Part I: Prelude

“This is a model of a Cycax Olman.” Victor held up the plant in his hand. It had a fuzzy brown stem that stuck halfway up and down the plant with thick green leaves extruding upwards from the center like an upside down palm tree. The men and women in the room analyzed it, taking in every detail of it. 

“It went excitement over 40,000 years ago, and we believe it is the only plant to contain the substance we need to cure this new virus.” Victor continued. He put the plant down on a long white table and moved to the other side of it. “As I’m sure you’re all aware, you’ve been called here today because we believe we finally got the time machine to work.” 

A hand shot up in the air. “Yes, Dr. Conners?” said Victor. 

A tall woman with tight blond hair lowered her hand to grab her pen. “The Cycax Olman is incredibly fragile before it's been crystallized, and once that happens it’ll loose its healing agents. What is your plan for transporting it safely not only after plucking it, and how will the flower adjust to the vastly different climate of the 22nd century?”

Victor clasped his hands together, protruding a smile he tried to make seem sincere. “Excellent question Dr. Conners. As you know, a brilliant scientist created an incubator that would recreate the climate of any era. With that we’ll not only be able to keep it safe in modern day, but as long as it stays in the incubator it will remain intact. And since I can gather what your real question is— yes, as that scientist you will be allowed to embark on our journey with us.” 

Dr. Conners tried to hide her enthusiastic smile, but her joy was hard to conceal. 

“Now, traveling back in time is dangerous.” Victor paced the room. “There are a number of threats we’re going to face once we’re there. To talk more on this, I’d like to introduce our team’s paleontologist Andrew Stenton and our historian Nathan Sanders.” 

The room applauded as two men stood up and moved to the front of the room. Victor took a seat in the far back of the room. 

“Cycax Olamn excited for a very brief time.” Andrew started. “Of all the fossils found in the region we now know as West Africa, there's only about a 1,000 year period in which this flower blossomed. This puts us right in the Paletholic period, aka the caveman period.”

A projector turned on that flipped through several pictures of the flower’s fossils and reenactments of people in caves. It finally settled on a picture of a map somewhere in Africa. Nathan, the team’s historian, moved up and pointed to a red dot placed on the map. 

“This is our destination,” explained Nathan. “The fossils found here predate to have bloomed at around 11,000 BC. based on the history of the area, would be the ideal place to travel back to. The tribe living in the cave here were attacked by an opposing group and pillaged. If we land here, we wouldn’t have to worry about running into any prehistoric cave people.”

“But that doesn’t eliminate all the danger.” Andrew pointed out. 

“It certainly doesn’t,” continued Nathan, his chest prodding. “We have to worry about the extreme prehistoric heat as well as prehistoric bugs. We predict that the critters wouldn’t attack people, but one bite and we could be bringing back diseases that haven’t existed for millennia.”

“This is all fine and dandy,” a fat man said from the middle of the room. “But I don’t see how we’re going to find this flower thingy.” 

“That’s what everyone else here is for.” Victor picked his head up. “We know the rough area of where the flower was before continent shifting and erosion. We have a team of 15 extra people who will help us search and dig and navigate the caves.”

Victor stood up and took his place back at the front of the room. “15 people here to help with the search. You’re all experts in your own respects; florists, landscapers, etc. Then there’s one historian, one paleontologist, an expert environmentalist with a PHD in environments through different time periods, one very generous investor who’d like to make sure his money went to good use, and the lead inventor of the time machine— me.” 

The 20 people in the room all looked at each other. They were all about to embark on a historical mission. 

-----------------------

10 minutes before the time machine was fully charged, everybody was receiving their last minute booster shots. It would protect them from diseases that existed back then, but they’d all have to be screened upon coming back to make sure they weren’t caring anything. 

Luckily, if they were carrying something, it wouldn’t matter as long as they had the Cycax. A single Cycax could heal over 400 people from any ailment. The time machine was the invention that was going to allow the world to cure any disease. 

“Excuse me, Victor?” 

Victor spun around, his fingers still emerged in his long beard. “Oh, hello Dr. Conners. What can I do for you?”

“Please, call me Stacy,” she said, placing a large incubator on a table. “I just wanted to thank you again for allowing me to come on this trip. I’ve been studying this kind of environment for so long, I can’t believe I’m actually going to get to experience it.” 

Victor raised a hand. “Don’t mention it. Your work speaks for itself, I wouldn’t want anybody else on this team.” 

Stacy flushed, grinning her teeth. “I’ll see you when it's time for departure.”

Victor nodded and Stacy picked her incubator up and walked away. Not long after, the fat man from earlier approached Victor next. “Are you sure this is going to work? Are all 20 of us going to make it through?” 

“Of course, Maximus.” Victor gazed at his time machine. Sparks were flying out of the insides of the metal rim. Pretty soon those sparks would all connect, opening a rip right through time. “We’ll go in, and once we leave my people will open up another portal in the same spot but 24 hours later.” 

