"Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up."

First and foremost, I love the chapter name!

But yeah, this is a really good idea. I don't believe I've ever heard of, let alone read, a giantess zombie apocalypse story. This theme has so much potential, and you've already tapped into some of it with the tiny zombies being such a problem for the giant side of town. Multi-sized zombies is definitely something new to the zombie genre.

Barbara and Johnny, err, John are a fun pair of main characters to follow. John is a furnace of ambition, which contrasts really well with Barb's NEETness. I also really like how the size disparity between the two weighs on them both a bit in the early goings of the story. I mean, it makes sense that John is going to be nervous in the presence of a giant (especially when he watched her flatten several him-sized zombies in a single step), but it was interesting to see Barb's concern that her size might intimidate him when she was propositioning him. I think that says a lot about her.

Of course, thankfully, they both needed a good fuck, so it didn't end up being an issue, but it was still nice to have some insight into her thought process.

Oh, and if Barb was so concerned about John turning, she probably shouldn't have put him in her boobs before the bite check. Of course, she's a NEET, not a survival expert, and there were obviously an ulterior motive to the check itself, but that's the kind of mistake that can get you undead in the dual-sized zombie apocalypse.

I'm also really loving the zombie genre references that are littered in the story so far. I agree with Barb that groups generally don't do well in these situations, and I would think that the fact that they're next destination is a mall would bring up some red flags for her, too. Although it's good that the cheerleaders have already run the bikers out of the mall; they're not so good to have around in a zombie apocalypse, especially in a mall.

And Cheer Captain Rhodes has become a really compelling villain in a very short amount of time. Her need for absolute authority, even if it means zombifying her coach and refusing to even try to find a means of escape; her casual domination of her tiny crush; and her special blend of sadism and bubbliness are all intriguing. It's both creepy and kind of hot how quickly she can go from angry or serious to stereotypical cheerleader demeanor. Her power trip even has her making her fellow cheerleaders dressing up as cheer soldiers; how cute (and fucked up) is that?

Overall, this a great start, and I really look forward to where this goes. Also, I hope that Barb doesn't get a shitty camera angle when she reaches the next screen at the end of the hall.

Barb did a double take, the corpse of Mrs. Smythe, her old landlady, was dead in front of her

I'm not really much of a pun person, but this one … this one got me. Well done!

Also, Night of the Living Dead, Zombieland, AND Metal Gear Solid references all in the same chapter? What?! That Zombieland one was brutal, too.

And right off the bat, this chapter shows that Peter's concerns about Celia's leadership from chapter two (the ones about food, power, and water) are legitimate. Even though those particular issues don't come up, the way she handles the new arrivals has me convinced that the mall group won't last more than a couple weeks with her in charge. She made absolutely no effort to evaluate the skillsets of anyone she brought in to see what they can contribute. Of course, almost all of the tinies are all relegated to nail work, while her fellow giants are forced to show team spirit or face the unbearable punishment of mall employment.

That's not a complaint, mind you. It makes sense that she's not practical, and her introduction to the new arrivals showed off her bubbly demeanor and delusion while giving the new West State University Cheerleading recruits a peak at her dark side. I'm still really loving her as a villain.

I'm also interested to see how things shake out with Rhames. I don't think we have enough information to see which side he ends up taking (once there are sides to take). There seems to be a sense of respect between Celia and him, and if he thinks she's his best chance of survival, I could see him going her way (based on what little we know about him so far).

The banter between Barb and John continues to be charming and fun. Also, in Barb's defense about Leon, if you look at the history of Resident Evil, groups typically don't do very well. You usually only end up with one or two people left anyway. The president was probably just trying to save some time!

But it's still really endearing to see how tight the two main characters have become in such a short amount of time. Chapter one Barb certainly wouldn't have been confident enough to be so assertive (and she also likely would have been worried that John might misread her playfulness for actual coercion), and I think John would have found that assertiveness less sexy and more terrifying early on.

That little heart-to-heart they had was nice as well. It's kind of sad that Barb sees herself as a loser, but that just makes her building herself up through John that much more satisfying at the same time. And it's nice to see that she's having the same effect on him as well.

But most impressive is that their progression just feels natural. Compliment each other, indeed. If your other stuff has character development this good, I really need to check them out!

