Chapter 11. Life Without Ryder

It was another dull day at the Lookout. The pups were sleeping together in the TV room. Chase and Marshall had slept on the same pup-bed. Chase couldn't bear to leave his best friend's side. He was literally so broken, so in pain and feeling so miserable. It was still early and the pups were sleeping, except for Chase. He was quietly looking at photos on Ryder's pup-pad. It was photos of Ryder and the pups having fun together. Chase saw a photo of everyone together. Ryder was holding the pup-pad and the pups all squeezed in to be part of the picture. Chase looked at Ryder's face, he looked so happy. "Ryder" a tear dropped from Chase's eye.

"Chase" a whisper came from Chase's right side. Chase sighed sadly. He wasn't able to keep in everything that was running through his body. So he broke into a sob, throwing his head on the soft cushion. His sob awoke the other pups. "Chase, are you okay?" Skye asked. "He's not and we're gonna have to really be there for him. This is hitting him harder than us" Marshall said.Skye got out of her pup-bed and walked over to Chase. Rocky got up and fetched some tissue for Chase so he can wipe his pouring tears. "I'm not gonna be able to lead the team" Chase said. "Chase, yes you will be able to. You feel like that right now because this is the only the beginning of this sad situation of losing Ryder. But as time goes by, you will become stronger and you will be the next great leader of the PAW Patrol" Skye said in a soft and soothing tone.

Suddenly Katie walked in. "Morning pups" she smiled. "Morning Katie" the pups said in a not so bright tone. "Let's start the day by having breakfast" Katie said. Rubble who loved food, didn't get so excited for breakfast. The pups walked slowly to the kitchen. Marshall got up and started limply walking because of his cast. Chase stood in bed. "Chase? Aren't you gonna have breakfast?" Marshall asked. "I don't have an appetite. I'll see if I can eat later" Chase said. "Don't starve yourself to death" Marshall said and then walked away. Katie placed all of the bowls in a line and started pouring the food. The pups walked over to their bowls slowly and started eating. "Where's Chase?" Katie asked. "He said he's gonna eat later" Marshall answered. Katie left the kitchen and found Chase lying on the pup-bed still. "Chase, do you wanna speak?" Katie asked in a gentle tone. "No" Chase's tone came out cold.

"Okay" Katie said. After breakfast, the pups didn't know what to do next. Usually after breakfast with Ryder, if they didn't get any calls yet, Ryder would play with them or they would get things done like if one of their vehicles needed some repairing or if the Lookout needed a good cleaning. But the mood was different. No one wanted to do anything. "What did you pups use to do with Ryder after breakfast?" Katie asked. "If there weren't any calls yet, we would do daily life things" Rocky started. "Ryder would play with us. Or if any of our vehicles needed some repairing, I would help him repair it. Or if the Lookout hadn't been cleaned, we would sweep, mop, and organize everything together."

"Or sometimes Ryder would spend time brushing our fur and bathing us. Or sometimes we would hang out in the TV room. Us pups would play Pup Pup Boogie and Ryder would playing a game on his pup-pad. But when we had calls coming in, we threw everything aside and got our rescues done. Life was sweet until now." Chase heard everything Rocky was saying. His heart was aching physically and tears were escaping his eyes. "Katie, as much as you want to do for us, there's nothing you can really do besides feeding us and grooming us when the time comes" Marshall said. "I think we would prefer to be alone" said Rubble.

"You pups are right. I'll come when it's feeding time and when it's time to bathe you guys. But if you need anything, don't hesitate to call me" Katie said. "We won't" Marshall said. "I'm gonna get going now. Cali is probably waking up" Katie said. "Bye Katie" the pups said. "Bye pups" said Katie.

                              •~•~•~•~•

By late morning, the pups hadn't done anything until Skye spoke up. "Guys, if we just do nothing, we're never gonna get over this great grief. We can't just live the rest of our lives in misery. It's okay to grieve but we're not gonna stay here for hours doing nothing," "Skye is wight" Zuma said. "Skye is totally right. If we do nothing, we will never get over this grief" Marshall said."Plus, Ryder would want us to continue our lives and live happily even if we don't have him. He would want Chase to continue leading the team" Rubble said. Chase got up and started walking to the elevator. "Where are you going?" Skye asked. "I'm going to the mission room, duh" Chase coldly said.