“So what you’re saying is that we’ll have to spend an entire day there?” asked Maximus.

“Of course.” answered Victor. “It's kind of comforting. We’ll be living a similar experience to our ancestors for a day.”

Maximus scuffed. “You better hope this works, Victor. I can’t keep putting money into this project, not when I can be funding more realistic methods of curing this ailment.”

“Don’t worry, you’ve funded us enough. I promise when we bring this flower back, your daughter will be the first person we give the cure to.”

“Sir!” A voice yelled from across the room. “It’s almost ready.” 

“Everybody gather up.” Victor shouted, approaching the time machine as the sparks exploded into a wormhole. “It’s beautiful.” 

A crowd of 19 people gathered behind Victor. “You should be the first in there, sir.” Andrew said into his year. 

“Is it ready?” Victor asked.

“Yes, sir.” A man said. “It’s clear for entry.” 

“Then enter I go.” Victor stepped forward, and before he knew it he was sucked into the wormhorm.

Even though Victor was the first person to enter the time machine, everybody seemingly arrived there at the same time, and the portal instantaneously vanished. The 20 people were scattered across the floor of a dark cave. 

“Everybody should have headlamps in their bags, turn them on so we can see each other.” said Victor as he reached into the bag on his back to pull out his head lamp. Turning it on, several lights followed until their area of the cave was illuminated.

Digging his hand back into his bag, Victor pulled out a strong piece of metal and wedged it into the ground. “This magnet is strong enough to reorient everybody’s compasses to this spot. We’ll divide into four groups of five and search for the Cycax. One group lead by Dr. Conners will stay here. If you find the Cycax, come back here to find Dr. Conners so she can safely place it in the incubator. From there—”

“Um, sir?” A deep voice said. His back was to the group, his bright flash light illuminating the cave in front of him. “I think I found it.”

There was a huge commotion in the group. Stacy eagerly gripped her incubator, making her way over to the man with the deep voice. Victor followed close behind her, as did the rest of the group. Now with everybody’s lights facing the same direction, they were able to better see what the man was looking at.

“What the…” Andrew’s mouth dropped open, as did many other mouths in the group. Even Victor was stunned. In front of them all was the Cycax Olman. It looked just like the replica from the future; its long brown steam was fuzzy to the touch, and the palm tree-like leaves extended far out from it. The only difference was how much bigger the flower was. 

“It’s just as tall as us.” Maximus stated.

“We don’t even reach the top.” Nathan corrected. “This flower is twice our size.” 

“This doesn’t make any sense.” Andrew was viciously shaking his head, approaching the flower and careful not to lay too hard of a hand on it. “The fossils we have weren’t nearly as big. They were the size of a modern day rose.” 

“Sir.” Stacy tugged on Victor’s sleeve. “That’s not going to fit into the incubator.” 

Victor didn’t respond. His mind was spinning trying to come up with a solution to their problem. He didn’t understand what went wrong. Had they gone too far back? “It’s possible that this flower isn’t the Cycax Olman at all. It could be an ancestor, one that was a lot bigger than the one we’re looking for.” 

“Are you saying we’re in the wrong year?” A woman in the crowd yelled. “What about the portal back home, will they figure out we were sent too far back?”

A panicked commotion dispersed amongst the crowd. Some people hyperventilated, others shouted things that Victor couldn’t understand.

“Everybody quiet!” Victor shouted. He turned to the historian. “Nathan, how do we figure out what year it is?”

“Uh, we could by examining the soil. The only problem is I don’t have my reference charts or a testing kit.”

“We can figure it out by looking at the stars.” Stacy piped up. The crowd turned to her. “I have the star formations memorized from this entire time period. As long as we’re still in the pathologic era, I can tell you an estimate of what year BC it is.”

Victor clasped his hands. “Perfect! Everybody, we need to find an exit to this cave. I need us all to spread out wall to wall. If there's a turn or different passage I want to know about it. Andrew, Stacy, you’re with me.” 

The crowd started to disperse, the 20 people lining up on either side of the large cave. Victor wasn’t ready for how wide the cave turned out to be. Some people were standing more than 10 feet apart from one another, and two people touching either wall must’ve been at least 80 yards from one another.

Victor pulled Stacy and the paleontologist close to him. “Andrew, you’ve been in caves before. What’s the best way to find the exit?”

“Honestly, there’s not a whole lot we could do. Depending on what kind of cave we’re in, we might have to wander aimlessly and mark where we’ve been,” started Andrew. “Finding a lava tube would be our best bet if this cave has one. If we reach a spot with different routes, we should take the larger one. We could light a fire here if things get desperate and see which direction the smoke goes, but if unlucky we could risk smoking ourselves in.” 

“We’ll do what we have to.” Stacy said. “We’ll get out of this, right.” 

Victor didn’t know how to answer, but the question was certainly addressed to him. “Of course we will. It can’t get much worse from here.” 

