5:46 am-

Judy awoke to the sound of sirens in the distance. This is not uncommon, Judy hears the sirens quite often in the city. She rolled tiredly towards the edge of her bed, putting her feet on the cold floor of her humble apartment. Nick keeps trying to convince her to get a different apartment somewhere in a nicer part of town, with quieter neighbors, but she has actually grown quite fond of everything in her apartment from her noisy neighbors to the methodical sound of running water in the copper pipes in the walls when those in the apartment above her flush the toilet. Glancing over at the alarm clock set on the wooden window seal she realized that she was 7 minutes late.

"Oh shit" Judy said under her breath as she quickly picked her blue ZPD shirt off the hanger throwing it on. More sirens passed her building, seemingly going very fast. She grabbed her phone off the counter putting it into her pocket as she rapidly clipped on her vest. She rushed out the door bumping into a frail old sheep almost knocking her off her feet. "Oh I'm so sorry Ms. Wilson, are you ok?"

"I'm quite all right Ms. Hopps" she stuttered regaining her balance. "So how did that date go on Wednesday wi..."

"Sorry Ms. I've gotta run I'm late for work, but I'll tell you all about it sometime later bye!" Judy exclaimed as she began speed waking down the narrow hallway. Not many other people are awake at this time, so the journey to the ground floor was quick. As Judy got off the elevator she looked down at her phone.

"Uh oh" she had missed 8 calls from Nick, though she had no idea why he would be calling her so early in the morning before roll call. She began to dial his number into her phone as she walked out the apartment buildings rather large doors. As she exited a ambulance rushed past her with its lights on and sirens blasting. She looked in the general direction it was going and saw smoke, lots of it. Several other mammals were around her blocking the view of where it was coming from. Judy stepped on a cardboard box sitting against the side of the building to get a better view of what was happening. It was coming from the rail station near her apartment, she used it every day to cut down the journey to and from the precinct. Just then Judy spotted Nick running down the road to her apartment complex. Frantically Nick pushed the crowd aside about to run into her building, but then his eyes made contact with Judy's.

"Oh my god Judy I am so glad you are okay!" Nick said loudly almost yelling, "Why didn't you answer your phone god dammit!" Now he was yelling. Nick ran towards her and embraced Judy picking her up off the ground. Tightly squeezing Judy, she struggled to get out of his grasp.

"What is with you Nick?" She asked sincerely concerned for her fox partner. She looked him in the eyes and he seemed as if he was about to cry. Sweat stained his police blues and although being early in the morning he was wide awake. "What's wrong nick, why are you acting so unusual"

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD JUDY!" He yelled bringing him even closer to tears. He finally let go of Judy and just looked at her, seemingly calming down. "I though I had lost you Judy" he said barley audible.

"What do you mean you thought I was dead?" Suddenly she connected the dots. "Something happened at the station, was there a fire?" Judy asked worrying. The smoke was still billowing out of the building just down the road, and Judy could see fire trucks and police cars pulling up and a large group of civilians outside a barricade. She saw chief Bogo standing on top of the stairs, which was odd because he rarely came for such trivial matters such as a fire, especially when he had cops already there. Unless... no it couldn't be... could it??? "Nick what happened?"

"There was an explosion on one of the trains" Nick choking up as he spoke, "It was the train you take every morning, I thought you were..." Nick began to softly sob and Judy pulled him in for a hug.

"It's okay Nick I'm okay, but we need to get down to the train station" Judy grabbed his hand and began to pull him along the sidewalk towards the scene down the street. Judy saw a bear loaded into an ambulance, two deer closing the doors and quickly getting into the vehicle. The ambulance sped off though there were many more. As they finally got to the scene Nick and Judy pushed ahead to the front of the crowds, and slipped past the barrier meant to keep people out. Judy ran up to Bogo, nick following closely behind her.

"Chief what's the situation here?" Judy asked the chief, trusting he would give a more straight answer then Nick had.

