AVAVA
( Dipper Pines )
VAVAV
He was laying on a hard cold surface, it felt like stone under his hands and face. He opened his eyes, everything around him appeared blurry, and at an angle. He tried pushing himself up. It felt as if he had been in the same spot for hours. His muscles were stiff. Maybe he had been, wherever he was, for hours.
He groaned and looked around, his eyes still hadn't adjusted. Looking around he noticed others laying on the ground around him. At least he was sure that it was others, he couldn't be completely sure.
Dipper looked around again as he tried to figure out where he was, though with his blurry vision he couldn't quite figure it out. He knew this place, it was just out of reach in his mind. He knew that he had definitely been here before.
He moved into a sitting position looking at the others around him. Even with blurry vision he could tell that the closest person to him was his sister. It would take more than a tired mind to make him forget his sister, that and the colors of her sweater was apparent. Either it was his sister, or a paint spill. Then the next closest person was Wendy, it was mainly the red hair that gave it away as he couldn't distinguish any other features, though it could equally be any of the Corduroys. Then, he could make out Soos, who happened to be a bit larger than the others.
Couple other people lay around him but he couldn't make out anything except shapes and some colors.
Someone else groaned, though he couldn't tell which of the shapes had made the noise.
He reached over towards his sister and rested his hand on her shoulder shaking it slightly.
"Ma-" He croaked, it seemed even his vocal cords were not working right. Something had to have happened, he just wished that he remembered what had happened.
He tried clearing his throat. Mabel started to shift due to him shaking her shoulder.
She groaned.
"Ma-bel." He managed out.
She groaned again, and started to move. From the sounds she was making, he was sure that she was trying to speak.
"No... d-don't try... to speak." He croaked out.
He knew that Mabel was experiencing the same things he had dealt with waking up.
"Whe...re," her voice croaked out, much like he had.
"I..." Dipper looked around again, his vision had become more clear. Giant broken glass tubes and busted machinery. As his vision cleared more he noticed how dusty he was, as was Mabel. A lot of dust had accumulated. How long had they been here? He wasn't hungry, so he didn't think that it could have been too long.
"Dip...?" Mabel managed to get out.
"Not sure." his voice sounded better. "When you can get up, help me wake the others."
AVAVA
About an hour later he sat looking at the others that was with him. Mabel, who he had known was with him shortly after waking up. Wendy, had also been identified shortly after waking up due to the red hair. Tambry was there, but she was not happy about it. Candy was there, she had been one of the dusty blurry shapes. Soos, had been one of the larger blurs. Pacifica was there as well. None of them could remember what had happened to them. As soon as Wendy had pointed out what the place was. It clicked the moment she had mentioned it.
The Bunker.
However, no one could remember why they were there. They had tried to get out of the bunker, though the door seemed to have been time locked. No matter what they had tried the timer locking the door would keep it sealed until the designated time. Which was another fifteen days. Everything had a thick layer of dust. And by thick, he meant thick. The first concern for having to be there for fifteen days, was food and water. Until Soos, in a random moment of intelligence, mentioned the food that had been stored there.
It wasn't the best tasting, though it would get them by for fifteen days. No biggy.
"So, what are we supposed to do for fifteen days?" Pacifica asked poking the food in her can with a plastic fork, obviously thinking the same about the food as the rest of them.
"My phone isn't working..." Tambry muttered. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Maybe we can figure out how the heck we got here?" Mabel had just swallowed a mouthful of some sort of canned meat.
"I think... I think I remember running from something." Wendy pushed her food away, either having had enough of it, or just not wanting any more food at the moment.
"Yeah! Dudes, I remember that!" Soos was louder than maybe he intended. "We were with Stan and Ford. And, uh..."
"Something happened." Dipper said trying to remember.
