Chapter 2: The Chase

Joel was still struggling to get himself together and now the issue was exacerbated by the fact that he was tiny, causing him to freak out even more. The man disappearing, the guards with weapons, covering their faces, the fact that they were all kidnapped! Why was nobody picking up on the vibes from this place, the tension was unbearable, no amount of money was going to relieve this stress. Another man spotted him from inside the crowd and began approaching him, coming down to his side.

"You look like you've seen a ghost." the man said with a straight face

"This is bad, I don't think this is safe at all. I don't trust them, we- we- we have to get out of here." Joel responded whilst tapping the mans shoulder.

"You're right, it's not. Listen, we need to prepare. It's very important that we work together and play defensively. The rest of these people are not expecting danger, but we are. We'll be the most ready. Work with me."

"Did you see the man disappear as well?" 

"What man? no, I worked at the company who produced the technology. They are unforgiving and ruthless. I know everything about this place, I intend to escape but I need a strong teammate. Someone who I can work together with, are you up to the task?" the man held his hand out whilst looking into his eyes, he seemed exceptionally calm. Having known about this place in advance. Joel shook his hand.

"Call me Thomas."

"Joel."

"If you worked for them, why are you here?"

"I'm sorry but that's too long to explain at this time. All you need to know is it was deceitful and entirely for revenge. You can't trust anyone, Joel." Thomas lifted a finger, pointing it closely to Joels face, his unblinking eyes staring into his soul.

"Anyone?" he asked bewildered by the statement, curious to know why he said that as they were working together now.

"That includes me and anyone else you know here. I'll tell you now, Joel. You don't know them anymore." Joel looked behind him into the distance where the women were being kept away from them, thinking about Lisa. She has always been there for him when he was powerless in the workplace, nothing changes here because he's seen her actions in the real world. They have an advantage with their friendship here. He suddenly felt a large thump as the floor dropped beneath him, the impact threw his body into the air, gathering himself off the floor quickly to realize that due to him being distracted he had wondered off course. Looking forward he saw the matte sheen of a black leather texture. Lifting his head slowly knowing exactly what he was about to see, towering above him was a guard, a pure white baby mask stared back at him. The boot tapping the floor using its high heel for support.

"GET IN LINE." the voice ordered, sounding notably lighter.

Joel frantically scrambled fully to his feet towards the line whilst not removing his gaze from the guard, their gaze also following him all the way into the crowd. Thomas pulled him in from the shoulder.

"Watch where you are going! I need you for this first section, don't freak out on me, Joel. We may not be friends but we're the best shot we both have of staying in this and that should be good enough reason for you to pay attention." He finished grilling him, Joel nodded as they proceeded forward, not looking back at the guard.

"Look at them walking away, it takes them so long to even reach that tiny door there. We could probably make it in 6 seconds."

This random woman had started conversating with Lisa, Lisa smiled back whilst agreeing with the observation. "Hopefully we've got a real advantage here." she added.

"There definitely is, they said it was pre-decided what group what going to be minimized. There was already a considerably lower amount of women picked." The woman explained whilst twirling her hair with her arms crossed.

Lisa turned, her eyes rolling whilst thinking about what point the lady was trying to make. - "I- I don't know what you mean."

"If they randomly picked it'd be a 50/50 split, they deliberately chose less women, which means there are going to be more men eliminated from the games by a factor of 1 to 4." she moved her hands a lot whilst explaining, giving Lisa a little smile as she finished.

She was right thought Lisa, that made perfect sense, they must be less likely to get eliminated because they will need to balance the games going forward since size is their main entertainment factor. 

"I totally understand you now, what's your name?"

"Beth." the girls shared a moment, many among the group were quickly becoming friends and plotting plans together. Some simply liked having someone to talk to. Lisa felt as though this lady could be useful to the rest of the games, if she was this quick to hand her over useful information, why wouldn't she do it again?

"WELCOME TO THE FIRST GAME. LET IT BE NOTED AMONG COMPETITORS THAT YOU ARE NOT TWO TEAMS, YOU ARE SIMPLY DIFFERENT. YOU ARE ALL AGAINST EACH OTHER. THAT BEING SAID YOU CAN TEAM WITH WHOEVER YOU LIKE REGARDLESS."

