Game Start (Gareth)

Gareth comes to consciousness quickly to a loud noise. As soon as his eyes open, his entire body is awake. Waking up efficiently and quickly had become a survival skill in this godforsaken world.

Quickly he got up and shook away the last remains of sleepy lethargy from his body. ‘Just why did I decide to make the trek here, to the department store of all places… And then I decided to sleep in the middle of the street?! What was I thinking…’ Gareth shook his head, disgusted by his decision. ‘Well, I suppose if I’m looking for survivors I may as well look for the places with the most supplies,’ Gareth reasoned, thinking to himself.


Gareth cast his gaze about the area. Zombies and more zombies. There was what seemed to once have been a club and a store behind him. Gareth started turning around to try and scout through the store when he did a double take. He had been hearing a loud noise, but had assumed it was simply the wind that had woken him. He had been wrong. It was actually a rather noisy zombie that was heading straight for him.


Gareth looked on with wide eyes for a moment, panicking. Then he got a hold of himself and his eyes narrowed. He looked around again, more carefully this time, but it seemed only the one zombie had noticed him. Now how to deal with this quietly.


The botanist thought for a moment, before grabbing a Pokéball. It was Aureolin’s. He quickly released the little Bug-type onto the ground before him. It was the smallest of all his Pokémon and the stealthiest by far.


“Reo, I need you to take care of that zombie over there,” he pointed at the offending carcass. The Joltik looked over to where he was indicating and then nodded. “You need to be quiet about it ok? Use Fury Cutter. I’ll be looking for supplies in the shop behind us when you’re done.” In response the Pokémon released a strange mix of purring and clicking noises. It was cute, but utterly weird.

Aureolin got on with his job, approaching the zombie as quietly as it could, and then jumping at it, slashing with a claw enveloped in a red glow.


While Aureolin was in battle Gareth hadn’t been idle. He trusted that the little Joltik could easily handle a single zombie and so had proceeded to the shop he had mentioned. He was looking for food for himself and herbs and berries for his Pokémon. His team consisted of herbivores and phototrophs, so he would need some plant matter for them to consume. The rest could get by with their daily dose of sun light.


As he was just about to enter it, he thought of Aureolin. What if more zombies appeared? He couldn’t leave the Pokémon by itself. So he decided to wait instead, going back to where Aureolin should just now be engaging the zombie.
The young man figured that he could still check out the shop once the zombie was dealt with.

Aureolin took the scratch with nary a reaction. If anything the hit just made him angry at the zombie. "Aim for the head!" Gareth whispered loudly so as to not draw more attention to themselves. Channeling this anger, the little Joltik quickly slashed again at the offending undead body, his claws wreathed in the red energy of Fury Cutter. 

Assuming that this would be Reo's final hit, Gareth called him over so they could search the shop together. He had seen some silhouettes of what were most likely zombies inside, but he was fairly confident that if he was as quiet as possible he could get some supplies from the front most part of the shop at least. Who knows, maybe they could find another Portable Grower to grow supplies in. After that, Gareth could let the rest of his team sun bath a little to gather the energy they needed to keep going and then... then Gareth would look for the City Park. It was essentially the ideal location to camp out in with Gareth's knowledge of outdoors living and his Pokemon's dietary habits which included plants.

Seeing as the shop was unlit, Gareth called out Arcane. "Arc, I need you to light up your stick with a small flame so we can see better in this place," Gareth told the Fire-type. He debated whether to keep Aureolin out too, or whether he should be returned, but in the end decided to keep the Pokemon out. He would be the primary attacker in case of a zombie fight since his Fury Cutter could mow down zombies in one shot once it was charged enough. Arcane would provide the light they needed to see in the dark and that would be enough.

With this plan in mind, Gareth entered the shop with his friends and looked around. First he needed to find some sort of plant matter his Pokemon could eat. Or maybe even specialized Pokemon food like Poffins or something less fancy. If he didn't find anything here, he would have to try and find the City Park more quickly. 

"Alright guys, be on the lookout for plants and food, ok? We'll stick together for this search, it's safer that way."

"Damn it, these things are just everywhere..." Gareth whispered to himself, not too happy with the current situation. Either way, those zombies had to be dealt with. Luckily there weren't too many of them, Gareth counted one, two, three; three of them. That was alright. They could do this. Or to be specific, Aureolin could do this, while Gareth and Arcane hung back a little. Gareth thought himself a good trainer, but he wasn't quite good enough to be able to coach more than one Pokemon through a battle. 

"Reo, hit them with your Fury Cutter." Just as he had planned beforehand, Aureolon would hit them hard with devastating blows - Gareth would hate to get hit by something like that - hopefully downing them in one shot. 

