Hey guys! I hope you enjoy this fic. I have some great things planned for it. I do know that it's very similar to the first episode of Walking Dead but I wasn't really sure how to start it and to be honest, it's a great way to up the suspense. I promise it will get much more original as the chapters proceed.
The school bell rang through the halls, the doubled metal doors flew opened as hundreds of kids ran out of the brick building and into the sunlight. Kids said goodbye to their friends, traded phone numbers, made plans for the next couple of weeks that would probably never come to pass. Car after car weaved their way out of parking lot as they tried to beat the traffic rush of the afternoon.
One of the last kids out of the building was a brown haired girl with a pink headband, braces, and a bright yellow sweater with sunglasses on it. "Yes! To freedom! Die, graph paper, die!" She grabbed her math notebook and threw it down the stairs on the ground and jumped on it.
"Mabel, you do know it's just paper," Dipper, her twin brother said. "It can't die."
"I don't care, Dipper. It's going to die!" Mabel stomped on it one more time before grinning. She looked up at her brother and saw that he was reading a science book as he walked down the stairs towards her. "What! Are you kidding? School's out. Put the stupid books down."
"Why? It's interesting."
"Dork!" Mabel ran up to him and smacked his blue and white hat with a pine tree on it off of his head.
"Hey!" Dipper tried catching the hat before it fell to the ground but failed. He put his book in his backpack, picked up his hat and put it on his head as he glared at Mabel. "You're going to pay for that!"
He lunged at Mabel, who stepped to the side and blew him a raspberry then began to run towards home. Dipped began to follow and what started out as a revenge chase quickly became a playful chase. The two laughed as they passed other pedestrians and shouted playful insults at each other. Dipped was finally able to catch up with Mabel who had stopped at a crosswalk, waiting for the light to change.
"There," Dipper huffed as he lightly punched his sister in the shoulder. "Got you."
"You didn't get me silly," Mable nudged him. "I had to stop, so it doesn't count."
"I'm not running anymore," Dipper gasped as he held his side. "I have a cramp and it's your fault."
"The only fault I'm guilty of is giving you a fun time. Not a bad way to start out the summer huh?"
Dipper looked at his sister and smiled. He had to admit that the chase was fun and it did seem to lift his spirit a bit. "Fine. You win."
"Yes!" Mabel pumped her fist in the air and spun in circles, getting weird looks from the other pedestrians waiting for the light to change. "I can't wait for next week."
"Me neither," Dipper's smile got wider. "I love spending the summer with Grunkle Stan. So many strange things happen there and it's a lot more interesting that what happens in Piedmont."
"I can't wait to see my girls again, see if my favorite moldy spots are still on the ceiling of the attic, and let Waddles run free in the Shack instead of having to be penned like here," Mabel excitedly listed.
"It will be cool to see what Grunkle Stan did with the Shack since I gave him the Journal to help him stay safe."
"You just want another crack at that book," Mabel accused.
"Well, yeah," Dipper rubbed the back of his head. "It's fascinating. So many mysteries that surround it. Why was it written? Who wrote it? Why did the author stop writing it?"
"Nerd," Mabel laughed.
The light changed as the pedestrians began to walk across the street. Dipper and Mabel paused for a second and looked both ways before crossing just to make sure that no one was trying to run the light.
"I'm going to make Grunkle Stan a present," Mabel said. "Maybe I'll make him a 'Welcome Back Kids' sweater!"
"And I bet he won't wear it," Dipper deadpanned.
"Yes he will. He loves us!" Mabel's face dropped as she thought of something. "Do you think Gideon will try hitting on me again?"
"If he does, I'll send the gnomes after him. You've made it clear that you're not interested."
"Do you think maybe this time Pacifica and I can be friends?" Mabel asked.
"I don't know." Dipper shrugged and he looked down at the ground. "Maybe. She has changed a lot since the first time we met her three years ago."
Dipper's attention was grabbed by movement in his peripheral vision. He turned his head to see a car getting closer to them at high speed. His step faltered for a second as he tried to figure out if the car would stop in time. Realizing the truth, Dipper's eyes went wide and looked over at his sister.
"Mabel!" Dipper screamed as her pushed her forward with all of his might. He watched as she stumbled to the end of the crosswalk and fall to the ground. Before he could move out of the way, the car hit Dipper causing him to fall further into the street. The car continued to whip around the corner and didn't even stop.
Mabel slowly began to pick herself up off the ground as she tried to stop the tears that were threatening her eyes. "Dipper? Why did-" Mabel turned to look behind her and she stopped talking. She saw her brother lying in the middle of the crosswalk, not moving. Mabel's breath hitched in her throat as she starred at the scene. "Dipper?"
Still no response.
"Dipper!" Mabel jumped up and ran to her brother's side. She ignored the pain from her knees as she knelt next to him and rolled him over just enough to see his face. "Bro-Bro! Get up. You can't lay in the middle of the street."
