Chapter Seventy-Two
The Demon in White
Wolfard pulled himself upright in the bed, surprised he'd ever see the white-coated hare in the doorway again. He sought in his mind for something to say but came back blank. So he decided it would be better just to wait and see for what reason Flo had come back after the revelations of the near past.
The moment of awkwardness was extending without limits, Flo just standing there with a face of detachment as she stared at the apprehensive wolf. Wolfard uneasily licked his lips, the tensile urge to find something to say growing in oddity of the situation.
"Food," Flo said suddenly, loud enough to make the wolf flinch. "I mean," she went on to clarify, her voice now too quiet, "I brought— I brought food." Wolfard squinted at her to which she cleared her throat uneasily, took her arms away from behind her back and held out a battered sandwich, wrapped in cling foil, towards him.
"Oh," Wolfard blurted, holding out a paw carefully and taking the warm package. "Well, thank you." He was grateful but a little too surprised to be sure how to show it yet. The hare sucked in another lungful of air at his comment and clasped her paws behind her back, pacing further into the room to examine a chart of numbers on the wall — like she was trying to make it look like she was there to do a check-up rather than see the wolf personally. His eyes averted to the food, and he slapped his hungry lips with the words, "This looks delicious!"
"And I thought I was the sarcastic one," Flo scoffed at him.
"I'm not being sarcastic," he corrected. "Compared with that soggy mush you showed me before, this is delicious."
Her gaze shifting to the wall, a small smile grew on the hare's initials. She allowed herself a small amount of pride as she heard the wolf unwrapping the food, waited just a moment before saying, "Half of that's mine."
Wolfard reacted like he'd been slapped, his glance darting between the food in his paws and the hare with the fluffy tail, tho, he more sought her eyes to give expression to. "Th— this is your lunch?"
"Yepp. I have the night shift. Hares are normally nocturnal anyway."
"Flo, I—" a part of himself interrupted him. His first reaction had been to refuse, saying he couldn't take food away from her like that, but a part of him had grown to understand, just a little, how she worked. She was too direct for that, but then again, if he was to say no, she'd just agree with him, take the sandwich away and leave again, before, he'd have a moment to even give disagreement a note of voice.
"I... thank you," he said at last, a sensation growing in the form of the feeling that he had just averted another disaster.
Flo turned to him over her shoulder. She smiled as she noted his thankful expression. "Well," she said easily, skirting to a health-information poster on another wall, "you hardly touched your main meal. As your designated career, I couldn't just let you starve all night." Wolfard took one half of the sandwich from the unwrapped foil, holding out the still-half-wrapped piece of tastiness to the hare. She looked at it with a tilt of head for a moment, and then stepped to take it without disagreement, looking down to Wolfard as he shuffled sideways, moving towards the edge of the clinical bed.
The wolf didn't voice his invitation for her to sit down beside him, not wanting her to 'think' about it and feel awkward, thus, he simply lay there quietly eating his food, his muzzle splitting to a grin he couldn't control, as he felt the weight of the hare disgruntling the balance to his side.
The two of them shared the bed close to one another in quietness for a minute — Wolfard still under the sheets; Flo sitting next to him — both sat up against the head of the bed. The hare took another mouthful of what remained of her sandwich, and then she considered to the wolf, a brow raised, "Tell me, Jim, when was the last time you had sex?"
Wolfard's head shot at her, some of the contents of his sandwich falling from the bread and onto the white sheets in result of some tomato stains. There was a lot about that question which shocked the wolf, and he wasn't exactly sure which one to mention first. Too startled by the mention of his name and that which was asked about, he openly answered, "About six months ago?"
She smiled, playfully. "And she hasn't let you 'fool around' since?"
"Woa, wait. How the heck d'you know my name?"
"I am your legally designated career for tonight. It is not, in fact, illegal for me to look at your file, you know."
"Bh-but— that's not playing fair!"
Flo adjusted her glasses, derisively. "I never said I was playing at all... Jim."
"Come on, Flo, you gotta tell me your name now."
"I 'gotta' do nothing of the kind. It's entirely of my own choosing. Perhaps," she added, after taking a slow and thoughtful bite into her sandwich, "if you answer a few of my questions, I'll answer yours."
Jim couldn't see that much issue of her probing here and there, especially since he wanted to talk to her anyways. "Okay, shoot."
"Tell me: are you still seeing this person with whom you shared your body about six months ago?" He gazed at her, mutely. With any other femammle, it would've been obvious why she was asking. But with Flo, Jim had learned, he could never take anything for granted. "Or did your relationship suffer an untimely end?"
"It wasn't— we weren't... we're just friends. We were both single; she wanted some help getting through the mating season. She has an 'other mammle' helping her out now."
Flo nodded. She would've noticed the bitterness in his tone of voice as he mentioned the 'other mammle', if she had not been blind to expressions and tones of voice. "So," she forged on, turning back towards him, "is once every six months normal?"
"Well, you're the nurse. You tell me."
"That's down to the individual," she noted, looking up at the ceiling with some crumbs sticking around her mouth. "It's like a lot of other things, really. If you get a lot of it, then don't. Your body feels it has a deficit. But if you're not used to getting your end often, you won't feel frustration so much when you haven't been getting any."
"I don't know. I guess it is, but—" Wolfard sighed. He couldn't just sit there like that, not with Flo literally next to him on the bed. He had to find the reason, "Why are you asking this, anyway?"
Slowly, the hare turned her head at him. "Isn't it obvious?"
He chuckled, softly. "Never, with you around." As he looked into her eyes, the wolf could feel the blood in his heart pumping hotter and faster, and he felt himself being somehow drawn in by her scent and her features. It was all so new to him, all of this — the very idea that predator and prey could be together at all seemed so bizarre, so strange, yet so right at the same time. He would never have even considered the idea had he not had found out about Nick and Judy's status earlier.
"Clearly," Flo said, evenly, "I'm trying to uncover if your 'prior state' was simply because of sexual frustration, or if it is evidence to a medical disorder."
"Oh, I eh—" Wolfard pulled himself together quickly. "Clearly. Of course."
"I specialized in reproduction. Well— tried to, anyway."
"What do you mean, 'tried to'?" Flo said nothing. Wolfard waited for the air to clear, then he uneasily conceded, "Well... thank you for your concern Nurse... Nurse Flo."
"Indeed."
Clearing his throat, Wolfard scratched at his collar. "Well, huh... I answered your questions, so..."
"Oh, very well," she muttered. "If it's really that important to you, my first name happens to be Rose."
Jim inclined his head in curiosity. "Rose?"
"Nurse Roseline Flo. If you have to use my full name, say Roseline. Rose Flo just sounds weird."
"Rose," he repeated. "That's a beautiful name." Clearing her throat, Flo adjusted her coat sleeve, but then Jim added in jest, "Like a pwitty-pwitty flower."
Snapping her eyes at him sharply, Flo's gaze smoldered at the wolf for a few long moments, but then she brightened a little, inclined her head closer to him and plainly said, "Do you have any idea, Jim, how many pressure points there are on the male anatomy, where a truly astounding amount of pain can be instilled… That is, without leaving any physical damage?"
