Journey Through All Creatures

Chapter 48: Desolation

Note: Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC order for Section I, Scorched Earth exclusives and Aberration Exclusives for Section II and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Roll Rat, next chapter in Shinehorn.

Chapters to the end of Section II: 2!!!!!!!! Chapter 50 will be called T e Xen mo ph Show own

This is the Ante-Penultimate Chapter of Section II

Aberration Day 14

4:15 PM…

Dorack and Sodden had mostly forgiven themselves and each other since the fight. But they were still at odds with each other. Dorack was confused - he didn’t know whether Sodden was telling the truth or not. Dorack and Sodden were both in the hatchery, now a two-floor stone structure with a 10 by 12 foundation. There were 20 air conditioners in the center of the first floor, a pen surrounding the ACs, and there were refrigerators lined among each side of the room, along with feeding troughs. Sodden sat in the pen, leading two small Rock Drakes towards feeding troughs, and Dorack was on the second floor, where the Megalosauruses were, with 7 Megaosaurus eggs in his arms. He set them down near 5 ACs on the opposite end of the room. He then stood up and walked downstairs. As he got to the bottom of the stairs, he walked to the first floor pen, where Sodden was leading a Rock Drake to a feeding trough near the gates. Dorack sighed and walked to him. Sodden turned around after he was done and gasped. Dorack sighed and looked at him.

“Uh, how are the rock drakes doing?” Dorack said.

“They’re doing good. All of them are now hatched. Should be done growing by tomorrow morning. Hopefully. Uh, what about the Megalosauruses?” Sodden asked. Dorack nodded.

“Doing good. There’s 13 more fully grown imprinted Megalosauruses. We have an army of around 23. I laid down 7 more eggs.” Dorack responded. Sodden nodded.

“Good. Good. Uh… look. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I meant nothing of what I said to you the other day. We have to stick together. Syl was right. This is what Rod wants. We can’t have that.” Sodden stated firmly. Dorack sighed. He was still in a state of confusion, still unsure of whether he could trust Sodden and what he was saying.

“I… I don’t know. Can I even trust that you’re telling the truth?” Dorack asked. Sodden nodded and put his hand on Dorack’s shoulder.

“I know how hard this is on us. But we’re getting close to being ready. We can’t give up now.” Sodden stated. Dorack smiled with confidence and nodded. Sodden then walked towards the gates.

“I’m going to get meat for the Rock Drakes. We’re starting to run low. Can you stay here in case one of them needs imprinting?” Sodden asked. Dorack nodded in affirmation. Sodden nodded and turned to the gates, opening the giant doors, then closing them behind him. Dorack turned to the creatures and started looking through their stats. Most wouldn’t need an imprint for at least 30 minutes. All seemed chill in the base.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile…

Rod slammed his fist into the iron bars of Serenity’s cell, growling. He was stood upright near the door. The Reaper King, Xenideath, was staring at him. Then a pair of doors bashed open and Dread stormed downstairs. Rod looked forward and turned around.

“Rod… when are you leaving to raid them?” Dread sneered. Rod chuckled.

“Very soon, don’t worry. My army is already sitting in the Blue Zone, ready to strike. I was just giving Serenity her rations for today. She’s gonna need them soon. And I also fed the Reaper King and Reaper Queen. She’ll need a lot of energy for the… trial.” Rod sneered. Dread chuckled and patted Rod on his shoulder.

“Okay. Prepare your Rock Drake and do not be seen. When the time is right, you strike. If all goes well, Sodden will be isolated by the start of the Ark’s polar day. That’s nine hours. They won’t stand a chance!” Dread yelled. Rod cackled loudly along with Dread.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

4:45 PM…

Sodden was barely moving. His bag was extremely heavy, packed with rotten, stinky, and massive piles of raw meat. He continued walking with Reaper, who had helped pull the bag. They approached the hatchery, and Dorack was standing outside of the gates. Sodden finally approached Dorack, and Dorack then nodded and opened the gates, allowing Sodden and Reaper to go in. Sodden then groaned as he dumped a bunch of meat into the troughs, one by one. Dorack nodded.

