Author's Note: This has been building for a long while in my head. Pokemon meets zombies. Thus, this shall contain gore in all forms. People and pokemon alike will die - and not in pretty ways. There will be blood and guts and like the films; anyone can die. With that in mind, please, enjoy.

Disclaimer

Pokémon is a registered trademark of Satoshi Tajiri, Game Freak, the Pokémon Company, Nintendo, etc. All trademarked characters, locations, themes and ideas are used without permission in a work of fan-created fiction. The following has been done without profit for purely entertainment purposes. All original concepts, characters, themes and ideas within are the copyrighted property of the author, and are not to be reproduced without his prior consent.

Pokémon

Plague

By Crukix

Prologue: A Trainer

Being a pokémon trainer. It's what most children want to do. It's what most people have tried at some point in their life; the gym challenge. Tackle eight of the gyms darted across the country, emerge victorious and have the chance to challenge the league, maybe even the strongest trainers of the country, if you're talented enough.

I'm one of those people.

The brilliant red of the poké ball shines in my hand, letting me know my dreams are within sight.

It's September. Apparently most people will have given up on their journeys by October.

I know I'm not going to be one of those people. I'll manage to go all the way, challenge the league and emerge victorious from it all.

I take another moment to stare at the poké ball in my hand. I hear all the other kids celebrating around me, singing and cheering, poké balls exploding with light and sound as all their pokémon were released for little training battles.

In a way, I feel a little excluded. My friends have already left, I'm meant to meet one in the next town over.

Olivine City.

I'm meant to get there from here in Ecruteak. I've done the journey before enough times; there's loads of roads above the grassy paths that trainers take.

But now I've got my very own pokémon, I can't help but want to wander through the grass. I'll capture another pokémon that I'll train, then I'll use it to take down the pokémon league.

I want to defeat Bruno, the fighting-specialist Elite. He's big, filled with muscles and generally scary.

If I can beat him, no one would ever think of trying to hurt me.

I take a breath and stare out towards the grassy fields to the west of Ecruteak. The trees look orange and little leaves are falling off the trees, swaying in the wind and touching down gently on the floor.

Here in Johto, the people have a saying; "Let the wind carry you in your travels."

The wind's coming at my face.

I pay it no attention.

I take a deep breath.

My heart is racing.

My life beings again here.

I take my first steps as a pokémon trainer…

… and nothing happens.

The world keeps turning. The spearow keep squawking, the rattata keep squeaking and the cars around me keep thundering past on the motorway.

I'm slightly disappointed.

I wanted something amazing to happen. It was how it happened in all the shows; the hero would take his first steps, then something like a bagon would leap out of the grass and challenge him to battle! Or The Ho-oh would fly past, gracing the sky with a rainbow and letting the trainer know he was to be special.

I get nothing.

Does this mean I'm not special?

I shake my head and keep my poké ball tight in my hand. It was cold and clear when I first got it. Now it's covered in fingerprints and is slightly sticky with my sweat.

I'm pretty sure that means I'll be able to throw it further.

A few minutes pass as I travel through the grass. Nothing comes out to bother me. I'm still slightly upset. I want something cool to leap out and challenge me! I could so tackle anything that decided to try and attack me! My pokémon would be able to handle it, then I'd be able to capture it!

My heart stops.

I touch my pockets.

Still have spare poké balls there.

Awesome.

I look around where I've walked too. It's a load of forests north of the paths leading to Olivine. I know it. I've been here before. When I was eight some of my friends and I tried to sneak into the big science building hidden away up there.

We got caught before we'd even got near to the building.

I'm sure it won't happen this time. I've got a pokémon now! That means I'll be able to do so much more!

I decide I'm going to see what's there. We all know the stories about science labs; there's meant to be scary strong pokémon made in them that the bad scientists play with, experiment with and make really bad.

It happened in Orre ages ago, Dad said. The pokémon became more bloodthirsty and would attack towns, searching for prey.

