FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Part 8

The command executed flawlessly, as soon as Clawhauser hit the button, the water stopped filling the room, leaving everyone only inches from the ceiling. But just as quickly as the water filled the chamber, it was drained through a massive pipe that hurled all six of them down and through a series of minor tunnels, giving no pause for them to take a breath. The water was thick with cleansers, the one point that Howard opened his eyes he had to close them again due to the burn. As his hands swung about blindly, he felt a larger paw grab his wrist as they were flung another direction.

Suddenly, the abrupt stop to their motion found the wolf against a large grate that led further down the tunnels. Helpless to do anything, he watched as Link was rushed by and through the passage into the tunnels. Fangmeyer; who had grabbed the wolf was with him, and Judy colided with the gate seconds later, but there was no sign of Bogo or Onna anywhere. Judy tried to say something but instead pointed toward a hatch off to the side. Howard tried to turn the lock, but it was stuck. The tiger stepped in and the pair of them managed to turn the knob until--

*FWOOOSHHHH!*

The tunnel evacuated rather violently into the adjoining room, sending the three of them flying into the vacated space. All three were breathing hard, coughing and gasping for air in gulps as Judy rolled over onto her back and began to slow her breathing. "That was fun, can we do that again?" She quipped sarcastically.

"Ugh... my head. Can you talk a little quieter, Hopps?" Fangmeyer said, grabbing his scalp where the pipe had laid into him a bit earlier.

"We..." Howard coughed. "We need to check you for a concussion, that rat clonked you pretty hard back there."

"I'm fine... I'm fine..." The tiger looked at the wolf with a dazed glance. "As... soon as I figure out how there are three of you."

Judy placed a paw on the tiger's cheek. "We might need to get him to a doctor." She looked around. "But first we need to get ourselves out of this tunnel."

"Where are Bogo and Victoria?"

Judy looked at the doorway; the tunnel had evacuated, but there would be no clear path up the piping they escaped from, it all proceeded down almost ninety degrees. "I saw them dragged off down another pipe." She said. "I tried to grab the chief, but the current was too strong."

"Don't worry about it." Howard said as he clicked open a small pouch on his belt and pulled out a small kit. "I'm sure we're going to catch up with them, but I'm afraid our meerkat's gone down the drain." Pulling out a small band of gauze, the wolf wrapped it around the tiger's head.

"Ouch!" Fangmeyer complained as the gauze tightened around his wound.

"Careful, got a pretty good gash there." He said. "This will help stop the bleeding." He quickly pulled part of the bandage back and added several drops of alcohol to the tiger's wound. This time, Fangmeyer yelled "OUCH" in the midst of a roar and tried to lunge at Chase, who quickly pushed him back. "Now calm down, that was just something to help keep it from getting infected. We don't know what was in that water."

"Aww jeeze... next time warn me." The tiger complained, grabbing his head.

"Look Tobias, me and Judy will scout ahead some. There's got to be a way out of the tunnel, you hang here and rest a few minutes. We'll be right back."

"Right. Good idea." Judy agreed, getting up and hopping to the wolf's side as they started down the tunnel.

It was a dark tunnel, even with Howard's handy flashlight, they could only illuminate some parts of it. As the light beam swept from side to side, showing off the gray, rust-worn piping, he noticed Judy staring at him in a most peculiar way. "What?" He asked.

"You *like* him!" She said, emphasizing the phrase out of her own amusement.

"W-what?" Chase asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh come on. You don't need to be a detective to figure it out, when he was knocked out, you about jumped after him. You grabbed him when the flood hit, you've been calling him by name, and just now when you were treating him well... I've never seen a wolf be so sensitive and gentle."

Chase huffed a bit, his chest puffed out defensively. "Oh come on, that's absurd. He's a cat, why would I even--" He paused. "Hey, look."

"Oh don't pull that on me." Judy put her hands on her hips. "Just because guys aren't comfortable discussing something they always try to pull some sort of--"

"No, I mean look. A ladder." Chase said, pointing behind Judy.

She turned, and indeed there was a ladder. It was rusted with just a hint of green paint that dangled downward to only a few feet above her head. He reached up and tugged on the ladder. It came down a couple feet now well within her reach. "I'm going to go check it out."

"No I'll go." Judy said. "Go check on Fangmeyer, I'll report back what I find."

"Judy." Chase said with a growl.

"Heh." Judy said with a bit of a chuckle. "Don't worry, I won't tell." She said as she fled up the ladder, leaving Chase to stand with his mouth hanging open.

"Ugh... rabbits." He sighed as he started down the path toward the other room.

As he made his way back, he gasped as he noticed Fangmeyer had gotten up and was walking around leaning on the wall. "Fangmeyer, what are you doing? You need to rest."

"I thought I heard something." He said. "Up-up above."

"You're still dazed from your head injury." Chase said. "Just sit down."

"I tell you I heard something." He said. "Where's Hopps?"

"Oh no, Judy!" Howard turned and ran out of the room. "Judy!"

