The Forest Lake Incident


By NFalc


10:30


"Hey Juan, help me lift this..."

I'm alive, is the first thing I think. I'm alive, but I can't see anything, and the most I can move is clenching and unclenching my hand. Judging by the gravel and concrete surrounding me, I'm guessing I've been buried under the wreckage of the floor above us.

"You all right, Max?" I hear Zach ask somewhere behind me.

I can hear him cough up dust, but he manages to choke out, "Yes."

"That's three of us then. We still don't know where Paul and Carl are, and we've checked all the piles except that big one."

I'm guessing the big one's mine. Today really isn't my day.

"Do we even know if Paul jumped or not?" Max asks. "I mean, that's a really big slab of concrete, it would suck if we moved that and he wasn't even under there."

Okay, think fast. Got to find some way of letting them know I'm here. I try to call out, but I can barely breathe, something's sitting on my chest. Shit, what do I do? Can't shout, can't move... Wait, I can move my hands. I quickly ball my left hand into a fist and bang on the gravel beneath me.

"Escucha," I hear Juan grunt somewhere above me.

I pound on the gravel harder, until I feel something come loose. It slides away, clattering noisily as it falls.

"There's definitely someone in there," Zach says. "If we all push on the big slab we can move it away. C'mon."

I hear heaving and groaning above me, then feel the pressure start to shift. Whatever's on my chest tips, then slides away to the right, and I see light shine through cracks in the pile. I hear rocks and concrete shifting, and I can move my arms again. I press up against the pile above me and push as hard as I can, breaking through into the light.

Max, Zach and Juan are standing off to one side, panting and covered in dust. I wiggle my way out of the pile and stand next to them, muttering "Thanks," as soon as I catch my breath.

"That's four of us, then," Zach says, steadying himself against a wall.

I look around, and notice that we're in a bare room, linoleum tile on the floors, pink insulation visible on the walls. "Is this some kind of storage area?" I ask.

Max nods. "I'm pretty sure we're in the basement of A Building. Which is good, because the rest of it's probably caved in at this point."

"And we have no idea where Carl went?"

"I heard him yell out 'Wait' when we were running away," Zach says quietly. "I don't know if he made it."

"Shit," Max mutters.

We have no way of knowing whether or not he's dead, but it won't help us at all to dwell on it. "Okay, we can't worry about that now. We need to think up a plan," I say.

"What do you mean?" Zach asks in a sort of obnoxious way. "Here we are lost in some kind of alternate dimension, stranded in this weird place surrounded by girls who used to be our classmates and are now giant psychopaths. We're doomed."

"You think I don't know what kind of mess we're in?" I say fiercely. "My girlfriend is ten times her normal size, and she and her friends just killed all of our teachers. We're in danger, of course we are, but if we act like we're all gonna die, that's exactly what's going to happen."

"Well what are we supposed to do?" Zach whines.

"We don't really have many options," Max says as he slumps to a sitting position against the wall.

They've got a point. What can we do? We're half our normal size, and there's nowhere to run. C'mon, man, think... It's not like you haven't been outmatched in the past. Playing QB, you've got guys who weigh twice as much as you after your blood, but you always managed to defeat them. Of course, then you had a team to help you... Wait.

"Strength in numbers," I say, "That's what we need. Sure, the girls are bigger than we are, but they aren't working together. We all saw that fight half an hour ago, half of them are trying to kill each other."

"When they're not trying to collect us, you mean," Zach pipes up.

"Well yeah, but the point is they're not all on the same side. And if all of us guys stood up to them, I bet we could stop them from taking us. We aren't their possessions, we're people. And we've got to stand up for that, right? The only way we can do that is if we stand together!"

I pause, barely believing what's coming out of my mouth. What am I talking about, I can barely get these three to work with me! But just as I'm about to abandon my plan completely, I see Juan nod. Max and Zach look thoughtful, then they nod too.

"What... do we do?" Juan asks haltingly.

"Um, we can't really have strength in numbers without more people. So, the first thing we have to do is find other survivors. We'll need to spread out and cover the whole campus, and try to rescue anyone we find. After that, we can bring them back here to A Building, and figure out what to do after -"

Before I can finish, there's a loud yet weirdly muffled thump behind me. I whisper, "Quiet!", then turn and watch the wall at the back of the room. There's a red door in the wall which looks like it's shaking.

I hear something that sounds like a huge gasp, then the entire wall bursts outwards in a shower of dust. I can see a huge face through the newly formed hole.

