I don't own any of this Paranorman belongs to Laika, all other characters belong to their respectful companies. And The Stand belongs to Stephen King.
July 6
Dipper washed his face in a small stream. It has been four days since he and Mabel had met up with Coraline and Wybie. They've been traveling with each other out of Oregon and into Idaho, they had passed through many empty towns, along with roads crowded by cars that they maneuvered around.
During their travel, Dipper had many thoughts about his new traveling companions. Wybie is cool, he may be a little shy but he definitely looked like he knew machines as evidence by his motorbike. Coraline however he had mix feelings about, on one hand she is a capable leader as she has found herself to be one in their little group.
On the other hand though, Dipper found her attitude at times to be a bit much, she is definitely something and wasn't afraid to speak her mind when one of them annoys her.
Dipper wasn't sure they were going to be buddies, (like Mabel was hoping for), as they journeyed their way towards Nebraska. Dipper doubted that would be the case as they were just thrown together under circumstances that were beyond their control. The most likely thing that's going to happen is that when they arrive, they would separate themselves and go on with whatever life they were left with now.
"Yo! Dipper come on!" Coraline called out from the distance, the sudden shout made Dipper jump and splash his chest with water. He grumbled to himself over this, Dipper slowly gets himself upright and moved his way back to the camp they had made for the night in the middle of the Idaho wilderness.
The camp they made had three tents: two for Wybie and Coraline, and a tent which Dipper, Mabel, and Waddles shared with each other. The camp also had a fire pit that Dipper had made, they used it to cook a can of beans and boil some water to make it safe to drink.
Coraline has just finished stuffing her tent in her backpack when she noticed Dipper coming into their camp. "Nice for you to finally join us." Her gaze shifted to the water stain on his shirt. "You fell in the water or something?" She asked while holding in laughter.
"You can say that." He replied in annoyance, he walked on over to Mabel who had already placed their tent in her purple, sticker covered backpack and is currently rubbing the underneath of Waddle's chin. "Who's a handsome boy? That's right you are." She then glances up to her brother and is surprised by the wet stain on his shirt. "What happen to you?"
"Long story." He replied. Dipper gets on his knees to gather some of his stuff.
Wybie checked his bike carefully for any tune ups. If they wanted to continue on with their journey, then he needs to make sure that everything is in tip top shape, after all he didn't want to end up in a horrible crash that could fatally injure them or worse.
Everything looked to be in good shape; the tires were nice and full of air, the motor also seem to be in good shape, the only thing that needed to be taken care of from what he saw, is he would need to refuel soon.
"Hey Dipper!" He calls out.
Dipper looked back at him. "Yeah?"
"When's the next town? I need to refuel my bike."
Dipper scratches his head, thinking about the last map they saw before coming into this part of Idaho. "I believe about fifteen minutes away."
Wybie breathed out in relief. "Phew, my bike can definitely make it."
A whistle gets everyone's attention: Dipper, Mabel, Wybie, even Waddles looked over to Coraline who is bearing to get moving. "All right chatterboxes, let's get moving already. The sooner we refuel Wybie's bike, the sooner we can reach Nebraska."
The others quickly got themselves ready, Wybie sat on his bike getting the engine started then got joined by Coraline who situated herself on the back. Mabel got on Waddle's back, Dipper is about to join her, but stopped as he then looked back at the fire pit to make sure that it is fully out. He didn't want to start a wildfire by neglecting to check, satisfied from what he saw Dipper joined his sister on Waddles and the group went off towards the next town.
Some time later at about ten minutes, a shadow falls upon the fire pit, a snout leans down next to it and sniffs the ground.
Scarface looks up in the direction where the boy's along with some other scents have went.
The group entered the town; it wasn't much as it seemed to be smaller than Gravity Falls. Dipper guessed that the town must've been a pit stop for tourists who traveled by on their destinations to bigger attractions or something like that.
Wybie meanwhile scanned around for a gas station as his bike definitely needed some fuel now. Wybie soon spots one on his left, he pulls into it with Mabel who guided Waddles to fallow him.
Wybie parks his bike next to one of the pumps, after putting up his bike stand, he and Coraline got off the bike while the twins got off of Waddles who happily sat down.
