Judy Hopps sat at the base of an immense oak tree atop a hill, surrounded by lush countryside. Blustery winds buffeted her fur and stirred the leaves of the trees. Dark and stormy clouds rolled in from all around and rain began to fall at first only slight, but it gradually became torrential.
The little rabbit watched in silence. Her eyes closed and she was once again consumed by inky blackness.
A strange sound roused Judy from her unconscious state. Her eyes took in a blurry room that ever so slowly grew to clarity. Lifting her paws to rub her drowsy eyes took a lot of effort.
'Why are my arms… So heavy?' thought Judy. Even her head felt twice it's normal weight.
Looking around the room again, Judy figured she must have been in a hospital, the giveaway clues were the hospital bed she lay in, various medical equipment on either side and the vaguely mint colored hospital gown she woke up wearing - not to mention all the tubes.
Hearing the earlier noise again drew her attention to a lumpy red thing in a crumpled heap on a chair wearing a flowery button-up shirt and a loosely fastened necktie.
Judy could only manage a croak when she tried calling out to the thing. Looking about, she found a ballpoint pen on the table beside her. All full of tubes, it took an effort and a half for her to reach over and grab it with her weighty arms. The keen rabbit took aim, holding the pen like a throwing knife and giving it a solid toss.
"Yes!" exclaimed Judy under her breath as she watched the object sail through the air in a pretty arc and hit the unconscious creature in the eye.
Nick Wilde groaned and sat up slowly, rubbing one eye painfully. Looking around with his other eye he caught sight of Judy sitting up in bed and immediately leapt up and sprinted over. Reaching the the bed, he clambered up the side and knelt beside Judy, wrapping his arms around her in a tight, warm hug.
Judy said hoarsely, "geez, it's like you haven't seen me in a week," while hugging Nick back.
Nick slowly pulled away.
"Well, that's because I-" Nick's eyes darted to the door then back to Judy, "hold that thought. I'll be right back."
Judy barely had time to react before Nick left the room, leaving her alone with her utter bafflement.
'There is something totally weird happening here,' thought Judy, thinking over everything that had happened in the past sixty or so seconds.
Judy couldn't remember what put her in hospital in the first place. She clutched at mental straws to piece it all together. Bit by bit, memories fell into place.
There was a twinge of discomfort and angst as she recalled the vixen that had briefed her on her new gear, a pulse of frustration on remembering the discovery of Nick's exploits and lastly, as the picture got clearer, a sudden and very vivid recollection of her last moments of consciousness filled her mind.
Reliving a moment of the past, Judy remembered hearing Nick's voice, then feeling a sharp pain in her shoulder. Everything faded to black after that.
The sound of a familiar voice - make that two familiar voices getting closer pulled her from her reverie.
"Alright, alright alright! I said I'm on my way!" said a scotchy voice, that, even through a gruff tone was still as cute as ever.
A timber wolf in scrubs followed by Nick pushed their way into the room. Judy recognized the wolf as Doctor Fergus Carrson, whom she'd met once before, over a year ago.
"You're awake!" exclaimed the wolf.
"And that is literally what I said in the hall," said Nick.
Judy chuckled awkwardly, saying, "Yeah, I'm awake. That's what happens when you pass out, you, wake up again."
Her statement was met with silence.
"Actually, I was wondering, what's with all the tubes? It's a bit much, you know, a bit overboard for an overnight stay. Am I right?" said Judy, her voice tinged with the beginnings of worry.
Nick and Carrson exchanged glances, then the latter began to explain, "Ms Judith, er… Officer Hopps, you've been in an unresponsive coma for thirteen days."
"Fourteen," said Nick.
"Hmm?"
"Today makes fourteen," explained Nick.
"There ye go, two weeks." Said Carrson.
Judy looked thoughtful for some time, pondering how this could have happened. Moving her paw to her chin reminded her how heavy her limbs felt.
"Ah… That explains why it's tough to move!" said Judy out loud.
"Erhm… Wha- yes! Typical muscle atrophy. It will take at least a month for you to get back into shape. You lost a lot of weight - for a bunny," explained Carrson.
A sudden beep interrupted the protracted silence that followed. Carrson pulled out a pager and squinted at it's tiny screen.
"Right… Well… I'll get a nurse to de-tube you then I have some medical errands to run involving an odd gentlemammal with a discomforting fondness for bananas."
"...Bananas?" asked Nick.
