I let out a harsh laugh, unable to tear my eyes away from the view in front of me. For a long few minutes, I simply stood there. Coming to terms with how utterly and completely screwed I was.

The situation might not have been that bad if I had a pokémon with me. But alone? Alone there was almost nothing I could do. Trapped close to two miles aboveground and on a mountain no doubt covered with strong pokémon?

Eventually, a frigid wind slashed against my almost numb face, forcing me out of my stupor. Noticing my almost constant shiver, I quickly scurried back around the corner of the tunnel and out of the wind. Hurrying a dozen meters farther down the tunnel, I eventually could feel myself starting to warm back up, to a point I’d survive if nothing else.

Collapsing onto the ground and against the wall, I rested my head against the rough stone. For a long minute, I simply stared into empty space. Slowly, the lessons I’d learned about surviving on a pokémon journey started echoing in my head.

“Alright, think… What do I have?” Closing my eyes to focus, I slowly listed out everything I had on me. Hiking boots, work pants, t-shirt, hoodie, and my… My… My Pokégear! My eyes snapped open, and the wrist my pokégear was on practically flew into view. And it was only a moment later that the spark of hope I’d felt just a moment before was snuffed out.

Zero signal. I didn't know whether it was due to where I was or the storm outside. All I knew was that I couldn’t contact anyone. The only thing that seemed to be working was the internal clock and calendar. Well, those and the pokémon team screen. But given I didn’t have even one, let alone a team, it didn’t seem all that important.

But hey, at least I knew it was almost ten o’clock! Snorting to myself at that attempt at humor, I again realized just how screwed I was. No water, no food, no cold weather clothes, and no idea where I was. “Alright, enough pity Daniel. What are my options?” I muttered to myself.

Looking towards the corner leading back outside, I mentally crossed it out. I wouldn’t survive ten minutes out there, not an option. Looking the other way, I saw the tunnel slope gently downwards and into darkness. A better option, but not ideal. Who knows what pokémon I could run into, not to mention if it actually leads downwards and doesn’t just go back up later on.

And my last option was simply waiting. I could technically just stay here. Try and wait out the storm, hope that when it died down signal would be available for me to send out a message, call for help, that sort of thing.

Arguing with myself, I slowly felt my eyelids falling more and more. Finally, I realized that the adrenaline that had kept me going was fading. More than that, I was utterly exhausted. Moving slowly, I stripped off my hoodie and moved farther into the cave and away from the seeping chill at the cave’s mouth.

Placing my balled-up hoodie on the ground like a pillow, I slowly and gently laid down. “Just waiting until tomorrow, then I can decide….” Sleepily justifying it to myself, I let my mind slip into unconsciousness.

Shivering ever so slightly, my eyes opened blearily. Seeing rough-hewn rock around me, I grimaced as an ache shot through my body.

All of a sudden, my eyes shot wide open as the full weight of what happened slammed into me again. My chest heaved for breath for a few moments before slowly calming again. Feeling the all-pervading chill around me, I quickly yanked my hoodie back on, desperate for whatever protection I could get.

Then I froze. And then I heard it again. Rough, heavy, and labored breathing coming from outside the cave. Slowly, ever so slowly, I quietly moved towards the corner leading back to the outside. Peering around, I looked cautiously for the source of the breathing, ready to duck away in a moment if the source was a pokémon of some kind.

To my shock and joy, there he was. A man in heavy, cold weather clothes was leaning against the wall in the cave mouth, looking towards the snowstorm outside with a mixture of exhaustion and frustration on his face. A thick but streamlined backpack rested over his shoulders; I recognized the symbol for the Devon Corporation on one corner of the backpack. And more important than anything, four miniaturized pokéballs resting in a belt holster.

I listened for a moment as he muttered to himself about the storm. I could barely believe my luck, that a trainer was making their way along the mountain in position to find me.

Before I could hesitate any longer, I stepped fully around the corner, “Hey!”

His head snapped in my direction as his hand went to his holster. As he caught sight of me, his hand relaxed at the same time as shock and surprise made their way across his expression.

“What in the hell are you doing up here?!” He exclaimed. He glanced at the snowstorm outside before snapping back to me, seeming to take in my lack of winter clothes. “Holy shit, get out of the wind!” He rushed over and hurried me around the corner before I could respond.

Only a few moments later, I was once more leaning against the stone wall while he stood across from me, disbelief evident on his face. “What the fuck are you doing up here, kid?”

Shivering slightly, I tried to grin, but it faltered halfway. “I… I um… There was an attack, and our Kadabra was teleporting people away, but….” As I spoke, I watched his lips curl in a wince as he listened, “It was hit with a Dark Pulse when it tried to teleport me and… I just appeared here, and I just….” I let out a long shuddering breath, “I’m just happy I’m not alone up here.”

He grimaced, “Yeah, I imagine….” He let out a long sigh, “Look, kid, I don’t know what kind of luck you have, but it ain’t good. We’re about a third of the way up Mt. Coronet right now,” Hearing that, I felt a bolt of sudden fear shoot through me. If there was one thing I knew about Mt. Coronet, it was that it tended to have the most powerful pokémon in the region, mainly around the upper reaches. Still, they tend to be stronger than usual, even at the bottom.

“If I had to guess, then we’re just a little below where the evolved residents make their homes, which actually makes this relatively safe….” He must have seen my confused expression when he glanced towards me from where he was looking at the dark tunnel.

