Going for a Swim

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Nick splashed down into the water, and sunk below the dark waves. Luckily for Judy, she was well trained and knew how to properly land into the river without getting knocked out by the force of the water. She dove in, and quickly swam up to the top. She spotted the land not too far away, and quickly began swimming towards it. She stopped herself, hesitated, then quickly dove into the water to search for Nick. She looked around desperately,but it was too dark for her to make out anything. However, just in time she caught a glance of a faint red light in the shadows. She swam to it quickly, and felt her paws grab a hold of something soft. She hooked her paw around Nick's collar, and started dragging him to the surface. 

She could feel the collar giving shock to the fox, the water making it malfunction. But the shocks didn't bother her much, for she was too focused on getting to the top. The collar wasn't putting a lot of power into the shocks. Finally, she burst through the waves and drug the unconscious Nick over to the shore. Her feet hit dry land, and she marched through the mud and hit dirt. There, she let go of Nick's collar and fell down onto the ground, breathing hard. 

She crawled over to him to see if he was breathing. When she got worried, she hit him extremely hard in the chest. His eyes opened wide and he screamed, then coughed and coughed, getting water out of his body.

"Dang Carrots! What did you hit me for!?" He held his chest in pain, and gave the rabbit a dirty look. She let out a sigh of relief.

"I had to. You would have died otherwise." she said. Nick stared at her for a moment, then gasped when another shock was delivered from the collar.

"Darn thing is messed up!" he cried. Judy watched him as he was shocked one more time. Then the collar finally stopped. The light returned back to green.

"Are.. Are you mad?" she asked.

"Mad? I'm not mad." he answered, "I am just tired. I am scared. I nearly just died from falling off of the waterfall. And before that, I was nearly mauled to death by someone whom I thought was on my side. And now this entire event with the savage jaguar is going to cause even more hate and distrust against predators."

Nick's collar turned yellow. He took a deep breath, rubbing his ears.

"Carrots, I'm just tired. I've been through a lot in my life."

Judy hesitated, then spoke.

"Like what?" she asked.

"What do you think? Have you ever had to deal with not being able to be happy, or scared, or sad, or mad, because you'll get a shock to the neck? Have you ever been bullied around and not able to do anything about it because you're a fox? Just wanting to be free..."

A moment of silence passed in between them. Finally, Judy spoke again.

"It sounds like we both have our problems. We've both been put down by society."

Nick glared at her.

"Society hates me more than it hates you. At least people don't look at you everyday like your worthless." Nick finished.

Judy shook her head.

"Believe it or not fox, I have been through some. I worked so hard to just get where I am now in the police force. Heck, I couldn't even join the force without there having to be an affirmative action in place. My family wanted me to be just like them."

She sat up and sighed.

"A stupid bunny living in the suburbs of Zootopia, growing carrots and having 15 children a day. It's just not the life I wanted to live."

Just then, Nick winced in pain. His arm went to his side. Judy looked to see some blood pouring out from a wound in his side.

"What happened?" she asked.

" Oh... I think the old cat got me..At one point. Must of been right before we jumped... or something.."

Judy stood up and looked around. She noticed the train station was not too far, and if Nick could make it there, then she knew where to take him.

"Here, try and stand up." she said. Nick slowly rose, and she grabbed his hand and helped him get up.

"Where are we going to go? We have some information from Manchas, aren't we going to continue with the case?" he asked.

Judy shook her head.

"Not now. You need to get those scratches covered up. And you need some rest. And I know just the place to go where you can get both."

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