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 19

After driving all day and all night and into the morning. The final stretch of the kids journey is finally upon them as up ahead, getting more closer were the mountains that lead straight to Boulder.

Yesterday; the group had done nothing but traveling, the only times they stopped is either for eating, bathroom breaks, and of course gas for their truck which was a chore to get. But now their journey is nearly finished, soon they would be meeting Mother Abigail and be part of a community once again.

They also got to know each other a bit more during the drive, they didn't know every detail about each other, (other than Neil and Mabel who basically blabbed about everything concerning them) but still with them getting to know each other a bit more, it felt like that they were becoming good friends.

Coraline looked at the mountains that drew more closer, she happily smiled as soon this long quest will finally be over. "Well guys, we're almost there."

"I can't believe it, we actually are going to make it." Dipper exclaimed with a laugh. "I mean look at us, a bunch of kids that are suddenly stuck in a post-apocalyptic world created by a lethal virus. Not only were we immune to something so deadly, but we also traveled across the country without so much trouble, even with a deadly dogman coming after us. I have to say, we are not a bad bunch of kids if we did all that."

"Yes, that is rather awesome of us." Raz agreed.

"I just can't wait to finally settle down somewhere." Lili said as she is honestly tired of all this traveling, she just wanted to relax a bit while looking at some wild flowers.

"Hear you on that." Coraline agreed for although she loved adventuring, Coraline felt like that she could use a rest herself.


Meanwhile up on the roof, Aggie looked in awe at the mountains. She has never seen a mountain range in person before, she has only heard of them from her mother's stories, now to be actually seeing them was something so beautiful to her. If all else, she was very glad that she joined Norman on this journey.

Speaking of Norman, the young boy is leaning forward, resting his chin on his arms as he watched the passing landscape. Behind him Wybie is laying down on his back, fast asleep while Neil is gliding his hand against the wind.

Just like their friends inside, they are also excited that they were getting closer to their destination. Neil was the most excited as soon he'll have a new home that's going to be surrounded by mountains, which is going to be very awesome! As he always wanted to live close to the mountains, plus who knows, maybe he'll make some new friends there.

The truck continues to drive forward, it soon began to go up as the road started to slope up, they were getting up to a curb when Neil suddenly asked. "Can we stop for a minute? I gotta pee."

"I told you to go at the last town." Coraline said sternly.

"I didn't have to then. Plus that gas station bathroom was a nightmare." Neil defended.

Coraline rolls her eyes, she pulls the truck over to the gravel that's next to the road. Upon stopping Neil jumped out of the truck and ran through the field of tall grass and flowers right towards a couple of trees, shortly after he got out of sight Wybie sat up, yawning after his nap. "Are we there?"

"Nah, Neil had to use the bathroom." Norman answered.

"Ah"

As the group waited for Neil to returned, a few of them looked around at the field where bees and other bugs and insects flew around, they also took notice of the rusty jeep parked in the middle of the field. It also seemed that Neil was taking his sweet time, Coraline really hoped that he didn't get himself lost by going too far.

A sudden scream called out from the direction Neil went, they utterly jumped out of their skins for they weren't prepared for a scream. Neil bursted out from the trees with the look of absolute fright plastered on his face. "Run for your lives!" He shouted.

Before any of them could question on what was wrong, an enormous black bear came out, hot on Neil's tail. This was really unexpected for the kids who shouted for Neil to hurry.

Neil didn't need them to tell him that, he runs as fast as he ever ran before, he then jumped and landed on the back. Coraline quickly starts the truck, she drives a few meters when the bear slammed against the front, making it swerve into a ditch that leads them stuck in it, Coraline tried to get the truck out, but it is truly stuck.

The rest of the kids meanwhile looked at the bear terrified as it slowly approached them. Wybie then remembered something important when dealing with bears, he raised himself up with his arms stretched out. "Get out of here! Go on get!"

Norman and Neil looked up at him confused. "What are you doing?" Neil asked.

"When your dealing with bears, it's best that you make yourself as big as possible and make a lot of noise." He told them, before going back to shouting.

Norman and Neil fallowed Wybie's action by doing their own shouts, the bear stopped in his tracks, cocking his head a bit as he felt a bit cautious. The truck doors opened up and the rest came out screaming as loud as they can, feeling intimidated the bear backed up a bit, then finally turned around and ran off, leaving the kids alone.

Once the bear was gone, relief filled the kids as they came out of that unscathed, the same could not be said for their truck which they now turned their full attention to. "Well, this is going to be a doozy to get out." Dipper said with his hands on his hips.

