Code 0201
Clink! It has been four days since Zootopia came under attack.
"Faster!" A breathless voice speaks.
"I can't believe this..." The voices...Nick? And someone else. Unfamiliar. The blackness was Judy's only blanket of security. Her body was completely numb. She could barely breathe. Her head buzzed and she once again fell into half dreams.
Clink! She remembers carefully carrying Bogo to Jack's bed along with Fangmeyer. Later Judy watches as she is stitching him up.
"Wow. I am impressed with your skills, Jennifer," says Nick.
"I wanted to be a nurse, but the requirements because of my fur were such a hassle. I didn't want to do all that maintenance every day. So I became a police officer." She furrows her brows, focusing her eyes on the wound as she stitches up the unconscious Bogo.
"Traded the stethoscope for a badge, huh?" Nick's tail wags fiercely. Judy smiles. It was cute.
Clink! Clink!. The pain stabs at her head and her thoughts shift. She is in Jack's home. All of them and more. A tiger is bound and sits near the door guarded by Finnick. He repeatedly aims his bat in the tiger's direction. He followed them to Jack's home. His name was Fennis? Fonnis? Judy forgot. But what he told her stuck in her mind:
"I helped kill Delgato's family. A lioness and cub." He was slammed to the ground in an instant and cuffed. The officers were not willing to take any chances. They kept a careful eye on him in shifts. He claims he wanted to confess. To be cleansed of his "sins." But Judy and the group were having none of it.
"Alright. We're making progress. Keep hammering the concrete!" Judy remembers what Nick said in the house,
"I have names for you. Names I am willing to give up. People close to Big, and other connections. Doug. He plays with chemicals. I don't know any more than that. Duke, a pervert. He makes dirty videos and also runs errands for Big. He sells stolen goods. He steals them himself occasionally. A computer wiz-pig named Thomas Pohc. But last I heard, he is in jail. Manchas, a panther. A limo driver that works for Big. A big transport kitty. Predator through and through." Nick curls his shoulders with dread. "Those fangs make me shiver..."
The plan was clear: Go after Big's key players. Start dismantling him by taking away his support. He already lost Nick and Finnick. It was time to start dwindling his funds and removing his muscle. And with the names provided by Nick, they now had solid targets. Judy blacks out again. But when the dreams return she sees herself hugging Nick and Finnick. And Nick is in police uniform. But it was just a dream. Though she was sure the hug was real. The uniform wasn't.
Clink! Duke Wieselton. The dream changes again. Judy was chasing him toward the border of Sahara Square. But she was ambushed. Nick is with her. The chase is silent. Their steps are muffled and replaced by Jack's voice. Finally, something comforting to hear.
"Judy. I think we have an opening here."
"What do you mean?" Judy rounds a corner. It is dark. She stares at the climate wall sheltering the desert in the distance. It bleeds from its pores and the sky flashes with storm clouds. All is silent except the voices.
"This widespread chaos is completely unlike Big. He is organized. Big doesn't do chaos. This is different." Judy couldn't tell. She still knew so little of Big, so she accepted what Jack said and merely listened. "I think that at first there was a plan. But something went wrong." The dream continues to the sound of Jack's voice. Judy is dragged by unseen arms. But she knows whose arms they were. Weasels follow Duke to Judy. All she hears are her own words as she responds to Jack in her dream. The sky continues to break violently with light.
"No matter what, we stick to the plan. Duke must know something." Jack only nods. "My mother called after the blackout. She said that a bunch of weasels came by. They paid for all of the flowers on my uncle's farm. But the flowers they took were toxic. His land was nothing but dirt when they left!" Clink! Her head buzzes again.
Judy falls forward. Her body is wrecked with pain. She is still half asleep. The pain twists the dream. She remembers being pulled down somewhere. Her arms are tied behind her back. She sees a large bucket turning over and dropping something on top of her. Mud? No. Cement! She struggles to keep her head above the mix. Weasels keep watch. Nick is nowhere to be found. One more ghost of a thought echoes in her head.
"I'll get the weasel," Judy whispers as she looks at Jack lovingly. She squeezes his paws.
"I'll secure the Mayor," replies Jack. "Time to wake up." His voice distorts.
Clink! Judy's head never hurt so much in her life. Every minuscule pang of pain is intense and crippling. She sees Duke hovering over her. He replaces Jack's image and voice. She is trapped in the cement up to her shoulders and it is drying. Becoming solid. The weasel drools and leers at her. It is as if her entire body was in a blood-pressure reader. And she found herself being slowly crushed to death by the cement. Merging with the earth. Duke unzips his pants and kneels over her head. She could barely breathe and can't fight. He forces himself into her, prying her mouth open with dirty nails. She blacks out, but not before seeing his dirty body cloud her vision as he creeps closer, and having the taste of Duke imprinted on her tongue and mind.
