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

“Wait…..but how am I gonna eat or, how am I going to hunt, or anything!” Chris starts to sound desperate

“Don’t worry about it kiddo, Sam and Claudia will keep you company as me and Monroe take care of some business. Whenever you can walk with some help maybe you’ll be able to see what we have been doing recently.” Chuck says as he walks away from the entrance of the grotto.

Sam soon rushes inside looking at Chris. “Hey it's you….” Sam wags his tail excitedly.

“Yeah it's me, your friend that's now crippled,” Chris says with gloom.

“Don’t worry about it, soon you will be able to walk normally although if I have to fix it quickly it will be more painful for you,” Claudia says to Chris.

“Just do anything at this point I need to be back there and I need some questions,” Chris asks Claudia.

“Children these days...always such in a rush..” Claudia thinks in her head. “Sam dearest...will you find me two large sticks that can fit alongside his lower leg, and then fetch me some vines nearby, while I reset Chris’s tibia.”

“Alright I’ll be back soon have fun Chris!” Sam runs off from the grotto as Chris has a worrying face at Claudia.

“What do you mean reset my bone?” Chris asks cautiously.

“Don’t worry dear, it will only hurt for about a second I just want you to look up and think of something that makes you happy,” Claudia says as she starts to move her large claws towards Chris’s lower leg.

He looks up to the dark roof of the grotto as Claudia scoops his right leg and holds it delicately. Chris feels an uncomfortable feeling as he feels a small sting of the fractured leg. Claudia takes a deep breath as she slowly moves the leg to the right side. Chris begins to scream in pain as he wiggles around to break free.

“Honey I know it hurts but you have to stand still for me to understand that please..” Claudia says as she lays her other arm along Chris’s body so he can be still. “Deep breaths help though, so why don’t you do that as it gets fixed.” She tells him to inhale and exhale. As this is happening and a large cracking sound is heard as Chris exhales and looks down at his leg. The leg is now fixed although with his ankle slightly pushed back to the right further. “Oh it seems I might have pushed a little too hard...It's hard to have such strong arms and be careful at the same time….I can just reset it again.” Chris begins to breathe deeply again. Claudia grabs his ankle bone and gently moves it towards the left as it regains back to normal positioning although Chris has exhausted himself as he is now sleeping. “All tuckered out already….Take care Chris soon you’ll be in tip-top shape.” Claudia says to him as she waits for Sam's arrival.

Once Sam got back he gave the sticks and vines to Claudia as she quickly put one stick on the right of his right leg and the other on the other side. Shen wrapped them together and compressed them with the vines to make an organic splint. When this was done Chris takes a small liking to this even if he could not move his leg for a while. Five weeks pass by as he can walk, with his left leg and can only drag his right leg. Chuck takes a look at this and laughs and tells Chris about numerous times in the past he had broken limbs in the past and then healed them fast.

“Is this your first broken bone Chris?” Chuck asks.

“Well other than my finger I broke when I was a kid this was one of the serious injuries I had,” Chris says to Chuck.

“Well now you are fixed you should be able to do some work to help with us. It will still be advised if you didn’t fight though.” Chuck says to Chris.

“If I ain’t hunting then what am I doing specifically?” Chris asks.

“Well you're more of our scout, as well our smarts in our operation. We have been looking around at this mutant pandemic and thought we should do our share by killing some of them along the way. As well as saving those that may have suffered from attack from those mutants. So how would you feel coming with us for a while.” Chuck asks Chris.

Chris thinks back to Reginald and Emma, he also thinks about how sick Luke is back at the Smoky Den. The only reason he even wanted to find the dinosaur gang was to talk to Claudia to see him although something in his mind made him forget his troubles and decide to go with them. Chuck and Monroe with Sam had missions they had to do daily each day. One of them was to go to the city Chris called home and clear any stragglers on the way. Afterward with some breakfast they would be heading out to the plains keeping watch on stealth if any movement was shown from the mutants. Now the fun part, that Chuck claims is finding these special mutants around the area. Some of these mutants are odd-looking and Chuck decides to call them the “Weirdos of nature” and they are solely out to kill them. They cause damage to both nature itself and especially are powerful and can overpower many strong predators. Despite Chris being limp he must keep close with them or else he will become a prey and not the fearsome former predator he once was. It was early in the morning when Chuck woke up Chris.

“Hey kid. Are you ready to go?” Chuck says to a drowsy Chris.

Chris looks up but does not respond and goes back to sleep.

“Alright….well I tried. Monroe! Be ready to lift Chris as we get to the hunting grounds!” Chuck yells up to Monroe who is circling in the air.

Monroe swoops down and picks up Chris gently, not applying pressure on his leg and flies off. Sam and Chuck dash off toward the hunting grounds as Claudia waves goodbye and wishes them safe travels.

