Timeline of Errors

Part 20 - Findings

"Okay," I said and stepped into the elevator.

The small cramped space, as I expected, was so dusty that I would estimate each surface has about one centimetre worth of dust. The smell of dust and... metal, I suppose, mixed in the air. The floorings were dyed brown-black in an uneven random, swirly pattern, as if someone had vandalised it. Strangely, the elevator had no buttons inside. As soon as the door closed, the elevator zoomed downwards straight away.

"Not to alarm you but I was expecting the elevator to be off," he said.

I gulped and eyed him.

"Do they not cut the power off even after it was closed off as a crime scene? Or did someone turn it on on purpose?" I wondered out loud.

"The latter seems more likely," he said, "...though I can't say for sure as I haven't seen the bills for this place in years,"

After a minute or so, the elevator let out a ding and the doors opened up. I took out my small flashlight and turned it on. Before my eyes, a huge corridor with a few turns on its left and right extended to the distance. Rusty silver panels lined up against each other side by side, screwed to the walls. Round screwheads lined neatly along the ends of each plate. The floors were stained with brown, black, and dark red patterns. The smell of steel and dust mixed in the air, entering my lungs.

...

...now I feel sick, I thought and held my stomach, ...and the worst thing is...

"This can't be all coming from one person - or Pokemon, right?" I remarked.

"No..." he muttered under his breath and put a hand over his nose and mouth, "and since there are some traces of those inside the lift, they probably dragged them up and dumped them to the sea..."

But who are all these people who got- I thought, I don't know if I want to know...

With one hand holding my stomach, I followed him closely behind. The deeper we get, the more black and brown patterns there were on the walls and floors. Our footsteps echoed in the empty corridors, each one of them seemed to make my heart pound louder. There were so many of those patterns and my imagination started to run wild.

Suddenly, there was a loud howling from the other end of the corridor. Out of reflex, I let out a yelp and grabbed onto the guy's arm, knocking off the flashlight. I could only watch as it rolled away to the distance.

"Val! The light-" he exclaimed.

"Sorry!" I said and quickly pulled away. I quickly walked up to where the light was. Reluctantly, I bent down and held out my hand.

There's nothing there, there's nothing there... I thought as I held out my hand closer to the light source. As soon as I felt the smooth, sleek handle in the shape of a cylinder, I breathed a sigh of relief.

But when I looked up, I spotted a pair of big eyes with black beady pupils glaring at me. Instinctively, I screamed and scooted away.

"Valen! What's wrong?!" I could hear the guy's voice echoing in the corridor, followed by a set of quick footsteps.

"Get away from me!" I exclaimed as I scooted away with my flashlight in hand.

With the light on my hand, my eyes finally could caught sight of the monster I bumped into - which just happened to be an Electrode. But then, I heard a loud thud behind me. I turned around and directed my flashlight to the source of the sound, only to see that the guy was banged to the wall.

"Who are you?!" I said and directed the light towards the guy's back.

Unexpectedly, what my eyes caught in that dim light, was a big brown Pokemon with a big drill. It was a Rhyperior, pushing the golden-haired guy to the wall with one arm.

"Lucario, come out and help me!" he said and threw a Pokeball on the ground.

Lucario quickly came out and used Low Kick on the Rhyperior. The bigger monster growled and fell on its back.

"Now, Bone Rush!" he commanded and pointed to the Electrode behind me.

In one breath, Lucario has moved across the room and knocked down Electrode. I stood up abruptly and started shining every inch of the corridor. The lights were reflected by the silver walls, but I didn't catch any other figure. 

"Let's go further," Antonio said, "I don't like this but... we have to find out what happened,"

"...right," I said.

Shining my light across the room, I began to make out so many figures inside the room. Pokémon from different types and habitats, all felled and unconscious. A big white ball lied still in the middle of the hallway. I shone the light forward and spotted a pair of black horns on top of its head. A Glalie.

Ah...

Suddenly a memory just flowed into my head: of the blue haired girl jumping up and down as the Raichu standing in front of us fell on its back, defeated. Its trainer, the man with blonde, spiky hair and droopy eyes, Volkner, just smiled and scratched its head.

"Yeah, we won! We finally won together!" said the girl and clasped my hands.

"For real?! How many tries did it take for us to..." I said and turned to the Pokémon standing before us. Froslass and Glalie.

Then suddenly, I felt a tug on my sleeve. When I looked to the side, a pair of gentle chestnut eyes were staring right into mine. I suddenly snapped back into reality and found myself in the blood-stained, empty corridor and the darkness closing into us. I turned back to the young man next to me. His side-parted golden curls shadowed over his remorseful face. Without another word, I passed the flashlight to him and continued following him from behind.

We kept walking and walking for what felt like forever until we could feel the salty, tangy breeze of the night sea. We arrived at the end of the hallway. At the broken window where the forces of nature trio escaped. And right beneath the window was a young woman. Her messy golden curls covered her face. Her white A-line dress was drenched in red. Her arms and legs were bent the wrong way, like a puppet being pulled the other direction. One of her shoes went missing. Blood streamed down her thighs.

The young man in front of me knelt down. His shoulders begin to shake. Unsure what to say or do, I could only knelt beside him and hugges him as he griefed in front of her.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Pokémon nor Pokémon-related items (Pokeball, Xtransceiver) as they belong to Nintendo and Gamefreak.