Nick is just finishing reattaching Judy's tail when they hear a knock at the window.
Nick is quick to dive behind the couch, out of sight of any looming predators. Judy shoots a curious glance to the tail sticking out from under the couch.
She turns to the source of the sound, only to come face to face with a familiar sneer peering back at her through the cracked glass.
She can't help stare at his droopy eye.
"Finnick?" she asks the small fox through the window. The fennec appears surprised to see her in the room. His lips suddenly curl into a combative snarl.
"BUNNY COP! Where is Nick?! Did you turn him?! Girl, I swear, if you-!"
"Finnick, calm down! I didn't do anything to him! He's fine! He's just hiding behind the couch is all," she hastily explains before he can lose his temper.
"The couch-...Nick! Nick get your fuzzy red butt over here! This is important!" Finn bellows through the compromised glass. A small thump sound is heard coming from the couch, followed by a pained yelp.
Nick slides out of his hiding spot and rubs his throbbing head.
"Hey, Finn. To what do we owe the pleasure?" Nick grunts. Finnick gives him a confused look and turns to Judy.
"...How he still breathin'? Thought you would have snogged him to death by now. He holdin' out on you?" the small fox crudely asks.
Judy's face heats up again and Finn manages to see it. His giant ears droop down in shock. He reaches up on the tips of his toes so that he can place a paw on the rabbit's cheek.
"How the…" he stutters.
Judy bops him forcefully on the head, knocking his eyeball right out of his skull. She gasps down the dangling organ and almost feels sick from it. The fennec growls and quickly shoves the eye back into place.
"Finn! Focus! Where's the fire?!" Nick demands, trying to ignore the sight of his brother falling apart again. The wet schlock of the eye popping into place does his appetite no favors.
"The fire?! Have you two watched the news lately?!" he barks furiously. The two look at each other and then back to him. Both heads shake suspiciously. He slams a rotting paw into his face and rubs it. "Just! Turn on the channel!"
Judy grabs the remote and turns the source back to normal television, finally ending the movie's main menu music that had been playing on repeat for over an hour. It takes her some channel skipping to find the news, not being used to Nick's stations.
She stops switching stations when she sees a shakily filmed video of Nick and herself on the apartment roof, hugging each other tightly. The video is being taken by someone on the street below, and the owner of the phone keeps changing the focus between the mammals on the roof and the ones splattered on the road below them.
A bunch of the undead in the surrounding crowd are rushing to help the wolf cubs and their mother, who had been landed on by the two rams and smaller ewe.
Judy cringes when she sees the whining remains of Bellwether being rolled into a plastic bag to be reassembled at the hospital.
The mother and her cubs are less injured than roof divers, but still need pieces of them reattached. The crowd helps the zombified paramedics gather everyone
The two rams had landed headfirst, so there isn't much to save. It seems that the dead can still die. Their chunks are gathered into trash cans for later disposal.
The one recording turns the phone back up to the roof, where Judy sees that she's still snuggling with her fox, just as he goes to kiss her. She watches herself push him away and it hurts her inside. She wants to let him so badly, but she knows the consequences wouldn't be worth it...yet.
A few in the crowd point up at them. Nick's ears splay back as he hears mumbles of 'breather!' and 'meat!' coming from the audience. But a general sense of confusion swirls around the numerous shambling husks.
They don't understand why Judy isn't attacking him. She has Nick in her grasp and her teeth aren't digging into his skin.
"What the hell have you two been doing?!" Finn demands from outside the window. Nick's eyes are still locked onto the television. Judy is too busy chewing on her bottom lip to answer.
Finn pulls out his phone and holds it up to the glass for Nick and Judy to see. The screen is displaying his recent call list, which is full of dozens of calls between himself and…
"Mom?" Nick mumbles, his eyes growing wide. Finn gives him a glare and returns his phone to his pocket.
"She's been calling me nonstop, trying to find out where you are! Where's your phone?! Why am I the one she's been blowing up at?!" the hooded fennec demands impatiently. Nick manages a dry swallow and takes a look around, trying to find his phone. He hadn't used it since...the last time he called his mother. Its location is a mystery.