He made his way back into the main hall and ran toward the ladder before being stopped by a subtle shushing sound from above. Stopping and looking up he could see the rabbit's shadow several feet up. Her head was holding a manhole cover up as she remained frozen in surprise. Curious, Chase began to climb up. He slowed down a bit as she waved her hand at him. Eventually though, he managed to make it to the top of the ladder just opposite the rabbit who pointed up silently with her index finger.

Peering through the small crack in the manhole cover, he could see them; two sets of massive claws, that stomped around in a bit of a semi-circle around the spot. There were loud snaps that could be heard from above as they wandered about.

"What are they doing?" Chase asked.

"It looks like they found their way to the sewer system by accident." She said. "They're lost and confused, but if they keep going this way..."

"They'll find their way to the surface." Chase said. "And Zootopia is going to be in big, big trouble."

"Let's get back to Tobias." Judy whispered. "We need to wait these two out, hopefully they'll wander off and we can get out."

After a moment's silence, Chase gave a solitary nod and the two of them began to climb down the ladder together.

***

"This is a pointless tunnel." Bogo said with a growl as he slumped against the metal pipe they had already escaped from nearly an hour before. "We are wandering in circles."

Victoria sighed and tapped on her tablet, which was blinking in and out of service. "The battery's almost dead. I am sorry I don't have a lot of information on the tunnel systems in here." She looked up. "What now?"

"We find the others and get out of here. If those things get to the surface..."

"I have failsafes in place in case that happens. If those six get to the surface, I can trigger a poison in their collars that will kill them. But I need to be in close proximity to activate it."

"So we have to lure them to the surface, huh?" He wondered. "Why haven't you mentioned this before?"

Victoria looked at Bogo like he had just stepped on her foot. "I told you before, our information is on a need-to-know basis."

Bogo breathed loudly through his nostrils, trying not to lose his temper. "Victoria, you need to understand that the mayor has made me responsible for the safety of Zootopia, and he has put me in charge of approving the plans for your park. Which I have to say, I'm feeling pretty doubful of approving this one."

Her stare was cold, but her eyes scanned Bogo's searching for something. Suddenly, her expression lightened a bit and she smiled some. "You are just the same as always. Whatever happened to us?"

"You had your career. I had mine." Bogo said stoically as he crossed his arms. "I see you haven't changed much either Victoria."

"I've found something." She said, returning her attention to the tablet. "It's not much, but there appears to be a maintenance hatch nearby. It leads to the sewer system and has an almost-direct access to the train tunnels above that."

"Why didn't you see it earlier?"

"I can only see a few sections at a time." She answered. "It's only just now found it. This way." She turned and started to walk away, Bogo stood for a few moments before walking after her.

"I want to know everything about your research, Victoria. You can't hide it away now, have you created more than these six dinosaurs?"

"A few attempts were made after these six." She admitted. "But they were failures. These are the only Allosaurs we have left."

"There is a way of skirting the question; here's a more direct one. Are there any dinosaurs other than the Allosaurs that we have to worry about?"

There was a loud bang that jerked their attentions toward a nearby pipe. As they watched a massive dinosaur's head popped through. His gold eyes peered through the pipes as steam suddenly blasted from one of the broken ones. It howled out in pain as it pulled its head back in and Victoria took a jump back. "Not at the moment! Just that one!" She shouted as she and Bogo turned around and began to run the opposite way.

Suddenly, the dino burst through the pipe and exited into the tunnel. It blinked its burned eye but focused on the pair with the other one before giving out a vicious roar and giving chase.

At the last second, Bogo turned around a corner and pulled Victoria in with her. As they waited, the allosaur caught up, and ran right past them as the pair nestled closely in the dark.

"There. That should buy us a few minutes." He said as he and Victoria stepped out into the hall again. "Come on."

"It's over here." She said as they made their way back toward the service hatch; a grated hole that was about twelve feet above the floor. Grabbing the pipes on the wall, Bogo hoisted himself up like he was going through an obstacle course. With one hand he grabbed the grate and with a grunt, yanked it out. It fell to the floor with a loud bang and that was when he noticed the dino at the end of the corridor give out a loud roar and start sprinting toward them.

"Come on! Come on!" He grabbed Victoria and held her to the vent. As she made her way in, the pipe that the buffalo was using broke and he swung wildly above the floor.

"Joseph!" Victoria said, grabbing his hand as he kicked for a better position.

Bogo's arms flexed as he strained to hold on. He looked over his shoulder at the beast running toward them, his height more than made up for the distance from the floor. "Back! Back!" He shouted, and Victoria scooted back as Bogo broadened his grip and pulled himself up into the vent.

"Joseph! Hurry!" She shouted as she could see the allosaur closing in with a now hungered speed. "HURRY!"

"HUAHH!" Bogo roared as he pulled himself upward, narrowly missing the sound of jaws snapping around his hooves as he entered the crawl space. "GO! GO!" He shouted as the pair began their crawl through the vent. The allosaurus behind them screaming into the crawl space in vain as its prey quickly escaped him.