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

“Oh really is that a fact little Chris I knew you were a mama’s nerd but I didn't know you were such a geek at animals and knew everything. I should go although I still have a bone to pick with you, and I can go for a snack. Fun fact little Chris I never did eat her brothers. Just imagine eating a little kid wouldn’t that be cannibalism. So yeah I might just make you bleed out and let the others eat you. I wouldn't care to eat Luke since he would just give in to my power.” Cole says to Chris in the darkness.

“NO HE WOULDN’T!!! HE’S MY FRIEND AND HE WOULD BEAT YOUR BUM TOO IF HE SAW YOU!” Chris yells at the tree.

Cole then decides to show himself as he gracefully leaps from a bush that Chris did not even notice and appears right in front of him. Cole begins to stretch his back and yawn in boredom. Chris is pensive as he looks at Cole. He was quite big for a panther and was thinking about his strategy to fight against him.

“So are you going to fight me or not?” Cole says in a calm voice.

Chris breathes heavily with rage as he takes a slow step forward advancing Cole.

”So what are you waiting for? It’s not like you're going to do anything to me.” Cole says.

“I’ll kill YOU!!” Chris yells as he lunges forward to Cole.

Cole jumps away as Chris hits his face into the dirt. “Is that the best you have? I thought a dinosaur would have faster reflexes than me…” Cole says.

Without skipping a heartbeat Chris again rushes at Cole but fails as he was faster to move out of the way on time. Chris again slams his face on the ground eating dirt, which gets all over his eyes. His eyes begin to get irritated and become red. Cole is laughing as he continues to tease Chris with ease.

Now it was his turn to attack. Cole runs up to Chris and slashed at his face. Blood runs down his face as Chris notices the deep scratch he had received. Chris licks up the blood and with anger he chases Cole. Cole is laughing and running away from him.

“Aww did the cat get your tongue. You loser, even your bunny friend can do better.” Cole says running downhill.

Chris tries to keep up with him but is growing tired now from running the whole day. He pants as he sees Cole at the bottom of the hill.

Chris decides it is his time now, to go in for the kill. He will finish the menace once and for all and jumps on top of Cole attacking him. For once Cole was not fast enough, Chris latches onto his back….but only for a mere second. Cole pounces away and to see part of his fur was trimmed off from Chris’s claw. Chris is tired as he looks at Cole panting and trying to find the strength to continue but it's no use he takes one more breath as he passes out at the bottom of the hill.

He can hear Cole laughing as he runs away once more into the shadows. It was dark and grey when Chris regained consciousness and watched another monster. This monster was not pale and white ones like the other day, this one looked more of the crab spider that he saw long ago. It was staring lonely at him, very still in the shadows. Chris looks at it, and it begins to click its claws. He could not understand what it was saying to him, but it was clear that the monster had no interest in killing him. The rhythmic clicking of the crab began making Chris hallucinate. His vision started to blur in front of him, as he started to see things.

He sees many things at first he sees previous mutants walking on the land with their moans translating them of words that speak of pain and nervousness as if they are being tortured. He then sees these mutants walking in a giant metal cage that makes Chris wonder in his dreams what is going on around him. It’s as if the world was not destroyed and this is a glimpse of the past world. The mutants soon became from the ugly shell of their cannibalistic and ferocious ways into bipedal creatures that lost their paleness and the sorrows of their mouths soon became smiles and laughter. Chris is looking at these former mutants now that are filled full of life are humans that lived in his world of happiness and in the past that makes things right again. However the glimpses of this happiness soon reverted to the mutants now on the Earth taking over areas and eating most of the ecosystem feasting on rotting corpses and his friends are lying there on the ground dying struggling to keep up with the hordes of mutants, however, he also saw Roberts fallen to the ground as he is lying on the ground limp.

The dream then goes to another phase. This was not a dream however but more of a series of nightmares that the arthropod is torturing him. The next vision was of him but as a human, Chris is looking out of his apartment as he is in his normal day in life, without his father and his mother not home from her shifts of school and work. Chris walks out from the door to go to school. He is met by Luke in his human form, unlike his elk body he is now a tall brunette who just started moving to the same apartment as him about a couple of months ago. They walked until they reached the school in which then Cole was waiting outside holding a cigarette as he smirks looking at Chris and Luke. He then walks up as he tries to bully Chris and pick on him from a distance while keeping his distance from Luke. Luke was also pretty buff and much taller than Cole, as he has a stern look on his face staring down Cole making him back away a bit staring at Chris and assuring him everything will be ok. Although Chris’s day was going to be rough as in the fact Luke has no classes with him and only lunchtime they share. The rest of the time Cole finds multiple ways to torture Chris throughout the day only giving him a break at lunchtime as he will not pick a fight with Luke nearby. Chris battered and bloody as he left the school with Luke asking him why this keeps happening to him.

