I do not own any of the characters within this series. The ones relating to Zootopia are owned by Walt Disney Animation Studios, but if they're willing to make an offer, I'd very much like to apply for a job, so long as I can still keep my own original ideas and get credit for them. Lost Tapes is owned by Animal Planet.
Episode 1
2018: Mardi Gras, Bayou-Swamp District, Zootopia
Recovered Footage from Civilian's Camera:
"Mardi Gras Time!", the cameramammal whooped in excitement, "WHOO-HOO!"
The various mammals, prey and predator alike were dressed up in a variety of masks and costumes in celebration of the famous holiday.
Suddenly, their fun was interrupted upon hearing their friend cried out, "What're you doing baby?!" They looked over to see a male mule deer with torn and dirty clothes slowly walking towards them with what appeared to be an almost deathlike expression on his face.
"What're you doing out her!", the female jaguar asked to the mule deer, "no Malcolm, no baby! Go back inside! What're you doing out here?!"
The mule deer at first walked closer to her, then snarled in an almost predatory manner and attacked the jaguar, forcing her towards the ground, blood forming in a large pool underneath.
"SOMEONE CALL THE POLICE!", a male leopard cried out as the others all panicked in alarm.
There are creature science refuses to recognize. But new technology makes us question what is real. If our eyes see it… if our cameras capture it… does it exist? Enter a realm where fact meets fiction, science meets legend, where nightmares come to life. DO YOU BELIEVE?
LOST TAPES: ZOMBIES
In February, 2018… a vicious murder threatened to ignite a firestorm in one of Zootopia's Haitian communities. Because of the unique circumstances surrounding the incident, the ZPD contacted the newly formed Enigma corporation, a private security firm. The group consisted of team leader Judy Wilde-Hopps, tactical specialist Nick Wilde, and tech operative Tanner Noble, a rookie on the team.
"Josephine Ladue", Judy announced as she presented the slides to the fox and porcupine, "boarding house owner, originally from the Bayou-Swamp District, was killed last week by this mammal…" She flipped the screen to the next slide, revealing a photograph of a forty to fifty year old looking mule deer, "Malcolm Clement: a former resident of Ladue's."
"So what's the catch Carrots?", Nick asked the bunny.
"According to the medical records, Clement supposedly died eight years ago", the rabbit explained her her husband, "no evidence of mistaken identity, hoax, or insurance fraud, literally unexplainable!"
"So we've got a dead mammal walking!", Nick said as he leaned back in the chair
The team was given direct orders to apprehend the suspect believed to be harbored by members of the boarding house. But what they encountered was a situation more volatile than anyone had anticipated. These are their tapes:
"This place has been condemned since the hurricane earlier this year, "Judy said, "so expect squatters, and transits that could be hostile. The plan is simple, we go in, find Clement and get the heck out of there. Any questions?"
"Who's watching the perimeter?", Nick asked as he finished strapping on his tactical vest.
"I got that covered", Tanner said, "motion sensors for the front and the back, and remote alarm, so if anything comes in or goes, we'll know about it!"
"That good enough for you slick?", Judy asked.
"That's all I needed to know."
"Alright then, ID badges of the suspect", Judy said, "Ready?"
"Lets rock and roll!", Nick said.
"Yep!", Tanner responded.
"Alright, let's go!"
The three mammals exited the van and made their way towards the steel-grate fence, pushing their way through the gates and onto the property.
"Alright, go!", Judy said, "I'll take the back!"
"Copy that!", Nick said as he and Tanner made their ways toward the front of the building. Slamming his fist against the doors multiple times, the red fox yelled, "OPEN UP! WE HAVE AUTHORIZATION TO TAKE ONE OF YOUR RESIDENTS INTO CUSTODY!" No response. "Alright, give me a five count!"
"One… two… three…!" That was as far as Tanner got as Nick used all the strength he had in his leg to kick the twin doors open.
"Little faster next time please." The inside of the building was filthy. Trash, clothes, boxes, books and papers, magazines, and old food littered the floor and furniture. "You take the right, I'll take the left."
"Got it", the porcupine said as the two raised their weapons and slowly made their way in the opposite directions. It appeared as though other than all of the junk in every single room, there was nothing in the building.
"Clear!", Nick announced.
"I've got nothing", Tanner replied.
"Let's check the downstairs."
Judy made her way around the back of the building and slowly opened the back door to the secondary basement. "I'm in", she said over her radio to the others.
"Check that", Nick responded.
Bags crunched under her feet as she walked around, her pistol ready to go.
