( Dipper Pines )
Dipper awoke that morning feeling more refreshed than he had in months. He had enjoyed the company of the love of his life. Not even in a sexual way, he had just missed her being there. Being close to the woman that he loved. That, and their bed was a lot more comfortable than the sofa that he had been sleeping on.
They hadn't been able to get in quietly, thanks to the truck's engine. The noise of the big diesel engine, entering the camp, had woken everyone that was sleeping. He hadn't wanted to wake everyone, but he wouldn't lie, the food that had been presented to him had been the most delicious thing he had in months.
As it had turned out, Manly Dan, and the boys had been preparing to try to get to the town, he and Mabel had been in, as soon as they found a map. Wendy had wanted to tag along for the trip, but had been turned down. Manly Dan didn't want to risk her running off on her own to find Dipper. Manly Dan knew his daughter, and loved her, but knew she was strong willed, and head strong. Dipper had to agree with him, not that he would aloud, anywhere near earshot of Wendy.
"Feels good to be home," Dipper sighed looking back at Wendy curled up in bed. Even if it was temporary. Until they figured out what the Tracker was, they couldn't risk the only sane survivors that they knew of.
He stepped out of the cabin, and noticed Wendy's father, and brothers were busy with something. Soos was working on what looked like a giant inverter. Was he putting up solar panels?
"Hey, Soos! Missed you last night." Dipper approached his long time friend, who was like an older brother to him. Soos was a heavy sleeper, and couldn't be woken when they had arrived.
"Hey, Dude! They said you were here, and tried to wake me. Crazy right?" Soos laughed. Again, Dipper thought that Soos could sleep through a nuclear blast. "Glad you made it back. But I wasn't worried. My Bro Dipper can make it through anything. So, where's Hambone?"
"Probably drooling on Pacifica's arm while sleeping." Dipper laughed, his sister was a great person, and was usually first up. But lately, she had been sleeping in, and lazing about. Then again, she had spent a lot of time reading before bed. So, he wasn't sure how late she might have been staying up reading. Or if she had been up with Pacifica, for other reasons.
Dipper shuttered thinking about when he had walked in on the two of them. Again, he mentally reminded himself not to tease Mabel, it got to them both.
"Anyways. Are you putting up solar panels?" Dipper looked at the inverter.
"Yeah, Dude. I thought, since I'm not good with farming and junk. And Tambry doesn't want me to help in the clinic anymore. Seems she didn't want the pills sorted by color. I thought it made it easier. Anyways. I though if I could get power going, without having to use up all the gas, it might make everyone happier."
"You'll need more than panels, and an inverter. For nights, and winter." Dipper offered, he didn't assume that Soos was dumb, far from it. Soos had just learned his own way to do these things, and thought differently.
"I got a couple big batteries from town. Wasn't too hard to find. Just had to look for the houses with solar panels." Soos had went back to wiring. "Took me a while to realize that. I had been going to big neighborhoods, and going house to house."
"At least I'm sure you found some interesting stuff." Dipper offered his larger friend.
"Oh, I found a BIG tv. Dan said he was going to build another cabin, just for movie nights. Find a popcorn machine and all. That will be so wicked." Soos started to get more and more distracted with the device.
"Imma go talk to Tambry, I got stuff for her, and Mrs Corduroy." Dipper wandered off to the clinic/Tambry's Cabin. He knocked on the door and waited for her to answer. He knew the clinic part was on the ground floor, and Tambry's room was in the basement. But after walking in on Pacifica, and Mabel, he was always going to knock now.
"Who knocks on the clinic... Oh." Tambry smirked a mischievous smile. "I know why you're knocking. Anyways, whatcha need? Did you get hurt or something? Love bites from my BFF?"
"N-No! Nothing like that..." He stammered, and his face heated up. "No... Me and Mabel found a town on the way here, that was untouched. We have loads of medicine, and first aid stuff."
"Wait... Whole town? Pharmacy?" Dipper nodded, "Hospital?" Dipper nodded again. "Oh, do you remember the town? Which one?"
"Yeah, I marked it on the map." Dipper smiled leading a skipping Tambry to what they had gathered, that was still in the firetruck. "There is a weird group between us and the town. So, we shouldn't go back without the Corduroys."
No doubt the large lumberjacks would make a group like that think twice. Not to mention his ax throwing girlfriend. Sword weilding Pacifica, who's fencing lessons had come in handy.
They would decide that when the time came.
