Drowning out the noise of his coworker's quiet murmuring, Benson was taking in his surroundings. For only being on the other side of town, East Pines park was vastly different than his own. Tall pine trees in deep shades of green stretched out along the winding dirt road that the cart was traveling on. The main road branched off into other side roads at seemingly random intervals on each side. Those roads led to small clearings between the trees where benches and picnic tables populated the areas.
This isn't much of a park. In fact it seems more like a campground than anything else Benson thought as he drove on.
They finally reached the main building of East Pines. It was a short, square, and very plain-looking building. The park crew became familiar with this building during the last winter. Gene and the East Pines employees actually helped Benson and the crew stop a rogue elf from destroying Christmas. Benson hoped that Gene would remember this act of mutual respect between the rival parks so that he could get answers out of him more easily today.
The cart rolled up the dirt path right to the main building of East Pines park.
Benson brought the cart to a stop; the crew all exited the cart and headed towards the building. They were once again "greeted" by an East Pines guard.
"Where do y'all think you're headed?" asked the guard in a Southern drawl.
The park crew were all taken aback at the odd accent. It wasn't very common to hear someone have a Southern accent in a northeastern state like Oregon.
"We need to talk to Gene. This is really urgent so please let us-" Benson began but was cut off by the guard.
"Ain't no way all o' ya are goin' in. Only one o' ya." barked the guard as he eyed all of them suspiciously.
The crew all conversed with each other to see who was the most fitting to go inside. Out of all of them, only three were likely candidates to go in. Either Skips, Pops, or Benson. Pops is the boss' son and he is technically the superior of everyone in the group. But he was ruled out because of his rather eccentric personality and odd quirks. That just left Skips and Benson.
Skips spoke up in his gravelly voice "Benson, you should be the one to go in. Even though you and Gene are rivals, I can tell that deep down he really does respect you in some way."
"You really think so, Skips? I mean, how do you know?" Benson asked.
"I've been around on Earth long enough to read any person like an open book. I've already got Gene figured out." he replied in his unintentionally intimidating yet calm way.
"Alright Skips, I trust you." Benson replied. He knew from having Skips as a co-worker for so long that he could undoubtedly rely on the big yeti's judgment. Benson then turned to the guard, "I'm going in to see Gene."
The guard stepped aside and allowed Benson to access the door. Behind him he could hear Rigby leading the crew to chant out encouragements like "BENSON! BENSON! WOOOO! YEAH BENSON!" He couldn't help but crack a small smile at his own employees actually cheering him on for once instead of cursing him. Benson reached out and put his hand on the doorknob. He inhaled deeply, let it go slowly, then opened the door. He started to make his way down the dimly lit hallway. At the end of the hallway he could see the door he was looking for. The plaque outside the door read EAST PINES PARK MANAGER – GENE.
Time to settle this whole mess once and for all he thought to himself as he made his way down the hallway.
"No, please, you don't have to do this. This isn't how it was supposed to happen."
"It's already too late, Gene. The plan has been set in motion."
"I'm begging you please, they don't deserve it. It's not their fault..." Gene pleaded futilely into the phone.
"Sniveling like a lost child won't save them, Gene. You should've taken them all out long ago. It didn't have to be like this." the menacing voice taunted on the other end.
"Please, I-" Gene began, but suddenly there was a knock at the door. "I'll have to call you back later." he whispered into the phone.
Gene cleared his throat and took a few short seconds to compose himself , "Okay, you can come in."
He heard the doorknob turn and the door open with a shuddering creak. To his surprise, he found a certain gumball machine making his way into the office.
"Benson? What are you doing here?" Gene questioned.
"Look, Gene, I need you to answer some important questions for me. I also need you to be completely honest with me on these answers." Benson began, he looked gravely into the vending machine's eyes.
A bit taken aback by this sudden visit, Gene nodded involuntarily and blurted out "Of course. What do you need?"
"Earlier today, this... monster.. attacked my park. And I have reason to believe that you and your employees were behind it all." Benson spoke, his eyes never broke away from Gene's. He was deadly serious.
"Benson, you seem to forget that we have a truce going on. I did not order my men to do anything to provoke you guys into a prank war again." Gene replied. He did as best as he could to mask the fear and worry in his voice.
