The Fire Triangle -- Part II, Oxidizer

The Fire Triangle: Book II - Chapter 22

Disclaimer: Zootopia stories, characters, settings, and properties belong to the Walt Disney Co. This story is written under Fair Use Copyright laws.

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The Fire Triangle

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Part Two:

Oxidizer

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Chapter 6—Unintended Consequences
(Part 1)

First there was blackness, lightening slowly to gray and then white. And then it was like the time-lapse display of the creation of an artwork; wispy black lines coming together to form vague shapes; coalescing gradually into something that was almost more recognizable. Now, as the outlines began to fill in with color, there were sounds as well; the clink of glass against metal, the robotic rasp of an intercom. Somewhere in the distance, a voice was barking orders, too faint to be understood. Lastly, there was the smell—dry, stinging, and antiseptic.

And then everything merged together and she was back in the real world.

Blinking wetly, Judy pulled herself up on her elbows...and found herself looking into the dark brown eyes of another bunny. No, she decided, not a bunny, a jackrabbit; too big, too lean, and too long in the ears to be a member of her own species.

She was dressed in a nurse's uniform.

"Oh good, you're awake."

Judy's response to this was little more than a dry whisper. That was probably just as well; what she'd been attempting to say was something she'd likely have had to take back later. But that was only to be expected. After all, he was not in the best of moods right now, and for a very good reason, "I HAD him!"

"Want some water?" the nurse asked her, and this was a question she could answer with just a nod. A few sips later and she could feel her voice starting to come back, but by then the jackrabbit-doe had already left, 'to go get Dr. Jarabal.'

That was fine with Judy; it would give her a chance to take stock of her situation.

She began with a brief self-appraisal. First and foremost, she could see out of only one eye, the right one. When she reached up to touch the left side of her face, she felt layers of gauze with something hard underneath, covering the eye socket. Lowering the paw again, she noted that her middle finger was splinted...and that any quick movement made her joints want to sing in E over high C. Looking further to the left, she saw an IV running into her arm, but saw no beeping monitor, and no electrodes attached to her torso; nothing clipped to her finger either. Okay, so none of her injuries were life-threatening. Shifting her gaze downwards, she saw that her midsection was swathed in more bandages. And now, for the first time, she noticed that the act of breathing had become something of a chore. She also saw that she was still in her street clothes and not in a hospital gown.

That told the doe-bunny that she hadn't, as yet, been admitted to whichever hospital they'd taken her. She was almost certainly still in the ER—which meant she couldn't have been out of it for all that long. Ahhh, how long did it take for a standard-issue ZPD tranq-dart to wear off again? Judy couldn't remember; her head would need to clear some more before she could retrieve that information.