The men were walked into a small glass container, from looking outside it they could see what appeared to be a bunch of random walls connected in a maze like fashion, they were huge though, clearly regular sized. Down below the maze walls were gaps underneath, the maze could be entirely dodged by them, they could walk in a straight line if they choose to. Their glass pen had no ceiling but kept them from moving around the floor at the start of the room. They heard rumbling and thumping begin to creep up on them, their floor shaking more and more. To their far left they saw a flood of the female competitors exist a giant door, stepping into the room and surveying the maze. The giants began spreading out across the line, some making their way to the glass pen.

A woman with long black hair stopped above them smiling. "Well hello boys, how are we doing today?" her white teeth glistened in the light as she let her smile shine over them, enjoying the attention below.

One guy bantered to his acquaintance next to him. "My god, Kevin. The things I'd let that woman do to me." he blushed.

His friend Kevin laughed. "I wouldn't be far behind you, buddy."

The man decided to try his luck speaking to her individually. - "Hey darling, whats your name?"

"Which of you spoke just now... you, bald head." she pointed her gigantic finger down at them. The man raised his hand with a smile on his face.

"I am Andrea, and I'm going to win this game-show. Just so you guys know."

"Don't worry Andrea, when I win, I'll take you out and finally give you something worth using that body for." he shouted before bursting out laughing, him and his new friend both enjoying the view.

Andrea rolled her eyes, not impressed by his attempt at flirting. She never gets any real compliments without tacky power moves from guys, she tuts at the men before walking away.

Thomas was inspecting the room, figuring out the best course of action for them. He had a fairly strong idea of what the game was, it was a fairly simple starter. He approached Joel - "I'm figuring out our strategy, I need you to do personality checks on the other competitors, the women. Figure out who is aggressive, who isn't a threat, who is fast, who is scared. All of that." Joel nodded and began looking out the window at the various women. There were so many so he targeted a few.

There was a girl with long straight brown hair at the back, her hands were behind her back whilst she was leaning on a wall, her hair covered some of her face and she stared deeply into the smooth floor, avoiding eye contact. Joel made the conclusion that she must be shy, she likely won't make first moves or attempt to finish first.

His eyes darted to the girl from earlier, Andrea. She liked attention and seemed confident, she may be someone to watch out for, however she could be all talk. She didn't look athletic. However, there was another woman in front of the shy girl, she was stretching and seemed fairly good at it, her body is lean and she looks serious. She was ringing alarm bells for Joel, she seems the most serious and will likely be the fastest competitor in what appears to be a movement game.

His eyes fell upon Lisa, she was discussing something with another girl. We'll need to ask for their help when we get through this one.

"Joel, what are you thinking so far?" Thomas asked whilst joining his survey. Joel pointed to the very back.

"The athletic girl, she's going to be a tough one, she seems serious and agile." 

"Definitely agree, the quiet ones are always the most focused. I've also got a good idea of the game. Let me explain-"

Moments later.

"WELCOME TO GAME NUMBER ONE; THE CHASE. IN THIS GAME OUR MINIMIZED AND REGULARS HAVE DIFFERENT GOALS, MINIMIZED YOU MUST REACH THE END OF THE ROOM TO AVOID ELIMINATION. REGULARS YOU MUST TRAVERSE THE MAZE WHILST ELIMINATING MINIMIZED INDIVIDUALS, YOU MUST ELIMINATE 5 AND REACH THE END TO PASS. THIS GAME WILL TERMINATE AUTOMATICALLY IN 15 MINUTES."

Andrea had a big smile. "Capture five? far too easy." she thought to herself whilst looking down at the two men from earlier.

"MINIMIZED RECEIVE A 30 SECOND HEAD-START. LET THE GAME BEGIN."

"I believe the game is a balanced race, we must avoid giants whilst navigating freely under the maze. We need to choose the optimal path where it will take them the longest to reach us and jump between sections that are further apart as well. I can't see the full maze but I believe we should start in the entrance for the giants."

