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.