Nothing wakes you up as fast as remembering you're about a hundred feet off the ground. Luckily, after a good eight hours of sleep, I was still on the water tower. Though I suppose if I wasn't, waking up wouldn't have been an option. I was scorching since I didn't remove any clothes other than my hat when I fell asleep. That, combined with the heat of an Oregon summer and my sleeping bag, meant I was practically drenched in sweat. But since there were still cars on the road below, and no space up here, I decided against changing clothes. I figure I'd have to live through a lot worse before my journey was over. Might as well get used to it.
Lugging the bag up the ladder was hard since I was working against gravity. But now, I could make gravity work for me. After relocating the rather valuable laptop to my backpack, I simply dropped the bag off the tower. Watching something that heavy fall a hundred feet was oddly satisfying. Though I think I might've hit a squirrel.
After that, getting down was still hard, the heavy backpack and sweaty hands made certain of that, but it was easier than it would've been if I hadn't remembered that gravity was a thing. Once I was on the ground, I checked to make sure I hadn't hit a squirrel (I had not.) and went on my way. My first goal was to make it to the next town. Once I got there, I would eat and see if they had a bus station. If they did, and there weren't any police near it, I'd go from there.
But right now the only two ways of getting there were walking and hitchhiking. The road was full of cars, but I knew that a young girl riding in a car with a mysterious older man would never go well. So walking it was.
Walking for long distances was never something I needed to worry about. We had a limo for that. So walking for miles and miles was a new experience for me. And it sucked. (Though miles and miles might be a bit of an exaggeration.) I ended up walking for fifteen minutes before I had to take a break. It wasn't my fault, though. The chase yesterday left my legs sore, the scar on left my arm meant I could only use my right to carry the heavy bag, and the backpack was made my back hurt. So after fifteen minutes, my entire body was in pain. All I could think while I was walking was "People do this for fun?".
After settling down to take my break, I grabbed out one of the water bottles that Dipper had packed and took a drink. It felt great, but it reminded me of something. I hadn't peed since the day before I left. The sudden realization hit me. I ran towards the woods, leaving the bag by the road. Once I reached the forest, I tried to figure out how to do it. I had never had to do it outside of a bathroom. Eventually, I figured it out. It must've lasted minutes. Having seen movies, I grabbed a leaf and used it to clean up. It was a horrible experience. I pulled up my pants, and exited the woods, watching around me to make sure I wasn't seen. The whole event just made me sweat even more. I took off my hoodie, stowing it in my bag. I knew I'd eventually have to pee again, but I still tried to hold it.
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I wondered why nobody was stopping. The road wasn't extremely busy, but there were still cars on it. You'd think at least one would stop when they saw me. Maybe ask where I was going, or even offer me a ride. I mean, I wouldn't accept the offer, but still. Maybe the blood on my hair was scaring them off.
Oh god, my hair. I hadn't thought about it since I cut it. A quick inspection confirmed my shortened hair. Believing short hair to be "unladylike", my parents never let it go above halfway down my back. I have had long hair for as long as I could remember. I swear they put hair growth formula on my head when I was a baby. Now, the longest strands barely went past my neck. Somehow, it felt... liberating.
I still hadn't washed the blood off. I hadn't come across a source of water, and I didn't want to waste the water in my pack. Once I found water, I would use the scissors to even the lengths. I knew there was nobody around to care about my looks, but my old life had conditioned me to obsess over beauty. So I cared.
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My journey had suddenly become a lot more stressful.
I saw a police cruiser on the side of the road. It was on the side opposite to me, but as soon as I saw it, I ducked into the woods. Once I got further down towards it, I discovered it was not from Gravity Falls, but I still didn't come out of the woods. See, one of the reasons I slept in the tower was so that if the police continued down the road, they wouldn't find me. But now I couldn't stop thinking about them still looking for me on this road. And maybe my parents had reached out to the other towns, using their police to look for me.
I kept to the woods for the next couple miles. I didn't see any more cops, so I came out. But I still kept my eye out for them.
Once I got back on the road, I took a break to eat my... lunch, for lack of a better word. The meal could barely be considered a snack. A cup of pudding and a granola bar. Yum. It would have to do for now. I'll have a bigger meal once I reached the next town. Unfortunately, at my current pace, I would have to camp for the night. Technically, walking through the night was an option, but I wasn't sure if I even could. It was still only noon, so I had time to think about how I would go about camping without a tent.
