Chapter 20

Most people, when confronted with a sound they could only recognize as explosions, run as far away as possible. Explosions imply destruction, damage, injury, and death; to the layperson, those are four things that are to be avoided at all costs. A person with a semblance of sanity and reason would hear explosions from over a dozen miles away and do everything in his power to put more distance between himself and the possible devastation. And while a person in a peaceful setting will tell you he knows enough to evacuate in a calm, orderly manner, the reality is that most people flee in a frenzied, selfish fashion. Self-preservation tends to kick in, and it becomes every-man-for-himself to get as far away from the peril as quickly as possible.

So it was not without cause that Sam found himself questioning his mental state as he and Barry raced northward through the woods surrounding Lake Valor trying to find the source of what they thought to be explosions.

Even as Sam had long-since dismissed the idea that the origin of the noise was the Phoenix Corporation at Lake Valor—it turned out their camp hadn’t been far from the lake’s northern edge, and the sound could not possibly have been so close—they continued hurrying onward. Barry, perhaps caught up in the adrenaline of potential action and conflict, had only given one clue since they passed the lake, a word he mumbled aloud as he picked up his pace.

“So you think the sound was coming from Veilstone?”

Barry shrugged as he slowed down just enough to be able to coherently speak and run simultaneously. “I guess. I mean, it wasn’t the lake, right?” 

Sam looked back over his shoulder. The lake was a ways back by then. “Yeah, I thought it was, too. But I didn’t see anything.”

“Well the only thing else up this way is Veilstone City. It’s got to be from there.”

“Barry… Barry!” Sam’s partner continued his running until Sam got enough of his own hand on his shoulder to slow him down. “Barry, slow down!”

Barry came to a seemingly reluctant stop as he continued looking over his shoulder in the direction of the city. “It’s amazing how much slower not moving is than moving,” he complained.

“It’s a city, Barry. When we thought it could be Carlos and the crew blowing stuff up trying to find one of the guardians, yeah. Then we ran really frantically towards the danger. But the sound of explosions coming from a city? That really had to have just been fireworks. Think about it; it’s not like someone is bombing a city, right?”

“I told you there’s no holiday or anything…”

“A sporting event then. There’s always a reason for fireworks.”

“They don’t have any teams.”

“Well what do they have?”

Barry lifted his bottom lip in contemplation before finally offering, “The world’s largest rock wall.”

“The what?”

“World’s largest rock wall. You know,” Barry motioned his hands in the air as if he were grabbing onto things, “those big fake mountainsides with the nubs? And you climb it?”

“A rock wall?”

“The world’s largest.”

“Is that a thing?”

“Sure. Some places advertise, like, the world’s biggest ball of yarn or yogurt or thumbtack. They have the world’s largest rock wall.”

Sam shook his head. “I don’t think anyone has the world’s largest yogurt.”

“Someone does. Think about it.”

Sam waved Barry off with both hands. They’d gotten off track. “Okay, whatever. World’s largest rock wall… that’s not cause for fireworks.”

“Is what I’m saying.”

“Then what else do they have?”

Barry tapped his foot and looked back again in the direction of the city. “Look, can we just go see, okay? It’ll make me feel better.”

Sam hesitated before he nodded. There was something that Barry was hiding from him; he was far more anxious than the situation seemed to merit, even accounting for possible explosions. But still, Sam couldn’t help but think that Barry had earned his trust. And they had just talked about Barry’s guilt over the last time he’d lied to him; it was unlikely he would put himself right back into a similar situation. Whatever it was he wasn’t saying, there had to be a good reason he was holding it back, and Sam felt obliged to give him that. After all, if there really were explosions in a nearby city, Sam would certainly find out what they were about soon enough. He pointed ahead. “All right, let’s go.”

Sam had no idea how close Veilstone might have been by vehicle, but it was quite a distance by foot. They’d already been rushing through the woods for well over an hour by Sam’s best guess, and he had not heard any noise other than the Kricketots around them chirping, nor had he seen any lights or buildings in the distance. Even if Barry knew where Veilstone was in relationship to Lake Valor, navigating at night, in the woods, guided only by sounds that had stopped not long after they had left their camp was hardly ideal. But still, how far away could Veilstone have been if they were able to hear fireworks from where they set up camp? They would have to be arriving soon. 