"Don't worry Dipper, if we work together we'll get the truck out of the ditch in no time." Mabel happily reassured.

"But what do we exactly do?" Neil question. Raz and Lili stepped forward to the truck. "Leave that to us." Lili said as it looked like it was time to show them her and Raz's powers, neither of them wanted to, but it seems they have no other choice.

While they prepared to use their psychic powers, Wybie turned to Neil as he needed to know something. "So Neil, how did you get that black bear to come after you?"

Neil suddenly began to blush, he also began to sputter out words while also scratching the back of his head. "It's a little embarrassing, but, I may have accidentally peed on him while he was sleeping."

Upon hearing that, Coraline bursted out laughing as that is possibly the funniest thing she has ever heard. "Oh man, that must've been a wet awakening for him!" She exclaimed while wiping away a tear, she goes into another fit of laughter which resulted in her leaning forward as she held her stomach.

As Coraline laughed her butt off, Wybie places his hand on Neil's shoulder to reassure him. "At least it was only a black bear Neil."

"Yeah, but I'm sorry guys. I could've got one of us hurt or worse." Neil replied in guilt.

"It was just an accident Neil. We know that you would never mean to hurt one of us." Norman calmly reassured.

"Yeah" Dipper now chimed in. "It could've been a lot more worse."

Neil let up a small smile at that statement. "I suppose your right on that."

Suddenly a loud howl erupted from where they came from. Coraline immediately stopped laughing, Raz and Lili who were about to use their powers looked back, the rest are completely silent as that sounded close. Aggie raised herself up about ten feet and utterly gasped out, "Oh no."

Back on ground level; the kids kept looking at the road in anticipation of whatever was coming. Scarface appeared to have rose up from the ground, (through really he was just climbing up the hill.) he was walking at a good pace, but when he spotted them he raised his head up while coming to a slow stop. Scarface stands there, locking eyes on the kids, he narrows them and growled threatenly.

The kids stood frozen in fear as they were out in the open, their truck was stuck, and there was no cover to hide behind from this monster. "Oh crap." Was all that Coraline could say.

Scarface without missing a beat, charged towards them at full speed with his mouth wide open with saliva racing out. The kids scream, they ran out of the way in just the nick of time as a second later Scarface slammed his side against the back of their truck, moving it a bit.

The kids; now with having no other choice, ran down the road. Scarface recovers from his body slam against the truck and quickly began to chase after them, snarling loudly while his claws clicked against the asphalt.

The kids may have had a head start, but Scarface is easily catching up which Aggie can see from the sky, she needed to help her friend or else he and the others will become a meal for this monster. Narrowing her eyes in concentration, Aggie pointed her finger and shot out a wad of electricity towards the front of Scarface. The wad of electricity hits near his front, left paw making him loose balance and fall, allowing the kids to distance themselves from him more, but he quickly gets back up and rejoins the chase.

Aggie needed to do something more and do it quickly. She took a glance ahead where she saw a slope next to the road with rocks that looked like they could fall at any second. Beaming with an idea, Aggie flew ahead to the slope, she waits for Norman and his friends to pass before shooting out another bolt of electricity at the rocks.

The result caused a rock slide that separated Scarface from the group. Scarface stopped in his tracks and snarled at the blockage, he wasn't going to let this obstacle stop him from getting his prey.


The kids couldn't help but feel lucky as they ran further down the road, after all a sudden rock slide had separated them from the monster that wanted to eat them, how can you not say that was lucky? Norman though knew it was more than luck as he looked up and smiled towards his ghosty friend.

"Did we lose him?" Mabel asked through pants.

"No way Mabel!" Dipper answered as he knew very well that Scarface will eventually catch up with them.

"Just keep moving guys, will loose him-" Raz and the others came to a stop as in front of them, blocking their path is an over turned truck carrying diesel fuel. "Soon"

"You gotta be kidding me." Coraline exclaimed in annoyance.

The kids looked for a way to get around the truck; on the left is that slope and on the right is a steep drop off. They honestly couldn't see a way around the truck, they also couldn't climb over or go under it, by all accounts they were blocked off.

"What are we going to do?" Mabel asked in fear.

Raz walked over to the truck and touched the pipe that leads to the exhaust. He knew that even with both his and Lili's combined effort, it would be impossible to move this thing, their psychic powers just weren't strong enough yet. He lowers his head in despair for he had gotten them trap. "I'm sorry guys, I lead us the wrong way."