"Vamos a morir," Juan mumbles.

"Um, I'm sorry," The giantess says, her voice painfully loud. "I wasn't trying to eavesdrop or anything, I just heard voices..." There's a look of embarassment in her big hazel eyes.

While I try to get my head around the weirdness of this giant girl apologizing to us, Zach rushes forward. "Tara! You made it out okay!" He yells happily. I've heard that name before... She's one of the girls my girlfriend's clique always made fun of.

"Zach! I'm so glad you're all right..." Tara responds, beaming. Her voice seems loud enough to carry for miles...

"Keep it down, will you?" I say urgently. "For all we know one of Alexa's friends could be hanging around still, just waiting to pounce on us."

"Oh, I doubt that," Tara says quietly. "By the time I got here, they were already walking off. Alexa seemed really upset about something, then I saw that this building was destroyed and thought I would check to see if anyone was hurt..."

"If anyone was hurt," I echo. "Of course people got hurt! Those three psychos just killed all of our teachers. We're probably the only ones that survived."

"Oh my god," Tara gasps, her eyes suddenly filling with tears. "The teachers are dead?"

"There might be some of them that survived," Zach says, trying to cheer her up.

"That doesn't even matter," I interrupt, staring straight at Tara. "The point is, the girls are capable of anything today, and they can't be trusted. How do we know we can even trust you?"

Zach puts a small hand on my shoulder, and looks at me solemnly. "Paul, Tara and I were in B building when the accident happened. The whole thing got really badly damaged, and would have collapsed on top of me if Tara hadn't saved me. I owe her my life. I'm pretty sure we can trust her."

"I just want to help you guys," Tara adds.

The little guy seems serious. And Tara's concern seems real. Maybe I'm wrong. It could be that the whole thing with Alexa is screwing with me, making me paranoid. I mean, the girls can't all be crazy, right?

"Okay, I guess," I say. "Now what were we talking about again?"

"You were saying that you were going to split up and find other survivors," Tara prompts.

I glare at her. "You were eavesdropping!"

She bites her lip, then nods.

"You said you wanted to help, right?" She nods again. I turn to Zach. "You stuck up for her, so you're responsible. The two of you are a team. In fact, that's what we're going to do, split up into teams and search each building. Zach and Tara, you two will take D Building. That leaves C Building and the gym..."

I can't go back to the gym. If I do, Alexa could find me. Who knows what she'd do to me for leaving her? One of her crazy friends might just stomp on me for disobeying her.

"Juan, you know the layout of the gym," I say aloud. "Max, you're small enough to get into places Juan can't. You go with him. I'll take C Building."

"But doesn't that leave you on your own?" Max asks, concerned.

"For now, yeah. As soon as I find someone else, I'll team up with them. Don't worry about me. We should get moving. Tara, can you give us some room to walk?"

"Yeah, there might not be much room to squeeze by," She chuckles, realizing that she pretty much fills the hallway. Although now that I think about it, squeezing by would probably be an interesting experience. Of course, Tara is already wiggling carefully out of the way.

The four of us walk out into the hallway, which looks like it's seen better days. There are cracks in the walls, holes in the ceiling and bits of broken concrete all over. We follow the hallway to the end, where Tara is holding a big door open with one huge, clear polished fingernail. It leads us out into a small paved area behind A Building. Tara sits against the side of the building, and when I look up I see that her head is practically even with the second story window. It's little things like that which remind me just how big these girls are.

"There's one other thing," Zach says, bringing my attention back to ground level. "How are we going to get to each building? I bet that when Alexa and her friends trashed the building they wiped out the walkways."

Tara shakes her head slightly, her small movement causing the walls to shake a little. "They're still around, but we won't be able to get to the elevated ones. All the top floors are rubble."

"We might be able to clear that away later," I say. "But for now, we should just take the ground-level paths. The key is not to be conspicuous. We guys don't have too much of a problem with that, but Tara might attract some attention, especially if they see her and Zach together..."

Zach thinks about this for a moment, then turns to Tara. "As long as I'm out of sight, they won't notice a thing. You're going to have to hide me somewhere."

Tara looks herself over, running her hands over her form-fitting orange t-shirt, then her tight jeans. The t-shirt has no pockets, and though Zach's staring at the jean pockets, there's no way he'd fit. "If I tried to put you in there, you'd probably get smothered by the tension of the fabric," She says to him.

