Year 20XX

Warm sunlight shines a small town resides on a green meadow area, abnormally surrounded by the bottomless pit all around it with only one creaky rope bridge connecting the end of the road on each side. Tallest building in town only four stories tall, surrounded by small shops and few houses with some broken roads filled with chasms and cracks.

Strangely enough, vines and leaves creeps all over many of the structures here, flowers grown in many strange places with no one to clean it up. Why nobody bothers to cleaning up all these tangled plants? Simply because there’s no one in this town.

It’s an empty town, nothing but plants still living freely inhabiting these manmade town that has been left behind by its residence. No dead body found, giving even stronger indication that the town is simply abandoned. But even weirder, no animals, not even insects could be found, all just vanished somehow.

But if one look closely to the ground…

On an empty lot filled with tall grass, something moves beneath, shuffling through the thick green blades forward onto the open road until finally something emerges from the grassy lot into the open road, a humanlike figure only 3cm tall. Looks like a girl, a little bit tanned, brownish hair, clad in purple tanktop and short jeans.

With sport shoes helping her run, the girl entered what looked like a toy shop filled with remains of dolls, toy cars and so much more. Stopping for five seconds to look around while catching her breath, the sweaty girl had her eyes locked onto a section of the store; dollhouses, at least what remains of them.

Bingo, she thought. Continued her run toward it, the tiny girl entered one of the dollhouses and noticed all the furniture that completely fit for her size. Then she found it; the clothes worn by a doll. She took it off; a pair of short skirt and buttoned tanktop with exposed belly, looks like the doll was supposed to be something along of an idol singer character. Well, at least it’s still a clothes and besides, she would look cute wearing this, the girl thought.

Folding it up, threw it inside her tiny backpack, time to head back once again. For her tiny size her run can be considered quite fast, almost at the same time as a normal sized human walk.

Back outside, the intense daytime sunlight bathes her skin once again. No worries about a little bit of tan, she thought as her legs once again gaining up speed through the tarmac until a shout slowed her down.

“SENA!”

Turning her head to the left, she saw a familiar face; a fellow shrunken girl, this one has short black hair, wearing what looked like a police officer outfit, buttoned navy shirt with black tight pants.

“Oi Athena!” Sena waves her right hand. “Found what you looking for?”

“I found something today, finally,” Athena finally got close to Sena as she catches her breath after a lot of running. “There’s a newspaper that I found explained what was happened that day,”

“Wait, really?” Sena’s eyes opened wide a bit.

“Not here, the heatwave killing me, let’s go back for now,”

“Yeah, let’s,”

+++

A house, or at least what remains of it.

In the backyard of the house, a plastic bowl filled with rain water placed on the ground, only there’s something small floats on top of it; Another tiny girl, this one has blonde twintail hair on her, wearing only two-piece green bikini, lazily floats around using toy donut-shaped buoy enjoying the cool sensation in the middle of the summer heat.

“Marina? You there?” another girl called the relaxing one. Wearing striped shirt and overall jeans complete with a straw hat covering her long black hair, she’s dragging what looked like a quite big cart made of matchsticks with wheels from toy cars.

“Hiya Azumi, just enjoying the heat here, it feels nice. Wanna join? There’s another floaty if you want to use it,”

“No thanks, not today. We’ll eating some good food tonight,”

“Wait, we’ve got somethin’ to harvest today?” Marina paddles herself into the edge using her arms. “Lemme help! Finally, a nice meal!”

“Alright, alright. Then help me with the watering, will ya?” Azumi continues to drag the cart.

“Sure!” Marina climbs down the toy ladder attached to the plastic bowl. Together, the two girls walked into a section of the backyard where a dozen of potted plants stood tall. Some of it already sprouts something such as strawberries and tomatoes.

“Yay! Strawberries! Tomatoes!” Marina happily climbs the scattered bricks until she reaches the potted plant and used the already-assembled ropes to climb up. Without any thought, Marina just hangs on top of a tomato and hugged it like there’s no tomorrow. “Ooooh I’m so gonna eat you later!”

“Hey hey Marina, watering watering, come on,” Azumi just sighed seeing her happy friend letting her stomach took control of her own.

“Fiiine…” Marina pouted, stood back up and climb down the pot. “You better harvest all that properly, cause I’m gonna chow down a lot tonight!”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to avoid getting chubby so that you could look like that girl on a magazine paper?” as both girls passed each other, Azumi teasingly pinched Marina’s belly.

“Hey, shut up! I could just ask Sena anytime to help me losing weight, right? Well, at least based on what that magazine says…”

“Yeah, whatever…”

Azumi climbs each plant and using her tiny makeshift axe, cutting down each fruits as they lands on the ground below on the pot. Strawberries, tomatoes, and oranges, what a miracle. Some stable rainy weather and just the right temperature in this summer really helps in growing all this delicious fruit. Meanwhile, Marina climbs what looked like a tower made of matchsticks and bamboo sticks tied up with vine strings and glue as well located just close to the potted plants. Using traditional rope elevator, Marina lifts herself up into the top of this tower where a large bucket stood tall.

“You done down there?” Marina shouts loudly on Azumi down below.

“Yeah, bombs away!” Azumi responds as she rolls the last strawberry into her cart.

