Alyssa sucked in air through her gritted teeth, glaring up at the narrow stairwell which the tunnel had brought her through. On a good day she would be at the top of those dusty metal steps by now, but with this stupid…

Alyssa lifted her shirt and probed the wound. She didn't think any organs had been perforated, but even flesh wounds were lethal if left untreated for too long. This one felt deep, so deep that she could feel a stinging sensation right at the edge of her back. Her crimson paw snaked around her waist until she felt torn flesh.

Exit wound. The shrapnel had torn right through her.

"Ah, hell." She muttered.

She lowered her shirt and considered the number of steps. It was too dark and high to see the top and climbing those steps would drain what little stamina she had left.

"Screw it." She raised her arm and pointed it to the highest point of the stairwell within her visibility. The mag-rider flew straight and true, but the end of her ascension was anything but graceful. She gasped, nearly vomiting when the momentum caused her abdomen to the rail hard. It was a full minute before she could climb over the rail and climb up the last set of steps to the top. What she thought had been impenetrable darkness had in fact been the ceiling, and another tunnel lay before her, lit with tiny ceiling lights.

Alyssa smelled fresh air. She was close to the surface now, but Slothfeld was even closer. She would not let him get away. She pressed on, squeezing the hilt of her gun to better resist the pain. She would make him pay even if it killed her.


Doug fired two more shots, chipping the pillar Jack was hiding behind and causing his third-last arrow to miss its mark. The rabbit's ears then caught the curses under his breath. "You fucking people… it just had to be you, didn't it? You screw up the hit on that horse, you throw me off a tower with a fricking bell, you screw up the hit on that fat cat, and now this. You're gonna be as porous as a fucking colander by the time I'm through with you! You and the rest of your friends!"

With the second remaining crossbow bolt locked and loaded, Jack considered his options. There weren't that many; Doug had chosen a good cover, and his other firearm was completely out of ammo.

"For the record," Jack began. "I did not stop Clawhauser's assassination. A bulletproof car did. I'm assuming that's why you brought the rocket launcher this time."

He risked a glanced around the pillar. Judging by his shadow Doug was still hiding behind the corner, but the hatch didn't have any plastic explosive on it. Yet.

"You going to come out, or are you going to keep being a pedantic smartass?" Doug asked.

Jack thought he heard a slight rattling sound. "We don't have time for this. Agent Skyfall is hunting the doctor at this moment, and I don't think she intends to keep him alive."

"She can cut him up into little pieces for all I care! His freak super soldier ate my cousin!" Doug said. "Swinton wants him dead, anyway. As far as she's concerned, it's his fault those freaks hijacked Project Twilight."

Jack looked around the pillar again. Something about Doug's shadow was different. He was holding something long and thick, not quite the right shape for a rifle.

"You know, you're quite chatty for a professional killer." He said.

"It's what having twenty extra foam lattes over two days will do to you." Doug said with a hint of a humor. "Or many I'm just distracting you to stay in one place."

In an instant Jack recognized the diamond shape of a rocket-propelled grenade and actually felt his heart stop.

There was no time to aim through the scope. He pulled the trigger, and a split second later he saw the arrow break on the wall right by Doug's head, making him flinch. There was too much distance between them to close the gap before the ram regained his aim, so Jack ran. He barely made it six steps before- BAOOOM!

The rocket flew so fast he didn't even hear the hiss of the rocket motor before it struck the pillar. Jack didn't feel the shockwave, but he fell nonetheless, bruising both his elbows. His ears were ringing as he looked back to see what had become of the pillar; the damage was incredible, but roughly half of it was still standing. That half of the pillar was the only reason he hadn't been completely obliterated from existence.

Upon seeing Doug drop the rocket launcher and step out with a submachine gun, Jack scrambled up and kept running. His crossbow was intact, and he still had one more arrow, but he needed more.

The armory in XIBALBA's testing area. There had to be something there he could use.

Alyssa, so help me god that sloth had better be alive when I get back.


