Chapter 2
The first thing Judy became aware of was the crickets chirping loudly and the stars shining brightly in the sky, her head was thumping slowly but methodically giving her great discomfort. Her limbs feeling more like stiff twigs didn't ease her mind either, it didn't take long for Judy to realize that this wasn't Zootopia. Even though there are places which could remind her of the nature she had around her even those areas had that constant hum of cars and other distinct city noises.
The trees groaned as the strong wind pushed against them soothing Judy if only slightly, about to push herself up into a sitting position she notices something off with her right paw.
"Cheese and crackers, I've had locked up limbs before but this takes the prize." She groans to herself as she struggles opening her fist.
She sits for a while just flexing her paw doing her best to regain motion in it, she stops when a feeling of dread sneaks up on her, slowly looking around it doesn't take long until she recognizes the place. Bunnyburrow cemetery, definitely not the first time she's been here, large families means bigger chance of disaster happening. She's been here for dozens of funerals, siblings, grandparents, cousins and other family members and her last time wasn't even that long ago, her mother had another litter which had given her nine more siblings.
Judy had been worried during her mother's pregnancy, her mother wasn't getting any younger but she had managed fine, her new brothers and sisters came into the world without any harm to their mother. Sadly a few of the kits were born sick and three of them didn't make it through the first week, it never gets easier to work through the death of those around you but it does become easier to accept. That's how life works, young or old, good or bad, death doesn't care and for some it's just their time to go.
Judy gave a big sigh as she thought about it but quickly a fear rose to her, why was she in the cemetery? This must be some sort of prank right?
Her eyes darting around trying to find her friends or co-workers holding cameras and laughing at her reactions.
"Hah! Real funny prank guys, you can come out now, you got me!" she shouted with a tremble in her voice.
Seconds turned into minutes but she could hear nothing except the sounds of nature, slowly rubbing her shaking paws together something odd sticks to her. It is cold outside, it is in the middle of the night after all but she doesn't feel cold, she can feel it and waking up in the middle of the night outside she should be freezing but she doesn't.
How come she hadn't woken up as they brought her here? She had always been a light sleeper.
"It's not funny anymore guys! Please, come on out." Judy yelled as she couldn't suppress a sob escaping her.
The moon and the stars lit up the area enough so she could tell what was written on the tombstones around her, the one right in front of her she recognized. Her grandmother Ann Judy Hopps, who she was named after, she had been a wonderful little bunny who loved sneaking treats to her many grandchildren. The tasteless prank as she had considered it suddenly turned into a vicious one, she couldn't think of anyone who'd do such a terrible thing and sure she could've seen the slight humor in it if had it been a random cemetery within Zootopia that didn't have any connections to her.
But the fact there wasn't anyone around just makes her more sure this isn't a prank if anything someone must've been out to hurt her emotionally, she admits it did work.
"When I know who did this I'm going to give them hell, no one messes with Judy Hopps and gets away with it!" she swore and clenched her paws.
Most of the stiffness had gone away but some still remained and the thumping in her head had dwindled significantly, she took notice to a funny feeling in her knee almost like the inside of it was tickling, but stroking it with her paw didn't reveal anything. The soil she was sitting on seemed fresher than those around her,
"Wow, so not only do they put me in the cemetery of my family, they had to put me on the freshest one. Sick bastard!" she snarled.
She didn't remember that her newborn siblings graves had been this large though, she pushed herself up with the help of the tombstone she had been using to lean against and took a few steps back to confirm the owner of the grave.
"JUDY HOPPS"
1995 – 2019
Loving sister, daughter, aunt and protector.
Taken from us too soon.
May her fire continue to burn in all of us.
She could feel her stomach churning and she fell to her knees as it tried to expel whatever contents within out into the grass. But after dry hurling a few times it became obvious nothing would be released, with panic and tears stinging her eyes she lost control of her breathing which led to her hyperventilating.
