Before you read this story, just know that I am not the creator of this AU. CherryViolets on Tumblr is, and you should go support her in this AU if you enjoy it. I wrote this purely because I wanted to. It was inspired by a trip to Oregon I took last summer. We ran out of gas on the way home, in Idaho, in the middle of the night. We stumbled upon a really old, creepy gas station. The pumps were not functional though, and we couldn't get any gas. The doors to the shop, however, were unlocked for some crazy reason. I was walking around with my phone flashlight through the dark isles, and I knew that I had to write about the experience of it somehow (in the end we got gas and got home. The power in the town had gone out, and the pumps reset themselves and the workers had run home without locking up because they were afraid)
Another note is that I wrote this chapter long before "A Tale of Two Stans" came out, and therefore didn't know the Stan Twins' true names. If I accidentally call Stanford by Stanley, or vice versa, call me out on it. I probably missed it while editing.
Thank you for your support and lovely reviews!
Soos' pickup truck engine rumbled lowly as they coasted over the forgotten forest back-roads. Rocks spun up from the wheels and hit the bottom of the car with soft taps. The cool summer night winds wafted and stirred the trees around, making the riders uneasy. Stanford gripped his other dimensional gun tightly as he scanned the forest line from his passenger seat view. Next to him was Soos, his face hard and expressionless as he drove without headlights.
Dipper and Mabel sat crouched in the truck bed with Grunkle Stan and Wendy. They held on tightly to the sides that boxed them in as they jounced and jolted about, trying not to slip around on the smooth metal under them.
Dipper sat as far away from Stan as possible on one side, Wendy on his left. On the other side Stan hovered defensively over Mabel. They all had become more protective of her since Gideon had escaped from prison, for obvious reasons. She wasn't worried at all for her own safety, though. She stared up at the stars dreamily as the rest of them stared into the forest with furrowed, worrisome looks. Wendy defensively squinted into the darkness, ax in hand. Dipper did a double take, thinking he had seen pair of orange eyes in the shadows of a large redwood tree, but when he looked back they were gone. He hoped his hunger was making him see things.
On cue his stomach rumbled, and he gripped at it as if to silence it. The wind tugged at his hat, and he shivered. The air smelled thickly of pine.
The car hit a bump and Mabel grabbed onto Grunkle Stan for support. Dipper winced silently as his arms rubbed against the side of the truck bed walls, his bandages pulling and irritating his skin. He tried to swallow the pain quickly and block the memories of fire from his mind before they could enter, but he was pulled from his fortitudes by the sound of his sister's voice.
"Look Dips," She said, pointing to the sky, "It's the Big Dipper."
Dipper immediately looked up to the sky. The trees overhead loomed over the trail, swaying ominously, hiding the full moon from sight. The stars, however, were just as bright. Directly above them sat the Big Dipper, watching silently over their journey. The constellations tail pointed them where they had to go.
Dipper and Mabel stared up at the starry guardian with the same brown eyes framed with the same brown hair. Mabel reached out her hand to Dipper with a smile. He took it, gladly, and continued his watch over the forest while she continued her watch over the skies.
Soos turned onto a paved road minutes later and sped up significantly, but kept his lights off. Slowly the trees thinned, which was good, but the cabins that took their place weren't so good. They were driving on the smallest road along the farthest side of town going less than 25 mph, but Dipper was still uneasy. He hadn't been in town since the last… incident. He and Mabel hadn't been allowed to return until now, but it didn't feel the same. Dipper felt like a fugitive in a town that was once home, now hiding in the back of Soos' truck like a criminal. His hands shook in anxiety and his heart pumped with the thrill.
Stan was the opposite. His hands were steady on his small pistol, and his face was emotionless. He had been on missions much riskier and more complicated than the one they had planned tonight. The only thing he was worried about was his niece and nephew's safety.
As they made their way through the thicker part of town all the rebels seemed to hold their breath. They waited for a walker on the street to appear and recognize them or a light inside one of the houses to turn on. To their relief the road remained deserted and the houses stayed dark. The only light was the weak orange glow of the street lamps that streaked over their heads at a steady pulse.