"You want us to start in their entrance? are you insane."

"Joel, you don't have to listen to me. It's up to you, I know the structure of mazes, as soon as we pass under the wall of the entrance we should be pretty far ahead, the maze should go on a tangent on the right side. It'll give us the best head start possible.

"I don't have another plan so we're gonna have to go with it.."

Thomas' plan echoed in Joel's mind, pointing his body in the general direction of the entry point for the women. Taking a huge deep breath he looked to his right and saw Thomas nodding at him with determination.

The glass lowered immediately causing all men to go straight forward onto the right side of the maze, hundreds of them grouped together. From the perspective of the regulars, they saw a small blob of moving dots heading in the same direction together, they were then distracted by two dots going completely left out the front of them heading towards their entrance.

"Those two guys are so stupid..." Beth whispered under her breath to Lisa.

Going entirely left in order to reach the entrance had put a strong dampener on their head start as they finally started reaching a wall just as the regulars were released. All of their eyes were on the two at the entrance, two easy targets right out in front. They started sprinting towards the two tinies.

Joel turned around to see tens of stamping feet rushing towards him.

"Don't look behind you!" Thomas shouted whilst pointing forwards at the first wall they could pass under. "We're safe there, run, run, run!"

Joel screamed for his life as he looked up to see multiple faces closing in on him running, they wanted his point by capturing him, he wouldn't let them. Both men dove under the wall turning around to see hands slamming right where they were, trying to grab them like they were a 90% off TV on Black Friday. As far as those girls were concerned, him and Thomas were worth nearly 100 million dollars.

"Joel, we must keep moving. We've likely taken the lead now, they will probably be redirected to the other group who went together. Let's run!" Thomas tugged at his shirt, pulling him forward as he was still catching his breath, but it quickly left him again as they kept running.

On the right side the man flirting with Andrea & his friend Kevin both stumbled whilst running, surrounded by 40 other men going in the same direction. - "Why are we following these losers? we can take a better route under this maze and win alone!"

"Hell yeah, you are right Mark. Good thinking." both Men passed under the wall on the left into the next maze lane, thumping surrounded all the men on the right who were scared of this violent thumping feeling being exerted on their bodies. Over on the left side Thomas and Joel felt more confident as they could feel light rumbling. Thomas continued to unravel what he believe to be the layout of the maze. - "It's quiet here, which worries me greatly. Because there are still lanes here, meaning the right side will likely unravel and come back this way, we could be running straight into someone for all we know." he explained.

"We can run right where the wall crosses over, so if someone shows up we can cross over into another maze section." Joel suggested to Thomas. Which he nodded and accepted this thought process.

"Sounds like a plan. Lets keep going."

Mark & Kevin, moved diagonally through many lanes, the stomping not becoming any quieter, but louder and surrounding them more and more. 

"Mark I don't feel good about our plan, at least with the group we could use them as a distraction but this-" Kevin was cut out suddenly by Mark.

"No, Kevin. If we reach the end with those bozos then we're getting a smaller piece of the pie. Don't you want the full 100 million??"

"Yeah but-"

Two loud stomps began pressing towards them very quickly, Kevin turned around to see Andrea's hand falling out the sky scaring him into a panic attack, such a large object falling onto them activating their bodies danger reflex. She gripped both men in her hand as she rose back to her full stature.

"I captured two! Not only that but the exact ones I wanted." she smirked at them with an evil look, her cute Asian complexion from earlier vanishing and ruining their attraction they once had. Mark used his fists on her hand in anger.

"Just our luck, we take a detour and get captured by the same girl from earlier! Now we're eliminated and we get none of the money!"

"I told you Mark, we should've went with the crowd." Kevin remarked as they both lay in her lightly clutched hand.

Andrea had her hand raised in excitement, holding up her prized score points. Looking up at the scoreboard on the wall she noticed her score was still 0. Maybe it takes time to appear she thought? her eyes were drawn to the words next to her number. "0 eliminations". Why didn't it say captures?

There were a total of 0 eliminations yet, before Andrea could figure out why her captures didn't work a tip came on the scoreboard.

