Welcome to Revenge's Consequence – the retelling of Waking Death.
Disclaimer: Zootopia belongs to Disney.
REVENGE'S CONSEQUENCE
PROLOGUE
Nineteen years ago
It had been two months since Judy Hopps had stood up and announced to all of Zootopia that it was possible a biological component within predators was making them go savage.
It had made predators' lives in Zootopia a living nightmare. Anybody who sided with them, be it other predators, or prey, were caught in the crossfire.
Sandra Clawford and Nathan Longear had it worse – they were an interspecies couple who were married in all but legality for some time before the crisis struck. They were also one of the 'unusuals' – an interspecies couple that had successfully produced offspring naturally. Their eleven-year-old son was named Michael, and he almost looked like a wolf – if not for the ears. He was also shorter than a wolf cub would have been at the same age, but that wasn't to be helped – he was, after all, a 'Cross'.
Sooner or later, they were going to draw the ire of a deranged 'purist' – and the consequences were tragic. An old goat had broken in to the house and shot both Sandra and Nathan dead. As the killer prowled the house looking for their child, Officer Humphrey Higgins arrived to arrest him for murder.
"They were a pair of disgusting freaks!" the old goat shouted as he was being hauled out of the Longear-Clawford house in hoof-cuffs by Officer Higgins. Outside, by the police cruiser, were two sheep officers.
"We'll take the suspect back to HQ," Officer Rammington remarked. He pushed the deranged ram into the cruiser as Higgins re-entered the house to search.
Unknown to Higgins, the two sheep officers were involved in a conspiracy. Five blocks down, they let the goat out of the car and returned to the Precinct. Higgins had the job of securing the scene, and as he did so, he discovered the traumatised Cross child.
A child who would grow up to become embittered by what had happened, seeking revenge for what had happened to him. A child who came to believe that the city of Zootopia was a lie.
A child… who would do everything in his power to tear the whole thing down.
Present Day
Sat two miles north of Zootopia, nestled firmly into the side of Mount Arctos, the infamous Mountainside Correctional Facility was where the worst kind of criminals ended up. Murderers and mob bosses were among what the guards referred to as the prison's 'long-term guests.' Prisoners were not separated by species, or even class. To those on the outside, that might have seemed barbaric. Weaker prey might have been put in danger. But to the mammals running the prison, if they got a place there, they were considered big enough to take the risk of other prisoners 'relieving' them of their sentence.
But there was another reason the prison had a name for itself. Among those unlucky enough to be given the label of 'long-term guest' were the conspirators of the Night Howler Crisis nineteen years earlier.
Their leader, Dawn Bellwether, was the 'special case' – she had been in isolation for some time. Numerous attempts had been made on her life during her stay, and many of them had been by predators. It hadn't shocked Dawn. She had come to expect it.
She hadn't come to expect it off the prey inmates, though, and in a way, that was worse for her. An ibex had tried to stab her with part of a horn she had broken off from another inmate. The ibex had told her that her plot had made it much harder for the Caprinae class of mammals. A cape buffalo had threatened to break her neck. An antelope tried to ram her with her horns.
The days inside had blurred for Dawn. The constant attacks, the mistreatment of the guards, and then her isolation, had all eroded away at her will. She had contemplated suicide, because the life she was living was no life at all. Forever punished for her hubris in her younger years. She had even started to regret her actions in recent years, and her eagerness to get revenge on Lionheart.
She had not been in contact with her conspirators since she arrived at the prison, so she had no idea what they had been thinking. Doug Ramses felt no remorse for his actions. He regretted being caught, and considered himself lucky to have not gotten the death penalty. What made him angry was that his work had been seized by scientists who had, in his view, perverted his intentions. Doug did not care about helping mammals. He didn't care whether the world was made better or worse by what he did. All he cared about at the end of it was that he got paid for his work.
It wasn't his fault the companies he had worked for didn't see the uses of Midnicampum Holicithias.
When Dawn Bellwether approached him, she offered to pay him if he helped her in a plot to make Leodore Lionheart look bad in the eyes of the public so she could take over as Mayor. After all, he had humiliated her and brushed her aside again and again., and she wanted payback. A 'missing mammals' crisis was what she called for, and if a few predators got caught in the way… well, Doug didn't care. He got to work, and he got paid.
Then Dawn's motivations started to change. Doug knew why: she was the runt of the herd, and predators were never going to take her seriously. So, she decided to weaponize the crisis. Drunk with the power of office, she decided that predators were a threat to that and she accelerated the plan.
And look where that had gotten him: a nice, comfy, bare prison cell in a wing of the prison designed specifically to separate the Night Howler Conspiracists from the rest of the prison population.
Doug was going to die in there. That, he knew. As far as he was concerned, any efforts to communicate with his fellow conspirators were wasted. They had outlived their usefulness to him.
The prison watchtower was situated towards the west entrance of the prison.
Craig Howlinson was the one in charge of the watchtower, and at the moment the highest authority in the prison. The sun had already set and Howlinson was ready to hand over to the next shift so he could go home to his wife and daughter and get some sleep, though he would be waiting for another hour before the shift swap.
Howlinson reclined in his chair, comfortable in the knowledge this would be a night like any other.
Bleeping from one of the monitors disturbed his peace. It was the motion sensor camera emplacement on the west entrance to the prison. There was an unmarked van pulled up outside it.
Leaning forward, Craig noticed that there was a mammal pointing a weapon at the camera.
"Shoot!" Craig pushed back and reached for the alarm button. His paw struck it and the alarm started blaring. He scooted over to the intercom as the gate camera went down.
"This is not a drill! West gate, code red!" Craig shouted into the intercom. "We have hostiles at the West gate! Repeat, hostiles at the west gate!"
A moment later, a rocket shot into the tower and detonated.