""Erh… Don't think about it too much. Come along, Officer Wilde. Let's give your colleague some privacy," said Carrson, leading Nick out of the room.
Nick leant against the corridor wall and pulled out a police radio. Although he was off duty, Nick thought it practical to carry it around. He felt it was worth it to tell Chief Bogo that everyone's favorite officer had regained consciousness.
"Officer Wilde to dispatch," he said, holding the device up to his muzzle.
An eerie silence emanated from the radio when Nick released the push-to-talk key. Nick waited. And he waited.
Still nothing.
Nick thumbed the frequency dial into the 'ALL CHANNELS' position and prepared to hail again.
"This is Officer Wilde. Anyone there? I can't raise dispatch," said Nick, into the mouthpiece.
After a pause a faint and patchy voice broke through the silence:
"Officer Wilde? This is Fangmeyer, I can't raise dispatch either. There's something fu-" for a brief moment, the voice was overtaken by silence, "...ing on."
"You're kinda breaking up, what's happening?" asked Nick.
"I don't know," explained Fangmeyer, "I was just talking to Clawhauser a couple minutes ago when I was coming over the Meadowlands bridge. I don't know what happened but he just went silent mid-sentence as if the…"
Fangmeyer's voice failed to re emerge from the eerie silence this time.
"As if the line went dead?" said Nick, to himself, "I know how you feel."
Before Nick could think about it anymore, a nurse emerged from Judy's room. He slipped in as the door swung closed.
"Hi there," said Judy, spotting the fox.
Judy swung her long legs over the side of the hospital bed and made ready to hop down to the floor. Nick hurried over and made ready to catch her if she fell.
"Hey, hey! Slow down. Are you sure you're okay to get up?" asked, Nick, getting thoroughly worked up.
"Geez, Nick, relax. I'm fine," said Judy, shooting Nick an impatient look.
Nick pulled back without saying a word, still staying just close enough if something went awry.
Judy walked carefully over to the window, climbing up on a chair to see out. With a heave and some effort, she pulled herself to a standing position. She parted the curtain and leant on the windowsill. Nick wandered over and stood beside her, she welcomed the paw he put on her shoulder.
After giving Nick a brief glance she asked, "I suppose it's been pretty hectic, huh? Two weeks without me around?"
Nick shook his head, "No, it's actually been pretty quiet, almost too quiet."
"Hmph."
An orange flash in the distance caught Judy's eyes. A moment later, the booming sound of an explosion echoed across the streets.
"Wh-", Nick tried to speak but he simply couldn't, mesmerized by the flashes, booms and subsequent pillars of smoke that appeared all across town.
Just like that last unpopped kernel of microwave popcorn, one last explosion fired off in the street directly by the hospital, rattling the windows with it's shock wave.
"Oh, God," Judy whispered.
Without hesitation or inhibition, Judy reached into Nick's pocket and took his police radio - she knew he liked to have one on him for practicality's sake.
With a slight croak she said into the mouthpiece, "Dispatch! Please respond," and let go of the push-to-talk to listen.
Silence.
"It's no use, I tried to reach them earlier but- but there was something wrong, Fangmeyer was telling me he lost contact mid-sentence, same thing happened to us," said Nick worriedly, perhaps even fretful.
Noise from the corridor halted their conversation. Gruff voices and a whole lot of thudding edged closer to the closed door in front of Nick.
Judy looked at Nick, her expression wordlessly saying, "what do we do?"
Before either could properly react, shouts of protest from Dr Carrson could be heard.
"Oi! Let go of me!" he yelped.
"Here he is sir, the Doctor assigned to Hopps."
"Where is she!" bellowed the distinctly authoritative voice of a rhino.
"Well, ye see, I'm not really able to say, doctor-patient confidentiality and all…" explained Carrson, his voice trailing off as he saw the rhino before him getting angrier by the second.
One of the thug's underlings called out, right beside the door to Judy's room, saying "Over here! It's here!"
Carrson sprinted over and stood between the rhino and Judy's door.
The rhino stomped over and grumbled, getting ready to pummel the skinny timber wolf.
"W-wait, hear me out," said Carrson nervously, "y-ye don't want to go in there."
Amidst the conversation, Nick had moved closer to Judy.
"I think he's trying to buy us time," said Nick, quietly.
Judy nodded.
After a brief look around the room, the fox's ears perked up when he saw a way out. He crouched and said to Judy, "Window. Come on."
