In the
following days some of Frederic’s friends returned back home from their
vacations. Among them was Noah, a one of his childhood friends. They agreed to
meet each other a short time after. So Noah went to Frederic’s place during
afternoon. He found Frederic in his garden, reading a book. When he saw Noah he
got up and greeted his friend.
“Hi, how
are you?”
“I can’t complain. How are you?”
“Fine. It’s
a bit boring around here though.”
“Is that
the reason why you sounded so urgent at the phone?”
“No, not
really. I want to show you something, but that will take some time. How was
your vacation?”
During
their conversation Frederic squished ants that poured out of one of the tunnels
beneath them. He did seem to be lost in thought while doing it until Noah
noticed it.
“Could you
stop that please?”
“What do
you mean?”
“Killing
those ants, that crawl around here. They didn’t anything to you. Besides, why
do you kill them in the first place?”
“Don’t
know. I like it when they squirm I guess.”
Saying that
he stepped on a particularly big ant and grinded it’s lower half to pulp. The
ant wiggled in pain while Frederic smiled mischievously at Noah who looked at
him in a disapproving way. He changed the topic because he noticed that
doubling down would only make Frederic enjoy his game with the ants even more.
“What do
you want show me by the way?
“It’s a
surprise. We have to walk about an hour in the forest to find it, but trust me.
It’s worth it.”
“OK then, I
think that we should go now while we still have sunlight.”
They left
the garden and headed straight for the forest, which was located conveniently
close to Frederic’s garden. Noah noticed
that Frederic walked barefoot.
“Hey, don’t
you want to put your shoes on?”
“No, I
recently prefer to take them off, it’s more comfortable.”
“OK, didn’t
know that you’ve become a nature boy when I was in Italy.”
“What are
you afraid of? Do you think that the leaves and sticks on the ground will hurt
you?”
Feeling
challenged Noah removed his shoes as well to prove him wrong.
“It will
take more than a few sticks and stones to scare me off, now let’s go.”
They walked
into a direction that was completely unfamiliar to Noah. He wondered if this
was just some kind of prank, considering that here was absolutely nothing of
interest for them. However he enjoyed walking barefoot in the forest, something
he probably might do more often now. Frederic pointed to a section of the
forest ahead of them, saying that they are now at the right place. At first
Noah didn’t believe him. This part of the forest looked just as empty as the
others.
“I don’t
understand. There’s nothing here.”
Frederic
pointed at the ground. Noah took a closer look. The spot seemed somewhat
different from the rest of the ground, somehow more ... organized. Then it
struck him. It was a village, just a little larger than his foot. With some
effort he could distinguish the different houses by their colors. They looked
like little dots within a grey grid of streets. His eyes followed the thin grey
lines until they became too tiny for him to see, but he began to notice several
of these villages sprinkled around the area. But not only that, a few meters
beyond he could see a significantly larger cluster of buildings which seemed
were a lot taller too. Fascinated by this discovery Noah walked closer to one
of the large freeways and saw actual movement on them. This wasn’t just some
super detailed model, those were actual people. He looked cautiously around
himself. Luckily there were no structures were he walked so far, Noah wondered
how they were able to get by in world that was inhabited by much people like
him.
“Well, I
told you it was worth it. What do you think?”
“I’m
amazed. No one knows about these people, they are probably way too small to
have been recognized so far. How did you find them?”
“By chance.
I wanted to cool a little off in the woods because it was way too hot in the
open. So I went a little further than
usual and there they are.”
“Did you
tell anyone about it, except me?”
“No, I
didn’t. You’re the first one to know about them. And I’d like it to keep it
that way. I don’t see why anyone else should get involved.”
“But why
though? Don’t you see the implications of your discovery? A whole civilization
of millions or even billions of people with its own history, culture and
science, which is completely alien to us, is ready to be explored. This might
be the most important discovery of the century! Of course it’s necessary to
find a way to communicate with them first, but that should be doable in time.”
“Actually I
think that I already found a way to communicate with them” said Frederic with a
mischievous smile on his face. Casually he raised his foot and crushed one of
the villages beneath him, twisting it a few times to make sure that no one
survived. Noah looked at him with a mix of shock and disbelief. Just like that
Frederic killed hundreds of people, SMILING while doing it. And now he looked
at him like someone who just told a clever joke, expecting some kind of
appreciation for his wit. His expression changed to surprise when Noah began to
speak.
“What the
fuck, are you even aware what you have just done. You killed hundreds of
people, real people, with feelings and thoughts like you and me. They aren’t
bugs that you can kill for your entertainment. I can’t believe that you just
committed an act of murder and for what? Why did you do that?”
Visibly
annoyed Frederic responded:” Catch your breath! Why do you take yourself always
so seriously? No one knows that these ants even exist. Come on, so I squished a
few of them, what’s the big deal. Can’t you relax just one time and have some
fun? By the way, do you really believe that it’s a good idea to talk to someone
important about this? You will be laughed at best, at worst you will be
declared insane. I can’t imagine the police or some journalist following you
for over an hour into the forest to find some civilization of microscopic
people that for some reason only you know about. Why do you think I didn’t tell
you about them until we arrived here in the first place?”
