Hello! I hope everyone has been doing well and keeping safe.
I finally managed to get this chapter written and am about halfway through the next, so hopefully it won't take me so long to post the next chapter.
I want to thank everyone who has continued to support me in writing this fic and who has taken the time to read and to review, it means a lot to me.
As always a giant thank you to my lovely beta Marie Allen who took the time to beta this chapter for me, thank you soooo much!
Please enjoy!
Chapter 22
Finnick acknowledged that the rabbit was right, he hated this.
Going back the way he had come was pure insanity. It was incredibly unfortunate that this little bit of madness was his best chance at finding Nick and Judy.
He swore profusely under his breath, anger bubbling hotly through his veins.
Truthfully, he wasn't sure if he was angrier with himself, Judy, or the bastards that had kitnapped him.
It was a three-way tie for his rage, but he decided that focusing it all on the kitnappers was a more prudent direction for his ire, and he was determined that they were going to pay.
But later.
First, he had to rescue his moronic friends.
Growling low in his chest, he closed his eyes against the image of Nick and Judy being torn limb from limb by a crazed mammal.
Nausea rolled through his stomach and he banished the image from his mind because it was not going to happen.
He refused to let it happen
As much as he hated to admit it, Nick and Judy were his only friends. Mostly Nick, but the damn bunny had managed to weasel her way into his life and into his very select and exclusive set of mammals he cared for.
Even though Judy had dragged him into this mess and made him a target because she had basically blackmailed him into taking her to Happytown, he acknowledged that he probably would have been caught up in this shitshow anyway.
Someone had to go save their asses when they got in too deep.
And here he was, following a stupid-ass plan to rescue his friends before they got themselves killed.
Rounding the corner, Finnick spotted the doors of the old subway station. He felt his lips pull away from his mouth in a snarl, his eyes peering through the darkness, looking for any sign of the cougars or anyone else.
Slinking through the shadows, his ears twitched back and forth, listening intently for any sounds that would indicate that he had company.
The sirens in the background weren't helping, but so far, his measured breathing was the only sound in his immediate vicinity.
Sprinting to the doors, he pressed his ear to the heavy wooden surface. He didn't hear any noise beyond, and he was hopeful that the cougars had freed themselves and fled.
Pulling back, he placed his paw on the door handle and yanked, throwing the door wide, the dim light spilling into the thankfully empty interior.
Not bothering to pause for even a moment, he dashed into the abandoned subway station.
Without the light that had streamed through broken, boarded up windows, the entryway was dark, and he was grateful he was a fox, because otherwise he would be akin to blind.
Running towards the stairs, he slid beneath the turnstile, ignoring the pain that rippled across his lower back where the damn jackal had gotten his claws into him.
He swore under his breath as he scrambled down the stairs, nearly tripping in his haste to get to the bottom.
Reaching the platform, he managed to skid to a halt before he ran pell-mell over the edge and ended up on the tracks.
Catching sight of the maintenance door they had exited from, the distressed Employees Only sign affixed to the surface, he darted forward, leapt up, and pulled on the handle. The latch didn't budge, and he realized it was locked. Dropping down, he remembered the keys the rabbit had given him.
Digging through his pocket, he pulled out the keys and bared his teeth in annoyance. Ignoring the black, blue, red, yellow, orange, green and gold keys, he took a wild guess that the key to open the silver lock was the silver key.
The key fit and the lock turned. Jumping back up, he pushed down the latch and it moved. Bracing his foot on the frame, he pulled the door open.
Yanking the keys free of the lock, he leapt down and slipped through the doorway, the door shutting behind him, the click of the lock echoing in the stairwell.
Sprinting down the stairs, he skipped steps, hitting the landings hard, until he reached the door. Shoving the silver key into the lock, he unlocked the door and quickly opened the maintenance door, revealing the tunnel.
The truck sat exactly where the elk had parked it.
