Chapter Fourteen- New Comrades

The next day, 12:37 PM

Despite what had transpired less than 24 hours earlier, Hudson did manage to find an apartment rather than a hotel, be it that it was temporary and he was only renting it for a few days, it certainly had to do for the overweight wolf.

He awoke shortly after noon, getting out of the bed that was barely able to hold his weight and rubbing his forehead before looking at the tv which was still on the ZNN channel from last night "and we're back, covering the national crisis in the Rainforest District as hundreds of predators have went savage, possibly causing catastrophic casualties." A gazelle reporter spoke as the snow leopard next to her continued "there has been no explanation for these attacks but Officer Judy Hopps, who's responsible for ending the Bellwether scandal, released a statement just a few hours ago regarding the situation" the screen transitioned to the bunny officer on a pedestal.

"As of now we have no motive or cause of these attacks, however, the Rainforest and Canal districts have been quarantined until further notice. We urge the public to remain calm as we open an investigation" the grizzly from yesterday stepped up and spoke "I will be taking any questions for Officer Hopps" however the tv was cut off when the wolf changed the channel and grunted, there was no doubt the ZPD knew what was going on, despite being in a state of panic they definitely did, he also knew that it was probably for the best to not go out and say it was a terrorist attack, especially if the S.A.S was now involved.

As the tv was still blaring, Klyde stood in front of his wardrobe, all of his clothes were back at his home so it was almost completely empty, almost was because his mother was overjoyed to know that he made it out, and after explaining his situation before he went to sleep, she offered to send some clothes for him but unfortunately for him though, these were clothes from almost a year ago, back when he was almost a hundred pounds lighter and slimmer, he had absolutely no doubt in his mind that these would be almost impossible to wear, however he had already agreed to meet up with Sgt Redbone in a few minutes and discuss, and that's when he realized he only had a few minutes to get ready.

Klyde sighed in frustration as he made the decision to put on the old clothes, he could not call it off since it was important if he were to be involved in this, and after last night he felt obliged to. After much straining and frustration, Hudson did manage to get the outfit on which was what used to be his casual wear, some 50 XL jeans and a 67 XL blue t-shirt with the ZPD logo on the front and back, the issue was that instead of 50 and 67 XL he now had a wardrobe of 78 and 90 XL clothes, he considered that fact as showing his fall from grace in the ZPD, the main problem was that almost half of his wide middle was exposed even with the shirt on.

Despite this though, he knew how to explain something like this for he'd had to go through it before, he was hoping that he could explain it to an S.A.S soldier without being ridiculed.

As the wolf stepped out of the apartment, he noticed how empty the streets seemed, he did hear some commotion though, yelling and shouting most likely coming from the speech on tv.

He sighed deeply as he began walking down the street, his car was still at his home in the Rainforest District, where he obviously couldn't retrieve it, so he was forced to walk to the destination he and Charlie were meeting. He did have his cell phone though, and he looked at it after it buzzed, it was a text from an unknown number "hey, it's Redbone" his eyebrows perked up in surprise as he responded.

Unknown

"how'd you get my number?"

"Police files"

"Where are we meeting?"

"A small tea shop near downtown"

"Name?"

"The Leblanc Café"

"What street?"

"Oh, 23rd and 25th"

"I'll be there in a few minutes"

"Sounds good"

"You watch the announcement on tv?"

"Yeah, we know more than we're telling"

"We definitely do"

Klyde put the phone in his pocket as he continued down the road, looking at the street signs carefully. Klyde Hudson grew up near Zootropolis, his father worked there when he was a child so his family would often go into the city, but ever since he moved to the Rainforest District in 2003 he's forgotten most of the essentials for navigating in such a giant city, he hadn't forgotten entirely but his memory was definitely obscured. He looked closely at all of the green street signs, putting his hand on his forehead as he stood in front of a crosswalk, of course this was as easy as just looking at Zoogle Maps on his phone but he just wanted to see if he remembered it all, and it was clear he hadn't.

Eventually though he found himself in front of the cafe that Redbone mentioned, he tugged down on his shirt as he entered. As he did, he looked at all the customers, minding their own business and drinking tea and coffee. He was glad that his unfit attire didn't make him stick out as he walked up to a table and took a seat. He looked out the wide window and at the street behind it, the clouds were a ominously dark gray today, Klyde didn't just suspect it to rain, he could feel it in his back, the humidity made it ache a small bit and even worse, he didn't bring an umbrella nor did he have one.

A wolf came into the window, dressed in casual clothes, a t-shirt and shorts, the wolf entered the café and looked around, having a feeling that it was his new comrade, Kyle raised his hand and waved.

Charlie Redbone walked over to the table where Hudson was seated at "nice day innit?" He greeted as he sat down across from the other wolf, who shrugged "it's gonna rain real hard, I know it" Redbone nodded "well at least it won't be poison rain" Hudson too nodded "yeah . . . That was some good work last night" the wolf chuckled "me? I'm surprised a mammal like you could operate like that" Hudson cleared his throat "your not alone, I didn't think I still had it in me" he said laughing.

He was indeed impressed by his overweight partner's performance the night prior, he wasn't expecting Hudson to do much but needless to say, Charlie was happily surprised by the fact that he was wrong.

He could easily see the worry on Hudson's face though, "something wrong?" The other wolf leaned forward onto the table a bit "what do we do now?" Charlie only looked up at that "well now we wait . . . There's no saying how the public will react in a few hours" the fatter wolf nodded again.

"I'm just hoping it won't turn into something messy" Charlie took a sip of his tea "you mean protests?" He watched the wolf shake his head "riots, more like, you should've seen this country when we weren't all segregated" "no I've seen footage, it was . . . Ugly, to say the least" Hudson nodded and drank his coffee.

He had indeed seen some of the news footage from the protests two years ago, it was all over the news in London, the way predator and prey animals clashed were unbelievable for him and of course he routed for the protesters but some protests turned into literal riots on air, the UK didn't get involved so he was only able to watch on television. Charlie Redbone was worried too though, after seeing that predator-prey relations were at an all time low, he wouldn't be surprised if all that started up again.

"The ZPD's already reported several cases of small gatherings" "organized by prey animals?" Charlie questioned, getting a nod in response "bloody hell . . ." Charlie saw an unneeded conversation coming up, so he dodged it by moving on.

"So Hudson, is it?" The overweight wolf looked up and nodded "yeah, it's a pleasure to meet a member of the S.A.S" Charlie dismissed the compliment "the pleasures all mine, Charlie Redbone" the wolf said, introducing himself to the other wolf again. Hudson nodded at the introduction, sipping his coffee before speaking "what did we get last night though, other than the hostage?" This made Charlie silent for a moment, before giving his guess "evidence, that was the main priority of the mission, we had no idea they were holding the workers hostage" Hudson hmm'd in thought "of how they messed with the water plant you mean?" "Most likely, it's strange that there was only one hostage though" Hudson shifted in his seat "could've killed the rest of the workers, maybe they were important to the captors" Charlie nodded "yeah, maybe."

Charlie was unsure what exactly the task force was ordered to find but he was hoping it would give them somewhat of an idea of what happened at the water plant.

"I did do better than I expected last night though, considering how long I've been out of action" Charlie nodded again "even the captain was a bit impressed, I could tell" the overweight wolf cracked his knuckles "what do you think their next move will be?" The thinner wolf across from him shook his head slowly at the thought and sighed "I don't know, even with the S.A.S we're still completely blind, at least for now" Hudson nodded "let's talk about something else though" Charlie said avoiding the conversation yet again.