"Errh. No?"
She smiled not so innocently. "I do."
The wolf licked his dry lips off the crumbs. Yeah... maybe getting Flo's affections wasn't such a great idea…
...
Jack Savage sat back coolly into the upholstery of his driver's-side seat. He looked to the attractive doe beside him, his paws slipping behind his head as he said, "You know, it'll be pretty dangerous for a young hick like you to go in there."
"I can handle myself," Judy shot, though without being able to draw her eyes away from the ominous veil of shadow which encased the unlit confines of the Zootopia harbor. Following her gaze, the striped rabbit looked out into the impenetrable gloom, likewise. The entrance way was blocked by a tall, wide piece of wire mesh fencing, flanked either side by the old brickwork of two, large buildings. Through the wire fence little could be seen as the light quickly faded away, only to be replaced by the shadows of the massive shipping containers that rooted in their rusty slumber.
There was no noise or motion; the large cranes which could be seen as a dark shape on the horizon were fixed in motionlessness. There was no telling what laid within... except—
Jack chuckled at the Judy's nervousness, despite her attempts to hide it from his cocky existence. "If only," he cut in, "you happened to know some sort of 'secret agent' fella who had access to all the latest spyware technology." Reaching out, Jack fiddled with the dials on his radio as he had before, and it flipped back to reveal that same LCD display. Judy watched with interest as he manipulated the sophisticated device, and looked up with surprise as the figures of people appeared on the green-scale display — their bodies' heat illuminating orange and red.
Savage gave her a sideways glance — the chicks always dug the tech. He turned back to his dials. "Okay, looks like there's about thirty of them on the ground. Though there's probably more on the inside. Looks like they're more-or-less ready to start packing up."
Reaching for another dial, the MI-Z agent adjusted the exposure. "Most of them are carrying small arms. About a dozen pistols altogether, can't see any SMGs or— oh, nope, there is one: some kind of assault rifle by the looks of it. Alright," he decided after a speck of time, leaning away from the screen and pulling Judy's radio off her belt without even asking, "let's give 'em what we know." He ahemed against the receiver and tried to report, "Bogo? This is Savage here. I have intel on the situation down at the docks, please come in."
Jack took his thumb off the radio call button. He waited for anything, but there was only the faint white noise of the disliked response. "Chief Bogo, please come in." Again, a pause of no result. "Chief, these guys aren't gonna be hanging around much longer. They're packing their things onto their boat as I speak. Chief? Bogo?" He adjusted the knob, tension growing in his voice. "Clawhauser, you don't know me, but if you're there, please respond. Come in!"
Jack hissed a curse, dropping the radio back onto Judy's lap dismissively. "No response," he muttered. "Damn, what the heck's going on down there?"
"What do we do?" Judy asked, not accepting Jack as being in command, exactly, but aware he was 'officially' still in charge. Jack's grimace was at the screen. After a moment's thought, he turned with sudden energy and routed around for something in the footwell behind him. A black box was grabbed from there, from which he got out something like a small, boxy gun.
"If the PD don't get here soon, that boat's gonna leave the port. We might be able to intercept with a heli, but we still risk losing it. We take a shot at it with this thing," he explained, loading it ready, "it'll attach a tracking device to it. Our satellite will be able to pick the signal up no matter where they go." With a sigh that she kept softly to herself, Judy took another gander at the suffocating blackness. She wondered what Nick would think of her going in there without him, with only Jack to watch her back. It had been barely an hour, and it surprised the rabbit just how much she was already missing her fox. This was, after all, the first time they'd really been separated since their lunch at the café, before, how they felt for each other had become clear. That felt like a million years ago, even if it was really just five days.
Judy turned back to the jackrabbit, but he pushed open the car door and stepped outside which caused Judy to sigh under her breath, "Nick, I hope you can forgive me," before undoing her belt and stepping out as well.
The tarmac outside was cold and growing unpleasant, while she jogged silently to catch up with Savage as he approached the edge of the gate, track-gun in paw, taking cover against the peeling wall. Judy took her spot beside him, her ears on high alert, the smell of salt and rust in the air. Jack peered out from around the edge of the solid wall of the large building and into the darkness of the city harbor.
"We're just going in there to attach a tracker, right?" Judy asked in a hush. All she got was a very serious glance and a nod that followed the holstering of his gun and a swift motion of signals with his paw. Hopps nodded and then the two of them stepped out from around the corner, crossing quickly up to the edge of the gate, where Judy knelt and held out her paws towards the ground — Jack arriving half a beat later and springing himself up into the air as she coiled him up.
He sailed upwards and grabbed the top of the fence as he reached his highest point. The whole fence shook, and Jack's body tensed instinctively with the compromise of his balance that gave consternation to his wide eyes, yet his paws clung tight and the fence calmed down. Glancing back into the darkness — hoping no one was close enough to have heard the rattling — Jack shifted his weight on the metal bar he was clung to.
Gripping tight with his feet, knees and one arm, he moved back to the city side of the fence and down to Judy who was waiting below. His knuckles whitening, he stretched down towards her. Judy's legs bunched; she crouched herself low and launched her body into the air, catching hold of Jack's paw and gripping tight, while her free paw and toes dug into the mesh of the fence as the buck heaved her up.
A moment later, the two rabbits landed on the harbor side of the fence — though there was no waiting around, as the two of them swiftly scurried from the opening and to the cover of the containers nearby. They paused for a moment, pressing themselves against the cold metal of one of the carriers of goods and empty history. Jack glanced around himself; Judy's cheeks inflated as she pushed a breath of anxious tension all around them. "Nervous?" Jack asked with a glanced smile.
Hopps' head turned to Savage as he went back to considering about, a mixture of emotions and 'characters' blocking her from knowing how to respond. She told herself she should carry on the 'act' of the naive hick, but she also knew that to behave 'naively' in situations such as this could be fatal. "I," she considered in a few beats later... "I'm not sure. I'm not sure how to react— I'm not used to this."
Jack chuckled understandingly, assuming she was talking about their going behind enemy lines. "Not enough visibility down here," he muttered to himself, noting up at the container. "Gotta get higher. Take this, put it in your pocket." Judy found herself with the track gun in her paws. She turned with surprise to the jackrabbit beside her, when he jumped up for a three-bar ladder ascending the side of the tall container. She watched him carefully as he climbed, consequently, she holstered the tracker and reached up her paws, as he rotated and extended down towards her.
While Judy's feelings for the rabbit were 'mixed' to say the least, she knew from experience how important it was you could trust your partner. She knew and accepted she had to trust this person as though he were a brother, and pushed all mistrust and adverseness from her as she took Jack's paw, allowing him to pull her off the ground and to the first of the high steps.
Like frogs leaping upstairs, the two rabbits climbed the three-bar ladder intended for people more than twice there size. They climbed up onto the top of the container, hunched low to the metal so their silhouettes weren't visible upon the skyline. Sitting up on his front, Jack skimmed about at the darkness and fog which had risen up from the lake. "There," he said, his voice barely a whisper, his paw pointing down towards some lights a little way off and the shape of the massive tanker vessel, which could only just be seen as a charcoal outline in the blackness of the surrounding waters.