*

It had been just a few months ago that Sam last visited his parents’ grave. Throughout their childhood, Tommy made sure they visited as often as possible. Each parent’s birthday, the anniversary of each of their deaths, and some day near every one of the major holidays were always reserved for a visit. Tommy would request those days off to make sure he was available—he would never let Sam miss classes, though—and they would head to the Angel of Peace cemetery on the outskirts of Goldenrod City. They would leave their car at the cemetery gate and walk the eighth of a mile through the rolling field of the burial grounds to their parents’ stones. They were modest markers since their mother had died so surprisingly during Sam’s infancy, but it seemed to suit the kind of person their dad was. Tommy had always reassured him that it fit their mom’s personality, too. 

Every time they came to the cemetery, Tommy would insist on scrubbing their headstones and replacing the flowers. Even after the short few weeks that separated dad’s death and mom’s birthday, there had to be a new arrangement. It seemed to Sam like such a waste of the money that Tommy worked so hard for, but he would not hear any resistance; if they were visiting, they were putting up new flowers, and that was that. He never understood the scrubbing of their markers, either, but again, Tommy would not go without. He would say that they deserved it, and that was the end of discussion.

The last time Sam had visited, he did not bring an arrangement. He did not bring the bucket and sponges, either. It was not a birthday or anniversary. He stood in silence in front of their stones even though he was looking almost anywhere but at them. He sniffed.

“I don’t know what I’m doing.”

He was there for who-knew-how-long before the words came to him. When he spoke them, he waited. It was foolish to think there would be a reply, of course, but he would have been lying if he said he was not praying for some kind of sign.

“Do you know your son is dying? Do you even know? Wherever you are. He is. Tommy’s—I don’t know what to do. He’s sick, and he’s not even there when I talk to him, and he’s-he’s-he’s,… I don’t know. I don’t know what to do!”

Sam was immediately embarrassed by the rising of his voice and looked around. There was no sign of anyone nearby that could have been witness to his shame. Without anyone there to guilt Sam’s rage into subsiding, he grew emboldened and finally looked down at their stones. 

“He’s so young and he’s everything to me, and you’re dead. What kind of parent—who are you to just leave and let Tommy die? He needs you! I can’t help him, and I don’t know what to do! Everything he’s done for me after you both left, and now we both need you, and you’re fu—“ he shook his head and lowered his voice again. He raised a hand to his ears to see if they were as hot as they seemed. “You’re both gone, and now Tommy’s going to die and I’m going to be alone. So good job, mom and dad. Good damn job.”

His eyes moved to the right, to the large empty area next to their mother’s plot that could easily hold two more sites. After mom had died, dad began paying on spaces for himself and both brothers in case anything else had ever happened. Sam, at all of twenty-four years old, saw two of the four spaces already filled with the third possibly to come. 

“You got us spaces. All of us, like you knew Tommy and I would never grow up and have our own families. You just shackled us here next to you. Did you know this was going to happen to him? Did you? And you just left! You abandoned us, and this is—what, supposed to make it okay? ‘Hey, sorry we aren’t there to help save your life, Tommy, but here’s a god damned hole in the ground for you to rot in after you—‘” He stopped at the realization that he’d reared his right leg back and was about to kick his father’s marker. The leg trembled at the stress in his calf muscled before he planted it back on the ground. He laughed at the thought that if he were to kick the stone, Tommy might wake up just to come give it a vigorous scrubbing. The laugh vanished, but it unlocked the tears that had not yet flowed to that moment, and they streamed down his face and past his neck. Sam fell forward onto his knees.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m sorry. I know, I know you didn’t—I just don’t know what to do. I don’t want to lose—“

He was interrupted by a popping noise and an eruption of red and yellow in the air. Within moments, there was another, this one purple. In short order, the sky filled with fireworks. Sam had gotten so wrapped up in himself that he had forgotten it was J Day, the celebratory anniversary of Johtoan independence from Kanto. All around the continent, cities were starting their festivities as dusk fell. The sudden lights in the sky and sound all around him made Sam feel that the moment was no longer his own. He placed a hand on each of his parents’ headstones.

