The girls blinked a few times, trying to figure out what had happened and where they were. It looked like they were standing in the middle of an open field, only, no, it wasn’t quite a field, since there was no grass. In fact there wasn’t any discernible terrain or foliage. Everything was pretty much flat, although there were some strange grey patches on the ground that looked kind of like rocks or crystals, or something. And there were a few small puddles, which didn’t look anywhere near as interesting as the crystals.

“What happened?” Jill asked, rubbing her eyes. “What did that machine do? Where are we?” As usual, she was proving to be less than helpful.

“I refer you to my previous answer of I have no f*cking clue,” Kate retorted, very puzzled by the whole series of events. She began walking around a bit, trying to see if she could make out any landmarks or see anything in the distance. But there was absolutely nothing recognizable, and she stopped at the edge of one of the grey patches.

“What’s wrong?” Jill asked.

“I don’t know where we are, or what this is, so I’m not stepping in it,” Kate said, gesturing at the grey patch by pointing to it with her foot. Jill walked over and stood next to her, looking down at the patch curiously.

“All right, before we go too far or touch anything, we definitely have to figure out where we are and what happened to us,” Jill explained.

“Well, Einstein, I suppose you have all the answers?”

“No, but let’s just think through it. For starters, we have no idea what that machine did, so we can’t rule anything out. By your own words, your dad was a ‘mad scientist’” (Jill loved using air quotes) “so that means it could have done absolutely anything, no matter how science-fictiony. Also, it exploded, so it might not even have done what it was supposed to do, so we have to expand our thinking even further.”

“Great, so you’ve answered the question, ‘What happened to us’ with ‘Anything, including things that could never happen in our wildest dreams.’ Brilliant deduction, Holmes.”

“Don’t get snappy with me, I’m not done yet,” Jill continued. “Look at what we’re dealing with. We’re in a strange place, with no noticeable terrain or landmarks. This could mean we were teleported somewhere. Could be somewhere on earth, or another planet, or even another dimension.”

“So if we’re in some kind of mirror universe, how do we get home?” Kate retorted. Jill was at a loss to answer this, and the blank expression on her face showed it. “Well, I’m not gonna stand around in Dimension X twiddling my thumbs,” she continued sarcastically. “Hell, we’re probably just in someone’s backyard. I’m gonna go look for a way home.”

“No!” Jill exclaimed as she started to turn away. Kate turned back, surprised by Jill’s outburst. “I mean, wait. This is really weird. We have no idea what’s going on, and we should stick together. Besides we don’t even know where it’s safe to walk. I mean, look at this grey stuff. Is it a plant or a rock? Is it dangerous?”

“I already told you I’m not touching it, if you want to find out, knock yourself out.”

Jill was never much of the adventurous type, but she was very scientific and methodical. Plus, she didn’t want to seem like a wimp in front of her only friend Kate. So she lifted up her foot and held it over the grey patch for a few seconds, wondering if this was really a good idea. She decided that no, it wasn’t a good idea, but it was still worth a try, and so she put her foot down.

While the girls were wondering what had happened and where they were and how to get home, the rest of the world, especially the millions of people in the Midwest, were asking just two questions: how and why. One moment it had been a typical summer day. Then, without warning, terrible earthquakes shook the Midwest. Those who didn’t run to stand in a doorway simply looked out their windows or went outside to see if a bomb had been dropped. What they saw instead completely defied explanation.

There were two girls standing in the middle of Indiana, and they were impossibly large. Breathtakingly, mind-bogglingly huge. Their feet alone had wiped out several small towns, and that was just from them standing there.

The giantesses then began to speak to each other, their voices deafening anyone within a few miles and inspiring terror and awe in everyone else. A few people tried to figure out just exactly how tall they were. It was impossible to say, since humans have no sense of scale for something that big. All anyone could deduce was that their feet were several miles long, and so that would make them each dozens of miles tall. Beyond that, it was anyone’s guess.

Those closest to Kate had no chance of making that calculation, since they couldn’t even see her over her flipflops. To them, it looked as though a pink wall thousands of feet tall had appeared out of nowhere. Their confusion was cut short, however, when Kate shifted her feet slightly forward just from casually changing her stance while talking to Jill. The enormous flipflop rose thousands of feet into the air and a few miles forward, crushing everyone and everything underneath it.

That’s when all hell broke loose. People stopped staring at them in awe and started running for their lives. It was totally futile, since no one could possibly outrun them, but logic rarely trumps panic and soon the streets were flooded with thousands of people trying to get away from the girls.

