Kingdom of Terror- Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The jourey towards Horleri was cold, long, and very dangerous. In a single day they trekked over two hundred miles without stopping to eat. The bare winter attacked them by sending gusts of winds as low as fifty degrees Celsius into them and this continued to slow them down as the blizzard strengthed and blinded their vision with snow blowing in every direction. Often a geyser would explode near them as they trekked through the Rytolik Fields.

“This is crazy!” Requiem yelled over the howling of the wind, “We should turn back!”

“No, we move forward!” Wayne denied her proposition, “Donryu, why don’t you change this weather to something more appreciative?”

“This is not natural weather; I have negative control over it!” Donryu replied, “It’s like someone is trying to make sure we don’t make it to Horleri!”

“Well in that case, we have got to reach the city!” Diamond yelled.

“I’ve never seen weather so treacherous before!” Ryo growled loudly, “I’m not even convinced we’re going the right way!”

“I’ve travelled in a storm like this,” the Sound Lewtiko terrier said to Diamond, “But as quickly as it came, the quickly it left. We should start to see a starry sky very soon.”

Wayne was right. As quickly as it came, the wind died down, snowflakes slowly glided to the ground, and the clouds began to part leaving a bright winter night sky shining down on them. The moon shone brightly and basically lit up the night to more like daybreak.

Exhausted, the Lewtikos lay flat on the snow-covered ground and relaxed, gazing at the beautiful midnight sky in awestruck wonder. Despite the heavy air pollution from the major industrial cities, the air in the wild remained clear, crisp, and breathable with a fresh wilderness scent. Wayne breathed in the cool air deeply and with a big yawn, it all came out.

“Diamond, I’m hungry,” Tobi whined, “When are we gonna get something to eat?”

The other Lewtiko looked over at the young Dalmatian who smiled weakly. They too were hungry, since they’ve had no breakfast, lunch, or any little snack along the way.

“I don’t think there’s any food out in the wilderness, sweetie.” The red Siberian husky brushed her tail in the pup’s face to wipe off any excess snow covering his half-frozen face and licked his face to try to warm him up, “My goodness, you’re frozen to the bone!”

“I think we all are,” Ryo snarled and started to walk away, “I’m starving and I’m not going to run any further without getting something to eat!”

Avro, Sergei, Shayla, Sirrus, Yellissa, Jazz, Kisper, and Donryu went to follow him, telling the others not to leave because they would bring food back with them.

“Will they find food?” Tobi asked.

“We’ll find out when they get back,” Wayne answered and then started getting his face warmed by Diamond’s tongue, “Whoa! What are you doing?! I’m not a puppy!”

“I promised Connor that I’d look out for you, while you looked out for the others,” she replied, caressing his face with her tongue, “I’m just following orders.”

The Sound Lewtiko terrier growled in embarrassment as Diamond continued to lick his face until it was nice and warm again. After his face was warm, she blew a warm breath all over him, which immediately melted the snow off his body. Tobi and Requiem also received the same treatment.

“If you plan on being mates with me, get used to the way I am, ok?”

Wayne was about to say something relatively rude when the others returned from the hunt with food. Immediately they all started eating whatever the hunting party had scavenged. They didn’t have to worry about Kaityln not getting food though because she was surrounded by grass and mustangs eat lots of grass and other plants. They all ate an ate until they couldn’t eat no more despite having food left over.

“I never expected crow to taste so good,” Tobi mused as he finished a whole crow.

“Deer tastes much better though,” Ryo mutter as he used a stick to clean the areas between his teeth and licked his chops clean of blood.

“Now is everyone satisfied?” the Sound Lewtiko terrier asked, “We all had a sufficient amount of food, so let’s get a move on.”

“But it’s nighttime, can’t we rest here for the night?” Requiem, a Nature Lewtiko Persian cat asked.

“Alright, but we’re up at first light and resuming course before sunrise.”

Immeidately all the Lewtiko fell fast asleep as they waited for the first light...

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Night passed by quickly and the first light was bright enough to wake up Wayne who awoke with a yawn. They had not slept long and he was quite tired and still very exhausted from the long run they had ran yesterday, covering much ground. As he woke the others awake, the breeze brought a peculiar scent with it and he detected it as his keen nose took a deep breath of the dawn air.

“Dreads!” he exclaimed, “Get up! Diamond! Tobi! Ryo! Everyone! We got Dreads coming!”

“What in tarnation!” Ryo growled, “Why the yelling at this hour?”

“Quickly! We have to leave now! I can sense Dreads coming from the east!”

