Zach walked through the ZPD station, not sure on what he could do. As he reached the main lobby once more, he decided to talk to the only other mammal that was nice to him.
"Clawhauser, hey!" Zach shouted, getting the cheetah's attention. Clawhauser looked up from his desk, donut crumbs around his mouth.
"Hey Zach!" Clawhauser greeted. "Where were you?"
"Well, I had to take a blood test, and I was deemed safe enough to live here!" Zach said excitedly.
"O. M. Goodness! That's amazing! I'm so happy for you!" Clawhauser said, looking like he was going to jump out of his seat.
"Thanks." Zach couldn't help but chuckle at Clawhauser's excitement. "Anyway, do you know when Nick and Judy get back? I'm kinda stranded here until then."
"Usually they have an all day shift, but it's a slow day. Maybe Chief'll let them get off earlier." Clawhauser explained, and Zach nodded, remembering the 'conversation' he had with him earlier.
"He better, especially after I talked to him earlier." Zach muttered.
"You mean screaming match?" Clawhauser asked, which made Zach's eyes widen in horror.
"You heard me?" Zach squeaked.
"I think the entire station heard you." Clawhauser said, causing Zach's face to go red with embarrassment. Zach just put his head on the desk and covered his head.
"Oh god, whhyyyyyy..." Zach groaned, wishing that he didn't have that outburst.
"Hey, it's okay buddy. If anything, people are going to congratulate you. Nobody has stood up to him, and you walk in and make it look easy." Clawhauser said, sticking a donut into his mouth.
"Fair point, I guess." Zach lifted his head up. "Hey, do you mind if I sit here with you until Judy and Nick's shift is over?"
"Sure, I could use a conversation buddy." Clawhauser said with a smile. Zach smiled back and the two of them began talking. In the middle of their conversation, Zach began sketching in his sketchbook while Clawhauser did some paperwork.
"So, where are you from?" Clawhauser asked Zach.
"Well, all of the humans live in this settlement that's really well hidden. It's surrounded by mountains and really tall trees cover all of the buildings, so it's REALLY hidden." Zach explained, sketching away on the paper.
"What's it like there?" Clawhauser asked curiously.
"Y'know those stereotypical small towns on tv? It's like that but it has 300,000 people in it." Zach said.
"Whoa, that's a lot of you guys. I'm surprised no one found you." Clawhauser stated, writing down something on his paperwork. Clawhauser looked over in Zach's direction, curious about what he was doing. When Zach noticed him watching, he quickly covered it up.
"Hey, no peeking." Zach said, and Clawhauser let out an 'awww'.
"Why?" Clawhauser asked, putting emphasis on the 'y'.
"Because, it's a surprise, and it's not done yet." Zach said, looking at the cheetah with a smirk. Clawhauser continued with his work but felt Zach look at him from time to time. Every time he tried to look at the drawing, Zach covered it up. After about 5 minutes, Zach put his pencil down and held the sketchbook towards his chest.
"Alright, you wanna see?" Zach asked.
"Yeah, I've been trying to see it for the past five minutes. I finished the rest of my donuts in excitement." Clawhauser held up an empty donut box.
"Alright...boom!" Zach said, turning the sketch pad towards Clawhauser, who screamed like a fan girl.
"Oh my god, it's me!" Clawhauser said excitedly. Zach had drawn a very realistic picture of the cheetah, down to the little details.
"Yep, I thought it would be cool to draw you." Zach smiled.
"It's amazing! How did you learn how to draw like that?" Clawhauser asked, still amazed by the picture of himself.
"I took an art class for all 4 years of high school, you'd learn a lot." Zach explained, and Clawhauser just stared at the picture in awe. "Here, you can have it." Zach carefully tore out the page and handed it to Clawhauser.
"Really? Thanks!" Clawhauser beamed with happiness. Just then the phone start ringing, which Clawhauser immediately picked up.
"Hello, this is ZPD...Yes, what is it chief?...Alright, I'll tell them right away." Clawhauser than hung up the phone. "Looks like Nick and Judy have a shortened shift."
"Alright, cool. My legs are starting to get stiff." Zach said relieved while Clawhauser picked up his walkie talkie.
"Officer Hopps? Officer Wilde?" Clawhauser said into the walkie talkie.
"Yes Clawhauser?" Judy's voice came in through the speaker.
"Chief said you can end your shift, it's a slow day again."
"Alright, we're on our way back. Is Zach still there?" Judy asked.
"Yep, he's still here. He's been keeping me company." Clawhauser responded.
"Alright, we'll be there shortly." Judy said before Clawhauser put down the walkie talkie. The two of them talked until Nick and Judy arrived, Nick being covered with dirt.
"Uh, Nick?" Zach asked, stifling his laughter.
"Don't ask." Nick muttered, crossing his arms. Judy giggled and looked at Zach.
