"Okay, everyone, let's go." Stan said. Dipper saw him take a set of brass knuckles out of a desk drawer and slip them into his shirt pocket.

"So, Dip, you think that your great uncle went out looking for the shape shifter bunker? " Wendy asked him.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure." Dipper answered; turning on the flashlight he had with him to make sure the batteries were okay.

"Man, I wonder if anything happened," Soos said, closing the front door behind him. "—to the bunker, I mean. That was a pretty hot fire out there, I heard. "

"I hope Great Uncle Ford isn't hurt. "Mabel said in as low a tone as she could.

Beside her, Dipper nodded, looking ahead of him at Grunkle Stan.

The group walked out of the Shack and down the road, then into the forest.

"Dipper!" Grunkle Stan called over his shoulder. "I need you up here with that flashlight!"

Dipper hurried to his great uncle's side.

"Now, "Stan asked, "-where did you kids say that that bunker was? "

"It wasn't too far into the forest, Grunkle Stan." Dipper told him. "—and It was over on the left side."

He shined the flash light over to the left. The trees looked rather eerie, but Dipper ignored it. Then—

"There!" Wendy cried.

The flashlight shined on where the tree used to be. It was now a gaping hole.

"No!" Stan cried out. "Dipper, give me the flashlight !"

The boy held the flash light out, and his great uncle fairly grabbed it from his hand. He shined it near the edge of the hole.

"Oh, no." Soos muttered.

They all saw the abandoned duster and the large gun Ford had taken with him there on the ground. Stan ran forward and fell on his knees next to them.

"No—Stanford!" Without saying aloud that he was doing so, Stan scanned the duster for any sign of blood. There appeared to be none. Standing up, he shouted, "Stanfo-o-o-ord! Stanford, where are you? "

Wendy pulled a second flashlight off of her belt and studied the ground. Getting down on her knee she said, "Everyone, look at this. "

Stan and the others crowded around they saw two sets of footprints on the ground.

"Huh. Look." Soos said, "Someone was standing here by the hole, and then someone else with bigger feet was here facing them. Then—"

Wendy shone her flashlight further. "The bigger footprints go that way. "

"But—Dipper went over to the hole. "It doesn't look like anything's been disturbed over here—so no one went down or fell in."

"So then someone—"Wendy looked over at the abandoned duster and gun, then the single set of footprints leading away from the hole. She didn't want to say what she was thinking.

With a shaky voice Stan said it for her. "Someone may have kidnapped my brother. "