Chapter 18 is up, and it's an intense one! Not many more to go now, so hold your breaths!
"Right, fur balls, let's do this!" Finnick cried when he hopped out of his van, hesitantly followed by his two unwilling companions.
Nick didn't know where the past hour had gone, and knew full well that in a legal circumstance, it would have taken a lot longer than an hour to get here. But Finnick knew all the back roads, and sped like a champion without ever getting caught for some reason, so he wasn't one to complain and exited the vehicle with stiff legs and a pounding heart.
Nick felt a new dread envelope him. Thousands of rabbits had vacated their homes, holding onto one another nervously as they eyed one house in particular. Nick could smell Judy, her fear evident, and he wanted to punch himself a hundred times over. Her door had caved in, shattered glass everywhere, the building vacant and destroyed. That's two of Judy's homes in one night completely devastated. There was practically nothing left for use, everything decorated with claw marks, even the TV.
They found the hatch for the escape tunnels in no time, caved in and nothing but tattered wood. The roars of the panther were clear, echoing from below. For the first time in his life, Nick was no longer afraid of even the most terrifying things. He'd once outrun a larger predator than himself, savage and wild, with his tail between his legs and his mind screaming that this was not how he wanted to go. But now, his only fear was a single scratch ripping through Judy's fur and skin. His fear was waking up to an empty inbox on his phone rather than a thousand texts demanding that he be up and ready two hours before his shift. His fear was never seeing Judy, the dumb bunny who proved to be anything but, again. That thought was worse than a jaguar's fangs ripping into his throat.
"Right." Nick sounding, forcing himself to take some kind of control. "I have to go down there."
"Nope," Finnick said.
"What?"
"I said no. You have to stay up here."
"Are you kidding me?"
"I'm going down. Chad, you're coming with me.
"I have to go down! I got her into this mess!"
"Exactly, Nick." Finnick said, rounding on him and pointing at him forcefully. "And right now, she needs you up here waiting for her when this nightmare is over. We're going down there, we're going to find her family, and bring them up here where they'll be safe with you. You're not going to be on her mind right now, Wilde, only her family. Even I know that."
He wasn't wrong. Nick knew Judy all too well, and knew her family almost as well, despite having yet to meet them. She spoke of them all the time, particularly her parents, with so much love and admiration despite everything they had tried to force upon her before becoming a cop. They had evolved with Judy, opening up to a world of bunny cops and best friend foxes, and Nick knew Judy would forever love them all the more for it. She adored them for growing up in an impossible, complicated world, and loved them even more for passing it on to the next generation of the Hopps family. Judy would do anything to keep that peace, and she would do anything to protect the ones she loved, even if it meant putting herself in harm's way.
And that frightened Nick half to death.
He tried again. "I have to go down. I need to make this right."
Finnick sighed heavily. "Give me ten minutes. If we're don't appear, come down. Come on, Chad."
Nick watched helplessly as Finnick descended with Chad at his heels. Leo hissed in frustration as he wondered off to the nearby rabbits sheltered together in quivering fear outside, possibly to get an understanding of what exactly had happened. All the while, Nick listened in utter dread as the snarls from below continued, and after a few minutes, his ear twitched at the sound of distant sirens.
Whilst his stomach flipped with relief, his nose jerked in disgust.
He turned, almost reluctantly, and walked towards the broken down door of the house, ducking as he did. His stomach churned when he spotted a flash of red far ahead in the ever-dimming evening light, slinking in the gloom with intentional slyness. He could feel a snarl rumbling from his gut before he could even stop himself, his inner rage unbearable.
He pushed it deep down and took a breath, peeking back to the door on the ground. He was no use here, no use to anyone.
But Ffion didn't know he was here. If she thought she was going to have her way with Judy without Nick getting involved, she had another thing coming.
He swallowed, taking the snarl back down his throat, and skulked into the shadows just as a rumble of thunder quaked the land.
It didn't take long for Finnick and Chad to find the Hopps family. They were huddled together at the very end of a tunnel deep below ground, so far in fact that Finnick almost missed their scent. And boy were they frightened, all of them with wide eyes and hearts racing a thousands miles an hour. It was so hot where they were, their stress taking its toll on them, and Finnick briefly thought about how they may have found them in the knick of time.
He could only assume that the two rabbits in front, guarding the horde behind them of at least twenty, were Judy's parents. He promised them that everything was okay and they himself and Chad were there to help, but it took them a moment to come around.
"Did she send you?" said her father.
"No," Finnick said. "I'm a friend of Nick's."
"Ah," the elder rabbit looked down to his feet. "I should never have listened to her."
"She'll be okay, darling. Let's just get everyone up there and safe." Said Judy's mother gently. Finnick nodded in agreement, gesturing for them to walk ahead of him and the stoat.