"MINIMIZED MUST BE ELIMINATED, NOT CAPTURED."

"How do I do that?-" Andrea looked down at the men, her eyebrow raising with curiosity. She plucked Mark out with her left hand, clutching him between her index finger and thumb. Looking back at her hand splayed out at Kevin. She slowly closed her hands with strength.

"What are you- stop- AHH- AHHHH"

Her hand came to a full close creating crunching and snapping noises, Kevin's screams faded out as she clutched harder and harder. Feeling her hands becoming wet. Releasing her grip to unveil a red splodge of goo. Her mouth agape with surprise but not out of disgust.

"FIRST POINT TO PLAYER 23"

She turned her head to Mark in her fingers. Who was crying and screaming with panic, his friend being totally crushed in a powerful hand setting him totally off the rails with the realistiation of the term "elimination". 

"This wasn't part of the deal! Don't kill u-" Marks words were cut off by the G-force he experienced as she raised her hand into the air with Mark between her fingers, the forces moving his organs around as he moved across the sky in her clutch at the speed of sound, only able to make groaning noises as his body panicked. She paused aiming at the ground. "Don't-" he uttered before the forces started again, she swung her hand full force towards the ground releasing the tiny man hurtling towards the ground. He slammed into the ground so incredibly fast, his organs kept travelling as the rest of his body came to a full stop splashing out into the floor surface still as such speeds that they also instantly exploded. Bones colliding with an immeasurably harder surface than them with zero capability of giving way for his body causing him to shatter into million of pieces like glass. His body was totally unrecognizable from the powerful impact.

Andrea's score rose once again to two, she flicked her hair behind her as she figured out how to play. She began continuing her way through the maze with a smirk on her face.

"Joel, the crowd of men are spreading out, they will likely end up in our section."

"So?"

"More of us means more giants looking for us."

As they were talking Joel saw two figures not moving, they were their size and in the middle of a pathway. He went towards them.

"Joel we don't have time!" Joel kept looking but followed Thomas anyway, he didn't want to risk elimination by stopping.

"What's your name?"

"Theo.. I'm- I'm scared."

"I'm Sergio. It's okay to be scared, it's pretty scary here, friend. But you have to keep moving. That'll keep you out of danger, you feel me?"

Theo nodded back at the man, sensing some trust in his father-like tone. This man must be a father to someone on the outside.

"I believed we were just competing here, but I've seen some pretty violent things since the game began a few minutes ago, it's not safe at all. We'll reach the end together, come on." Sergio began rising to his feet anticipating that Theo would follow him.

"You don't understand, I can't be in here in the first place. I don't have time-" Theo explained before Sergio was interrupted by a regular coming around the corner scanning the floor, Sergio noticed her immediately, her shoulder length blonde hair swaying from her corner turn.

"We have to move now!" He grabbed the short teenager by his arm with his fatherly reflexes & burly figure, pulling him to safety. He heard a loud gasp from the girl behind him followed by intense booming, they had been spotted and the woman was rushing towards them to score her points, there was no way he'd get under this maze wall before she reached them. He glanced above to see the woman lifting her foot above the two boys, Sergio instinctively made a split-second decision, turning his body 360 degrees to build momentum whilst clutching Theos arm. He released the arm from his grasp sending the small teenager barreling sidewards towards the outside of the maze corridor they were in. Theo thumped on the ground looking forward to see a monolithic foot landing on top of Sergio, a horrible violent crushing noise was heard from Theo who was 30 feet away, he looked on in horror at his only friend here being compressed underneath a huge peach wall.

"Joel, where are you going?? We can't get distracted by other competitors!" Thomas shouted whilst signalling towards the direction where the finish line was, still far out of reach. His partner not sticking to their plan and not understanding the repercussions of his actions was incredibly frustrating to watch. Maybe this man wasn't the best choice afterall, he has too much care & sympathy for others, a notable trait on the outside, but in here it's going to be the death of him. Thomas' face began to shake as his frustrating rose from inside his head to the outside, now visible on his face, gritting his teeth and unleashing a-

"Fine, die on your own, you idiotic hero!" quickly turning around and continuing his journey to victory, this time alone.

