Chapter Two: Wendy Corduroy

The fiery red Ford Explorer carried four occupants. Ash maneuvered the vehicle. Riding in the passenger seat smoking a cigarette was Blair, his long-time girlfriend, and literal partner-in-crime. In the backseat sat Margalo, who had been tagging along with Ash and Blair for almost a year. Beside her sat a hitchhiker they came across early in the afternoon, Wendy Corduroy.

While the others chatted among themselves, Wendy was absorbed in her own world, one where her phone was the only thing that seemed to exist. Her best friend from home, Tambry, sent a text message that read: "How goes the adventure of a lifetime?"

Wendy replied by typing: "It's going."

"That's it? It's just GOING?"

"Yeah."

A good fifteen seconds passed with no response. Then, Wendy watched as the blinking dots under Tambry's side of the conversation turned into words: "Well guess what I found out?"

"What?"

"You're a dick."

Wendy chuckled. It was just the sort of thing Tambry would say. Being a smart-ass herself, Wendy had some ammunition of her own. "Aww, totally nice of you to finally notice for once! Like what you see?" She punctuated that with an eggplant emoji.

"You totally suck!"

"Not as much as U want to."

"GROSS!"

After a few more giggles, Wendy sent a smiley face emoji and gave herself a mental pat on the back. She missed their games of friendly shit-talking.

"So you made it to California?" Tambry sent.

Wendy sighed after reading that question, feeling like she had been running forever. Her thoughts turned to home, wondering how her three brothers were doing, hoping that they were staying out of trouble, knowing how rough and rowdy the Corduroys could be. She wrote: "Not yet. I haven't even crossed the state line. How are things back in Gravity Falls?"

"Fine, I guess. Not much changed." Tambry was right. Ever since Weirdmageddon, life back home has become somewhat mundane. "Not since those kids were here."

Those "kids" were twins, a few years younger than her: a boy named Dipper and a girl named Mabel. They were the great-nephew and great-niece of Stan Pines, who ran a tourist trap called The Mystery Shack. Wendy just so happened to work there as a gift shop clerk.

It seemed like a lifetime ago to her, but when she was fifteen, they came to Gravity Falls to spend their summer vacation with their great uncle and even helped run the shop. She quickly warmed up to the Pines Twins and acted like a big sister to them. When that summer came to an end, and the kids had to return to California, she formed an unbreakable bond with them.

"Do they know you're coming?" Tambry sent.

"Yeah. I texted them that I was hitchhiking and that I'd be seeing them on my way there," Wendy wrote.

"Hey U ever plan on coming back?"

Wendy paused for a brief moment. She didn't want to write a definitive answer, but in her heart, she had no desire to return. Not anytime soon. Before this, the farthest away from Gravity Falls she had ever been was when she worked at her cousin's logging camp. For years, she always wanted to see what lay beyond the horizon. She didn't want to break Tambry's heart, so she joked around the question. "Are you bored without me around?"

"YES BITCH! 😭"

Wendy simply grinned, rolled her eyes, and shook her head. "You do that too much."

"I do what?"

"Yes bitch. 😉" The low-battery icon started blinking in the top corner of the screen, and Wendy knew she couldn't keep the conversation going. "Listen, I'm almost out of battery. I'll talk to you later."

"OK. Be safe out there!" Tambry added a heart-hugging emoji. "Let me know if you need help with the money."

That's what Wendy loved about her; she was always there for her. Her brothers would send a "How are you?" or a "Be safe out there!" from time to time. Tambry, more than anyone, would take time out of her day to check in on Wendy and see how she was doing. This hitchhiker would have felt more alone on the road if it weren't for her friend back home.

Sure, Tambry was far from perfect. Once, she broke the "don't date your best friend's ex" rule. She can even seem disinterested to many, even among their closest friends. But throughout their childhood and adolescence, Tambry never faltered to demonstrate how much she gave a damn about Wendy.

A few days ago, Wendy received an unexpected notification on her phone saying that a hundred dollars had been sent to her card. It turned out to be a gift from Tambry, who wanted to make sure her traveling friend could buy food.

No one could ask for a better friend.

"You're awesome! Love you too, Tambry. 😊" With that, Wendy disconnected and shifted her focus to the others. They continued boasting how "clean" their most recent get-away was.

Ash and Blair were not your run-of-the-mill thieves. They didn't steal from houses, convenience stores, or banks; they stole from the pharmaceutical industry. Their path to criminality began when they were still in high school, and it started with drugstores. As high-functioning drug addicts, Oxycontin was their go-to drug, and they would go to unimaginable lengths to get it.