Then he remembered. An attack. Missiles, nuclear ones were on the way. Stan and Ford had been rushing them to the bunker. Everything happened so fast during their run to what Ford had said was safety. Had collected Pacifica, and Candy on the way. They tried gathering others, but they wouldn't listen. Pacifica hadn't even wanted to go, but Ford picked her up and carried her. Then there was Wendy, she just saw them running, and followed them. Maybe Wendy had assumed that they knew what they were doing. At the very least, trusted that Ford and Stan knew.
He remembered that. He remembered the fear.
Had the missiles hit?
That would explain all the dust, right?
Is everything above obliterated?
Speaking of which. Where were Ford and Stan?
If the bombs hit, could they even go outside in fifteen days? That was one of the things that he hadn't learned about. But he did know, it took at least two weeks for about ninety percent of the radiation to be gone. So maybe the fifteen days were reasonable. He explained what he remembered to the rest, who started remembering. Then something happened with the suspended animation. Ford was messing with the controls. Then they woke up here.
AVAVA
None of this made sense. These computers had dates and times all wrong. They had once had internet access in the bunker, though if the blast hit close it could have knocked out the internet. The radios, and televisions were not picking up signals, ones they used to get. Again, radiation could interfere with the signals.
Mabel had managed to make crude versions of games that she had remembered. The games had passed a bit of time, but still didn't pass enough time.
He looked back up to the timer. Nine days left.
Still no Sign of Stan or Ford. They could still be somewhere in the bunker. Their only other trip to the bunker, they hadn't had a chance to explore the entirety of the bunker. So there was a chance.
AVAVA
A few arguments had broken out between a few of them. Mainly, Mabel, Wendy, and Pacifica.
He, Soos, and Candy tried to stay out of it best they could. Though, no one them wanted to leave the bunker area, to return to the lab. Mainly because no one was sure if the security traps had been reset when they made it back through the room.
Without the journal they had no way to deactivate without the combination. That and the food and bottled water was where they were.
He had found several electronic items in the bunker, and all the dates were wrong, just like the computer. Also like the computer, the networks couldn't be connected to.
'Has to be the EMP after the nuclear blast.' He thought to himself.
Considering the dates, which all seemed to be the same, were not possible.
"Dipper!" Mabel whined next to him, startling him.
"Yeah, Mabel?" he looked up from the cell phone that had no service.
"How much longer?" She asked, and he knew, that she knew where to check the timer. However, he sighed, deciding not to argue the point.
"Two days, 3 hours, and 15minutes." it was disheartening to him as well, Mabel groaned. He felt the same way, as did everyone else in the bunker.
AVAVA
Five more minutes.
Five minutes until the door would open. And they would be free. It had been getting worse this last day. The bickering had gone way too far. But now that the timer was about to release them, their spirits were lifted.
"It's time, it's time!" Mabel danced around Candy, who was also excited.
"Come on, when will this door open." Pacifica asked, even though the timer's count down was still going.
"Finally some reception." Tambry looked more excited than he had ever seen her.
"Real soon, dude!" Soos said his normal peppy mood. That was at least the one constant during these fifteen days in the bunker. Soos' upbeat attitude kept most of the spats from becoming violent.
"C'mon baby! Free us!" Wendy sounded almost giddy.
He watched the timer in silence.
As the timer hit zero. He heard the mechanical turning of gears, of large bolts being shifted unlocking the massive blast door. A hissing sound as the air lock was broken. The smell of fresh air. He knew the bunker had a way to filter air, and clean the co2. But he didn't realize that he had missed the fresh air, as much as getting that first slight scent. That small change in the air.
The door started opening.
Mabel was the first to dart out the door once it was open enough for her to run through sideways.
Wendy not long behind, Candy and Pacifica behind her. Then Soos went next.
He turned and looked back at the bunker, then turned and walked out of the bunker.
At first the bright light was blinding, and took a moment for his eyes to adjust. When his eyes adjusted, what he saw stupefied him. Large trees, old looking trees. Definitely not trees that were here when they entered the bunker. These trees shouldn't exist.
"This isn't right." He looked around, noticing how different the landscape was from what it had been 15 days ago.