"Get her out!" Judy feels herself momentarily float and the world spins in darkness. The numbness of her body battles the pins and needle sensation of flowing blood, bringing her back to consciousness with agony. She struggles for a breath. Her fur and clothing is matted and weighed by cement. The world is still black and out of focus. Her heartbeat hammered in her skull.
"Aaahh!" She barely squeaks out a cry as every inch of her Is born anew with suffering. Her mouth is dry. A foul taste. Though there are comforting arms now holding her, she could still feel Duke hovering in the sky in her mind. Reaching into her. Revolting.
"Judy! Come on!" Nick whines and kneels over her protectively. She shakes with pain. Behind Nick, she looks at a chubby seal darting his eyes about in worry. Her body struggles to decompress from the cement's crushing grip. She attempts to breathe despite the pain. Her ears were ringing.
Nick's tears dripped on her face. He wipes them away and gingerly reaches out to her.
"No!" She barely manages to yell. It hurts too much. Nick recoils from the shout. After some minutes, she finally tries to move on her own.
"She could have crush syndrome," the seal mumbles. Nick looks at him, concerned and curious.
"What?"
"When a part of the body is under extreme pressure and blood is cut off for a long time, it can damage muscle tissue. Some people can recover if it isn't serious. In some cases, it can be fatal. But she will recover. It hasn't been too long." His confident and reassuring tone does little to alleviate the concerns of anyone present.
"Oh! This seal here is Gregory. He is a friend of Jack's!" Judy almost smiles and attempts to move.
"Shh. Take it easy," whimpers Nick. He cradles her head gently as she lies in the dirt and gravel.
"Oh!" She fails to make progress. Judy inhales deep and starts with smaller movements. She fights back the image of Duke, but he has wormed his way into the front of her consciousness. She wanted to curl in on herself. The violation of her body, the helplessness. She willed her fingers. The tingling continued, but now it was not as much of an endeavor to move her extremities.
"My body..." Judy cried. "I've..." She couldn't say it. Didn't want to think it.
"We got him," says Nick. "I found Duke. He is pinned under a car in the yard. He won't be going anywhere."
"I have to bring him in for questioning," Judy says weakly. Nick leans closer to Judy, sorrow fills his eyes.
"I saw what he was doing to you. I stopped him."
The mortification Judy felt was so great. She gave no reaction but a silent blank stare. Not only was she taken advantaged of, but there was an audience to the act. The stench of weasel returned. She turned to her side and vomited.
"Gregory," Nick shakily says.
"Yes, Sir?"
"Help me get her to your car."
"Wait!" Judy holds up a paw, spitting on the ground and scooting herself away from the rejected contents of her stomach. Every movement was like pushing into sharpened pins. Her muscles throbbed and failed and she almost fell back down as she sat up. Judy wobbled before steadying herself on her butt, curling forward and holding onto her knees for support.
"What is it?"
"Is he alive?" Nick looked at Gregory, then to Judy. He lowered his ears uncertainly.
"Y...yes."
"Then bring him! Duke comes with us. I want to take him to the Rainforest District's Police Department."
"Jud-"
"Don't! Don't try to tell me otherwise. Shut up and...do it." She hid her pleading with a weak yet commanding police tone. She stared Nick down, waiting for him to submit. And it didn't take long. He scowled and nodded to her. And with a snarl said,
"Fine."
Judy waited in the front passenger's seat of Gregory's car. She learned that Gregory had been communicating with Jack since before the attack on the city, and he was attempting to sneak back into the Sahara docks after being escorted out by a group of thugs led by a strange pig in prison clothing. An escaped convict or a breakout. If so, he must have been important. Then she remembered the name of a pig Nick gave her: Thomas Pohc.
Judy's thoughts became more tumultuous and her focus shifted to actually confronting Duke. Her heart ached with anxiety.
"Crime Code: 0201," she mumbled. Did she fail? No, Nick said they got him. And right now he was being dragged to the car, she hoped. She didn't want to see him walking proud and in good health. He certainly wouldn't volunteer himself. In any case, it didn't feel like a victory. Not yet. But how could she feel any victory now even if he was captured? To be so close to death and to have someone deriving pleasure off of you in that moment. The depravity of it all. Rapist. Ragged breaths and shouting bounced off of Gregory's car. The back door was opened, and Nick threw a beaten weasel into the seat. His fur was torn, mouth bloodied.
"Haaagh! Ribs..."
"Don't worry, cutie, we'll fix you right up," said Nick. He sat in the back, close to the weasel, imposing his slightly larger size over him and decided to sit on Duke's tail.
"Ow! Get off!" Nick turned to the twisting weasel who lied sideways in the car, curled up with his arms over his sides.
"No." Judy turned and her subconscious let out a painful animal shout toward Duke. She squeezed her seat, holding on as adrenaline surged through her veins. Pain and fury carried her voice. Duke and Nick both shrunk from the primal shriek. Sorrow from Nick. Confusion and bug-eyed fear from Duke. Then all was silent. Judy faced forward as Gregory got into the driver's seat. He turned to Judy and gently asked,
"Where to again, Ms.?"