"Wait," called one of the little rabbits, no older than eight. "What about mom?"
And that was when Finnick realised that for Judy to dig tunnels, she would have needed help. That meant there were more of her family down here, scattered from the rest and lost in endless tunnels. He couldn't go back up knowing that, not if he wanted to keep his already small conscience from shrinking further for the sake of his pride. He knew he would hold this whole ordeal against Judy once she was out of this mess and his reputation would be enraptured, but right now, he wanted to do the right thing and stand by Nick and his friend.
He ordered Chad to take the rabbits to safety whilst he searched for the three missing bunnies, minus Judy. Right now he knew that that bunny could take care of herself for the time being.
After walking carefully through the long dark tunnels, relying on his excellent eyesight alone, it didn't take him long to come across the sound of soft, worried murmurs and hard, rugged sobbing. He stopped, waiting, as the sounds became louder to his ears the closer they got, not wishing to startle them.
Granted, when the three of them came into view from the gloom, they eyed him with strong distrust. They looked like a little family of three, a doe, a buck and a kitten, but they didn't look the same. The doe had golden eyes, knowing and concerned, but with the same protectiveness that a mother has over her kittens. The buck had eyes that looked to be almost black, his ears shorter than the average rabbit, and his snout slightly longer. But the little one, trapped between the years of a kitten and a doe, was an image of Judy, and for a moment Finnick had to blink.
"It's alright," he assured them, "I'm here to help."
"Little foxes like you aren't to be trusted." The doe said with distaste, keeping a tight hold on the kitten beside her.
"Perhaps in Zootopia you'd be right, but right now what choice do you have?"
The adults eyed one another uncertainly, until the sound of loud, almost deafening sirens of the cops from up above raced towards them. After another moment of deliberation, they stepped forward, but what happened next even took Finnick by surprise.
The kitten took off running in the opposite direction, screaming for Judy.
"Tala, no!" screamed the doe, but Finnick raced past her and after the kitten.
"Get above ground, I'll get the kid! Go!" he bellowed but didn't look back to check if they followed his instruction, desperate to keep his eyes on the kid sprinting in front of him.
God damn you, rabbits, he thought furiously, and picked up his pace, his front paws hitting the ground while his back legs powered him forward.
Nick was lurking at the edge of the woods overlooking Bunnyburrow, where Ffion had slipped silently into the darkness. He waited, calculating his next move, but his ears were twitching with sounds he couldn't decipher. He could feel the ground vibrating beneath his feet, but not just with the arrival of several police cars arriving on the other side of the valley. From this distance, he could just about make out Chief Bogo, looking as confused and angry as Nick did. But Nick didn't was to go down and explain, probably something he should have done. Instead he waited, loitering near the trees and out of sight.
He'd followed Ffion up until this point for good reason. Up here, there was another hidden hatch, no doubt the one that Judy and the panther were going to burst through any second now. He could feel the earth rumbling with the pressure of pounding feet below him, and the roars were unmistakable.
But his force weren't stupid, either. They knew, too, for one of the many cops on Nick's team was heading this way, a large gun in hand. He knew what kind of gun it was. It was compact with a net, most likely the correct size for this particular mammal, and was enough to disengage its target long enough to regain control of the situation. This was all good and dandy, but the panther was only the start of many issues caused over the last few weeks.
No one knew about Ffion, and she damn well knew it. The panther was just a decoy, and the dice was about to be rolled in Ffion's favour.
So Nick waited, seeking a decent hiding spot ready to watch the following events unfold accordingly. If he could, he would grab Judy in her haste to escape, but something told him she would be running far too fast for him to snatch. Besides, Ffion wouldn't let things be that easy for her.
He moved deeper into the woods, the glowing, flashing lights of the cars fading away with the noise. It was dark now, and drizzle began to dampen his fur coat and cool his incredible hot skin. He was so stealthy, tucking into the undergrowth and out of sight so smoothly, that the water droplets rolled off his coat as if he were made of silk.
He flexed his paws in the damp earth where he knelt, kneading it with his claws. Nose low to the ground, ears flat against his head; he was ready for a run. His eyes forever roamed, keeping an eye out for Ffion, but the chances were she already knew he was here and was baring him no mind. He knew that she would be exercising herself in the same way he was, preparing for a sprint like no other. Judy was fast, waiting for no one no matter what. Nick just needed to make sure he got her attention before the vixen did.
And then it happened.
He didn't see it, too deep in the woodland, but he heard the door fling open and the almighty roar of the panther sprint free.
He heard the shot of the gun, and the cry of surprise from the predator.
And then he heard her, feet pounding against the ground as fast as she possibly could, and he called out to her in the most earnest way he could manage.
"Judy."
