PAW Escape - Team R Chapter 2: Injection, a paw patrol fanfic

Author's Note:

Chapters 2 and 3 will be updated according to this order:

Team M - Team R - Team C

[R] INJECTION [2]

"Wocky, wake up!" a masculine, yet very distinctive voice echoed through the mutt's ears.

The sleepy dog rolled over, now laying down the floor. Stretched his paws and scratched his fur. The floor felt cold and dirty. Upon opening his eyes, he saw a chocolate Labrador's face with olive eyes from up close. He could feel the heated air that came from his nose.

"Oh, Zuma." He got on all fours, scratching his head with his back paw. "Did Y make us sleep...?"

Trying to remember what happened before falling asleep, the Labrador nodded. "The only thing I can remember was a very strange smell."

"Sleeping gas..." Rocky rolled his eyes, thinking the most possible reason. Then he thought of something, or rather, someone in particular. "Hey, where's Robo?"

Both pups took a look around the room they were in. They seemed to be in some sort of sewer, or a small heater room, since the room was covered with a complex network of pipes of different sizes and shades of grey, green and brown. Some of them had rusty marks, and it seemed like a certain pipe on the ceiling was leaking water from the dripping sound that could be heard in a slow, but almost constant pace. That sound was annoying Rocky quite a lot. Also, there was a lightbulb hanging on the ceiling thanks to the cable that connects the bulb from the power network, being the seemingly lone light source from this room, but it was enough to see across the entire area.

However, to one of the wide sides on the room, there was a very rusty iron table with a TV screen powered on. The TV screen was displaying the room that seemed to be on the other side of the rusty, metallic and rough door to the left of the table. No matter how much they tried, it wouldn't budge.

On the other side of the room, a metal grating could be seen close to the floor, which looked like it was connecting to a ventilation duct. Despite not moving, it seemed the right size for the pups to squeeze through the hole.

The mutt was trembling, but it wasn't because he was cold. In fact, there was heat coming from the ventilation conduit. "I-I don't like this place, Zuma..."

"Me too, dude. This place is way too cweepy. I think I can see Wobo thewe." Zuma pointed his paw below the table, covering his visor with his paws, trembling.

Zuma got closer to the metallic dog. "Don't wowwy Wobo, we awe going to be ok. We'll be in a safew place soonew than you think!"

Robo removed his paws from his head, with his LED eyes showing a rather sad look. It walked out of the table, hugging both the Labrador and the mixed breed dog tightly.

"Hey buddy, it's ok. Are you afraid of something, perhaps?" Rocky thought that he might've seen something that could have scared him. All pups have something to be afraid of, according to him.

"I don't... Like rusty places..." For the first time in a long while, Robo spoke some words.

"Wust? Well I'd get it if I wewe a wobot, I guess..."

Rocky held the hug with the robotic pup, comforting him with soft caresses on his head. It was then when he noticed the green wristband tied on his own left front paw.

"What's this...? Is it a clock?" The bracelet bore a circular display with two buttons on their sides. The mutt's white paws pressed both of those buttons, but nothing happened. Zuma checked he had the same device as Rocky's, which wasn't working as well.

The artificial dog took a look at his left paw. There seemed to be a circular display just like Rocky's bracelet, but there was no strap holding it. It seemed like it was integrated directly into its circuits.

Despite Robo feeling a bit better, the TV suddenly shone a white and black static with a very high noise. A second after that, the shadowy figure of a masked man appeared on the screen.

"It appears you have awaken." Said Y, with the same screeching, distorted voice as before. "Time to explain the rules to you."

"Y...!" Said Rocky, with a death stare pointed straight to Y's hidden face.

The perpetrator mentioned they had to make some things clear before explaining the rules. "Asking questions to me will be worth nothing but a waste of time. This is a recording, being broadcasted to all of the dogs within this facility."

Now that the kidnapper clarified that first thing, they announced that they would detail a fragment of the story that the puppies heard back at the prison cells.

"July 19th, 2013, it was a rainy day. A man was getting home from work. His usual route led him to a fork in the road within a park. Normally, he'd go through the left path, but for some reason, he chose the right path that day. Along the way, he bumped into a woman who happened to be a coworker.
Surprised to see him, she asked: 'Why did you come this way today'?
The man showed her what was hiding under his coat. It was a small puppy, with bloody stains from gunshot wounds. It was clear the puppy was in peril, so he decided to head towards the closest vet in the neighborhood."

