Shrunken in an exam

by

Various Authors

Great. Another exam. Another exercise in futility, where your own ignorance is proven to you, showing you just how futile all of that revision had been last night. Why do you even bother?

You begin filing slowly into the examination hall with your fellow victims, noting the stern looks on the face of the invigilators scattered around by the few windows. Despondently, you dump your bag along with the others in the untidy heap beside the entrance, remembering just in time to put your mobile 'phone inside it.

You look around blearily, wondering where your designated seat is, while everyone else seems to know exactly where they are stationed.

Typical.

As you begin to wander, your thoughts drift. It's a perfect summer day outside, and all of the other university students who've finished their exams will be enjoying it, basking in the sunlight and having fun.

You've got another few hours before you can do the same, and even when you're done you won't be comforted. Your girlfriend Naomi is visiting her parents at the moment, and you'll be all alone.

But still, all alone in the summer sun is still preferable to this stinking exam hall.

Finally, by luck rather than judgement, you find your place. A weighty looking paper is waiting for you, and you take a deep breath.

Pause.

What just happened? This isn't the exam hall. There are all these incredibly high pillars, and the ground is rumbling in time with the sound of distant thunder.

Waitaminute.

This IS the exam hall, only now it's a lot bigger. Those rumblings are the footsteps of your fellow university students, and the pillars are the legs of the tables and chairs.

You have no idea how it happened, but somehow you've been shrunk, just like in one of those strange GTS stories that you've read on the web. You're an inch high, and surrounded by people who are very stressed indeed.

What do you do now?

Okay, not everyone has taken their seats yet (the earthquakes are testament to that fact), so there will still be people entering the hall when you head for your bag.

You could wait until things have settled down a bit, but the more people in the room means more bags piled on top of your own; at your size it's going to be hard enough opening the zip, let alone shifting several large objects off the top first.

There is the problem of being trodden on, though. The aisle is host to many giants walking back and forth, much larger and faster than you. They could crush you at any moment were you to head out there.

But could they not also provide a ride? If you jumped onto the foot of one of them, you could get to where you want to go a lot quicker and safer. Unless something were to go wrong...

You could avoid the whole sticky situation by using the desks themselves as cover. Fewer people are walking between the desks at ninety degrees to the aisle, so the main problem there would be the feet of those already seated, swinging about in a bored manner. For example, the ones right behind you are the sandalled feet of some young woman, who is experimenting with sliding her feet in and out of her shoes. It would be death for you if you got in the way.

Although, if you could panic her somehow, by making her think that there's an animal of some sort crawling on the floor, you could cause a distraction that should enable you to get to your bag unmolested. Risky, though.

But you're going to have to make a decision soon, one way or another.

Carefully - ever so carefully - you sneak your diminutive form past the monolithic form of the left foot of the girl seated behind you.

The toes, those dreadful instruments of destruction, move, but you are well away from them, and safe. Taking your time, you are able to stare up at the bare expanse of her leg, stretching into the heavens above you. It's an awe inspiring sight.

You pass several more giants and giantesses on your journey, each as godlike as the last, and each no problem to you as you carefully make your way to freedom.

Your mind is whirling with thoughts of the titans around you as you walk. To you, they truly are deities, able to kill you on a whim. To them, you are a lowly insect, worth only a moment's notice to be ground into a stain. You'd better keep out of their way.

At last you reach your objective, but the mountain before you bears no relation to the small mound that you left earlier. Your bag - and mobile 'phone - are in there somewhere, but how will you find it?

Climbing up the mountain of bags won't do you any good--your bag is buried deep within the mountain, and going higher is only going to make things more difficult.

For once, you're lucky you're so small. You're able to squeeze into the tiny spaces between bags with no trouble. In no time, you come to a green Jansport backpack. Quickly, you climb to the outside pocket, and dive inside.

Your cell phone should be here, but it isn't. That's when you realize....

Wait a minute. Since when did you carry an asthma inhaler around with you?

This isn't your bag.

You desperately try to scramble out the way you came, but something, you don't know what, causes the bags above to lurch and fall. The slim ray of light marking your escape route is blocked out, and you are all alone in pitch darkness.

You explore your prison for the remainder of the examination, wondering what the strangely textured items that you find could possibly be. When you feel the tremors that indicate the standing of several dozen giants, you run towards the bottom, finding somewhere safe where you won't be squished when the bag becomes upright.

It's a nerve shredding few minutes before you feel sudden weightlessness, the very walls around you hefted an impossible distance into the air by unseen muscles. The cacophony of the tumbling items around you is deafening, but you remain secure in your safe space.

The motion of the bag carrier walking isn't so bad. A mild swaying is all that you have to put up with. You're glad that you're cushioned by this small packet of handkerchiefs.

Wait, handkerchiefs? You can see again! Looking upwards, you can see that the top of the bag is letting light in again. You could try climbing out, if you really wanted to.

You climb up to the top of the pocket, eager to see where you've ended up. You know now is not the time to abandon ship--not with the bag being carried by an unknown giant--but at least you'd like to gague where you're going to end up.

The world flies by, almost too big to comprehend. You turn up and backwards, trying to get a glimpse of your transporter. You see medium-length red hair tied in a ponytail, which on a college campus could mean man or woman. You can't see much else, though, as the bag is in your way.