There was a loud rumble in the cave. Victor ducked to protect his head from falling debris, but not much happened other than the pebbles on the floor shifting. The rumbling came from behind and was growing stronger each time it happened. Something was approaching, and fast. 

“Everybody!” Victor yelled. “Shut your headlights off!” 

One by one, the members of the cave turned off their headlights. They stood still, the rumbling growing stronger and stronger as something approached from inside the cave. 

“That idiot still has his light on,” said Stacy. Behind Victor, there was a woman on the far end of the cave who was struggling to turn off her life. 

“You don’t think something bad will happen to her, do you?” Andrew asked. It was impossible to know what was approaching them. If it couldn’t see light, then it might be safe to assume she’d be okay. It was out of precaution Victor told everybody to turn them off.

The rumbling grew close. The floor shook violently enough that the trio were now kneeling close to the ground. Victor stared at the girl. If she was attacked, it meant the creature could see like which meant they had to be close to an exit. If she weren’t then the creature was either peaceful or they were deep inside the cave. 

The rumbling stopped. The girl looked up, her light emanating above her. She screamed before a giant object crashed down on her. Before her light was crushed, the creature’s long, tanned and hair leg was illuminated. 

“Holy shit!” The man next to her screamed. “It fucking stepped on her. I’m getting the hell out of here.” He switched his light on, and briefly Victor made out the side of a giant blood foot before the man started running away from it. 

“No! Turn your lights off.” Victor tried to warn them, but several people in the group started switching the lights on their helmets on and running. “Screw it, we have to get out of here.” Victor turned his light on, as did Andrew and Stacy, and the three were running with the crowd. 

Another person’s screams were quickly silenced by a crunch, the rumbling following them. Victor peered over his shoulder. Giant muscular fingers bent down and picked up a man. “Stop! No!” He yelled. After a moment he screamed, “Somebody help! She’s going to eat me!” But he too was silenced with a crunch. 

“I see light!” A voice screamed. Victor approached them, and he saw down a passage the entrance to the cave. He sprinted for it, the monster behind them assumably giving up the chase. 

“What the hell was that?” grunted Maximus, appearing behind Victor. 

“I don’t know,” he answered. “But whatever it is, it can’t be good for us.”

Only 15 people made it outside the cave. Unfortunately for her, Susie wasn’t one of them. 

She was too far away from everything to see the girl get crushed by the monster, and didn’t realize what was going on until she heard everybody screaming and running.

Now, she sobbed silently to herself on the cold floor of the cave, her leg twisted after tripping over a rock on the ground. The sad part was that she could see the exit. There was no way she could muster up the strength to hobble herself over there, not with how far the distance between her and it were. She managed to crawl over to the cave wall and lean against that, but her leg was toast. She watched as all her companions abandoned her in a cave 13,000 years in the past. 

However what terrified her most was when the monster pursuing them came into the dim light. Standing 50 feet in the air was a tall, muscular and tan toned woman. Her face looked chunkier than the modern day woman and her body packed a lot more meat on it. Her legs and arms were covered in hair, and her eyebrows were like two giant brown caterpillars resting above two narrow eyes and a huge nose. The monster that terrorized Susie and her companions was a giant cave woman.

As the cave woman walked closer to the exit, Susie got a good look at the monster’s foot soles. They were stained completely black from all the dirt it collected, though there were tinies splashes of newly formed red blood on it. Under the giantess’s left sole, Susie could see the remains of a man stuck under the ball of her foot. His face still held onto the crinkled and inverted expression of fear it had when he died.

The cave woman stopped halfway down the cave. She turned around, her bushy eyes glued to the ground. Did she find another one of them? She lifted up a large foot over something in front of her. Susie saw what it was— a tiny bug no bigger than the giant’s big toe scurrying across the cave floor. The cave woman stomped her foot down, laughing as she crushed the critter under her foot.

Did the cave woman think Susie and her friends were bugs too? Was that why she was crushing them? She didn’t know they were people, to the animal like cave woman, they were all bugs. 

The cave woman moved toward Susie. She froze. If the cave woman saw her too, she’d surely be a goner. Fear swelled in her, but her leg weighed heavier and prevented her from running. The cave woman’s large toes stopped only a few feet in front of Susie, but the smell emitting from them was putrid and reached Susie with no problem. She gagged at the smell and was desperate to move away from them.

Suddenly the cave woman sat down, crossing her legs across from one another. She looked down at her toes, and Susie figured that the giant didn’t notice her at all. The cave woman ran a long finger down the foot she used to crush the bug and picked the bug off it. The bug’s guts were stretched out as it clung to the filthy foot and its body. Eventually its melted skin snapped off. 

The cave woman raised the bug to her mouth, opened wide and dropped it in. The bug crunched as it was chewed by the giant, and Susie’s jaw suspended wide open as she realized that the people she stomped on would probably be next. 