"A puppy got shot...?" Zuma stared at Rocky, inspecting while sat on the cold floor the body of the hybrid mutt, in case he could spot a gunshot scar, but didn't seem to be any, not even one in an advanced state of healing.

The voice of Y grew deeper and resonated the following words. "His body was found two hours and four minutes later. Murdered. They found him behind some bushes along the right path of the park. Sometimes, life is simply unfair..."

"Could he have been shot, too...?" Rocky tried to make a recollection of what Y had told them earlier. However, it was clear that the culprit wasn't a human; according to Y's previous words, a dog was convicted for it. "Then... who?"

The kidnapper continued their explanations. "It's the same for all of you puppies. The pull of an unjust fate carried you along to this precise moment. Only to find yourselves in this underground facility, 30 meters below ground..."

The screen showed up a complex map with many rooms intricately networked by what looked like meandering hallways. It was so distorted in shape that it felt like a ruined spider web lair of some sort.

"As you can probably see from where you are, you have been divided into three groups of three dogs each." Y explained that the groups were distributed as follows:

Marshall, Skye and Tracker were the now named Team M. The leader of the group would be Marshall, as hinted by the initial of the team. The team was given red-colored bracelets.

Rocky, Zuma and Robo were Team R, with Rocky being the leader. Team R was given green-colored bracelets.

Finally, Chase, Rubble and Everest had been associated the name Team C. The color of the bracelets from this team was blue.

"Speaking of the bracelets, there are some important things to mention about them. As of now, each of everyone's bracelets is inactive. You will need to activate them by using a circle scanner that can be found near your TV screen. Simply pass your paws over the reader to enable their functions. This is very important for The Game to happen."

The screen switched again, showing a schematic of a bracelet similar to those Team M wear, but yellow-colored. The puppy was staring deeply to his bracelet device.

"Once activated, you can press the two buttons on its sides simultaneously for an arrow to be displayed. This arrow will serve you as a guide to where you will have to go next. Consider it as a compass."

Skye turned around, looking for that scanner nearby, although she was still capable of listening to the explanations of Y's doomed Game rules.

"The bracelets are absolutely necessary to enter the Numbered Doors. As of now, you probably haven't seen any. They just look like any regular door, but they present a colored number splattered on them. Near these doors, you will find the devices called Bracelet Authentication Devices, or BREAD, for short. You must scan your paws over these devices in order to activate the X-Paws Input Device beside the BREAD. The Numbered Door will not open unless you enter the same amount of X-Pawsses as the number painted on the door."

Zumma giggled with a short snort. "Ha, ha, Pawsses."

However, the voice of the masked man suddenly turned even darker after the next sentence.

"Each time one of you puppies is unable to continue the Game, the bracelet will automatically disengage and an X-Pawss will be revealed. In blunter terms, there will be an X-Pawss for each dead puppy."

The robo dog made a yelling sound, and coiled back to a corner on the room. Zuma gave the evil masked human a death stare. "Not cool, dude... Not cool." Rocky just kept listening.

"It is hidden, but an exit can be found. Seek a way out... Seek a door that carries a [6]. This obviously means that, at least, six of you must die in order to open the door that connects to the exit of this facility."

"So that's why he meant The Game won't end until six of us die." Uttered Rocky.

"There's a few things to mention about their interaction with the bracelets, as well. Each Numbered Door will only remain open for 24 seconds. Once that time passed, the Numbered Doors will automatically close. By then, any puppy that did not authenticate on the BREAD, but managed to pass through it, the injectors hidden within their bracelet will automatically trigger. The trespasser will be penalized by an injection of an aqueous solution of mercuric chloride. Once that happens, the digestive tract will collapse due to the poison, killing you in about 23 minutes."

"What does that mean?" The chocolate Labrador looked at the grey mutt with dark fur spots.

"I presume it is to keep us from cheating and enter places we're not supposed to." Replied Rocky.

"Also, don't expect the Numbered Doors from opening again. Once they close, they will remain locked until those who have last opened the door authenticate in the Door Unlocking Device, or DUD. Only then the rest will be able to open said door."

Both Rocky and Zuma tilted his head in confusion. "Is that rule necessary...?", thought the mixed breed dog.