"Two at the same time!" The woman exclaimed after slamming her foot onto Sergio below, she looked at the scoreboard noticing a zero on her player number, causing her to be frustrated. She lifted her barefoot off the tiny man below and lifted it upwards to her face surveying the sole of her foot, noticing one red corpse bent around the curve of the ball of her foot. - "I definitely have at least one..." she thought to herself confused. Sergio groaned out in horror and pain as he stared above into the giant face of the blonde haired girl blood covered his eyes making it hard to see any details of her face. His body pumped so much adrenaline into his body to cope with the pain but it simply couldn't, his chest had erupted and most of his bones had shattered. He was coated in red on almost every part of his body. As he screamed with no intent above to the girl she noticed his noises and body movements.

"Oh, I didn't quite get him. That explains it." She lowered her foot close to the ground, hovering it over the hard white floor. Theo looked at the mangled mess stuck to her foot, Sergio looked at him with his jaw broken mumbling incomprehensibly. Her foot then broke its hover by slamming straight onto the ground creating another crush noise, she twisted this time with the ball of her foot in order to guarrantee elimination. Her point appeared on the board, giving her a little hop of joy unfortunately creating another big squelch noise to Theo below, mashing up more of whatever was left beneath her. Her eyes fell to the floor in hopes of finding the second point she thought she had, her eyes fell upon Theo who was sitting down with his arms supporting him, unable to move.

"You're a fast one" she said as she approached him, the blood stained marking on her foot fully visible to Theo who stared up in shock. Only to be grabbed out of danger once again by someone, Joel tackled Theo 10 feet. Barely dodging the mega weight that collided with the floor behind him. Turning around he saw the french pedicured foot twisting, the girl couldn't feel anything, lifting her foot to disappointment, no point again. Joel noted the destruction before him and the mess she had made of the other man he saw whilst passing by causing his stomach to ache and his heart to skip a beat. He looked up at her face, it was the girl Lisa was talking to earlier.

"Hey Beth wait up." he turned to see Lisa walking into view in the distance, distracting Beth. Joel took off sprinting whilst tightly holding the teen boy in his arms.

"He's gone again! Lisa, help me get him." - "Sure"

In the distance miles ahead of Joel, Thomas was still running, behind him he could hear the footsteps of two approaching giants, both of them frantically running through the maze trying to find Theo, or a free point as they saw it, Joel had Theo over his shoulder. Theo kept struggling and pushing Joel's head managing to squirm his way out of his grip and took off running in the same direction as Joel, this time on his own. Blasting his way forwards with ease, he was incredibly fast, passing maze lanes faster than Joel by a fair margin. He felt better seeing the boy sprinting ahead to safety, he had a huge advantage with speed like that, unfortunately Joel had effectively placed himself in danger in order to protect this teenager from imminent danger, so now he had to do the same for himself. From his sound assessment he could tell they were approaching him quicker than he was evading, he noted a corner that connected underneath to two different lanes, he stopped and turned around. Facing the direction of the booming, sweat drenching his face as he waited for company to arrive, looking into the distance he could see the feet underneath the walls in the gaps designed for minimized they had been running under, they were one corridor away.

The pair came around the corner, eyes tightly focused on the floor and identifying Joel in the corner swiftly. Beth wasted no time diving to the floor with her hands cupped together in the hopes of catching the tiny man between them, landing on her elbows. As her hands zoomed towards Joel he dove backwards under the wall as Beth's hands rammed straight into the wall, causing her to let out a "Ow! Fuck!" on the other side, he quickly turned right heading under a different wall.

Lisa took over as Beth struggled to stand up as her hand was now partially injured from ramming the metal wall with her body weight. She quickly looked for the section the man was in, finding absolutely nobody on the floor.

"He's gone!" She exclaimed to her friend finally approaching from behind.

"What do you mean? He was right there, I almost had him." Beth shouted back angrily.