"Dipper... All of this stuff will come in handy." Tambry looked through the boxes. "And you're sure there's more?"
"Very sure."
…
They were driving back to the school, after leading the rest of the camp to the two in the middle of the fire road. They had stayed long enough to help pack things up, stock up on things they would need. A couple of days were all they could risk. They knew the Tracker would soon find them once again.
While in that town, they had been looking for farming equipment that could be used at the camp, and they had found it. They had also found machines to clear the landslide. Many Dan had said him and the boys would clear it as soon as they could, before it got too cold. The fire road worked, but getting stranded that far from a town was deadly if something happened to a vehicle.
Pulling up to the school, they noticed first that someone had been there. Dipper looked at Mabel, who returned his look. She had her weapon out, as he was pulling his. Silently, they got out of the truck, and make their way into the school. The groaning told them that there was infected in the school. The question was, did the infected find their way in, or did the infected chase someone in?
Normally, most people wouldn't think that it was a priority to know how the infected got in. Dipper had his reasons. If the infected got in on their own, they could take them out. But if there was a person, or persons in the school they had to be careful. With infected running about, they would be in a 'shoot first, ask questions later' mood.
Once inside they were able to hear a lot more groans, and the blood trail pretty much told him they infected chased someone inside. He pulled his sister back, pointing to the blood trail, and the shuffled foot prints in the blood. She nodded her head, and followed him, as he followed the blood. Odds were, the infected trying to get to the bleeding person, or people.
The trail had lead to what was left of a couple people. There were infected still eating the corpse. So far, they had been spared the sight of the infected actually feeding on a person. The face of the person seemed to be locked in it's last scream, or it's jaw had been broken. Bits of flesh, and organs were on the floor around the corpses, where the infected had clawed at it's prey, before eating it.
Dipper aimed his gun and fired once, re-aimed, then fired again, killing both of the feeding infected. He watched their brains, or what was left of their brains, spatter against the floor, and wall behind them. The second shot, it had turned to growl at him. They would have to clean this up. Then board off the room. They didn't want to risk infection if they didn't clean well enough.
More growling came from the hall behind them.
"Lets clear the rest." Dipper said grimly, looking back at the corpses.
"Lets do it." Mabel seemed, like he was, on the verge of throwing up.
…
"Dipper!" Mabel screamed as she was fighting off one of the infected, while he himself was also fighting off one of the infected.
"Mabel... Mabel! I'm coming!" Dipper pushed the infected off of him, and dove for either his or Mabel's gun that was one the floor. He rolled and aimed the gun at the infected Mabel was trying to hold off. He fired, but fired too late as the thing sunk it's teeth into Mabel's arm. "NO!"
The infected fell and Mabel fell with it, who jumped up. Just as Dipper screamed out due to the other infected person bit into his shoulder. A gunshot echoed through the school, and Dipper felt the teeth leave his shoulder.
"Dipper!?" She was by his side. "Dipper are you..."
"Mabel." He started, but he knew that she saw his shoulder, He watched as she looked at her arm.
"We're going to turn into one of those things now, aren't we?" Mabel asked, she was a lot calmer than he was feeling.
"I..." They had seen infected with bite marks, but they still hadn't seen anyone turn. But the fact was, this virus spread some how. And biting was the only delivery method he could think of. "I think so."
"Oh... should we?" She started.
"No. We'll chain our selves in." He started to get up, and Mabel helped him. "We'll leave a note, letting everyone know we're in here. And what happened."
"We won't be alone, at least." Mabel offered.
"Lets go get patched up." Not that it really mattered. But some pain killers, and bandaged might make them more comfortable before they died, and became infected.
…
A day had passed, and other than a dull ache, nothing was happening. Maybe it took time before the infection spead? He wasn't sure, but they should at least begin feeling sick. Or something.
Mabel had been putting antibiotic cream on the bite marks, and changing both of their bandages, the bite marks which had started healing, or at least Mabel said she thought so.
They had eaten in silence, neither of them knowing what was going to happen.
…
Then another day had passed, they had started to begin to feel ill.
…
Mabel had started feeling nauseous shortly before he had.
"Dipper... Dip... I..." Mabel started throwing up something black. It didn't look like anything that they had eaten.
"Mab..." He vomitted the same stuff as he saw his sister fall to the ground. He wanted to yell out for her, but he felt himself falling. He was going down as well.
'This is it,' Dipper thought to himself, as the world went black.