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

attempt to save his friends as he stands on his hind legs and begins to swat at him. The giant counteracts by raising his hand to push against the force of the swat. The bear goes forth with his other paw with another slap, as the giant grabs hold of that paw too. They stand in place and wrestle with their arms as the bear struggles to keep up with the giant's strength. At last the giant was done playing games as he simply crushes the bear paws as blood spurts from his hands. The bear reels back in pain as it's pushed to the ground. The giant wasn’t done with him as it picked up a rock nearby and bludgeons the bear's face. The bear's nose gets bloodies quickly with his eyelids being torn apart from the rock stabbing deep into his face. The bear bleeds out with a small breath as it dies. Chris is breathing heavily still hidden from the action freaked out that he just saw an entire platoon of apex predators get manhandled easily by this creature. The giant walks to Chris's position as Chris is breathing faster and scared he is next.

The giant then looks down and mutters something. “A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, a mere heart of stone… a wise man once said that before. Go to Isaac, a mere child, and tell him, he shall suffer if he thinks he can send his best predators against me and my clan.” The giant tells Chris then he starts to walk off.

“We….we….aren't AFRAID OF YOU, YOU MONSTER!” Chris stands up and shouts into the darkness.

The giant stops and turns to face Chris’s again. “You underestimate who you are talking to, but oh well i'll let your ignorant mind see my creations, and do tell Isaac Dr. Roberts says hello.” He then disappears into the shadows of the night.

Chris is shocked by this and runs back to the Smoky Den home in a hurry, afraid of what he just saw. He reports directly to Isaac and tells him about the team and about Dr. Roberts warns.

Isaac becomes furious at what he hears. Not only was his elite team of predators dead, but that Chris, another predator, did not help out.

He looks at Chris and asks him, “Why did you not help????!” Issac did not want to see Chris. So he just walks away without letting Chris respond. He didn’t do anything to save any of them, those predators were not only his pupils but as well they were the top hunters in the nursery, so losing them is already a big loss in the war. There is no time so he goes to his office to plan the next attack.

Reginald walks up to Chris and tries to comfort him but Chris still feels guilty. He had no clue what happened and he had no power to stop Dr. Roberts from brutally murdering the other predators.

“It's not my fault. Chris whispers to himself.

 

 

 

Chapter 10: Leo

The death of the top three apex predators Issac had at his disposal was a great loss. They all got killed in one single blow, by another major predator. No blame was given to Chris, the only one that survived, just more questions. Who is this mysterious Dr. Roberts that destroyed the apex predators? And will Isaac react with force to exterminate this menace?

 

Reginald decides everyone, especially Chris should just rest and wait for further instructions on what to do later. That next morning Isaac comes up with a plan of attack. They will attack aggressively, one big fight, and call everyone for a meeting. He decides that Reginald will stay behind with those that will not take part in the battle. Issac and the rest of the animals leave to fight.

The two not attending the war council are Chris and Emma along with other younger kids. Before the council Issac had told Reginald that while Emma did fight Cole before, she needed to stay. That she would just be in the way. That he had noticed in training that she could not even keep up with the other large predators, or even the small ones. Issac did not want Chris near at all.

Reginald is left responsible to watch them and make sure they stay put. He does not agree with the decision made and feels that Isaac needs everyone for the battle. That’s when he looks at Chris and Emma and tells them his plan. They would be part of this battle, they then sneak off to follow the rest.

Reginald, Chris, and Emma gather some gear and get ready to follow Issac and the rest of the animals off to war. As they walk they notice hordes of different animals joining Isaac's group for the battle/war. Chris notices something weird as they leave the compound. The blood of the mutant’s still was there, except it was now black onyx color. It continued to spread death on the grass, making it brown.

Chris points at the dead grass, “It's spreading all around.” He tells Emma.

This made Emma feel uncomfortable, not knowing what will happen when more blood is spilled. Reginald looks at it but continues to go. The small group walks quite a while, following the larger team led by Issac.

Emma acts as a lookout for the group then points out there is a mutant out in the outskirts, in the grass. her ears stand up sharply as she heard rustling in the grass.

“Hey, I think something is watching us…..” Emma whispers to Chris.

