Nick practically dragged the terrified Nurse Runns along with him as he went from room to room, looking for Judy and hiding from the guards who ran by every now and then.
"Think, Clover!" Nick exclaimed desperately after some guards turned the corner. "Where in this forsaken building would Jack have taken Judy to interrogate her?!"
"I-I don't know, Nick!" Clover stuttered. "Th-this is my first time in here! I didn't even know this building existed!"
Nick growled in frustration. "She has to be here! She has too!" He thought. Taking Clovers' hand, he pulled her along. "Well, you're too deep in too pull out, might as well help me find her before Jack or those guards do!"
Judy's POV
Judy was cornered. Three huge grizzlies' had her trapped in an office room, MGs' aimed at her. She jumped behind the desk, thinking desperately for an escape route. She peeked up and saw the bears' stand aside to let Jack in.
"Gentlemen." He reprimanded his officers. "This is no way to treat a lady."
She glared angrily at him. "So tying me up to a chair is?!"
He chuckled darkly. "Only in the direst situation." Suddenly his demeanor changed.
"Judy, stop this. Just join me, and everything will be fine. It'll be as if none of this ever happened. I'll even spare your dear Ni-" He had to duck as a vase went whirling over his head.
Judy took this opportunity to search around again and noticed two doors on either side of the office.
"Judith!" He demanded her attention. "Your friend Clover has helped Nicholas escape. I've ordered my men to kill them on sight, but if you surrender now I'll change the order to capture them." He held his paw out in a friendly manner. "I'll love you better than that fox ever could."
She took in the situation. Jack was backed by three powerful guards, but they wouldn't be able to squeeze into the room. Jack was already, but it was cluttered and would be hard to run through. She could run, or she could give up. Then she remembered what Nick had said to her that night on the rail trail.
"Don't let them see that they get to you." Nick said quietly, looking over the darkened jungle city.
With a determined grimace, she picked up a chair and spun it around, flinging it at Jack and running for the door on the right.
Jack had dodged out of the way, but the leg of the chair clipped his side and sent him sprawling to the ground. His guards rushed to help him up. Through gritted teeth he growled, "Kill her."
"Sir?" The first guard questioned. "Your orders were to keep her alive."
"Well I've changed them!" He barked. "If you see any of them, shoot them! I don't care." He stood up and limped away.
Nick's' POV
Nick pulled out the magazine in his revolver and quickly counted his bullets. "21 bullets." He said aloud. "How about you?"
Clover was shakily loading an old fashioned revolver. "S-six..." She stated.
Nick peeked out of the closet, looking around. "Coast is clear, c'mon!" They were sneaking out when three rhino guards turned the corner and spotted them.
"There they are!" The first one yelled.
"RUN!" Nick yelled, turning and dashing down the hallway, Clover hot on his heels. Nick turned to shoot one of the guards, and he crashed through a window. Clover tried to catch him, but he slammed onto some boxes. Clover looked back at the guards charging towards her and jumped down onto the boxes.
"They're in the storage garage, let's go!" One guard said. Then he heard them thundering away.
Nick groaned, sliding off the boxes. "Shit... Felt like I landed on a bunch of bricks..."
Clover peeked into one of the boxes before climbing off. "Unf-fortunately for you, that's exactly what they are." She looked up at him. "The guards are coming, wh-what are we gonna do? W-We can't sneak away from this."
Nick cocked his gun. "We'll have to fight them."
Suddenly machine gun fire rang out, starling both him and Clover. Nick ran towards the door when Judy burst into the room, and the two crashed into each other. They jumped away and pointed their weapons at one another. Nick was the first to react.
"F-Fluff?" He gasped, his gun clattering to the ground.
"Nick!" Judy sighed, laying the gun aside. She gasped as he rushed towards her and swept her off of her feet in a loving embrace.
"Judy..." He whispered, his voice choking with worry.
"G-guys, can that wait? The guards are coming!" Clover exclaimed.
Judy wiggled out of his grasp. "Nick, you've got to get us out of here!" She cried "It can't come down to a gunfight, Jack wants you and Clover dead!"
"It may just come down to that Judy, we've got no possible exit route..." Nick sighed, picking his pistol up off of the ground. "How much ammo do you have?"
Judy checked her gun. "A full magazine." She replied. "Guess I'm lucky I snatched this off of Jack." She sighed and grabbed Nick's arm. "There has to be a way to compromise!"
There was a timid knock on the door. Nick and Judy look at each other, confused.
"H-hello?" Clover questioned
The door opened up and Jack stalked in, followed by a brigade of guards. Nick stood in front of Judy protectively. Jack had a murderous glint in his eyes that he didn't like.
"Well then, looks like everyone is here. How absolutely spiffing." He whispered.
Jacks guards had lined up against the wall, like a foreboding firing squad. Jack turned to face them, spitting out an order: "FIRE AT WILL!"
Nick, Judy, and Clover barely managed to run behind a shelf as a hailstorm of bullets whizzed past them.
"AH, SHIT!" Nick cursed.
Judy, shocked, dropped her gun. "I didn't want to do this..." She whispered. "I didn't want it to come down to this..."
She started shaking, and tears streamed her face. Clover glared at her.
"Pull yourself together, Judy!" She snapped. "This is a life or death situation!"
Nick looked down at Judy. "If you won't fight, I will!" He darted out while the guards were firing at the shelf and popped at few rounds off at them. He dove behind a shelf, some bullets barely missing his tail He gave Judy a desperate look.
