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Three hours, that's how long my journey took without any mishaps to make it to the east side of Viridian using alleys and backroads with my little wagon filled with my ill gotten merchandise…

I'm currently standing at the entrance to the old industrial area of Viridian where most of anything that was built on a large scale used to be produced here.

Blast furnaces, sawmills, massive warehouses, you name it and it's probably here if it has anything to do with the material production industry..

There weren't really any shops though, bar the few blue coloured worker targeted eat in diners that used to be scattered around.

But this place is abandoned because of a devastating Gyarados attack via the river a few years ago that led the majority of everything here being destroyed before anyone strong enough made it to fight the beast.

It was the first time a Gyarados has been seen in that river since Viridian was built many years ago, a few people cried conspiracy because a lot of people went out of business but nothing ever came of it… but it was said that Viridian lost a LOT in revenue while in industrial area was down..

And because it would cost so much more to remove all the rubble and repair the buildings rather than just build new ones with cheap pokemon labour, they just left it abandoned.

So they rebuilt further away from the river and this time they have a few league trainers stationed in the new industrial area at all times just incase anything like that might happen again that could disturb it's commerce

But a few of the buildings in the old industrial zone were relatively in tact and some even have power still running due to some fuck up with an electric company or something….

And the building I've chosen has benefitted from that particular fuck up….it's nothing flash mind you, but it's going to be home for the foreseeable future, so I'll make it work..

I make my way through the abandoned zone filled with rubble having to stop and swear like a sailor at my little wagon from time to time that keeps getting its wheels caught on random rocks and debris, even though I've cleared this path before…..well cleared is a strong word, I kicked any decent sized debris to the side…

It takes about an hour with all the getting stuck before I make it to my new home which honestly just looked like an incomplete Lego house made of concrete…

I reckon it would have been a building that was still under construction when the attack happened..

3 stories tall, grey with steel beams still sticking out all over it from where they never got a chance to poor concrete before the attack, a very much incomplete and unfinished abandoned building with walls missing everywhere on every floor…

But on the third floor there is one room near the centre of the building that's just right, it has everything I would need..

It has 2 entrances, one that leads to the emergency staircase they already installed, minus the door of course, and a second entrance that lead to a wallless room that overlooked the east river…

Both entrances can be walled off with various materials I can find laying about the rubble easy enough, sealing in the room should be a piece of cake..

The room even has 3 rigged electrical sockets that were most likely for the tradies tools who were working on the building at the time, so it works out pretty sweet for me, free electricity…

And another choice discovery that made me choose the place over the others is it has a functioning toilet!!….granted it's tucked away in a small room, two rooms over, but it's a bathroom none the less, it even has fittings for taps and it's own jerry rigged up electrical socket in that room as well…

I'm certain I can find a functioning hot water system amongst the rubble of the other buildings and rig it up so I have access to a hot water, which would be a game changer….even if it will be in the open, but you would have to be river side to see me, and I should be able to stack some rubble up to wall it off so it looks natural enough eventually.

Renovating my own houses is really paying off here, as I have a rough know how to get this place pretty liveable within just a bit of effort and scavenging through some ruins.

As I make it upstairs to my new room I see everything I've been smuggling over to this place for the last few months squared away neatly into a corner.

Everything's packed neatly and untouched which is a relief, I really thought things would go tits up when I started this whole thing but everything has gone waaaay smoother than I could have hoped for…I'm not trying to jinx myself, it's just an observation..

Over the months I've spent most of my stolen register and cigarette money on various things I'll need to survive, mostly non perishable food, warm clothes and daily necessities that will make life easier….I'm glad I found that $800, it really takes the pressure off me…

As i stare at the stacks of items that I've hoarded to keep me alive for the winter and possibly a few months beyond the adrenaline I've felt since the night began started to wear off and i started to get real sleepy…

But I knew I couldn't sleep yet, I would freeze to death, so I quickly went through my supplies I find some winter clothes I purchased before, stripped down out of my ratty beggar clothes and replaced them with my new gear…

The difference was almost instant, it feels like more than a life time ago since I wasn't wearing cheap, scratchy horrible clothes that did nothing but keep your privates out of public view….if barely…

But I was pretty cold before I put them on, so I knew it would take awhile before I warmed up…but that's where my little half drum barrel scavenged from one of the ruined factories come into play…

I found this half barrel in one of the abandoned metal work factories, and managed to stab a few holes into the bottom with immense effort to make a homemade fire pit….and with all this open air living, it shouldn't be any issue having a fire indoors….not to mention concrete floors aren't flammable..

And being that a lot of wood related industries that were around before the attack, firewood was a plenty in the form of old off cuts and random crates just laying about everywhere if you knew where to look….I'd have firewood for years.

Best part about this room is even with this fire being alight in my new room, you won't be able to even see the glow from the light outside, it's completely hidden…which really takes a load off my mind, call me crazy, but my paranoia has been dialed up to 11 almost since day one of my arrival..

So I place the barrel maybe 9 feet away from the east wall, place plenty of twigs and kindling into the barrel and a few bigger off cuts from the old saw mill , pour a little petrol into that bad boy, and with another bit of old news paper twisted into a wreath lit on fire, I stand at a distance and chuck in into the barrel and with a muffled *woof* the fire is started….

My whole body feels like lead, but I can't rest yet, I shuffle through my stuff and find a pretty swanky new sleeping bag and throw it down, but before I roll it out I take out of one the blankets I stole from Miss B and lay it down flat and then I unroll the sleeping bag on top, before laying a pillow at the end….

I grab a quick swig from a water bottle I had stashed near by and remove my new boots as I slowly make my way over to the wall where my sleeping bag is placed..

I place my back to the wall and slowly side down as I watch the fires glow and slowly digest everything that's happened to me since my arrival and just how hard I've been working for this exact moment…

I've been working tirelessly every single night and trying to keep everything secret being on edge 24/7 for months has just drained me in ways I couldn't even describe, just for this moment..

I've stolen, I've lied, I've even killed for this moment…

A moment where I truely felt safe….I knew there were wild Pokémon in the area, mostly rattata, and I knew they were pretty chill, but they were wild Pokémon none the less…

But even potentially surrounded by killer magic animals, this is the first time in almost 4 months that I've actually felt safe….and it's a feeling that's been missing for so long, something I used to take for granted….but not anymore…

The flames are generating a gentle inviting glow that almost hypnotises my sore and tired eyes, lulling me into a slumber I'm trying to fight off while thinking about anything I could have possibly missed…

I lazily lob a couple more thicker pieces of timber into the fire from my seated position to keep it fed for at least a few more hours without needing attention…

I can't think of anything but just how truely exhausted I am, and how much I just want to crawl into this sleeping bag and be done with this night, as little of it as is still left….

So I tiredly drag my body to the side as i unzip my new bed and slowly crawl in, and find immense satisfaction at how comfortable I am, as my head hits the pillow…

Any problems I have can wait until tomorrow…or the day after…..I just need to sleep…