"Hey don't beat yourself up." Coraline said. Norman nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you had no idea that a truck was going to block our path."

"They gotta a point Raz, we would've been blocked off by this thing anyway, even if Scarface wasn't in the vicinity right now." Lili pointed out.

Raz turned to them, not feeling any better about their situation. "But what do we do?"

"I'm sure if we pull our heads together, will find a solution." Mabel exclaimed with Neil nodding beside her in agreement. "Yeah, eight heads are better than-" A loud snarl interrupts him at the end making Neil as well as everyone else jump. They look up the slope to see Scarface snarling at them from the top, he swiftly jumped, the kids scrambled out of the way just seconds before he landed in the middle of where they all just stood a second ago.

Scarface swiftly turned left and snapped his mouth at Dipper's back. Scarface goes after him for his personal vendetta, he easily catches up with him, he opened his mouth to take a bite, but suddenly a rock hits him on the forehead making him stop.

"Leave my brother alone! You bad dog!" Mabel shouted, she then dashed off as Scarface is now coming after her, she changed directions quickly to avoid the snapping mouth. A large body then suddenly slammed against Scarface's side with enough force to bump him away a few feet, and that large body was Neil who had shoulder slammed him.

A yelp escaped him as Scarface slashed at his belly with his long, sharp claws which thankfully missed as Neil had reacted quickly enough.

"I'm done with you! You stupid mutt!" Coraline ran in from behind with a stick, she swings it hard at his rear end. Scarface's response is quick, he turns to her and raised himself up with his hand raised, Coraline jumps backwards but wasn't fast enough for he slashed at her shoulder, tearing up her shirt and splash out some blood that escaped outwards.

Coraline falls to ground, seething in pain as she clenched her wound. She was then pinned down by two strong hands, then had spit and bad breath hit her in the face as Scarface roared loudly at her.

Cat who had been hiding on the side with Waddles pricked up in alarm, his human friend is in danger and he couldn't allow that. Letting out a hiss, Cat runs forward and upon getting close enough he jumps with his claws out.

Scarface goes in to tear out Coraline's neck, when a small figure slammed onto his head with claws digging into him. Scarface snarled in surprise, he gets back up on his hind legs and stepped back three feet away from Coraline. Wybie immediately rushed to her aid, helping her sit up while she reclinches her arm.

"Are you alright?"

Coraline looked down to the scratch wound on her shoulder. "I'll live." The sound of a hiss gets both of theirs attention, they look up to see Scarface thrashing Cat off his head, Cat lands on his feet and raised his back up. Scarface swatted him away, Cat flew and landed on his side a few feet away, Cat quickly gets back up on his feet and jumps, landing a direct hit on Scarface's nose with the claws on his right paw.

Scarface snarled angrily, he leaned towards Cat with his mouth open, Cat jumped out of the way making the mouth close on air, quickly Cat ran around and jumped onto Scarface's back; clawing and biting as Scarface thrashes around trying to get the angry cat off.

Near the truck; Norman and Aggie watched the whole scene terrified. "Oh Norman, what are we going to do?"

"I-I, I don't know."

Norman and Aggie then saw Waddles running forward, squealing angrily before lowering his head and slamming against Scarface's side, pushing him off his feet and onto his side, Cat jumps off his back before Scarface impacted the ground.

Norman could feel his fear rise as he knew that it was only a matter of time before Scarface kills one of them, he backs up a bit and bumped against the truck. Norman looked up at the truck for a moment, when an idea came to him. Perhaps they could scare Scarface away or by the looks of it, finish him off for good.

Norman looked over to Aggie to tell her about parts of his plan. "Do you think you can open up the hatch on the other side?"

"Yes, but why are you asking me that?" She asked curiously.

"I have an idea."


Scarface gets back up on all fours, he looked to Waddles in anger as the pig moved his front, left hoof showing that he was ready to charge.

Raz suddenly came from Scarface's left and kicked him right on the jaw, along with Lili who came from the other side, Scarface stepped back from the blows, shaking his head to rid the pain.

"Hey!"

Scarface turned to Norman who had his arms stretched out as he bounced up and down in order to keep Scarface's attention solely on him. "Over here! Come get me!"

The others looked at him in utter stunneness for did Norman have a death wish? Neil is especially concerned, he stepped forward to quickly address him. "Norman! What are you doing!?"

Norman gestures him and the others to stand back. "Don't worry, I got a plan!"