At the word ‘Dreads’, everyone was standing and alert in an instant, and they began to run far and faster than they did the previous day. Everyone of them knew that every encounter with a Dread was a matter of life and death always, no matter the current situation. The humans created the Dreads to purge all Lewtiko from the face of the world. They were bred to kill, to pursuit, to capture, and to destroy anything that was not human. Only a highly experienced Lewtiko could defeat or possibly temporarily disable one.

“Out of all things that could possibly go wrong, why Dreads?” Jazz asked, “It was never my plan to combat against one but I don’t think anyone was planning that!

“That’s why we’re running!” Ryo snarled.

“If we can communicate with one another that means we are not running fast enough to out run however many Dreads there are.” Wayne snapped.

Suddenly a terrible siren rang out through the still-quite dark sky which caused all the Lewtiko to halt dead in their tracks and look behind themselves as massive, black objects appeared over a huge snowbank.

“DREADS!!!” Shayla screamed in horror.

“RUN!!!!” Diamond yelled.

Despite no one actual seeing or remembering a Dread, they had heard stories about them. Dreads apparently were half-vehicle and half-wolf. Apparently they were captured when they were young and genetically modified to be able to shape-shift into all-terrain SUV emergency vehicles. It has been said that they were treated brutally to create hostility within them and trained them to kill, to pursuit, to capture, and to destroy. Some were modified with machine guns, Gatling cannons, and blasters while others had switchblades, daggers, and katana-like swords. Their teeth were enlarged into fangs which hanged out of the mouth in a frightening way and their claws resembled built-in daggers. It seemed that because the only reason to create them was to hunt animals and Lewtiko, the humans would’ve discarded them. However the military had other plans for them and they continued having them in their service.

The Lewtiko began to run as fast as they could but the Dreads kept pace with them, gaining on them very quickly and overtaking them. Soon all the Lewtiko were surrounded by four Dreads.

“Ryo... some time-freezing might be helpful...” Requiem said as she backed into the Time Lewtiko wolf.

The four Dreads shape-shifted into their wolf-like form and savagely lumbered over to the Lewtiko who each looked at Ryo for him to do something. The groping claws reached out and their huge mouths opened revealing their dagger-like fangs... when suddenly they became frozen under ice.

“Nice work, Kisper,” Wayne said, “Now let’s get outta here. That ice ain’t gonna hold them forever.”

The others followed Wayne as he led them back on course and they continued down the path towards the city of Horleri, running at a faster pace to gain more distance from the Dreads. Normally Dreads did not operate alone, so they knew that other Deadhands were not too far behind. ABIED, the military organization that specialized in killing Lewtiko, created five types of Deadhands: Blackouts, Destroyers, Dreads, Fractures, and Starquakes. Blackouts were Heavy Hitters, half-transport helicopter and half-Kodiak, and programmed for destruction. Destroyers were Ground Assaulters, half-main battle tank and half-tiger, and their main purpose was for combat. Dreads were Medium Hitters, half-SUV emergency vehicle and half-wolf, light, durable, fast, and mass-produced in the thousands. Often Dreads would be working with a Blackout. Fractures were Light Hitters, half-motorcycle and half-leopard, and served as scouts. Starquakes were Aerial Hitters, were half-fighter jet and half-eagle, made specifically for aerial invasion and other aerial purposes. A living nightmare was to find a Deadhand invasion force which typically was a force of ten Blackouts, fifty Destroyers, two thousand Dreads, thirty Starquakes, and several Fractures.

Most Fractures could easily be disabled along with Starquakes but anything larger was harder to destroy or disable and took a lot of experience. Dreads were not too complicate to disable, but the main problem was that they were programmed to be relentless and would keep on pursuing their target until it was successfully detained or destroyed. Destroyers were stronger than Dreads but it was rare to see one since most had been destroyed in the Great Purge by those that refused to fall. However Blackouts were the toughest, strongest, and most impossible to destroy; in the Great Purge maybe one was defeated but none were destroyed as far as records had shown. General Mikhail Lubiako, the shadowy leader behind ABIED, was responsible for the design and creation of the Deadhands, being inspired to create them from an idealist essay that he had found by a mistake and it gave him delusions of grandeur and generated fear of the Lewtiko to revolting against humans. But he was playing into the Mokh Bahr’s hands along with a majority of humans...

As soon as experiments with the Deadhands were successful, Mikhail proceeded to carry out with his evil plans: world domination and Lewtiko extinction. Leading an attack on the Royal Family, he forced the queen to abdicate her rule and authority over the world and began the Reign of Terror. He ordered the capture of a Lewtiko wolf shortly after and applied its blood with his, granting the nefarious general eternal life, and that wolf became the first victim of the Great Purge with began immediately after the slaying of the first one. Most humans had already been corrupted into believing that all the Lewtiko were dangerous and had to be purged from the face of the world, so they gave Lubiako permission to by whatever means to kill them all. In sheer numbers, Mikhail unleashed his Deadhands and soldiers into all the Lewtiko villages and had all the inhabitants slayed.

