Wendy's summer vacation before college was far from what she expected. Working at the Shack, nothing exciting really happened; frustrating customers were as interesting as her days got. She'd expected more of the same, boring summer days. But when the boss's grand niece and nephew came to visit for the first time, things started getting interesting. Creatures that she'd only ever seen in kids story books became real, and things became far more exciting than spray painting the town ever could be.

And these kids were stuck in the middle of it all.

So, it was safe to assume who was at the center of this mess.

She'd run into the mall for god knows what, when a wave of something pulsated through the town. Panic spread through the shoppers, while Wendy was looking for somewhere to hide. The general rule of thumb, if something pulses through the air in Gravity Falls, you hide.

She knew she probably didn't have time to run back home, and most definitely didn't have time to get to the shack, (what was likely ground zero.) She just hoped that the Pines's were okay. Hoped her family was okay. Jumping into a storage locker, (sorry to whoever's stuff she just threw out,) she just managed to shut the door before another wave came through.

God knows how long she was in that locker. It could have been days, or maybe minutes. But, when Wendy finally opened the door, it looked like a bad remake of a Mad Max movie. Shopping bags were strewn around the mall, the contents spread across the ground. It was quiet, so quiet. Disturbing for a mall to be silent, to be abandoned. Eerie.

Slowly, she crept out from the store she'd hidden in. It seemed like the rest of the mall was in the same state. Where was everyone? How long had she been in that locker? What was that thing from before? Wendy physically shook away the questions. Now was not the time, and she wouldn't get any answers by standing there.

So, she ventured outside.

For about ten minutes.

When she saw the water tower running around with a fucking mouth, she nearly ran back into the empty mall. She wasn't above admitting she was scared. It looked like a colorful, weird, apocalypse out there.