“I never believed you could hear us when we came here. Tommy did, but I didn’t. I’m sorry about that, but it’s true. And now, I just really hope you couldn’t hear me. But if you can—if you can, I promise you I will fix this. I will fix Tommy. I won’t let anything happen to him.”

He pushed off the ground in front of him and looked to the sky to see the bursts of celebration. He would end up staying there with his parents under the lights until the finale.

*

Sam removed himself from his memory enough to realize the woods were thinning, and the sound of traffic and sirens and helicopters were replacing those of pokemon around him and twigs crunching under his shoes. Ahead of him he saw structures instead of trees. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been lost in thought at the memory as he took in the sight of the city before him.

Most noticeable was the cloud of dust and debris that hung in the air. It seemed most dense over the east end of Veilstone, but it had dispersed over the entire town, and the brightness of several spotlights reflected off it. Apparently, it had not been fireworks after all. All traffic in the city had come to a standstill, and angry brakelights peppered the highways that seemed to run the perimeter of the town as horns blared in palpable frustration. The line of traffic lead to the source of the debris and smoke: a mess of a structure with no southern wall. 

A tall, brick perimeter wall surrounded the gray, decimated building, but there were several holes taken out of it, as well. The perimeter wall was lined along its top with razorwire, and through its new cavities, Sam could see dozens of men in orange jumpsuits being kept at bay by men with riot gear. As Sam scanned the building, he saw a veritable armada of officers, police dogs and pokemon, and armored vehicles. In the sky, searchlights fighting futilely against the unsettled cloud of mayhem, roamed several choppers. 

“Was that a prison?” Sam asked as he and Barry began running past houses and office buildings rather than trees.

“It is,” Barry grunted. He was clearly winded from their pace, but he refused to give it up. “Crap, it is. It is!”

Pieces came together in Sam’s mind. “The explosions we heard were from there? From that prison?”

“Well it was all in one piece the last time I saw it, so… probably!”

“Okay, so a prison blew up! Why are we still running there?”

“I have to see! I have to know if he’s still there!”

“Who?”

“Hey! You two! Stop!”

Barry had led Sam into the edge of the city, and apparently an area that was under security from local law enforcement since there was now a cop chasing them down the street between apartment buildings. The officer was shining his flashlight at them and waving it erratically to get their attention. Sam was so caught up in looking back at the bewildered man that he barely noticed Barry rush by him and back towards the cop.

“Hey, cop! I’m sorry we just barged in, but I really need to know if anyone escaped the prison! What happened here?”

Sam could see now that they were all stopped that the cop was a very young officer, possibly between Sam and Barry’s ages. He had the wide-awake look of a man who was not ready to see the things that he just had that night. He alternated shining the light in Barry and Sam’s faces.

“I can’t tell you that, sir. I mean, we don’t have any verification of anything set in… I just don’t know. We don’t know. I need you to—wait…” The officer had lingered the light on Barry’s face and the horror of realization grabbed him. He snatched his walkie-talkie and shouted into it. “I need help! Barry West is here; I have him on sixth, between Oak and Washington Streets! Barry West, the terrorist kid! He’s here! I need back—“

Barry had reacted so quickly, Sam had not even seen him release Monferno before the monkey used its mach punch attack to send the young policeman to the ground.

“Barry! Are you insane?”

Barry grabbed Sam’s arm and pulled him in the direction of the prison. “No time, gotta go!”

“You just attacked a cop!” Sam yelled back, finally pulling himself free of Barry’s grip and moving on his own.

“I think we all knew that at some point I was going to end up attacking a cop.”

“No! No, I didn’t know that!”

“Well you really should know me better by this point in our relationship, Sam.”

