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Savage City

Day Five: Survival Instincts

By Xan Steel

Bogo sent Nick and Judy off duty for the night after what had happened only a few hours before. Judy took Nick to the precinct showers while having him remove his gas mask, hoping that some quiet time between them under a hot water would help him relax. She pulled him into a hug under the running water as he started to weep again while wrapping his arms around her. He spoke softly to her, "I should have forced her to come down here."

She looked up at him, "Foxy this isn't your fault. We did everything we could with respect to her, forcing her to come down here might have done more damage to your regrowing relationship with her." She spoke in a reassuring tone while gently stroking his cheek.

He leaned in and licked her cheek in thanks, as he took the soap and began to wash her shoulders and back. She wanted to mate with him for a number of reasons. The main one being to help reduce his stress level. Though it didn't take much convincing on her part, as he gently pushed her up against the shower wall and began mating with her. Over the course of an hour, he mated with her a number of times until both of them were exhausted. They got out and dried each other off, as Nick spoke softly again before putting on more relaxing clothes, "I don't know what I would do without you in my life Carrots."

She looked up into his eyes, "I know I would feel incomplete without you Foxy." They kissed passionately and then headed to the bunk room and took a bed cuddling up to each other.

In the late hours of the night, Judy was woken up by Nick as his body jerked and spazzed. "No!" He called out in his sleep. "Please don't make me!"

She turned and gently shook him, "Foxy." He tossed a bit.

"No! Please!"

She shook him more abruptly. "Nick, wake up sweetie!" At this point, he sat up crying out and would have launched Judy from the bed if she hadn't been holding on.

His body trembled in her arms as she held him, as she began to think that he might be getting an early onset of PTSD, it wouldn't surprise her after what he went through only a handful of hours ago. Something like that can leave deep emotional scars that may never heal. She managed to get him to relax as he laid back down again and pulling him into a loving embrace. Every hour or so she woke up to check on him, and it seemed that for the most part, he was having a restful nights sleep which relaxed her.

As morning came Judy got up an hour after Nick had, and found herself having been pulled on top of him as his arms wrapped around her. She looked up at him, "Good morning beautiful." He said softly to her while gently rubbing her head and shoulders.

"Mmmm, good morning handsome. Did you sleep well?" she asked.

"Thanks to you, yes. What about you?"

"I slept all right for the most part." She didn't have the heart to tell him that she was up most of the night checking on him, only because she didn't want him to feel depressed about her not getting enough sleep.

They laid there cuddling for a bit before getting up, and putting on their uniforms and heading out to the front desk. Once there Bogo came over to them. "Nick, are you sure you're ok with working today?"

Nick looked at him for a moment before answering, "I need to work Chief, as I want to help with finding Bellwether, otherwise." He paused for a moment to gather himself and his emotions. "It'll feel like her death was in vain. Not to mention if I don't find something to do, I'll go stir crazy," he finished.

Bogo nodded while placing his hand on Nick's should in comfort. "Very well then, I would like you both to go down to the docks where you were being led last night. McHorn and I will come from another direction and meet you both in the middle." Nick nodded in understanding while putting his gas mask back on, as Judy replied 'Understood Sir' as they left the station and got into their patrol car and headed off.

They followed their original path down to the docks. Taking extra care along the way while passing the barricades. Judy began writing down her observations as they went just to make sure nothing seemed out of the ordinary. "I wonder what type of animal could move fast and silent for us not to detect them while placing barricades," Judy asked out loud.

"Who's to say that it was one animal," Nick replied. It took about three hours to get there and so far there was nothing strange to report.

The security guard at the gate, a white-tailed deer, stopped them. "Can I help you?"

Judy replied, "Yes we need to enter the premises, as we believe there is illegal activity taking place in one of the warehouses." The guard looked them both over for a minute before answering.

He sighs, "Normally I'm supposed to have you get a warrant, but with all, that's been happening, and me having been on the clock for three days straight. I'm too tired to care, just try not to do to much damage in there." He finished as he raised the gate to let them in.

Once inside they drove around for a bit to get a feel for the area. It was the first time that either one of them had been here, so it didn't have that familiar feel to it. From what they could see, there appeared to be fourteen warehouses all of them closed up at least from the distance.