Marina pulled what looked like a tiny rope attached to the bottom side of the bucket. As Marina used a lot of strength to open up the ‘floodgate’, water pours down the irrigation path until it reaches the edge and raining down on the plants below…

Watering done, Marina drags the floodgate close back up and walks back to the elevator…

CREAK

“Whoa!” Marina jumps a bit as the wooden floor below broke, creating another little hole. This watering tower need to be repaired soon enough, she thought.

+++

Inside the house…

Despite the damages on the outer part of the house, the living room itself still very much clean and inhabitable. There’s normal-sized sofa, a cupboard and a coffee table, a television yet I’s not functional. There’s several tiny furniture scattered around the floor in which the four girls previously took from the dollhouses in toy store.

Meanwhile, Azumi and Marina are busy unloading all the fruits from the cart and rolling it into a spot in the corner where they put all the harvest.

“It’s getting late… where are those two?” Marina notices the sky started to turn orange and gets darker by each passing time.

“Sena! Athena!” Azumi waves her right hand up on the figure walking into the living room.

“Whoa, we’re harvesting today?” Sena wipes her sweat with a tiny towel.

“Yeah! We’re eating good tonight!” Marina still in her high spirit.

“Oh yeah, by the way…” Sena unpacked her backpack, letting out a piece of idol uniform that she took from the toy store earlier. “Here’s what you ordered, and promise me not to tear it again like before,”

“Hey! That was an accident! Those damn spiky vines hurt like hell, and rough! That’s why it torn my clothes into nothin’! …and by the way, thanks a lot, Sena,”

“Hey, no prob, at least that gives me a reason to do some run today,” Sena just smiled.

+++

Later that evening…

Azumi set fire into the giant lantern, giving the dark living room some nice yellow light and warm feeling. Meanwhile, Marina already busy chowing down the car-sized strawberry in front of her, almost similar to a mouse creating holes on a cheese. Athena still busy sorting all the notes that she gathered today while on the other corner of the room, Sena just enjoying herself took a bath inside a tiny bowl, cleaning off her body using a micro-sized soap that she cut from a larger soap and also some shampoo that she got from a giant bottle.

After everyone ate their fruit for dinner, Athena asks everyone to gather around…

“Now, we’re always asking among ourselves about why there’s that bottomless pit surrounding this area, right? I may have found the answer,” Athena reads her notes. “So… based on a newspaper that I stumbled upon inside that green building… there was an earthquake, and… the article says that it’s not just here, it says that the entire world feeling it as well, multiple sinkholes appeared all over, heavy damages on major cities around the world. Meanwhile, this town suffers in the way of; not only the sinkhole itself appeared simultaneously surrounding it, but also it’s like the land suddenly just split. Many called it a strange phenomenon, but also a major danger, that is why that rope bridge connecting to the other side is created, so that they all could escape,”

“I’m always curious about this… ‘world’,” Sena rubs her chin. “Say that we’re crossing that bridge… there’s… more? I mean, there’s more than just… this place?”

“Well, even if we wanted to know the answer to that, you know it’s impossible, right?” Athena is quick in shutting down Sena’s hopes and dreams. “The wind would blow us off and we’ll all be falling into whatever down there, that dark abyss below…”

“No, don’t even think about explorin’ like that yet, what about those creatures that we saw on those pictures in books, magazines, and newspapers?” Marina interrupts. “Are they really exists? Those creatures, similar to us in appearance, probably hundred times larger than us, using all these… stuffs in this room. Like those bottles for example, they lift it up with their hand and gulp it through their mouth, right?”

“Yes, the picture exists… but where?” Athena just shrugs. “We haven’t seen even one of those creatures here. Maybe it’s possible this is all just… well… what does it says in that dictionary book… um… fiction? Like, not true?”

“But granny says something like that too, remember? Well, before she passed away, I mean…” Sena tried to remember her words. “She even called them human, just like us,”

“I don’t know… well, just simply because I haven’t seen one myself, so I’m still kind of skeptical about her stories, that’s all,”

“Hey hey… nevermind that problem, alright? There’s more important matter, what about us?” Azumi joined the conversation. “Remember, there’s only four of us now left in this town, while the last man on our group… well, he died, right? Because of that falling book accident… so… what’s next for us? What’s our purpose here then?”

 Hearing Azumi’s question, everyone’s head just down, deep in thought that’s next for them… but their train of thought quickly interrupted as the sound of rain hitting the roof suddenly kills the silent evening.

“Whoa, quick! Bucket, bowl, everything! Fill ‘em up!” Athena commands everyone as the four girls running around once again…

+++

A week later…

Summer afternoon as usual. Azumi, Athena, and Marina just lays their tiny body down lazily on the floor of the living room… until their tranquility suddenly bursts as Sena enters the living room, her face looked like she’s seen a ghost.

“Sena? What’s going on?” Athena felt a bit concerned noticing Sena’s unusual expression.

“I… I SAW IT!”

“Saw what?” Now Marina is intrigued as well.

“Just… follow me! Come on!” Sena runs back outside the house. Curious, the other three girls followed suit. Running outside into the bright sunlight, the four tiny girls stood on the tarmac facing where Sena pointing her right index finger, which is onto the old rope bridge separating the town from the rest of the world. There, they saw a silhouette resembling a human being across the bridge, slowly closing in toward the town…