The first thing Judy was aware of was the ringing; a high-pitched whine that seemed to overpower every other sound and made her want to clutch at her ears in pain. Opening her eyes, she struggled to bring the world into some semblance of focus. Her view was mostly filled with a white blur. Blinking, the blur slowly resolved into Constable Fraser's worried face. She could see his mouth moving, but it was several more seconds before the ringing subsided enough to make out his voice.

"...opps! Hopps, can you hear me?!"

"I...what?" she muttered. She tried to stand but the wolf gently held her in place. "Hey, lemme go..."

"Stay down, Detective," he said, carefully checking her over. "I need to make sure you're not injured."

Judy was in no mood to argue. "What...what just happened?"

"An explosion," Fraser answered shortly. "A mammal brought a bomb into the building. They set it off when they spotted us."

"Oh," she nodded, digesting the information. A voice in her mind suggested that she ought to feel more concerned about that than she did. "That sounds bad."

Dazed, she turned her head to take in her surroundings. It took her a few seconds to realize what was blocking nearly half her view. Francine lay sprawled out next to them, and Judy's brain very slowly surrendered a memory of being swept off her feet and held tightly against a much larger body just before the world was turned on its head.

"Francine?" Shaking her head, Judy reached a paw toward the elephant's face. "Francine?"

The elephant shifted and let out a rattling breath. Her eyes cracked open and focused on the bunny. "Hey Judy...you okay?"

She nodded weakly as her eyes began to well up. "I'm s-sorry..."

"No big..." Francine's soft laugh quickly changed into a racking cough that shook her whole body and her eyes fell closed without another word. Frightened by the huge mammal's sudden stillness, Judy lay a trembling paw on her friend's trunk and nearly wept in relief when she found that the elephant was still breathing steadily.

Wiping the unshed tears from her eyes, Judy scanned the rest of the atrium. All around her, dozens of mammals – officers and civilians alike – were beginning to move. Some managed to climb to their feet, while most remained on the ground, looking around in dazed confusion or moaning in pain.

A few lay very still. Too still. Judy tried not to focus on those ones.

As her mind cleared, she became aware of a sharp stinging coming from her left ear and reached up to graze her paw along it. The inside edge felt a little ragged and when she brought her paw back down it was stained red. A warm, wet sensation began to creep down her head as blood began to pool in her fur.

She barely had a chance to be startled before Fraser pulled a rolled bandage from a pouch on his belt and began to wrap the wounded ear from bottom to top and back. It hurt, but Judy couldn't summon up the strength to complain. He finished quickly and had begun to use a piece of loose gauze to soak up the blood in her fur when Nick's voice reached her ears.

"Judy? Judy, where are you?!"

"Nick!" She shouted, wincing a little when the sound sent a mild shock of pain through her skull. "Nick, I'm over here!"

A moment later, he came running around an overturned planter and froze in mid-step at the sight of her, his eyes wide in terror. It took her a second to remember that despite Fraser's best efforts, her face was still covered with blood. Before she could say anything, he'd rushed over and begun frantically searching for the blood's source. "What happened?! Where are you hurt?!"

"Nick! Nick, stop!" She grabbed his paws and managed to keep her voice steady. "It's just an ear wound. Those always bleed a lot."

"You're...you're sure?"

Judy nodded slowly, hoping she looked better than she felt. "I'm okay, Nick." She glanced back at the unconscious elephant. "Francine grabbed me. She took the worst of it."

Staring at Francine in awe, Nick didn't realize that Winters had stumbled up behind him until the snow leopard spoke.

"Hopps." Despite looking a little unsteady on his feet, the leopard's eyes were sharp. "You dead?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"Ear injuries bleed a lot," she said again. "It probably looks worse that it is."

"It'd better, because you look dead." He turned to the fox. "Wilde?"

"Still alive, Sergeant," he muttered. "This...er...this wasn't our first explosion."

"Of course not," Winters muttered. Regarding the scene grimly, he turned to Fraser. "Cooper and Galil?"

"Galil's injured but alive. Medics are taking care of her now."

"And Cooper?" He pressed.

"Hurt." The wolf paused, his ear twitching slightly. "Badly."

