“Listen carefully.”

“I've removed every trace of you and your family. There's nothing for anyone to find. The radio I've given you will only pick up my frequency. Don't tamper with it, don't fuck with me, or I'll make you subatomic! That trip you were going on? As far as SHE is gonna know, you went on it, and she's got the whole house to herself. And that's how it's gonna stay......unless you get her attention.'

'Now don't worry, I'm not totally heartless. If you put in a good effort, and are still alive, by Sunday night at 6PM...I'll unshrink ya. You have till then. I suggest you get moving.”

Richard stared at the large walkie talkie in his hand with a mixed feeling of confusion, fear, and numbness, attempting to speak but words dying in his throat. His mind was whirling with dizziness and every couple of seconds his vision veered dangerously to completely blackness. He heard every word that the slightly garbled voice spoke, but despite the language being supremely clear the dialogue still made absolutely no sense. None of this did. In fact, he wasn't even fully convinced this wasn't a dream. With his head as swimmy as it was, it sure didn't feel real. He almost began gently tapping the side of his head with the damned walkie in hopes that it would free him from the insanity that he was suddenly thrown in.

How had this happened? A mere hour ago (or was it more?) he had been boarding the RV with his kids for a weekend trip. It was the first time he'd gotten all his kids together in years and with his youngest, having just turned eighteen, recently graduating from high school, it seemed like the perfect time for a get together. He had proposed they return to the campgrounds they had frequented on summer vacations long past, when they were all young. Miraculously, they had all agreed and for the first time in years, they'd all be together. Except for Evelyn, of course, but...

“Hey!” The Voice barked. “Are you listening to me!?”

“Y-Yeah,” Richard replied weakly.

Henry, the eldest son at twenty four, grabbed the walkie. “Why are you doing this? HOW did you do this? Who are...?”

“This isn't Twenty Questions, buddy!” The Voice shot back. “You're not in a position to be badgering me. Unless you want to see what atoms look like I'd get going. Now!”

“Don't make him angry!” Jenny, the recent graduate, cried with fresh terror on her already horrified face. Samantha, or Sammy, the oldest daughter at 28, gently took her shoulders. James, the youngest son at nineteen, simply stood, looking as baffled and scared as his father.

“That's more like it!” The Voice crackled through the walkie. “Now, for the last time, GET. MOVING!”

Richard looked up from walkie and across the expansive landscape that was his king sized bed, a massive piece of furniture only made even more so at his current puny size. How much had they been shrunken anyway? Each individual thread of fabric woven into the coverlet seemed as wide as their front walkway. Balls of dust floated and danced in the sky like large flakes of snow. And, of course, before them, was the unfathomable, sprawling fleshy mountain that was his wife, Evelyn, who was just as sound asleep as she had been as when he had thought he was going to be leaving. She lay on her right side, dead to the world and, as it happened, naked as the day she was born.

“Alright,” Richard said, taking the walkie back. “We're going. We'll go around her and head right to her head so we can...”

“Oh no, no, no!” The Voice garbled, interrupting him. “Go to her feet and start climbing. You're going for a little...mountain climbing expedition, we'll call it.”

“What?” Richard asked, incredulously. “Why do you want us to do that? That'd be insane dangerous! It'd be much safer and easier if we...”

“And THAT'S precisely why you're not doing it,” The Voice interrupted again. “This is supposed to be a challenge, moron! Not a walk through the park! And if you're not satisfied with that answer then that's too goddamn bad! Now go before I decide you and your family aren't worth the time!”

Jenny, not wanting to tempt the hand of fate any further, immediately set off, with the rest quietly following. Richard gazed at the immense “mountain” as they approached. It was almost impossible to see the human form as it stretched too far to fit within his now puny perception. Beyond the wall of flesh that was the soles of her feet, were the legs which had always been long but now seemed impossibly so. After that he saw another wide mountain that the ass, sticking out far enough that he could see it around the heel of the closer foot he was approaching. An ass which, just mere hours ago, he had eagerly felt and had even smacked, enjoy the flesh ripple under his hand. The bottom shelf of the ass obscured the rest of the view, only a small tuft of very dark brunette hair peeked around the fleshy mound.

She would have to realize they hadn't left. Sure she was asleep at the time but...the RV, their luggage...something would tip her off. The voice on the walkie he had removed every trace? What did that mean? Where those things just gone? Had he shrunk them too? But, certainly she'd expect a call, right? Of course she would! Sure the reception of the campsite was extremely spotty but she'd expect SOMETHING, right? Surely...

“EW!” Jenny's disgusted voice cut through his thoughts. Richard looked up to be greeted by the massive wall that were the soles of the feet. The “wall”, marked with many grooves that swirled and weaved in many directions, rose far above their heads. It was hard to say exactly how far, but it seemed like a mile, but that couldn't be right. The flesh was worn and dry, peeling and flaking in some places. This debris had fallen (was still falling) and collected in a scattered piled atop the thick threads of the coverlet. Small rocks of dirt (oh god, that's what those are...those are just specks of dirt but they look like damn rocks...) occasionally freed themselves from whatever fastened them to the sole and fell to the coverlet with a sound that mimicked that of debris rubble falling from a damaged skyscraper. He could see the grim between the toes and under the nails. The smell hit him, a familiar scent of sweat but magnified immensely. “This is so GROSS! She is in SERIOUS need of a pedicure!”

“I'll say,” James replied, looking if he was about to gag.

“Just keep moving,” Richard said. “We're not in a position to argue.”

And so their ascent began. Immediately, the haunting thought that any movement at all would cause this little climb to turn into chaos quickly plagued Richard's mind. He kept his eyes fixed towards the toes, hoping he'd be able to get some sort of signal to allow himself to prepare for any sort of twitch or readjustment. But they sat still. The odor, which was somehow faint and powerful at the same time, slowly began to seep into his stomach. Only minutes into the ascention he was struggling to keep his gorge down. The occasional cough below him informed that he wasn't the only one.

There had been some distant hope within Richard that this first segment of their unfortunate journey would end quickly, but it was not so. Barely halfway up his arms were already shaking with strain. He had not been rock climbing in years, and he was more used to hearing his doctor prescribe exercise than he was to actually doing it. After pausing for a moment to see if that would help settle his aching muscles, he reluctantly began to lead his team towards the toes.

“Oh god no...” Jenny moaned.

“It'll be just for a moment,” Richard panted. “I need to...catch my breath.”

They settled on the side of the middle toe. The stench here was even worse, and Richard held his nose as he tried to breath through his mouth. It didn't help much and he began to gag. Jenny, unable to cope, actually vomited a thin line of gruel from her empty stomach. There was gunk between the toes, dirt mixed with sweat and a few pieces of cloth that were mostly from a sweaty sock. The top of the nails, painted with a bright, shining, immaculate white, were a cruel irony to the messy underneaths that lurked below. Eventually, the team continued. Bits of flesh occasionally rained down them. One piece of dirt bounced off the top of Richards head, causing a brief flare of pain to pause him. He thought he felt blood pooling up there and eventually running down the back of his head.

Finally, they reached the top of the wall, at the side of the sole. Instinctively the group ran up towards the ankle to distance themselves from the odor of the feet. They collapsed in a heap atop the tall hill (that's her bone in there...Jesus Christ, that's all that is but it's so huge...) that was her ankle.

“Thank god...” Henry gasped. “...that THAT'S over.”

“Oh, I wouldn't say that,” The Voice chirped through the walkie. The tone of its owner was much lighter now, amused. “You folks still got a looooooong way to go.”

Richard glanced up and saw the Voice was indeed correct. The legs stretched far before them, starting as a narrow path and widening towards the great plains of the thighs. The tall curve of the hip obscured the distant upper body, but similar to the hair earlier, the breasts now stuck out far enough that he thought he could make out the tip of the nipples.

The group continued. As they began their journey across the leg, a cold wind suddenly began to blow. The current wasn't strong enough to sweep them off their feet, but heavy enough to cause them to shiver. Richard cast his eyes up towards the ceiling (which at this size might as well have been called the heavens” and saw the AC grate high above. Unlike a lot of women, his wife didn't really mind the cold, actually preferred it. She kept the room in the sixties and often slept without a blanket, claiming that it was more comfortable that way and it helped keep sweat off the coverlet. Now Richard found himself wishing she was more like the majority of women, as he was now chilled to the bone.

The fields of flesh reacted and writhed against the cold as large lumps of gooseflesh rose up, nearly causing Richard to stumble and forcing the group to walk around them.

“We're so small...” James said in an awed voice. They were passing a red lump that stuck out from the flesh. Normally it would have been small, hardly noticeable, but here it was the size of the stump of a large tree.

“Yeah,” The Voice crackled. “It takes some...getting used to. It's a surreal experience.”

“Getting used to?” Richard asked the walkie. “You've been this way for awhile?”

“Sure,” The Voice replied simple, and after a brief hiss of static it added, “Really puts things into perspective, doesn't it? Being this small?”

“I'm not sure what you mean...”

“It doesn't matter. Just keep going...and mind the gooseflesh!”

The firm skin of the lower leg, and the hard surface of the knee, finally gave way to the wide plain that was the thigh. The flesh was softer here, much softer. Even at this size Richard thought he could feel his feet sink deeper into the skin than previously. It made traversing around the gooseflesh more difficult. A further sense of dread began to creep into Richard. Though he was small, he knew this “land”, knew it well in fact. Had lived with it for many years, sharing all manner of intimacy with it (though nothing compared to this level of closeness). The slightest move would be an earthquake like they've never experienced before. It might throw them off. The coverlet might save them, but...how could he be sure? The threat would be even greater up on the ass, which they were slowly approaching.

“Urg...” Sammy groaned. “Why does she have to be naked?”

Richard felt his face burn. Sleeping in the nude had always been her preference. The habit had stopped when the kids had been young, but as the nest was beginning to empty it had come back. Jenny surely must have known (even if regretfully so), but the rest...they probably didn't. And this was certainly not the best way to find out.

“We're making good progress,” Henry spoke up, his voice suggesting he was eager to move the topic. “We're already at her hips.” Indeed they were. Towards the right the vast expanse of the ass. It felt as if they were at the top of a tall slope. Falling here could make them roll all the way down to the coverlet, and Richard didn't want to think of how much the ass would weigh if it were to roll on top of them. “It shouldn't be too much longer now. We'll be at her ear in...”

Before he could finish the flesh came alive underneath with a heavy quake, toppling them into each other like bowling pins. Then, the “ground” became slowly uneven, tilting, sending them sliding down the skin. Fortunately, they did not slide down the ass, but instead fell down the front towards the pelvis. Richard's hand frantically grasped for something, but came up empty.

“NO!” Jenny's shrill voice suddenly cried. “OH GOD, PLEASE NOT IN THERE!”

Richard looked towards where they were sliding and immediately saw what she was screaming about. At normal size, the bush was small and neatly trimmed, the result of a bikini wax, but here it looked more like a small isolated jungle among a sprawling plain of open flesh. The group slid down the smooth flesh directly into the thick brush, quickly becoming ensnared in the unruly hairs. The screams of both Jenny and Sammy were all but deafening.

“UGH! OOOG!” Jenny moaned. “THIS IS SO MUCH WORSE THAN HER FEET! GET ME OUT!”

Richard squirmed his way out, kicking at the hairs that wrapped around him. Even as he was freed, these hairs snapped and came out with them, still entangled around his legs. He saw the others struggling to get free, some of them desperately trying to hold the “vines” away from their mouths.

A harsh garble of static and laughter erupted from the walkie, which was clipped to Richard's pants.

“What's the matter?” The Voice asked with devilish amusement. “Can't handle a little bush?”

Ignoring the Voice, Richard went to work pulling the others out from their ensnarement. He couldn't imagine how...unpleasant this had to be for them considering their location. The dank, faintly fishy smell of the moist cavern beyond and below the brush reached his nose here and he knew it would be best to get away from this region fast.

“What the fuck happened!?” James asked as Richard and Henry pulled his dazed body out from the brush.

“Isn't it obvious?” The Voice spoke. “She rolled over on her back. You guys have no idea how lucky you are. If you'd slide the other way, you'd be choking on a few hundred tons of ASS right about now!” The glee was barely concealed.

Definitely not wrong there, Richard thought to himself. Personally, he estimated it would be more to the tune of a thousand tons, but the distinction hardly mattered.

“Let's keep going,” He said to the others, eager to get them away from this spot. “We were making good progress. Let's not slow down now.”

As he turned to keep going, Richard found himself almost completely frozen with awe as he beheld the great plains of the belly. Miles of open, unobstructed, curved flesh that stretched a great length.

“Walk lightly, if you can.” Richard said to the others.

“Oh right,” Sammy replied in a dazed voice. “She's ticklish on her stomach...isn't she?”

“Just be careful...” Richard replied after a moment of pause. The image of massive hands, with Kraken sized fingers each with razor sharp french tipped nails (unlike the pedicure, she had gotten a manicure), bearing down and them and scrapping and clawing at the flesh, filled him with quiet dread.

They can across the deep, dark chasm of the navel, carefully walking around it. As they did, a rumble shook the skin beneath their feet. Richard could hear sloshing and other noises come from within, deep below the flesh. The thought made him shiver. This wasn't rock and dirt that was the ground outside, this was ground was alive, actively moving and working diligently. It was as if they had stepped foot on an alien planet, only to discover that the entire thing was a living being. The great plains of the belly was a symphony of sounds and movements that were all devastating familiar to them, each having experienced them personally every day of their lives. Now, the sounds filled them with dread, reminding them of their desperate situation, of their painfully minuscule existence.

Richard had been keen on getting away from the brush, but now a much, MUCH larger problem of a similar stripe was before them. The mountainous breasts loomed, a narrow canyon between them for the tiny explores to venture through.

“Ooog, oh no,” Jenny moaned, mortified. “Can we PLEASE hurry through this part. PLEASE?”

No one replied. Richard began to feel the ground move beneath them, rising and falling. The distant sound of what, at their current size, sounded like wind blowing through a tunnel, came to their ears. The sound was slow and rhythmic, almost peaceful. Equally so was the sensation that gently vibrated beneath them. The beats of the dutiful heart, hidden deep below the surface they walked on, nonetheless audibly lubbed and dubbed, its labor not only clearly heard, but felt.

“Holy shit,” James said in a trembling voice. “Do you feel that? I can FEEL her heart beating down there!”

They slowly traversed the canyon, its slow rise and fall making the journey more difficult than the rest of the “climb” so far. Despite his discomfort with his present company being here with him, a primal part of Richard still couldn't help but feel excited. He looked around the enormous mountains, a deep warmth radiating from them that enveloped the tiny travelers. They had always been big, even when he wasn't the size of a crumb, but now...there weren't words. The English language suddenly felt woefully unequipped to describe the sheer size of the cleavage he was now traversing. He wanted to stay here, and get to know these “mountains” in a way that was never before possible.

They've been bigger, he thought, when she was pregnant they were bigger...imagine if they were that size now.

He pushed the thoughts down as much as he could and tried to focus on the situation.

Exiting the canyon, they were once again awed, this time at the sight of the looming head above them. It was turned towards the right and still, the eyes closed. Of all the “landmarks” they had encountered so far, this one struck a chord deep within them. This wasn't just a rolling field of flesh, no, this was a face. A recognizable face. One they all had seen almost every day of their lives. Now it lorded over them, oblivious, its features filling their vision and straining their necks. Richard began to feel something that only a newly christened evangelical could relate to. He felt a presence, a life force, something much, MUCH bigger than he. It was as if he was a mere piece of bacteria that had finally been able to see and comprehend the existence of its host. Here, they came to face the presence that owned and controlled the vast landscape they had ventured across. A presence whose attention they needed to somehow get. Only now did Richard begin to realize the scale of their problem. Even if they crawled in the ears...would their voices be heard?

“Well!” The Voice crackled through the walkie. “If you guys keep this up you'll be the fastest group to get their target's attention!”

“The fastest?” Richard repeated, surprised. “You mean...there's been others? You've done this before!?”

“Yeah,” The Voice replied, casually. “And, as I said, you'd be the fastest. You really don't want to know what happened to the team with the shortest time...”

“Well, get ready to be impressed,” Henry spoke up, putting on his best attempt at sounding confident. “Because we're about to nail your challenge.”

“You still gotta wake her up,” The Voice said. “It ain't over till it's over, buddy.”

They climbed up the neck and then Henry boosted everyone up on his shoulder allowing them to climb up to the cheek. Richard and James then hoisted him up and then they made their way towards the ear. Richard felt his heart begin to pick up pace as hope began to seep into him.

That was when the eyes opened.

Before they could begin to realize what was happening, the flesh beneath them moved as it began to stretch, the mouth opening wide, releasing both a deep, resonate roar and a smell so foul it made the feet seem like roses. The stench of magnified morning breath stunned the younger ones to near uselessness, while Richard spotted a strand of hair resting in front of them.

