Mincemeat 1: The Discovery
#1 of Mincemeat
First time actually writing anything in a few years, and it's really not my normal fare. I had this horrible idea for a Zootopia fanfiction, comes from my time working as a Conservation Officer where I discovered something very similar to what the ZPD does in here. Of course in real life it was more of a slightly gross curiosity than a complete horror. This started out as one little scene, but slowly I've been adding onto it and developing it into an actual story which I've been posting elsewhere. Figured I should start posting it here too.
Judy pulled to a stop at the light, grabbing her coffee cup and downing the few mouthfuls left. She had been drinking it slowly enough that it had gone cold, and she just wanted to finish it. Normally she stayed away from the stuff, too bitter. Besides, she seemed to have enough natural energy to get by without it. Tonight was a little different though. She and Nick were stuck having to pull an extra shift, taking over for a couple of officers on vacation.
She frowned looking over at her partner, realizing that he had managed to fall asleep, leaned back in his seat, mouth hanging half open. It annoyed her a little bit that he got to sleep when she didn't, but she let him do it anyways, figuring if anything actually happened he would wake up. Her eyes flicked back to the road as the light turned green, easing the massive police vehicle forwards, eyes flicking around the road.
They were passing through a seedier part of town, nightclubs and bars. With the cars windows open, she could occasionally hear thumping bass as she drove by one. It was still a couple of hours before any of them let out for the night though, so most animals were in the clubs themselves. Occasionally she passed a group out smoking or chatting in the cool night air, and she slowed to take a look, letting them know cops were around.
A sudden flash of movement ahead caught her eye, a racoon darting out from around a corner, leaning up against a lamppost and hurling. Not an entirely uncommon occurence this part of the city, but usually it wasn't followed with trying to flag down a police cruiser. As she pulled to the side, she reached over a shook Nick.
The red fox stirred, looking around and realizing where he was.
"Oh, sorry Carrots, didn't realize I fell asleep there." His voice interrupted with a big yawn as the vehicle stopped. "Wasn't out too long I hope. Something up?"
"Not sure yet. The raccoon in front of us was waving us down. Didn't want to go out in this part of town without my backup."
She put the car in park, pulling out the keys and attaching them to her belt before hopping out, Nick doing the same on his side. They were still a few meters behind the raccoon, who was still leaned up against the lamppost.
He suddenly looked up at the two officers, pale as a ghost and seeming just about ready to throw up a second time.
"O-o-officers! The alleyway! There's- oh God."
He turned away from them, dry heaving a few times before managing another stream of vomit, leaning hard against the lamppost for support, before slowly starting to slide down it. Judy just realized in time that he had passed out, catching him and keeping him from falling over and cracking his head against the pave and, with Nick's help, lay him out carefully on the pave.
"Nick, call this in. I'm going to go check out what it was that he was talking about in the alley."
Nick looked between the raccoon, Judy and the dark alleyway before shaking his head.
"Oh no, Carrots. I am not letting you go in there alone, we have no idea what this is. It could be some kind of trap. I'm watching your back."
As the two officers carefully approached the alleyway, she could see some kind of mass in front of her, but couldn't make out what it was at first. She pulled out her phone to use as a flashlight. As soon as it lit up the alleyway she felt the blood drain from her face. The mass was a body, or at least it was parts of one. A pile of organs and bones that looked like it had been dumped there by someone.
She heard Nick gasp behind her as she took another step forwards, trying to take it as many details as possible. A ribcage belonging to a large animal, then antlers came into view, so probably a moose. Then her light caught pale skin. A foot. A pig's hoof. When she realized there were at least two animals dead and piled together in an unidentifiable mess she lost it, leaning to the side, away from the bodies, her carrot-orange puke spilling out onto the concrete. She had never seen any of the feral mauling victims, only pictures, but even those were nowhere near as horrific as what she was seeing now.
She felt Nick's hand on her back, tugging her back towards the patrol vehicle.
"Come on Judy, you need to be strong right now. Get it together, we need to go call this in, right now."
She nodded, taking a few deep breaths to try and calm herself, she let Nick help her back to the car, getting into the passenger's side as Nick picked up the radio and called in the scene they had just encountered.