The forklift plan worked a lot better than I thought it would. It continued to show why Barb is such a fun protagonist, too. And while Mrs. Smythe may not exactly be a Bub analog, she comes pretty close in her brief time in this chapter. I wonder how her Aunt Alicia is doing?

I have to admit, I was a little surprised at how fast Celia came to rescue there at the end of the chapter. When Cassie went out to save Barb, I thought she was either going to find herself locked out and forced to find another place to escape to or be made to sweat it out until the last possible second. At first, I thought maybe Celia did it because it would be a bad look to let one of their own die in front of the rest of the cheerleaders. Then I thought maybe it was some weird parallel between Celia and the zombies, as in much like how Mrs. Smythe still craves rent, the cheer captain warlord still maintains the same loyalty she had for squadmates in the old world.

And then, once they were inside, Celia darkly reminded Cassie to call her by her title instead of her name, and something clicked for me. I think I had previously underestimated how much Celia actually likes Cassie.

I hadn't realized until that point that Celia had let Cassie get away with calling her by her name while on duty during their conversation on the roof (I know Cassie called her Celia in the last chapter as well, but I figured that Cassie was off duty since she was getting her nails done). It also seemed as though Celia was almost trying to make an effort to suppress her anger when Cassie called her out about Peter, and it was like Celia was trying to convince her to see things her way, which is vastly different from the treatment nameless cheerleader received for suggesting they try to contact other people in chapter one.

I'm starting to think that Celia sees Cassie as an actual friend (or as close to a friend as someone like Celia can actually have) rather than just a subordinate. She even shortened her name to Cass once, which gave that conversation a more personal feel than any other we've seen from Celia so far.

If Celia does feel that way, this probably doesn't bode well for Peter. Between Cassie standing up for him and those glances they shared (which I'm sure Celia could plainly see), he may make the unpleasant transition in Celia's eyes from crush and source of entertainment to bad influence pretty quickly.

Or I could be reading way too much into all this. Either way, it'll be interesting to see how the relationship between the two girls plays out going forward.

And finally, the long awaited (three whole chapters) confrontation between Barb and her former bully. It was nice to see John sticking up for Barb, but hopefully they've seen enough to realize that they may not want to let Celia know how close they've gotten. Otherwise, the mall might be offering a two-for-one bullying special, as abusing John would surely get to Barb as well.

Then again, this could be a good chance to find out if Barb's newfound confidence has staying power or if she reverts back to her self-defeating attitude as she has to endure who knows what from her old enemy.

I wonder if will Barb get to go through tryouts or if she'll be immediately relegated to mall worker (or something worse).

Man, I know you've expressed your appreciation for Shaun of the Dead a few times now, but you really came hard with the references in this chapter! I respect it, though, especially that Winchester hanging above the bar, given that the bar's name was a more ... meta reference.

I'm also really digging the whole self-fulfilling prophecy arc this story has taken. Celia had to try to kill Cassie so that she wouldn't turn her cheer squad against her, so now Cassie is going to turn Celia's cheer squad against her. How very Greek.

I also also love Celia's villain logic when Cassie pulled the trigger to the unloaded rifle: You were going to shoot me after I was about to shoot you for no reason, so now I'm totally justified to shoot you for real! Also, the fact that even after Cassie pulled the trigger, Celia still felt she owed her former friend a clean shot to the head was something I found interesting. I said early on that I thought Celia was setting up to be an intriguing villain, and she certainly hasn't disappointed! She's complicated but still pure evil, a combination you don't see a lot of these days.

The escape from the parking garage was also a joy to read. I feel like the action descriptions in this story has been pretty good the start. They're not overly complicated or description heavy, yet really easy to picture. Also, "seeing" Barb kick ass with a samurai sword was pretty badass, and I figured Cassie and she would bond over anime at some point, and that scene was close enough for me to claim that I was right.

Also, it's kind of a small thing, but I was happy that Barb made the realization that she wasn't "even that fat." Words from bullies can do a lot to shape your self-image, and that quick thought shows that her growth as a person during all of this has helped her overcome that.