Ash may have appointed himself the leader, but Blair was the mastermind. She was the one who would scout the pharmacies that would become their targets and analyze their security weaknesses. She would then strategize, assign roles to each crew member, and ultimately execute it.

As for Margalo, she was a heroin-addicted human wrecking ball. She helped the couple pull off numerous robberies, and in return, they gave her a spot in the crew and helped feed her addiction as a reward.

Wendy knew that hitchhiking was like a game of chance; you never know where you'll end up. It's impossible to predict if the person you meet tomorrow will be a blessing or if they'll drag you to Hell. In this case, she had no idea that when she accepted Ash's offer, she was receiving a front-row seat to their most elaborate heist yet: the robbery of Angelwing Children's Hospital. Despite being merely a bystander, her tired mind had been on a roller-coaster of non-stop thoughts and worries since it occurred. What about all those children in the hospital? They need those medications! Will they get sicker and die without them?

Wendy was certain of one thing: these three individuals made her want to vomit. She wanted to tell them off so badly, but her pragmatism kicked in. If they felt no shame about carrying out something this repulsive, what else were they capable of doing? After all, as they were escaping back to the explorer following the heist, she did notice Ash waving a gun. The best course of action was to not get on their bad side.

"Hey, can I charge my phone here?" she asked the crew, pointing at the USB port on the floor.

"Yeah, sure, go ahead," Ash said.

"Thanks, dude."

She plugged the charging cable into the port. The battery charging icon flashed on the phone's screen.

"Hey, Wendy," Ash called out, looking at her through the rear-view mirror. "You haven't spoken much since the hospital. You alright?"

"Yeah, just chilling," Wendy said.

"Are you sure?" Margalo asked, with a hint of suspicion in her voice. "You're not freaked out about the robbery. Are you?"

Blair momentarily took the cigarette from her mouth. She didn't say a word but sent Wendy a scathing look, just as she did when they first met (perhaps it was provoked by Ash's early flirtatiousness toward Wendy; he always had a thing for redheads).

Wendy sensed that they were testing her and knew she had to say something. "No, I just have a lot on my mind," she said. "Friends... Brothers... Stuff..."

"You have nothing to worry about," Ash reassured her. "This was a good plan! You can thank Blair for that. We've been doing this for many years, and we've never been caught once. We're like Lupin the Third."

"Yeah, Wendy, chill out!" Margalo scolded her. "We did all the heavy lifting! You didn't do a goddamn thing but sit here!"

"Exactly, be more like Margalo!" Ash added, "She's not freaked out and she was there at the hospital when it went down! They'll never find us and they'll never know YOU had anything to do with us."

None of his words of assurance worked on Wendy. They just came off as arrogant and condescending. How could they be so fucking proud of themselves? Sure, she had stolen small things like snacks from vending machines as a teenager. But what she witnessed that afternoon was beyond reprehensible.

"You're not thinking of ratting us out, are you?" Margalo asked in an accusing voice.

Wendy felt her heart jump in her throat. "No, of course not!" She wondered if her expression gave away that she felt backed into a corner.

"Hey, Ash," Blair said, after not speaking for a while. "Did you tell Wendy what happened to the last girl we picked up?"

"No, why?" he asked. "You want to tell her?"

"I think she needs to know who she's dealing with." Blair tossed her cigarette out the window before starting. Wendy watched as a twisted grin formed on that woman's face. "A few months ago, we picked up a girl in Utah. Her name was Daphne. She was such a sweetie, but she tried to fuck with our operation by calling the cops after we robbed a pharmacy in Reno. So we dumped her ass in the Mojave Desert. We didn't give her phone back either. Or her clothes, or water, or shit. It was hot as Hell that day, too."

Wendy tried as hard as she could to stay calm, but her mind was full of panicked thoughts, and she felt like a knot had formed in her stomach.

"What about you, Wendy?" Blair asked. "Are you going to fuck with us too, like Daphne?"

"Hey, lay off her!" Ash intervened, taking Blair and Margalo aback. "Unlike that ungrateful bitch, Wendy's actually doing right by us. It's only fair that when we get to Cali, we at least drop her off at a hotel or something."

Blair gave Ash a piercing stare. She looked like she wanted so badly to ask something along the lines of "Are you fucking serious?" to her partner. Instead, she took a deep, frustrated breath and started a new cigarette. Wendy felt a tinge of satisfaction seeing that scornful woman settle down.

"But first things first," Ash continued. "We have to turn this stash over to Pete."

A short distance ahead, Wendy noticed a police car sitting under a tree. At the speed they were going, she couldn't properly determine if it was abandoned... or silently waiting. The others never noticed it, and she kept her mouth shut about it.