Dipper looked down at his watch on impulse. 2:28 a.m. on the dot. He grudgingly admitted to himself that Grunkle Stan had strategized their raid time flawlessly. The two of them had fought over the robbery plans all week, but in the end Stan had won. Ford had surprisingly taken his side, and after that Dipper had given in.
"This is it," Wendy said. The car rolled to a stop. They were two minutes ahead of schedule.
Stan jumped out of the truck bed before they completely stopped, then lifted Mabel out. Wendy and Dipper stood up and looked over the hood of the car at their destination. The group of rebels stood in silence, illuminated in the soft green-yellow glow of the Dusk2Dawn sign above them. They looked past the chain-linked fence topped with curling bobbed wire to their mission point on the other side: the abandoned convenience store.
The weeds growing in the pavement cracks were higher than Dipper remembered, but everything else was the same. It seemed like the building was frozen in time, but the effects of the past years were prominent. The glowing words 'Dusk2Dawn' on the face of the store were dark, the only letters working being u and n. The old paint was peeling on the outer walls, and the rain gutters were clogged with pine needles and sprouting plants. The faded closed sign still hung in the window, and everything behind it was pitch black. It felt like there was something occupying the empty darkness, watching. Waiting.
The whole energy of the place made Dipper clench his teeth and Mable pull on the bottom of her sweater. Soos shuddered and subtly curled behind his steering wheel. The place looked just as Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy had left it earlier that summer, but it seemed even more sinister than it had then. When they had arrived with friends at the beginning of the summer the ghostly atmosphere had been overlooked, but now it couldn't be ignored. The place radiated the emotions of the hostile spirits, and Dipper wondered if they had roused the ghosts into making their shop more unwelcoming and sinister. The trio of adventurers had never wanted to come back, but they had had no choice.
They had all become outcasts a few weeks ago and were now the rebels of Gravity Falls. After Gideon escaped prison he had ensured that the Pines family (Soos, McGucket, and Wendy included) wouldn't be able to set foot inside town safely. Everyone was back on Gideon's side, as they had been previously that summer. The fake child psychic preached that the supernatural occurrences in Gravity Falls were caused solely by the Pines Family. Practically everyone believed him. Now they got ran out of town every time they were seen and chased by the incompetent cops for 'disturbing the peace'. The Mystery Shack became a safe-house, but the shelves inside were bare and there was no hope in restocking them the legal way.
Grunkle Stan and Ford had tried to buy food one week previous. They went on a desperate run to the supermarket for food when they realized how low the rations were. They figured that since it was after dark and because Stan knew the manager well it would be safe. But the manager had refused to sell them anything in his store and shouted at them, drawing too much attention to the store. When he threatened to call the cops Grunkle Stan had let off a smoke bomb (naturally) and they ran with all they had in their cart. The stolen cart wasn't very full though, and between two sets of twins and three others the food hadn't lasted very long.
Lazy Suzan had been secretly slipping them food every few nights—leftovers from her Diner. It was appreciated, but they knew they couldn't live off of an unsteady supply of pies and pancakes forever. Wendy had been the one to come up with the idea of raiding the abandoned Dusk2Dawn, and Stanley had been all for it. Dipper, who loved to strategize, took it upon himself to come up with the plan. Grunkle Stan was the only one with thieving experience but when he tried to give Dipper advise he refused to take it, and that had only made them fight even more. They had put off the raid all week because the two hadn't been able to agree on any of the plan's details. Stanford had to put his foot down and decided that tonight was the night, because they didn't have time left for waiting. The only food they had left back at the Shack was the canned meat Grunkle Stan had stored for the apocalypse, which was practically inedible. Stan wouldn't admit where he had even got the meat. Everyone knew they had to pull this raid off, or else they were going to go hungry.
Stan's job was to get them through the fence barrier. This wasn't the first time he had ruined a chain link fence—he were practically a professional. McGucket had fixed up a pair of wire cutters from the Shack utility closet for him and they cut through the chain link fence like a dream.
While the Stan worked Dipper got out his journal and reviewed his 5 Step Plan. He put a check on Step 1-Get to the store unnoticed. He looked ahead to the next steps: 2-Cut the fence, 3-Break in, 4-Raid, 5-Get home unnoticed. It had previously been fifty-two steps, but Stan had made him cut it down at least six times. Having such a simple plan was making him feel uncomfortable.
