“-The tremors seem to have subsided. The source of the tremors wasn't identified, but the local ranger outpost has posited them to be coming from a wild Pokémon.” A dingy radio announced in the background.

A ranger sat in front of it, his seat in full recline, legs propped up on the console surrounding the insides of the square watchtower. His Ranger cap laid protectively over his face to shield his eyes from the harsh sunrise during sleep. His arms were crossed behind his head, used as a makeshift pillow as he snored, completely asleep.

BOOM!

“Wha- the hell!” Drew jumped from his sleep and almost fell out of the old office chair he’d made his bed. He barely saved himself by holding onto the edges of the table he'd propped his legs up on.

The door of the Ranger watchtower flew open, its hinges held firm though, throwing the door in an arc right into the wall next to it.

WAMP!

“Good Morning, Night-Shift!” His coworker stormed into the interior of the tower with far too much energy for someone who had to wake up at 5 AM.

Finally, Drew turned and stared at his friend, they'd been working together for years now and he just couldn't get used to his attitude.

“What the fuck, Henry! You almost just gave me a heart attack!” Drew complained as he rose, wiping at his eyes.

Henry for his part only laughed, “Haha, poor you! You should be grateful for every bit of shut-eye you can get. We're supposed to be awake anyway, you know?”

Drew scratched the back of his neck irritability, “I know, I know… But what the hell is supposed to keep me awake out here!”

He turned back to the view outside the windows of the watchtower with outstretched arms. A sea of treetops stretched out in front of the watchtower into the distance. Mount Silver stood out in the distance and a small dirt path cut along the watchtower and the mountain in the distance.

“Nothing ever happens out here!” Drew theatrically swung his arms around to drive home his point.

Henry crossed his arms with an annoyed expression on his face, “You know normally a ranger would be happy that there aren't any natural disasters, stampedes, or other issues ruining their day, right? We're fortunate that the Tremor issues from a few days ago seemingly fixed themselves.”

Drew shuddered at the mention, nobody wants to go into Mount Silver if they can help it.

He knew he was complaining about nothing in particular and just being annoying, but he couldn't help himself in situations like these. He became a ranger right after his journey to help keep the place he cared about safe, but he felt helpless if nothing, in particular, was wrong.

Sitting down in one of the office chairs and pulling out his smartphone, Henry revealed another surprise, “Now I know you probably just woke up, but with the last one being three months ago, the chief said he wants another census done.”

Drew collapsed back into his chair with a loud groan, covering his face with his hands in anguish, “Ugh… I hate doing the census!”

“I know, I do too,” Henry said with a disappointed tone, “but who the hell else does them? And the Rangers need to know how many Pokemon are on Route 28 if they want to keep the Route in check for Trainers.”

Drew was the one crossing his arms condescendingly this time, “C’mon Henry, this is beyond League complex, no little kids who could get themselves killed would ever come here.” He turned to the gigantic mountain taking up one of the sides of their watchtower, “And why would people even want to go in Mount Silver?”

Henry only gave him a hard stare in return, “Drew, you know as well as I do that isn’t how this works.” His stare slowly turned into a smile, “And we’d be out of a job if they didn’t keep Rangers on this route.”

“Ugh! I know I’m just complaining about nothing.” Drew rose from his seat for a second time, this time far more determined, “Let’s do this.”

…

Both of them slowly gather their tools and their Pokeballs before leaving their watchtower. A census consisted of counting the number of wild Pokemon that could be easily spotted along the edges of the Route. They had electronic counters which made it possible to count simply by pressing a button, and the data they collected went into a spreadsheet they prepared beforehand.

A census takes time because you cannot simply walk along a part of the Route for a few hours and call it a day. The entire Route is supposed to be checked, both sides of the dirt path, during day and night, for up to a week.

This is grueling work because it forces you to keep your attention for a long period. Normally censuses didn’t need to be this thorough, because Trainers walked the Routes and reported a variety of Pokemon sightings to the Rangers, allowing them to collect a variety of data about the Route to be able to evaluate their condition.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Unfortunately for Drew and Henry though, Trainers did not care for Mount Silver. It’s a death trap for trainers and Pokemon alike, with only the most well-versed of Trainers even being allowed to access it and even less of them feeling the drive to brave the Route only for the reward of a challenging mountain at the end of it.

Sure, people still did, but they weren’t in the tens to hundreds per day like other routes. There may be four trainers who wish to use the route in a month if they count themselves lucky. Those who come here to challenge their teams after they attain all eight badges in their region or seasoned trainers and trainer celebrities known around the region.

Drew stares into the distance as he descends the metal catwalk leading down their watchtower. One such celebrity lived in a house not far away from them on the Route, they had some contact with her in the past. Unfortunately, she was a hermit, so they hadn’t had much more than a few stray conversations.

