It was a bright sunny day in the good ol' camp of Lake Nature. You could say that nothing could be better for a family outing, right?
"Hey Zack! Over here!" One of my cousins yelled to another. I watched the the two boys were throwing a football around as they played a small distance away from the adults.
It was an annual tradition that once a year, my family gets together to spend a week together to have some fun. It was usually a trip to the campgrounds to get out there and relax.
There were always three groups, or at least how I see it. One group was the adults. They were always chatting among themselves, sometimes they did other activities. Another group was the younger kids who liked to play games they made up most of the time, other times they played sports. The last group was made up of the older kids of this generation, college-aged kids if you will. They always seemed to have this special bond because they were so close ever since they were kids.
What group was I a part of? Neither of them. As a sixteen year old, I have quite an age difference between both of the younger groups.
Oh, who am I you ask? That's probably a good question. My name is Alexa. I came to camp with my mom and my dad. As mentioned before, I am sixteen years old. I'm currently staying at a campsite that sits on the edge of the lake, which is located somewhere near the mountain range of America. I can't tell you exactly where, I wasn't paying attention to the road signs when we traveled.
Across the lake from us there were many mountains that look as if they were painted purplish-blue. Some of them reached so high that there was some snow at the top. Connected to the lake was a long river that flowed into the lake from the left, and then picked up speed as it left the lake. It was really fun to take boat trips when the river roars with speed.
"Yeah, so then I said, 'Who do you think you are trying to work here?'" I overheard one of the college kids talking, followed by laughter from the rest of the group as I watched form afar.
It hurts, but I guess putting it in words won't communicate that much.
"C'mon, we should be going." One of the older girls informed.
I watched as the group of college kids started to head towards the lake.
"Where are you guys heading?" I asked.
"Oh, uh, we're going for a river ride with the younger kids." One of my cousins replied.
"Can I come?" I asked.
I watched as my older cousin stopped in his tracks.
"Er, you wouldn't really enjoy it, we're taking the younger kids and all, so it will be crowded. Er, sorry?" He responded as he sheepishly ran to join the group.
"Pfft, figures." I groaned.
I stood up from the tree I was sitting under and headed towards one of the cabins. Inside my cabin there were a number of beds, the three on the corner belonged to me, my mom, and my dad.
As I entered, I saw that my mom was over by one of the dressers, unpacking some things from one of our bags.
"Hey honey. Aren't you going with the others?" She asked.
"Meh, they didn't want me to come along." I replied.
She bent down to pick up some clothing that was in the bag.
"Alexa, I'm sure that they invited you." She replied.
"Nah, they didn't invite me the other times, why now?" I asked.
I walked over to the bed and picked up my backpack.
"I'm going for a walk, I'll be back later." I replied.
"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?" My mom asked.
"I'm sure. I'll see you later." I replied.
It had been a while since I left the camp grounds. I found myself walking deep in the lush green woods. To my left, there was a fast moving river that flowed in the direction I was walking.
"Stupid older kids...It's like they wanted to hurt my feelings..." I groaned to myself.
I listened to the roaring river pass along as I walked through the woods. I probably should head back, but it's not like anyone would be worried. Besides, these kind of walks are what I enjoy the most on these trips.
"Huh?" I look over at a spot near the river and I see a little baby rabbit who's foot was caught between two rocks.
I decide to walk over and help the poor little thing.
"Eep! Eep!" It panicked as I walked over.
"Woah, calm down little guy. I'm not going to hurt you..." I said.
I crouched down and picked up the little rabbit. I loosened the rocks and helped it out.
"There, you see? I'm not gonna-"
"Eep!" I then watched as the rabbit panicked even more and kicked me right in the face.
"GYAH!" I yelled as the kick from the rabbit sent me into the water.
"Gwrwrwr...nuuuu! Help! Someone! Wwww..." I gargled as the force of the river began to pull me under.
No way...is this the end for me?! Am I gonna drown?! Someone help me!
Despite the fact I could swim, the power of the river was unusually powerful. The force began to knock me around.
Someone...anybody...help... My final thoughts passed through my head as I began to black out.
"..." Argh...What happened?