Nick walked around into a large walk-in closet and heard what sounded like some kind of groan. "Was that you Tanner?", he asked his spiky accomplice. At first, he didn't get a response. "Was that you?!", he said a little more loudly.
"NO!", Tanner responded.
The broadest definition of a zombie is a reanimated corpse. A flesh automaton in which life as we know it, consciousness as we know it… has exited the body. Essentially, the mammalian body has been carjacked by a force that reanimates it. Zombies are relentless, meaning they will not tire, they do not fear, they will not be distracted. Think of a zombie as a biting, consuming guiding missile. The flesh-eating zombie has one motive: to attack, kill, and devour mammalian flesh. This is a biological imperative. They are a walking virus, just as every virus is genetically programed to spread. Bites are most common in transferal from one individual to another. If you're bitten… you will be turned.
"Nick?", Tanner asked as he continued looking around, but couldn't find anything. However, he got no response. He quickly looked behind him and was met by nothing but darkness. As he walked closer, a figure jumped out into the doorway, a light flashing upwards onto its face. The porcupine jumped in fear, but then relaxed and hissed in annoyance upon realizing that it was only Nick. "JEEZE! Don't do that!"
"Lighten up Tanner", Nick said as he lowered his gun a bit and looked around the room with the flashlight at the end. "Look, I don't think we're going to find anything down here other than cobwebs and dust-bunnies. Let's get out of here."
The two mammals walked back towards the doorway and up the stairs. However, when they got to the top, they were surprised to find that it was closed.
"Did you shut this door?", Tanner asked him.
"No", Nick responded, "did you come back up?"
"No. Wilde, stop messing around."
"This isn't me Tanner", the fox said as he followed the porcupine back into the main room, "Careful."
The pair made their way towards the stairway leading to the upper levels of the boarding house. A growl or groan of some kind set their senses on high alert. Both of the officers raised their weapons and readied for whatever may come.
Nick growled out, "LISTEN UP! ANY RESIDENTS OF THE BUILDING NEED TO COME OUT WITH THEIR PAWS ON THEIR HEADS!" No response whatsoever. "Let's check the upstairs", Nick told Tanner as the two of them made their way towards the other side of the room.
Judy continued her search through the various parts of what she believed to be the dining room and kitchen. Garbage of all kinds covered nearly everything, almost as if the place (and this was most likely) owned by hoarders at some point. "This place is a mess!", she said, her nose twitching in disgust as she waved her pistol around so the light at the end could illuminate her pathway. "What the hell is that smell? God!"
Nick and Tanner continued their way up the stairs and looked around to see four entryways to various rooms on the upper floor. No movement came from any of them. They turned towards the one at the top of the stairway, noticing a series of lit red and black candles on either side of the door.
"Well this is interesting!", the red fox said, never once lowering the gun in his paws.
Tanner gave him a couple of paw signals, telling him to stay back and ready just in case. Raising his paw up, the porcupine knocked on the door three times. When they got no answer, he said in a standard loud voice, "Coming in!" He reached for the doorknob, twisted it, and opened the door, jumping back slightly as he raised his weapon and Nick swung around so they were both aiming at the room's interior.
The inside was like a scene from a horror movie. On top of what they assumed was a table were a series of quilts, fabrics, seashells, bottles, candles, pictures, and a framed photograph taken of Ladue.
"The Queen Bee herself!", Nick said, gesturing to the photo. He looked around the rest of the room to see a dresser and a piano covered in similar items, only these ones had bones, deer antlers, scraps of paper, bottles, stones and twigs, furs (they couldn't tell if they were real or fake), red fabrics, and a stuffed raven. "What is this? Some kind of cult?"
Tanner noticed a couple of smaller photographs on some of the stands. "Are these her residents?", he asked while examining one with the flashlight. Some sort of Voodoo shrine?" He then noticed a bottle full of some kind of liquid. "Hey Wilde, check this out!" He reached forward and picked up the bottle to get a better look at it.
Nick took it out of his paw and sniffed it, turning his head in disgust at the smell emanating from it. Something else then caught his attention on the makeshift shrine. "Look at that!"
Tanner picked up a slightly larger glass bottle filled a little more than halfway with some sort of chalky-white powder.
"The hell? What do you think that is?", Nick asked.
"Drugs", Tanner suggested, "possibly neurotoxins?"
Zombie powder is actually a powerful neurotoxin called TTX, which stuns the brain into a deathlike trance. Tetrodotoxin is a naturally occurring poison found in a variety of different animals such as porcupine fish and pufferfish that basically blocks nerve function. The first signs that you have Tetrodotoxin poisoning is a tingling or numbing sensation and as the poisoning gets worse, then you can start to feel paralysis. It can be fatal. Tetrodotoxin is more deadly than the same dose of cyanide.
