While the water jug kept Eric's throat from becoming too raw, no amount of water could make the vast car comfortable.

As Jimmy had promised, the vehicle began to heat up with the sun's steady climb into the sky. They had cleaned the shoes relatively quickly before shoving them into the shade provided by the passenger seat to protect the smaller people inside and then slumped down around them. The air around them grew thick and warm, not with humidity but just from the sheer lack of circulation.

All of their eyes were drooping and Eric found himself staring up into the clear blue sky that he spied through the windows. He could hear the muffled sound of other giants arriving; their cars would make the whole world shake, the sound of doors opening and shutting boomed like thunder, and then their voices echoed in the distance. None of them drifted toward Tori's car though, they were only interested in hitting the trail before it became too hot for their immense bodies.

He looked down at Jimmy who was sprawled out on the floor mat, his eyes nearly shut and his chest slowly rising and falling. “Do you think people will notice us in the parking lot wherever she goes to brunch?”

The smaller man stirred slightly but shook his head, “No. It's not like we're a dog or a kid...”

From the other side of the ludicrous platform shoe, the Asian man poked his head up, “Once somebody looked in and saw us...”

His mind muddled from the heat, Eric sat up straighter and looked toward his fellow prisoner with obvious hope on his face, “What happened?”

He shook his head and scoffed, “It was some teenager and he just tapped on the glass and made fun of us...”

Eric's whole body deflated, “Oh...”

“I told you, man-”

Jimmy's voice was interrupted by a shadow falling over their world.

Tori's form loomed in the window, her cheeks a little reddened and a fine sheen of sweat coating her skin. They all struggled to stand as she ripped open the door and tossed her camelbak down onto the back seat.

“Ugh, it's so hot out...” Her voice boomed as she gave a quick glance around before peeling her sports bra off right there in the parking lot. Eric's eyes widened as he watched her breasts practically bounce against her chest while the blonde girl tumbled out of them with a terrified shriek.

The shout that burst out of him was overpowered by Tori's own laughter.

“Whoops!” She thundered while catching the falling girl, her fingers clenching around her so hard that it made the tiny girl yelp. “Sorry about that,” she dropped the girl unceremoniously into the carrier where she lay completely limp, “Forgot you were in there on the way back down...”

Eric kept his eyes on the shrunken girl, watching to make sure she was actually breathing.

Shadows moved across the world while Tori pulled things out of her bag. He heard the scraping of a towel against skin, the pop of a deodorant cap, and then the sound of vast amounts of fabric fluttering about. The giantess was clearly happy, humming to herself as she struggled into the clothes she actually wanted to wear that day, but Eric simply watched the blonde's chest slowly rise and fall before she finally stirred.

She was clearly exhausted but there was a look of awe on her face as she stared up into the heavens at Tori. Eric followed her gaze to see that the giantess had changed into a dark dress with a floral print that fell down to just above her knee. She wheeled about and then settled onto the backseat to remove her boots.

“Woof,” she said with a giggle as she pried off one boot and dropped it down in front of them, “You poor little things.”

The hefty piece of footwear landed with a faint tremor but it didn't appear particularly dirty to Eric. It was a second later that the smell emanating from it hit him, making him gag slightly as the thick melange of footsweat, dirt, and leather hit him in a wave. Before he could recover, she dropped the second one down with another giggle and then added her thick hiking socks for seemingly no other reason than to torture them with their scent.

“Ah, so much better,” Tori announced while standing to pry off her leggings. She stretched across her backseat once again and her eyes raked over all of them, “Oh come on, it's not that bad, is it?”

Her hand was digging something else out of her bag but her entire focus was on them, clearly waiting for a response.

The weight of her gaze made Eric fidget uncomfortably and though he was trying to breathe through his mouth, the stench of her morning workout was strong enough that he could almost taste it. Still, he knew what the answer to the question was and he also had a feeling that as the largest shrinkee, he was expected to speak for the group.

A cough escaped his lips when he tried to speak and the way that made her eyebrows knit together sent a shiver down his spine. Shaking his head rapidly, Eric shouted, “No, Mistress, of course not!”