What the hell?

~~~~~~~~~Line~Break~~~~~~~~~

It took a bit more than a full day for her to build up enough courage to leave the mall again. It wasn't much better.

Several buildings were crumbling, debris scattered everywhere, some having even caught fire. There didn't seem to be any people left, but creatures ran free. Some were frantically running from something, the same ones she'd seen in pages of Dipper's journal, and others she could only describe as a nightmare. Off in the distance, floating in the sky, (ominously filled with dark clouds, of course,) was a pyramid. For some reason.

Wendy knew that if she wanted answers, her best bet was to get to the Mystery Shack. And, luckily for her, most of the way there was covered in forest. More cover is a better chance of survival. Who knows, maybe the lumberjack competitions would come in handy again.

There wasn't much in the mall that would be helpful, but she snagged a baseball bat before she left. It was better than no weapon, after all. With that, she left the mall for the third, and final time.

Getting into the forest was surprisingly easy, all things considered. Aside from a few close calls with flying eye bats, (what the fuck?) she'd managed relatively well. And, considering she was still walking around with only a slightly faster heartbeat, she'd say that she was doing pretty damn good.

So, Wendy continued on her trek to the shack. Honestly, she'd never been in this part of the forest before, but she refused to let that stop her. And she wasn't stupid. Wendy knew how easy it was to get lost, especially in an unfamiliar forest. So, she marked her path. Every few minutes, she'd grab two sticks and make an 'x' on the ground. If she couldn't find the sticks, she'd stack rocks. Because no way was she going to get lost in the forest during what was apparently the fucking apocalypse.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been walking, nor did she know how much farther to the shack, but something made her stop. She'd come across what appeared to be a burnt shack? Definitely not the Mystery Shack, no. This one wasn't a triangle. It didn't make sense. Yes, some things in town were burning, so it wasn't much of a stretch to assume some of the fires made it to the forest, but then how would the fire have fizzled out? The scorch marks appeared to be old, and it certainly wasn't on fire now. So then what happened?

It might be a reach, but maybe..? Was this where Dipper had run off to?

Wendy wasn't told much after Dipper ran away. Only what Stan had said, (Ford had run him off,) and what Nate and Lee had told her. And, to be honest, she didn't want to believe what they'd said. Knocking him out, throwing Dipper over his shoulder like a sack? It just didn't sit right with her.

All she did know was that Dipper had run away into the forest. She'd assumed that he'd used it for cover, and then went into town. But, what if he hadn't left..?

Wendy approached the shack carefully, not really knowing what to expect. When she tried to open the door, it all but crumbled. To be quite honest, it was a miracle that the shack was even standing. Peering in, she could see some, now burnt, old furniture, and not much else. Shaking her head, she turned around. Even if that was where Dipper had been staying, he certainly wasn't now. She had to keep moving.

So, she turned around and left.

It wasn't long before she stumbled into a clearing. Her initial plan was to walk around it, not wanting to lose her cover, but then she saw something. Or rather, someone.

"Mabel?!"

The girl stirred slightly, but wasn't really moving. That terrified Wendy. She quickly ran over to the other, preparing to see blood. But there was nothing.

"Mabel!" She tried again. It took several minutes of Wendy calling out to her, and Mabel shifting aimlessly, but eventually, she got a response.

"Wendy..? What-" she sat up a bit, having been passed out on her stomach. Though wobbly, her arms managed to hold up her weight. "What's going on?"

"We have to get to the Shack," Wendy spoke decisively, knowing she wouldn't be able to explain, knowing that being in a clearing like this was dangerous. She started to lift Mabel to her feet.

"Wait," Mabel's eyes widened, "Dipper! Where is he? Dipper!?"

"Mabel! Stop shouting. He isn't here." Wendy decided that it wasn't likely that she'd be able to walk on her own, and lifted Mabel onto her back. It wasn't ideal, being vulnerable and unable to fight back should she need to, but it would have to do. Wendy couldn't just leave her here.

"No! He was! Where is he?" Mabel squirmed on Wendy's back, but she held strong.

"Mabel, he isn't here. It's just us. And we have to get to the Shack!" Wendy didn't wait any longer, she started in what she hoped was the direction of the shack. She really couldn't afford to get lost, not now. She gripped the bat she still managed to hold onto even harder.

It wasn't until several (silent) minutes into their walk did Mabel speak again.

"Turn right."

"What?" Despite her questioning, Wendy still did as told. "Why?"

"There's a large patch of poison ivy over there." Mabel gestured vaguely in the direction of where they had been walking. Wendy nodded, silently walking forward.

If Wendy was being honest, she was scared of what they'd find. Would the shack even be standing? Was it on fire? In the same state as the one she'd found in the forest? Wendy was preparing herself for the worst. So, imagine her surprise when the two finally broke trough the edge of the forest and found the shack perfectly fine. And, if Wendy looked closely enough, there was almost a pink shimmery...thing? Around the shack?

Immediately suspicious, the two slowly made their towards it. When nothing immediately jumped them, they took it a good enough sign, trying the door. It opened.

The sight that met them upon walking in was nothing Wendy could have expected. Cowering in the unlit living room were a group of people and...gnomes? A unicorn? A bear? With a few too many heads? Later. She'd address that later.

"Guys, it's just us." Wendy set Mabel down slowly, raising her hands out in front of her in a placating gesture. She didn't let go of the bat, though. The bat was probably the only things grounding her right now, she wasn't giving it up anytime soon.

"Mabel?" A deep voice came from the back of the group. "We thought you'd been taken," Grenda trailed off, holding onto Candy tightly.

"I'm happy to see you guys, but... What's going on?" Mabel's voice wobbled a bit, but no one said anything. It was the bear(?) that spoke next.

"The end of times." The group's shoulders slumped, every one of them looking utterly hopeless.

"I'm gonna need more than that, bear. When did this happen? Why is it happening? I need specifics." Wendy clutched the bat tighter than ever. This couldn't be happening. It just couldn't. She was going to go to college next month, across the damn country. She'd get a diploma, and do something more than cut down trees in this boring town. The world could not be ending right now.

"You wanna know what's going on?" The rich girl, Pacifica spoke now. "Her brother has the hots for a fucking triangle, and decided to bring on the end times!"

That caught Wendy's attention. Dipper? A triangle? Hadn't he spoken about something like that before all this started? Something about a psycho triangle possessing him. What was his name? Ben? Will?

"Bill?" Mabel's voice was higher, having gone several shades paler. Her hands were shaking.

"Well, he looks human now, but yeah. They're living it up in the floating pyramid." Pacifica huffed, crossing her arms. "We think it happened a week ago." That left Wendy stunned. A week? There was no way she'd been in the forest for more than a day. So then, how long had she been in the mall?

"What about Gruncle Stan? Gruncle Ford?" Mabel's voice shook, eyes glassy with unshed tears. Clearly the news about Dipper had shaken her. Wendy decided to process the issue later. There were bigger priorities at the moment.

"We think that Ford was taken. Stan though..." Grenda glanced behind the two, at the chair they'd been facing away from. And there, in the single chair in the living room, sat her boss. He was in the same position as he always was when sitting there, but something seemed wrong. His shoulders were slumped, eyes barely blinking, and his gaze unwaveringly on the black television.

"He has not moved." Candy sighed. Mabel sobbed, loudly. She covered her mouth, and waved Wendy away when she moved to comfort her. Slowly, the girl walked over to her great uncle, all but collapsing on her knees by the chair. She spoke quietly, so Wendy couldn't hear, but she could definitely hear the other's muffled sobs.

"What do you mean by 'taken?'" Wendy eventually asked, turning away from the two family members. The sight was too heart wrenching.

"The eye bats. If they see you, they take you away." Grenda looked over to one of them, the one who'd married a bird. (Wendy couldn't be bothered trying to remember his name.) It wasn't hard to recognize him, given the fact that his shoulder was stone, carrying the bird on it in a similar state.

"Okay. So, what's the plan?" There was no way Wendy was the only one refusing to accept this. She couldn't be the only one wanting to fight back.

"Survive."

Okay, hell no. Hell fucking no. Wendy was not going to sit back and watch the world fucking burn. She wasn't going to watch these people shrivel under their own hopelessness. She had no idea where her family was. Had no idea what was going on with Dipper. But she did know one thing; she was going to fucking do something.

A/n: Um............Hi? Is anyone still reading this..?
I have literally no excuses why it took me so long to update....sorry?
I swear that I'm not gonna take that long to update for the rest of the story!!! Forgive me!!!
Thank you for reading this! Please vote and leave a comment!