Chapter 2 – Wakey, Wakey

When I awoke I immediately felt that something was off. Though I couldn't look what it was as somebody fixed me onto the bed. I could only stare at the sealing. But from what I could hear I could determine that I am in a hospital.

Then I heard something familiar, the voice of Nick the Fox.

"How are the two today, doctor?" he said.

"Good, although he hasn't woken up yet. Your college though is currently doing the last checks. We believe we can release her tomorrow and she will be able to join the force again." a female voice answered.

Wait I can hear them through the door? It sounded like they were standing just in front of the door that leads to the room I am in, but I could hear them loud and clearly. What is that door made of? Cardboard?

"And he really is ..?" Nick continued their conversation.

"I am afraid, yes. That new Night Howler serum has some serious side effects. We haven't seen anything like this, ever, but as much as we can tell it has stopped."

"May I see him?" the fox asked.

"Sure, I just wanted to check in on him, anyway."

And with those words the door to my room opened and the two came in.

"Oh!" both exclaimed when they saw that I was awake.

"Err, Hello?" was all I got out.

"Hello. I already thought you wouldn't wake up at all." The non-fox voice responded.

They both came into my vision. The doctor was a honey badger.

"Why am I tied down?" I decided to start with the obvious question first.

"Well, after all what that bite did to you. We didn't know if you were savage or not. So we had to tie you down for security"

"What that bite did to me? What happened?"

"You don't know yet?"

"No. I've just awoken and all I can see is the fucking sealing."

"Watch your language in my hospital, young man." She said with a stern look, but that didn't last long.

"Now, how do I explain it to you?" she continued "That Night Howler serum that was fired at Officer Hops was a new modified variant, which brings some side effects like …. Well, I better just show you."

She grabbed in his pocket and got out a phone. She then tapped a bit around and held it to face me. The camera app was running and showing the live picture from the font camera.

But instead of me a bunny was on the screen.

"What the fuck!?" I exclaimed after they made me lose and I could see ma arms and legs with my own eyes.

"Please, relax. We …"

"Relax? I just changed species for fucks sake!"

"I only say it once more: Would you please watch your language in my hospital!? Now, I wanted you to ask what species were you before you were bitten?"

"Well, human."

"Well the thing is we never seen such 'Human' before."

"That's because they don't exist here. And who are you?", I asked them.

"Hmm, interesting." She mumbled "You're at Zootopia General Hospital and I am Dr. Madge Honey Badger." She then answered my question.

"And what was that 'laboratory' I was in?"

"That's something I can answer." Now Nick started to talk "I am Officer Nick Wilde, ZPD and we found you inside an illegal laboratory where experiments with the Night Howlers were made. My college was trapped with you there after we investigated the vanishing of some citizens and she got kidnapped."

"Your college? The bunny which bit me." I interrupted him.

"Yes." he answered. "From the evidence found at the lab we came to the conclusion that the modified Night Howlers are the reason for you change of species. There are recordings of other experiments where the serum was given to people who went savage. Whoever they bit changed species to whatever bit them. You however are the first who didn't die while changing. That's all we currently know and now you could tell us who you are? And why you were trapped in there?"

"Well, my name is Oliver Schmidt and I am from Rostock, Germany. And I don't know what the hell happened to me or why I was in there. But where I am from humans are the only sentient species and all others are what you would call 'savage'."

I replied in slightly sarcastic tone and they stared at me in an awkward silence.

A phone rang.

"Uh. Sorry, that's mine." the fox apologized.

He got it out looked on the screen and accepted the call.

"Wilde here. What's the matter?"

It was the classic call on which you can't hear what the person on the other end is saying. You only hear the person in front of you saying "Uh." and "Ahem.".

Even I with my new super hearing could only hear some unidentifiable noises from the phone.

The whole time he got his usual sly grin on his face, but that suddenly vanished.

"No, I do believe that. It is matching what our new bunny friend said. … Yes he is awake. I'll get him over for an interview as soon as I can. Yeah. Bye."

"Good news, Fluffbut." he turned to me "They just found out why you are here. Have you seen the big portal like structure in the lab?"

"Yes. What's with that?"

"They finally found out what it is. Apparently it was a larger scale rebuild of an experiment stolen from Zootopia University. The Professor claims it's a worm hole generator."

"Yes I've heard of that." the doctor intervened "He couldn't get funding for a live size one and after they stole his small prototype, which never worked to begin with, he had to abandon the project. But if that's true … that means our friend here is from another universe or something of sorts."

"Can he be released for an interview?"

"Well, we have to run a few last checks. We already did the interesting bit when he still was a 'Human'. Now there is nothing new to learn from him on the biological side, which is my research area. I'll guess we can release him tomorrow together with your college."

"Wait. What did you do when I was asleep?"

"Well X-Ray, MRT and so on. There isn't a completely new species popping up every day, you know. We didn't cut you open, if that's your concern? And we kept you clothing and what was in the pockets. It's in the locker over there, though it may be a bit too big for you now."

"OK. Thanks. I think I'll just need some time to get my head around all of this."

"Well, I think you can have some 'You'-time now. I will pick you up tomorrow for your interview." The fox left. The doctor had a look on his clipboard.

"We will begin with the checks tomorrow morning at 9. If you have further questions ask some of nurses. I'll tell the nurses that you get something to eat as well." She turned to leave the room.

"By the way how long was I asleep?"

"About 4 days. " She said on his way out the room.

I stood up went to the bathroom and had a first proper look at myself. There were a few different taps on different heights. I now was about a meter twenty-ish in hight and so I got to the one accommodating me best.

That was weird. Looking in a mirror and not seeing the face you grown accustom to look back. Let alone that it was a bunny looking back. And apart from my still blue eyes I looked what you would expect a bunny to look like. Grey fur, giant ears, pink nose and two teeth that looked like you could bite concrete with them. Oh and a look at the back revealed the obvious plushy bunny tail. The hands were weird too. They were some way between paws and human hands, still with 5 fingers and opposable thumbs, but with claws.

And the feet were even weirder. They really looked like bunny paws (like you'd expect them to in our world) and I looked like I could kick somebody into the ground with them. I did try and jump, but was surprised how high I really got, lost control and landed on my face.

My feet also had a thick pink padding under them, it sort of felt like I already was wearing shoes. 'Well, that explains the lack of shoes in this world' I thought to myself.

I got back into the main room and had a look over to the locker where my stuff was kept in. And really everything was there. Although most of it was probably of not much use for me any more. But they really haven't taken away anything. They had a look in the pockets though, as my phone was in the same pocket as my keys. And I don't do that as the keys scratch the screen of the phone. It was turned off, probably by an officer.

In the other pocket were my wallet and my headphones, which surprisingly still fit. So I did sit down on the bed and listened to some music.

I didn't think running away was a good idea. I'm in a city which I don't know, I have no idea where to go. And I know that Nick is one of the good guys, he won't do anything bad to me. But this brought up a new question. If this really is Zootopia, how on earth has Disney made a kids movie which resembles an alternative universe?