Zootopia: Undercover Pursuit

Chapter 6: Sunshine City

Chapter 6: Sunshine City

Judy was able to take a moment to breathe as the train moved into full swing and her journey home began. She had rented her seat in the medium economy class of the train, she didn't want to spend a lot of money on just the seat she was sitting in (it was enough that she had paid a lot to rent a seat in the luggage of the train), the trip home itself was a pretty heavy expense for her wallet, but with Nick's help everything was arranged ahead of time. The middle class itself wasn't bad, it was heated, there was air conditioning, free wifi and comfortable soft seats, decorated in white and blue patterns (just like the train). It was the most appropriate class for the price, the money you had to spend on business class was more than 3 times more expensive than what you had to spend for medium class, and the main difference was that the seats were adjustable in terms of angle. The seats themselves were quite comfortable, so luckily Judy chose the most apt class for herself. As they pulled away from the station Judy took her phone and headphones from the bag she was carrying. After putting on the headphones she played her favourite playlist on Spotify. It was a nice feeling to be able to sit back and listen to relaxing music without worrying about anything while looking at the winter landscape that appeared through the train windows. When they left the Zootopia area completely, there was a beautiful view through the windows of the meadows, which were covered in snow, creating snowdrifts, some larger and some smaller, winding up and down. There were also forests between the drifts, which looked insane in their white, snowy winter version. The coniferous trees sprinkled with snow looked like white Christmas trees with snow falling from them.
As she sat on the train listening to the music, she imagined what Christmas would be like. She looked forward to how every year they would all sit down at the table together and say a prayer together, then wish each other a merry Christmas. It always takes a little while, but it was the best part of Christmas for Judy. She didn't want a present, her biggest gift would be being able to spend Christmas with her family. It hurt her a little that Nick couldn't go with her, but she was motivated by the fact that she would be having conversations with her parents about her relationship this year. She had it all planned out - she wouldn't reveal who her partner was straight away, but she wanted to slowly prepare her parents for the undoubted shock they would have to come to terms with.

