Chapter 8 – "Hi, my name is Oliver Schmidt and you are?"

"How is that even possible?"

I was standing up looking down on myself, still unconscious, lying on the floor.

"Well, considering your current situation … uhm." I shot her a deathly glare, but let it slip immediately since she was sorta right.

"We need to find the others." Judy changed the subject. I was back at staring at myself.

She tugged on my shirt. "Come on, he … I mean, you won't run away in that state. Let's find the others so we can make some sense of this." I snapped out of my awe and followed her out of the room.

The corridors leading to the lab were only dimly lit and it looked like 'The Running of the Bulls' just came through here. Claw marks on walls, the floor and the sealing, smashed doors. Quite a few of the lights were out, dangling from the sealing.

"You are sure we are back in Zootopia and not some random horror movie?" I asked.

Judy wanted to answer, but was interrupted by deep growl as we entered the lobby.

The complete front was barricaded up and 'it' stood in the middle of the lobby, where it seems it tried to dig through the foundation of the building.

An about 3 meter high reptile with horns and long claws was standing between us and the exit.

I grabbed Judy at the arm. "Run." I knew what it was and that you should run and hide if you don't have a very, very big gun or some explosives.

"What?" she asked perplexed.

I started dragging her back the way we came from. "Just run for your fucking life!"

It followed us. My plan was to get back into the lab and barricade us in there in the hope the massive doors at the entry to the lab could withstand it.

Luckily for us we could gain more distance to it as it struggled a bit with its size in the small corridors.

In the lab we were surprised to find that I (my other I) was already up.

Furthermore I was standing there with what looked like a big ass gun. 'Great that's exactly what we need.'

"You found it? Good. Go over there and take cover."

Out of other options we just did as we were told and hide behind one of the tables used for experiments.

Meanwhile my other self threw something that looked like a metallic lunch box in the direction of the entrance and got himself into a covered position.

You could hear the loud thuds of the reptile coming nearer to the lab.

I pulled Judy behind the isle and gestured her to cover her ears. I knew what that Lunchbox is and I don't want to blow out my eardrums with these ultra-sensitive ears.

She first looked confused, but eventually did so.

At some point the reptile must have lost us, but it was still searching for us.

The thuds came nearer and …

BANG!

We felt the shock wave of an explosion rolling over us and even with my digits pressed into my ears as far as I could, I still couldn't hear nothing but a high beep-sound for a few seconds.

Damn those ears.

When we came out of our cover you could see the reptile hanging from the sealing. The explosion launched it up and half way through the sealing into the next floor. After a few seconds of just hanging there it fell down and a big portion of sealing with it.

Judy and I wanted to get over to the creature to examine it.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you." It came from myself "It's contaminated with who knows what."

He got a little gray device, which awfully looked like the back device the Prof gave us, and stuck it to the dead beast.

"And you can touch it or what?" Judy said pertly.

"Yes, I can … that's complicated" he answered and pushed the button on the little device and the dead body vanished. He turned to us.

"Hi, my name is Oliver Schmidt and you are?" He stuck out his hand to Judy who shook it.

"Officer Hops, ZPD and we …" he interrupted her.

"So, I am in Zootopia? Interesting. And what about your brother here?"

"He isn't my brother."

"Well, you two look awfully similar."

I stood up to him and stretched out my paw.

"Hi, I my name Oliver Schmidt and I think we need to have a talk."

He was looking down at me, raising a brow and scratching his chin.

He wore Black shorts, sneakers and a T-shirt, pretty much my normal look.

I just now noticed that he may be a bit older than me, maybe already in the late twenties or even already thirty. And the look on his face and how he acted made me believe that he sort of knew what was going on here. So I just rolled with it.

He cautiously shook my paw.

"So, I'll take it you are not exactly from around here?" He asked.

"Well, not exactly, yeah."

"Oh, yeah that's normal for us."

I raised an eyebrow (or how you call that as a bunny). "Would you mind to Explain?"

"Pretty much every one of us, of the versions of us I've met, ended up in a different world. It's like we are haunted."

"You are fucking kidding me? So that's the reason why I am here? And changed fucking species?"

"Changed species? So you normally aren't a bunny?"

"Err … No."

"Mhh. That's unusual even for our standards, but before we get into this in too much detail. Can we get to a more private place to discuss this?"

"Sure." Judy said. "We can talk in depth at the Safe House."

"The Safe House? Why not the Precinct?"

"Because we can hide him more easily there." She whispered.

"I heard that, you know. And I maybe got a solution for that problem."

He got his backpack out and grabbed into it. It looked like he was grabbing deeper in it than he should be able to, but at this moment I just overlooked such details.

He got something out that looked like a medallion, which he put around his neck and a few moments later a grey wolf was standing in front of me.

"Oh, come on, now you're taking the fucking piss!"

"When you do the stuff I do, you need to be prepared. And in my case that includes 'disgusing' yourself as a different species in case your species doesn't exist in the place you are visiting." He picked up the backpack again.

"Everything alright?" He asked Judy, as she stood there with her jaw seemingly touching the floor.

"I can't even …" And she blacked out.

"What is it what you do, exactly?"

"Well, at the moment I am in search of my home universe."

"OK?"

"Navigating between the universes is sort of difficult. You need to find the right wormhole, make sure it leads somewhere safe and to the right time … jadi jadi jada."

I still gave him the look of "WTF?".

"Ah, fuck it … I'm gonna ask you questions later. Help me getting her out." I said.

He nodded and put Judy on his shoulder as we headed out in direction exit.

I know I wanted to wait, but one question was bugging and it had to be answered now.

"So, from the way you act, I take you sort of know something about this whole other universe thing?"

"Yes, you see most universes are already connected with each other. And because of that …."

He was interrupted by a fox standing at the end of the corridor, pointing a gun at us. It was Nick.

"ZPD, put your hands up where I can see them!"

"It's OK Nick, it's us. What are you doing here and what happened?"

"Some time after you and Judy went through there this thing showed up. We got all out in time and blocked the entrance with all we got to keep that beast in here. Then we heard a large bang and I just had to look, because of …." He paused.

"You were worried for your little bunny, Yeah, yeah." My other self said.

"Who is Moon Moon over here, anyway?" He said to me as he lowered the weapon.

"That's complicated." I said and Nick gave him a quick look.

"I'm him, technically." Nicks face went from annoyed to confused.

"I told you it's complicated."


I hope you all got the reference with the Reptile and the Lunchbox?