"Judy!" Clover exclaimed. "It's now or never! Don't surrender! We came too far to die! So claim your weapon! This ain't heaven! We came here now to fight!"
Judy looked up. The shooting had stopped. The guards were probably reloading. She jumped up; scooping her gun off the floor, she ran out towards Nick, emptying half her magazine, but she aimed for their knees. A/N I dunno how guns work so a magazine is like 45 bullets? so half is 22 or 23 The guards were wearing SWAT armor, so the bullets had little effect. she ran over to Nick, trembling. He took her into his arms.
"Shhh... Judy, it's ok. You're ok." He murmured reassurances in her ear.
Clover peeked out. Their firepower seemed to be no use against the guards. They were on high alert, looking for any more movement. She couldn't risk running out over to Nick and Judy. She crouched and rummaged through her purse. She pulled out a flash-bang she had hidden in there. She had bought it from a weapons dealer, a wolf, in a dark alley.
"I hope this is legitimate." She thought.
Nick hear the click of a pin being pulled, and he looked up to see Clover throwing some odd cylinder over the shelf.
"Flash-bang, get down!" One guard yelled.
Nick got an idea. "Judy!-" There was a bang, and a shriek. Clover stumbled back, dazed by her own flash-bang.
He grabbed Judy and climbed up some boxes stacked against the back wall.
"What are you doing?!" She exclaimed.
"We're getting out of here!" He replied, lifting her up and out the broken window.
"What about Clover?!" She cried.
"The guards got her, Judy! It's too late!" Nick wiggled out of the window. Grabbing Judy's hand, he lifted her to her feet. "Up and at 'em, Hopps, we're breaking this joint!" He saw an exit sign at the end of a hallway and rushed towards it.
"We should go back!" Judy struggled to escape from Nicks' hold.
"Judy, you said it yourself! Jack wants Clover and I dead! Even if we had stayed those guards would have killed me and Clover and capture you!"
Judy stayed silent as Nick pushed the door open and revealed a parking lot.
"We abandoned her..." She said weakly. "It wasn't right."
"A lot of things aren't right in the world, Judy!" Nick snapped. "Damn, we've probably broken half the laws in Zootopia! We've committed theft, hit and run, murder! This isn't about right or wrong anymore! This is about surviving! If you want to go back to save a dead bunny, that's fine by me, but I'm leaving Zootopia until the city forgets I ever existed."
Judy looked up. She had worked too hard to get into Zootopia, to prove she could be the best, and she wasn't going to let anyone stop her, not then, not now, not never!
"Nick, I'm going with you!" She exclaimed. She jumped up and ran to the nearest car.
Nick followed her. "It's probably locked." He gently moved her aside and started picking the lock. "We're in!" He opened the door and unlocked it. Judy ran over to the other side and hopped in. Nick was hotwiring the car.
"C'mon, C'mon.!" He grimaced.
Judy squirmed around in her seat. "Those guards will be here any minute!" She thought.
The car revved to life. Nick jumped into the seat and grabbed the wheel.
"I have no idea how to drive." He said with an excited grin.
"Jeez, Nick! Climb over, I'll drive!" Judy said with a nervous laugh. They quickly switched places.
"What's the destination, Cap'n?" Nick said with a wild grin."
"We're going to Bu-" Judy started, but stopped when they saw Clover run out.
"W-Wait!" She cried. "Wait for me!"
Judy practically warped out of the car. "CLOVER! You escaped!" She ran over to hug the nurse.
Clover stepped back. "I just barely escaped..." She hugged herself and shivered, despite it being 70 degrees, and she was wearing a light coat.
Nick stepped out of the car. "How did you escape 10, maybe 12 fully armoured grizzly bears?"
"Nick, does it matter?" Judy interrupted. "All that's important is that Clover is safe with us!"
"Y-yea, totally safe..." Clover stuttered.
"We're going to be ok, Clover." Judy smiled. "Don't worry."
Clover started to shake, and a tremble escaped her lips
"What's wrong?" Judy asked.
Nick studied the nurse. Her coat seemed... bulky.
"Judy..." He pulled her away.
Clover threw off her coat to reveal packs of C4 strapped to her body. "Jack sends his regards..." She said weakly, then she sat down and feebly tried to remove the bombs, when suddenly they started to beep.
Nick took Judy in his arms and ran off.
"NICK, STOP! We can get it off-" She started, but they were sent sprawling by an explosion
Judy looked back just as the car they were in caught fire. The pavement was charred and crumbled, and the grass near it was quickly catching fire. She caught a glimpse of Clovers' coat, tattered and burning. She choked back a sob, burying her face in Nick's chest. There was no doubting it now.
"Sh-she's dead! Clover dead!" She stuttered.
"And if we're lucky, Hopps, Jack will think we're dead too." Nick said with a grimace. "Just in case; though, we need to become new animals, until we escape the city, and I know just the guy!"
"Wh-who is it?" Judy pulled away from Nick and stumbled along next to him.
"His name is The Mask." Nick replied. "He lost his tail in a brutal fight. Without his tail, he was ridiculed and forced out of his home. He never fully recovered, but he become a master disguiser. He can give us the perfect disguise... for a price..."
"Do you know where The Mask lives?" Judy asked.
"That's the problem. He moves around constantly. We have to hope he's here... or else we'll have to search through every district of Zootopia."