"Finn, can you call my number? I don't actually know where it is."
Finnick groans, rolls his good eyes and pulls his phone out to call his brother. Judy lets out a tiny squeak as she feels something vibrating under her recently stapled tail. She is quick to pull the offending piece of tech out from under her butt.
She throws the black rectangle to Nick. The fox, trying to ignore where the phone was resting the whole time, slides open his phone and sees that the battery is almost dead.
He cringes guiltily.
105 missed calls.
Hundreds more texts that look like Corduroy tried to type them with his nose.
Dozens of MuzzleTime requests.
Even a few notifications on Instamam.
All from the last day or so. How hadn't he heard any of the notifications? Maybe he was too lost in his bun's eyes…
"What did she say?" the russet fox asks hesitantly.
"Nick, man, she saw you getting held off the edge of the roof! Well...she didn't see you, but her new mate did. What did you think was going to happen?! She's on her way here right now!" Finnick shouts.
"What do you mean 'on her way here'?! She has no eyes, Finn! And Corduroy is just a head! He can't drive either!" Nick argues back, a multitude of possible disasters appearing in front of his eyes. All of them end up with Zootopia in flames or sinking. He doesn't know how it could sink, but it would.
Just then, from outside, the three hear the distinct sound of tires squeaking, followed by what sounds almost like bowling pins being sent flying in every direction.
"Nice throw!" they hear someone shout before their voice is roughly cut off by their intimate reunion with the ground.
It rains wet chunks down below for a few seconds. Then Nick hears a voice that sends a massive chill right down his back.
"WHERE IS MY BABY?!" belows his mother from the street below in her best Todzilla roar. A few bits of the shattered glass fall away, startling Finnick as they tinkle around his paws.
Finn turns to meet Nick's horrified expression.
"Nope!" the fennec chirps before turning tail and taking off back down the fire escape, his ears flopping gloriously in the wind. Judy sighs at the display of cowardice and turns to her fox, only to see nothing but a red tail poking out from under the couch.
The bunny starts to roll her eyes, but feels her attention suddenly drawn to the rapidly increasing rumble in the floor. Her ears dart from side to side, trying to figure out where the danger is coming from.
But it seems to be coming from all around her.
The door to Nick's room, only having just been replaced, is sent flying off its hinges again and nearly takes out Judy as it soars. Instead it just imbeds itself in the wall.
Judy shrieks and runs around the room in panicked circles, unaware of what is trying to attack her. A few more loud booms and heavy breathing can be heard walking through the doorless doorway. The temperature in the room drops several degrees and the television even flickers slightly.
Either some sort of electric anomaly just stormed in...
Or it's Nick's mother.
Judy stops running long enough to take in the sight of the once-gentle vixen. She had never met Marian before while she was alive, but she had seen pictures. And compared to those pictures, the current version of Mrs. Wilde is quite jarring to the rabbit.
But it's only really her eyes that disturb her so. Just two empty holes in her head where the viscera inside can be plainly seen. She's missing an ear, but otherwise...she's still a very beautiful fox. If Judy wasn't terrified of the rage emanating off of her, she might have felt some heat in her cheeks again.
Just because she would imagine a female Nick!
No other reason.
At all.
Mrs. Wilde wields a steering wheel in one paw and the severed head of another fox in her other. Judy gasps at the sight, not knowing about Corduroy or his state of being. For all the bunny knows, the fox just decapitated a poor tod and stole his head.
What she wants with it, Judy can't be sure.
"WHERE. IS. MY. NICKY?!" she demands with gritted teeth. Unable to see around her, she stares at nothing at all and instead waits for someone to answer her.
Judy doesn't know if answering her is the best of ideas.
Nick's tail agrees.
"...Mary, please! You have to control yourself! You're going to scare your son!" comes a male voice from somewhere else in the room. Judy's ears flick, trying to locate the source. But it becomes obvious to her that it's the head in the wild fox's grip that is doing the talking.
