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.”