Cautiously emerging from the stairwell, he listened intently. He wasn't sure if he was going to encounter anyone, but he had the distinct feeling that whoever was running the whole operation had to know by now that things had gone all pear-shaped, and if Finnick were in charge, he would be destroying evidence left, right, and center.
The tunnel appeared to be empty and Finnick dashed to the truck, swung open the door, and leapt inside. Jamming the keys in the ignition, the truck engine easily roared to life as Finnick's gaze swept the interior looking for anything that would help him drive the damn thing.
Luckily, he was used to driving large vehicles, and after digging out several used take-out boxes and the snow brush that was crammed between the seat and the door, he was ready to go.
Standing precariously on the boxes, he jammed the ice scraper onto the brake, put the truck in reverse, and backed the truck up enough so that he could turn around. It was an awkward, difficult affair, trying to co-ordinate the brush and the steering, but he was able to make it work and turn the truck in the direction of Happytown.
Glancing over at the GPS unit, he shook his head. "Like I know how the fuck to make that thing work," he grumbled to himself under his breath.
His plan was simpler: Drive towards Happytown and see if anything caught his attention.
He wasn't sure if the Black Events were held in Happytown, it would be easy enough to hold the event there in some abandoned warehouse, but he couldn't imagine the rich fucks slumming it with the dregs of society.
Letting out a frustrated huff, he turned his mind to the event itself.
Unfortunately, knowing the Black Event was a hunt was different from understanding what this meant and how this could be accomplished in an entertainment setting.
Shoving this thought to the side, he accepted that the what wasn't as important as the where.
Driving past the 'T' intersection, he continued towards Happytown, hoping that there would be something that would indicate he wasn't driving straight to a warehouse full of the mammals who had tracked him down and kitnapped him.
Up ahead, the tunnel split. He had a choice of going left or right, both tunnels curving enough that he was unable to see how far each of them went.
Jamming the snow brush down on the brake he stared at the diverging tunnels and swore profusely.
"Where's that damn rabbit when you need him?" he grumbled to himself. Rabbits had a better sense of direction underground than foxes. Sure, foxes had lived in burrows once upon a very long time ago, but they didn't build the complex warren systems that rabbits did.
"Rabbit said Happytown was West, which is the way I've been headed," he murmured to himself. "I go left, I'm still heading mostly West. I head right…" he observed the sharper curve of the tunnel, "I end up going North."
North put him into Tundratown, and there was no fucking way Mr. Big would let something like an illegal death-match ring be held in his backyard. It wasn't his style.
"Fucking shit," he breathed out as realization hit him. He pulled the brush from the brake and slammed it hard on the gas. Turning the steering wheel to the right, he headed North, past Tundratown and towards the Meadowlands.
Nothing like a hunt in the wide-open spaces of grasslands that went on for miles, sprinkled liberally with small wooded areas just to keep things spicy. "Can't have the mammals caught too fast," he snarled out loud, his voice dripping with sarcastic disgust.
He felt his paws shake on the steering wheel as images of the last twenty-four hours tore through his mind.
Closing his eyes tightly for a moment, he tried to banish the images to the furthest reaches of his already damaged psyche.
Letting out a long, unsteady breath, he narrowed his eyes, determination filling him.
He had to accept that a few more souls had been added to his ledger and move on.
The weasel who had questioned him hadn't gotten any information out of him when they had tried to get him to spill what he knew about Nick and Judy's investigation. Not that he knew anything, but still, he hadn't given the weasel the satisfaction of making him talk. No matter what he was threatened with, he hadn't given into fear.
That's what the Pit was for.
Being thrown in the Pit was like the nightmares of his past coming back to haunt him and it would take time before he would be at peace with what he had been forced to do, but if he failed at rescuing Nick and Judy…
It would break him.
Nick sat slumped against the wall of his cage, eyes closed, waiting, listening.
As consciousness had returned, so too had the hearing in his left ear.