"Whatever she was doing, she obviously had some sort of powerful hold over them", Nick said while he and Tanner continued to look through the numerous items on the shrines. One picture peaked his interest more than the others.
"Clement!", Tanner said, obviously looking at the exact same photo.
Nick clicked the radio on his shoulder and signaled his wife, "Looks like we've got some sort of Voodoo altar up here on the second floor Carrots."
Judy's voice cut over the radio, "Downstairs looks clear too! Just a lot of crap!"
"Phew! It stinks down here." Judy then used one of her large feet to kick back a small magazine on the ground and nearly jumped back from both fear and surprise. On the floor where the magazine had been, was a severed hoof from an antelope of some kind. She then noticed what appeared to be a fly buzzing near an old duffel bag and walked over to it. Pulling it back, she was instantly horrified at what she saw underneath. "Oh my God!" The grizzly sight of an oryx' severed head covered in blood and with its mouth still wide open in a silent scream. She grabbed the radio on her shoulder again and said, "Check that! We've got a homicide down here. Prepare to use deadly force! Over!"
Nick and Tanner got the message over their radios, both preparing themselves for the danger to come. The red fox loaded a round into his gun and joked, "looks like the real fun's beginning." A sudden sound caught his attention and he brought the weapon up to his shoulder ,ready to fire.
A loud beep sounded from Tanner. He checked the device on his belt and exclaimed, "Whoa!"
"What's up?", Nick asked.
"I've got motion outside", Tanner said. He clicked the button of the radio on his shoulder and continued, "Hopps, I've got a breach on the rear security."
"Copy that! Check the sensor and then re secure the perimeter, I'm on my way up. Over!", Judy's voice responded over the comm.
"Copy!", Tanner said as he headed out the door towards the stairs.
Nick added, "be careful Tanner."
"Copy!"
Judy came through the living room and spoke into her comm, "Okay, I'm at the stairs Nick, what room are you in?"
"First one on the right", Nick responded.
"Okay, I'll be right there."
Nick continued to look around at some of the items on the makeshift shrines and turned upon hearing a series of footsteps coming into the room. "This stuff is Gnarly! Carrots, you've gotta check this out... FREEZE! I SAID FREEZE!" Nick barely had any time to move the gun into a position for defense as the zebra lunged forward and grabbed hold of it, snarling in a very un-prey-like way.
Judy practically bolted up the stairs to Nick's aid, using all the strength she had in her back legs, slammed into the zebra's chest, just missing Nick, sending the striped equine back over the rail and plummeting three stories to the ground. The resulting noise sounded throughout the entire room. The bunny sighed before turning to Nick, "Show me what you found in the bedroom."
Nick nodded once and led her into the room to see just what they had found.
The Only way to kill a Zombie, is technically the only way to kill anything: Destroy the brain. It is possible for parts of your brain such as the frontal lobes to cease functioning, whereas the more primitive lobes or the parts responsible for movement could remain functioning. Zombies look like their original species, therefore, the level of decay will determine the age of the zombie. A freshly revived corpse can look very much like a living creature, which is one of their most dangerous assets is that they can be mistaken for a live creature.
Tanner maneuvered his way around the backyard, nearing the stairway to an old wine cellar. He could barely make out anything in the darkness of the shadows, except for wherever he shined the flashlight. "Hello?", he called out, a light sweat coating his fur and a chill running down his spine, "anyone there?" He edged his way towards the stairway, not even noticing the figure slowly coming up behind him.
It wasn't until he heard what sounded like joints popping that he turned around and see what looked like a sixteen year old coyote stumbling towards him. Instantly, he raised his weapon and growled out, "FREEZE!" The young canine didn't seem to hear him, as she just continued to stare at him with a blank look in her eyes and what looked like a bit of foamed saliva leaking from the side of her mouth. "FREEZE!" He pressed the button on his radio and said, "Hopps, I've got a young coyote out here, she doesn't look too good!"
"Copy that", Judy responded, "restrain her for now, we've got a situation up here, so use extreme caution. Over!"
"Copy!" Tanner tried to coax the young coyote towards him, lowering his weapon a little in the process. As the girl got closer, he also noticed that her eyes were slightly sunken in, possibly due to dehydration or sickness of some kind. "I'm not gonna hurt you!", he tried to calm her, "just relax." He reached his left paw out to see if she would take it, only for her to lunge forward, grab hold of his arm with both paws and then sink her teeth into his fur and flesh, growling and screaming in the process as the porcupine worked to try and knock her off of him. Using a zip tie, he grabbed hold of her scruff and pulled back before getting the tie around her paws and pulling the loop tight and then forcing her to the ground so he could restrain her a little more easily.
