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

“That wasn't what I was going to ask but… ok. We thought we were going to find you uptown in the nursery home. Luke said you might know something of what the hell is going on here.” Chris said.

“Well sonny, I’m just as clueless as y’all are. I woke up one day from being bound to a wheelchair to what you see in front of ye’dark eyes. Although most of the other coots in the nursery were either unresponsive or gone.” Reginald explains.

“But gramps how did you find us.?” Luke asks

“Well Luke it's more of a parental instinct if you understand what I’m saying. Say, you all look all battered up and tired, would you want to go to the nursery for some food and shelter?” Reggie asked. “There is a place called the Smoky Den...I know the leader who rules over there. A lot of my friends should be still there along with other people who have gone lost from the former homes they once lived in.” Reginald says to the gang.

“Wait gramps that still doesn’t make sense that you knew we are in this park. There's like millions of millions of places that I could have been in you know. I’m the random child of this situation that would wander anywhere. Just like when you lost me in that big mall before.” Luke says to Reginald.

“Oh yes…. I do remember that. The leaders from the Smoky Den asked for some wood and I knew that this would be a perfect place to knock down some trees and bring it back there. Of course sadly a lot of the critters here seem to make a home out of them so I'm not too sure to take any wood back for them. I’ll probably find some later. I heard the shouting of you and Chris and that's where I started searching if that was you. By golly I was right and it seems I caught you at the perfect time. So gentleman and erh...gentlewoman are we ready to set off to the Smoky Den?” Reginald says to all of them.

“Yes..if it can get us out of this hellhole Mr. Fuzzington erh.. I mean Reggie sir…” Chris replies to Reggies.

In a concerned tone Emma says “We need to go somewhere first though… if you don’t mind. I need to go to the sewers to make sure my brothers are ok.”

Luke and Chris quickly look at Emma puzzled. Both ask “brothers?”

Following Emma Luke shouts “Well WHY you didn't say so let's get this family reunion in session!”

It seems like animals are not the only ones that have woken up in the new world. A new type of mutant has emerged. The grandfather was found and in good time. Now they set off to a new adventure into the sewers where life and death are part of it every second. A reunion is soon to take place, will Emma find her long lost siblings that may have fallen to the predators of New York.

The gang left Central Park and followed Emma as she led them up north to the nearest sewer opening close to the nursery. They found an open sewer pipe although unfortunately most of the gang was too big to fit in the hole except Emma and Chris if he could squeeze in. Luke and Reginald were to wait outside as lookouts to make sure if anything was going to attack and as well to give them, both the signal when it was about to become night time. Emma hooped inside and ran out the hole into the earth easily, Chris had to squeeze in his legs and his tail as he squirmed inside. They look inside and see that there were a lot of rusty iron pipes with rushing water echoing the dark sewer. Surprisingly this water was not murky from human pollution, but instead blood and bits of flesh floating on top of the water. Emma looked anxious as if she was looking for something important with Chris struggling to keep up with her in the darkness. Emma hops forward for a bit, lifts her ears up and then takes a right. She continues and stops as she sees a large sewer pipe that is pouring down into what seems to be a large pool.

“If you didn't know already my family is a bit weird when it comes to reunions and such. My little brothers tend to be chaotic whenever my parents aren’t home so I want you to be careful of them when we get near them.” Emma explained while hopping towards the darkness.

“Wait...what?...Why would I be afraid of them? Other than Reggie I can probably still handle a couple of kids.” Chris remarks rolling his eyes.

“Oh your gonna laugh Chris I’m sure as Hell you going to take them on easily as you did with whatever you and Luke fought... Speaking of that, what were the things you guys were fighting? You know it's weird, it's like trouble follows you constantly.” Emma says to Chris.

“Well I don't know… I never saw a spider as large as that creature wait… no or was it a crab. It was just scary and I felt it wasn’t angry just because we crashed into his home.” Chris tries to explain himself.

The two of them continue the dark descent of pipes with barely any light hitting the floor. Water continues a point till they reach a point where the water grew murkier and murkier. The more they tread upon it the more they saw that it would soon be impossible to maneuver without swimming. Emma has experience with this although with the body that Chris had it would be a big struggle to even doggy paddle.

“There has to be another way… I’m too big to even go through that small opening.” Chris says as he struggles to move forward in the pipes.

“Well, we can always split up. I’ll take this watery part and you just take another path over there.” Emma pointed to a large platform afloat with railing alongside it.

“Hmm. are you sure you’ll be safe on your own? Just don’t want to be alone in here that's all.” Chris says with a small stutter of fear.