“Get to the hair!” Richard tried to shout, but his words come out in garbled mess of coughing and gagging. He leaped forward and grabbed the hair tightly before turning just in time to see his kids sliding back down as the “ground” beneath them began to tilt. “NO!” He screamed.

Jenny and her siblings slide off the cheek back down towards the canyon between the mountainous breasts, which had come alive as the entire “landscape” itself seemed to. They fell between the mountains, narrowly avoiding being caught betwixt them as the collided into each with immense force. They slide down the great plains of the belly, the insides of which seemed to awaken with new vigor, its rumbles and gurgles erupting with great energy. Their fall was only stopped when they again found themselves colliding with the thick brush down below, all their progress erased in mere moments.

“NO! NO! NOT AGAIN!” Jenny screeched. “EW! EW! GET ME OUT!”

“Calm down!” James cried, his voice anything but calm. “Just get out! Hurry!”

Henry was the first to escape. The flesh was not tilted at an angle like a sinking ship, but he was still able to crawl out and hold on. He turned, meaning to look at where his siblings were and get them out, but as he turned his head, the “ground” beneath him went from tilted to fully vertical, sending him flying over the brush. His hands flailed from something and they finally found a long piece of hair from the brush. If he fell now, there would be nothing else to grab.

“HELP!” He screamed. Vaguely, he could see further up the flesh. He could just make out the face between the narrow canyon between the boobs.

You were just there, he thought, you were almost home free.

James, realizing that staying in the brush was now safer than getting out of it, was the first to spot Henry dangling below him, their eyes locking. There were sounds and movement all around him. He could see the thighs moving, raising and falling, but it was all too much for him to process at once. He focused on his brother.

“Pull me up!” Henry cried, desperation in his eyes.

And James crawled forward to do so, but before he could so much as reach out his hand, the hair holding Henry broke, sending the poor man down in a death plummet.

“HENRY!” James screamed.

Henry watched as the brush drew away from, like a camera zooming out. As he fell the cavern below began to fill his vision. Not wanting that to be his final vision, he shut his eyes and tried his best to come to grips with the fact that his death was racing towards him.

But then, he felt himself land face first into something. Something incredibly soft that enveloped him as he landed atop it. When he opened his eyes, all he saw was darkness, and, deliriously, thought he was truly dead and had landed on the clouds outside the gates of heaven. Then, water splashed atop him, like someone dropping dropping a large water balloon on him, soaking him. The water was warm and...smelled funny. He raised his head, light pouring into his eyes. When they adjusted, he turned his head and what he saw froze him. Mere moments ago, the brush withdrew from him. Now, it was rapidly back towards him, his screaming siblings in tow. Dazedly, he looked around and that he was on a massive black cloth. The confusion only lasted a moment later when he realized that those were massive tentacles, but rather fingers, pulling the cloth upward.

Henry stared with vacant at approaching cavern, from which he himself had been spawned, and screamed.

Far above, Richard clung to the hair, staring at a massive, moving tired looking orb, lined with red blood vessels. Reflected in the dark center, he saw the wardrobe that he owned (or at least had once owned, before all this madness) and saw the familiar purple bath robe extracted from the dark interior. The robe had been a gift during a birthday party that had happened centuries ago. A feeling of helplessness was slowly eating away at his very soul.

And through it all, the Voice on the walkie laughed.

“So much for your speed run!” It cackled with evil glee. “Oh, by the way, you all need to be together when you get her attention for you to be unshrunk. Either you all win or none of you do. Heh, did I forget to mention that, sorry about that, pal! But, hey, word of advice:'

'You might want to get them out of her britches and fast!”

It was dark and humid. The smell, while not as horrific as what had leaked out of the mouth, was still unpleasant. The movement had finally come to a halt, ending Henry's nightmare of being tossed around the cotton prison like a plastic bag in the wind. From the sheer force at which the stillness came he could only assume his mother had sat down. A faint part of him had a moment to be thankful for the fact that his body hadn't ended up towards the back end of the fabric dungeon or things might have been considerably worse. Not that what was currently above him was much better, it wasn't just sweat that soaked his body. Every now and then a heavy sound like a basket ball being dropped on a bedsheet was heard near him, and he would feel a fine, warm mist. If he had eaten breakfast he might have vomited, but there was nothing inside of him, so he could only gag.

He could still hear them screaming up above, Jenny's voice piercing through the darkness.

“Jenny!” James's voice cried. Henry began to climb up the fabric, towards the voices. “Shut up! Christ!”

“FUCK YOU!” Jenny screamed. “HENRY'S DEAD AND WE'RE TRAPPED! TRAPPED IN HER...IN HER...OH FUCK!”

“We don't know that Henry...” Sammy began.

“HE JUST FUCKING FELL A THOUSAND FEET!” Jenny shrieked. “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?” She barely finished this sentence before breaking into another fit a hysterical sobbing.

Henry opened his mouth to shout, but before the words go escape his lips, another splash sounded next to him, and this time some of the mist went into his mouth. Again, he found himself gagging. Up above, the shrieking sounds of Jenny's terror continued for a little while longer, until it seemed she was finally about to go hoarse. But just as she was about to quiet down, a loud rumble boomed from deep within the flesh, causing her to find new air in her lungs. Henry froze and waited, and the few seconds that the rumble roared felt like hours. There were a number of things that rumble could mean, and a few of them were unspeakable. They had to get out of here and fast!

When he finally composed himself, Henry craned his neck to look upward.

“JAMES!” Nothing but Jenny's screams and sobs. “JAMES! SAMMY!”

“Jenny, stop!” James yelled.

“FUCK YOU, JAMES!”

“No! Shut up, I hear something!”

“YOU SHUT UP!”

“Jenny, quiet!” Sammy yelled, sternly. “I heard it too!”

“JAMES! JENNY!” Henry called again.

“Henry!” James cried back. The shock in his voice was clear. “Is that you!”

“Yes! I landed in...in...in her underwear!” He knew this wasn't the time for embarrassment, but he couldn't help it.

“Yeah,” James shouted back, dismayed. “We...we REALLY need to get out of here!”

“I know!” Henry yelled. “Listen! Do you have your phone?”

“No!” James replied. “I thought of that while we were climbing. I had it, but...I think he took them. The voice on the walkie talkie. Do...do you think think they'd even work at this size?”

“I really just meant for the light!” Some outside light made it through the fabric, but not enough to see clearly. “Look, you guys stay were you are! Like it or not, you're probably safer in there than you are anywhere else in here. I'm gonna try and climb up to you!”

“Ok!” James called. “Just...try and hurry, alright!?”

…....

He tried to climb up the hair towards the eye, but slid back down when a gust of when from the eye lashes fanning together nearly blew him away. It had been a hell of a ride from upstairs to the kitchen and finally to here. Even if could stay in front of the immense shiny eye without the lashes batting him down they were transfixed on the television, the glow of which reflected with a hellish glare through the black hole of the pupil. Even if he crawled deep into the ear, he doubted she'd hear him over the din from whatever program she was watching. A closer, equally loud, orchestra of sounds came from the mouth as she noisily chewed the cereal she had poured herself in the kitchen. Now the body was lounged on the L-shaped sofa in the living room, the purple robe left untied, covering none of her unrestrained breasts.

“Well, if there was anytime to try and get down there and get your family,” The Voice spoke up, vocalizing his thoughts. “Now would probably be the time, pal. Or just dangle here and watch TV. It's your life, after all.”

Richard ignored the Voice and looked down. The strand of hair he clung to was only long enough to reach the lips. He'd still have to find a way off the face and back down onto the chest below. Another problem was he was very close to the nose, whose inhales and exhales were like a tornado roaring past. If he got sucked up in the nostrils, that would be the end. No way would he be able to resist the winds, and even if he didn't drown in snot he might end up in the back of the throat to either get swallowed or sucked into the lungs. Either way, once he was inside there would be no coming back out. But he couldn't stay here, he had to find the others. Had to see if they were okay and if they were still in condition to climb back up. It was their only shot of all getting out of this alive.

He climbed down towards the lips, his eyes darting to find other path or hair to continue further. When he was nearing the end of the strand, it snapped.

Plummeting in a spiral, Richard's vision blurred and a deeper part of him suddenly feared that he would black out. He felt his body bounce off something soft, wet, and warm and he continued falling, helplessly watching as the world spun around him before his descent was finally broken by a pool of cold liquid.

Despite his head whirling, he was completely aware of what had happened. He kicked against the liquid until he reached the surface.

He saw everything. A deep, dark cave was inching towards him, a black hole that would literally swallow him whole. The rising sun shone brightly through the windows opposite of the room, offering a clear view of his impending doom. The tongue raised slightly, eager to taste and maneuver him towards the pillars of brilliant teeth, lined in their deadly row. Guts and remains of poor grains of cereal dotted the tongue and hang from cords of saliva that dangled from the teeth, which had soggy entrails stuck betwixt them. The eyes, barely visible from so far below, stared ahead, unconcerned. The nostrils expanded as they gulped another breath, then the mouth exhaled, a warm, fragrant gust of air blew into his face, pelting him with a fine mist. Somewhere, deep inside, gurgles and burps sounded as the body dutifully worked. Soon, he too would be inside. He would be part of the system.

Then, something happened. A sudden jerk surged through the vessel that carried him. The ocean of milk responded, first swaying towards the right and then more violently towards the left. Richard was plunged underwater and felt his body swept up with the wave.

And then he was falling.

He struck something soft and bounced back into the air. When he landed again, he did so with a splash. Thuds were all around him as slabs of cereal rained from above. His vision was blurred with milk in his eyes, but he knew where he was. The deep thuds of the heart reached above the falling slabs. He felt himself slid along the flesh, the stream carrying him down the canyon. The body swayed, its flesh moving violently beneath him, causing the flow to change course, sending him against one of the moving mountainous breasts, the gap between them narrowing and widening, narrowing and widening. If they came together it would be his end.

Deep inside the belly, sloshes and churns. The flesh vibrated under him as the body worked. Richard was finally able to wipe the liquid out of his eyes. In the distance he saw the legs and the feet, stretched out, crossed. A familiar pose, one he had seen thousands of times. To see it now, in the background of the madness around him, the experience was surreal.

Movement above. Something big. Richard looked up just in time for its shadow to envelop him. One of the hands hovered above, its middle finger reaching. The wedding band sparkled in the morning light. Richard reached forward and paddled himself down the stream, racing himself towards the dark pit of the navel. He slid into the massive hole, clinging onto the wet edge, just as the nail of the finger touched down, digging into the flesh, indenting it. Richard barely managed to keep his grip, a thin stream of milking dribbling over him and disappearing into the pit below. The finger followed the stream back up across the belly, tracing its path back upwards. Along the way, it found one of the slabs that had fallen from above and eagerly seized it and brought it up to the mouth. The belly vibrated with hungry enthusiasm.

He remained there, at the lip of the pit, listening to the sounds. A metallic clang, crunching, gulp, repeat. There were splishes and splashes deep within as the food slide into its organic prison. The cycle continued until a much louder thud was heard.

You were almost in there, he thought, almost wound up inside. Almost was right.

A deafening roar shook the belly and Richard cried out, wincing as his ears rang. Unlike before, the rumbles were not short lived, instead continuing loudly and forcefully. Up above, a hand fell softly onto the flesh and began to slowly trace across the plains. Every now and then it passed over the navel, shrouding Richard in darkness. The roaring of the belly began to subside, going from a roar to a cry and then to a soft moan. The hand traced over once more before raising itself up and then once again bringing itself down again. Up and down, up and down. And the belly quieted, like a fierce animal being soothed by its master. The hand too then came to a rest, the Kraken fingers laying just beyond the pit.

Shaking from exertion, Richard barely managed to pull himself from the lip of the navel. When he was finally able to stand, the hand withdrew from him. He watched it slide down the flesh and rotate till its palm found the cusp of the breast above. The fingers squeezed and the wrist jostled the soft mountain. He watched this, faintly expecting some kind of arousal, but it didn't come. What did was an ungodly sense of dread. She still had not one single clue. Not one.

“Phew! That was close!” The Voice garbled. Oh, good, he thought bitterly, the walkie still works. “Nearly got swallowed alive there! You wouldn't be the first. Hell, you wouldn't even be the second or third!”

Second or third? Christ, how many people has he done THIS to?

“If you're worried about the radio, don't be,” The Voice went on. “Military grade. Built to last. Probably wouldn't survive stomach acid, though, so thanks for not getting eaten.” Richard didn't reply. “Oh, what's wrong? Don't feel like talking? You had a lot to say earlier.”

“I have to go see if my family is still alive,” Richard grumbled.

“Heh,” The Voice chuckled. “Well...you know where they are.”

Richard walked around the pit and headed down towards the pelvis. Earlier the flesh here had been as bare, but now it was covered by a large cotton tarp. No matter how hard he tugged and pulled, he could not lift the hem at all. Giving up, he got down on his stomach into a prone position and crawled under it and into the brush beyond.

“Guys!?” He called into the darkness. “Anyone in there?”

“DAD!” Jenny's voice. “Dad! We're in here! Over here! Help us!”

“Are you all in there?” Richard asked, trying to crawl through the thick vines.

“Yes!” James's voice. “We're all here!”

“What's going on?” Henry's voice, but it was further than the others. He had fallen deeper into his mother's undergarments.

“It's dad!” Sammy's voice cried. “He found us!”

“Get us out!” Jenny's pleaded shrilly.

“I'm coming!” Richard shouted back, struggling through the vines. “Hold on!”

“I don't want to stay here!” Jenny moaned.

“It's alright, Jenny,” Richard said, reaching out and grabbing her hand. “It'll be alright. Just stay calm. Where did Henry go? Is he down there?”

“Yeah,” James replied. His voice was next to him. “He's trying to climb up.”

“Okay,” Richard nodded. “Henry! How are you coming along?”

“I'm almost there, I think. Henry responded. “It's hard to tell. Too dark.”

“Just keep going, try to...”

His words were cut off as he felt a small vibration through the flesh. Then a sound. It started soft and then began to grow louder, and nearer. Something was coming from behind. Just as he turned his head, the hem was lifted pouring light in the darkness. And though he was nearly blinded by the sudden illumination, he was still able to make out the massive fingers as they began to slide into the brush with alarming ease, the razor sharp nails seeming to slice through the vines.

Dear God, Richard thought desperately, she's going to scratch us!

“Move!” He cried blindly, unsure himself of where to move. His eyes were fixed on the fingers, waiting for them to flex down, digging the nails into the flesh where they would scritch and scratch, shredding them to pieces.

But the fingers did not flex. They merely kept pushing through, finally sweeping up the tiny victims as they went on their path. Richard tried to pull himself free with vines, but the pull of the fingers was stronger. Eventually they were pushed clear from the brush and began to slide down the slippery slope towards the moist cavern below.

“NO!” Jenny screamed. “NONONO! ANYTHING BUT DOWN THERE!”

She went, grabbing Richard's leg and pulling him down with her. They did not slide far before hitting something that stuck out from the soft, wet flesh. Something hard, very hard.

Horror struck deep in Richard's heart as understanding, terrible understanding, filled his mind. He tried to open his mouth to shout something, but then Sammy and James fell on top of them. Not wanting to fall any deeper, they grabbed onto the firm flesh bump. Above, one of the fingers reached down, gently pressing itself atop the bump before not so gently thrusting it back and forth, along with its unwilling riders with it. Jenny was the first thrown off, and literally so. She was launched upwards and collided into Henry, who had stopped to try and see what was going off. They bounced off the fabric and fell back towards the cavern, landing atop the fleshy walls. Richard grabbed a few of the vines up above and held tight, with James and Sammy holding onto his legs. The finger bumped Sammy, wrenching her free and she slide down. James followed soon after, finally losing his grip.

They tried to climb back up, but the soft, fleshy walls had become slippery with moisture and instead they slid slowly down. The fingers, like hungry prey, left the bump and reached down after them, slowly tracing the flesh as they went. The massive appendages outpaced their victims, reaching the bottom before to leisurely raise back up. Unable to find a solid grip, the four were unable to resisted sliding onto the tip of one of the fingers. Each of them were forced to gaze into the dark, slimy cavern before them.

The finger went inside.

Thick, sticky slime coated them, adhering them to their “vessel”, which began to rock back and forth. Gently at first, but gradually picking up pace and force. They tried to free themselves, tried to move anywhere but they were stuck. In one glaring moment of clarity in a sea of insanity, Henry was glad for the slime. Falling off now would mean being trapped in here, returned from whence he had come forever. The walls tightened and writhed.

Richard knew what was happening, but the hand threatened to flatten him in its eagerness. He was trying to swing himself away towards the thighs, but his feet couldn't find firm landing to kick himself off from. Only slippery flesh. Behind it all, he could hear her. The moans; growing and growing and growing...

The body lurched in a spasm that rocked throughout all the flesh. Richard was pressed down with force as the ass rose up...and then found himself falling as it landed back down in a heap, his vines finally breaking. Then, there was stillness. Quiet except for the distant, deep gasping breaths. The hand began to retract. Dazed, Richard watched it go. It wasn't until he saw them, still adhered to the finger by the slime from within did his eyes widen.

