Chapter 59: Elevator

Nick took Judy out of the office, then led her through the illuminated corridor in a direction she didn't know; blindfolded she couldn't do anything, her shackled hands didn't help her do anything either except let her guide herself.

"Nick, please, it's me Judy! You don't recognise me, did they do something to you? Bloody hell, it's me!" Shouted Judy, but the fox looked unmoved. All he did was rebuke her by saying "don't shout". In a calm tone, not seeming to make any sense of what he was doing at all. Soon they stopped for a moment, Nick pressed some kind of button on the wall, the doe quickly guessed that they were going to enter the lift most likely. She guessed that they wanted to trap her again, but this time in such a way that she no longer had the opportunity to escape.

"Nick, please don't do this, don't listen to them!" Asked a distraught Judy once more, she had some hope that Nick would listen to her after all and set her free, but the fox continued not to be moved one bit in the matter. When the lift stopped and the doors opened the fox pushed Judy inside and entered it himself by pressing the button on the panel again. A moment later the lift slammed shut and moved slowly downwards with a rusty rasping sound. Judy sat in the corner resigned, distraught. On the one hand she had found the boy she loved, but so what if he had changed and was now treating her as if she was not familiar to him at all?

"And will you at least tell me where we are going?" The doe asked. Nick didn't answer. He pressed something on the panel again and the lift came to an abrupt halt. A moment later Judy felt him fiddle with something at her shackles, she couldn't believe it when she felt a grip on her hands! He had released her! She was stunned by this, and even more so when Nick removed the blindfold from her eyes. She could finally see her beloved with his clever smile!

"Oh Nick!" Judy shouted, jumping on him hugging him as hard as she could despite the weakness she had from the injection she had received. Nick laughed softly and kissed her gently, Judy reciprocated the kiss. She felt overjoyed at this moment, she just wanted to feel her partner's lips pushing harder and harder against her. They soon separated and Judy wanted to say something again, but Nick silenced her by placing his finger on her lips.

"I'm glad to see you too Judy, but we need to keep quiet. I've stopped the lift for a while to explain everything" Nick communicated as they calmed down.

"What is this place? What's this all about, I met some doctor on the way in talking about some injections..."

"I don't really know where we are myself. When I was abducted I woke up in the same room as you most likely, they came to me and offered to work with me, I knew you would be here sooner or later so I agreed.

"And what do you do?"

"Mainly I give information about the police...rest assured, I give such basic information that they won't pick up anything interesting from it. What's more interesting is very much what's going on here. They are working on an adrenaline rush, but only for foxes. You remember the wild boar case with the former vice mayor don't you?" Nick asked, Judy nodded with a shake of her head.

"When we finished that case a couple of visitors, including two scientists became interested in the effects of skylarks. They discovered quite quickly that this effect was controllable and aroused wild, powerful instincts. Together they decided to create a controlled injection that only works for foxes. It is supposed to arouse precisely these instincts at the same time as being able to contact the outside world."

"OK, but why do they need it?" Judy asked.

"They want to gain power over Zootopia! It's well known that they can't do it themselves, but if they manage to create the formula and sell it to the city they could be in danger" replied Nick. Now it all made sense. There's a reason they're hiding out in obscurity, the work on such preparations is certainly expensive... And illegal.

"Who's in charge of all this? Do you even know how to get out of here?" Judy asked.

"I have a plan. The person who manages all this is on the lowest floor, in order to access the entrance you need a special key...or enter through the ventilation. That's where the only point of coverage is, we need to call reinforcements from there, they'll manage to track us down once we've identified the IP. You need to find your way to the lift that leads to the top floor. It is located behind a door that is opened with a key, but don't worry about that. I will take care of it myself. Theoretically I could put you in the observation room, there is a lift next to it, but surely someone will be standing by them. It can be dangerous in those small chambers...and there is no open shaft... I'm not sure, I've only been there once." replied Nick. The plan was actually quite simple. Just climb up the ventilation and walk that way until you find the lift...the question remained what is the way to that lift?

"How do I find that lift? "

"Honestly, it's hard to tell. There is a floor plan of the building on the ground floor, but it is the most dangerous floor, several patients have escaped from their cage and pose a real danger. Just look for the door where the card-reading panel will be. I saw this door once, surely there are ventilation grilles above it. O! That's it. Take this," said Nick. He took a small torch from his pocket and handed it to the doe.

"They're afraid of a sudden source of light, just shine it straight into their eyes for them in case of an accident. It will scare them off for a while...that's probably it. I'll meet you in the lift, now you go out through the roof of this lift," said the fox. He opened a small shaft from the roof of the lift and took it down. Judy obediently started to climb onto the roof of the lift as Nick held her still for a moment.

"Take care," said Nick.

"You too," replied the doe, then climbed to the roof of the building. They stood between floors. The doe looked up at the top of the building, by her calculations it seemed to her to have maybe 4 floors...but it didn't look like it was built on the ground...but rather in it, under it. Judy quickly found a ventilation grille which, like the previous one, could be quickly removed allowing Judy to enter the ventilation shaft and the fox to take the lift down so as not to arouse suspicion.

Judy was somehow forced to wander through the ventilation shafts of the room looking for a way to her destination. The main problem wasn't that there wasn't enough space (she herself wasn't one of the biggest, so it just didn't cause her a problem), but rather that she didn't know where to go. The best way to know where she was was to go to the ground floor, where there is the building plan mentioned by Nick, but currently the doe did not know which floor she was on! It was the 4th floor counting down from the top, the same floor Nick had stopped on to lock her in the watching sector. Apparently no one had checked to see if Judy had got there, otherwise the fox would have had to lock her in there.

