( Dipper Pines )

He stared out the window of the house he was currently in. Quiet, dark, streets were all that he could see. He couldn't tell if there was anything out there, while it hadn't been dark for long, without street lights and house lights, it was dark. There hadn't been anything outside that he could see, since they had made it to the building. He had been checking out the window almost every five minutes or so. When he wasn't looking out the window, he was checking on Mabel, and Wendy.

He didn't know what happened to everyone else. Hopefully they made it back to the Bunker.

Everything had been going great. They had managed to gathered most of the animals, and the plants. They had also gathered any items that Scarlet had wanted to keep. Had it all loaded then had started to make their way back to Gravity Falls, when GIFany's drones, and the Shifters had managed to separate the truck that him Mabel and Wendy were in from the rest of the group.

The Shifters and drones seemed more interested in their vehicle, and not the rest of the group. Dipper had radioed to the rest of the group to continue back home. That they would lose them. They had the truck with mounted guns, and they had the magnet gun, which could have been the reason that they had been targeted. GIFany must had realized how effective the magnet gun was. They had learned that even the Shifters would act confused a bit after the magnet gun was used on them. Dipper assumed that GIFany had something implanted into the Shifters so she could control them.

It took a bit but they had managed to lose them. Wendy used the magnet gun since she had the best aim. By the time they had lost the Drones and Shifters, it had gotten dark outside. After she had disabled the drones, then stun the Shifters, Dipper had managed to be able to lose them.

Wendy was exhausted, and currently sleeping on the sofa in what he assumed was a living area. Mabel was making something to eat for them in the kitchen, he hoped that she was able to find something in the kitchen. At least hope she had brought something with them. Honestly, anything at all on their stomachs would be better than nothing.

He didn't know much about the drones, or the Shifters, but he was sure this house wouldn't keep them out. Mabel and Wendy were calm in the illusion of the safety of the house, and he didn't want to dash their hopes. So, the best thing he could do was to keep checking on them.

From what he saw, when he wasn't watching out for the enemy, they were in some housing area. Other than that, they didn't know where they were. They had no kind of map to tell them how to get back to Gravity Falls, and if they tried to use any device to figure it out, GIFany would find them in a heartbeat. That wouldn't be good at all.

"Food is ready," Mabel came out of the kitchen carrying plates, that she set down on the coffee table. Then reached down and shook Wendy's shoulder. "Time to eat."

"Hmm? Oh, thanks, Mabs." Wendy sat up, and stretched. "I'm starving!"

"Yeah, thank you, Mabel." He sat down, trying to ignore the window. He knew that he was wasting his time looking out the window. If he spotted the drones, or any of the shifters, there was nothing he could do. That, and he would be at more risk of being seen.

"So, this house looks like people packed up, at least." Mabel commented as she grabbed her own plate. "I mean, there are things missing. A lot of the cabinets were empty. So, it's not as creepy as that other town."

"Yeah, but still. The fact that people were, essentially, herded out of here, that's still creepy." Dipper paused to take a bite of his dinner, not sure what it was, at least it tasted good. "We don't even know what happened to the people. Were they moved to another town? Or were they used for something else?"

Dipper had no idea what an insane sentient computer program could do to humans. Maybe weapons testing? That was morbid, but was a possibility. Then again, the people could also be used to build machines and weapons for the AI. Was GIFany ruler of the world, or only their country? Had any other nation managed keep GIFany's influence out of their areas? If so, there might be hope for them yet.

"Lets not think about that. It'll lead us down a dark road." Wendy looked over at him, maybe she had assumed he had already been thinking about those things. "So, what are we gonna do?"

"Do?" Mabel asked.

"Yeah, we can't stay here. It's only a matter of time before GIFany starts having the shifters search these houses. Y'know, since they lost us here, I think she'd have them search here." Wendy had a point.

"Well, I suggest that we sleep in shifts, then try to get out of here." Dipper hoped they'd make it back home.

"It's better to leave at night though. I'm sure the shifters will have issues seeing at night. And we can totally disable the drones with the Mag Gun." Another good point from Wendy. "One of us can sleep, one can drive, and the other can watch out, with the Mag Gun. We still get rest, in shifts. Plus, we get a move on. Hopefully, we can find a place to hide out during the day."

"That sounds like a plan." Dipper finished his food, and set his plate down.

"I'll drive first," Wendy also set her plate down, "I remember which direction we came from, and remember some of the other landscapes, since I was looking around for shifters. I think I can get us back on track, to get back home."

"Well, I guess we should do this before we lose our nerve." Mabel gathered up the plates. "I'll go make some stuff to eat, so if we get hungry, we'll have something handy."

( Mabel Pines )

Their plan wasn't exactly as she had imagined it. During their escape from the shifters and drones, they hadn't realized how cold it was. Maybe it could have been due to it being daylight outside. In the middle of the night, standing in the back of the truck, Mag Gun in hand while scanning the area for anything that my be after them, it was a lot colder than she thought.

'Wish I had thought about bringing a blanket.' Mabel thought as she sat down in the back of the truck, her back against cab of the truck.