"Where are you, you barmy bastard?" Alyssa muttered. It was taking her too long to get down this tunnel. The injury was slowing her down, and when she looked behind her, she could see smears of blood where she'd had to lean on the wall for support.

The unexpected crackle of her radio made her stop for a moment.

"… we've searched the entire ground floor. No sign of the polar bear cub."

"Roger that. Keep searching, and in the meantime secure the captured terrorists. We'll sweep the forest and track down the rest. Remember, Sedor Valentino and Cheryl Radames are top priority."

"What's the status on the survivors?"

"Being transported back to Precinct One, with the exception of Lieutenant McHorn. He's going to City Central Hospital…"

Alyssa didn't need to hear any more, so she tuned it out and kept moving. She kept the radio on, just in case something important turned up like little Morris being found. Knowing that Nick and those other good mammals had escaped the asylum gave her some relief, but it also meant that the ZBI or whoever she had just overheard could find their way down here at any time. She had to find Slothfeld before they did.

She heard more voices coming from her radio but she ignored them, and eventually reached the plain metal door at the end, which was sealed with a keycard reader. Lucky her, she still had the keycard on paw. With a paw caked in dirt and drying blood, she slid the card through the slot and stepped through the door.

The first thing she noticed was the concrete floor, and the wall straight across from her. The wall was metallic, retro in design, and looked like it was design to split open. She realized why when she looked around the open door and saw the jeep sitting perfectly in the middle of the perfect square floor, and beyond the jeep was a tunnel that may have been part of the old mines with Founder's Mountain. Doctor Slothfeld was beside the jeep, fumbling with the keys with a wounded hand.

Alyssa felt cruelly chuffed as she shoved the door, closing it with a bang that echoed around the small garage. "There you are."

Slothfeld turned his head, and upon spotting her his face took on a look of genuine fear.

As the sloth struggled to get the key in the lock, Alyssa pushed a crate in front of the door and advanced on him. His outstretched claws barely brushed the handle before she grabbed his shoulder and shoved him against the side of the vehicle. He slid to the floor, the wind knocked out of him, and Alyssa pulled out the data disk and gave him a few seconds to get his breath back. While she waited she picked up the keys he had dropped. The jeep would be perfect for extracting the target, or it would be if that had been part of her agenda.

"How do we unlock the disk?" She asked hoarsely.

Even at her mercy, Slothfold regarded her like he was examining a chemical formula. "Your adrenaline has… worn off. How are you still… standing?"

"Bloody hell, are you for real?" Alyssa hissed.

"Believe it or not… your kind once fascinated me." Slothfeld admitted. When he made a gesture with his arm, it was slightly slower than before. "They think they know so… much about predators… I began my career wanting to… truly understand them…"

"By torturing them?" Alyssa snarled.

"Not exclusively… with predators… I conducted my… research on prey… too."

"Quit stalling for time, you smarmy tosser." Alyssa said, holding the disk tight between her fingers. "How do we decrypt this disk?"

Slothfeld slowly chuckled. "You'll never… get to… Subject One… in time… What is… the point?"

Alyssa knelt down to his eye level. "Because I am not letting the government take you away to some cushy lab in Area Fifty-two. You're going to die down here, you little shit, and how much it's going to hurt is entirely up to you."

Slothfeld's gaze gradually became a glare. "Your… superiors… want… me… alive… What… will… they… do… to… you… if… you… kill… me… fox?"

Alyssa stood up, remembering the big red toolbox behind her. "Last chance, sloth."

Slothfeld narrowed his eyes. "My… research… is… mine…"

The vixen felt a chill setting in, and she was beginning to feel dizzy. She didn't have very long to get the information out of him. She quickly turned and wandered over to the toolbox, hoping there was a pipe wrench or something less likely to kill him quickly...


Jack kicked his way into the testing area and took the route he thought would be the quickest way to the shooting gallery. It took about four turns and a quick sprint through the 'Hot House' before he found the place, and he skidded to a stop before the wall of weapons. He quickly scanned the wall before find a small group of weapons perfect for his size. The grenades were far too big, but he was able to pick out a sniper rifle and a handgun. Then he hid behind the corpse of a large mercenary whose neck had broken and waited.