He chewed on the back of his pencil and reviewed the steps over and over while Mabel scaled the fence. Wendy kept watch from the bed of the truck.
Within a few minutes Soos was driving through a large square gap in the fence. Stan and Stanley followed him and carefully placed the cut out piece of fence back where it had been so that if someone passed by they wouldn't notice a large gash in the fence and call the cops. That was the last thing they needed tonight, especially after they had gone through the danger of the forest roads just to avoid them.
Soos pulled around to the back of the store and turned off the truck. Dipper disappeared around the side of the store. Wendy opened the truck bed's back door.
Stan began picking the back door's lock with skilled fingers, but before he could unlock the door it started to unlock itself. Stan stumbled back in surprise when he heard the handle begin to click and jiggle on its own. Wordlessly the gang grabbed their weapons, falling into formation around the door. Soos covered his mouth in fear. Mabel whipped out her grappling hook. Wendy hoisted her ax. Stanley aimed the rifle.
The door creaked slowly open, and out walked a proud Dipper Pines.
Stan smiled and ruffled Dipper's head in a proud way, but Dipper coldly ducked away from his touch. Tension and awkward silence filled the air as Stan drew his hand away from the open air. Stan coughed to break the silence and quickly was back to his business self. He pulled off his backpack and started barking orders at the group.
"Strength, Spirit, Brains," Stan said gruffly, throwing a flashlight at Wendy, Mabel, and Dipper. They were using code names, just for extra caution. "Hard Work," He continued, throwing a flashlight at Soos (it simply bounced off his stomach and hit the ground), "And Engineer-" He finished, passing the last flashlight to his brother, "Don't any of you turn on the lights," He said, scowling. "We don't want anyone to know that we're here. Don't shine your flashlights through the windows. If you see something that's food, grab it. If you see something we can use, grab it. If you see money, it's mine. And don't eat anything; we don't have time to eat. I'm talking to you, Hard Work. Move fast, and be quiet. The faster we go the faster we get out of here, and the sooner we get to eat. Try to not leave any fingerprints. Got it?"
They nodded silently, faces determined. Even Mabel (who usually would have said something obtrusive) was quiet. She knew how important this mission was; her empty stomach constantly reminded her.
They flipped on their flashlights. Stan softly stepped into the condemned building in with his flashlight high. Dipper followed, then Mabel, then Wendy.
The back room was very dark; there were no windows on the walls. Even with the flashlights you couldn't make out much. There were too many moving shadows streaking the walls. Dipper watched shyly for a dark silhouette or eyes in the darkness, his gaze lingering on corners bound in spider webs.
Mabel heard the scurrying of mice on her left when she shined her light on a pile of boxes labeled with marker, 'Nacho Chips'. Dipper walked over to them, looking woefully at the ground for mice. He hoped the chips weren't stale, or rodent infested.
Suddenly there was a loud crash to his right, near Mabel. Stan and Dipper stepped back and their searchlights scoured the room for someone, or something. Dipper pulled Mabel behind him.
"What was that?" Dipper said quickly. "Who's there?"
The florescent ceiling lights above them whirred to life, flickering threateningly. Dipper backed into a cold spot and froze. He stood motionless, absolutely shocked. He hadn't expected the ghosts to give them any trouble, especially considering that they hadn't come with any rude teenagers.
"Strategist!" Stanley hissed in worry to his brother from outside.
"What do they want?" Stan said, turning to Stanford. Wendy stood in the door's threshold, separating them. Dipper looked around, squinting against the harsh, unsteady light, and saw a shelf had smashed on the ground. The jars on it had exploded, spilling precious food. Jam, olives, pickles. He grimaced as another shelf fell to the ground, covering him and the floor in a foul smelling juice. Boxes flew around them, propelled by an invisible force, smashing into walls and exploding their contents all over the floor. Stan ducked as a particularly large one soared over him. He pushed the kids back towards the door.
The broken jars and shards of glass spread over the floor glinted in the flashing light. Then they too rose and joined the boxes in the air. The rough, sharp edges pointed solely in their direction, as if they were magnetized to them. Dipper still stood in front of Mabel protectively, and Stan stood in front of Dipper.
"Stanley!" Stanford called, forgetting code names entirely. "Get out of there!"