"Shit." Closing his eyes, Winters let out a slow breath. "Alright. We need to go, now."

"B-but, we can't." Judy protested as the sense of steadiness she'd managed to find rapidly began to crumble. "There are...other officers were...we need to help..."

"You were the target, Hopps. You and Wilde."

"N-n-no! T-that's not...I..."

"Gods dammit," he growled, slinging his carbine behind him and kneeling to grab her by the shoulders. "Wake up, Hopps! You can't bring back the dead and you're too rattled to help the living. You can barely string a sentence together. Right now, the best thing you can do for these mammals is to be somewhere else!"

Blinking slowly, Judy allowed herself to be pulled to her feet and herded toward the precinct's parking garage. It felt like her feet barely touched the ground as she and Nick were rushed to the nearest available vehicle and all but thrown into the back seat. They peeled from the parking space and out onto the street, putting as much distance as they could between themselves and Precinct One. Before the building vanished from sight, the image of flashing lights and black smoke had already etched itself on Judy's mind.

~o~o~o~

Shaking her head in a pointless attempt to clear the ringing from her ears, Sofia Fangmeyer pushed herself up from the floor and tried to discern what the hell had just happened. Dust hung heavy in the air, stinging her eyes and clogging her nose.

She began to climb unsteadily to her feet when an unexpected shock of pain sent to back to her knees. Looking behind her, she was stunned to discover that the end of her tail had been pinned under a knocked over filing cabinet. How did I not feel that?!

Pausing to take stock of her own condition, she suddenly realized that virtually everything hurt. Her body was sending so many painful messages to her brain that it'd practically become white noise. The trickle of blood that had begun to seep out from under the cabinet brought her mind back into focus.

She could handle this. This was a problem she could solve.

Sofia had always wanted to serve and protect the mammals of Zootopia, but hadn't originally done so as a cop. She'd joined Zootopia Fire Department right out of college and gotten her start as an Emergency Medical Technician. Now, surrounded by wounded mammals, those skills were coming back to the surface.

Reaching around, she retrieved the expanding baton from the back of her duty belt. With a practiced flick of her wrist, she snapped it out to its full length and wedged the tip under the cabinet, levering it up and down until she was able to get her tail free. Taking hold of it in one paw, she eyed the damage for a second, then pulled her clip-on tie away from her shirt collar to use as a makeshift bandage. Once she was sure it wouldn't fall off, she made her way through the rubble to retrieve one of the emergency medical kits positioned around the atrium.

It wasn't very large, especially when compared to a fully stocked EMT jump bag, but it was better than nothing. Slinging it over her shoulder and looking around for the nearest wounded mammal, her eyes immediately landed on a fallen lynx in full tactical gear. Though she'd seen the other feline around the precinct before, Sofia had never caught her name.

Rushing over, Sofia dropped down beside the injured officer. The lynx's lower leg was bent at a sharp angle, a short length of jagged bone visible through a rip in her dark blue coveralls. Blood was seeping from the wound, slowly soaking into the material. The grisly sight brought on a brief wave of nausea, which Sofia immediately shoved back down.

There weren't many predators working as paramedics. It was a common misconception that injured prey mammals weren't comfortable having a predator working on them, but the real reason was that the majority of predators in Zootopia weren't very comfortable with the smell of blood. Most found it distracting, even irrationally upsetting. Sofia, though, had forced herself to ignore that discomfort early in her career, refusing to let it control her.

Placing one paw against the lynx's neck, where she found a strong and steady pulse. Retrieving a pair of medical shears from the kit, she made short work of the straps on the mammal's tactical vest, then did the same to the heavy armor underneath it. Pulling the equipment away, she placed her paw lightly on the lynx's chest and leaned over to listen. Although the officer was breathing evenly, each breath was shallow and ended with a distinct hitch that suggested at least one broken rib.

Pulling a small penlight from the medical kit, she carefully raised one of the lynx's eyelids and aimed it directly into one eye, then the other. Both pupils reacted normally as the lynx weakly flinched away from the light. "Can you hear me, Officer..." Sofia glanced at the patch on her tactical vest. "...Galil? Make a sound if you can hear me."

