Authors note: New chapter ahoy! It's been a few days since I've uploaded a new chapter, but that's because of new ideas I'm trying to work out with the story and college work as well, so chapters will come in a bit slower. Good news is that things will get A LOT more exciting now, especially with this chapter. So just sit back and enjoy the new chapter.
P.S: Reviews are always welcome, I always encourage it.
Chapter 6: No Choice
O-O-O
It had been about forty minutes after Dipper's encounter with Wendy, still thinking about what she had told him, that she could help him and his loved ones free, free from this town, free from the Slegs, and thinking about this alone was frustrating, still torn between freedom and safety, if staying here or escaping would guarantee survival, he wished Mabel were here so he could talk to her about this, but he knew that CSF had the town square completely in their grasp, so talking about escape in the center of CSF propaganda wasn't a good idea, but all Dipper wanted now was Mabel to just be here.
"What's taking her so long?" He thought, now getting worried about his sister.
Dipper knew that sometimes Mabel would be a little late to meet up with him, she told him what she does at work, being an amateur nurse at best, only managing to heal minor wounds and yet constantly had to manage patients with more serious wounds, mostly caused by the CSF officers, and even told him about the ones that died, the people who couldn't make it and died in front of Mabel, all because of reasons that could have been easily solved if the government bothered to care, so Dipper could understand well enough how stressful and difficult Mabel's job is, but she never took this long.
And unfortunately for Dipper, another announcement came on.
"THE TIME IS NOW TWO FIFTY. ALL CITIZENS ARE REQUIRED TO RETURN TO THEIR DESIGNATED POSTS OR FACE SEVERE PENELTYS. THANK YOU."
Dipper looked around to check if Mabel was anywhere to be found, yet he could find no trace of her, not at all. Now he was really worried, Mabel would never miss a day to be with him on break, it wasn't like her to do this, he wanted to go check out the church himself before, but he knew how strict the CSF were about a citizen's designated post, and if he tried to go anyways, the officers would just arrest him and charge him with unlawful entry, so he was basically stuck outside until Mabel came out.
An officer then walked up to Dipper. "You. Back to your post." Ordered the officer, making Dipper walk away from the center and go back to the warehouse.
All Dipper could do now is work until it was time to go home at nine, by then Mabel would have to be out, Dipper just hoped she was okay.
O-O-O
All Mabel could do is cry.
She just cried to herself for the entire break, all by herself in the back of the church, inside some small room all to herself, crying in the corner of the room, still wearing her sweater covered in dry bloodstains despite Candy and Grenda's best efforts to clean the blood off, she was even in her "sweater town", wanting to ignore everything that just happened for these last ten years, but sweater town wouldn't help her this time, not after what happened with Stan, Waddles, and now Robbie.
Mabel's friends wanted to comfort her, to tell her that everything would be okay, just so she could piece herself back to her normal again, but she ignored them, told them off in a fit of rage and sadness, saying that they didn't understand her and Mabel stormed off to the back, locking herself in this old room just to be alone, having no desire to see anyone at all.
Loud knocks could then be heard from the door, hoping that it was just her friends bothering her, until she heard a vocoder voice outside the door.
"Get out. Now." Ordered the voice sternly.
Not wanting to cause more trouble than before, Mabel wiped away the rest of her tears and opened the door, seeing the Guanian Sleg right in front of her, who noticed Mabel's tear soaked face.
"Crying won't get you off from work." Said the guard, completely unsympathetic to her sadness.
He yanked Mabel by her sweater sleeve, forcefully pulling her with him, speed walked back to where the patients were being treated, Robbie's corpse now gone from the area but not the blood that had been spilt, and roughly pushed her away, almost making her lose her balance.
"You have work to do. Get to it." Ordered the Sleg, leaving Mabel to tend to the patients.
Candy and Grenda saw Mabel and gave her a look if she was alright, Mabel just looked away from them and returned to work, ignoring them to be in her thoughts, the guilt of the deaths around her, the depression of the life she lives now, and the anger against the Slegs, the rage she felt against them was greater than anything she felt now, she just wanted work to just end, to be with her brother, regretting that she missed out on meeting up with him during break and wanted to make it up to him.
She wanted to go home.
O-O-O
After the last hours of work, the final announcement to signal the end of the day had arrived.
"THE TIME IS NOW NINE P.M. ALL CITIZENS ARE REQUIRED TO RETURN TO THEIR HOMES FOR TOMMORROW. ANY CITIZEN CAUGHT VIOLATING CURFEW AT TEN P.M. WILL FACE SEVERE PENALTIES. THANK YOU."