"It would be a good idea to find some way out of this shaft so that we can somehow get around the place," Judy thought. It was a good idea - there was hardly anything visible in the ventilation, the doe had to crawl around in the dark, and that wasn't the most comfortable thing to do. At the nearest intersection she stopped for a moment to try and see any stream of light that would allow her to see more. Looking around the sides she decided to take the right, she could see dust specks in the distance and that meant there must be a grille through which she could descend. Trying to be as quiet as possible, Judy crawled slowly forward until finally, just as she had expected, she found the grille that allowed her to exit the shaft. Before she opened it she checked to make sure no one was inside the room. The room appeared to have some sort of insulation, evidenced by the soundproofing foams all around mounted on the wall. There was a single bed standing in the corner, which quickly made it clear to Judy that she had most likely reached her destination.

"Ekh... Nick apparently didn't expect bars in these rooms' thought Judy. She quietly opened the grille and jumped down from the glass quickly looking around the room for something to give a point of orientation. However, there was nothing of the sort here. A small room completely empty, only a bed was present. The door to the room was solidly bolted, already giving her confidence that at least one patient had escaped from this chamber.

"They must have kept one of them here," Judy thought. She leaned out of the threshold of the door - there was no one here. All she could see was another door, which was either closed or completely kicked in. The doe couldn't resist the temptation and, paying no heed to Nick's advice, went out into the corridor looking between the doors. Through these broken doors Judy could see the other halls, they were similar, practically the same as the one she had come from. She approached one of the damaged doors, its hinges were practically ripped out!

"If they have that kind of force, we could really be in danger... worse if they end up with uncontrolled force" Judy reckoned. If the project fails and the foxes who have already been dosed escape from the building there will be a problem. Although not for long, Judy overheard a conversation between two working here and heard that sooner or later they would die of cardiac arrest.

As Judy was about to exit the sector through a door leading to a sort of waiting room she heard two male voices around the corner. She leaned gently out from behind the wall to catch a glimpse of two foxes talking to each other at the metal door. After a moment, Judy's gaze caught sight of a plate next to one of them with a card entry.

"That must be the lift! The question is how Nick will distract these two, he's unlikely to be able to jump into the lift without being noticed." Judy thought. The two armed men were chatting amongst themselves and she watched them, wondering how to distract them from the target lift. They didn't look as if they were going to walk away from the lift, and Nick probably needs some time to sort out the card. She herself couldn't draw them away too much lest she cause some sort of alarm that would draw attention to the two of them. There was nothing left for her to do but listen to them

"I don't know about you, but I personally can't wait until these tests are over and we can leave here. I'm tired of walking around this abandoned building. "

"Believe me I am too. Rest assured, we'll be able to push on to Zootopia soon and who knows, maybe even a change of mayor for the city!"

"Are you saying there's a chance of that?"

"Well, officially we just want equality and a chance for a better tomorrow, but you know how it will be. The more we conquer, the more we'll want to have."

"Yes...there is something in that. They told us to check the observation rooms from time to time, why don't you take a walk around and see if everything's okay in there?"

"Ugh...Most of it's already run away anyway, but okay, I'll be right back," replied the fox. Judy heard footsteps approaching in her direction. Quickly retreating from her position, she had to climb back into the shaft so she headed for the chamber she had come from. Grasping the edge of the shaft the sheet metal produced its distinctive sound which immediately attracted the attention of the fox, Judy heard the reloading of a gun. With a quick movement she jumped into the shaft and quickly put the grating on as fast as she could so the fox wouldn't see it removed. Just as she had expected the fox came right behind the source of the noise, she watched him from behind the bars, he looked around for a moment, he even glanced at the bars for a moment, but I don't think he realised someone might be here.

"It's quiet, or someone just died in the ventilation shaft" cried the fox ironically, then left the chamber returning to his friend. Judy was relieved to hear the news that he was leaving. She too withdrew after a moment, the shaft of this room to follow the path leading to the lift crawling towards it to find herself literally above them. By the time she was practically ready to take the lift down, Nick still wasn't there which worried her a little. What if he'd been caught? It would be an unannounced twist that wouldn't make their task any easier.

After a while Judy was above the ventilation grilles in front of the lift she had a view of the two foxes standing in front of her, they continued talking to each other without seeming interested in what they were doing here. However, they were soon approached by another fox, this one was already Nick, who had most likely already obtained the card that opens the lift doors.

"I'm sorry you two, but Ethan told you both to head down to the ground floor to see if the situation there has calmed down yet" Nick communicated.

"Has he gone berserk? What are we supposed to do with these toys!"

'shhh, shut up! We'll go there, after all two guns aren't one right?" growled the other fox, Nick nodded with a movement of his head at his words.

"Well...ugh, okay, let's go".

"I'll replace you," replied Nick. He stood in front of the door and watched as his two predecessors made their way through the observation sector to reach the lift that would take them to the ground floor. He glanced up at the ventilation grille, as if he knew Judy was there he showed with a hand gesture for her to jump onto the roof of the lift. She obediently made her way a little way to the front, removed the card from the ventilation and jumped onto the roof of the lift. Fox opened the sunroof from the lift through which Judy jumped.

"Did it all work out without any problems?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, it wasn't too bad. Let's get downstairs now and get this over with," replied Judy. Fox nodded with a movement of his head and pressed the only button on the lift panel. The lift started down.

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