I'm curious to see how John handles being in Peter's old spot. He's shown a lot more resistance than Peter showed at the start of the story, but how much of that is fueled by grief and anger about Barb's supposed passing and how much of it is just pure stubbornness? It didn't take much for Peter to cave when Celia started tormenting him, but I think that was more smart than pathetic. That strategy contrasts nicely with John's fuck you attitude, although it looks like he may not have to put up with Celia's shit for as long as Peter did.

It'll also be interesting to see what Rhames' response to John's refusal to work on the tram (and Celia's approach to get him to change his mind) will be. He's got much more of a sense of urgency about getting the subway going than Celia does, so he might not be so keen on waiting until John's "broken in."

I mentioned this a bit in my review of the previous chapter, but the Cassie/Peter interactions are really stealing the show! It's not just the smut, but the psychology behind it that really helps these scenes stand out. In particular, it's intriguing to consider how much intention and personal feelings can shift how things are taken by another person. I mean, the idea of being under Cassie's toes, in her cleavage, or in her underwear seemed great to Peter last chapter, despite Celia having done all of those things to him to torment him earlier in the story. But because Cassie cares about and respect him, those terrible things now don't seem so terrible anymore.

And that difference was really driven home in this chapter. Between Cassie dangling Peter in her fingers (Celia really seemed to enjoy dangling and swaying him) and him having to suggest Celia's method of lubing him up to enter the back door (he even didn't mind her spit!), the comparison between how the two cheerleaders handle him and the different way he reacts to each really stands out to me.

And all of that adds something special to their time together. The subtle way in which this is done is really well done, too!

I'm super happy Mrs. Smythe finally got her rent money. If only Barb could have robbed more bars before the end of the world! 

Lastly, I absolutely love that Barb's response to being told she has "major good guy energy" is a (slightly modified) Bruce Campbell quote.

Yeah, your smut in this story has been pretty impressive both in quality and quantity up until this point, so I think you can be forgiven for taking one chapter to focus on plot/action. Besides, a little delayed gratification every now and then can be a good thing, and it has been a while since we've seen Barb and John have some fun together, so I'm willing to bet the payoff for that is going to be pretty rewarding.

I know Barb coming out of her shell and kind of follow a Shaun of the Dead-type theme has been mentioned several times by now, but God damn! Seeing how far she's come since the first chapter (or even just a few chapters ago) is so satisfying. In particular, her excitement and fun-loving approach in this chapter is a beautiful contrast to the timid, frightened demeanor of almost every other character not named John.

Seriously, seeing Celia panic and abandon her crew, the escaping cheerleaders crying that they just want to go home, Rhames starting to lose his cool that John is dragging his feet, and even Cassie and Peter (who are with Barb, of course) being timid to the whole plan makes Barb hooting and yelling excitedly as she blows up part of the mall and tries to gun down her arch nemesis that much more fun to read.

Aside from that enthusiasm, however, it's even more satisfying that Barb has and is executing a rescue plan at all. The last time we saw John and her together, she was lamenting that she wasn't the person who comes up with plans or knows what to do, and now she seems like the only one with a plan in all the chaos. It's amazing what her time with John (and the prospect of losing him) has done for her.

Oh, and the plan itself, badass! I think anyone not named Hank Hill would appreciate that use of propane.

As for John, I haven't really focused on his development as much, as it's been a bit more subtle, I think (I mean, Barb is the NEET from the story name, so we instantly know more about her background than about Johns, so it's easier to track her development). But the past two chapters have really shown how John has grown throughout the story. Seeing John hold not only Rhames but a group of giants over a barrel to rescue the other tinies and wait for Barb shows some guts that I'm not sure he had in chapter 1. Also, I was actually taken by surprise when he knocked Rhames out, as I didn't think he had it in him (and he was even smart enough to deter Rhames from experimenting with the wiring once he wakes up).

The story kind of focused a bit more on Cassie and Peter for the past few chapters (which wasn't a bad thing) but it was great to see our two main characters step up and take back the spotlight.

Once again, I absolutely love how Celia goes from rageful bitch to perky cheerleader at the drop of a hat. It hasn't lost its eeriness at all, and it hasn't been overdone in the story either. And to see our cheer captain lose her cool and run away once she lost control of the situation is perfect. It's the first time we've seen her in a situation that she can't authority her way out of, and shutting down and panicking shows that while she had some traits that allowed her to lead for a time, she was never a true leader.