Squinting up at the tiger, Galil frowned and lifted a paw to swipe weakly at the penlight. "...ugh...cut it out..."

Relieved, she reached down to squeeze the lynx's foot. "Can you feel th...?"

"Agh! Fuck!" Galil's whole body flinched, jarring her badly broken limb. "FUCK!"

As terrible as things were, Sofia couldn't help a smile. "I'll take that as a yes."

Galil blinked slowly, disoriented. "What...what the hell happened?"

"There was an explosion. That's all I know," Sofia pulled a large piece of folded wire mech and some triangular bandages out of the bag. "I need to secure your broken leg, so it doesn't shift when we move you. It's going to hurt. Probably a lot."

The confusion cleared from Galil's eyes, and she gave the tiger a sharp nod. "Do it."

Placing the unfolded wire mesh between Galil's legs, Sofia carefully brought the limbs together and began binding them with the long bandages, careful to avoid the breaks themselves. The lynx endured the process in relative silence, only allowing herself the occasional pained groan, but when it was finished her uninjured leg had effectively been turned into a splint for the other.

With the injury dealt with, Sofia noticed Galil starting to shiver and placed one of the medical kit's foil blankets over her. Hoping to distract her, the tiger winked. "You're all set. Now we just need to find some muscle-bound firefighter to carry you out of here."

"S-sounds good..." Galil nodded shakily. "What about...where's Cooper?"

"Who's that?"

"The other tactical officer." She tried to look around, wincing at the pain that came with the motion. "He was right beside me."

Straightening up, Sofia looked around and quickly spotted a pair of EMTs kneeling nearby. Craning her neck, she caught sight of their patient, another officer in tactical gear who was half-pinned under a broken bench.

The dingo was in bad shape; his fur was matted with blood and it looked like a piece of flying debris had badly mauled his left leg. Judging by the jagged pieces of metal peppering the tactical officer's vest, there was no doubt in Sofia's mind that he owed his life to the heavy armor he'd been wearing.

Waving to attract the attention of one of the EMTs, she waited until their eyes met before she pointed to the dingo, lightly thumped one paw on her chest, and raised her eyebrows.

Is he alive?

The moose blinked, surprised to see the familiar gestures coming from a police officer. A second later he raised a hoof to tap the side of his neck, nodded, then winced.

Alive, but in rough shape.

She pointed toward the ambulances outside.

Will he make it to the hospital?

The moose tilted his head, held his hoof out, wobbled it from side to side, and pointed at his patient before he looked back down.

Can't say. Maybe. Need to work now.

Turning back, she gave Galil what she hoped was an encouraging smile. "He's alive. The paramedics are working on him."

Galil's gaze turned sharp. "How bad is it?"

"It's..." Sofia hesitated for a half second. Galil didn't seem like the kind of mammal who'd appreciate a comforting lie. "It's not good."

She closed her eyes and let her head fall back to the ground. "Shit."

"ZFD medics are some of the best you'll find. He's in good paws." Hearing someone shout her name, Sofia looked up to see Wolford running toward her with a mid-sized spine board. "We're gonna get you on the board now. Try not to move."

Galil didn't bother to respond, just wincing when they carefully moved her onto the spine board and strapped her in place. Waving down a firefighter, they left her in the mammal's capable paws and moved on to help the remaining wounded.

~o~o~o~

The ZFD paramedics had worked quickly; within minutes of their arrival on scene, the most severely wounded had already been loaded into waiting ambulances and sent to Zootopia General. The remaining mammals - most of whom had suffered little more than scrapes, bruises, and ringing ears – were treated on site.

Medical bag in paw, Fangmeyer moved from one injured mammal to the next, her partner close on her heels. Though more than a decade had passed since she'd joined the ZPD, her medical training came back easily. The how's and why's of the situation were pushed to the back of her mind as she let herself fall back into familiar patterns.

She was practically on autopilot as she bandaged wounds and wrapped sprained joints, offering the occasional word of comfort or encouragement. Mammals that still needed to see a doctor were ushered to aside to wait for one of the returning ambulances, and the rest asked to offer a brief statement before they were sent on their way. Before she knew it, she was standing in the middle of the atrium with a nearly empty bag and not a single untreated mammal in sight.

