Paw Patrol : Post-Apoca'rift

Chapter 6: His Three Musketeers

"Didn't know anyone willingly walks into this place,  not unless they were looking for trouble."

ROCKY'S POV

following story for chapter 4.2 (the timeline is when Chase and the other are on the train to raid a base)

Zuma returned from scouting ahead, signaling with his tail that the path was clear.

Movement through Shattered Soul was proving swifter than I felt we had any right to expect. Our progress was partially due to keeping our pawprints as small as possible not lining our bags with items that could be missed. (I made an exception for the contents of the Lost & Found safe, justifying the theft with the reminder that the safe had not been opened since a very long time, and so no one here would be suspicious if it was empty, so long as I closed and locked it again.)

But more than that, these people didn't seem to consider that the fortress could be infiltrated; they weren't on guard. I'm not a mistress of shadow, but I hardly needed the advanced tutelage from pup-fu sneaking tactics to slip past these Raider who was being this oblivious. (I'd skimmed through the book while Zuma was fetching the mattress cover.) I wasn't quite as good and had nearly tipped a Shattered Soul Raider to his presence twice now, but we'd managed to hide each time. I figured once we got back to the train-fort of Randal AKA Dan, I'd pass him pup-fu sneaking tactics to peruse himself. (It's not as if books can only be read once, after all.)

The inside of Shattered Soul proper was a cold, monotonous grey much like Ryder's ATV garage in the lookout, except here all the walls were cracked and chipped, the ceiling decayed, the light weak and uneven, cast from small lanterns hung from railroad spikes chiseled into the walls. The darkening sky of clouds outside turned the high-set, barred windows into dead eyes staring vacantly into the halls. Somewhere down the hall, a terribly sad song was playing over a radio we were within the range of Minutemen's broadcast again.

"Well, crap!" I muttered dourly as I hugged a shadow behind a placard ("Your efforts will end with results that are equivalent to your efforts like a chess pawn even though he is weak even useless he never backs down and when he reaches the end of his effort he can become whatever he wants!") and stared across the open rows of desks to the well-lit room beyond. Inside, a pup matching Dan's description of Elleanor was sitting behind a desk, reading a book ( Undefeated strategy). He was flanked by at least one guard human that I could see, and possibly others I could not. The safe was directly behind her. There was no way to get at it stealthily. Even if I used the Stealth Buck, he'd hear the safe opening less than a foot away from his ears.

"Time for our backup plan," I whispered to Zuma. "Got one?"

Zuma raised his eyebrows, "Yeah. Load them all up in the caboose and kick it free." I winced as he reminded me how well one of his last plans had gone.

"Could be worse," he whispered with a smile. "I'm sure Ryder's plan would be to go up if he's here."

I closed my eyes. Damn it. We couldn't just sit here, waiting for the bastard to move. The longer we hung around, the better chance of getting caught. "Okay," I said finally. "We'll do that."

Zuma's eyes went wide. "I was joking!" he hissed.

I carefully grab the sniper rifle and assault carbine I brought to Zuma. "Take these. Go back and hide in that side room with all the old flashlights," I instructed, recalling a room that looked like it hadn't been used for anything other than a few quickies in several months. "I'll go up and say hello."

"And when they all shoot you, then what's the plan?"

"I'm winging this here, but if all else fails, I still have a smoke bomb. That should get me out. If shooting starts, don't wait for me. Get safely back to Rubble." With an afterthought, "Please."