This
response left Noah dumbstruck. He didn’t think about that, but now that
Frederic pointed it out it seemed glaringly obvious how absurd his claims must
seem to someone who didn’t see these miniature structures with his own eyes. It
was true, Frederic could do whatever he wanted and there was nothing he could
do to make him stop. Noticing how silent Noah became Frederic’s mood brightened
again. To underline his victory Frederic gleefully wiped out another settlement
under his foot while adding:” You should chill out. We are gods for them.
Almighty. Unaccountable. “
“But what
about their perspective? Can you imagine the horror and fear they experience
when they see your monstrous foot coming down on them? What about the children
you just mowed down?”
“But that’s
the point. Squishing ants gets old fast, they don’t see it coming. Knowing that
they are real people and that they cower in fear when they just see you
approaching from a distance makes it so much more entertaining to play Godzilla
with them. By the way I already did that. First time when I stumbled upon them
I crushed one of their cities. You should try it out too. The buildings really
feel nice when you step on them barefoot.”
Noah was
left speechless again. Frederic had no inhibitions to commit genocide, just
because he could. When he saw Frederic raising his foot again to extinguish jet
another settlement he tried to talk him out of it again. He turned around to
speak, when he heard a faint sound. Noah halted immediately and looked down. He
stepped one of the villages. It was gone. Completely. No survivors. Frederic
stopped and looked at Noah. He couldn’t help himself but burst into laughter.
“Looks like
you got them.”
“It was an
accident.”
Secretly
Noah knew that this didn’t make it better.
“I don’t
think they really care about that. Like it or not, in their eyes you are a
monster just as myself. The village probably had a kindergarten too, how does
that make you feel.”
He didn’t
know what to say. The embarrassment and guilt was overwhelming.
“Take it
easy. It’s not like you will be locked behind bars forever. However I don’t
think that it would be wise to telling anyone about my “crimes” considering
what you just did. Would you mind if I start to dispose of some of the
witnesses” Frederic said while he mockingly destroying the village adjacent to
the one Noah had obliterated. “Hey, I haven’t shown you the city yet, come on.”
On his way
there Frederic crushed several more villages and several freeways, but he
didn’t care. His lighthearted attitude cheered Noah up again. After all
Frederic had a point: brooding about what he didn’t change anything and there
really was no one to judge them. He followed Frederic, but still tried to avoid
the settlements. However he stepped on some of the freeway, but he didn’t feel
nearly as bad about it as the first time he killed some of the tinies.
When he
arrived Frederic spoke to the tiny population:” Listen, bugs. Your gods are
greatly disappointed by your lack of faith. If you pray at the beauty of our
feet,” he wiggled his toes while saying feet, “you may continue to live. But if
you are insincere with your prayer, you will be crushed like ants.”
Frederic
began to walk through the city. He moved slowly, enjoying each step. Noah was
still unsure about it. He doubtfully raised his big toe and hovered it over the
edge of the city, contemplating whether he should try it. Meanwhile panic broke
out in the population beneath him. Many tried to flee from the huge toe that
filled out the whole sky. Others broke down crying, pleading for their lives
and promising that they would keep faith from now on. Noah didn’t notice any of
it, their pleas were completely inconsequential. The hope vanished from their
faces when they saw the toe coming closer. Parents hugged their children in a
vain effort to shield them from the impact. When Noah’s toe touched the largest
buildings he deliberately slowed down and concentrated on the feeling of them.
Frederic was right, it felt like a massage. When his toe reached the ground he
twisted it a few times to grind the buildings to dust. The power rush added
enormously to the satisfaction of doing this. He didn’t see them, but he knew
that there were people down their praying at him to spare them. And all he had
to do was a slight move with his foot, something so easy yet so satisfying to
do that he grew past his ethical objections surprisingly quickly. Now unbound
by his conscious Noah stepped right into the city and enjoyed the feeling of
buildings crumbling between his toes, wondering what to do next.
Meanwhile
Frederic already annihilated a decent chunk of the city’s population. The last
thing the people saw when they looked up was Frederic’s pitiless grin before
his soles crashed down upon them. His eyes were filled with a mix of joy and
gloat. When they caught sight of it it became clear to them that there was no
reasoning with the giants. They were not people for them, they were bugs.
Playthings to be destroyed and then discarded. Frederic stepped on the parts of
the city first, that attracted his attention in particular. At first he dipped
his toes into a train station. He moved his toes along the rails to crush the
trains while he didn’t pay much attention to the rest of the train station. After
that a plane, which flew right next to him, caught his attention. It started
from a relatively large airport that was crowded by more than two dozen more.