I felt that I could hardly move. I felt as if I was aching all over my body.
"What do you think it is?" I heard a woman say.
"Do you think it's still alive?" Another male asked.
What is that I hear...is that a crowd? What are they looking at?
"Ahargh! *cough* blargh!" I grunted as I coughed up some water from my lungs.
"Eek! It's still alive! What do we do?!" Another woman panicked.
"Alright everybody, calm down. We'll get this thing back to the station for closer inspection. Officer Fangmeyer, can you please radio the chief while I get this thing in the truck?" A man asked.
"Sure thing," Another woman replied, "Chief Bogo, this is officer Fangmeyer, calling in with officer Pennington. I'm shocked to say that we have a 1064 on our paws here." She spoke into a walkie talkie.
"What? A 1064? Get that creature to the station as soon as possible. We'll want to get all the information we can on it asap." He replied.
"Roger that." She responded before putting the walkie talkie away.
"Gloria, do we have any of that syrum?" Pennington asked.
"There should be some in the truck." She replied.
Why can't I open my eyes? What happened? Where am I? I thought.
I heard the man walk over to me.
"Sorry little guy, or girl, or whatever you are. This is gonna hurt just a little bit." He said.
What does he mean by-OW! I soon felt a needle being poked into my skin. The man was injecting some sort of chemical into me.
I can't move...what is...going...on... I could feel the syrum working through me as I began to pass out again.
"Mmm..." I groaned as I began to wake up.
I look down to see that I was sitting in a stiff bed with white sheets.
"Argh...so it was just some kind of weird dream, huh? No wonder it was kind of-"
"Officer Hopps, please report to my office at once." A man's voice spoke from the loud speakers.
"Huh?" I looked around to see that the bed I was laying in wasn't just my regular cabin bed...it was chained to a gray brick wall.
I climb out of bed to see that I was locked behind big steel bars.
"I'm...I'm in prison?!" I yelled as I began to panic. "Why am I in jail? I haven't done anything wrong...have I?!" I questioned as an overwhelming fear began to come over me.
I began to observe where I was. I was in a small gray prison cell with only a bed and a toilet in it. Outside the prison cell there seemed to be a lone hallway with multiple cells side by side.
"This has to be a dream, right? No way I should be in prison. That's right, any minute now I'm just gonna wake up." I said in denial.
I then turned to the back of the concrete cell. I had gotten an idea that might have been crazy enough to wake me up.
"Urrragh!" I yelled as I ran towards the concrete and banged into it. The force from the hit made me fall to the ground.
"Argh...ow..." I groaned as I rubbed my head.
"I guess it's not a dream after all...but where am I?" I asked.
Soon as I asked that question, A door at the end of the hallway creaked as it opened up. I quickly got up and walked to the front of the cell to see who it was.
"Huh?" I looked to see a rabbit walking on its hind legs, wearing a police costume. I watched as she approached my cell.
"Hi there! I'm Officer Judy Hopps. Sorry we had to throw you in the cell, but we had no other place to put you for the time being..." She apologized.
I stood quiet as I stared at the rabbit. "You...you t-talked?!" I asked in surprise.
"Of course. I'm a bit surprised that you understand english. I mean, we've never seen any of your kind before." She said.
"Wait...hold up, you've never seen my kind? I've never seen you before." I replied.
"Well that's kind of odd. All kinds of animals like me live here in Zootopia..." She explained.
I paused. "Zootopia?" I whispered under my breath.
"Now listen...since you do fall under code 1064, the chief has instructed me to bring you to him, if that's alright with you."
It was weird, it seemed almost like a command rather than my own choice. But it's not like I wanted to stay in a prison cell anyhow...
"O-Okay?" I hesitated.
"Great! Let me just let you out here..." The rabbit grabbed her keys and unlocked the prison cell.
"If you'll just follow me, please." She instructed.
The rabbit watched me as I walked over to her, then happily led the way.
I followed slowly behind as she brought me out of the prison cell area and into the hallways. As I followed officer Hopps, I looked and saw many animals that appeared to move just like humans do. They stood on their hind legs and used their front legs for hands. They wore clothing, and it appeared that they worked at this police station.
