Chapter 7

Happy belated 4th, and enjoy!

Authors's note: The polar bear is the drill instructor from Zootopia, only younger. Enjoy!

Back at the Kingzoo mansion, five of the seven recruits were sleeping soundly. The cheetah, Benjamin (Benny) Clawhauser, snored noisily. Meanwhile, Gazelle and the polar bear, Felicia Drill, slept peacefully. The lion, Leonardo (Leo) Lionheart Jr., tossed and turned in his sleep. Lastly, Yax was sleep flirting.

"I know. I know my hair is fantabulous, girl. I know... Oh, for sure!"

The last two animals, Judy and Nick, just laid perfectly still in their beds, tired but restless with anxiety and boredom. Fortunately for them, their beds were right beside each other. Judy stealthily crept out of her bed and gently shook Nick.

"Nick? Nick."

"Mm?" Nick yawned quietly, turning in his bed to face her.

"I can't sleep, Nick."

"Come here." The fox scooted and made room for the rabbit. She slowly and silently climbed into the bed, and they snuggled under the covers.

Nick gently rested his chin on her shoulder. "Worried?"

Judy nodded, her mind engulfed with paranoid thoughts. Both were worried, actually, but Nick was better at hiding his emotions than she was. "Dan is relentless, Nick, and he's not always stupid. I feel like he'll find a way to put blame on the Otterton's and eventually us."

Nick just kissed her cheek and settled into the bed with Judy in his arms. "Just go to sleep, Carrots. We'll worry about it in the morning."

"I mean, what if Mrs. Otterton forgets to change Tommy?"

"She's had two kids before. I imagine she'll manage."

"But what if..." Nick grew tired of her ranting and zoned off. But then, he heard a very strange buzzing noise that grew louder and louder with every passing second.

"Carrots, sh!" He put a finger to her lips. "Listen." The noise grew exponentially louder and louder. Then, a huge, hideous, black swarm of flies flew from the vent and squeezed into their room. They seemed angry, restless even, and flew straight towards them.

"Run. Run!" Judy grabbed Nick's paw, and they hopped out of the bed.

"Get up!" Nick shouted, waking everyone else up. "Wake up!" His wife made a beeline for the door.

Judy tugged on the door and gasped. "It's locked!"

"WHAT?!"

"They're getting in my mane!" Leo yelled with more irritation than shock or fear.

Felicia suddenly screamed and covered her eyes with her paws, startling everyone else. "My eyes! They're getting in my eyes!"

Only Yax seemed to appreciate the company, and the flies were instantly attracted to Yax's homemade shampoo and gel in his dreadlocks. "Oh, yeah! Hey, dudes! Like my hair?"

Gazelle threw a blanket over her shoulders, effectively covering herself from the vicious flies, and threw blankets at the others.

"Take cover!" She instructed. "They are biting us!"

"Ow!" Benny sucked on his bitten thumb. "And potentially eating us..." The cheetah, Judy and Nick discovered, was right. The flies began to destroy and devour their blankets, pillows, and pieces of their beds as a group.

Nevertheless, to delay the abnormal insects, they all covered themselves with their blankets. Judy and Nick were huddled under one blanket, the buzzing and chewing encasing them, when Judy glanced at the toilet in the small bathroom adjacent to their bedroom.

Nick raised an eyebrow at her. He knew that look. She had an idea, presumably a dumb or crazy one.

Judy strongly gripped Nick's arm, eliciting a wince. "Nick, can you swim?"

"What?!" Why was she asking that at that moment? He knew she did not know. They never had time to swim lately. Also, neither of them absolutely loved swimming. But, it was still odd to ask...

"Can you swim?" She repeated louder.

Nick snorted and freed his arm. "Yes. Yes, I can swim. I can swim, but what -" The flies stripped a huge chunk of their blanket, forcing them to swat at the eaters and smother themselves in the remnants of their plush, makeshift tent.

Judy gave his back a light shove towards the toilet. "Dive into the toilet, Nick! Now!"

Nick swiftly turned around and grabbed her shoulders. "No! I'm not leaving without you!"

"Hey, lovers!" The two craned their necks at Leo, who had successfully dodged the swarm with a blanket and breaked off a leg of his bed. The other animals were inching closer to him. "Get over here now! All of you!"

The strongest animals, Leo and Felicia, used the leg and their brutal strength and attempted to break down every wall of the bedroom and bathroom. Unfortunately, none of their attempts worked by the time the flies devoured the blankets and decided to finish the pillows.

"It's no use!" Felicia panted. "That's just my luck, dying with you all!"

Benny gasped and pointed at the sinks. "Look! A mirror!" A single, full body mirror stood beside the sinks. Nick and Benny rushed to it and scrutinized it.

"So what?!" Leo yelled.

Nick ignored the lion and pawed the glass. "It's double-sided! Give me the leg!" Leo shook his head and shoved Nick aside.

"Move, fox! I've got this!" Leo hit the mirror unforgivably until its cracks left a sizable opening on the other side, where a dimly lit hallway greeted them. Without thinking, Benny carried Gazelle bridal style, and they, with Leo and Felicia, scrammed out of the room.

Judy and Nick were right on their tails before they could escape, however, the flies began to surround and mercilessly bite them. They had already wolfed down the pillows and were now chewing on Judy's ears, making the poor rabbit yelp in pain.

Ignoring the pain inflicted on his tail, Nick took one look at his wife and then at the toilet. With one resolute nod, he took her in his arms and ran like a mad fox to the toilet, jumped into the bowl, and flushed it.

"Hold your breath, honey!"

xxx

"Sly... fox..." She gave him a grateful smile.

Nick smiled warmly in return. "Well, if I'm going in a toilet, you're going in a toilet."

Both were coughing violently by the time they were found. McHorn was not pleased to find them in sewage.

"But then again..." He gave the other four a stern look. "Breaking that mirror wasn't the best case scenario of passing the test either. But to each his own..." His eyes returned to his clipboard. They were all in the tech room.

"How else were we going to do it?" Gazelle wondered.

"Hole in floor with underground tunnel, fly food, explosives..." As he droned, they all openly gaped at him. "We've had... creative recruits in the past. Believe me. Still, you kids haven't seen the worst yet."

McHorn sighed tiredly and examined what he jotted down on his notes, which were clipped to his clipboard. "Excellent work, Nick, when you pointed out the double-sided mirror... Leo, good use of what you had... You all passed..." He paused and looked at them with disappointment and boredom. "But, you all failed in one way. You all abandoned your teammate."

He pointed to the cameras in their bedroom and saw Yax, who was chatting amiably with the flies. Surprisingly, they were not hurting or annoying him.

"I'm not dead, dudes!" Yax shouted at the camera. "They love me!"

"Probably because you smell like Leo's furry ass," Nick quipped quietly to Judy, earning a growl from the lion.