“I’m hungry, I’m thirsty, I’m tired, and I want to get a proper night’s sleep!” June bemoaned.

“I’m with you, June,” I mumbled, feeling so drained that I could barely get my lips to move. “At least… it’s almost… nighttime.” The sun was setting, the heat not so intense but still sapping what little energy I had left inside of me. June’s feet dragged through the sand, not lifting up an inch, and my feet were doing the exact same thing. I hope it’s a lot more comfortable inside of the Poke Balls for our Pokemon, I thought.

It had been days of us traveling. How many days? I had no idea. Since we had entered this desert, I’d witnessed the sun set at least four times, but it felt like we’d been here for much longer. I hoped that it had been a much shorter period of time, but I feared that we may have been here for at least a week. June and I were both filthy, covered in sand, and completely out of water.

June dropped to her knees and then slowly slid further down.

“June,” I breathed with exhaustion. “Please.”

June collapsed in the sand on her face and didn’t move.

I took a step towards her and stumbled, falling to my knees near her. “June…” I slowly, weakly, reached out and grabbed her shoulder, but I had no energy to shake her. My hand slid off of her, into the sand. I can’t keep this up any longer, I thought to myself. I don’t have any energy. Even with the sun setting, I just can’t keep this up. Even thinking is making me exhausted.

The sun had just gone down, disappearing from view, the sky darkening even further.

What are we gonna do? I wondered. We can’t just stay here like this. Cooler air blew around me, but it wasn’t helping any. I needed water. I needed a bed. I needed proper sleep. Where are we? I looked around, but as usual, I saw nothing but sand stretching into infinity, a cactus in the distance. Against my will, my body dropped down and I fell on my side, staring at June as my eyes began to close. This is it, I told myself. This is as far as we’re gonna get. This is our journey through Unova. Sand flew into my face, the wind blowing a little bit harder.

A strange noise rustled through the sand, almost sounding like footsteps.

Must be my imagination, I convinced myself. I’m totally losing it. I’m finished. It’s over for me and June. No more energy left. I can’t even move.

The shuffling sound continued. It had a slow pace to it.

What is that? I was too tired to turn around to see what it was. Is it getting… closer? No. It’s just the sand being tossed about by the wind. Or, maybe it’s help from someone? Maybe… If so, let them save us. I just can’t...

The sounds were indeed getting closer. They kept at a slow pace, but got slightly louder with time.

Melissa? I remembered the hallucination I had seen in the desert a few days ago. That thought flung my eyelids open and I squinted through the sand at June.

She was still in the sand, not moving, facedown.

Poor June. As the sounds got closer to us, I realized that we could be in some kind of danger. I felt that, with June unconscious, we, and our Pokemon, were at risk. I have to keep us all safe if I can. I have to! Groaning, I found strength inside of me and pushed myself up, forcing myself to turn around onto my back, and I sat up as I squinted into the sand. “Huh?”

Nobody was out there. The only thing I could see was that cactus.

I stared at it for a long time, silently, breathing hard through my dry nostrils, my dry throat aching. A cactus! I thought excitedly as a light bulb went on over my head. Of course! They have water in them! Panting, I crawled over to June and grabbed her shoulder again, shaking it hard. “June! I think I’ve found some water. Or juice or whatever. There’s a cactus over there. Come on.”

June stirred, but then remained still.

“June!” I shook her even harder. “Wake up!” I turned her around and laid her on her back. “Get up!” I shook her hard and brushed sand off of her face. “Water!!” I choked and coughed hard from screaming my last word, my throat throbbing in pain now.

June groaned, her eyes tightening, and her head tilted to the side. “I can’t… Please…” she mumbled weakly.

“June, there’s water over there,” I croaked out to her. “Stay here. I’m coming right back with some water.”

June’s head nodded slightly.

I crawled over to my bag to pull my bottle of water from it, and then grunted strongly as I climbed to my feet and stumbled my way over to the cactus. This cactus is closer than I thought it would be, I considered as I stared at it. Doesn’t look like any cactus I’ve ever seen. Then again, I’ve only ever seen them in movies and TV. This must be how they look in real life. Smiling, I scanned the cactus, trying to figure out the best place to cut a hole into it to get some water. I’d never seen a video or anything on how to do it. I’d only heard that the plant carries water in it, and if you’re stuck in the desert and thirsty, you can drink from it.

As I observed the cactus further, the plant seemed to flinch.

Hm? What was that? I squinted at the plant as wind blew around us. Just the wind. What a weird design this thing has.

The cactus had large green spikes around most of its body and down its center. It almost looked human shaped. Two arms. A head with a line of black dots going across it horizontally. Legs. It even had a weird green thing on its head like a hat.

I looked back at June.

She was disappearing into the sand as the wind blew it over her, covering her body.

Turning back to the cactus, I reached out to touch it.

Suddenly, two yellow dots flashed near the top of the cactus and they looked surprisingly like eyes!

I gasped, coughing on the sand I inhaled, and took a step back.

The cactus reached out with what looked like its arms and grabbed my shoulders!