Dipper's mind raced. Had the ghosts here been affected by the supernatural energy from the portal like the other creatures in Gravity Falls? They hadn't ever been this violent before. Except with Wendy's friends, and other teenagers.
Dipper mentally slapped himself. "Wendy!" He yelled. "Of course!" Last time they had fought the ghosts she hadn't been taken, but she was still a teenager. How had he forgotten?
He turned to Wendy and pushed her out the doorway. She roughly fell into Stanford.
He heard the glass shards drop and the lights flicker off as soon as Wendy left the threshold of the store. Stanford stood there awkwardly, keeping Wendy on her feet.
"Do the ghosts hate females?" He asked, confused. "Is that their reason for haunting?"
"No," Dipper replied, pulling out his notepad. "Teenagers." He turned to Wendy and said, "I didn't even consider they would be offended with you in their store Strength, since you weren't taken by them last time. I completely forgot. But I guess you're going to have to stay out here and load up the truck, because we cant have you go in there again."
Wendy stood and picked up her ax, which she had dropped on purpose when Dipper had pushed her. "It's okay, man," She said calmly. "I can be the lookout, too. It all works out."
"I hope no one saw that light fiasco," Stan grumbled from inside the store. Mabel grabbed Dipper's hand and they followed after their Grunkle back into the now quiet store.
The back room was even more of a mess than it had been before, and navigating around shards of glass and slippery spots was tedious. Stanley and Soos stayed in the back to scrounge up what they could by sorting through the smashed boxes of food. Stan and the twins moved on to the main room.
The place was as destroyed as the twins remembered. The store's aisles were once in orderly lines stacked perfectly with merchandise, but now the shelves were strewn all over the floor. Some were tipped on their sides. Some miraculously still had some merchandise stacked inside of them. Although, after the whole place had been turned upside down (literally), it was surprising how good of condition things were still in. All of the food still seemed edible; a few machines were still even usable. The rest of the machines were smashed like old cola cans under a car tire. Most of the larger freezers built into the walls still hummed, but a few of the glass doors were smashed in.
Dipper shined his flashlight on the ceiling and saw footprints.
"That was us!" Mabel said cheerfully, pointing to them. "Haha, that was fun."
Stan looked up, closed his eyes, and stood in silence for a minute. "I don't even want to know."
They walked down the wobbly aisles, their light sending shadows marching like soldiers on the walls. The soft hum of the machines that still worked buzzed in the background. The place seemed so different in the dark to the twins. Without the adrenaline of being with friends it just seemed…evil. Dipper doubted he would ever be able to walk into a convenient store with the same feeling of excitement ever again. Mabel, however, would have no problem finding joy in any place that stocked candy and junk food. At the moment, though, she was having a difficult time doing so.
"Make yourselves useful and start picking things up," Stan said, stuffing cans into a sack. "That's the only reason we let you come in the first place."
The twins set to work, trying to prove to their Grunkle they were old enough to go on raids. It had been a hot topic of discussion ever since they had become rebels.
It didn't take long for the sleepiness and atmosphere to take effect on the kids. Mabel seemed to grow lines under her eyes as she gathered bags of Cheetos in her arms. She soon later walked right into a spider web and starting breathing so fast Dipper thought she was being possessed. Her reaction to seeing the remains of the Smile Dip she hadn't shoved down her throat weeks ago was quite the same. But she kept coming back inside to get more food, despite her fear. Dipper stayed close to her all the while, and together they filled boxes and grocery bags with whatever they could find. Soos carried them out to the car (a pastry usually sticking out of his mouth) and Wendy took over from there. The food they were finding wasn't in any way nutritious, but after living in the Mystery Shack the whole summer it was practically gourmet. It was any normal kid's dream shopping trip.
Overall the raid seemed very successful. Ford had found an operational freezer in the back that had a bunch of Hot dogs, corndogs, and hamburgers (as well as frozen buns). There was an abundance of Twinkies and other fatty packaged pastries, as well as really old donuts that only Soos could eat. Stanford and Dipper made sure they got enough jugs of water to fill up a fifth of the truck bed before they let Stan start getting soda, coffee, and beer. They wanted to be prepared if the Shacks water supply was shut off or sabotaged. Even if it was they could use the nearby stream if circumstances were dire, but they still needed containers for the water.