Back in the corridor, Fergus Carrson's would-be captors silently demanded an explanation.
"Urinary catheter," he said.
The thugs were visibly confused.
"Ever seen someone having a catheter cleaned out? Not pretty. Not for the faint of heart," explained Carrson.
With a little help from Nick, Judy lowered herself onto a ledge that hung a few feet below the window they'd just climbed out of.
Something whizzed by at high speed and impacted into the side of the building, shaking Judy's already unsteady pawhold.
A voice cried out from below, "Up there! Target in sight!"
Another voice scolded the first, "No! You idiot, don't shoot! If she falls she's dead! The Boss wants her alive. As in still breathing you twat!"
With her back to the wall, Judy clung to the building for dear life. She looked over at Nick and their eyes met.
"So," started Nick, "come here often?"
If she weren't trying so hard not to fall, she would've smacked Nick over the head. Fortunately for him though, there were more pressing matters to deal with.
"How did you get here?" Judy asked Nick.
Nick glanced down and winced awkwardly.
"Well?"
"In that smoldering pile of twisted metal about fifty feet below us," explained Nick.
"Of course…" thought Judy, rolling her eyes.
As her eyes returned to their normal orientation, Judy spotted an open window a short crawl away.
"Nick! That way!" yelled Judy.
Nick looked at where she pointed then back to her, giving a curt nod before starting towards the objective. Judy followed, though not quite as speedy as the fox.
"You know," said Nick, "you'd probably move a little quicker if you faced the wall…"
Judy scoffed. She said derisively, "In an open-back hospital gown? Not happening."
Nick climbed in the window with a grunt and anxiously waited to lend Judy a paw. The wait was agony. At long last she got close enough for him to pull her up.
Voices from below once again rang out, "Somebody get online to the guys inside!"
After a pause the another called out, "No good, sir. Jammers are still up!"
Nick moved away from the window, guiding Judy along with one paw.
"I think they're having as much trouble using radio as us." said Nick.
"That's convenient," said Judy, "be even more convenient if I had my clothes…"
"You mean these?" asked Nick, producing a patient belongings bag labeled 'Hopps, Judy L.'
"Where did you…? How did you…? Who cares, gimme that!"
Nick turned away and gave a bow after the bunny snatched the bag from his paw.
"You're welcome," he said mockingly.
Nick continued, "Heh, kinda reminds me of a couple years back. When I snagged Doug's case from the train before it crashed. Remember that, Carrots?"
Nick turned to face Judy with possibly the worst timing in the history of anything, ever, ultimately seeing a lot more of his work partner than he had bargained for. Judy simultaneously looked up and yelped, tossing her discarded hospital gown at his face.
"Shit! I am so sorry," said Nick, feeling the most bashful he'd ever felt in his entire life.
He stood for some time, completely still, refusing to remove the uncomfortably warm gown that covered his face.
"Alright, you can uncover your eyes now," said Judy, "Come on. Let's get out of here, dipstick."
The pair quietly peeked around the door to the hallway.
"Stairwell and visitor's elevators are down there," said Nick, pointing down the corridor, just past where ruffians were still harassing Dr Carrson.
"Service lift?" Asked Judy.
"To the left."
The sound of a janitor's trundler caught Judy's ear. She looked at Nick, he looked back, they nodded to each other and scurried toward the sweet sound of possible escape.
Feeling a shift in weight, the elephant pushing the trundler stopped to inspect her load. She had to stifle a gasp upon seeing the identity of the stowaways.
Judy silently indicated the brutish thugs down the hall.
The janitor nodded and resumed pushing the cart.
One of the armed mammals gave the elephant a sideways glance as she passed by. She just ignored him and kept pushing the trundler.
Judy, Nick and their elephant acquaintance gave a sigh of relief when the doors of the service lift closed.
"Thank you, ma'am." said Judy.
"Not a problem. My cousin Francine is on the force, you know," said the elephant.
"How far can you take us?" asked Nick.
"The door to the ambulance bay. I'd take you further but I think that'd be a little suspicious. I mean, have you ever seen a hospital janitor take their cleaning supplies for a walk?" explained the janitor.
The service lift creaked open and the janitor nonchalantly strolled forth from one end of the hospital to the other. As they passed by the front entrance, a mammal geared up like the other thugs dashed in and sprinted up the stairs. Judy and Nick exchanged a knowing look.
