Zootopia: Runaway: Gazelle's Story

Chapter 5: Difursity

            Making her way across Capital City was harder than Gazelle had thought. In spite of her stomach still hurting and her heart still beating a mile a minute, she had managed to find the corner of Domesticus Dr. and Phylum St., a relatively historical part of Happytown that she had never set hoof into before.

The early noon sun shone down into the narrow streets of the old Performing Arts District where aristocratic theater-goers and working-class animals would meet to go see a show or a film in days gone by. The enormous buildings on either side, with cracked brick and chipped paint on their once-distinguished façades, once looked as though they had been taken out of a 19th-century painting, with gleaming white paint and far less stuffy streets. Animals in nice tuxedos and flowing gowns met with animals in plain suits and dresses regardless. They just wanted to see the same shows in the same theaters, even if there were different seats for different classes. Time was when this part of Capital City held the homes of some of the most famous actors of the early half of the century, such as Frank Sinatrat. Now, however, the only inhabitants in this nearly abandoned region of the city were sneaky rats, eager con artists and suspicious lowlifes.

Capital City had fallen quite far, but politics were not Gazelle's concern at this point.

"OK," she whispered to herself, "look for the building with the sign with the..."

Crud. Gazelle couldn't remember what she was looking for.

Gazelle's brown eyes scanned the street, looking for the building she was told to find.

It didn't take her long to spot the large metal letters hovering above a triangular platform that spelled out: KING OM THE TER. Several letters had fallen off of the sign, and the once proud-looking theater had fallen into a bit of disrepair.

As Gazelle stood outside of the imposing building, she could see that it had probably been a popular place back when it was first constructed. A large corrugated steel awning stuck straight out over the massive metal-and-glass revolving door. The front of the building above was dark red, made from brick and glazed clay depicting historical scenes and had names chiseled straight into the exterior; the names of workers and performers that had frequented the Kingdom Theater within its first year. A massive carven three-pointed crown loomed over the awning and supported the derelict sign, a reminder of from where the name had come. Burnt-out and shattered light bulbs dangled from the massive sign like suspended spiders, and the few light bulbs that did work beamed out tiny circles of light that dappled the ground as though a star was shining lights down onto the dreary streets.

Gazelle also noticed the one thing that identified this theater as the one she was looking for: a huge Buck and Denver chainsaw, suspended by rope from the awning overhead. On the side of the blade was inscribed, in flashy-looking text, "Home of Saw Blade Activatur. Enter at Your Own Risk!"

Gazelle initially felt wary about the theater. What kind of band would play around with such a dangerous tool like a chainsaw?

Only a crazy animal.

For a split second, Gazelle considered forgetting the whole thing.

And let herself return to the site of her horrible misdeeds? Forget it!

Bolstering her confidence, Gazelle stepped forwards into the theater, ignoring the twinges of uneasiness that were appearing in her heart.

* * *

The instant Gazelle stepped into the front room of the theater, she had a sense that she had stepped back in time into a theater she had once seen in a picture book. It was much larger than Gazelle had imagined, and also much cleaner.