Just as Susie predicted, after the cave woman swallowed the bug she dug her fingers back down to her foot. She picked a girl out from between her toes. The body was unrecognizable, completely smashed and twisted around as the giant walked around the cave. She lifted the puddy up to her mouth, dropped her dehydrated tongue out and licked the girl up. 

Susie threw up on her hip. Barf dripped down her chin as she gasped for air. It was scary enough seeing this without the fear that she could be next if the save woman saw her. The cave where they were was still dark enough that Susie might remain unseen, but part of her just wanted to get it over with. She couldn’t stand the suspense. 

The cave woman licked her finger clean before moving back down to her foot. She scanned it for bugs, but couldn’t find any, so she moved on to the second foot. While the cave woman picked the man off her second foot, she stretched out the first one. Susie screamed as she saw the giant foot moving towards her. She looked in both directions, looking for a place to go, but her leg still wouldn’t allow her to move. 

Then the filthy foot touched her and pushed forward, pinning Susie against the wall. Susie screamed, expecting the sole to crush her against the sharp wall, but the cave woman's leg extended all the way just as Susie’s body was starting to compress. 

Susie was pinned between the cave woman’s foot and the cave wall. Each breath Susie took was a nightmare; not because she was pressed too hard against the foot, but because the foot’s smell was so toxic that it caused her to gag and spit up all over the foot. Susie breathed in, and instantly the mixed smell of cheese, dirty laundry and shit caused her to cough up everything she ate for lunch all over the giant foot. 

Luckily the cave woman didn’t notice, as Susie heard the familiar crunching sound of the giantess munching on a person. The cave woman purred as she tasted it, causing her foot to shift slightly against the wall. 

The dirty foot was rubbed into Susie, black soot falling over it and rubbing into Susie’s body. As the cave woman’s foot moved down, the bottom of her ball forced Susie’s jaw open, allowing the foot skin to rub into her mouth and against Susie’s tongue. Water formed around the corner of Susie’s eyes as she was forced to taste the cave woman’s sole. She had no way of telling how old the cave woman was, but it tasted like she hadn’t taken a shower in her entire life.

The giant foot continued to move up and down, but this time it picked Susie’s body up with it. Now instead of the giant foot rubbing into Susie, Susie was now being rubbed into the sharp cave walls by the giant foot. The sharp edges of the wall were cutting into Susie’s back, something that probably felt like a nice massage to the giant felt like blade’s digging into Susie’s skin.

Blood seeped from Susie’s cut as the foot odor continued to assault Susie’s senses. She was coughing so much that she barely found any time to breathe, and now when she did she felt like she had to yell in pain rather than take a breath. Susie’s head crashed against a hard rock, almost knocking her out. She wished she could go unconscious, it was preferable than being plastered to the giant’s foot.

The foot rested back on the ground, but it was pushing Susie’s further into the rock. Susie wondered if the cave woman felt her, but after hearing her munch on another one of her victims Susie figured that the cave woman had no clue she was there. 

She did get a moment to collect herself. Forgetting about her broken leg, Susie tried pushing herself out from the foot. She pressed her hands into the sole and realized just how rough and calloused ridden the sole was. The cave woman walked on bare feet her whole life, of course the foot would be rough. There was no soft padding on the foot whatsoever except for where the giant’s arch was, no wonder the people under it crushed so quickly.

The giant cave woman was shifting again. Susie braced herself, ready for whatever happened next. She was afraid that when the cave woman moved her foot that her back would still be stuck to the wall, the sharp rocks piercing deeper into her skin than she anticipated, but it was the opposite that happened. 

As the cave woman pulled her foot back, Susie was stuck to it. Her body was melded with the ball of her foot, Susie’s head and chest poking over top of it between the cave woman’s big and second toe. Susie screamed as she tried to use her hands to push herself off, but they were too welleded into the sole. 

Then the cave woman began to stand up. Susie screamed as she briefly got a look at the cave woman’s face looking forward. She had no idea she had a living person stuck on the bottom of her foot. Susie yelled for her attention, so desperate that she’d risk exposure, but her tiny voice was unnoticed by the giant’s pointy ears. 

The giant’s heel made contact with the ground first, and Susie heard the gravel under her crunch as the rest of the foot followed suit. Tears flowed out of Susie’s eyes as the ground approached and light faded. The cave woman put her entire foot down, and the ball of her foot compressed on Susie’s body.

Instantly Susie’s lower half was crushed under the cave woman’s foot. First she felt her pelvis break, then her legs, and she didn’t really feel the pain until her spine snapped and she screamed for all she was worth. Every part of her body felt like it was on fire, and without several key organs her body started to uncontrollably spasm. Susie could feel the blood draining out of her body. It soaked her hair and the sides of the giant’s toes. 

The cave woman prepared to step forward. The heel of her foot shot up, and all of the woman’s weight was up on her ball and toes. Susie felt the pressure increase and the sole compressed more and crushed Susie’s chest. It was like crushing a gusher— blood shot out of Susie’s mouth as there was no where else for it to go. 