The blast shouldn't have done this.
Could it had been rapid mutation from the radiation? Even that was a stretch in just over two weeks.
He looked around at all of his friends. They were just as confused as he was, which was a relief.
"What's happened to Gravity Falls?" Mabel was the first to speak, even as she still kept looking for something familiar.
"Dipper?" Wendy looked over to him. "Could Ford... have some kind of... like... teleport thing?"
"Yeah, and like... we teleported somewhere else?" Pacifica said, still looking off into the trees.
"Our tree is the only one that's the same." Mabel stated, then looked closer. "Except the rust and holes. It looks old."
"The tree is old," he turned to look at the tree, and raised his arm to make his point, then stopped looking at it. The tree looked old, really old. Had the radiation weathered the metal? He thought about everything that happened. Getting to the bunker. Ford had told him something, and he couldn't remember what it was exactly, but that he had used the suspended animation device. Then they all woke up, stiff and disoriented. Then the dates on the computer being wrong. Did Ford use the suspended animation? And for how long?
"So, what should we do now?" Pacifica asked.
"Maybe like. We should go towards where the town was?" Soos asked. "We might find something."
"What if we encounter the radiation?" Candy finally spoke.
"The radiation should be gone, at least ninety percent of it." Dipper looked back towards where the town normally would be. If what he thought happened, actually happened he didn't know what would be waiting for them, if anything was waiting for them. He wouldn't reveal his thoughts yet, not until he saw the town. "Lets go back and find something to carry things, and bring some food. Just in case we are gone longer than we imagine."
"But if we were teleported, and we find a town, they will have food." Mabel announced gleefully.
"I don't think we were teleported." Candy pointed past the trees. A very distinctive mountain with a chunk missing out of one side. They were in Gravity Falls, and it seemed like they were sleeping for longer than fifteen days.
"I think I know what happened. But, I want to check out the town first. If it's there." He checked the computer one last time, wrote down something on a scrap piece of paper, and shoved it in his pocket.
"I think you're right. If you're seeing what I see." Tambry agreed with him. And he hoped they both were wrong.
AVAVA
( Mabel Pines )
VAVAV
She didn't think that after waking up all weird and crazy. Waiting in the bunker for all that time, and all the arguments among people who were supposed to be friends. Getting outside, and seeing that they were in Gravity Falls, but not Gravity Falls at the same time. She didn't think anything could surprise her. That was before the hike back to town. Where she was expecting to see a town as it had always been.
Instead.
Gravity Falls kind of still existed. By kind of, she meant the roads were there, if broken barely visible through the vegetation. The structures still stood, though looked on the verge of falling apart. They looked as though, the slightest touch would cause them to crumble. Now, she knew that it wouldn't. Couldn't. Since there was wind blowing, and they didn't crumble. Though, they did look very fragile.
Trees had grown through houses. A some had even grown into a few of the buildings. Nature had reclaimed what belonged to it.
"Well, Dipper?" Mabel asked, while the others looked at him.
"After getting into the bunker, Ford used the suspended animation machine. I'm not sure how long he set the machine for... Maybe, Maybe he hoped that suspended animation would save us from the radiation. Anyways, I think that we ended up in suspended animation a lot longer than he planned." Dipper looked around again, she wasn't sure what he was thinking. "I would have to examine things a bit more. But I'm guessing from first glance, based on the trees growing into the buildings... maybe a couple hundred years."
"A hundred years!?" Pacifica looked frantic.
"That's like... a long long time." Soos said taking his hat off. "Like, even older than Gravity Falls is."
"Dipper said a couple hundred years." Candy looked over to Dipper. "Do you know exactly how long?"
"Yeah, Dip'n Dots, how long has it been?" She peered over Dipper's shoulder.
"Well. Best I can do is guess," he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. And sighed. "Five hundred years."
"S'what it says on my phone too." Tambry was looking at her phone, nothing of note there. "Still no reception though."