Chapter 6
The Honest Truth… Part One
"Maybe there was a better way to handle this" Nick thought to himself. The fox had been walking through the Rainforest District for at least for an hour and a half now without a umbrella, which meant he was completely soaked.
"Ok carrots, lets get going" Nick said as he got off the bench.
"Where to?" Judy asked slightly confused by the foxes sudden "lets go" attitude
"I have places to be, mammals to see today, so must cut our little brunch short" the fox said
Judy noticed the fox began looking sporadicly around as if he was looking for something, Judy naturally curious about what was wrong and wanted to help him
"Nick is everything alright?" Judy asked sympathetically
Nick turned to Judy and smiled " I'm sorry I forgot I had and appointment to meet an old friend and its in the Rainforest District, I really should be going"
Judy surprised and slightly stunned didn't know how to respond right away "thats alright, you should go"
"I'm sorry, if I didn't have to take the Zooway train I would walk you home" Nick said raising his left paw behind his head, his ears lowered.
"No its alright… wait you still use the Zooway?" Judy asked as she got off the bench.
"Yeah, why?" Nick replied lowering his paw, with a confused expression on his face.
"Let me show you a faster way slick" The bunny said as she walked in the opposite direction of the Zooway station.
"I've been here for a year and I didn't know about that, I didn't even see a single ad or promotion, Then again I did walk mostly" Nick thought as he rode the newer ZTA system known as the Light Rail. The Zooway was the first subteraenan transit system that made a least dozen stops in each district. While the Light Rail made half as many stops and only went in and out of Downtown district, it was built to discreetly use some of the old sections of the Zooway tracks so a whole new system needed to be put down. "Thank goodness everyone thinks I just got back, I would look like an idiot right now"
The fox continued walking in the pouring rain to his destination, hidden towards the back of district near one of the many rivers that the district had was a warehouse Nick had procured when he first returned to Zootopia.
He was only headed to the warehouse now because he was sure that no one was following him now, when he left the ZPD with Judy he picked up a scent, he thought it was one of the many scents that filled Zootopia, but when he smelled it again outside of the The Blue Moose he started to gain suspicious, and then it appeared not long after he got to the park with Judy and he knew they were being followed, but how and why he didn't know.
Nick had rode the Light Rail to the Rainforest District and went to a cafe, and talked with beaver named chuck though that isn't why nick really came to rain forest district, he talked with the beaver for over an hour to make sure he wasn't being followed, Nick sat where he could see the door and any mammal that entered, but eventually that smell entered the cafe with an antelope, Nick studied that antelope and came to the conclusion that he was not military, but Nick couldn't go to Riverwatch, the name the fox gave it because it sat perfectly at bend in the river where no one could sneak up on him using the river.
"Hey Chuck" Nick said after turning his attention back to the beaver.
"Yeah" the beaver answered back in a deep tone
"I need to get to Riverwatch, but I have a tail" Nick said looking back at the antelope who had taken a seat three tables down from the fox and beaver, nick tapped his finger on the table three time to signal where the mammal that was following him was.
The beaver stood up "well I better get back to work see ya Nick" The beaver put a hat that said Hard Wood Cafe, went to the front table picked up a tray with coffee and stated walking past the antelope only to slip last second spilling the trays contents on the antelope causing a distraction long enough to let nick slip out of the cafe and into the rain coming from the sprinklers to to wash away his scent.
Nick was now walking on the road that lead to Riverwatch, Nick chuckled it was an old and rusted building, it was amazing that it wasn't collapsed or that the river hadn't risen high enough to sweep it away in a flood, it held out the weather, literally, and that was good enough for Nick.
Nick entered the the warehouse, reached the dimly lit room and turned on a light, it may have been the middle day but with the artificial tree buildings it was dark enough to need the old lights as they flickered on and began a slow humming noise that slowly died down.
Nick looked around without moving from where he entered to see if there had been any change since his last visit, looking right into the main office, than left into the employee area, break and locker rooms, and finally straight into the main room that had boxes and other junk covered in blankets, satisfied nothing had changed Nick turned into locker rooms and began to strip his wet close off and hang them on a wire he had hung up for such a time when he need to dry his clothes he walked back into the shower room seeing multiple showers and drying stations he went to the closes drying station and dried his fur.
Nick reentered the locker room and opened one of the lockers and put on dry clothes, he walked out of the locker room and into the main office, turned on another light, the office looked basic for what a run down factory that had left no trace of what it could have been when it was in use, filling cabinets, the desk in the middle of the room and the chair behind it made for medium sized mammals, basically everything in the warehouse was to big for Nick, walked behind the desk and removed one the third drawer up on one of the filling cabinets, the drawer being at eye level to Nick, next he removed a false back panel to reveal a safe, Nick opened the safe to reveal a black box, after removing the box from the safe he opened it and checked its contents, a loaded paw gun, a 44mm made for a mammal his size with three extra clips, a single frag grenade, and a red cloth wrapped up, Nick checked the cloth and after finding it dry he closed the box and replaced everything as if he was never there. Nick left the office, turning the light off as he did and turned towards the boxes and blanket covered junk in the middle of the room.