Mabel happily picks up the pump and handed it over to Wybie. "Here you go Wybie."
"Thanks, but we can't use that."
Mabel tilted her head a bit in question. "Why not?"
"Simple Mabel, with no electricity the pumps aren't going to work." Wybie explains.
"So how are we going to refuel your bike?"
"I'll show you." Wybie walks over to a pipe that poked out from the ground with a hatch on top of it. Mabel looked at the pipe in fascination. "What's that?"
"This" Wybie began, "is where they put in the gasoline. All I need to do is open it up and get the gasoline out."
"How are you going to do that?"
"All I need is a tube, put it in here, then after sucking it up I can refuel."
Mabel nodded in understandment. "Okay I get it! Now where are we going to get a tube?" Wybie thinks a bit, "I believe we can find some in the back."
Mabel suddenly grabbed Wybie's hand much to his surprise and proceeds to drag him towards the back of the gas station. Coraline and Dipper meanwhile went into the gas station, it had been locked so Coraline just used a big rock to break the glass door, thus allowing them in.
"Alright Dip, let's get whatever food we need. We should also get some water for the road." She instructed.
"Any preferences on what you might want?"
Coraline shrugged nonchalantly. "Doesn't matter Dip, just grab whatever you think we need." Dipper and Coraline split up in different sections of the gas station, both looked around and collected what ever food they deemed to be useful.
Coraline crouches down to look through some chips when a meow gets her attention. Looking up, she sees Cat looking down at her from the top shelve. "What is it Cat?"
Cats paws at something, then a can fell from the top shelve and landed next to her feet, picking it up Coraline sees that it's a can of tuna. "You want this?"
Cat nodded. "Alright you can have it." Coraline places the can of tuna into her bag, Cat flickered his tail in happiness.
Dipper meanwhile looked through some granola bars, he wondered which ones would be good for them? He shrugs and just took whatever he felt is good enough.
Wybie and Mabel did indeed find a tube, with this find the two eagerly went back to the pipe. Wybie pulls out his wrench and with a little bit of a huff, he manages to open up the pipe where the two looked down at the darkness within the pipe.
"Well Mabel, you ready?" Wybie asked.
Mabel nodded enthusiastically, "You bet I am! Let's suck out some fuel! Wait, let me rephrase that." Wybie places the tube into the pipe, he pushes it down until a splash is heard.
Mabel puts her mouth on to the tube, using it like a straw she sucks on the tube, she sucked it too hard however and Mabel suddenly got a foul taste in her mouth. With a disgusted spat Mabel took the flowing tube out of her mouth, while spitting up a good amount of gasoline from her mouth. "Yuck! That taste worse then the mystery meat they serve at school!"
As Mabel spat to get the taste of gasoline out of her mouth, Wybie pulled up his bike next to the pipe, he leaned down and picked up the tube and placed it into the fuel tank. "There we go Mabel, just need to wait for a few seconds and we should be good to go."
Mabel only responded with another shoot out of spit. Wybie leaned against his bike as he patiently waited for the gas to fill in, soon the gas began to pour out from the fuel tank. Nodding in satisfaction Wybie took out the tube from the tank as well as the pipe. "Well there we go Mabel!" He stated proudly.
"Hooray!" Mabel replied before going in another spitfest.
"Now let's go get Jonesy and your bro-" Wybie noticed something strange going on with Mabel's pig. The pig is sniffing the air and seemed to be nervous as he stomped his front hooves, while squealing loudly.
Wybie is confused by this behavior the pig is displaying as he had never done it before. "Hey what's wrong with your pig?"
Mabel with the foul taste still in her mouth, looked over to Waddles in concern. Watching him she recalled on the last time he looked this anxious, and that was back at the candy store when.
A growl gets her's and Wybie's attention, it was dog like, but much deeper. "What's that?" Wybie nervously questioned.
"Scarface." Mabel fearfully stated under her breath. Before Wybie could even question on what she said, a dog-like creature bursts out from the bushes snarling loudly as it ran on all fours. Waddles squeals in panic, he races towards his owner as Scarface comes running in the gas station's property.
"Waddles this way!" Mabel grabbed Wybie's arm and yanked him away towards the building with Waddles running by their side. They ran down the building's side, then they quickly turned to the back of the building where the back door is still open, they were both glad that they didn't close it after they got the tube.