Back inside the house, Judy and Nick had switched weapons for a bit, preparing to brief each other to make sure they got the story straight.
"Alright, it looks as though Ladue was some kind of Voodoo priestess who enslaved all her residents using some kind of neurotoxin", Judy explained, "I guess Clement got tired of it and rebelled, wanted some revenge." Her ears perked a bit, waiting for Nick to give her some kind of response.
The fox had a slightly scared look on his face as he viewed the room one last time before turning to his wife, "Look, I don't like the feel of this place, lets just just find Clement and get the hell out of here."
"Agreed", the bunny said, resting the gun against her shoulder. She followed the fox to the room's entrance and was stunned when she heard him cried out, "Whoa!", just as the zebra from earlier came at him growling and swinging a piece of wood in his hoof. "It's him again!", the bunny exclaimed as the fox quickly wrestled him to the ground. "FREEZE!", she shouted, aiming the gun at the zebra, ""FREEZE! I SAID FREEZE! UNBELIEVABLE, WHAT'RE THESE GUYS ON?!"
"I'VE NO IDEA!", Nick yelled back and he took the wood and smacked it against the back of the equines' head. He quickly used a pair of cuffs and secured the unconscious mammal's wrists behind its back.
Zombies do not obey the conventional rules of other monsters. Most monsters, you have to go find, you have to go to the desert or the swamp or the Himalayas in order to find a monster… Zombies come to you. The reason we're afraid of monsters is because we've been running from them for most of our evolutionary history. Most mammals aren't biologically predators, we're biologically prey, and just because we've been able to master this world… doesn't mean that we've forgotten what it's like to be eaten.
Tanner escorted the young coyote to the truck that they had taken to the boarding house. The entire time, the canine was snarling and lunging for him, her teeth snapping in midair. Due to none of the bottles that the team had found in the upstairs room containing any kind of night howlers, they had no other choice but to rule that out entirely. So, the porcupine and his fellow officers had to try and think of something else that could've been making the mammals in the building go nuts. "Stop! Stop!", he would tell her at times until they got to the van's open doors. "Come on, get in!"
The coyote just looked back at him and growled some more.
"Have you ever seen anything like this before?", Judy asked, nearly out of breath as Nick.
"No!", the red fox panted as he made sure the zebra's limbs were secured together with a the cuffs, "I've never known anyone to bounce back from a fall like that!"
Back in the van, Tanner was trying to stop anymore blood from leaking out of the bite on his arm. The young coyote on the other paw was trying to chew through her restraints, whether the actual zip ties or her own limbs, the porcupine wasn't too sure. Either way, he found the sight to be rather disgusting.
"Stop! Doing! That!", he ordered, although his words seemed to fall on deaf ears. He pressed the button on his comm and said, "Judy, I've got the girl. There's nobody else outside."
"Listen up Tanner", Nick's voice sounded out, "we've got our paws full up here, we need you to stay in the van, keep the engine running, and be prepared to get us out of here any second. If you don't hear back from me in four minutes, call for backup. Over!"
"Copy", Tanner responded, feeling a little sick and dizzy. He looked back over to see nothing had changed with the young coyote. "STOP! DOING THAT!"
"Nick is this even our mammal?", the rabbit asked.
Nick looked at the ID badge on his arm, showing the clear image of a mule deer, not a striped equine. "I don't think so!" He barely had time to react as the zebra's eye opened and its head lunged back, snarling aggressively at the fox on top of it.
"Watch it!", Judy cried outas Nick readied his taser. However, both the fox and bunny were stunned to find that the large amount of electricity had next to no effect on the striped horse whatsoever.
"JUDY, IT'S NOT WORKING!", Nick yelled as he continued to jab the zebra with the taser's electrical prongs.
"FREEZE!", Judy growled, not even noticing the door behind her in the room creak open slowly and a mule deer come walking into the room. "I SAID FREEZE!"
"Judy, your six!", Nick ordered.
Judy immediately swung the butt of her gun back and heard the grunt come after the sound of heavy metal colliding with flesh and bone. She spun around to come face to face with their suspect. "Clement!", she cried out as the deer was recovering, "don't take another step!"
The deer growled and lunged towards her, only to have the small bunny unload a round at point blank right into his abdomen. There was however, next to zero effect whatsoever.
"What the?!", Judy cried out in shock as her ears dropped behind her head. She unloaded another round from the shotgun in her paws, but once again, to the same effect. "NICK! HE'S NOT GOING DOWN!" A third round was discharged from the gun in her paws.
