Mrs. Baker sat at her desk as the time ticked down to the start of her anatomy course. The district her school resided in had banned any actual human study -- which made teaching the body to high school juniors that much more difficult. Each semester she'd go through a powerpoint but students seemed to be much more interested in messing around than actually paying attention. That's what made the new Tiny Terrariums so useful when they came out a few years before. She could provide each student with a tiny that fully replicated a person. The student could then study it (which they were inclined to do anyway) and complete an assignment based on that. In the process many were not returned to her, but that was well worth it to get the education communicated. Mrs. Baker always thought of it little more than losing the ants on the pavement outside.
As the bell sounded and the final few students trickled in, the students could tell it was the big day. Mrs. Baker had set the terrariums up at the front of the classroom and happily called the class to order.
“Ladies and gentleman, as you can see it is terrarium day. We only have this one class period so we're going to jump right in. I'm going to pass out both a worksheet to fill out and each of you will receive a tiny to go along with it.
If you lose your tiny and can't complete the assignment, that's on you.
If you break your tiny and can't complete the assignment, that's on you.
I will not hear any excuses around that. I expect your completed assignments at the end of the period.” She said emphatically as she positioned a terrarium on a cart. With that, Mrs. Baker began a slow march around the class, each student reaching in and plucking a tiny out for use during the class period. After they were all distributed she sat back down, content to grade papers until the period was over.
---
Max was extremely confused. One moment he was with his family, the next he was kidnapped and taken to this mysterious rocky land with giant glass walls. There were other people he could commiserate with, but no one there could tell him that his memories had been generated at the factory he was manufactured at last month. Nor could anyone tell him that the strange rumbling and seemingly planet sized shapes that danced outside of the glass were actual normal human beings. For him, it was like the twilight zone on steroids and no amount of climbing or attacking the walls lead to any useful result for him and his compatriots.
Once again, they found themselves sat around a makeshift fire eating what seemed to be prepackaged balls of food strewn around the land. Amid one of many stories about their past lives, the group felt the world rumble again. One moment they were sitting, the next they were airborne as their world was lifted then set down. Deep vibrations swept the land and the tinies could only hold on for their lives as impossibly bright light and threatening shapes danced again.
Then, something new.
Max saw the black square of a sky above him lift, and then disappear. Cold air rushed in, he would've been refreshed had he not been so afraid. Then he saw the unthinkable: a giant claw-like hand descended from above. Max and many others dove for safety, but one woman was frozen in fear. The fingers found her and unceremoniously clamped down on her, as she was lifted towards the sky, Max could see he gasping for breath.
And then, she was gone.
The rumbling continued. Then another hand, and another hand, and another hand. Between each hand he would dive for safety, but the world seemed to intentionally shake him out every time. Eventually, exhausted, Max stood and gazed up at a hand headed straight for him. As it descended, he took notice of the details he'd failed to notice before. It didn't seem to be an adult hand, maybe a teenager? And the nails were lazily painted with flowers? What was this? As he tried and failed to characterize his god, the fingers positioned themselves on both sides of him and clamped down. Max too had the experience of having the breath crushed out of him as he was hoisted into the sky.
---
McKenzie hated anatomy. Her friend Bridget, sitting to her left, convinced her to take it because she was interested in Chad, sitting to her right. Now she not only had to deal with gross and complex lessons but also their persistent flirting directly across her. The Introduction to the Tiny Terrariums was something she had been looking forward to since she signed up for the course.
"Finally, something new" she said to Bridget who seemed to agree. McKenzie watched as Mrs. Baker made her way around the class. Next to her, Bridget seemed to be antsy.
"We're going to be, like, last! What if we get a shitty one?"
The thought hadn't occurred to McKenzie. Before she could acknowledge it, Chad chimed in.
"Judging by your last test score it won't matter Bridget!" She chided back and once again they were flirting.
McKenzie rolled her eyes. This class could not end soon enough. Finally Mrs. Baker approached with the terrarium, and McKenzie reached in. She saw one that didn't move out of the way and plucked it up, making sure she carefully set it down on her desk.
--
Max violently smashed down onto what felt like concrete. Loud echoes bounced all around him as he stumbled to his feet. What he saw was immediately disorienting. Despite his world still spinning and trying to catch his breath, he could tell that he was on something flat. As he looked around he couldn't see.. anything? There didn't seem to be any sort of geography or landmarks to guide him.
As his eyes continued to adjust, he could make out a giant floating yellow spear above him. Despite the urge to run he was too exhausted and instead watched as it approached him rapidly. He screamed as it hit him in the chest, barreling him over and covering him with metallic dust. What the hell was going on?
Without warning the giant fingers returned, once again plucking him up. This time he found himself cupped, surrounded by a warm cocoon of coarse skin. It would almost be comforting if it weren't so difficult to breathe in. At once the hand unfurled and Max found himself staring at a face the size of a 10 story building. The two giant eyes adorned with eyeliner locked onto what he now realized was his miniscule form. Judging by the size of the face, he estimated he was no larger than an ant.
