Zootopia: Secrets And Deception

Chapter 5. Silence

Judy was halfway down when she called out again, but still heard nothing, and landed softly on the cold ground. Disturbing the once settled dust, which was now all around her, and it smelled down inside the hole that he fell into. "Where is Nick?" Judy thought as she shone her light all around. When the dust was finally clearing, she saw that Nick wasn't anywhere to be found. Just his broken talkie, laying on the ground in pieces and a small amount of blood. Then had a sick feeling in her stomach, and dropped to her knees. Tears started forming in her eyes before noticing footprints on the ground, fresh footprints. "Nick?" she thought and followed them as to where they led. A doorway appeared in front of her, with a spiral staircase that went downwards. She proceeded and slowly walked down the stairs as they creaked and groaned from age and rust growing upon each step.

When she had reached the end of the staircase, in front of her was a door that looked to be reinforced, but was slightly open. Noticing a light passing underneath it, she drew her weapon, slowly tiptoed towards the door, and burst through. The sudden intrusion, startled the figure into falling on the ground. Shining her light in the direction of the figure and saw that it was..... "Nick!" she exclaimed in both anger and relief as she ran up and hugged him. Then punched him in the arm. "I told you not to scare me again! I was worried sick! Why didn't you answer me when I called?" she asked.
"Th.....the wind got.....got knocked out of.....me....." he muttered as he inhaled and exhaled loudly. "I'm s.....sorry I scared you.....I tried replying, but.....but couldn't say anything, but my flashlight was.....was shining into the hallway." He added. "I left a trail....." he tried explaining but was interrupted.
"Which led me down here! Did you find anything down here?" she asked. Nick was still trying to catch his breath, and pointed into a corner. She looked and saw half-submerged in dust and debris, was a metal box, still sitting down here for the past few years. They quickly dug around it and pulled it out, and saw that it was a safe. Judy then removed the key from her pocket and inserted it inside the lock, and turned it. It unlocked! And the door opened. They looked at each other in astonishment, and slowly opened the small door on the safe and found..... "An envelope?" Judy said with both surprise and confusion. Nothing but an envelope lay inside. Nick then reached in, pulled it out, and opened it, but a map of Zootopia was inside. "A map? We went through all this trouble, for a map?" Judy said in anger.
"Calm down carrots....." he said attempting to calm her.
"I was captured, sprayed with chemicals, threatened, and left on the cold sidewalk, for this?" Judy exclaimed while getting a little worked up.
"It's okay, carrots. We'll....."
"No, it's not okay! He threatened me, Nick.....Jeremiah threatened me that if I don't return the box to him he'll....." she paused as tears began falling from her face, and turned away.
"He'll what, carrots?" Nick asked softly, and noticed her hands were starting to shake.
"He'll kill you.....*sniff.....Nick, he said he would kill you." He had a surprised look on his face. She started to cry a little bit, and Nick then leaned in and gave her a comforting hug.
"It will be okay, carrots. We will find another way." He whispered in her ear.
"Not while we only have this worthless piece of paper!" she said and threw the envelope and map on the ground in frustration and heard something when she did that.
"Wait, what was.....?" Nick said as he picked it back up. He turned it to its side and shook gently, what came out and landed in his hand both shocked and surprised them. It was a key! Not just any key, but a key with two ends that looked like fangs. On each fang was little holes that puzzled them further. "We had better head home and study these, carrots." Nick said as he got up from the ground.

It was 9:33pm when they got back to their apartment to study the key and map. They used every technique they could think of, water mark, invisible ink, black light, heat, and even flash, but still had no luck. Nick looked at the clock above Judy and saw that it was almost eleven. They had been trying to find answers or clues for almost two hours now.
"This is so frustrating." Nick said.
"I know, right? We've been at this for almost two hours and are still no closer to finding any clues about the box." Judy replied. Nick then turned his black light off and set the map down on the desk and closed his eyes to think. She then set the key down and put her head in her hands and rubbed her eyes. He opened his eyes and was almost blinded by whatever was shining in his and put his hand up to block it.
"Hey, Judy? Can you turn that off?" Nick asked feeling annoyed and got up from his chair. She turned around and looked at him, and stood up so suddenly, that Nick almost fell. "Carrots, what is......?" Nick began to ask but stopped when she pointed to something behind him. He turned and almost gasped, all over the wall was different shapes and symbols, creating a border around the entire projection! "But, what is making all of this?" Nick asked. Judy turned and saw the key sitting on her desk under her lamp, projecting the shapes from the holes inside of it. He grabbed his flashlight and handed it to Judy as she grabbed the key from the desk, turned on the flashlight, and projected it more clearly.
"What do any of this mean?" she asked standing frozen amazement.
"I don't know, carrots. But some of these I feel like I've seen them before." Nick said as he walked towards them to get a closer look. He got out his phone and began taking pictures of every symbol on the wall. "Can I see the key, please?" Nick asked. She handed it to him and almost immediately, began examining it at every angle.
"Nick, what are you doing?" she asked confusingly.
"I thought I felt something weird on the side of.....aha!" he exclaimed. "Look here, Judy." He said as he pointed to the left side of the key. Right there on that side, was four symbols and a long gaping hole that looked as if it can hold something inside of it.
"Do you think there could be more pieces to this? Almost like a puzzle?" he asked.
"If so, then we need to find all the pieces." She replied.