Dawn sat up in her cell as alarms blared around the prison. She supposed that it was somebody trying to break out, though they would soon find that they would not get very far: the guards had itchy trigger fingers whenever they were given guns, and a fleeing convict made for excellent target practice.
Dawn was shocked to hear explosions. That was not normal. An inmate would be lucky to get out of the prison, but explosives? The guards were not carrying those in their armoury, Dawn was sure.
Another explosion rocked the isolation wing and the lights went out for a moment. The emergency generators kicked in, and minimal lighting came on. She could hear a click: the magnetic lock on her door had disengaged. The door swung ajar invitingly.
For one moment, Dawn considered whether she wanted to escape, or whether she deserved punishment.
The door swung open and a ram stood there, glaring at her. It was a face she had not seen for a very, very long time.
"D… Doug?" Dawn blinked.
"Stay here, or come with me, I don't care, but I'm out of here," Doug remarked.
"Are you insane? The guards will shoot you!" Dawn replied.
"The guards are too busy dealing with whoever is attacking the prison to gun down escapees right now," Doug's mouth curled into a none-too-pleasant smile.
Doug didn't know how long he had been running for, nor did he know why exactly he had displayed the meagre amount of pity on Dawn. Dawn was lagging behind, her short legs very much not used to running.
Doug had not stopped to guess at who had attacked the prison, or why, but he planned on taking full advantage of it. Once both he and Dawn were far enough away, he planned on them going their separate ways: Dawn was still of no use to him.
As the pair emerged onto a road in the side of the mountain, Doug saw lights from the corner of his eye. Turning quickly, he hid himself and Dawn in a nearby bush as a van screeched to a halt and several figures emerged. Torches blazed to life.
"Find him," came a lowly growl. Doug could hear pawsteps, careful and cautious, as the lights started searching for their quarry.
Dawn stiffened beside him, as though she wanted to run away. Doug clutched at her wrist and raised a cloven hoof to his lips to quiet her.
A light shone at the bush they were hidden behind, and Doug could hear a gun cocking.
"Come on out, Ramses," the owner of the weapon said. Doug stood up and raised his hooves. In the darkness of night, and with a torch light shone in his eyes, he could not even make out what species was pointing the gun at him.
"And the other one," came another voice. Dawn meekly stepped out from behind the bush as a second figure aimed their weapon at her.
"Take 'em," a third voice commanded. Before either Dawn or Doug could protest, guns blared, shooting darts straight into the necks of both sheep.
The three mammals stepped forward. The lights of the van illuminated them, revealing them to be timber wolves.
"Don't know why we can't just kill 'em," the second timber wolf said as they hauled the pair into the back of their van.
"You heard the boss," the first timber wolf said. "He wants Ramses alive."
"What a waste of resources…" the third wolf remarked. "How much did we throw at that prison, just for them to escape?"
"I'm not being paid to question, I'm being paid to do," the first wolf growled. "Any other stupid questions?"
"Why are we bringing her?" the second timberwolf questioned. "We all know who she is."
"Let the boss decide what to do with her," the first wolf shrugged as he clambered into the front of the van. "She won't be our problem for long."
The wolf started the van and drove off, leaving only hoofprints and pawprints in the dirt as evidence anyone was there.
"This is Zootopia News Network. I'm Peter Moosebridge with some breaking news coming just in. Unknown assailants have laid siege to Mountainside Correctional Facility. Explosives were used and many guards were shot dead by the as-yet unknown assailants. ZBI is on scene, but at present, they are not able to confirm whether any inmates have died, been injured or escaped. The Mayor and Chief Fangmeyer of the ZPD will be giving press conferences later. We will have more on this story as it breaks."
Nick Wilde sat at home, watching the evening news with keen interest.
"Why would anybody attack that prison?" Nick wondered. "That's a sure-fire way to get every member of the alphabet agency soup on your tail. Urgh… the next few days are going to be tough…"
Nick had not long graduated the Zootopia Police Academy course, and he wasn't particularly thrilled with the thought of getting a lot of work so soon.
"This just in. ZBI has confirmed that two inmates are missing and are assumed to be on the run. Dawn Bellwether and Doug Ramses, two of the conspirators jailed indefinitely for their parts in the Savage Mammal incidents nineteen years ago, are currently at large. ZBI has issued a statement urging the mammals of Zootopia to be on the lookout for the fugitives. If you spot Dawn Bellwether or Doug Ramses, please call the ZBI's number as shown on the screen now. The ZBI would like us to remind you not to approach or attempt to apprehend the escapees."
Nick leaned forward in his seat, a paw on his forehead.
"This just got a lot worse," Nick said to himself. He picked up his phone and dialled a number he had gotten to know well enough in the past year. It rang.
"Nick?" came the voice of Judy from the other end of the line.
"I wasn't sure you'd answer," Nick remarked. "Late nights aren't exactly your thing."
"I had some things to get done before turning in for the night," Judy replied.
"Have you seen the news?" Nick asked.
"Yes," Judy answered. "You ready for a busy day tomorrow?"
"I guess I'll have to be…" Nick sighed pointedly.
"Some things don't change," Judy laughed.
"Why change what's already perfection?" Nick snarked.
"Yes, yes…" Judy suppressed another laugh. "You should probably get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a busy one."
"Yeah… you too," Nick replied. He hung up the phone, switched the television off and padded to his son's room. He peeked inside. Robin was fast asleep. Nick's brow furrowed slightly – Robin had been… troubling him lately. Growing more distant. Nick had chalked it down to the move, but it was something he knew he would need to discuss with him sooner or later.
Closing the door, Nick walked to his own room and crept into bed.
And that's chapter 1. Quite a bit different to the original setup. I kind of felt like not making the breakout entirely an accident this time.