Ch 4 More Questions than Answers

Fewer words this time, but finally we diverge from the main story line hurrah for that. I hope to get the next chapter out by either Thursday or Friday at the soonest maybe Sunday at the latest. Anyway hope you enjoy this chapter. Review, review, review I don't know what you like or don't like if you don't review. Small compliments or critiques can go a long way.

The soft patter of rain strikes the top of the golf cart turned miniature police cars roof as Nick and Judy make their way into the rainforest district. It is night time now. Nick is still holding tightly to the otter's collar still pondering the current situation. He looks up to see Judy reading the address Big gave them and turning down a side street and parking on the side of the road next to a small building. These little buildings were stationed all throughout the rainforest district. Inside each one was an elevator that took you up into the tree tops where most of the forest animals lived in treehouses. The top level of the rainforest has many rope bridges and platforms that one can walk on to get from one side of the district to the other. Judy turns the golf cart off and her and Nick step out and quickly make their way into the elevator building.

Nick presses the button to summon the elevator while Judy stands there writing something in her notebook. The elevator doors slide open silently and they step in. Nick presses the button to send the elevator up and the doors slide shut and the elevator climbs up. Nick looks over at Judy again and sees her closing the notebook "so uh Judy," Nick says "what do you expect to find at this jaguars house?"

She shrugs "I don't really know," she says "he was the last one to see Mr. Otterton." She goes quiet for a second and then speaks up again "hey what happened to calling me carrots or cotton tail," she asks.

It's Nick's turn to shrug "I guess I'm just too tired to be snide right now," he says rolling his neck to pop it. As he does this he feels the collar rub against the sore that was scabbing underneath it and open it up making it hurt again. He takes in sharp breath and lifts his hand to adjust the collar again.

Judy was watching him and steps closer "are you ok," she asks. The elevator doors open and Nick doesn't answer her as he walks out with her in tow. She doesn't press him and following closely they make their way across a few bridges until they come to the address specified on the paper Big gave them. "Well looks like that's the place," Judy says looking across the rope bridge they have to cross to get to the jaguars house.

Nick nods "yeah hopefully he can help," he says as he begins to make his way across the bridge. Judy follows close behind and they approach the front door and Nick raises a fist and bangs on it.

They both hear a crashing noise and then a voice drifts through the door. "N-no go away I told you I wouldn't talk," the gruff voice says weakly.

"Mr. Manches," Judy asks "I'm from the ZPD and I was wondering if I could talk to you." As she stops talking the door flies open and stops as the chain keeping it closed stops it. A large yellow eye peers out at them.

"You're not with them," he asks and Judy shakes her head no "I'm sorry, but I can't help you please leave."

Judy steps forward "I can't do that I need to know if you've seen this animal," she pulls out the picture of Otterton and the jaguar's pupils turn to pinpricks of fear "please sir we need to find him."

The jaguar shakes his head "I can't I'm sorr…" he stops talking and pulls his head back from the door and slams it shut. There is muffled yelling on the other side of the door "N-no I didn't tell them anything please," they hear Manches shout "Otterton got away you told me that if I told anyone about what he said to me you'd come after me and I didn't tell them anything please." They hear him groan and a thumping of him falling to the floor "P-please…" his last words are drowned out as a growl takes the place of his voice.

Nick and Judy back away from the door as something heavy throws its weight against it from the other side. Suddenly the door splinters and the black jaguar is standing there on all fours his collar doesn't seem to be working. As he approaches the two terrified animals Judy casts a glance over her shoulder and then pulls nick to the edge of the platform they're standing on "Nick do you trust me," she asks quickly. Nick nods quickly not letting his eyes off Manches. Suddenly he feels his body go weightless as Judy pulls him off the platform with her and they fall ten feet landing on a thick branch.

Nick groans and stands up but as he does this he hears a sharp beeping and he knows where it's coming from. "Judy…" he says then his entire body goes tense as his muscles scream. The shock collar around his neck has activated and he loses control over his body and topples backwards off the branch. He hears Judy call out and sees her head pop over the side, but then the black jaguar is next to her and she's running away.

All of time seems to stand still as Nick is falling unable to yell or even move due to the collar shocking him. His body was on fire from the electricity shooting through his nerves, but soon that wouldn't be the only reason he was hurting. Just then he slammed into another branch after falling another ten feet. This one turned him around and he fell further hitting several more branches as he fell through the bulk of the leaves on the trees. His collar stopped shocking him but he had no strength to brace himself as he fell. As he broke out of the bottom of the trees he hit one branch but came to a jarring stop as his collar caught on a branch jutting off the larger limb. The sudden stop felt like it almost broke his neck, but his neck was quite alright.

Nick hangs there grasping at his collar as it is slowly choking him to death. He wriggles around trying to reach the ground that is ten feet below him. As he chokes for air he notices his vision slowly dimming and his head feels like it's splitting open. His lungs scream for air as the darkness that was at the edge of his vision is now working its way until soon he will pass out. He slowly goes limp as he loses the strength to struggle and hangs there his tongue hanging limply out his mouth as he finally losses consciousness.

