Chapter 1. "Welcome to Perfection"
In a town called, Perfection, one would expect it to be a paradise, at least that's what Nick Wilde expected. When Nick and his mother first moved in, being a young pup he imagined it to be an oasis with pups the same age as him to play with. Instead, Perfection was a small, rickety town, in the middle of the Nevada desert, with the population of fourteen animals.
The town was built in 1889 for mining and was originally called "Rejection", which Nick thought the residents should have kept. Now, as an ex-mining town, it now held old buildings, a leaky water tower and only one convenience store within thirty miles, called Grey's Market. The store was the only place to get a cold drink, when the cooler is working. That's where Nick comes in. Over the years, Nick accepted his fate in the small town and after his mother died, he continued to stay, working in odd jobs, as a Handy-Animal, like fixing the cooler during the long and burning summer.
In a remote valley and in the flat-end of a rusty-blue pickup truck, laid a small tan fox. The fox was resting in his sleeping bag, outside of a farm where the dairy cows lived. Asleep, he failed to hear the small footsteps of his friend and partner, Nick Wilde, sneaking up on him. As a shifty fox, Nick was annoyed that his friend slept the whole night while he played look out for the nervous dairy cows and oxes. Nick lost in a game of rock-paper-scissors against him and now that it was morning, needed to wake up the quick-tempered fennec fox.
Nick tucked in his dirty white tee into his jeans before leaning against the edge of the truck, resting his paws on the cold metal. He looked down at his snoring companion and spoke in a smooth and quiet voice.
"Good Morning, Mister Sleepy-Head, this is your wake up call. Please move your tail." He said, and got no response, except more snoring. He sniffed and glanced at the cows, who woke up and were enjoying their breakfast in the dry pasture. He grinned when he got an idea. Nick climbed onto the truck's running board and began bouncing and shaking it violently, screaming as he does it.
"Stampede! Stampede! Finnick, get out of the way!" Immediately, as Nick predicted, Finnick woke up but constrained in the sleeping bag, tried to make a run for it. Instead, the small fox fell out, face-first, sleeping bag and all, with Nick laughing uproariously as Finnick widely tried to get out of the sleeping bag. Finnick managed to claw himself out and the fear in his eyes swiftly disappeared when he saw the motionless cows, eating hay in front of him. Finnick whirled and growled at Nick.
"You dumb piece of-!" Finnick stood up and dusted himself off before putting his sleeping back back at the bed of the truck. Finnick is what Nick called a drifter, going in and out of odd jobs like him. He lived in Perfection longer than Nick had by eight years, even if Finnick looked like a pup. His deep and rough voice always throws animals in a loop when they first meet him, when in fact, he is forty years old. Being older, he was the one who taught Nick everything in each odd job they bounce to. Finnick also tried to spread a little wisdom to Nick, but found out that he is a lost cause, since he refused to take his advices. Finnick snatched his boots from off the ground and slipped them on.
"I was in a stampede once." Finnick began as he grabbed his hat from off the truck. "Over 300, and that little joke of yours was not funny, Nick!" He said sternly and put on his hat, to shield himself from the warm rays. Nick chuckled when he jumped off the truck and leaned against its frame.
"So how many cows make a stampede, Finny? Three, four, is there a minimum of a stampede?" He asked with a grin, not even trying to hide his sarcasm. Finnick snorted.
"I hope a stampede runs over your tail." Finnick retorted as he dug his paws into his brown, worn out coat, taking out a pack of cigarettes. Immediately, Nick pulled out his silver lighter holding it up to him as if it was a grand prize. Finnick rolled his eyes. Each of the two had half of what the other wanted, Finnick had the cigarettes and Nick had the lighter. When Finnick traded him one of his cigarettes, Nick thanked him by lighting up Finnick's before lighting up his own. With a sigh, he jumped back on the truck, taking in the nicotine and blowing it out in a puff a smoke. Nick adjusted his white cowboy hat and slipped on his jean-vest before taking a few puffs of his cigarette.
Finnick glanced around their small campsite and noticed that something was missing when he picked up the empty metal coffee mug.
"You didn't make breakfast?" He asked with the cigarette in between his fingers.
"I did it yesterday." Nick replied in a matter-of-factly tone. "It was cricket and beans." Finnick placed the cigarette back in between his lips as he stared off into the horizon, trying to recall the past twenty-four hours.
"No…" He began and turned back to Nick. "It was eggs, I made the eggs."
Nick scoffed. "Like hell you did, it was cricket and beans. Are you trying to hustle me? It's your turn."