Then Kate started walking. It was an incredible sight to behold for anyone on the ground. A huge foot several miles long lifted into the air and swung forward several miles, demolishing even more small towns as it touched down. Her leg muscles flexed, and soon her other foot followed, sailing dozens of miles before it too killed tens of thousands of people scattered around small Midwestern towns. Even the simple act of walking was absolutely terrifying. Her long legs stretched into the sky, and her perfect ass drew her pink shorts tight across her cheeks with each step. By the time she reached the edge of Indianapolis, over a million people and homes had been ground to oblivion under her cute pink sandals.

The people of Indianapolis were frozen, terrified, as Kate stopped at the edge of the city and looked down on them. Many ducked her gaze, fearful for what such an enormous woman had planned for their city. When she picked up her foot and held it over the edge of the city, thousands of people steeled themselves for a death they knew would come in an instant. But then, she pulled her foot back and set it down right where it had been before. Many were overjoyed, thinking she had decided to spare them.

Their joy was short lived, as they looked into the distance and realized that the blond had started to move, too. It seemed impossible how much larger she was getting by the second as she covered several miles with each step, transitioning from a hazy figure in the distance to an impossible giantess looming over them. Her sneakers were just as unforgiving as Kate’s sandals had been, and since she walked a path next to Kate’s, she destroyed just as many cities on the way.

As she stood next to Kate, people saw that she was a few miles taller than Kate, though to the giantesses the height difference was probably negligible. The two titanesses stood there for a few moments conversing, while the people down below had a chance to try and process what they were seeing. Then, the blonde moved. She lifted her enormous foot over the city and held it there. Hundreds of thousands of people were cast into darkness by its shadow as it hovered there for what seemed like forever.

Some wondered if she would act like the other giantess and just put her foot back where it was. Was this a test of some kind? Was she trying to scare them, or show them that she would be as benevolent as the brunette? Would they all be spared?

The short answer, as they soon found out, was no. The sneaker came down on the city, killing hundreds of thousands of people and leveling hundreds of city blocks. The tread on her sneakers spared some people at first since it was taller than even the tallest skyscrapers. But as she let her full weight come down, the shoe sunk into the ground. As if to add insult to injury, she twisted her foot, finishing the job.

For her part, Jill didn’t feel anything. She had been so apprehensive about touching the grey patch that she felt kind of silly when absolutely nothing happened. She was gingerly resting her foot on the ground, and then decided to test it by shifting her full weight to her right foot. The ground gave a little, but no more than usual, and the strange crystals offered no resistance to her shoe. In fact, she could see little poofs of dust rising all around the outline of her sneaker. She wiggled it around a little and even more dust kicked up into the air.

Satisfied, she picked up her left foot and planted it next to the right one. “See, Kate?” she said. “Nothing to it.” Still not convinced, Kate leaned over and looked at Jill’s shoe. The mysterious crystals were not corroding the shoe or slowly crawling up it. They all had just crumbled at the lightest touch. In fact, it was kind of pathetic. “So, are you going to try it or not?”

Jill was happy that for once she had the upper hand. She was usually very reserved, more of a follower than anything, but now she was the brave one who had taken the first step, and she was enjoying prodding Kate.

Kate shot her a glare, but she knew she had to try it for herself. She wasn’t a wimp, she just had no idea what this grey stuff was. But she saw how it didn’t hurt Jill, how it was actually really brittle and frail, and so she gingerly slid her right foot out of her flip flop and moved it closer to the grey. She gingerly poked her right toe into the ground and quickly jerked it back, as though she were afraid that as soon as she touched it something would burst out of the ground and grab her. Nothing happened though, and so she carefully brought her foot down and rested her weight on it.

“It kind of tickles a little.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, it’s weird. I don’t really feel anything but just a slight, I dunno, tickle. You should try it.” As she said this, she slid her other foot out of its sandal and set it down next to her other foot. Now both of them were standing totally in the grey, Jill with sneakers and Kate barefoot.

“No way. I’m not crazy. Just because it’s fragile doesn’t mean I want to touch it with my bare skin.”

“Aw, c’mon, it’s fun! Look!” Kate began walking around in the grey, playfully marching in it. She slid her feet sideways, did a pirouette, and even slipped in a moonwalk before turning towards Jill and kicking some of it at her shins. “See? Harmless!” With that Kate stuck out her tongue tauntingly.

“No. Now that we’ve figured out it’s harmless, we should probably look for a way out of here. Like you said, we shouldn’t just stand around here ‘twiddling our thumbs.’” (She really, really loved air quotes.) “Now let’s get going.”

“Fine,” Kate harrumphed. “You’re no fun.” She slid her feet back into her sandals and the two began walking, hoping to find something they recognized.