"So, I'm guessing that the reason you're still here is...?" Judy gave Zach a hopeful smile.
"I'm able to live here!" Zach finished, and Judy hugged him.
"That's great!" Judy exclaimed, Nick even gave Zach a smile.
"Yep, I'm so excited!" Zach said, stopping himself from jumping up and down like a little kid.
"Alright, can we get going? I wanna get this dirt out of my fur." Nick groaned, and Zach and Judy just laughed a little.
"Okay, let's go." Judy said, motioning for Zach and Nick to follow her.
"See ya, Clawhauser!" Zach waved goodbye to the cheetah.
"Bye Zach! Thanks for the picture!" Clawhauser waved goodbye as well, looking slightly saddened by Zach's departure. As the trio made it outside, Judy decided to speak up.
"What were you doing all day?" Judy asked.
"Not much, just talking with Clawhauser mostly. I didn't want to go anywhere else 'cause I knew I'd get lost." Zach explained.
"You talked with Clawhauser for 6 hours? I can barely manage 6 seconds." Nick said surprised, Judy elbowing him in the side.
Zach shrugged, "He reminded me of one of my old friends, he acted the same exact way." They noticed that they were in front of the subway entrance. Just before they entered, a high pitched scream rang out. Zach, Nick, and Judy looked in the direction of the scream to see a brown wolf grabbing a pig woman's purse before charging down the the street. Judy and Nick went into action, chasing after the brown wolf. What Nick and Judy didn't expect was Zach to run past them, going after the wolf. They looked on in awe as Zach bobbed and weaved through the mammals on the sidewalk, gaining on the wolf rather quickly. The wolf looked back at Zach to give a look of terror, not expecting to see a furless creature chasing him. To try to lose Zach he darted into an alleyway, but Zach didn't lose any ground. The wolf was starting to get desperate, knocking down a bunch of garbage cans that sat in the alleyway. Zach easily vaulted over them. There was a chain-length fence at the end of the alleyway, which the brown wolf attempted to climb up.
"Oh no you don't!" Zach yelled, yanking the wolf down my his tail. He yelped as he fell, dropping the purse in the process. Zach picked up the purse before the wolf could, holding the wolf's arms behind his back. Shortly after, Nick and Judy arrived on the scene. They were surprised to see that Zach had caught the wolf, who was cowering on the cold concrete.
"Here you go." Zach threw the purse over to Nick. "And here you go." Zach picked the wolf off the ground and shoved him over to Judy, who proceeded to put handcuffs on him. "And don't think about running, either. You know what'll happen if you do." Zach gave a death glare to the wolf, who starting shaking.
"Alright, you two give that lady her purse back, I got Wolfy here." Judy said, Zach still staring at the wolf.
"And if you thought I was scary, I wouldn't try to run from Officer Hopps here, she's one hell of a cop. Do you understand me?" Zach glared at the wolf, who nodded his head vigorously. "Good. Carry on then." Zach smiled at Judy, who nodded and began to bring the thief to the ZPD. Once Judy and the wolf were out of the alley, Nick looked at Zach with a surprised expression.
"Okay, how did you do that?" Nick asked, the two of them starting to walk down the alleyway.
"You'd be surprised by what four years of doing track and field could give you." Zach said, not even showing signs of being winded.
"Jeez, what can't you do. You're an artist, you completely burned Bogo, and now you catch a thief." Nick said, playfully punching the human in the arm. Zach just shrugged.
"Just stuff I learned at school. Art class, speech, and track and field." Zach said nonchalantly.
"Maybe I should've paid more attention in school." Nick said, thinking back to his high school days. They shared a laugh and continued walking until they reached a distressed pig woman.
"Here you go, ma'am." Nick said, handing the purse back to the woman.
"You got it back? Thank you, officer." The woman thanked Nick.
"Actually, my friend here was the one who took the guy down." Nick said, patting Zach on the back.
"Really?" The woman asked.
"Well, yeah, but it wasn't a big deal." Zach said, trying to get the attention off him.
"You're a cop?" The woman asked curiously.
"No, I just wanted to help, it was the right thing to do." Zach gave her a gentle smile.
"Oh, bless you. I heard rumors about you being dangerous, but I can see now that they aren't true. Thank you so much." The woman thanked them before going about her day.
"That felt great, an animal actually thinking I'm a nice guy. And I helped someone out too." Zach seemed to beam with happiness.
"It is a good feeling, isn't it?" Nick said with a smile. Zach looked around at the many animals that walked down the sidewalks.
"Yeah...it is." Zach smiled with pride.
...
~Chapter 7 is up! Damn, Zach is a badass! Yeah, but in all seriousness, when I looked at my story statistics today, this story has 2,800+ views. I may or may not of started freaking out...a lot. Thank you guys so much, I never expected this much attention on this story, my first Zootopia story no less. Anyway, before I start getting emotional, leave some feedback to tell me how I'm doing. Thanks!