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

curved fangs and throws them away like trash, continuing on his hunting spree. Whether be him ripping ligaments out of there backs and throwing their corpses everywhere or pinning their backs gouging their lungs and with his sickle claw on his foot leaving burrows from either their heads, backs, or throats it's a massacre in the alley. After a while there is nothing but dead bodies or disemboweled cats lying all over the alley. The pungent smell of blood, urine, and decaying animals is widespread in the alley. Chattering crows fly over the corpses as they land on the bodies tearing small pieces of meat to eat, flies begin to hover over the carcasses with excitement. The dinosaur begins to walk to Luke as his eyes roll over to normal again. Luke woke up slowly but was still in pain from all the cuts that have struck him from the battle.

“Hey...Chris ...thanks for not bailing on me…” Luke says softly. Chris was afraid looking at his pal that was bleeding out very fast. Chris had to find a way to move Luke to a safer location before more predators start to smell the blood in the alley

“Don’t worry Luke….I can fix this….I can fix this…..everything is going to be fine..” Chris grabs Luke’s antlers with his jaw and tries to gently pull on his body to the exit of the alleyway. Luke moans in pain every time he is dragged for a second, making Chris have to let go until he is calm again. “You gotta work with me, Luke. I know it hurts but please don’t be a crybaby.”

Luke groans in pain, with his eyes halfway open, manages to say softly, “Ok… I’ll try to not fuss as much.” He then passes out for a second or two and groans again.

He pulls long and slowly until he can see the main entrance of the restaurant. Looking at the sky, he saw that the sun was now setting, and a very obvious blood trail of the route they have taken up to now.

Chris pants and huffs as he pulls Luke out of the alley. He looks at Luke and tells him, “We did it... Don’t worry Luke…we made it.”

Luke is motionless, realizing that he can't tell if his friend is still alive and Chris panics. He shouts at Luke, “ LUKEEEEEE!” Luke's body is unresponsive, it’s just a large lump of blood-covered elk. Still, no response from Luke. “LUKE!!!!” Chris cries out again. Luke still not speaking, as the wind blows over his fur revealing a deep cut with a dark crimson splotch over his neck. “LUKE PLEASE DON’T KID WITH ME!!!” Chris looks up towards the sky and gives a loud screech to the sunset as he weeps loudly.

Peering through a window a small critter inside the restaurant raises it’s long ears upright, as it watches the dinosaur crying and the large elk bleeding out from all the wounds. She knows it in her heart that she has to help, even though both creatures are unknown strangers and are bigger than her. The fair beige creature disappears for a moment into the back of the restaurant then it hops to the entrance holding a teabag in her mouth. Her strong large legs allow her to quickly hop on top of the elk without the dinosaur noticing. She then spits out the tea back bag and begins rubbing on the wounds.

Chris shakes his head wiping off any excess tears and looks back as a small hare is on top of Luke. He growls at the hare and stands up protectively toward Luke. “What are you doing here...go away!”

The hare looks up at the dinosaur with no emotion and it continues to rub the tea bag on the elk. “Who are you… you better tell me now before I seriously hurt you, and don't think of running a little bunny. ”

The hare sighs as it stops rubbing Luke and speaks. “ I am not a bunny first of all.. Second of all, I'm helping your friend, and third all of all, you need my help right now, so I suggest you find me more tea bags and find a first aid kit ok.”

Chris is wide-eyed watching as this thing is speaking up to him and he was out of words to say to her. “Yes..ma’am...I’ll take a look.” He then looks back at the hare. “ Is he going to be okay?”

The hare looks up and gives a small grin as she says “I’m a jackrabbit, not a bunny... It’s an insult you know and yes, his heart is still beating just slow.”

Chris looks at Luke and then walks inside the restaurant and tries to scavenge for medicine. Chris examines the bar that has a large pile of broken glass, lots of leaves have coated the tiled floor. The vinyl seats are rusted and are scattered throughout the floor.

“Finding the first aid kit in this clutter is near to impossible without knowing the owner of the restaurant.” Chris whispers to himself. “If only they put the medicine somewhere more obvious.” Chris then jerks his head up as he sniffs the floor looking up and smells a familiar smell. “I smell some alcohol and some Pepto Bismol... but where is it..?” Chris smells and sniffs constantly trying to find a trail of where it can be. He walks around the restaurant as he finds a door connecting to the kitchen. Chris grasps the doorknob and turns it, giving a slight budge to open the door. Chris finds a dirty red and white case on the wall of the kitchen. “Yes!! Jackpot!” Chris grabs the handle with his mouth as the weight of the case makes his head droop to the floor. “JEEZ...why is this so heavy” Chris walks out as he notices the jackrabbit tapping her foot on the ground annoyingly.