Max was paralyzed by nervousness.
"Hello?" He yelled, but the giantess only stared at him. Letting her dense, soggy breath wash over him. It smelled of her lunch - PB&J. Max hated PB&J.
She began a routine of glancing at him, and then down toward the ground below. He used this time to orient himself and to finally get a feel for his surroundings. He was suspended above a classroom -- the flat surface below a desk. It finally clicked in Max's mind that the spear was, in fact, a pencil and that he was currently covered in graphite.
He looked off into the distance where he saw something that shook him to his core. Another massive girl to the left of his giantess was much less fragile with her person.
--
Steve was, by and large, a good man. He paid his taxes and returned the shopping cart at the grocery store, but as he stared up at the building sized face of a teenage girl he questioned if this was some sort of godly punishment.
“BOO!” She yelled, the sound was deafening and forced Steve to stumbled backwards onto the soft skin of the giant girl. Before he could orient himself he heard her giggle loudly as her giant face turned. Even covering his hears, Steve could hear her every word:
“McKenzie, watch this!” and without skipping a beat, Steve watched as her giant lips, each the size of a city bus, parted. Beyond the wet breath that assaulted him immediately, he could see something emerging: her tongue. Steve had never considered the anatomy of a tongue, but as the scaly organ descended toward him like a snake circling it’s prey he couldn’t help but stare in awe at it. Fear gripped him as the very tip of the girls tongue pressed into him, grinding him onto the skin below and drenching him in a layer of thick saliva. It dragged for what felt like an eternity, the scaly surface detecting his every movement and, for her, a taste. Finally after a moment, it pulled away. Steve was left in a puddle of saliva, coughing desperately as he tried to breathe.
One again a loud voice boomed:
“They kind of taste good!”
Steve was hardly on his feet when he felt the hand beneath him shift. The lips in front of him approached rapidly, he was now surrounded in a dense fog. It felt like the worst humidy of his life mixed with a smell so bad he couldn’t describe it. He could see giant teeth glistening as she began to form words.
“I think I need a little more.”
Before Steve could process the deafening roar of her words, he found himself launched into the teenagers mouth. He rolled around on the surface of her tounge for a moment, unable to get his bearings as it twisted and turned under him looking for his taste. He was tossed onto his back and then launched to the roof of the mouth where he found himself pinned between the hard surface and her softer tongue. He could hear a guttural “MMM” as the girl enjoyed his taste. He felt his ears pop as she sucked on him.
For a second he almost lost consciousness as all his blood went directly to his head. Just before passing out he felt the sucking stop and the tongue decent. For the briefest moment there was peace as tongue slowly extended itself. He could see the light shining in, and in the distance another girls face looking at him. She looked disgusted.
Before he could have another thought he was yanked back in, this time swished around her mouth like a jawbreaker. The tongue had total control of him as it pushed him into the corner of her mouth. For another brief moment, he was able to hide away in the small area between her gums and her cheek, listening to all of the saliva swirl around and above him. That peace, too, was short lived as the high schooler’s tongue found him and picked him out of his place. He screamed as he was again swirled around, this time slamming against the sharp front teeth of the girl. By this point he could taste blood and he wasn’t convinced he still had all four limbs.
After another moment he felt himself surrounded by her spit, and then dropped into a giant puddle back outside her mouth.
“Kinda tastes metal-y” the girl said as she looked down at Steve’s crippled form. He did everything he could to breath while the sludge engulfed him. The fingers returned and plucked him up. Once again he found himself face to face with his tormentor. She declared a single word:
“Gross”
He felt the fingers lift him and lower him to a wall of fabric. He yelled and pleaded as they pressed him into it and dragged him along it. The benefit was that the saliva was slowly dragged off of him, the downside was that with each drag Steve felt his skin dragged off as his arms and legs snapped. Mixed with the saliva on the girls skirt was a hardly detectable line of blood that would come off easy in the next wash.
In agonizing pain, too tired to scream, and barely conscious, Steve found himself staring at the girl for the final time.
“I fucked it up. Well, at least the taste is good.”
And with those words, Steve again found himself launched into her mouth – only this time he wasn’t savored. He quickly found himself positioned at the back of her tongue and then gripped by her tough muscles. Within moments he decided down into her stomach where the acid made slow work of him over the next few hours, Steve being repurposed by the growing girl.
Max watched as the girl patted her stomach, stunned.
Another person -- someone like him -- had been toyed with a devoured without a second thought by a giantess hundreds of times larger. As he stood on the other girls hand he could feel the faint heartbeat of his current captor. A contact reminder that he could very easily be next if this teenager decided to have him as a snack.
As seconds ticked by, Max began to pay more attention to the other students. Some were throwing their tiny people across the room, another tiny was being pressed onto the desk to be used as a living paint brush.
"I need to get out of here" Max said to himself. But how?
The giant girl was paying especially close attention to him as she finished her work, and after that.. Max didn't want to consider that.
