Zootopia: Secrets And Deception

Chapter 24. More Pieces to the Puzzle

The rain poured harder and harder with each passing moment, as White held Judy in what comfort he had, but it was just enough.
"Judy?" He whispered in her ear, as he slowly began to set her back down, but didn't get any response. "Judy?" He whispered softly again, without sounding as if he lost his patience.
"*sniff*.....yes?" She finally choked through her tears.
"Let Nicks' sacrifice be not in vain. You two had a job to do, and it is up to you and me to finish what both of you were doing. Do you think you are up for the task?" He asked as he held out his hand. She just looked at him through her saddened eyes for a moment, before frowning with confidence and grabbing his hand and helped her to her feet.
"I don't think I am up for the task.....*sniff*.....I know I am up for it, and will finish what we started!" Came the reply. She couldn't see, but a smile had grown across his face, because he didn't see a scared little bunny anymore. What he saw was a strong, confident, and courageous, first rabbit officer standing right in front of him!
"We can mourn for the loss of a fallen comrade and friend, once we put those that caused all this pain and suffering behind bars. We will honor him by doing this. Although, I does seem like you need a weapon, don't you?" He asked as he reached over and pulled out his spare Glock with an extended clip, and handed it over to her. She reached over and grabbed it, only to find that it was lighter than she had imagined, but was still a bit bulky for her size.
"It's a little big for you, but it will get the job done, and I had made it so it will have less of a kick than other ones." White said as he turned and began to walk towards the entrance to the facility.
"Bravo? Delta? Do you copy?" She asked over the radio, but only got static.
"Jeremiah must be blocking all signals around here. Well, almost all of them." White stated as he turned his coms on and continued to walk up the trail towards the front entrance door.

As they approached the entrance, it looked as if it hasn't been used in a long time. The entire door itself was rusted, and the door handle looked as if a gentle breeze would blow it off the door, or the entire thing would crumble, either way, they had to get through. Judy tried opening the door, but it wouldn't budge.
"It must be locked, White. I can't get it open." She said as she let go and moved back a little.
"Judy, stand back." White said calmly as he grabbed it with one hand, and pulled. She watched as the door began to bend towards him, until it broke completely off its hinges, and was thrown behind them and landed with a loud *crash!*. She was surprised that he was able to do that, and gave him a concerning look.
"It's alright, Judy. The suit helps me lift objects that are too heavy for me to move." He said as he caught his breath for a moment. "We need to push forward, and, Judy....." He began to say to her as they walked into the doorway, and into the darkened room.
"Yes, White?" She asked as she drew her weapon, and turned on her flashlight.
"Whatever happens, keep your eyes forward, no matter what. Understand?" He asked as he looked behind him, and into her eyes. She was a little confused, and was still in shock of what happened on the bridge. With Nick. And didn't respond.
"Judy." He said as he knelt down, and gently grabbed her shoulder.
"What?" she asked like he just snapped her out of a trance.
"Do you understand?" He asked again, this time with a softer voice that made her feel like she knows Whites identity, but couldn't think of why at the moment, and could only nod slightly. "Okay. Stay behind me, and don't do anything that could give your location away." He said as he stood up and they proceeded forward.

