A Man of His Time
By NFalc
8
A Deal
I hurtle through dark space, wind rushing around me, making the sense of speed even more intense. I have no idea how fast I'm going, where I am in the tube, or how close I am to the end. All I know is that I want it to stop.
And then, suddenly, it does. Painfully. I hit the ground clumsily, not quite on my feet and not quite on my ass. The sunlight is blinding. There is noise all around me. The difference is a shock.
I quickly stumble out of the way as I hear Raymond tumbling down the pipe, screaming and cursing on his way down. He lands in a crumpled heap at the bottom.
I help him to his feet, and then look at our surroundings while I try to catch my breath. It looks like we're at the end of an alleyway, which stretches up miles above my head. Then, directly ahead of us, is a sight that makes me dizzy.
Feet. Hundreds of them. Flip flops, high heels, boots, every kind of foot imaginable, and all kinds of legs attached to them, all of them suspiciously good looking. And all of them moving. And all of them the size of skyscrapers. I don't know whether to be aroused, frightened or just confused. I certainly feel very, very small.
Raymond watches with me. "Just how the hell are we supposed to get past that?" He asks, sounding hopeless.
"I don't know," I reply. "I don't even know where we're going. All I was told was that we have to find the Truthseekers."
Raymond looks appalled. "What? Are you crazy?"
"It's what Mary told me to do," I murmur, suddenly less confident. I worry that my worst fears will be confirmed.
"The Truthseekers are against the Establishment," Raymond says, "But that doesn't mean they're pro-man. If we go to them, there's a huge chance that they'll kill us."
"Why? How do you know this?"
"Because, psychotics breed psychotics. You think it was only nature that killed off mankind? These women, they were killing us as soon as they were twice our size."
"But then how did they survive, without us? How are there so many of them?"
"The same reason that there are so many men now. Soon after the crisis point was reached, when the male population dipped lower than two hundred thousand, all scientific research was directed towards longevity vaccines and cloning methods.
"It only took them a year to hit upon a successful method of cloning both women and men by using stored genetic data. Hell, they were even able to emulate reproduction, by mixing and matching genes. And that's how humanity survived. How unfortunate." Raymond was working himself up into a bit of a frenzy. "You would know this too, if it weren't for the fact that historical materials weren't even available to any third generation post-crisis males. Slowly, as more of them ruled the world, things became more and more corrupt, we had less and less rights. And now, I bet I'm one of the only ones who even know the whole sad story."
I stand there, stunned. I have learned, in a just a few minutes, more secrets than I had ever known in my life. Raymond stares at the ground, shaking his head.
"We can't go to the Truthseekers. They were born and bred into a society that has treated us as less than human. They will treat us the same way. We can't trust them."
"Well, then," I say despairingly, "Where do we go?"
Raymond takes a moment before answering. "There's a legend," he begins. "Of a man who was born in the Plants. One of the first Plant-born. This was before they started using drugs. Back then, they thought they'd be able to manage it with simple behavior therapy. And it worked, for most of the men.
"But this one man, he reacted negatively to the behavioral training. Instead of becoming obedient and submissive, he became rebellious. After many tries, this man finally managed to escape into the world at large.
"At first he was very hands-on, planting the seeds of rebellion wherever he could, in any way possible. He refused to be called by his number, giving himself the name of Jot Orem. Soon enough, he was infamous.
"He, together with some of the disenfranchised from the settlements, were the ones that created the Underground."
"The Underground?" The name sounds vaguely familiar. A whisper heard in the street. A name written on a scrap of paper. A secret.
"A collection of men, spread out all over the world, designed to free other men and provide safety for those who've escaped. If the Establishment ever was dismantled, they'd be the ones to do it."
I don't know how to answer him. I'm not sure which choice is right. "I made a promise to Mary," I say. "I have to honor it."
Raymond sighs. "I was afraid you'd say that. You seem like the honorable type."
"Well," I say hesitantly. "Are you coming?"
"We don't stand a chance alone, either of us. I'm old, gray and weak, and you're young, foolish and idealistic. So, yes, I'm coming."
"How are we going to travel?" I ask.
"Well, we don't have any other mode of transportation, so..."
"Oh, I know we're walking. I mean, how are we going to avoid -" I jerk a thumb at the huge legs and feet moving rapidly behind us.
"Yeah, I know, splat." He smiles grimly. "Well, I guess we just stick to the sides of the sidewalk, and hope no one decides to walk near the edges."