They found plenty of cereal (but found no non-lumpy milk), chips, beef jerky, candy (Mabel insisted), Hot Pockets, nuts, applesauce, jam, pudding, old (but edible) bread, pancake mix, peanut butter, muffins, granola bars, gram crackers, and a ton of condiments. Stan had grabbed everything in a can: Canned meat, soup, beans, vegetables, chili, and other things that should've never been canned in the first place. They also found that one of the freezers still working had boxes and boxes of ice cream, as well as ice to keep them cool on the ride home. Wendy made them grab as much ice as they possibly could because she knew how much the cold ice helped Dipper's burns and they had no ice trays back at the shack.
Stanford found many other things that they had desperately needed. Batteries, matches, flashlights, gas in gas cans, candles, soap (which Dipper said was a waste of space in the truck, but no one listened), firewood, toilet paper (or as Grunkle Stan called it, 'paper gold'), pain killers, Neosporin, bandages, and cat litter (which Stan said they could use to repay Lazy Suzan for all the food she had given them).
As the night wore on the front and the back rooms of the store were slowly emptied. Dipper dumped a large load of food next to the truck and yawned. Wendy was busy lifting the boxes into the truck bed with ease, trying to make space for them to sit on the way home as she did it, but it looked like there wouldn't be enough space to spare. They would probably be sitting on top of everything, and would have to hold onto the sides to keep them from rolling off the back of the truck.
Dipper checked his watch. 3:15. They had five more minutes until Step 4 of the plan was put into action—Leave.
"Five more minutes, gang," He told everyone once he was back inside. "Get your last load of whatever else you can find, we have got to go."
There wasn't much left in the store—they had picked it pretty clean. Dipper walked around and managed to round up a half dozen more small bags of chips that were stuffed in random places.
He held his flashlight in his mouth and with his hands full of chips he made his way back to the truck for the last time. He didn't notice the smashed gumball machine next to him until his was on the ground surrounded by neon colored, dusty gumballs. He had been able to avoid it thus far, but without his flashlight he hadn't seen it. He groaned and held his burned arm, which he had fallen on.
He looked up in a painful daze and saw Grunkle Stan across the room trying to hack the ATM. Soos was shoving old donuts in his mouth like he hadn't eaten in years. Mabel had turned up her sweater like an apron, holding the bottom up high so that her large pile of brightly colored candy sat in the fold of the thick fabric. Soos tried to grab some as she walked past, but she quickly dodged and danced away, smile on her face.
And, looking at his bizarre, dysfunctional, outlawed family, Dipper genuinely smiled for the first time in a long time.
The moment was broken when Stan yelled at Soos for eating. Soos ran out whimpering violently, pursued by a twirling Mabel.
Dipper stood and bent down to pick up his fallen chip bags when something outside caught his eye. Beyond the glass doors he saw light—light that hadn't been there a moment ago. One of the homes from across the street had their lights on, as well as one of their neighbors. The door of the nearest house swung open and the figure of a man stepped out. Dipper's blood went cold. The figure had a hand to his ear, probably a phone.
"Strategist?" Dipper said faintly, his knees shaking.
Stan kept on working on the ATM, not even looking up. "What?" He asked.
Dipper looked at his watch. 3:17. "We need to go," He said, moving backwards, staring at the man outside.
"But I'm-" Stan started, gesturing to the machine.
"Now!" Dipper said harshly, pointing outside. Stan's face froze when he saw the lights. He swore.
"Great," Stan said sarcastically. He started working faster, and in moments the ATM was spewing money.
"We don't have time for this!" Dipper shouted.
Soos burst into the room, waving his flashlight madly. "Guys!" He said, panting. "Strength says we've been spotted."
"I know," Dipper said as he watched Soos start to gather some nearby Twinkies frantically.
Mabel ran in and said, "They're calling the cops."
"Well, Brain?" Stan called over his shoulder to Dipper, stuffing piles of cash from the ATM into his backpack. Dipper checked his watch. 3:18.
"Step 5, guys," He said quickly. "Go go go!
Mabel ran to Stan and started shoving money into his bag with him. Dipper bolted outside and started throwing what was left unpacked into the truck.
