Days of Boom: Chapter 29

Daniel Redson

XXIX

The Fallen King

Dan was having a bad say from the moment he stepped into the Animal Kingdom. At first it was fine, but eventually the sirens came and drove everyone out of the park, except for one child of Hephaestus who knew that the alarm was a diversion for something else. After about an hour, he finally ran into something else.

“Get him, rip the meat from his bones,” one of the creatures in a trio of others said. The one on the left had these eyes that seemed very unfocused and he couldn’t seem to stop laughing. Even when Dan hit him over the head with a snow globe he grabbed from the gift shop, the weird monster just kept laughing. The last of the trio just made sarcastic comments a lot and came up with ideas that in reality, would never work. Dan managed to give them the slip for a moment and jumped under a bridge.

“Where did he go?” the female of the group said. The other one just laughed as they walked across the bridge.

“I think he went that way,” the third said and Dan could hear them run off.

“What the heck are hyenas doing running around the Animal Kingdom?” Dan asked himself, but felt silly that he would find animals weird in an animal themed park. There were about 20 or 30 of the things all over the park, at least as far as he knew. They were running around searching for him, while Dan was still looking for the bomb, if it was in this part of Disney World at all. “Alright, if the bomb was anywhere, it would be at the Tree of Life, I should start heading over there.”

Dan carefully walked through the park, staying clear of the main walkways and sticking to alleyways behind the shops and hiding in the grass. Hyenas were used to large savannas, not grassy tourist spots, so Dan managed to hide pretty well. The tree wasn’t that far away and it was so big that he could see it from almost every part of the park.

“Alright, almost…” Dan said as he looked at the large tree.

“There he is!” one of the hyenas said and Dan turned to see the three standing behind him, only a few yards away. Dan once again pulled out his knife and started running for the tree, jumping over branches and taking a swipe behind him every so often to fend them off.

Dan kept running until he reached the base of the tree, a twisting pathway of branches and animals engraved into the wood. While Dan managed to slide in between some of the roots and branches, the three hyenas didn’t fare as well, constantly crashing into the branches. Dan jumped past another root and slipped into a large gap in the tree, falling down a large hole.

“Well, follow him!” one of the hyenas said.

“I ain’t going down there, he’s as good as dead anyway,” the other said while the third just laughed. They left for now, giving Dan a few moments to at least take a breath. He didn’t have long however as he heard a loud growl.

“Keep searching for him. Burning Sun has given us our orders so go now,” the voice said and Dan crept out and looked into the underside of the tree. It looked like a cave and not like a tree at all. However, there was a large video screen against one of the walls like a theater, but the chairs had been all torn out and stacked in a pile on the far side of the room. The hyenas that the voice had been talking to bowed their heads and walked off. He then got a good look at the voice, which belonged to a lion, but he wasn’t very big. The only thing that really got Dan’s attention was the large scar over one of his eyes.

“I think I’ve seen this movie. That dude’s from The Lion King,” Dan told himself, but at that instant the lion’s ears perked up a bit.

“You can come out, those idiots are gone,” Scar said as he turned his head over toward Dan, who came out in the open.

“So, you have been looking for me?” Dan asked, having heard Scar say that they were ordered by Bunnies Sun to find and kill someone.

“Not exactly, yes I was ordered by Burning Sun to try and kill you, but I am actually just trying to keep the hyenas busy while I come up with my own plans,” Scar said with an evil smile.

“And that would be?” Dan asked.

“Why, becoming leader of Burning Sun myself,” Scar said.

“You’re kidding, right? How do you plan on doing that?” Dan asked, as the words of this lion didn’t seem to match up at all with reality.

“Compared with idiotic people, I am much more intelligent and qualified to lead this group. And while my subordinates may not be the brightest, they make excellent scouts. They have informed me of the location of the machine that brought me to life. They apparently have something big planned, but I can use it to make an army of loyal followers and become king,” Scar said with a laugh. The lion did seem confident in his plan, but Dan doubted he knew that he was going up against things like gods and Titans.

“King of what exactly?” Dan had to ask.

“I’ll start small of course, maybe make this amusement park my own personal Pride Rock. After that, I’ll expand my armies to the world. Stick with me Dan, and you’ll never go hungry again,” Scar offered.

“I’m not hungry now,” Dan shot back. Even if this lion was working against Burning Sun, he couldn’t allow him to try and take over the world, especially if he was going to fill it with laughing hyenas. Dan took out his bow and aimed an arrow at Scar. “You won’t be the king of anything.”

“You fail to realize something however,” Scar said with a smile, before letting out a load roar that shook the room. “I already am the king.”

Hyenas began to pour into the tree from every opening. About thirty in total, each with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. They growled at him and Dan didn’t know who to aim his arrow at. He shot his arrow at Scar, but a hyena jumped in front and grabbed it with his teeth, breaking it in half.

