saw on that screen was unreal and sickened her to the core. Her arms and hands quivered.
"I saw it too... I've been trying to contact Mom and Dad. They were at the store last I checked." He saw how petrified his sister was and walked to her, embracing and pulling her close.
Jenna fell into it and shut her eyes while tears filled them. She sniffled. "It can't be r-real, Chris. It can't be... I'm scared." She knew curfews and stricter rules would be set by military presence. If she couldn't go out before, she definitely wouldn't now. "What do we do?" she nearly mumbled.
He rubbed her back. Chris knew exactly what direction this was going in. They couldn't stay in Eterna and pray that any authority was going to be able to control and dictate what pinch of civilization was left. With hospitals rejecting already desperate people, this wouldn't last, and when the government realized that their final resort: establishing the military wouldn't work, they were sure to abandon the region.
He wouldn't tell Jenna. Not yet. She was hysterical as is, but if they were going to die, he wouldn't allow it to be to some group of psychos that murdered him and his parents and took his sister for who knows what. He couldn't even trust the military. They and the order-following pokémon working with them could ransack their home and commandeer who and what they wanted with no consequence or worse. As daunting as it seemed, it was time to take matters into his own hands. "We'll board up. We have enough in the kitchen to last a few weeks."
Jenna opened her eyes and wiped drool from the corner of her mouth. She groaned, lifting her head and looking at Bizzy asleep in her lap. She had to have been out for hours. Fuck that dream. It was the worst she'd ever felt and probably the last time she genuinely felt.
Jenna remembered what she had to do and shifted while sliding Bizzy onto the couch without waking him, then stood, wincing and holding her lower back. That would hurt for at least a week or more, and it was bound to feel worse tomorrow. She also felt head pain and hoped not to have a concussion. It was probably just the injury.
She went and crouched by the bag at the front door, unzipping it and finding the Anastin in her pouch. She stared at it in her hand, clutching the bottle. "Hope this helps..."
Jenna then walked out the door and across the base toward the hospital under an orange-tinted evening sky. She saw a small number of people out, which felt nicer than earlier, where it was like every eye was on her throughout the walk.
Jenna assumed Chris would be upset and more disappointed in her than ever for endangering her life and resulting in the death of another to find medicine if he knew of the event. She understood now how reckless her actions were, but it was too late for regret.
She slowed her pace upon approaching the building when she saw Harrison and multiple defenders gathered around the front, which was unusual. Jenna continued, but the situation grew stranger once they noticed her and stopped conversing. She tilted her head while watching Harrison tell the defenders off as she approached, and they took glances at her while leaving at that.
"Jenna." Harrison nodded and attempted to hide his grief.
"I came to drop this off for Chris." She held up the bottle. "How is he?"
He held his chin and looked down for a second. He had no idea how to break it to Jenna, but he couldn't hide the fact.
"What?..." She eyed him, growing more and more confused by how everyone was acting.
He dragged his eyes back up and sighed. There was no easy way to say it. "He passed, Jenna, this morning."
She let her arm fall and shifted her gaze down, feeling everything numb, though a painful kind. Her tone was as well. Desolate. "Oh."
"I apologize for not telling you earlier. You seemed to be going through a lot."
Jenna didn't recall the virus killing its host so quickly. "How did he die?"
Harrison didn't want to lie. "Suicide… He left a note that he seemed to have written to you. I didn't read much of it after I realized." He took a folded paper from his pocket and handed it to her. "We're holding a memorial for him in three days. You're more than welcome to join in the garden."
She slipped it into her pocket. "Thanks." Then turned, walking back. Her mind was a blank slate. Jenna didn't know how to take her brother's sudden death. It meant all of her efforts were in vain. She knew she couldn't have cured it, but in her broken state, maybe— just maybe she thought it would have made a difference.
But she was useless and careless in reality.
Jenna closed her front door, thrown back into silence, and stared at Bizzy, who was still asleep on the couch. He was now all she had left that brought her the minuscule amount of joy still present.
Amy was gone.
Chris was gone.
Jenna's heart ached, and she let out a despaired whimper. She gripped the bottle of Anastin firmly, gritted her teeth, and threw it as hard as she could against the wall. It popped open upon impact, its contents scattering across the floor.
It woke Bizzy abruptly from his nap and made his heart race. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, seeing Jenna sitting on the floor with pills surrounding her. He caught his breath, got down, and approached, standing a foot away. He couldn't process the sight or what more had gone wrong with his owner. Jenna hadn't felt at all like Jenna recently, and it scared him. Bizzy was concerned before, but now he was scared.
He knew she would never harm him, but what was her next action? What if she left again and never came back this time? Bizzy wanted her back. He wanted to feel close to her again and to be her company. She was falling apart day by day before his eyes.
Jenna stared at the floor while holding her temple as her headache worsened from the outburst. Not an ounce more of energy was in her. She took the paper Harrison gave her out of her pocket and unfolded it, holding it up and squinting at its words under poor lighting:
'It has started feeding. It's the worst pain one could experience and doesn't fade.
Harrison told me everything. Jenna, I would never ask that you endanger yourself for me the way you did during those nights. It would have tarnished my soul if you had died or were taken that night. It was and has always been my priority to protect you. I know what mindset you were in and appreciate your care and efforts. I know who you want to be, but don't fight who you are. You have the sweetest personality a woman could hold and beauty to complement. Don't push that away. It's valuable.
I picked up the virus last week when helping conduct a search with a few others in Pastoria. I strayed off and was attacked by an infected growlithe who bit my arm before I was able to fend off and kill it. This, I kept to myself, quarantined in my home, and treated it until I couldn't. I knew I was dead. I began showing mild symptoms the next day, and here we are. My condition has gotten worse, and no treatment has helped so far. I can no longer handle it and won't let it take me as it has countless others.
I've been tracking the siren over the past weeks while on group supply runs and have heard it the loudest by Jubilife. Canalave is nearby, which would be a good ferry extraction point. I can't say for sure who is in control of it or why, but I'm betting on it being a call for survivors. Other regions had to step in at some point.
If you choose to find its source, take heavy weapons and don't go alone this time. I love you too.'
Jenna folded the note and slipped it back into her pocket, wincing from her excruciating headache. It was either lack of sleep or the situation again— possibly both.
She looked up and saw Bizzy. This couldn't be good for his mental. "I'm gonna shower. We'll eat, then sleep."