THE FIRE WITHIN

Chapter 3

11:27 p.m.

Thursday, December 31

New Years Eve

Gulf of Zootopia

"Remind me again how you convinced me to do this mission." I seriously wanted to know.

"Because you think I am the most cutest bunny whenever I'm serious and optimistic and that you couldn't resist my dazzling amethyst eyes." Judy stated, clasping her paws together and fluttering her eye lashes rapidly.

"True and true. And God forbid me for calling you the C-U-T-E word. Sneaky rabbit."

"YOUR sneaky rabbit. Besides, it's our duty."

"Our duty to die? No thank you. I still feel like I have a life to live, thank you very much."

"Does that include watching TV and eating potato chips all day long?" Judy asked with a smirk.

"Very funny but no. I enjoy my life as a police officer alongside my beloved partner, who I do so care about deeply and I will do anything I can to make her happy." I said with a wink. She blushed.

"That's a lot of commitment to a bunny. Think you can handle it?"

"When it comes down to you, I can handle anything." I smiled and she smiled back.

"Sooo . . . anything, huh?" Judy wondered. I gave her a quizzical look.

"What do you have in mind, Carrots?" Immediately, after I asked the question, she blurted out without a second thought.

"A date!" She clasped her paws together over her mouth. I think my eyes grew wider than hers. A date? Me and Judy? I mean, it doesn't sound like a bad idea, but how would that look like? Like a friendly date or . . . something more? I rattled my brain out of the dream zone and looked at her still with wide eyes.

". . . Sure! Why not? It's a great idea! But just to warn you, I haven't had the best of success with dates." I slightly mumbled.

"How come?"

"Well, most of my dates dumped me on the date night. Just because I was a fox. Go figure. But you know what's ironic? My dates were all foxes. Almost every single vixen turned me down. Because I 'couldn't be trusted'." I made paw signals at the last part.

"Oh, Nick. Why can't people just see that you really are so much more than that? Why can't they see you the way I see you?" Judy put a gentle paw over mine. I lovingly smiled at her.

"Because they're not you, darling." I put my other paw over hers. The fur on her cheeks must've turned as red as my own fur. Good job Wilde. Meanwhile, Wolford was in the back of the dinghy, considering we were on our way to the ship and he seemed to about had it with our apparent love and affection for each other. Looked like the guy was practically gagging his brains out.

"ALRIGHT. We're here." Wolford ended the moment. We looked forward and sure enough, there was the cargo ship towering before us. She should at least be 300 feet long! Covered in a navy blue on the bottom half and a crimson red for the top. Once we got to the anchor, we noticed the name of the massive boat – The Inviter. Sure didn't look inviting, for the ship looked like it was about nearing its last voyage on the seas and had a kinda eeriness to it or was that the sound of the ship rocking back and forth in the wake? Either way, not the time to chicken out; we had a job to do. Less gawking and more climbing. So, we climbed the anchor for a less obvious entrance and didn't look down until we finally got to the top. The first thing I noticed when we got up to the deck was nobody was here or at least I assume. Weird. I mean, I know the crew was supposedly hijacked, but then where are the baddies? Should they at least be guarding and keeping watch over the perimeter?

"Where is everybody?" Judy wondered.

"That's what I've been asking myself."

"Alright, this is what we do. We search the area for anything or anyone. If we come into contact with a hostile, make sure to be ready to use that tranquilizer. Unless necessary, use lethal. I suggest we start from the front and work our way to the back until we find something."

"Sounds like a plan." I put my thumbs up. So, we did what the rabbit said and scanned the area for any sign of something out of place. So far, nothing but the usual shipping containers a cargo ship normally carries. I checked about every one of them and I noticed something different. I waved a paw for Judy to come over here.

"That's strange. All these containers are opened and empty, as if someone intentionally emptied them for a purpose." I stated.

"What are you thinking?" Judy asked.

"If I'm not mistaken, this cargo ship should've came into port by the evening and docked there for the night. This one is just anchored in the middle of the gulf. Ever since the hijack, you'd think these guys would just sail off into the blue. They're just sitting here like a duck. Check the log book of the captain. See when arrival of port was supposed to be." Judy found the captain's log and flipped to today's date.

"Yep. This ship was supposed to arrive at the port of Zootopia about six hours ago and it left port at 12:00."

"Now the question is why are all these containers empty? Not all of them should be empty. See what kind of product they were carrying. It should say in the records."

". . . Nothing but gasoline and oil."

"Now what do you think the Brotherhood needed that for?" I asked.

". . . Fuel?"

"Maybe. But what else do people use this stuff for?"

". . . Burning."

"Bingo. Now what would they want to burn with all of this?" I wondered. "Let's split up and see if we can find any more clues." Judy nodded. Judy went to the starboard side of the ship and worked her way to the back while I just went straight to the back. There wasn't really any light besides the occasional moonlight popping out from the clouds so I had to rely on my natural ability of night vision to scan the place while Judy had her cPhone's flashlight toggle switch to use. So far so good and so far nothing. After ten long minutes of searching, we about wiped down the whole ship of anything abnormal. Just need to check this last container. Wait . . . What on earth is that noise? It was hard to exactly name the noise 'cause I don't have ears like Judy, but if I'm correct, it kinda sounds like a beeping noise. Like the kinda noise a low battery alarm clock would make. I went around the corner to see what it was. The noise was coming from some kind of device strapped to a couple barrels of . . . TNT?

"Oh no." I nervously looked at the device and sure enough, it had a timer ticking on it and that ticker was just about to hit zero! "Ohhhhhh no." I wasn't escaping this one. . . But Judy could. On instinct, I spun around and screamed to the top of my lungs, holding my paw out in a halting signal to her.

"JUDY!" That stopped her immediately from doing everything, even breathing. The last beautiful thing I saw was her wide-eyed amethyst eyes looking directly at me like a deer in the headlights. And then . . . BOOOOOM! I go flying back and am knocked out of consciousness for about a few seconds. My eyes are heavy, my hearing a little loss, my brain swirling. The last thing I heard was the dire screaming of my name from the voice of Judy.

"NIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!"

And then . . . darkness.