“Was that your best shot?” Scar asked, glancing evilly at Dan, but Dan just smiled back.

“Not exactly,” he said. Just then, the small arrowhead still in the hyena’s mouth started to blink with a red light. The hyena had just enough time to look confused before it exploded with Greek fire. The flames scattered all over the area, giving Dan the perfect opportunity to run outside the tree.

“Follow him!” Scar yelled and the hyenas followed his orders, running out of the tree after him. Dan had no time to look back or pay attention to where he was going. He eventually found his way into some kind of dinosaur exhibit in the park and jumped behind a large stegosaurus.

“Now what?” Dan asked himself as he leaned back against the large model. However, as he sat back, he felt all the mechanics inside the dinosaur come to life and respond to him. “This is an automaton!”

Dan quickly turned around and placed both hands on the beast. It seemed to react to his fingertips, as if coming to life from his touch.

“He’s over there,” one of the hyenas said and the large group started heading towards him.

“Well, let’s see if this works,” Dan said and he jumped on the stegosaurus’ back. The beast came to life and began charging outside of his fenced in area. The hyenas were obviously surprised by this and didn’t even think to dodge as the stegosaurus’ tail whipped around hit one of the hyenas with his spiked tail, turning them into what looked like pixy dust. The hyenas began to panic as the dinosaur rampaged through their ranks. Dan jumped from the stegosaurus’s back and landed on a large triceratops. The triceratops came to life as well and it charged full speed toward the hyenas, scattering them even more as the triceratops turned a few more of the hyenas into nothing more than dust. In a matter of minutes, there were only about seven or eight hyenas left, but they quickly scattered into the park.

“Well, that was easy,” Dan said, lowering himself to the ground. He patted the two dinosaurs on the head and they returned to their fenced in areas, except the fences were a little destroyed. “Now I have to face Scar.”  Dan looked around the area and his eyes locked with the mechanical eyes of another dinosaur. “Oh this is going to be fun.” “Scar, real monsters attacked us. They were huge with spiked tails and horns on their heads. The human lead them,” the hyena said to Scar, obviously annoyed at the news.

“Never mind, it was obviously some kind of trick,” Scar said, turning his back to the remaining hyenas. As he took a step toward his bed, the ground seemed to shake. “What was that?”

Scar seemed almost frightful as he looked around and felt another large shake, and they were getting closer. Before long the entire room was shaking and the hyenas took off to hide. Scar was left all alone as the huge head of a T-Rex smashed through the ceiling of the tree. A large section of one of the roots smacked into Scar, sending him halfway across the room. Dan jumped off the T-Rex and walked up to Scar, notching another arrow and putting it to the lion’s head.

“To scared to come and kill me yourself that you had to send the pawns after me?” Dan yelled, but Scar didn’t seem to be scared.

“I’m sorry, but fighting isn’t really my strongest quality,” Scar said, but his tail wrapped around Dan’s leg, pulling him over and Scar used that moment to place one of his massive paws on Dan’s chest. “But if I must I must.”

“What are you going to do after you kill me?” Dan asked, his bow now out of reach and he feared that reaching for his knife would result in a number of sharp teeth in his neck.

“Like I said, take over this area. I’ll have to make some more pawns I’m afraid. They are rather useless after all. In fact, I could use them as target practice for my new followers,” Scar laughed. However, his ears twitched when a small branch snapped on the far side of the room. Scar and Dan both looked over to see several dozen glowing eyes in the darkness. One set of eyes came into the light, revealing that the hyenas had never really left, only went into hiding. “Oh my friends.”

“Friends? I thought you said we were just pawns; at least that is what I heard. What about you Ed,” the female hyena said as she turned to the other hyena. He just looked at Scar with an evil smile and laughed.

“No, no! You don’t understand,” Scar tried to protest, but the remaining hyenas came out of the shadows as well, revealing there were more than Dan originally thought, at least three dozen of them. They were on Scar like a swarm of bees, biting and scratching at him until there was nothing left but dust. The hyenas then turned their attention to Dan, who had inched his way back to the T-Rex. All their faces dropped as Dan put his hand on the dinosaurs massive foot.

“Have fun,” Dan said and the T-Rex let out a roar that shook the room. It ran around and started eating all of the hyenas, turning them to dust. Just before leaving, Dan saw a small briefcase where Scar had been sitting when they first met. He opened it and only saw a small index card. “Better luck at the Magic Kingdom.”

Dan cursed under his breath and ran outside as the hyenas could be heard screaming from down below. He looked around and saw a large statue of a crane.

“I wonder,” Dan said as he walked up to it. He placed his hand on it and it came to life. “Great, take me to the Magic Kingdom.”

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive