A Man of His Time
By NFalc
7
The Overseer
We emerge from the isolation chamber, and I find the crowds have dispersed. Maybe the mechanical voice was finally able to convince them to get back to work.
Raymond and I head quickly back to the housing area. If I can hide him before anyone else gets back, he'll be able to remain in hiding without the system knowing about him. That is, if there aren't already microphones in my room and cameras hidden under the bed.
I take him back and show him to my room. "Just like I remember it," whispers Raymond with a dry chuckle. "That good old minimalist Plant style."
"I'll try to smuggle you some food at lunch," I say.
"Bread and water's all I need. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's all my stomach will be able to take right now, I've been starving for so long..."
I nod and close the door on him, then head to lunch.
The rest of my groupmates are already seated and eating by the time I arrive, so I'm able to go down the food line quickly. More importantly, I'm able to go down it twice. I wonder what I'll do on an ordinary day when I need to smuggle for Raymond. I figure it's all the more reason for us to escape soon.
I sit back down to find Jude across from me. "Hey 718," he says, laying the fake charm on thick. "How was your luck with the crazy?"
I don't have a lie prepared, so I simply stay silent, and stare at the vent grille above me. An idea starts coming to me.
"You don't look like you saw him. No scars!" He laughs, and it sounds cheap and hollow. I try to avoid staring at the huge, swollen gash on his face. "Don't tell me you chickened out."
I clear my throat. "I didn't. He didn't hurt me, but I couldn't get him to come up."
Jude stares at me in disbelief. "You talked to him? Without him trying to kill you? Wow newbie, I'm impressed." I get a glimpse of a calculating look in his eyes; maybe I'm just imagining things.
I finish quickly, and leave before anyone else has a chance to ask questions. I don't want to lie to them, and I can't take the risk of Raymond being exposed.
I return to the housing, hand Raymond his bread. Instead of stuffing himself with it, like any ordinary starving man would, he looks at it curiously. "I wonder why your food isn't drugged, like mine was."
"Maybe it is," I reply. "But I don't think so. I've been thinking clearly since I got here."
Raymond slowly lifts it to his mouth and takes a small bite. He waits a few seconds before taking a bigger one. "I don't feel anything," he says. "Either they've improved the drugs to the point where I can't self-diagnose, or your food is clean."
"That makes no sense," I say, confused. "I've been as rebellious as you, maybe even more. Hell, I tried to climb out when they did the initiation exercise."
Raymond looks at me, eyes twinkling. "You tried to climb out! Man, you really are braver than I thought. Although that bravery could easily be confused for stupidity."
I punch him lightly on the arm, and we laugh. Then I quickly get serious again. "I was trying to get out when I did that. Now, I think I have a real plan. A better one. Still brave, but much less stupid."
"Well then," says Raymond. "I'm all ears."
It's evening, and the call for dinner is sounded. I quickly jog ahead, and manage to be first in line for dinner. I get not one, not two, but three meals. As I sit at the dinner table, same position as always, I hide all the bread in my shirt. We'll need provisions for the long run.
Slowly, the other people in my group sit down around me. Soon, everyone is eating. The table is unusually quiet tonight. It feels like all eyes are on me, like everyone knows what we're planning. I focus on my food, and try to enjoy it. This may be the last time I eat for a while.
Everyone is sitting and eating when the doors suddenly swing wide open, and in walks Raymond. He walks in like he owns the place, and he's certainly got everyone's attention. Jude is sitting a few spaces away from me, and his mouth is hanging open about as wide as it can go without his jaw falling off.
Raymond quickly strides over to a group two tables over, grabs a food tray and holds it high over his head. "All of you, look at me!" he shouts in a commanding voice. "This food you are eating has been poisoned!" He throws the tray down, splattering food everywhere. "It is designed to let them control your mind!"
Jude stands up, stuttering, "H-hey, you c-c-can't do that..."
Raymond grabs another tray, and throws it farther, so that it lands in the middle of the room. "You mustn't eat this! You have to rebel!"
The two people whose trays he's thrown are glaring at him. When Raymond picks up a third, and tosses it, it hits someone in the head. That person throws it right back at him, but misses. And in no time, we have a combination of a food fight and a riot.
Right in the thick of it, I stand up on the table, unnoticed by anyone in the commotion. I quickly grasp the ventilation grille above me, and tug on it with all my might. It moves maybe half an inch. I tug again, harder. Still just half an inch of movement. This isn't going fast enough, I'm not going to have enough time...
I tug once more, and this time the vent grille abruptly gives out. I look behind me to see Raymond with the grille in his hands. "Let's move!" he shouts.
He hoists me up, and I crawl into the vent shaft, then dangle my arms out of it. Raymond grabs my hands, and I pull him up to the point where he can make it on his own. "Which way?" asks Raymond.
"No idea," I respond. "Let's try left!" I begin crawling down the vent shaft.
We make it about three feet down the vent shaft before the ground beneath us suddenly gives way, and we're tumbling through space, crashing to the ground. My head bangs against metal, and I feel myself sliding out of consciousness...
I'm being pulled along, and the crowds haven't started running or panicking yet, they're just standing right now, looking up. I look along with them, as I'm pulled along, and I see big red shoes, high heels, filled with perfect pale white feet, and strong ankles, but I can't see any higher than that. I can't see her face, or her chest, or even the tops of her legs. The giant one is shouting something, but I can't understand what she's saying, although I'm sure she's mad, that's all I know.
But there's a sharp yank on my arm, and I'm being pulled down into a basement (the basement. this is it. back to the beginning again). The man stops pulling me, and drops my hand, and then he squats down in front of me, and puts his arms around me. He seems serious, and out of breath, and nervous.
"You have to stay down here," he says. "Even if I don't come back. You have to stay here until she's gone. That way you'll be safe. Promise me you won't leave."
I stare at him. What is wrong? I don't say anything.
"Do you promise?" he asks, giving me a little shake.
"I promise," I say (because you wanted to be a good little boy. stupid kid. why the hell didn't you try and stop him).
"I love you," he says. "Be good." Then he turns and begins to walk up the steps (stop him! don't just stand there! stop him).
It's only two minutes after he closes the door that I realize he's my father.
I don't scream when I wake up from the first part of the dream. I just wake up filled with feelings I can't explain, feelings of guilt and sadness. That's how I wake up now.
The feelings fade away quickly, however, when I see my surroundings.
I'm out. Outside the Plant. Around me, I see a jumble of technical equipment, wires and monitors. Everything seems absurdly far below me, then I realize that I'm standing on a desktop. I turn and look down, and there in front of me is a massive dome, its outer shell transparent. I can see right into it, down to the buildings below. You can see in from the outside, but from the inside you can't see out. Very, very clever.
I look around for Raymond, but he's nowhere in sight. There's no obvious way off of the desktop. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see her.
Her humongous face is just twenty feet from mine. She has long, lustrous brown hair, which falls in gentle curls. Her skin is very fair, her eyes blue, her lips redder than apples. She is closer to me than any of the giants have ever been before. She is very, very beautiful. She completely terrifies me.
I turn and run, trying to find something on the fairly bare desk to hide behind.
"Don't be scared," she says, putting her huge hands up in front of her. This is only more frightening - they remind me of the last time I saw a giant hand. When she puts them down on the desk, however, I see that she has clear, unstained nail polish on. I don't think she's the one who did the initiation.
"What do you want from me?" I yell out, hoping that she can hear what I'm saying, as opposed to the quaver in my voice. I wasn't always this skittish. The Plant must have gotten to me.
"I just want to talk," she says. "My name's Mary."
It slowly dawns on me that I've seen her before. "You were the one I saw. The sky - it went transparent -"
"Yes," she whispers. "That was me."
I realize that I've been crouching, acting like an animal at bay. I stand up awkwardly, and try to seem more relaxed. I'd been completely intimidated, for no reason. "Why were you looking at me?" I ask.
She pauses. It looks like she's thinking of a good answer. "It's my job to watch over you men. I keep everything running in order. It's what I do."
"You work for them?" I ask. I don't even know who 'them' is, exactly. Cripes, what are you doing, asking questions of her? Show some respect...
She bites her lip and nods. "It's a living."
"Funny. You didn't seem like you were their type." Stupid. That could sound insulting.
"I'm exactly their type. I do pretty much everything," she says, a little defensively. "I control food, water, all the background stuff. Everything except the programs." I get the feeling that by 'programs' she means the things they did to us.
"So, wait then," I say, with sudden understanding, "Are you the reason my food wasn't drugged?" She blushes. "You've been watching over me." I finish.
She turns away a little, almost avoiding my eyes. I wish there was some good way of showing my thanks, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head. "It was the next best thing..."
"To what?"
"To having one of my own." She says very quietly, her voice breaking a little. I hope she isn't going to cry. To my relief, she doesn't.
"So, that's why we're here..." I say. "I thought that's what it was. You're training us to be given to the Establishment."