“Just keep in your mind one thing Chris. He can hurt you once and it will hurt, but the next time you get hurt you will not feel the same pain as much. The more he does it the less pain it will feel when you get hit. Have that as a mindset and you will be set in stone pal.” Luke says to Chris.

“Since when did you have vocabulary?” Chris scoffs at Luke.

“Hey….your right, your English grade is an E overall,” Luke replies to Chris. The two of them burst out laughing as they walked home. Cole is watching behind them but with a melancholy face as if he too wanted to join into being friends with them. Cole only looks to the ground as he lights another cigarette and walks away. Back to reality as Chris is mumbling in his nightmares with his eyes trembling and his legs push out as if he is running away from something.

He has another dream about certain individuals. Glimpses of humans roaming on these forests and the previous animals living in it. The daze has been lingering for a while as another image of the crab appears, this time it was a baby crab. The image quickly disappears then it turns back to a monster. The images keep flipping back and forth in his brain. He wakes up and sees nothing but multiple cobwebs nearby the tree and shrubs. He looks around and knows that it was no dream, but the question arose why it came to him and not attack him.

A bush near him rattles as Chuck comes out. “Hey you alright? You didn’t come back and we got worried.”

“Yeah… I guess I am.” Chris responds.

“It looks like you got into a bad scrape. We should take you back to the den and see Claudia before infection sets in those wounds.” Chuck says.

“I just can’t believe I let Cole out of my reach, and I almost finished him off with only him to escape at the right moment,” Chris says to Chuck.

“There are times where we mess up Chris and we just have to find a way to move on from that and find another way to get back up and do it again.” Says Chuck.

Chris wasn't too happy to hear that but he agreed. As the two of them walk back to the den, Chris sees Emma sleeping there.

“It looks like she will make a full recovery,” Claudia says.

Chris decides to lay down next to Emma and closes his eyes. It has been a long day and it's time to rest.

Morning finally comes, the sun shining into the den, Chris is on the ground as Emman is up and about then hops closer to him. Emma then stares at Chris as she remembers what happened. She was running away from her problems and the grief and dismay she had for her brothers. She went back to the sewers as she waited for someone. She was waiting for Cole to show his face and that she was ready to fight him and kill him. She knew the consequences of how much of a disadvantage she has. She yelled at the top of her lungs at Cole’s name out loud. She heard nothing that was until she saw a dark figure staring at her with emerald eyes.

“Oh look it's you….Where is Chris young lady?” Cole asks.

“You think I really care about that, I’m here to rip your eyes out, and then I’m here to break your face open!!!!” Emma yells at Cole.

“Gee….didn’t they teach you to say hi to strangers?” Cole replies to Emma.

“I don’t care about being polite to you. You killed my only family here and I’m here to kill you..” Emma glares at Cole.

Cole begins to laugh with a small snicker but tries to contain his laughter as he looks at Emma. “You...you...really think a small bunny like you….Can easily overpower me?” Cole barely says as he now laughs in front of her face.

“So you got a problem with that HUH! Are you afraid?!” Emma says to Cole.

“No no, I dig it. T’s hilarious to be honest. You're more comedic than Chris and Luke. They always bore me then I just beat one of them up, but you are special, you talk back. Not many people do that. Still would be a shame that you won’t put up a fight physically...Even Luke can do that ..'' Cole says to Emma.

“Don’t you bring my friends into this. Just fight me already!” Emma is losing her temper faster as Cole delays this battle.

“Well since you know where I am, might as well just show off my good looks,” Cole says as he walks forward revealing how large Cole was compared to her. Emma’s eyes widened as she saw how close he was getting to her.

“Hey you're awake silly,” Emma says happily.

Chris opens his eyes. “Well yes I am, and you seem a lot happier since the last time I saw you.”

“Yeah it's probably because I miss you guys. I still have questions for you.” Emma