Changing Paths-A Paw Patrol Story

Chapter Sixteen

Chase was waking up early in the morning. He looked around the Lookout. At first, he was confused, but he remembered he let Dom borrow his cruiser, so Chase slept on the couch inside the Lookout. Chase stretched and hopped off the couch. He fell asleep with his uniform on, except for his hat. He put on his hat and walked outside.

Chase looked up at the sky. The sun was barely rising, too early to wake up any of the other pups. Chase looked to his left and was shocked by what he saw. The place where he parked his cop cruiser was empty. He walked around the Lookout but couldn't find it anywhere.

But worried Chase more was that he couldn't find Dom. Chase noticed everyone else's vehicles in place, and Dom was not inside his puphouse. When Dom asked to borrow his cruiser, Chase thought he meant for a couple of minutes, at most an hour. Something's wrong, Chase thought.

Chase ran inside the Lookout and rode the elevator up to the top floor. He turned on the monitor and tracked for his cruiser. A map of Adventure Bay and surrounding areas appeared on the screen. A dark blue dot began glowing on a road that led away from the city.

"Huh," Chase said to himself. "That road leads to Barkingburg." Chase tapped around, and a white dot glowed in the same place as the cruiser. "What is Dom doing there so early in the morning?"

"Something wrong, Chase?" someone asked from behind him. Chase turned around to see Ryder in his pajamas. He looked like he just woke up, which he probably did.

"Oh, hey, Ryder, sir," Chase said. "And I don't know yet. I slept last night on the couch because Dom asked to borrow my cruiser for a while. I thought he meant for a couple of minutes, but he's still not back. I located him with his tracker sitting on a road leading to Barkingburg. It stopped about a mile out of town."

"Well, let me get changed, and we'll go figure out what he's doing over there. Hopefully, before any of the others wake up."

Ten minutes later, Chase and Ryder arrived at the spot where the GPS said that Dom was. Ryder stopped his ATV, and he and Chase hopped off and looked around.

"Over here," Chase said. He ran over to his cop cruiser and hopped in.

Ryder ran up next to him. He pulled out his pup pad and looked at the screen. "It says Dom is right here," Ryder commented as he looked around. "But I don't see him, unless . . ."

"He doesn't have his collar," Chase finished the sentence. He looked around the seat and found Dom's collar on the ground. Chase grabbed it and tossed it to Ryder.

Ryder caught it and looked at it. "Why would he take it off?" He asked.

"Maybe he didn't," Chase replied. "Look."

Ryder followed Chase's gaze. In the mud, there was an outline of a dog. Ryder and Chase took a closer look. Chase sniffed the print. "Yeah, it's definitely Dom," Chase confirmed.

"Look," Ryder said. "The print still has the indentation of the collar around his neck."

"So he had it on when he fell on the ground," Chase said. "How did it get inside the cruiser?"

"I don't know," Ryder said. "Let's get back to the Lookout. We'll need more help on this." Ryder pulled out his pup pad, extended it, and pressed the button. "Paw Patrol, to the Lookout," Ryder said.

Ryder and Chase parked their vehicles in front of the Lookout and ran inside. They entered the elevator with the others and rode it up to the top floor. The pups got in their position, and Ryder walked up to the front.

"Paw Patrol, ready for action, Ryder, sir," Chase said.

"Thank you for coming, pups," Ryder said. "As you can tell, Dom is missing." The pups looked at Dom's spot, which was empty. "We have to . . ." He stopped when he noticed that Dom was not the only one missing. "Uh, where's Skye."

The pups turned to their left, but Skye was not in her spot.

"She must still be asleep," Chase said. "I'll go check." He ran to the slide and slid down. He landed on top of his cruiser, hopped off, and ran off to Skye's puphouse. "Hey, Skye," he said as he walked to it. "Time to wake up." Chase looked inside the puphouse and realized no one was inside. He found Skye's collar on top of her bed.

"Chase," Ryder said through her pup tag. "Did you find her?"

Chase took a step away from the puphouse. "She's . . . She's not here," he replied.

"What do you mean, Chase?"

"She's not inside her puphouse. Her collar's laying on her bed, but Skye's not here." Chase looked around frantically. "I don't know where she is."

"Okay, come back up," Ryder said. "We'll make a search and rescue plan."

The team looked for Skye and Dom all day. They couldn't find them anywhere; Foggy Bottom, Adventure Bay, the mountains, and even the lighthouse. Ryder asked the Princess, but to her knowledge, they weren't in Barkingburg.

The team was about to call it quits for the day. "Okay, pups," Ryder said through their pup tags. "It's getting too dark to search for them. We'll pick it up tomorrow as soon as the sun rises."

"Okay, Ryder," the pups said.

Chase didn't want to give up just yet. He knew that the longer they waited, the more dangerous it became for Dom and Skye. Chase couldn't help but think that if Chase would've just sent Dom to sleep like the others, Dom wouldn't be missing. He should have made sure everyone was safe when he went to sleep last night. Chase couldn't help but feel guilty.

Suddenly, a new purple dot appeared on his GPS. Chase stopped his cruiser and looked at the map. The marker seemed to be on Jake's mountain. Chase looked up where the spot would be coming from.

A white light flashed on the mountain for a second. Chase figured that it might be valuable to the search. "Ryder, come in," Chase said.

"Ryder here," Ryder responded.

"I'm going to take a little while longer."

"Okay," Ryder said, "but I don't want you to take too long."

"Yes, sir, Ryder, sir," Chase said as he hung up. Chase put his GPS to go to the purple dot.

Chase arrived at the destination and hopped out. The place was on a cliff overlooking the town with the woods on either side. Large vines covered the side of the mountain. At first, Chase didn't think much of it until he heard shuffling behind the vines. 

Chase barked out his flashlight, took a deep breath, and walked through the vines. They opened into a small cavern, no greater than the Lookout living room.

"Anyone in here?" Chase called out.

"In fact, there is," a voice said. Chase turned his flashlight to the sound. In the light, he saw a white terrier staring at him. "Hey, Chase," Sweetie said. "We need to talk."