Zootopia: Secrets And Deception

Chapter 11. Destruction

Luckily, she had the rope around her waist, and fell just enough to grab the other boards above her. Looking down, and feeling the mist from the river flowing underneath and noticing the stalagmites cutting through the water, and pointing upwards towards her. Looking over at Jimmy on the other side of the rope was tied around his waist and around a stalagmite behind him, and he held on tight. Once more she reached for the box that was being held between a stalactite and stalagmite. Judy struggled to pull it out, but managed to and heard a cracking noise above her head and all along the cavern. Both her and Jimmy waited a moment to see what was going to happen, but nothing did and grew quiet in the cavern once more.

As Judy began walking back towards Jimmy, there was a loud *crack!* Behind her, she jumped and looked in the direction of the sound, to see a stalactite fall from the ceiling and land on the bridge, slicing it in half and collapsing right under her feet. Judy was falling right towards a stalagmite that she couldn't avoid! But Jimmy caught her just inches from being impaled, and began pulling her in as fast as he could. Once she reached the side of the cavern that Jimmy was on, he pulled her up, untied themselves, and began running out of the mine as fast as their legs could carry them. Everything was falling apart, collapsing, and the ground was opening up behind them as they were in full sprint.
"Hurry, missy!" he shouted, Judy was about to answer when the floor disappeared underneath her, she was falling in and was unable to catch herself! Suddenly, Jimmy grabbed her hand and pulled her up before the floor swallowed her whole.

They could see the exit, it was only a few feet away, but the ceiling began to crumble and started to block their only escape.
"Jump for it, missy! Jump!" he shouted, and Judy flew for it before it collapsed, and the air within a twenty foot radius was covered in dust and dirt.
"We.....*pant.....we made it.....Jimmy, we made it!" Judy exclaimed as she tried catching her breath. She was full of excitement and the thrill of the adventure she had survived, but got no response. "Jimmy?" she said looking around very confused. Jimmy was nowhere to be seen! Just then, a patrol officer pulled up.
"Mam, are you okay?" he asked as he looked at her through the smoke and debris.
"I'm fine, but my friend Jimmy is still down there!" Judy exclaimed pointing at the collapsed mine. "He's wearing a prospector's hat and clothes, and a green satchel, and is wearing round spectacles. We have to get him out of there!" Judy said as she began to panic.
"Mam, no one has been down there in over forty years. Who you just described was a prospector that found gold in that very mine, he died ten years ago and left his riches to his grandkids, but some claim to have seen him wandering around and seeing a light coming from the mouth of it." he said as he got out of his car. Judy was extremely puzzling expression on her face. "Mam, did you see him too?" he asked standing a few feet away from her. All she could do was nod, while staring at the collapsed mine.

After Judy returned home that night, still a little shaken from the mine encounter, but remembered the box she had in her backpack and pulled it out. Placing the lens inside the key, turned the light on, and shining it on the map on her wall. It revealed more numbers and erased more symbols, leaving the last two that matched the key. One was in the Rainforest District, and the other was in Sahara Square, but even though they were separated by the climate control walls, they were closer together than the other ones. "That's weird, why someone would put these two closer together?" she thought, and was pretty worn out from the near death experience she had a few hours ago. All of the running and climbing drained her of any energy she had left, and decided that it was time to go to sleep. Judy took a shower to help relax her muscles and stress from all the excitement from this week. Dressing in her pajamas, turning out the lights, and collapsing in bed was all she could remember, before falling sound asleep.

