A/N: Ugghhhh sorry guys, it's been another month. That isn't really what bugged me though, as it's become routine. I tried uploading on Christmas as kinda like my present to you guys for supporting this story, but the Doc Manager was having issues. Every time I would try to upload a document a processing error would occur no matter what I did. I was reading through forums and found I wasn't the only one experiencing this. I emailed FanFiction and luckily it is back up and running today. During this downtime, however, I was able to further progress with this story, so hopefully you guys can expect an update sooner than usual, if all goes well ;) Anyway, that's enough of me rambling on for this chapter. I hope you enjoy chapter 10 of Terror's Peak!
Marshall awoke to a loud chopping noise. Confused and disoriented, he tried looking around but it was still extremely dark outside. The only thing he could remotely see, was the faint shimmering of moonlight along the surface of the water. Marshall turned around completely to try and identify the source of the sound but instead found more light shimmering on the surface of the water.
"What? Two moons?" he shook his head in disbelief. "I must be hallucinating again."
The dally then looked up to see a bright, moving light. It couldn't have been the moon, this light was much less white and more beige. The closer it got, the louder the chopping noise grew.
Marshall stared in amazement and shock. Could it actually be? He questioned. It has to be!
The miracle that he was so desperately hoping for had arrived. The miracle that he deemed impossible, thinking it could never actually happen. There it was in the middle of the ocean.
Passing directly over Marshall in the middle of the ocean, there was a rescue helicopter.
Adrenaline suddenly filled the veins of the dalmatian pup as he frantically tried to get the aircraft's attention.
"HELP!" he howled through his dry and scratchy throat, "I'M DOWN HERE!"
Marshall waved his hands in the air, splashed around the water, and even jumped up and down on his wooden board; almost falling off a few times. He continued to howl at the top of his lungs, not even caring whether his voice would give out or not. If Marshall let this chance float by, he knew that there wasn't going to be another. He was almost driven to tears after there was no sign of acknowledgement for about thirty seconds. However, not too long after, Marshall finally got that response he driving for.
"DON'T WORRY, HELP IS ON IT'S WAY" the loudspeaker projected as the helicopter slowly began descending onto the water.
Marshall couldn't believe it. The poor pup collapsed and let the tears flow from his eyes. He was a goner; completely stranded in the middle of the ocean with no food or drink. There was no way he should have survived in these circumstances, but it was happening.
As the chopper safely landed on the water, Marshall stood back up on his paws. The strong wind blew through his fur and completely dried his tears. When the propellers finally came to a stop, a man opened the door and stepped out onto one of the landing skids.
"Hey buddy! This is the Foggy Bottom Coast Guard Service. are you okay?" he called out.
"I-I think so.." Marshall replied in a rough, scratchy voice.
"Alright! I'm going to throw you this life preserver. Grab on and I'll pull you over to the chopper," he instructed, "From there I'll take you back to the mainland where you'll be checked up!"
"Okay!" replied Marshall.
The life preserver plopped into the water about a yard away from him, however, the dalmatian hesitated. The water now frightened him. Never had he thought it could be so dangerous and devastating; not until the tsunami tore apart his home and nearly took his own his life. But he had no choice, he had to get back to Adventure Bay.
With that, Marshall took a deep breath, closed his eyes and leaped for the life preserver. He grasped the ring with his two front legs while the bottom half of his body plunged into the frigid water. The coast guard then pulled Marshall in and before he knew it, the man had placed him safely into the helicopter.
"Oh man, you don't look so good," the coast guard pitied the suffering pup.
It was true. Marshall was noticeably skinnier, and his complexion was rather pale, yet burnt. Not to mention his voice was pretty raspy when trying to communicate with the coast guard earlier.
"Would you like a drink?" the man offered.
Marshall's eyes widened and he instantly nodded.
The man retrieved a water bottle from one of the helicopter compartments and opened it up for Marshall. The dally ended up gulping down the entire bottle with more room to spare. They went through a few more water bottles before Marshall decided that his thirst had been replenished. However, it still didn't help with his hunger.
"D-do you maybe have s-some type of f-food?" Marshall inquired.
"Well, luckily I do keep a few dog biscuits with at all times. I have a rottweiler pup of my own back home. They're all yours," the man smiled.
He picked up two biscuits out of his pocket and held them out to Marshall who gulped them down. However, the dally's stomach still growled.
"Sorry buddy, that's all I got," he apologized, "But don't worry, I'm taking you straight to Foggy Bottom Hospital where they'll feed you and take care of you."
Marshall looked up at the coast guard and smiled. He was so comforting and generous towards the pup, and the dalmatian was ever so grateful.
"Thank you. Thank you so much," Marshall thanked him subtly.
"No problem little guy, it's my pleasure," the man smiled back, petting him on the head.
After giving Marshall a blanket to warm himself up, along with a pair of earmuffs to protect his ears from the helicopter's racket, the coast guard started up the helicopter and headed straight to Foggy Bottom. Marshall somewhat dozed off during the ride there. He was absolutely exhausted, but the noise of the helicopter made it difficult to sleep. So instead he sat there, eyes half open, and occasionally bobbing his head up and down every time his body tried to force him asleep.