Finnick smirked and raised a fist up to Nick. "Nope." he replied. "But let's make a bet, loser makes breakfast." He said. Nick scowled and let out a huff before putting up his own fist. They shook their fists up and down three times before moving their fingers to signal their final answer. Nick pulled out paper and Finnick pulled out scissors. Nick's paw fell in defeat and took a deep breath of his cigarette as Finnick snuffed out his.
"Well, I guess when I was your age, I forgot too." He smirked and placed the coffee mug into Nick's arms. Nick gave him a scowl before walking off to make their breakfast as Finnick fell back to enjoy another few minutes of sleep. Now that they finished their job with the dairy cows, after watching them over because they felt uneasy, were paid and the two foxes moved on to their next job. Fixing fences, barb wired and all.
"Ow! Gosh-!" Nick turned when he heard Finnick let out an array or profanity from having stabbed his sensitive paws against the needle like barbed wires. Finnick cast aside the gloves to tend to his wounds as he hissed in pain. "This isn't a job for an intelligent animal."
Nick sniffed when he finished wrapping the loose wire around the wooden post. "Why don't you find me one and I'll ask him."
"Haha. Ha." Finnick said. He wiped the sweat off his brow and kicked the dirt in frustration. "If we were really serious with our money, we would quit being hired foxes!" He exclaimed while he helped Nick hammer in the wire into the wood post.
"Handy Foxes, Finny. We are "handy" foxes." Nick corrected, tapping the head of the hammer against the nail as he said it.
"Yeah, yeah...one of these days, we're going to find some real employment."
"And give up all this personal freedom?" Nick replied, motioning to the hot and desolated valley.
"I'm serious, maybe...maybe we should open a popsicle shop, a traveling one."
Nick snorted at the idea. "Sure, or maybe an amusement park." He slammed the hammer down on the nail head and once the wires were in place, they packed their tools in their non-air conditioned truck to their next assignment.
Nick held tightly onto the steering wheel as he drove over the rocky terrain before driving up to the smooth dirt road. Clouds of dust covered the windshield, and their lungs, making the two foxes cough slightly, before the dust settled and disappeared into the hot air. Nick glanced at Finnick, who was sitting on a pile of phone books, to reach Nick's eye level and to see over the dashboard. Finnick was reviewing a sheet of paper that held their list of jobs they have to complete.
"What's the agenda today?" Nick asked in a dull tone. His life was starting to feel repetitive. Doing all of the same jobs over and over again, was making him become stale. Being paid less of how hard they work didn't help soften his boredom. He did not enjoy that, which made his desire to leave fester inside him.
"Garbage Day." Finnick replied, he turned with a brow raise when Nick let out a groan.
"Garbage Day?-I hate that day, how much are we getting paid?"
"Fifty bucks. That's forty six dollars more than what we got last time."
Nick bit his cheek and strummed his fingers on the wheel. "What if we move that to aluminum day? They're in the same junkyard."
Finnick slammed the paper down over his lap and whirled at him. Nick held back rolling his eyes for the rant he was about to receive.
"Damn it, Nick!" Finnick began harshly. "We don't pick the days, Lionheart won't be here tomorrow, and I don't need to remind you that he is the one that is paying us. If we don't do it today, we don't get paid!" The truck rocked making them bounce slightly in their seats as Nick drove down the lonely road towards the town. He squinted his eyes as the sun's glare was beginning to affect his sight but his hearing was working perfectly from Finnick barking into his ear.
"You need to be smart, the more money, the faster we can get out of this place."
"Yeah, yeah." Nick replied, breathing out a sigh. His eyes suddenly shifted to an object in the vass desert. From driving for year, he knows when something is out of place, and what he saw was a red truck. His gaze slowly fell of a form walking out of the truck.
"Hey...is that whats-his name?" Nick asked. There was a male college student who was out collecting plant species as his final project for months but Nick thought he left since he wasn't around for weeks. Finnick didn't bother looking up as he tried to come up with a schedule for their mountain of work.
"Uh...no, he left. This one is the new one they sent over."
Nick's ears immediately went up. "Wait...it suppose to be a girl." He turned the wheel making a hard left, leaving the smooth road and onto the rocky terrain. FInnick lurched back in his seat, clutching onto the armrest from the sudden jolt of the vehicle. The truck shook them but that didn't bother Nick as he held a large grin and started putting out a list.
"I bet she has green eyes, beautiful red fur! A tail of temptation, long legs, and a great face!"
Finnick tightened his seat belt. "You and your stupid mating hormones!"