Officer Hopps and I then walked by a rhino, a polar bear, a wolf, and a lioness. All of them gave me strange looks. It makes sense considering that I must be a new face here. But their looks also made me feel uncomfortable, like there was something wrong with me.
"Uh...Hello..." I waved as I passed by.
They looked at me as if they've never seen a human before...I don't like the looks they're giving me... I thought as I glanced back at them.
"Alright, here we are." Officer Hopps said as she stopped in front of a wooden door. There was a name printed on the door that read "Chief Bogo".
Officer Hopps approached the door and knocked on it. "Chief? It's Judy. I've brought our friend." She said. Officer Hopps reached for the doorknob and opened it up.
"C'mon in." She instructed.
I walked in cautiously as I entered the room. I walked in and saw that there was a blue cape buffalo sitting at a desk. Behind the desk there were many shelves full of books. To the left there were files cabinets and a computer. Finally, to the right, there were more file cabinets and a giant map on the wall. Unfortunately, not a map I've seen before.
"Welcome. Would you care to take a seat?" The cape buffalo motioned his right hand to the chair in front of his desk. I nodded and walked over to the chair. Officer Hopps walked over and stood next to the desk.
I sat down and faced the cape buffalo. He was a massive intimidating animal. He had big buff muscles that almost made his head look kind of small. He also had long brown horns that grew out to the sides.
"So. My name is Chief Bogo. I am the head of the ZPD. Lets see...You can understand me, can you not?" He asked. I nodded in reply. "Excellent. That makes things easy. Can we start by giving us your name?"
"O-Oh...My name is Alexa. Er, Alexa Eden...S-Sir." I replied hesitantly.
"Alright..." The chief looked down at a piece of paper on his desk and wrote some notes down. "And...what kind of animal are you? What do you call your species?" He asked.
"My species? Er...Human." I replied.
"Alright...how do you spell that?" He asked as he looked up from his papers.
How do I spell it? Have they really never heard of humans before?
"Er...It's spelled H...U...M...A...N..." I spelled it out.
"So, Alexa. According to Officer Fangmeyer, you were found unconscious on Perception Street in the Rainforest District. Do you remember anything at all about how you could have washed up there?" Officer Hopps asked as she took a few steps closer to me.
"I was...unconcious? Well...I remember falling into a fast moving river, but I don't remember anything else about that..." I answered.
The chief continued to write down my answers on the little sheet of paper.
"So tell us more about yourself...Where do you come from and are there more humans like you?" Chief Bogo asked.
"Um...Yes, there are other like me, loads more. I can't tell you exactly where I fell into the river, but it was somewhere near the mountain range of Colorado." I answered truthfully.
Officer Hopps and Chief Bogo gave each other weird looks.
"W-What...Was it something I said?" I asked.
"Well...It'd just that...there's no known place here named Colorado..." Officer Hopps explained.
"Wait, you guys have never heard of Colorado? How is that possible?! I was just there!" I yelled as I started to panic.
"I'm afraid I can't explain it...You just kind of washed up when some of our officers found you." Officer Hopps frowned.
"Hang on...So if I'm no longer in Colorado...where is here?" I asked.
"You're in the city of Zootopia. Does that name sound familiar to you, Alexa?" The chief asked.
"Well...No. It doesn't..." I replied.
Officer Hopps's ears slumped behind her head as her face began to show worry. "That doesn't sound good...Chief, we should gt some officers to investigate right away." She said as she looked up at the buffalo.
"I believe you're right. I'll message some of the officers right away." He said as he looked down at a little intercom on his desk.
"Wait...investigate? Investigate what?!" I asked.
"Well...It might not be too much of a problem. But we're going to have some officers try to locate where Colorado might be located." Officer Hopps informed me.
I gave her a confused look. "What are you talking about? Colorado is in the United States...Humans are all around the globe!" I yelled in slight panic.
The chief took his finger away from the intercom and looked at me with a funny look. "Wait...are y9ou saying that there are not only humans...but they populate the entire world?" Chief Bogo asked.
"Well...yeah." I replied.
