Hey guys, I'm finally back with another chapter to My Six Months in Zootopia. Enjoy!
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March 27 (Aftermath)
I stare silently at the long hand as it makes its journey around the clock. The coffee I hold shakes from my distraught person. I hide my face with my other hand and try to think about just how complex a clock works and how most of us take it for granted. A machine, powered by many different independent yet dependent parts, enables it to fulfill its grand purpose: to tell time, but the strongest connections that enable it to work are also its most vulnerable.
We are no different from a clock…we are machines too…and once one part of us stops working we are submitted to fatality. Once we die…we stop like the movement on a clock…we become lifeless…time stops for us…indefinitely…and we cease to be.
My thoughts quickly go back to the fatal mauling….still fresh in my mind…and I cringe.
I am in a room with several other animals, some of which had witnessed the savage attack. We were all being treated and, of course, questioned by the Zootopia Police Department. Soon the press will flock to us and demand information that they already know.
It was not long before the chief of police himself, a buffalo with an intimidating force emanating from his experienced brows, came inside the room and asked his own set of questions to all of us: especially me.
In my mind, I knew that some will blame me for this. They will use this attack as an excuse.
He sat down and asked the same question as everybody else, "Who provoked the attack?"
"The prey animal victimized a family of leopards, and he then turned his attention to me. Then, the bear went savage…he gave a yell, fell down, and turned."
"Do you know what is going on outside of Zootopia?" He suddenly diverts from the topic.
"Yes. The Paktin massacre."
"Many in Zootopia have contempt for you." The chief says, "Since you are a direct liaison to the human nations outside, should anything happen to you it would cause significant complications. Therefore…you will be placed under protective custody."
"So I spend the next five months locked up in a cage like a savage beast?"
"As much as I would enjoy seeing that, no, but if you want to think of it as such, you can. You will stay at your hotel under surveillance, 24/7. If your company requires you to interview outside sources, those sources will come to you from now on."
"I was invited by the university…they let me go without my minder…this isn't my fault." I retort.
"And they are being questioned, make no mistake."
"It's basically house arrest…I'll go crazy!" I shout in protest.
"Then perhaps it's time you consider asking your company if you should leave…" The chief of police stands up, puts on his glasses, and walks out.
"Believe me…that consideration has been on my mind since the moment I stepped out of that train on day one..." I say softly.
…
After a very long time, I am processed out of the police station where I am escorted out by police. Outside there are, as always, cameras and microphones ready to share my face and voice to the city. Their wishes are declined, however, as I enter a police car and am taken to the hotel.
Upon returning to the hotel, the police take me to my room and there I see Ryker: never have I been more happy to see him…to think how he could have stopped me from going today…none of this would have happened…yet his typically frown did not share my inner sentiments.
Ryker stays by the entrance to my hotel room and begins a stare that seeks no end. I decide to ignore him as much as possible. To take my mind of the horrific event that still plagues me, I sit down by my desk and start writing today's events…but I cannot bring myself to write about the tram and what happened. Once I am finished, I rest.
Later on, I am awakened by Ryker. He stands next to me with a phone on his hand. He gives me the phone, "One call." His deep intimidating voice rings in my ears.
I am given a choice to call HGIMN or my wife. Emotions overwhelm me…I wanted to hear her voice and the voice of my children once more…I might not hear them again…death almost took me away from them today…how would they have responded to it had I died horribly on that tram? A loving father…eaten alive by an animal…leaving my wife widowed and my children scarred...I become past tense…I abandoned my family already by coming here…I didn't want to think of the possibility of my absence being permanent. This could all be over with one simple call…my reasons would be justified now; however, I shake my head. Emotion takes over logic…I call my wife.
She doesn't answer.
…
News of what happened in the tram spread like wildfire. It soon overwhelmed the thoughts of almost every citizen in Zootopia, but for one mammal, his thoughts often focused on something else…or someone else...
Staring outside the window of his apartment, he can see how things were getting worse by the day…riots were becoming common place, feral attacks were now weekly events, and fear is on everyone's mind. He couldn't see how it could get better…in fact, he always thought the city to be broken from the time he was a child, but what was happening right now in front of his eyes was the beginning of the end for Zootopia...or so he believed.
He considered leaving, but where would he go? Zootopia was the only place he could ever call home, even if it hasn't always welcomed him.
He could go see her…but why? What was the point…it would be a waste of time.
He leans against the window while holding a carrot pen.
With a human living in Zootopia for six months and predators reverting back to their feral states, it seemed impossible to get away from…but he was so sure he helped…so sure that everything would be fixed after what the both of them did for the city, but it only got worse…and he longed to see her. That bunny…despite what she did…meant so much to him…if only she saw just how much she hurt him…though he longed to hear her voice again.
Maybe he can go sunbathe tomorrow underneath the bridge? Yea…maybe that's something he'll do…take his mind off of everything…
