The first thing she did was reach for her scanner, but even as she did she knew it wasn’t going to help much. When she flipped it on, multiple dots appeared on the screen. Some would be the soldiers she’d just scared away. Some would be the people in the ruined grocery store (what was left of it anyway).  More others would be Earthies that she hadn’t yet found but were now being picked up by the scanner. Tuning her ears, she heard faint screams, and the screech of tires. She looked around and even saw some cars and trucks zoom off as they tried to escape the giant woman. So many little Earthies…yet only one Bradley Peterson. Only one was the one she wanted at this very moment.

            Tapping the scanner against her palm, thoughtfully, Arell began to walk forward. Her stride was remarkably casual, her feet flattening anything or anyone unfortunate to be in her path. Her face was calm as she scanned the ground. She saw some Earthies still running on the streets, away from her. Bending her knees, Arell reached and plucked one up in her fingers and raised them to her eyes, which observed a writhing, terrified woman of about thirty five in a sleeveless blouse and jeans. Not the one she wanted. Kneeling back down, Arell dropped the woman on a lawn, and picked up another Earthy. This one happened to be one of the soldiers who had attempted to engage her. As she lifted him to her eyes, he drew his side arm, a large pistol and began to open fire. His first shot was aimed at the obvious weak spot: one of the massive eyes. Just as the shot was fired, Arell blinked and her eyelashes deflected the bullet. Another shot went wild due to his flailing arms, and sailed down towards her cheek. The bullet did nothing to the flesh there…actually bounced off it. The flailing man then sent bullets downward towards Arell’s mouth. As with her cheek, the tiny bullets simply bopped her bottom lip and then harmlessly fell to the ground. When the pistol was dry, the soldier went with the ol’ desperate, last move: he chucked the gun at Arell’s face. It somehow got tangled at the bottom set of her eye lashes, then rolled down her cheek towards her nose, where it ventured too close to her left nostril, and was sucked up by a gentle inhale.

            “Are you done?” Arell asked, playfully rolling her eyes. “Because you’re……ah…”

            She felt the small weapon bounce against her nasal walls, run up into her sinus, and eventually feel it drip down against the back of her throat. Somehow, it managed to avoid going down Arell’s esophagus, and instead wound up near the back of her tongue. Manipulating the weapon (which was hard to do because of its small size), she moved it around in her mouth and then stuck out her tongue, the pistol lying on the tip.

            “Ta-da,” She said. With her tongue out, it sounded like ‘tu-duh’. She drew her tongue back in. “Well, you should probably go get that, huh?”

            With that, she tossed the man into her mouth, and swished her around for a moment. She did this for a moment, but then slowly became aware of a unpleasant taste arising from either the man’s uniform or something else. Arell knelt down and leaned forward, bringing the face close to the lawn of a home, and spat the man out. The puddle of her spit soaked the entire lawn. Humorously…the man held his gun. Chuckling, Arell stood back up and continued walking.

            As she continued looking around for her little Earthy…she acknowledged that she actually wasn’t that mad about the fact that he had gotten away. In fact, she was sort of impressed. She honestly hadn’t thought he had it in him to actually try to go against her like this. She thought she had him cowed, had him under her thumb, as the Earthies said. Whenever she caught him again (and she WOULD catch him again), she would have to make a note to keep a closer eye on him, lest he try to escape again.

            That brought on the obvious question. Namely: how HAD he escaped? She turned to her shoulder, which held the part that had levitated Bradley in the ball of energy. It was no longer emitting said power. Somehow, it had shut off, which was why Bradley was no longer suspended. But how had that…

            The tank. She knew it even before the question had completely formed. There was a small ring of black from the tank’s hit on her shoulderblade. Her suit was fine, would undoubtedly hold Bradley again in the exact same way without fail, but the blast had probably hit one of the power channels, disrupting the energy enough to knock out Bradley’s balloon.

