The blueberry effect - Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1 - DAWN BELLWETHER

Chaos: When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future



"Hey, look over there, we almost missed this one!"
"Cheese and crackers, it is full of berries! And they all are almost ripe. Luckily you saw it!"
"Judy will be so happy to receive these!"


Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
"Aaaaargh!"
The slow dripping of water on the hard surface of the floor was driving Dawn mad.
Eleven months had passed since her plans were foiled and she was sent in prison. Bioterrorism, attempted murder, malfeasance in office... the list of her crimes was long. As was the final duration of her sentence. The only short thing had been her trial. One day she entered the court, not even a week later she heard the gavel of the judge confirming her punishment. And now she was stuck in this humid cell, the leaky pipes in the corridor keeping her awake with their noise.
"Come on Dawn, I was sleeping! Oh, what are these?"
Dawn looked at her "roommate".
That judge had a really twisted sense of humor, deciding to put her in the same cell as a predator, a wolverine. However, against all expectations, she didn't hold a grudge against the ewe for what she did, instead she accepted her gleefully. 'I'm just happy to see someone that fucked up worse than I did', she said, hugging the reluctant sheep.
She had been the only nice thing she had in these eleven months, between the prison, the rancor of the other predators prisoners and the hatred of the preys there.
"What, those blueberries? You can eat them all, for what I care."
She received them from that hateful bunny cop, 'Because I think everyone needs a second chance', she said. Like she forgot she testified against her.
"They are so tasty! You should try some, Dawn."
"No wa-"
A loud noise coming from her stomach reminded her that the dinner today had been exceptionally poor.
"Okay, maybe a couple."
She took some berries from the box and put them in her mouth. Damn. They were good.
She took another one.
An acrid taste invaded her mouth, making her immediately spit. At almost the same time the wolverine spat too.
"Oh, there were some bad ones there!"
Dawn didn't answer. Furiously, she directed herself to her bed. That doe... she probably put them in as a joke, to make fun of her again.
"I'm going to bed. Don't make too much noise."
"Goodnight, Dawn."


A sudden noise woke up the ewe.
She looked around in the low light of the neon lightning coming from the corridor.
A heap of fur was on the floor, trembling.
Putting on her glasses she was able to recognize her cellmate, crouched on the floor in a fetal position, paws clutching her belly.
"D-Dawn..."
The sheep ran to the door of her cell.
"Guards! Guards!"
In less than a dozen of seconds a cougar, three times her height, appeared behind the door.
"What is this ruckus in the middle of- oh!"
The door shot open.
"You stay there!" shouted the feline, while he began barking orders at the radio.
Bellwether did as she was told. Maybe for the first time in her life, she was worried for the life of another mammal. She watched helpless the wolverine rolling on the ground whining, the cougar doing his best to keep her still. That's when a metallic tingle caught her attention.
The keys to her cell were there, attached to the belt of the guardian. They were so close... She only needed a distraction.
In that moment she saw her cellmate beginning to convulse even harder, the voice becoming more raucous. She began coughing, drops of blood staining the floor of the cell. That caught the full attention of the warden. Thanking her mentally, Dawn made her move. With one swift action she took possession of the pass for her freedom. Now the only thing she needed to do was waiting.
She saw the paramedics take her friend (could she call her friend? yes, maybe...) away. The guard closed the door behind him. Luckily it was a model that automatically locked itself, so it would have been a while before he checked his keyring. Giving her all the time to escape.


Dawn Bellwether was an intelligent sheep. In these long months she learned every movement of the guards, every patrol, every timetable. She planned with utmost accuracy dozen of escape plans.
And, differently from her last plan, this one flowed flawlessly. Not even an hour later she was out of prison, running free through the streets of Zootopia.


Clothes. First she needed to change her clothes.
However the only stores now open were the one for typically nocturnal mammals, like the ones in Pack Street. Nocturnals meant predators. Even the criminal underground market was something extremely dangerous for her at this hour. She had to move with utmost carefulness.
Luckily the street she was walking on seemed desert at the moment, the solitary lights illuminating the empty sidewalk. Passing near a fruit stand that the careless vendor left outside of the shop she took an apple, thinking about her next actions. She had to plan every move, avoid crowded places, reach the Meadowlands. There she had a contact, an old friend of Doug, that could give her new clothes and a way to escape the cit-
She stopped. She had her suspicions before, but now she was sure. She was being followed.
"Who is there?"
Nothing. The street remained silent and empty.
"Show yourself!"
Still nothing.
A movement at the corner of her eye, the shadow of a shadow, made her turn her head, but what confronted her was only a desolation of asphalt and buildings.
Another movement, this time on the other side.
She threw the half-eaten fruit toward that direction and began running.


Dawn stopped for a moment to take a little breath, looking around in search of her mysterious follower. She seemed to have lost it, whoever it was.
Suddenly a light appeared behind the corner of the small alley she entered in her frenzied run. It was a small street, sandwiched between two huge buildings, close by a tall chain-link fence.
Without further ado she began climbing it, the hoofed paws grasping desperately the cold iron wire, the metallic structure shaking under her weight. In an handful of seconds she was at the top of the fence (all that workout in prison certainly helped) and she was ready to jump down when she heard a well-known voice.
"The noise was coming from here, Carrots."


Nick was barely able to see the escapee jumping down from a metallic fence before receiving a full glob of sheep's spit in his face.


Dawn Bellwether ran. And ran.
She hadn't been able to stop herself, and now all the ZPD should know her approximate location. Was it worth it?
A grin spread on her face. Yes, it was.
The newfound smile faltered a little when she found herself again in a dead end. She began turning back when a voice stopped her.
"You!"
The sheep looked at the owner of the voice: a small ferret, brown fur, shabby clothes. He was angrily pointing a finger in her direction.
"Do I know you?"
"I was one of the mammals that you made savage! You and your damned drug! Don't you remember me?"
Dawn really didn't remember. After all the mammals she made go savage? A ferret wasn't so important. She was prepared to answer with a witty remark when the world around her began spinning. The floor she was standing on inclined, the stars above her moving in a mad dance. She tried to stay upright, feeling a wave of nausea washing over her.
Then, as sudden as it came, it all stopped. The road returned in its normal position, the stars once again still in the sky. Meanwhile the ferret was continuing his rant:
"-left me! My wife left me because she was scared I might go savage again! But-"
"Oh, shut up."
She already weighted her options: the mammal in front of her was small, she could easily surpass and outrun him. In the worst case she could wrestle her way to freedom. But the most important thing right now was escaping that alley.
"Yes. You are right. We need facts, not words."
Bellwether prepared herself. He was really small and emaciated, a strong punch could-
The ferret pulled out from who knows where a long knife, the silver blade shining in the moonlight.
Oh crap.
"They called me crazy, you know? When I told them that I will take my revenge on you. They said I had to be interned, to be cured. But now..."
A single bleat broke the silence of the night.


"Central? Here Hopps, we have found the fugitive and we are on her trail."
Nick took a generous bite from a donut.
"That damned sheep... when I find her..."
A sudden noise took the attention of the two cops. An unmistakably sheep's noise.
Nick put the donuts back in the car as Judy began running toward the source of the bleating.
The fox quickly followed.
After he turned the corner he suddenly stopped, stunned by the scene before his eyes.
Judy was shouting something in the radio, near the wall a trembling ferret was doing his best to not be noticed.
And, on the hard floor of the road, in a puddle of blood, the body of Dawn Bellwether.