Wayne could remember being just a pup when the Great Purge started in 3454 and he had endured watching his parents be slaughtered by Dreads and then his whole village be obliterated by a Blackout and several Destroyers while Starquakes surveyed the skies for any surviving Lewtiko who escaped the destruction. He had narrowly eluded the Deadhands and the human military overseeing the destruction of the village and the execution of all the Lewtiko living there. Being no older than two back then, he had travelled for a long time, hiding from humans and their evil war machine-animals. It wasn’t until the year 4280 when he met Diamond and it was the year 4700 when they met Connor Williams who was only a small boy, no older than four than. Even though he was in safety with Connor, the Deadhands remained a strong threat so Wayne and other surviving Lewtiko became humans to evade their enemies.

Diamond’s story was a lot more different. At the time of the Great Purge, she was a rebellious teenager who ignored the wise words of her father and defied all rules; she hated laws and despised anyone who created them unless it was herself. It wasn’t until the year 3455 when the Purge came to her village and eradicated all who were alive and then they burned it to the ground. As she came to adulthood, she had increasingly became politer and more motherly to younger Lewtiko who she met while hiding from the military and the Deadhands. When she met Wayne, she acted like the boss over him and kept a close eye on him, being very protective whenever he ran into trouble. And when they travelled to Ahtuli, she quickly took to Connor who was an orphan when they first met and she helped him find a family which got him into a school and granted him a good education. It was her idea to change into humans to escape detection of ABIED and any other Lewtiko-haters.

Tobi was not even born during the time of the Great Purge. All he could remember was being captured by ABIED and was scheduled to be terminated when a Heat Vision Lewtiko dog assisted him, breaking him out of the military stronghold in the city Beugharah. However that Lewtiko was captured and put into permanent sleep, containing his still-alive body within a special sealment area; and Tobi barely evaded the enemy who had tracked him for two days until he found a friend with Cathy Cummings, who allowed him to stay with her since he was so cute. Later he met up with Wayne and Diamond, and the three became good friends with the Fire Lewtiko red Siberian husky acting like the mother of both canines.

Ryo abhorred remembering the past, but seeing Dreads again opened old wounds and he became lost in his memories that he had buried deep within himself. He remembered having a wife and a son before the Great Purge and after being the soul-survivor of the cataclytic event. His village was ransacked and all the inhabitants were slaughtered by Destroyers. The whole world turned upside down that fatal day when hoardes and multitudes of Deadhands and soldiers stormed into his village and he remembered trying to save his wife and son but they were shown no mercy and died at the brutal hand of General Mikhail Lubiako, who had ordered the Destroyer to do its merciless work. Enraged with himself that he wasn’t fast enough, Ryo ran far away and vowed to always hate humans and laugh whenever one died because a human could only live a mere few hundred years, but a Lewtiko could endure forever, only succumbing to illness or injury. Nonetheless their numbers were kept under control since they were restricted to birthing one child every fifty years. He had took the form of a human long before anyone could think of the idea and work as a criminal and saboteur to kill them all.

The only other two Lewtikos who could remember seeing Dreads were Requiem and Shayla. The two had been sisters long before the Great Purge because Shayla was an orphan and Requiem’s parents gladly accepted her into their family. At first a young Requiem was defiant to get along with a Water Lewtiko golden retriever but their relationship tightened after the Great Purge ravaged their village and the two barely escaping with their lives as the village was laid to waste. A few Dreads pursued them for more than five days until the bitter winter of Kilopaleq forced them to give up. They fled to the nearest city, Ahtuli, in search of sanctuary, and that was where they became friends with Martha Jenkins and Megan Kelley who further hid them from persistent patrols and Deadhands.

No matter how fast they ran, the Dreads quickly gained on them and surrounded them. This time when they did shape-shift, they did not attack, instead they made sure that of the Lewtiko could escape.

“I thought they wanted to kill us,” Tobi said, cowering behind Diamond.

“I think they want us alive for reasons unknown,” Wayne replied as he glanced over at the Dreads who showed no signs of immediate attack.

Suddenly the powerful noise of a helicopter turboshaft ripped through the air as two massive Blackouts descended from the sky, following a military VIP vehicle. The Blackouts landed and shape-shifted into half-transport helicopter and half-Kodiak bear, standing menacingly behind the vehicle. The doors opened and Ryo growled with anger and hatred at the sight of the military officer: General Mikhail Lubiako, the self-proclaimed ruler of the world and the anti-Lewtiko movement leader.

