Chapter 4 – Hello Cruel World
She opened her eyes.
The best she could say was "at least it wasn't bright." It was rather the opposite in fact, pitch black. Luckily, she had good night vision, but even that barely helped. The only thing she could see was a dusty mattress she had woken up on.
Other than that, the room was completely bare. There had been windows at some point, but they had been boarded up, and the only other thing was a large, mahogany door. She tried to sit up, but a sharp pain went through her.
She placed a paw to her chest. Blood. She had horrible, gaping wounds in her. Where did they come from?
How did she even get here? Hadn't she just been in her apartment? Maybe the wounds were caused by whoever had obviously kidnapped her.
There was a vibration in her pocket. Her phone was ringing. She pulled it out, and the caller ID made her sigh in relief. It was Nick. Hopefully.
She answered.
"Judy? Is that you?"
"Nick?" She said, joyfully.
"Where are you? It's almost roll call and Clawhauser's acting weirder than normal."
"Um, I don't know." She replied, looking around.
"What does that mean?"
"It means 'I don't know where I am'!" She yelled back. She gripped her chest in pain. "It's dark, that's all I can tell you. It's also cold, so probably in Tundra Town?"
"How did you get there? I thought you went to your apartment yesterday."
"Um, I can't remember." She said, weakly. She looked at her free paw, covered in her own blood. "Oh god, the blood…" Her phone began to shake, visible sparks coming from it. She dropped it to the ground, where it completely fried itself, smoke wafting into the air.
"Oh great…" She moaned, putting her non-blood covered paw to her forehead.
There was another sound, the sound of a key turning. Someone was unlocking the door. It slammed open, revealing a large polar bear leaning through.
"Hopps." It said, with an accent. "Come, now."
"I can't move." She moaned.
The bear snorted. "Excuses." He reached in, and grabbed the rabbit, lifting her out of the room.
"That hurts, but thanks for covering the bleeding." She said, completely sincerely. The bear snorted at her.
The hall was rather well furnished compared to the inside of the room she was in. In fact, the decorations looked… familiar to her. Red wallpaper, fancy candelabras, it jogged her memory. This was Mr. Big's estate.
The bear moved over to another door, and unlocked it, rabbit still in his hand. He slammed the door open, almost accidentally, and peered in. "Wilde. Come, now."
Wilde? It had to have been Nick, but he sounded like he was at the station, so…
"Oh, Koslov." A female voice muttered from the room. "I guess Big wants to see me?" Out walked the fox criminal from the other day. Judy was suddenly very confused. "Thanks for getting me out of jail." She thanked the polar bear.
The bear looked at her, judgmentally, for a brief second, and then began to move down the hall. The fox nervously followed for a second.
"Why does Mr. Big want to see me?" Judy asked between the polar bear's clenching grasp. "I haven't seen him in over a year."
The bear let out a loud snort in response, and continued walking down the hall. She decided it was probably best to remain silent. Eventually, they entered into the darkened room, Mr. Big's desk sitting where it had been before. She also spotted the trap door, which still probably led directly to freezing water. The only difference s that there was now a large, red chair behind the desk, like Mr. Big's much smaller chair was blown up to normal size.
Koslov parked himself directly in front of the trap door. He pushed the fox onto it with his free paw. "I brought Wilde and Hopps." He stated.
"Excellent." A female voice sounded from the chair. It was familiar to Judy, but she couldn't place it. It definitely wasn't Mr. Big. "So, Nicole, Judas, what do you have to say for yourselves?"
"Uh…" The fox, Nicole, seemed confused. "Who are you?"
"Ugh, seriously?"
The chair spun around, revealing a tiny sheep sitting in it.
"Bellwether!?" The two sounded, surprised.
"Yes, yes, I can't believe the sheep's the mob boss, I've heard it a lot by this point." She dismissed. "I have no idea how you two haven't heard that I've taken over yet."
"Last time I checked, Mr. Big was still the crime lord of Tundra Town." Nicole stated. "And last time I checked was two days ago, so how'd you replace him in 48 hours?"
The sheep looked at the fox, confused. "It's been a year, Nicole." She stated. "A year since you two suddenly vanished."
