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

“I think the large predator was defending his friend, the elk. He called the elk Luke.” the coyote says to Cole.

The black big cat snickers to himself as he begins to realize what has been going on. “Well...Well...Well… if it ain’t my two best losers, Luke and Chris. One of them has the larger balls to KILL MY SQUAD!” Cole says.

”I'm ...I'm sorry I was just the messenger... please don’t kill me.” The small coyote shivering in fear tries to run away.

Cole looks at the coyote shaking his head. “I won’t kill you retard, I’m just really pissed off that this had to happen...although I do have a small request for you Sam..... I need you to find the two of them and send them a message. A message of fear, a message to show that I’m the boss here… tell Chris and Luke I’M THE BIG DADDY OF THIS CITY AND YOU WUSSIES ARE GOING TO BE DEAD IF I SEE YOU!!!!!”

Sam dashes off out of the sewer and goes back up to the surface, as the large black cat began to get out of his hole, a ray of light from the surface reveals a long thin tail and a scrunched up face with white whiskers, small ears, and large paws, with large green eyes staring off into the surface.

“Soon...you will see Chris, we’re not in school no more, and no other teacher or your mommy can protect you now. Although when the coyote left the sewer he never did make it to his destination as his journey was cut short by finding a strange creature in an alley nearby. “Wait...could it be,” The coyote thinks to himself watching as a pale humanoid creature crawls to him and suddenly launches forward. The coyote yelps in fear as he runs as fast he can only to hit his head against a broken car knocking him out. A large shadow above him soon finds the coyote and lays him on its back walking away with him.

Wounds have been healed from the fight in the alleyway and friendships have grown. Together now the dinosaur, elk, and jackrabbit embark on a new quest to find the grandfather. He might be the only one with answers in this brand new world. A world with dangerous foes, and maybe friends awaits them. Now our friends continue onward to an unknown city.

The very odd trio, a dinosaur named Chris, Luke the elk, and Emma the jackrabbit make their way down an empty road heading toward the city center. All three now are very aware of the different noises and even a few sights of the new population of New York City. Roars of lions can be heard which make Emma’s ears swivel back and forth, her eyes darting from side to side. A flock of birds, flamingos fly over, and then another of geese pass by. Luke notices a group of sheep and cattle eating grass in someone’s yard. Interestingly enough the majority of the smaller animals are cats and dogs. Whereas many animals are directly looking at Chris, the peculiar creature of the group. He after all stands out as a very strange looking predatory lizard.

“You know despite how I got beat up recently, these animals beside us seem not to be very scary or willing to fight us for the matter,” Luke says.

Emma points at Chris snickering. ''Well it could be you know... Mr. Gigantor over here with his big teeth, sharp claws ...small arms and giant feet.”

“Hey, that’s rude just because I left a large meat pile of cats in the alley and another one in the restaurant does not make me a giant floppy mess. I just have to get used to being a little bigger than I was before. “ Chris says.

Luke looks at Emma. ''Well I feel great, I don’t know how you healed me up Emma but OH BOY I do feel like sunshine loaded on drugs. I still don’t understand what you were doing in that restaurant? Where are you hiding, looking for food? I am glad though you were there, to save my life.“

Emma looks at Luke and his claws and even at Chris and his antlers then at herself. “I was in a giant mess of problems like you two had and had to find a place to hide. The restaurant was a great spot. That does not mean I am helpless, I can fend for myself. I may be small but in a fight my size is an advantage. I was once on the track team and with that knowledge I’m even faster than before I was a girl. Plus both of your stupid brains won’t be able to outmatch me ” Emma snickers as they walk along the road.

“Hey that means I was an honor roll student you know. My mom says I AM MENTALLY AWESOME!” Luke yells out loud.

“Jesus Christ Luke, why do you have to yell every second? We don’t need everything in our spotlight. I'm still tired from our last beatdown with those ugly cats.” Chris says to Luke.

“Wait did you legit kill baby kittens ? or just some grumpy cats?” Emma asked.

“Well, actually there were more like street gang cats you know. Just like in those cheesy 80’s movies. Remember Chris we always used to buy those films and then rant on them.” Luke says to the both of them.

“Oh, yea! I remember those were pretty good times. I still wish there was a way we can have fun in these bodies though. I think though I’m getting the hang of jumping and walking and running on these weird legs.” Chris says.