The journey passed quite peacefully, until Judy heard some shouting a few seats behind her. Her sound-sensitive ears could pick out just about any sound even with headphones in her ears. Judy turned the music down so she could overhear the arguments. She had her policeman's badge in her handbag (she wanted to show it to her family) so she could intervene if there were problems. As time went on, the voices became louder, which worried the rabbit, but she tried not to react yet. It could have been some sort of misunderstanding, or the most ordinary argument, but at some point words were spoken that forced Judy to take action.
"Get out fox!" someone said behind Judy's back, followed by some sort of leather bag landing on the floor. Judy put down her phone and headphones, then took out her gold polished badge, which she put in her pocket. She got up from her seat, then moved to the back of the carriage she was sitting in. She noticed two rams and a fox by the last seats, picking up items that had fallen out of a bag. The fox looked very tired and unkempt, his clothes were dirty, he had bags under his eyes and his hand was bandaged. This sight moved Judy, who immediately decided to help the fox while wondering what had happened here.
"Thank you," said the fox quietly, sitting down a place in front of the rams that began to ram his place.
"Do you have a problem?" asked Judy already being really upset with the situation. She hated such selfish and mean behavior. She never understood such behaviour and never tried to understand it.
"Look Carl! Talking teddy bear!" laughed one of the rams tauntingly poking the other who also started laughing, which made Judy even more mad, but she wasn't showing her police badge yet. She wanted to wait for the right moment. "Listen rabbit, get out it's none of your business unless you too want baggage on the ground" added the other ram laughing even louder. That was the moment. Judy laughed derisively showing her badge along with her ID.
"For the record, I'm a police officer. Constable Judy Hopps how are you doing? I'll have my tickets checked" replied Judy after a short ironic laugh. Her ironic expression caused the rams' laughter to die down by now, they swallowed their saliva hard as they stared at each other. One of the rams took a single ticket out of his pocket. Judy took it for inspection. It all matched, but where was the other ticket?
"Mate's ticket please," Nick added pointing with his hand to the ram sitting by the window.
"I don't have..." said the ram showing the empty contents of his pockets.
"You don't have one ? Stowaway is a fine of at least $1000, making other passengers miserable will raise that fine, do you realise that ?" asked Judy.
"I told you to buy a ticket dumbass" said the ram sitting next to Judy. The other was now staring like a fool at Judy having a pleading look. He had no other option. He had to give in.
"He doesn't have a ticket either!" he finally paled when he heard the quiet laughter of the fox.
"Please show me so he doesn't get in trouble," asked Judy. From his little pocket the fox took out a rolled up ticket. It all matched, which surprised the rams sitting behind him. He seemed to be a poor fox, and middle class was not the cheapest.
"The matter is simple. Either you apologise to this gentleman or I will get you such a ticket that you will remember it strongly. What do you prefer?" asked Judy one last time.
"Sorry..." replied the rams unanimously, having no choice. They were not going to pay the fine just because they had offended some fox. They apologized to him, hoping that would be enough.
"If you want you can change seats. There's a seat next to me," Judy offered.
"If I'm not in the way" replied the Fox.
"of course not! Follow me" replied Judy taking Fox's bag retreating back to her row. Out of the corner of her eye she could still see the disgusted expressions on the rams faces, it was a sight that made her proud of herself. It was a good thing she had taken the badge with her. If she hadn't, she wouldn't have been able to manage much. When they reached Judy's row, the rabbit took its place by the window, the fox sat beside her watching nature in the window - as did Judy.
"Thank you," said the fox, which got Judy's attention, who took one earpiece out of her left ear to better hear her passenger.
"You don't have to thank me...if I may know, what happened to accost you ?" asked Judy.
"And do you see who I am ?" asked the fox pointing at himself. Judy nodded with a movement of her head.
"I'm a fox, I'm used to it by now. That I'm taken for the bad guy" sighed the fox.
"'Just like Nick' thought Judy in her head.
"Race doesn't matter at all. All that matters is what we have inside" replied Judy, to which the fox smiled warmly.
"I'm glad there are still some like that. Most people only see the fox as a thief and a liar. Am I glad you happen to be sitting here lady?"
"Judy, Judy Hopps, and you?" asked Judy.
"Jim. Jim Tamber" replied the fox shaking hands for Judy.
"If it wasn't for you I probably wouldn't have the bag anymore" laughed the fox wiping said bag clean of dust.
"The important thing is that the bag is safe" replied Judy to which they both laughed. They got on well together straight away. They enjoyed talking, even though they did not know each other.
"Where are you going?" asked Jim curiously.
"To Greyhound, I'm going to visit my family, and you ?"
"To Sunshine City" replied the fox, at which Judy made a sound signifying awe. She had heard of this city. It was a city about 600 kilometres away, very far from Zootopia, but there were claims that it was the first city where the vice mayor was actually a fox.
"I've heard of this town! Isn't that where the vice mayor is a fox?" asked Judy to which Jim nodded with a motion of his head.
"But that's not why I go there," replied the fox.
"Is your family there?"
"Well, let's just say it's safer there" replied the fox which embarrassed Judy. What do you mean safer? In Zootopia, the average theft or murder was terribly low, almost zero! Judy could venture that Zootopia was the safest city she knew.
"Safer?" repeated Judy focusing her attention on the fox.
"Yeah...the fox district hasn't been very safe lately, strange things have been happening there" replied the fox.
"Meaning?"
"They declared a state of emergency...not sure who was walking around...unfortunately I can't say more about it...you're not a fox...I got away from there while I could" Replied Jim mysteriously relaxing into his chair closing his eyes. He wanted to rest for a while. Seeing by his condition, he definitely needed it, although he wouldn't admit it. Judy wanted to pursue the subject further, but the fox was bluntly showing that he didn't want to talk about it anymore, which the rabbit had to agree with. Judy put her headphones back on and put on some music, her favourite song was playing.