Survival ch.4

"Aah!"

"Waah! Don't hurt us!"

Inside the box was a terrified Archen and Swoobat. They backed up towards the rear of the box, trembling in fear.

Arthur flinched. He was thinking to pull out his gun, but he didn't. Instead, he tried to calm down and get the situation under control. He tried a gentle approach-he streched his hand out to the scared Pokemon.

"It's okay, I won't hurt you..." he offered.

The Pokemon slowly looked at him, and slowly stepped towards the hand. Behind Arthur, the other three heard the commotion and ran towards him to look inside the box. The instant Travolta and Lennon looked inside, the Pokemon jumped in awe.

"Travolta!"

"Lennon!!"

They leaped past Arthur and jumped into either Lennon or Travolta's face, to their surprise.

"Ridley? Wha-?" Lennon gasped.

"Whoa, Ilona!" Travolta said.

They were hugged tightly by their friends, then they jumped down. Arthur and Dan were confused.

"You know them?" Dan asked.

The Archen stepped in. "Yeah, we know them! My name's Ridley, and that's Ilona!" he said, pointing towards the Swoobat.

"Hi, hi!" she greeted.

Lennon and Travolta were stunned. "They're still alive...?" Lennon mouthed.

"What happened to you guys?" Travolta asked.

Ilona explained. "Well...some meanies took us here and locked us up in that truck...We don't know what they did, but we escaped, and they ran, leaving the truck, so we hid here..."

"Wow..." Arthur commented.

"Who did they look like?" Lennon asked. "You get a glance of their clothing?"

Ilona pointed to Dan and his camouflage. "They kinda look like you, except they aren't Pokemon..."

For a moment, Dan was stunned. He looked at himself, then looked at Arthur, who was staring at the truck, then looked back to Dan. Dan turned to Ilona again.

"Exactly like us or kinda like us?" Dan questioned, kneeling to them.

"Well...They have all that armor and stuff like you do!" Ilona squealed, trying to find the right word.

"...Oh, great..." Arthur said under his breath. He was thinking exactly what Dan was thinking.

Dan got up and whispered in his ear. "Camouflaged men, probably armed, with Humvees...you know all too well what that means..."

"Yeah, I know. This region is occupied by another armed group."

Dan looked at the door. "We need to find our comrades quick, and get out of here..."

Arthur nodded, and looked at the ground.

Travolta walked towards the Humvee. "I wonder if this thing still works.."

Dan turned around and walked past Travolta, on the driver's side door. He opened it, and got inside. He pressed a button on the control panel that said "START VEHICLE". He pressed it, and with a grunt, snort, and a cough, the vehicle came to life.

"Looks like it does!" Dan said over the engine. "Everyone get in!"

Everyone responded-Travolta jumped in the front passenger seat, while Lennon got in the left rear seat. Arthur took Ilona and Ridley to sit together in the right rear seat. Once Arthur seated them in a safe position, and the main cabin was filled, he realized he'd have to stand up in the top hatch, where from the chest up, he would be exposed. He shook his head.

"Arthur! You're on point!" Dan exclaimed. "There's a .50 cal up here!"

Arthur simply nodded and jumped to the top of the vehicle, getting to the open hatch, then slipping his body through it. His legs stood to the sides of Lennon, Ilona and Ridley. In front of him, was a mounted .50 caliber machine gun, retracted to the vehicle. He pulled it up to its normal position.

"I'm ready to go!" he called, giving Dan a thumbs-up.

He nodded, and pressed a button on the dashboard. The garage door slowly opened to the now-rainy dock. The vehicle drove out, its engine roaring, made a U-turn, and drove down an empty road leading out of the dock...