"I believe that concludes the rules explanations. Remember that I can't answer your questions."

However, despite Y having explained the rules, he added one more last thing to his explanations:

"Sometimes, you will encounter different challenges. Only fate will only decide whether if you overcome it... Or not. With that... I wish you... Good luck."

Y waved goodbye, with a "Have a nice escape". Robo made a very strange noise, that sounded like he was cursing someone. The TV screen turned back to showing a camera footage of the room behind the door.

The puppies stood silent for a couple of seconds, when the rusty door suddenly opened.

"The door... Is open." Stated the robotic dog. "I suggest going through it... And find the device for activating the bracelets."

Both dogs agreed to that notion. Going through that door, the puppies went through the corridor that was being shown by the camera. It didn't take long before the three puppies gazed at the circular device that was bolted to one of the walls, about the size of their heads.

"This must be the device for the bwacelets." Said Zuma, placing a paw over the circular surface. The wrist watch made a short beep, and the display lit up, showing a green arrow heading towards the corner of the corridor. Rocky and Robo followed suit. Their bracelets were showing the same arrows, pointing towards the same direction. "Let's go, dudes!"

They followed the meandering corridor, seemingly following the same direction of where the pipes on the walls were heading to. After about half a minute trotting, they stumbled upon the end of the corridor, entering a circular and dark tunnel. Robo led the way using his light torch to see the way they should be heading to. At the end of it, two lights illuminated the round sliding door that was in front of the puppies.

It seemed rather special, not because of its huge size or the golden plaque with (B-2) inscribed on it, but the presence of the green number [0] painted over the whole door.

"A numbered door...?" Asked Robo-Dog, upon first gazing the number.

The mutt was looking directly at the circular device that was stick to the curved wall because of the taped wires that connected it to the power supply. "Definitely. What's good is that is a number that we can open right away!" He placed his white paw onto the circular reader of the device. "No X-Pawsses are required."

Zuma twisted his lips in a very wide smile, wagging his tail happily. The robotic puppy was happily jumping. They both proceeded to place their paws on the reader. First Zuma, then Robo. However, the door labeled with a green [0] didn't open.

"Awe you suwe we can just go... Wocky?" said Zuma.

Robo noticed a small indentation appearing in front of the [0] door. "I suppose this is the X-Pawss input device?"

"Why would such thing be in here?" Rocky took a look inside the indentation. There was a keyboard fit for his paws' size and a line of nine small LCD displays over it, which would display the X-Pawsses that have been inputted. "Well, the door isn't necessarily waiting any X-Pawss, so I suppose I can just enter this completely blank."

The white and gray paw just pressed the "Enter" key. The indentation metallic cover slowly closed, and right after that, the metallic door started steadily opening, making a rusty metallic noise as it was being lifted from the ground.

When the gap was big enough, Zuma squeezed through it, with Rocky following shortly after. Since Robo was a bit bigger than the other two, it had to wait a little more time before finally getting in.

The room that was behind door [0] was much bigger than the one they started their journey. The pups exited from one of the many pipe tunnels that connected the room that seemed to be the sewers. However, the canal from which water would usually flow was empty.

Zuma, Rocky and Robo followed the passageway to the left until they bumped to a corner. To the other side of the corner there was a small metallic door, however the gap from the canal was too big for any of the pups to jump to the other side and check it. The robotic dog claimed to have reactors on his paws that allowed him to hover, but they stopped working for some reason.

Despite that, there was a reachable door that was opened. They checked out the very small room, which had an opening on the wall, allowing to see the sewer from them. "It could be some sort of service stand or a room for watching the sewers", said Zuma after exiting that location. Beside the door there was a small portable table with four metallic, portable chairs as well. Robo also noticed that there are stairs down to the water canal. Zuma went down to investigate, even though he first thought that "thewes pwobably nothing hewe".

Zuma found a huge hatch door at the wall in front of him just after heading downstairs. He noticed it wasn't locked, but wasn't particularly sure of opening it. The water could go straight towards him and fatally being drifted away by the stream.

When he looked up, he saw a shocked, scared, winced expression on both of the other pups' faces. The Labrador tilted his head in confusion, but he thought they were probably scared of the electronic hatch to suddenly open, so he decided to go upstairs again.

