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

“You have tenacity and wit. That is something I am quite fond of, I can let you live right now only if you follow me.” Roberts kneels down to Cole.

“What makes you think you can kill me?” Cole asks.

“I am intelligent for what I am, and from your expression on your face it looks like you are searching for someone.”

“Yeah I was…” He looks around. “I was looking for a dinosaur, a rabbit, an elk, and a mammoth. I heard something about them leaving for a place in the savannah.”

Roberts's eyes wander to the direction of the savannah as he looks back at Cole. “Well how about this, you get me to this savannah area and this prehistoric specimen, and I promise I will find you these animals alright.”

Cole looks down at the ground as he accepts his offer. “Yes, but do I have to be with this..this...bug? Crab? I don’t know what in the hell I’m looking at.”

Roberts gives a deep sigh as he explains its existence. “This here is part of a fallen program we had back in the day. We thought mixing the genomes of other creatures would make faster research to find humans able to turn into animals. Unfortunately due to *cough* conditions of staff and other animals, they had to be put down due to their power as a whole. It was surprising to see this specimen still alive, despite we destroyed most of them and if not all of them from the explosion. If you haven’t noticed already-..” He is interrupted by the snores of Cole falling asleep laying down. “How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children,” Roberts explains then looks down at Cole.

He then clicks his tongue for a minute signaling the crab mutant to pick up Cole and take him back to their base. His eyes stare out at the horizon as he kneels down. Suddenly he has a sharp pain into his head as he groans. His sight is filled with him in the lab but inside a cage, and human Roberts standing in front of him...he regains control and takes a deep breath he proceeds to walk off following the mutant.

Chris and Emma rush their way from the hills back to the Smoky Hearty Hearty Den Den as Reginald is staring into the darkness wondering where Emma and Chirs are.

Chris and Emma return with nothing to show of finding a cure for Luke yet somehow found a bond of friendship instead. Yet again Chris feels to run away from his problems in hopes to find his dinosaur friends. Why is Roberts so obsessed with Chris? Will Cole ever redeem himself showing who is really the alpha predator around other than Chris?

“Oh thank goodness you two are safe!” Reginald says filled with happiness and calmness knowing that they are safe. “ I thought I told the both of you to be back by sundown and now look at you…”

He scolds lightly as Chris licks up some blood off his body. Reginald peers over and his face continues to frown even more. “Oh, it looks like you had a little tussle with someone wasn’t it hmm? Cole perhaps?... Or was it Roberts telling me Chris could it even be that monstrous creature you fought? What are you doing just being bashful and sending yourself out there like that? Have you not had Emma with you who knows how much danger you would've been. You could've died and my grandson would wake up not knowing how his best friend had fallen.” Reginald says to Chris in a serious tone.

“Reggie...It's not his fault...I made him stay there so we can find Clau-” Emma is interrupted as Chris smacks her with his tail slightly.

“Don’t tell him….” Chris whispers in a slightly loud voice.

“What do you mean Emma? Expand the fact you two were out late and then look like a mess afterward.” Reginald questions Emma.

“We were just having a good time Reggie, then when the sun came down Cole came out and stalked us then attacked us once more, everything is fine I promise.” Emma pleads with him to calm down.

Reginald although he is not calm about this as his temper is now increasing with each heavy breath he makes. “That is no excuse though, just like you ran away we thought you were going to die, and if it wasn’t for Chris finding you God knows what would have happened. So don’t give me that excuse young lady.” Reginald replies back to Emma.

“Well you're not my mom and sure as hell you're not my dad either. So are you going to say that you're my grandpa now huh..? I can watch myself and Chris can watch himself just fine seeing he is a killing machine more than you can do.” Emma glares at him raising her voice.

Chris looks at the both of them only at the horror as he is filled with guilt that he started this argument and ruining friendships in front of him. His mouth begins to rumble and utters some words quietly. “Stop,” Chris says quietly.

Emma and Reginald continue arguing as they pay no attention to what Chris is saying.

“I said STOP…” Chris says raising his tone a little louder. Still, nothing as the argument is now growing to yelling.

“You can’t just say because I’m just a rabbit that I can not defend myself, look at you. you barely can run anymore and don’t even fight most of the time with your limp leg!” Emma yells back at him.