"Only the most important people get them," she says. "They have to meet a certain set of characteristics. The people who run the Plants, the people behind the scenes, we don't qualify. We get paid to do our work and keep quiet about it..." She trails off. "I have no idea why I'm telling you all this. Maybe I just need to get it off my chest."
She seems conflicted about something, but continues.
"But I wanted to talk to one of you. I've never actually met one of you before. I've only seen you from above. From far away. I watch you men all day, and yet you never hear my voice, and only you, little man, have seen my face."
"So, are you... lonely?" I venture.
She stares down at her lap. "Yes. I'm not allowed to talk to anyone without a security clearance about this job. And if I ever tried to chat with one of my superiors, I don't think I'd get very far."
"You can talk to me," I say honestly. "Anytime you want. I'll be there. I'll listen."
"No," she says, sadly. "You can't. They want you dead."
I stare at her, feeling my insides go cold. "They want to kill me."
"Yes," she says. "And that's why you have to escape."
"But how am I going to -"
She puts a finger to those lovely lips. "I'm going to show you a way. You have to promise me something though."
"Anything," I say.
"When you're on the outside, you have to find the Truthseekers. If they know you exist, they can spread the word. With proof of man's existence, they could bring the entire Establishment down. But you have to be brave enough to do it."
I suddenly have tremendous doubts. The Truthseekers, although they seemed to be good, were giants. If I turned myself in, they could hold me captive just like the Establishment did. After all, I was their 'proof'. Why would they run the risk of me running away? They'd probably keep me in a cage, until they finished using me for whatever they wanted. Then, abruptly, my thoughts changed. What if what they wanted was sex? The idea of acting as a sex slave for a group of giants was both arousing and horrifying at the same time.
But I didn't know anything about the Truthseekers. They could be slave drivers, or they could be kind, I had no way of being sure. I'd made my promise, and that was the end of it. I'd find them.
"When I made the escape attempt, there was someone else with me," I begin.
"I have him. He's on the counter in the corner, still unconscious. Let me go get him."
She walks off, allowing me a full view of her body, which is a very nice view indeed. Her butt sways a little as she walks. She goes over to the counter, and then returns, carefully placing her massive hand on the desk. Her nails click against the wood as they touch the tabletop. There, in the middle of her hand, looking surprisingly small and weak, is curled Raymond. She gently tilts her hand so he slides off, and he wakes up as soon as he hits ground.
"Huh?" he says sitting up, then whirls around to see Mary. He immediately stands up, fists at the ready. "Stay back! I'm warning you..." he says. It's impressive to see his bravery, no matter how pathetic his defensive position looks when compared to the huge woman before him.
"She's not going to hurt us," I call out to him. "She's going to show us the way out."
He looks over at me, and I nod, trying to convince him to stop making a fool of himself. Slowly, he puts down his fists. "If you're going to show us the way out, woman, you'd best do it now." He growls.
"The two of you should step onto my palm." She lays her hand flat, and we walk towards it.
"Are you really sure we can trust her?" Raymond whispers to me.
"I think so," I say. "And believe me, I'm not the most trusting person."
We both climb onto her palm, which is soft and warm beneath us, and smells faintly of lotion. We cross to the center and sit down, and her hand cups around us. We rise into the air, the trip upwards throwing me off my balance as I see the world tilting crazily. Then there are some moments of chaotic motion which I take to be her walking towards our exit, and suddenly her palm is flat and still once again.
We're in front of a huge, ruffled metallic tube, which has a small hole cut in its side. Mary slides us off her palm, and then stands to her full, tremendous height. I crane my neck to look up at her.
"There were some other men who used this to escape. I know they made it out. I caught a glimpse of one of them. You can get out the same way they did."
I make an exaggerated waving motion, and shout up, "Goodbye! Thank you for your help!"
She turns away from us and mumbles something which sounds like, "I'll miss you."
I stare at her, and continue watching as she goes back to her console and begins typing in commands, working once more at providing for the men who will never see her face, whom she can never touch.
Raymond puts a hand on my shoulder, gently steering me towards the opening in the duct. There's a roar of rushing air inside of it. "You think we should do it?" Raymond asks. "For all we know, it leads straight to the incinerator."
I take a deep breath. "I trust her," I say. "I don't know why, but I do."
"Well then, you go in first," says Raymond.
I nod, and approach the gap. The sound of high winds gets stronger. I can't see anything in the hole but featureless black. Once more into the unknown. I grasp the sides of the hole, and pull myself in.
Giantess World