“I have no idea how you despicable creatures managed to evade the Great Purge those centuries ago.” Mikhail said brutally, “But I know that now there is no escape for any of you Lewtikos.”

“Before you execute us, I have a personal question to ask you,” Diamond asked, “Why the hell do you want to kill us in the first place? We’re peaceful to you humans; we have not harmed a single soul!”

“Your species is demonic and must be purged from the face of the world.”

“We ain’t demonic! That’s the Mokh Bahr!” the Sound Lewtiko terrier protested.

“Indeed.” The general’s voice was cold and full of disdain, “I could never sleep at night with your kind roaming about, being a potential threat and plotting against human society.”

“We have a mandate to protect it,” Sirrus growled, wanting to strangle the general and punch him in the gut a few times, “You have no proof that we have intentions on doing so.”

“Humans are so easily manipulated that they can function as tools while the hammer does all the work.”

“You’re a human yourself,” Ryo snarled, “How the hell did you survive all those years? You should be dead and gone along with the other dead military officers you had under your order.”

Lubiako smirked evilly at the Time Lewtiko wolf, “Your miserable species granted me eternal life. I had one of your species’ blood come in contact with mine which makes me half-human and half-Lewtiko, and  then shortly after I slaughtered him.”

“I still don’t have a clear reason why you want to kill us all!” Wayne growled, manipulating the sonic frequency of his voice to make it boom.

“Foolish puppy, it was only your species standing in my way from achieving total world domination and in order to continue with my plans, I had to remove a barrier so I gave orders for the Great Purge to come under way.”

The Lewtiko went silent. They never knew that the humans turned against them because they had been decieved by the Mokh Bahr; in fact the enemy was the military general the whole time!

DO YOU WISH TO HAVE THEM TERMINATED? one of the Blackouts inquired in a deep voice.

“Negative. Have them detained and bring them to Pluynarskov,” Mikhail walked back to his vehicle and got inside, “Things have changed since the Great Purge ended long ago so we’ll start new plans for the remainder of the surviving Lewtikos.”

As soon as the order was given, the Dreads sprayed a sleeping gas onto the Lewtiko and detained them, while the two Blackouts stood guard. Once the task had been completed, the general’s chaffeur started the vehicle’s engine and drove off, follwed by the Deadhands...

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Dr Connor Williams gazed out of the Barquerely Mansion dining room window sadly as he watched another snowstorm rip through Ahtuli. He wondered whether or not his Lewtiko friends were safe or not. What if the weather was too terrible to proceed in? What if they were lost and freezing in the cold? What if Lewtiko haters found them? So many questions and such little time to carry out drastic and rash measures to ensure the survival and safety of his friends. Without wasting another second, he put on warm winter garments and packed food and water. He hauled everything into his truck outside and put the keys into the ignition to warm the car. Despite it being nighttime already, he didn’t need to fear the Mokh Bahr because the never attacked when the weather was rough and they wouldn’t attack him anyways since the strong scent of the Lewtiko covered his entire body due to the fact of him being with them ever since he was four years old. Quickly he wrote a note and left it on the kitchen table before he shut the mansion door, got into his truck, and drove off, with hopes of finding his friends.

The snowstorm was worse than he orignially anticipated and shortly after leaving the city of Ahtuli, his truck was blown off-course and soon he found himself going in a completely wrong direction. As the weather intensified, he tried to gain control until his vehicle struck a patch of black ice and it spiralled out of control and crashed in a ravine.

Connor’s vehicle was destroyed and he had been thrown out of the front windshield, despite having his seatbelt on, and he lay unconscious on a thin layer of ice. Vomitting blood, he lay motionlessly as his vehicle exploded in a ball of flame. Blood gushed out of an abrasion in the head he recieved after crashing out of the windshield and his leg was mildly burned from the explosion, that knocked him even farther from the crashsite. Fortunately the explosion was large enough to attract the attention of a military patrol, doing their routinely night checks to ensure security, and loud enough to attract the  attention of a white Lewtiko dog who had just escaped a Deadhand landsweep.

Spotting the explosion, the Lewtiko rushed to the site, slipping on the patch of black ice himself and sliding down into the ravine right past the burning wreckage. Getting up, he spotted the severely wounded Connor and noticed the patch of thin ice he was lying on. Carefully lying flat on his belly, he crawled over to the scientist and grabbed the jacket in between his teeth and started pulling as hard as he could. After two minutes of painful hard work, he successfully got Williams onto the top of the other side of the ravine. Panting heavily, he could detect and find out information about Connor by just using his nose: he discovered that the injured human was a scientist due to interesting chemical scents over his body, he determined that his left leg was broken and his ribs were smashed, and found out that he had a huge aroma of Lewtikos all over him. Could this be a scientist who worked with them or assisted the military with putting them down?