Susie’s head flew backwards as the giant picked her foot up. Air swished around Susie’s disoriented head as she walked, and before she knew it the giantess was stepping back down. Susie’s head slammed against the ground, her head splitting open as more of her chest was flattened by the foot. Susie felt her heart burst and her lungs flattened, and knew it was only a matter of time before she died. 

The weight shifted onto her again, and Susie soon found her being lifted into the air again. She felt part of her body rip off her body and fall off the bottom of the foot, and Susie felt envious to still be on it. The foot crashed down again, this time Susie hit her head so hard that part of her neck actually ripped off her shoulders. 

When the giant foot lifted in the air again, half of Susie’s skull remained on the ground. She was dead before she hit the ground a third time, but the cave woman’s giant foot continued to disrespect her body as she walked on it. Taking another step towards the entrance of the cave, the giant scraped her foot against the ground, dragging Susie’s organs down her foot and onto the floor.

Susie’s head was so disattached that it folded under the neck, and next time the cave woman stepped down Susie’s head was crushed under the black underside of the big toe. The tiny girl’s entire body was pulverized until it was flattened, unrecognizable and scattered all across the cave floor.  

Meanwhile, the cave woman had no knowledge of the carnage her right foot had caused. Instead, she continued her way outside to bathe in the sunlight before dark.

Part III: Wilderness Heat

Stepping out of the cave, the crew was assaulted with a mix of intense heat and humidity. They had been warned about the hotter atmosphere of the world, but nothing could’ve prepared them for just how hot it was. The armpits of Victor’s shirt were instantly drenched in sweat, as well was the forehead and brows of everyone in his crew.

A few members of the pact fell to their knees in exhaustion not too far from the entrance of the cave, though the others kept running. They hadn’t any clue how far away they had to run away from the cave in order to be safe, and their survival instincts took over and caused them to abandon those behind them. 

“Wait!” Maximus yelled out for the crew, but not a single person turned back to save him. He clenched his heart as he fell face down in the dirt. This was the most he had run in years, and the heat expedited his exhaustion. His cheek was planted in the soil, his vision blurring.

The older man knew that the creature was just behind him, waiting to be struck. He was close to the woman who was crushed flat under it, and Maximus was terrified of experiencing a similar death. He tried to pick himself up, but his arms were weak. 

“Grab on.” A man said above him, reaching down to grab Maximus’s arm and throw it over his shoulder. The man holstered Maximus up, and the two started hobbling towards the group. “We have to catch up.” 

“It’s hot.” Maximus huffed. He could tell that his weight was weighing the man down and slowing his pace, but Maximus was too scared of the fate that awaited him if he told the man to go on without him. 

“Over here!” A woman’s voice shouted. She waved a hand and signaled them over in a direction away from the group. “There’s fruit this way. We can suck out the juices.” 

“Annabell you genius!” The man yelled. Limping, the two of them lodged through the moist soil and reached the girl. She looked younger than the rest of the group, and couldn't be older than her early 20’s. She reminded Maximus of his daughter. 

“Walker, I’m so glad you made it.” The girl hugged the man, and after departing addressed them both. “What happened back there?” 

“I don’t know,” said Walker. “First we find the plant 20 times the size it should’ve been, and then we get chased out of an enormous cave by a monster we couldn’t see. We have to be in the dinosaur age, just look at how big all these leaves and trees are.”

“Don’t you kids know anything.” Maximus pulled himself off Walker’s shoulder. He pulled out a handkerchief and coughed into it. “Something went wrong with the time machine. When we went through it, we shrunk too. I got a glimpse of the beasts as it chased us. That idiot was wrong, there are still cavemen in that cave.” 

“You can’t be serious?” Annabell asked. Her chest puffed and compressed as she began to hyperventilate. Walker put a calming hand on her shoulder. “People don’t shrink, and why would a caveman kill other people?” 

“I don’t know,” started Maximus “But we still have over 23 hours until the portal in the cave opens back up. We better stay close to this cave until then.”

The pair nodded. “You said you saw fruit?” Walker asked Annabell. 

“Mhm.” She muttered after a second. “There’s a plum bush a couple meters away from here. If we can get there, we can eat the ones that fell onto the floor.”

“That’s an excellent idea, we should set out for it.” said Walker. “Are you good to walk on your own?” 

Maximus chuckled. “As long as there’s no running, I should be fine.” He wiped the sweat off his forehead with the handkerchief.

The three made their way towards the plum bush. It was a longer walk than they thought despite being able to see it the entire time. It took them nearly half an hour to reach the base of the bush, and by then the trio were all drenched in sweat and grime. Annabell’s face was completely red, and Maximus was sure his face wasn’t far off. Walker’s darker skin protected him better from the sun, but he was still feeling the effects. 

“Over here.” Annabell called out. By the base of the bush, several large plums were scattered across the dirt. 

