THE FIRE WITHIN
Chapter 4
When I woke up, I felt like my entire body just got hit by a semi. I felt pain coursing through me from head to toe. Mostly my head but still, it hurt. I also felt a little dizzy and I didn't know why I felt like this. What happened to me last night? Come on, Wilde. Try to recap the events to lead here. Ok, so me and Judy were assigned a mission to stop a returning terrorist group. We took a dinghy and headed over to the cargo ship where the group was last sighted. Once we got on the ship, we scanned the area for any clues. I found out there was a bomb, bomb went off, and then . . . I end up here. Alive. I shouldn't be alive. That bomb should've killed me. How on earth am I still alive? And . . . where the heck am I? I looked around the place and noticed that instead of me being home or in a hospital, I'm in some kind of living quarter. The room was mostly covered in inky black and the temperature seemed to be very cold. Who turned on the AC? Guess maybe if I look out the window maybe I'll know where exactly I am. I pulled the blinds up and my eyes immediately grew wide for what I was looking out at. Nothing but the deep blue sea. You gotta be kiddin' me. Why am I underwater? Another thing . . . where's my police uniform? All I was wearing was a plain white T and a pair of loose-fitted jeans. Definitely not my style. Man, I must've been literally blown away harder than I thought. Alright, I gotta walk around. I'm not staying cooped up in this dark and depressing room all day long. I went to open the door, but what I noticed on the door was these three letters in bold. ZBO. And then the room number was on the outside of the door as I slowly opened it to peek outside. I wonder what those letters stand for? I went down a hallway that was also filled with nothing but black painted walls, ceiling, floor. What is with these people and black? Once I got down the hallway, I took a right and came into what appeared to be a debriefing station, but it was huge. On the left side, there was a living area, then you had a dining room in the far back right side, and in front of that, you had a medium-sized kitchen. Of course, everything in here was almost as black as well. But that's not what got my attention. My eyes were really set on the men who were inside of the room. All of them seemed to be dressed in some kind of military attire. Something like an elite task force would wear. I checked my pockets for any sort of weapon I could use. Nothing. I guess we'll find out who's side they're on. One of the men, who was a badger, turned around and noticed me standing near the entrance. He immediately called out to one of the other men.
"Sir, he's up." Everyone else in the room faced towards me and laid their eyes on mine. All of the mammals were of different species. From wolf to deer and tigers to rams. But the main guy I was focusing on, was the one in the very back who now turned around, and looked intently at me. He was a fox. Just like me. Except, this fox seemed to be much older than I, and just a little bit more built. He smiled at me.
"Welcome, Nicholas. It is so good to finally meet you."
Ooookay. How does he know my name?
"I'm sorry. Who are you? I don't think we've met before."
"Ah. Where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Meadows. Christopher Meadows. I am the general of this operation and . . . a lifelong friend of your father's."
WHAT?! That's it. I need a lot of explaining from these people.
"Alright. Can someone just tell me . . . what the HECK is going on?" I was flailing my arms around in a pattern of panic.
"Woah. Easy there, Wilde. No need to race your heart." One of the members, who was a tiger, was trying to ease my state of insanity. Great. So now HE knows my name.
"Where am I? How did I get here?"
"You're in an underwater safe zone. You got here because of us. Once that big ole' ship of yours blew sky high, we found you floatin' on the surface of the water. Straight knocked out." Another one of them, who was now a bear, made a bonking signal on his head to indicate my unconsciousness.
"So what like a submarine?" I asked.
"Underwater correctional facility, to be exact." The guy in the back was an otter and seemed to be the analyst of the group.
"But how am I still alive?"
"That's what we're surprised about. Judging by the blast radius and the magnitude of that bomb, that thing should've obliterated you instantly. The truth . . . you were wearing a heavy edition flak jacket. You're lucky to be alive." This time, an arctic vixen was talking to me. She brought out what was apparently the flak jacket that saved my doomed life and plopped it on the debrief table right in front of me.
"Where's my uniform?" I asked her.
"Torn to shreads and now at the bottom of the ocean." She replied flatly.
Great. Just great. I came to actually enjoy that dark blue uniform. I looked back at the fox general who was now keeping all of his attention only on me.
". . . You said you were a friend of my father's. How do you know my father?"
"I'm afraid, that question will have to wait to be answered another day."
Ok, last question.
" . . . What type of operations general did you say you were again?" The old fox smiled.
" . . . The general of the Zootopia Black Ops. Nicholas, welcome to the team."