            He had been suspended in mid-air, and it was a good question to ponder how he managed to make it to the ground without being killed. Or…had he? Arell ran her fingers through her hair in attempts to see if Bradley was trying to hide right under her nose (or, more accurately, right behind her head). She felt nothing, and then checked around her body again. Still nothing. He was truly gone.

            “Well, well…you’re more interesting than I thought,” Arell said to herself, smiling. No one else would understand her, as she was saying this in her native tongue. “You have to know that I’m going to find you. You of all the Earthies should know what I’m capable of by now…” She looked around the town again for a moment trying to see if she could spot him. She knew, really, that she wouldn’t be able to tell him apart from any other Earthy at her height. And unless she wanted to pick up ever little Earthy from here to the West Coast, she’d have to do this some other way.

            She opened her mouth.

            “BRADLEEEEEEEY!” She yelled in her most furious voice that she could conjure. Her booming voice echoed far, across counties she was sure. Arell smiled. A little game of psychological warfare could go a long way. It would certainly keep little Bradley the Earthy on his toes, that was for sure.

…

            I’m so fucked, I’m so fucked, I’m so fucked, I’m so fucking fucked…

            That was all Bradley Peterson could think as he crouched in his shit-smelling hiding spot beneath the streets of the town, listening to the booming steps of his former mistress as she moved about. She had said she wasn’t going to kill him, that she hadn’t been planning on such a course of action…but now he wasn’t so sure that she’d keep that promise. He had essentially poked her in the eye now, and she would surely be furious when she found out that he was no longer hovering in his little prison by her side. That he had not sat and waited to picked up again like a good little pet.

            He didn’t know what had happened. One minute, he was helplessly watching Arell fight a group of soldiers, terrified that he would get hit in the crossfire, the next he was helplessly falling all of sudden and that he would die as a splatter on the concrete. His descent had been marked by a loud blast that had almost knocked Arell over, one of the tanks must have hit her. Then, he suddenly found himself falling. Instinctively, he flailed his arms for something to grab, and it was by the grace of god that they found the soft strands of Arell’s long, purple hair. Grabbing a handful of that, Bradley slid down them until he hit the ground. He had very little idea of what had just happened, but all he knew was that he was free. Free, suddenly free. Feeling suddenly as brave and gutsy as Andy Dufresne, he booked it.

            It had been an incredibly terrifying experience. Twice, as he ran, not having the slightest idea as to where he was going, he was almost crushed by Arell’s pounding feet as she walked. He tried to look up to keep track of where she was stepping, but he found that he couldn’t. For all his time that he’d been with her (which admittedly had only been two days, but felt like a life time), he’d never actually seen her from this perspective. Standing at the ground, he was finally forced to appreciate just how fucking big she was. She wouldn’t even feel anything if she were to step on him right now, only realizing it later. Her feet were bigger than a fair amount of houses he’d seen, and one of them came mere inches from landing atop him and he screamed.

            What finally saved him was an open manhole, the cover having been blown off by the tremors of Arell’s feet. Madly, Bradley scurried over and began to descend when something remarkable happened. Arell jumped. To see something as big as her leap into the air was awe inspiring and completely horrifying. Knowing what was coming, Bradley tried to climb down as fast as possible. He was halfway into the sewer when Arell landed, her feet plowing into the ground and into the sewer. The tremor caused the ladder he was on to break and he fell. Fortunately, he went down sideways and didn’t land in a stream of piss and shit and whatever else was in this foul dungeon.

            He ran the opposite direction, fumbling around to make sure he didn’t fall into the water. There were probably cuts in his flesh and falling in sewage was not an option. He found a small corner shrouded and darkness and, not knowing what else to do, crouched there and waited. His heart was racing, knowing full well the extent of what he was doing. It would only be a matter of time before Arell noticed he was gone. A hope that she would think that she had stepped on him and assume he was dead came to Bradley’s mind. Then, she would not search for him and he would be free. Free!

            But, somehow, that sounded too good to be true. Arell was smart, and she would probably (most likely) check such an assumption. Thoroughly, of course, as that was her way. Maybe she would mistake one of the soldiers she stepped on as his stain. Maybe…

            He heard the sounds of her moving around up there. And then, after a moment of silence…

            “Well…that was exciting. No worries, though. Didn’t even begin to break a sweat. You can’t say that I didn’t warn them, can you, my little Earthy?”