The two kids and pig dash into the back, Wybie went to slam the door, but Scarface's head slammed in-between the door and the doorframe which stops the door from shutting, but also stopping him from fully entering.
Mabel and Wybie shrieked at Scarface's snapping mouth, spit landed on their faces each time his mouth snapped shut. Scarface thrashes his head around as he tried to get through, Wybie did not let go, he holds on with all his strength.
Scarface finally got free, he pulls his head out which allows Wybie to shut it and lock it firmly. From behind the door they heard the angry snarls, fallowed by scratching.
Wybie, Mabel, and Waddles quickly rush into the main store where Coraline and Dipper looked at them in complete stunneness. The two were still looking through items when they heard the commotion outside.
"What the hell is going on!?" Coraline demanded.
"There's some kind of dog, man, thing! It came out from the woods and tried to eat us!" Wybie informed her while shaking as he's completely terrified.
"Dog, man, thing?" Coraline question in which Wybie nodded, a thought then came to him and he turns to Mabel. "You called it Scarface. You know that thing?"
"Well" Mabel began nervously for this is going to turn ugly. "It's a long story, but we do know him."
"To put it simply, I gave him an injury and now he's after us or me more specifically." Dipper explained.
"That would've been nice to know about, before you joined us!" Coraline snapped.
"Let's discuss this later! You know after we escape from that thing!" Wybie stated.
Dipper stretched out his arms towards the three of them. "Alright everyone calm down! We should be safe in here!" A loud snarl makes Dipper jump out of his skin. Turning around fast, he saw Scarface's front half inside the store while the other half of his body stood outside the busted glass door.
"Oh yeah, forgot that we broke in here." Dipper mumbled under his breath. He and the others then screamed, Dipper jumps out of the way just as a sharp clawed hand swiped in the place where he was just standing.
Scarface snarls, then lunges forward towards the rest of the kids who yelped and ran out of the way, Scarface stopped and skidded a bit. He snarls and lunges down a aisle after the kids, Mabel is the last one to turn at the end of the aisle, Scarface snaps his mouth shut just inches from her head.
The kids turns and ran down another aisle, Scarface skids and smashed against the aisle shaking it along with its contents. Scarface quickly recovers from the crash and quickly rejoined the chase. Dipper and Coraline turned left while Mabel and Wybie jumped behind the counter.
They just got up on their knees when Scarface's head appeared above them, he snaps his jaws at them, growling loudly as he tried to reach them. Mabel and Wybie scream at the top of their lungs as the mouth full of sharp teeth inches closer to them.
Scarface suddenly felt something hit his back, pulling up from the counter he looked over on his left to see the boy holding cheap gas station toys. "Hey over here!" The boy throws another toy which bounced off the top of Scarface's head.
Scarface snarled at him. Dipper took the chance to run out of the gas station, Scarface fallows nearly breaking the door in the process.
Coraline who had been hiding at the side of the counter is stunned that Dipper just did that. Wybie and Mabel poked out from the counter with Wybie relived that he's still alive and Mabel concern for her brother's safety.
Dipper raced across the street with Scarface on his tail. Ahead of him is a road stop diner about the same size as Lazy Susan's Diner.
Dipper burst through the door, quickly he slams it shut and locks it, though that didn't do any good as seconds after locking it, Scarface smashed through the front window. Glass spilled everywhere as Scarface landed perfectly on all fours, he looked at Dipper, barring his teeth.
Dipper yelped then ran towards the counter, he jumps over it and ran to the right, Scarface jumped at him and just missed him as he slammed into the wall. Dipper bursts into the kitchen, he ran all the way to the freezer.
With the power off the freezer wasn't cold and all of the items in there were thawed out and smelly. Scarface pushed open the kitchen doors with both arms, he stood at the doorway sniffing the air. He quickly picked up Dipper's scent, getting back on all fours he runs into freezer where he tripped over some meat that Dipper just laid out.
Scarface fell forward and crashed into the back wall, he quickly gets back up to his feet and jumped to the entrance of the freezer, only to have the door slam shut on his face.