“NO!” He managed.

He tried to climb after them, but then the world tilted as the body rose. Richard fell deep into the cotton tarp. As he landed, his limp, exhausted body was tossed to and fro as the thighs moved. And finally, his vision faded.

“Well, well,” The Voice garbled, the words barely audible in the haze. “I was seriously beginning to think you were dead!”

Richard's body throbbed. He was covered with sweat and his clothes were wet and slimy. Where ever he was it was hot and humid. Then, he remembered where he HAD been and tried to sit up, but his sore body protested loudly and he went limp again.

“Where...?” He asked weakly.

“Practically up her ass,”

“...funny...”

“That's wasn't a joke,” The Voice replied. “You really are pretty much up her ass crack. You fell towards the back of her underwear and she's sat down on your couch. Lucky for you, I guess, you were between her ass cheeks because...well, at least you're alive, you have that going for you.”

Alarm filled him at these words, and he tried to get moving, despite the pain. He found that he was able to flex his fingers and toes and move his limbs. Nothing broken, thank god. With a grunt, he tried to sit up.

“What's the matter?” The Voice asked, gleefully. “Don't wanna be here? Afraid she might fart or something? That's already happened, if it makes you feel any better. In fact, you probably would have been up sooner if it hadn't. Who knows, a lot's happened since your nap there.”

“...how long?” He gasped. Suddenly he felt sick, but he was too weak and hungry for anything to come out.

“Hours. It's a shame, you could have gotten out of her britches. She's been to the bathroom multiple times. But really, it's amazing you're even alive at all. She's masturbated at least twice more while you were out. You must be a real slouch in the bedroom, cause if today's anything to go on, she's hungry but what you're serving isn't cutting it.”

“...funny...” Richard replied weakly. He laid down. “I don't know where my family is, and after all these hours I'm guessing they're dead. So...you win. Just save me the time and just kill me.”

“They're not dead,” The Voice laughed. “They're in the kitchen trash can.”

“How...?”

“Nevermind 'how'!” The Voice barked. “Jesus, you people always are so concerned with the wrong things. 'How are you doing this', 'How is this possible', should be more worried about how you're gonna find your family, because you won't get back to normal size without them!”

“...I've already given up...” Richard replied, weakly. “I don't have much else to lose. But I would like to know the 'how' before I die. Are you a scientist, or are...”

“Of course I am, you idiot!” The Voice snapped. “What? Do you think shrink technology grows on trees? Or do you think I'm Harry fucking Potter with a magic wand and crystal ball?”

“I wouldn't know...how could I?” Richard said. “...honestly, I could have believed you were some kind of sorcerer.”

“Well, I guess I can tell you that I'm not. Take whatever comfort you can out that knowledge. It sure isn't getting you any closer to your family.”

“Why should I go? You said you'll unshrink us anyway if we survive...”

“That's true,” The Voice agreed. “Hey, if you want to gamble your kid's lives for the next couple of nights at the size of gnats, be my guest. I'm sure they'll be fine. Meanwhile you can curl up inside your wife's asshole and sniff whatever comes out.”

“Shut up, I'm going.”

“That's the spirit!” The Voice laughed. “I'll even get you started. If you prone crawl forward you should be able to crawl under her taint and climb up the front. I'd just be careful around her genitals. At this stage, I think if you so much as bump her clit you might get her motor running again.”

Ignoring this, Richard rolled onto his stomach and began to crawl. It was too dark to see exactly where he was, or even if he was going the right way. In some regards, he was thankful for that. If the Voice was correct, he'd rather not get a good look at his surroundings. But as the area around him began to narrow considerably, he realized he was on the right path. The heat became more intense, sweat pouring down his face. The smell was unpleasant, but at this point he was becoming used to it. There was no way he could tell how fast his puny body was moving or how much further he had to go. It was only when the smell changed to a muggy, fishy smell that he knew he had reached the front, feeling the fleshy, slimy walls brush the top of his back as he crawled out from the taint.

The humidity here was even worse. His fingers struggled to maintain a grip in the threads of the underwear from how sweaty his hands were. As he climbed up he went from a motion similar to climbing a ladder to crossing a monkey bar. Eventually, he made his was back into the brush above the moist cavern. He crawled through the thick vines, which kept threatening to ensnare him, but he was able to keep moving. A thin line of light slowly appeared ahead of him. Crawling under the hem was much more difficult this time around, as his exhausted body was getting heavier and heavier for his arms to lug. The hem pressed tightly against him and he flailed and clawed at the flesh to drag himself free. At last, he was outside at the edge of the belly.

“Well, look at that!” The Voice spoke up. “You made it! How's it feel to be back on the outside?”

Richard didn't reply. He simply lay against the flesh, breathing heavily. It was darker out here than it had been, he noticed that despite his exhaustion. Only dim light shone through the far off windows. The sun had practically already set, almost an entire day spent trapped inside Evelyn's massive underwear. He let out a derisive laugh at the thought.

“What's so funny?” The Voice crackled.

Before Richard could open his mouth, the flesh jerked suddenly. His body tensed, his sore muscles aching. In the corner of his eye he saw something move, rising into the sky. He glanced up and saw one of the hands descending down upon him, its index finger reaching down with its razor sharp nail. Richard tried to stand, but his arms gave out from under him. Knowing he couldn't move in time, he closed his eyes and waited for the guillotine to fall on him.

The nail landed directly next to him, jabbing into the flesh, creating a large indent that Richard was dropped into. His body was scraped up inside the nail as the finger flexed, dragging it across the skin. Flakes of dead cells fluttered into the air and traveled with Richard into the narrow space, eventually coming to a stop with a wet smack as he git the gunk above. His body was driven deeper into the gunk, wedging him between the nail and the soft flesh beneath it. When the finger lifted itself up, Richard went with it. The nail was driven back down onto the flesh, digging into, sending more flakes into the air which pelted the man, filling his lungs and going into his hair. This cycle repeated itself for what seemed like an eternity, but eventually the finger rose away from the belly. Richard screamed and watched as the world swam around outside the narrow space he could see out from in a nauseating blur. He felt his body slowly loosening from its wedge, and so he pressed his arms and legs against the walls, the pain and exhaustion he had felt forgotten. If he slid out, there was no telling where he'd land.

When the world steadied itself enough for him to see, he saw the immense mountain of the ass, raised up from the couch. The finger drove the nail in the soft flesh (even in his narrow space he could see the ripples from the impact) and dragged it across the skin, a loud hissing sound filling his ears as it scraped along its way. When the finger raised again, the hem of the underwear suddenly peaked under the nail, which clawed into the fabric. Beneath him, he saw the flesh of a fatter finger, the thumb most likely, as the two pressed themselves together and flexed, pulling the hem along with them.

He was right, Richard thought dimly, you really were up her ass.

Again, the world began a blur as the hand moved, and again he could feel his body slipping free from its confinement. When the world steadied itself again, he felt the finger rock back and forth violently. The sound of air rushing blared above him and, below him, he saw the familiar pink flesh of the top lip of the mouth. His body was more rapidly becoming lose, but, if he freed himself here, he might be able to fall back towards the soft mountains of the breasts and slide back down towards the belly.

But as that thought came it him, he felt the finger begin to rotate. And this time, when he looked out the narrow gap before him, he was greeted with a wide, hairy tunnel. He tried to pull himself free, but it was too late. The finger plunged itself inside the tunnel, pushing itself deep within. Hairs poked under the nail, brushing him, tickling his face. The finger twisted itself, digging the sharp sides of the nail along the walls of the skin. New gunk, both hard and dry, as well as slimy and wet, began to seep into the narrow space that held him, coating him. The finger then flex, slamming the full front of the nail against the walls. The force finally freed Richard, send him flying out from under the nail. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he did not fall far before being caught in a tangle of hairs and slime. Above him, the nail ground and scraped at the wall, sending dry chunks showering down onto him. He struggled to move, to move anywhere, but he couldn't. The adhesive holding him was too strong, and his body too weak. It was only a matter of time before he would be shredded to pieces by the clawing nail.

That didn't happen though. Instead, it remained above for only a moment more before the finger retracted and withdrew from the tunnel, allowing a dim light to peer in below. The instant it was gone, a heavy wind whipped through. Many years ago, when he had been a child, Richard had experienced a hurricane while on vacation with his parents. They were forced to abandon their rented beach house and move to a hotel. In the brief time he had spent outside in the storm, the wind had almost blown him off his feet. The same experience hit him now as the winds tore at him, attempting to pry him free from his position. He felt his body slow slide up the nasal wall, but the slime kept him. There was a brief stillness before the winds reversed themselves, a much warmer gust blasting him back towards the light below.

He fought as hard as he could but there was still no breaking free.

The light was cut off again as the finger rubbed under the nostrils. If it plunged its finger back inside, he might be sliced into pieces. But the finger lowered and another sharp blast of air whipped through the tunnel. It was then that Richard caught glance of something across the way from him. A small creature, with translucent wings, ensnared in hairs and mucus like he was. It looked like a tiny fly or maybe a gnat. He could see the wings buzzing as it vainly tried to break itself free. Like himself, it knew that it was moments away from a point of no return. That if it didn't escape soon, it would never be able.

His frantic thoughts were cut off by a loud noise. It sounded like a grunt, a deep throaty sound. He could hear air rushing, but there was sudden stillness in the tunnel. The noise was coming from below, and it grew louder and louder before...

A massive explosion, or at least that's what his brain immediately thought it was for that was the only thing that it could identify the disaster as, boomed from up above. An eruption of slime and air ripped downward with incredible force. Now Richard's body felt as if he had been one one of those roller coasters than went from sitting motionless to seventy miles an hour, only this was much worse. The massive spray shot out the end of the tunnel, and in its wake wave of fresh slime began to slowly cascade from above. In mere moments, it would flood down onto him, covering him in a way of mucus. Across the way, he saw the gnat or whatever it was still struggling away.

Another eruption roared. This one finally sheared him from the wall and sent him flying out of the tunnel with immense force, like a steel ball being shot out of a cannon. Soaring through the air amid thousands of boulder sized droplets of water, Richard had scarcely a moment to think before he was thrown into something that felt like a soft but soaked bedsheet. As he landed, so too did the massive mist behind him, pelting him with giant gobs of spit and snot in a disgusting, hellish rainstorm. When there was finally stillness, his weakened body rolled from his side onto his back, gasping for breath. Death would be a mercy.

Movement up above. His weary eyes followed it out of sheer impulse, but they widened at what they saw.

The lips were parted slightly, the teeth gleaming in the dim light of the room. A thin line of mucus dribbled from both nostrils. The eyes, sleepy but still like dazzling green emeralds, stared down at him. The hair was untamed, frizzled and bed raggled, but the light also danced in its dark brunette locks. The mouth exhaled softly, blow a warm, gentle breeze against him. He saw the face. Her saw her.

“Evelyn...” He called in a desperate whisper, his arm instinctively reaching out.

She looked at him for a moment longer. Then, his vision was suddenly thrust forward and came to a stop directly underneath one of the nostrils. A force of air shot out, forcing an eruption of slime along with it. The wave landed upon Richard, submerging him into darkness.

…

“Dad? DAD!?” A voice called in the haze. Richard didn't respond. He didn't have the energy. He merely wanted to lie here and just finally die. To just be done with whole thing. It wasn't until something slammed on his chest that his eyes finally opened.

“Oh thank god!” Jenny sobbed, throwing her arms around him.

“...Jenny?”

“Yes! Yes, it's me, Dad?”

“Is this...?” He meant to ask if this was Heaven. But the smell hit him then, and he choked instead.

“This is the trash,” Henry's voice spoke up nearby. Richard felt another arm wrap around him. “Thank god you're alive. We didn't think you would be when we saw you sticking out of the Kleenex. Are you hurt? Is anything broken.”

“I don't know...I don't think so...” Richard replied weakly. “...the trash...? How...?”

“You got blown out of her nose,” Sammy's voice now. “You...got sucked in somehow, I guess. She wadded you up and just...tossed you in here. Pretty much what happened with us?”

“...with you...?”

“She...” James spoke up. Richard could hear him swallow with effort and discomfort. “She...uh...wiped us off her finger...after...after...”

“He gets it,” Henry snapped, and Richard felt the young man shiver.

“After she blew her load onto you?” The Voice suddenly chimed in with glee.

“Shut up!” Henry roared. “Fuck you! Fuck you sick, sadistic shit! If I find you I am going to kill you, do you hear me? I will fucking watch you DIE!”

“I hear you loud and clear,” The Voice replied calmly. “But let me just tell me that if you find do happen to find me, something will happen to somebody but it won't be me.”

“Oh, yes it...”

“Don't interrupt me,” The Voice cut him off. “Don't ever interrupt me when I'm talking. When I talk, you listen. You think you're small now, you haven't seen anything. Think I'm bluffing? You know I'm not. Everything you've experienced today proves that. Get smart with me and no one will find you. Got it?”

Silence.

“When I ask a question, I expect an answer.” The Voice snapped.

“...I got it.” Henry grumbled.

“Good boy,” The Voice replied. “I know that you're a little angry because you got jammed back up the same hole that gave birth to you, but you should still know when to keep your mouth shut. It might save your life some day.”

Henry said nothing. Only clenched his fists.

“Well, feel free to keep moving,” The Voice went on. “I think your big momma just headed off to bed upstairs. Kinda funny, really...spent the whole day on the couch watching tv, eating, and napping. Still, that's quite the distance from down here. It'd probably take you days just to cross the kitchen floor. I'd honestly recommend you camp out here for the night. Your dad's had a rough day and I don't think he's in any condition for long treks right now. But, I'm sure you can find something to nibble on in here. She must have thrown something tasty away when she had lunch! See you in the morning!”

And with that and a small hiss of static, the Voice went silent, leaving his victims to remain in the dark smelly abyss of the trash can.

The smell was so bad that Richard almost found himself unable to sleep, despite the sheer physical exhaustion. His eyes were heavy, as were his limbs, and any slight movement made his muscles scream in agony. Still, the smell rolled his stomach and the nausea clawed at him. The fact that he had eaten some chewed fragments of his wife's past meals also did not help. Various fluids, as well as the smell, had been absorbed into the “food” and calling it unappetizing would be extremely generous. But there was no other option, and so he, and his family, had forced their poor meal down. Eventually, sleep did finally, and mercifully, overtake Richard, plunging him into a dark, dreamless abyss. And he remained there until he was ripped from that pleasant darkness by the roaring light from the overhead lamps.

He heard her before he saw her. The low, heavy sound of her footfalls reverberated within their smelly metal coffin, shook the insides gently. Finally, the towering form stood over the lid of trash can, blocking out the horrible, blinding light from above. There were no words to adequately describe the bigness of the thing before him. The miles of flesh he had crossed yesterday, the immense landscape he had traversed...it now was alive, moving. It was as if Mount Everest had stood up and begun walking. What made it worse was what he could recognize. The flesh was now covered in a brilliant white shirt that had a U-shaped neck cut, giving a big window to whatever big assets may be below. These mountainous assets currently stretched out far enough from the chest to completely block the face, though he saw the hair draped around it. The mountains swayed easily from side to side, free from any restraint. The flesh of the thighs, in a similar manner, jostled with every small movement, and when the immense figure turned, the ass bounced and jiggled, swallowing up all of his vision. Dimly, he could see a black outline of a thong through the white yoga shorts. Finally, the figure rumbled out of view, allowing the light to flood back.

“I gotta hand it to you, pal,” The Voice suddenly spoke up. Richard could feel the radio vibrate against his leg as it spoke. “You sure scored a lovely bride. Surprising, really. When I saw you in person I couldn't believe that you were married to THAT.”

Richard didn't respond. There was no point. Instead, he sat up and looked around. He spotted Jenny and Sammy huddled under the wadded tissue that had brought him into this foul prison. The snot had dried and the paper hardened, but they still clung to it like a blanket. James was sitting on top of wrapper, while Henry stood behind him, evidently urinating onto an old scrap of paper towel.

“You all okay?” He croaked towards them, struggling to get to his feet.

“No...” Sammy replied just as weakly.

“We're okay,” Jenny said.

“No we're not!” Sammy cried.

“Sammy...”

“Look around! We're the size of ants! Probably smaller! We're in the fucking trashcan! And she's...she's...she's fucking GIGANTIC. How are we ever going to get her attention!?”

“We don't have to.” James said. “We just have to stay alive until Sunday night and...”

“And what!? You think he's just going to unshrink us!? We're going to die! We're going to die or be stuck like this forever!” Sammy began to sob, burying her face into Jenny's shoulder.

“Sammy...” Richard began, but his throat hurt and he couldn't continue.

“If it well help settle the family drama here...” The Voice garbled. “I am a man of my word. Should you get her attention or survive till Sunday, I will unshrink all of you.”

“How do we know that?” Henry said, turning towards the sound of the walkie on Richard's belt. “There's no way you want us to survive. You'd be afraid of us reporting you. Calling the authorities. Just admit it, this 'game' of yours is rigged.”

