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Chapter 4: The Theory

Judy wakes up and stretches a little and yawns, he puts her arms back down to find something soft and fleshy that was hugging around her frame, she turns around and looks at Nick's sleeping face and can't help but give a small smile at how cute the canine looked when he was sleeping, she giggled and gently peeled his arms off of her and walks to the front of the cave and looks up, It was sunny and it was bursting through the trees, illuminating what they couldn't see last night, Judy hops down off the rocks and stands close to a riverbank that was flowing quietly, she cups her paws and brings the water to her face cleaning yesterday's excursion ' Those people were infected with the Night howlers.. but this is different, sure they had been violent, but never to the point that they would kill.. those things tried to kill us! ' she shakes her head and stands up flicking the excess water back to its home

" Judy... I can't..Ngh... Get out of here! " Nick says pained on his knees, " I'm not leaving you Nick! " Judy tries to get closer but Clawhauser holds her back, She looks up at the cheetah and then back to the fox " Nick! fight the poison! don't give in! " Nick started to growl as his eyes turned slitted and he looked at the rabbit and cheetah, he crawls on all fours and lowers his body to the ground ready to pounce " Nick please! I love you! " Judy screams as Nick pounces on top of both of them.

" NOOOOOOOOOOOO " Nick shoots up panting heavily and placing his paws onto his chest and neck " Still living... still sane... " The fox looked around and noticed that Judy had gone missing and that Ben was still sleeping on the floor, despite Nick screaming just moments earlier "..." he huffs and rubs his neck to make sure there was no blue splotches " Still me... just a nightmare... " Nick stands up and looks at the entrance as the rabbit in question returns from her quick wash, she noticed Nick was in a cold sweat and made her way to him placing her paw on his back " Nick? Are you- " He cuts her short by giving her a bone crunching hug " Oh... oh thank god... i thought i lost you... i thought i lost you.. " Nick repeats to her and she smiles caressing his head " Hey.. I ain't going nowhere, do you understand Nick? " he looks up at the rabbit and smiles wiping away his forming tears " Thanks Carrots.. i don't know what i'd do without you. " He looks over to the sleeping cheetah and sighs, he grips the wall and rises to his legs balancing himself " We better get moving if we wanna get to the Main precinct. " Nick shivers a little and looks at his hospital garment that had been ripped up due to yesterday's events " But first we should probably tend to the issue of clothing, can't exactly walk around naked.. " He chuckles at his joke and walks to Ben.

"..ngh.. another one please... " Ben sleep-talks and rolls over , his face basically like a sleeping kitten, Nick smiles and gently shakes the giant cat awake " Clawhauser.. wake up.. we gotta go. " The cheetah flicks his eyes open and yawns behind his paw and scratches his ears " Good morning Nick... Is it time for work? " The cheetah mutters half asleep " Thats right big guy. come on " Nick slips under his arm and pushes up helping him to his feet, Judy watches the fox trying to wake up the sleepy cat with a rather large smile finding the scenario slightly amusing, she checks her pockets to see if she has anything of use that wasn't water logged, ' It's lucky i always bag my electricals.. ' she pulls out her phone and opens it up checking her contacts " Guys. My phone survived the fall, but we haven't got a very good signal in this place, lets get out into the open. " Nick and Ben nod and start to walk out of the cavern as the bunny bags her phone and places it in the backpack she kept.

