Just One Bite is a Zootopia fanfic by Carrier of Heartbreak
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Zootopia has become the victim of a Zombie Apocalypse. Many mammals have passed on and become the undead, and many more are following suit each day, including Judy Hopps. Nick is one of the few survivors, and has barricaded himself in his apartment, desperately trying to stay alive. Seems fairly straightforward, except that the zombies...don't act like zombies. They talk, they have friends, they have lives, and they pretty much just carry on as if they are still alive. When the zombified Judy shows up at his door to turn him, it doesn't take long for him to realize that the zombies aren't just playacting, but really are still the mammals they once were at heart. With this fact in mind, he and Judy settle into a playful game of cat and mouse, with Judy looking for ways to get into Nick's home, while Nick tries to outsmart her, all the while trying to decide whether he should accept the new world and let Judy turn him, or reject it and stay alive.
At its core, Just One Bite is a comedically absurd take on the zombie horror plot, finding humor in the many staples of Hollywood horror movie zombies while still managing to capture the sheer gravity of the situation, and the emotional turmoil frequently seen with such stories.
It can be read here, or here. Not to be confused with the SpongeBob Squarepants episode of the same name.
WARNING: For the sake of readability, spoilers for the first three chapters are unmarked!
Just One Bite provides examples of:
- Duck Season, Rabbit Season: Nick doing this to Judy is how he figures out that she's still Judy, and not just some monster pretending to be her.
- Eye Scream: Nick's mother, Marian, lost her eyes in the attack that turned her.
- Face–Monster Turn: Seemingly averted, as the zombies are still in their right minds, despite having a desire to consume the living, and don't seem too interested in turning loved ones who don't want to turn. However, it turns out that being near any living mammal, loved one or not, will send them into a frenzy, making it this trope after all. It THEN turns out that individual zombies can avert it for themself by outright rejecting the influence of the infection.
- Foreshadowing: Finnick, the first zombie to not be happy about being a zombie, also has no interest in feasting on mammal flesh. Just Finnick being Finnick, right? Eventually, Judy loses her own desire for flesh after nearly killing Nick in a frenzy causes her to hate what she's become, and Nick, soon after, realizes that rejecting the infection prevents the killing frenzy.
- Losing Your Head: Marian's new boyfriend, Corduroy, is a zombified disembodied head, though he doesn't seem to mind, that is, until chapter 8, when he reveals that he misses having a body.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The zombies aren't mindless, and are said to have been caused by a virus, and while they crave living flesh, they are otherwise still the mammals they were before they turned. They also go completely feral if they smell living meat, attacking them in a frenzy akin to being darted with the night howler serum.
- Running Gag: A family of zombie wolves that always seems to be passing by Nick's apartment whenever something is thrown from Nick's window or off the building, which ends up crushing at least one of them, prompting the mother to yell some variation of "MY BABIES!".
- Overused Running Gag: In chapter 8, Nick groans in frustration when he sees the newly patched up family standing outside his window as he's about to throw something off.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The story could essentially be described as a sitcom version of this.