"What's the range on this thing?" Judy asked, sub-consciously touching the tracking device.
"Not a lot. Less than a mile."
Judy sighed in disappointment. "If one of us makes a distraction—"
"Too risky, we don't know what kind of coverage they have on the area."
"Not as risky as walking right up to them." Jack glanced to Judy, a brow raising with interest. He wondered, for a moment, if there was more to this rabbit than he had first thought — but now was not the time to think about it, so he refocused himself on his work.
"We can use the containers for cover— look." Moving close beside the rabbit, he directed her attention down the length of his arm and towards the complex of large containers, which encircled the wholeness of the clearing. "If one of us made a distraction without knowing exactly where the guards are posted, we'd run the risk of getting pounced on by a sentry. But if we're quiet, and keep to the shadows, we could pass a guard by at ten feet away, and he'd be none the wiser."
Judy agreed with a hum. Pulling himself away from the edge of the container, Jack raised himself onto paws and knees, looking down at the drop to the first of the metal bars down, and gauging the distance of the fall.
Jack's shape appeared on the horizon. From afar, a dangerous figure watched them, his nostrils flaring steam as Jack jumped down to the first step, with the second shape appearing on the skyline in the span of a quick moment — her sweet, appetizing scent being carried by the crisp sea air.
...
"So, just to confirm, we have come to the conclusion that your physically excited state earlier was, indeed, caused by sexual frustration, and 'not' a medical condition?"
The wolf spoke without thinking, "Yeah."
The hare raised a thin brow. "Sexual frustration caused by me."
He stuttered, but managed to control himself from spluttering, despite his startled wince at her. He carefully stared, and eventually, risked the question, "That food you brought me, the over-boiled mush of before?"
"Yes?"
"Is it 'normal' for a nurse of your training to paw-out the nightly meals?"
Smiling smugly, Flo shrugged her shoulders. "Is it normal for the effects of combat-related adrenaline to still be in effect enough to make someone's paws shake almost an hour after the combat's over?" Ignorant to expressions though she was, Flo would've had to have been medically blind not to have caught on to the disbelieving scowl the wolf sent her way with a disapproving shake of head.
"Don't evade the question. I've had plenty of training in interrogation, so stop trying to deceive me." Her smug smile faded. "Is it 'normal' for you to keep bringing up my relationship status? And to keep finding 'reasons' to come in here and see me?" Drawing in a long, slow breath, the hare tilted her head up and looked at the ceiling. "And is it 'normal' for you to keep bringing up reproduction and talking about my—"
"Alright, look, I'm— I'm not a..." Flo sighed, but it came out more like a low growl. "I'm not breaking any rules here," she said, evenly. "But, yes, you are correct in your statements. It isn't usual for me to deliver food. We've just been busy lately and—"
Again, the wolf's demeanor remained firm and disbelieving. Flo huffed with the speck of annoyance that led to her asking, "Then why did I come down here!?"
"Because you wanted to see me. You want my attention, my company." The hare's expression slowly faded into a neutral, impassive stare as the wolf went on, "That's the reason you brought the food up. You wanted an excuse to see to me. You don't have it in you to just say 'I like you, I want to spend time with you.' You feel like you have to hide it behind excuses and torments."
"You weren't really worried about the medical health of my— well, my... you were just using that as a reason to try and get me excited, trying to make me think about you in that way. I know I'm assuming a lot of things here," he clarified, his voice hot with lots of panic when he realized that what he was saying was more like an accusation. "I know I've probably just overthought everything, and you're sitting here wondering what the heck I'm on about. But to me it feels like… I don't know… It feels like you're trying to tell me something you can't bring yourself to say… Something you're too afraid too voice, too caught up—"
"Stop. Please." Wolfard's deluge cut dead. His brow lowered at the soft and almost pained tones of her voice — very different from the smug and sarcastic ones of before.
"You're right, I can't say... I..."
"Help me to understand. I'm here for you."
Flo glanced to him, her shoulders raising and lowering in a defeated sigh. "I don't want your pity," she said, sharply. "And I'm not a whore— that's not the reason I kept asking about it." Jim bit his lip delicately, making no comment and waiting patiently.
"All I have—" She cut herself off and her lips formed what appeared to be a number of swears. Then she slipped down onto her back, her gaze fixed straight ahead at one of the brightest lights above.
"All I have waiting for me back home is an empty apartment. The room will be dark, the air will be cold. I'll put the lights on, turn on the oven, eat alone and go to bed…" Flo reached for her mouth and pushed away the leftover crumbs from her fur. "I haven't had a normal conversation with anyone in months. That probably sounds crazy, but aside from work stuff and meaningless small talk with the other nurses, I really haven't talked to anyone. No one can bear to stick around me long. They're put off by my attitude and sarcasm… But... you."
Her brow raising, the hare's head edged towards the wolf in thoughtfulness. "For whatever reason, you don't seem to mind it." The wolf couldn't trust himself to believe it was actually happening, but Flo's paw slithered beneath his wrist. It turned, and the hare's small fingers interlinked with his. "It's just nice to have some company... for once."
When Jim's eyes reached Flo's again, she shifted quickly away — avoiding eye contact to such an extent that she was close to putting a crick in her neck. Jim gradually reached for her, not saying a word, and put his paw as calmly as he could on her cheek, where he very easily gave her the motion as to meet her engaging eyes.
"No," she resisted, her voice soft but firm as she pulled his paw away. Yet, she kept the paw, which was interlinked with his, where it was. However, her fingers tightened as she spoke, "I wake up alone, I eat alone, I spend my evenings alone, I—" Flo cleared her throat and readjusted herself into the bed. It was evident to Jim that she wanted to talk and that she was using the energy by the link that was created by their paws, her thumb lightly tracing against his fur in distraction.
"I... sleep alone. I mean, it's not the sex," she added in a mutter, mostly to herself, "it's just the fact there's no one there, you know? I don't need a 'physical relationship' to be happy. I just wish, sometimes, that I had a... little..." The white-coated hare lost her words, her voice coming to a halt as her nerves failed her, unable to use her sarcasm for cover as she tried to say what she wanted to say.
Wolfard guessed what it was, and sweetly did what he could to show the hare he could be there to provide that, pulling his paw away from hers, and gently — so very carefully — wrapping his arms around the proud hare's shoulders.
"A little bit of warmth? A little bit of a shoulder to lean on?" Beneath his arms, the wolf felt the hare freeze up — just as she had done before, when he'd encouraged her to confront her feelings. The wolf pushed on, trying to make his voice as affectionate and kind as possible, trying to sooth her through accepting how, he hoped so much, she felt — something which was obviously hard for her to come to terms with.
"You're an amazing person, Flo: strong, independent, intelligent. But, and I don't mean anything bad by this, even the strongest of us need someone to cry to once in a while."