Nick walked to the boxes and started to move some, open others and start examining the the parts and put them together, but it wasn't the boxes or the contents that he was focused on, his mind was flashing, here one second then somewhere else the next, then it slowed down to a more specific time and place.
Time: Unknown
Date: Year 1 of the war
Location: Purrance
BOOM!
"Oh god, what time is it, where is Finnick in this mess, hopefully he's alright" Nicks mind went racing as he ducked from on coming mortar fire and debris from the trench walls came flying at him.
"PVT. WILDE, GET UP!" An aged Ethiopian wolf said picking the fox up off the ground.
"Sorry Sir" Nick said with terrified creak in his voice.
"Gather you're self Wilde, were moving" the Ethiopian wolf said as began picking up what little belongings he had.
"What do mean sir, are we going home?" The fox asked, making the wolves right ear twitch.
"No Wilde we are being transferred east, you me and the other mammals of our troop" the wolf said as he finished putting objects in his duffle bag, wild saw the beat up old bag thought it was as old as the wolf.
"ENEMY AIRCRAFT INCOMING!" Came a voice over an intercom system.
The fox and wolf looked up with dozens of others mammals all expecting to be pelted with bombs by the aircraft over head. The bombers bomb bay doors opened up and metal tubes as big as the red fox began to fall from them, one landed right in the trench only a dozen feet in front of nick.
"Move, get out of the way" the Ethiopian wolf may have been in his later years but moved like he was teenager, he pushed his way through a crowd of soldiers who came rushing down the trenches curious why the bombs didn't go off. Leaving nick behind only able to see through the limbs of the moving animals.
"Don't worry its probably just a dud" the wolf said pushing back the crowd of mammals
"All of them are duds then?" "Not one has gone off" the crowd of soldiers started to grow restless.
"Let me look, they probably just want to scare us" the wolf said as he turned to look at the bomb, getting close enough to touch it with his right paw making the crowd tense up. After a few moments of examination the wolf seemed calm about it as he turned to the crowd.
"Its just a dud, nothing to worry about, get back to your posts" the wolf ordered.
"Click" the wolf turned back to the bomb to locate the origin of the noise, only seeing the bomb.
"Poof" as a dark blue cloud of smoke burst from the bomb, engulfing the crowd, Nick had fallen and backed from the cloud. The world grew silent as Nick waited there just scanning the cloud looking for mammals to come out. "Oh god what is this stuff!" he heard. "It burning my insides!"
A dark figure then emerged from the smoke falling on Nick. It was Nicks commanding officer blood coming from the wolf's mouth.
"Sir?" Nick questioned the wolfs condition as his eyes were shut and laying on fox, not moving, not even a hint of breath came from the wolf.
The wolf then gasped for air and clenched Nicks shirt. "Run Wilde" the wolf uttered then rolled off Nick coughing and blood erupting from the wolfs mouth to suddenly stop and his head turn towards Nick, a lifeless expression on the wolfs face.
Mammals then began coming falling out the same mist cloud as the wolf nearly landing on Nick.
"Oh god" Nick said as he scramble to get out the way. He began running down the trench.
"Don't go that way!" He yelled at mammals running in the opposite direction.
Nick kept running only to have to stop and turn around to go another way to avoid more of the mist that seemed to chase him down the trench lines. Nick ran into an old gunner nest turned into a storage slamming the door behind him preventing the mist from exerting the room with him.
Nick leaned against a support beam in the middle of the room to catch his breath. Nick began searching for a way out of the room.
The bunker was designed for mammals of medium size he went to the back of the room to a boarded window. Nick climbed on top of a crate and attempted to break the boards, to no success he realized he did not have the force to break them.
Wilde crossed over to the front of the room that faced nomammals land in an attempt to exit the room by breaking crooked boards that covered the window.
"ENEMY AIRCRAFT INCOMING!" Nick heard over the intercom once again.
Nick began looking outside between the boards only to see large metal canister hit the ground three trenches over.
"What could be in this one" Nick began to panic at the object only forty feet in front of him. The canister exploded in a blinding light making Nick took a few steps back and covered his face with his paws only to be pushed back by the force of the explosion. Nick broke through the back wall barely flying over two trenches and slid into third.
Nick fell back, he was back in Riverwatch. Nick got up, turned to the west facing window and saw the sun had nearly set.
"Better get back to the apartment before Finnick gets finicky" Nick began to laugh at his choice of words.
Nick walked to the front door and picked up his coat along the way. He opened the door to no surprise the rain in the Rainforest District. Nick looked back at what he had constructed during his day dream to see an all to familiar shape. He turned off the lights and went outside locking the door, leaving one paw lingering on the handle. Removing his paw he turned and headed off into the now dark streets of the Rainforest District.
AUTHORS NOTES:
I would like to apologize for uploading this late as I was faced with some personal matters that pulled away for awhile but now I am back and will get back on the ball.
Update: 10/28 I would like to apologize about the source code I did not notice that when it posted.