One minute passed.

Two minutes passed.

Jack lay still and listened, but he didn't hear the ram's clopping footsteps on the hard floor. Now that the ringing had subsided, his hearing was well enough to pick up the gentle hum of the air conditioning system, and the recurring fizzling sound of a flickering fluorescent light somewhere above the testing area. Doug must have excellent control of his breathing if he could do it this quietly.

Jack poked his head above the dead body, searching for a shadow or any other sign of the ram's presence. Through the doorway, he was able to see the large windows above the maze.

After another minute, he decided to change tactics. Forget ambushing Doug, that would take way too much time. It was better that he try to sneak around Doug and get back to the hatch.

Where was Doug? He'd been right on Jack's heels back in the prison. The rabbit couldn't possibly have lost him so easily.

Jack left the shooting gallery and started back through the maze, taking a different route in case Doug was tracking him. He was almost to the door when his ear suddenly swiveled to the side. He looked up to see Doug making his way alongside the line of windows on the upper floor.

"Where are you going?" Jack muttered. It was the possibility of Doug having found another way to get to Slothfeld that prompted the rabbit to follow him.

Within a minute he was in the hallway where he had spotted Doug. He swiveled his ears and sniffed the air, quickly determining that the ram had gone through the door at the end of the hallway. He was heading toward the laboratory where they had located Slothfeld and the polar bear cub. Perhaps there was another way into the emergency tunnel there, hidden so well that everyone had overlooked it.

Jack stopped going over the possibilities and continued on. Expect nothing, he told himself. It was exasperating just how often he failed to follow his own advice.

He found Doug at the bottom of the central hub, sneaking toward the laboratory where the Twilight serum and its antidote were stored. Jack readied his handgun, and almost had his sights on the ram's skull when he moved, entering the lab.

"Don't you fucking move." He snarled, his voice dripping with seething hatred.

Jack frowned, and stealthily dropped to the bottom floor.

He crept to the door and looked into the lab.

Oh.

Sedor Valentino stood beside the open storage room door, glaring at the ram pointing the gun at his face. His trench coat, hat, and plague doctor mask were gone, fully exposing the black body armor that had enabled him to shrug off all those bullets and darts during the Arctic House shootout. What fur was exposed was matted with wet, dirt and blood and he had one arm wrapped around his ribs. Without the hat, Jack could see a scar on his skull where his crossbow bolt had struck him.

It would seem there had been no armor on his head. His skull really was that tough.

"Do I look familiar to you?" Doug asked. Sedor narrowed his eyes, and Jack noticed that they lacked that primal gleam. On the counter beside the massive bear was a metallic syringe identical to the one Mossberg had used to cure his wife of her Twilight affliction.

"Yeah, I look familiar." Doug growled. "Trying to save the antidotes, are you? Thank you for reminding me to destroy the evidence."

When Sedor spoke, it was with a Mediterranean accent. Jack felt an odd sensation in his chest; he hadn't expected Sedor to actually speak this time. "I take it that Swinton told you about Carlton."

"She told me everything. About how you fucking ate him, you pelt!" Doug was seething so fiercely that his shoulders were rising up and down as he breathed.

Sedor's expression was unreadable. Jack raised his rifle, preparing to take Doug out first, and that was when his radio spoke up.

"There you are."

Jack blinked when he heard Alyssa's voice, before he realized it was coming from the radio.

Doug turned his head sharply at the same time he pulled out his handgun, keeping the bigger gun pointed at Sedor. Jack kept his crossbow on Doug, listening to the radio. Earlier he had overheard the ZBI arriving to take control of the situation. Had they somehow managed to find her and Slothfeld?

"How do we unlock the disk?" He heard Alyssa ask.

"Your adrenaline has… worn off. How are you still… standing?"

That was Slothfeld's voice.

Oh, no. She found him. And what did he mean by still standing?