“Report me?” The Voice actually laughed. “Please enlighten me...what exactly do you intend to tell the cops? That you got shrunk to tiny size and accidentally fell inside your momma's panties?” Henry just stood there, his fists clenching once again. “No cop alive is going to believe you. I don't think even she'd believe you and you'd be able to tell her just about everything she'd done over the weekend.'

'But you're right. If, hypothetically speaking, you DID survive, you'd be the first group to ever do so. Sure, it's unlikely anyone would believe you, but the possibility is there that someone might make the connection between your wild stories and other disappearances around the nation, the previous groups, of course. So, with that in mind, I guess I'll go ahead and politely request that you keep this incident to yourselves should you manage to survive. Otherwise...well, if you don't know what will happen by now, you're not fit to live anyway.” And with that, the walkie hissed and the Voice went silent.

“Well that's fucking great...” Henry growled through barred teeth.

“There's no point arguing about it,” Richard said. “We need to get out of here before she empties the can and throws us out to the curb.”

“How do we do that?” James asked, standing up.

“That.” Richard pointed. Up above, just beyond the lip of the trash can, was a massive white plug. “The cord from the toaster. The trash can is right by the island counter. We climb up the trash, get to the cord, and then get to the counter. We might be able to get her attention up there.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Henry nodded. “Let's get moving.”

And so they got moving once again. They were able to climb a discarded magazine that was propped up towards the edge of the can, which they carefully walked across as if it were the ledge of a mountain. When the reached the great white plug, Richard tried to hoist his daughters up, but his arms were to weak. They were barely able to hoist himself up when Henry and James lifted him up to climb it. James was lifted up after, and then he helped the girls climb up. All three of them then hoisted Henry up. The ascent up the cord proved even more torturous. Several times, Richard thought his arms would simply give out, sending him falling to the hard floor several hundred miles below. Fortunately, his legs were not quite as worn out, and he was able to hold his place with them until he felt he could use his arms again. At long last, the reached the sprawling plain that was the granite countertop, something Richard, in another distant life, had been very proud of when it had been installed.

“So...what now?” Jenny asked, looking around skeptically.

“Look!” James cried, pointing.

Richard saw it immediately. Ahead of them were several large rocks, or at least that's how big they were. Crumbs. Ordinary crumbs left from whatever had come out of the toaster this morning and possibly the morning before. Had Richard seen them yesterday, he would have been giving a chilling reminder of his predicament. However, now they only caused his stomach to growl with eager anticipation. Forgetting his pains, Richard sprinted for the “rocks”, hearing his family running off with him with the same enthusiasm. The crumbs were stale and difficult to eat, but compared to the literal garbage they had been forced to survive on the following night, the taste was absolutely divine. Behind him, he could hear the sound of his family munching away as well. Halfway through his “rock”, Richard could feel vitality begin to seep back into with a speed that was almost alarming. Where ever they would go, and whatever they would do after this, the trek would not be as daunting as it had been mere seconds ago.

That was when the shadow draped over them.

He'd been so focused on eating that he hadn't even heard her coming, nor even the soft tremors that reached this far atop the counter. But when the shadow forced his eyes upward, he saw the hand lowering towards them.

She's going to swat us, he thought with strange calmness, she thinks we're ants and she's going to squish each of us.

But instead of extending its massive tree trunk fingers, the hand rotated onto its side, the wall of flesh of the palm looming over them. Then, it began to slide towards them. Before he could even think of yelling for his family to run (and it was far too late for that anyway) he and them were swept up. The large “rocks”, which had been their salvation moments ago, were now piling on top of them as more and more of them got caught up underneath the hand. Richard, his pain again completely forgotten, now flailed like a man in the midst of a raging current, trying desperately to keep up with the crumbs. If he got swept underneath the hand that would be the end. He would be crushed as the massive flesh rolled over him. Another, more primal part of him instinctively tried to locate his family. Faintly, he could hear Sammy's shrill screams over the din, but he couldn't pinpoint the direction she was in.

After what seemed like an eternity of him being dragged, fumbling and spinning with the crumbs, he was suddenly falling. For a brief moment, the image of him losing his grip back on the cord returned to him. But, instead of a massive plummet to the tile floor below, he collided with a cold, metallic surface and found himself sliding horizontally. He covered his head as the crumbs landed around him. When stillness finally arrived, he quickly looked up.

“Sammy! Jenny!” He cried, looking around frantically. The feeling of metal had been correct. The area around him was nothing but miles of stainless steel. “Henry! James!”

“DAD!” Sammy's voice. He turned to it and saw his family stumbling to their feet.

“Over here!” Henry waved, trying to steady himself.

Richard ran towards them, leaping and stepping over all the crumbs that littered the ground. He almost reached them when he heard it.

A heavy sound of something falling shook the ground, followed by the unmistakable sound of water flowing. Richard had only been ten feet from his family (or whatever ten feet meant at this ungodly size) when water was suddenly up to his waist and began pulling him, his family, and the litter of crumbs along with it. Richard leaped like a football player diving for a Hail Mary and grabbed Sammy's arm. Jenny and James appeared behind her, latching onto her legs, while Henry collided into Richard. Where they had just been fighting a current of rolling crumbs, now they fought a literal raging river. Richard, in the moments when he could keep his head above water, tried to see where the stream was taking them. He could smell the pit before they got too close. And he didn't need to see the giant word, INSINKERATOR, etched into the metal, to realize where they were going.

The unholy roar that erupted from the pit did more than enough to accomplish that!

“SHIT! SHIT!” Henry screamed.

Richard spotted a clump of something stuck to outer rim of the dark chasm before them. He and Henry managed to grab hold of it and, mercifully, it stayed glued where it was. The two held onto the others as they were ravaged by the waters.

“Pull!” Richard yelled.

“I'm trying!” Henry called back, his voice barely audible over the hungry roar.

“WATCH OUT!” Sammy's voice managed to pierce through.

There was no time to look away, but he didn't have to. A wet slap, like a lump of mud sloshing onto concrete, sounded behind them, and a thick sludge slowly began to flow onto them. At first, Richard thought it really was mud, and then concrete, but of course it was neither. The oatmeal coated all of them as the water coaxed it towards the chasm.

“I CAN'T SEE!” Sammy screamed.

“JUST HOLD ON!” Henry roared.

“DAD! HELP US!” James cried.

Another glob of the lukewarm mess flopped down on top of them and, distantly, Richard could hear the familiar, yet magnified, sound of silverware scraping along a dish. Now it was Richard's turn to be blind as the thick slop covered his face. He immediately dunked his head into the running waters, never loosening his death grip on his family. But just as quickly as he could clean himself off, another ball of goop fell onto them or near them, replenishing itself. Richard could feel it all over his clothes, in his hair, taste it in his mouth, and, pretty soon, it would end up in his lungs.

The heavy sludge eventually did cease from raining down, and it slowed the waters enough that Henry and Richard were finally able to pull the rest of the family onto the thankfully stubborn stuck on clump.

“WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!” James screamed.

“I KNOW!” Richard yelled.

Then, something else plummeted from the sky. A crust of bread, the thickness of a steel girder, dropped inches from them, splashing them. The soggy beam collided right into them, nearly shoving them right off their clump. Henry, Richard, and James hoisted the heavy mass over them, allowing it to continue towards the chasm. However, its shape did not allow it to fully fall into the dark pit. From up above, a large metal object the size of a building lowered and plunged itself down into the hole, pushing the crust into it. The roar the deep chasm turned into a series of low gurgles and grumbles as it greedily devoured the offering. Globs of gunk and goop flung up from the pit and splattered back onto the family in a small shower.

And then, just as quickly as it had all started, everything stopped. The roar of the pit quieted, and the raging rapids disappeared, swallowed down below. A moment of utter stillness followed before quickly being interrupted by a deafening clatter as the giant metal object crashed down onto the metal surface on the other side of the sink from them. For a horrible moment, Richard thought the bouncing metal would find its way on top of them, but fortunately it didn't, landing harmlessly on the other side of the pit.

That's just a spoon, Richard found himself thinking, that's all that is...it looks more like a damn cargo ship!

Then there was nothing again, except for the sounds of collected gasps for breath.

“Jesus Christ...” Jenny wheezed. “I thought for sure we were done for...”

No one responded. None had the strength.

“To be honest, I thought the same,” The Voice spoke up. Richard glanced down at the walkie, surprised not only to see it still clipped to him but that it still functioned.

“How...?” He asked without thinking.

“I told you how.” The Voice interrupted sharply. “Stop asking stupid questions.”

“But...”

“Now, now...” The Voice interrupted again. “You don't really have the time, you know. You know where you are right now. You almost got torn to shreds by your garbage disposal. Right now I'd be more concerned with getting out of the basin right now before she needs to use it again. You all just got VERY lucky, and, honestly, you probably won't the next time.”

“But...how?” Richard coughed. “There's no way we can climb out of here...”

“Sure you can,” The Voice replied. “There's a rag draped over into the sink behind you. Should be able to use that. I'd hate to see you all get washed away after all this. It really is no fun if you all die so fast. You guys have been one of the most fun groups to watch, I have to say!”

“How nice of you to say,” Jenny said, bitterly.

“Naturally,” The Voice replied, the sarcasm practically oozing from the walkie. “Don't worry, you've got time. By the looks of it, she's gone to watch TV again. So she shouldn't need to use the sink again for awhile. So, I'd make use of the time if I were you.”

“What do you mean 'by the looks of it'?” Henry asked.

But the Voice didn't respond, leaving them standing next to the deep dark pit with nothing but silence.

(AUTHOR'S NOTE - Sorry to self promote here a bit, but I recently opened a Patreon, check it out if you want - https://www.patreon.com/KevinFred )

The old rag had been a gift from many years ago, hand knitted by Evelyn's mother. It saw much use in that time, its once vibrant color beginning to fade, visible fraying of its threads slowly appearing on its corners. But, it still stood strong, and it served its purpose well enough. It was washed every other week and, now that he was forced to climb it at a size that he had previously thought a human could only be at in movies, Richard began to think it had maybe gone past that usual cycle. The soggy threads were slightly slimy and traces of whatever food were stuck between its threads. The smell was the horrible, the worst so far. Richard remembered gagging at the smell of the feet, but that scent would be akin to roses compared to the rank of the rag. Fortunately, by now, his stomach was beginning to grow accustomed to dealing with foul odors, and he barely felt a tinge of nausea as he climbed up the wet mess with his family in tow.

Once they stood atop the rag, the group paused to catch their breath. Richard turned and looked back down towards the metallic pit of the massive sink, staring at the black hole at the center of it. He had been to the Grand Canyon once as a kid, and remembered being awed at just how huge it was. The feeling came back to him now, but was coupled with a surreal sense of familiarity that brewed into sheer dread. This was not the majestic sprawl of the Grand Canyon, one of the most famous natural land formations in the United States. This was his kitchen sink. The very same one that he saw every morning for years. He had fixed the leaking pipes for it just last year. Every morning he washed his hands and dumped food down the same dark hole that had almost swallowed him up an hour ago. It was a strange and terrifying thought.

“Well...” Henry managed after several deep breaths. “We made it. What now?”

That was the million dollar question. The objective of this entire “game” was to either stay alive or get his wife's attention. Considering both of them now, Richard thought each was insurmountably difficult. They might be able to find a place to camp and ride out the rest of their time. But at this size, what place truly was safe? Any tiny insect was now the size of a bear and could maul them as such, and they could be anywhere. Food and water was another issue. They had feasted on literal crumbs earlier and finding a clean source of water seemed impossible. Even if they did find a safe haven, would they survive long enough to complete the “game” before dehydration finally took them? Their only other option had gotten them trapped in underwear, crawling across fields of flesh, thrown into the trash and almost down the garbage disposal.

“I don't know,” Richard finally answered. “You have any ideas?”

“...no.”

“Well we have to do something!” Jenny cried. “We can't stay here! We have to get Mom's attention!”

“How are we going to do that?” James asked.

“I don't know!” Jenny replied. “But...but we have to find a way! Maybe we can leave her a message or something?”

“A message?” Sammy raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah! Maybe we can spell something out with the crumbs on the counter! The ones we were eating earlier!”

“You mean the ones she brushed into the sink with us?” Henry said.

“Well...” Jenny hesitated. “There might be more! Maybe she didn't get them all! Or maybe we try crawling to her ears again and...”

“No.” Henry shook his head. “We are NOT crawling on her again. Never again.”

“But...”

“No.” Henry repeated firmly, glaring at his younger sister, causing her to recoil from him.

“Aw, but watching you climb around your momma's body is so fun!” The Voice squawked through the walkie. “What's the matter? Don't wanna end up in her pants again? Risk getting stuck back up her birth canal? Or maybe this time up her shithole?”

Henry turned red and began to speak, but Richard raised a hand and shook his head. Don't engage, it's what he wants.

“What did I say about not answering me?” The Voice barked loud enough to cause a hiss of static.

“What do you want me to say!?” Henry snapped back.

“What else? I want you to answer my question.”

“....No.” Henry said slowly. “I don't want to crawl her body because...because nothing good has come from it.”

“For you? No.” The Voice replied. “For me? Well...you know where I'm going with that.”

“Look,” Richard unclipped the walkie and held it up. “Why should we keep going? How do we know you're even going to keep your end of the deal. For all we know, even if we do make it to Sunday night, you're just going to keep us shrunk forever. We shouldn't we just throw ourselves back into the sink and just be done with it?”

“Because I have nothing to lose by letting you live.” The Voice said. “Sure, there's the risk you going to the authorities, a potential complication that I haven't had to deal with as no groups have survived. But, honestly, it's nothing I can't beat. Even if they believe your story, they'll never find me. I'll lay low for a little while, and they'll eventually stop looking. It's a big world buddy, even bigger when you're small, but as long as you have what it takes you can always make it big. Get me?”

“Not really, no.”

“Well, that's on you.” The Voice sighed. “Look, why don't you...oh!”

The crackling voice was interrupted by a soft tremor that they all felt. Another tremor shortly followed, this one a little more powerful. Then another, again after a short pause. Richard almost immediately knew what it was. He had seen enough monster movies to recognize the footfalls of a towering behemoth. And when he turned his body, he saw the colossal form of a much bigger one walking along the far edge of the island counter opposite to them. At this distance, Richard couldn't see the face, all he saw was mostly a wall of white. The power of the tremors began to increase, but they were high enough from the floor for them to not send the group sprawling. Slowly, the immense thing turned the corner and began to make their way towards them. Richard craned his head as high as he could as it approached, but could only reach the cusps of the breasts before his neck began to cry out in pain.

“MOM!” Jenny screamed, desperately. Suddenly, she ran into Richard's vision, looking up towards the sky and waving her arms wildly. “MOOOOM! DOWN HERE!”

Richard began to move, meaning to grab her and pull her back, but then Sammy and James ran past them, mimicking their younger sister's frantic cries and waving. Henry soon followed. Reclipping the walkie to his pants, Richard then followed them. Once again, out of sheer instinct, he began to look upward to see if she was gazing down. He even began to raise his arms to join his family in their desperate pleas. However, as the godlike body closed the gap, Richard quickly saw that it was not slowing at all. The loud thuds of its footfalls created the illusion of a slow, lumbering creature, but the body moved past them with a speed that seemed unnatural at their tiny size. As it passed out of his vision, Richard immediately felt the gust of displaced air rip into him, sweeping him off his feet. He heard the screams of Jenny and the rest as they soon joined him in being carried off the marble field of counter, sending them in a death plummet towards the floor.

Despite his freefalling, Richard found a moment to realize that this was likely where he was going to die. And, tragically, a part of him was relieved.

But the show was not over. Instead of meeting a horrible end atop the hard, checkered tile floor, the family instead found themselves bouncing off the old, worn foam mat that sat before the sink. Richard himself almost felt as if he bounced half the way back up the counter before falling back down. It was hard to say as the world spun and spun and spun around him. It continued to do so for what seemed like hours before things finally began to straighten out long enough for him to realize that he was lying on his back. Slowly, he raised his dizzy head, faintly aware that again he had cheated death and had come out without any long term injuries. About ten or twenty feet away from him, he could see the others. They were writhing, slowing trying to move their own weary bodies. None of them seemed any worse off than him.

He opened his mouth...

“Woah, watch out!” The Voice called out, not without some glee.

There was no time to react. His spinning head hadn't even registered the quakes that muffled weakly through the foam. The darkness filled his vision as something massive came down on top of him. A shower of something rained on him. It wasn't liquid, he could feel hard specks of something smack against his skin. The sheer force of the impact lifted him into the air, where he stayed for only a brief moment before painfully colliding into something and plummeting back down. Yet again, he had to wait for his mind to clear before realizing that he was simply lying on the ground, flailing his arms wildly in a vain attempt to protect himself, desperately swearing under his breath.

“You can stop now, pal!” The Voice called, the smile clear in his voice. “Phew! That was fucking close!” Richard didn't respond, his delirious mind nowhere near ready for that. “You almost got stepped on, by the way. Right now you're in the treads of her tennis shoes. HA! You got some luck, buddy. I like it!”

