OH WOW CHAPTER 3, LETS GOOO

OKAY WARNING/HEADS UP

THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS/COMMENTS BTW! Its part of what motivates me to get these chapters out! Mabels fate seems to be everyone's worry. I have a few ideas but we'll just wait and see won't we?

My goal is at least 1000 words per chapter. Would you guys rather 2000 words but slightly longer waits? This chapter was gonna be longer but I felt it was better I ended it where I ended it. Chapter 4 should be soon.

A robotic voice spoke up.

"Enjoy your return to the surface and thank you for choosing vault-tec."

The ground shook under him and he struggled to keep his balance as the platform started to rise beneath him, he could hear the roof above him start to slide open. As it got closer and closer to ground level, Dipper was busy planning on what he would do. First things first was to find some sort of authority, police most likely. After that his main goal would to be find anyone he knew. His first step in that goal would be his home. He closed his eyes as the elevator stopped. This was it, the moment of truth.

Dipper expected it to be bad. He had expected it to be like something from those nuclear preparation tapes they were forced to watch. What he didn't expect was the hell he saw.

The ground was hard and dry, there was no colour to it. No green grass or bright flowers. It was all brown and any plant life was scarce. The trees were all dead. Not a single leaf to be seen, just branches struggling to not break and fall. He could see his neighbourhood from on top the hill he was on. They were ruins, collapsed and worn down. There was no one. The only sound he could muster was a shocked whimper as he walked off the metal and onto the ground, the dry brown grass crunching under his feet.

Okay cancel seeking authority, he doubted there would be any left. He had to get home. He started to retrace his steps from when he ran to the vault, taking in the scenery but stopped at the gates entrance. He stared down at the small group of skeletons, including one in a tattered and torn uniform. The soldier that had let him in. The rest were ones in dresses and suits..his unfortunate neighbours. He never really spoke to them, he would rather stay in his room and read, but as he stared at the skulls he felt regret. He only really remembered their names, not their likes..their lives. He crouched down and sighed. Now they were left to rot, nobody had cared enough to bury them properly. He couldn't do much, he lacked a shovel or any sort of tool. All he could do was mutter sorry and hope they weren't in pain for long. Was Mabel and Dad like this? Bones left in the middle of nowhere. Did it hurt? He had no idea how close the bomb had been dropped. If it had been close enough they wouldn't have felt anything, just seen a bright flash and then..nothing.

For some reason he wasn't comforted by this. He got up and went back to walking, careful to not step on anything as he made his way to his street. The pavement was cracked but still there. If you looked close enough you could still see the faded paint of white lines.

He almost missed it. His home looked like most of the houses. The wall to the backyard had collapsed, leaving a giant hole beside the backdoor. A crushed plastic pumpkin was beside the front door, the once bright orange now dull and sun washed. He walked in, careful not to trip on the crushed and shattered floor tiles. The furniture gave ratty a new meaning, but was surprisingly in decent shape for surviving a war. The air smelled of rotten wood and stale bread.

"M-Mabel?...Dad….?" he called out as he looked around for skeletons on the ground floor. He didn't find any and thanked his lucky stars. He would look in the basement and upstairs after he scouted this floor for a note or supplies.

He opened the fridge, grabbing the only thing that wasn't open or rotten. Nuka-Cola. Mabel's favourite drink. Dipper looked at the label with a small frown, he doubted it was any good but he might as well bring it incase water was in short supply.

He dug in the closet and found his school backpack. It had seen better days but lacked any holes, making it just what he needed. He slipped the bottle in and put the bag on. There was no note on the counters or floor so he headed to the basement. It was surprisingly intact. No skeletons or bodies here either. He started to snoop around. It seems like someone had already been here as the safe was cracked open. He let out a small curse. At Least that meant he wasn't the last human alive. The thought lifted a brick from his shoulders he was unaware was there in the first place.

The basement and ground floor were a no go, leaving upstairs as the last option. He looked at the wooden steps before slowly making his way up, testing each step to make sure it didn't collapse under him. Upstairs had taken the most damage of all the floors. Part of the roof had given in, making him have to climb to reach his room. The bathroom had no walls at all, you could only see the pipes that had managed to stay standing. He didn't have to enter his parents room, he could see it all. The bed was torn and stained while the dresser had been smashed to firewood.

His room had taken a fair bit of damage. The window was shattered and most of the posters had fallen or washed away from rain. His terminal was what surprised him. Unlike the fridges or lights, they had their own built in battery. It seemed intact so out of habit he pressed the on button...and it booted up!

"Oh wow.." he sat down, thankful the chair only creaked under him, not breaking.

Unlike the pip boy, computers weren't capable of images. All they were were bits of codes and text. Green text on a black background. It was just like he had left it.

'A keystone species is a species that's key to an ecosystem, if removed the ecosystem would undergo dramatic changes. Examples of keystone species are'

Another regret overcame him. He would never finish school, never get to hand in the project. Out of some need for something normal, he started typing. Finishing his science report to the best of his ability. He clicked save and the machine started to process it, the low buzz increasing in volume leaving Dipper wondering why it was struggling to save. Had dust clogged its circuits? The answer came to him when he saw the dates. It had went from the 23rd of October, 2077 to….October 1st...2287. The machine had been calculating how much time had passed between saves.

Dipper stared at the pixels in silence, the only sound being the faint buzz of the terminal.

"No...no way….no bloody way." He made the obvious conclusion that it had made an error. They weren't perfect, and surviving a nuclear war was bound to make a machine glitch. He got up, turning the machine off with shaky hands. It couldn't have been 210 years...two hundred...and ten..years.

It made sense, it made so much goddamn sense. He hated it. He hated how much sense it made. The fact he was walking around with his pip boy warning of radiation meant it had to be long enough for the effects of the bombs to wear off. He teared up. For the first time in 210 years, he teared up. Everyone was gone, even if they had survived the bombs they would have died of old age.

For the first time in 210 years Dipper felt utterly alone….

For the first time in 210 years, Dipper laid down on his bed and cried.