This story is based on a true story, it has been put here to send a very clear message. This is not a casual story, this is a hard truth.
Paw patrol police tribute: Last to see you
"You know, most life changing events unfold on days that you don't suspect. Of course it could transpire on a dark stormy day when the rain, wind and thunder echoes in the minds of the families for days, months and years to come. Movies lately have taught us that you should always be suspecting chaos, just don't live waiting for that chaos to come, because that very thing can be the cause of the chaos you were trying to avoid. Point is, there is no avoiding it, no matter how good you are at your job. How did we, young pups with nothing but joy on our mind, learn that you ask? Well, it started on one of those unsuspecting days."
'Good morning everyone, the sun is awake, so we should be too! Everybody up, everybody moving, let's get this party grooviiin!' Rocky said as he paraded by all the pup houses. Everyone yawned and stretched as he came by, starting the morning calmly. Rocky then arrived at Rubble's pup house, who was clearly awake, but purposely decided to stay in a laying down position. 'Is breakfast ready?' He asked Rocky. 'Everyone is already eating.' Rocky responded. Rubble skipped the getting up part and just straight up ran into the lookout. 'ROCKY, you liar!' Rubble exclaimed, coming back outside, having seen that Ryder was still preparing breakfast. 'Good morning to you too Rubble.' Rocky joked.
Chase stretched one more time as he exited his pup house. He smiled as he looked around, happy to be spending another day doing what he loved most. Marshall seemed to be doing the exact thing in the pup house on the right from Chase. 'Good morning.' Chase greeted, Marshall responding the same back.
'Pups, breakfast is ready!' All pups heard at the same time. Rubble ran inside, the others walking as they weren't in any rush. Marshall looked at the sky, spotting a uniquely large flock of birds pass by. The other stopped too, watching the birds pass by for a moment. 'Those dudes on a group tour.' Zuma commented. Everyone cracked a smile, before going inside together to join Rubble to eat breakfast.
'So, anything special today?' Chase asked Marshall curiously as the two finished breakfast and walked back outside. Marshall immediately laughed. 'Have you seriously forgotten what we are doing today?' He asked whilst still laughing. Chase just looked at Marshall confusedly. 'The anti bullying lesson.' Marshall said. 'You know, the thing we were gonna tell kids to never do.' Chase softly slapped himself with his paw. 'How could I forget?' Chase commented. 'Don't ask me.' Marshall responded jokingly. 'The teacher asked us to get there early, so we should leave shortly.'
'Right, are we taking my police vehicle? Kids love it.' Chase said. Marshall gave him a look of disagreement 'Do you want them to be entertained or do you want them to learn something?'
'Fair enough, what were you thinking?' Chase responded. 'I was thinking my EMT truck would be a good fit.' Marshall said, Chase laughing in response. 'Are you gonna give them the same chat you gave us last week?'
'No? For one, those kids wouldn't understand that. Second, that was an important thing to do. You guys need to be able to help people out if I'm not there.' Marshall said seriously. 'Right, maybe you should've mentioned that earlier.' Chase said. Marshall raised his eyebrow. 'You didn't pay attention did you? Tell me, what is a blue whistle?' Chase went quiet, going through all the options in his head. 'It wakes people up?' He guessed, Marshall breaking into laughter. 'I'll tell Ryder you need a reevaluation.' Chase shook his head frantically in response. 'No, please don't!' He stated overdramatically. 'I don't want to be bored to death!' Marshall rolled his eyes. 'Let's go already.' Both walked over to Marshall's EMT truck and drove to the school. It was a small elementary school on the edge of barking burg, it's where most of the Adventure Bay kids also get taken too with a special school bus. A teacher smiles as the two arrive welcoming them to the building. 'Welcome pups! An honor to have you two here.' The teacher said. 'We're happy to be able to spread awareness.' Marshall responded, Chase nodded in agreement. 'Awesome, shall we go inside and talk about what we can discuss?' Both pups nodded in agreement to the teacher, everyone going inside.
Those preparations that followed are like a blur now. Neither me, nor Chase can really think about these discussions without thinking of what would be ahead of us. It felt like any other day. Sharing my dream life together with my best friend. It's just like any normal day, but one call can change everything.