Joel heard the words in the distance as he tricked them into thinking he had went forwards, when in fact he dove under the right wall immediately separating them entirely from each other. How could Lisa even participate in this? had all the money went to her head? she chased him down like he was some insect, admittedly she didn't know it was him, but he couldn't guarantee she would be able to identify him in the moment. Avoiding her was the best thing to do for now.

He approached the longest corridor he had seen before, still sticking close to the maze walls so that he could evade any giants if they spotted him. He could hear the echos of the game being played around him. "Shit, I missed!" - followed by scary laughing on his left, all noises melted together by the consistent thumping noises vibrating across the floor and into his body. None of these audios sounded particularly close to him allowing him to jog with ease, preserving his energy. Joel stopped for the briefest of moments, thinking this was a great time to rejuvenate his energy and check the scoreboard. It wasn't particularly useful as it displayed player numbers instead of names, doubtful that anyone had remembered the numbers of people other than themselves. It did however act as a useful informational tool for loss of fellow competitors, what he was most interested in was the timer, 5 minutes remained. Joel leaned forward with his hands on his legs whilst violently exhaling carbon from his lungs, a strong sign that he was out of his depth running this much as a man with a desk job.

Suddenly he sat up slightly, inhaling and holding his breath as he heard & felt something. He listened carefully for a few seconds hoping that the silence would linger forever and that his instincts were wrong. After 6 seconds of silence what he heard was a faint exhale of air, instantly setting off his reflexes as he dove to the right. A giant weight slamming on his now left, landing on his shoulder violently from throwing himself, he looked to the left to see a massive dainty hand attached to a long arm extending above him, the nails painted a pastel pink. The hand lifted off the floor revealing a reddish palm, not only red from the impact but also red stained from blood. He looked above seeing a pair of scared puppy-like eyes and straight brown hair, the shy girl.

"I'm sorry but please stand still. I wanted it to be fast so you wouldn't notice." the girl spoke, at the same time she was lifting her arm in the air again with the intention of slamming down a second strike, hopefully scoring her a point this time. Joel shrieked using his legs to throw himself backwards away from her, her hand landing straight on top of him with great force, he flinched closing his eyes. Opening them slowly after hearing the impact to unveil that he had survived between her giant fingers, swaying his head quickly left to right feeling the warm emanating from the fingers. Her hand lifted once again but this time turning towards her face, she was inspecting her hand for the same bloody mark she created earlier on the same hand. Joel stole this opportunity immediately by running full speed once again. The girl was crouched over him when she tried to smack him, meaning she's on the ground, if he goes straight left to get under the maze wall there is a good chance she could grab him before then, instead Joel decided that the best thing to do was to sprint forward making some distance before turning into the wall as he felt her booming approaches.

His body creaked and the stitch in his stomach from running worsened, awaiting the vibrations for his cue to run for the wall. But they never came, had she left him alone? He turned his head whilst running to watch behind him to be greeted with a foot on it's own, which meant the other one was...

Joel turned 90 degrees to his right whilst moving backwards as the foot landed inches in front of his body, the sheer power of the stomp sending giant vibrations into his body blasting him backwards in front of the maze wall. He sat up to see the foot already lifting off the ground swiftly, he rolled backwards under the wall to yet again have a close call with the pale foot landing right where he was, missing him by a metre. Looking directly at the left side of the left foot pressed as close to the wall as it could physically go. He stood there with his hands on his knees taking in the near-death situation he had avoided. The foot moved away from the wall instead an eye taking its place looking under the maze wall inspecting him, she was on the ground looking at him.

"I don't want to hurt you, but I don't have a choice. I don't want to die either." the young girl explained, her voice sounded somewhat sympathetic and sad, which made sense in relation to her words. Joel didn't let her speak much more and continued pressing forwards in the new lane he found himself in. He eventually found the finish line in his view, he just had to cross underneath one more wall ahead then he would finally reach a real wall, the end of the game. He picked up the pace hoping to get there sooner rather than later. As he started his sprint he heard heavy sprinting around him so well timed to his sprint that it felt like his own footsteps but it definitely was not, he turned to once again be greeted with a distant enemy. The athletic girl was now in full sprint, covering so much ground to his tiny perspective that it was mind boggling, she had spotted his white clothing clad body from a large distance away and intended on finishing up her game. Joel pushed himself further than he ever thought possible, his body wanted to collapse and give up, it couldn't handle a walk at this exertion level, never mind a sprint but he persevered, the wall coming ever closer just as the stomps did. He crossed the wall, his arms splayed out with the essence of an athletic sprinter who had just cleaned up gold. The athletic girl wouldn't give up that easily, slamming her foot straight under the gap under the wall hoping to clip the man underneath instead striking him with lethal force like a football sending him flying right across the victory line and onto the ground, his body crayoning across the floor, the friction of his body slowly bringing him to a stop.

