Chapter 11 – War!
After calling her parents and confirming that it was okay for Judy to come home for the weekend and bring a surprise visitor with her, as she didn't know how her parents would react if she told them she would bring a fox into their home, both Judy and Nick went home to pack what they needed for the weekend. An hour later they met again on the trainstation to catch the train to Bunny Burrow. Upon entering it, Nick just wanted to sit down on the first free pair of seats they found, but Judy insisted they needed to go to a different part of the train. She brought Nick up to the sky deck, where she had also spent her first ride to Zootopia.
"Have I ever told you about the first time I came to Zootopia Nick?"
"I cant remember anything of the sort carrots"
"I was in the exact location we are in right now. I listened to Gazelle's 'try everything' on my iCarrot during my first trip to Zootopia. Gazelle made me believe a bunny from the Burrows could be a cop in the big city. And now I go back from the big city to the Burrows because of Gazelle again, although under far less happy circumstances"
"We will find them Judy. We will find the Cow Clan and destroy them. And when every last one of these terrorists is behind bars, you will once again be able to listen to 'try everything' with a smile on your face because you'll know you paid Gazelle back for what her music did for you."
Trying to lighten the mood, Nick shifted the conversation to a happier topic and soon both officers were once again laughing.
Arriving in Bunny Burrow, they went to the Sheriffs station and lended a car to go investigate the abandoned farm. It was only a couple of kilometers but because of the bad state of the mud roads it still took them quite some time to get to their destination.
They parked a few hundred meters away from the farm and approached it with their tazer guns drawn. The farm was in the middle of a forest so they used the trees and bushes on the side of the road as cover.
About 100 meters away from the farm, Nicks powerful nose picked up an all too familiar scent. The scent of Nighthowler's plants. After the first Nighthowlers case it had been outlawed to grow any more of them, so something was definitely wrong here.
Coming closer to the farm, they went into something that looked like a cornfield on the outside, but after only a few rows of corn, thousands of Nighthowlers plants were revealed.
Careful not to get in contact with the plants, they went back through the corn and towards the farm again. They had found the laboratory where the Nighthowler's serum was produced in the first Nighthowler's case, but never the place where all the plants were grown to produce the serum. This just seemed like a very likely place.
They approached the house as carefully as possible. All curtains were drawn behind the windows of the large wooden building. While Judy gave him cover, Nick approached the front door of the house and knocked.
"This is the ZPD! Open the door immediately or we are forced to storm the building!" he shouted.
There was no response.
After waiting for about 30 seconds, Nick tried opening the door. It was locked of course.
*So well have to do this the hard way then* he thought to himself.
Nick gave Judy a signal he was going to breach the old brittle wooden door and prepared to kick it open with Judy right behind him.
On a count of three he kicked the door with all the force he could muster. They heard something fall down but the door didn't open. Nick kicked again. The doors lock was half ripped out but still held. On the third kick the door crashed open.
Upon getting a first glance of the interior, Nick immediately knew he had made a terrible mistake. The object that had fallen down with his first kick was an old burning oil lamp, and with the oil spilling all over the wooden floor the fire was now quickly spreading.
"Judy call the fire department now!" Nick shouted, but she had already started dialing the number in a rush.
Without any proper equipment there was little Nick and Judy could do in the minutes leading up to the arrival of the firefighters. When the firetruck finally arrived, the old wooden house was completely up in flames already.
It took several hours to get the fire under control, and when it was finally extinguished, there was nothing left of the farm house. At least the firefighters managed to prevent the fire from spreading to the nearby forest.
It had become evening and both officers were completely exhausted both mentally and physically from the events of the day. After driving back to the sheriffs department to tell them about the Nighthowlers and give a report of how the fire had started, Judy called her parents to pick them up at the Sheriffs office.
Several minutes later, the familiar old Hopps' family car showed up in front of them. Bonny got out and hugged Judy
"I am so glad to see you Judy! And you must be the mystery visitor. Mr…?"
"Wilde. Nicholas Wilde. Call me Nick".
"Hello Nick." She extended a paw towards him, breaking the hug "I am Bonny, Judys mum. It is such a pleasure to meet you. Judy has told us all about you and how you helped her solve her first case. From what she has told me it sounds like you two make great colleagues. Oh you must be hungry! Please, get into the car. Dinner is already getting cold."