"I can't be d-dead right? I'm r-right here! This must be a dream, j-just a nasty vivid nightmare." She cried with her voice full of panic.
She wasn't a stranger to nightmares, she loved her job but there could be altercations that left her stressed and emotionally hurt, but they always woke her up before they got this bad.
Judy slowly but roughly smacked her chest and started counting, doing her best to try and control her breathing and wake up from this horrible nightmare.
"1... 2... 3... C-come on please, 4... 5... 6..." Her voice trembled but she could feel her breathing calming down.
She was still breathing quickly and shallow but the feeling of lightheadedness dwindled away, tears ran freely from her cheeks dripping into the grass below her as sobs wracked her body.
She managed to calm down after a while, some tears slowly escaping her as she idly grasped and tore some grass from where she was sitting.
"What happened? How did I d-die?" there was a shiver in her voice but right now she mostly felt numb.
Dying seems to cause a rollercoaster of emotions to you, she tried her best to think past the foggy daze in her head, what had she done before this?
She took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes, giving her a couple of minutes to calm herself and cleared her throat, she's cried enough now there's a mystery to solve.
"Alright... let's see." Sighing she started stroking one of her long ears to soothe herself.
"The Chief wanted more presence in Savannah Central so I had been given the assignment to patrol and try to keep the area nice and peaceful." She'd lifted herself up and started to pace back and forth getting her investigating mind going.
"Everything seemed okay until... Horse, there was a strange horse causing commotion." Her eyes widened as she remembered the confrontation with the crazy stallion.
Suddenly the stiff right paw, thumping head and the odd feeling in her knee made more sense. Scoffing she wondered why her ribs didn't hurt in that case since she did get them kicked in.
"Guess I should be glad about that at least, but it seems unlikely that the punctured lung would've killed me, especially with the other officers so close. Well... obviously I'm wrong there, it must've been possible otherwise all this wouldn't be ha-" She twitched as she recalled the loud shrieking noise that had been right next to her.
"Oh... Wow... So the semi-famous Judy Hopps, first Bunny on the force who could win fights against Rhinos and Elephants lost to a lunatic, a crazy horse to be specific. But no it hadn't been the frothing stallion that ended her no, she had to go out of this world by kissing the fender of a truck." Rubbing her face she gave a few quiet pathetic laughs.
She hadn't thought much about dying, but the few times her mind had wandered there it had always been some heroic death in a large firefight saving mammals and taking down criminals.
"Then again looking at the silver lining it could've been worse" she mumbled to herself.
Back when she was a fresh rookie there had been this Officer, Tom Clawson was his name, wolf around the age of 28. Had a wonderful wife and was according to the rumors trying to conceive a pup with his beloved, he'd chased a suspect up on the roof of a five story building.
After wrestling with him the suspect had managed to kick him off the roof and poor Tom had landed straight on his back, survived but went into a coma. Woke up seven month later as a quadriplegic and his wife had left him, he stayed like that for three weeks before he managed to convince his best friend to turn off the machine that kept him breathing.
That had been one of the worst deaths she had heard of and judging by the fact there's nothing in her memories between the shriek of the truck and her waking up here she hopes it was instantaneous.
She felt pretty calm all things considered, which left her mind with time to start wandering, she's dead alright so does that mean this is heaven? Unlikely considering what she just went through. Hard time imagining this as hell since there's no wailing souls screaming in agony, she's going to save her judgment for that one though.
"So... I'm a ghost now? I've risen from the dead to extract my revenge on that sick deranged stallion that wasn't aware of his actions! Yes, Judicator Judy here to punished the wicked!" she spat ironically and added a small sarcastic jump with her fist to the sky.
With frustration boiling over she started walking swiftly towards the gate of the cemetery, no point idling here any longer. Reaching out her paw to push against the gate she gave a sigh and closed her eyes thinking about this insane situation she was in, she awkwardly stumbled forward when she wasn't met with the resistance of the gate she was expecting.