The red fox looked up to see four other mammals (an impala, a lion, a jackal, and a moose) groaning and snarling as they slowly made their way towards him. "Oh my God!" He pressed the button on his radio and cried out, "Tanner, where's that backup?"
Tanner lay over the table in the back of the truck, unconscious as the radio on his shoulder continued to yell his name and the young coyote had started to chew on some of the flesh on his bitten arm.
"Tanner come in! Where's that backup!" Nick jabbed the taser into the jackal, but to the same effect as the zebra, "It's not working!" He looked over to the room that Judy was in and bolted for the entrance. "I'm coming in! I'm coming in Judy!" He instantly slammed the door shut behind him, locking it in the process as the bunny unloaded another round into the deer.
Thinking quickly, he grabbed hold of the white sheet on one of the tables and used it to cover Clement's head. "I've got him! I've got him Carrots!" Wrestling the deer to the ground was no easy task, but he was able to tie it around him and secure it firmly along with the his hooves. "I've got him!"
The deer's ungodly snarls, though muffled by the fabric, still rang throughout the room.
"You okay?", the fox asked his wife.
"I'm fine", she told him, "what about you?"
Nick scoffed, "I've had better nights in the Swamp District! Look, I say we leave this guy, get the hell out of here, torch this place to the ground and keep whatever the hell's in here from spreading."
"Look!", the rabbit said, "we were hired to do a mission to bring Clement into custody, and that's exactly what we're going to do."
"We'd better get doing this fast", Nick exclaimed, a slight bit of panic in his voice when he looked over the see the mammals various limbs attempting to break through the door to get at them, "Judy, whatever we're going to do, we're going to have to do it now!"
Judy groaned in frustration, "Where the hell is Tanner?"
"I lost contact with him", Nick told her as he hoisted the deer up onto his shoulders, "We've got no backup. Any bright ideas?
"I think we're going to have to go out the tree out front, come on!", the rabbit told him as she bolted to open the shutters.
What neither of them were expecting to happen was for the shutter to suddenly open up and for a young female coyote to come stumbling in, groaning in the process.
"Are you kidding me?!", Judy exclaimed, raising her shotgun to her shoulder, "Nick, what do I do here? She's just a girl!"
"Not anymore! SHOOT IT!", the fox cried out upon seeing the blood covering her muzzle and the severed paw attached to her other wrist.
Judy unloaded another round from the shotgun into the coyote, only to have the exact same result as the deer they had apprehended. "WHY WON'T THESE MAMMALS GO DOWN?" She rushed forward and used her big feet and leg strength to force the canine's upper torso back over a railing, a sickening crack being heard as the coyote continued to snarl, but thankfully couldn't move anymore. "COME ON SLICK, LET'S GET OUT OF HERE! LET'S GO!" Neither wasting time in bolting for the now open window in front of them.
Nick dropped the suspect from the window nearly three stories as he and Judy made their way down through the tree branches. When they felt their footpaws touch the ground, they immediately rushed over to the unmoving body.
"Hope they didn't need him alive!", Judy said trying to lighten the mood while looking at the body wrapped in the sheet. Suddenly, it moved, Clement thrashing around inside, snarling like a savage beast. "Good Lord! What's it take to kill these guys?! Come on, let's get out of here!"
Nick grunted under the weight of the hundred pound deer, which was still impressive for an eighty pound fox to be able to pick up an animal about twenty pounds heavier than he was. Once he had a firm grip on the suspect, he followed the bunny towards to truck.
"We've got company!", Judy exclaimed, pointing out the numerous mammals approaching the main entrance to the boarding house. "Nick! Nick, we've gotta hurry this up! They just keep coming!"
"This guy weighs a ton!", the fox groaned as he hurried as fast as his muscles would allow him to.
"Tanner!", Nick exclaimed as he and Judy made it to the truck. Tanner only stared at them with a blank-faced expression and twitched once, growling in the process. "Tanner, No!", Judy said as she tried to snap the porcupine back to his senses, "TANNER!"
Both of them barely had time to react as Tanner charged at them, snarling like a savage beast...
The boarding house owned by Josephine Ladue was demolished that same morning. City officials claimed that it was in compliance with an earlier condemnation notice, but promised that there would be a full official report later that week. That report… never came. Tanner Noble was given a quiet funeral in his hometown of Kalihariville, his coworkers Nick Wilde and Judy Wilde-Hopps were also in attendance.… There are still questions about the rest of Ladue's remaining residents… were they still living in the boarding house at the time of its demolition… or do they live among us?
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