Dipper leaned against the door breathing heavily. The door bangs loudly causing him to jump in fright, then he ran out of the diner where Coraline and Wybie were on Wybie's bike and his sister is on Waddles motioning him to get on. "Come on Dipper, let's get the hog out of here!"
Dipper didn't need to be told twice, he quickly got on Waddles and the group got out of town as fast as possible.
Inside the diner; the freezer door bursted open. Scarface stood on his hind legs, he took a step forward as he looked around, he then gets on four legs and snarls loudly in anger from loosing his prey.
The group had traveled very far from the town. They go as far until they stopped near an old water mill that moved slowly in a small creek. Dipper looked back the way they came, he couldn't see Scarface so he sighed in relief. "I believe we lost him."
"Good" Coraline said, suddenly Dipper got roughly pushed off of Waddles and landed on the ground with a thud. Getting his upper half up with dirt on his face, Dipper rolled himself over and looked up at Coraline who had an angry scowl and arms crossed. "That's for not telling us about that dog thing!"
"Um, it's a dogman actually." He corrected her meekly.
"Who cares! The point is you could've told us you had some freaky monster coming after you guys! We should leave you guys right now for putting us in danger!" She snapped at him.
"Come on Jonesy, I'm sure we don't have to come to that." Wybie commented, only to shrink as Coraline's angry gaze fell on him.
"Look" Dipper began, he slowly gets back up to his feet while dusting himself off. "We should've told you about Scarface, but would you even believe us if one of us told you?"
"Trust me, if you knew what I been through. I would've believed you on the spot." She argued.
"What do you mean by that?" Dipper question her.
"Doesn't matter right now! What matters is you keeping your mouth shut about something that nearly got us killed!" She snapped.
"Oh really! It sure looks like your hiding something to!" Dipper snapped back.
The two glare at each other intensely, the tension is clearly fierce, so fierce that the area around them seemed to grow hot as if the area is on fire. Mabel suddenly popped up in between the two, she uses her hands to separate them. "Guys come on! Let's not fight!"
"Yeah" Wybie added. "Let's just keep moving, we can at least tolerate each other." Both he and Mabel smiled at the two with Mabel giving them a puppy eye look. Coraline and Dipper looked at them for a moment, Coraline lowered her arms down as she let out a frustrated groan. "Fine, but don't think we're going to become friends after this! We are just going to tolerate each other until we reached that woman. After that we're splitting up."
"Fine by me." Dipper replied with a cross of his arms. The two looked at each other with one final glare, then with a huff the two walked off in the same direction, Mabel and Wybie looked at each other in sadness before going off to catch up with them.
July 8
Raz scanned around the grassy plains. From where he is standing, Raz could see the tall grass blow against the wind, as well as the dark storm clouds approaching from the north. The storm concerned him, as it looked like it was going to be a very nasty storm.
"Hey Raz, look at this flower." He heard Lili call out to him. Raz quickly went over to his girlfriend who's kneeling to ground, looking at a purple flower. "This is such a beautiful specimen, wouldn't you agree Raz?"
Raz nodded nonchalantly. "It is Lili, but we should get moving and find some shelter soon, for I don't like the look of that sky." Raz points over to the dark sky that is getting closer with every minute.
Looking at it herself, Lili can see Raz's point. "Okay let's march." She orders her boyfriend.
The two speed walk through the grassy plains. Ever since leaving the secret, government facility in Michigan; the two psychonauts found it was not too hard as they traveled through the country. It was thanks to their government training and psychic abilities that they manage to make it this far. No animal bothered them and they knew some shortcuts through the states.
They tended to stay away from towns and cities as they didn't want to look at the victims that fell from Project Blue. It made them feel guilty, sure they weren't responsible in creating it, but they did nothing on stopping it from spreading or give out a warning.
The couple then heard a noise, Lili looked back towards the approaching storm with a bit of worry. "That was some thunder."
The sound plays again very loud and long. "Wait, that's not thunder." Raz pointed out.
The two went up a hill, on top they were surprise to see a train rolling through the field while going west. This is a big surprise for the two of them as they didn't expect to see a train running, but it also gave them hope as someone had managed to survived the superflu.
They wondered who they were? And where they were heading? Was it the same place they were going? Raz glances back to the storm that's getting very close, he quickly makes a decision. "Come on."