" So Carrots.. what do you think is happening with this whole case " Nick looks at her as they cross through the dank and wet terrain, luckily for them the thunderstorm didn't last long and it left the trees and rocks climbable " It's quite obviously connected with the Night howler case from 2 months ago. However I don't think that the poison we are after this time is the one we were after last time. Albeit that the ferals were dangerous and violent, they never had the intent to kill. The people from yesterday that had turned feral were very clear in what they wanted to do.. " she shivers from the thought " So what are you saying Judy? That its a new stronger form of Night howler poison? " Ben pants as he tries to catch up with the two by comparison quicker mammals " I haven't thought of what it could be, it only came to me this morning, the case that the chief gave us said that the people who were infected with the poison had become docile after one day after infection. however with this one we have on our hands, clearly it doesn't de-activate after just one day... I think this poison is more of a permanent method of infection, one that will always stay in the blood stream.. to be activated when the mastermind see's fit. " Nick widens his eyes and looks at his own paws " y-y-you mean... " Judy nods sullenly " Everyone could now be infected with that poison. " Ben covers his mouth and looks at himself picking the two up " I don't wanna be one of those things! " Judy nods and puts a paw to her chin and hums a little " The question is... if the mastermind has a switch to turn anything into ferals.. why haven't they activated us.. " Nick catches onto her theory and looks around " Because if they did, then they wouldn't be able to spread the infection as far as they need, Get rid of the people on the case, and they'll send Infiltration teams, armies and mercenary groups. anything to take their research. " Judy looks at Nick and giggles " Well look at being all detective mode haha " Nick rolls his eyes and elbows Judy playfully " I got it from you. " Ben smiles from behind them and splits the trees open looking through, no more trees equals a signal! " Judy over here! its free of trees! " Judy perks her ears and runs towards Ben and steps through " Hey.. good job big guy! " Nick pats his head and jumps through.

Judy's phone rings for a while as she thumps her foot impatiently, she smacks the phone off her head " please pick up, please pick up... c'mon... " The phone bursts into life as the voice she was after emits from the device " Officer Hopps, i've been reported that the hospital has been overrun by ferals.. what in god's name happened down there after I left?! " Judy starts to explain the incident to Bogo as Nick and Ben watch out from any unsavory creatures trying to sneak up on them " And thats what happened sir.. " Judy ends her rant " An advanced poison of night howlers? how can you be sure? " Judy looks over to Nick and steeled herself " Those creatures tried to kill us Bogo.. Animals under the night howlers don't kill, just be violent! " Nick looks away from Judy remembering his nightmare " Where are you Hopps? and Who is with you? " Judy looks around at the dry clearing with tree's in every direction " I don't know sir.. and Nick and Ben are with me, we escaped the hospital by jumping in the river that led into Artictown and Tunjunga. luckily it drifted to Tunjunga. " Understood. A Patrol car is around the main centre of Tunjunga, make your way to the centre, i will tell the patrol to watch out for you. Over and out. " Bogo hangs up the phone and looks at the Animal that just entered his office " My name is Crash... i'd like to speak with you.. " The jaguar smiled and closed the door.

Nick hobbled to Judy as she put down her phone and bagged it " What did the Cheif say? " Judy looks around and huffs " He said to make our way to the main centre of Tunjunga but i don't know where that is.. " Nick looked around scratched his ears and then looks at her " Can you climb carrots? " He smirked at the rabbit " Climb? A little wh-HEY!? " Nick picked up Judy and gestures to the hanging branch that led to a high point of which she could scout the area " oh... oh no you don't... " Judy starts squirming to get out of his grip and he nods with a smile " Up ya go! " He steps back and launches the rabbit towards the branch as hard as he could, Judy grabs onto a loose piece of bark with one paw and looks down at Nick with an angry smile " Oh you are gonna get it when i get down Nicholas! " But she had to admit that his plan was quite good, she scurries across the branch and pops her head through the leaves looking around, she sees a big building with the words of centre in the southern most direction, from what she could see, anymore north and they'd hit Artictown... then they'd be in trouble... " I GOT IT! " she slides down the branch as it snaps and she falls " Whoah! " She flinches thinking she's going to hit the ground when two furry arms stretch out and catch her " c'mon carrots. you didn't really think i was gonna leave you alone without getting ready to catch ya? " he chuckles as she punches his arm with a scowl " Warn me next time you do that yeah? " she jumps out his arms and looks at Ben's direction " That way is the centre. " She points through the trees " Well what are we waiting for? Lets get going. " Nick walks though the trees and leads the way, using his nose to follow the scent of people.

End of chapter 4