“I imprinted some of the Rock Drakes and Megalosauruses. Imma go check the base for any supplies we need.” Dorack shouted. Sodden turned to him, smiled, and nodded in affirmation. Dorack then turned away and walked to the base. He then turned to the front door, put his hand on the door, and pushed it open. He then walked inside, only to be met with a horrifying sight. Dorack’s jaw dropped in shock. The walls were darkened and cracked, meaning something had attacked them. But the cracks had arrows and specific holes in them, so it couldn’t have been done by a creature. Then Dorack noticed the storage box near Nal’s bed was gone. There was only a pile of random junk sitting where it once was. Dorack gasped and ran to the pile. This was where they stored the Artifact of the Stalker. And lo and behold, the artifact was missing. Dorack gasped and put his hand to his mouth.

“Are you serious?” Oh… no wonder the door had no doorknob.” Dorack gasped. He looked around the place, and there didn’t seem to be further damages. That was, until he walked to Nal’s bed. There was a deep scratch on it, along with a organized lettering on it. Embedded into the thatch and hide was a sentence consisting of only two words. Dorack was horrified. The words said, “F— Nal” Dorack immediately looked down to his implant, pulled up a holographic image, and used communication to send a message to Sodden.

Sodden was imprinting a Rock Drake by feeding him some kibble, when he got a notification on his implant. Sodden looked down at it, and the message he saw made him drop his food. The Rock Drake grumbled and moved his head down to eat the food. Sodden was shocked. He immediately ran out of the hatchery and towards the base. He entered the base, and Dorack was sitting on Nal’s damaged bed, his head down. Sodden sighed in worriedness. He then walked to Dorack.

“Rod stole the artifact? How do you know?” Sodden asked in confusion. Dorack stood up and pointed at the walls.

“There’s specific holes and cracks in the walls. The shards of the storage box definitely came from an axe or a sword of some sort. The doorknob is gone, so something definitely broke the door to come in. I’m gonna say Rod did this. Stole the artifact and cursed Nal.” Dorack explained. Sodden gasped at the sight.

“Oh, no. Okay, get the hazard suits. We’re going to find Rod now.” Sodden said. Dorack gasped.

“But-” Dorack said, then Sodden interrupted and put his hand on Dorack’s shoulder.

“We’re going to do this. Time to stop Rod. Get the Rock Drakes and hazard suits.” Sodden explained. Dorack smiled with confidence and nodded. Then they both walked out of the base, towards the hatchery, where they collected one fully grown Rock Drake to take with them. Then they both walked back to the base to get hazard suits from the storage box that was still intact, sitting on the second floor. They were ready. They put the suits on, walked downstairs, out of the door, then Sodden took the cryopod with the Rock Drake out of his bag and threw it down on the ground. Then he and Dorack hopped onto the Rock Drake, and they took off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

5:07 PM

Sodden and Dorack were on the ground, in the middle of the Blue Zone. The Rock Drake needed stamna, so Dorack hopped off for a few minutes to collect some resources. Sodden hopped off the Rock Drake and walked to Dorack, who was breaking down a blue rock with his pickaxe.

“What do we need these for?” Sodden asked.

“Not sure. But they could be useful if we wanna build something there.” Dorack explained. Sodden nodded.

“Okay. Okay. Well… just be careful… alright?” Sodden asked. Dorack nodded. Dorack turned to him and was about to say something else when suddenly, they heard a silent click. Then the Rock Drake started roaring weakly and groggily, and it fell over, unconscious, lightly shaking the ground. Sodden and Dorack gasped as they backed up into some bushes, then two Megalosauruses came out and the riders on top of them grabbed the collar of each of them. The two survivors shouted as they were thrown towards the Rock Drake’s feet. Then as they crashed into the ground, another person came over and grabbed Sodden’s neck, then he shot Dorack with a tranq dart. Dorack shouted in pain, but the dart was ineffiecent as Dorack had very good armor. The person growled deeply. Then one of the Megalosauruses grabbed Dorack by the shirt and dragged him away.

“NO!” Dorack yelled. Sodden was hitting the person’s arm, but it did nothing.

“ENOUGH!! I need to chat with them.” Someone growled from a bush. Then they rose and walked over to Dorack.

“Take Dorack to the base. I’ll handle Sodden.” Rod sneered to the Megalosaurus’ riders who had Dorack. The riders nodded and began walking. Rod then turned to Sodden and grabbed his left arm, took out a shotgun, and rested the bullet chambers right on top of his implant.

“Listen to me now, and everything will be fine.” Rod chuckled. Sodden gasped in shock and horror as he watched Dorack get taken away. He slowly began falling asleep. Dorack was going unconscious. Sodden groaned. What was going to happen now!?

To be continued…

-RelatingHen8906