The others looked to where Norman was standing and a sudden realization on what Norman is intending to do came to them, they quickly backed away to the sidelines while Norman locked eyes with Scarface.

Charging forward with his mouth open while snarling, Scarface closes in on Norman who doesn't move, but instead narrowed his eyes and balled his fists. Meanwhile on the other side of the truck, Aggie used all her ghostly powers to open up the hatch, once opened the strong smell of diesel fuel hit her nose, it's so strong Aggie had to cover her nose.

Now that the fuel is open, all Aggie needed to do now is to wait for the signal and they blow this thing to kingdom come.


Norman still stood in place, even as Scarface is a few feet away from him.

Scarface leaps at him, his claws are expanded out and mouth wide open for biting. At the last second, Norman ducked and rolled away causing Scarface to land on the sudden empty space and crash face first into the truck.

Norman gets back to his feet and stared at Scarface, just as the predator gets on his hind legs and let out a roar of anger.

Suddenly with a large bang! The truck is engulfed by a fireball, the shockwave from the explosion knocks all of them off their feet. The smoke from the explosion raised up into the sky in a great black cloud, along with generating some dust.

Aggie phased through the flames, blinking a couple of times for she hadn't expected for the explosion to be that big or the amount of dust it generated as it was now like standing in fog from where she floated. Aggie slowly drifted through the fog of dust, looking carefully for Norman or the others.

A low groan fills her ears, she stops to listen, then follows the source of the groan all the way to Norman who's laying on his side, he lets out a series of coughs as he then slowly sat himself up.

Aggie gets down to his level with worry. "Are you alright Norman?"

Norman held his aching head, groaning a bit more. "Yeah, I'm just a bit dizzy and my ears are ringing a bit." Norman lets out another series of coughs, before looking up at her with a smile. "Good job, Aggie."

"It was nothing, I just gave out a spark and it went boom." Aggie turned to the fire. "It was what Neil calls, awesome."

Norman softly chuckled at that as he never heard her say awesome before, other groans and coughs then gets both of their attention, through the fog more figures raised themselves up.

"Oh man, that was intense." Dipper exclaimed.

"Is everyone alright?" Mabel called out in concern.

"Me and Lili are fine."

"I think my mask is cracked."

"I'm good, how about you Coraline?"

"Just fine Neil, thanks."

"Meow"

"Oink"

After hearing how they were all fine with no visible burns or injuries, they all gathered around in a circle, laughing about how crazy this whole event turned out, but their laughter is then quickly cut off by the sound of crashing metal coming out through the clearing fog of dust.

Scarface lifts himself up, pushing the pile of burned metal from the truck off him, once up to his full height, he sways a bit. The explosion has left him burned with most of his fur on the upper half of him dark and burned to a short level where some skin could be seen through out some of his torso and the top of his head.

He struggles to stand, but then fall on his stomach with a cry of pain. Scarface quickly gets back up on his hind legs and turns to the group of kids with weezy eyes. The kids, Waddles, and Cat having enough of this stood their ground, giving Scarface a death glare, Aggie had her eyes turn yellow and Raz and Lili got ready to fight.

Scarface stares at them considering what he should do, he then let's out a snarl, got on all fours and began to walk off in the direction of where they came from. Seeing that he was retreating, the kids began to cheer and mock Scarface.

"Suck it Scarface!" Coraline called out.

"Yeah, that's what you get!" Lili added.

"Go back to the pound!" Mabel shouted.

Scarface walked a good distance away from them, he stops to let out one last snarl, before continuing on down the road, until he was out of their sight.

With Scarface defeated; the kids cheered even more, as they cheered Neil collapses onto his back laughing a bit. "I can't believe we survived that!"

"I know." Mabel collapsed on her butt, chuckling as well. "I honestly thought we were going to end up being eaten."

"Oh, it gets better." Coraline spoke up. The others looked to Coraline with question and she simply just points over to where the fire is beginning to die off to reveal that the road is clear, for the explosion had pushed the remains of the truck off the road.

Seeing that their path is now clear, the group wasted no time to run down the road. They ran all the way to the top of a slope which goes down all the way to the town of Boulder, the very sight of the town is enough to bring some of them to tears.

After so long of journeying through a country devastated by the superflu, it warm their hearts to know that their long journey has finally come to an end. What was better? From here they could see the other entrances to Boulder and one of them had a good number of cars and motorcycles coming in.

They stood there for a good few minutes, before finally coming back to their senses and ran down the hill to start their new life in Boulder.

A triangular shadow follows them.