The blinding pain that had pierced his head, bringing him to his knees and allowing their captors to easily capture them, had been his hearing returning; his brain unable to momentarily process the noise that had suddenly assaulted his healed eardrum.
His elation at the return of his lost sense had been wholly overshadowed by the horror of their situation and his guilt at being the cause of it.
Replaying the events that had led to their capture over and over in his head, he knew that he was solely to blame and all he could hope was that he survived the situation in order to beg the forgiveness of Judy, Finnick, and even Freddy, all of whom he had let down.
He didn't know if Finnick or Freddy were even alive at this point. For all he knew, his best friend and his new friend were both dead, and if they were, it would be because he had dragged both into something he shouldn't have.
Suffocated by his own culpability, he glanced over to where he knew Judy was being held in her own cage.
Judy had been disturbingly quiet and he wondered if she had come to regret putting so much faith in him, in believing that he could still be of use to her, and only proving that when she had needed him the most, he had been a hinderance and even worse, a failure.
Her movements had reassured him that she was conscious, and he assumed she had not spoken because there would have been no point in trying to gain his attention if he couldn't hear her.
He had opened his mouth, intending to ask her if she was okay, but had snapped it shut. For all he knew, their captors believed him to be deaf, and if he and Judy were split up, it would be in his best interest to keep quiet, perpetrate that assumption, and gain some knowledge as to where they were, what was happening, and what was being planned for them.
As the day passed, the sunlight fading from the opening of his cage, he realized that they were not going to be moved until whatever was going to happen to them happened.
If there was a guard or anyone watching over them, he was unable to see, hear, or scent them.
Truthfully, Nick had expected gloating, a villainous monologue, anything other than hours of silence and inaction.
Unsure if it was an elaborate test or a set-up, Nick had remained silent, knowing that he would have yet another thing to apologize to Judy for; deceiving her and not reassuring her when she no doubt needed it.
He didn't know how Judy was dealing with their situation, all he knew about his girlfriend was that she hadn't moved much and that she hadn't broke down in tears or lashed out in furious anger.
She was holding things together which meant he had to do the same.
He hadn't learned much about their current situation other than they were locked up somewhere outdoors, probably outside of Zootopia, if the lack of traffic or any city sounds were to go by, and that was it.
It was unusually quiet which made the skin beneath his fur prickle with unease that only increased the longer they remained where they were, completely unmolested and ignored.
A glimmer of a thought had begun to twist in his mind that whoever their kitnappers were had thrown them in cages and abandoned them somewhere they would not be found; left to die of dehydration or starvation, whichever came first.
He shuddered at the thought, this reality becoming more and more likely as the day wore on.
Shifting from his position, he again crawled to the metal bars of his cage and looked out, seeing nothing other than grass, trees, and the sky stretching out before him.
The day slipped into twilight, sank into evening, and Nick inwardly cursed himself, his luck, the ZPD, a plethora of deities, as well as a multitude of other mammals -most completely blameless- for the position they were in.
By the time he heard voices and vehicle tires on gravel, he was in a towering rage.
His self-loathing was still there, sitting in his gut like a lead weight, but he had managed to roll it outwards into an all-consuming wave of hatred and malevolence.
"We're going to get out of this, I swear," he vowed to Judy, his voice sounding strange to his ear, and it wasn't just because he hadn't heard it in over three months, but rather, in his inflection. He could hear the brutal cruelty and promise of vengeful violence.
Judy didn't answer him, he didn't expect her to, but he suddenly felt the vibration of something with direct force hitting the side of her cage, the sound reverberating around them.
A smile slowly spread across his face. Even without words Judy had perfectly articulated her feelings and her intentions. She was not going down without a fight, and he had no doubt that whoever was now approaching their cages, would have no idea what was coming for them.
"Get them up!" a voice ordered and the sound of a machine engine turning over filled the air.