“I’m not eating those!” Maximus called out. “They’re covered in filth.” 

“It’s either this or starve.” warned Walker. “With this heat you wouldn’t last very long without drinking something.” Walker plunged his hands deep into the plumb, cupping pieces in them as he dragged them out and started to eat. Annabell began to do the same, and soon after Maximus realized he didn’t have much of a choice and followed suit. 

The plum juice was warm but refreshing. What Maximus wouldn’t do for just one block of ice to cool it down while he ate, but he was starving after the run and ate halfway through him plump in minutes. 

Walker stuck his feet inside the plum and submerged his body to cool it off. “You guys need to do this, it's better than being out in the heat.”

“Really?” Intrigued, Annabell tore her plum a little wider open and hopped inside. “Holy crap, this is refreshing.”

“There's no way I’m getting inside a plum, my clothes will be soaked.” Maximus continued to eat his plum, bothered by how quick these youths were in hopping inside a fruit that was supposed to be the size of their hand. 

“Your clothes are already drenched in sweat.” Walker pointed out.

“Just let the old man be,” said Annabell. “It's his loss.”

Maximus was about to snap at the young girl when he felt the ground begin to shake again. Looking over his plum, he saw it.

“What is it?” Walker yelled, too submerged in his plum to look out over the edge. 

“Mother of God!” Maximus yelled. He ditched his plum and ran into the bushes behind him. He peered out of the bushes, gazing at the long hairy legs that approached the bush. The massive toned foot stopped right in front of the plum Maximus was eating, and the fear that he almost didn’t leave in time caused him to almost faint. 

“Jesus Christ!” Annabell yelled. She had the perfect view of the giant cave woman as she picked a plum off the bush and ate it. She tried picking herself out of the plum she was in, but her weight in the plum caused the opening to close a little. She was trapped inside of it. 

The giant cave woman’s bushy eyes looked down at her plum and licked her lips. Her lips parted in a smile and her dirt covered fingers reached down for her, the giant’s crooked and rotten teeth sticking out of her mouth. Annabell yelled and the giant grew closer, but the large fingers passed her and picked up the plum next to hers. 

Walker’s screams filled the air. He thought that if he hid himself deeper in the plum the giant would overlook him, but it might’ve been what sealed his fate. Would the cave woman still have picked up this plum if it saw a tiny bug scurrying across it? It was a useless question, because Walker’s fate was about to be sealed.

The giant’s hair was frizzed and curled, her nose big and round, and her fingers were pressing so hard into the plum that Walker thought he’d be crushed by them. He had a front row seat as the cave woman slowly opened up her giant mouth. Spit glistened from lip to lip as the most foul breath Walker ever smelt blew over him. 

Throw up forced its way from Walker’s throat, though it was unclear to him if it was because of the smell or his body’s natural reaction to being faced with a cruel death. The awful smell of the cave woman’s bad breath intensified as her pale tongue protruded from her mouth. Walker felt his body seize up and his eyes watered. If the smell was this bad from over here, he didn’t want to know what it was like inside her mouth.

Unfortunately for him, Walker would soon find out. The giant fingers moved Walker’s plum toward the giant mouth. The closer she got the worse the smell became. The air was so toxic that Walker couldn’t breath for more than a second without the back of his throat burning up. He shut his eyes, too afraid to see himself be sent to his doom, but nothing could’ve prepared him for what it felt like to be placed onto the giant’s tongue.

Spit extruded from the tongue and seeped into the plum. The secretion mixed into Walker’s clothes as he started to cry for real. He felt the giant fingers release the plum, and before long the tongue was dragging Walker into the dark cave of her mouth— a cave this time he would not be able to escape. 

The plum rolled over on the tongue. Apparently the cave woman liked to appreciate and savor the taste of her food, and rolled Walker around in her mouth. Walker was grateful that he was still stuck inside the plump and protected from being drowned in the spit. 

He couldn’t see anything when the cave woman’s mouth was shut, but she’d occasionally part her lips briefly for light to come in. When she did, Walker would get flashes of the back of the cave woman’s throat and her uvula, or he’d be face to face with a giant row of sharp teeth. It all terrified him, and he debated his chances if he hopped out of the plum right then and dived into the back of her throat, or if he tried to sneak past her front teeth to dive out of her lips when they parted. 

The cave woman had enough of toying with her food, and the giant tongue impatiently shoved the plum over to her sharp teeth. Without warning they chomped down onto the plum, ripping through the tough skin. It took her a couple of bites to really divide the plump in her mouth, and Walker found the fortune of falling out of the plum and onto her slippery cheek. 

The cave woman chewed with her mouth open, giving Walker the view of the plum being ripped to shreds by the giant teeth. It was so big only a second ago, but now it was a pile of mushy bits that softened as it was attacked by saliva. 