The hospital janitor stopped before a large set of white double doors and peered out the little windows out into a carpark area. Checking there was no one behind her, she opened the doors and pushed the cleaning cart through.
"Okay," she said, "coast is clear."
Judy crawled out from between bottes of solvent, followed by Nick.
"Thank you again, ma'am," Said Judy with a little salute.
"My pleasure. Good luck, you two!"
The janitor disappeared into the hospital as Judy and Nick crept towards the street. Reaching the sidewalk, they ducked behind the corner of the building and peeked toward the left - the street level thugs that had fired at them were still there.
"To the right. Let's go," said Judy, to which Nick nodded.
No sooner had they started sneaking away that another group of armed mammals emerged from a side street. Unsurprisingly, the fox and bunny were spotted immediately.
Their leader cried, "H-wha- S-seize them!"
The yell alerted the group to the left and Judy and Nick's escape routes were quickly cut off from both sides.
"Here we are again," said Nick, keeping up a calm front.
"It's always such a pleasure," said Judy, somewhat shakily as she had begun to feel light-headed.
All the while, the throaty rumble of a diesel engine drew closer every second.
The thugs strode forward casually as if they were bulletproof. Hence, they were completely unprepared for an all-black SUV to rocket around the corner, tyres screeching, from the right of the hospital. The vehicle roared at flank speed toward Judy and Nick, the second group of thugs leapt this way and that, scattered like bowling pins. The first got startled, taking cover on either side of the street.
The SUV spun around and skidded to a halt beside Judy and Nick. The passenger side window rolled down to reveal the driver - it was Chief Bogo.
"Get in!"
Nick rushed toward the car, grabbing Judy by the arm. Reaching the door, he pulled it open, after Judy clambered in, Nick followed and closed the door behind them.
"Chief! I've never been so happy to see you in my whole life," said Nick.
Bogo said nothing, just putting his hoof to the floor and speeding off the way he came.
The SUV's stereo system crackled then began to produce static, Bogo's radio had been on the entire time. The sound of a throat clearing followed by a profound voice emerged from the speakers:
"Greetings, Citizens of our fine city of Zootopia.
"Given the trying events of today, you no doubt wonder; 'who was behind this?' or perhaps, 'why did this happen?' 'was all this really necessary?'
"Well, I will now tell you. Not just because of some, personal obligation, no. Rather, it is your right as the people to know, and thus understand the things happening around you and to you.
"My name is Ezra Bisonhower, I was an important member of both the pre-2016 Lionheart mayoral administration and the ill-fated Bellwether administration.
"That is the first question answered.
"For a great period of time, there has been a societal imbalance. Please note, dear friends, that I say societal as opposed to racial. You likely saw today that the freedom fighters enacting my plans are of all diets, shapes, and sizes. Admittedly I had a large role in the outworking of Dawn Bellwether's schemes though I disagreed with both her motive and execution.
"The ZPD, perhaps unwittingly, have created a subtle regime through which they oppress the fine denizens of this city. With my loose guidance, a band of freedom fighters have risen up and, in a dazzling show of teamwork and efficiency, have released the entire city from the aforementioned oppression.
"Hold on, one of my liuetenants has a message for me. What? You're kidding. You have got to be… Kill that broadcast immediately!"
One could cut the tension in the ZPD HQ foyer with a butter knife. Armed thugs milled about the freshly 'liberated' structure, trying to ignore the conversation in the center of the room.
Ezra stood, fuming, silently daring his underling to repeat himself.
"Hopps is gone, sir."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" asked Ezra with a roar of disbelief.
The pig he was speaking to grew sheepish.
"You idiots had one fucking job! She was in a fucking coma! Are you all fucking braindead?!"
The pig said nothing.
"Well? What's Hornton's excuse this time?"
"Sh-she woke up…" the pig was quickly cut off by Ezra.
"So? You know what being completely still for two fucking weeks does to you? You can't fucking move!"
Ezra Bisonhower stormed off then stopped, making one last statement:
"Bellwether's plan went balls up because she failed to take into account Officer Hopps' tenacity. The result? She went down in history as the terrorist who was foiled by a pawful of blueberries in a red handkerchief. I am not going to let that happen to me."
End Notes
My apologies, compatriots. It took longer than anticipated to complete this chapter.
I personally don't like using tons of cuss words, it's very much a time and place thing for me. It really depends on a character's personality and the context/setting they are in. In other words, if everybody used cuss words a little sparingly, they would do what they're actually supposed to: add emphasis.