We walk slowly towards the crowded masses of women moving down the street. Their huge feet move amazingly fast, and the sound as they hit pavement is loud and hard. I shudder at the thought of being crushed under the high heel of a less-than-careful giantess. Some movement at the corner of my eye makes me turn, but I can't see anything. I'm getting too jumpy. My nerves are at an all-time high...
Raymond takes a deep breath and then exhales dramatically. "Well then, let's do this." Without another word, he dives into the forest of massive legs.
I quickly follow him in, trying to follow his movements. He fluidly ducks and dodges around the feet flying around us. Every time a foot hits the ground it causes everything to shake a little, throwing me off, but it doesn't even seem to faze him. I'm tempted to yell out and ask him if he's done this before, but I worry about the chance that someone hear this and spot me.
Raymond veers to the left ahead through a clear patch, and I try to follow him, only to have a gigantic black leather high heel stomp down just inches away from me. I stumble backwards, and find myself staring upwards at a pink and white sneaker coming straight towards me.
I run blindly, not knowing if I'm about to be crushed. The sneaker hits the ground behind me somewhere, and the shockwave throws me to the ground. I look around and see if Raymond is anywhere. He's nowhere in sight. When I last saw him, he was running off to the left. He must be on the left edge of the sidewalk.
I start running again, looking over my shoulder to see a huge boot falling just where I was. I head forward, throwing caution to the winds. A blue flip flop with a very pretty tan foot inside of it sails just over my head, so close that I can touch the foam.
I keep running forward, only to find myself directly in front of a high heeled sandal, the kind that has a very thin sole. Five huge toes with sparkly green nail polish stare me in the face, and I stand transfixed as they begin to rise and move forward. Suddenly the toes are level with my waist, then my shoulders. And they're just a foot or two away. All I can think is that I'm going to die. Those toes will hit me like a car accident, and I will be no more.
Then, something does hit me. But instead of coming head on, it smashes into me from the side, not hitting my head but my torso. And suddenly, I've gone horizontal. Everything is moving slowly. Dreamlike. Above me, the sole of the sandal drifts lazily by, and I can see every detail of grime on the plastic.
I hit the ground hard, and whoever tackled me rolls off and starts dragging me off the sidewalk. It's only by the time we've reached the side of the walkway, near the wall, where no one is walking, that I'm able to stand up. Raymond is running towards me, but he came from a long way off. Right in front of me is a short, bald man, with a large ginger moustache. He says gruffly, "You lucky bastard."
Raymond finally arrives, panting. "I assumed you were following me, didn't look back until I got to the end, then I saw you weren't there..."
"It's okay," I say. "This man saved me."
"Aye, that I did," says the man. "And you're lucky I was there for it. Otherwise, you would've been -"
"Splat," I finish for him. "I know. Thank you. Very much."
Raymond's staring at him. "Hold up. If you're a man on the outside, you must be part of -"
The man holds up a hand. "Best not to say the name. But yeah. We've got men stationed outside of every known Plant, and this is one of 'em. Me an' my partner, we're trained to help stupid sots like you two get off the streets and to safety."
Another man drops down from above, then disconnects himself from a large rope. This one is thin, with jet black hair and large bangs that sweep down either side of his forehead. "Hey, we got some new escapees. What're their names, Earl?"
"I'm Adam," I say. "And this is Raymond." I put out my hand, and Raymond his.
Both men shake our hands, in turn. "I'm Antoine," says the tall one. "And I just told you that he's Earl."
"Thanks," says Earl grumpily. "I don't even get to introduce myself 'round here no more."
"It's not safe to travel the streets," says Antoine quickly, before Earl can say more. "Not here or anywhere else. You'll have to use the Underground to get where you want to go."
"Could you take us to the nearest Hub?" Raymond asks.
"Certainly. But that nearest Hub is the Main Hub, natch?" says Antoine.
"And no one gets in there except those Jot approves," Earl adds.
Antoine looks us over. His eyes are piercing gray, and I feel like they could see right through me if he wished them to. "I think you might be able to make it past. Not like you got any other choice. Now that we've found you, it's our responsibility to take you there."
I almost start to protest, knowing that I've got to see the Truthseekers, not the Underground. I could just say I have a promise to keep, and almost do, but Raymond quickly puts a finger to his lips. "Please, take us there with all haste," Raymond answers.
