( Mabel Pines )
Once again Mabel found herself hiding behind something, in this case a big metal mail box as bullets wizzed past her. It seemed whenever her and Dipper went out alone, they always ended up in trouble. Didn't matter if it was the zombies, or if it was survivors. It was tiring. Dipper had been fueling the firetruck up, while she was searching the store for snacks. Well, for snacks with a decent taste. When she heard yelling and gunshots from outside, and Dipper yelling at her to take cover. From what she could make out, these people wanted the truck, and our supplies, and didn't care if they were alive or dead when it was over.
Dipper, from what she could see when she peaked her head around for a few seconds, was hiding behind the front of Black Beauty, who was doing an excellent job at being a shield. Though, Mabel didn't know how much longer she could take it.
She lifted her head over the blue mailbox to see if she could see anyone. Only to have to duck back down milliseconds before a bullet hit the top of the mailbox.
'This is not looking good.' She thought to herself, whoever was out there was very good with their weapons.
She poked her head back to see where Dipper was to find that he was no longer in her view. She didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. Had he moved to get a better shot? Had he been captured?
'No,' She thought to herself, 'Dipper hadn't been captured. The attackers would try to get me to come out, using Dipper as bait, if that were the case.'
'Did he leave me?' she wondered to herself. Once upon a time, she wouldn't have wondered that, because he brother would have never left her side. But if it meant death? Right now, she didn't know. But she didn't want to believe that he would. This was Dipper, he risked life and limb for her, countless times. Had he finally had enough?
Black Beauty roared to life. And Dipper hopped out of the truck and climbed the side, still shielded by the massive truck. Once he was on top of the truck he grabbed something, and hit a button, switch, or something. And it sounded like Black Beauty started to growl. Then it hissed loudly. The hissing was water spraying out of whatever Dipper was holding.
She watched as Dipper moved the water things back and forth, then noticed that while the yelling and screaming had not stopped, the gunshots had.
"Mabel," Dipper yelled down to her still focused on his task, "Drive!"
Mabel didn't need to be told twice, as she booked it for the truck.
As she got in, she noticed people struggling to get up from the pressure of the water Dipper was spraying, and yelling all kinds of profanities at him. She decided not to waste anymore time as she put the truck into drive, and started to drive, slowly.
"Gun it Mabel, I'm strapped down!" Dipper called from the top of the truck.
Mabel hit the gas, and sped away from the gas station. Weaving around the cars on the roads, past zombies, that turned to watch them, then try to follow them. Though, the zombies would have no chance at catching them. Once she found a place that seemed to be void of people, and very few zombies, Mabel pulled over.
"Dip, you still up there?" Mabel called out, jumping out of the truck.
"I'm coming down, Mabel." Dipper crawled down the side of the truck.
"What was that?" She asked curiously.
"A gang of survivors that..." He started before he was interrupted.
"No, the water thing!" She wanted to know this previously unknown function of Black Beauty.
"The water cannon. It's used to put out high fires. But effective against attackers." Dipper said, patting her shoulder. "Let me take a look at Black beauty, and see if anything was damaged.
…
Nothing worse than a few bullet holes, and one of the compartment doors wouldn't open anymore. Luckily, the attackers wanted the truck, so she assumed that they were trying not to destroy the vehicle. At least that was a good thing. Dipper had at least managed to fill up the tank. The bad news was they hadn't had a chance to get the generator. So, while the tank was full, they wouldn't be able to again, unless they managed to find another generator. So, they were currently trying to figure out what they should do.
They knew that they had enough gas to get back to the school, and try again. They had no clue how much farther it would take to get to the cabins.
"Well, it's back to the school for now." Dipper said as he started the trunk, and started back to the school.
"Well, we know to avoid this place next time." Mabel said leaning back, popping a few of the remaining gummy bears, that she had managed to stuff in her pocket, before the shooting started, into her mouth.
"That's a problem, The next closest town heading towards the cabins is too far." Dipper frowned making turning onto an empty interstate.
"Hey, what about this road?" Mabel was pointing to the map as Dipper stopped the truck, to look. Not too far from the school, there was a road he hadn't paid attention to, because it didn't meet with many towns. Making it less likely to get supplies or gas. Plus the fact it was mostly a gravel road.
"That's a fire road." He said looking at it again. It wasn't that long of a trek. The truck could make it close to two hundred miles on a full tank. If they emptied out most of the water, that might get them another fifty miles. They could always refill later.
"So, can we use it?" Mabel asked never taking her eyes off of the map.
"We might have to, once we get back to the school we can go from there."
…
Back at the school they had managed to drain most of the water from the truck, refueled the firetruck, by the time they were finished it was starting to get dark. They locked everything back up, and went they room they slept in. It took a while for the room to heat up, with the concrete walls. While they waited they made them something to eat. Mabel had started reading one of the books she had liberated from the library, while he looked at the map. This time they would actually get the gas canisters, because this time they might just need them.
The road was long, went through a national park, and if something happened out there, it would be dark. Well, dark wasn't really the issue. In the middle of the wilderness, it would be dangerous. It would be cold. And they didn't have enough food to make a hike either way if they got caught in the middle. He did decide that he would pack the insulated tent, extra clothes, matches, and things they would need if something happened to the truck.
Dipper looked over to where Mabel was, to find her head back on the couch, book laid in her lap, and dead to the world. He looked to the clock on the wall. It was a little past nine p.m., it had been a long day. And there really wasn't much to plan. It was pretty much the same plan with more supplies, and more gas canisters.
