Gideon yawned loudly as he followed Dipper out of the UFO's hatch the next morning. "You get up entirely too early, you know that right?" he asked, muffling a second yawn behind his hand as he closed the hatch behind them. He shifted the empty backpack on his shoulders and raised an eyebrow at Dipper, waiting for a response.
Dipper shrugged, adjusting the shoulder straps on both his satchel and shotgun holster. "Sun's up. Can't waste any daylight. Anyway, I didn't force you to come with me. That was your idea, remember?"
"Yeah, well," Gideon grumbled, "my bad. So, uh, where are we going first? What's on Ford's list?"
Dipper glanced down at the scrap of paper in his hand. "The library, for a copy of... What to Expect When You're Expecting, and," he paused, squinting to read Ford's nearly illegible cursive. "Anything we can find on home births."
Dipper began walking slowly down the hillside path that led toward downtown Gravity Falls, still staring at the list of items he and Gideon were supposed to try and scavenge.
"And after the library?" Gideon prompted, watching the ground and stepping carefully as he followed Dipper.
"The hospital maternity ward. We've really only scavenged the main part of the hospital so far, I guess because we didn't expect to need any...maternity...stuff." Dipper crumpled the paper and shoved it in his jeans pocket. There was only one more item on the list, and the thought of what Ford needed it for made Dipper's chest ache.
"What about Ford's cryogenics lab?" Gideon asked. "Didn't he say he needed something from there, too?"
Dipper sighed. Of course Gideon would bring it up. "Yeah, we'll stop there last. It'll be on our way back. He needs us to pick up his blueprints for the cryostasis devices."
There was a scuff of gravel, and Dipper turned to see that Gideon had stopped in his tracks.
"What's he need those for?" Gideon asked, with a frown. "I thought Ford said it would be too risky to freeze a pregnant woman?"
Dipper tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry. "He told me this morning...he said he's going to try to build a—a baby-sized one. Just in case..."
Gideon's face paled, enough so that his already fair skin looked nearly translucent. He closed his eyes and breathed out a low, "Jesus."
"Yeah," was all Dipper could muster in reply. Then he cleared his throat and turned back in the direction of town. "We really shouldn't be talking right now," he said over his shoulder. "Don't want to draw attention to ourselves." He cocked his head in the direction of the Fearamid, which hung heavy in the air to the east.
"Right," Gideon said quietly. "Sorry."
Together they moved toward the town, accompanied only by the sound of their light footfalls on the dirt path.
/
The library was the easiest part of the trip, because Ford had written down the call numbers for books on pregnancy and birth. Scavenging at the hospital was more difficult, because Ford's list literally said "maternity stuff." Unfortunately, they were unable to scavenge most of the maternity stuff that Dipper actually knew the uses for, as bassinets and incubators don't fit in backpacks. They finally settled on some baby bottles and swaddling blankets. In addition they grabbed more first aid supplies, and Gideon had the idea to search the operating theaters, where they found some unopened packages of sterilized surgical instruments.
"If Ford wants something more specific, he can come scavenge it himself," Dipper muttered as they were leaving. He pulled the glass hospital entrance door open and waited for Gideon to pass through before following him outside. "Good call on the surgical instruments, though. I mean, I hope we never have to use them, but I'd rather we have access to sterile scalpels and scissors and clamps and whatever that one pointy thing is, should the need arise."
Gideon nodded, shifting the shoulder straps of his overly-full pack as he walked down the crumbling sidewalk next to Dipper. "Makes me wonder if there's something hidden away in the hospital that could've helped Mabel, but since none of us have medical training, we overlooked it."
At the mention of Mabel, Dipper's back stiffened and his chest ached. He wasn't looking forward to their last stop of the day. His sister would be there, in a tube, frozen in time, while he had aged two and a half years. It was one thing knowing that was the case… but seeing it would make it too real. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to cope.
"Dip, you okay?" Gideon asked softly, when Dipper failed to respond after several minutes.
"Yeah," he said, his voice strained from the tightness in his throat. "But remember, we really shouldn't talk out in the open. Not safe."
As if to prove his point, a faint scuttling sound came from behind them, steadily getting louder. Dipper knew that noise. A surge of adrenaline shot through his system, clearing his mind of thoughts of Mabel, his focus, instead, turning to survival.
"Shit, hear that? It's the giant Hand," he whispered urgently. Grabbing Gideon by the shoulder, Dipper steered him into a nearby alleyway, and pushed him back behind a dumpster, pressing himself flat against the wall next to him. "I don't know if it noticed us," he breathed. "Don't move, and don't make any noise."
Gideon nodded. He was trembling, long white hair falling forward over his wide eyes. Based on Gideon's body language, Dipper could tell he'd be no good in a fight. Or at least, not this fight. If this even became a fight.
Dipper strained to listen for the Hand's scrabbling noises over Gideon's shaky panic-breathing. His eyes narrowed when he didn't detect any noise that the Hand might make. Had it already passed them that quickly? He peered around the side of the dumpster so he could see the entrance to the alley, and his blood ran cold. The Hand was crouched at the mouth of the alley, index finger and ring finger raised in the air, twitching, sensing.