"What has gotten into you?" Rocky asked. "What has gotten into me? Ryder is dead!" Chase yelled. "How are you guys not sad about it? You guys are acting like everything is normal!" "Chase, everyone is sad about this great tragedy. Your not the only one grieving. But you have to understand that we're not gonna just stay in hole of sadness" Skye said. "I will never be able to escape this hole of grief. My life is ruined forever and ever and no one will be able to fix my life. My heart is broken forever and ever and no one on this earth will be able to mend it. Not even Marshall who's like my brother. I will never be able to find joy and happiness and no one will be able bring that joy and happiness back to me. Continue your lives without me" Chase then stepped in the elevator. It closed and went up to the mission room.

"This is serious" Skye said. "Let's leave him to do his grieving. At lunchtime, I'm gonna bring him food and try to talk to him. Sometimes someone who is so broken like that just needs their own time to grieve everything out" Marshall explained. "Why don't we play something?" Rocky suggested.

                             •~•~•~•~•

Up in the mission room, Chase was laying on Ryder's beanbag, breathing in his owner's sweet and familiar scent that made him feel calm, safe, and happy. Suddenly a call came in on the big screen. Chase huffed and walked up to the big screen. He pressed a button to answer the call. "Hey Mayor Goodway" he said in a down tone. "Where's Ryder?" Mayor Goodway asked. "We can't find him anywhere. Do you need saving?" Chase asked. "Chickaletta is lost!" Mayor Goodway screamed. "You need to build that chicken a pen. Chickens don't belong in purses" Chase then hung up the call. "PAW Patrol to the Lookout!" he called through his pup-tag.

"Chase needs us" the pups said. The pups had been playing Pup Pup Boogie when Chase called them. They all started running into the elevator. "Wait guys. Let me try this tail spin" Marshall said. "Hurry Marshall. We can't be late" Skye said. Marshall performed a tail spin and went spinning toward the elevator. The pups eyes widened, Marshall crashed into them creating a pile of pups. "Maybe I shouldn't have tried that tail spin. I never get it right" Marshall said. The pups started laughing as the elevator went up. They geared up in their rescue attires and the elevator continued to the mission room. It then stopped and the doors opened, giving way for the pups. Everyone leaped out and lined up in formation infront of their new leader."PAW Patrol ready for action, Chase sir!" Marshall felt awkward saying that.

"Mayor Goodway's disgusting chicken escaped her purse again" Chase began. When Chase said 'disgusting', the pups looked at each other but then focused on their leader again. "For this mission, I'll need Skye. Your gonna search for Chickaletta from the air.""This pups gotta fly!" Skye performed flip. "I will also need myself to find this chicken that I totally hate" Chase said. "Alright, PAW Patrol is on a roll to find this chicken for the millionth time!" Chase started running for the slide and Skye followed him down. The spinning mechanism spun and placed Chase's pup-house at the bottom of the slide. The German Shepherd leaped off of the slide and into his transforming pup-house. Once it completed its alternation, Chase drove off. Skye did the same and flew off in her copter.

                            •~•~•~•~•

The police pup pulled over at Town Hall and the pilot pup landed her copter at Town Hall. "I'm so glad that your here. Chickaletta is probably afraid and hungry out there" Mayor Goodway said. "Yeah alright" Chase rolled his eyes and started sniffing the ground. Mayor Goodway was confused by Chase's attitude. Skye took off in her copter to find the lost chicken. Skye flew toward the beach and started zooming in with goggles. She soon spotted a chicken wearing sunglasses and laying on a beach bed. "Chase, I found Chickaletta hanging out on the beach" Skye giggled. "I'm coming" Chase said.

Chase leaped in his vehicle and drove off to the beach. "Come on you stinky chicken. Your brainless owner is gonna build a pen for you" Chase said. Chickaletta jumped off of the bed and started running. "Ruff! Net!" Chase barked. His net launcher came out of his pup-pack and shot out a net at Chickaletta. The net captured the fleeing chicken. "Your not going anywhere" Chase said. He got back in his police vehicle and drove back to Town Hall. "Build a pen for your chicken or if you can't do that, send her to live with the chickens at Farmer Al's" Chase said, then drove off back to the Lookout. "That was pretty rude" Mayor Goodway said. "Don't take any offense Mayor Goodway" Skye said. "Chase is not Chase right now. We couldn't find Ryder anywhere. We think whatever attacked him has killed him and dragged him off.""That's so sad to hear" Mayor Goodway said.

                             •~•~•~•~•

Chase and Skye were back at the Lookout. "I have to separate myself from the world" Chase said who was in the mission room. He got off of Ryder's beanbag and went into the elevator. The elevator went down to the bottom. Chase walked out of it and into the TV room."Hey Chase, you finally decided to come out?" Marshall asked. "No, I 'finally' decided that I'm going to separate myself from the world" Chase said. He bit his pup-bed and dragged it into the elevator. The elevator doors closed and it went down instead of up. "He's going to spend his life in the dark basement of Lookout! We gotta stop him from what he's doing!" Zuma said. "I'm gonna stop him" Marshall said.

