72 Hours Part Four: The Final Morning And Afternoon


21 Hours Until Estimated Time Of Death

Ryder woke up in a cold sweat, and heard Chase's groaning and whimpering. "No… please…" Chase whimpered.

The pup's eyes were closed, so he had to be dreaming. "Chase? Chase, wake up!" Ryder told his pup.

His canine companion, however, was deeply asleep, and he started to writhe in his unconscious stupor. "DON'T LEAVE ME, NO! I'LL BE A GOOD PUP, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME ON THE STREETS! I'M TOO YOUNG TO BE LEFT ALONE!" Chase screamed.

Ryder gasped as he heard the pup's pleas. "RYDER, DON'T LEAVE ME LIKE HE DID! PLEASE!" His pup begged.

"I WON'T! I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU, CHASE!" Ryder yelled in defiance.

That broke Chase's sleep, and he woke up, panting and heaving. Immediately, he started bawling. "Y-you really mean it, Ryder?" Chase whimpered.

"Of course I mean it, Chase! You and I… I'm never going to leave you like your old owner did. That's a promise." Ryder solemnly said.

Chase continued sobbing, though it was tears of joy. "I… I'm not gonna leave you either, Ryder! I'm gonna keep fighting till my little puppy heart gives out! I'll do my best to beat this sickness!" Chase answered.

Chase and Ryder embraced each other, and then Chase ate some puppy chow while Ryder got himself into a clean change of clothes and ate his own breakfast. The pup then waddled over to Ryder's Nintendo Switch and pointed at it. "What's this?" Chase asked.

Ryder smiled as Chase pointed his paw at his old gaming console. "This is a Nintendo Switch, it's a classic gaming console. Portable and powerful." Ryder told Chase.

The German Shepherd tilted his head in confusion. "What's a gaming console?" He wondered.

Ryder smiled, he kept forgetting that Chase was so young and innocent, so that meant he knew very little about the world around him. "A gaming console is something you use to play video games. Video games are something you can do to spend your free time with. You see these little joysticks and buttons?" Ryder asked. Chase nodded his head in response. "You use these to play the game. Do you want me to show you?" Ryder replied.

The young dog's eyes widened in excitement. "Sure, I'd love to see you play!" Chase yipped excitedly. A grin spread across Ryder's face as he booted up Super Mario Odyssey. It was his and Ben's favorite, and he had gotten pretty good at the game. Chase and Ryder would spend hours playing the co-op mode for the game, and Chase took to the role of playing as Cappy pretty well.

They played for hours and hours on end, only pausing to get snacks. For a casual co-op playthrough, Ryder and Chase completed the game at an extremely quick speed. In only five hours, they had managed to defeat all the main story bosses, collect most of the Power Moons that were accessible before the post game, defeat Bowser, and save Princess Peach.

As the final cutscene played and the credits began to roll, Chase let out a howl of delight. "YOU DID IT, RYDER! YOU SAVED THE PRINCESS AND BEAT THE GAME!" The little pup squealed happily. Feeling proud of himself and his pal, Ryder patted Chase on the head and ruffled his fur, then gave him a chin scratch before picking him up and hugging him. "No, Chase… we did it." Ryder told him.