"So, what options do we have?" Zach asks, trying to play innocent and failing miserably.

Tara rolls her eyes, but there's a hint of a smile on her lips. "Either I shove you down my pants or down my top. And before you get any big ideas, one of those isn't an option." She lowers a hand towards Zach, who climbs onto it, then gently lifts it over her boobs and tilts him in. I see a small outline emerge at the center of her t-shirt before Zach settles in. I'm almost jealous of the guy. Tara's got a pretty nice rack.

"Well, that's fixed then. We just need to make sure we all meet back here at some point. Does everyone have a watch?"

Max holds up his wrist to show a black digital watch, and there's a small cry of "Yes!" from within Tara's shirt.

"It's 10:45 now. We'll probably need a little over an hour to search, so let's meet back here at noon. And most importantly, be careful. If one of us gets hurt, it makes things more difficult for everyone. Don't do anything stupid."

"We've got it, man," Max says. "See you in an hour." He and Juan head off towards the gym.

Tara looks straight down into her top. "You ready to move, Zach? Be careful, my bra should keep things pretty steady, but there might still be some, uh, turbulence."

"Don't worry about a thing!" I hear Zach call in reply.

I watch Tara get up, in a weirdly smooth movement for something so big. I'll admit it still kinda throws me off to see things twenty times my size moving fast. Soon enough, they're on their way.

I look towards C building, and find that I can barely see past the remains of A building that have piled up over the pathways. It looks like an entire wall has fallen in front of me. Looking over it carefully, I see a small chunk of the concrete is missing at the bottom of the section. It looks just big enough to crawl under. I get down on my stomach and start to wriggle under, wondering just how three teenage girls manged to cause this kind of destruction.

Suddenly, I hear a voice asking the same question, but with much more technical detail. "With such a tremendous increase in mass, there's no way they should be able to achieve that kind of velocity." The voice sounds deep and husky, but almost mousy compared to the volume of a girl's.

"Well, yes, but for all we know there's a slight lowering in the constant of G on this planet, which allows them to move at much faster speeds than an object with similar mass could on our own - hey, what's that?"

I emerge from under the wall to see two pasty, Germanic-looking guys crouching in front of me. One extends a hand to help me up. I think I recognize them - they're Zach's friends. Standing up, I see that they're on the taller side of the people today - not quite as big as Juan, but certainly bigger than me.

"Say, aren't you that meathead -" One of them begins, before the other jabs him swiftly in his ribs.

"You're Paul, right? Captain of the football team?" The other asks. I nod. "I'm Bruce," he says, "And the actual meathead appears to be my twin Dan."

"Don't worry about it," I say, wiping the dust off my pants and trying to look like I don't care what they think. "It's just good to see that more of us survived."

"No kidding," Dan says quickly, "I can't believe we were able to live through interdimensional transport!"

Where have I heard that theory before? I stare at him. "Have you been talking to Zach about this?"

"Zach made it too?" Bruce asks.

"Yeah, and he's all right. But that's not the point, and neither is how we got here. What matters now is staying safe. I'm surprised neither of you have gotten snatched by one of the girls already, wandering out in the open like this."

"We're not exactly great catches," Bruce says with a wink. "But to our credit, we stayed under cover while the building got demolished. We only came out once the girls left."

Cowards, I think, they're total cowards. Then again, today running and hiding is just common sense, unless we manage to band together... "What if I told you there was a way we could make sure that none of us got taken by them?"

"Well, we already considered suicide," Dan says, "But we figured it would be better to be captured than killed."

"No, no. We can stay alive AND keep our dignity. All we have to do is work together."

"But we're the size of bugs compared to them," Bruce frowns. "How could we ever fight back?"

"Someday, maybe we'll figure out a way. But for now, we just need to get all the surviving guys together. I'm on my way to C Building now to see if there's anyone else we can round up."

"Fair enough," Dan says. "Think you could use four extra hands?"

"Every man helps," I say, "Although we'll have to be on our guard. This might not be easy."

"School never is," Bruce snickers.

The hike to C Building shows me just how much has changed in the school's landscape. Building A is practically at the bottom of a hill of the large, dusty tan boulders that are all over the place. The Gym seems impossibly far away, although B Building is almost too close for comfort. Everything's been shifted around like there's been an earthquake or something. Just getting from point A to point B is more difficult, because the boulders shake a bit whenever we climb over them, which seems to throw Bruce and Dan off a bit. Me, I just keep climbing.