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Someone stopped. I was walking down the road, still on the lookout for a pond or creek when someone stopped. A car came drove up a little bit ahead of me and stopped. And I swear my heart stopped with it.
I stayed a few feet behind it, analyzing it. It was a small red pickup truck. Oregon license plate. No bumper stickers. I guess the driver had expected me to keep walking until I was next to them, because when I didn't, they put it in reverse. I jumped back when it started moving towards me. I thought about running but decided against it. I thought maybe they're nice. I mean, they're probably an axe murderer, but maybe they're a nice axe murderer.
But it wasn't an axe murderer. It was a lady, which, honestly, didn't make me any less scared. She asked me what I was doing. I didn't answer. Then she asked if I needed a ride. I still didn't respond. I just sort of stared at her, unsure of what to say. Last time I answered a lady trying to get me transportation, she sold me out to the police.
I decided to continue walking. I think this confused her. She kept driving slowly next to, asking me if I was okay. Then she asked me something that made me speak up. "Should I call the police to pick you up?"
"No!" I sort of yelled my answer at her. Realizing my mistake, I lowered my volume. "I'm... I'm fine. Just taking a walk." I don't think she believed me, but she seemed to go along with it.
"Okay..." She drove off after that. I ducked back into the woods for the next hour or so.
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I thought about calling Dipper. I had kept my phone off since I'd arrived at the Pines' cabin, knowing my parents would try to call. I wondered if he had tried to call me. I wondered what I would say to him. Nothing had actually happened, except for the chase, which he probably knew about already. I decided to wait until I reached the next town.
Then I thought about calling my parents. Not because I wanted to talk to them, but because I wanted to be angry at them. I wanted them to know how I felt. I had left the letter, but part of me wanted to tell them with my own voice. Maybe I would call them someday. But not today. Let it linger, I told myself.
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Dinner was about as eventful as lunch. But since I had spent the whole day walking, well, okay, some of the day walking, I decided to give myself a treat. Instead of a pudding cup and granola bar, I had a pudding cup and two granola bars. Yay. Rationing wasn't my issue. I knew that I could easily restock on food when I reached the next town. The problem was that Dipper's camping pack was full of food you have to cook. And that meant starting a fire. Having never started one before, I figured it wouldn't be a good idea.
But now came the hard part. I was walking along a country road with nothing in sight but fields and rocks and woods. And I had to find a place to sleep. I still had a few hours to find one, but I didn't want to wait too long. Still no water. If I find a suitable sleeping place before I find water, I think I'll end up using what's left in the water bottle I had been drinking out of throughout the day.
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It was about nine when I came across the barn. I had seen them along the way, but this was the first one I'd seen that didn't look... occupied. The field around it was empty, no crops being grown at all, and calling the house across from it decrepit was an understatement. The barn wasn't exactly in a better state, but now that I knew ghosts were real, creepy old abandoned houses were the last place I wanted to stay. Sure, the barn also had a chance of being haunted, but I figured the chances were slimmer.
The barn was mostly empty. There were some stables, and the ground was mostly covered in hay. There was a ladder leading to a second story. I left my bag on the first floor and headed up. The first thing I noticed was the cobwebs. They were hard to miss. Especially the one that covered my face as I got near the top. I recoiled, almost falling off the ladder. I climbed back down, got out my umbrella, climbed back up, and swung around like a blind knight in the middle of a battle. Once I got the place cobweb free, I set up my sleeping bag.
Since I hadn't found water, I got out the bottle I had been drinking out of. It was about two-thirds empty. I used one hand to hold my hair up and the other to pour water on the ends. With some scrubbing, the blood eventually came out. Then I used the pocket knife to cut it down even more, to make it even. By the end of it, my hair didn't even go down my neck. It still wasn't completely even, but it would do. It would grow back, of course, but not blonde. When I was young, my parents decided blonde hair was more sophisticated than black hair. So every week, I'd have to bleach it and dye it.
Now I didn't have any bleach or dye. And even if I did, I wouldn't use it. I'm leaving my old life behind. It was my parent's decision to give me blonde hair. But not anymore.
Haircut complete, I went back to my sleeping bag. Even though I knew I would only make me sweat, I donned my hoodie, calling it "extra protection". It took awhile to fall asleep, thanks to my aching, sweating body. At least, I could look forward to the town tomorrow.
Assuming my body doesn't shut down completely before I get there.