The night was dead silent, nothing in the scenery but the constant buzzing of a lone street lamp just outside Rackman's Packaging Factory. The roads were absent with any cars, none visible at least, around the vicinity. It was way past working hours, so the factory felt like an abandoned manor despite its industrial appearance. There were no signs of guards or workers, all except two officers who were slowly inching their way towards the building, concealed by its shadow.
"Officer Hopps reporting," Judy spoke into her radio. "Wilde and I are breaching in."
"Copy that," Chief Bogo responded. "Radio me when you're both in position."
"Breaching in," snickered Nick as he fumbled around with his toolkit, unsheathing a screwdriver and a lockpick. "It would be way cooler if we had those fancy breaching charges."
"Covert ops, Nick" replied the bunny, rolling her eyes at his comment.
Skilfully and swiftly, he had unscrewed and unlocked the iron grate, like he had done it a thousand times before. With a little help from Judy, he tossed the grate aside, revealing a metal vent, one that could only fit the two smallest officers on the force.
"Easy as always," the fox boasted, giving the screwdriver a spin between his fingers before inserting it back in the toolkit. "Ladies first."
"Too scared to test the waters?" Judy responded coyly as she climbed into the vent, with Nick following suit.
"Just like a bunny burrow right?" his witty remark echoed from behind her. "Nice tail fluff."
"Again Nick, covert ops."
"Oops sorry. Nice tail fluff…" said the fox again, this time sarcastically whispering, smirking as he did.
After an arduous journey in the claustrophobic metal tunnel, the two finally got to the other end of the vent. Pressing her face against the iron bars, Judy scoped out the well-lit room on the other side. Seeing no presence of any mammals within the room, she charged up a kick, sending the vent grate flying into the room.
"When did you learn how to do that?" gasped a surprised Nick, who climbed out of the vent with his partner's help.
"Maybe if you attended the physical exercises more often, you'll pick up a thing or two." Judy smiled at Nick, placing the vent back where it once sat.
The room was spacious, its walls lined with shelves upon shelves of pallets and crates, all neatly packaged in plastic. The room had a few windows, a few broken due to its age. Gargantuan stairs led to a basement, where a giant metal door stood. There was also a huge garage door that acted as the entrance for one of the large shipment trucks parked inside the room. The room was worn yet well kept, its floor clean of any dirt or dust that you would expect from a factory. The distinct smell of plastic and packaging foam stained the air.
"Nice place for a bunch for low lives," Nick commented, picking up a packaging peanut left on the floor. "You sure this is the place?"
"Chief, we are in the building." radioed Judy as she tugged on Nick's collar, stopping him in his tracks.
"What is it, fluff?" responded the fox with both ears perked up in confusion. After a tempered look from Judy, the fox finally got the message, and grabbed the radio pinned to his vest.
"Standing by," he radioed, "All part of the plan."
He smirked at Judy, who rolled her eyes in response.
"So what's the plan Wilde?" Chief Bogo asked with his condescending tone, waiting for another one of his quick witted replies.
"'Umm yeah, you're gonna have to ask Carrots on that one, I'm kinda…"
"We'll be maintaining our position in this room, standing by on your mark." Judy interrupted. "You got that too, Wilde?" She stared and smiled at Nick, who was lost at words.
"Very well, Wolford will be on lookout. Expect a signal from him if other mammals come by. If Rackman shows up with the evidence, you two have my permission to engage. I'm trusting you two on this."
"We won't let you down." Judy replied, hiding behind one of the crates.
"Personally, I'm flattered by your expectations Chief." Nick commented coyly.
Five minutes into the stakeout, Judy heard a cluster of footsteps coming from the basement door, followed by a loud clash from the sound of the door swung open. Picking up the sound, her partner shifted his head sideways, trying his best to observe the scene. Like intel had suggested, Nick spotted their mammal of interest coming out of the door. The raccoon was dressed neatly in a suit and tie, his glasses adjusted to complement his smart look. Rackman wore a frown on his face as he scanned the room.
"What's he doing?" questioned Nick who was surprised by the suspect's demeanour. "Does he see us?"
"I don't know." replied Judy with the same perplexed look.
A tense moment later, the raccoon waved at the doorway behind him, and on que, a group of his henchmen walked out from the door. The group consists of 4 mammals, two wolves, a chimp and a bear, each wearing black and decorated with kevlar padding. The mammals were also armed with pistols and submachineguns. They gathered around their boss, looking menacingly at their surroundings.
"What is this, an ambush?" the fox asked, an uneasy feeling boiling inside of him.
"Hopps reporting," his partner radioed, pulling on Nick's shirt to get him to hide. "Rackman has armed guards. The mission is compromised."
Out of nowhere, the petrifying sound of an unloaded gun struck the atmosphere like thunder. Nick froze as he watched the bullet tore through his partner's ear, scattering pieces of fur and fragments of blood. She fell backwards, both eyes clamped shut and senses disoriented.
"Approach with caution, and get them off my property." instructed Rackman, who proceeded to slip out once again, leaving behind the goons to do their work.
"Judy!" exclaimed Nick, his shout matching that of the bullet.
He scrambled towards his fallen partner, lifting her head up from the floor whilst reaching for her paw. Her ear looked like it had folded itself in half, a limp sock of fur dangling at the end of the remaining bloodied cartilage.