Night had fallen on Gravity Falls, the dark cloudy sky from the day had turned even darker at night, a dark blue sky took over, the clouds now dispersed as the moon shined its light upon the town, with the aid of a starry night to make the dark sky beautiful, which would have lifted the spirits of the residents of Gravity Falls, yet the night's natural beauty was surrounded by the cruelty below, for the night was only meaningless in the town.
The CSF was more active at night, doubling patrols, extra loyalty checks, and even following some residents they suspected of treachery all the way to their homes, even breaching their homes just to preform inspections to confirm suspicions, even if they were wrong, all just to enforce their law and order on the people of Gravity Falls. The police were even harsher than in the day, always stalking the streets for poor victims to harass for their amusement, or to get them arrested so their records will look good on paper for extra benefits, so frequent arrests of people who didn't even break any laws would be made, being thrown to jail or worse for just minding their own business, it was a night of hell that never ended.
In the town square, Dipper waited for Mabel again, this time she actually came to the square as soon as she could. He waved to her as she came up to him, but even through the darkness of the night, he could see that his sister was off, that something was not right about her today. He saw that her eyes were red, along with dried tears from her face, indicating that she had been crying for quite some time, her facial expression looked down, as in she seemed depressed about something, with a look in her eyes that said "I'm in pain.", which definitely worried Dipper and even scared him to no end, wanting to know what was wrong.
"Are you okay?" Dipper asked his sister softly, being careful to not touch a nerve.
Mabel just looked at Dipper morbidly. "Can we talk about this at home?"
Dipper nodded and walked with Mabel back home, wrapping his arm around her shoulders to comfort her, to which she just ignored, stuck in her thoughts about what just happened.
The twins just stayed quiet the whole way home, they had to speak to the gate guards to get through, but they didn't talk to one another for the whole walk, both stuck in their own thoughts about what happened today.
Dipper still thought about Wendy's offer, about leaving Gravity Falls, still conflicted if he should go or not, but now seeing Mabel's condition, he was leaning more towards escape but still unsure if it really was the best for him and everyone else he loves. Mabel was still thinking back about Robbie, how that Sleg just blew his brains out like nothing, along with Stan's aftermath of his torture and Waddles dying, horrible thoughts that came rushing back to her and driving her to her breaking point, not sure if she can take all the pain and sorrow anymore.
The twins were close to home though, only a few blocks away until they could just talk it all out, Wendy's plan, if they would agree to it or not, what happened to Mabel at the church, everything could just be let go when they got home. But as the twins reached their block, they heard a voice that was the last thing they wanted to hear.
"You two. Stop where you are." Ordered a voice from behind.
The twins turned to see a Gecken CSF officer walking up to them, confirming their fears of being stopped by CSF, and they were not in the mood to deal with them now, especially not with everything that just happened today.
"How can we help you, officer?" Asked Dipper politely, not wanting to cause trouble with the officer.
"Not you. Her." Said the officer referring to Mabel, who felt anger when the officer wanted to talk to her, still stuck in her thoughts about everything she lost.
The officer noticed that Mabel was in a trance and wanted to snap her out of it. "Citizen. Look at me when I'm addressing you." Mabel just looked at the officer with annoyance and disgust, having no desire to talk to him.
The officer took a good look at Mabel, noticing not only the look in her eyes, but the dried blood on her sweater as well, raising the officer's suspicions. "You have blood on your clothes. Why is that?" Asked the officer demandingly.
Mabel didn't answer, not wanting to listen to the officer as she decided that she had it with the Slegs, making Dipper look at her fearfully at her lack of response.
"Citizen, why are your clothes covered in blood?" Repeated the officer, slightly raising his voice at Mabel, who still refused to answer.
Dipper attempted to whisper to Mabel. "Mabel, just-
"Shut it." Quickly interrupted the officer, not letting Dipper finish while still staring at Mabel, wanting to make her speak. "What happened?"
"I had an accident." Mabel replied lowly, which aggravated the officer that had little patience for vague answers.
"Take off the sweater." Ordered the officer, Mabel just ignored the officer's orders. "I said. Take. Off. The sweater." He repeated, Mabel still refusing to listen.
Dipper then tried talking to the officer himself. "Officer, please. She's had a-
"You don't speak unless spoken to, citizen." The officer interrupted again, raising his voice at Dipper even further before lowering it again and addressing Mabel again." Take off the sweater, or I will-
"No."
"Excuse me?" Said the officer, surprising both him and Dipper at Mabel's response.
"I'm not taking off my sweater." Mabel said firmly, refusing to give into the Gecken's orders.
