A New Life Through The Eyes Of Kanto: An Autobiography

An Abundance Of Solace Part 2 Of 3

Tree branches sliced at my face as I ran, my arms rising up for protection. My breath was gone, energy depleted, yet my legs continued to lift my feet and they charged on, forcing through the snow, grass, and sticks below.

The Big P Pokemon Ranch was far behind me.

The tight, forested area I was now in barely had much of a path, bushes and vines complicating the trail that was a blur to my eyes. Running through here was dangerous with the trees so close together, their branches poking and cutting at my body and clothes. Snow would fall from where it had landed above me in the trees when I would hit a tree trunk or branches and splash into my face or fall around me.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!

The explosion from far behind me encouraged me to keep on running.

Pokemon were staring at me as I ran past. Or maybe they were running away, too.

I couldn't make out what was going on around me. There were Pokemon, I think. Everything was unclear. With a gasp, my legs gave out underneath me and I crashed. My body was screaming out to stop and take a rest, forcing me to gasp for air repeatedly. But I couldn't rest. I had to keep going. I had to get help for Will and the Pokemon back at the ranch. I had to find somebody. My body refused to move despite my desperation to get up. My face hit the ground in exhaustion. I had no energy to fight against myself. My eyelids were heavy. It was a struggle to open them. My hands in the dirt, I clenched them into tight fists before relaxing them against my will. With a final groan, sucking up all the energy I could muster into my body, inhaling some dirt along the way, I struggled to force myself up. I managed to my knees, swallowing the dirt in my mouth and coughing hard before collapsing once more, my breath leaving me before everything went black.

*

I was in a pool. No. An ocean. I was sinking fast under the water. In a panic, I swallowed the strangely fresh tasting water and flailed desperately, inhaling water into my nose, causing me to panic even worse. With a loud gasp, I sat up.

A cry was let out by someone near me as they fell back away from me with a shocked look.

I too cried out at the stranger, surprised anyone was there. My eyes soon recognized the woman! "Officer Jenny?"

Officer Jenny, in all her undeniable beauty, sat on the ground, her miniskirt lifted just teasingly as she stared at me, a water bottle in her left hand. "Gary," she responded.

I squinted at her. Did I know this Officer Jenny? My tongue ran along my lips and I swallowed something wet in my mouth. Saliva? No. This was water. Clean water. Not salt water from the ocean, but the same, clean tasting water I had felt myself drowning in. But I was still in the same place I had fallen before blacking out. I hadn't been drowning at all. My clothes were only slightly wet and muddied from the snow on the ground. I was still on land. Staring at the open water bottle in her hand, I figured maybe she had poured water into my mouth while I was unconscious.

"Gary, are you okay?" Officer Jenny asked.

I nodded quickly, not sure if I truly felt okay or not.

"That's good. I just found you laying here, passed out. I tried to give you some water. You seemed exhausted."

I didn't say anything.

Officer Jenny looked down at the bottle of water in her hand, and then looked back to me. "Are you thirsty?" she asked, holding the bottle out to me.

I nodded.

She smiled and leaned in closer.

I slowly reached a shaky hand out and gently took the bottle from her. The cool water sliding down my throat felt absolutely refreshing to me as I drank urgently. The bottle was empty in seconds and I breathed a sigh of relief and gratefulness.