They walked, slowly and quietly through the passageway, until they reached a fork in their path that split into two ways.
"Here." He said quietly as he handed her a small knife.
"What's this for?" She asked as the gesture caught her off guard.
"Just in case the gun gets knocked from your hands. You will still be able to defend yourself." He said as he kept looking from one path, to the next.
"Which way?" She asked as she took the knife and put it on the inside of her leg armor.
"That's a good question. But either way, we need to split up and cover more ground." He replied as looked at her.
"I'll take the path on the left, and you will take the one on the right. Keep your coms on, be very quiet, and keep your eyes forward." He stated as he began to move toward the left path. Judy began to move towards the right one, then turned to ask another question, but saw that he had disappeared.
"I guess I'll just ask him later." She thought to herself and proceeded down into this passageway. She continued through it until she came across wires covering the floors, the walls, and into the ceiling. They looked as if they were thick vines from the Rainforest District, and there was lots of them covering the walls. After a few more steps, she started passing rows of sealed doors that had numbers, and descriptions on them. But another door blocked her path, and had '#3-6. Patient programming' written on it. The only problem with this particular door, was that it is pass code protected, and requires the correct 7 digit code to unlock it. She then started to hack into it, but a door behind her opened up and she could hear footprints coming closer in her direction! She then quickly ducked behind some wires that were loose against the wall, and waited. The footsteps came closer and closer until she heard some voices and the sound of something with wheels being pushed against the floor, and one of them had that loose squeaky wheel. They finally came to the door she tried to hack into, and slightly moved the wires so she could look out without being seen. There were two scientists dressed in hazmat suits pushing a gurney, and what was on that gurney stunned Judy. It was one of the recent missing mammals, strapped to it with something metal strapped against his head, and covering his eyes! One of them pulled out his badge and slid it across the scanner, then he punched in the number code and the door slid open. As they went inside, the door began to close behind them. Judy had to move, and fast! Just as the doors almost closed, she jumped through and slid under the table so she wouldn't get seen. Once inside, she saw that the room was a bit dark and impaired some of her vision, while noticing that the scientist's suits were glowing a bit so they could see what they were doing. They injected the patient with something in a vile, then they left the room through a different door, before the lights slowly came on. Judy slowly came out from underneath the table and stood up, and what she saw next inside that room, only horrified her! There were more of the missing mammals in there, all of them strapped to gurneys, and had tables with some surgery equipment next to them! She put her hand over her mouth in horror and began to slowly back up, and put her hand on what she thought was a table behind her, but felt a button and didn't know that she had pushed it!
"White! They are experimenting on all the missing mammals! It's.....it is horrible!" She whispered through her coms, feeling sick and afraid.
"Eyes forward, Judy, keep your eyes forward." He replied.
"We have to help them!" she said fearing for whatever else they would do to them!
"No, Judy! Don't touch any....." He tried to tell her, but the coms turned to static!
"White? White?" She asked over the coms, but got no response. She almost didn't hear the straps releasing from something behind her, until she heard movement and heavy breathing. Something big was breathing heavily! She turned and saw a tiger with a raised, razor sharp claws and tried to swipe at her! But she ducked and moved away from him! She then tried to aim her weapon, but it leaped at her and knocked it from her hands! She tried picking herself up, but it grabbed her in its jaws and threw her across the room, hitting the wall with a *thud!*, and falling onto a table, knocking off its contents and making it tip over creating a loud noise! She looked over at it and saw that the tiger was down on all fours, and was savage like the others that they found! It leaped up at her again, only this time she slid under him and towards her weapon, making the tiger lose his grip on the floor and slide into another table creating more noise! As it stood up, she raised her weapon and fired three rounds center mass, dropping him instantly! Judy then started to catch her breath, until she heard footsteps and lots of them, running towards the room she was in! She had to think fast, and began to quickly look around the room for anything that would help her! Suddenly, guards burst through the door and enter to find one of the patients lying dead on the floor, and some tables askew, but no one else was in there. What they had failed to see was the open air vent and the cover for it lay on top of the surgical equipment. Judy looked through the vent to see if they would notice it.
"Now to find Jeremiah, and put a stop to this madness!" she thought to herself, and began to crawl through the small ventilation system.

It felt like forever, but she finally began to hear voices, angry voices, but one of them she knew was Jeremiahs. It sounded like he was arguing with someone, about something very important. She couldn't quite hear exactly what they were saying and began to slowly move closer, until she could hear, and see them. Looking down through a vent, she saw Jeremiah positioned in front of a desk and arguing with whoever is sitting in the chair. She couldn't see who was sitting in the chair, but noticed Black standing behind Jeremiah.
"It's too early! The process is still incomplete. If we continue to rush it, the patients will become unstable and their minds will break. They will either die, or end up like patient 54552." Jeremiah said while flickering his tongue a couple of times, and he sounded agitated.
"I know what happened to him, but I also know what you did to him. He rejected the code and tried to escape with the box you had just acquired, from Judy Hopps." His mysterious partner began to explain. "And when you caught him, you wrapped him up with your body and squeezed the life out of him. Literally!" He continued, but Jeremiah looked as if he didn't want to do it, but had to. "You squeezed and squeezed until every bone, every organ, and everything in-between was shattered and squished! Leaving his blood to flow all over your body before you released what was left." When he had finished, it looked as if Jeremiah had become angry about it.
"You know I don't like to kill, or to have others killed, but I do what I have too, and I always keep my word. Isn't that right, Judy?" Jeremiah said suddenly, and looked up at the air vent she was hiding in! She was caught off guard and startled at the same time! Scared, and beginning to panic, she tried to back up, but Jeremiah ripped the vent cap off and grabbed her with the end of his tail! She was caught and quickly disarmed. "Now, the fun can begin!" He said cruelly and began to slither out of the room with Judy wrapped up in his tail, as his prisoner! She didn't see much, only caught a glimpse of his partner, but enough to know what kind of animal he was. An otter. Than she was knocked unconscious, and everything swirled into darkness!