Wheels on gravel approached the cage, but Nick was still unable see anything through the bars. A moment later he was thrown to the back of his cage as it was lifted off the ground.
"Hey!" a voice protested. "Be careful, can't have you damaging the main attraction of tonight's event."
His cage levelled out and though Nick tried to catch a glimpse of anything other than what appeared to be open grassland, he couldn't.
They rolled along a gravel road, the light from what he assumed was a forklift lighting the roadway, but little else.
Turning sharply to the left, an illuminated structure came into view.
Towering two stories over a large parking area, the barn would not be out of place; the buildings usually holding hay, alfalfa and any number of other grass products that were baled.
Instead of these products, as they were driven through the open barn doors located around the side from the main entrance, there were mammals.
He was only able to catch a quick glimpse of what appeared to be seating around a large screen suspended from the ceiling before he was driven down a dark hallway that exited into a dimly lit area.
His forward momentum ceased, and the cage was lowered, his body jolting backwards as the cage hit the ground. The backup beeping sound of the forklift pulling away reverberated around him and he scrambled forward to get a better look out of the wire bars.
A red curtain hung a few feet in front of the cage, and a sawdust floor were the only things he could see.
"Do you know how much effort I have had to expend to keep you out of my business and how furious I am that everything I have worked so hard to build has now been completely destroyed?" a disembodied voice queried.
Nick found his heart lifting at the male's words. He could only assume Freddy had succeeded in exposing the animal fighting ring, which meant the buck may have found and rescued Finnick.
Nick closed his eyes for a moment, hoping his assumption was right.
"Just doing my job," Judy quipped in response to the low voice.
"Yes," the voice agreed thoughtfully, "and that is precisely the problem," the voice retorted. "Being good at one's job, and I am extremely good at my job, is an admirable quality, however, your excellence imperils my business, so you must excuse this rather ignominious end, but you and your partner have become too much of a liability and I find myself desirous of a large helping of vengeance for what you have done."
"I'll remember that when I do my job in an excellent way, and parade you through the front doors of Precinct One in handcuffs," Judy shot back and Nick smiled, loving how she didn't back down and didn't show any fear in the face of danger.
A quick bark of laughter that was quickly silence came from the mysterious mammal. "As much as I wish that bear had killed you when I ordered him to -my life would have been much simpler, and my business wouldn't be in tatters- I am not sorry he refused. We are going to have so much fun, and when this is done, I will start anew, your death and everything you believe you have accomplished, will have been for nought."
Nick found his ears drooping as the words the voice had spoken permeated his mind and he quickly made the connection.
"Officer Growle?" Judy gasped before he was able to say anything.
"A useful tool that had fulfilled its purpose; a loose end that needed to be dealt with," the voice replied dismissively.
"You killed him," Judy accused.
"No, I didn't," the voice replied easily.
"You had him killed," she corrected.
An amused huff of air exiting a mouth indicated neither confirmation nor denial.
"Was he a dirty cop?" Judy asked in a shaking voice.
"It depends what you mean by dirty," the voice mused. "If you wish your last moments to be focused upon the bear as opposed to your untimely death, I will indulge you this query," the voice offered graciously.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMAMMALS!" a voice boomed from around them and Nick missed whatever information, if any, was divulged to Judy.
"WELCOME TO A VERY SPECIAL BLACK EVENT!" the voice over the microphone continued as Nick winced.
The red curtain was suddenly dropped, and he recoiled at the bright lights aimed at his cage.
"For this night's entertainment," the voice had thankfully lowered in volume, "we present to you…" he paused for effect.
The top of the cage was wrenched open and before Nick could even think to react, a wire from a catchpole was slung around his throat, dragging him from the cage.
"THE HEROES OF ZOOTOPIA!"
There were gasps and murmurs from the crowd, arranged in comfortable seating in a semi-circle against one wall.
His eyes automatically searched out Judy, finding her a few feet away, a catchpole wire around her neck holding her in place.