“Young lady you think I wanted to be like this and you think I wanted to watch over a sick grandson and his friend that is destructive with his body and another friend that has no one to rely on because you're just an orphan!!!” Reginald yells out loud as he trumpets.

“Can you guys just shut up!!!” Chris roars. “I’m tired of this crap of continuing people getting mad constantly. You Reginald just act so happy and act so calm even though we have people who died miserably. We have Luke who's so carefree and even his shenanigans got him now where he is almost dead. Emma you are just so stubborn and open your big mouth making the smallest of problems into a more complicated thing so why can’t everyone just be quiet and leave everything be and get off my case of being such a freak!!!!!”

Chris shrieks louder as his eyes roll back inwards. Multiple crows fly off being scared from such a loud noise. Reginald and Emma look in fear and shock of what Chris had just said as Chris regains control of himself and looks at them. Chris looks at the both of them as tears water up in his eyes.

“I’m so sorry...I-” Chris looks tenderly at them both as he runs off into the darkness as fast as he could.

“CHRIS!” A unified shout made by Emma and Reginald. Chris is running towards the bush valley as his tears continue dripping on his face, as he runs away from his inner problems.

Chris has run off again not knowing what his emotions feel any more of the powers he has and that he is a dinosaur. Although on his journey running off he has found once more the squad of prehistoric creatures that accept him for who he is. He joins them immediately as they search off for more mutants and continue to survive in this world.

He had been running for some time until eventually when he stopped running. He looks around himself hearing the nature around him and hearing the sounds of roars and cries of people around him. He admits that he is scared in his image and that he does not want to hear any more cries of animals being killed each day. As the moans and groans continue to get louder of mutants overpowering animals in their sights. From a distance he can see the horrific images from the bush he is as he sees an animal being devoured in front of him. What it seems to be a hyena cub that has been separated from its mother. A pale mutant stares down moving slowly to the cub as it shouts out.

“HELP ME!! PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!!!” the cub continues to shout as the mutant begins to hold on to its leg.

The mutant looks blankly as the cub struggles once more as the mutant then rips the leg off with a simple popping sound. The cub yelps in pain as it desperately tries to escape from the grasp of the mutant. The mutant immediately gobbles up the hyena’s leg as Chris then watches something even more horrifying than the mutants themselves. The mutant then falls to the floor as its hair grows a brown fuzzy coat around its body, with a small mohawk on its head. Its arms and legs distort to get smaller resulting in them to erupt from its shoulders. The most terrifying feature Chris saw was when the mutant started to have a smile on its face. The smile grew larger until its lips began to rip, with it starting to laugh hysterically. The mutant looks as the traumatized hyena cub trudging away as the mutant runs to it and grasps the skull-cracking it as if it was an egg. It then starts to consume the whole body leaving no evidence that there was even a struggle. The mutant then looks in Chris’s direction as it giggles walking towards him.

Chris is breathing fast as he saw this in the bush. He tries to run once more as a root catches one of his sickle claws making him roll down the hill and his head hits a stone knocking him unconscious. He wakes up to see a familiar sight of the 3 clawed creatures. Claudia was standing over him laying out some leaves for him over the bruises he had all over his body.

“It seems we meet again young Chris” Claudia says to him with a warm smile.

“Wait...where am I?” Chris asks.

“Welcome back to the living Chris,” Chuck says as he looks down at him. “On one of our recon missions….. we saw you suffered multiple abrasions and some head trauma so we took you back in once more. You should be more careful next time. Not everyone these days can survive one night alone in the wilderness. If you haven't noticed already we are in a different site than last time, although despite not being a cave with a tall view, it's more like an inland grotto.”

Claudia nods. “Yes I agree….You won’t be seeing any action soon Chris, any fighting won’t do at all. Your legs have taken most of the damage from that fall.”

Chris tries to move his legs as he notices his lower right leg was curved to the left and then tries to move it but soon feels a sharp pain racing up to him as he stops moving. “Did. I break a bone?” Chris asks, taking a deep breath.

“Of course not dear….you fractured it. A big difference.” Claudia smiles happily as Chris gives