Infected City

Chapter 6: Dream Journal

Tofu pries himself out of bed. He never was a morning person anyways. He walks over to his desk and grabs the cyan watering can with his teeth. Gazz walks into the room and waves. Tofu smiles in response. He pours a little water on a small plant he's been keeping for a while. It hasn't grown, but he's sure it will. Someone taps his shoulder. "Glad you're awake." Gazz says. He has a few injuries on him, and Tofu gasps. "What happened? Are you alright?" Tofu asks, and runs over to his garden and plucks an Oran berry.

"Here." Tofu hands Gazz the berry. He eats it happily. They stare at each other. "So," Gazz begins, "Wanna cuddle?" Tofu's face heats up. Nodding, they both walk over to the mattress. Gazz lays down first, leaving room for the other. Tofu has to calm down to stop their tail, and then lays down next to him. They're both still, until Gazz pulls closer to Tofu. Their faces are only centimeters away.

"It's nice that the city is gonna open again. They've found a cure for the infection." Gazz explains. Tofu is excited, they've been stuck in the city for so long. "I'm just glad I was able to meet you." Tofu responds. Gazz smiles. "I can see it now, us talking about our stories in the city. People will cheer as we share stories about fighting zombies." Gazz imagines out loud. Tofu can also see it, being able to talk about what they've achieved. People would care for once.

Gazz can see in Tofu's eyes that they're also imagining the aftermath. "Is that Tofu! She was the one in the city!" Gazz pretends to be a fan. "She was the one who killed Gazz!" Tofu stops. 'Killed Gazz?' He can't find his voice. Gazz gets up, his injuries getting worse. "She killed her only love! She's a murderer!" Gazz continues. Tofu starts shaking, Gazz's body rotting in front of him. "You know what you've done." He says before everything goes dark.

Tofu literally jumps out of bed. He lands on his broken leg and pain shoots up it. He falls on his face. He stays like that for a while, getting back up isn't a real priority right now. His mind keeps going back to his nightmare. 'You killed him. A survivor. Not a zombie.' He pushes away those thoughts. Gazz did turn into a zombie, and he killed that. He gets up and limps towards his to-do list. 'Fix up walls, floor, and roof.' He reads.

Going down the stairs of the building takes way too long. For an hour, Tofu just slowly went down the steps, carefully not putting any pressure on his broken leg. The walk to the forest doesn't take as long, but hurts just the same. His entire body feels sore. Zombies litter the streets, now that their attention has been diverted from the building Gazz died on. Well, next to, but that doesn't really matter to Tofu.

He makes it to the forest, exhausted and gasping for air. Either the fight yesterday took everything out of him or something is going terribly wrong. The cool breeze rustles the leaves of the trees around him. Some fall to the ground. Tofu notices that the leaves are beginning to turn orange and yellow, Autumn's effects finally kicking in. His thick fur isn't enough to stop Tofu from shivering. Trying to put everything behind him, he walks up to a tree.

Then realizes he can't cut it down. Without using his hind leg, there's no way he could use Iron tail and cut down the tree. 'Maybe if I scratch the tree enough? No, my claws would break. Could I use something else to cut it down? Probably not, even if I find something sharp enough to cut into the trees, I wouldn't have enough strength to chop it with just my mouth.' Every solution he tries to think of comes to a dead end.

He walks back home defeated. Tofu is feeling something he hasn't felt in a while, again. He just feels depressed. He couldn't save Gazz and now he can't do anything. The climb up the stairs takes another hour. By the time he's back home, his legs are aching and he's on the verge of tears. His head just won't shut up about his nightmare, and about how much of a failure he is now. Not only was his leg broken, but his soul was too.

Empty and disappointed are his main feelings for the rest of the day, spent laying on his mattress and trying to get his leg to magically fix itself. The worst part is his notebook, full of things he wanted to do. Now all of them are impossible, only dreams meant to disappoint him in that stupid journal. Tofu considers destroying it, but can't bring himself to. 'My leg will heal sooner or later, there's no need to destroy a perfectly good notebook.'

Tofu can't sleep or do anything to pass the time faster. He watches as the time on the clock slowly ticks onward. Slowly fatigue kicks in, but it just makes the wait worse. His eyes stay closed but his mind is all over the place, thinking about everything he's never gonna do. 'At least I'm not thinking about my nightmare.' He thinks, but it's a lie. Annoyingly enough, he's stuck on one specific detail about his nightmare, and it's the worst part. Specifically used by his brain to mock him. Luckily, he passes out a couple moments later.

Tofu wakes up in an endless pink void. There's swirls of different colors all around him, with some phasing out or even exploding into more lines. It's pure nonsense, until a figure forms through the colors. The lines begin to converge, shapes begin to collect, slowly turning into something familiar. Tofu gasps as they recognize who it is. "Greetings." Their voice is quiet but powerful. They both sit in silence. "You may speak, I have granted you a voice here."

Tofu opens his mouth and makes a noise. "A-Are you Arceus?" He asks, his new voice shaky and unfamiliar. They nod. A lot of questions filled his head, none of them asked. "I can tell you're very shaken by my presence. Everyone would be a little surprised if they saw me." Arceus begins, "But that is not why I brought you here. It is a very rare case that I need help from a mortal, but this is clearly getting out of control."

"My creations are getting desperate with this infection. They're planning on sending themselves into the city to try and destroy it, but it wont work. The infection is getting stronger, smarter, and more difficult to snuff out. Without any experience with zombies, it's futile to try and kill them." Arceus turns to Tofu. "That is why I chose you. You have survived in Tinshore for longer than anyone else. You are the only one left in Tinshore."

That information shocks Tofu to his core. He is the only alive Pokémon in Tinshore. "Defeating the zombies alone isn't possible though, so I shall grant you an ability. Genetics and DNA will no longer concern you." A glowing ball slowly forms in front of Arceus. It flies towards Tofu and hits him. A warm feeling flows through him. "Use it wisely, Tofu." Arceus nods their head. Tofu prepares to ask what that means, but they begin to turn back into shapes. Then into lines. Then back to random jolts of color. Tofu's eyes feel heavy as he falls asleep.

* * *
Heyo!
I can't believe Act 1 is already over.
Went by so heckin' fast!
Anyways Cy'all I _ <  <3