Gazing out of the mouth, Walker saw strands of spit connecting the cave woman’s lips. He’d have to survive a very far drop if he jumped out of there, and he’d be facing the same certain death as if he stayed. There was no difference between the outcomes, he’d die anyway. However, he’d be damned if he was chewed alive by the teeth of a cave woman 13,000 years in the past.

Walker started crawling his way over to the cave woman’s lips, but she evidently felt this. The giant tongue rammed into him like a bull, the plush tongue crushing Walker’s ribs as it drags him up her cheek and places him on the top row of her teeth, allowing him to fall down on her lower row. His back cracked against the sharp teeth, his head lying perfectly in the indent of the giant’s molars. The teeth seemingly teased him, or maybe Walker was experiencing everything in slow motion, because they stayed in the air, suspended as they decided Walker’s fate.

Then they crashed down. They slammed into Walker, cracking his chest and shattering one of his kneecaps. One of Walker’s arms hung out from the row of teeth and went limp on the giant’s tongue. The teeth didn’t crunch down on Walker all the way, they hadn’t crushed down hard enough. The cave woman must’ve been only using the force necessary to bite down on a plum, meaning she was unaware of Walker’s presence in her mouth. Her teeth grinded on him, unsure of what he was, the sharp edges leaving slash marks up and down his body and spit dropped onto him from the roof of her mouth.

“Hmm?” The cave woman moaned, sending another exhale of breath over Walker’s body. He coughed, thinking he might pass out from the scent alone over the pain. The teeth pressed down slightly harder onto Walker, and he felt more of his bones be crushed between the row of teeth, but they didn’t press down all the way. The giant’s head was tilted back, and a large gulp followed. Pieces of plum assaulted the side of Walker’s body as they were forced down the right throat of the cave woman. Walker was glad he wasn’t able to see that happen, otherwise he would’ve wet himself. 

After she swallowed, the cave woman released Walker from her grip between her teeth. His deformed body fell off the ridged teeth and under the giant’s tongue next to her blackened gums. He was met with a face full of spit, something he had to find the strength to pull his body up and spit out. The giantess’s saliva was thick and bubbly, and if it ever found its way into Walker’s throat he’d suffocate to death.

The giant tongue shifted, and the tip of it dug under Walker and scooped him up. He rolled along the front of the plump tongue, reminiscing of the plum still stuck between her teeth. 

Without the protection of the plum, Walker was fully exposed to the scent of the cave woman’s mouth and her spit. The spit creeped up its body, seemingly moving on its own to attack the unknown intruder in the plum. It was in that moment that it hit Walker that the cave woman probably thought he was food. She had no way of knowing a person was inside the plum, and probably assumed that he was just some kind of hard part of the plum that didn’t grow right.

The giant tongue examined him, brushing up and down him. The rough tastebuds lining her tongue ripped into his clothes, the spit that softened them making it easier for the giant tongue to rip shit shirt right off him. The tongue rubbed into Walker’s body, and the cave woman let out a slight moan at Walker’s taste. It was oddly flattering having the affection and approval of the giant cave woman, but it didn’t make Walker feel any better about his situation in the cave woman’s mouth.

As she licked all over him, Walker was being completely coated in spit. It invaded every hole in his body, filling his nose and ears and ass, making it hard to experience anything other than the feeling of spit filling his body. Walker used his hands to cuff his mouth, trying to to let the spit invade his mouth and drown him. Although with his nose plugged with the cave woman’s spit— creating a smell that was slightly less awful than being forced to smell the giantess’s breath but a lot more pungent—  Walker would have to unplug his mouth to breathe soon.

Even though he wasn’t being chewed on anymore, Walker’s body was still roaring in pain, and the tongue brushing over his injuries didn’t make the feeling any better. The tongue jabbed into his ribs, chest and his leg that was shattered by her teeth, causing the bones to break more and cause Walker more pain. There were too many things to think about. Should he worry about the pain in his body, the spit invading his senses or his tightening lungs as they desperately begged for air. He had to focus on one, otherwise he’d have to think about the sheer helplessness of his situation.

The giant tongue pinned Walker to the roof of her mouth. The roof of her mouth was rough, and the cave woman’s strong tongue was pressing hard into Walker’s stomach and hip. Any harder and his hip was going to break. The tongue pressing on his stomach gasped all the air in his body to escape, and his body was too badly beaten for Walker to be able to move on his own. His hands fell to his side, and Walter was forced to breathe in the air. Luckily being pinned to the roof of her mouth protected Walker from spit.

The giant tongue started dragging Walker back and forth, grinding his back against her harsh roof. Flakes of skin were grinded off him like cheese being rubbed against a grater, and it only took another moment for drops of blood to start dripping out of him. The tongue flattened over Walker, now his entire body was benign flattened by it. Spit seeped from the tongue and into Walker’s mouth, but he was able to hold his breath long enough to not have to swallow it. 

Walker fell off from the tip of the tongue, falling scarily close to the back of the giant’s mouth. He backed away from the throat, but he was once again swooped up by the tongue. It rolled him against her teeth, plaque rubbing onto him as the hard bone cracked his nose in two.