A sense of bone-deep weariness began to make itself known as she shuffled over to the nearest wall, lowering herself to sit on the ground. Wolford stood next to her, leaning against the wall and eyeing the area around them with a wary expression, as though he half-expected the chaos of the last hour to start up again the second he looked away.

"Sit down, Danny," she told him. "There's nothing else left to do."

"Yeah." Nodding slowly, he slid down the wall to sit beside her. "Yeah, I guess."

"Are you okay? I just realized I never asked."

He nodded again. "I'm fine. I was in the bullpen when it happened."

Sofia let her head fall back against the wall. "That's good."

"Are you okay?"

"I've been better," she confessed, adding, "But don't go worrying about me."

"I can worry about you if I want to," he countered with a faint huff. "I am kinda digging the bow, though."

He responded to her confused look by pointing to the necktie still wrapped around the tip of her tail. Groaning, she gave him a half-hearted swat on the shoulder. "Shut up, Danny."

"I'm just saying, it's sorta cute."

"Shut up, Danny," she repeated with a soft laugh, leaning over so he could rest his head on her shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah. Love you, too."

~o~o~o~

Just a few miles from the Precinct One building, an unremarkable SUV idled deep inside an equally unremarkable downtown parking garage, its lights turned off and electric motor humming softly. The sun had been down for hours and – thanks to a few strategically shot-out lights, the garage's deep shadows were more than enough to shield the SUV from prying eyes.

From the driver's seat, Fraser glared suspiciously at every vehicle that passed by. If any of them came too close, one paw would release its white-knuckled grip on the wheel and come to rest on his sidearm, remaining there until it had moved out of sight.

Next to him, Winters had his phone pressed to his ear, muttering softly to whoever was on the other end as he furiously took notes with his free paw.

Nick and Judy sat quietly in the back seat, still trying to catch up with what had happened. Only a few hours earlier, the most immediate question on their minds had been what to have for dinner. Now they were forced to wonder how many mammals had just been killed because of them.

Ending the call, Winters turned around to face them. "How are you two holding up?"

"Peachy," Nick responded hollowly, his voice lacking its usual sarcastic lilt.

"Hopps?"

She gave him a half-hearted shrug, looking a little better having combed most of the blood out of her fur. "No worse."

"I guess that'll do." Winters held up his phone. "That was Galil. She was one of the first mammals taken to Zootopia General."

A flash of concern cut through the haze of Judy's mind. "What? Is she...?"

"She's got a broken leg and a pawful of cracked ribs, but Maria is one of the toughest mammals I know. She's not going to let a few broken bones keep her down. She's been rolling around pretty much since her cast dried, trying to gather information." Winters glanced at the notepad balanced on his knee. "I thought you'd want to know that Officer Pennington is already out of the hospital."

"She is?" An image of the fallen elephant flashed before Judy's eyes. "She's okay?"

"More or less. She took a hell of a hit, but the doctors confirmed that it was mostly superficial."

"Mostly?"

"A torn ear, fractured arm, and a whole lot of scrapes and bruises." He shook his head. "Not enough to keep her from signing herself out and returning to duty."

"She did what?"

"She returned to duty, Hopps. And don't you dare tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing."

"What about Cooper?" Nick asked.

Sighing heavily, Winters rubbed his eyes. "Apparently his condition is still up in the air. The last update Galil got was that he was still in surgery. One of the nurses said he could lose his leg, but it's too soon to know for sure."

"Oh. I'm sor-"

"Save it for later," Winters waved off the attempted apology. "We need to get going."

Bringing up the GPS on the centre console, Winters punched in an address and nodded to Fraser. Without a word, the wolf shifted the vehicle into drive and smoothly exited the garage. Beside him, Winters lifted his carbine to rest the barrel on the dashboard.

"Where are we going?" Leaning forward a little, Judy read the GPS screen curiously. She didn't recognize the address they were headed to. "A safe house?"

"Nope," Winters said, watching the city go by with narrowed eyes. "Somewhere a hell of a lot more secure."

~o~o~o~

END PART 7