Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ 37 P.S. ❯ Where No One Has Gone......Recently ( Chapter 2 )

'…' Thought

Chapter 2: Where No One Has Gone…..Recently

Alan was just finishing the last of his packing, placing his father's well worn journal into a sealed bag and into his pack, when a loud thumping knock came from their door.

"Who do you reckon that is," Misha asked as she hurriedly pulled on a red t-shirt with the word Army emblazoned across the chest. Alan's eyes lingered a moment longer then would be considered polite on her chest and the way it distorted the simple block letters.

"Probably somebody else coming to tell us 'Bye, glad it's not me'," Jeremy quipped as Alan strode over to the door and opened it.

"Err, sir? Lieutenant sir?" Alan stammered at the man standing in the doorway with a bag over his shoulder. "Lieutenant Simms?"

"Are you going to invite me in or make me stand out here all morning?" the slightly haggard looking veteran asked. Alan was a bit above average in height and as such was more then capable of looking the Lieutenant in the eyes but the battle forged hardness in them kept him from feeling the least bit the Lieutenant's equal.

"Oh, of course sir, please come on," Alan said as he recovered his composure. Alan often found himself making disparaging comments about the Lieutenant, usually in regards to his views, but he still respected the man's rank and what he had accomplished. Like every other original member of the Ranger battalion Lieutenant Simms had survived five years of constant combat in the Great War and then another thirty four here in the wilds. He, like everyone else in the village, had accomplished something that the vast majority of humanity had failed to do, live.

The Lieutenant walked into the apartment with a considerable amount of ease for a man missing most of one leg. He still limped but after thirty years of practice he seemed to have mastered the art of walking with one leg and a piece of fiberglass. Without saying a word he walked the short distance to their kitchen table and set the bag he was carrying on top of it with a metallic thunk. "Where are the other two at?" he asked when he noticed that neither Mark or Touji were present."

"Dunno," Alan told him. "They left last night saying they had something to do with their friends. Their packs are still here so I guess they'll be coming back eventually." Which was true, mostly, Alan had his doubts about the two coming back.

"Well, they should probably be here for this but it can't wait," the Lieutenant said. "I don't like what's happening here, you kids shouldn't be asked to do this."

"We volun..." Misha started to reply until a raised finger from Lieutenant Simms cut her off.

"The point is you shouldn't have been asked, or at least just not you five alone. Unfortunately what I have to say seems to have lost all meaning with the counsel, I argued against sending you out unarmed but as usual nobody listened, they insisted that giving you weapons would only lead to trouble."

Alan and Jeremy both looked suspiciously at the bag on the table while Misha asked, "I don't really see what good they'd do, nothing that we could carry and use would make much of a difference to a pokegirl."

"The monsters aren't the only problem," he answered. "We have no idea how far away another group of survivors could be, most of the people who wandered by told us we were the first bit of civilization they had seen in weeks. There's no way you can carry enough food to make it for weeks, besides MRE's taste like shit, I know, I had to live on them for nearly a year. You need something else to eat and you're going to need a rifle if you want to do any hunting. And even if you do find another group of survivors nothing says they're going to be fine upstanding people, you may have to defend yourselves, which is why I brought you these."

Alan, Jeremy and Misha all watched as Simms opened up the large olive drab duffel bag and spread it's contents out on the table. A minute later three short carbines and a pair of larger scoped rifles with wooden stocks now occupied the space usually reserved for dishes and a pile of loaded magazines and five pistols with holster attached to web gear followed. "I assume you all know how to use these?"

"Yeah, Captain Jackson taught us, same as everyone else in the village," Jeremy answered cautiously. Everyone in the village had been taught how to use the majority of the weapons in their arsenal and how to maintain the ones they were likely to have to use for an extended period.

"Good, the M4s will be good for defense," he said taping the barrel of one of the carbines, "if you need to hunt you'll be better doing it with the M21s, just be sure to take care of the scope. I'm guessing that you three will be sticking together?"

"That was the plan," Alan said.

"Then take two M4s and one of the 21s. Each of you grab a set of web gear and plenty of ammo. Keep them in your pack but as soon as you get out in the forest break'em out."

"Why are you doing this?" Jeremy asked. "Aren't you going to get in major trouble for defying the counsel?"

"Yes I will, but it's not like it matters. Nobody listens to me anymore, I'm just an annoyance now," Simms said with a thinly veiled trace of disgust in his voice. "After this I'll probably be kicked out and replaced and honestly I think everyone will be happier with that, even me."

"Thank you sir," Alan said as he picked up one of the carbines.

"You should get going as soon as you can and try to put as much distance between yourselves and the village as possible before nightfall. This place tends to attract a lot of attention and the farther you get from here before you have to stop the better."

"Yes sir, thank you sir," Misha said quietly.

"You're welcome," the elderly lieutenant replied gruffly. "Now I'd best get out of here before one of the old maids around here starts to get nosy." Without waiting for a reply he swung around on his good leg and left the same way he'd came, closing the door behind him.