"I—"
"You can't keep feeling like you have something to prove. You can't keep fighting what you want. Let me in, Rose. Let me help you fill this void." The white-coated hare hesitantly turned to the wolf, her intelligent, blue eyes searching questioningly into Wolfard's oaks. His gaze flicking between her eyes and her lips, Jim prepared. He reminded himself that this was all or nothing — that this was his last chance — and pushed his lips up against hers.
Flo recoiled sharply, her paw tugging away from his and her eyes shooting wide. "Wolf, that— that was disgusting, Wolfard," she shot, wiping her mouth with her arm. "What in all of Zoophon possessed you to even think of—"
"I'm sorry, Flo! I'm sorry, I just got a little—" The wolf's final word was muffled as the adrenaline of his kiss finally reached the hare's brain and eradicated all consternation and anxiety out of her — and as she nudged herself upon him on her own volition, her lips urged against his in a long kiss.
It was a leisurely and gentle meeting of mouths, with nothing extravagant and no mad passion. The pleasure and surprise of the affection was mixed in the wolf's mind — the hare's white, delicate paw touching upon the rim of his muzzle.
Flo didn't know what had driven her to do what she'd done, but that didn't stop her from allowing herself to enjoy it. She inched away from the act of need and looked down at the wolf, observably. It didn't take much thought to figure out his reaction, as he lay stunned on his back, his arms limply by his sides and his appearance in a full daze. His eyes had just managed to re-find the hare's, and the start of a grin had just began growing around his astonishment, until the lips of the hare came down a second time — lapping against his lips much firmer than before; her arms locking tight around his neck and kissing him like she'd never kissed before.
In his heart of hearts, the wolf knew… She hadn't.
...
Soon after, the rabbits had crossed some of the distance between them and the tanker. The collection of containers, which they walked through, felt more like a labyrinth then a harbor — great corridors of massive steel boxes towering high above the heads of the small rabbits.
It was almost pitch black, for the shadows of the steel around them and the dampness of the concrete ground beneath their feet. The air was completely stilled, except for when they came to a crossroads in the forest of containers, whereupon the wind rushed and howled towards them most fiercely. At one of these crossroads, like the ones before, Jack paused for a moment as to find the most suitable path to traverse. He hid in the shadows cast, checking both ways before darting across.
This time, however, when it came for Judy to follow after him, something, a vague instinct made her stop. She sniffed the air, her body still and her ears listening intently for the tiniest of sounds, waiting with baited breath in the hug of darkness.
Without warning, the dark shape of a thin dog dropped down in front of her. The dog didn't see her, but so did not Jack. Then there was the glint of dark metal as the assailant snatched his pawgun out. Her eyes widening with shock as the gun came to light, she rushed towards it, pulling out her pawgun — the fake copy of Scarlett's — and snatching the dog by the paw.
She slammed it against the metal wall, while Jack spun at the ruckus. The dog struggled to aim his pinned gun at her, but stopped all resistance as the muzzle of a hefty, silver gun came pressing up against his neck — the iron gaze of Judy perfectly steady as it bore into him.
He dropped his gun. Slowly, the dog raised his paws and placed them upon his head. "Jack," Hopps somewhat ordered calmly, her gaze fixated on the dog, "take him out." The shock took a moment to wear off, but then the striped rabbit nodded towards Judy. He hurried to the skinny dog's head height, kicked himself off the side of one of the containers and landed both feet upon the back of the dog's head as he hurtled through the air. Judy caught the unconscious body as it fell, lowering it noiselessly to the coldness below.
"Want me to kill him?" Jack asked, reaching down and taking the dog's gun.
Judy nearly shouted, her eyes drawn on the dog as she held him. She turned up instantly to Jack, fear and surprise in her eyes. "No!" she whispered in a strained bellow.
"Not with this," he clarified quickly, thinking it was the noise of the gun that worried her.
"No— no, there's no need to kill him."
"There's every need, Hopps. I'll let him live, if you're that against it. But that only gives us a few minutes before he wakes up."
Hopps glanced back down to the unconscious dog. She sighed and lowered his head onto the concrete. "Let's go," she decided, standing and making her way to Jack.
He nodded and resumed their sneaking towards the boat, glancing over the dog's gun. "Cheap piece of junk," he muttered.
"No good?"
"Think a medieval farmer armed with a pitchfork. It'll kill. It's better than nothing. There's no serial number and the barrel's been made with a 3D printer… looks like the receiver has too."
They advanced a little way more, through the corridor of claustrophobia. Jack thought on what Judy had said and his shoulders slumped, muttering quietly to the doe beside him, "I'm not being cruel, Judy. I don't kill for pleasure. The ZPD changes. Policing Zootopia was a very different game when I was being trained. Back then no one gave a crap how many crooks you killed, just so long as you got the job done. Nowadays, if so much as one accidental death happens, it demands a damn full-blown investigation. It was a heck of a lot simpler back in my day… bunch of fuckups."
"The PD?"
"Lionheart, Admin Tower, United Nations and the rest of them. It's all very different now. Back in my day," he added, flatly, "the training I got wouldn't've been much different from the training Wilde got with The Firm. We both wanted control of the city. It's just that one side was selfish, the other selfless." Judy followed in silent thought. But enough time passed for her to feel uncomfortable for the lack of response, until the jackrabbit suddenly stopped and raised his paw as a clenched fist.
While Hopps hadn't had the Special Ops training, Jack had. She still knew 'stop' when it was given. Raising two fingers, Jack pointed to the wall to the right, and Judy threw herself against it, trying to allow herself to follow his silent orders intuitively rather than wasting time figuring out the actual meaning.
Jack backed against the wall likewise, pressing himself flat against the cold metal. His head peering around the side of the container, he beckoned for Judy to come closer. Shifting herself to the still-beckoning paw, Judy allowed her shoulder to be grasped by Jack, and then to be pulled around in front of him. His arms came tight around her as he held her close to the edge of the metal, lending her just enough leeway to peek her head around the side of the soggy container — though the outside view was the last thing on her mind now.
Judy glanced down to their bodies — her back flush against him, her rump somewhere she'd far rather it wasn't. She felt the tightness of his arms around her, his calculated breaths beside her ear. She sought around into his face... and noticed him fully enwrapped in the 'spying', not even aware of how he was holding her. She forced herself to relax, reminded herself the she had to trust him for now, and that the only reason he was holding her so close was so they could both look out from the same piece of cover, therefore, she focused her eyes on the goal at paw.
"I count twenty," Jack concluded, as Judy gazed out at the sight: a massive tanker vessel painted black without markings, identification or lights. It had a host of a dozen or so memmle moving around it, pulling wooden pallets with small crates up onto the deck.
"They had a guard on this end," Judy brought up. "Probably there'll be a dozen more in the area, but out of sight."
"I didn't hear any patrols… Probably they're all stood guard. If we go back the way we came, we shouldn't run into trouble." Judy nodded, realizing how very close his face was, as she felt the soft touch of the fur on his cheek move against hers. Hopps gritted her teeth and forced herself to believe it was just so he could whisper faintly enough so only she would hear. "This should be close enough," he said, his whole focus locked with the boat.
"Got that right," she muttered to herself with no one else hearing.