While looking back at the observation room, Robo-Dog found a circular device that looked similar to the BREAD, however, it was white-colored instead of black-colored, and featured a silver bread motif on top instead of a gold one.

"Zuma, Rocky, is this the DUD?" Robo asked the pups to come over.

The chocolate Labrador quickly inspected the device. "Well it has a bread on it but it's not the BREAD. So it must be a dud." He chuckled. "Ha, ha, ha, ha, DUD."

The mutt squeezed in so he could take a gaze onto the device. Y's words resonated within his head.

"I weally don't get the point of the DUD. Why do we have to unlock a doow we'll nevew go thwough again?" Zuma backed out, making space for Rocky to get closer. "It'd be pointless..."

"That is true, however... Personally, I think we should unlock it. Maybe the point of this is to let us choose to block the way through so nobody can continue. I don't want to let them behind."

"I donno dude, if we leave them to theiw demise we can be the fiwst thwee pups to get to the doow numbew [6]. We might not have a bettew chance wight now!"

To Rocky's mind, both of them had a point. They could just do what Zuma says and ignore the DUD, leaving every pup besides them to their demise. That would be a quick way of getting the X-Pawsses... Or not?

He thought about it for a while, while listening to both of them quarreling. Technically, they would have to wait until everyone of them starved or died out of dehydration. Plus, he didn't take into account that they might find both water and food to live with for a couple months. That didn't seem like an effective way of escaping.

However, he cut his line of thought when he heard the voice of the other two pups. "Rocky!"

"W-What?" He answered.

"Rocky, we think you should be the one who chooses what should we do." Stated Robo.

"Since you awe the leadew of Team aw..." Continued Zuma.

There was a short silence, after which the mutt nodded and turned around, facing the DUD. He had to choose between ignoring the device, or authenticate on it in order to unlock the numbered door.

But there was nothing to do; he had already chosen what to do.

"Let's authenticate and unlock the door."

The Chocolate lab switched his glare from a concerned face to a more disappointed one. "Why, Wocky?"

Rocky rapidly explained his reasons. "If we leave them to their demise, we'd have to wait for them to die, which might take long depending on the resources they could have. Plus, there might be other doors that they could go through, so we can't guarantee that we'll be getting those X-Pawsses." He extended his paw onto the DUD, about to authenticate his bracelet onto it. "But above that... I want to get here with everyone. No casualties. There has to be a way around this without dropping blood."

After that, the mutt placed his paw on the DUD, making a beeping sound. The DUD suddenly displayed the number 32, and going down by one each second. "Wait, what? A c-countdown!? Quick, authenticate, you two!"

The other two pups had a shocking expression. Zuma had his eyes wide open, while Robo's pupils were like tiny dots. They quickly set off to authenticate, so quickly they placed their paws at the same time. After a small chime, the screen on the DUD turned off. The three pups laid down on the floor, completely exhausted and confused.

"Why... Why was thewe a countdown?" Asked the olive eyed Labrador.

"The question actually is... Why didn't Y mention about the countdown?" The mechanical dog corrected Zuma.

Silence. Zuma took some time to tilt his head, after giving up thinking a reason why he'd hide that. He simply uttered that whatever would happen if the countdown reached zero, it wouldn't be good.

Rocky brought up the previous conversation topic. "I think I have a great idea on how to reduce the number of victims."

While the other two pups were watching, sitting on the chairs, Rocky held a screwdriver on his mouth while closely examining his bracelet. He then laid the tool with an orange handle on the portable table.

"Yeah, I think we can do this..." Rocky started explaining. "While I can't say for sure about the mechanisms inside these, I can assure that my bracelet and Zuma's feature electronic locks, most likely connected to a biometric power source."

"Biometwic powew souwce?" Zuma tilted his head in confusion, yet again. Those terms seemed alien to him.

"Our hearts generate electric pulses while pumping blood to our bodies, just like every other dog. I'm guessing this bracelet is catching those pulses and use them as electric power."

"That means, if we cut the power source, we'll be able to deactivate the bracelets?" deduced Robo.

"Exactly. In mine and Zuma's case, that'd mean that our heart must stop. In order words, we would need to have a heart attack, or die, for the bracelet to be unpowered and the electronic lock to disengage." He got up and approached the robotic dog. "Robo's case is different. It may probably have some power core within it, like a 'heart'. If we were to shut it down, Robo's bracelet will shut down. But I believe it is integrated within its circuits, so it wouldn't come off. Although I don't think being able to get rid of the bracelets is going to be a matter of issue as of now."