Walker was dropped from the tongue, and once again he found himself under the tongue. This time however, the tongue laid on top of him. It forced the top of his body into the puddle of spit below it. Walker screamed, bubbles rising from the spit as the giantess unknowingly drowned him. 

Walker held his breath for as long as he could. His entire body sizzled like it was being digested by the acids in the spit. The tongue was heavy on his back, and no amount of squirming could move him from his spot. Walker’s face was turning blue. His lungs felt like they had daggers being shoved through them. It wasn’t healthy to hold his breath for this long while his body was this badly injured, but he didn’t have a choice. 

Walker only lasted another 15 seconds before his mouth was forced open. His lungs gasped for any air it could, but there was no air available. Walker tried to hold back more spit being plunged into his lungs, but his body was acting on its own, sucking in the salty spit into his body. 

Walker’s lungs burned and heated up as they compressed. It needed air, but Walker wasn’t able to provide it. The area around Walker began to fade away. He barely felt the heavy tongue that was weighing down on him, nor did he sense the heat of the mouth he was in or the smell of the grime in between the cave woman’s teeth. He had no idea how much time had passed, but he knew he wasn’t going to last much longer.

The pain throughout his body began to fade, as did Walter’s consciousness, drowning face down in a puddle of spit inside a prehistoric cave woman’s mouth.

Miles down back on the earth, Maximus watched the onslaught from behind the bush. He both heard and ignored the desperate pleas of the woman still trapped inside the plum, unable to take his eyes off the ugly face of the cave woman as it enjoyed the taste of the man. For the second time the cave woman tilted her head back and swallowed, a large lump evidently sliding down her throat.

“Please…” Annabell cried through tears. She knew she was next and that it was only a matter of time, and before she knew it the cave woman’s large fingers were coming down for her. She picked up the plump off the ground and raised it to her mouth. 

As the giant’s tongue fell out of her mouth, Annabell could see blood lining it, mixed in with the spit. She almost fainted, unable to stand the sight. That blood was the only thing that remained of Walker, and pretty soon it would be washed away by the spit and swallowed too.

The cave woman deposited the screaming plum into her mouth, unable to hear it beg. Annabell was silenced as the cave woman’s lips closed around her. The plum was briefly tossed around the cave woman’s mouth, but she was hungry and growing tired of playing with her food. She rolled it around for a little while, allowing her spit to soften the large plum, but it didn’t take the giantess much longer before pushing the plum under her teeth.

She bit down, but the first bite didn't make contact with Annabell. She felt fortunate, but she still couldn’t escape from the tight plum. She watched as the plum was mashed up by the sharp teeth, her own body being pushed closer and closer to it by the tongue as the cave woman’s cheeks were filling up.

Half of Annabell’s body was now under the row of teeth. She screamed as they came crashing down. It made contact with her body, but didn’t bite hard enough to sever her body completely. Her arm had it worse, trapped between two crooked teeth. Part of it was flattened, and she had no feeling in her arm what so ever. 

Would the cave woman play with her like it did Walker? Annabell wouldn’t be able to take the torture, she’d rather be swallowed whole by the beast. Tears continued to flow from her eyes, her chest puffing as much as it could against the sharp teeth. She didn’t want to die. She was a recent graduate from a local university. She interned at the institute where Victor invented the time machine, and she was so excited when he asked her to join his voyage through time. Now she was being eaten alive by a cave woman. 

Unexcited to be met with a hard plum for a second time, the cave woman bit down harder. Sharp teeth punctured Annabell’s chest, and her arm was completely bitten off. It fell off and blood squirted out of her body like water from a hose. She screamed and cried, but the giantess couldn’t hear her. Annabell wondered if she’d care, but that answer would be pointless. The creature moaned lightly at the taste of Annabell’s blood pouring over her tongue, and it reached up to lick her.

The cave woman raised her teeth up again and bit down hard onto Annabell, grunting with force to show that she meant it. The odd placement of the cave woman’s crooked teeth meant that only parts of Annabell’s body were crushed. 

The teeth bit straight through her hip and legs, but her chest and intact and Annabell’s was was being forced into the giantess’s gums by a heavy tooth. Blood continued to seep out of her body as the cave woman lowered her jaw and prepared to bite down again. Annabell tried to roll out of the way, but it was useless. She only had one arm left. The other was severed, and both of her legs were just flattened.

Crunch.

Annabell’s jaw dropped open. Her chest was broken through, and she felt her heart burst as the teeth sunk through it. Blood poured out of her body heavily, and she felt her body getting lighter. The pain was too much for her mind to comprehend, and Annabell was turned into a drooling mess as her body rolled over and fell into other pieces of chewed up plum. 

The giantess tilted her head back, and the still conscious Annabell was swallowed down her maw. The throat was tight, but the plum and spit forced her down fast. Annabell was dead before she hit the cave woman’s stomach acids.