It was nice to see Peter be able to defend Cassie there at the end. I didn't mention it last chapter, but the way he was directing Cassie and Barb during the escape from the mall parking lot was great, too. It's good to see him be able to contribute after having to lay low and deal with Celia's shit for so long. It highlights him as part of the team, as opposed to being a glorified mascot.

I also liked seeing the escaping cheerleaders showing some humanity but still struggling to overcome Celia's programing. Tammy, who we saw be kind of nice during her introduction to the story, stopping her fellow cheerleader from using her gun to exert authority over the mall worker was a nice touch. Of course, much like when she told Monica to leave the tinies alone, she had an excuse, but I get the feeling that deep down, she actually does have a decent sense of right and wrong (otherwise she wouldn't step in so often with said excuses). Also, it didn't take much to convince her to go get the tinies they had forgotten. But maybe I'm reading too much into a minor character here. 

And I don't think I ever expected to see Kevin Smith and Gilgamesh references in the same chapter of a story (or the same story at all, for that matter) but both were appreciated!

Balm in Gilead, huh? That's a good follow-up to your rising out of hell metaphor at the end of the last chapter. It sounds like the group found exactly what they needed.

I have to admit, I'm a bit sad to see this one end. Then again, I'd rather it end now than outstay its welcome by 7 or 8 seasons, maybe relocate to Virginia for a change of pace.

I love that Rhames had his weapon with him, even when he was lounging around in the tiny side of the resort. That's a very him thing to do. Also, it's great to see that he's lightening up a bit and starting to embrace the group mentality. His arc wasn't the focus of the story, obviously, but that's a nice little satisfying end to it nonetheless.

The contrast between Cassie's leadership style and Celia's is demonstrated pretty well in just a few paragraphs here and there. I didn't think that Cassie would keep the whole cheer captain title going, but it's a good sign that she didn't give herself a title at all, "undisciplined" though it may be to do so. It sends out a very "we're all in this together, but one of us has to be the final decisionmaker" vibe to counter Celia's "Do what I say or I'll murder you in a parking garage" style of management. This will probably do well to tear down the wall separating the cheerleaders and mall workers and even the one separating the tinies from the giants in general, too.

Also, Cassie took the time to actually assess the skills and former professions of all the "new recruits," which is an improvement in leadership as well. Seriously, a surgeon working at Cinnabon?! It looks like Celia choked on her lack of leadership skills.

Backing up a bit, I do like the fact that a month wasn't enough time for the cheerleaders, survivors, and tinies to start singing kumbaya together. While it's likely that the worst offenders died with Celia, some of the surviving cheerleaders probably weren't too kind to the mall workers and tinies before everything went to hell. And even if they weren't mean to the other two groups, the actions of Celia and the other cheerleaders are still going to be projected onto them, including Cassie, who we know really doesn't deserve it. But that's the way things go.

But yeah, I like where things are left at the end of the story, still a bit tense between the sub-groups but slowly coming together with hope that one day they can stop thinking of themselves in those terms.

I can't blame Barb for being all over John the second time in this chapter, what with his unintentional Leon cosplay and all. Also, regarding the quicktime event thing, has John even played a Resident Evil game? At times, I got the vibe that he hadn't, but there was the debate about Leon going in alone to save the president's daughter in Resident Evil 4 earlier in the story, so I wasn't sure if John was ever much of a gamer.

It was also a nice touch at the end, having Barb and Cassie bond over anime. It was made clear early in the story that both liked anime, and they had that Rurouni Kenshin moment in the parking garage, but it was good to see them geek out a bit over a common interest that was set up early on.

As far as the story as a whole goes, I, for one, am glad you fought that doubt at writing this, as it turned out really well! I would also encourage you to jump on any other "weird" ideas that you come up with in the future. I've got nothing against the countless stories here that rehash the same themes and scenarios over and over again (in fact, some of those stories are my among my favorites. It really is all in the execution of an idea), but seeing a story with a unique premise and new ideas was a welcome change of pace!