In no time, Marshall felt the chopper come to a halt and the loud noise of the propellers ceased. They had just landed on top of Foggy Bottom Hospital. Almost instantly, paramedics came up and placed him onto stretcher. After which, he was hauled down an elevator, through a few halls, and into a hospital room.
The dally was still quite tired, but managed to keep his eyes open during this process. It was so busy in the hospital, and actually quite frightening. Across the halls he heard moans and groans of the tsunami victims, while elsewhere he heard the cries of citizens who had lost a loved one. It made him extremely sad, and was just as scarring as the tsunami itself. The fire pup shut his eyes and covered his ears. All he could think about was Ryder, Zuma and Rubble being in the same state as those poor people, and how devastating it must have been for them during the past couple days. He tried his best to disregard the thought; it genuinely drove him to tears.
Shortly after, a nurse walked over to Marshall, gently picked him up off of the stretcher, and placed him under the covers of a hospital bed where she gently stroked his fur. It was really calming and settled him down a lot.
"There, there, it's going to be alright," the nurse comforted. "Would you like some food? You look famished."
Marshall vigorously nodded his head; food was the number one thing he wanted at the moment, besides Ryder and the pups however.
"Alright honey, just give me one second," the kind nurse said as she left the room.
Moments later, she returned with a whole bag of liver treats and a large bowl of water. Marshall displayed a huge grin as he began to lick his lips. After a whole twenty-four hours with no food, this was like heaven to him. He thanked the nurse and showed his gratitude by giving her many puppy licks, followed by gulping down the food and water he was given.
Marshall must have eaten two pounds of liver treats before he finally decided he'd had enough. There was no doubt he had regained the weight lost. As the nurse was about to take the treats and water bowl back to the hospital's cafeteria, Marshall spoke up.
"Um, e-excuse me," Marshall coughed, "Will I be able to see my family again?"
"Get some rest dear, you've been through a lot in the past two days and it's late," she advised, "Tomorrow morning our rescue team will try our best to contact your family."
Marshall smiled back at her. "Thank you, I appreciate everything you've done," he replied as he shut his eyes to go to sleep.
Finally, the dalmatian was able to rest peacefully, without the unnerving thought inside his head that he may never wake up. Through his weeping and whimpering, the dalmatian said a silent prayer. After everything he'd been through, he was going to be okay.
It was a miracle.
Katie awoke with a loud yawn and a stretch. As the extremely exhausted girl turned to her side, she noticed something peculiar. After blinking a few times and squinting, she realized that Ryder wasn't in his bed. This got her on her feet right away, tired or not. Given the extreme situation they're in, she didn't want to lose sight of Ryder at any time. Seeing as the boy wasn't in their room, Katie walked across the hall to where Jake had spent the night. There, Jake was sitting up in his bed in a daze. He'd just woken up as well.
"Jake!" exclaimed Katie, "Have you seen Ryder?"
Jake shook his head and looked up at the girl. Still half asleep, he hardly managed to spit anything out, "Huh..?"
"Hurry! Get up and come downstairs with me to look for him!" she demanded.
"Yeah.. one sec," Jake yawned as he stood up.
Katie darted into the elevator where she waited for Jake, who arrived not too long after. As the elevator descended and slowly came to a stop, there they saw Ryder in the kitchen safe and sound. The pups were there too, all lying down next to their bowls with glum faces. Katie was just relieved that everyone was okay, especially Ryder.
"Oh thank goodness!" she smiled at the boy, "I didn't know where you were."
"Oh, sorry about that," Ryder apologized, "I just wanted to get an early start so we can begin searching as soon as possible."
"Smart thinking," complemented Jake.
"Anyway, I'm going to head to Foggy Bottom after breakfast," Ryder continued, "Anyone who wants to join me is welcome, but I'd prefer if at least some of you stay here and look. You never know if someone might find their way back home. Plus, a lot of Adventure Bay still needs to be cleaned and fixed up."
"I'll come to Foggy Bottom," volunteered Katie.
"I'll go with you too, Ryder," Zuma offered.
"Alright, sounds good," the boy responded.
"I think I'll stay here Ryder, my bulldozer will come in handy with the clean up," Rubble declared.
"Good choice Rubble," encouraged Ryder, "Jake? Everest?"
"We'll stay here and keep Rubble company," replied Jake, "Is that okay with you Ev?"
"Yeah sure," Everest nodded.
"Well, looks we have our game plan," settled Ryder, "But I just want to make one rule; If anyone makes any discoveries, no matter how devastating they may be, they are to inform the team through cell phone or pup tag immediately. I know it will be hard depending on the circumstances, but we need to find out as soon as possible."
The whole crew nodded in agreement and then began chomping down their breakfast. All of them spent so much time searching yesterday that they went to sleep almost on an empty stomach. This made their appetites fairly big for this morning.
