Animalia by Cristian Johnson (free novels to read txt) 📕

Pop shakes off the water and darts off to chase him. Chris is faster than he thinks, he runs with all his might taking turns on the platforms and trying to duck from overhanging smaller pipes. As he was running he heard the laughter of the hyenas echo behind him, in front of him, basically all over the sewers. He did not notice a cable running along the floor as he moved his foot forward disconnecting the cable for the electricity. The lights soon shut off as he went forward and as the last light reached he suddenly stopped. He continues to walk slowly as he hears water flowing beneath him. He walks forward as there was no ground from him and falls.

“BWAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!” Chris screams falling from the platform onto a larger floor yet there wasn't water near him. Chris was knocked out until he faintly heard voices in the darkness.

“Chris…. Come out to eattt… CChrrris…. Come out to eaaaattt…” The voices off the hyenas grow louder.

“Chhhrissis…. Come out to eattt!… CHHHHRIIIS COMMME OUTT TO EEEEAAAT… CHRIISS *HEHE* COMM-*HHEHE*EE OUT TO EEEEAAT *HHEHE*” the hyenas continue to taunt him.

Chris hears the hyenas have caught up to him. There was no way of him running out of this one easily. He begins to get up again struggling to stand. The lights suddenly came on with random fluttering.

“Now brothers...you may e- *YELP* A large splash of water is heard and a large black alligator snaps Crackles leg pulling her under the water. Loud splashes are made with the cries of her trying to breathe but no use for the strong alligator pulls her with more strength. Only pinkish-red bubbles fizz out for a minute until she is gone.

“SIS!!! WHERE ARE YOU!!!” Snap shouts as he too falls, a large tail smacks into his body. A pale crocodile brings him to the ground as it begins to grab Snap’s leg and begins to roll along the water. It slams Snap between the concrete and the water while ripping flesh out of his leg. At last the crocodile crunches down on Snap’s skull with a large giggle before his death. A familiar fur ball drops down as she yells a battle cry dive-bombing Pop. Emma has come and kicks off on Pop's face with her large feet, Pop gets startled and falls off.

“I knew it! I shouldn’t have left you alone..” Emma smiles, shaking her head at Chris.

“Wow I can’t believe it's you and how did you do that,” Chris said as he noticed her dirty fur covered in water and a little bit of rust.

“HEY! You forgot about us” The alligator and crocodile said simultaneously.

“Oh by the way those are my brothers Evan and Ethan.” Emma said with a small smile waving at her brothers.

“Yeah that kinda eases my nerves now. For a second I thought I had more stuff to be scared of.” Chris sighs in relief.

“Oh really… Do you really think we did a good job? No one ever thought that we did a good job.” said Evan the alligator.

“I agree as well.” Ethan the crocodile nods.

Chris looks around the room and gets a bit nervous.

“He’s.. getting up…,” Chris said. Emma and the twins look as Pop gets up and struggles to stand watches at all four of them. Pop knows he can’t fight all of them, so he just lays down.

He muttered an eerie cry. “For Cole…..” Pop begins to bite his front limb, as he bites harder with his canine teeth he rips into one of his arteries. Blood spurts onto his face as his head, in seconds he falls limp and dies. Chris Emma and the twins look in confusion as the hyena commits suicide.

“Wow… that is just sad…” Chris says softly. Not really understanding what kind of hold Cole had on the hyenas for them to kill themselves.

“Well now that's over with,” Emma says quickly. She has seen death, and while she would only kill if it was the last resort her family will always come first. She would choose her brothers over the hyenas anytime. She looks at Chris. “I wanted to tell you that I needed to check on my brothers. They are my baby brothers after all, and I am glad they are fine. I wanted to know if they found my dad yet, but they have not.” She looks around the sewers happily. “This place makes a great place for them to hide, and move about. They will stay here till they hear from me or my dad. Now let us get back to Luke and Reggie, they must be worried about us.”

“Alright just lead the way out Ms. Leader, and by the way thanks for saying my hide.” Chris smiles at Emma and gets ready to follow.

“No problem Gigantor” Emma snickers and heads out.

Chris says goodbye to the twins as they both swam back to the murky water. He catches up with Emma as they walk back to where they came. As they come back to the surface they see night time has come and there is a full moon out. Their friends seem to just be enjoying the night air, Reginald standing up with his eyes closed and Luke laying down sleeping right next to his leg.

“Aww.. isn’t that cute, just like those nature documentaries in the learning channel.” Emma snickers looking at Reginald and Luke.

Chris lets out a loud yawn. “You know, Emma I think it's time we rest as well…” He stretches or tries to anyways with those small hands. “We've had quite an adventure, now is time to rest.”

Emma nods. She found her brothers safe and sound, the search for her dad would be another time. After all he will be fine, he can take care of himself. “Ok” She then finds a small bush near the entrance and quickly falls asleep.

Chris lays down nearby her and Reginald curls his tail up and begins to sleep. It is short-lived as nightmares enter Chris’s dreams, nightmares of his past.