He took in the horrible pain and impact, opening his eyes whilst groaning heavily. His eyes met those of Theo on his left and Thomas on his right.

"Oh my god, sir, are you okay??" Theo leaned over him with his hand behind Joel's head, lifting it off the hard floor. His eyes twitching open and shut whilst his head swayed from the dizziness of the impact.

"What happened...?" he briefly uttered trying to regain control of his motor functions. He managed to open his eyes fully seeing a shadow in the distance behind the wall he ran under. "I definitely made it under that wall, I don't understand." he placed his hand over his forehead whilst shaking his head towards the ground, trying to shake off the trauma.

"Someone on the other side kicked you, we saw you flying past us and her foot was sticking out from underneath. Looks like she just barely managed to clip you with the tip of her toes." Thomas pointed whilst explaining the situation to Joel, making a lot more sense out of his situation.

"I see." He turned towards Theo whilst trying to get up. - "What's your name, kid?"

"Theo, sir."

"Call me Joel, please."

"I'll stop calling you sir when you stop calling me kid."

Joel let out a quiet laugh "Sure thing, kid." managing to get a small smirk out of Theo. "You're very fast. You left me in the dust back there."

"I'm so sorry, I was scared. I just couldn't stop running all the way to the end."

"No no, not at all. I'm glad you managed to get here in one piece."

"Thanks to you, sir." he smiled at Joel.

"I'm glad you made it out, Joel." Thomas said, giving him a small friendly jab on his shoulder. Joel's positive facial expression melting into an irritated one.

"No thanks to you." he snarked at Thomas, walking past him without making eye contact. This man had no support, they were supposed to be a team.

"I said you couldn't trust me! I wasn't going to help you make a reckless decision, what if you ended up dead out there? We both would've been toast!" Thomas shouted passionately, trying to be reasonable about the stakes at play in the situation they found themselves in.

"Well instead it was just me and the kid, so I'm glad you'll be able to sleep at night." Joel expressed with clear distaste for Thomas' actions and lack of empathy for the other competitors. Thomas shook his head in disappointment at Joels inability to understand the situation strategically, would Joel truly risk his life for Thomas had the roles been reversed? If he would then he's a fool he thought to himself.

Theo followed up behind Joel choosing to stick with his savior instead of the other man he'd barely met. 

" I saw you sitting out there, you shouldn't have been relaxing with all that danger surrounding you. That was reckless." Joel explained to Theo who was closely sticking next to him as they walked together, heading towards the middle of the success strip where all the finishing minimized wandered waiting for the game timer to end. "I'm going to assume that's what the other guy was explaining to you back there."

Theo swallowed quite heavily as he remembered what happened to the poor man that was looking out for him. - "He died because of me.."

"That might be true, but he did that for a reason. You need to stick this out, for him. He'd want you to get out of here because you're young and you've got so much to experience. I know this because I was prepared to do the same thing for you, I know exactly what was going through his head. So stick with me and I'll help you." Joel held out his fist offering a friendly fist bump to Theo, who lightly smiled giving him one back. Joel looked up at the scoreboard examining the status of the game still in progress.

"MINIMIZED ELIMINATED: 96

REGULARS ELIMINATED: N/A

TIME REMAINING: 4:06"

"Sir, why does the regulars eliminated say that? have none of them been eliminated at all?" Theo asked looking worried at the potential of their strength.

"Don't worry, kid. It means "not applicable" because their eliminations are determined at the end of the time limit. We'll see how it shapes up then." Joel explained to Theo who nodded back at him.

