Ford grabbed a shotgun and huffed. “Great, now I have to deal with this.”

My eyes widened as I realized what he was about to do. “Ford, no!” I rushed after him as he approached the elevator.

Mabel ran to my side and glanced back at the screen. “Dipper, are they from the camp?”

I nodded. My heart began to race. How had they found us? What were they going to do to us?

Ford glanced at us. “Do you know these people?”

I bit my lip. “Yeah, we know them. It's a long story." 

“Well, I don’t need an explanation. I’m going to take care of it.” Ford marched into the elevator and clocked the gun.

I raced after him with Mabel in tow. We barely made it into the elevator. “Ford, you can’t kill them!” I shouted as the doors shut, leaving Stan behind.

“And why not?” His eyes narrowed. “Those are FBI agents! I don’t need them arresting us on top of everything else!”

Mabel stood in the corner and remained quiet. Ford’s expression changed. “Let me guess, they’re here for her?”

I begrudgingly nodded. “I don’t know what Piper, Vicky, and all the others are doing out there though. They’re survivors from a nearby camp.” I explained as the elevator came to an abrupt stop.

“Well if they know where Mabel is… I don’t think they’re going to stop coming." Ford told me. “Let’s see what they want.” The doors slid open and we glanced outside to see the entire property was surrounded.

“Come out right now! There’s nowhere to run! Don’t make this any more difficult than it has to be!” One of the agents shouted from outside.

Ford sighed and tossed the gun away. “Come on, there’s no use in trying to delay. There’s just too many of them.” Ford told us.

As we approached the door I noticed Piper was on crutches, gruesome memories of the night we broke Mabel out of the camp and the bullet wound she received echoed back through my mind.

Ford pushed the door to the shack open and put his hands up, I did the same with my good arm and Mabel mirrored us.

So many different faces from the camp that I vividly remembered were looking straight at us, I looked down to see that little boy… What was his name? Zack! And Cody the dog.

Chief Vicky cleared her throat. Her dirty blond hair was down and glistened in the sunlight. “We don’t want any trouble.” Vicky said delicately, I wasn’t assured by her tone when we had weapons pointed at us from every direction.

I locked eyes with Piper but she looked away. Her familiar features were all the same, her hair was still dyed purple and in a ponytail. She had changed her clothes to something more weather appropriate and stood on two crutches with a cast around her leg.

“Trust me when I say we don’t want to cause any trouble for you.” Ford said, nervously glancing at all the guns. “Why are you here?”

Vicky rested her hands on her hips. “I think we all know why. Mabel, we need you. There’s no other person that has a chance at helping us develop a cure to this virus.”
I felt rage build up inside of my stomach, it took everything I had to not run right in between them and scream at her. They didn't need her. I did.

By now Stan had come upstairs and, upon seeing all the commotion, he stepped out to join us.

Mabel stepped forward. “A-alright.” My heart sunk, I couldn’t hold myself back anymore.

“Mabel, what are you doing? Are you crazy? You could die! What if it doesn’t work?” I pleaded, running to her side.

The look in her eyes took me by surprise. It was that of determination. Whenever I saw that look I knew there was no changing her mind.

Ford placed his hand on my shoulder. “Dipper, it’s the only way. I ran an experiment with her blood sample and some virus cells and her blood was able to fight it off. She can end this all.”

My muscles tightened up. Everyone was against me. “No! She’s going to die!” I screamed.

Ford looked down. “Possibly. The surgeries required to find the root of the cure are dangerous, but Dipper, nobody is alive right now. We aren’t living, we are surviving.” Ford told me. “We are hoping to wake up every day and make it to the next. That isn’t a world worth keeping someone in.”
His words echoed through my mind.

But I couldn’t… she was my sister.

She was all I had left.

Mabel took my hand. “Dip,” She said. “I have to do this. You know I do.” I felt a lump form in my throat and tears sting my eyes as I looked over at her.

I sighed, there was no changing her mind. I embraced her, tightly. I didn’t want to let go. I knew I had to at some point but I never wanted that time to come. Eventually, she pulled away from me. “It’s going to be alright.” She assured me.