Antoine hands us all ropes. I tug on mine and discover it's dangling from a small ledge high above us. All four of us climb up slowly, trying to avoid catching the eye of any passerby. Soon we reach the ledge, and I see that there's a hole about a foot wide carved out of the building's brick.
"This'll take us straight into our tunnel system. We'll have you at the Main Hub in no time."
I follow the two Underground members into the hole, and we begin to crawl.
I lose track of time as we crawl through cramped tunnels made of hastily packed clay. I worry that the walls will suddenly fall in, and we'll be trapped down here, running out of oxygen. But we move through, slowly and carefully. And soon enough, Antoine raises his hand in a gesture for us to stop. He prods the roof of the tunnel, and something shifts above us. Then he puts his palms flat against the roof and pushes upwards, and light floods the dark tube.
Antoine and Raymond climb out first, and I follow just afterwards. I emerge out into a small, dank chamber made out of stone and built to men's proportions. Earl comes out from behind us. Antoine signals us to follow him, and we all remain silent. It's like some weird, almost religious quiet has descended on us all, and we're afraid to break its spell.
Antoine leads us into a small cell with a bench at one end. It reminds me of what I've seen of prison, on TV shows, back when we still had TV. We're spending a year in the slammer.
There aren't any bars in front of us, however; nothing's locked down. We're free to go at any time. Earl bends down and whispers, "You can leave if you want, but I wouldn't recommend it. You might make us think you're spies, and trust me when I say you wouldn't want that."
An hour passes, and neither Raymond or I speak a word. I almost can't get up the courage to say anything. It feels like any sound would be crushed, flattened by our surroundings.
Antoine returns just as things are beginning to get really dull. "He'll see you now," he says, and leads us down a hallway at a brisk pace. Finally, we stop in front of a large, circular metal door, which almost looks like a hatch. Antoine stops just in front of the door, turns to us. "Remember, don't lie. He may not be well-read, but he can sure as hell read people." And with that, he opens the door.
We enter into a space that seems cavernous when compared to our cramped surroundings over the past two hours. The walls are bare stone. The sound of our footsteps echoes. And, from the back of the room, a voice calls out. "Come forward."
Seated upon a huge stone chair, hands clasped in front of him, is the largest man I've ever seen. He must be taller than six foot six, I think to myself in awe. He is clearly older than most, but still looks intimidatingly strong. Raymond walks forward, and nervously, I follow. Raymond kneels before him, and as I prepare to the same, the man chuckles. "Please. You act like I'm a king. I'm just a leader. Stand and face me like men." His voice is deep and warm, with a hint of roughness.
We stand, and I get a proper view of his face. It's a broad, good-natured face, despite the wrinkles and scars. "Sir," says Raymond. "We are two men who were brought up on the outside, and managed to escape from the Plant."
The man waves a hand. "I don't want to hear. Just look at me." He looks deeply at us, sizing us up. I'm afraid to look away, and match his gaze, trying to figure out what he's thinking. He nods slightly, and then breaks eye contact. "I trust you," he says. "You can join us."
"That is a great honor, Sir," I say. "But we're actually looking for the Truthseekers."
Raymond puts his hand to his forehead. Jot looks intrigued. It takes me a second to realize that what I just said was probably really, really stupid.
"You are looking for the Truthseekers?"
"I promised I would. I was told they were the only way we could overthrow the Establishment." I know that this is only continuing down the path of idiocy, but I'm powerless to stop myself.
Jot shakes his head. "I do not think this is true," he says. "But if you want to find them, then you can go. But you must not travel the streets. You would be killed, like this," he says, snapping his fingers. "So, we will take you there. But in exchange, you must work for us."
I begin to interrupt, but he motions me to be silent, and for once I hold my tongue.
"Not for long. Just something we need to have done. You will do it. Then we will help you."
"We agree, Sir," says Raymond quickly, before I can make myself look more of a fool. "What would you have us do?"
"Antoine!" Jot yells, voice echoing around the chamber. The dark-haired man comes in, and Jot whispers rapidly into his ear. Then Antoine turns to us.
"We have discovered the location of a certain high-ranking Establishment official," Antoine explains. "We believe that listening in on her conversations will be able to provide us with a wealth of information. In short, we need a team of agents to infiltrate this woman's 'collection', as it were. They will wear wires, portable microphones, and report back as much information as they can."
"Sounds great," I say, "But where do we come in."
Antoine raises his eyebrows. "You? Why, you are the team. You two will pose as slaves, and spy on the Establishment for us."
Giantess World