I'm sure he tried telling me it to scare me into coming back for curfew. Pokémon were dangerous, we all know that, but they never attack towns. They're smarter than that.

The predators wait around in the middle of nowhere to attack the random pokémon or people that wander into their territories.

People like me.

I gulp and consider backtracking.

No! Dad told me about how he managed to spend the first hour of his trainer journey on his own. He waited until he'd found a safe area, then tried to train his pokémon properly.

That's why all those kids back in town were struggling so much with their pokémon. We all know that they don't understand commands instantly. But when you get a pokémon, you just want to battle.

Nothing happened to him, I tell myself.

That means nothing will happen to me.

Bang!

I scream and duck on the floor. It sounds like a car backfired. It happened once before with Dad's car. It scared me and Mum, but he just laughed and said it was because he's a bad driver.

But people aren't allowed to drive anywhere near here.

Bang!

Bang!

I scream again and begin to run. Something's happening here. Those big sounds aren't meant to be happening near here. I can hear alarms. People are shouting. I can't hear what they're saying. More bangs. Pokémon are howling. People are still shouting.

I want to call out my pokémon for protection. But I haven't trained it yet. If it hears these big sounds, it might attack me.

I'm on my own.

The sounds are getting closer.

And I don't know what to do!

I should hide. Behind a tree. Under a rock.

The sounds are almost here!

Hide! I need to hide! Where!

Bang!

The sound's almost near me. I scream again and want to hide. I don't want this journey anymore! I shouldn't have walked here!

I'm scared.

I want my Mummy.

The sounds are nearly on me. I scream again and fall on the floor. If I don't move, they won't see me. If they don't see me, they won't be able to hurt me.

"Oh shit."

A woman's voice. She has a funny accent. I can feel her standing near me. She's stopped running. I can smell something weird on her. It smells like those horrible science labs at school; the ones with the crazy science teacher and her creepy ditto. It sits there all lesson, oozing over the table with the weird, creepy wide smile on its face.

I realise the woman hasn't moved. The sounds are getting closer. The big, exploding sounds! I don't know what they are! This woman seems to know. She swears again and I know she has to be an adult. My parents would never let me say anything like that. Dad said he would get his psychic pokémon to probe my mind when I see them next to see if I've been swearing. He said he'd stop me travelling a day for each swear I say.

I want to swear now, but I know Dad wouldn't be happy.

The woman says more curses and tries to move me from the floor.

"Kid, you've got to get out of here!" she hisses at me. Her hands scoop under my armpits and try to pull me from the floor. "Move! You shouldn't be here! Hide!"

She has a funny voice. Her 'oh' sounds are really long. I want to know where she's from. Her voice makes me want to smile.

But her panic makes my heart stop.

She hauls me to my feet and looks in my face. She has a pretty face. It's kind of round, like Mum's. But this woman has really orange hair that's in a ponytail. Her eyes are green and her cheeks are all freckly.

She's an adult.

And she's scared.

That makes me even more terrified.

"Oh, kid, get moving!" she growls and shoves me behind a tree. I feel her press me against the tree, covering me completely with her body. I can't see much at all. Dad told me once that if I ever had a woman bury my face in her boobs, I should be happy and enjoy myself.

I'm not happy now. They're stopping me from breathing. I don't know why Dad would be happy with anything like that. I want to get out! I want to breathe!

"Here," the woman growls and I hear footsteps come near us. There's someone else there. I can't see them through the woman's boobs. But he smells like her. But like cigarettes too. Mum told me I'm not allowed to try them. Apparently they make your lungs all grey and you need a new pair. Apparently they don't sell them; they take them out of a dead body and put them in yours.

I don't understand that. I never really understood science. I barely made the grade in that. If I'd got one mark less, I wouldn't have been able to come on my journey.

I start to think that maybe that would have been a good thing.

"What're you hiding?" the other person asks. He has a man's voice. His voice sounds funny too. Sort of like the woman's, but different. He reminds me of the people Dad meets in the pub. They sit around drinking something black with a white, bubbly head that tastes gross. Apparently they worship leprechauns. It's what Dad told me. But Dad also told me that Santa was real.

