If a Pine Tree Falls in a Forest...

Red at Morning

  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.