"This looks to clean to me," Nick said thinking out loud.

Judy turned to look at him, "Not sure I understand what you're referring too." She said with a half-cocked look as one ear fell to the side.

"Well, just look at the area for a minute." He said while stopping the car.

She took a harder look at the area. "I still don't get what you're talking about Foxy."

"Well, there's no crates or boxes laying around. Not to mention I'm not seeing any safety violations with equipment laying around, it's just to clean. It's eerie if you ask me," Nick finished.

It was at the moment that Bogo came over the radio which startled them. "Hopps, Wilde. We've made it in at the other end, and it's too quiet. By that I mean this is the only port in Zootopia, and it's always bustling. Not to mention it looks like the area has been cleaned out. How is your end looking?"

Nick picked up the radio, "The same, which to me is eerie."

"I can understand that feeling. Listen don't leave each other's side. I'm not sure why, but something doesn't feel right. There should be some spare radios you can carry at your side in the back of the car. Make sure you keep in contact with us, Bogo out."

Judy turned to Nick, "Well, should we check out the first warehouse?"

They got out and grabbed the spare radios, "Ladies first." Nick said pleasantly with a smile.

"Ooooh, is Mister Scaredy Fox gonna let the tuff Bunny Lady go first." She replied with a similar smile.

Nick looked taken back. "I'm a gentleman fox, I'll have you know."

They leaned up against the sides of the door, with Nick on the left and Judy on the right. They had their tranq-guns drawn at the ready as Nick tested the door handle and found it unlocked. He mouthed a count of three before opening the door and then darting inside to the right and Judy right after to the left as they swept the entryway.

"Clear."

"Clear."

They lowered their weapons as they looked around. The entire warehouse was empty, no crates, containers, or even equipment. Nick began to investigate the area with a more discerning eye and nose, while Judy informed Bogo. While looking around he noticed that the walls of the warehouse were old, due to the rust on the metal. The door was old as well due to seeing all the dents it had in it, but it had a fresh coat of paint on it which smelled four days old. He looked at the floor and noticed the concrete was two different shades of color. Old and new. The new concrete was a few millimeters higher than the old, which made him think it had been newly poured. Not to mention it covered a good ninety percent of the main floor.

Nick got on his radio after Judy finished talking and ask Bogo if he saw the same thing in the warehouse they were in. "Yes and no. While I'm seeing what you saw, I'm also seeing pallets of paint and bags of concrete, but no equipment to move it around. So it looks as if they are renovating the warehouses." He finished.

It was at this point they heard McHorn in the background, "Hold up, McHorn just found a create of Night Howler flowers."

Judy warned them not to eat them, as she heard Bogo sigh rather loudly over the radio like she was being an idiot. "Chief I'm serious, the flowers and the pellets back in evidence lockup will affect you, unlike this gas." She said in earnest. "I apologize, I had forgotten that," Bogo replied. Judy accepted his apology as she left with Nick and headed to the next warehouse.

Over the next couple of hours and several warehouses later, everything appeared to agree with the fact that the port was undergoing a form of renovation, outside of the one create that Bogo and McHorn found. Things changed however once Nick and Judy got to the fifth warehouse, or the one labeled Nine from their end. It was filled with empty cages and the ground was littered with clumps of different fur. Nick radioed Bogo to let him know what they found, and Bogo replied that they were headed his way. Both Bogo and McHorn were in for a surprise when they got back to the car. The battery had been stolen along with the radio inside. Bogo told Nick over the handheld what had happened, and said they would be approaching on foot to them for now.

Judy gave a nervous look to Nick as he looked at her, "Let's check our car out before going farther here." He answered her mental thought.

They went outside and headed to their car, and as they approached they didn't see anything out of the ordinary, as Nick sat in the driver's seat and turned the key. They both let out a sigh of relief as it started up. Nick then tuned the radio to the dispatch frequency and began to hear commands being handed out to all teams, not at the docks, as well as the SWAT teams.

Judy took the receiver and called in, "Dispatch this is officer Hopps what's going on?"

Francine came back over the radio. "Hopps, where are you?"

"Down at the docks, with Nick, Bogo, and McHorn," she replied.