He was dreaming up a storm after hearing that name again from his past. The name Cole, his own personal bully from school. Cole always teased him while in school, he was relentless and even at one point wanted to fight him. Chris was afraid and mostly lost whenever Cole confronted him. He did have Luke as his side though that always countered the attacks from Cole. Luke stood by his side and made sure he can’t cause any more harm to him. The dream continues one to a very dark story and memory of him and Cole. It was that time Luke stayed home, sick with the flu. Chris was only 13 back then and still innocent enough to not know any better. He was in middle school, and it was lunchtime. He sat down at a lunch table and saw a kid in the back wearing a black hoodie all alone. He decided to sit by him and make him feel better. Once he sat down with the kid he said hello to him. The stranger did not answer but did look back at Chris with emerald eyes and an irritated look.

“You're not much of a talker are you now?” Chris replies.

The stranger then looked down at his lap and took a deep breath. He got up and moved away from Chris. Chris was puzzled and a bit sad that he may have made him leave and lost a chance of making a new friend. Chris looks around the school trying to find the hooded stranger, but no use of finding him as he is gone.

“Where could he have gone?”Chris whispered to himself. He saw the stranger once more as he was sitting outside with a cigarette in his mouth. Chris walks up to him and begins once more to talk to him.

“Hey, you” Chris says as the stranger immediately hides his cigarette.

“Oh...it's just you” The stranger looks away and continues to smoke.

”I know we got off the wrong foot but, I wanna talk to you.” Chris says to the stranger.

“My name is Cole, happy now?” Cole says as he shrugs back at Chris.

Chris stands there trying to think of a thing to say to him, yet has no response for him and can only just stare.

“Don’t you have a class schoolboy? I want to be left alone so just scram alright.” Cole says to Chris.

“But…..but” Chris is having trouble making words to help this strange kid. Cole looks up at Chris

“Come on spit it out now!” Cole says with a ticked look on his face.

“It's just you looked very lonely at lunch...and I wanted to make you feel more welcome here as a whole.” Chris gives a smile to Cole.

“You pity me huh…” Cole takes the cigarette out of his mouth as he stands up and walks to him.

“Wel-erh-no...I just saw you and maybe we could be friends.?” Chris says to Cole as he was now in front of his face.

“Friends my left nipple…” Cole raises his right arm and punches at Chris’s face. Chris is knocked down to the ground as Cole walks away, Chris slowly puts his hands on his face feeling the blood drizzle down from his nose. Cole walks off and looks back at Chris and looks at his fist. He then lowers his head and puts up his black hoodie. At that moment, Chris will always feel the pain from Cole until now. Although as he remembers the times he was bullied he sees flashes of Cole and Pop. Then flashes of Pop continue to glue to his mind. With a flash of Cole roaring as a panther.

The wind howls loudly and wakes Chris up. He stands up quickly and looks around, panicking making sure everything and everyone is where it should be. As Chris recollects his thoughts and thinks about what he was dreaming, back in the sewers the twins were swimming lazily as they fed upon the soaked corpses of Snap Crackle and Pop. They rip off bits of soggy flesh and fur from their bodies and they talk to each other of what happened.

“So Evan what do you really think of this Chris fellow? I think he seems a little odd, especially that sis seems to be fond of him as well.” Ethan says to Evan. “You know you are right on that, Emma never gets along with people often and she never smiles a lot with other guys. I think Chris here is doing a mighty fine job keeping her in check and making her happy, ever since we have been moving around. Ain’t that right bro?”

Evan says to nothing as he looks at Ethan to not be found anywhere. Evan looks up and sees that blood dripping down from the ceiling. A dark black object is on top of a pipe looking down at Evan. Suddenly a body drops onto the concrete as Ethan is there but filled with blood and scratches. Evan is in shock as he waddles forward to see his dying injured brother. Pieces of hanging sinews of skin are torn by his neck and chunks of his own legs were missing. Evan had no chance to know who the perpetrator is, as he looks back as a panther lunges forward at him going for his sides. The crocodile strikes back by swiping his tail towards the panther as it takes a small slip. The crocodile then turns around to go bite down on the attacker as the panther gets up and circles the crocodile while backing up and keeping his distance from the water nearby. The crocodile runs up to the panther hop[ing to avenge his brother but fails as his jaws clamp into the air as the panther makes a swipe at his sides and his legs. The crocodile continues to get weaker and more frustrated as the more times he fails to grasp the panther and the more he gets scratched and nibbled on making him bleed out. The crocodile looks up as his vision begins to fade, blood is pouring out more the more he moves his legs and the panther is only just getting started as he starts to nudge against his belly. The crocodile breathes heavily as he can not move without being in pain as he submits to the panther as he is rolled over. The panther then looks at the crocodiles' eyes.

“I want you to tell your friend Chris that his best buddy Cole will hunt you down... Got that whitey?” Cole says as he lays his paw on the white bottom skin of the crocodile. His claws soon eject from his paw as he scrapes the top of the skin and pushes down forcing his claws to go deeper into his body. His paw continuously cuts downwards from the neck to the bottom of his legs. The