He also told me that I'd be safe on my trainer journey.

"This isn't good," the man says, then there's another bang.

"We need to get him out of here." The woman sounds more scared than ever. "The job's bad enough, but we can't let anyone get in the way." She curses again, then there's another bang. "Can we make a run for it? Distract them? They won't find the kid, right?"

Another bang.

"I'm not sure," the man says. "They're getting closer. They moved past us, but they're doubling back. The forests will hide us for some time, but they're on edge. Any movement, any person that looks weird, they're gonna shoot first, ask questions later."

Shoot first?

With guns?

"No, no, no, no, no!" I scream. The woman yelps and presses her hand over my mouth, muffling the rest of my cries. They're using guns! I see the man. He's hidden most of his face under a weird sort of scarf over his face. I can see his eyes though. They're green. They look angry. He looks angry. He flicks his tongue and I see something metal on it.

Mum has one of those. I asked her why and she said that it made Dad happier. I asked her if I could get one to make people happy too. She looked upset and sent me to my room.

"Let me go!" I shout at the woman, slapping her repeatedly. She won't let me go and I hate her more and more. I want to go! I just want to go home! I don't want to do this stupid journey anymore! These people are playing with guns!

That means the police are chasing after them. The police are chasing after the people I'm with.

They're criminals. Are they going to hold me hostage? Are they going to use me to make sure the police won't take them?

"I want to go home!" I wail at the woman. She tries to shush me and begins to rub my head. She tells me it was going to be alright. I don't believe her.

The man hisses as the bangs got closer.

He grabs the woman and me by the shoulders and shoves us into the trees. "We've gotta move!"

I see him hold up a gun.

My heart stops.

He's going to shoot! He's going to kill people and doesn't care that I was here!

"Get the kid outta danger!" he tells the woman.

Then his finger twitches.

And the gun went bang!

I flinch and try to run. I don't want to be near him! He's going to hurt the police! He's a criminal! He needs to be stopped!

A light went on in my head. If I could stop him, I'd be the best trainer of all time. How many other trainers stopped criminals on their first days of their journeys?

That was why I didn't see The Ho-oh when I left on my journey. It wasn't that I'm not special.

It's that this was meant to show me how special I am.

"No," I growl and shove the woman. She holds me closer, telling me not to run. I grab her hand and bite down into it. She yells and pulls her hand away, letting me go.

I'm free!

But I need to stop the man!

"Stop!" I yell at him.

I run at him like in sports at school. I manage to tackle him round the waist, but he doesn't go down. He swears and tries to shove me off him. I yell and pull his clothes, trying to get him to stop. He curses again and places his hands on my chest, trying to shove me away.

"No!" I yell. I punch him on the arm…

BANG!

… and there's pain in my chest.

I let the man go and put my hands to my chest. It's so hard to breathe. I hear the woman scream and the man gasp. It's even harder to breathe. I can't hear much and everything feels weirdly cold.

I can feel my heart pumping faster. My hands are getting wet, sticky and hot, even as my body's getting colder.

I manage to look down at my chest…

… and I see blood.

My blood.

What, I want to say, but I can't make the words. I can't breathe at all. My chest hurts. Everything's becoming colder and greyer.

I feel hands cover mine, pressing hard against my chest. It makes the pain worse. I try and tell the woman, but she ignores me, pressing harder. Tears come into my eyes as I want to warn her. But I can't tell her anything.

"No, no, no!" she says in her funny voice. "This can nae be happening!" Liam, you've shot him! You've shot this wee nipper!"

I can't see the man.

I can't hear him say anything.

Everything's becoming out of focus.

I can't hear anything anymore.

I'm getting colder.

I've been… shot?

Am I dying?

I can't smell anything anymore.

The blood on my hands doesn't feel so warm anymore.

Everything's gone dark.

Please…

… I don't want to die.

…

..

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