Ch. 24: Dirty Paws
"No," Judy breathed out the word, her voice thick with terror and her eyes were already starting to blur. "No, no, no, no."
Nick snarled threateningly at the wolf and hyena who also wore collars, they watched the hostile fox with bitter amusement in their eyes.
"I figure I'd give you an example of the collars before you well…you know…" Ronno pulled out a remote-like device. Judy forced her eyes away from Nick and to the deer, "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to watch two glorious predators rip each other to glorious shreds."
"No!" Judy cried out but then a button was pressed and the hyena dropped to her paws, her eyes wild as she faced Nick. The maned wolf climbed up onto a table in a corner and made himself comfortable.
Then the hyena lunged and Nick met her half way, their bodies crashed together with a sickening thud and then they were rolling across the tile floor, biting at each other's flesh, tearing through their skin. Judy felt sick, she moved as if to jump off the railing by Ronno grabbed her arm in a vice-like grip. "I wouldn't do that."
"Stop it please!" Judy begged him, watching as Nick's wounds started to bleed but his eyes stayed crazy and wild.
"You've had your fun sicko!" Billy growled through the bars.
"You're going to get him killed!" Eleanor cried out from her cage.
Ronno chuckled at their desperate expressions, the sound chilling as it mixed in with the howls and cries of the predators down below. "That's what I'm trying to do."
He smirked down at Judy but his eyes were glaring, "You really think that fox would just let me go if I killed you and not him, I admire Nick just as I do you and I know he doesn't go down without a fight. The way to get to you both is through each other, and that's exactly what I'm doing."
Nick suddenly let out a howl of pain as the hyena bit into his hind leg and he raked his claws across her back but the hyena kept her teeth dug into his flesh. Judy struggled desperately, every instinct inside her screaming at her to get to Nick, rescue him, drag him far away from these psychotic mammals who wanted to hurt him.
"Why do you want to save him?" Ronno asked her out of the blue. "He lied to you."
Judy whirled around and nipped the deer's arm, making him release her with a hiss of pain and then Judy was jumped across the railing and landing painfully on the floor below. Shockwaves went up her legs as the maned wolf moved to grab her but halted when Ronno held up his hoof, he watched the rabbit with a dark gleam in his eyes.
"HOPPS DON'T!" Eleanor and Billy begged of her but she was deaf to their pleas. She hurried over to the fighting predators before she could think of a plan.
"Get off him!" she yelled, grabbing the hyena's shoulders and trying to drag her off, but the predator had her full attention on Nick. But the fox's feral eyes found Judy and his paw lashed out, pushing her away from him and the hyena, causing her to fall down…and then she felt the pain. It shot up her nerve ending and her paw immediately clutched her side, only to feel something hot and wet stick to her fur. Judy looked down to see three claw marks torn across her skin, blooding oozing out of the cuts and she suddenly felt light-headed.
She would've fainted if not for Ronno's sudden loud, triumphant laughter. "That was better than I expected! Wait, no, I can make it better!" He clicked another button his remote and with violent spasms the hyena pulled away from Nick, standing up and limping over to the maned wolf who wore a gleeful look.
Judy's attention snapped back to Nick as she heard him let out a painful groan and pull himself up to his knees, his uniform torn and his fur clumped as he caught his breath. Eventually his eyes turned to Judy and they were his eyes, they weren't wild or feral or anything else, it was the eyes of the fox that she loved and her heart squeezed.
"Carrots?" his voice was confused and then his gaze traveled to her bleeding wound and the widened with fear and panic. "Judy! What happened?!"
He crawled toward her and reached his paw out to help her, the paw that was covered in her blood. Nick's paw stopped mid-air and he stared at it with mounting horror, he looked from his paw to her wound and back again, realization making his fur stand on end and then he was letting out a broken gasp and crawling away from her, not stopping until his back slammed into the wall and he pressed against it as if he could melt into the steel. He stared at Judy, his chest heaving, as his eyes were full of terror and heartache and love. "Did I…what did…I…" He shook his head helplessly.
"It's not your fault," Judy tried to assure, rising up on shaking legs, her paw still clasped over her wounds. "Nick please its okay-"
"No it's not," Ronno sang.
The maned wolf chuckled and glared at Nick, "Just like old times, huh Red?"
Nick looked like he was going to be sick.
"It's not your fault!" Judy repeated forcefully, talking through the pain. "It's that collar that's on you."
Nick stared at the monstrosity around his neck as if he hadn't even realized it was there and immediately tried to tear it off with his blood-stained paws.
"Don't do that," Ronno said as he clicked another button.
Nick screamed as a shock slammed through his body and he fell to the floor, shaking uncontrollably.
"Nick!" Judy tried to move toward him but then the maned wolf was blocking her from her fox, he was on all fours but his eyes were still intelligent as they glared at her.
"I'm personally getting tired of you, rabbit," he growled.
Judy stepped back only to slip on a puddle of her own blood and fall onto her back with a painful moan. The maned wolf stepped closer, his hot breath falling across her legs.
"Die, Judy Hopps," Ronno said almost too quietly for her to hear. "Make it easy on us and just die, I'll make sure you live on as a legend."
Judy took a deep breath, mustering up the last dregs of her strength and courage, and kicked the wolf right on the nose. He drew back with a cry of pain but by then Judy was already racing across the floor and to the left open door.
.
"Catch her!"
Through the pain Nick heard Ronno give the order and Moriarty and Ed raced after Judy out of the still open door and farther into the asylum.
"Leave her alone!" Nick tried to stand up, to chase after them, but then another shockwave of pain rolled across his body and he fell back down.
"Judy…" he begged desperately, reaching his paw out as he saw her run, her shape getting smaller and smaller. "Judy…" His vision blurred before everything went dark.
.
Judy ran through the halls of the asylum, pushing back the pain of her wounds as she tried to find a way out, all the while the wolf and hyena giving chase. She turned corners as much as she could, looking for a door or any place to hide. Fear kept her legs pumping and guilt kept her from being able to breathe correctly. She had left Nick…she had left him. A part of her told her that had been the smart thing to do, she needed to get away, to think, to plan, but it did absolutely nothing to lessen her guilt.
Running down a hall she noticed an open window, down below was the waterfall. Suddenly the hyena appeared in front of her, having cut her off. Judy skidded to a halt, turning to run back only to see the maned wolf there, saliva dripping from his fangs. She had no idea whether they were being infected by the Night Howler or not.
Judy looked around desperately, she had two options, try and fight these two predators off or… Judy whirled around and jumped onto the window sill, her courage faltering as she saw the waterfall below, there was no way she could survive that.
Hot breath on her heels had Judy turned and slipping, she let out a cry of shock before she managed to grab the sill with her paws, hanging on by her fingers as blood ran down her leg.
The wolf's head popped out of the window and he grinned like a cat that had cornered a mouse. "I'm so excited to see the look on Wilde's face when we bring back your torn open corpse."
Judy's brow furrowed. No, that wasn't going to happen, not now, not ever. If she was going to die…she wouldn't let her enemies use her body to mock Nick. She glanced down at the raging waterfall below, thought of her family, her friends at the precinct, the kidnapped mammals, Suzy, Nick, and then without further ado she let go. Air rushed past her, stinging her wounds as the air blasted into her eardrums. And she could almost hear Ronno chuckle three words: Bye, bye, bunny.
And then she hit the water.
How do lose all your readers with only one chapter