And the optimistic tone of this story is much appreciated. I can certainly appreciate things with a darker tone and even an unhappy ending (the ending to the original Night of the Living Dead is heartbreaking but perfect), but I generally want good things for the heroes of any story I find myself deeply invested in. This story did a good job of delivering

I guess you using the Day of the Dead soundtrack as inspiration when writing this would explain why I visualized so many scenes from this story in that old 70s/early 80s zombie movie style. I mentioned that one scene with Celia sniping a zombie early on, but most of the action scenes in this story gave me that same vibe.

Overall, this story was pretty great! Yeah, you may never have thought your zombie story was going to be a giantess one as well when you were younger, but you blended the two "genres" (not sure giantess is a genre, but fuck it) together perfectly. And you wrapped the whole thing around a NEET to boot. Excellent work!

I just got caught up with round 2 here. I see we have an A and a C for the latest chapter. Unfortunately, I'm voting for B. Daniela is clearly an ally (and we definitely need one of those),, but I think going for the shrink ray is a bit too ambitious. I say we make a run for it before something goes wrong and Daniela ends up as tiny as us.

Hopefully a fourth vote will come in and break the three-way tie.

Well, trying to stay on Eva's good side (or at least away from her bad side) hasn't led to any immediate negative consequences, and that smile could be interpreted as a positive reaction to our obedience (we have to stay positive here), I think we should ride this out a bit longer. Also, the prospect of being seen by another person, one maybe not as spiteful as Eva, seems like a better idea than leaving our fate entirely in this woman's hands.

With that in mind, I'm voting for A.

Okay, so Eva's saying no one will miss us and that this is a "worthwhile sacrifice," and Arnold's first reaction was to mention that she didn't get approval instead of being concerned that we're clearly being mistreated. I was cool to let things ride until there was a reason to do otherwise, and I think that reason has presented itself.

I'm going with C. Staying with Eva is definitely going to end with us dead, and I'm getting a "clean up this mess before it makes the company look bad" vibe from Arnold. We have to gamble and try to find someone new to help us.

Hey, it looks like I missed an update, so I kind of got a two for one with this one.

The first thing that stuck out to me between these last two chapters was Varnay. Up until the last chapter, I thought him following the group in the shadows was just him biding his time until they get to the Lich and that his occasional taunting was just standard vampiric douchiness. But between seeing him taunt Tyrael about Arthur taking a life and that little message he sent her with the bandit leader, I'm starting to think he might need her in a particular state of mind or something like that in order to do whatever evil thing he's clearly planning to do (we don't really know enough about the Lich to guess exactly what's going to go down, but the inevitable double cross is super obvious to everyone but our titular elf).

Obviously, I felt pretty bad for Arthur having to take a life. I do disagree that Tyrael is responsible for him having to do it, as he made his own choice to go on the journey and to pull the trigger to save his friend, but I do think Varnay's words will way on her. Much like how she thinks she's experienced and powerful to get out of any situation, I think if Arthur is put in more situations like that, she's going to blame herself because she didn't see them coming.

But the Arthur and Tyrael scenes in these last two chapters have been cute, heartwarming, and a little sad. The sadness is kind of an undertone, as her thoughts show that she's got his potential death and presumed immortality on her mind constantly. She feels like she can't even tell him that she loves him (she can't even bring herself to think about the l-word) until he's beyond death (by aging, anyway). It's sad, but it makes sense, as the fear of losing another person she cares so much about (I'm not sure if Gustav was just a really good friend or a lover) is keeping her from admitting her feelings, like if she let herself admit it now and enjoyed her time with Arthur naturally she's opening herself back up to that same pain. That was probably always pretty obvious, but it didn't really hit me until this last chapter.

And it was cool to get a glimpse at Gustav himself. Based on how he was talked about in The Elf is Innocent, at least on the human side, I kind of got the vibe that he was opportunistic and power hungry. Tyrael's memory paints a much nicer picture, and it's easier to understand why losing him hurt her so much.

I like how Elwyn's feelings for Colin were handled in this last chapter. Clearly she's got a bit of a thing for him, but once again, her views on humanity prevent her from fully realizing it. It's pretty cute how nervous she seemed to be around him at full size, and I don't remember her kissing Arthur like that. But, of course, she attributes her excitement to them having "their own human." I'm interested to see how or if this develops.