The two of them stepped onto the ground below, Drew stretched and groaned, “Alright, let's get this over with.” He pulled a Pokeball off of his belt and released a large Sandslash, the Ground-Type shook himself, his large quills swayed around on his back.

“Hey bud, we’re doing a census and you’ll be security.” The Sandslash gave off a squeaky trill as it followed along the two of them. They walked to a pickup parked next to the Watchtower, its bed was filled with all kinds of things that hung out and above the bed and Sandslash hopped in the back with a loud crash.

Drew groaned as he unlocked the truck and sat down inside, “Don’t make a mess back there! Company property!” Henry sat down in the passenger seat opened and up a laptop next to him and fished a small button accessory out of the center console, “I’ll count for the first few hours and when we reach the middle point we’ll switch, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah…” Drew grumbled as they began their drive at walking speeds.

…

The day had come and gone and it was now the evening again, Drew and Harry were back in their watchtower, they sat at the square table in the center of the tower. Both of them were leisurely sipping on a coffee as Drews Sandslash relaxed on the ground next to them, “Haa…Tomorrow can honestly wait, I’ve had enough counting for a single day.”

Harry stared at the laptop screen in front of him with a thin smile, “Yeah, but did you expect to see so many damn Doduo on this Route?” He turned the laptop around and showed off the spreadsheet that had been compiled due to their counting, “Their population has exploded! I wonder if this increase will stay in the further parts of the Route or if it's just around here!”

Drew almost groaned out loud but contained himself as looked at the laptop's screen, he didn’t have the same drive to be a ranger as his coworker had. Sure, he liked keeping the Routes safe, but he couldn’t help but remember the time he spent running the Gyms of Kanto just a few years ago.

“Hey, Drew. What's your plan for the next few days?” Harry asked.

“What do you mean? We’re just going to be stuck doing this census the whole rest of the week, aren’t we?” Drew asked slightly confused.

His friend shook his head, “Nah man, you’re forgetting,” He turned his laptop back and clicked away on the tiny touchpad, when he turned it back it was on a calendar app, “You going to bring your kid out here? It's almost time, I remember you told me last year she got sick on the day of because she was so hyped to be coming out here.”

Looking at the laptop, Drew saw that an appointment had been placed inside the square just 3 days in the future on a Friday, it read ‘Bring your kid to work day’ and Drew finally remembered.

“That's right! Damn, I almost forgot about that!” He said as he clutched at his head with the hand that wasn’t supporting his cup of coffee. His hand flew onto his face and he scratched at his brow, “Hmm…”

‘Last year I was anxious because there was that ongoing Beedril infestation, but having her around for the census shouldn’t be that dangerous.’ Drew thought to himself.

“Y’know what? She’ll probably be raving about this the second I tell her. If she doesn’t get sick again, sure, I’ll bring her here.” Drew said.

“And maybe she’ll stave off the boredom, right?” Harry said with a smirk as he shut his laptop and stood up. “You’re off now, right? Next up is…” He drawled on as he looked over at their schedule, “...Maxy! Alright.”

“You’re right,” Drew rose from his set in turn, unclipped a Pokeball, and woke up his Sandslash to recall it, “Well, Maxy isn’t going to keep you bored around here, so I’ll make myself scarce.”

He walked over to the coat hangers and put on his coat, before opening the door, “Bye Harry.”

…

The door to his quaint little home on Route 26 opened and Drew almost stumbled back inside.

He’d been at the watchtower for almost 48 hours at this point and his work always wiped him out, it wasn’t as physically taxing as one would expect of a Pokemon Ranger. For him was the mental strain of keeping a Route that was notorious to the public for being dangerous safe.

What if a trainer got injured or even died on the Route? Drew would have to live with the idea that he could’ve prevented it, trainers, hell the entire human population rely on rangers to keep them safe to a certain extent.

All of his worries broke apart though when a rouge missile of a child crashed into his stomach just as he was closing the door behind him.

“Oof!”

“Dad! Welcome back!” His daughter beamed up at him.

Drew simply couldn’t hold back a grin and smiled down at her as he put a hand on her head, “I am, how are you doing, Val?”

“It’s boring around here, you know?” Valerie pouted and pointed accusingly, “You need to work less and spend some more time relaxing around the house!”

No excuses came to Drew, so he simply acquiesced, “Alright, alright! I’ll try and get myself some vacation days soon. Now let me actually get out of this Ranger outfit and relax for a bit.”

His daughter held her pout for a second, before returning to a smile, “Fine!” She turned and walked back into the living room.

Once Drew was done changing and walked back into the living room where his daughter was watching TV while sprawled out on the couch.

Valerie suddenly spoke up without looking back from the TV, "When are you going back to work?"

Drew was just about to answer before he suddenly remembered, “This Friday…By the way...”