"Paw me the track launcher." Judy's paw had just reached into her pocket, but then a sudden, ear-splitting howl called out from the darkness that they had come from. The rabbits were rooted to the ground, the deathly howl like an ethereal call on the winds — the group of criminals around the docks stopping and turning hastily in their direction. Hopps' face paled as the furious jackrabbit jerked the dog's gun into his paw, hissing a variety of swears as the round slid into place. "Get the replica gun out," he shot. "They won't know it's a fake until you try and fire it."
The sensation of being 'startled' wearing off, the criminals of twenty began advancing, with many realizing they had to investigate the sound while the rest blindly followed like sheep.
For a single, terrible instant, Judy saw all the doubt written across the jackrabbit's features; then he sucked in a sharp breath, bit down hard on his own teeth, squared his shoulders and darted out into the light.
He fired, immediately, two rounds into the air before aiming the gun dead at the criminals, holding it with both, the muzzle swinging side to side at the closest mammle, while Judy stepped into the light beside him a moment later with the reproduction of Scarlett's gun in paw. "Okay, two to twenty," Judy breathed, trying to keep confident. "It's only ten each, that's not so bad, right?"
"Maybe," Jack grimly muttered. "Maybe we'd have a decent chance if we had cover, if the gun you're holding wasn't fake and if I had more than eight shots left!"
The crowd was advancing rapidly; Jack shot another round into the air. He was running out of bullets but that didn't matter — the moment the firefight started, they'd both be dead anyway. The only chance they had was to hold the crowd away, with the fear of them getting shot, and somehow, somehow, get the hell out of there without getting killed.
One of the larger memmle reached suddenly for his side. Jack's gun darted at him instantly and the mammle stopped whatever he was to do. He did not dare move, but he didn't draw his paw away either. Without warning or apparent cause, the other memmle stopped in their advance and just stared over at the rabbits — many still with their paws on their guns, but no longer apparently interested in pulling them out.
"I don't like this," Judy opined. "What're they doing?" Jack didn't answer, his gaze flicking from person to person, his face tight and stressed. He noticed his paw was shaking as he held his gun. He didn't understand why he was so afraid — he'd been in worse situations before and had felt nothing — but there was something wrong, some evil afoot—
The noses of both rabbits twitched. A fresh foulness entered the air. Backing up another step, Judy suddenly halted, her body shocked with the presence of something behind her. "Savage," she shot, her voice a breath. "Savage!"
Trying not to take his eyes from the crowd in front of them, Jack glanced to disturbed doe. He saw a shape in the darkness, and in the fleeting glance he allowed himself, assumed it was the dog they had taken out earlier. "Keep your gun trained forwards," he ordered before he shot into action.
Darting sideways suddenly, the jackrabbit planted his elbow heavily into the chest of the person behind them in the desired effect to wind and disorientate him. Crouching down and quickly spinning, he made to kick the overbalanced dog off his feet with a low swoop. Leaping back on his feet, he turned to land a punch into the dog's neck, ending him in how he should have done before. He straightened his back and turned.
Then, Jack's world fell apart…
Several feet above where the head of the dog should've been, Jack's eyes rose to look into the face of a wolf, who hadn't flinched as Jack's elbow had hit home, hadn't budged at the kick that should've brought the wolf to the foul ground. A feeling of deep sickness suddenly taking hold, the strength of the agent's fist withered and his expression melted into full panic.
With a snarl that sounded like the hollow bells of Death, the albino-white wolf moved. His paw was a blur of impossible speed, which grabbed the jackrabbit by his neck and tossed him like a stick into the darkness of the corridors of shipping containers. Judy dashed around, but his face and shape was lost to her in the darkness that he lingered within. The wolf took a single step at her, his face moving from shadow to light.
Judy dropped the gun, her paws losing all strength even as her every muscle tensed. She glanced into the slit voids of the wolf's pale eyes, her own pupils turning to pinpricks in her dread. Her shriveling body frozen beyond all capacity to flee, the rabbit could only watch as the wolf reached out to grab, mangle or kill her.
But the sounds of shouting behind him gave distraction to the wolf. The members of the gang rushed at the wolf with cries of, "Get them!"
"Out of the way, let me shoot!" Wulf watched with rage like no other as the gang members approached. This Prey was His! He lunged out into the opening, the memmle jumping back as he let out a bark, which echoed off the city buildings and rolled around the distant mountains.
"We have to stop them," shouted one, leveling his gun with Judy's head. "We have to stop them befagrck—"
With a simple slash, the wolf cut open the mammal's neck. The body fell limply to the coldness, his limbs twitching in the severing of control. Snapping back to the gang members, the white wolf snarled. They reacted like mice — life wildlife before a forest fire — and they scampered away in the retreat to the tanker, hurrying to board with all the speed they could muster.
Wulf sharply coiled back to the rabbit, his head snapping around and his pale gaze locking with… nothing.
His expression tightened, the slit of his pupils thinning in the consideration of the hunt.
...
"Jack, what— what is that thing? What is it?!"
"I don't know, Hopps, but it is no creation of nature."
"What do you mean?" she yelled, both her and Jack darting back through the maze of containers to the exit they had snuck through.
"That's no 'natural' strength it has; that's no 'natural' fear it brings. I glimpsed it once before, nearly gave me a heart attack."
"Then what're you saying, it's some kind of—? I can hear him. Run— run!" The rabbits sprinted out into the clearing of before. Jack immediately leapt down onto the ground and positioned himself as a springboard for Judy. There was no delay, no imperfection in the execution of their plan. Judy jumped forwards towards the wire mesh fence, pushed herself up off Jack and threw herself into the air.
From shadows, Wulf pounced and the chance for escape was snatched from them — even as those rabbit paws grabbed for the top of the rattled fence — the white wolf flew through the air and into the doe, as she was just to manage to get away. She was thrown violently off course and landed badly in a dead-end area, holding her head as she tried to force the gray mist from her vision, while the wolf padded closer.
With a ferocity which more befitted a prowling lion, the wolf rushed on the small rabbit. She collected herself back and managed to bring her body onto her feet before the wolf would reach her. But he was now just watching, waiting, allowing her time to recover from each blow and savoring every moment of her torment and her horror.
This is what he lived for.
That was what she was alive for.
This is what shewould die for.
Glancing over the white creature's body, Judy shouted out to Jack, "Go! Find the PD!"
The volume of Hopps' shaking voice demolished Jack's paralysis of unableness from him. "What? You don't have a chance on your own!"
"We don't—" The wolf shot with the quickness of a lightning strike. Judy twisted and threw a kick into his jaw, knocking Wulf off balance for a moment as he backed away in snarls of annoyance. "— we don't have much of a chance together," her voice shook. It was high and edged from this petrifying air.
Yet, for all her panic and her dread, there was a strength to her voice, and she held her ground against this demon in white, calling back to the jackrabbit, "Bogo has to know what's going on. You must go and make a call. I'll hold him off— these criminals have to be stopped."
Wulf swiped for her with the back of his paw, but she blocked it with her forearm. It was a perfect block and stopped the wolf from slashing her face open — but it did nothing to reduce the impact, making her recoil instantly into the wall.