The two officers looked at each other with confusion filling the entire room.
We were all soon interrupted by a red fox wearing a blue officer uniform who walked into the room. He looked only a couple inches caller that Officer Hopps, and his face almost gave off a cocky sly fox vibe. He walked in, carrying a little brown paper bag in his right paw.
"Hey Chief, Carrots. I was down in the break room and I saw they had some breakfast sandwiches left over from the other day. Anyone care for one?" He asked.
"No thanks, Nick. We're kind of in the middle of a case here..." Officer Hopps said, as she motioned her hand, er, paw at me.
The red fox looked over to me.
"Oh...Is this one of the apes from Chinatown?" He asked his friend.
"Argh...Nick! First of all, those were pandas, not apes, and you know that! Second of all, this is Alexa. She's a human." She explained in a very annoyed tone.
"Um...Hi." I sheepishly waved.
"Alexa here was found by one of the river spots in the Rainforest District. We're trying to figure out where she came from..." She explained.
"Well, where did she say she's from?" The fox asked.
"Somewhere in Colorado, America. Have you ever heard of a place like that?" She asked.
"I've never heard of a place like that. That's nowhere in the country as far as I know." He replied.
"W-Wait wait wait...nowhere? Well I've never even heard of a place called Zootopia...nor have I heard of a place with walking and talking animals..." I groaned as I folded my arms and slumped on my chair.
I looked over and saw Chief Bogo use his pen to write down on the paper.
Nick pulled out a breakfast sandwich out of the paper bag. "You know...That could be your answer right there." Nick said as he took a bite of his breakfast sandwich.
Officer Hopps looked at him. "What do you mean?" She asked.
Nick waved his sandwich at me, almost as if he were referring to me. "Well, unless I'm mistaken, neither of us have heard anything about each other, right? Perhaps Alexa here doesn't come from our universe." Nick said, taking another bite out of his sandwich.
"Officer Wilde, what did I say about eating in my office?!" Chief Bogo pointed at the fox as he scolded him. Nick stared at the chief with slight fear as he placed the half eaten sandwich back into the bag.
"Nick...no way can that be possible. There's nothing to prove that another world even exists..." Officer Hopps argued.
"Well...maybe this one is an exception." He said as a small smirk grew on his face as he turned to look at me.
Er...Why is he smirking at me like that? Maybe it's a part of his personality? Either way...this isn't funny...I can't really be stuck in another world, can I?!
"Whether or not that Alexa here comes from another world has yet to be answered. I'll make sure to send some officers to investigate. In the meantime, Alexa here is still a new species to us. I'm afraid we're gonna have to give her a physical." Chief Bogo instructed.
"P-Physical?" I stuttered.
"You know...they want to examine you, learn more about how you're biologically built." Nick explained, still carrying a smirk.
"Y-You don't mean..."
Nick simply nodded.
"N-No way...I can't do that! No way...not in a million years!" I yelled as I squirmed in my seat.
"I'm sorry Alexa, but that's part of the rules here in Zootopia. I'm afraid that you simply have to comply with it." Chief Bogo replied sternly.
I lowered my head in worry. I was thrown into this world with no idea what happened or how I got here, but now I'm being treated like some kind of wild animal? How is that fair?
"Hopps, Wilde, I want you to escort Ms Alexa here to the medical center. Since she is a new species, the public could freak out at seeing her, so I want you to let her into the disguise room upstairs."
"Gotcha, Chief. C'mon, Alexa. If you'll just follow me." Officer Hopps waved as she headed towards the door.
I looked down at Nick who moved his arms in a "After you" position. I got up from the chair and slowly followed Officer Hopps outside the office.
I was lead by Officer Hopps with Nick following right behind. It made me feel really weird...These animals see me as the strange creature...I feel almost alone in the world as the only human...
Officer Hopps then turned to a door, opened it, and walked disguise room had many costumes on the racks. beyond where the costumes were, there was a changing room towards the back and a mirror next to the door.
"Alright, so we have many costumes in here for our officers who need to go undercover. Any preference to what one you want to wear?" She asked.
"I don't care...just pick one..." I replied in a slightly depressed tone.