"What in blazes are you four doing down there. The city has come under attack from an untold number of savage predators, and we have no idea where they came from." Francine finished in a panicked tone.

Bogo appeared next to them and held out his hand for the Radio. "Francine, this is Bogo, is the vault secure?"

There was a long pause, "Yes, the vault is still secured."

"Good, because what is going on in the city is just the first wave," he finished. Nick and Judy just looked at him in surprise. "We passed two more warehouses full of predators waiting to be released," McHorn informed them. Bogo then told Francine to send two SWAT teams to the docks armed with high-level tranquilizers to keep them down for days. She agreed and started handing out the commands over the radio.

"All right, Hopps and Wilde I want you both to continue to investigate the area and see if you can find out where these predators came from and who brought them here. McHorn and I are going to head to the main entrance and wait for the SWAT teams to arrive, and direct them to the warehouses that still have caged predators in them. With any luck, we might be able to prevent another wave from hitting the city." Bogo finished as they split up.

Nick and Judy then proceeded back into warehouse nine and continued to look for any clues. Once they got to the back of the warehouse is when they discovered a work desk with a control panel. They carefully approached it while keeping an eye out around them. Judy noticed a lot of papers scattered about the desk and began to look them over as Nick examined the control panel. This is when she discovered that they had managed to isolate a few chemical compounds that would only effect predators, but because of how it was done their 'Savage Mood' would only last for a few hours if they were given fresh air to breathe. They had to maintain a constant level of the gas in their lungs to keep them in the Savage Mood. That would explain why Bellwether had the environmental systems sabotaged. Judy explained this over her radio to Bogo as she began to pocket the information in her hip pouch.

Suddenly a shot rang out, as Judy cried out in agony. She had been hit by a bullet on the left side of her stomach. She fell to the floor as Nick came around and pulled her behind the desk for protection. She winched in pain as Nick looked her over and noticed the bullet went clean through her, which was both good and bad. Good because it didn't leave any fragments in her body, bad because she was now hemorrhaging blood badly. He took off both his uniform shirt and white undershirt. He looked on the desk and saw a small knife. He grabbed it and began to cut up his white shirt into strips and wads. "Judy stay with me, Hun." He said as he noticed her dozing off.

He took the wads and stuffed them into the two open wounds as she cried out in pain while grabbing onto him. He the took the rest of the strips he had and wrapped them around her body to hold the wads in place. She was panting and moaning painfully as tears ran down her cheeks. "I need to get you out of here so I'm going to carry you." He picked her up as gently as he could, but she was in a lot of pain as she grabbed a hold of him. This is when he heard her attackers.

"Jesse, do you see them?"

"No Woolter, but I know I got Hopps, as I see the blood next to the desk."

"Good, she won't last long then. Keep looking for her partner, Wilde, don't need any witnesses." Woolter finished.

Nick thought to himself. 'Great Bellwether must have broken the ram boys out as well.' He kept a lookout while quietly moving towards the front of the building, only now it seemed like it was a mile away. Judy took her radio and turned its volume low enough that only they could hear it and then whispered into it. "Chief." She began painfully. "I've been shot. Nick is trying to get me to the front of the building." They both heard Bogo ask how bad it was as she held the button down for Nick.

"She's hemorrhaging badly." He finished as Bogo said they would get to them ASAP.

Two more shots rang out as their impact hit nearby, which meant they heard them talking, but couldn't pinpoint their location. Luckily they had finished reporting the situation to Bogo, as Nick continued to quietly move between the empty crates and containers. Once they got to a small area he could keep a better watch, he put her down to catch his breath and regain some strength. He could see she was fighting a losing battle with staying awake, as he noticed that the makeshift bandage was now twenty-five percent covered in her blood.

He softly whined to her in worry as he came over to her, "Judy don't fall asleep I need you to stay awake."

"But I'm so tired foxy," she said in a drowsy tone.

He licked her cheek. "I know baby, but you've got to stay awake until help comes ok?"

She nodded, "I'll do my best."

It was at this point he heard Jesse call out to him. "Hey Wilde, why don't you forget the bunny and give up. Just give us the papers you both took, and we'll letcha walk free. What do you say to that?"