Raz jumped into the air and formed a psychic ball, he rolls down hill with Lili close behind. The psychic balls allowed them to quickly catch up with the train, they rolled along side a closed boxcar, concentrating while still having the psychic ball formed, Raz opened up the door to the boxcar, with it now open the couple rolled over and jumped into the boxcar.
The two landed perfectly on their feet, Lili turned to the door and uses her psychic powers to close the door up tightly, shutting them in darkness which didn't last long as the area lit up from a small fire that came out from Lili's hand.
Raz feeling proud on making it on board the train, places his hands on his hips. "Made it."
"So, why did we chase after this train?" Lili question.
"Simple Lili, if whoever is running this thing is heading in the same direction as we are, then we can definitely make some good time on this train. Besides, this is also going to give us some shelter from the storm." Raz explained.
Lili nodded in understandment. "I just hope that whoever is running this thing isn't hostile or some crazed killer."
"That's an odd thing to think about." Raz pointed out, Lili shrugged in defense. "I'm just saying, we don't know who's running the train, so it's best to be cautious."
"I've been working on the railroad: All the live-life day!" Neil sang out happily, he is absolutely loving this. Driving a train through the countryside while on some big adventure, what was not there to love?
Gleefully he reached over and blew the horn again, he just loved that sound. Meanwhile out on the front platform of the train, Norman ignored the horn as he looked at the passing scenery and the storm that is almost on top of them.
To think they've been spending days on this train, they only made stops when they come across a town to get food or when they came across points. They been making great time, Norman grew confident as Nebraska is nearly within their reach.
A flash of lightning came out from the sky fallowed closely by thunder. That was his cue to get inside, carefully he walks the platform into the boxcar, he just got in when the downpour came.
Now inside safely from the storm, Norman sat against the wall listening to the rain hitting the metal roof.
Aggie sat on the roof of the first boxcar, watching as the storm began to come down. Lightning flashes through the sky with some touching the ground in the distance, the wind blew the rain sideways, but it didn't affect her as the rain just went through her.
Aggie didn't mind the storm or really feared it, for after creating a storm herself, it seemed rather silly to fear them. However she did decide to head in as she found this to be a good time to drift around the train. Why? She felt like that's what ghosts do whenever there's a storm, drift around a place.
The young ghost flew to the second boxcar, she went through it and proceeds to go through each car, when she eventually got to the fifth boxcar though, she was surprised to see a boy with goggles and a girl with twin pingtails.
Where did these two come from? They weren't here yesterday. Slowly Aggie drifted closer to the girl who shivered from her presence. "It's cold in here."
"I don't feel cold." The boy remarked.
The girl seemed to look confused on why she only felt cold. "Must be sitting in a cold spot or something." She reduced.
"So you think we're getting closer to Nebraska?" The boy suddenly asked. Aggie could feel her eyes go wide in surprise, these two were on their way to Nebraska as well? What are the chances of that?
"I don't know, I lost track of where we are after leaving Michigan." The girl replied.
"So you can say we are at the edge of Indiana?" The boy commented.
"We could be in Illinois for all I know." The girl replied again, before leaning back against a create with her arms resting behind her head, the boy seemed to be struggling on what to say next, before leaning back for a rest himself.
They were both completely unaware that Aggie had just drifted away to talk with Norman about the two stowaways.
Norman had joined Neil in the train cab, he stood behind him a little bit wet from the rain he encountered as he came over here. He watched the said rain pour on the window fallowed by flashes of lightning. "Geez, this is a nasty storm." Neil commented.
Norman nodded his head in agreement. "It's a good thing we have shelter."
"Tell me about it, I wouldn't want a free shower right now. Especially since it's lighting out there."
Hearing that comment about the shower, instantly reminded Norman that they hadn't a bath or shower in a long time and it was definitely showing as they were both beginning to smell and not the pleasant way. Hopefully that place in Nebraska has something to wash themselves with for if not, then Norman had the feeling they were going to smell like rotting zombies when they meet Mother Abigail.
"Norman." Aggie's voice brings him out of his thoughts. "What is it Aggie?"
"I was drifting through the train when I-" Aggie was interrupted by Neil who is aweing at something. Norman and Aggie looked out the front window which showed that the rain has suddenly stopped.