"Tell Nick I'm sorry," she coughed, her voice pained as she gazed up at the white creature before her. "Tell him I love him."
Jack's mind went further into disarray. Though he was pumped with adrenaline, his mind traveled with great speeds through the great manner of implications this held. His surprise shifted into infuriation. He wasn't sure what this meant — didn't have the time to think it through — but he knew what he had to do. "I'm staying," he decided, while the white wolf closed on the rabbit. "I'm not leaving you here to die!"
Wulf blitzed again, his large jaw opening wide to snap closed around the small doe at his feet. But she was not alone. Jack's paws clamped down tightly around the wolf's long, white tail where he yanked without remorse. With a startled snarl, Wulf's jaw cracked shut as he stumbled backwards, closing on empty air inches from the Judy's face. He sneered with a glare of hatred at the striped rabbit and painfully kicked his leg out behind him.
Jack reacted, twisting himself about at his waist, thus, making the kick that would have sent him flying back against the fence nothing more than a glancing blow. He fell back with the momentum of the impact and kicked his leg out with all his speed at the wolf's supporting limb.
Wulf stumbled back — one back leg being in the air from the momentum, the other knocked from beneath him to which he fell in briefness. It didn't stop him long, but it gave Judy the second's distraction she needed to jump over the wolf's head — his jaw turning to snap at her feet as she did so. Reaching out his arms, Jack caught Judy as she fell, pulling her behind him. "Come on," he urged. "We have to move!"
The two of them raced back towards the harbor, doing anything they could to avoid the wild thing hunting them. They fled back into the cover of the corridors of metal labyrinths. The shadow of evil was behind them. "That way," Jack shouted at one of the crossroads. The figure of the white wolf appeared around the corner, but then the jackrabbit pulled a pistol from his waist.
"Go," he demanded, leveling the weapon he had taken from the dog. "Get to the clearing. I'll hold him off." Jack fired a round at the shape of the wolf. It disappeared back behind in cover and blackness, but the rabbit kept his focus fixed steadily in that direction, backing up to follow Judy.
Firing another round — trying to make the wolf think he was still stood there — he twisted and sprinted to follow after Hopps and into the clearing where, just minutes ago, a gang of twenty memmle had been — the massive tanker vessel now visibly changing its course back towards sea.
"They're still in range," Judy shouted, pulling the tracking device launcher from her pocket. "Shall I take the—"
"Down!" Jack cut in, throwing himself at the rabbit as a metal pole was heaved like a javelin towards her. It bounced off the concrete and into the water, while Jack raised his gun in the direction it had come from, in time to see the white wolf hurl another at them from his vantage point upon the large containers. Jack swooshed to the side, span and leveled his gun with the wolf, firing off three aimless bullets in quick succession. The Wolf flinched back and threw himself out of sight. Jack backed away slowly, his gun still leveled but shaking, holding an arm out protectively over Judy, ducking just behind him.
Jack chuckled, his voice shaking and his laughter forced. "I think I got him— that'll make him think twice about stepping out in the open; might give us a moment to think, too."
"What do we do?"
Jack glanced about himself, briefly. "That boatbuilder's yard. There's a lot of open ground between that and anything else. We can hold up in there, keep a look out and hopefully last—"
"Look out!" Savage's wide eyes shot back to the front, Judy tugging him desperately by the shoulder and out of the path of a metal barrel as it flew just past them. Wulf sprinted from the darkness, having used the distraction of the barrel to cross the space between them.
He reached Jack just as he was trying to get himself to his feet, and kicked the gun from his paw. It skittered across the ground and stopped against the side of the abandoned boatbuilder's yard. Jack rolled as the wolf's foot came to crush down upon him. He dodged the deadly weight of that powerful wolf's foot three times, and then Wulf grew tired of playing and snatched the rabbit by his leg, lifting him into the air.
Judy sped towards him, landing both feet of her kick squarely into his back. He stumbled a step, but only a step, where he should've ended up face-down on the floor, yet Jack managed to find his footing amidst the failure of Judy's blow. Wulf shook wildly with raised hackles, his body hunched low, his glower locking with the two rabbits in his space. They stared right back, both lowering themselves into a fighting stance. There was doubt and consternation on their faces, but there was resilience too.
Wulf didn't like that. He wanted them begging for mercy. Prowling a step forwards, he stood tall and menacing, his teeth shimmering in the moonlight as he glowered down at the rabbits who looked so tiny and helpless in his heinous eyes.
"Wh— whoever you are—" Jack said, his voice dry. Wulf smiled. Here came the pitiful pleading. "— we're giving you only one warning: stop now and put your arms in the air. We have backup inbound. They'll be here any minute!"
Wulf stopped, his gaze fixed on the rabbit's mouth. He focused fully on the sounds Jack was making, and he thought hard to remember what all they meant. Most of those sounds he didn't understand — but he recognized it wasn't pleading, so his smile scrunched into a snarl as he took another step closer. "Back off," Jack warned. "We're not looking for any trouble. Understand?" Wulf was no longer interested in the rabbit's lips — no longer focusing on his words — and so the words became babble, while his white, powerful paws raised towards his own chest, where his fingers tightened, grabbing the material of his ill-fitting shirt.
The material tore as easily as paper; the white wolf dropped down onto all fours, his powerful and muscular figure cleanly defined by the sadness of the sky. It also revealed the patch of red where Jack's bullet had hit, a trickle of sanguine pain that had stained the pure fur about the left of his waist.
"Get its attention," Jack muttered. "I'll try and take out the eyes." The white creature's paw touched upon the hard concrete as he got back to his savage form, while the two rabbits backed away. He edged closer still, but the rabbits now held their ground. His snarling grimace twisting into amusement, his dense shoulder muscles bunched. He leaned back, his slits of predatory power aiming on Jack — the male wasn't his target, but he wanted him out of the way so he could get to work on the female, his female, his prize.
With a snarl of energy, he leapt, his claws swinging wide. Judy dodged the obviousness with ease, and Jack retreated back in expectance to the pounce and kicked his back legs out with the ground supporting his back, thus, knocking the wolf off balance and making him overshoot his target and land behind them with a meaty thud.
Both rabbits collected their wits in an instant, and Judy sprinted at the wolf while he was regaining his awareness. She beat down upon his face with a swift volley of blows, but it really did little to damage him, so it was of little surprise when he hashed at her with his claws, Judy leaping away back to safety and darting at him again once his swipe had passed. But this time her fist crunched against his jaw in viciousness. The collision was so hard that her bones rattled to her shoulder.
Jack stood in anticipation for the moment, ducking in a low hunch just beside Judy. Wulf once more mangled in hate in Judy's direction with his obsidian knives, but Judy spun with the punch, turning her back on the wolf and drawing her elbow sharply back into his chin. The wolf recoiled from the damaging blow, but his reaction was only that of shaking his head as if he was having a mild headache. That was incredibly disheartening for Judy's throbbing fist.
Taking the moment, Savage leapt from his hunch, locking his legs tightly around the predator's jaw and gripping tightly to his wolfish ear. Judy tried to help as much as she could, jumping down and grabbing onto one of the wolf's front legs, trying to disbalance him in disorientation from slashing at Jack, while the jackrabbit swiped his shorter claws across the wolf's eye.