It was almost as if time had forgotten about her that night, a long and comfortable sleep surrounded Judy that night, like an early morning mist rolling slowly onto the water, and the docks. The air, salty and cold, lightly swirling around and around within the air. Judy was dreaming, it was dark and cold on the docks. Looking around for someone, something, but all she saw was nothing. Suddenly, something moved behind her, but she saw nothing. Now it was to her left, then her right, then right behind her. She couldn't look fast enough to see whatever it was, but she could hear it, and it sounded like it was made completely out of metal. Every footstep it made, the metal would rub against itself, but became silent. "Hello?" she said within her dream, and a choir of her voice echoing around her, growing louder and louder, then dying all at once in the most unsettling way.
"Judy....." she then heard, and sent chills up her spine, for this voice she knew all too well, to familiar.
"N-Nick?" she asked as she turned around, slowly. Within the mist, a shadow with emerald green-glowing eyes, stood there looking at Judy. "Nick!" she shouted and began running towards this shadow, but it only got further away, and disappeared. "No! Nick!" she shouted again and reached out with her hand, but he was gone. Suddenly, something grabbed her neck and threw her to the floor, and a shadow appeared above her. It was an enormous shadow that held her down, and felt like it was made of metal. One hand held her down by the neck, while the other was hidden behind its back. Judy then heard it speak, but didn't quite understand what. "w-what did you say?" she asked as she tried loosening the grip around her neck.
"Jeremiah sends his regard's!" he said louder and revealed what he was holding behind him, it was a dagger! And he raised it above his head and lunged it straight down at her chest, and nothing but darkness was all she could see!

Just then her alarm went off, and she opened her eyes with a start. "It's only ten-thirty?" she groaned not wanting to get up, but forced herself to. Red eyed and still tired from last night, she got herself out of bed and almost fell when her feet touched the floor. The soreness of pain shot through her body and was almost too much for her. "I haven't been this sore ever since I first joined the training academy." Judy said to herself as she walked slowly out of the room, and made herself a cup of coffee. She was so tired that she almost didn't hear the mail drop through the slot, and retrieved them. Looking at all the letters and some usual junk, she found a letter from the ZPD, and opened it. "An award ceremony?" Judy thought to herself. The award ceremony was for Judy to be awarded a medal for bravery and courage, but the problem was that it was scheduled for Saturday. "The day I pay ransom to Jeremiah, for Nick?" she was in shock, but knew what she had to do. The award ceremony can wait, Nicks life is far more precious to her than all the riches throughout Zootopia, let alone some medal that the ZPD gives out, like candy to trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

After about an hour, she had packed her gear, thermos, and raincoat before heading to the Rainforest District. It was a fairly short drive before she reached her destination, and was forced to park her car due to the road being blocked. It was a hill that hikers and bikers liked to use the trail and explore around the area, but wasn't big enough to fit a vehicle on the trail, and Judy was forced to proceed to hike the rest of the way on foot. Judy had her backpack filled with some climbing gear, some water and snacks, and a flashlight with extra batteries.

When she had reached the top of the hill, the marker on her GPS was still a little further, but she was already standing near the edge. "Great, more climbing." She thought to herself sarcastically, and took out her rope and climbing harness, and tied it at the base of a thick tree stump, before starting her descent down the cliff face. Judy was frustrated, sore, and hoped that the last lens didn't need her to climb anything in order to retrieve it, when suddenly, her GPS went crazy. Pulling it out of her back pocket and discovering that she was right on top of the marker, but she still had hundreds of feet before she hit the ground. Looking all around her, she found a small hole in the cliff face below, covered in a wall of webs and darkness. The hole was big enough for her to reach inside and feel around, but she was hesitant in not knowing if whatever made these webs was absent or not, but she was doing this for Nick and his return from Jeremiahs grasp and began to break the seal of webs. Feeling all around, but wasn't finding anything that was.....wait! "What's this?" she thought as she felt something small, and pulled it out. Judy was puzzled by this thing in her hand, it was small, black and fuzzy. "Spider!" she screamed as it began to move and crawl around in the palm of her hand, and was shaking and throwing her hand in all different directions trying to get it off.

It was a few seconds before she stopped moving and began looking all over her arms and body for the harry spider, and was relieved to find no trace or sign of it still here. It was a large, black tarantula, native to this part of Zootopia and all around this District, and was completely harmless and gentle, but no less ugly and disgusting. Obviously, that was the creature who made these webs, so she didn't hesitate to reach inside again and feel around. This time discovering the object she was looking for, the box holding the next lens and piece to this puzzle, and placed it inside her backpack before starting to climb back to the top. Suddenly, she slipped from above, and fell a few feet before the rope caught her, but she heard a snap and grabbed on to the cliff wall and looked up. Seeing her rope falling down to her from above, followed by the stump she had tied it to, and was in the path of the stump coming right for her! If it hit her, she would be knocked off the cliff wall and plummet to her death!