Thirty minutes later, Nick Wilde, Judy Hopps, and Adonis Bogo arrived at Cliffside, where the mammals were found, and subsequently held, in secret.

And when they arrived on the ward where the infected mammals were held, Judy's first reaction was "Ohhh... shit." And she was right to say that, for it looked like a literal zombie ward. In every hospital room there was a rotting, snarling, mammal. Then they came across Mayor Leodore Lionheart, trailed by Assistant Mayor Dawn Bellwether; she looked like she had been recently crying, while he looked very solemn and resolved.

"Dawn? Have you been crying?" Judy asked.

"Yes," she whimpered.

"Do you want to talk about it?" At that, Bellwether collapsed into Judy's arms, sobbing uncontrollably.

"They're gone!" She screamed. "They're fucking gone!"

"What do you- what do you mean?" Judy asked.

"My family! They're... They're dead!" This revelation caused Judy's breath to hitch in her throat.

"Oh Dawn, I cannot imagine what you're going through right now, but I'm here for you," Judy said, holding her.

"Should we tell her?" Lionheart asked quietly.

"Yeah, we should. If she finds out on her own, she won't make it through the day," Bogo answered tiredly.

"Judy, there's something you should know," Lionheart said sadly.

"What is- wait... my parents aren't infected, are they?" Judy asked, starting to get worried.

Bogo placed a hoof on her shoulder. "We're sorry, Judy," he said.

At that, Judy screamed, "NOOOO!" then fell to her knees, sobbing and hyperventilating, causing both Nick and Bellwether to run over and comfort her. Nick wrapped his arms around Judy and pulled her close, while stroking her ears and whispering, "It's okay. You're okay, They'll pull through, they'll pull through."

"You don't understand, Nick," Judy said, finally done crying, but still sounding tired. "This disease has a one-hundred percent kill rate. There's no possible way to survive."

"Oh. I'm truly, deeply, sorry for your loss. I know exactly what your going through, as I endured something ten times worse," Nick said.

"What could be worse than losing your parents?" Judy asked with genuine curiosity.

"Losing them on your eighth birthday," Nick answered, prompting Judy to gasp and put her paws to her mouth.

"Wait," Judy said when she recovered, "that was the same day as-"

"-the junior ranger scout incident? Yes. Yes it was," Nick said.

"What happened?" Judy asked, fresh tears welling up in her eyes.

"The night the incident happened, I went home to tell my mom, her name was Marion, by the way, but there was nobody home, or so I thought. I found them in the bedroom. Dad was already dead, but Mom was still alive. I still remember our final conversation..."