'Chase, Marshall, are you available?' Ryder sounded through the pup tags. 'We're available.' Chase responded. 'Barking burg right?' Ryder asked. 'Yeah.' Chase responses. 'Got a call from a bad traffic accident close by in Barkingburg, are you guys able to help a paw?' Ryder asked. Chase took one look at Marshall who gave Chase a quick nod of approval. 'We're on our way, keep us up to date on the situation.' Chase told Ryder through his pup tag. 'Sorry miss, we have to take this call, we'll be back if we finish in time.' Marshall told the teacher. 'Oh don't worry about it pups, the job is more important. You two have already given me a bunch of useful ideas and stories. If you don't make it back in time I'll take care of it.' She responded. 'Thank you, we'll keep you up to date.' Marshall added as he ran after Chase towards the emt truck. Marshall turned on his sirens and the pups raced to the scene. It was a very short ride, only about 4 minutes. Once the two got there they accessed the situation.
It was a typical intersection, 4 sides coming into one main area. Somewhere around the middle of the road stood a group of people. Marshall and Chase went over there, A bike laid on the floor, a young boy probably around 7 years old laid beside it. The surrounding people wishing to help, but freaking out and screaming at each other in the process. 'We have to help these people.' Chase said. Marshall made a single sign to Chase. A sign that could mean a million things, but in this moment made it clear to Chase what he had to do. He guided the people a little further away.
Meanwhile Marshall went up to the girl. 'It's okay, I'm gonna help you.' As he said that, he looked at the boy. Right there, at that moment, the young boy passed away, Marshall could tell.
How stupid could I be? It's okay? No, no. It's definitely not okay.
The following hours went like a blur for both of us. It would be both of our wishes to just get in the car and go home. But a lot had to be done. The road had to be closed, the witnesses had to be testified, the car had to be removed, the bike had to be removed. And the Boy, the boy had to be removed too. We did all that we needed to do, barking burg people with authority helped us, as did Ryder, Rocky and Zuma. As everything seemed to be running better again, Ryder went to take care of business, we as pups all sat down by the side of the road.
Chase joined the others, who sat in silence watching the very nice civilians take care of traffic. 'That was crazy.' Rocky commented. Not really knowing what else to say. 'So many testimonies dude, that poor boy.' Zuma added, everyone slowly nodded. 'I thought we'd be teaching some kids a lesson, now we're the ones being teached a lesson.' Chase commented. 'I always heard people say that phones are a win / loss situation. This is definitely the wrong side.' It went quiet for a little bit, everyone continued to watch the traffic. Ryder, who was talking to some other people, now came to the pups, but he only looked towards one. He stared Marshall down, and kneeled down in front of him. 'You were the last person who saw him alive right?' Ryder calmly asked Marshall. 'Yeah.' Marshall responded. All the other pups looked at him. 'We found his ID card, we know who he is.' Ryder said. 'You'll need to go deliver the news to the parents.'
How am I supposed to respond to that?
Chase got up. 'I'll go with you.' He said. Marshall then got up to. 'Okay, we'll do it.' Marshall told ryder. Ryder nodded; 'You know what to do.'
Marshall and Chase went to Marshall's EMT truck and typed the address into the navigation system. The drive was only 6 minutes, 6 MINUTES. Nevertheless, it felt like 6 hours. For the first time ever the ride wasn't spent talking about each other's work or other things the pups were normally busy with. It was pure Silence.
Eventually we arrive at the house. The front of the house was very open, I could look right into the living room. The TV was on, two adults, a man and a woman, were watching it. Just as we got closer, the two laughed at something that happened on the tv. I couldn't do it. Chase, who stood a few steps forward, saw I had stopped. He put his paw on my shoulder and said. 'We need to go on, they need to know it from us. We don't want them hearing it from someone else.' So we moved towards the entrance.
The couple had seen movement in front of the window, so they opened the door very quickly after Marshall and Chase knocked on the door. Anyone knows that two policemen at the door doesn't mean nothing. 'What's going on, nothing happened, right?'
Do not deliver bad news at the door, Don't be that person.
Marshall took a deep breath. 'Ma'm, may we come in please? There was a traffic accident this morning. You might want to sit down for this.'
In the United States alone, around 40-45 thousand people lose their lives to traffic accidents every year. Road safety is not a joke. Drive / ride safely everyone.