Her arm had instead gone straight through it and Judy was now lying on the ground with the gate untouched and going straight through her middle like it was some sort of hologram.
"Or like if I was some sort of Phantom." She mused.
If there had been any sliver of doubt in her mind about her situation that quickly disappeared with this experience. It had answered one question but left more in its wake, how come she could grab and rip the grass but she couldn't touch this gate? Mental exhaustion taking over she decided to leave those questions for now and picked herself up.
For all she knew she could be here wandering the earth forever, or maybe she just had days or hours left, either way right now the only thing on her mind was going to her house not too far away from the cemetery. With the unspecified time she had left she wanted to at least give her goodbyes to her family, if she could see them one last time then this whole thing might not be too bad.
The trip only took around 15 minutes, it had been quiet and not a soul was seen which isn't all that odd since it must be around 1-4 AM she estimated. Standing in front of the door to her house she felt a tad unnerved, what if the family was still a mess because of her passing?
She hesitated before reaching up for the doorknob, only to remember the incident with the gate.
"Right... probably best I try and avoid touching things even if I can, don't need to scare my poor family." Closing her eyes she took two steps forward passing through the door.
It had felt very strange when she passed through that gate earlier, strange in a bad way so she closed her eyes to try and shield herself from that again. It had worked decently she felt uncomfortable but it wasn't as bad.
Her living room looked like normal, clean but with a few toys scattered around from her siblings. What was considered a living room for rabbits other mammals would probably see as a grand hall, but with the amount of bunnies living in this burrow it could be cramp. All she could hear is the hum of the air condition and the ticking of the Longcase clock which her grandfather had made before his passing, she never met him since he died when she was two years old.
She walked quietly through the living room, she had no idea if anyone could even hear her, but on the off chance they could she really didn't want to terrify anyone with the prospects of ghosts haunting the house. Even if that ghost was her, slowly she looked around trying to absorb everything in case this was the last time she'd ever see it again.
Glancing above the fireplace she was surprised that the large picture of her Uncle Bill who had lost his life in a peacekeeping mission in a foreign country was gone, in his place there was now a picture of her standing proud puffing her chest upwards and a big toothy smile on her face. Taken from when she had graduated from the academy she recognized, she saw tons of small scribblings in the corners of the glass protecting the picture.
"Awwwh..." she cooed softly, part of her wanted nothing more than go and read the last words her loved ones had given her.
But with tears starting to build up in her eyes she shook her head slightly and quenched the liquid from dripping down, she wasn't ready for that and she didn't know if she ever would be. Right now she had a mission to complete, softly walking through the hall towards her parents room she was glad the door was wide open and she could see her parents sleeping soundly.
A mix of emotions surged through her, mostly happiness she wouldn't have wanted anyone she knew to hold on to her after her death and her parents looked as she always remembered them, maybe a little bit older but losing a child does that to you. Although the body takes no physical pain the mind does and that eventually shows its toll on the body, her father Stu was lying on his back snoring slightly and her mother Bonnie curled on her side against her husband.
Stu had always saved the newspaper for the end of the day so he could read it before sleep took him, tonight was no different she thought as she saw the newspaper resting at his legs.
"Hi mom, dad... I hope you guys are doing okay, the family needs you to stay the pillars of strength I know that you are, you know I would have wanted you to move on right?" her voice quivered and her eyes watered, but she was happy she could see them again.
"You were the best parents I could've asked for, there's no such things as perfect parents... but if I had the option to choose I'd pick you guys without hesitating. I don't regret anything, I loved my job and despite the many shortcomings of the city I loved Zootopia as well." She whispered as she did her best to stretch herself over the bed without touching it.
"Maybe long in the future when you've grown gray and tired we'll see each other again alright?" she hummed as she landed two smooches on their cheeks, she did it just above their fur as she didn't know what happened if she touched someone and she wasn't going test her luck and try it.