Even if his head wasn't spinning like a top, Richard still wouldn't have answered this. Distantly, he could hear screams.

“Sounds like at least a few of your kids made it.” The Voice said.

“Few...? A few!?”

“Well, maybe more. Who can really say? I can't see them. The loud whiny girl definitely appears to be alive.”

“Where...?”

“Somewhere deeper in the treads, I guess. Tap the button on the top of the radio I'm talking out of. It's got a built in flashlight.”

Richard fumbled around his waist for the radio and again unclipped it. Feeling around the top, he found the button and pressed it. Sure enough, a small but powerful light shone out from the top of the device. Looking around, he suddenly felt like a tunnel rat in the midst of the Vietnam war. If Evelyn truly was wearing tennis shoes, it was most likely the worn out ones that she'd gotten many years ago. The ones she often wore while in the garden or doing housework. He could actually old withered blades of grass draping down from the roof like vines. Unsure of which direction to go, but unable to rotate his body easily, he moved forward, crawling forward like a soldier in prone, adding to the surreal experience. Worse, though, was a deepening feeling of dread that had gone beyond anything throughout this whole ordeal. This was feet. The whole weight of the body was held up by them. If they casually shuffled or moved even slightly, not even the soft padding of the mat (which was currently pressed under the immense weight) wouldn't save him. But, he had to keep moving. Even if there was only one surviving family member somewhere in this tunnel, he had to get to them and fast.

There was a turn up ahead. As he slowly crawled towards it, he heard a sound in the distance. It was the familiar sound of water flowing, though magnified to the point where it more resembled a waterfall. It could only be the sink. When he turned the corner, he almost dropped the flashlight in terror. The dried, mangled husk of some insect hung from the ceiling, semi wrapped in the grass blades. Its dead eyes gleamed in the light from walkie, seeming to stare at Richard from the darkness. He crawled as low as he could, but the husk scrapped against the top of his back and he moaned, hurrying along and not daring to look back. The screams were still going and he began to think he could hear some other voices in the darkness, but he couldn't tell if he was getting closer. The acoustics under here were strange and hard to pinpoint the source of the noise.

“Jenny!” Richard called out. “Henry! Sammy! James! Can you hear me?” The wailing sobs, definitely belonging to Jenny, kept going without pause. Richard continued. The tunnels around him moved slightly, showering him with pebbles, dirt, dust, a couple of blades of dead grass. “Guys! Can you hear me!”

“Jenny, shut up!” Sammy, barely audible, managed to scream over her sister's shrieks. “Dad? Dad!?”

“Yes!” Richard shouted. “Are you...?”

Another sound broke through the dull roar of the waterfall, cutting him off. It was low and heavy boom, like an explosion in the distance. It was immediately followed by a smaller report that was barely heard among the rest of the noise. Richard remembered what the Voice had told him yesterday and was suddenly, and bizarrely, thankful that he wasn't trapped inside his wife's thong again.

“...are you okay?” Richard continued.

“I think so!” Sammy called back. “We're all here! I think we're all okay.” Henry's voice called something, but Richard couldn't understand it. “Yeah! I think we're all okay!”

“Good!” Richard yelled. “Stay where you are! I have a light! I'm gonna try and make my way towards you guys! Just...”

Whatever else he meant to end that statement with never came, because suddenly the waterfall's din abruptly ceased and light suddenly blinded him. But he could feel his body suddenly lifted into the air, caught up in the movement that was happening all around him. His world once again spun as if he was doing rapid cartwheels until he finally rolled to a stop on a hard floor, a shower of pebbles and dirt following him. A loud boom, immediately followed by a hard quake, rumbled him to his very bones, forcing his eyes open. The long draping shadow blocked the overhead lights enough for him to see the body towering over him, just in time to over him a clear view of the building size shoe soar over him in mid step. It came down with boom, but this one was softer with distance, and the responding quake only somewhat rattled him. The following footfalls were gradually weaker, until he could only feel a gentle tremor.

When the behemoth was gone, he noticed his family not far from them. Henry, the tough son of a bitch, was already on his feet, helping his sisters up, while James wobbled up on his own. Richard drunkenly stood up and staggered towards them.

“We need to get somewhere safe!” Henry said immediately, looking up at his father as he brought Jenny to her feet. The youngest daughter was beside herself, sobbing uncontrollably. “Where she can't step on us!”

“The baseboard,” Richard slurred, his mind still spinning. “Under the island counter...”

“Good idea.”

They went and not a moment too soon. The tremors began to grow again, but this time were accompanied by a new sound. It was a low, almost grinding sound, like something moving or being dragged across the floor. The tiny family all began the sprint towards the baseboard under the sink. It didn't look far, it really didn't, but as the ground began to quake harder beneath their feet, causing them to stagger and stumble, Richard felt the gap was closing remarkably slowly. He turned his head to see if he could see her approaching, but his eye was caught by something on the floor about a hundred feet from them. It reminded him of the crumbs that had been spread out atop the counter but these appeared to be bigger, much bigger. He was able to recognize, even at this size, the mess as uncooked oatmeal. So, when he saw the massive tennis shoes step back around the counter and, craning his neck upward, a giant grey hose being dragged along with the towering figure, he wasn't really surprised.

The thought to scream out to hurry entered his mind just as a mighty roar filled the air, swallowing all other sounds.

Richard turned his head just in time to see the wide ass lower down behind the tennis shoes as the massive body squatted. A large metal tube, wider than a highway tunnel, descended from above and began to gobble in the oats with ravenous eagerness. He turned his eyes away and focused on the baseboard, running as hard as he could, listening to the rattle of the oats as they traveled down the heavy plastic esophagus of the vacuum. He saw Jenny and James ahead of him, the former was staring back with an expression of stark horror. Richard pushed her forward, frantically pointing towards their destination, hoping she would focus her attention on their goal. But behind him, the roar grew louder and louder. He remembered hearing stories from survivors of a tornado saying that the approaching funnel sounded much like a massive freight train passing right over them. This sounded much, MUCH bigger than anything humanity had ever built. Just as he begin to feel the suction gently working on him, its power surged immensely and he was whipped off his feet.

For the third time he found himself flying through the air, though this time it actually felt like he WAS flying. Another difference was that, incredibly, his mind was clear. He was able to watch himself soar inside the gaping maw of the nozzle as it swallowed him up, sending him through a long dirty wind tunnel. It was too dark to see, but he could feel things bumping into him in the air as it carried him. The roar grew louder and louder until he it filled began to fill his entire consciousness. At least until a dim light suddenly appeared at the end of the long tunnel. Richard was just able to make out a rapidly spinning fan blade before he felt his body jerked in a new direction, suddenly pelted with a wide array of...something. He felt a lot of soft material brush against him, as well as being grazed by a few larger, harder things. But everything was happening too fast and all was a blur. The only thing he knew for sure was that now everything was moving in a circle. Now it really was as if he had been picked up by a ravaging tornado, hurling deep within its funnel along with everything else it had devoured. Except there was no hope of being launched outside of the raging winds, away from other objects being whipped around with him.

Then, abruptly, the roar stopped and the wind with it.

Richard landed with a plum on a pile of soft fabric. Or at least it felt like fabric. He knew what it really was: an ocean of dirt, dust, and all sorts of other things. He immediately thought to listen for the cries of his family, but his ears were ringing. Dazed, he began to try and lift himself out of the mountain of dust. As he raised his arms, a light came with them. He glanced at his right hand and saw that, amazingly, he still held the walkie, which was clutched in a death grip, his finger red from the act. Still, he had his light. This revelation was interrupted when a sudden motion jerked his new found world harshly, causing him to fall face first into the massive pile he stood upon. Light suddenly poured in, causing Richard to quickly raise his eyes from the dirt. When he did, his gaze was met a massive, emerald green eye that gazed into the chamber through a large hole. Then, the eye disappeared and everything shifted again, causing Richard to be thrust back into the ocean of dust. He landed on his back and was only in that position for a moment when he felt everything fall out from under him and he was suddenly falling with it. Again he would land atop the pile as it plummeted down towards the ground, throwing up a cloud similar to that of a nuke. Richard lay atop the mound, coughing and gagging, frantically both trying to and not to breathe. It wasn't until the smoke began to clear that he saw the same view that he had seen earlier this morning and smelling the same smell.

She poured out the bag...we're back in the trash, he thought with exhaustion, all that...and we're back where we fucking started.

He laid where he was for a moment, listening to the constant ringing in his ears and watching the dust cloud slowly clear, allowing light to flow back into the can. How he had managed to stay alive thus far was beyond him and, now more than ever, he found himself wishing that he had not survived. At least then he would be out of this never ending hell. Why on Earth should he even continuing going at this point? The answer came in the form of a distant, muffled noise. He turned his head towards and saw his Jenny and Henry, standing in the midst of massive trash and dust, yelling. Their voices were muddled, lost in the ringing, but still, he saw that they were okay, and it got him to slowly drag himself back to his feet. Clipping the walkie back onto his pants, he slowly staggered across the large waste surrounding him, making his way towards his family. Jenny saw him first. Her face was dirty, caked with dust and grime, but still he managed to see the tears well up in her eyes. She began to run to him, and Richard did the same.

Just before they could reach each other, something fell from sky and landed between them with a heavy thud, kicking up dust. Richard recoiled, falling onto his butt on the dirt pile behind him, before he was able to get a good look at the object. It was a massive, seemingly metal tube, with a large red stump sticking out of one side of it. Engraved on the side of the tub was the word, “Maybelline”. Richard craned his neck up and saw her standing above them, towering over the opening of the can. In her hands she held a large red purse, which looked to be about twice the size of the white house. The hands extracted a small, crushed water bottle.

“Look out!” Richard screamed. But even he could barely hear himself.

The bottle ricocheted of the side of the can before crashing down inside, nearly landing on top of Richard, who ran, not sure where his legs would take him, but covering his head with his arms as if it would protect him. He didn't get too far before something big landed on top of him, knocking him down onto his belly. The object wasn't heavy and pushing it off, he realized it was merely a wadded piece of paper. There was only a moment to realize this before a rectangular plastic slab came slicing down next to him. He saw the compartments of the slab and realized it was a gum package. And then he continued running, dodging a broken pen as it came down, stabbing into the dust pile like a javelin. Something like a tarp then came down, causing Richard to have to stop to fight it off of him. Shoving it aside, he was able to make out the word, “tampon” on the wrapper. Another tarp came fluttering down, nearly landing on him. This one had half of the word, “Hershey” on its torn surface. Just as Richard was backing away from that, another big thing came crashing down behind him, its landing sending him flying into the wall of the can, causing him to see stars. His limp body flopped back down onto the dirt pile and as he rolled, eventually winding up on his back, he was able to get a view of the big white thing that had fallen. It was a massive, mostly white canister, the words, “Excedrin: Maximum Strength” blaring at him.

His body could take no more, his head lulling back to look back up towards the sky. As his vision began to fade, he saw the towering figure bend over the can. Soon, before his vision completely left him, he saw the light disappear in a quickly narrowing gap and feel the world around him being pulled and lifted up.

And then, there was nothing.

Several times during this entire ordeal, Richard had pondered how things could possibly get any worse. This was a dangerous question, of course, considering how the last two days had gone, and yet one couldn't help but wonder it. It had been posed while trapped in his wife's hot thong, inches from her genitals. It had been asked while sleeping in the smelly garbage can. And once more it had come up while crawling under the dirty treads of the tennis shoe. Now, as he and his family trudged their way through the literal jungle that was his backyard, potentially filled to the brim with...anything, the question once more reared its ugly head.

Richard didn't need someone to make the comparison for him; this was just like the second half of “Honey, I Shrunk The Kids”, where the kids had to traverse their own backyard while shrunken. In fact, they had gotten here almost the same way they had. The trash can had been emptied and taken out to the curb. Using a sharp piece of metal found among the smelly pile, they had managed, after hours of labor, cut through the tear resistant material and freed themselves. He had seen that movie, of course, several times in fact. Never in his life did he think it would happen to him outside some bizarre fever dream. In fact, his mind had begun to circle back to its original thoughts it had back when he first heard the Voice through the radio. This was all some terrible dream. It had to be. His continued survival despite everything that had happened almost seemed to confirm this. No way if any of this was real would he have lasted this long, not in a million years. He was no action star, someone who could leap through all kinds of dangerous situations and come out virtually unscathed. He was a man in his late forties, thinning hair and, while not scrawny by any means, was no athlete. However, the soreness of his body as he lumbered through this newfound jungle, stepping over roots of massive blades of grass, told him that this was all too real.

There were sounds all around them. Richard could identify none of them, all sounding deeper and far more intimidating than they would on any other night. Conflicting emotions were at play in his mind. Anxiety about what could come out from the darkness at any moment, and a strange apathy about the entire situation. If some giant ant came out and ripped him in half, well, at least he'd finally be out of this painful ordeal. But he couldn't let himself be overtaken by that feeling. Not while his family was walking behind him.

“Out for some fresh air, huh?” The Voice spoke up for the first time in awhile.

“Sure.” Richard replied, callously.

“I know you guys are probably pretty freaked out right now...” The Voice went on. “But try to see the beauty of it.”

“What are you talking about?” Henry asked, tiredly.

“Look around you,” The Voice said. “Everything around you has existed here for years. You've seen it before. How many times have you walked across your backyard here? Played on its grass, laid on it, eaten on it? It's been a huge part of your lives. Now, it is again, just in a far more literal sense.”

“And?”

“You don't get it, do you?” The Voice snapped. “Typical. Humanity has thought themselves the center of the universe for centuries. God's perfect creation. Think you're so big and powerful...nothing can ever touch you.”

“Unless you're about to reveal that you're some kind of alien, I don't see what you're trying to accomplish here.” Richard said. He paused. “You're not, are you?”

“What I am is someone who truly understands how small we are in the grand scheme of things,” The Voice replied. When you're as small as this, you have to fight to survive. Everything is a threat. Insects, smaller animals, the fucking weather. Be glad it's not raining, let me tell you now. You think a hurricane is bad, trying making it through a flood when you're the size of a fly. We walk over entire worlds every time we leave the house, almost never looking down as we trample over everything. But you'll change, won't you? If you manage to survive this, you'll never look at a little bug the same way again, I fucking guarantee that.”

“Is that why you're doing this?” Sammy asked. “To teach us some life lesson like some weird version of Jigsaw?”

“Sort of,” The voice admitted. “But if that's all I wanted to do, I could have just left you alone and set a timer to restore you back to your original heights. Probably would have shrunken HER too. But that would have been such a waste! She's such a beaut! A rolling landscape of curves and fat in all the right places!”

“Oh my god, stop...” Sammy moaned.

“I know you all haven't enjoyed getting to know her so...intimately,” The Voice replied, gleefully. “But let me tell you, I have. She's gone, by the way.”

“What?” Richard stopped. “What do you mean, 'she's gone'?”

“Went out.” The Voice said, simply. “Happened while you were stuck in the garbage. Don't know where she headed out to, but judging by how she was dressed, I'm gonna guess she was on the hunt to have the kind of fun she doesn't usually have as a married woman.”

“So...we're stuck out here!?” Jenny asked, shrilly.

“I highly doubt you would make it back inside before sunrise even if she was still here...” The Voice said dismissively. “It's late, though. She's been gone for awhile, so it's likely she'll be back soon unless she's just passed out somewhere.”

“She's not going to be passed out...” Richard replied.

“I wouldn't be too sure.” The Voice contested. “She didn't drive herself and....hey! Speak of the devil and she shall appear!”

Before anyone could even begin to ask what he meant, a large sound rumbled in the distance behind them, a horribly bright light splashing through the “trees”. Despite shielding his eyes with his arm, the light still seemed to burn them. There were more sounds, each of them as big as the first one, and had it not been for the light, as well as the Voice's words, he would not have been able to determine what they were. The first was a car door opening, then the sound of feet touching the rocky concrete. Then came the voices. Distant and echoing, like gods speaking down from the heavens, only the words were incomprehensible. Then the boom as the car door was slammed and then the rumbling started as the vehicle began to move. Richard couldn't see the car; it was too far, too dark, and the grass was too tall. But he could only scantly begin to imagine how big a vehicle would look to him at his current, puny size. It would be like a building simply rolling around on its own, a massive fortress like some he had seen in movies. Then, mercifully, the light went away and the great machine rolled away.

That was when he heard the footfalls.

When he tried to look up, his eyes were still burning from the headlights. It wasn't until the racket of her coming through the back swinging gate to the backyard roared in his ears that he was able to see in the bright light of the moon and stars. They were far enough away that a full view of her was possible. He recognized the outfit. A red, long sleeve V-neck cross wrap top, her one pair of leather pants, and knee high boots. Finally, he spotted the large red purse strapped over her shoulder. As they watched the towering figure move from the gate and begin to cross the yard, a few things became clear. One, there was no indication that she sensed anything was amiss in regards to her family. Two, they were directly in her path. And three...she was hopelessly drunk. The last one was immediately clear from her stumbling steps, her soft laughter echoing in their ears.