That settled it. He had to get back to the hatch as soon as possible.

"You shouldn't have followed me, carrot-face." Doug said, and Jack found himself agreeing with him.

"You're caught between a rock and a hard place, Ramses. Give it up." Jack said.

Doug sneered. "No. I've got a lot of unfinished business on this mountain."

Sedor tilted his head slightly, looking at Jack. Jack didn't let it show, but the bear's abrupt change unnerved him. He was no longer predictable. "Tell me, Agent Savage. Is Ben alright? Is he safe?"

Jack grimaced. "He's out of your reach, now, Valentino. You don't need to worry about him, anymore."

Doug gave a sharp breath of realization. "'Is he safe?' Jesus, how did I not realize? You weren't trying to silence him! You want him to testify!"

All the while, Jack kept one ear listening to the radio.

"You're going to die down here, you little shit, and how much it's going to hurt is entirely up to you."

Jack tensed when he heard Alyssa's threat. Let Sedor and Doug kill each other, he needed to get back to the hatch, now.

"Well, you failed on that one." Doug jeered. "I don't like leaving a job unfinished. After I put you and Savage in bodybags, the kid and the fox are next!"

Jack paused, his finger tightening slightly over the trigger. Maybe he should wait to kill Doug first, after all. Sedor scowled, and for a moment Jack thought he was going to go berserk like he had with McHorn. Then he looked away slightly, resting one paw on the counter, his face turning contemplative.

Blam! The gun broke in Jack's hands, cutting his palm. The barrel of the ram's handgun raised slightly up, until Jack was staring directly down that black tunnel where the next bullet lay in wait. "Speaking of unfinished business…" Doug murmured.

"He didn't scream, you know."

Doug stared at Sedor, his finger hesitating over the trigger of the gun pointed at Jack. "What?"

"Carlton didn't scream." Sedor said. "I didn't let him. I couldn't. Even with that Gazelle music, the boy would have heard it. I can still see the look on his face when he saw me."

Doug looked almost bewildered as he waited for the bear's next words. Jack thought he saw genuine regret in his eyes. "It was my fault. I lost control the moment I tasted Carlton's blood. I can still remember what he tasted like… yes…" He looked up sharply, teeth bared and dark eyes flashing. "… yes, that little chichi tasted fucking rancid."

There was brief pause, in which Doug stared blankly at the bear. Then he bared his own square teeth. "You son of a-"

Jack moved the instant Doug turned the handgun away from him, pulling the last bolt from his quiver and launching himself off the laboratory tiles. The arrow sank mid-way into the wool and soft flesh of the space between the ribs and the pelvis, causing Doug to scream and swat Jack away with his elbow. Jack hit the floor and rolled back to his feet with the sniper rifle in his paws.

With the volume of bad blood between them, it was surreal how quickly the life of the infamous Mr. Kill was ended. One bullet through the right eye. That was all it took. The bullet obliterated the back of his skull and sank into the door of the storage cabinet beside Sedor's head, and a second later there was a wet shlump as Doug Ramses's corpse collapsed to the floor, hitting a counter on its way down.

Jack should have felt something akin to relief, but he didn't. The mild emotion he felt was more akin to what he would feel whenever he closed a book and prepared to move on to another. That emotion slowly dulled as he aimed his weapon at the bear, who hadn't moved since goading Doug into his fatal mistake.

"Where's Cheryl?" Jack asked.

Sedor regarded him coldly. "She could have let you die from that poison."

"And I appreciate it, believe me." Jack said, keeping his sight between Sedor's eyes. "But now that you've taken the antidote, you must understand what will happen to Zootopia if she goes through with her plan. What do you think will happen to your godson?"

"Morris is safe, and I'm taking him away from that place." Sedor said. "If you kill me, you'll never find where I've hidden him."

"And what about every other child in that city? How many of them will suffer if Cheryl poisons the water supply?" Jack asked, a second before it hit him. "She won't, will she? Such a feat is near-impossible. She was bluffing."