Judy felt her feet skid to a halt, slipping on the damp leaves, and she almost fell on her front from going so fast to a sudden halt in the space of three seconds. The air was so cool and wet, fresh, compared to below ground, the rain slipping through her incredibly soft fur and wetting it in a matter of seconds. But that was the least of her worries. Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest it almost hurt, and her belly and chest ached to the sensation of burning as he tried to catch her breath. But that wasn't what had her frozen.
A panther should have been chasing her, yet nothing pursued her. Yet even if it had, she had stopped because of one voice, and one voice alone. In her most frightening, frantic situation, one voice was still able to make her stop dead in her tracks.
She looked to her left, and right there, in the gloom, was a pair of glowing green eyes that Judy would never mistake for anyone else. They shone with knowing and sorrow, yet twinkled with recognition and hope. The familiarity of them took her breath away, and a flash of memories came flooding back to her, pushing aside all the doubt, all the fear and all of the confusion of the last few days. She remembered the sly, witty conversations, the adrenaline as they ran together, the knowing in their eyes as they acted out a plan to change the end game. She remembered the fun and the laughter, the hurt and the pain, but none of it mattered in that moment.
Nick had come back. He'd come back for her.
She edged towards him, reaching out a tiny paw. He moved ever so slowly, coming into what little light was left, and his face was the most grave she had ever seen it. She moved again, the leaves crunching beneath her weight and disrupting the awful silence that separated the two of them.
"I…" he began as she moved ever so carefully towards him, unable to take her eyes off his. "I'm so sorry, carrots." His voice was barely above a whisper. "I'm here, I'm right here,"
He was. He was right there, waiting for her, watching her, and coaxing her over to safety.
"Nick," her voice was verging on a sob, and it hurt her throat.
"Come on, carrots, let's get out of here, just a few more steps."
The shock was wearing off, and Judy found her self closing the distance between them just a little more. Nick was moving, too, and it was only a matter of seconds before they would be running at one another. She could already feel his warmth, safely wrapped in his arms where nothing could hurt her, and all the strain would simply go away in that one single embrace.
A twig snapped, breaking the silence, and it wasn't from either Judy or Nick.
Judy froze for a second before she looked behind her, Nick fleetingly forgotten.
But there, in the small clearing of the woods with police lights flashing in the distance, was her little sister Tala. She was frozen, paralysed by the fear of the rabbit, and she wasn't looking at Judy. She was looking to her right, in the darkness, and Judy took in a sharp breath. She saw the glowing golden eyes, and Nicks voice trying to regain her attention, tainted with worry, but Judy was already too far gone to listen.
"Run, Tala." She said sternly.
"Judy…" Tala whispered, her voice trembling.
"Tala, listen to me, run to me right now,"
But Judy knew that wasn't going to happen.
The breakage of the shrubs was enough to spring Judy towards her sister, and suddenly she felt a power she had never felt before. She heard Nick bellow her name and break from his hiding place, no doubt running after her, but he wasn't quick enough.
Ffion came springing out of the bushes with a bark of accomplishment, leaping straight for the little paralysed rabbit hunched on all fours. Judy screamed and leapt herself up with her strong legs, flinging them forward just as she lined herself up with the vixen. She kicked forward, mid-air, with all of her might, and her feet slammed harshly into Ffion's side. There was enough power there to fling the fox away and into the mud beyond.
"Run, Tala, run!" she cried, pushing the young rabbit into motion. Tala sprinted, finally out of her trance, with Judy hot on her heels. Judy risked looking over her shoulder to see Ffion shaking over the blow, barking at her with fury. She went running at them again, but not before Nick's body went crashing into the side of hers, both foxes toppling to the ground in a heavy, angry heap.
Judy heard a cry of pain, a yelp that pierced her ears, but Ffion was in hot pursuit once more.
"Keep running," she screamed to her sister, "keep running!"
They were both running on all fours, just as they were meant to before evolution, and the speeds they reached were incredible. She could feel muscles working that she didn't even know she had, from her shoulders to her thighs, even in her fingers and toes, but Ffion was faster.
"Cliff!" Tala shrieked, and took such a sharp left that it made Judy choke on a scream. She slammed her heels into the earth, desperate to halt and turn, and she did so with her heart in her mouth and her foot teasing the open air over the precipice. Her claws dug into the soil for grip, but it was too late.
Ffion was on her, her teeth working her ankle in a painful grip. She screamed, Ffion having no noticed the cliff side, and Judy felt her slipping. She dug at the dirt, biting through the pain, and something possessed her to look up.
Nick sprinting towards her, Tala turning in confusion a few feet to her right, and the trees above disappearing as she fell. Nick's cry followed her down.
"JUDY!"
The sound of rushing water and wailing air was all she heard as she plummeting to the ground, Ffion right beside her and screaming in horror.
The next chapter will be up as soon as possible!
Don't forget to review!