As Sam and Chuck run through the thickets of bushes he asks him, “So boss...you think this will help him heal? What if he gets hurt again? We can’t just heal a bad infection with medicine....you know.”

“I know he’s strong….and I'm going to prove it by testing his limits today. If he can get through this entire day of us doing our thing. Then he will be ready for us.” Chuck answers as they continue to run.

Monroe gracefully glides through multiple clouds looking down as the two dark specks of Chuck and Sam running. Chuck stops as his feet touch the silk-like grass of the hunting grounds.

He looks up at Monroe and yells. “Ok Monroe you can land now!”

Monroe starts to descend from the flight and puts Chris on the grass.

“Sam it's time to wake up Chris” Chuck tells Sam.

Sam nods and walks up to Chris and nudges his head onto his back. “Hey, Chris...Boss time to open those eyes now” Sam says gently.

Chris remains sleeping, if anything he turns around to get more comfortable and begins to snore. Chuck notices this and gets angry, and decides he will have to deal with it his way. Chuck gets closer to him, leans his head towards Chris’s face, and gives a loud shriek jostling him from his slumber.

Chris immediately sits up moving his broken leg and screams “Aaaaah my leg…... *aughh, eeeek*”

“Hello sunshine, we are hunting today, get on your feet soldier it's time to look alive!” Chuck yells into the early morning greeted by the noises of crickets.

Chris struggles to get up and then continues to limp forward as the rest of the gang continue to walk onward.

“So Chris...Did you ever fight Cole again?” Sam asks nervously.

“Oh yeah I saw that jerk and I beat him up pretty badly in fact. Although I couldn’t kill him.” Chris says with pride.

“Oh...really...I sure hope he doesn’t come up hunting us.” Sam says with a nervous trembling tone.

“Aw, don’t worry much Sam we are well prepared to take care of a predator plus no one would come near to this forsaken area,” Monroe says, trying to ease Sam’s fear.

“Oh yeah...I forgot only those creepy mutants tend to stay over here a lot.” Sam looks down to the ground, as he remembers a faint memory of watching a pale creature behind a glass.

“Still you chose a rather unusual time Chuck, are you sure provoking them this early won’t cause any problems?” Monroe asks Chuck.

“It’s going to be fine. As long as we have our prize pig.” He points his head toward Chris’s direction. “We can do anything. Am I right kid?” Chuck says, then looks at Chris who is still a good distance away.

“Faster! Even Claudia can walk faster than you!” Chuck yells at Chris.

Chris struggles as he hops on one leg to catch up with them. How is he going to be helpful with only one leg, he doesn't know. Chuck seems to think he will tough.

Chuck sniffs the air and looks down and smiles. “We are here.”

In this time and hour the plains are left untouched but had very unusual irregularities in the ground. There were small lumps that made the ground look if it had tumors all over. Fog starts to roll in making the hunting grounds more eerier.

“Chris you know why I brought you here today?” Chuck asks Chris. “So I can help you with your stuff?” Chris replies. “No Chris, I have seen you fall and I have seen you fight so today you will be fighting a small problem that has been causing us issues recently…” Chuck says to Chris.

“Wait Chuck you don’t mean it right…?” Monroe says to Chuck with a concerned look.

Chuck ignores Monroe and continues to talk to Chris. “It may seem hard but soon you will see. Monroe and Sam will not help you in this hunt...I will not help you either.. You will have to make do with what you have and what you are now. You may have a broken leg but you have your mind that's not broken.” Chuck says to Chris.

“What if I am not cut out for this then huh!” Chris yells at Chuck.

The ground tremors for a bit underneath Chris’s legs. “I wouldn’t yell if I were you..”

Monroe whispers. “Yeah I think he’s onto something Chris.”

Chris takes a deep breath and looks around. Nothing looked abnormal with the ground except he looks deeper and sees a red tentacle erupting from the ground. With curious intent he walks closer and sees that it was thin and bits of blood were coated on these tentacles. He moves his good leg and lifts his sickle claw towards the abnormal tentacle. Then lowers his leg down and with just a bit of dirt that drops down from his foot touches the tentacle, making a loud rumble erupts a mutant. Stands back as he looks at the horrific sight of this mutant. It had black fur and with its arms well developed with muscles and its hands were longer and with thick nails. Its face was rather disturbing for him to watchfully as for its eye has shrunk and looked more of beads than actual eyes, and the part where its nose should be is replaced with a jumbled mess of tentacles that resemble linens of muscle and tendons covered in mucous and blood. The creature then waves its tentacles as it lowers its body to the ground and shovels dirt and digs underground.

“WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL CHUCK!!!! YOU DIDN’T TELL ME IT WAS GONNA BE LIKE THIS!!!” Chris shouts at Chuck who is at a distance away from him with the gang.

“Chuck he has a point...I know we struggled getting this mutant out of the way, but did you think it was a great idea to send Chris alone...and crippled