"SCARE HIM?! HE ALMOST GOT THROWN OFF THE ROOF AND THEN WOULDN'T ANSWER HIS PHONE! HE BETTER BE SCA-..."
Mrs. Wilde's voice suddenly cuts out as she takes a deep breath in through her nose, exposing her to the many smells present in the air around her. Among them are the familiar scent of death, mixed with the smell of her own kit. The latter of those sends a bolt of lightning through her body, overriding her mind and taking control away from her.
With the scent of living meat present in her lungs, the infection takes over.
Still completely silent, Judy watches as Mrs. Wilde's demeanor changes from upset mother to something much darker and more familiar to her. The ache in the bunny's chest grows as she realizes what is happening.
The infection has a hold of Nick's mother and is sending her into feral hunting mode.
And Nick is only steps away from her, hiding under the couch with his trembling tail still sticking out. The only thing preventing the vixen from reaching down and tearing into her own son is the fact that she's blind.
"Mary?! Mary, what's going on?! What're you...oh no. No no no no! Sweetie, snap out of it! It's your son, it's your son! He's not food!" screams the head in her grip. Without even a glance down, Mrs. Wilde drops the head and allows it to roll off to the side.
"OW!" he complains. His companion pays no mind and gets to work using her nose, sniffing at the air and wandering around for a source of the delicious scent.
Judy realizes she's been watching this happen while she could have been doing something to save the life of her fox.
Nick's tail finally slips all the way under the couch.
The slight rustle his movements made catches the attentive ears of his mother, whose head whips around and points in his direction. She gets down on all fours, a low growl rumbling from the back of her throat.
She starts to prepare to attack in the direction of her prey, but is interrupted by an empty can of fish flying into her head, making a sharp ding noise. Mrs. Wilde shakes her head violently and bites around her, unaware that her attacker is on the other side of the room next to a stack of potential ammunition.
Another can smacks into her muzzle, covering it with days old fish juice. The juice fills her nostrils and seems to block her from smelling anything other than slightly fermented cod. Judy throws more and more cans at the savage husk.
Mrs. Wilde darts towards Judy, baring her teeth and letting out a horrifying cry of anger. Fearing not for her own life but for Nick's, the bunny engages with the fox when she gets within kicking distance.
As the fox had ran towards her assailant, she had unknowingly kicked the head of her boyfriend closer to the couch. Nick peeks his face out from the cover of his hiding spot, only to see Corduroy staring back at him. The head of the fox doesn't seem to care that there's fresh meat right in front of him. Despite his racing heart and panicked breathing, Nick can't help but notice how disillusioned Corduroy looks. While Nick's mother works through her hunger-fueled rage, the new tod isn't hostile in the slightest.
In fact, he looks more distraught than anything.
"I'm sorry Nicholas. I didn't know this would happen. She had been so well-behaved on the phone with you, even when she knew you were still alive...I guess the sound of your voice wasn't enough to trigger the hunt, but your scent was…" Corduroy says weakly to his mate's kit.
Nick doesn't dare answer, fearing that he might draw his mother back to him. But he does give the decapitated tod a nod of understanding.
"I miss my body…" Corduroy sniffles. "I feel so useless like this...this zombie thing sucks so hard...I wish I never even came back…"
Something clicks in Nick's mind.
Rejection of the infection.
Corduroy is another husk who lost the urge to hunt! Nick looks around from under the couch, multiple plans running through his head at the same time, most of them ending with him in pieces.
While the fox head next to him grieves in silence, Nick tries to think of a way to break through to his mother. He has to convince her somehow that the infection is a bad thing and that she's worse off for it. But what can he do?
He has to take advantage of anything he can.
And in this situation, it's her lack of vision. She is relying on her hearing and smell to hunt. So if he can do something that will trick her into…
That.
As much as he hates what he is going to have to do to his mother's emotions, he doesn't know if anything else will pull her from her savage state of mind. It's going to break her heart, but hopefully he'll be able to apologize once she's back in her right mind.
As long as he doesn't mess up and get himself killed for real…
Nick turns back to Corduroy, who has taken to staring down at the floor in mental anguish. A quick click of the tongue draws the tod's gaze to him.