When the elevator came back up, Marshall took it and went down to the basement. The doors opened and Marshall walked slowly into gloomy basement. "Chase? Chase? Where are you?" Marshall called."Marshall, why do you keep coming after me?" Chase yelled. Marshall tilted his head to see Chase laying on his pup-bed. "Because your my friend! Your like a brother to me!" Marshall raised his tone.

"What do you want?" Chase asked with blazing brown eyes. "You're not gonna spend your life in this gloomy basement! I will not let you do that! Chase, you can't let grief get the best of..... "shut your mouth! I don't want to hear anything about grief from you! I don't know how your acting like this is normal! Ryder being dead is most terrible thing that could happen on earth!" Chase shouted. "Listen to me!" Marshall screamed. "Ryder chose you as the second-in-command because he knew he could count on you for when something happened to him! He knew that if anyone would carry on his legacy, it would be you!"

"Ryder put in so much work and effort to build this team. Look at us today, we're world wide famous heroes all because of Ryder! No one will ever be a greater leader than Ryder was! But that doesn't mean they won't be a good leader! Ryder was everything to you! Your caretaker, your owner, your companion, your friend, your leader, your comfort, your safety, your joy, your world, and now he's your role model!"

"Ryder wouldn't have chosen you to be the second-in-command if he didn't see the potential in you! Why didn't he choose one of us? That's because he saw the spirit of a leader inside you! He knew and trusted that if anything ever happened to him, he wouldn't have to worry about all his hard work he put into this team crumbling down because he knew that he had one pup who would carry on his legacy! He knew that this one pup was gonna be the only one who would be able to keep the PAW Patrol strong and going for many more years to come!"

"So if you love Ryder with more than your heart, then why are you not doing him proud? If Ryder chose you as the future leader, why aren't you taking your place as leader now? Think about it, your letting Ryder's legacy crumble down! The longer you stay like this, the faster his legacy will crumble down and soon it will be destroyed forever! You think Ryder would be happy with you if you let that happened?"

"Chase, the news of Ryder is spreading across Adventure Bay. Within a few days, Mayor Humdinger will find out and when he sees that the PAW Patrol is weak without Ryder, he will scheme a plan to destroy us and he might just succeed! Ryder was the platform, the foundation of the team! Without him, our team is not stable! We are weak and vulnerable to enemies! A leader is the foundation of a team!"

"You need to emerge from the shadows of grief and step into the light of reality! It's time for you to take the place of Ryder! It's your turn to rise as the new leader of the PAW Patrol! If you truly love Ryder, you will do him proud!"

By the time Marshall finished his lecture, Chase was just frozen by everything that entered his ears. Marshall stood staring at Chase. Tears then escaped Chase's eyes."Why are you crying, Chase?" Marshall walked up to him and sat next to his friend. Chase didn't answer, tears just continued rolling from his eyes. "I-I miss Ryder" Chase whimpered. "We all do Chase" Marshall said in a soft tone. "But the only way you will be able to continue your life without him is to say, if I truly love Ryder, I will do him proud." Chase wiped his tears and rose to his paws.

He inhaled a deep breath and closed his eyes, letting  his new strength flow through his body. He then opened his eyes, they were blazing brightly with a new strength. "If I truly love Ryder, I will do him proud" he said. Marshall smiled and started wagging his tail. Chase then inhaled a deep breath and let it out as a long howl. His howl was full of strength, courage, and confidence. Marshall joined him in his howl. "Now that's what I call a leader" Marshall said. Chase turned his head to Marshall. "Thank you" he said. "For what?" Marshall asked."For not giving up on me. I love you Marshall, you will always be my best friend and brother" Chase said. "I love you too" Marshall said.

Chase and Marshall took the elevator out of the basement. The others pups had been waiting in the TV room when the elevator arrived. "How did it go?" Skye asked. Chase and Marshall walked out of the elevator and Marshall glanced at the German Shepherd. "I am the new leader of the PAW Patrol" Chase said. The pups started cheering and howling. Skye ran up to Chase and nuzzled him under his head, Chase returned an affectionate nuzzle. "Your gonna be a gweat leader, dude" Zuma said. "But never better than Ryder" Chase said. "Your gonna do great!" Rocky barked. "Go Chase!" Rubble howled. Together, all of the pups howled in unison.

Word count: 2,786Date of publication: February 9, 2022