Chapter Twenty One

As they ran across the museum, Ella began to feel more and more weaker as they passed historical sights and facts of events that happened in the past. Just before they reached the exit doors, showing them the ZPD on the other side, Ella collapsed onto the floor with a thud, dropping the cane as she fell.

Nick was the first to stop and ran to her side as he held her close saying "Ella! Are you alright?"

"I... I don't feel good." Ella muttered before she let out a harsh cough.

"Come on baby, we still have a couple more hours to go before that Night Howler poison gets to you... you can make it!" Nick said "That ram told us we have twelve hours before it's too late."

"Actually he was mistaken," a voice said "She doesn't have much time left at all."

The group looked up and saw Bellwether approaching with two ram officers as Judy exclaimed "Bellwether! What are you doing here?"

"I overheard everything." Bellwether said "And I regret to inform you that the toxic flowers don't work the way you think. You see, if a adult human gets infected with it's poison, then it has twelve hours left to live, a human teenager will have eight, but a human child say... how old is she?"

"Eleven." Nick replied without thinking.

"Then that means she has only four hours... or should I say somewhere between two or one?" the sheep said "Either way, it won't be pretty."

Nick felt fear in his heart and realized his little girl was becoming more and more deathly ill then before. He tried to deny it but Ella was proof that Bellwether was right about the time limit they had left.

"Oh no, Ella!" Judy exclaimed in shock before she realized something "Wait... how could you know that?"

Mrs. Otterton gasped in horror as realization came over her "You're responsible for all this! You're turning all the predators and prey in Zootopia savage! That's why you have night howlers, that's why you turned my Emmitt into a savage!"

"It was only suppose to be predators only!" Bellwether snapped angrily, much to Nick and Judy's shock and surprise "I had it all planned for years; predators go savage, they get locked up, the rest are targeted until all that remains are prey and together we would rule the city the way we wanted it! Or at least it was until that idiot human Jefferson screwed it up by turning prey savage with those cookies thanks to that dumb weasel's mix up! Now both prey and predators fear each other and everything has fallen into total chaos! I had to disconnect all my phones but one because all those calls gave me a constant headache!"

"And because of you my baby's been poisoned!" Nick snapped angrily.

"Your baby? Oh, isn't that sweet, you think that she's your baby." Bellwether said before she added "How do you know she won't turn you into a fox skin belt or chop of Judy's feet or even turn this otter here into a trophy? That's what humans did to us many years ago!"

"That was then!" Judy exclaimed "Ella's nothing like those guys! She's friendly, sweet and all she wants is a family, some friends and a home. And I don't care what you do because we won't let you get away with this! We will cure all the savage animals, we will cure Ella and we will have you locked behind bars for thirty years or more even if we have to die trying!"

"Did you really have to say something related to death?" Nick asked.

"Alright then we'll do this your way," Bellwether said before she ordered "Get them!"

Judy and Nick ran, clutching the case as tight as they could while Mrs. Otterton and Ella ran the other way. Ella collapsed onto the ground once more and Mrs. Otterton did her best to help her back up but this time Ella couldn't get back up before one of the rams caught up to them as he snarled and ran towards them.

"Run... Run!" Ella told Mrs. Otterton.

"No way, I'm not living you behind." the otter said.

Ella coughed as Mrs. Otterton climbed into her arms for a comforting hug, just before the ram grabbed the otter and yanked her away. The ram was about to strike Mrs. Otterton with a punch when Ella grabbed him and did her best to protect the otter before being pushed away by the ram. Mrs. Otterton let out a scream as she braced for the hit. Suddenly the ram was tackled by something brown and fast. It was Mr. Otterton!

Mr. Otterton yanked wool from the ram's body, bit his arm and knocked him into a trash can, knocking him out and sent him, can and all, rolling down some stairs. Mrs. Otterton snarled before he huffed and walked over to his wife, sniffing her and whimpering in worry.

"It's alright honey." Mrs. Otterton said sweetly as she stoked the cheek of her feral husband "I'm alright... Thank you for rescuing me."

Finnick then ran into the room and sighed as he huffed and said "Oh man, this is getting old fast. I'm so not into babysitting crazy animals. So what did I miss? And what's wrong with the kid? She looks like me after I eat one to many veggie burgers."

With one glance, Mrs. Otterton realized Finnick was right and Ella was getting worse as the otters and the little fox ran to her side and Mrs. Otterton felt fear running down her spin before she turned to her husband saying "Emmitt, you know more about plants then anyone in Zootopia. You have to remember something about the Night Howlers and some kind of antidote for them. Please Emmitt, please remember."

At first it seemed like the desperate pleas weren't working. Then the otter sniffed the air and dug through Ella's backpack before pulling out the guide of Zootopia Ella had gotten long ago and ripped out several pages before showing them to his wife. They were pictures of herbs and flowers that Mrs. Otterton remembered seeing from their flower shop and they were the same plants Mrs. Otterton remembered seeing in the museum's cafeteria that they had just passed not to far back!

"Oh Emmitt! You're wonderful!" Mrs. Otterton exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around her husband "You stay here and protect Ella, I have to hurry and get to the cafeteria to make the antidote."

"What about me?" Finnick asked

"You stay and protect Ella," Mrs. Otterton said "And while your at it avoid the rams and make sure that Nick and Judy are alright!"

With that she ran off and Finnick sighed before his large ears picked up a sound; the sound of a gun going off and Nick crying out in pain.

"Oh man Nick, what did you get yourself into?" Finnick asked in worry.

Now he was stuck with a dilemma. What should he do? Should he stay and watch over the ailing Ella with Mr. Otterton or should he head out and see if his friend was alright?