"Fuck," Dipper whispered, pulling his head back behind the dumpster. He turned to Gideon, whose skin was as white as his hair. "Gid, listen carefully. When I say go, I need you to run, okay? Run out the back of the alley and head straight for the UFO. I'll distract the Hand while you get away, so don't wait for me, alright? I'll see you again at home. And leave your backpack. You'll be faster that way."
Gideon's lips trembled, and he looked conflicted. "I can't just leave you to—"
"Don't worry about me," Dipper hissed, cutting him off. "There's no time to argue." He peered back around the dumpster. The Hand was slowly creeping closer. "Hurry up, Gid. Backpack off."
Gideon frowned, but slid the pack from his shoulders, setting it gently on the ground at Dipper's feet. "Don't do anything stupid," he mumbled.
Dipper nodded at him. "Same." He peeked around the dumpster one last time, to see that the Hand was almost to their hiding spot. This was it, then. "Gid," he said emphatically. "Go."
Dipper didn't wait to watch Gideon spring into action. He whirled around and stepped out from behind the dumpster, directly into the path of the Hand.
"Looking for someone?" he said low, as he pulled his shotgun from its back holster and cycled it. It would be a calculated risk to shoot, because the noise would most certainly draw more monsters to his location. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, but preferred to have the shotgun out and ready in case it did.
The Hand reared back slightly, then scurried forward, its fingers moving at lightning speed as it closed the short distance between itself and Dipper.
"Shit!" Dipper hissed, jumping back just in time to avoid being pinched between the Hand's gigantic index finger and thumb. He'd seen the Hand around before, which was why he had recognized the noise it made as it scurried along the ground. However, he'd never had this close of an encounter with it, so he hadn't realized just how quickly it could move. He had assumed that it would move somewhat slowly, its pace similar to that of the Horrifying Sweaty One-Armed Monstrosity. Clearly, his assumption proved to be incorrect.
Dipper attempted to dart around the Hand, dodging its long, jagged fingernails the size of dinner plates as he tried desperately to find a way past it. His plan was to run out the mouth of the alley, in the opposite direction of Gideon. Well, it had been his plan. His backup plan was a bit riskier, because it involved him running out the back of the alley, and hoping he'd given Gideon enough of a head start to be safe.
As he bobbed and weaved to avoid being pinched or poked to death, Dipper tried to calculate how long it had been since Gideon had taken off at a sprint. He should have at least gotten to the treeline of the forest by now.
"Fuck it," Dipper muttered, and turned tail, sprinting past the dumpster. He mentally berated himself when he noticed Gideon's backpack still sitting next to it. He would just have to come back for it later.
With the wind in his ears, Dipper couldn't listen for the scrabbling of the Hand on pavement to tell how closely it was following him. As he neared the end of the alley, he risked turning his head to look behind him. His steps faltered. The Hand was gone.
"What the h—SHIT!"
It actually wasn't gone. The Hand had skittered up the side of one of the buildings lining the alley, like a spider, and when Dipper turned his head to look back, it launched itself off the brick wall and directly at the teen's head.
One of the jagged fingernails raked Dipper's eyebrow, just barely missing the eyeball itself, and blood streamed down his face, obscuring the vision in his left eye. He stumbled back, but the Hand continued toward him, and before Dipper realized what it was doing, it flicked him hard, in the dead center of the chest, the force of it sending him flying back into the side of the dumpster. A loud boom echoed through the empty town as the back of Dipper's head connected with the green metal.
Pain bloomed behind his eyes from his impact with the dumpster, but the more pressing matter seemed to be that Dipper felt like he couldn't breathe—the flick had knocked the wind out of him. The Hand was advancing, backing him into the corner where the dumpster met the alley wall. It was time to take that calculated risk. Most of the monsters in Gravity Falls probably heard the noise his head had just made against the dumpster anyway, so why not add a few shotgun blasts?
Dipper wiped the blood from his eye with his sleeve, attempting to wheeze some air into his lungs as he raised the shotgun, and placed his finger on the trigger.
BLAM
The spread covered most of the Hand, peppering it with small holes oozing blood—but it kept coming. Dipper chambered a new round, and shot again. That slowed it down, but it was still coming.
CH-CH
BLAM
CH-CH
BLAM
CH-CH
BLAM
CH-CH
BLAM
Dipper stopped shooting and sighed, finally able to draw in a full breath. He had no way to tell if the Hand was actually dead, but it had collapsed onto the crumbling asphalt, twitching spasmodically. Whether or not it was dead, the Hand was no longer attacking, which meant that Dipper had to get out of there now, after all the noise he'd made.
Dipper re-holstered his shotgun, and stooped to pick up Gideon's backpack, swinging it over one shoulder. He was too winded to sprint, so he took off at a trot out the back of the alley, only speeding up when he started hearing the distant hoots and hollers of Bill's monster minions investigating what all the commotion was downtown.
