Chapter Eleven
The trio soon arrived at Cliffside Asylum, a place where, like Nick said, was built over the edge of a waterfall. The building loomed over the dark, eerie area of the jungle and Ella, Judy and even Nick got goosebumps from the sight of the creepy building. Still they approuched the building and arrived at the guarded gate that was the only entry way into the asylum. They hid behind the guard station where two wolves were on patrol.
Nick motioned for Judy and Ella with crazy hand signs and motions they didn't understand. Well, Ella didn't so she was about to open her mouth and managed to say "What" before Nick covered her mouth with his paw and whispered "In other words, i'm going to sneak past and you fallow behind me. And don't make a sound."
Nick got up and began to tip toe past the guards... however before he could reach the other side safely a wolf picked up his scent. Nick felt chills run up and down his spine as the wolf came closer and closer to him. Just when he thought it was all over Judy let out a howl, and Ella fallowed along with the howling.
The wolf howled back in responce and attracted the attention of the other guard, who ran over and said "Gary, stop it! You're gonna start a howl!"
"I didn't start it!" the other wolf replied before both ended up howling, and pretty soon all the other wolves who were guarding the entrance of the building were howling. With the guards distracted Judy and Ella grabbed Nick and they ran across the stone bridge and to the side of the building.
"Who's idea was that?" Nick asked
"Her's." Ella said, pointing to Judy.
"Clever Bunny." Nick said
"How do we get in now?" Ella asked
"I have an idea," Judy said, noticing a large pipe not to far from where they stood.
Working together they climbed through the pipes and entered the building. The first room they entered in was a wreck, with broken items, piled up junk and Ella had the feeling that any moment now a crazed doctor or insane person would pop out of no where and scare them. Noticing a door they entered it and found state of the art medical equipment from X-Rays, test tubes and more. Why would such brand new things be used in a run down place like this asylum?
As Judy recorded this while turning on her phone light, Nick pointed to the floor, which had clawmarks all over it then they got a big scare when a savage tiger tried to attack them but the glass cage he was in stopped him from harming them. They looked in shock and horror as they walked down a row of savage animals, including Manchas, until they arrived at one glass cage with a pair of broken glasses inside.
Judy shined her light in the cage and there, wearing what used to be his pants, was Mr. Emmitt Otterton, snarling and hiding under the bed to avoid being hit by the light.
"It's him, we found our otter!"
"Phew! And he could use a good shower." Ella commented as she sniffed the air
"Mr. Otterton," Judy told the otter as he stepped out on all fours and sniffed the air curiously "My name is Judy Hopps, your wife sent me to find you, we're going to get you out of here."
Otterton's responce was suddenly attacking the glass door, scaring the trio as they landed on the floor with a thud while Otterton snarled and went back deeper into the cage.
"Or not," Nick said "Guess he's in no rush to get home to the Mrs."
Suddenly they heard someone coming. They ducked into an empty glass cage and hid as, much to their surprise, Mayor Lionheart and a honey badget doctor came out to talk about the situation, unaware that Judy was recording them. Just then, her phone started to ring and the doctor ordered some guards to sweep the area. Soon the area was put on lockdown, even the cage the trio were hiding in locked them inside, trapping them just before they heard some wolves heading for the door.
After trying to open the locked door by force, Nick, Judy and Ella knew that they were busted and Nick cried "Oh great! We're dead! I'm dead, your dead, everybody's dead!"
"Can you swim?" Judy asked, eyeing the hippo toilet the cage had.
Nick wondered why she asked that question before she hopped into the toilet and Ella pulled the lever and Nick hopped in to join Judy but when Ella tried to join them she couldn't fit through the hole and ended up being spotted by the wolves, who aimed their tranquilizer darts at her as she tried to hide in the toilet bowl, but to no avail.
Outside Judy and Nick slipped down the pipes and came out the other side, falling down a waterfall and landing with a splash in the deep waters below. Nick was the first to resurface and he looked around shouting "Carrots? Ella?! JUDY!"
Judy popped her head out of the waters and held up her phone, which she put in a plastic bag to keep it from getting wet "We gotta tell Bogo!"
Nick was glad Judy was safe but then realized Ella wasn't with them and asked "Where's Ella?!"
"Oh no, she must still be in there!" Judy exclaimed in shock, looking back up at the building they had just escaped from.