Her violet eyes met his, a riot of emotions swirling within their depths, but she gave him a fierce smile, determination lighting her features.
Turning her attention away, her gaze swept the barn and he did the same.
Ignoring the crowd, he glanced around as best as he could, noting that the wall opposite the spectators was only closed in at the bottom, the upper half open to the night sky. The lower half of the wooden wall consisted of three cages with solid metal sides -the two end cages larger than the one in the center- a few air holes punched into the sides which were wedged into the wall that held a double light over each cage; currently red.
Nick was unable to tell if any of the cages had mammals locked within, his mind momentarily diverted by trying to figure out what kind of fighting ring had cages that opened to the outside.
Scanning the rest of the building, he observed one exit, guarded by two armed elephants and four armed weasels who were unobtrusively slinking around the perimeter of the barn.
Desperately, he searched, wracking his brain, trying to come up with some way to, at the very least, get Judy free. He didn't care what happened to him, as long as she was able to escape.
"Tonight, we present to you, a double hunt!" the announcer, a ferret in a dark suit paused, waiting for the applause of the crowd to die down.
Nick felt the blood in his veins turn to ice at the word hunt. He wasn't sure what kind of hunt they were referring to but knew that it wouldn't be good.
"For the first round, we give you, ZPD Officer Judy Hopps!"
The crowd cheered and Nick's eyes swung to Judy, who was quickly dragged towards the center cage by a coyote.
"Judy!" Nick shouted as he automatically tried to rush to her side, the wolf at the other end of his catchpole holding him easily.
"You're only going to make things worse for yourself," the nearly black wolf mused as Nick continued to frantically fight against the wire around his neck, pulling at it to keep it from choking him. "Oh right, I forgot, you can't hear me," he grumbled and proceeded to brutally tug back on the catchpole.
"Let her go," he snarled, struggling against the strength of the wolf. "You want a show, let me go first," he offered, believing that if he played their sick, twisted game, that it would give Judy enough time to figure out how to escape.
The wolf yanked hard on the catchpole, pulling Nick from his feet. He crashed to the ground, woodchips flying everywhere. "Your chance to die will come soon enough," the wolf growled under his breath.
"Judy!" Nick yelled, his voice high and terrified.
"Our hunters for this evening," the ferret continued, drowning out Nick's pleas, "fan favourites, Skunk Bear and Bone Crusher!" he announced. "And they are very, very hungry!" he added emphatically.
Nick felt his stomach roll as he stared at the three cages in unmitigated horror.
They were going to hunt Judy and… his mind couldn't even finish the thought; the mental images of her being torn to pieces made his body go weak and his vision to blacken at the edges. If he hadn't already been sprawled out on the ground, he would have lost his ability to stand. He had believed an animal fighting ring was sickening, but an actual hunt…
Finnick had been right. It was so much worse than just an illegal mammal fight.
"A five-minute head start for our prey…begins now!" the ferret declared, pointing at the screen, a countdown clock sitting in the upper right corner.
There was a buzz, the light above the center cage turning green as the metal door of the cage slid up.
"Betting will now commence!" the ferret informed the crowd in a singsong voice. "With ten acres of wooded area and grassland, our hunters and prey will be pitted against each other. Will Skunk Bear beat Bone Crusher to the prize? Or, will Bone Crusher sweep in to steal his quarry? Will they tie? Or, will our prey outwit and outlast our hunters?" he queried in an anticipatory tone. "All of this excitement brought to you by our many eyes in the sky transmitted for your viewing pleasure to the screen in front of you."
Nick stared at the screen, still projecting the countdown clock in the corner, an overhead view of Judy cautiously exiting the cage suddenly filling the screen.
Judy turned in a slow circle, getting a view of her surroundings; illuminated by the light of the waning gibbous moon overhead.
Nick's attention flicked to two bison, each armed with a pawgun, who separately approached the two larger cages.
