The Time Traveler's Guide to Zootopia

Chapter 43: Absolution

The rain felt cold and heavy.

For nearly forty-eight hours, I had trudged through snow, hail, and rain in this relentless storm.

Eventually, I made it back to Zootopia—but it wasn't the same city I once knew.

It poured endlessly through the canopies of the Rainforest District, drenching the streets and soaking through my torn cloak. Every drop carried the weight of everything that had happened. The world felt colder, darker, and emptier.

The smoke rising from the burning facility could still be seen almost a hundred miles away, a black scar against the horizon. Even without the footage, everyone would know something terrible had transpired there.

I was alone again.

After everything I'd endured, I was once more the last of my kind.

Only a few hours ago, I had met some survivors—other humans from my own world. I still couldn't believe that it actually happened. While their arrival across the event horizon into this new world didn't particularly fill me with much initial excitement, I harbored a faint hope that we could somehow learn from our past mistakes and find a way to coexist with these mammals.

But I was wrong. And now, those humans were gone.

They were gone. I killed the last of them. It was a choice I never wanted to make—horrific in every meaning of the word—but Dr. Bell left me no choice. She never offered choice—because those who came before her never offered her species any choice either.

An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth.

Animals in my world were wiped out, gone forever. And now, the inverse had happened here.

Humans reaped what they sowed.

The thought made me sick. Every step I took felt heavier than the one before, as if the earth itself were resisting me. This was the worst day I'd ever had in Zootopia—maybe the worst since I came to this world at all.

I'd had bad days before. That wasn't new for me.

I'd struggled to adapt, to fit into a society of talking animals. Sometimes I still caught myself trying to make sense of it all—how they lived, how they forgave. I was mocked, called a freak, and even an outsider.

But somehow, I pushed through. I had help—real friends who believed in me.

Through them, I found a reason to stay.

Through them, I found a home. I found purpose.

And now, all of that was gone.

Perhaps Dr. Bell was right. Maybe humans were never meant to be here.

Ever since I arrived in this world, I've brought nothing but trouble. I was foolish to think my past wouldn't catch up to me—but it always does.

The mammals would've been better off without me. Their world was peaceful before I came. Now, all they could do was live in fear.

I kept moving through the rain, staying in the shadows while searchlights scanned the streets below. Sirens wailed in the distance, echoing between the towers. At every block I passed, more police and SWAT cruisers arrived, and more officers joined the hunt. They were fully armed, armored, on high alert, and ready to bring me down.

For a moment, I thought about trying to reason with them—maybe explain what really happened.

But then I saw it.

One of the massive city screens flickered through the downpour.

It was the footage.

Doctored. Edited. Broadcast to the entire world.