Chris looks toward the grass and notices nothing moving but the wind grazing over the grass. In a second a mutant jumpscares Reginald. It pounces on him from the grass and uses its long nails on Reginald's fur. He tries to shake it off but he struggles. Chris then lunges forward grasping its side, gauging him as its internal organs fall out. The mutant slowly quivers and falls on top of Reginald. The black blood covers Reginald as he finds some grass to clean up the disgusting black goo.

Reginald coughs and manages to say, “Well, it looks like they are eager to strike those with no warning.”

Chris looks back at the mutant to make it dead. It’s not, it’s black eyes blink and continue to stare at them. Suddenly it gets back up from the dead and makes a loud screech.

Emma covers her ears from the very high pitched noise. That’s when it begins. Chris looks around as other mutants start to shuffle through the grass making their way to them. It was an ambush, Reginald and Emma are in trouble.

All of them had obscure looks that made them much different from each other. They all had one thing in common though, they were under control and had black blood. They looked around and stared with their deep moans and clicks. Chris and Reginald form a kill circle, they remain back to back making sure Emma stays in the middle. The battle has started. One mutant with a grotesque head that looks like a rhino begins to charge at Reginald as he counters with his tusks locking against his face. They wrestle until he pins the mutant to the ground as his tusk gorges into its neck and out from its skull. Multiple mutants start to grab on and lock on Reginald's fur, as Chris and Emma try their hardest to pick them off. Emma jumps forward and launches kicks and applies pressure for the mutants to lose concentration as Chris tag-teams by finishing them off by ripping them off Reginald. The mutants fall one by one, sooner the voice of the moans and scream emitting from them grows silent. It was over, the small team survived the attack. They leave the bodies piled up on the ground. This once beautiful nature is now a dead decaying black battlefield.

The group decides to move forward and stop further ahead to check for wounds. They did not want to stay with the dead mutants. Everyone is fine, minor scrapes and bruises. They notice that the black blood acts like some kind of healing agent, it stings when it's on a wound but then heals them. Reginald finds this fascinating seeing the scratches he had on his fur heal up as if nothing had happened. Chris and Emma didn't receive many injuries from the scrimmage but they continue to hope to find Isaac and the pack and hope they are safe. As they arrive the borderlines from the savanna and the desert multiple tracks of different sized footprints of animals have been roaming the area already.

“It seems they have not fought any of the mutants, no bodies or black blood,” Reginald says to himself.

The city doesn't seem to be in the natural right of order when they venture through it as the birds have stopped chirping and as the other animals that lived there have not spoken or shown any evidence of life has even been inhabiting here.

“I have a bad feeling about this….Usually everything is less quiet than this part of the city.” Chris says.

“You think we took a wrong turn, and we are on the opposite side where no one lives?” Emma questions Reginald.

“No, ma’am we are in the right area and it just looks like we might have company hiding in the shadows of the alleys, what scares me more is the fact we haven't seen any of the council. Surely we would have seen the weaker ones struggling behind at least or at most some chatter of those who are slow like me…” Reginald replies to Emma.

Suddenly out of nowhere a mutant pops out from a broken wall and leaps at Emma. Isaacs appears and swoops in front of Emma delivering a killing crunch to the mutant's neck. A unified praise was said by the group being reunited with their leader.

“I've told you three to stay behind in the nursery home!” Isaac shouts.

“Well you can't just leave your best friend into the heart of the battle, that's just plain rude if I do say so myself,” Reginald replies.

“You have come at a questionable time I'm afraid. Many have fallen already, and sadly it looks our numbers are decreasing as much as they are increasing in troops. We started the battle by walking through the border and we had seen nothing, until we saw a pale figure and I sent one of the pack members to pursue them, to see that he was too weak to fully take it by himself, for only a blood spurt later the mutant was consuming him right in front of our eyes. They eat fast they do, much velocity they crawl, run, or jump, it's as if they are the perfect creation to fight against us. The one thing they don’t have though is intellect. They could not rally with each other unless they piled on one animal repeatedly till they fell and consumed it. I was able to kill a good number of them but grew tired seeing the more we killed it's as if they continue to duplicate coming out of nowhere. There was no sight of Dr. Roberts...I don’t know how he can control these beasts, and why he is using