None of that matter now; all the Lewtiko could think about was getting Connor to a place where his wounds could be cared for. Once again, getting a firm grip of the scientist’s jacket with his teeth, he pulled the motionless body deep into the forest until he reached a clearing. Panting, he pounded on a tree until the trunk opened and he was staring face-to-face with a Lewtiko polar bear.

“What is the meaning of this, disturbing my sleep time?” the polar bear rubbed her eyes, “Oh, it’s you!”

“No time to explain, Snowflake,” the white dog spoke through his heavy panting, “I found a human who is in very poor condition and requires immediate medical attention.”

“A human not in a city? That’s odd...”

“Yeah, it looks like the weather confused him and his vehicle slipped on a patch of black ice which led to the vehicle crashing into a ravine and throwing him out the windshield. I didn’t see it, but I saw the explosion after the vehicle disintegrated.”

The polar bear looked over the small Lewtiko and gazed at Connor who was still vomitting blood, “I’ll see what I can do. Bring him inside.”

“Yes ma’am,”

The Lewtiko polar bear watched as the white dog dragged Williams up to the entrance of the secret hideout, and shook her head in disbelief.

“No Thunderbolt, you’re only hurting the poor fellow even more. Here, let me take him inside before you wind up giving him brain damage from these stairs.”

Thunderbolt stopped and allowed the large Lewtiko lift up the unconscious human and carry him inside, before following her into the secret hideout, shutting the door behind them...

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The military patrol just arrived at the scene of the accident and shined a huge spotlight over the burning wreckage of what appeared to be a truck. They shone the light over the ice where Connor’s body once lay and observed how the blood meandered to the other side of the ravine.

“Interesting,” the captain remarked as he turned off the spotlight as some soldiers began to put out the flames, “Very interesting.”

“What was it, Captain?” his right hand officer asked.

“It appears to be a Lewtiko attack and I don’t believe the poor fellow survived it. Looks to me as if the vile creature dragged his body away to feast on safer grounds. Lieutenant Kippersoff, file it as a Lewtiko attack and notify HQ.”

“Affirmative,” the lieutenant wrote something down on a notepad.

“And when you call HQ, request immediate Deadhand assistance.”

“As ordered, sir.” Kippersoff began to punch in the communication frequency for their HQ, “Hotline Quill? This is Dark Moon Patrol. Requesting to file a Lewtiko assault in the southern Drake Region... Affirmative... This did not occur to any military personnel... Negative... We have reason to believe that the wun victim was killed following assault... Affirmative... Requesting immediate Deadhand assistance... Negative... send a couple of Dreads and wun Avenger... Wilco Hotline Quill... Dark Moon Patrol out.”

“Well?” the captain asked impatiently as the lieutenant turned off the microphone.

“Immediate Deadhand assistance ETA two cycles, sir.”

“Excellent...”

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“Will he live, Snowflake?” Thunderbolt asked curiously as the polar bear finished examining Connor’s wounds and injuries.

“If you are going to ask questions every five seconds, I suggest you head to your room.” Snowflake replied, “No, he is not going to die; his injuries are not as life-threatening as they appear. I’m just going to prepare him for the healing process.”

“You the healing process that you used on me?”

“Yes, the exact healing process that I’m regretting using on you,”

“Oh, sorry...”

Remember Snowflake, she thought to herself, He’s still only a baby. Don’t be too harsh.

The Healing Lewtiko polar bear ignored the Lewtiko pup and proceeded to cover Connor’s wounds with a thin piece of nypolth, a plant native to the frozen tundra of the Dality Region. After she was done doing so, she spread out her huge paws over his body and shut her eyes in concentration. Suddenly her paws began to glow as well as the nypolth pieces and soon Connor’s whole was glowing from the healing power that was emitted from her paws.

“That should do the trick,” Snowflake said as she removed the nypolth off Connor’s body and all his wound were gone, vanished as if they were never there in the first place, “He’ll wake up soon, but we’ll let him sleep, ok?”

“You’re the boss,”

“Alright, now because you’ve been outside in the freezing cold you’re going to have a bath in order to prevent plertosimenia.”

“But... but... I’m not even cold...” Thunderbolt protested.

“Not being cold is a sympton, and nonetheless you’re taking a bath no matter what.” Snowflake lifted him up and carried him out of the healing room, leaving Connor sleeping soundly...