Wendy rounded the corner of the store in a dead sprint.
"They called the cops. I can hear the sirens." She began throwing food into the truck with Dipper like a madwoman. Her calm demeanor was long gone. "Where are the others? Code red guys!" She screamed inside.
Soos ran out the door and threw his Twinkies into the truck. "Sorry, dudes." He jumped into the front seat and started the car. Dipper checked his watch. 3:19.
"Spirit! Engineer! Strategist!" Dipper yelled desperately.
Stanley ran out with bulging bags at his sides. "Sorry," He said. "I raided the office and found a bunch of parts in the old Manager's computer me and McGucket have been needing." He jumped into the passenger seat, bags in tow.
Dipper could definitely hear the sirens now. And if the police were coming, that meant Gideon wasn't far behind.
3:20. Dipper could see red and blue flashing lights casting over the houses and trees. Wendy slammed the truck bed door shut.
Mabel burst out of the door and Stan came dashing behind her, money flying in his wake. He grabbed Mabel under one arm and then grabbed Dipper in the other (Despite Dipper's angry cry). He leaped onto the truck bed and they settled on top of their junk food hoard. The food was piled so high it came up to the very top of the walls in the truck bed. If they let go of their handholds, the back wall wouldn't catch them. They would just roll right off and into the road.
Wendy jumped into the back, yelling, "Go go go go!"
Soos slammed the gas and they tore away. Soos circled the store, heading back the way they came—towards the street road. Those riding in the back held on for dear life at the front of the truck bed wall and sides, trying to keep the food and themselves in the back of the truck. Dipper looked up through the truck's back window and beyond the windshield. Flashing lights sat directly in front of them. The cops were parked directly in front of the hole they had made in the fence—their only escape. The cut out piece they had put back in place had been knocked down and exposed. Soos slowed down, unsure where to go.
"What do I do?" Soos yelled. "We can't get out!"
Stan gritted his teeth and looked around frantically. Dipper stared ahead through the windshield, thinking hard.
If they were trapped it would give Gideon the time he needed to get to them. With the friends Gideon had made in the forest and the trust he had gained from the lies he had told to the citizens he would be unstoppable in doing whatever he wanted to them. Dipper didn't even know what Gideon would do if he got his hands on them. He was more worried about that than the prospect of going to jail. Being trapped wasn't an option. They couldn't worm their way out of this if they were caught—there was too much stacked against them.
"Who is that?" One of the residents beyond the fence yelled to another.
"Probably the teenagers again," One said.
"Is it those Pines?" Another cried.
"It had better not be!"
Dipper scanned the area quickly. There were no weak looking areas in the chain link fence or pieces of debris they could use to jump it.
A powerful voice yelled out calmly, projected by a Megaphone, "Come to a complete stop and exit the vehicle with your hands in the air."
Dipper realized there had to be a way out—there had to be a gate somewhere. Dipper kept looking along the fence until he saw a change in the railing pattern on his left. Two poles stood very close to one another, breaking the pattern. A chain connected them. Bingo.
"Ram the gate! On your left!" Dipper screamed.
Soos hesitated.
"Now!" Grunkle Stan bellowed. Soos immediately responded.
He let out a violent man baby yell, jerking the wheel to the left and speeding up at the same time, so fast that the back riders were nearly thrown from the truck. The engine revved and they sped to the fence headfirst. The back riders held on with all their strength, screaming madly. The car jerked and the air was filled with the sound of scraping metal on metal. Dipper shut his eyes as they burst through the fence, and heard the chain break right off.
Soos made a hard right turn to get back onto the road. The cops were parked in the opposite direction Soos was now going, which gave them the advantage. The crowd that had gathered by the gate also stood in the police car's way. They were home free.
Dipper was so busy calculating their success he didn't even notice how the hard turn and rough bump from driving on dirt to paved road had loosened his hold. Soos hit the gas, hard, and Dipper had no time to get a firmer grip. His hands flew above his head and he rolled across the boxes of food, clawing for a handhold as he went.
"No!" He shrieked as he rolled past Wendy, knowing he was seconds from rolling right off the truck. Well, less than seconds away from rolling off. More like milliseconds.