It seemed to be an eerie calm, Norman looked up to the sky and grew concern as the clouds were rotating. "Guys, I think we're in trouble."
Suddenly a funnel came down to the far right of the landscape. The funnel lands on the ground, it kicks up a column of dust and debris that rotates around the bottom, the funnel has become a classic, white tornado.
"Oh man." Neil exclaimed in shock. Norman and Aggie were speechless as Norman is fearing for their safety, as now this has become very serious, while Aggie just stared at the tornado in wonder as it was so beautiful.
The tornado began to move west, it quickly crosses the tracks and to the other side of the field, heading straight for a forest. The train bounced on the damage tracks the tornado made, the bouncing soon stops and the train continued onwards. Norman felt his body go down in relief as they were safe and not going to be blown away by the tornado's fierce winds.
Aggie meanwhile drifted towards the window, the news of the two stowaways completely forgotten from her mind as she watched the twister tear up trees as it struck the forest. There was something so enticing on watching so beautiful, but deadly move about through country side, tearing up everything in it's path. Aggie continued to watch it until the train completely moved passed it and the tornado disappears in the pouring rain.
"Well that was a scary moment, I thought we were going to get sucked up for a minute there." Neil said.
"Good thing it missed us." Norman added.
The train moved on through the storm. Two hours later; they finally reached the end of the storm where they were all greeted by the sunset and a rainbow that arched across the sky. Neil felt his eyes sparkles at the sight, it was the most beautiful thing he has ever seen, Aggie agreed with him. If she could speak with him right now, she would've told him that this reminded her of the time when she, her mother, and everyone else from her village first discovered Blithe Hallow.
Norman also thought that it was beautiful, but as he looked at it, he began to think of his family. It was very unfair that they were rotting back at his house with their spirits trapped in the afterlife, but he was out and about in a country crossing adventure. Heck his grandma is all alone at the house, he felt guilty for leaving her there, he really should've tried to convince her to come with him on this journey.
Neil notices his best friend looking rather down, so he decided to see what was the matter. "Everything alright Norman?"
Norman looked up to him in guilt. "Oh, it's nothing Neil, I'm just thinking about my grandma."
"Oh yeah, she's still back at Blithe Hallow."
Norman nodded. "I just feel guilty for leaving her all alone." Neil wondered what to say, he didn't have Norman's gift, so he doesn't know a lot about ghosts, but he really wanted to make his friend feel better. "I'm sure she understands Norman."
"You think so?"
"Yes" Aggie now chimed in, to help Neil out. "Your grandmother most likely does understand that you needed to go on this journey. Besides, maybe when we get to our destination, she would be there?"
"Really?" Norman question, which confused Neil a bit, as he didn't say anything else due to struggling about what to say next, but quickly got rid of that confusion as he realized that Norman is chatting with Aggie.
"I believe so, as we ghosts can teleport to places we are attached to, though it depends if we aren't bound to anything." Aggie informed.
"Ghosts can really do that?" Aggie nodded. "Yes, I've met a few ghosts that teleported from my village to the sea. Your grandmother is attached to you, so she can go to wherever you end up."
That made Norman feel better, as his grandma can just show up to him, instead of just lingering at his house or through town. "Thanks Aggie."
Aggie smiled warmly, but then remembered about what she wanted to tell him before the tornado came down. "Oh yes, Norman I forgot to tell you that there are other people on the train."
"Other people?" Norman said in surprise. Aggie nodded, "Yes, a boy and girl. I think they jumped in before the storm started."
"Do you think we should be worried about them?"
"Wait there are other people on the train?" Neil spoke up.
"No, they don't look bad. In fact, they're going to the same destination as us." Aggie informed.
"Well that's interesting."
"Should we give these people a welcome greeting?" Neil asked as it seemed like the polite thing to do. Norman thinks about it for a bit. "We should wait about doing that for a bit, as we don't want to alarm them about us knowing that their riding with us."
Neil and Aggie nodded in agreement, they would wait until they felt like that it was time to greet their unexpected companions. It was easy for Aggie since they wouldn't be able to see or hear her anyway, while Neil found it hard as he really wanted to greet them.