"Thank god you are alright Hopps" Bogo said turning to Judy and Nick, "From what we've gathered so far, there was an explosion at 5:43 on the train bound for city center, we aren't sure how many casualties or injured we have yet" Chief explained to her the details of the incident. "We have no reason to believe this was anything but a terrible accident. No one has been able to get close to the front car of the train, the flames are to intense."

"What can I do chief, Me and Wilde are ready to help!" Judy said in an eager but sorrowful tone. Nick stepped closer to Judy and nodded in agreement.

"I've put officer Wolfurtz in charge of the crowd control here, I have to go for a press briefing at the town hall with the mayor." Bogo said as he began to step down the stairs, "Be careful both of you." He got into his cruiser and sped off.

"Well I guess we've got to talk to officer wolf farts" Nick joked with a slight grin, making a joke in the heavy atmosphere they had been thrown into. Judy smiles and began to move towards the officer.

"Judy just the person I was looking for, I need you to go and talk to some of the witnesses who saw what happened see what you can piece together, Nick I need you to go assist the firefighters and medics to try and get anyone you can out of the blaze" Officer Wolfurtz said to the pair as they approached where he was standing.

"Yes sir" Judy responded immediately. Nick nodded and moved towards the train, looking back over his shoulder giving Judy a wink before he began helping the other first responders. With their tasks given to them, they split up and Judy approached a pig who had witnessed what had happened from outside the train.

"Hello, I am officer Judy Hopps with the ZPD, I would like to talk with you about what happened earlier, can you do that for me?" She started, with a gentle tone to try and keep the pig calm. Though he was okay'ed by the medics, his clothes were burnt and torn, and a small bandage was wrapped around his left arm.

"Well, what do you need to know, I was just walking towards the train as it arrived in the station, but before I got there it just blew up, I wasn't paying much attention i was on the phone with my wife... oh my wife, she's probably worried sick." He began to shake and mutter under his breath. He reached down to pull out his phone, but could not find it. "My phone... have you seen my phone, I must've lost it."

"Well you can use mine if you'd like" Judy kindly offering up her phone to the pig. He began dialing his wife and Judy just looked around. The high ceilings and opened windows up top made the smoke ventilate well making the building still safe to be in. The explosion seemed to only damage the train car it was in and some shrapnel had stuck into the walls and floor near it. Then Judy saw bodies being pulled from the train, some alive, and some so hopelessly mangled that Judy wasn't very optimistic about their chances.

" ...ed, I'm okay I'm not hurt, well besides a small cut on my arm, but I'm seriously okay. Alright I better go I need to give this officer her phone back, bye honey, I love you" the pig finished up his call and handed the phone back to Judy.

"Do you remember anything at all that was odd about the moments before the explosion?" Asked the bunny cop, hoping to try and piece together what had happened. The pig seemed to think hard about the question she had asked.

"Not anything that i can think of, no I don't remember anything different then any other day." He said, speaking slowly as if a simple thought was challenging. "No I don't think so officer"

"Alright, thank you for your time, now go home and be with your wife" Judy said to the pig, dismissing him from the scene. Looking over at the now extinguished train Judy saw what looked like the top half of a bunny on a stretcher. Disgusted Judy turned away, but that's when it hit her. She had almost died today, had her alarm gone off on time she would be that bunny on the stretcher. Judy was terrified at the thought, but tried to focus on the task at hand. She heard a radio transmitting Chiefs press conference and decided to listen in.

"eed to come together in a time like this. At this point we know no that at least 9 are dead from this terrible tragedy, and at least 26 people in the hospital, with several in critical condition. We have no reason to believe that this was anything but a severe accident, but we will have a thorough investigation into this accident. I would like to give my thoughts and pra"*A loud explosion can be heard through the radio and suddenly there are many people screaming In both terror and pain*

The radio went static. The people listening in were in utter disbelief. One thought prevailed over Judy's rather complicated mess of jumbled brain waves. This was not an freak accident of a train exploding, this was a terrorist attack.

End of chapter one.