"We have to get her out now!" Nick cried in worry "If anything happens to that kid, i'm never going to forgive myself!"
"Don't worry, we'll get her out of there with help from the other officers so we can bust that lion and put him behind bars!" Judy said as they swam back to shore.
Nick thought about Ella getting hurt and his fear turned into anger as he snarled "If that oversized cat touches one hair on her head, he's going to wish he had already been arrested by the time I'm done with him!"
Back in the asylum Ella was still in the cage but now the alarm was off and she was angrily glaring at Mayor Lionheart, who had returned to talk to the 'only' intruder they found. The wolves had taken her backpack and held it outside the cage as Mayor Lionheart said "Don't take any of this personal my dear, but i can't have you going around telling everyone about what you've seen. It's only a temporary stay, just long enough until we can figure out what is going on."
Ella only crossed her arms and turned her back on the lion.
"Don't give me that," the lion said "Don't think of this as a prison, pretend that this is a fancy hotel that you can't leave ever... no, that didn't come out right."
"I have friends out there who are missing me, and they will come and find me!" Ella snapped angrily "And when they do, you are going to be so sorry!"
"Oh great, this is what i need." Mayor Lionheart sighed "Make sure she dosn't leave and make sure nobody else gets in here. It's bad enough we're hiding savages from the public."
The wolves nodded and made their leave along with the mayor. Ella's anger became fear and worry as she huddled against the wall of the glass prison she was forced to stay in. The badger doctor felt sorry for the human and dug through her backpack before giving her two items from the bag, a candy bar and a small portable radio.
"I am so sorry for all this." She told the human "I wish i could help but... well, take these."
She slipped her arm through the hole in the glass cage and gently placed the candy bar and radio down on the floor. Ella felt her eyes fill up with tears as the badger walked away and closed the door behind her. Ella crawled over to the candy bar and Radio as she turned on the radio and some soothing ballet music began to play, but it didn't comfort Ella at all. Still she let the ballet music play and while she was crying the music began to have a strange, soothing effect on the savages, causing them to stop snarling and sway to the music in a hypnotic trance. Ella looked up and realized that the savages weren't acting savage anymore and wondered why.
She then realized that the music was still on and remembered a saying from back at the orphanage 'music sooths the savage beast' but could it be true? Could that old human saying be right? And speaking of humans, she wondered what the others had been doing while she was gone.
Ella didn't know it then but the whole time she had been gone, Isabella and Jason had been working their fingers to the bone baking cookies for the animals in Zootopia with Jefferson working them long and hard. To say that their raise in popularity went to the man's head because Jason and Isabella used their families home made cookies to help make money for themselves. But they'd never thought they'd end up working for such a jerk of an adult for something they love more then anything.
Right now they had just sold their last batch of cookies when Jefferson came to them saying "Kids, guess what? We have districts from all over wanting your blueberry cookies more then anyone else! We have to get started and-"
"But we're tired," Isabella whined "We need a break."
"And besides, we ran out of blueberries." Jason said as he motioned to an empty bag that used to have blueberries.
"You happen to be in luck, I just happen to have some more blueberries right here." Jefferson said as he held up another bag filled with blueberries "And these cookies have to be delivered to all the districts in the city, even in Bunny Burrows."
Jason looked inside the bag and noticed something odd about the blueberries the man had "Uh, Mr. Jefferson, where did you get those blueberries?"
"From a fruit store." Jefferson said "I almost lost them when i got robbed by a weasel but i managed to get these berries back after putting up quite a fight."
"But they don't look like blueberries to me." Jason said as he looked at the 'berries' uneasily.
"Don't be silly, they must be Zootopia grown blueberries." Jefferson said "Now get back to work, Then you can relax."
Jason and Isabella groaned but did as they were told. As they got busy Jason said "I wish Ella was here."
"Ella, that little runaway?" Isabella asked "She's the reason why we're in this in the first place. Wherever she is, i hope she stays there."
Jason frowned and said "Ella is our friend, and i can tell you miss her like i do, so i'm thinking that while Mr. Jefferson is least expecting, we'll escape and find Ella ourselves."
Little did they know that the blueberries weren't really blueberries and that by tomorrow afternoon those treats would play a key role in the mystery that could change the lives of everyone forever, for better or worse.