"Talk back to me again, and I'll-
"Or you'll what? Beat me on the streets? I'd rather take a beating then listen to you assholes anymore." Argued Mabel.
"Citizen, put your hands behind your head." Ordered the officer, demanding that Mabel listen now.
Mabel lost it, she couldn't take it anymore. All she could do now is shout and argue with the officer now.
"I will NOT listen to you anymore! I've had to put up with this shit for ten fucking years! And after all the horrible things you monsters have done to me and everyone else, all the pain and misery you brought, all the people you've abused and murdered, I can't take it anymore! You do all of this for no reason! NO GOOD FUCKING REASON AT ALL! I will NEVER listen to any Sleg again, so you can take my sweater, AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS!"
Both Dipper and the Sleg were shocked at Mabel's rant, not expecting an outburst like that from her at all, Dipper in particular was shocked out of fear, knowing that there was no way the officer would let this go, and he didn't.
The officer took out his CB radio and contacted other officers around the area. "I have a failure to comply with loyalty check, possible 10-103M. Sending coordinates now."
Mabel then spit at the officer's face, getting the saliva on his mask as he wiped it away, now angry at Mabel for her disobedient action and took out his baton, giving Mabel a swift hit to her gut and then her back, knocking her face down on the sidewalk pavement, Dipper in shock at the sudden action of the officer.
"Prepare to receive civil discipline." Said the officer as he raised his arm to commence the beating.
Dipper only had a split second to react, either let his sister get beaten and arrested so he would be safe at least, or stop the officer from his assault.
It was an easy choice.
Dipper grabbed the officer's arm as he was about to bring down his baton, engaging in a struggle with the Sleg for the weapon as Dipper pushed him away from his sister, not wanting her to get hurt again. Dipper strained himself in the struggle, due to his malnourished state, as the officer held the advantage in strength and overpowered Dipper, pushing him away and charged the twin brother with his baton, making swift, successful hits to his body, over and over as Dipper tried holding back shouts of pain, until Dipper tried backing away and shielded himself around his sister, who was slowly getting up from the blows she had received.
The officer charged again, swinging his baton at Dipper's head, the brother attempted to avoid it but due to his weakened state from lack of food and earlier beatings, he was unsuccessful and received the sharp blow to the head, getting knocked over to the ground next to Mabel, feeling lightheaded and an immense amount of pain, as if his head was hit by a ton of bricks. When Dipper tried getting up, the officer proceeded to lower himself to Dipper and wrapped the baton around his neck with both hands, putting Dipper in some kind of chokehold, preventing Dipper from breathing any air, he was going to strangle him to death.
Dipper struggled to breathe for air and escape the officer's grip, slowly getting weaker as he lost more oxygen, the officer showing no intent to let Dipper live. Mabel turned her head, still dizzy from the blow to her head as she saw what the officer was doing, enraged at what was happening as she got up as quickly as possible, still wobbly from the blow. She tried to pull the officer away from Dipper, but to no avail as the Sleg shook her off and made her fell over her back, but she refused to give up, she was not going to lose her brother to these things, she would never let that happen, she had to think of something fast, otherwise her brother would die right here and now and saw the gun at the officer's waist belt, still holstered in its place.
She had no choice.
Mabel got up quickly from the pavement and as fast as possible, grabbed the gun from the officer's holster, who was still focused on Dipper, and disarmed what looked to be the safety, and did what would be the most dangerous action to commit against the Slegs, aiming the gun at the Sleg and pulling the trigger.
*BANG!*
The officer slumped over, red blood pouring through the back of his head as he fell sideways, loosening his grip on Dipper and laid on the pavement, dead instantly from the bullet as the blood spilled on the concrete. Dipper panted heavily, trying to gulp up as much air as possible to breathe again, and turned to see the dead officer and then to Mabel, looking at her wide eyed as she stared at the body of the Sleg officer, shocked at herself for actually killing the officer. She dropped the gun out of fear, realizing what she had just done, as her brother got up and walked to her.
"I…I-
Dipper then put his hands on Mabel's shoulders, trying to get her attention as her eyes moved to Dipper's face, who looked more frightened than ever, realizing what was going to happen next.
"Mabel, we gotta go now." Dipper said quickly. "And I mean, NOW!"
Mabel shook her head to snap out of her trance and began sprinting with Dipper back to their home, not wanting to stick around any further, knowing that the other officers around the area would see their dead comrade and warn the CSF about the incident, and the CSF will NOT tolerate murder of their own officers. And now Dipper knew what answer to give Wendy.
Because escape is all that's left.
O-O-O
Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls, but I do own the Slegs.