It was a dirty shot, but necessary, and the wolf howled — though it was more through anger than through actual pain. Though the rabbit's claws were only small, they were still enough to blind one of the savage eyes.
Throwing his head up, Jack was forced to cling on with both paws and legs so to not be thrown from Wulf's face. Turning his body, the wolf raised the paw Judy was now clinging to and slammed it down upon the ground relentlessly.
Hopps lost her grip as the air was knocked from her — her body hitting heavily upon the concrete ground. Throwing his head up again, the wolf fixed his working eye upon the rabbit clutched to his snout. His brow lowered, and he drove his head sideways and down onto the ground, knocking Jack off him as his head was crashed against the solid ground.
Savage continued rolling with the momentum, until he lay stunned upon the concrete. Wulf glanced to Judy who was still knelt, still winded. He cracked a sick grin and rushed swiftly to the jackrabbit, reaching him just as he had pulled himself to his feet.
Jack turned in time to see the dangerous claws as they tried to cut him down, but only had time to half-dodge them, so those razor-sharp claws sliced through his upper chest cleanly. The wound was only shallow, but it still hurt. Jack clutched at his chest, pain and fear clouding his vision as he tried to judge where the next strike would come from.
Wulf spun suddenly, and one of his back legs kicked out into Jack's chest. Jack tried to block it but the difference in power just wasn't in his favor, thus, he landed on his back with a heavy thump.
Standing up onto his feet, the white wolf glowered down at the stripped rabbit. He raised a foot slowly, and held it inches above the rabbit's neck, snarling amusement growing on his expression, he raised his foot into the air that was supposed to give end to the beginnings.
But then the air crackled with the vile scent of gunpowder and friction. Wulf stumbled back, the sound of the gunshot ripping through the air with a spray of blood spurting from his back. His head snapped around viciously, and his hate locked with Judy who was holding the tracking device launcher in her paws.
Unaware of its function, the device looking just like a small kind of gun, Wulf turned and threw himself upon all fours, bounding with the speed and strength of a missile at Judy. The rabbit froze, caught before the headlights of a car; the fury of a bull; the plunge of a knife. The wolf threw himself at her, shifting himself in midair and kicking out both legs into her.
With a stifled and winded yell of pain and surprise, the small rabbit was launched high and far, landing seconds later in the lake.
Jack had seen all, but he had been furiously searching for the gun. He spotted its gleam upon some scraps of bricks and bounded hurriedly towards it — the sound of the white wolf's footfall and gruff panting growing closer with every rapid breath.
At hearing the growl of fury behind him, the jackrabbit threw himself upon the ground, feeling the slash of the wolf's claws sailing through the air behind him, so he frantically scrambled to reach the grip of the pistol. The weight of the wolf's paw came pressing down upon him. He stretched out that final inch, moved suddenly onto his front, batted the wolf's paw away and thrust the gun in him. Wulf's paw shot with impossible speed, his palm and fingers covering the muzzle of the gun. Jack pulled the trigger, but Wulf's paw tightened, flattening the muzzle of the 3D-printed-pistol like marzipan.
For a fraction of a second, all was still, and then the pressure erupted, the shell scrunched in the barrel, and the second-rate weapon backfired into Jack's face, exploding in his paw.
He screamed, his paw burnt and blackened, his eyes shut tight and his paw clenched in fresh misery. Pinpricks of blood appeared and started trickling down all cross his face at the small shards of plastic thrown into him. He felt a sensation of being lifted from his back, and an instant later a piercing pain shot through his body, as he was slammed against the brick wall of the boatbuilder's yard.
Savage flung his eyes and grabbed at the paw clamped around his neck, a paw that held him up off the ground and against the wall. Jack's paws tried to force their way to dig into the wolf's fingers. No effect was achieved and Wulf's grip drew closer around the extinguishing throat.
Judy heaved herself from the water, her body soaked and her clothes heavy. She managed to climb onto the harbor with an exhausted roll and spat out the salt water from her mouth. But there was no time for selfishness because she immediately noticed the eye-prickling reality.
The striped rabbit struggled with the tightening fingers of the wolf, dark spots appearing in his vision as the last of his air was used up in the futility of resistance. Gagging for breath, the rabbit raised his foot from dangling beneath him, kicking out violently into the wolf's unrelenting muzzle.
Wulf recoiled from the heavy blow, but his paw did not loosen and there was no blood. Jack raised his foot again, but the albino wolf caught it as it came at him with lowered intensity. He gripped hard around the rabbit's ankle and rammed his foot upwards. There was a savage crack as Jack's bone was dislocated, his leg being forced into an unnatural split and pressing against his chest.
Judy forced herself to her feet as she gawked in disbelief. She rushed at the wolf, hoping to reach him before it was too late. She felt a weight in her pocket as she ran and remembered the tranquilizer dart she had taken from the ZPD earlier — the one with enough power to take down Bogo.
Wulf's grip tightened about the rabbit's neck, and Jack struggled with ever-lessening strength to escape. His mouth opening, Jack's head shot forwards, and he bit down hard on the wolf's paw, his buck teeth sinking into flesh; biting down into bone.
Wulf yelled out in a feral scream, his paw recoiling automatically and Jack's body dropping down to the ground, thus, coughing, gagging and spitting blood with a furry finger. Wulf's pale eye narrowing to a razor-thin slit, he glowered at the gagging piece of meat. He raised his paw, his claws gleaming like daggers, and then—
With a sudden rush of movement, the wolf started back, scratching at a sharp, piercing pain in his back. He span, his working eye locking with the gray doe, while he grasped the tranquilizer dart from out of his back and pulled it away. His curiosity split into animosity as he sniffed the tip in caution.
Hopps relaxed, just a little too much, expecting the wolf the drop like a sack of bricks to the ground any moment now. Drugs wasn't something that raw strength could defend against, especially since it was now pumping feverishly inside his body. His scarred face looked at Judy, a small smile of amusement filling in the paleness of his existence. Suddenly, he thrust at her, moving with a speed which she couldn't react to and jabbing the sharp tip of the dart into her thigh.
Judy stumbled on her rump with a cry of surprise. Most of the tranquilizing drug had been absorbed by Wulf, but enough was still left to numb her leg, so her strength gave way to failure to her attempts of standing up straight.
Wulf leered at the two rabbits crawling on the ground like pathetic worms. He flexed the muscles in his back — the strange, numbing sensation around where the dart had hit already wearing off — and fixated his working eye on his first target.
He grabbed Jack by his ears, lifting him with gasping gags of torment against the rough brick wall. He raised his black daggers into the air once again — Judy watching, unable to act — and brought them down in a heavy slash across Jack's chest.
The blood spilled across the ground, splattering onto Judy's face as she gawked in putrid horror. A sickening, choking cough fled the buck, and then his body became limp, lifeless. Forcing her leg to work, the rabbit willed herself up onto paws and knees, crawling hurriedly for the shelter of the boatbuilder's yard nearby.
