Chapter 5: a Wild Pokémon Appears!

Leon’s Point of View

The first house that Leon wanted to search was right across from the house that they had just been staying in. Painted baby blue with white trim, it was fairy tale-ish and didn’t seem to fit in with the whole ‘abandoned’ theme the rest of the block had going on. As if to compliment the fairy tale, flowers and dandy lions had taken advantage of the absence of its owner and had started take the lawn by storm, invading the lawn from the unkempt flower gardens to defeat the legions of thistles. A garage jutted off from the rest of the house like it wasn’t in the blueprints but just lobbed on there as an afterthought. It was painted a slightly different shade of baby blue but somehow more obnoxious than the rest of the house.

He surveyed the area carefully, but it was eerily still like the last house. There really was nothing to do besides chance a break in. He looked at his knife uneasily, wondering if what he was doing really would be a break in. He wondered if he’d ever get arrested for theft. He shook his head. Now was not the time.

Walking up to the garage door, he planted his feet and heaved the thing up, squinting in the gloom. There was no car unfortunately. They could use the gas.

Instead there were just boxes upon boxes of random toys and clothes and assorted appliances heaped up on tables like they were being displayed for a garage sale. It being early spring, Leon judged that it must’ve been abandoned the year before. He started heading for the nearest table when he heard Dagon growling.

Leon froze, hearing a slight scratching sound echo through the empty garage. He put his hand on the hilt of his knife, drawing it as silently as he could from the sheath clipped to his belt loop. He had sharpened it last night while he had nothing else to do and it was now as sharp as a razor.

A small, furry animal waddled into the space between the tables. It was about the size of a fat cat. Leon, confused, lowered his knife, but Dagon continued to growl, the Poochyena’s tail spiked out like it was intimidated by the thing. Leon suddenly realized that the thing was making the faintest of sounds as well, growling Leon realized, but it sounded like words.

“Zigzag…” It growled softly. Then suddenly it dashed towards them, taking Leon by surprise as it took off at an alarming speed. Dagon jumped to intercept it, but the creature skirted around him, launching itself at Leon. Leon managed to dodge it by a hair and the Pokémon skittered around for another pass. 

“Zigzagoon.” It shouted at it leaped at him once more. This time Leon was ready as it jumped for him. He ducked and drove his blade into the Pokémon’s stomach. It fell to the ground, landed on its feet, and even walked a few steps before falling over.

That’s when he noticed the look in its eye. It was bloodshot with a scarlet iris and a dilated pupil. Though it even reminded him of his girlfriend’s new eyes, the Zigzagoon’s eyes looked incredibly wild and violent. Leon struggled to remember what the stupid scientists on TV had said.

It was something about how Pokérus could only be communicated through the bite of a transforming animal or person, but sometimes pokérus would linger in a Pokémon. The Pokémon would be driven mad by it and would end up incredibly violent, especially to those uninfected. The eyes of the Pokémon were one of the indicators that it was still infected, but he couldn’t remember any others.

“Poochyena.” Dagon yapped, still growling at the darkness. Three more shapes emerged from the dark, each a Zigzagoon. The middle one was even larger than Dagon, though he still didn’t come up to his knee. Each of them had the same crazed look in their eyes that the first one had.

Leon swore, and that seemed to spur them on. There seemed to be some sort of invisible line that Dagon and the three infected Zigzagoons didn’t want to cross, instead growling at each other more and more loudly. Leon knew that one stray bite from one of them could give him a whole lot more to worry to worry about than searching a couple of deserted homes. He readied his knife, sweat trickling down his cheek.

Finally the Zigzagoons charged. The two on the outside moved to flank Leon, but Dagon jumped onto one of them, biting its neck and scratching with his claws. The Zigzagoon shook him off, hissing. It was distracted for now, leaving Leon only two to focus on now. Maybe that Poochyena wasn’t so useless after all.

The other Zigzagoon was moving cautiously around Leon to his left, not wanting to get gutted like its friend. The large one didn’t bother, charging right at him. Leon jumped out of the way of the large one, running toward the smaller one instead, kicking it as hard as he could. It went flying and landed in a heap on the road. Leon wanted some room while fighting the fat one.

The large one charged again, going for his legs. Leon kicked it in the face, making it growl and jump away before he could get a good stab in. Leon jumped at it instead, catching it off guard. He held it down as he plunged the knife into its side over and over again.

Suddenly that other Zigzagoon was there, having returned from the road. Taking him by surprise, it jumped at him, latching onto his arm with its teeth.

Leon yelped, jumping up before he realized that it was ineffectually gnawing at the thick fabric of his sweatshirt, menacingly swinging back and forth from its teeth. 

Dagon barked and Leon noticed that he too had dispatched his foe quite easily, getting his maw quite bloody in the process. Knowing that he had no other choice, Leon put the knife under the swaying Zigzagoon’s chin and slit its neck as quickly as he could. Its body hit the ground with a terrible squishing sound.

Dagon barked again. “Oh shut up.” Leon replied. “You’re all covered in blood too. Don’t you dare let Kristy see you like that. She has enough to worry about.”

“Poochyena.” He replied, trotting into the garage, leaving bloody paw prints in his wake. Leon sighed and followed him in, leaving the Zigzagoons where they died.