Corduroy gives him a tired but questioning look
"When I give the signal, get her attention," Nick whispers as lightly as he can. The sounds of the battle being raged on the other side of the room render most of their communication mute to the outside world. Judy and his mother are being far too loud to pick up any lingering mumblings from under such a large piece of furniture.
Corduroy tries to shake his head, but without neck muscles, just ends up rolling slightly more onto his side.
"She'll kill you! Stay put!" he whispers back. Nick groans and rubs his face.
"Just do it! I have a plan!" Nick urges. Corduroy wants to reject this offer, but doesn't have any better ideas to work with. He lets out a nervous sigh and lifts his brows twice.
Maybe that means 'okay.'
Nick turns his attention to the snack bag that he had prepared for the movie. Still full of multiple foods and fish cans, it weighs a good bit. Not as much as a full grown fox of course, but it's plenty heavy enough to make some noise if dropped from a decent height.
Using his early years as a pickpocket to his advantage, Nick slides himself soundlessly to the bag and grabs hold of it. Corduroy watches him with uncertainty in his hazel eyes.
The trembling fox slides his way out from under the couch with his bag held tightly to his chest. He catches a glimpse of his bunny fighting his mother for his sake and is momentarily struck dumb at the sheer spectacle of it all.
Judy's such a talented fighter. Even against the larger and more unpredictable opponent, the rabbit is much too fast to catch. But she's not hyped up on the infection's effects like his mother is. Judy is looking visibly winded now, while the feral vixen is still going strong.
Nick knows he needs to do something before his mother manages to latch her jaws around his bunny and shakes her to pieces.
She might be dead already, but Nick knows that she can still die more. He saw the remains of those rams on the video. They aren't ever coming back.
Nick shuffles over to his window and examines the shattered glass.
It looks broken enough already.
The only idea he has is a bit risky and stupid, but it also might work.
He turns hesitantly to the sounds of violence happening across the room. Judy is slowing down now and has only narrowly avoided the snapping jaws of his mother a few times already.
Nick looks to Corduroy and nods.
"Oh, uh...NICK! RUN! GET OUT WHILE SHE'S DISTRACTED!" the head screams overly dramatically. A fine actor he is not, but at least he got his mate's attention. Marian spins around, losing interest in the exhausted rabbit in an instant. Judy blinks up through her slouched fighting stance, unaware of what Nick is trying to do.
Nick makes very loud, obvious stomping noises with his paws from his place in front of the window. The sound of motion does the trick and his mother is flying at him like a bullet before he can even blink.
Judy lets out an agonizing wail as she sees her fox seemingly accepting his death.
Nick holds out the bag of snacks in front of himself and whispers a silent prayer.
If she sinks her teeth into him anyway, he's dead.
If he times this wrong, he's dead.
If he falls with too much momentum, he's dead and flat.
But the stars must have aligned, because his mother slams into the bag in the exact way that he had been hoping. The force of her body weight flying into him like a rocket sends him soaring backwards, his back striking the already-broken window and shattering it the rest of the way.
He's outside now.
What a lovely evening.
He throws his limbs down and lets out an intentional wail of terror. His claws catch on the metal floor of the fire escape, slowing him down at the last minute so that he doesn't fly off the side. Instead, he lifts the bag up and aims it down below.
A crowd of cast-covered wolf pups and their wheelchair-bound mother look up at him with pleading expressions.
"Oh, for the love of-!" he curses and aims a little more to the left.
He throws the bag down while letting out an even louder shout. As the bag falls and picks up speed, he lets his voice fade in volume. The end result is what sounds like his body falling into the street below, his scream only cutting out the instant the bag smashes into the street and explodes into a crunchy, snack filled mess.
His mother, without her vision to help her, stumbles out of the broken window and latches onto the railing. She aims her muzzle down and shrieks.
It's a sound a kit never wants their mother to hear.