Hearing these words from them was a laugh, but it gave him an idea in which he could protect Judy long enough until help came for her. He gently picked her up and carried her over to an open cage, and placed her inside.

She moaned softly, "Foxy what are you doing?"

He closed the cage while leaving his tranq-gun and 9mm inside with her, and then locked it with a nearby open lock. "Foxy?" She said a bit louder to his back as she watched him take off his gas mask.

He then turned to her and pointed both his hands at her like a pair of guns with his sexiest smile, "It's called a hustle, sweetheart."

"Put your mask back on Nick!" She yelled at him as her tears returned, "I don't want to lose you!"

He slipped off his pants thinking they would cause more noise than he wanted, as he began to take deep breaths of gas filled air. "I'll protect you no matter the cost, just tranq me if I get to close." He finished as he felt the savagery start to take over. He turned and began to walk away from her because he didn't want her to fear him or see him like this. He wondered if he would even remember her in this state. He laughed inwardly at himself, 'love really makes you crazy' he thought.

His heart began to race as he could hear it thumping in his ears. It sounded like a set of tribal war drums beating excitedly, causing his muscles to tense up. Out of the corner of his eyes, he began to see shadows racing along the containers, showing him the path he needed to take, as they darted in and out of the dark where the light didn't shine. He got on all fours and then darted into the darkness as Judy pleaded with him not to leave her.

"You dumb fox!" She yelled.

He quickly and quietly jumped between the tops of the containers, hunting for his prey, while stopping every once in a while to sniff the air around him. It didn't take him long to find them as he began to stalk one of them. He was alone, and he was nervous. He could smell its delicious aroma. He licked his lips, hungry to taste its flesh in his jaws, however, the shadows told him to wait for the right moment to attack. He stayed hidden for the moment as he watched his dinner move around. A second one joined him briefly before parting ways. This gave him the moment he needed, as the ram turned to face his direction. He pounced him from above as he went for its throat, snapping his jaw shut as it crunched under the pressure of his bite. He then jerked his head back and ripped it's throat wide open just as he started to scream. Silencing it quickly.

Jesse heard the scream from behind him. "Woolter!" He called out but got no answer. He ran back to where he was, "Woolter answer me!" He yelled. As he turned the corner he saw Nick eating him. "YOU BASSTURD!!" He yelled as he began to fire his gun wildly at Nick, but missed as Nick darted back into the darkness. Jesse ran up to Woolter. "Brother." He said in a soft whimper as he tried to hold him. Anger tore through him as he let Woolter go gently, "I'll make that preyophile pay for this." He said as he got back up and began to sweep the area.

Meanwhile, Judy was back on the radio with Bogo. "Chief, Nick took off his mask, and locked me in one of the cages."

"Why would he do that?!?" He yelled.

"He said it was to protect me until help arrived." There was a long pause as she heard a lot of gunfire nearby and then suddenly another scream and then silence. "Chief where are you?" she said nervously.

"Not far now, about two minutes. The SWAT teams have taken care of the rest of the predators and are heading back to the city to help clean it up. I've also got an ambulance on the way for you." He finished.

Judy was getting worried as she hadn't heard anything for a while. She gently got herself up and tried to wiggle the cage door to see if she could loosen it enough to open. Sadly he had set the padlock and she didn't have a key. She then drew her 9mm and took aim shooting the lock off. Then opened the cage door as she got out and slowly started to head for the main door while picking up Nicks mask along the way. She stumbled along the way while using the crates and cages for support, 'Goodness I'm so tired. Don't you stop moving you dumb bunny.' Mentally convincing herself to keep moving.

Just as she started to near the door they came in she heard a growl behind her, which caused her to freeze in fear as her ears went straight up and swiveled to the sides to hear better, while her nose twitched like crazy. "Nick is that you?" She questioned meekly as tears started to form again. She slowly turned to face the sound and saw his vivid green eyes staring at her intently. Her fear level tripled when he jumped at her, and if she didn't have her police training she would be dead. But in that split second moment being unable to think clearly. Her arm moved on its own, aimed, and pulled the trigger.

*BANG!*

Only a couple hundred yards away did both Bogo and McHorn hear the shot and Judy screaming.