Sedor smiled. "Technically she was exaggerating. But you're right about one thing. Lives will be lost if Officer Hopps doesn't capture Cheryl in time."

Jack cocked an eyebrow. "Why Hopps? Why is she so important?"

Sedor snorted. "Now that, I don't know."


Alyssa's vision suddenly doubled, and she had to grab the edge of the toolbox to keep herself from collapsing against it. The pipe wrench she'd picked out felt too heavy in her paw. Judging from her current symptoms and the amount of time that had passed, she had about a few minutes before blood loss incapacitated her or worse.

She heard the ticking of claws on stone and turned her head, expecting to see Slothfeld trying to make a break for it. He was very slowly getting to his feet when she left him by the jeep, but without the effects of his formula he wasn't going anywhere.

She saw him almost fully on his feet, and turned back to the box. She turned her head again when her brain registered the figure that now crouched on all fours on the concrete between them. Its head was bowed to the floor, sniffing and licking the drops of blood Alyssa had shed.

Slothfeld's jaw sluggishly dropped, his eyes going big and round with terror as the strange wolf… shrew… thing stalked toward him. He tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come fast enough.

This was a hallucination, right? She was bleeding out, she was dizzy, of course it had to be an illusion. But Benjamin and Bogo had told them about this creature. A part of her hadn't believed them.

"Christ on a bike." She breathed and raised her deadweight handgun.


"Slothfeld. Move." Alyssa snarled through Jack's radio.

"I… can't…" Slothfeld whimpered.

"Get out of the way."

"… I… can't… move…"

"Get out of the way or it's going to kill you!"

Jack and Sedor both looked down at the radio, a sensation like cold water flooding the rabbit's gut.

"Alyssa?" He breathed.

Alyssa didn't seem to hear him. "Slothfeld, for fuck's sake, get out of the way!"

Jack saw the look on Sedor's face. "Tell me what's happening! Now!"

Sedor was grinning from ear to ear. "Justice."


Alyssa thought she heard Jack's voice as she tried to aim, but found that she couldn't keep the gun steady.

Slothfeld was backed up against the side of the jeep, and Alyssa could smell urine coming from the growing strain in his pants. All the while Subject Zero continued his approach. It moved slowly, quietly putting forward one set of deadly claws after another, looking more interested than hungry. Its blank yellow eyes were locked with Slothfeld's, narrowed with recognition. It had a score to settle, too.

Alyssa fell back against the toolbox. She tried and failed to hold her gun steady.

"Move it, you idiot!" She shrieked, but she may as well have commanded the moon to rise faster. This was her fault. The smell of her blood had drawn it here. She had to do something.

She fired, missing on purpose in the hopes of scaring it off. When the jeep's window shattered, Subject Zero did a complete, lighting fast spin and bared its venomous teeth at the vixen. Before Alyssa could fire again it flung itself upon her.


Alyssa's scream of agony stabbed Jack like a stiletto knife. The sniper rifle wavered, its barrel lilting away from Sedor's head.

He needed to keep Sedor here. He needed the bear's intel. But his heart was betraying his head, compelling his feet to move him toward the open door.

Alyssa screamed again, followed by a feral sound Jack had heard from no animal he knew.

"God damn it!" He cursed and bolted from the lab.

It felt like forever before he made it back to the prison block, only to suddenly remember that the hatch was still locked. Thank god Doug had left behind his bag of tricks, including the plastic explosive and its detonator. He slapped the explosive onto the hatch and ran for cover.

Please, please, please hang on…


Alyssa gripped the creature's muscular arms, desperately trying to prize it off even as it sank its teeth into corner between her neck and shoulder. She screamed and punched its jaw, but the venom was already taking effect. Beneath the pain of the teeth she felt a tingling sensation and her limbs turned to jelly. Subject Zero, sensing that its victim was no longer able to resist, let go as her arms fell to the ground with a sound. It loomed over her like a sexual predator, its maw red and slightly dripping. This was divine retribution. It had to be. It was no coincidence that this demon appeared at the moment she was about to beat the decryption key out of that sloth.