“What the hell?” I managed to utter as I struggled in its grip. “What is this? What’s going on?”

The black dots on its face curved up, resembling a smile.

“What are you?” I screamed out. “HEEEEEEEEEEEELLP!!!! GET OFF OF ME!!” My throat burned from my desperate screams and I tried to swallow to relieve the pain with my nonexistent saliva, making my throat hurt even worse and forcing me to cough.

The cactus’ face neared me and my knee instinctively reached up and hit the thing in the middle. It cried out, stumbling back a couple of feet as it let go of me, and I turned and ran for my life.

June was sitting up, one arm holding her up, and she squinted at me as I ran towards her.

“JUNE!! RUUUUUN!!!” I screamed as I reached down and yanked her arm, pulling her to her feet.

“YYAAAH!” she let out shrilly as she clung to her bag and stumbled after me. “Gary! I’m exhausted! What were you screaming about back there? What were you doing near that cactus?”

“It’s not a cactus! It’s a monster!” I told her. “It just tried to kill me!”

She looked behind her as she ran and let out a loud gasp. “It’s a Cacturne, Gary!”

“Is that a Pokemon?” I breathed hard.

“Yes! They look like cactus and they hunt at night! That’s all I know about them!”

“It’s hunting?”

We both tore through the sand, somehow. Not even five minutes ago, we were both dying.

I pulled out my Pokedex and pointed it behind me. “Give us some info!”

Cacturne. The Scarecrow Pokemon and Cacnea’s evolution. Cacturne do not move during the day, waiting for weary travelers and Pokemon in the desert to tire out and become completely exhausted before attacking.

“That doesn’t help us!!!” I screamed at the little box.

“Gary, your Pokedex is right, though! I can’t keep running much longer!” June started to slow down.

I yanked hard on her arm and she tripped, falling into the sand. “NO!” I grabbed her shoulders and tried to force her up to her feet.

“I can’t, Gary! Just go! RUN!”

I turned to Cacturne as it ran with ease, mere feet away from us.

“Okay, I choose Pidove!” I raised his Poke Ball in the air and prepared to throw it.

A loud cry rang out from somewhere, and a sparkling beam hit the ground with an explosive force, tossing me backwards.

I hit the ground and groaned as I sat up, my back aching. “What the-?” That was when I spotted it.

As the sandy air cleared, I saw a large creature of many colors floating in the air, looking down at June and I angrily.

“What... Pokemon is that?” I exclaimed.

Sigilyph. The Avianoid Pokemon. This Pokemon once guarded an ancient city, and its memories of that place are so vivid, that it flies along the exact same route it did back then, never straying from that path.

“Siiigiiilyph!” the Pokemon shouted, and fired another Psybeam at us.

June and I screamed as the explosion lifted us off of the ground.

I landed on my shoulder and rolled off of it, gripping it, crying out in pain. “June!” I called out to her.

June didn’t say anything.

“SIGILYPH!” the Psychic and Flying type cried as it floated over to me.

I swallowed hard and scrambled to my feet to run as Sigilyph fired another Psybeam at me. The blast missed, but the explosion forced me to the ground. I spit out sand and quickly turned around as Sigilyph floated over to me.

The top of its head was absorbing a white energy.

“Hyper Beam,” I whispered as my heart started to beat so hard, it hurt.

“SIGILYYYYYPH!!!!” it bellowed as Hyper Beam fired at me.

“AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!” I screamed as I closed my eyes. My screaming didn’t end, but instead, got even louder with fright as I started to fall!! I landed on the soft sand below. “June! Eevee?”

June and Eevee were both staring at me, smiling. We were all sitting in a hole that had been dug through the sand. “Come on,” June whispered, and her and Eevee both crawled down a tunnel.

I looked up at the hole I had just fallen through.

“Gary! Let’s go!” June urged in a loud whisper.

I quickly scrambled on my hands and knees after June and Eevee into the darkness as I heard Sigilyph make a noise from above.

Eevee was digging through the sand quickly, making a path right before our eyes at an amazing speed. I couldn’t see where she was as she made our path for us.

“I had Eevee Dig us a tunnel away from Sigilyph,” June explained. “I figured if we just stay out of Sigilyph’s path, he won’t follow us. That’s basically what your Pokedex said, right? He’s guarding his city from long ago.”

“Do you think that means there’s an ancient city buried underneath all this sand?” I asked, my eyes occasionally glancing at June’s behind, which was moving right in front of my face as we crawled through the tunnel.

“I’ll bet there is,” June said. “I don’t know how deep, but I also really don’t care right now.”

“June, Eevee, thank you both so much,” I said. “If it hadn’t been for you two, I was-”

June stopped and turned around to me.

My eyes looked from her backside to her face and widened, afraid she had caught me looking at her. “What’s that?” I said, looking beyond her as light shined from ahead.

“This is our exit,” June told me. “Now, we just crawl up!”

Eevee let out a happy cry from the top of the hole.

June looked up, smiling, and let out a sigh as she stood up and climbed up the side of the hole as I watched her, admiring the shape of her-.