“Yeah of course I’ll be fine just don’t need you wandering, just stay on the path and you should meet up with me on the other side alright,” Emma explains.

Chris nods and looks at both paths, this is where they would be separated, on their own for a while. He then looks at as Emma continues down the watery path. Emma raises her ears as she doggy paddles with all fours her way through the waterway. Chris watched as she was able to do this flawlessly and soon couldn't see her anymore through the darkness. Chris starts his journey by jumping up on the platform, without bumping into the railing. The echoing bump rang over the dark path he had as the railing fell to the water beneath him making a large splash.

Emma hears the splash and turns her head shouting at Chris. “Be more careful, up there!”

Chris continued to walk with some sort of way of seeing in the dark. Everything started turning from black to indigo and dark shades of blue.

“Woah when was I able to do that?” Chris whispered to himself. Suddenly he notices that an object fell in front of him at a distance. It looked green and red at the same time. He gets confused, he can't tell if this was his vision or an actual object that looked weird. The blob started to move closer towards him slowly staring Chris down. Chris was about to speak as he heard what it seems to be high pitched laughter. The laughter echoed which then resumed more laughter from the front and back. Chris backed up as he felt something wet and soft.

“BOOP! YOU GOT MY NOSE. HEHEHEHEHHE!” said the mysterious creature laughing loudly.

Chris jumps and shrieks as he feels the creature. “Stand back ...I'm warning you, I have claws that can rip you to shreds,” Chris shouts.

“Aww..the poor dinosaur lost and alone…” Another blob said circling on the side says.

“It’s a shame dear brother… that I have to kill such a cute prey.” responds the first blob snickering.

“WHO ARE YOU!” Chris shouts looking around trying to decipher what kind of animals they are.

“Well it ain’t fun actually if you can’t see us, so let me help you this one time” The blob cackles and then goes to flip a switch. The lights above flicker some and turn on, you can hear the buzzing as all of them bright up the sewer pipe.

The three mysterious blobs ended up being hyenas, three uniquely hyenas. Crackle is the first hyena, has eyes that are a pale white, they blend some against its beige fur. The second one is Snap has lots of fur and had dark black stripes, with a mild dislocation on its jaw. Finally the third hyena is Pop, has a face with black fur and dark brown fur covering its body with a deep cut on its neck.

The third hyena looks at Chris, “My name is Crackle, and these other two are my brothers, Snap and Pop.”He laughs loudly.

Chris looks at them with small gazes at all three of them as they get closer. “Stop it RIGHT now! You can’t hurt me” Chris shouted once more. He stands up tall trying to stand his ground, but there are three of them and just one of him.

“Oh you think you can stop us... I smell something, I smell that you are scared right now.” Crackle said.

The hyenas laughed loudly making Chris even more uncomfortable. Chris knew he didn't like fighting but just by looking at these hideous animals in front of him he was indeed afraid of what is to happen to him.

“Hey you actually made the wuss shut up now. Can we eat now sis?” Snap said to Crackle, cracking his jaw back into place”

“No stupid, we have to wait till master comes and see what we caught. If he saw we ate him then he would be in such a fit I swear. Although seeing the master angry does shiver my skin in delight hehe” Snap said smiling.

Pop begins to grunt aggressively shaking his head as he walks close to Chris’s face sniffing his body and then proceeds to pee on his feet. The other hyena began to laugh more as Chris trembled not knowing what to do in this situation.

“Don’t let them get to you.. don’t let them get to you. I am a dinosaur, they are just small mammals.” Chris whispered under his breath.

“For the love of God already can master hurry up now...I’m growing really impatient.” Snap snarled foaming a bit at his mouth.

“Oh, boys just a little longer... After all we don’t want to lose our friend here..hehe” Crackle snickered.

Unfortunately for Chris Pop seemed to not get the message as he is grunting more heavily at Chris with more erratic movements of his face and body.

“Oh.. Poppy dear… why you such a fuss now..?” Crackle asks, looking at her brother.

Pop did not respond as he bares his teeth now, frothing blood and saliva from the mouth. He lunges at Chris’s throat and goes for the kill. Chris’s quick reflexes and also fear makes him duck down and Pop misses him. Pop hits the side of the sewer wall and falls down into the water. This was his chance and Chris makes a run for it dashing from the siblings.

“YOU IDIOT BROTHER… LOOK AT WHAT YOU DONE HE'S GETTING AWAY” Snap yells as he runs after Chris.

Crackle sighs, “Why can’t boys be actually smart for once.” She then