'Guess I should go to sleep too.' he folded up the map, and got Mabel's blanket. He took the book, and laid her down on the couch. Mabel hadn't hardly even woke up. A bit of mumbling, but that was all. He laid her blanket over her, and made his way towards the other couch. He kicked off his shoes, and laid down, pulling his blanket off the back of the couch and covered himself.
( Mabel Pines )
Mabel had stopped at the beginning of the fire road. Looking at the seemingly endless looking gravel road ahead of them. Dipper had explained to her that it would be close to two hundred miles to the next town this way. A long bumpy road, where anything could be laying in wait.
'This is it.' She thought looking over to her brother.
"We ready?" She looked back towards to road ahead.
"Well, this tuck was made for rough terrain. To be able to get almost anywhere to put out a fire. It's just going to be a long ride." He leaned back in the seat. "Lets get this started."
"Okay," she started forward, while bumpy, they hardly felt it. The trucks size, and weight helped absorb some of the bumps. "This isn't so bad."
…
'Tree, tree, tree, another tree.' Mabel thought as she continued the path. They had to pull back their speed to about thirty miles an hour, as the gravel road was a bit rougher further on. She assumed they had only taken care of the road for the first fifty or so miles. After the first three hours, she was really bored. Dipper had dozed off about and hour ago. She figured it was about time to stop, get a bite to eat, take a potty break, and change drivers.
After stopping the truck, and waking up Dipper, she dashed off into the trees to relieve her bladder. She looked around the trees and foiliage, that she assumed had been kept at bay before the infection. She could still see the truck, before she looked around to make sure no animal or infected were too near here. She wasn't so afraid of them, she could take out any of the infected, or even a wild animal with her gun. Though, she didn't want to have to be caught with her pants down, literally.
Once she was sure the coast was clear, she took down her pants and squatted down. She didn't care for the cold air whipping around her nether region. But what was she to do? It's not like there was a restroom waiting for her out here on the road. That was one of the things that she didn't like about this road. After she was finished, she pulled up her pants back up.
"That's much better." She knew she should have stopped sooner, but she had wanted to go as far as she could before stopping. When she made it back to the truck, Dipper had already gotten a fire started, and had set up the camping stove and was cooking their lunch.
"Whatcha making, Dip?" She had made it to her brother.
"I found a few jars of chicken that Wendy's mom jarred, this morning." She had thought they had used all of the jarred meats. But it seems a couple things had gotten pushed aside. "So, I'm making chicken soup. We can eat it for lunch, and use the thermoses so we can have some on the road."
"Sounds great." Mabel went to the truck to get the bowls, and the thermoses. "I can keep an eye on the soup, if you need to go and do your business."
"Thanks, Mabel." Dipper started to make his way towards the trees.
Mabel sat there and watched the pot as it slowly bubbled, stirring it once before looking around to make sure nothing was around. According to Dipper these roads were hardly ever used, even before everything went crazy. So, she had expected to at least see animals running about. Investigating the humans in their land. Or something.
'I thought we would at least see a deer or something,' she thought to herself as Dipper came back.
"It's a bit cold out here isn't it?" Dipper moved closer to the fire again.
"Easier for you, at least you don't have to drop your pants completely to go." Mabel raised her eyebrow daring her brother to argue the point.
"I'm glad I'm a guy." Dipper chuckled as she stirred the soup again.
( Dipper Pines )
Mabel had fallen asleep shortly after they had started back on their trip. He couldn't blame her it was boring. He had pulled over, and pulled out a CD player that he had found and put in one of the books on disk that he found and thought sounded interesting, before continuing their journey again. If his guess was right they were almost at the first town.
Dipper pulled off the fire road, and made his way to the town. There were a lot of infected milling about. He woke Mabel, after stopping the truck. Dipper woke up Mabel, getting her to drink some soup to wake up.
"Dip," Mabel was looking out the window, staring at all the infected. "There's a lot of them out there."
"Yeah, that's why I woke you. You're gonna drive. And I'm going to get the rifle and start taking out as many as I can." Dipper got out of the drivers seat, and moved back into the back of the cab, getting his rifle. Mabel got into the drivers seat. "Get them to follow us, get a good bit ahead of them, I'm going to get on top and start picking them off. If they start getting close, hit the horn. I'll grab onto something, and back away farther."
"Got it, Dip." Mabel got a smile on her face. "I got an idea!"
…
The siren blared as Mabel drove down the road, drawing all the infected behind the truck. It was a brilliant idea, he didn't even think he would have come up with it. Mabel was always the creative one.
Once Mabel had a good enough lead, she turned the truck around facing the infected. At first he thought she was going to run them over, which would be a good idea, if they had some kind of shield on the front. But she just looked at him expecting him to do something.
"I was thinking, you lay on top of the cab, then take them out one by one. If they get close, I'll just start backing up." She said, having came up with another great plan.
"Smart thinking, Sis." He climbed out of the truck and on top of the firetruck.
Once he was on top of the truck he found out he could use the lights to brace the rifle on. He looked through the scope, got the first one in his cross hairs, and pulled the trigger, brains bursting out the back of it's head before it fell to the ground. Bringing the next one in his sights, before again pulling the trigger. He pulled the slide back, and pushed it back into place, reloading it.
One by one they fell. Former men, women, children. It was the kids that got to him. It was hard at first to kill infected children. It was still hard, but now it was more that he knew he had to. He would feel bad, but at the same time, he knew that it had to be done.
After thirty minutes, and Mabel backing up four times, all the infected that had followed him laid dead, and his arm was cramping. He crawled down off the top of the fire truck, getting back into the cab.
"Alright, lets find a gas station." Dipper said leaning back in the seat.
"You got it, Broheim."