It takes us a while, but we manage to make our way to C Building's entrance. The building looks like it's about to tip over and fall on top of us. It's on an incline that buries about half the front door in rubble. It looks like there's no way in.

"We're stuck," Dan says. "Looks like it's time to head back."

Bruce snorts. "There's always a way, Dan. You give up too easy." He picks up a piece of rubble from the ground, goes over to one of the building's windows, and heaves it with all his might. The block hits the window with a huge thwack, and leaves a crack square in the middle of its surface. "Now, all it needs is one good hit," he says, picking up the rubble again, "And we'll be set."

Bruce smashes the block into the window once more, and it splinters into lots of pieces. He gives it a kick, and the entire thing gives way.

"See?" I tell Dan. "Just cause we're smaller doesn't mean we can't do anything." Dan rolls his eyes. Maybe I should cool it with the pep talks.

We climb in through the window, Dan complaining loudly about broken glass, then check out our surroundings. It looks like we're in one of the classrooms, and the maps on the walls make me think we're in the history department. "We'll have to clear this building room by room," I tell the twins, "But stay on your guard. We have no idea who's holed up in this building."

A booming cackle not too far away changes that. I heard the same evil laugh at the beginning of this nightmare.

My first response is to run. I don't want to mess with Jamie and her friends again. They seem to have it out for me, and today's the one day they could do pretty much anything they wanted with me powerless to stop them.

Then I hear Jamie ask, "So, how many have we found?" Running is no longer an option.

"C'mon," I whisper to the twins, "We've got to scope this out."

I hear the muted booms of Carla counting out the survivors in Spanish, and follow them into the corridor. A stack of lockers has fallen over in the middle of the hall, but past that I can see an entire area that looks like it had the world's smallest bomb dropped on it. The walls have been brushed aside into piles of rubble, and the ceiling broken open, allowing Carla, Jamie and Rose to stand comfortably in the center. I take cover behind the fallen lockers, and gesture for Bruce and Dan to follow.

"I wonder what kind of structural damage they've caused," Dan says.

"SHHH!" Me and Bruce respond at the same time.

"Don't mind me, just trying to make sure the building doesn't fall on our heads," Dan mumbles.

"So we've got six of them," Rose's voice echoes through the hall.

"Nice job, girls," Jamie's says in a tone laced with acid. "In a school with at least a hundred boys left, we've managed to find six." She lets out a long, exaggerated sigh. "Well, let's see them."

I peer over the edge of the lockers, and see the three girls in a loose circle, crouched down, each reaching into their pockets or purses, like they were looking for their cell phones. Carla's long, dark red fingernails ease a squirming nerd out from between her breasts. Rose plucks a man from her purse, and lifts him to her ear just to hear his screams. Jamie looks like she's pulling handfulls out from her leather jacket.

One by one they're placed between the three girls, who loom over them like statues, or maybe monuments to evil goddesses. My classmates huddle together, shivering.

"Who's the jock?" Rose sneers.

Carla smiles toothily. "He's one of your favorite pendejo's hombres."

There's a really ugly look on Rose's face that makes me shiver. I honestly had no idea how badly I'd hurt her feelings - I mean, it was prom for chrissakes, and anyone who was anyone knew I was going with Alexa... Although I'd been making out with Jen just the night before that. Maybe I'd been acting more like an asshole than I'd thought...

My attention snaps back to the scene as Rose dangles a tiny figure in a letterman's jacket before her humongous face. "So, what's your name?" Her breath ruffles his short brown hair.

"Jack," I mouth it for him. "Aw, shit, Jack..." He was more than just an ordinary friend; he was the star receiver on our team, and we'd known each other since first grade.

Rose passes Jack from her left hand to her right, which she balls into a fist, absent-mindedly twirling her red hair with the fingers of her left hand. There's a smirk on her face which really scares me. I wonder if she would be crazy enough to take her feelings for me out on him...

Jamie clears her throat. "Put him down for now, Rose."

"Why?" Rose asks in a suddenly bratty voice. For a second, she even looks surprised with herself, but her face quickly resets to a scowl.

"She's got a point, chica," Carla says. "What'd we get these guys for, if we're not even gonna use 'em for nothing?"

"Listen, Alexa and her group -" Jamie starts, but Rose leans forward.

"Who gives a shit about her group? We do our own thing."