Her lips spread into a grin, she was clearly pleased but all she said was, “Good,” before she sat back down and tugged a pair of thin socks with lace around the top over her feet. The giantess sighed happily as she snatched up the platform boot containing the Asian girl and then pulled it onto her foot with a grunt before tying up the laces.

She rested the platform against her knee and laughed while snatching her phone up. At first Eric thought she was going to take a photo but the moment she tapped the sceen, she began to speak, “Hey guys, just thought you'd want to see the wonderful Qloud Qozmos S-Specials that YRU sent me. They're perfect for keeping little decorations like this tiny thing in them.”

Tori tapped the girl's plastic prison with her index finger while laughing, “I do feel a little bad for her, since if you saw last night's stream, she was on my earring yesterday and today she's going to be my little pedal bitch...”

The giantess laughed as she stopped recording with a tap of her thumb and then quickly started to upload it. She tossed her phone into the front seat before grabbing the other shoe and pulling it on with far less fanfare.

Eric simply stared up at her, flabbergasted by the fact that she had made a quick video about the torture she planned to put another person through and could then simply go about her day like nothing had happened.

The door shut and he could hear the soft crunch of gravel beneath her feet as she walked around her car, his gaze tracking her the whole way while his mouth hung open.

It was Jimmy tugging on his arm that pulled him out of it, “Hey, man, don't try to make sense of it, ok? She is the way she is...”

“But-”

Jimmy pulled on him when the car door opened up, “We have to get back into the carrier before she-”

The car shook as the engine came to life and Eric didn't have any time to brace himself as he was suddenly tossed forward by Tori pulling out of her parking spot. He saw the underside of the passenger seat flash overhead before he was tumbling in a different direction, his body becoming entangled with Jimmy's much smaller frame. Then he was tossed backward across the floor mat and into the backseat.

Both of them groaned as she hit the highway and started to pick up more speed.

For a moment, the sheer acceleration kept them pinned against each other but as the vehicle started to cruise, the pressure became more and more bearable until they could pull themselves from against each other.

“Sorry,” he grunted to Jimmy.

The smaller man was already crawling toward the carrier and he didn't glance over his shoulder when he said, “You really need to start listening to me, man. It'll save you some trouble.”

Eric simply nodded and followed Jimmy back into the carrier. It wasn't as if the nylon bag with its mesh walls actually did anything to protect them from the way the whole world seemed to shift when Tori changed lanes or accelerated but it at least kept them from rolling too far in most directions. Eric's fingers wrapped around the mesh and turned white when the car slowed down on an off ramp, threatening to send them all tumbling into the center console.

Thankfully Tori drove slowly through presumably quiet streets before she brought the car to a stop. Instead of turning off the engine though, she sat there idling while she looked at herself in the rearview mirror and applied a few quick touches of make-up with a grimace, “I should have brought Luciana...”

Before the question of why the girl hadn't stepped out of the car could fully form in his mind, Eric saw a giantess loom outside the passenger side door.

Unlike Tori, her hair was a natural dark shade that cascaded down to her shoulders in waves. Her eyes were obscured by huge sunglasses and her full lips had a bright bubblegum sheen to them. They spread into a grin as she wrenched the door open and her voice filled the air, “Hey, bitch!”

“Hiiiii, bitch!” Tori's cry left his ears ringing as the pair leaned in and loudly went 'mwah' as they kissed each other's cheeks.

As the brunette started to pull away, her head turned to look into the backseat. “Oh wow, you brought a whole itty bitty bitch brigade, huh?” The girl perched her glasses up atop her head so that she could get a better look at them with her dark brown eyes.

“Hey, it takes a lot of work to keep me looking this good,” Tori said with a giggle.

“Oh stop, you'd look amazing even without these little things...” She affectionately slapped Tori on her shoulder while leaning into the backseat. She was dressed much more plainly than her friend, in just a white tank top with an open dark green button down layered over it and what looked like pale denim jeans loosely hanging off of her waist. “Ok, change of plans, what if for brunch we just ate all of these little things?”

Eric's eyes went wide and the fact that all the other shrinkees stiffened with fear made his heart race.

“Nooooo,” Tori whined while tugging on the waist of the other girl's jeans, “They're all good little workers.”