Nick finds himself standing in the middle of a field of flowers. His eyes are adjusting to the bright sunlight as he looks around. He hears a voice in the distance and feels a compelling feeling of finding it. As he walks through the flowers he notices that they're all dead and withered where a second ago the field was full of beautiful flowers. As he notices this the sun seems to have disappeared and he is now standing there in semi darkness of the moonlight. His sudden change of scenery scares him as the voice begins to grow fainter. He begins to run as fast as he can trying to get to the voice, but he keeps tripping over weeds and roots that seem to be sprouting out of the ground trying to pull him down into the dead flowers. His instincts tell him to keep running and that something is very wrong here. Suddenly the voice is booming all around him and he stops just as a root wraps itself around his legs and throws his balance off and he tumbles head first into the ground. He's falling now into darkness when he stops he feels warmth in his chest and spreading up to his face and he closes his eyes.

There's the sound of rapid breathing and a voice counting "one, two, three, four..." on and on until it stops then Nick feels air rush into his lungs and the voice begins to count again. His eyes fly open and he takes a deep breath sitting up almost knocking Judy, who was performing CPR, over. His throat is dry and very sore and his chest feels like he got hit with a truck. As he sits there coughing and gagging trying to catch his breath Judy falls back on her rear shaking slightly and breathing just as heavy. Suddenly she flings her arms around his neck and begins to cry.

"N-Nick I was so worried I didn't mean for you to fall off the branch," she says her voice shaking "o-once I got away from Manches I found you hanging and you weren't breathing...I thought... I thought you were dead." Her entire body is shaking violently.

Nick has steadied his breathing and in a hoarse whisper he asks "what happened to Manches."

Judy looks up at him and she bites her lip then answers "he just disappeared I don't know where he went or why he went savage like that," she says "last I saw he was running deeper into the rainforest district."

Nick nods then takes another breath his throat still dry but not as hoarse "he seemed to be arguing with someone," he says "saying something about what the otter told him about."

Judy looks around into the darkness as if she expected the Jaguar to run out at them "y-yeah I know," she says "we need to get out of here." She stands up and still looking around fear in her eyes. The sounds of police sirens fill the air and the flashing lights are seen through the trees. Judy turns in time to see several officers filing into the clearing that they are in. In the front of the pack stands Bogo. Nick knew him from the news and in person he was even more intimidating.

"Hopps," Bogo says with a surprised note in his voice "how'd you find this culprit before us you weren't at the precinct when we got the notification of a discharged collar." He was looking from Judy to Nick.

"Culprit," Judy asks with a confused tone.

Bogo points at Nick "we got notified that a collar discharged after a spike in rage which is a class A offence," he says "punishable by prison or even a death sentence if another animal was hurt or killed."

Judy shakes her head "he wasn't in a state of rage we were running away from a savage jaguar," she says "it probably mistook the adrenaline for anger." As she says this Nick is picking himself up on shaky legs and she lets him use her for support.

"Hopps you can either get out of the way or go to jail with him," Bogo says "the collars don't just activate for no reason even if the predator is under duress they've been tested extensively." Bogo eyes Judy with a very angered look.

Nick pushes Judy away "don't fight them," he says "I will be alright." He takes her hand slipping her the otters collar "you have to find that jaguar and find where he went." He whispered the last part.

"Nick they can't do this to you," she says but Nick chuckles and turns around to face Bogo. Judy has a horrified look as Bogo, unprovoked, slams his fist into Nicks face making the foxes knees buckles and he crumples to the ground. She steps forward but Nick puts a paw up to stop her and holds his hands out for another officer to slap cuffs on him and then they yank him up and drag him off. Nick looks over his shoulder to see Judy standing there with Bogo beside her and they seem to be arguing. His last sight of her is her tearing her badge off and chucking it at Bogo.

Nick's nose is bleeding and he feels his right eye swelling up as he is driven to the police HQ to be locked up until he is taken to court and then prison. He looks out the window and sees the sun is beginning to rise. Soon the car stops and he is roughly pulled out and shunted into the large building. The main lobby is huge and there is a center area where a rather chubby cheetah is sitting munching on a doughnut. Nick is chauffeured right past him and Nick sees him cast a glance as they pass and then pull his phone out. The hall he's drug down next is less inviting and soon they step into a large room with several cells and the rhino that has been dragging him along pulls open a cell door and throws nick inside and shuts it locking it. Nick is still handcuffed and he face is beginning to throb so he just goes to the cot and lies down closing his eyes. Sleep overtakes him soon and he dreams he is running away from something that is always right behind him.

There is a sharp rapping on his bars and Nick wakes with a start and looks over to see the cheetah that was in the main lobby standing here with a tray of food that has a doughnut on it. He is smiling like a fool as he pushes the tray through an opening in the cell door. Nick walks over and takes the tray, but before he is able to turn around the cheetah leans close and whispers "don't worry Judy says she's got a plan." Nick looks back at him to ask what he meant but he is already walking out of the room. Nick takes his tray of food and sits on the cot beginning to eat it wondering what was going to happen now. He knew where he was going to be sent, but what was Judy thinking of doing. He hoped she wasn't going to try anything stupid like breaking him out of here. Why would she do that anyway he didn't mean that much to her. He sighs as he looks out the window "Judy don't do something stupid for an idiot like me," he says softly under his breath.