I growled and angrily shook my head hard, my eyes closed tight, and then followed after her and dropped to the ground, breathing hard.

“Gary, I’m serious right now,” June panted, her face covered in dirt and sand. “I really, really want to get out of here already. Please. I don’t know how much longer I can take this.”

“June, I’d teleport us to Nimbasa if I could,” I gasped tiredly. “Hell, I’d get us back to Pallet if I could. I really don’t like this anymore than you do. If only we had that damn Town Map Professor Juniper gave me.”

June and I looked at each other silently.

“SIIIIGILYPH!!!”

June and I shrieked in terror as Sigilyph appeared in front of us.

“I thought we were out of its territory, June!” I shouted as I leaped to my feet and helped June up.

“Same here!” June shouted back.

“Veee!” Eevee cried in shock.

Sigilyph charged up another Hyper Beam attack.

“Oh, no!” June cried.

“Split up!” I screamed, and I ran to the right. An explosion behind me whipped up a strong wind that pushed me forward even quicker. A loud panting behind me made me glance back. “June! I said to split up!”

“I thought you were going the other way!” June yelled, fear in her eyes.

Eevee ran quickly by her feet.

“Don’t stop, June! Please! I’m begging you!”

“I can’t run forever, Gary!” June’s voice was breaking in desperation. “Gary! Just go on without me! Please!”

“JUNE! MOVE!”

“GOOOOOO!!!” I heard her collapse.

I stopped with a loud gasp at what I saw in front of me, dread filling my body, and turned around to Sigilyph. “Huh?”

Sigilyph was floating in the air, looking at June, Eevee, and I.

June looked back Sigilyph, her bag on the ground next to her.

Eevee turned around and growled at Sigilyph.

Sigilyph floated there, looking down at the three of us, and then it turned around and floated away! It glanced back at us every couple of seconds as it flew deeper into the desert, away from us.

“I... think… we got out of his city…” June breathed heavily.

“Just in freaking time! Look out there!” I walked over to June and slung her arm around my shoulders, helping her up, and pointed in front of us.

“Wow!” she gasped.

We both looked over the edge of a cliff!

It was a steep drop down to the ground below. A trail at the bottom was lined by a wide stream of water, a matching path on the other side of the river as well.

“We didn’t have much more room to run,” I said.

“But, if this is a dead end, where is Nimbasa, Gary?” June sounded like she was panicking, and I could feel her trembling in fear now.

Or maybe I was the one trembling. Her words had truly terrified me. All this time of traveling, and we find out that we’re at a dead end, on the edge of a cliff.

“Cactuuuurne!”

June and I turned around, me gasping, June moaning in exhaustion, her bag dropping.

“For crying out loud already!” June moaned.

“Cac Cac Cac Cac Cac Cac Cac Cacturne!” Cacturne chuckled as it neared us slowly.

“I thought we got rid of that thing!” I gasped.

“Cacturne…” Cacturne got closer.

“Eeeeeeeveeeee!” Eevee ran at Cacturne quickly, flying into him with Quick Attack.

“Cacturne!” Cacturne moved like lightning and swung at Eevee, hitting her first with a swift punch to her face, throwing her back.

Eevee screamed out as she flew high into the sky.

Past June.

Past me.

Over the cliff!

“EEVEEEEEEEEE!!!!” June shrieked at the top of her lungs.

“VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!” Eevee screamed as she went over the edge.

“NOOOOOOOO!!!!!” June ran to the edge and reached, seeming to be trying to not go over, and yet seeming desperate to grab her Pokemon by any means. With a determined grunt, she leaped over the edge!!!

“JUUUUUUUNE!!!” I screamed as loud as I possibly could as I ran closer to the edge and watched her wrap her arms around her Eevee.

June and Eevee let out a loud shriek together as they fell down the cliff.

I turned back around to Cacturne.

It ran towards me.

Wait! I came up with an idea and ran at Cacturne, stopping short as I scooped up June’s bag, and then I ran back to the edge of the cliff. I took in a deep breath and looked behind me one last time as Cacturne continued charging at me. “AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGHHHHH!!!!!!!” The scream ripped from my lungs as I did the craziest thing I’d ever done in my life, leaping over the edge of the cliff.

June and Eevee were far below me, screaming their heads off, nearing the ground rapidly.

The wind whipped at my entire body, feeling like it was pulling and cutting at my face, my clothes ruffling hard as I fell down fast, the bag in my hands holding me down to ensure I landed headfirst. I struggled to focus on the bag as my eyes teared up, making it nearly impossible to clearly see where the zipper was to open the bag from. Just gotta find Rotom’s Poke Ball, I told myself. Gotta have Rotom use its Psychic powers to save us. As my fingers fumbled around June’s bag, the strong wind suddenly ripped the bag from my hands, and I reached out desperately, screaming in anger, as the bag dropped out of my reach, heading down.

Down with me.

Down with June.

Down with Eevee.

We all were falling.

Screaming.

And it was clear that we weren’t going to land in that body of water that was so close to us.

The ground below us rose up quickly to meet our screaming bodies.

In a matter of seconds.

We were all dead.