On their drive towards Judys childhood home Bonny asked: "Judy why didn't you tell us Nick was the surprise visitor? Stu was guessing you would introduce us to your boyfriend today, he couldn't wait to meet that rabbit."
"Mom! I don't have a boyfriend. And we are here on official ZPD business today, not just for pleasure you know. Oh and I didn't tell you I was bringing Nick because I was nervous how you two would react to a fox staying in your house."
"Oh Judy. You know we're not like that anymore. We are working with Gideon now and Stu and I have no problem with foxes anymore. Although lately…, well he'll tell you yourself"
"Who will tell me what?" Judy asked
But Bonny remained silent.
A few minutes later they arrived at the Hopps farm.
In a safe location somewhere within Zootopia, a certain goat was furious.
"It will take months to get our operation running again after what you just did to me!"
"Boss I swear to you I have no idea what you are talking about. Please just let us go!" Thomas pleaded.
"Stop lying, after you quit your job I monitored your phone calls. I know you spoke to some officer Hopps and officer Wilde, Thomas! I know you told them about my farm! I warned you never to betray me, and you ignored that warning!"
Thomas was now utterly crushed inside. If his former boss had heard it all, the chances of his family and himself getting out of this mess alive were slim.
"Please boss, I'll do anything for you. Please, just let my family go!"
"Family. Funny that you mention it Thomas. Do you know what happened to my family?"
The goat was looking at a picture that showed himself next to a female goat and three baby goats. It was the only item he had taken with him while rushing out of the basement of his farm after he had learned that police now knew where he lived due to Thomases betrayal.
Since Thomas dared not respond, the goat continued:
"I lost my entire family Thomas. They were abducted. I later learned that they had slaughtered my wife immediately. With my three kids however, they werent so generous. They first forced them to eat for weeks so they would fatten up in an underground prison Thomas. They fattened my children and when they were fat enough they killed them. And chopped their little bodies up into pieces. And do you know why Thomas? Do you know why they did it?"
The goat was now shouting at the top of his lungs. He directed his look at the deer in front of him and asked again.
"Do you know why they did it?"
It was a question that could not be left unanswered. So the deer finally whispered:
"I don't know boss. I don't know why they did it. Just please…"
He was interrupted by the goat. However the goat now wasn't shouting anymore. The goat got close to the stag's ear and whispered with a tortured voice:
"They murdered my wife and my children so they could sell the flesh of their dead bodies to some hungry predators. Because predators haven't changed since we founded this city Thomas. Predators are submammalian savages that value their own tastebuds over the life of us prey animals. That is why I fight them Thomas. I fight predators because they ate my family. I want to exterminate predators because they ate my family. And to do that I need Nighthowlers serum. Which I grew at my farm. The farm you just told the fucking cops about!"
Thomas was shocked by this revelation. For the first time in his life he could understand the goats motivation. But all that wasn't a priority right now. Right now he needed to save his family. Somewhere inside he already knew it would be futile, but still he had to continue his pleading.
"Boss I swear I didn't know what happened to your family. I will do whatever you ask of me. I will eternally be your servant if you just let my family go!"
"You are right Thomas, you will do what I ask of you. You will help me start the war against predator scum. But first you need to understand what it feels like to lose your family Thomas. You need to know what drives me before you can join me."
The goat looked away from the deer towards some of his henchmen.
"Bring me this traitors wife!"
Two henchman dragged the struggeling deer in front of the goat, Thomas continued his pleading and exchanged desperate looks with his wife. But it was all to no avail. The goat took out his gun and pointed it at the female deers head.
"Remember this feeling Thomas. I have always found rage is the best motivation for exceptional performances. And you will perform exceptionally."
After this statement, the goat pulled the trigger.
Thomas cried out in pain as the love of his live collapsed in front of him. His fear and pain turned into rage and if they hadn't also abducted his daughter, he would have tried to kill the goat right now.
"I am a civilized mammal Thomas." The goat explained after putting his gun away. "I will not eat your wife. I will not fatten your daughter. But I will get the revenge I crave, and if you help me to fulfill my destiny, you might get your daughter out of this alive. That is more than Pred scum left me with. Have you understood that?"
"Yes boss"
"Will you betray me ever again?"
"No boss"
"Good. Because if you do, I don't even want to imagine the things that will happen to your daughter. Right now I need a certain two police officers you spoke to to stop trying to find me. And I know just the way to convince them that finding me is a bad idea. I give you your first task Thomas, what you need to do for me is…."