/
Dipper decided to forgo the last stop on his scavenging list, since he'd told Gideon to head straight back to the UFO. He didn't want anyone worrying if he didn't return shortly after the younger teen. It came as a surprise, then, when he climbed down the hatch, that nobody was waiting for him at the bottom of the ladder. Then it occurred to him that maybe Gideon briefing Ford on the situation in the ship's laboratory. On his way to Ford's lab, he passed the common area, where Pacifica was sitting, reading. She noticed him passing and glanced up to give him a little wave.
"Hey Dipper, how did your—holy shit!" A look of horror crossed Pacifica's face. She dropped her book on the couch and leapt to her feet, her eyes wide with concern. "Dipper, what the hell happened to you? To your eye?!"
"Didn't Gideon tell you?" Dipper asked with a frown. Maybe Gideon had made a beeline for Ford without stopping to talk to anyone else first. That was probably it.
"Wh-Gideon?" Pacifica's brows furrowed. "I thought he was supposed to be with you?"
Dipper shook his head a little more forcefully than he meant to, and then winced because it felt like his brain was rattling against the walls of his skull. "No, I sent him on ahead of me. We were being stalked by the giant Hand, and I stayed back as a distraction so he could escape undetected. You probably just didn't see him when he came in."
Pacifica bit her lower lip. "Ye-yeah. I'm sure that's it. Let's go find him." She crossed the common area and grabbed Dipper's wrist, tugging him in the direction of Ford's lab.
However, Gideon wasn't there. Ford wasn't even there. At this point, Dipper began to feel his chest tightening in panic. Even though Gideon had volunteered to come with him, he felt responsible for the younger teen. That was the whole point in his acting as a distraction—so that Gideon had time to escape.
"He-he's probably talking to Soos or Melody," Pacifica said, the false positivity in her voice obvious.
Dipper felt himself nodding, even though he didn't believe it. "I'm gonna just… go back outside. I'll head over to the cryo lab," he said, his throat tight. "Maybe Gideon misheard me and went there instead of coming home."
On his way back to the hatch, Dipper dropped both his satchel and Gideon's backpack in the common area. He kept his shotgun holstered, however, worried that he might find Gideon in need of protecting.
When he reached the top of the ladder and opened the hatch, Dipper peered around, alert and ready to go on the offensive if need be. However, there was nothing there. Nothing out of the ordinary, in any case. He shut the hatch, and started in the direction of Ford's cryogenics lab, careful to tread quietly so he would be alerted to any foreign noises around him.
He was about halfway to the lab when he heard the faint scuffle of running human feet on dirt, headed in his direction. Dipper picked up his pace and unholstered his shotgun as he ran, because although he didn't hear any additional noise, he couldn't think of any reason, besides being chased, for Gideon to be running.
Dipper crested a hill and Gideon came into view, his head down, eyes focused on the ground in front of him. As Dipper trotted down toward Gideon, he called out so as not to startle his friend.
"Hey, Gid!"
Gideon looked up, and began running even faster, until he and Dipper met in the middle of the hill.
"She's—she's," Gideon said, his voice strained. It seemed he couldn't get anything else out. He bent over with his hands on his knees, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. His eyes were wild and red-rimmed, and there were tear-streaks leaving trails down the dust on his face.
Dipper frowned, then looked around before asking, "Are you being chased?"
Still unable to catch his breath, Gideon shook his head in the negative.
Dipper's frown deepened as he placed his shotgun back in its holster. "What's wrong then? Why were you running? And why have you been crying?" He crossed his arms over his chest, impatiently waiting for Gideon to have enough breath to talk with.
Gideon finally stood back up, and took a deep, shuddering breath. "Dipper, she's gone. Mabel's gone."
Dipper inhaled sharply. It felt like an icy hand had gripped his heart and was squeezing. "Gone? What are you talking about? Explain."
"After I was sure I wasn't being followed, I decided to head to the cryo lab, even though you told me to go straight home. I wanted to help out by getting Ford's plans, since you were fightin' that Hand monster so I could escape. I just wanted to feel useful...seeing as I'm pretty much the dead weight of the Remnants." Gideon's cheeks took on a pink tinge, and he rubbed the back of his neck.
"So I get there, and find the plans in the workshop at the front of the bunker." He patted his back pocket, where the folded plans were currently located. Then he hesitated, the pink tinge of his cheeks turning red. He couldn't meet Dipper's eyes as he continued. "Then I-I went back to the storage area where the tubes are, because I-I just… I wanted to see Mabel's face again. But Dipper—she wasn't there! Not just her, uh, her...body, either. The whole damn cryostasis tube she'd been in has been ripped out."
The icy hand gripping Dipper's heart clamped down harder, and it felt like his lungs were collapsing. There was only one being in Gravity Falls powerful or smart enough to remove an intact cryostasis tube from Ford's laboratory, other than Ford himself.
Dipper's vision darkened, and his lips trembled as he spoke the name: "Bill."
/
/
/
I get a ton of inspiration from music, so sometimes I'll share the names of songs that influenced my chapter in the notes, should anyone be inclined to look them up and give them a listen.
Musical Inspiration for Chapter Two: Dead Flowers, by Demon Hunter
Thanks for reading this far! I hope you're enjoying it. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
-MPD