Joel and Theo looked ahead at the giants who had already passed the game, there were ten of them awaiting the timer ending. As they inspected their successful opponents another lady exited the end of the maze and made her way to the other girls in front of them, it was the athletic girl who had almost killed him.

"What took you so long, Alessia? I've been here for 4 minutes already." the girl she was approaching asked her.

"I got distracted by two of them, nearly got the last one right at the end. Had to back track to find one. He got so lucky-" She turned and looked down at Joel & Theo. "Him! On the right, he was the one I missed. You barely got away from me." the other girl snickered at her friends comment to Joel, Alessia snared down at him in disapproval, her toned muscled legs glistening in the light from sweat. Her face totally drenched, she must've struggled to find anyone in there as it definitely was not decided by her strength or speed because she had plenty of that.

Theo & Joel were once again distracted by a man running towards the completion line, raising hands arms in the air as he approached the line in relief, a pose of victory as he went to cross the finish line. - "Finally! I thought the line would never appear, I've been running for-" *SMASH*

A foot had suddenly appeared where the man had intended to cross the finish line creating a vibration for all tinies surrounding the slam. Theo & Joel looked on in shock.

"I got my fifth one, honey!" the woman exclaimed excitedly whilst crossing into the finish line after barely securing her fifth point. Her foot leaving the corpse smashed in the floor behind her. She crouched down to the floor right in front of Theo & Joel both of them taking a step back as they were covered in her shadow as she blocked out the light for them, they flinched in fear despite knowing she likely wasn't allowed to harm them as they both passed. She lowers her fist shaped hand in front of them releasing her grip revealing her palm with a man lying in it, he quickly jumped out to the ground in front of the boys. 

"Thanks for the lift, Kristen!" he shouted up at her with a smile on his face, waving. 

Alessia & her friend both looked at each other totally bewildered. - "You can't do that. She- she can't do that. The tiny cheated, this woman gave him a free lift to the end!" Alessia's friend exclaimed at a guard on her right. The guard turned to her slowly.

"THERE ARE NO RULES ON ANY COMPETITORS WORKING TOGETHER, NO MATTER THE SIZE." then turned to face Kristen instead, she slowly walked towards her, then stopping in front of her and the tinies below getting a giant shot of their boots.

"SUCCESSFUL TINIES CAN NO LONGER BE ELIMINATED. THIS IS AGAINST THE RULES" the guard explained, referring to Kristens recently obtained fifth point. Kristen turned around looked at the corpse.

"It's below the line, meaning he didn't reach the finish line. He hadn't won yet, so my point should stand." Kirsten explained to the guard firmly.

"VERY WELL." the guard turned and looked at the three men below Kristen for a few seconds before resuming their guard duties in the corner of the room.

Kristen quickly got excited as her point stood and she was able to proceed with her partner. "We did it, Michael! We'll have that money in no time." she hopped up and down in excitement, creating tremours for the trio below. 

"Great job, honey! You were amazing." he turned around to the face Theo & Joel who looked curiously at the man. "That's my wife, what an advantage, right?"

Joel's eyes widened, leaning forward. They had met a man with a friendly giant who was helping him win, this could be their ticket through the games. - "Oh wow! So she's helping you? maybe you could help us get through a few games." he pointed at Theo as he said "us", hoping to see some support from the positive man.

"and why would I ever do that?" Michael asked Joel with a bewildered look on his face. - "I have the advantage here, not you and we're going to ride with it until the very end. But I'll tell you what, when my wife is carrying me to victory I'll ask her to make it quick when she crushes you in her hand. Promise." He then nodded and walked past them. "Good luck, boys." he walked into the distance with a smug look on his face. His wife, Kristen following him from behind, her massive feet slamming in front of Joel & Theo, carrying her immense weight as she passed them with a smile on her face.

Joel looked very disappointing, how stupid could he be, thinking that guy would help them. He was only in a good mood because he had a nearly 100% chance of winning by being probably the only person with a giant partner. He turned to see more giant victors exiting the maze, his eyes noted Lisa & Beth. It was time to fight fire with fire.