            Oh, Christ…

            Another moment of quiet that lasted a century.

             “No, you can’t,” She continued, and Bradley breathed again for a moment. “It was never my intention to combat your little race, but, they made their choice. As your Earthies say, they made their bed, and now they have to lay in it. But, there was also no need to kill all of them. I’m sure you can appreciate that.”

            Silence again. It couldn’t be much longer now. He was lucky that she hadn’t noticed this long. A part of him thought he should be running RIGHT NOW, but he could barely see down here, and going back up there was not an option since she was RIGHT THERE!

            Oh, god, he thought, if she walks over here I might be fucked…

            The roads wouldn’t hold her if she walked too hard…

            Arell’s voice came forth again from above. “It would be best to respond when I’m speaking, my…little……..” She trailed off in a very noticeable way. Bradley’s heart and breathing stopped.

            Remarkably…nothing happened right away. He heard some sounds of her moving about, probably her looking around for him. Then, she began moving (in the opposite direction thank god for small favors), a pause every now and then. There were screams and the unmistakable boom as another structure met its end under her boots. Then, at some points, he heard the faint sound of gunshots. Arell’s voice followed them. Her voice was soft, but he couldn’t tell the tone, which was what he wanted to know. She walked further, still going away, and she spoke again after a few more minutes. Again, her voice was soft, probably speaking to herself. He couldn’t really make out what she was saying the first time, but this time he heard a few things…and he couldn’t understand them at all. She was speaking that damn freak language of hers again. Her exact tone was still unclear. He strained his ears to try and catch it, but then she stopped speaking again. There was silence.

            “BRADLEEEEEEEY!”

            Like a firework factory exploding, Arell’s voice boomed into his hiding spot and seemed to shake the foundation, and he had to cover his ears. But he didn’t pay much attention to the pain in his ears. He had turned completely and, though he couldn’t hear it, he was whimpering and tears began to flow from his eyes. Oh, boy, she was fucking pissed! If she ever caught him again, she would literally break him in half! To hear her call his name, to identify him, to call him out…he would have much rather her yell “Earthy”. But no…now miles of people would know that Arell, the giant invader and conqueror of Earth, was looking for a man named Bradley.

            He couldn’t move. His entire body was frozen as the greatest terror he had ever experienced gripped him firmly and wouldn’t let go. People had yelled like that before, but no of them came close to the monster outside. Most of them just wanted to vent their rage and then go on with their day. This lady would kill him, his very life was at stake here! He knew it would be wise to get up and run, to get as far away from Arell’s position as possible, but it wasn’t going to happen. Another part of him was seriously considering going back out there and letting her find him. Maybe if he bowed down to her like a man would before his god she’d find it so pathetic that she wouldn’t kill him. Or…she’d stomp on him anyway. Hard to tell, really.

            No commitment to either action, run or give up, came to his brain, and all he did was sit there, cowering and shaking and sweating and whimpering…

            Leave…please…just leave…get lost…put a giant egg in your giant shoe and beat it.

…

            Arell stood where she was, as a fresh volley of screams down below responded to her shout. Bradley had, no doubt, heard her, and, hopefully, he was scared straight. She was partly waiting for him to come out and let her catch him, spewing tearful apologies and begging that she be merciful to his insubordination. And, all things considered, she would. Might have to squeeze him again, maybe break a bone or two. But, nothing serious, and, if he was good, she would even numb his pain. She could just fix the bone with the synthetic gel, but then he wouldn’t learn anything would he? Or maybe she wouldn’t do anything to him. Maybe she would lead him to believe that something was going to happen, and leave him sitting on it for awhile, his imagination filling the holes.