Elwyn and Tina both seem to show their inexperience in these last two chapters as well. Tina seems to shrug off her near-death experience way too easily, and she doesn't even think to thank Arthur for saving her life (or maybe she did that "offscreen" and I'm reading too much into it). I'm not sure she understands the toll that taking a life (especially for the first time) like Arthur did for her can have on a person, unlike Tyrael, who was quick to try and comfort him.

Then there's Elwyn. Like in chapter one with Arthur, she got her toy after the magic drill. However, also like with Arthur, Colin hesitated and would have had her if he didn't. Both times she didn't seem to understand this, probably because she was too happy to have her tiny human. I feel like this might come back to bite her in some way later on.

Naz brings an interesting dynamic to the group. She hasn't played a huge role in the story yet, but I'm enjoying her bonding sessions with the apprentices. Her brief interactions with Arthur and Colin have been pretty entertaining as well, especially when she vowed to do her best to help Colin "earn a squeeze." She's a fun character, and I'm interested in seeing what role she plays in the story going forward.

But yeah, it was good to see this story with an update (especially since I didn't see the last one). This is an interesting tale, fun but with a little depth and foreboding with whatever's coming when our party reaches its destination.

Man, with how this chapter went down, I half-expected the Crypt Keeper to pop up at the end of this chapter and make some stupid pun, like, oh, I don't know, "Well, it looks like David and Courtney are learning the agony of ... de-FEET. Ah, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

You know, I have a strong preference for happy endings, and I was actually glad to see that this was only Ending 1, which leaves some hope that Ending 2 will go down a happier route. But let's be honest, even if Ending 2, in its entirety, goes like this:

Part 1

He dead.

Part 2

He still dead.

... it'll still be happier than this one. This is clearly a fate worse than death, one I couldn't have predicted (and I thought of some scenarios that might play out). I mean, not only are David and Courtney going to spend the rest of their lives in absolutely agony, but David is also going to have to see the woman he loves, who he knows loves him back (I know it was important to Emily to get that out, but it probably only made things worse for David in retrospect), forget about him entirely, move on, and fall in love with someone else. Damn, that's brutal!

But, after saying all of that, while I don't like this ending in the sense that it's definitely not how I wanted to see this story end, I can absolutely appreciate how great it is in an objective sense.

As I said above, this was ending was completely unpredictable, but it fit the story up to this point so well, and it just made so much sense. All of the torture David went through up to this point was just a prelude to this, and Caitlin's gradually revealed sadism makes it totally plausible that she would do something like this (and hire others who would be cool with it, too).

Also, the nature of David and Emily's relationship, as we've seen it throughout the story, makes her confession (and David's unheard confession) really hit home. It was well developed, even though we don't really see the two of them knowingly interact before this point beyond chapter 2.

We get to know Courtney just well enough to actually give a fuck about her, so while she's kind of an after thought, I still feel bad for her.

And knowing that Caitlin's villain monologue was really more of a taunt of David and Courtney, as Emily is going to forget all of it, just makes her that much more evil.

However, this ending does leave a couple of questions:

Won't people who know both Emily and David ask her about him? She may not know what, but she's going to know something's up when people keep trying to tell her about this dude that she doesn't know exists.

The same goes for Courtney. Won't it be weird when her teammates are talking about her going missing, and Emily asks, "Who the fuck is that?"

If they could just take Courtney like that, why did it take so long to get a dude for the experiment? Couldn't they have just taken some random guy, or, better yet, scouted out someone that's likely to not be missed?

And this last one is more of just a curiosity, but if Caitlin had made good on her threat to graft Emily to her foot, would Courtney and David have still been alive or would that have killed them?

I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking those first few questions. I don't want to take away from what I again thought was, at least in the technical sense, a really good ending. I just found myself wondering about those first two once it became clear that Emily was going to forget them altogether.

Oh, and I think it was definitely a good call to go with the cruel ending first in this case. Even if Ending 2 is super happy, it'll make it even more so. And if it's not, it'll still look happier compared to this one. I don't know if the inverse would have been true if the cruelest ending was the last one (maybe I'm getting ahead of myself saying that this is the crueler ending, but I don't know how you could get much darker than this one).

Anyway, enough ranting from me. I'll be interested to see David and Courtney's new hell in the next chapter, and I'm definitely looking forward to whatever Ending 2 has to offer!