"Well. That was unexpected," Misha said as the three of them looked down at the assortment of firearms now on their kitchen table.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Misha you grab one of the M4s, Jeremy you take one of the 21s. Grab all the ammo you can," Alan said as he picked up one of the sets of web gear and started to load magazines into the ammo pouches.

Jeremy bristled at the order. "Wait, why am I taking the 21?" he asked.

"And what about Touji and Mark, are we just going to leave them without any ammo?" Misha asked.

"Because you're a better shot then either of us," Alan told Jeremy as he pointed to himself and Misha, "and no, leave them a couple of mags."

Jeremy looked like he wanted to say something but he kept his mouth shut, Misha showed no such hesitation. "Just a couple?"

"Do you think they'd leave us with any? They should have been here anyways."

Misha'sprotest had been half hearted to begin with and Alan's rationalizations were enough to squash whatever lingering doubts she might have had about taking the majority of the ammunition for themselves. The weapons they'd been given were quickly broken down and secreted away in the bundles of gear they were already going to be carrying.

The town had raided it's cache of supplies to equip the group. Clothing and equipment that had been sealed away for the better part of four decades was brought out and given to them. For the first time in his life Alan had a set of clothes that were new and actually fit, not hand me downs or rough hewn attempts at tailoring by his foster mother. Thankfully both he and Jeremy seemed close enough to what the Army had in mind as far as sizing for their soldiers went that the clothes they were given actually fit, even the boots though Jeremy complained that they were a bit tight. Misha wasn't quite so lucky.

Alan had often teased her about being all legs and tits, not that it bothered her since she agreed but now she was wishing that it had just been teasing. Her long legs were an asset as the pants they were given could be made to fit her with only a bit of cuffing but nothing was going to keep them up on her tiny little waist. Eventually they'd had to take a belt and cut a new hole in it several inches farther in then even the tightest setting and even after that she still complained that she thought they were going to fall right off her ass.

"Well maybe if you had an ass..." Jeremy taunted.

"Oh just eat me asshole," she'd snapped.

"I would if you'd let me."

A one fingered salute was the only response he got from her. Her shirt dilemma was solved by grabbing up the smallest sized shirts she could find and then ripping off several inches of the bottoms and the sleeves so that they fit her without hanging loose in inconvenient places. The final effect was her wearing a shirt that looked like it had been painted on to her body and a pair of pants that looked big enough for her to camp in, even her boots were over-sized and only stayed on her feet with the help of three layers of the thickest socks they could find.

"Maybe we should have seen if there were any kiddy clothes left," Alan muttered.

"They'd probably fit better," Misha agreed.

Alan shook himself out of his revere he'd fallen into remembering their conversation earlier in the day to find himself staring at Misha's chest as she adjusted the straps of her pack. The thick padded shoulder straps of the harness pushed her breasts in towards each other accentuating them nicely. She'd always complained that she didn't think they were big enough but in Alan's opinion they were just perfect, just big enough to be a little more then an handful but not so huge that it looked like she had two pieces of fruit stuffed down the front of her shirt. For what seemed like the millionth time since he'd learned all the nice little differences between girls and boys Alan found himself wishing that Misha preferred the company of the opposite sex.

Snatching his pack off of his bed where he'd left it Alan got it situated on his back before picking up the one piece of old clothing he was still going to use. He'd been given the option of getting a new hat, one that wasn't sun bleached half way to white and that hadn't been patched so many times that it was doubtful any original fabric remained but Alan had insisted on wearing his mother's old booney hat. He'd said that he simply preferred the wide brimmed floppy hat because it was already broken in, the truth was that just like his father's journal was the last piece of him he had left, his mother's old hat was the one bit of her that still remained. Even though they had both died while he was still too young to remember them it just felt right to him to keep the journal and the hat close.

"Alright, let's get out of here before they organize some sort of parade or something," Alan said. "I hate long good byes."

"Yeah let's go," Misha agreed, "the longer we stick around here the better the chance that somebody'll visit the armory and notice a few things missing." With that she deftly reigned in the mass of blonde curls that adorned her head and tied them back into a pony tail that sat low enough on her head to let her pull on the new camo cap she'd taken from the supplies.

Jeremy brought up the rear, unlike his friends he hadn't bothered with a hat and his the dull red fuzz he called his hair clashed with the all over camouflaged and olive drab clothes he was wearing. Alan had his doubts about the wisdom of Jeremy's choice given that even after sixteen years in the sun Jeremy's skin was still quite pale compared to his own tan. Misha put them both to shame as her tan had long ago settled into a radiant shade somewhere between a deep copper and bronze.

They had said their good byes to their foster parents the night before so that everyone could get emotional at a time when it wouldn't interfere with their trip so there was really nothing left to do leave.