“She's coming this way!” James yelled. “She'll step on us!”

Richard meant to try and yell for them to run, but there was no point. Her approach was too fast and her footfalls too powerful, sweeping them off their own feet and bouncing them up in the air with each booming step. The sounds of grass being crushed under her boots sounded like a forest being trodded on. Bugs zoomed out over the “tree line” like a flock of birds, spooked the by the rampaging horror that strode towards them.

After all this, Richard thought, she's gonna trample us while drunk off her damn ass!

But that didn't happen. The feet tripped over themselves, sending the body sprawling forward. Rather than watching the soles of the boots fall upon, the sky was swallowed up by the much larger cleavage as it came barreling down to the ground. Had the fleshy mountains made contact with the ground, that would have been the end of the game right then and there. However, the body landed on its hands and knees, stopping the heaving bosom mere feet above them. One boob jostled out over the edge of the red top, the erect nipple reaching down almost far enough that Richard could reach out and touch it. He would not have gotten the chance for a mere moment after the booming collision, he found himself yet again being swept up in the air of movement, sending him and his family flying through the blades of grass.

When they finally stopped rolling, they turned towards the sky to see a mixture of white and red. The mouth opened wider and the lips stretched further. The laughter (even at this size Richard knew what it was) boomed in their ears, spraying them in a fine but continuous spray of saliva. Within seconds, each of them were thoroughly soaked. The smell of wine was magnified, heavy and overpowering. Richard had heard of contact high, but now he was beginning to feel the sensation of contact drunk, his mind beginning to swim already.

The laughs suddenly stopped, and the air began to flow hard the other way. Richard reached out and grabbed one of the roots of the grass blade he was near. As he did, he saw Jenny begin to fly past him. He managed to grab her foot and hold on as he watched her hover above him, the mouth gobbling up air greedily above her. Her screams were just audible above the din. He caught a glance of Sammy, James, and Henry. Henry was holding onto both a root and Sammy's hand, while James held his own root, wrapping his arms and legs around it. The flow suddenly stopped, leaving everyone suspending in mid air before suddenly flowing backward with a deafening roar that sound like a series of throaty explosions. A warm blast of humid air flowed against them, throwing them back down towards the ground and sending another misty shower atop them. The smell of wine was increased, as well as the rank smell of whatever else was rolling around deep within the belly. Now he was really beginning to feel lightheaded.

“Her hair!” Richard heard someone (James or Henry) yell. “Grab her hair!”

Groggily, he turned towards his head and saw the strands dangling within the grass. He got to his feet, took a step, nearly fell over, straightened himself, nearly fell again, and then stumbled his way towards the slowly raising hair, snagging it just as it began to lift off the ground. He looked down to see his family hanging just below him.

Almost immediately, he began to think they had made a terrible mistake. Once, in college, he had been in the car with a drunk driver on a Friday night of drinking. Even in the grip of heavy liquor, he still remembered sobering up enough from fear to be tense the entire ride, terrified that he would die in a crash. This was a similar feeling, but much worse. The body raised them up into the air again as it straightened, and suddenly Richard could see the world from the position of something rather than an ant. The tall blades of grass were now far away and just looked like a long green carpet. The miles they were from the house had been suddenly reduced to mere feet. Then they started moving, the hairs they held onto violently jerking as the body swayed as it walked. If it fell again, it might end poorly for them. The three wooden steps that lead onto the patio were quickly approaching. Richard tried to look down to watch the feet attempt to mount them, but all he saw was large, heaving mountains of cleavage. If he couldn't see past those, he doubted their owner could as well.

Fortunately, they made it up the stairs with relative ease, the old steps creaking loudly under the weight. At the top of the steps, the hair swung wildly as another stumble rocked the body. Richard bounced off the flesh, his mind disoriented and his vision blurring, his body simply gripping to the hair as hard as it could merely out of instinct.

“Watch out!” A voice (this time Sammy or Jenny) screamed.

Before he even saw it, the fingers had already knocked him free from the hair. He, and the rest of his family began falling, nearly bouncing off the hard bone of the shoulder, but instead sliding down the length of the right arm. They reached the end at the elbow and began to fall into the dark, open maw of the purse and the abyss that lay within it.

If a landfill had been filled with massive things, Richard assumed that was what it was like falling into the black hole of the purse. The darkness meant he could not really see what surrounded him, only feel it underneath him as he landed. First, his body felt something soft that cushioned his fall. Then, he rolled off of it onto something hard and smooth. For a brief instance he felt himself sliding again before finally being stopped by something protruding out of the surface of whatever he was on. Vaguely, he became aware that the thing stopping him was circular, being able to feel his body wrap around the curvature. He also became aware that his family had slid past him, falling deeper into the abyss.

“No!” He cried, trying to maneuver his body off of whatever stopped him, but his mind was still spinning and the receptors in his brain lagged.

Henry slid down with his siblings, painfully bouncing off many things before finally reaching the “floor” of the purse, their fall being halted by an old, long buried, not to mention used, tissue. There was hardly any time to notice that the separation from his father as their world suddenly jolted violently, causing everything around them to shift. A massive quarter nearly dropped right onto James's head, causing him to scream and crawl on his hands and knees in an attempt to find something resembling shelter. Something big began to rotate onto all of them, only stopped by something else lying at the bottom with them, propping it up before it could crush all of them. Smaller items of all kind pelted them as they moved with the jolt. A paper clip painfully flung into Jenny. An empty tic tac container landed directly on top of Henry, open side down. Instead of being crushed, Henry suddenly found himself inside the container and, as it began to rotate, he too went with it, becoming its prisoner. Sammy felt liquid leak on top of her, flowing from God knew where. It doused her already damp body, hitting her with such force it caused her to stumble onto the ground, her head bumping against the rough edge of a penny before collapsing into a heap of dirt and dust bunnies.

Up above, Richard continued to try and move himself, but was still not successful. But just as he was beginning to move his legs in a way that he actually wanted, he saw the long massive fleshy tentacles that were the fingers descend onto him, wrapping around whatever he sat upon. He was hoist out of the abyss of the purse and into the dim light of the lamp of the living room that had somehow been turned on without incident. He was now able to see that he was sitting atop his wife's pink smartphone, and the circular protrusion was the camera on the back of it. Terror blowing through his drunkeness, he stood on top of the camera as the phone was held straight and was just able to jump high enough that he was able to reach the top of the phone. When he climbed onto the top of it, he stopped.

Once again, he was able to see the face, lit up by the screen of the phone. He saw the woman. Her hair was slightly frizzled, but still more maintained than previously. The eyes were slightly bloodshot, but the light from the phone danced in the emerald green pupils. Her lips, a deep seductive red, were stretched in a smile. A loud thud echoed as she heavily plopped the purse down onto the end table that held the lamp. Richard noticed a small crack in the casing of the phone. It was the only thing that he would be able to hold onto. He quickly inched his way over to it and reached inside, grabbing hold of the edge. He then turned, meaning to do the only thing he could thing of doing, wave up to the face blindly and hoping that the eyes would lock onto him (completely forgetting the Voice's rule that they all had to be together). But he didn't see the face when he looked up, but instead only the lips. The large mounds of flesh began to pucker, a warm breeze flowing from the higher up nose. The impact was mostly felt by the phone, but the flesh still smacked into him, covering him in a thick coat of red lipstick.

Wiping the goop from his eyes, he saw that the lips had been replaced by the much larger breasts, one of which was still peeking out over the edge of the opening in the top. The upper body twisted, the mounds responded by easily flopping left and then right. The other breast now jumped free from the restraints of the top (apparently not held by anything else), revealing its wide, pink nipple as well. The free hand appeared, grabbing hold on the right breasts, the fingers cupping around it for a moment, before squeezing. The flesh indented easily under the press, but popped right back out as the grip slackened. The fingers then began circling the tip of the nipple, which grew more erect at the sensation. Richard watched all of this with drunken awe.

He felt the phone descend and felt a thud as it was propped against something. Richard turned and was greeted by a wall of red leather belonging to the purse. He turned back and was greeted by a bigger, wider, and rounder wall of black leather. The breasts were nothing to the vast expanse of the ass which, while more restrained in the tight pants, still wiggled just as easily as the hips moved. The table the phone sat on vibrated with the movement and Richard vaguely feared that the phone would fall. The hips began to grind, the immense rear circling and circling, growing closer with each pass. During one of its cycles one of the hand slapped down onto it, producing a massive sound that rang deafeningly in Richard's ears. The hand slid the length of the cheek and slight down the thigh before retracting out of sight for a moment only to come right back down onto the cheek again, another massive boom ringing out. Then, the big butt eagerly began another large cycle, and this time Richard saw it was going too far. In one massive swipe, the ass slammed into both the phone and the purse, sending them both plummeting off the wobbling table and towards the floor. Richard could practically hear the phone crack against the hardwood floor, but his fall was blessedly broken by the rug that sat before the couch.

“Dad! DAD!”

Wearily, he turned his head towards the sound. Not far from him, he saw the gaping maw of the fallen purse, some of its contents spilled out towards him. Among them was his family, waving at him, gesturing for him to get to them. Hearing the loud footfalls, feeling them too, he knew that the inside of the purse would be safer than out here in the open. And so, he groggily got to his feet, his brain still mush from the fumes belched out from the stomach, and stumbled his way towards his family, stepping on giant fibers in the rug along the way.

Just as he reached them, one of the boots came crashing down mere inches from them. It landed atop a glass vial that had spilled out from the purse. The vial shattered immediately, sending a wave of pink make up over them, splattering all over their damp clothes. The air of the step hurled them back inside the purse, where they quickly crawled inside as they listened to the footfalls grow distant and eventually disappear. And as they did, Richard vision blurred further until he finally passed out.

Despite the fact that darkness of the purse was far better than the rank depths of the trashcan from the night before, Richard still found sleep hard to come back. They had managed to clean the make up off with dribbles of water leaking out of the old bottle, drying off with old Kleenex that had been buried in here three winters ago. The dust and dirt were the worst. As the morning light came up, it revealed a fine, steady cloud of dust residing within the leather confides of the purse. Even better, the old hairbrush, one that she had kept since she was in elementary school and adamantly refused to part with, was also in here with her, its bristle coated and clogged with mats of thick brunette hair and dandruff. The latter was piled under the brush in a small, snow like dusting. Richard found himself having to blow his nose on the old tissues as the sneezes became too frequent. But at least he didn't have to hold back gags from the odor of the place.

The food, what little that could found, was also better, though how much so was debatable. Cracker crumbs and old M&Ms, and other lost candies that had been down here for who knew how long, but at least it didn't smell rancid. At least they had, by some miracle, made it back inside the house, away from the vast jungle that was the backyard. Things could have been much worse had they been forced to spend the night out there, they were lucky they hadn't been attacked right away after escaping the trash bag. All things considered, relatively safe and actually fed, Richard felt almost a shimmer of hope somewhere deep inside him.

Furthering that feeling was the strange silence from the radio. The Voice hadn't spoken up to heckle them with cheesy and snide comments since last night. The past couple of days had been filled with jabs and threats. Why go silent now? There was no way to tell time, but the sun had been up for several hours now. Richard estimated it had to be close to 10AM. He was beginning to feel a temptation to say something into the radio to try and see what their good “friend” was up to.

“He hasn't said anything.” Henry said, walking up behind his father who stared at the walkie.

“Nothing yet.”

“That's strange.”

“Yes, it is.”

“I mean...he's never been shy before.”

“No, definitely not.”

“You think something happened to him?”

“I don't really care, honestly. After everything he's put us through, I hope he rots. No matter how all this ends...I hope he fucking rots.”

“Yeah...but I hope he waits till after he's unshrunk us...”

This was actually a rather poignant point. If something had happened to the host of this ludicrous game, they were likely going to be stuck at this puny size. Several times the Voice had implied that he had been shrunk as well, stating that the experience had put things into perspective. Was he shrunk now? Was that how he was keeping an eye on them? No matter where their misadventures landed them; the trash, the yard, and even in his wife's underwear, he seemed to know where they were at all times. But not just them. He kept clear tabs on Evelyn's movements as well. But where was he? If he was shrunken, he had to be somewhere in the house. If they could find him, perhaps they'd be able to force him to undo their tiny stature. That is, if they could get to him before he made things even worse.

Richard's thoughts were interrupted when he suddenly became aware of a growing, rhythmic sound. By now, he was used to hearing what the familiar sound of footfalls were like at this size that there was no mistaking them.

“Sounds like she's finally up.” Richard said.

“Should we get out of here?” Henry asked.

“No. Go grab the others. She won't leave her purse lying on the floor. There's at least a chance we might be able to get her attention. If nothing else, she'll put us somewhere up off the floor.”

“Good point,” Henry nodded. “Actually, even if she doesn't see us at first, she goes to her purse often enough. Eventually she'll see us if we hang around enough.”

“Exactly.”

As the sound of her steps grew louder and louder, Richard guided his family to the hem of the purse. By the time all of them dug their grips into the leather, the purse itself began to vibrate with the footfalls. Richard could actually identify the shoes, a pair of black low heels that she often wore around the house. So when the shoe in question landed before the fallen purse with a deafening boom, he wasn't surprised in the slightest. He tensed, his hands clenching the leather, waiting to be scooped off the floor. But, instead, massive fingers lowered into view, accompanied by a series of reports as joints and knees popped as the body squatted. The french tipped nails dug into the dried pink goop on the floor, scrapping some of it up into the nails. Then, they gently prodded the broken glass of whatever tube they had been in that were crushed last night. Even at this size, Richard recognized the familiar sigh of exasperation his wife had uttered a million times.

Then, the hand reached and, despite knowing it was coming, Richard was almost caught completely off guard as the purse was hoisted off the ground, almost losing his grip. Seconds later, the morning light was cut off as the face loomed over, the eyes peering directly towards them. The hair was a little frizzy, but otherwise neater than he'd seen all weekend. The eyes were tired and still a little red from the night before. The skin was clear, foundation clearly applied to hide the circles under her eyes, pink lipstick also was evident. Richard could smell the shampoo, and he immediately knew what was going on here. It was not the first time by a mile, not even close. She had just gotten up, bathed, had done her make up and was about to do her hair before realizing that her favorite hairbrush had been misplaced. Of course, she knew where it'd be. Often when going out, she took it with her to keep her mane immaculate, as her friends were often playfully envious (at least they claimed as much) of her brunette hair.

“MOM!” James and Jenny both cried, waving up at the eyes with desperation. “MOM! DOWN HERE!”

The eyes drew closer as the face leaned in, lids narrowing as she focused on something. The shimmer of hope he had felt early suddenly mushroomed into a roar, and he too waved his hands at the massive face. A moment passed. The nose exhaled, a warm breeze blowing against them. The eyes blinked. A loud sniff. Then, the whole expression of the face instantly changed into something of a wince. Before Richard could even begin to wonder what was happening, he was being blown back into the leathery abyss by a massive and sudden gust of wind, a new roar being vocalized as the spray of saliva and mucus came shooting from the mouth and nose. The dust from the purse had affected her as well.

He landed on a pile of something soft. Vaguely, it felt kind of like a bunch of loose hay. The world around him jolted as the purse was dropped heavily. Up above, he heard another loud sneeze, though it was now muffled, most like going into a sleeve. As he sat up, wiping the slime from his face...

“HA! So close!” The Voice suddenly squawked. Something was definitely wrong this time though. Not with the Voice itself, but rather with the walkie. The words were nearly lost in squeals of static and feedback. Richard, despite knowing his need of their “friend”, found himself still missing the blessed silence of earlier. “Maybe next time...” This time the screech of feedback was so loud that the words were completely lost and Richard winced from the sound.

Wait...feedback.

That only happened with walkie talkies when...

Richard instinctively whipped his head around. Behind him was his family. Henry was ripping Jenny from a field of thick hairs (Richard saw what they were immediately), while Sammy and James attempted to clean their own eyes from the gunk that had just been sprayed onto them. They were surrounded by long beams that towered over them, all wrapped with the hairs that held Jenny in place. Had the circumstances been different, he would have realized the danger they were in. But when he caught sight of someone else moving behind one of the columns a good twenty feet from Henry, he lost focus.

“YOU!”

Henry met his father's eyes for a moment before whipping his own head around. Richard was already up on his feet by the time Henry pointed. His vision was blurry, with snot and spit seeping down from his hair and rolling into his eyes, but he saw the figure turn. Richard was practically about to pass Henry before the young man could even get it in gear, but when he did, he sped ahead of his father.

“Come here, you son of a bitch!” Henry roared.

Richard only had one instance where his vision was clear enough to actually see what he was chasing. A man, clearly. His back was turned, but he was dressed in black and had black hair. Something was strapped to him, a shoulder case perhaps? A knapsack? He didn't see it clearly. And he saw very little else.