Looking around at the outside world, you can see that you're walking through the student union, probably heading toward the cafeteria. "Must be a freshman," you mutter, knowing that only a freshman would choose cafeteria food for lunch.

Your suspicions are confirmed as your unwitting captor goes through the line and grabs some delicious-smelling food. Your mouth waters as you realize you skipped breakfast this morning. Even cafeteria food sounds good about now.

You reach a table, and the bag is plopped unceremoniously on top of it. You can see your captor now--captress, more precisely. She's a young-looking woman with a nice body and a sweet face, and horn-rimmed, Lisa Loeb-style glasses that accentuate her loveliness.

You have an opportunity to escape this backpack and climb down to the table. Then again, maybe it's best if you just stay put. You're not sure that you don't want this girl to notice you.

The edge of the bag dangles mere millimetres from the table surface, so getting down and out is no problem at all.

Once safely down onto the tabletop, you gaze up in awe at the goddess as she eats.

With her right hand, bedecked with many, many rings, she feeds two whole cows worth of food into her cavernous mouth at a time, before crunching and chewing with enough force to reduce those two cows to so much beef powder.

The lip of the plate is not much further from the surface of the table than your height; you are able to peer over and see that she is enjoying some form of rice dish. You can't identify exactly what the pungent smell is, but it does get your mouth watering.

Should you climb up onto the plate? Getting food is one concern, as is getting the attention of the woman. Both can be achieved by standing on that porcelain surface. There is that awful risk of accidental death, though.

You can probably think of a much better, safer way of getting her attention if you just apply your mind, though...

Atop the plate, you survey the rice field. Steaming brown liquid covers the nearest hill, which is several times your height.

Suddenly the hill collapses! White boulders tumble down as a monstrous fork digs into one side, wrenching half the structure away, up into the sky towards the mouth of the goddess.

You cast your eyes upwards, seeing the underside of her chin as it clenches and unclenches, chewing the rice. You watch the remains move down her throat in a lump as she swallows.

The fork is beginning its descent again. You could wait for it to dig in and then climb aboard it. Or, if you didn't fancy the risk of being eaten, you could try and climb up what remains of the hill and wave your arms until you're seen.

You roll onto your back, scattering more forearm-sized rice grains as you are lifted higher and higher. Getting onto the fork was no problem - getting off it before you're eaten may be more difficult.

As the mouth gets closer, gets bigger, you notice a monstrous, slick creature emerge from it, sliding across the lips before disappearing into the cavern again. You gasp when you realise that it was just the woman's tongue.

The mouth drops open before you, hitting you with the charnel smell of devoured food. The seemingly razor-sharp teeth lie waiting to rend and rip you, and the darkness of the throat seems to be waiting for you.

It doesn't look like she's seen you. So, unless you fancy being eaten, you'd better get off of here. You could just jump, hoping to land somewhere on her face other than her mouth, or you could run back across the rest of the fork, towards her fingers, if you can keep your balance.

Arms outstretched for balance, you run across the thin metal bridge, trying to avoid looking down.

When the fork tilts, shovelling food into The Mouth, you are taken by surprise, and only just mange to grab onto the edge with your fingertips. You are treated to a full surround sound example of the goddess draining every single drop of rice from the fork and swallowing it.

Looking to your right, you can see the thumb of the giantess. It is holding the fork tight, the flesh touching it turning white. It is almost close enough to reach out and touch...

The fork realigns itself again, and now you are hanging in a totally different direction. You could try to shimmy across to the thumb, or you could just jump off of this death trap as soon as you're close enough to the ground again.

Hand over hand, you pull yourself closer. It is fortunate that the goddess is taking her time in eating, keeping her hand steady until she's finished.

Soon you reach the thumb, its bulk terrifying. You move your hands onto the rough, whorled patterns that dance over its tip, and then grip tight as the world blurs.

She must have noticed you touching her, and dropped the fork as she did so. You just manage to hold on, transferring your grip to the end of her nail for a better position.

The thumb stops moving, and you look down to see the plate devastated, rice scattered everywhere by the dropped fork. It seems even more distant now, though, as the giantess has stood up.

The noise from around the cafeteria is picking up now, as if this event were the centre of attention. You'd best move carefully from here on.

If you moved, even just a little, she would feel you, and probably try to crush you. Staying still could be hard though, and at any moment you could fall to your death. And THAT's just with her standing still...

You thought that the woman would never look at her thumb? You may be an inch tall, but that's not THAT small when a woman is looking down to clean up a mess that she just made.

There's no chance at all of you hanging on as she shakes her hand back and forth, trying to dislodge you. You are sent flying downwards, landing with tremendous force on the table.

In pain, but without any broken bones, you look up to see the fork again, being lowered towards you by the monstrous fingers of the goddess. It presses down on you, grinding you into the tabletop.

You feel the tremendous strength of the giantess punishing your frail form, but you're lucky that she's crushing you beneath the main body of the fork rather than impaling you on the prongs - perhaps she may yet recognise your form before she finishes you completely...

The torment does not stop. You feel as if you are being stretched to your limits.

Then you exceed those limits.

Your body caves under the pressure, losing all pretence to its previous identity. Your innards smear over the bottom of the fork, your pain only ending when your miniscule brain finally pops.

THE END.