The fox scratched her head, but before she could say anything, Judy managed to let something out. "Um, I'm not Judas."
"What?" The sheep said.
"Also, I'm dying."
The polar bear dropped her, and looked at his blood covered paw. The sheep leaned over, and adjusted her glasses. It wasn't Judas, this was a very clearly female rabbit. "Koslov, I thought you said you found Nicole AND Judas?"
"They look similar, I-"
"Koslov, you know we don't tolerate that kind of thinking here." She pointed to the door. "Go get this poor rabbit some bandages, gauze, whatever she needs." The bear nodded, and headed off. She hopped down from her seat, and walked over to the prone rabbit. "I'm very sorry, we usually don't accept that kind of intolerance here." She apologized. "Can I uh, get you something to drink?"
"No thanks." Judy said weakly, still bleeding on the floor.
A while later, Judy and Nicole were seated in chairs in front of the desk. Koslov, despite his massive size, had managed to surprisingly delicately wrap her wounds up. It probably came from having to deal with his much smaller bosses.
"So," Nicole started, sipping from a cup of hot chocolate. "Mr. Big is dead?"
Bellwether nodded. "After you and Judas disappeared one night, the police managed to track him down, and he was sent to prison, and shortly executed."
Judy desperately wanted to ask something. Like, "How did you get out of prison, Bellwether?" or "Who are Judas and Nicole, and why do they have our last names?" but for right now, she decided to keep quiet and process the information.
"But we were only gone for a day." Nicole said. "At least, I thought we were. And you're sure you didn't break me out of prison?"
Bellwether shook her head. "Koslov found you outside the estate last night, you were both unconscious." She looked at Judy. "Again, I am so sorry for the confusion, Miss…"
She gulped. "Uh, Judy. Judy Hopps."
Bellwether tilted her head. "So, you're related to Judas?" She asked.
"No, I barely know him." She said. "Can I ask something?"
"Sure, go ahead!"
She took a deep breath. "Have you, Dawn Bellwether, ever been to prison before?" She asked.
"Once, in my youth." She said. "They really don't like activism here."
"You protested?" She said. "What, exactly?"
"You know, tame collars, general unjust treatment of predators." She continued.
Tame collars? She couldn't help but wonder. "Pardon me if I sound a bit… lost, but what is a, uh, tame collar?"
The fox and the sheep both stared at her, dumbfounded. "How do you not know about tame collars?" Nicole asked. "I thought you were an officer."
"I've never seen anything like that in my life." She admitted. "I've only lived here for a year and a bit, is it a thing they put on prisoners?"
"Oh, sweet summer child." Bellwether sighed. "You must have been really sheltered growing up. Every predator wears a tame collar in public. It's been that way for centuries."
"But what does it do?"
"It's the most horrible pain you can imagine." Nicole interjected, suddenly turning serious. "Imagine touching an electric fence, but it just doesn't stop."
"That sounds awful." She said. "But I'm friends with a lot of predators, and I've never seen any of them wear a tame collar."
"That's odd." Bellwether admitted. "Nicole, you said Ms. Hopps here was an officer, right?"
She nodded. "She's the one who arrested me and Judas."
"Well, I've never heard of her." She admitted. "And I'm an underworld mob boss, I know everybody."
"What the hell is going on?" Judy said aloud. "First, you and your partner didn't exist," She said to Nicole. "And now Bellwether is out of prison, running a crime ring, and cares about predators!?" She got up, completely done with the situation. She stormed out of the room, or at least tried, considering how much pain she was in. It was more like a very frustrated limp.
"What's with her?" Bellwether asked, confused by the rabbit's outburst.
Nicole got up. "I dunno, but that rabbit's not gonna last a minute out there." She wasn't entirely sure why she wanted to help the rabbit, maybe it was because she somehow reminded her of Jude. She quickly ran after the rabbit.
"Alright!" Bellwether yelled as she exited. She at in silence for a minute, before slapping her head. She pressed a button on her desk. "Koslov, keep an eye on Nicole for me. Don't whack her, just keep an eye on her." She paused for a second.
"And the rabbit too, she's something else."