It was as if a camera with a powerful flash had gone off. Richard was blinded and immediately tripped. For several moments, he rubbed his eyes. The bastard was HERE. He had glimpsed him! Had he and Henry been just a tad faster they could have tackled him. Maybe Henry was still going after him, but they had to act fast. They all knew what he was capable of.

When his vision finally cleared, he realized he had no idea where he was. At least not at first. His mind's first guess was that he was standing within some lunatic's idea of a highway. It seemed as if he was surrounded by dark roads that weaved in all different directions without any regard to rhyme or reason. Then, he thought he was in a nightmare version of a forest, with deformed tree trunks and vines warped and overgrown in all directions, wrapping around everything. It wasn't until he craned his neck upwards, seeing the massive columns jutting out from the “vines” that he began to remember where they had been.

“Dad!” Richard turned his head and saw Henry stumbling towards him.

“Did you guys get him?” Sammy's voice. She suddenly ran into view, followed by Jenny and James.

“Does it look like I got him?” Henry snapped. He turned to Richard. “Did you see where he went? We can still catch up to him!”

Richard didn't reply. He only looked at his oldest son for a moment before looking up towards the sky. His family joined him. Jenny screamed.

The face was back and something was different. It still loomed, was still massive, but...it now seemed....distant. Further away. The walls off the purse, too, seemed to stretch higher than they had a moment ago. And it was snowing. Not really, of course, but the balls of dust looked like large snowflakes, gently landing all around them. Up above, the nose wrinkled, and a low, muffled sound fluttered in the air. Earlier, the sneezes and breaths had been loud, sometimes booming, but now their volume had somehow been diminished. Not only that, the quality of sounds seemed how reduced, as if being broadcast on an old, worn out intercom. A hand was raised, rubbed the underside of the nose briefly, and then reached towards them. Richard thought the fingers had been large before, reminded of the legendary Kraken and its massive tentacles. Now, as they extended into the dark abyss of the purse, they made the Kraken look like a shrimp. The swirls of the fingerprints were reminiscent of deep striations weathered in large boulders. The air whipped and tore at them from the sheer movement, blowing his family off their feet, plunging them deeper into the forest of massive hairs, now thick enough to serve as tunnels for cars. Flakes of old dandruff were shook loose as the fingers grabbed the the immense hairbrush they were trapped on, it appearing big enough to be a hundred times the size of a cargo ship. These flakes rumbled and dropped like boulders in an earthquake.

Then, the brush was lifted out.

There was a ride at an amusement park that Richard had gone onto with his family some years ago. You got inside this machine only for the whole thing to spin at such a speed that you were literally pressed against the wall. It was like being inside the spinning thing that astronauts train in to simulate the aircraft taking off. Richard could not lift his arms and felt that the pressure of the “take off” might flatten him. He was still able to see however, and what he saw was the face at first come closer but then they sailed over it. The pressure slackened for a brief moment as the ascension stopped. Then, the entire world flipped over, and Richard and his family felt their bodies begin to fall, only for the descent of the brush to catch up with them, again firmly pinning them as it went. Richard saw a new forest below them. One of very thick, giant, and slightly frizzy brunette hairs. From this vantage point, he could see the white specks dotting the massive mane. Despite how beautiful her hair was, Richard knew she often struggled with dryness and flaking.

When the impact happened, the pressure pinning him abruptly disappeared, and Richard began falling, hearing Jenny's shrill screams along the way. This was immediately drowned out as the immense brush began to glide through the “forest”. Massive “trees” were tugged along with the towering bristles, some being ripped out from the skin as they ensnared the brush. Skin flakes were thrown into the air, only to come pelting down again like giant pieces of hail. Richard ran. He didn't know where he was going to go, but he only knew to run. As he ran, Jenny appeared in his peripherals, and he snatched her arm and pulled her along with him. He then became aware of Henry next to him, carrying Sammy on his back with James aside him. A large piece of dandruff painfully landed on Richard's shoulder, causing him to stumble for a moment before being pulled back up by both Jenny and Henry. The skin was, indeed, dry and frail. Richard could feet parts of it indent and begin to chip off even under his puny weight.

Soon the bristles moved away from them, making their way through the rest of the hair. Though they were still pelted with falling debris, Richard and them could finally stop to catch their breath.

“Well, this just got a lot more interesting!” The Voice suddenly spoke up. Richard noted that the walkie too sounded oddly muffled and somehow distant.

“You shrunk us again, didn't you!?” Richard yelled into the walkie. “You were in her purse the whole time, weren't you!? You were right there with us!”

“I only fell in their after she sneezed,” The Voice replied calmly. “To answer your first question, yes. Didn't really have a choice in that, did I? With you two charging after me. Imbeciles, both of you. Despite everything you've been through, after all that I've put you through, you really thought you could just come at me like that and not face the repercussions? You brought this on yourselves!”

“N-No!” Jenny wailed. “Ho-How small are we now!?”

“Let's just say this...” The voice answered. “You're all now part of her microbiome. I'd be careful if I were you...mites can be nasty critters if you run into them.”

“Oh, Christ...” James moaned, burying his face in his hands.

“So what happens now?” Henry asked, his eyes wide.

“Oh, nothing has changed.” The Voice said. “The game is still on. Only now...well, I guess you could call it Hard Mode now. Should be interesting to say the least. I've never shrunk anyone else to this size. Look on the bright side...today's your last day! You just have to survive till this evening!”

“How are you even going to be able to unshrink us when we're this goddamn small!?” Henry barked. But the Voice didn't reply. “Fuck! Now what?”

“We need to find her ears.” Richard replied, reclipping the walkie to his pants.

“Is she even going to be able to hear us now?” James asked. “I wasn't even sure she would originally...but now.”

“I don't know.” Richard admitted. “But it's literally our only option. I don't like the idea of being microscopic, and if there's even a glimmer of a chance that we'll be able to get out of it fast, I say we take it. We've already been through a lot these past couple of days. We might as well keep going.”

“Do you really think he's going to unshrink us?” Jenny asked in a shrill voice.

“I don't know.” Richard said again.

“If it's her ears we're going after,” Henry said. “We need to know where they are.”

“Do you think you can climb up to the top of her hairline?” Richard asked.

“I can try.”

“Good,” Richard nodded. The massive bristles of the brush reappeared in the sky. Fortunately, they did not come back down on top of them, but still landed close enough that another flurry of flakes came down on top of them. The sounds of the hairs being torn through, and literally being torn out occasionally, filled the air. “Then let's make it happen. We need to get out of here before we get lost.”

He could see nothing.

Despite climbing up as far as he could, hanging onto a massive tree trunk of a hair, Henry couldn't make out which direction to go from his vantage point above the “forest”. It wasn't simply because of how almost incomprehensibly vast the forest was, though that very much did not help matters. Even though it was the beginning of the afternoon (or at least, he thought it was), and the sun had been high and bright for them while in the purse, the world around him seemed darker. It was if a dimmer switch had been turned all the way down to the lowest point it could before outright turning the light off. Making out anything in the distance was all but impossible.

He was becoming more intimately acquainted with the going ons of his mother's body than he had never wanted to. Climbing her dirty feet, trekking across her rumbling belly, navigating her boobs, getting a whiff of a dank cavern of morning breath, getting trapped in her underwear (and other happenings that he would forever have to suppress in his memory), crawling under filthy shoes, experiencing a giant belch, and now climbing a forest of hair and dandruff. He had known that his mother suffered from dryness and flaking, the evidence was often visible on the shoulders of her darker clothes, but it had never seemed that bad. Now, however, he couldn't tell if really WAS that bad, or if his diminutive size made it appear that way.

When he made his way down, his siblings simply watched him silently, as his father fumbled with the radio.

“Any luck?” Richard asked.

Henry shook his head. “Can't tell which way is which. Everything's too big, but...it's weird...everything's darker somehow. It's the middle of the day, yet...”

“It's because we're so small.” Sammy spoke up. “Our eyes weren't designed to see light at this size. We're lucky we can see anything at all, let alone even hear. We probably wouldn't even hear her voice. She's so...gigantic that her voice would be way too deep. We might feel her words, but...”

“Are we going to be stuck like this forever?” Jenny blurted out.

Nobody answered. The truth was, their only method of unshrinking them was held by their mysterious captor. And they had no way of knowing that he had any intention of following through with his promise. Being stuck at their previous size had already been an unfathomable nightmare. The past two days had been nothing but a series of catastrophes that they were lucky to even survive. But now...there was no telling how much smaller they now. If they were able to encounter their past selves from mere hours ago, Richard suspected that they would tower over them. Of course, not as much as the matriarch of the family had.

“What do we do now?” James asked. “We can't just stay in here? Who knows what's crawling in her hair...”

“There's nothing crawling in her hair.” Richard replied. “She may have dandruff, but she doesn't have lice, for God's sake.”

“Maybe not, but, she might have dust mites or something in here.”

Richard didn't replied. He hadn't thought of that. Mites. Microscopic bugs. How big would those things be now? Christ, he remembered being afraid of whatever was lurking in the lawn last night, but now he was worried about what tiny creature might be lurking in his wife's fucking microbiome.

“Okay!” The radio squawked suddenly, causing them all to jump. “You all have been hanging around this one spot for over an hour. Get moving!”

“Has it really been that long?” Sammy asked, a look of surprise on her face.

“Yes!” The Voice barked. “And it's getting old!”

“Wait, if it's been an hour,” James said. “How have we not fallen off.”

“Because she brushed her hair and then sat her fat ass down on the couch,” The Voice explained. “I guess she's wants to look good for the TV? Or maybe it's just because she expects you all home later...”

“We're trying to get to find a way out of her hair,” Richard said. “If you're bored of us being stuck, then tell us which way to go to get to her ears.”

There was a pause, and Richard thought his challenge would go answered. But he was surprised.

“You know, I really SHOULDN'T give you directions,” The Voice said. “But, with how small the lot of you are, I'm actually really curious if you even CAN get her attention anymore. Besides, you've all lasted this long so I guess you've earned some special treatment.”

“Gee, thanks.” Sammy sighed.

“Head towards your left, Richard.” The Voice replied, and Richard felt a strange unease at his name being used. Till now, their captor had not referred to any of them by name. “It's a little bit of a walk but you're closer than you've realized.”

“What!?” Richard turned to Henry who looked back at him, dumfounded.

“Don't feel bad.” The Voice quipped. “As I'm sure you noticed up there, Henry, it's pretty tricky finding your way around at this size. Now...you wanted my help. You got it. Now move.”

With no other options, the group began to set out, but before they did something stopped them. Richard more sensed it at first than saw it. It was strange. As Sammy had said, it was hard to see in the dim world around him and, much like a blind man, his other senses were forced to work overtime. He felt something big moving, could feel the presence of something above him. When he looked up he saw something massive hovering over them. He was able to identify it when what little light there was gleamed off the whiteness of the French tipped nails as they lowered. All of them watched, frozen in place. If they were coming down on top of them, they were screwed. There was no time to move. But, once again, luck was on their side.

The nails burrowed through the forest of hairs, sounding like an immense beast lumbering and tearing through trees. Richard, lost in a sudden state of calm lucidity, waited for a loud symphony of noise but it didn't come. Though he could feel the ground begin to shake violently, and could hear nearby trees ripped from the ground, he heard more of a low rumble rather than a din akin to a nuclear bomb. More flakes were launched into the sky, causing a new cascade to fall around them.

“GO!” Richard cried.

The family ran. Flakes began to rain from the sky. Some gently fluttered toward the ground, while larger and heavier ones pelted them like hail. It was impossible to see through the thick forest to see where they were going or to see where the nails were digging. At any moment they could be ground to pieces from the scratching.

Then, just as the Voice had claimed, the forest suddenly ended. And, with all the confusion, none of them were prepared.

The ground simply vanished beneath Richard's feet. He could hear Jenny screaming as the rest of his family plummeted along with him. Even here, the lucidity somehow returned. While he could only see maybe twenty feet ahead of him (or whatever “twenty feet” was at this size), he saw a wall of what looked like flesh. He also saw a few hairs. Two days ago, he recalled vividly, he had grabbed some of these exact same hairs when his wife awoke while trekking across her face to try reach her ears. Now that they were the size of tree trunks, grabbing one as a life line was all but impossible. How far would he fall? The body was no longer a mountain but a whole planet. In any case, it began to seem like this would really be the end.

And just as that thought entered his mind, fate yet again laughed at him as his descent was abruptly cut short as his body landed atop something. Groggily, he raised himself to see he was sitting on a long, black horizontal cord. Of course, it wasn't a cord. It was a hair. He turned his head to see another “cord” sticking out perpendicularly to his own. His family landed atop this one in a fashion that was almost reminiscent of a cartoon. Immediately, he knew he had to try and make his way to them. He looked around for another hair to grab to see if he could swing over but could not see one. Eventually, his gaze turned down, and when it did, he felt his blood run cold. He couldn't see all of it, but he saw more than he would have thought possible. Perhaps it was the light reflecting off its slippery surface that illuminated the area enough, he didn't know. But, of course, the globe sized eye didn't move, did not acknowledge his presence in the slightest. The iris, rather than looking like a solid, beautiful shade of green, now looked like fabric that was torn to pieces. The pupil expanded and retracted as micro adjustments happened. Richard could see faint lights dancing in the dark pit. Images from whatever was on TV?

Richard grabbed the walkie.

“You son of a bitch!” He yelled into the radio. “You said her ears were this way!”

“Oh, were you looking for her EARS?” The Voice replied gleefully. “I could have sworn you said eyes. You were a little staticy. My bad!

“You son of a whore!”

“Yeah, yeah,” The Voice said. “Save it. It's more fun this way. I mean, think about it, pal. You're a microscopic speck on the human face right now. Think of all the little expressions the face makes. All the smiles, frowns, raised eyebrows...all of those. The skin is alive here. More so than the rest of the body. It's fascinating. You can feel all the inner workings coming together to make up the most important part of our social lives. Heck, they say the eyes alone are windows to the soul. How about it, pal? You see her soul down in there?”

“You know goddamn well I don't!” Richard roared. “You lying sack of shit!”

“Normally, I'd remind you of how much worse I can make things for talking to me like that,” The Voice replied casually. “But, I don't want to distract you from your company.”

“Company? What-?”

Jenny screamed.

Before he could turn all the way to her, he caught something in his peripheral. Inching towards him, crawling along the long length of hair, was something that Richard could only describe as a monster. It appeared to be six legged, he saw that immediately. It's body was hairy and resembled the same tannish gray color of the flesh around them. It had a fatty body, but was carrying a long, tail like body behind it. The creature's tiny eyes were staring directly at him as it approached.

“What the fuck!?” Richard cried.

“It's a demodex!” The Voice laughed. “An eyelash mite. Pretty common. Lives inside hair follicles. Fun fact, at night, they come out and mate. That's right, these bad boys fuck each other on your face at night while you sleep!”

Ignoring the laughter bellowing from the radio, Richard began to slowly crawl backward, traveling down the shaft of the hair. The mite followed, never taking its gaze off Richard, who turned his head and saw that another demodex was doing the very same thing with his family on their lash. He had no weapons and knew that he would eventually run out of eyelash to retreat on. All he had was the walkie, which vibrated in his hand as his good friend continued his hysterical giggling.

Wait! The walkie!

Just as the demodex began to bear on him, Richard stabbed a finger on the buttons on the radio. Miraculously, he managed to fumble the flashlight on, and he immediately pointed the light towards the creature. The mite recoiled, turning its head away from him, hissing softly (dear god, he could actually HEAR a tiny creature like this HISS). Richard continued to slide away from the creature, mentally preparing himself to use the radio as a bludgeon if he had to. He turned his head and opened his mouth. He meant to call for Henry's attention and attempt to toss the walkie to him to ward off their attacker. But before any sound came out he yet again felt the “ground” beneath him simply vanished.

He felt his body not only fall, it was pulled down as the lashes whipped downwards, speeding his descent with them. When the top lid met the bottom one, they came together with a very low boom that was almost inaudible but powerfully felt. With another burst of air, accompanied by spray of water, the family was launched forward, barely falling between the lashes. Once again Richard wondered if this was finally it, but once again death refused to take him from this never ending nightmare. This time their fall was short. Richard felt his body land in a pile of something wet and slimey. Kicking and struggling, he lifted his hands and tried to wipe his eyes, but his fingers were also coated. At first he thought it was just the skin's natural oil, and he was not entirely wrong, but the sweet scent that assaulted his nostrils (almost literally so) made him aware.

He was lost in a sea of his wife's make up foundation.

The screams. He could hear the screams. Jenny, of course, but also Sammy and James. Shaking his head vigorously, he managed to fling enough of the gunk off his face to finally open his eyes. Frantically searching, he finally saw them above him, stuck like flies on paper to the skin. A small hair, even on this scale, lay flat against the flesh, buried in the foundation, only its outline visible. Light danced in speckles of the make up.

“GUYS!” Richard yelled. Some of the goop went into his mouth. He gagged at the taste and spat it out. When he regained himself... “DOWN HERE!”