What had she done? Why hadn't she just detained Slothfeld and driven him to safety when she had the chance?

Cheryl, please forgive me… Alyssa's eyes blurred with tears, distorting her vision of the creature's nightmarish features. You tried to save me from my myself… and I wasted it…

There was a crunching sound as Subject Zero bent to chew her neck.


In his haste, Jack forgot to cover his ears before pressing the detonator, but the pain barely registered to him. The smoke hadn't even begun to clear before he was inside the tunnel, sprinting so fast that the walls and blood stains were a blur to him.


Subject Zero turned away from the fallen vixen, its pointed ear twitching when it heard the sound of crumbling dirt. One of the walls had split open, the two halves sliding open to reveal the forest and the starry sky. Slothfeld took his claw off the switch and slowly turned to get to the jeep, only to find the creature making its way back to toward him. He backed into the wall, all composure dissolving as he realized his mistake. Subject Zero swallowed down the blood in its mouth, still tasting the young vixen it had brought down, and smelling the sloth's urine. The sloth was terrified, so terrified that he was shaking like the leaves of the trees outside. He should have known this day was coming. Subject Zero could hear the frantic beating of his heart.

The creature reached out, its claws sliding into Slothfeld's quivering mouth and wrapping around his jawbone.


The radio filled with Slothfeld's tortured, drawn out screams as Jack reached the top of the stairwell, ran down the tunnel and collided with the door at the end. When it failed to open, he kicked the door again, but something was blocking it on the other side.

Slothfeld's screams became choking, gurgling sounds, and it was no longer just coming from the radio. Jack saw the vent above the door frame and used the door handle to hop up to it. With his sturdy metal crossbow bolt he began to prize the cover free from the wall.

Slothfeld screamed one more time, just as the cover popped free, and then the radio and the room beyond both fell silent.

Jack climbed into the vent, pushing through the cobwebs as he crossed the short rectangular steel tunnel to the other end.

With his legs he pushed the cover until it popped loose and dangled from one screw. Jack aimed the sniper rifle into the room, and at first he saw nothing but the jeep.

He dropped into the room… and saw what had happened to Alyssa.

No…

He had barely enough sense to scan the room with his rifle as he rushed over to her, but the area seemed clear. He stopped before the vixen and knelt down, ripping a glove from his paw to feel for her pulse.

Come on… you better be alive… oh thank, god.

He saw the bite marks on her neck, and the puncture wound on the edge of the side, and radioed for the ZBI. Llater must have informed them of Jack's status, for they quickly assured him that they were already sweeping XIBALBA and would be there soon with a medic.

With that issue taken care of, Jack pressed a gauze to the puncture wound and looked around for the doctor.

"Slothfeld?" He spoke.

He couldn't see the doctor anywhere, but he'd heard enough from the radio to know that he hadn't simply escaped. All the same, Jack had to be sure.

Reluctantly leaving Alyssa's side, Jack held his rifle and made his way over to the doorway. Judging from the bits of dirt, root and leaves surrounding the wide door, it was an entrance concealed in a cliff or a hill. Jack stepped outside into the cold air, listening for signs of life. The overgrown road ahead was dark, and he didn't see any tracks leading down it. He looked to the right, but there was nothing there either. Finally, he looked to the left, along the cliffside.

He froze, his years of experience in violence and combat insufficient to fully prepare him for what had become of Dr. Daniel Slothfeld.

He involuntarily shuddered, a juddering noise of disgust escaping his throat. He scanned the forest area through his sniper scope, but the killer was long gone.

He heard a banging back in the garage, no doubt the ZBI trying to break the door down, and ran back inside. Alyssa was still alive, but her breathing was shallow, and there was no telling how much blood she had lost. Jack pushed down on the gauze and pulled out another to apply pressure to the bite wound, trying not to think about the last time he'd had this much physical contact with her,

Part him was convinced that it was already too late.

Slothfeld was dead. His data disk was useless. Alyssa was well on the way to dying herself. Jack had never felt so helpless in his entire life.