As Mabel tried to wake Dipper up, a crowd began to form around the two. Cars stopped in the street, people ran out to make sure that no one ran the two over, teens pulled out phones and began to film the scene, others pulled out their phones and a choir of people calling for help began to fill the air.
"Dipper!" Mabel let the tears fall as she starred at her unconscious sibling. "Come on Bro-Bro! Don't leave me." Through blurred vision, Mabel looked up for a second to see Dipper's hat lying not far from him. She reached over, picked it up and held onto it tightly. "I need my friend back."
Silence.
He didn't hear a thing. No ticking clocks, no footsteps, nothing. Dipper tried to open his eyes but they didn't want to open. He took a deep breath as he tried to gather his energy to try again. His nose picked up a strange combination of scents as he breathed in. It smelled moldy, dusty, but with a lingering scent of rubbing alcohol. Hanging over everything, there was a scent of something rotting, like someone let food spoil.
"Hey, Bro-Bro. I brought your book and some flowers. I'll bring some Mabel Juice tomorrow." Mabel's voice echoed in his head.
"M-Mabel?" Dipper struggled to say. He attempted to open his eyes again and he was successful. Slowly, he could see the four white walls were lit up from the sunlight coming through the closed blinds on the window. It wasn't his room and he tried sitting up to get a better view of where he was. His muscles yelled at him as he tried to move but he pushed on anyway. The inside of his left arm stung when he tried to bend it and looking down he realized that there was a needle in his arm.
Dipper looked to the right and saw a computer and another machine but they were both dead. As he looked around the room, it looked like none of the machinery worked. Everything seemed to be shut down. He reached over to try the nurse's button but there was no response, instead his finger put a crater in the layer of dust on the device. He wiped the dust off on his hospital gown and continued to look around the room. At the foot of his bed, he saw a small cup with wilted old daisies in them, his science book, and a plastic cup. He bent over and picked up the cup to get a closer look. At the bottom of it, there was a dark line of what used to be liquid and that same color putting a slimy coat on the plastic dinosaurs that sat in the cup.
"Mabel Juice," Dipper whispered as he smiled. He put the cup down and looked at his arm. He slowly pulled the tape up and gently pulled the needle out and quickly placing a finger on the opened wound. He then moved his legs over the side of the bed and placed his feet on the floor, slowly putting his body weight on his feet. He must have gone too fast for his legs gave out and he landed on the floor making a small cloud of dust float in the air.
Dipper coughed a few times as the dust settled. He struggled to stand back up but he eventually was able to get back on his feet. He took a few steps to make sure that his legs wouldn't give out again and slowly made his way to the door. When he pulled on it, the door didn't budge. "What the-?" Dipper mumbled. He looked at the door and realized that it was locked. Unlocking the door, Dipper pulled open the door only to be greeted by a hospital bed and wave of something rotting. Dipper gagged for a second but was able to hold onto whatever contents were in his stomach.
He looked up and down the hall to see no lights on but was able to see the floor was covered in papers and debris. On the walls it looked like something was splattered on the walls but he couldn't tell what it was.
"Hello?" Dipper called weakly. "Is anyone there?" The bounced his voice off the wall until it faded but there was no response. No sound. No movement. Dipper's skin crawled at the lack of response. He backed up and closed the door to the dark hallway. "Where is everyone?"
Dipper looked over at the small closet in the corner and walked over there to see if there was anything that can help him make sense of what was going on. There was nothing except his clothes; his orange shirt, blue vest, khaki shorts, and sneakers. The only thing missing was his normal pine tree hat. He grabbed his clothes and slowly forced his stiff body into them.
Feeling somewhat normal again, Dipper grabbed his book and opened the door to the hallway again. The smell hit him hard but he pressed forward and struggled to push the hospital bed out of the way. The paper crackled beneath his feet as he made his way into the dimly lit corridor. As he scooted around the bed, his eye caught the name on a clipboard on the other side of the hall. It was his file. He picked it up and looked at the last entry.
Status: Unchanged – 7/1/16
"July?" he mumbled to himself. "It's May."
He put the board back on the ground and clumsily walked down the hall, tripping over unknown objects in the dark. As he continued, he came across a lighted part and noticed the nightmare he was walking through. Across the floor, he saw bodies lying in pools of blood, bodies sitting against the walls with dried blood streaks going down the wall, blood splatter covering almost every surface of the hallway. Now he understood why it smelled so bad in here and he hated it. He had to get out. He began to pick up his pace towards the door at the end of the hall, trying not to step on any of the rotting limbs. He flung the door open only to be blinded by the brightness of the day and raised his hand to cover his eyes as he hissed in pain. Slowly and carefully he opened his eyes only to be greeted by a bigger nightmare.
In front of him were rows upon rows of body bags, all stained in blood.
Please let me know what you think. I'd really appreciate it. XD
If you're wondering about my Big Four or Living Two Lives fanfics I will be updating those soon as well. I've just been super busy with school and work and hospital so I do apologize for such a long hiatus.