One of the heads, he couldn't tell whose saw him and began to squirm their way to him. Firmly affixed to the flesh by the gunk, they could still slide, if slowly their bodies down towards him. He began to make his way up to them. As he approached, he saw that Jenny was in the lead, barely making out her face and eyes through the make up splattered all over her. Richard reached a hand out to pull his youngest daughter towards her. She reached out, but immediately retracted.

Then she screamed and pointed.

Richard turned and saw something moving in the paint below him. While he couldn't see them very clearly, he saw the six legs working as it moved their fat bodies towards them. These ones were different, they didn't drag long backsides with them, but he could tell they were the same species. He raised a hand to fling whatever slime off the radio...only to realize that he no longer held it. His hand went to his belt. Nothing.

The radio was gone.

“MOVE!” He screamed.

Like an olympic swimmer trying to swim in a vat of thick mud, Richard paddled his arms frantically. Jenny's screams and Henry's frightened swearing rang in his ears. He could hear the small but quick paddles of the six legged monsters behind them. But he didn't dare look back. He had stared death in the face so many times, but somehow all the events that should have killed him seemed preferable to this. This wasn't being instantly squished, this was being eaten alive. Vaguely, his mind was cast back towards Friday, when he had fallen into the cereal bowl and then the massive cavern that had been the mouth. Even getting swallowed up by that seemed better. Maybe he would have drowned in the milk or saliva or gotten quickly crushed by the teeth before actually descending and melting in a vat of stomach acid. But now he was dealing with a creature that was his size and would probably tear him to pieces while he vainly struggled, ripping his intestines out and feeding on them in front of his horrified family before they too became dinner.

There was a small hair in front of them, glued to the skin as the other was. Richard reached up and grabbed it. It was slimy but Richard remarkably got a good enough grip on it to pull himself upward faster than he could crawl. He heard his family grunt as they followed suit. The only thing he could pray for was that the monsters chasing them wouldn't be smart enough to do the same.

They kept moving. Richard knew that he had no idea where they were going. Up? Down? Sideways? Visibility was still remarkably low, despite the shimmering foundation that they were slopping around in. But, even worse, they had lost the walkie, their only connection to the man who had brought them to this hell in the first place. What if the walkie was the way their captor was tracking their move? If that was the case, with it gone, even if the Voice was serious about actually unshrinking them, it would be impossible now. Richard had toyed with the idea of pitching the thing to be rid of that insulting, derisive voice...but now he wished he could hear it so he could cling to the slim hope that maybe, MAYBE, the promises made would turn out to be true.

That the promise that the evening, which was coming in mere hours (if they could survive that long), would finally bring salvation...

Covered in head to toe with cosmetic foundation, Richard continued climbing.

He could hear the demodexes behind him, their nightmarish growls and hisses not far behind him, their many legs scurrying through the goop. It was a hellish struggle of trying to outpace them, while attempting to keep his eyes clear of make up, keep the rest of his family with him, and making out where they were even going to go. There was no way to see ahead, the entire area was too dim and his eyes stung with chemicals.

All he knew was that they were somewhere on his wife's cheek and they had lost their connection to their captor. If he didn't fulfill his end of the bargain, there was nothing they could do. Even screaming into the radio was out of the question.

Richard's hands dug through the thick goop, trying to find anything to pull his body along. Occasionally he would find a few strands of vellus hairs; hairs so small and nearly translucent that finding them was more luck than anything else. As he groped through the sludge, his hands suddenly began pulling globs of red. He stared, dumbfounded, at the oily substance drip from his fingers.

“Lipstick!” Jenny yelled from somewhere. “We've been heading towards her mouth!”

“Blech!” Henry cried. “It's in MY mouth!”

“LOOK OUT!” Jenny screamed.

Richard turned and saw the monsters crawling towards them. He couldn't tell how many there were, if more had joined the chase or not. They were covered in the colorful goop that glistened and sparkled in whatever little light there was. Had this been a scene in a movie it would have been comical. Now it looked like something out of a madman's nightmare, and soon these beasts would be on top of them. There was nowhere to run.

Then, the flesh began to move. And hard.

Richard did not so much hear anything as he felt it. A great pulse hit his body, rattling everything inside of him. It was if he was sitting at the epicenter of an explosion but he could not hear it. The demodexes stopped. Another pulse ripped through him, then another, then more. Rapid fire and his body was shaking as if he was having a convulsion. And the flesh writhed, pulsed, flapped, and squirmed. Warm air blasted against him and then cold air bit into him as it ran the other way. If it hadn't been for the goop he was covered in he might have been blown clear off the flesh to who knew where.

Whatever was happening, it was too much for the demodexes. They turned and began to hurry back from whence they came, disappearing into the darkness. Richard only felt relief for a mere moment before becoming aware that he was slipping, sliding down the red sea of oily fluid. He tried to yell out to his family but the oil threatened to force itself into his mouth and drown him. The flesh continued thrashing, shaking his body further down. His face was nearly coated, there was no way to see, but he didn't have to. He knew where he was sliding and no matter how hard he struggled there was no stopping.

He felt the flesh beneath him curve and suddenly found himself slipping upside down. The sensation was more felt than seen; he could feel the blood begin to rush to his head. There wasn't much time! He had to...

Despite everything he still saw the massive cavern. What little dim light there was shone brightly against the white teeth, ironically causing him to squint his eyes. He heard nothing, but he felt it. Rushing air tore against him and the slick surface of the red oil would not hold him.

The next moment he was flying. The light was gone. Darkness. All he could do was feel his body thrown about in the wind like a discarded shopping bag. Then he landed in the warm sea. It was as merciless as the wind and as violent as the slick red flesh, thrashing violently to and fro. He could feel a massive lumpy surface brush his feet as the sea raged. Despite the darkness, despite his delirious state, Richard knew exactly what was happening. He had nearly suffered this fate on Friday, and now it threatened him again and now he was a fraction of the size he had been. But there had to be a way out, he had come this far. It could not end like this. Only mere hours from completing this unholy challenge only to end up being eaten alive.

The water surged and he was taken with it. Then came the plunge. Game, set and match. He landed on warm, slimy mush. Sound returned to him; muffled, distant, but audible once more. Gurgles. Groans. Splish splashes. Drips.

He was doomed.

Henry had actually been right by his father as they slid down the red oil, though neither had been aware of it. Being heavier than his old man, Henry rolled faster and by the time Richard was being pulled inside the massive cavern, Henry was already half way in. But rather than being dropped into the sea, the wind kept its clutches on him and dropped him down a different plunge. He was covered in a thick liquid and pulses continued to rattle his bones. He tried to breath but the air moved too rapidly.

James, desperate to escape whatever was making his body vibrate, clawed his way onto the philtrum. Safely in the groove, he managed to wrench himself from the goop and stand up. Wiping off his eyes, he turned and saw one of his family crawling towards him. Bending, he reached forward to help. The next moment he was falling, having been shoved by a violent gust of wind. He landed on a very soft patch of flesh. Not just landed, but bounced. His body immediately began to slide again upon recontact with the flesh. Desperate, he flailed for something to grab but found nothing. Frantically scanning his eyes, he caught sight of something brilliant in the dim light. A flicker of gold up above. He could just see the shape of it at the edge of the darkness, and he recognized it. He ought to because he had purchased the necklace for Mother's Day two years ago. A new pulse hit him, though it was weaker but more rhythmic. The flesh began to move again, causing him to sink faster. And the heat. The humidity. It was unbearable.

Jenny had begun to reach for James when he blew away. Horrified, she stood up to try and see where her brother went. She stood for only a moment before she too was taken by the wind but in the opposite direction. Another cavern high above eagerly swallowed her, sucking her deep within as her body miraculously avoided hairs the thickness of skyscrapers. She almost ended up joining Henry, but the air slackened and she fell into a small slimy chamber within the nasal passages. There was no light here, and she was too busy screaming to even begin to try and realize what was happening to her. But all she knew was all she needed to: she was going to die. And she knew there was no way out this time. She screamed and screamed, her raw voice being lost in the sound of heavy wind. Her feet touch a large pool of thick mucus as she sank into the sinus, and she screamed harder.

Sammy had actually been separated from her family quite sooner. No one, not even the monsters that had been chasing them, had even noticed. She squirmed where she was, her body also rattled by the booms. Disoriented, she cried out for anyone but got no answer. As far as she knew she was still being chased by the monsters and was waiting, with immense fear and dread, for their hellish appendages to grab her. So when she felt something big scoop her out of the goop, she closed her eyes and waited for the teeth. That also never happened. What DID happen was her body suddenly felt that it was experiencing 4G speed in a jet. Instantly she began to lose consciousness and the last thing she experienced before darkness swallowed her was her body being dragged against a rough surface.

Then there was nothing.

…......

Evelyn placed her phone down on the counter and sighed heavily. No answer again. She'd left another voice mail. It was strange. She had not heard from Richard, nor the kids, all weekend. The reception was terrible up near the mountains, sure, so she had not been expecting a great deal of contact with them, but to receive nothing was unusual. Worse than that, it was concerning and she began to become worried. They were due home within the hour and the last time she had heard from any of them was Thursday night before they all went to sleep. Nothing since then.

She went towards the couch, absently scratching a small itch on her cheek. Some of her make up came of and she wiped it on her jeans. Her heart was beginning to pick up as her worry began to grow.

It had been such a nice weekend too. For the first time in a long while she'd had the run of the house. Friday she had not done a damn thing except lounge on the couch and watched TV. She hadn't even bothered getting dressed aside from some panties and a bathrobe. One of her shows had introduced a rather handsome looking man, who had been given some scenes romping about on the beach in all his muscular glory. She hadn't been able to help herself and the thought of “relieving” herself out in the living room, the fact that she was free to do so, was exciting in and of itself. So she had done so...more than once. It wasn't until Saturday that she'd decided to do anything productive, cleaning here and there in the morning and afternoon before heading out to Girls Night with her friends. She had partied like she was still in her twenties and could remember only pieces of the night. One thing she did know is that she had sent some very interesting videos to Richard (which had also gotten no response, surprisingly and, in all honesty, disappointingly). Finally, today had been quiet with her trying to prepare herself and the house for the return of her family. She had waited and waited for a phone call. But night was approaching and still nothing.

Her stomach groaned and a small belch escaped her. It had a tendency to get upset when she was worried. She sat down, crossed her legs, and waited.

It was all she could do.

…

A loud bang woke him up.

Richard sat upright with a jolt just as a shower of metal fragments pelted him. He looked up and was blinded by bright fluorescent lights hanging above him. He tore his eyes away and rubbed at them frantically. His hands were slimy and smelled strange. When his face was more or less clean he opened his eyes again and looked around, waiting for his vision to adjust. He was sitting in what looked like some kind of workshop, an auto garage. The grooves of the car lifts lined the floor and spare tires were stacked against the far corner. A large pegboard, which housed only a few ancient tools, hung behind him. Everything was caked with dust and cobwebs. This place had been abandoned years ago.

The smell of smoke made him look up. Above him was a big thing that...well, it looked like it had been a machine of some kind. It was unlike anything he had seen before. Sparks and smoke were emitting from it. Whatever it was, it had exploded, making it even more indistinguishable.

His sore body couldn't hold his neck up and so he lowered it. That's when he noticed them. They were next to him. All of them. Coated in slime, mucus, lipstick, and whatever else. All of them limp. His heart began to race as he slowly crawled towards them.

“Don't worry,” A static laced voice crackled. “They're alive.” Richard looked around but saw no one. “Well, congratulations! You made it! You survived. You didn't get her attention but you're the first group to make it out alive. I'll be honest, you guys had me on the edge of my seat towards the end there. Really came down to the wire!”

“...why?” Richard croaked. “Why...did you...do this?”

“Why?” The Voice repeated. “You wanna know why? Because I can, that's why. You think there's more to this, pal? Some deeper meaning? No. It was all for me. My amusement. Nothing more.”

“Who are you?”

“You know I'm not going to tell you that. Why would I? You don't need to know and it doesn't do me any good to tell you! And who cares, anyway. Why don't you focus on the important thing? Look around, Richard! You're back to normal size! You can't say that I'm not a man of my word.”

Richard said nothing, too exhausted to argue.

“Your RV is outside.” The Voice continued. “There's a hose outside that you can use to clean yourselves off. You packed toiletries, so use 'em. Your phones are also in there. You've got an hour to get outta there. And don't even think about calling the cops. I can shrink you right back down in an instant. Don't doubt that for a moment.”

“How did we even...get here?”

“There you go worrying about the wrong things again.” The Voice said. “Look, I don't have time, nor the patience, to explain all the details to you and you don't want me to get annoyed. Get up and get lost! That's all.”

There was an audible pop and then silence. The Voice was gone.

…

Fifty seven minutes later, Richard walked through the back gate and slowly made his way up towards the porch. He was halfway up the steps when the door opened.

“There you are!” Evelyn voice rang. She perhaps meant to sound scolding, but the relief was too heavy. “Not a single call the entire weekend, Richard? Do you...” She stopped. “What's wrong?”

Richard didn't say anything. In the time since the Voice had abandoned him to now, he had prepared a speech, a series of lies to cover up his silence. The threats still rang in his head. But all of that faded when he saw her. Low heels, dark blue jeans which showcased her hips wonderfully, a black long sleeve shirt with a low cut neck which displayed her bosom. A beautiful body. He had forgotten what it looked like at this scale, to be able to see it all in its glory at the proper size. He'd gotten to know it far better than he'd ever imagined. His eyes dropped to her crotch and he felt phantom humidity of inside her under wear. Then he panned up to the belly, and he recalled the expanse field of flesh and the gaping chasm of the navel. He remembered walking between the breasts, feeling the beating muscle deep within as its work resonated within the skin. The warm sea inside the mouth, the sticky mucus in the nose, the goop of foundation across the face, the hailstorm of dandruff in the hair (even now, in the moonlight, he could see some flakes on the shoulders of her shirt). He remembered it all...vividly. Every part of her body carried many images.

“Richard!”

His daze broke and he met her eyes and he managed to see her again. His wife. He saw the emotion in them, the worry.

“Hmm?” He replied lamely.

“What's wrong?” She repeated.

“It's...a long story.” It wasn't a good response, but it'd buy him some time.

“Where are the kids?”

“I dropped Sammy and Jenny off. Henry already took off with James.” Richard explained, carefully.

Evelyn frowned. “They left...?” She asked, visible hurt shone in her eyes. “I thought they were going to spend the night here and leave tomorrow afternoon? Did something happen? You were all late getting back...”

“Traffic was hell, let me tell you,” Richard said, trying his best to sound tired but casual. All things considered, he thought it came out quite well.

“Oh...” Evelyn replied, unsure. She reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out her phone. “But are they okay? I just didn't...” She stopped, thumbing through screens on her phone. “Oh, Jenny just messaged me. So did Henry.” She looked up at Richard, relief again washing over her. “But why didn't you message?”

“Well, you know how bad the reception is.”

“Yes, but you could have texted before you got up there...”

“I was with them, honey,” Richard replied gently. He took her in her arms and, by sheer habit, one of his hands went to her ass, which he gently squeezed. “I had my hands full.”

She rolled her eyes, but smiled. “Well, I guess you didn't get those...things...I sent you?”

“Things?” He asked with a confused voice, knowing full well what she was talking about.

“I may have gotten a little tipsy Saturday.” She whispered playfully. “And I thought of you and...well, I was all alone and I missed you. You can work out the rest.”

“Sounds good, whatever it was,”

She laughed softly, looking deep in his eyes. “I missed you. It was nice having the house to myself, but I really did miss you.”

I was here the whole time, Richard thought, and you didn't even know it.

She closed her eyes and leaned forward, kissing him. As her warm lips pressed against his, he wondered if the demodex were still were still crawling around on her face. Had any of them gotten stuck in her lipstick? He tried to force these thoughts away as he kissed his wife, offering a small slap on her rear. She chuckled.

“Why don't you come in?” She said soothingly. “And tell me this 'long story' of yours.”

“I'm pretty tired, Evelyn,” Richard said. He didn't even have to act on that. He really was. “I gotta get up early to take the RV back and all. Maybe tomorrow?”

“It's a date,” She said with a smile. She released him and watched him go into the house. Of course, she would try to coax more out of them before the night was over. It all still smelled funny to her. But, everyone seemed fine in the end, so her worries were relieved. For now, she was just happy that he was okay.

She began to follow him inside when she caught her reflection in the window. She approached and examined herself. There were a few simple ways to get him to talk and she knew it was a good time to use them. After all, she HAD missed him and wanted him now. A few tugs at the hem of her shirt to offer a better view, a few adjustments to her hair (she would then brush off her shoulders to remove the flake build up), and then she spun to look at her rear, which had always been her best feature. Saturday night one of her drunk friends had affectionately called her “Ms. Pixar”. But she was proud of her appearance. It hadn't been easy to keep, especially after several pregnancies. Still, her body had aged like very fine wine, and she looked at it lovingly, admiring its curvature.

She then turned, ready to go in and share her beautiful body with her husband.