"Would you shut up and listen?" Jamie shouts angrily. I see Jack flinch, and wonder just how bad that hurt his ears. "Of course we're supposed to use them. That's why we're big and they're small. They're ours. But they're not like dolls. We can do so much more with them than just play around."

Rose backs up a notch. "Like?"

"Well, think about what it would be like to have your own personal slaves? They could do your nail polish, or, uh, shine your shoes."

Carla looks impressed, but Rose just seems lost in thought. "Could they make me a real big cheeseburger? I haven't eaten all morning..." Rose rubs her slightly round tummy.

Carla cackles. "Honey, he could BE the cheeseburger. I mean, look at the beefsteak you got in your hand."

Rose peers down at Jack, who starts wriggling in her hand. Don't do that, I think, it's just gonna make it worse. "I wonder what he'd taste like..." Rose says aloud, her massive pink tongue flitting out to briefly lick the black lipstick on her lips.

"Hold on a second," Jamie interrupts, leaning in close to Rose. I can only imagine what Jack feels like, these two huge faces above him, held by a girl who seems like she's seriously considering eating him. I'm surprised he hasn't pissed his pants. "We decide what we do with them together."

"Uh-uh," Carla snaps. "We might hang together, but you said these men were our personal slaves. Personal means we decide. We divide em up evenly, and each of us decides what to do with our own hombrecitos."

"Fine," Jamie sighs and crosses her arms. "You wanna go all Hannibal on us, Rose, go ahead. I'll just watch."

For a second, I'd hoped she would step in, stop this insanity. But if she won't do it, I have to take control. Jack's one of my best friends, and I can't let him die at the hands of these heartless girls. But what can I do?

Rose lifts Jack to eye level, looking him over closely. "You squirm a lot, little guy. I wonder if you would do that all the way down?" She trails a fingernail down her throat to demonstrate.

I look around, trying to stare at anything but this sick, teasing play Rose is putting on. My eyes land on a pile of bricks not too far away. Some of them are broken into weird shapes. One of them looks almost like a football.

Rose dangles Jack again, peels off his letterman's jacket, rips off his shirt. "I want to be able to taste something other than your clothes," she explains.

I suddenly get a really, truly stupid and crazy idea. "Be ready to run," I whisper to Bruce and Dan. "Grab the others while the girls are distracted."

"What -?" Bruce starts, but before he can get another word in I'm dashing around the corner of the lockers, staying low as I sweep in towards the bricks, my hand reaching for the one that looks like it'll fly best.

It's in my hand, the rough texture totally different from any ball I've ever felt, but I barely care. I've made harder throws. Everyone in the room is watching Rose. Her thumb and index finger are pinching his torso. She lifts him over her lips, which slowly open to reveal rows of long teeth, and a purple cavern ready to close on Jack, and trap him forever.

"BLUE, 42!" I yell as loud as I can. "Go long!" I throw the brick with all my might, judging the spin as best as I can.

Jack isn't the smartest guy in the world, but he has football running in his blood, and as soon as he hears my voice, he twists in Rose's grasp, hands ready for the catch. I watch as the brick sails toward him, a little higher than I'd have hoped, but he reaches for it and manages to get his hands around it. Then he turns and chucks the thing into Rose's mouth.

Have you ever tried swallowing a pebble?  Even a really small one?  Rose hadn't, and the shock of having one in her throat causes her to immediately double over and start coughing, her body's tremors shaking the walls.  Jack writhes out of her grasp and starts running towards me.  Bruce and Dan run forward to get the other survivors, and I force Jack into the other direction so he can help too.

Carla's rushed over to help Rose, while Jamie, looking like she can't believe her eyes, watches us scurry around her knees.  Suddenly, her huge pale hand is sweeping towards us.  I shove Jack to the ground and duck myself as it sweeps over our heads.

"Go go go!" I shout with whatever breath I have left.  "Get to the exits!"  I hear the rumbling sound of Jamie getting to her feet behind us, but know that we have a lead start.  Just like avoiding a QB sack, all I have to do is weave around the rubble, through the gap and around the lockers...

We dash around them, and I push off the lockers to head in the other direction, then the room fills with the echoing sound of Jamie crying "FUCK!" She's tripped over the lockers, and all forty feet of her are tumbling to the ground. Her face slams down just feet behind me, her hair actually whipping at my back, but I'm still running. I look over my shoulder and see a pale hand that to me is the size of a flatbed, but it can't catch us, it's moving too slowly, and as we peel away it slams into the ground. We keep running.

We don't stop running, all the way back to Building A.