The wolf's paw opened and Jack's body fell crumpled to the floor. He turned... and his pale need locked with rabbit. A smile grew on his features as he observed her trivial attempt of escape.
...
There was no capacity for thought within her — absolute blind terror had destroyed any ability for rational thought. Judy's instincts had taken over, telling and forcing her to seek a dark place to hide, to curl up and die, before Death would find her and put her in his cradle.
She didn't know why she was still alive amidst her stumbles, her leg dragging through the gloomy darkness, like it had dragged when they were at the Natural History Museum with Nick, as she had hurt her leg on that mammoth tusk. But now, now she was all alone… She didn't know why the wolf hadn't killed her already. She didn't know what he wanted or what he was, but she did know this was the person who had broken into her apartment — she knew that this creature was the force that Nick theorized wanted her dead.
Her breaths quivering, the rabbit made her way slowly deeper. There was a small clearing in the darkness, which was softly lit by some source of light. Stepping out into the clearing, Judy's blurriness rose upwards — through the gaps on the broken, wooden roof — and up to the full moon which wept helplessly upon her battered existence.
There was a noise behind her, and the rabbit started to turn. A heavy weight suddenly hit against the back of Judy's neck. She stumbled away, crying out in dread and pain. She managed to endure through the bash, which could have paralyzed her if it had been just a little closer to the neck. She swung as she backed away, in time to see the back of the wolf's paw as it smacked heavily across her face, sending her stumbling down onto her back.
She snapped up into the pale gleam of the white wolf's eyes and rolled as his foot stomped down where her neck had been. She used her weight into the motion and rolled herself to her wobbly feet, slipping behind the wolf and trying to kick him behind the knee, but she couldn't support herself for the kick with the unresponsive leg, so she threw her body at him and entangled her arms about his neck in a headlock. Wulf stood, but Judy clung on with all her will, drawing on all the strength of her small but powerful muscles to throttle the white wolf before—
Twisting his back into the movement, the white wolf slammed the rabbit against the wooden wall of the building, to which she fell from her weakened grip to the moldy surface. Her vision blurred from the new weakness that the blow had festered, yet Judy Hopps willed herself unsteadily up, her gaze rising slowly to the wolf just as his fist crashed around the side of her head.
She flew away against the floor, now just struggling to remain conscious. But she didn't want to die, she couldn't… Her trembling paws pushed her on all fours, but then the air was knocked from within her by a heavy kick to her chest. Judy rolled and lay motionless in her torturous existence, her breaths coming and going in quick pants as her body struggled to stay alive upon the concrete that was feasting upon her warmth.
Wulf stepped forwards, towering high over the rabbit, his features cold and unmoved as he knelt down slowly and reached out a large, bloodied paw to her. There was a finger missing from the paw, and yet it still touched softly, almost tenderly, on the rabbit's back.
Hopps felt his touch and judged that the time was right.
Opening her eyes, forcing her mind to clear for just one moment more, Judy reached out that last inch to the piece of metal which rested on the ground — the target she had aimed for since she had fell. Her small, bloodied fingers closing around the heavy tool, the rabbit rolled onto her back, swinging the hammer wildly over her head and smashing it with all her leftover strength and all the weight of the hammer across the wolf's jaw, which instantly broke with a terrible crack.
On her feet, the rabbit barged past the howling mass of wolf, tears starting to well in her eyes with her body on the verge of collapse — with only the promise of escape driving her to carry on her struggle, her faith. She saw the door, threw the hammer down upon the floor, braced herself for the impact of kicking herself through the door and—
Wulf caught the rabbit up. He grabbed Judy by her small, delicate head, his claws digging into the fur on her forehead; ripping long cuts down the back of her scalp. Judy wailed in pain, the speed of her escape turned horribly against her as those claws dug into her skull. She felt herself being lifted, the wolf's other paw grasping the rabbit harshly by her thin waist.
Wulf carried her back to the clearing in the moonlight — the soft, pale vision which shone in through the broken roof — the rabbit struggling with all that remained of her strength in his arms, as the demon in white raised her high above his head... and hurled her down upon the hard, unforgiving concrete.
A sickening crack echoed out through the darkness and dampness of the abandoned boatbuilder's yard, where now lay Judy's broken body, crumpled miserably on the ground. The white wolf leered at her, a paw lowering to his hip. All was ominously still and silent. Then, with a deathly soft whimper, a slow breath shivered from the rabbit, her chest rising and falling faintly.
A tiny smile started growing on the wolf's broken mouth. His paw moving a little to the side, he pulled the leather strap away from his belt, undoing it and slipping his trousers down to the floor — his long, hard rod bulging behind his undergarments with the destination pointing over to Judy's frail, helpless body.
Wulf knelt down slowly, and gently moved the rabbit to be lying upon her back, his gaze wandering all across her lovingly as his paw quietly stroked her blood-splattered face. Judy's eyes opened in meekness and stared up at the emotionless void of the wolf's only eye. The white fur of his shirtless body shimmered reassuringly in the moonlight. The eye which Jack had slashed was open, but it was bloodshot and clouded. His jaw hung limply gaping, blood dripping upon the floor.
He tried to smile at her, but with his broken jaw his face just twisted into a stomach-churning leer. He pressed his deadly claws into the rabbit's cheek, stroking her silkily just as he had before, but this time leaving a line of deep gashes behind his claws' trails.
The rabbit whimpered, but she had no strength to cry out, no fight left in her to give. His gaze traced downwards, his paw following behind. As it reached the top of her chest armor, he brought forwards his other paw and ripped the strap apart, pulling it away from her. Judy's shirt went in the same way and turned to tatters upon the floor.
Inching delicately closer — pinning the rabbit against the floor by her neck with his forearm — his tongue extended, and began lapping across the small breasts of the rabbit, his gaze turning slowly lower as he licked. His other paw reached down to the rabbit's belt, unlooping it swiftly with dexterous fingers. Judy's soft whimpers rose into a wretched moan as she felt the protective fabric of her pants being slid away from her. She started to struggle a little, and so the wolf returned a paw to her head — grasping it, raising it and hitting it back down onto hard ground.
The struggling stopped. Wulf lowered himself towards the rabbit's panties, reaching out a paw and slipping them away. With a soft growl of love, his fingers lowered to his own garments and he freed his swelling meat from behind the cage of his boxers. He sighed deeply as it was touched upon by the cold air — his aching length flexing in the open — but soon his eyes were attracted to the delicious rabbit below him.
Awareness just starting to return to the rabbit — her shattered mind fighting for every breath, every second, every inch of life left within her — Judy's eyes slowly drew open and her breaths fused into concrete at what she saw. Wulf hovered, waiting, above her body… He took in her scent in deepness, prepared himself, and then—
His ear twitching, his gaze was averted to the door of the boatbuilder's yard. Sirens. Footsteps close by. Others approached. A snarl growing in the back of his neck, the wolf pulled himself upright, darted at the door and made ready to deal with this insensitive intruder.
This was his prey. This was his space. This was his kill.
And he wasn't going to share.
Author's notes:
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Grooms decision thus chosen blind.
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