The truck stalled into a stop, right behind the red truck and next to what appeared to be the campsite. There was a yellow tent built for one, a smothering fire, and only one chair. Nick scanned the area and found her on the ground, tending to a small pit that held her equipment. He watched her stand up, with her ears raised up to the sky. His face fell when he noticed how long they were. Finnick couldn't help but chuckle when he saw a young female bunny, wearing male khakis, a red flannel shirt and a glob of white sunscreen over her nose.
The young bunny, who was in her mid twenties, walked up to them with a friendly smile.
"Hi!" She perked, putting out her paw towards Finnick, who shook her hand. "I'm Judy Hopps, I'm up here for the semester."
"Yeah, Geography right?" Finnick said.
"Geology." Nick corrected.
Judy opened her mouth. "Actually its Seismology, I'm studying earthquakes!"
Nick grinned. "That makes sense, since you're a bunny, is that why you're digging here?"
"Well sure, but just because we bunnies live in burrows doesan't mean anything. I just find Seismology interesting." She said, her face lighting up. "You must be Finnick and Nick, right? I heard all about you two."
"We deny everything." Finnick chuckled making her laugh at his small joke. Nick silently scoffed and shook his head.
"I actually got a question for you two, do you know that there anyone doing any drilling, or setting off explosives?"
"Around here?" Nick chuckle at her words. "No way, Carrots." Perfection didn't have anything important about it or in it. Tourists wouldn't even stay for a day, usually they drive right on through to the next town that had more to offer, like a working air conditioner. There was nothing in the land either, unless an animal wanted to live in isolation. There is no oil underneath the earth which makes it useless to the government.
Judy frowned.
"Well, I am monitoring these seismographs." She said. Finnick and Nick gave her a blank look which made her slowly explain. "They measure vibrations?"
Nick gently tapped Finnick in the shoulder. "Vibrations in the ground." He explained which made Judy smile at his understanding.
"Yes, and I have been getting these strange readings and I was wondering if you two had heard anything?"
Finnick tipped his hat at her. "We haven't but, we'll ask around to see if anyone else in town had heard something."
"I would appreciate that, I just hope it's not broken." She nervously said, looking towards her equipment. The school had the machines out in the desert for three years. Being out in the elements could have caused the machine to malfunction. Judy hopped that it was not the case. Finnick glanced at Nick, motioning his head at Judy while his eyes did the talking.
'Don't you want to say anything?' Nick gave him a look of disbelief, motioning back with his brows.
'No!'
They both turned back at Judy who at the same time meet their eyes, having not notice their silent conversation.
"Anyone, sorry to bother you two." She smiled, giving their car a tap before stepping back. Finnick smiled widely at her. Something about her made him instantly like her.
"No problem." He replied. Nick turned the truck back on and driving off. Finnick leaned his head out and waved his paw. "Nice meeting ya, see you around!" He called before sitting back against his seat. Judy waved back and watched them get back on the main road. She unconsciously touched her nose and gasped when she saw the white sunscreen on her fingers. The whole time she had been talking to them with sunscreen still on her face. It made her cheeks turn warm.
Finnick leaned his head back, feeling the wind of the open window brush against his fur.
"You know, if you want, we can ask about those seismographs thing?" Finnick said, turning his head lazily to Nick, who muzzle contorted, as if he smelled something awful.
"What do we know about that stuff?" He said bitterly, still disappointed that Judy wasn't a vixen. She was easy to look at, he could admit that. He noticed she had amethyst colored eyes, something that was quite rare to have. Most bunnies had green, brown, and gray.
Finnick shrugged. "Nothing, but it would be a nice way to get to know her better."
"Why would I waste my time doing that?"
"Damn it, Nick, you won't go for any girl unless she fits that list of yours!" Finnick put up his paw and counted down with his fingers, mockingly imitating him. "Vixen, red fur, long legs, great face-!"
"What's wrong with that?"
"Let's not forget dumber than my tail, like that vixen, Bobby Lynn Grounds."
Nick fumed and pulled down the truck's sunvisor, where he had a collection of photos of identical vixens that fit the description on his list and pointed to one in the middle.
"Tammy Lynn Grounds."
Finnick waved him away. "It doesn't matter, they were all dead weight. "Oh my nail, I broke it!", "Oh I can't work in these shoes!" " He said in a high pitched mocking tone of Nick's last mate.
Nick frowned. "I'm a victim of circumstance."
"Really? Because I thought you were being picky. Look, don't make the same mistake I made, kept looking for the perfect girl for years and you know where it got me?...to you."
This time Nick rolled his eyes. "Give me a break."
Well, you guys wanted it, so here it is!
I hope you all like it, please comment and tell me what you think of it so far!