Soos hit a bump and Dipper realized there was nothing under him. He opened his eyes and saw the back of the truck under him. He reached out is hand and miraculously caught on the back ledge of the truck bed.
At the beginning of the summer he hadn't ever even considered being in this kind of situation one day. It was hard to believe he was holding on to the back of a speeding truck filled with stolen food going 50 miles an hour, cop car somewhere behind in hot pursuit, with his hand slipping from his lifeline hold.
"DIPPER!" Mabel screamed.
"Help!" He screamed back.
Wendy slid down, keeping her hold to the truck. "I got you!" She called. She let go of her hold with one hand and grabbed his, but with the acceleration of the truck pulling him away from her it was no use. After a moment of struggle she called out, "Stan!"
When Stan turned around and saw Dipper flying behind the truck with only one hand he nearly swore. It was definitely the closest he had come all summer. He slid down and grabbed Dipper's scorched arm and practically threw him back into the truck. He held onto Dipper until the boy had a firm hold on the truck once again. Dipper tried to catch his breath. His hands shook and it felt like he had lost his stomach in the middle of the road a mile back.
Now, this all happened very fast, but the time it took to get back to the woods seemed even faster. Soos was at speeds he had never gone before and Stanford was having a heart attack in the front seat. Soos only slowed when he turned off the road and onto the forest path. He switched off his lights and they jostled away into the wood. They heard the sirens far behind them a minute later, but they passed the forgotten path. The cops sped after imaginary thieves, fooled once again.
Everyone collapsed out of their tense stances, breathing a communal sigh of relief. Stan tried to stuff the loose boxes and food back into place. They didn't want to leave any evidence on the trail, or loose any more goods. It looked like they already had.
"We did it," Wendy said, huffing. She leaned up against Dipper.
He laughed breathlessly. "Yeah."
Mabel was lying on her stomach, unmoving. Her hands were in front of her, still holding the truck edge with a death grip. Her tangled hair surrounded her head and covered her face. Dipper felt bad that they had put her through all of this. Stan scooted near her for comfort and pulled out his backpack.
"Grunkle Stan?" She asked under her pile of hair.
Stan was thumbing through the money that had somehow stayed in his bag. "What?" He replied.
"Can we do that again?" She asked, looking up.
Stan looked down at her, stunned. There was silence as Stan looked back and forth between the twins, speechless. "You want to go on a mission like that, again?" He asked, as if she was crazy.
"Well, that was pretty awesome," Dipper said, shrugging.
"We were pretty awesome!" Wendy whooped, slugging him on the shoulder.
"Well," Stanford said, turning his attention back to his cash. "I guess you two really are related to me and Stanford. "
Mabel brushed away her crazy hair and looked up at him with puppy dog eyes. Stan sighed as he caved.
"Fine," He blurted, avoiding eye contact. "You've all proved yourselves, or whatever. The next time me and Ford go on a mission you guys might be able to… tag along."
Mabel sat up so fast Stan flinched. "Yes!" She cried, throwing her arms in the air, then wrapping them around him.
Stanford shushed her from the inside of the car, but Soos' yell drowned out the hushing. "Victory Twinkies!" He hollered.
Soos tossed some partially smashed Twinkies he had hoarded in the front seat the truck's back window. The gang ripped off the covers and devoured every last one of them. They tasted like plastic, processed sugar, something that could have once been bread, and triumph. Soos ate about 7.
Soon they were within sight of home and Dipper could (partially) check off Part 5 of the plan. All that was left to do was move the food in the secret basement behind the vending machine. They also had to hide Soos' car in the woods—there was probably some scrapes on it from ramming the fence that would give them away. Then all they had left was to turn off all the lights and pretend to be sleeping as the cops rolled in. The police probably wouldn't show for about 20 more minutes if they took the main road. Stan would be able to come up with some kind of lie to throw them off the trail. Since they really didn't have any evidence they couldn't take them into custody. So, they just had to hide all the evidence. They would have to hurry, but they could do it. If worse came to worse they could just use the memory eraser.
Mabel looked over at Dipper and smiled a chubby cheeked smile. Dipper returned it, and in unison they raised their fists in the air, chanting together, and soon chanting with everyone, "Pines! Pines! Pines! Pines!"
The Rebels had won the battle. Bring on the war.