"Argh…" she replied, dazed and confused.
"Judy your ear is not looking good." Nick gritted his teeth, giving her a concerned look while prompting his partner to get up on her feet. "We gotta move."
"I'm fine," the bunny reported, placing her paw on her wound before immediately retracting it as if she had touched a hot kettle. "It's just the ringing…"
"Suspects are engaging and Hopps is down," the officer radioed. "Requesting for immediate support."
Without warning, a second shot was fired, followed by another. Splinters of wood and concrete chips filled the air, and to Nick's dismay, the fresh scent of blood. A stray bullet had ricochet from the wall, lodging itself inside of his partner. The unlucky bullet had struck Judy in her exposed right side, one of the areas not fully protected by their standard issue vests.
The bunny gasped when his partner pulled her out of her position towards himself. She gave out painfully audible breaths as he pressed his entire paw on the dark purple spot on her uniform. She had difficulty collecting herself due to the shock of pain.
Thinking on his feet, Nick quickly untucked his pistol firing a seemingly random shot.
"Gun!" the wolf shouted, staggering for cover. The other henchmen acted accordingly, some ducked down while a couple fired back.
"Judy, are you ok?" the terrified fox asked with a small tremble in his voice.
Wanting to give an optimistic response, Judy's words were cut off with a hectic cough. Horror filled her thoughts as she realised that her lung was filling up with blood. Breathing only resulted in another wave of coughing. She was suffocating in her own blood.
Realising his partner's dire situation, Nick flipped her to her side while making sure that the wound is kept under pressure by his paw. Wasting no time, he constant pats on her back, trying his best to help her. With his assistance, Judy managed to cough up blood, staining her partner's garments.
"Stay with me," the fox responded, his heart racing as fast as hers. "Backup is on their way."
Tears began to form in the corners of his eyes as he realised that Judy would not make it in time. He felt helpless, like he was a kit again, watching his mother pass away in her deathbed, gripping on her paw, not wanting to let go. Judy's once bright lavender eyes were now slowly retracting under her eyelids and her coughing was starting to weaken.
Heartbroken and distressed, Nick held her tight in his embrace, assuring her with lies and false promises.
Gradually losing hope, his mind was suddenly snapped back into reality as he heard distant sirens approaching from afar. There was still hope, he thought. Judy will be safe if he got her out of here. He had to act. Popping his head out once again, he scoped the scene one last time. The wolf, now realising the officers' vulnerable situation had begun to inch towards them once again. Looking for an exit, Nick's pupils landed upon the cracked window. It was their only chance.
"This is gonna hurt," Nick directed towards Judy, his smirk forming alongside another wave of tears. He promptly scooped the bunny off the pool of blood, standing his ground and getting ready to run for it. "Hold on."
Without hesitation, the fox bolted towards the direction of the window with an emotion-filled battle cry. As if time slowed down, the wolf turned the corner and squeezed the trigger on his weapon. Nick's senses peaked, hearing every shot fired at him. He could feel bullets grazing over his fur and vest. There was shouting in between the gunshots and impact noises from missed shots that had kissed the floor and walls around him. He also felt every shot that he absorbed, yet he kept going as the pain was suppressed by the adrenaline in his blood.
Two feet away from the window, the fox braced for impact, closing both his eyes and turning his head aside.
"This is gonna hurt," he thought to himself.
In a split second, Nick unleashed all his might on both his feet, springing his body towards the target. Though he could feel the ripping of muscle and tissue from his right thigh, he pushed on, diving head first through the window pane. The fox smashed through the cracked glass and metal bars that held the window intact, shards of glass raced through his skin and fur.
Landing on both his feet, Nick kept going, running towards the sirens across the distance. The squad cars have arrived on site, their drivers stepping on the brakes after seeing their fellow officers. One of the ambulances did the same, paramedics rushing out of the doors as soon as it halted.
"Help!" screamed the officer on the top of his lungs. He got a final look at Judy, inching his hears towards hers face, trying to find a breath of air. Though she had stopped breathing a few seconds ago, Nick was relieved to find a weak pulse.
"You're almost there, Judy." the fox whispered.
Everyone got to work. Paramedics clambered towards the injured officers with a stretcher as they lifted Judy off his arms. Officers in riot gear proceeded towards the building speedily in an organized fashion, some patting Nick on the back as they passed by. He could hear Chief Bogo on the megaphone, giving out orders and warnings. Gunshots followed suit. Looking back at the ambulance, he saw the paramedics trying to save his partner, giving her chest compressions before one of them closed the backdoors.
As the ambulance sped, the fox let out a sigh. He did his best. He acted. That was the least he could do, he thought to himself. A moment later, he looked down, seeing that he was soaked blood red from the chest down. A wave of stinging, unbearable pain rolled in.
"Sir, do you need assistance?" asked a lioness in her teal uniform, snapping her gloves as she moved towards him.
Unable to hold on much longer, Nick gave into the pain and shock, lunging forward towards the pair of paramedics who came to inspect him.
"Get him on a stretcher stat!" yelled the lioness, barely catching his exhausted body. She lifted him from the floor, placing two fingers on his neck. "He has no pulse!"