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"Crystal... Crystal, wake up!"

She heard a muffled voice and opened her eyes to see Ray sitting over her. His expression was one of horror. Crystal forced herself to wake up and rolled onto her stomach. Sunlight was present, but she was unsure of how early it was.

"Th-The bodies we saw in the Eterna building yesterday... they're outside. I knew something wasn't right, but 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 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, they heard gunfire, three consecutive shots, and both bodies fell to the ground.

Ray closed the curtain and took a few steps back. "Crystal, scan."

She shut her eyes and focused, feeling a presence nearby in seconds and opening them. "Esp..." How unsettling. Were people coming back to life now? That didn't seem fair-- a second chance for the sake of killing.

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, 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. He was hesitant to progress but knew they were on a time limit. Gunshots attracted terrible people. He exhaled before pushing the door open and walking back.

Crystal watched the doorway and was ready 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 Ray's breath short and froze him to his core was the person standing ahead wearing a familiar outfit. When they turned around, it confirmed Ray's suspicion. The man still had the bullet wound in his head, which would be nearly impossible to survive.

Ray's hand shook. He hadn't felt so much fear and confusion since the outbreak began.

The man stepped toward Ray, 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 noticed the same heavy wheeze in the man's voice. How'd he find them?

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 hazy.

He trained his barrel on Ray, but an abrupt blinding beam of light filled the area before he could shoot, followed by its screech.

Ray shielded his eyes until it faded, and upon looking back, he saw a hole burned through the man's chest.

His eyes were dilated as he struggled for air he couldn't gather. 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. He hoped not. It'd 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.

---

They took the cycling road from Eterna and arrived in Oreburgh before noon with no hiccups.

"I think I want to stay inside today. We'll be okay on supplies for a while." Ray wasn't that tired from their walk but had to slow down. He wasn't feeling it.

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 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, 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 ever escaping at the rate things were going.

Ray ended up taking the house next to 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. You sit tight, sweetheart." He picked Crystal up and set her on the bed, which had a slight creak under her weight.

She yawned and lay on her stomach, bringing her tail up 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 the circumstances she and Ray were in. If Crystal hadn't acted, he could be dead right now.

Plus, she'd 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 routine.

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 he couldn't afford to be picky anymore. Soon, he'd have to eat 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 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. "Magicrisps?"

She took them and chewed. "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. The virus must be mutating, and if enough bodies came back to life across the region, how would they fight them off? 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 that useful, 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 trained to handle those situations, and the group could be infected, meaning everyone loses in the end. That's how it was, right? Who wins when everyone dies to the virus within the next year?