Mabel began to walk to a van with a couple of agents. Vicky walked over to me and kneeled down, smiling at me. “You’re doing the right thing.” She told me.

A million thoughts swarmed my mind.

“How did you even find us?” I asked.

“Some agents saw you a few weeks back and they’ve been sweeping the area to try and find your location since,” Vicky explained. “Once they found out where you were they asked Piper and I to come with them to try and convince you to come peacefully and once the rest of the camp caught word they insisted on coming too. Mabel is our final hope. If we can’t find a cure from her… this world won’t be able to beat the virus.”

Upon hearing Piper’s name, I was reminded she was here. I looked over at my friend. “Piper…” I said.

Piper glanced up at me, I could tell she was holding back her emotions. “Dipper. Been a minute, hasn’t it? Sorry, we did all that work to break her out just to end up back where we started.” She told me.

I shook my head. “That doesn’t matter. I-It’s good to see you again.” I told her.

Piper couldn’t stop a smile from forming and she gently kneeled down to give me a hug, careful to keep her weight off of her injured leg. “It’s good to see you too Dipper, I’ve been worried sick ever since they lost track of you guys.”

One of the agents walked by us and approached Stan. “She says she wants you to go with her.” The agent told him.

Stan seemed a bit taken aback. “Really? W-well of course!” Stan followed the agent to the van and it began to drive off.

Agents and members of the camp began to load into vehicles and file out. Piper looked around. “Do you want me to stay?” She asked.

I shook my head. “Nah, stay with Mabel. I know you’ll protect her.” I said.

Piper smiled at me and got into one of the cars before it drove off, leaving just Ford and I.

I clutched some grass in my hand and tried to keep myself from screaming.

This was it.

The last few weeks were all for nothing.

“Dipper, I can’t imagine how hard it was to make that decision. To let her go-I mean. I’m proud of you. We can go check up on her when you’re ready.” Ford told me, and he walked back into the house.

I sat on the ground for a long time. I had promised myself I would never let her go again. But now she was gone. And she would probably die just for it to not work. I slowly stood up and walked back into the house.

I wanted to distract myself so I went up the stairs of the building. It was deathly quiet. I threw myself down onto my bed and began to weep into the pillow.

After a while I rolled over and stared at the ground, focusing on a cardboard box sitting on the floor. I noticed a photo and pulled it out of the box. It was a Christmas card with a picture of my mom and dad.

It was unmistakably them. They were smiling in front of our fireplace. I felt a rush of memories looking at the old photo of my house. Why did Stan and Ford have this picture?

I got up from my bed and went downstairs, spotting Ford in the kitchen. I slowly approached him with the card in my hand. “F-Ford?” I asked.

He turned around in surprise. “Oh Dipper, good to see you up. Do you need anything?” He smiled at me and I could tell he was trying to be accomodating.

I shook my head. “I just have a question. Why do you guys have this picture of my parents?” I asked, showing him the card.

Ford shook his head. “I’m not sure, Dipper. I haven’t been in this house for thirty years.” He told me. I opened my mouth to ask but he put his six-fingered hand up. “Let me explain. This sounds unbelievable but trust me, it’s true. That strange machine in the basement is a portal to other dimensions. I fell into it thirty years ago and only recently did my brother rescue me from the strange realms I was trapped in.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling a little disappointed but mostly confused. Maybe this was why Wendy only mentioned one of the twins.
“You’ll have to ask Stanley. Speaking of which, it’s been a few hours. Do you want to go see if Mabel’s surgeries are done?” Ford asked.

I nodded. I wasn’t by any means eager to find out what I was sure had happened, but I couldn’t help but have the tiniest bit of hope. What if she survived.

“And Dipper… I’m sorry. For not trusting you, for trying to hurt your sister, and for shooting you in the arm. Once this is all over with, if you don’t have a home to go back to, I hope you’ll stay with Stanley and I. It’s been a pleasure to get to know you.” Ford told me.

I smiled and nodded. “I’d love to.” We walked outside together and got into a rundown car. Ford turned the key a few times and it finally started up.

I looked up at the sky, the sun had now begun to set and I could see a few stars. I decided to make a wish. All I wanted was Mabel to be alive.