“Barry, you’ve got to stop! For one thing, my lungs are going to explode out of my chest. We’ve been hurrying like this forever. For another, the cops seem to have everything about as in-hand as it’s going to get. Can you just tell me what’s going on?”

Barry did slow himself to a stop. He looked back towards Sam and then in the direction of the prison. As if resigning himself that Sam was right, he slowly walked back. Sam noticed Barry’s arm come across his chest and knew his partner was feeling the sharpness there just as he was.

“Yeah. I mean… yeah. Sorry. I just… I have to get to the prison.”

“Why? Because you think someone escaped? That’s what you asked the cop, right?” 

“Yeah. The guy who killed my parents. That’s where he is. I just have to know…”

Barry and Sam were suddenly bathed in light. A helicopter above them had focused its searchlight right on the pair. Sam spun as he took in his surroundings; there were cops everywhere. Some were aiming guns at the two of them, and others were standing next to their released pokemon. There were at least twenty officers and several pokemon all told. To say they did not look happy was an understatement. Sam saw an officer off to his right who could not have been much older than the one Monferno had clobbered. The young cop’s right hand twitched while aiming a gun at them while his other wiped the sweat from his brow. Sam’s eyes shifted to another officer; this one was breathing so hard Sam could see his nostrils flaring from several feet away. These cops, who had spent the last few hours dealing with containing an emergency situation in the middle of the night, were clearly on edge. 

“Stay where you are! You are surrounded and ordered to comply or face aggressive measures! This is your only warning!”

“Hey, we’re not hurting anyone here,” Barry replied, starting towards the one issuing the command.

“Barry…,”

“I just need to know what happened tonight.”

“Barry,” Sam called with more urgency. He saw the officer who had been wiping his brow perk upward and roll his shoulders back. Both hands were on his weapon at that moment. 

“I’m not a terrorist, all right? That’s just stupid.”

“Barry!”

Sam dove forward, wrapping his arms around Barry’s legs and pulling him down. Somewhere above them, he heard a bullet zip through the air followed by two more. At least one of the officers had opened fire. In his grasp, Sam felt Barry’s body twitch and jerk involuntarily with each crack of a shot fired. Sam pulled his own body forward across Barry’s; partly to keep his young friend from doing anything stupid, and partly to put something between Barry and the bullets.

The officers were on them before Sam had a second to think of what to do next. They pulled him off of Barry and lifted the two of them up. They were each pushed off in opposite directions, causing Sam to look back and call out his friend’s name again in shock. An officer twisted Sam’s head back forward before slamming him face-first into the side of a building. Sam’s nose flushed with heat and he felt liquid run down from it, through his moustache and over his mouth. He never got a chance to see if Barry was all right. Someone grabbed his arms with force and turned them behind his back.

“I will break your damn arm, man. Stay still and quit resisting!”

Sam tried to reply that he wasn’t resisting, but the words were unrecognizable. He was having a hard time getting air through his nostrils, and when he opened his lips, the warm, salty fluid filled his mouth. The officer wrenched Sam’s arms back further than his shoulders wanted them to go, and Sam cried out in agony. He felt a sharp edge cut into the side of his wrist and heard a zipping noise as his hands were bound behind his back. He risked another glance back to see if Barry was okay, but his vision was blurred by the tears that were suddenly filling his eyes. One of the cops, apparently unconcerned over whether or not Sam could see anything anyway, snapped a forearm into Sam’s cheekbone and forced his face forward again. Amidst the police yelling at him and to each other, Sam could not hear Barry’s voice at all.

He felt a hand shoot into his pocket, and Sam kicked back in its direction on pure instinct. The foolish reaction was met with another scream about resisting arrest and having his legs being kicked out from under him. He’d already lost most of his vision, and when the back of his head hit the concrete, the world’s sound left him, too. A low humming filled his head, and he felt the cops pull him upwards even though Sam knew he wouldn’t be able to stand. It mattered little because it was not long before they tossed him headlong onto a seat cushion, and he realized he must have been in the backseat of a car.