“Think about it this way, the stronger a pokémon is, the higher it goes on the mountain. The area we’re in has the strongest first stage pokémon. But because there’s relatively few of them, this ‘layer’,” He made air quotes when saying layer, “This layer is actually pretty empty. When they evolve, they go up, and if they’re too weak, they go lower down.”

I slowly nodded, feeling a little hope from listening to him explain. I started to realize how lucky I really was. Any higher on the mountain, and I would be in the middle of evolved pokémon. Any lower, and I could be surrounded by many first-stage pokémon instead. Somehow, I landed in the perfect middle.

I suddenly realized I didn’t know his name, “Um, my name is Daniel….” My voice was quiet, subdued.

He looked at me for a moment before his expression softened, “I’m Nathan. I’d say glad to meet ya, but this is really not a good situation.”

I could only nod with a weak smile in response. Nathan glanced back towards the entrance, “Guess it’s a good thing the storm hit then, no matter how weird it is. Otherwise, I would have just blown past this cave….”

Seeing my questioning gaze, he explained, “I was planning on trying to break into the top third of Mt. Coronet this trip. I’m pretty sure I could do it, even if they do start getting pretty damn strong up there.” Nathan glanced towards the entrance again, “But I guess I’d better get you off this mountain. Soon as this storm ends, we’ll get you off, okay?”

I nodded mutely, too relieved to speak meaningfully. He didn’t seem to know what to do any more than me. Finally, he cleared his throat, “So uh, how old are you?”

I laughed softly, “I’m fifteen. Turning sixteen in, roughly two weeks.”

He nodded slowly, “So, you thinking of being a trainer or something else?”

I smiled, trying my best to ignore where we were. “Yeah, that was- is the plan.” I cut myself off when I recognized myself speaking in the past tense.

He grinned, “Good choice. I won’t lie, crazy shit happens sometimes, and it can be hard, but I think it’s worth it.” He drummed his fingers on his belt’s holster, “Me and my partners here, that’s what it’s about.”

He winced suddenly, “Of course, most people get a gentler start than getting teleported to Mt. Coronet like this….” His voice trailed off. My eyes widened for a moment as I realized he’d been trying to distract me. Unfortunately, he wasn’t all that good at it.

Trying to keep it from being awkward, I tried to joke. “Well, if nothing else, it’ll be a great story… Though people probably won’t believe me.”

He smiled gently for a moment. “Well, as nice as this awkward standing around is, we should probably—”

Before he could finish, an impossibly loud, ear-splitting screech echoed into the tunnel from outside. A mere moment after hearing it, a massive blast of snow billowed out of the tunnel entrance, and some floated around the corner.

Ducking away from the sudden blast of cold wind, I looked over at Nathan in time to see his face pale. Before I knew it, he was shucking his backpack off and tossing it at me. Quickly catching it, “What– what’s happening?!”

Nathan’s expression scared me with its mix of worry and apprehension. “Go, run and hide until I come back, okay? Stay deeper in until I return, and don’t lose that bag!” He spoke quickly and sternly, making me swallow and nod.

A moment passed before he reached out and gently pushed me, “Go! Fucking go!” Even as he shouted at me, he was pulling one of his pokéballs from his belt and running to make it around the corner.

For a second, I stared in disbelief at where Nathan had been just a few moments ago. The sound of a massive roar shook me from my stupor, though, letting me grip Nathan’s bag more tightly and start to stumble further into the tunnel-like he told me. As I recovered from the shock of it all, I started picking up the pace, navigating by the little remaining light available.

I’d made it only a few dozen meters when I felt a massive shudder pass through the rock, making me stumble. It was accompanied by another roar that was quickly drowned out by the ear-rending screech sounding out again.

Forcing myself not to look back and reminding myself that I could only be a hindrance, I kept going. As the light faded more and more, I went from a jog to a careful walk.

Once I’d gone roughly a hundred meters farther in, I glanced back just in time to hear one more screech. And then the mountain trembled. I was knocked from my feet, falling to my hands and knees. One hand clutched at the bag to keep from losing it in the dark.

My face paled as I heard a groaning sound, followed by a cracking sound. I swore as I looked back the way I came in time to watch the roof of the tunnel begin to cave in, collapsing down and making its way towards me.

Shouting out swear words, I scrambled forward on all fours before I managed to get to my feet. I started running all out, not taking a moment to pause as I heard rock and stone collapsing and crushing everything behind me.

After almost three minutes of constantly running from the collapsing rock, I feel my stomach drop out from under me as I trip over a loose stone on the ground. Without a second thought, I curl myself around the bag I held, squeezing my eyes shut as I prepare to be crushed.

A moment passes, and then a minute. Slowly, I lifted my head from where I was curled up on the ground. It took me an embarrassingly long couple of minutes to realize that the silence was just that, silence. I couldn’t hear any more collapsing tunnel.

I reached out hesitantly and tapped my pokégear, using the screen's light to illuminate the darkness around me. Peering back with the light, I realized the tunnel had stopped collapsing a dozen seconds before I had tripped; I’d just been too panicked to notice.

I simply stared at the collapsed slope of rock for a long few minutes. Ever so gently, I swallowed the lump in my throat that I hadn’t even noticed was there. My head fell, and my gaze was held by the bag still in my arms. Slowly, I sank down against the tunnel wall, clutching the bag to my chest.

Alone and in the dark, I cried.