"NIIIIIIIIIICKYYYYYYYYYYYYY!~" she cries, her feral nature having completely fallen away to reveal the mother underneath. Nick sits motionless on the stairs next to her, not daring to make a sound. He doesn't want to risk exposing himself to her without knowing that she's rejected the infection for good.
Tears fall like rain to the street below, a few falling onto the recovering pups.
The craziness of the evening finally starts to fade. A few of the undead below point up and watch the scene play out, but they don't seem to be all that affected by Nick's presence. In fact, they seem pretty thrilled to see him.
They do throw a few concerned glances at his mother, though.
Mrs. Wilde's cries don't let up. It's almost like the light has finally been snuffed out of her world, even after losing her vision. Something inside her is breaking and Nick can't listen to it for much longer. She might be undead but she's still his mom.
"Nooooooo no no no...NO! Nicky...no...I can't! I can't! I'm a...RAAAAAAAAGH!" she bellows in barely-contained hatred of herself. Her emotions are overpowering her rotting body and words can do nothing to express how badly she's hurting.
She resigns herself to mindless screaming and flailing, with her claws tearing at her scalp.
"I WASN'T ME! I WASN'T ME! WHAT WAS I?! WHAT IS THIS?!" she wails. Nick's ears, folded tightly against his head to tune out some of her misery, perk up a bit as she starts to work out what he knows she needs to.
She's starting to understand that the infection is what made her kill her only son.
"IT HUUUUURTS! IT HUUUUUUURTS! GET OUT OF MEEEEEEEEE!"
Nick watches his mother slam her fists into her skull in a rage. He can tell that his message is getting through to her. Plus, he's at his limit for listening to her sobs.
Marian slumps over the railing and hangs there limply, unwilling to spend the energy it would require to sit down.
Behind the distraught vixen, Nick sees Judy peeking out with scared, watery eyes. From just the sounds alone, the bunny expected to witness a mess waiting for her outside the window.
What she actually sees is Nick hiding on the stairs next to his mother, who is leaning over the railing and about to fall over.
With a trembling huff and a kick of her back legs, she tries to.
Nick sees the movement out of the corner of his vision and is quick enough to grab the back of his mother's blouse. She lets out a surprised yelp as she is pulled back onto the safety of the fire escape.
It's Nick's turn to shake with fear of losing his loved one. He hadn't expected her to do something like that. If he had been only a second late, she would have ended up just like the snack bag.
"Who is…? What are…?" Marian asks with a raspy voice. Judy leans down and picks up the severed head of the red fox, placing it into the window frame next to her. Corduroy's eyes dart all around but relax when he sees that his mate is okay.
Mrs. Wilde takes a strong whiff of the fox holding her close to his chest.
Nick's eyes widen and he takes a deep breath, just in case his plan had failed.
He can picture the feral snarl on her face returning and her teeth slicing into his throat.
But they don't.
He looks down into his mother's empty eye sockets. If they had eyeballs again, he can tell that they would be expressing deep confusion and pain.
"...Nicky…?" she asks, her voice one of both agony and hope. Nick places a shaky paw onto her head and gives her remaining ear a gentle rub.
"...Hey, Mom," he answers. His mask of unaffected bravado can hold no longer and it shatters into a million pieces. The two foxes wrap their arms tightly around each other and hold on for dear existence. It's like the world will fall away from them if they dare let each other go for only a moment.
Judy and Corduroy watch the two embrace each other and express their emotions.
A crowd has gathered below them, a select few forming a protective shield around a strangely familiar group of recently-hospitalized wolves. But most of them are just watching in confusion. There are even some heartwarmed 'Aww's' that arise from the audience. This feeling of warmth is quite surprising to the few who experience it.
"Some of them are recording. Are...we in trouble?" Corduroy asks Judy. The bunny doesn't bother with the husks below and is content to simply watch her fox finally able to see his mother again for the first time in years.
Even if the circumstances are less than ideal, there's nothing quite like seeing a mother and her kit reuniting.
"No idea. Don't really care, though. Got to wrestle and Nick is safe."
"...You didn't touch my mate inappropriately, did you?"
"...Dude, you're a head."
"She doesn't seem to mind it."
"...What?"