Hello Pokemon world! First things first, this IS a sequel to my other story 'End of the Journey'. However, you will not need to have read it to read this story. Granted you might miss a few things here and there that will make this one much more fun. This will be a Zombie story! Kind of...they won't the typical dead come back to life thing. Like the summary said, it's a virus. There will be death, blood, and mature content.

I know this was released probably much earlier than some of my returning readers were expecting, but hey! I'm just as excited as everyone else! So I just had to release something! Naturally the farther along we get, updates will slow :p

This story picks up some time after those events. This is just a prologue to set up the plot, hope you like it!

About what that will be... (MINOR SPOILERS FROM END OF THE JOURNEY! SKIP PAST ALL BOLD TEXT TO MISS THEM COMPLETELY) we'll follow the reveal of Red and his plan. Figure out why he's doing what he's doing, and see how Ash and co. plan to stop him. Will heavily feature the children of the survivors, but expect our main heroes to tag along!

The night would have been peaceful. The breeze was warm, the sky was clear, portraying a sparkling black sheet with millions of tiny dots of light. Dark waves lazily sloshed onto the beach, smoothing the sand more than necessary. The night could, have been peaceful...

Not a single Pokemon could be found along the shoreline, not among the trees running along the sand, and no sound was made. Save for one. A terrifying cry that would chill even the bravest of blood. A screech that called for death. This horrible sound was nothing like anything anyone listening would have heard. This horrible sound was not one anyone or any Pokemon would want to have heard...yet...

A lone woman ran down the sand, as fast as her legs could carry her. Panting and gasping for breath as the sand filled her tattered shoes, weighing her down and slowing her progress. Behind her, the creature cried out once more, having caught the scent of the blood in her veins. She could hear it giving chase, sprinting across the sand as if it were nothing. Growing closer and closer with each pounding thud of its feet. She panicked and forced more adrenaline into her muscles, desperately trying to outrun the thing! Her destination wasn't far now! In fact, she could see it! The glistening lobby lights of a Pokemon Center. Perched at the edge of the trees with a dock going out to sea.

Suddenly the creature behind her growled loudly, indicating it had closed the gap between them tremendously. She was so close! Just a dozen more feet! Slam! A body crashed into her back, knocking her to the ground and rolling her a few feet. She tatseted sand as the creature snarled and came at her, but she rolled out of the way. Narrowly dodging a pointed snout filled with razor sharp teeth. She caught a glimpse of two curved horns coming out of the creatures head, angling backwards over its spine. The canine like body was missing large chunks of flesh, and was covered in mixtures of dried and wet blood. Its eyes were sunken and hollow, unfocused and glazed over.

It pushed its four legs and pounced at her, snarling as it came right for her throat. A flash of light at her belt released a Growlithe, howling at the crazed Houndoom. The devil like dog bit into the loyal dog's neck, inciting an angry howl and drawing blood.

"No!" The woman screamed, scrambling to her feet to help her Pokemon, but the Growlithe growled at her, barking wildly. It then let loose a flamethrower at her feet wincing in pain as the Houndoom was now ignoring the woman, but shaking its head and tearing flesh off the Growlithe.

She screamed again but Growlithe mustered up enough energy to shoot more flames at its owners feet, and then bark. Getting the message, but hating herself for it, she turned and ran. Tears streaming from her deep brown eyes as she shoved open the Center's doors. Slamming them shut, a chill ran down her spine as multiple more Houndooms howled in the distance. Her Growlithe gave a defiant bark before it was silenced with a whimper...

Sliding the lock of the door, she quickly ran into the middle of the lobby and grabbed two wooden chairs that were seated around a table. Hurriedly she ran back to the door and slid them under the knob, securing them in place just as something heavy crashed into it. A scream escaped her lips, but the doors held firm. Another bang followed another, as it now appeared multiple creatures were assaulting the door. She had to hurry!

She ignored the blood streaks along the walls, and pools on the floor, running to the videophone against the far wall. Bang! More crashes into the door. Without sitting down she smashed her fingertips to the correct buttons, praying to God that the call would go through. The screen lit up with the dial sign, ringing again and again. Bang! Another hard crash into the door. Still ringing. Come on! She pushed her long, dirty black bangs out of her face.

"Hello- Del?!" The monitor lit up with the face of a pretty, red haired, sea green eyed woman.

"Mom! I need help!"