Taking a step back she gave a deep breath as she calmed herself, she had lots of other siblings to repeat the procedure with and if she didn't hurry she wouldn't be done before they started waking up.
As she was walking out she took a glance at the newspaper, the front page was just about some boring celebrity who had recently divorced which Judy couldn't care less about.
But what was more interesting was the date of the newspaper, "2019-08-24" it read.
"Hmm... I'm pretty sure it was the 18th of April when I died. That means... it has been 4 months and 6 days." She whispered to herself and did a quick counting with her fingers.
Shrugging she took one final glance at her sleeping parents and with a smile gave them a small wave as she continued to her siblings room to say a final goodbye. She is lucky it was weekend, she stopped counting after around 154 but the process took well into the 6 am before she was done. Had it been a workday the little ones would've been up and scurrying getting ready for school, when she was done Judy walked back into the living room and took a seat in the sofa for a breather.
Mentally she was exhausted, but her eyes and body felt fine all this moving around had removed the small inkling of stiffness she had and now she just sat and pondered what she should do. Parts of her thought she had come back to say her final goodbyes before she could move on to whatever happened next, but she was still here and she didn't feel anything other than a comfortable feeling of content.
She was sure of one thing though, she didn't want to be here when her family woke up she had bid them her final farewell and was going to leave it with that. The odd feeling she felt when walking through objects had disappeared after walking through what must've been more than 154 doors to her siblings rooms and walked through the front door without any issues.
"I guess I don't have anything better to do, so it's time for a hike." She took a deep breath and started her travel towards Zootopia, 211 miles is quite the distance to walk but since she apparently couldn't be physically drained it couldn't be too bad right?
It was, Judy can't remember the last time she had been this bored and the notion of time was hard to track when you really didn't feel tired. After a period of time she won't even dare try to calculate she finally reached the outskirts of Zootopia, place looked no different compared to 4 months ago.
"Finally! I will NEVER walk that distance ever again." She groaned almost ready to start ripping her fur out.
Although she had finally reached her goal now she felt lost, sure she could go and say goodbye to some of her friends and co-workers but what about after that? What if nothing happened and she was stuck here in some limbo forced to forever walk the earth in solitude. She suddenly felt cold and shivered thinking about that, rubbing her arms she tried her best to avert those thoughts and see if she couldn't find her friends and wish them goodbye.
The first day in Bunnyborrow she was happy and felt blessed she could see her family again, the trip to Zootopia had given her way too much time to think about stuff and when she finally arrived she felt like a mess. After that though time seemed to blur and she had difficulties knowing how long she'd been in Zootopia just wandering aimlessly. Completely alone and she couldn't remember the last time she had spoken, she had been glad to find out she can in fact fall asleep somehow, she had been curled up in an alley although she hadn't felt tired she had closed her eyes and the next thing she knew it was day again.
She saw it had been a week of wandering without a goal when she found a fresh newspaper, this week she had found out a few things regarding her predicament of being dead. She could in fact move and touch objects if she focused but she really tried not to, she still couldn't touch anyone though she goes through them just like she did with the gate and the doors.
"It feels like it was months ago I was in Bunnyburrow, this really could be hell..." She said with an apathetic tone.
The world moving forward without you and nothing can be done than just sit there, observing as it rolls further away.
Slowly walking through the gloomy gray streets of lower Zootopia when she felt a tickle in her neck, the one you get when you think someone is looking at you, scratching at her neck she glanced across the street as she continued walking and saw a fox wearing a sharp looking beige coat staring at her.
"Well not at me, in my direction." She mumbled as she dropped her gaze from his what looked to be green eyes and kept walking, not bothering to move as a large cow ran through her.
After a few seconds she snuck another glance at him only to find that he was still looking straight at her, this time her eyes widened as she turned to face him. Hope filling her as she gave a shaky small wave towards him.
He raised his eyebrow and gave her a smirk as he returned a small cheeky wave back.
