"So… you wanna eat him or something?"

"Oh definitely let's eat him"

Dipper ran as fast as his feet would let him. The wind seemed to sting him as he went, as if it was punishing him, urging him to give up. His mind went blank. The only thought he could process was his conscience telling him to run. Run. He had to keep running. He couldn't die now.

He could hear the creatures thrashing through the trees behind him, their growls and laughter echoing in his head as if they were right beside him.

Think! He had to think! What is the best way to lose them, how can he escape? He had done this plenty of times, why was his mind going blank now?

That's right! Normally, he and Mabel would bob and weave in a zig zag formation through the trees to confuse whatever was chasing them. He naturally shot his arm out next to him in a desperate attempt to grab his sister to prevent separation. When his hand was met with thin air, he felt a pain in his chest. She wasn't there. He had to keep going, he had to find her. He began to run in an intricate pattern through the trees. He flinched as stray branches cut his skin, leaving a burning sensation as he ran. He could hear the monsters as they ran into trees and fell farther behind. He couldn't stop to look back; he couldn't risk them catching him. He just had to keep running.

What seemed like hours later, he could no longer hear the thumps of their feet. Was he safe? His gut reaction was to keep running, but before he could decide anything, he felt himself trip over an old log. He felt the air leave his lungs as he hit the ground, and a high pitched ring in his ears made him clutch his head in pain.

Once the ringing had died down enough, he glanced up to look behind him. He seemed to have lost the creatures at some point. Slowly, he got to his feet, wincing as he put pressure on his right leg. His entire body ached. Crashing an alien space ship sure took its toll on him, and running from two demonic monsters sure didn't help.

He had to find someone. Mabel had run off somewhere in the forest, and Stan had gone somewhere to hang up some signs for the mystery shack. One of them had to be here somewhere.

He walked through the forest for hours, calling for his family, but there was no sign of them anywhere. He continued walking until he found his way out of the forest and into the town. He was speechless at what he found. The entire town was in ruins. Buildings were destroyed, some were on fire. Abandoned, beat up cars littered the streets, and what appeared to be the bodies of townspeople, completely made of stone, were scattered everywhere. Bill's "friends" could be seen, wreaking havoc and harassing the remaining citizens.

Dipper made his way to one of the nearby buildings that still had a good part of its structure intact, and slide into a small cave like area made of rubble. As his back slid against the cold wall of the small shelter he had found, he cringed and tried to cover his ears, but it wasn't enough to keep out the deafening screams of his fellow townspeople. He didn't want to hear it, he couldn't take it. His eyes began to burn as fresh tears welled up in his eyes. He took the walkie talkie out of his vest pocket.

"I'm sorry Mabel… I'm so sorry" He could feel the hot tears begin to flow from his eyes. The more he spoke, the harder it became for him to contain himself. But he had to be quiet, he couldn't allow himself the luxury to sob, or else his hiding place would be given away.

"I'm so sorry for everything. This is all my fault, I [hic] I don't know what to do anymore. I'm scared, Mabel. Great Uncle Ford, I couldn't- [hic] I couldn't save him. I can't find Grunkle Stan anywhere. And you, I can't… I can't"

He buried his face in his palm in a futile attempt to regain his composure.

"If I hadn't been so careless, if I had taken the rift directly to Ford, if [hic] if I hadn't made you cry, you'd still be-"

He couldn't continue. He clenched his teeth as the tears burned his cheeks.

He found himself growing weary. His head felt heavy and numb, he couldn't continue to sit up. His body gave up, letting exhaustion take over, and he slumped over, slowly drifting to sleep.

But not before muttering the only thing on his mind.

"Please be ok"