“Scrumptious looking little workers,” long slender fingers descended from the sky with dark acrylic nails extending off of them like claws. They grabbed the younger latino man, who stared up at them with his mouth agape, and remained shocked until he was being brought into the front seat, where he started to thrash. “This one's kinda hot,” the girl giggled, clearly amused by his struggles as she settled into the passenger seat, “What's his deal?”

“Uh...” Tori glanced at him while she pulled away from her friend's place, “I think he was one of Big Blaze's finds but I can't remember.”

“God, it's so cool that people just send these things to you.”

“If you posted more, I'm sure people would offer them to you too...”

“No thank you, I'm happy keeping my private life actually private.”

“Then I guess you won't get any free shrinkees or shoes or dresses like I do.”

“Why would I need to do that when I can just borrow all the stuff you get for free?”

Tori just laughed and Eric watched her hair swish about as she shook her head.

“And what about you, Guapito?” The giantess asked with a giggle, “Want to come home with Valentina today?”

Tori smacked Valentina on the shoulder, “You're not taking any of them.”

“You have so many!”

The car came to a stop as Tori pulled into a parking space, and the pair slid out of the car together, with the shrunken man still wriggling in Valentina's hand as they strolled into the restaurant.

Eric looked over at Jimmy, “She's not actually going to take him... right?”

Jimmy shook his head and then leaned against his knees, “I don't know, man.”

“And what about that stuff about...” his whole body shuddered, “Eating us.”

“Immune people have sick senses of humor.”

“Yeah... yeah they do...”

They sat in silence as the chilling effect of the air conditioner was rapidly replaced by the oppressive warmth of the sun. Eric's stomach started to rumble and no amount of water would steady it, looking around at the others, he realized that they were all sitting there clutching their stomachs and looking miserable.

Settling back down next to Jimmy, the older shrinkee shook his head, “Another thing about this kind of shit, you never know if you're going to get fed.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Eric grumbled darkly, “Hopefully that guy they took with them is at least getting some scraps...”

“Probably, they might make him do something embarrassing for them but he should be eating.”

Eric had a vague memory of a day in high school when he walked by a table of Immune kids. At the center of it there had been a shrinkee, too small for him to make out any details but he was pretty certain it was a kid he had had some classes with, who was dancing desperately while all of the giant kids around him laughed. Burnt french fries, wilted pieces of lettuce, and a few nasty looking globs of burger were tossed in the shrunken boy's direction.

The way that the tiny boy had dove for the food, desperately stuffing it into his face while all of the giants laughed had stuck with Eric his whole life. Every time he dwindled down he had wondered if he would be that kid one day.

As frustrating and terrifying as his first day at Tori's had been, he had thought he had avoided that fate. Now he realized though that it was just pure luck that he hadn't been snatched up by Valentina's fingers and carried into the restaurant.

The thought weighed heavily on him and the only thing that pulled him out of it was the shadows of the two giant women returning. Their laughter filled the car as they opened the doors and dropped back down into their seats.

“Lemme just call my house real quick,” Tori boomed between giggles.

“It still weirds me out that you have a landline,” Valentina replied and Eric looked up to see that she was dangling the young latino over her bubblegum lips while he desperately squirmed.

“You won't be complaining when Lil' Butler is there to greet us with drinks,” Tori replied as she held her phone to her ear and after a beat boomed, “Lil' Butler, Valentina and I want poolside cocktails when we get back-”

“Something sweet and refreshing as fuck!” The giantess boomed, the shrinkee in her hands screaming as she swung him about.

“We're like fifteen minutes away so hurry your little ass up,” Tori added before ending the call and dropping her phone into a cup holder.

“So he just hears your voice on the answering machine and starts running around the kitchen?” Valentina asked while the car started to move.

“Yeah,” Tori's focus was on the road, “He's probably rounding up some of my tributes to help out or whatever too.”

“Do we need more than what we already have?” Valentina asked as she glanced into the backseat, her dark eyes running over Eric and his fellow prisoners.

“I meant that they'd be helping him get stuff ready for us but...” Tori shrugged, “You can never have enough shrinkees.”

Valentina laughed and nodded her head, “True, true...”

The two giant girls grew quiet and Tori turned up the music to the point that all Eric could do was sit and feel the beat pulse through his body while he stared into the middle distance.