Zootopia: Undercover Pursuit

Chapter 62: Exit

Chapter 62: Exit

"Boss all right? If you don't open the door for us we'll break it down!" From behind the door leading into the study, the voices of annoyance caused by not opening the door were getting louder.

"Nick! What do we do?" Judy asked. Nick was corrupt - even though he hated his father because of what he had done in the past he couldn't leave him here sentenced to prison, he would probably get life! Besides, if they stayed they would most likely die and that would not be a good ending for them. Fox had little time to make a decision, he flicked his gaze between Judy and Mark, both looked like they were in favour of getting the hell out of here. Judy's decision was obviously a natural one, she would like to survive this we know and Mark wants to be free, no one seems to want to go to prison. In the end the fox made his decision, thinking it was the right choice.

"Oh good, let's get out of here" decided Nick.

"Wise choice son, now let's roll from here" replied Mark. He took a torch from his desk drawer then pressed a button on the wall that was invisible to the naked eye. A piece of the wall lifted, revealing a corridor in front of them with stairs leading down.

"Let's go!" Said Mark, then stepped into the corridor along with Nick and Judy. Just behind them, the door closed and they heard the passage to the study being unlocked.

"Uf, that was close! A little more and we wouldn't even have escaped" said Nick listening to the sounds coming from the study. The foxes who were in the study were surprised to see that Mark wasn't inside, almost immediately panic set in!

"They don't know there's this passage?" Judy asked.

"No, only one comrade knew about it, who was a victim of the preparation".

"So you poison your comrades too?" Asked Nick aggressively.

"Sam wanted to, he was one of the most driven to make this operation a success, he sacrificed himself for science" replied Mark. They didn't pursue the subject further, they moved on. Soon they reached the stairs. The further they went down the more it became dark around them. At one point Mark took out a small torch to illuminate what was happening in front of them, apart from the walls around them, there was nothing! Nick intuitively raised his rifle towards Mark, which the latter began to laugh at.

"You really don't trust me do you?" The fox asked. Nick waved his head negatively. Their toxic relationship was deeply troubling Judy, who couldn't fathom how you could hate your father like that! To her it was abstract, but as you can see anything was possible in this world. For her, her father was a beloved person who always cared for her, even though he was oversensitive about new experiences. It was evident from the cola that, for Nick, his father was his greatest enemy!

At one point they stopped at a large hospital door, which Mark widened so that they could pass through easily.

"Is this another hospital?" Nick asked.

"There used to be a small hospital on this site, supposedly it collapsed into the ground after a fire and a complex was built on the site for... not necessarily normal. However, we found that part of the hospital had collapsed underground. It won't collapse, but we have to be quiet..."

"Why?" Judy asked.

"Once, with a companion who had undergone a preparation in the name of science, we threw foxes in here to see how they were doing in the dark...it turned out too well because we couldn't find them. We have to be careful, they might be around here somewhere," explained Mark.

"You guys are abnormal " sighed Nick, but Mark left it without comment. Walking down the hospital corridor, or rather what was left of it was terribly dark, even with the torch Mark was holding they didn't feel safe. There was a smell of soil that was in some places, there were visible scratches on the floor tiles, and a sponge from the mattress from the bed. Everything around them was damaged or burnt, every step seemed to be their last, they feared something would collapse over them despite Mark's assurances that apart from the foxes, nothing was threatening them. As they walked further down the corridor it got darker and darker due to the soot covered walls, soon they couldn't even see what they were walking on! Everything around them was blurred by the effects of the fire, but Mark continued to walk forward with the stubborn belief that getting out of here would be trouble-free. The only thing that puzzled him was the fact that it was quiet.... Too quiet. The foxes that had been let in here had been inoculated with one of the first versions of the formula, which was, unconcealingly, hopeless; they couldn't learn to move quietly, after all!