“By the way is that pretty much a butter knife attached to your foot permanently?” Emma asks Chris.

“Well yeah of course stupid. Aren’t you smart a lot of raptors had similar sickle claws like this bac

As they walk other animals stare at Chris and Emma. Chris is a dinosaur so some of them run away while others just stay their ground and just peer. The ones staring at Emma are because of her size, and the fact she looks so fragile. She is a jackrabbit after all, but the large sharp claws of Chris and Luke’s massive antlers make them stay away. From above the buildings a set of stalky raven eyes peered out and begin to stare at the trio of friends, a strange rhythmically clicking sound can be faintly heard coming from it. It stays hidden but before it fades back to the shadows one giant set of pincher claws can be seen.

“So...I was thinking of heading through Central Park, it's the shortest route to my gramps folk home,” Luke says.

“You sure we can’t just take the subway route? It's much safer than being out in the open.” Emma says.

Luke looks at the ground with concern walking along the road. “Let's not talk about anything underground alright...it’s a bit touchy subject.”

“Wait..but why?” Emma says with a curious expression on her face.

“It’s because I had a terrifying experience when I was a younger kiddo, Emma,” Luke says, still looking down. “May we please not talk about it though ok? I’ll tell you the story later alright.” Luke looks down with anxious thoughts as he remembers a time when with his grandfather. Luke used to go to the zoo often with his grandpa and they use the underground monorails to get to places faster rather than taking a cab or a bus. One of those scary moments he had was quite gruesome as he saw two drunken men fight over a bottle. Luke was seven around the time and did not understand why as his grandfather went over and tried to stop the dispute.

One of them walked away with the other still angry he did not get his bottle. Once his grandfather was done talking he saw that the drunken man was walking right into the rails of the monorail.

“STOP!!! LOOK OUT!!!!” Luke’s grandfather shouts as the drunken man falls into the floor where the rails are. The drunken men then stood up from the fall only to be blinded by a light and a loud sound of a horn as the monorail screeched to stop the breaks. It was too late, a large crunching thud was heard as blood covers the bottom of the track. Splatters of blood land in young Luke’s face as he is breathing deeply and screams in fright.

“Hey, buddy you good?” Chris says as Luke refreshes his mind.

“Yea yea I’m good” Luke says as he smiles once more.

Emma starts to look away as she notices a large lush of vegetation with bountiful shades of green with many trees. “HEY LOOK ITS CENTRAL PARK!”She blurts out.

“Yeah, we can see that Emma.” Chris gives a short sigh looking at how different Central Park is now.

Central Park was much more peculiar than the one they all knew long ago. The sign is still there, rusted and faded but readable. Even the map underneath it still can be seen. The trees have overgrown their heights to become massive and the benches along with the small tiled roads were just consumed by either grass or other foliage. All three of them begin to walk inside through the park, they see that it was quite beautiful in fact despite the destruction of the original park. Luke felt a sense of relief and began to rub his antlers on the ground scraping the gorgeous lines of grass that have been untouched for some time. He then proceeds to go up to a tree and ram his antlers onto a tree scraping the bark off it. Loud grinding noises are echoed through the forest as he causes a loud ruckus for his pleasure.

“Hey Luke, what in the hell are you doing?” Chris asks.

Luke continues to scrape his antlers back and forth, “I don’t know, it just feels natural though, I feel like...like… when I used to live in the countryside of Virginia.”

Emma too appreciates the nature in the park as she rubs her fur along the mossy grass giving out a sigh of relief. “Yup, he’s sure right about this place being great and all, I could stay here all day. We should get going before it reaches nightfall though, I don’t think we have any obvious nearby shelters.”

Looking around Luke says “Awwgh chill out dude, it’s all good here, I don’t see anyone but birds and a couple of spiders.”

“Yeah, that was one thing that I found somewhat disturbing was the large amounts of spiders and their large webs,” Chris says to Luke. Chris was right although fore there were tiny spiders no larger than the size of a dime wandering on tree branches and making exotic beautiful webs in vast sizes. In front of them is an odd-shaped looking shelter.

“Woah, what’s that over there?. It’s like a large downed white tree.” Luke said.

Emma looks at the down tree, her hair on the back of her neck rises and she gets goosebumps. “Hmm... I have a feeling we shouldn’t go in there, I feel like something is making a home inside of it.”

“Emma, I think Luke might be up to something, this is probably