"Alright..." The rabbit cop walked over to look at the different costumes.
I slowly looked around at all the different costumes. Some were huge animals, like rhinos and polar bears. Others seemed to be around my size, like wolves and sheep.
"Say Alexa, how about this?" Officer Hopps pointed to a tiger costume hanging by some of the smaller costumes.
"A tiger outfit?" I asked.
"Yeah. This one seems to be about your size." She said.
I walked over to the rack and took a look at the tiger costume.
"Sure...I'll try it on." I said.
I walked into a nearby changing room and starter to put on the costume.
This feels ridiculous...Not only am I a different creature compared to everyone, I have to wear a costume of something familiar for me to get by unnoticed...The physical better be fast...I hate this... I groaned to myself as I finished getting changed.
I walked out of the room wearing a full tiger costume, complete with the orange and black stripes that covered the outfit.
"Hey, it doesn't look bad on you." Nick commented as I came out of the changing room.
"You think?" I asked.
"Yeah. We should be able to get you to the medical center no problem." Nick smiled.
I walked over and looked into the mirror. I did look just like a tiger, at least a tiger from Zootopia.
"Er...Alexa? I think you forgot a part of the costume..." Officer Hopps informed me.
"I did?" I asked.
I watched as Officer Hopps walked into the changing room. She came back out holding a orange and black striped tail.
"Here...it fell under the seat in there..." She said as she handed the tail to me.
"Oh..." I blushed as I attached the tail to the costume.
Nick clapped his hands together, "Alright, let's get you to the medical center. I'm sure that you want this done as fast as possible." He smiled up at me.
"A-Alright..." I stuttered.
It wasn't long before the three of us got to the cop car. The two partners preferred that I sit in the back seat, so I climbed into the back.
"Gyah...Hope you don't mind sitting back there, Alexa." Nick said as he hopped into the front seat.
"N-No. I'm fine with it, really. Lets just get the physical over with..." I said as I leaned my left arm onto the arm rest to look out the window.
Gosh...this costume feels a little big for me...I mean if fits well, but the fur keeps getting in my way... I thought.
"Ha...Don't worry. We'll get the physical done as soon as we can. You might like the doctor. He's a really friendly guy." Judy said as she jumped into the driver's seat.
"I didn't know that rabbits could drive?" I said as she started the car up.
"I didn't know either, with how her driving is." Nick smirked.
With that comment, Judy quickly jerked the car as we started up, causing Nick to his his head on the side of the car.
"Ow!" Nick groaned as he rubbed his head.
"Hehe..." Judy chuckled as we started moving. I must say, her driving was a lot smoother that Nick joked about.
"Sigh..." I sighed as I leaned against the window.
Is this really happening to me? Have I really become stuck in this alien world? Part of it doesn't seem real, but at the same time...I'm still here...I can't believe what's happened to me...what about back at camp? Has anyone realized that I've gone missing? Do they even care...or worry?
"So, uh...I know you haven't seen much of Zootopia so far, but what do you think so far?" Judy asked as she glanced in the mirror.
"Oh, uh, it's nice..." I said half-heartedly.
"Don't worry, after we get this physical done, we'll give you a real tour of this city." Judy said.
"T-Tour?" I asked.
"Of course. One of the first things anyone should do for a new resident is show them around." Judy replied.
"Resident? Me?" I asked.
"Well, yeah. We don't know how long it will be before we find a way to your home world, but in the meantime, you're one of us." Nick assured.
I stared in awe and shock in response to Nick and Judy's words.
"Just stick with us, kid. Things will be alright." He said as he leaned back into his seat.
...Wow...
"T-Thank you..."
I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of this story.
Now, I know it is a lot like aPAULo17's "Zootopia's First Human Citizen", and you're probably thinking, "Serenity, you're ripping off his work!" I get that.
I saw his story and fell in love with the idea of a human winding up in Zootopia. I began to kind of think of my own version of a story like that, and it turned out the story had similarities to his story. I am not trying to rip off his story, in fact the story will be different as it continues. So I hope you all stick around for that.
But for now, I want to say thank you for all those who have read this story, and hope to see you next time!