As his feet sunk into the pad of her hand, Max peered over the side. Immediately below him was her chest. Following her legs down Max could see her sneakers tapping a hard tile floor. The idea of jumping was terrifying, but the girls peering eyes and weighted breath was a constant reminder of his fate should he choose to stay. He figured he could leap at the right angle, use her tank top as a place to slow himself down, and then roll onto her midriff where he could then make his way carefully to the floor. He would have to do the majority of this while the girl wrote her answers, her attention drawn away from his small form.
Max's heart raced as he waited for the right moment, the giant eyes moving in a million small ways staring right into him as he stood.
Finally the face of his tormentor moved and he saw his chance. He threw his body off of the hand, falling through the air until he felt the soft landing of the girls breast below him. He rolled down towards her hips. He stood, glancing back up to see the girl still writing. Max was on borrowed time. As he ran towards one of her knees, he could feel a posture change and a distant gasp. In fractions of a second a hand flew towards him - Max didn't have a choice. He jumped right as the hand knocked him in the back. Another second later and he Max would've been a stain washed away in the laundry. He was sent flying several feet, glancing the hard floor and rolling across the tile.
Once again, Max found himself battered and dizzy -- but to his own surprise he seemed to be okay. His plan had failed but at least he had a fighting chance. The problem now was that he didn't know how to proceed. All around him, legs dangled down from the students who were massacring his peers.
As he looked around, something caught his eye. One of the other tinies who was being tossed around was now headed in his direction, only there was no one to catch her. The small girl flew over Max and crashed into the tile with a loud crack. Max ran over to find her in a crumpled heap, the constant throwing had injured her and floor had broken her arm and a leg. Max had to improvise:
"You're gonna be okay, what's your name?" He asked.
"Haley" the young woman said, a stream of blood exiting her mouth.
"We need to get moving" Max said as he guided her to her feet, letting her lean on him for support.
The duo began to trek towards a storage cabinet several meters away that they could use a shelter. The walk was slow as Haley limped on her one good leg. As they went, the two could hear the loud discussions above them by the oblivious students.
Max and Haley closed in on the cabinet, the alluring gap beneath it a place where the two could finally settle and recoup. As they neared it a boot thundered down, Max pushed Haley out of the way before jumping towards the cabinet. As he sat up he could see that Haley was okay, albeit screaming about her leg once again. The boot owner was gone just as soon as it arrived, another reminder of the scale the tiny people faced with. It was only now that Max noticed the other students standing up as well, class was over. Before Max could move a set of sneakers slammed down on both sides of Haley.
Max gazed up at their owner -- a blonde teen, wearing baggy running shorts and a tank top. Her hair in a ponytail as her face gazed down at the girl huddled between her sneakers. Max wanted to intervene but found himself paralyzed and helpless, waiting to see what the girl did to Haley.
The teen bent over, her face filling the sky for both Haley and Max, a waft of sweat drifted down as well.
"I hear you guys are good luck." was all the girl said in a high but booming voice. Her titanic hand reached down and in one clean movement untied her shoe. A sock clad foot rose from it's housing, hanging over Haley who was now screaming for a new reason.
The smell was overwhelming, Max couldn't believe that the foot and the latticed fabric covering it could hold such a putrid odor. Max knew teenagers didn't have the best hygiene, but pairing that with athleticism had led to a toxic effect for him and Haley.
For a moment, he thought the girl was going to stomp on Haley but somehow it was worse. The girl's hand returned, this time plucking Haley up into the air. Max couldn't quite tell, but it almost seemed like the girl enjoyed the screeching coming from her fingers, like she was happy with what she was doing. The painted nails held Haley in the air above the shoe, the thick warm air bathing her in the smell of sweat.
"Lucky me." The teen chirped. Her fingers parted and Haley was sent flying into the cavern. She felt another crack as she hit the sole of the shoe. Her lungs burned with each breath of the soggy air. Her sky was the girls menacing face which smirked down upon her prey. Ever so slowly, she positioned her sock-clad toes over the entrance to the shoe, blocking out the sky for Haley and darkening the environment.
Haley started crawling as fast as she could, the ground was soft but wet. She found herself drenched in the giant girls sweat as she agonized forward. The foot was mercilessly chasing her as it filled the space. Eventually Haley felt the toes hit her back and press her into the end of the shoe, her mangled body sharing the space with her toes. She felt the giant extremities bend, pressing her even harder into the smelly tomb. Haley coughed up blood as the girl took her first step on a long day.
The teen above felt a rush as the tiny in her shoe struggled. The longer it struggled the more luck she'd have, according to her friends anyway. She'd be happy with the knowledge of her passenger all day. By the time she finished track practice after school, Haley was neatly mixed into the sole of the shoe and her sock, becoming forever a part of the girls long workouts.
Max hid. He didn't know what else to do. Haley was long gone, suffering a horrible fate that Max couldn't comprehend. He didn't have a plan now, he sat in the cold darkness under the cabinet, wishing he had let the first girl devour him.