"Rainforest District Police Department. I want your phone."
"Um, sure." Gregory input the unlock code to his phone and Judy snatched it,
"Thanks." She stared into the phone as it shook in her paws. Gregory watched her with concern, then forced himself to focus his attention on driving his car. Judy ignored him.
She found Jack's contact information and hovered a finger over his name. She wiped away a tear then opened up the message window: "This is Judy. I am with our friend, Gregory. We caught Wieselton. Bringing him in. Keep fighting, love. I'm okay..." She deleted the last two words. If she kept that in the message, would it imply that something happened? She wasn't ready to confess to any more people. It was bad enough Nick knew. After sitting on the message and mulling over several tangled thoughts, she fought the ties holding her back and hit the send button.
"Here." She placed the phone down next to Gregory's seat. Then she stared in the rear-view mirror hanging on the dashboard.
"It's too bad you fell asleep on the job," said Duke. "Very inconsid–"
Nick slammed his fist down onto Duke's broken ribs from where the car had crushed him. He squealed in pain from the blow and coughed.
"Hargh!"
"Not another word..."
"You have given me nothing but disgust and shame." The car fell silent again. Judy's words began to roll from her mouth, from the back of her mind. She was frozen in her seat. Only her mouth moved as she spoke. Her fingers absently picking at their claws. "I can easily picture myself crushing your head with a rock like some savage. But I know that to do this would mean that I let you strip me of my dignity. It would be a betrayal of everything I worked so hard to become." She turned her head to Duke. His labored breathing lost on her. There was no sympathy. No pity. He lost that privilege.
"You have no power over me. I am a police officer. I do not succumb to chaos. I bring order to it. And there is nothing you or anyone can do to change that. Upholding justice is a principle that defines me. It defines everyone that works in the system that we uphold. You can't corrupt me. You can't make me be like you. And you and Big and everyone in between that functions like you will fail. Not all in one shot. Not in a week. But you will fail. And I will be there to see you brought to justice."
Duke hid his face in the seat and whimpered. "Duke Wieselton, you are under arrest. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." It was almost ritual to speak the words. To read the rights. She clung to the one comfort she had. It was a tactic she would lean on to distance herself from what happened. And there was a plan. The plan...
Judy paused for a moment to remind herself where everyone was. Finnick should still be in Jack's home. He guarded the captured tiger with Fangmeyer as she took care of Chief Bogo. McHorn had gone with Jack to Tundratown to meet up with Jack's contact Frank from the MIC. The Mayor was being protected by heavy security and they migrated to the home of Frank Stone in Tundratown. That sounded about right to her. Everyone had a job to do. There was a war to win.
When she completed the reading of his rights, there was one question left she needed to have answered.
"Who did you give the flowers to? I personally know the person you purchased the flowers from. Tell me where they have gone and what they are being used for." Nick pulled Duke upright. He snarled in pain. His ribs were bruised and lumpy, even through his shirt. His breaths were short and rapid.
"D-Doug a...sh-sh-sheep." He nodded forward, half conscious. Nick slapped him.
"Hey! Stay awake." Then he pulled him upright again.
"The flowers are being used f-for poison production. To create crazed mammals." Judy nodded in victory. She smiled and requested Gregory's phone again. Duke whined in his seat, "Please take me to a hospital." His cries became more pathetic.
"You will see a doctor sometime tonight or tomorrow," said Judy. They had a long drive ahead of them. Gregory graciously unlocked the phone then handed it over. Judy dialed the front desk to the Rainforest District Police Department.
"For what it's worth, Officer Hopps," said Gregory. Judy turned her eyes to him. "This may be forward and quite soon, but already I'm honored to have met and work alongside you." She placed a trembling paw on his shoulder and smiled.
"RDPD, Sergeant Capel speaking." Judy lowered her gaze as she focused on the call.
"This is Officer Hopps from the Savanna Central Precinct. Reporting a 0201. Suspect is in custody. Crime 0201."
"Copy, Officer Hopps. We understand your department was hit the hardest during the terror attack and are doing our best to accommodate you. But it is difficult here too. Will the suspect be arriving shortly?"
"Yes."
"And who and how is the victim?" Judy took in a deep breath. Her blood curled in her veins as she said,
"I am." Judy knew the struggle for the city was reaching its peak and she needed to continue on no matter what happened. This was a matter of urgency. There was no time for her to lick her wounds.
Some fun trivia: In Tucson, Arizona the police code for sexual assault of a female is 0201. It was a happy coincidence given that this is the first in my second round of chapters coming in for Power Struggle. It worked well for a chapter title. So much to unpack. Slowly getting back to writing. I thought I was going to have more ready by now, but I've been so busy with life. Regardless, I'll certainly have a few chapters ready by October. This one was tough to sort out because of all the information to work with.
Sorry, Judy...