She wished that she was inside the truck with Dipper and Wendy, but she didn't want to wake up Dipper, and Wendy was the only one that had been paying attention to where they were coming from. It had only been an hour since they had left the house they were in, and they hadn't gotten that far. Wendy had to drive slow, since she didn't want to use the headlights and alert anything that they were moving around.

Mabel put the gun down and pulled out food that she had packed. She didn't think that there would be any drones or shifters. Odds were that drones would come around. She had hoped that shifters at least felt cold, since even the clothes were the shifter's skin.

…

After a couple hours they had entered another developed area, and pulled the truck over under a bridge. She assumed it was so they couldn't be spotted from the air by drones. She jumped out the of back of the truck, and got into the cab.

"It feels so good in here!" She exclaimed as she got in next to Dipper. She was really loving the heat.

"It's pretty cold out there, huh?" Wendy asked, while Dipper yawned, who was still waking up. "We shouldn't be too far from the compound that Scarlet it from. Meaning, we're only a few hours from the bunker."

"Hope everyone made it." Mabel put her hands over one of the vents.

"Grunkle Stan was with them on the mounted gun, and almost all of them followed us." Dipper yawned and stretched as best he could, "That's why we left the group. The moment they made it through the tunnel, they would be safe."

She had almost forgotten that Gravity Falls was a safe area from GIFany's army. Remembering that helped her relax a bit. They were so close to home, but she was so tired. She wondered if they were going to push on to Gravity Falls, or wait here in the truck.

"I'm starting to get tired, I'm sure Mabel is tired." Wendy yawned, and reached over to grab the bottle that had water. "And Dip can't drive and watch out for us. So, I think we should go somewhere to sleep for the night, and go to the bunker when we wake up."

"I know we had that plan of taking shifts, but I think we should do this plan. Please, Dipper?" Mabel asked stifling a yawn.

"I'm not gonna argue with a bit more sleep." Dipper muttered, almost as if he was falling back to sleep. Which was proven to be that he was, indeed, falling asleep when she looked over to him.

"Seems the 'aye's' have it." Wendy put the truck in gear, and Mabel assumed she was looking for a place that would hide the truck from the sky, and, she hoped, would have power so they could stay warm for the night.

…

Mabel could see the mountain that the tunnel went through, they were almost home. She wondered what they would find at the bunker, would everyone be there to greet them? Had they gotten away safely?

'Of course they will be there.' She thought to herself. 'Grunkle Stan was with them, and Soos. Everyone will be alright.'

She had thought that she would be more excited the closer they got to home. But now that it was happening, she was worried something bad had happened. Anything could have happened. They knew that a lot of the drones and shifters had followed them, but they hadn't known how many there had been to begin with.

"We're almost..." Wendy had started, then slowed down as the tunnel came into view.

Drones littered the ground around entrance to the tunnel, pieces of shifters also laid strewn around, along with bodies. Obviously the group had made it this far, at the very least. She wasn't sure how many drones and shifters they had passed. Wendy had to maneuver around the drones and shifter corpses, but had managed to make it to the tunnel, and found that it was empty.

'He had been right.' She looked over to her brother. Dipper had been sure that the shifters and drones couldn't make it into the valley that had once housed Gravity Falls, and still housed the Bunker. The other side of the tunnel looked the same as it had when they left. That was good in her mind, it meant that none of GIFany's forces had gotten in.

"At least it's clear on this side." Dipper sighed out, he was obviously relieved, which told her that Dipper had been worried about his theory being wrong.

"That's good. Lets hope the Bunker is the same way." Wendy turned off of the gravel road, onto a dirt path that would lead to the Bunker.

…

They saw the Semi truck first, sitting in front of the entrance to the cave, that in turn lead to the bunker. The other mounted truck came into view. They pulled up next to the other truck and got out of the truck. They stretched after a long ride before walking towards the entrance of the cave.

She had half expected to be tackled by someone as they entered the entrance to the bunker. Had expected someone to be there to greet them. Then she thought about all the carnage outside the valley. She wasn't sure when the fighting had stopped. She guessed that the others could still be asleep, or at least resting.

The door opened after Dipper had put the code into the keypad, and they walked in. It started off as quiet as they made their way towards the common area. They had wanted to call out to their friends, but didn't want to wake anyone up if they were tired, and sleeping. So, she assumed if anyone were awake they would either be in the common room, or in the workshop on the AI brain.

"So, where do you think everyone is?" She asked.

"Well, no one knows we are here. The system only alerts people when a wrong code is entered." Dipper put his hand on her shoulder, which made her feel better.

"Well, they have to be around here some..." Wendy started, though was interrupted.

Stan came around the corner and stopped dead in his tracks as he stared at them. It seemed as if he wasn't sure what he was seeing at first.

"You guys made it!" Stan stepped towards them.

"Stan!" They all called out at once.

"We saw all the shifters and drones." Dipper started.

"Did everyone... I mean. Is everyone...?" Mabel couldn't figure out how to ask the question that she wasn't sure that she really wanted to know the answer to.

"Everyone is alive." Stan hesitated. "Couple were injured though."

"Is it serious? Who?" Wendy asked

"Soos got a few bumps and bruises, and Pacifica broke her leg. She's currently resting in her room. Candy, Ford, and Tambry are working in the 'lab', as Ford started calling it. Scarlet is tending to Pacifica."