"Three minutes left for our prey to get moving," the ferret said as he gestured to the cages. "Now, to get our hunters ready to go!"
The crowd erupted in a cheer and Nick sat, watching the bison with growing trepidation.
Guns were inserted into what Nick had believed to be air holes, each bison simultaneously pulling the trigger and pulling away as quickly as they were able.
Pained screams of agony turned into furious snarls and low growls.
A body, slammed with ferocious force against the cage, rocked it from its dock, which only inflamed the crowd more; the anticipatory excitement growing as Judy stumbled back at the sudden movement and noises from within the cages.
Nick had no idea what was going on, what had been shot at the mammals in the cages, but he had a sneaking suspicion that if it was like the Nighthowler serum, Judy would be in trouble.
"JUDY!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "RUN!"
Judy stood, shifting from foot to foot, debating with herself and Nick knew she was trying to figure out a way to save them both and to not abandon him.
"JUST RUN!" he shouted again because it was the only way she may survive.
"One minute!" the announcer informed the cheering crowd.
Judy finally ran.
"Thirty seconds!"
The camera followed her as she bolted through the grasslands towards a large wooded area. Nick watched the countdown, knowing that Judy was not going to make it to the wooded area before the mammals in the cages were released.
He could only hope that neither of the mammals in the cages was a cheetah, and that he was wrong about whatever the mammals had been shot with.
"Release. The. HUNTERS!" the ferret yelled, and Nick felt his heart drop into his stomach as terror flooded his veins.
A wolverine and a hyena tore from their cages, destroying the metal doors as they were raised.
Watching the two mammals as they streaked after Judy on all fours, their speed so much faster than what it should have been, their eyes glowing red, teeth bared, snapping, and growling, Nick didn't think about what he was about to do. The only thing running through his mind was the need to protect Judy from the crazed, deadly carnivores who were hot on her tail.
With the wolf that was holding his catchpole distracted by the release of the two mammals, Nick grasped the pole and pulled, catching the wolf off guard, causing him to stumble, giving enough slack in the wire for Nick to pull his head free.
Shouts of alarm were raised but he ignored them, dodging the wolf, and dashing straight for one of the bison, claws curled, teeth bared in a threatening display.
Taking a quick step back, the bison, a prey species known for their quick flight or fight responses, calmly watched as Nick ran at him, lowering his head slightly to counter Nick's attack with his horns.
"Stop!" the bison ordered; a hoof outstretched to emphasize his words, but Nick ignored him. "I'm warning you-"
"He can't hear you, you idiot!" the wolf snarled as he dove for Nick's legs.
Crashing to the ground in a tangle of flailing limbs, Nick twisted and rolled, kicking the wolf into the bison who slipped in the wood shavings, hitting the ground with enough force that it trembled.
The ferret commentated on the events happening in the barn as more mammals rushed to help.
Nick leapt forward, landing on the wolf and bison who were trying to right themselves. Reaching down, Nick grabbed the gun from the holster and didn't pause to even think about the ramifications of what he was about to do because in his mind they weren't important.
He needed to save Judy, and the only way he could think to do it, to go up against the two savage mammals who were hunting down the doe he loved, was to do the unthinkable.
The bison and wolf scrambled away, the voices of the crowd raised in alarm and an underlying sadistic excitement at the turn of events.
Twisting the gun, not even bothering to check if there was another dose of whatever was in the gun, he pulled the trigger, shooting himself in the chest.
There was a gasp of horror as Nick dropped the gun and resisted the urge to curl up into a ball of agony as whatever the drug was flooded his system; he didn't have the time to waste.
Darting away, he headed for the cages, leaping onto the taller one and vaulting over the wall intent on his own hunt.
As hit feet hit the ground, he knew nothing more of himself, his focus solely on the sweet scent of fresh prey and the two predators who sought to steal it from him.
Aaaaaaand Cliffie!
I hope you all enjoyed!