Shortly after, the two groups parted ways. Jake, Everest, and Rubble drove down to the city where the construction pup continued bulldozing debris out of the way and into piles, while Jake and Everest kept their eye open for the pups. Meanwhile, Ryder and Katie hopped in their ATVs, Zuma onto his hovercraft, and the three headed down to Foggy Bottom. They didn't really know exactly what they were going to do when they got there, but in an attempt to find the pups, they were ready to face anything. No job is to big, no pup is too small.
About twenty minutes later, they had arrived at Foggy Bottom. The crew noticed some damage as they cruised down some of the streets, but it was miniscule compared to the destruction down at Adventure Bay. After driving for a few more minutes through the town, Ryder spotted someone he thought could help them out.
"Mayor Humdinger!" shouted Ryder.
The plump Mayor along with his bushy moustache turned around and greeted the boy back with great politeness, which wasn't exactly expected. On any other occasion, the Mayor of Foggy Bottom would have rolled his eyes or sneered at the sight of Ryder, or any of the Paw Patrol for that matter, but now was not a time for that. He knew Ryder's situation, and all he could do was offer his evermost love and support.
"Hey guys," he greeted. "I am so sorry about what happened, believe me I am. From the bottom of my heart," he sympathized as he gave Ryder and Katie a hug, also petting Zuma on the head.
"Thanks Mayor, we really appreciate it," Ryder embraced his comfort with a little sadness.
"When Mayor Goodway called me up and shared the bad news, I instantly set out a search party for the pups, as well as other victims," informed Humdinger, "I even sent out the catastrophe crew to go out and look for the pups."
"Gee, thanks Mayor. That really means a lot," Ryder smiled at him.
"In fact, that's why we came here, to look for the pups," Katie added, "Would you happen to have an idea as to where to look?"
"Well, any victims that the search party finds go straight to the hospital. Just outside the front door there's supposed to be two lists. One, I think, with victims who survived and are being taken care of, and one with victims that.. well, y'know… weren't as lucky. I think they're updated every hour or so..." he explained in a depressed tone.
"Thanks Mayor, you're an absolute gem!" Ryder said as he gratefully shook his hand, "I will repay you some day for this, I promise!"
"Oh don't worry about it," Humdinger placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, "Go focus on what's more important, find your pups."
The three nodded and headed for Foggy Bottom Hospital, practically speeding down every street. They had to know whether any of their pups were alive, and wanted to know as soon as possible.
A mere and dreadful five minutes later, the gang had reached the hospital parking lot which was nearly at max capacity. However, all they wanted to see were the two lists. After squeezing into a few tight spaces by the front entrance, Ryder was about to go up to the lists to get a closer look, but he hesitated.
"What's wrong Ryder?" Zuma looked up at him with a sad expression.
"I… I just don't think I'll be able to handle going up there and seeing Chase, Marshall, Skye, or Rocky's name on the deceased list," he sniffed.
Katie put her hand on Ryder's shoulder.
"We'll have to find out sooner or later, as hard as it'll be," she said in a comforting tone, "If that is in fact the case, we'll all be here for each other."
Ryder looked up at Katie who then patted his back. Ryder nodded and continued onward to the list. Katie and Zuma followed somewhat, but left space for each other in case the dreaded bad news were to arrive. They watched with anticipation and anxiety as Ryder ran his finger down the list, carefully analyzing each of the names. However, there was no reaction once he reached the end, which made Zuma and Katie's heart drop.
After going through about ten names on the next list, Ryder stopped and covered his mouth. The next thing Zuma and Katie knew, the boy was down on his knees, bawling his eyes out. Katie went pale and she, too, covered her mouth in utter disbelief. Zuma watched in horror as well, as he covered his eyes with his paws and began whimpering uncontrollably, assuming he had just lost a best friend. Ryder's display of sadness quite clearly portrayed that bad news was to come, and they knew exactly what the news was.
Step by step, Katie slowly began to approach Ryder. She could not believe this was the case. Just thinking of one of the pup's being dead broke her heart, but that actually being the case was unreal. Upon peeking through his paws, Zuma noticed Katie had headed towards Ryder's direction. He, too, decided to go over there along with his tear-stained face. He needed to see it for himself.
When the two of them got close enough, Ryder shot up and turned towards them. Looking at them with his red, tear-filled eyes, he simply let out two words:
"Marshall's alive!"
With almost all hope lost, somebody came to Marshall's rescue, and the dally couldn't be happier. The same can be said for the gang back at the Lookout. As great as things sound, they're far from better. Three pups are still missing without a trace and are facing huge obstacles on their journey home. Luck won't be on their side forever, and if they don't find a way out, or even each other for that matter, pretty soon they could end up six feet under...
Hope you enjoyed! Chapter 11 coming ASAP :)
Side note: I kind of got interested in digital art so I downloaded Krita. I tried my best and attempted to make a cute picture of Chase and Skye XD It turned out okay... I guess that's for you to decide XD If you want to see it, it's with my uploaded images. Otherwise, I posted it on Deviant Art. Anyway, just figured I'd pop this little plug in here, LMAO. Thanks again for all the support!
~SwarmX