It seemed that they tried to evacuate. He approached it directly, stepping on
the train station along the way. He didn’t notice it, when the commuters who
believed themselves to be lucky for a few seconds when they saw him changing
his point of interest, popped beneath his heel. If he did he would have
probably killed them anyway for the laugh. Another plane started, when Frederic
arrived. He caught it in his hand and grinded it and its passengers to dust
while he addressed his next victims:” Trying to flee, aren’t we? Don’t worry
you may still sacrifice your lives to pleasure your god.” He tried to grab one
of the planes intact but instead it immediately gave in to the pressure of his
fingers. The next one didn’t fare any better. Suddenly Frederic spotted
something out of the corner of his eye. A plane flying close to his head. Due
to the enormous size difference the crew wasn’t able to estimate the distance
to him correctly. They passed by way to close, not realizing the danger they
put themselves into in the slightest. Frederic opened his mouth and sucked the
plane out of the sky. He swallowed it whole together with everyone inside.
The
situation on the ground turned into panic when they saw Frederic approaching.
People squeezed themselves into the planes, trampling each other to death at
the gangways. Then they witnessed the unfathomable. Even a plane wasn’t fast
enough to escape the fingers of the giant. How could such large things move so
quickly? Then they heard him speaking. His words shocked them. This couldn’t be
true, he would kill all of them. Now the situation reversed. People fought to
get out of the planes. It got even worse when the giant started to randomly
crush planes between his fingers. Panic turned to frenzy.
After his
little snack Frederic’s attention returned to the airport. He saw that it
filled itself with a black mass that poured out of the planes. More delicious
people. Frederic lay down and stuck his tongue out. He put it on the runway
moved it along it. The tiny people below were overcome with horror. Directly
above them they saw a seemingly infinite maw, before them in the sky mind
boggingly large teeth and behind them a never ending wall of flesh that closed
in on them on a rapid pace. This was accompanied by the sound of the breaking
bones of those that were rolled over by the giant’s tongue.
Satisfied
Frederic rose up again. The little specs didn’t satiate him in the slightest,
but it was entertaining to kill them in a different way. He even liked up a
plane and some buildings at the edge of the runway.
Noah had
the time of his life. The liberating feeling was beyond description. Always he
had to conform to rules and expectations. Now that he could do whatever he
wanted with these people he felt free for the first time in his life. Without
concern where he stepped he cut down tinies by the hundreds with each of his
steps. A housing block. Gone. An industrial area. Gone. Suburbs with families.
Gone. Happily he crushed a school and its adjacent buildings under his feet.
When he noticed a crowd nearby Noah dangled his foot above them. “I just killed
your children. Maybe you recognize it or one of its friends stuck on my sole.”
He proceeded to squish the grieving parents after giving them a moment to let
the sight sink in.
He arrived
at an area that was filled by skyscrapers. Noah toppled one of them with his
foot so that it would crash into the one next to it. It worked. The second
skyscraper fell apart when it was hit. He then tried to grab one of them
between his toes so that he could rip it out of its foundation. But that didn’t
work as smoothly as planned. It imploded and littered debris on his foot when
Noah put too much pressure on it. Losing interest in the skyscrapers Noah began
to search for something more entertaining. A highway bridge that stretched
across a river (at least a river for the tinies) caught his attention. He
walked towards it, obliterating several of the skyscrapers beneath his bare
soles on his way. Noah didn’t mind though. He only noticed when the roofs of
the towers gently tickled his soles.
When he
arrived at the bridge Noah put his hand carefully beneath it and pulled it out
of its foundations almost completely intact. It was filled with all kinds of
vehicles and streams of people that tried to flee from the giants on foot after
traffic jams grounded vehicle based movement to a halt. There was no way to run
away anymore. Everyone on the bridge looked with terrified faces at Noah’s
unimaginably huge face. All Noah saw were lines of multicolored dots that were
surrounded by a mass of grey dots that were even smaller. “So that’s how you look
like up close, hopefully I didn’t scare any of you. Yeah, I think I might have
squished some of your relatives on my way here, those apartment blocks were
quite large. But don’t worry, you may join them soon. Let’s see, how you taste.”
Noah opened his mouth and began to turn one side of the bridge downward towards
it. The tinies as well as the cars on the bridge began to slide towards. They
tried to run into the other direction but the more Noah tilted the bridge, the
less they were able to until the runners lost their balance and fell into the
maw. Some were able to get a grip, but they were swept away too when they were
hit by falling cars. When there were no more people on the bridge Noah threw it
away and tried to discern the taste of the tinies on his tongue. However they
were not enough to be sensed by his tongue so he swallowed them whole and moved
on.
Frederic approached
him and said that it became late and that they had to go if they wanted to get
home before it was dark.
“By the way
how did you come up with calling us gods?”
“Wouldn’t
you believe that if suddenly a foot bigger than your village crashes down and
kills most people you know that this foot belongs to a divine being?”
“True. See
you later, that was fun.”