"What do you mean by that?" Zuma started understanding Rocky, but not completely.

Rocky was slowly inspecting Robo's body as he talked. "In order to check our state, it's very likely The Game's systems use our bracelets to keep track on how we are doing. If a bracelet's power gets off... The Game would treat the bearer as 'dead'."
He then stopped, when he found four small screws, and a large one at the center, on the robot's back. "We could trick the system this way by cutting down the connection between the bracelets and the power source. I don't know how to do it for us real, organic pups. As of Robo, though..." The mutt placed his white paw on the panel that surrounded the four smaller screws with a larger one in the middle. "We just have to turn its power source off, and turn it back on!"

"I see..." Uttered the metallic dog, with the LCD screen configured to give out a rather sad, but acknowledged look. "By turning the power from my core off, the bracelet will deactivate and the Game systems will think that I'm dead."

"Now that's a mowe compwehensible explanation!" Replied Zuma.

Rocky gave an annoyed look to Zuma for half a second. Then looked back at Robo. "I'm not going to force you to be powered off, but I think this is the best we can do for now. We can reduce the casualties down to 5 for now."

For some strange reason, Rocky wanted to yell "Don't lose it, reuse it!". He mentally chuckled, remembering his happier days as an eco-friendly mechanic.

The non-organic puppy explained its thoughts. "Rest assured, it is going to be a risky maneuver... There might be a chance that I may not be able to power up again. And I suppose that I can't be turned on while still inside The Game, as the systems will think of me as 'alive' again... I don't want to know what would happen then..."

"So, you don't want to do it?" Supposed the chocolate Labrador. There was a short silence afterwards.

"However, I think the same as Rocky. I... I don't want to leave anyone behind. We should get out of here... Together. That'd make me... Very happy."

"Good!" Rocky happily sat back to his chair. "Unfortunately, I can't do anything as of now. I don't have the proper tools to uncover the power switch panel."

Zuma wondered why wasn't there an on/off switch just like any kind of electronic toy, but never mentioned the question since he thought it wasn't time for asking that. Instead, he asked:

"So... What should we do next?"

After searching the sewers up to where they were able to reach, the three pups headed downstairs to the water canal. It was quite darker than the hallways from the floor above them, so they used the robotic pup's torch to examine the canal. Just below what would be the gap between the door that was out of reach and the walkway with a lineup of pipe tunnels, were two open wooden crates. They seemed to be light, but they had something inside.

"These boxes have nothing but a bit of sand in them." said Zuma, inspecting the contents of them. They opened nice and easy, with a small creak sound, but the lid easily slid through.

"Maybe we can use these as platforms..." Guessed the mutt, nervously looking at the hatch door. "...If we could to fill the water canal..."

The brown dog complimented the dog with a dark fur patch around his left eye. "You suwe are smawt. You know a lot about tech stuff."

In a very modest look, Rocky replied. "Ah, it's nothing. My family are mechanics and I was... Well, educated with that. I even have my own toolkit back home."

As Zuma howled a "Wow, cool dude!", the trio approached the electronic hatch valve door. It seemed unlocked and ready to be opened by using a lever attached to the wall. Cables ran across the circular shape of the door until reaching the top, that connected the lever with the hatch door. Rocky felt very nervous for some strange reason.

"You OK buddy?" Zuma patted Rocky's head and wrapped his right paw to the mutt's right shoulder.

"Y-y-yeah. It's j-just I feel cold... It's q-quite c-cold down here..." Rocky wasn't shivering because of cold. He was shivering of fear, for some reason he decided to hid. "L-let's go...!"

Rocky's white paw drew closer to the lever. His heartbeat was skyrocketing, and began to sweat all over the body, despite the other dogs just being able to see he was shivering quite a lot. While shutting his eyelids close, he eventually pulled his paw down, along with the lever, in order to open the door.

The door quickly opened, revealing the room behind it...

STATUS
(According to Team R's perspective)

Team M:
Marshall (?), Skye (?), Tracker (?)

Team R:
Rocky (ALIVE), Zuma (ALIVE), Robo (ALIVE)

Team C:
Chase (?), Rubble (?), Everest (?)