I took a break on the closest hill. A long time ago, my mentor and I came to this hill. We constructed a cart from the vehicle remnants lying around, put it on the rails and ventured into the Zone with comfort. I was surprised with how silent it was. The rails were nearly invisible, because of the grass, and we could only hear the wheel noise.

It was a safe and fast path back then, but now it's a suicide to go on it. You could see the pile of metal, that the rails were turned into. And its last passengers as well.

Three stalkers, dozens of scientists and armed guard – that was the science expedition, who tried to approach the destroyed reactor three years ago, from this place. Guess, what happened to them. I refused to go with them, and got year and a half of another zone, called jail. Three marauders, that were caught that day, were freed by Cpt. Bellwether, in exchange of the promise to help the investigation of the Zone.

I always wondered, why am I still doing this. Money? Yeah, but would I risk my fluff ass only for money each time? I have the reputation of a strange bunny-stalker. I never sell something cool to random people, I don't escort anyone. Hell, I don't ask for money, when I sell my maps, made from my sweat and blood. I wonder, how it's not in a literal meaning yet. The only way I get money – a good friend of mine in Zootopia Zone Investigation Center. If the artifact was unique, I was guaranteed to be the anonymous seller and the help in anything I need. I always think, that I do something good and useful. But why do I keep coming back here – I still don't know.

I saw that thing from far away. It was a black spiral, 10 cm in diameter, with a blue cloud above it. I haven't seen these ones before. I threw a stone towards it, hoping I won't find any anomalies. And I was lucky not to find any. My knees were shaking as I approached to the spiral and finally took it. It was like that every time, I touched THESE kind of things. But finally, I could go back home.

But there was one thing. The fastest way out was through the nearby swamp. I don't really like them, but I had to go. Zone's night swamps were the only thing I stayed away from. Ah, whatever. I will do it if I have to. I was carefully going forward, counting, how much I had to stay here, when I heard a quiet, but distinguishable moan:

– Help…

I almost hopped from it. Mammals citizens – aren't a common thing here. But the voice owner felt, that he's not alone:

– Help!

Mammal, no doubts. Judging from the voice – predator. But when I approached to the voice source, I was surprised.

In the middle of the swamp there was a cheetah – no less dirty than the swamp itself. If I wasn't polite, I would've call him fat. His face was scratched and I could read the fear for his life. He had really strange clothes choice for the Zone: shredded and dirty business suit. He didn't notice me yet, but he yelled one more time:

– Help!

I've seen some shit before, but not something like this. I decided to let him explain, what happened:

– What are you yelling at?

– W-who are you? – this dummy squeezed the words out of himself.

– Hopps. Judy Hopps.

– What Hopps? Where's the rescue team?!

– I don't know.. What happened?

It all turned out simple and hard to understand at the same time. Benjamin Clawhauser, the local cop and a close friend of the mayor, asked for the chopper, to personally see the Zone from above. But they hit the «bird ride» and they landed… not so good. The pilot died, and Clawhauser had nothing to do, other than call the rescue team from the survived radio. And then he got trapped in «glued friend» – harmless, but annoying trap. The fun thing is – it was attached to his, how he said, left halfbutt.

But a couple of things were definitely strange. First – I didn't hear the chopper. And the second one: this fatass was alive the whole time. And he looked like he was in total comfort here. But that wasn't the main reason I decided to leave him. I know this kind of mammals. They draw every kind of adventure on your ass.

– Wait! – he screamed, as he guessed my intentions. – Don't leave! Hey, bunny! You can't leave me here! That's unanimal! What if your mutant relative will eat me?!

I stopped. Clawhauser, noticing my hesitation, kept yelling. While I was wondering, what bad have I done in my life to deserve this, he already let all the local habitants, how he will sue me, my family and looks like, he was about to do it for the rest of his life.

Hyenas' distant laugh let me know, that they really like that idea, and were about to save this guy. Or not. Damn it… My chances of coming back home alive were going downhill.

– Pants off! – I've approached to him, holding a knife. He was scared at first, but he understood what I was going to do. I carefully cut the part that was attached to the root of some unknown plant, while Benjamin was happily jumping on the place. Disgusting picture.

Then I had to wait, while he will put the clothes back on, then – when he will end the ranting about «hole in the butt». I was thinking about what to do with this burden in cheetah's look. He helped me with the decision:

– So, help me get out of here…. What's your name again? Judy! I wanna eat and I wanna get outta here as fast as possible. And I will take care of reducing your jail time.

My eyes went dark from the wish of dropping this idiot right here. Well, after attaching him to the trap first.

– Listen up, you! If you will say something else stupid, like that – I will drop you here. That's first. I will call you a Donut from now. I guess, you ate them a lot, before coming here, huh? If you won't answer on that nickname – I will drop you. You hear me? That's second. And whatever-the-god-you-trust-in forbid you to ever scream again – I'm gonna kill you. See this gun? No bullets, but poisonous darts….

The mad laugh that was getting closer, helped him to answer.

– That's the spirit. Follow me now, right after my footsteps. If I will stop – you stop too. If I will lie down – you lie too. Got it?

He nodded. He finally understood that his life is in my hands. We had to get out of here and find a place to wait out the night. I don't want to stay in this swamp anymore.

Nobody was going into the Zone in the night before. Then we found that some anomalies are less active in night and a lot of predator-mutants love daylight. That's why I carry bolts with glowing stripes. You can see them even better, than usual. I kept throwing them, because I feared everything – especially this guy, who didn't know a thing and answered to all my questions «how should I know?!». To make up the excuse of him wandering around, I asked him to look for the dropped bolts. And I happened to meet a riot.

– I'm not going to be a shit collector!

– Oh, what do we have here? – I asked firmly. – A passenger wants to stop the ride on the comfortable train?

– If you're ready to help me to do so – go ahead!

Damn, he caught me on my softness. I decided not to answer.

When we finally left the swamp, I opened my bag and pulled out the waterproof sheet. Clawhauser sounded like he was going to sleep. I felt sorry for him for a second. I slightly pushed him, and he dropped on the sheet with a relief sound. I wouldn't risk to sleep here, unlike him. I wasn't going to anyway. I spilled the spare gunpowder everywhere, to mask our scent and buy us the time. I was surprised by the lying cheetah: he was sleeping, like there was nothing to fear. Yeah, anyone can not only be anything, but also do anything. Or maybe it's just a poor excuse of his stupidity. I wasn't caring what will happen to us.

But we made it to the morning. I decided it was time to go.

– Get up, Donut – I woke him up. – It's time to go.