The Electric and Bug dual type Pokémon raced forward in front of the closest zombie and jumped at it, before raking his claws through the undead flesh.

Meanwhile Gareth, moved closer to the area Aureolin had indicated before the start of the battle, signalling for Arcane to follow him.

Gareth takes a closer look at the items on display. A 'Zombie Proof Guard'? What did that even mean? Was it some sort of armor, or some kind of charm against zombies? Did it ward them off? Gareth was just confused. 'Eh, I'll have a look. Maybe it'll turn out to be useful,' he reasoned. 

Seeing as how Aureolin had taken down one of the zombies, he quickly commanded him to take out the next one. "Get the other ones too, Reo. Just keep using Fury Cutter."

If Gareth was honest with himself, he was disappointed. He had come in here looking for supplies and not equipment, rather dubious equipment at that, though the goggles were interesting. From where he was standing, Gareth could see a metal door at the other end of the place. Perhaps that's where he should look? It would have to wait until the zombies were taken care of though.

Gareth almost couldn't wait for Aureolin to finish the battle. Those metal doors, he had realized there was another behind some display cases, were sure to be hiding something valuable. He wasn't too impressed with what they had found so far, but he decided that since they were here, and the loot was there, there really was no reason not to take it. Perhaps it would work, perhaps it wouldn't, Gareth wasn't about to bet his life on it, but if it did, it would surely be a boon to their chances of continued survival.

As such, he went over to the display and picked up the charm. He wasn't sure about the goggles, as he simply couldn't imagine a scenario in which he would need them, but he decided to pick them up too and put them in his bag, just in case he ever found some remains of civilization. Perhaps he would be able to trade them for something else then. This kind of optimism was necessary for Gareth's mood not to plummet into a dark, pessimistic slump. He needed to keep thinking that he could eventually be part of a society or at least, a group again, otherwise he would start questioning the point of survival. It was all well and good to continue and stay strong for his Pokemon, but if he was honest with himself, he needed human companionship too. 

While Gareth was making himself feel better about the future, Aureolin, without any commands, jumped at the next zombie, crawling over one that had been downed in the process. The little Bug-type had really gotten into the flow of the battle and was enjoying himself immensely. Chances were that it would get hungry soon though, with the exercise it was doing. That was all these zombies amounted to really, though admittedly overall, they had done a good bit of damage to Aureolin. It hadn't mattered much when Reo had been scratched by the zombie outside, but another scratch made things a little different. Aureolin winced a little at the damage done to its small body, but he shrugged it off while attacking the next zombie with another Fury Cutter.

Arcane to begin with had been a little jealous of Aureolin. She was itching for a bit of a fight, but once Aureolin took a hit from the last zombie she winced almost in sync with the dual typed Pokemon. Only very few Pokemon thrived on taking damage in battle, and neither Arcane nor Aureolin were one of those, although they had certainly been trained to take hits well, as had the rest of Gareth's Pokemon. 

Aureolin was temporarily shocked as instead of hitting its opponent, it sailed through the air and demolished a section of the display. The noise startled Gareth and Arcane, who both jumped a little.

Aureolin was disappointed in his miss, but he quickly pulled himself together and focused on the enemy. It's scratch had done little damage to Aureolin, but all the hits he had taken overall were beginning to take its toll on the Bug-type. He was still in good enough condition not to be worrying about being taken down though.

Gareth saw Aureolin get scratched and shouted over. "You can pull through this Reo, keep using Fury Cutter!" Arcane added her own cheerful encouragements.

At the behest of its comrade and master, Aureolin once more pulled on the well of energy inside it and his claws began to glow red. It jumped forward at the zombie it had missed, eager to get this fight done with, and slashed at it with its glowing claws.

Gareth squinted into the darkness. Not much light to be had there, huh Arcane? he thought, but didn't vocalize. No reason to hurt Arcane's feelings when she was being helpful to him. As Gareth came upon the large shelf, he considered what he wanted to do. Did he want to try and knock it over so he could see further into the room, or would he try to maneuver around it. The choice was a difficult one. While he was thinking though, he began to hear a strange sound. Gareth looked around in confusion. "Do you hear that?" He asked Arcane and Aureolin. 

That was it. Gareth had to see further. If there was some kind of strange zombie in here, he'd rather face it than let it fall upon him while his sight was impaired. With that thought in mind, he commanded Arcane, "Bring down that shelf!" 

Gareth narrows his eyes as he spots the zombie. The zombie will surely have noticed him too. Best get Arcane to deal with it, Gareth figures.

"Arcane, use Cinder Fall on that zombie, just like we practiced."

Arcane moved closer, maneuvering over the surface with some difficulty and then unleashing a large burst of embers on the zombie.