Zootopia: Into Madness (Slow updates)

Chapter 9: Escaping

Hank continued looking at the TV on the room. He felt a cold sweat forming over his head and his hands began to go numb.

He was now on TV. He saw it somewhat clearly from his hiding spot in the ventilation duct inside the ceiling. It showed him walking towards the fountain area where he had seen that bunny cop. And now probably hundreds of animals, including the buffalo in the room, were now watching the news and seeing this. If they were confused or suspicious of him when he first arrived, now it would be even worse.

Of course, Hank couldn't directly blame the animals for being unfamiliar of a grunt. Perhaps it was his odd lack of clear legs and arms, or maybe his clothing type and how he walked. If he hadn't ever seen a grunt before, he'd be in bewilderment too.  

But either way, things had gotten worse. The fox that he had pummelled onto the floor saw his weapons, and it would only be a matter of time before news of a runaway prisoner would be all over the police station. He needed a way out. Forcing himself to stop looking down at the TV, he brought his head to his front direction again and continued crawling on the duct.

Trying to guess what the direction the duct led to the exit, he kept himself listening sharp to catch any conversation between animal stations whenever he encountered another vent that was connected to another room. However, he surprisingly never heard anyone squeal that there was a prisoner on the loose. Even if it was better for him, he was sure that the fox would have already told other officer so about him.

"WE HAVE AN INMATE ON THE RUN IN THE STATION" he heard a voice shout nearby below him.

Yup. There it was.

Time to hurry up and get out of this cramped ventilation duct.

Quickening his crawling pace, Hank heard many stomps of presumably animal officers running around the police station, trying to find him. If only they knew...

Crawling ahead onto another left turn on the duct,, he hard a voice beyond the walls of the duct shout "WILDE!". It was gruff and subordinate.

Wilde? Wasn't that the name of the officer fox that had apprehended him? The one who had seen him going into the ventilation duct.

"What is it chief?" a voice responded, sounding identical to the voice of the fox he knew. Despite being in a situation he was clearly going to be scolded, his voice still seemed calm and confident. How big was that fox's ego?

"How could you let a prisoner escape? Especially one that the whole station who saw him before he escaped claims that he was a completely unidentifiable cat species?!"

"Look, it'll be fine, chief." The fox said in return. "We've already go at some officers checking the ventilation system in hopes of finding him and I'm sure that practically everyone in the ZPD is looking out for him in the station. There's no way he can get out"

My, how very confident the fox seemed. Unfortunately for him, it wouldn't last.

Continuing his path, he began to think about where he should go after getting out of this annoying station. With many of the outside civilians aware of his existence due to the TV news, finding proper shelter would surely be much harder now. He stopped for a moment to think about it.

Maybe he could try to search for some alleyways? Those places were always sure to have few people around them. Even an abandoned house would make a good enough base for him.

"HE'S UP THERE!" he heard a voice say from below, taking his focus away from his mind and back to reality on end again.

He finally realised that when he had stopped to think about where to go, he had stopped right over a vent in the duct. An officer must have looked up and spotted him thought the small grates in the vent.