The rabbit says “You could’ve been faster than that you know. It is your friend here on the floor bleeding out. Open the kit up now.”

Chris replies “Alright..but what are you going to do with my buddy?”He holds the kit down with his foot as he struggles to move his arms to grab the handles. Chris looks at the rabbit and chuckles to himself “A little help please?”

The rabbit rolls her eyes as she hops to him and opens the tabs of the medicine box. She grabs the gauze and bandages with her two paws as she hops back to elk.

“You two have had a rough day it seems...You two are lucky that I found you, your friend wouldn't have lived through the night if his blood hadn’t clotted fast enough. “ She says as she places gauze over the elks wounds.” By the way, names Emma, and yours?”

“My name is Chris Miller, nice to meet you, and this is my injured friend Luke.” Chris watches her as she mummifies Luke with gauze and bandages. “I can’t thank you enough for helping Luke, we fought with a gang of cats, and Luke saved my life as he got surrounded by other cats and then...”

“Then what?” Emma asked.

“I don’t know… I was out for a while and then I woke up standing up with lots of cat blood on me, and dead cats all around me.” Chris says softly looking down at the ground some. Confused by the fact that he blacked out and then found himself covered in blood.

Emma looks down at Chris, especially his claws. “You sure look like something dangerous, hey can you hand me the blanket from the kit, please?”

Chris grabs the blanket and he gently spreads it on Luke. “So what now? Is he good now?”

Emma nods. ”Well...yes and no. Your friend took a good beating and went into shock but with some rest, he will be with us probably soon. Then again I’m no expert doctor so he might be gone for longer than that.”

Chris nods and looks at Luke. He lifts his head and looks out into the streets. It's like he lost track of time, it's much darker now night is approaching. His eyes stare at the lights on the streets, but nothing happens. They will not be turning on anytime soon.

Emma’s ears stand on end as she sniffs the air and hears the snarls, howls, and the whining of animals around them both. “We should get inside, it's not safe here, we should try moving Luke inside and stand watch.”

Chris looks down at Luke. “Why can’t we just stay outside? I don’t think we should move Luke more, he was groaning every time I moved him out of the alley.”

“You don’t know what’s out there Chris, there’s a lot of animals, and most of them are hungry or just plain cruel, even if they speak like humans. I know everything is weird but, you have to trust me on this ok?” She says softly.

Chris is already pulling Luke inside as Emma finishes her sentence. Emma gives a small sigh as she hops inside the restaurant. Chris pulls Luke to a large table and then pushes him with his head to be beneath it. The two of them tired find a way to comfort themselves with a bed or something to lay on. Emma hops on a booth noticing a large patch of exposed spongy material, she begins to snuggle it and adjust her body to lay on it. She closes her eyes and says goodnight to Chris as she falls asleep. Chris without cushion tries to find somewhere with a lot of room. He wanders until he finds the kitchen again. He walks forward and smells a unique smoky smell, he continues to sniff at it until his head bonks the freezer. He looks at the freezer and grabs the handle with his mouth and pulls it back. Inside was raw meat, coated in ice and seasoned salt. There was so much meat variating from, sausage links to whole sides of beef and chicken breasts. His eyes grew and his mouth began to quiver fast. Chris charges directly into the freezer and begins to gorge on the meat. Despite being raw, frozen, and possibly been here for a very long time it tasted great as he makes a large commotion. He pulls back out taking breathes and warming up his face from the cold, and rushes back in to eat some more. Late into the night after the meat has been eaten Chris is even more tired than before and walks slowly back to the main dining room. He starts to walk slowly then sits down, then finally lies down with a full belly. His tail curls right up to his face as he closes his eyes.

Around this time a grotesque grey coyote runs down a road extremely fast until it stops at an opening of a sewer pipe. The coyote hops down crawling down a small tunnel that leads to an open mouth of a sewer. The sewer is wet, dark, rusty, and running water echoes throughout the area. The small scrawny coyote walks up until he spots a medium-sized tunnel entrance and waits there nervously. A slender dark onyx body crawls out of the hole and purring sound can be heard. It begins to open its mouth dispensing out a yawn, showing those large pearly teeth. This scares the coyote and it backs up.

“Cole…the squad from the north has been terminated...Biggie J was killed along with the other cats…” The grey coyote says to the creature.

The black creature shows no expression to the news that has been told to him. He continues to listen to the coyote, just staring at him more deeply.

“They were killed by a large creature with terrifying claws and it was fast, it...it killed all of them so quickly.” The grey coyote continues with the story. “I was barely able to get away without any injuries.”

The large cat stares at the grey coyote and begins to speak to himself. “It looks like we have a small problem in