Benson pounded the desk furiously, his head turned a sickening shade of red. "BULLSHIT!" Benson screamed at the top of his lungs. He threw the wooden disc with the markings on the desk. "IF YOU HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT, THEN WHY IS YOUR FUCKING PARK LOGO ON THIS THING THE MONSTER LEFT BEHIND?"
Gene was silent, his eyes locked onto the wooden disc. His heart sank when he saw the small object.
"GENE, SOME OF PARK OUR PATRONS DIED! OUR PARK PATRONS! I NEED SOME ANSWERS! WHAT IS GOING ON?" Benson raged.
If only you knew Gene thought to himself defeatedly.
Should I tell him? Can I tell him? Gene thought about what the consequences would be if he did tell Benson. All he knew was that it wouldn't end well for him.
"Benson, I..." Gene began. "I..."
"YOU WHAT? SPIT IT OUT!" Benson demanded.
"I..." Gene struggled. "I... am going to have to ask you to leave..." he finally said devoid of any emotion. He pressed a button under the desk, and almost immediately two guards barged into the room and detained Benson.
"NO! GET OFF!" Benson struggled furiously against his captors but it was no use. They escorted him out of the office and threw him roughly out the front door of the building. The rest of the crew looked on with outrage and were ready to fight. But more guards game out of the building armed with guns. The guard with the southern accent spoke up.
"Y'all are gon' hafta leave the premises. We'll escort y'all out. Anyone who resists is just fixin' to be shot. Understand?" he drawled.
The crew had no choice but to comply. They all piled into their golf cart and rolled slowly down the dirt road towards the park entrance. Two golf carts filled with armed guards flanked them as they made their way down the road.
They reached the front gate of East Pines and were just about ready to head back to their own park. Mordecai looked back behind him and saw another golf cart speeding straight for them. It screeched to a halt a few feet from their own golf cart. "Dude look, it's Gene!" Mordecai exclaimed.
Gene hopped out of the cart and headed towards the park crew. His own guards came up to him to ask what was going on.
"Gene, sir, what's going on?" one guard asked.
Gene turned to the guard and replied, "I'll handle them from here on. You and the rest of the guards get back to your usual patrol routes around the park."
"Of course, sir." the guard said. He and the rest of the guards turned and headed back into East Pines.
Gene was left alone with Benson and the rest of the guys.
"Look, I really shouldn't be doing this, but it's something I have to do." Gene began. "The information I'm about to tell you may just end up getting me killed."
Benson looked at him intently, "Gene, whatever you know, you have to tell us."
Gene reached into his golf cart and pulled out an old, wrinkled roll of paper. He then walked over and gave it to Benson. "On that roll of paper is a map to a secret location within this park. It is a hidden town that has been forgotten by the outside world." Gene explained. "It is called Gravity Falls."
Benson looked confused, "What does this have to do with what happened at our park?"
Gene held up his hand to signal the gumball machine to be silent. "Once there, you will need to seek out a certain man. He is the one who can answer all your questions."
"Dude, what's his name? We have to know his name if we want to find this guy." Mordecai spoke up.
Gene replied "The name of this man has something to do with the name of this park. That's all I can tell you." After a brief pause he continued "Once you find him, be sure to mention your boss' name to him."
What? Mr. Maellerd is involved with this too? What the hell? Benson pondered.
Benson's thoughts were interrupted suddenly. The sky once again turned black, sickly clouds of varying shades of purple rolled in. The horrible droning noise filled the air once again. It seemed to last an eternity. Then, as suddenly as it came, it went away again. Gene was no longer standing. He was lying face-up on the ground. To everyone's horror they saw his face contorted into an expression of indescribable fear. They looked further down and saw the glass on his body was completely shattered; the snacks that filled the vending machine's body were strewn about on the ground around him. Gene was dead on the ground before them.
"Shit, bro! What happened?" Muscle Man blurted out.
"I think that thing came back because of what Gene gave us." Benson replied still in shock. "He sacrificed himself to give us this information, so it must be important."
He turned to the rest of the crew, "We need to find Gravity Falls."