The sun had only just begun to head for the eastern horizon when the group decided to go, even though the village was full of farmers there were few people out and about yet, most of them were just waking up and wouldn't head for the fields until dawn. The only light that illuminated their path was what was reflecting off the clouds from the sun that was still half an hour from rising bathing the village in a soft diffuse light, the kind that hid all the flaws and the dirt and made everything look perfect. 'The kind of lighting that leaves you with fond memories of home,' Alan mused.

The western of the two gates out of the village was still shut tight when they arrived, a muted shout to the guard was all it took to get permission to leave. Rather then come all the way down to open the gate himself the bored guard whispered something to someone they couldn't see. A second later a small pokegirl bounded over the railing of the guard tower and landed right in front of them, taking the ten meter drop like it was nothing more then a ten centimeter step. After giving the trio a happy smile the yellow skinned girl turned towards the gate and lifted the half meter square beam used to seal it out of the way. Like every other pokegirl in the village, save the girls who naturally had some sort of covering to protect their non existent modesty the little pokegirl was wearing a skirt and tube top that appeared to have been stitched together out of the burlap from an old fifty pound bag of coffee beans. In short order the five meter square, two thirds of a meter thick gate had been swung out of their way and with a quick thank you to the guard's little helper they left the confines of the village where they'd spent their entire lives.

"So, where exactly are we headed oh fearless leader?" Jeremy asked Alan as they walked along one of the berms separating the rice paddies.

"Well, I figured we'd head towards the city," was his reply.

"Do you have a reason or are you just pulling this out of your ass like usual?" Misha asked from between them as the followed each other in single file.

Alan answered, "My ass of course." He'd learned the hard way that letting her rile him only provoked her to greater heights of aggravation.

"Seriously," Jeremy said.

"Why are you two asking me?" he shot back.

Misha did her best to sooth her friends nerves. "Give it up Alan, you're in charge, same as always."

Alan couldn't remember why Misha and Jeremy had always seemed to follow his lead but for as long as he could remember they had. The two of them never complained about it and he was the only one who ever seemed to question it. It still made him uneasy that the two of them were so ready to let him make major decisions like this. "Fine, the city and the mountains are the only two land marks around here that you can see for miles. The way I figure it any one who comes through this area is likely to go through or by one of them. The city seems more hospitable and more likely to me. It's also a hell of a lot closer."

"Thirty five clicks through the jungle isn't exactly close," Jeremy complained.

"Closer then sixty," Alan retorted. "Two days, three max and we're there."

"If everything goes alright," Misha added.

"Like that'll happen," Jeremy snorted.

"Not with that attitude it won't," Misha said.

Alan ignored the both of them, Jeremy tended to have a perpetually bad attitude about everything which clashed with Misha's much more upbeat one. She was always trying to get him to look on the bright side of things while he went to great lengths to inform her that there usually wasn't a bright side to anything. "If we can find somebody in the city there's a good chance that they can point us in the right direction to find a settlement. We'll have a hell of a lot better chance of finding something quickly if we already know where to look instead of wandering around aimlessly."

"If they're friendly," Jeremy said.

"If they aren't then we've got what we need to deal with them thanks to the Lieutenant," Alan assured him.

"What the hell was that all about," Jeremy asked as they drew closer to the forest edge.

"No idea," Alan said absently as he considered the forest before them.

"Just because he doesn't like the monster girls doesn't mean he's a horrible person you know," Misha scolded them.

"Maybe so, but it makes you wonder what was going on in the counsel meeting if he was the only person on our side," Jeremy said.

The trio walked off the berm and onto the flat field that separated the village's farmland from the forest. To the south and east of the village the field was hundreds of meters wide so that the village's livestock would have room to graze, but here on the west side it was only eighty meters wide. The line between the long grass of the field and the thick tangle of vines and limbs that was the forest was a sharp demarcation. Any intrusion of the forest onto the field was quickly taken care of, the villagers wanted to make sure that there was plenty of open cover-less land between the forest and the monsters it held and them.

"You guys ready for this?" Alan asked as they paused a good ten meters from the brush.

"No," Jeremy said mirthlessly.

"Not in a million years," Misha grumbled.

"Then let's go," Alan said.

Lieutenant Simms had to strain to be able to see the trio from the top of the west wall and as he watched the forest swallowed the three orphans. "Godspeed little ones," he said quietly to himself.

"Lieutenant Simms sir?" a determined voice said from his left several minutes later.

Simms knew who was speaking to him without even looking. "What is it Master Sergeant?"

"Would you come with us sir?"

Standing next to the Sergeant were his two pokegirls, one of which dwarfed even the tall Sergeant and all three of them looked like they meant business. "Well that was quick."

The elder Sergeant gestured towards the stairs leading down from the rampart. "Sir." It wasn't a request.

"You don't need to be so formal Curt, I've known you for years," Simms drawled as he started towards the stairs.

"Yes sir, I know sir but I'm afraid in this case I must be."

"Of course."