            If, while scanning him earlier, she had collected his more intimate biological information (DNA, for example), she would be able to simply place it into the scanner and pinpoint where he was based on that. But alas…she had not counted on this. She had underestimated Bradley Peterson, it seemed. Either that, or he was underestimating her. Which ever one would be figured out as time went along. She could run the scanner on the ship again and perform another wide beam like before. But she had told Bradley that the scanner would not go through non-living things, like buildings. All he had to do was stay inside, or even be in a car, and he’d be ignored.

            “You really should rethink this line of action, Bradley…” Arell said out loud. He couldn’t have gone too far, and her voice would reach quite far. “If you come out now, I promise not to hurt you too badly. If I have to find you…”

            She wasn’t quite sure WHAT she was going to do when she caught him. But she did know that she did want him again. She wanted him more now than she had previously. Earlier, he had been sort of boring and a bit of a bother with his constant complaining and whining. Despite squeezing him a few times (that had been difficult, minding her strength so as to not pop him like a grape) he still managed to find it in him to argue. Now he had found in him to try and escape. It would be interesting have him around.

            A few moments passed. She scanned the streets of the town at her feet and saw no little Earthy coming towards her. All of them were running, driving, or however else away from her. Arell nodded.

            “Well then…” She said outloud. “You’ve made your decision then…”

            She took a few steps forward, looking around a little bit more in case she had missed his approach. Still nothing. Shaking her head, a little smile on her face, Arell reached for the transporter on her belt and then pressed it.

            A moment later…she was gone.

…

            She’s gonna find you, you know that she’s going to find you, Christ man! What were you thinking!?

            It was too late to ask that question.

            When he heard the sound of the transporter, he grabbed the fallen ladder and leaned it up against the wall under the man hole. Climbing up, it didn’t reach all the way, but enough for Bradley to grab the lip of the hole and pull himself up. When he got to the street, he saw chasms in the street, wrecked cars, broken buildings, and destruction that was akin to a bomb going off. What he didn’t see was Arell. She was gone.

            For now…

            Oh, she’d come back. He knew that. She’d look again. She was too smart not to. That was just the way she was. And her technology, oh lord, who knew what sort of crazy gizmos that she had at her disposal. What he had seen thus far could only be the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There could be several things that she had to find him. Hell, she could have access to security cameras and could be watching him right now! Or maybe she had some drones that were sneaking around, or she had something like a satellite that could zoom in…like Google Maps or some shit. She had more capabilities on her ship than anywhere else. At any given moment, even two seconds from now, she could drop right down on top of him and then he’d be screwed. He had a feeling he was already screwed. There would be no fighting her if she were to locate him. All he would be able to do is beg and beg some more and hope like hell that she was feeling merciful. But the way she had sounded earlier, the way she had shouted, made him think that this possibility was non-existant. When she found him, she might actually kill him, and he didn’t think she’d just sit on him like she had done to those two Earthies earlier. No…she’d do something special maybe. Or something just remarkably brutal. Either way, he would end up dead, and that could happen any minute. Any minute…any minute….any…

            He had to get out of here.

            Bradley began running down the street, unsure of where he was going, but knowing that he couldn’t stay in this town. Doing that was a death sentence, as it would surely be the first place Arell would look. She was already back on her ship, she could be powering up her godly devices right now, and getting ready to look. And he was standing out here right in the open. He had to get somewhere, anywhere would do. Rounding a corner, he ran down a line of houses, heading for the outskirts of the suburb. On the way, he passed a dazed soldier, lying on someone’s lawn, drenched in some sort of slime. Arell’s doing, no doubt. The “slime” was probably her spit or something. He also passed a crushed military jeep, also courtesy of Arell’s little rampage.

            He had no idea what he was doing, and he knew he was panicking, but could hardly stop himself. Where on Earth was he going to go? Did Arell know where he lived? She apparently knew enough about him from the personal info she’d stated previously. Going home wasn’t an option. He didn’t want to lay low with friends or family, because he didn’t want to get them involved. This was a journey that he’d have to go alone, but he was never really financially secure, so he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to start a new life. Hell, he didn’t even have more than ten bucks on him now! Somehow he didn’t think that changing his name, undergoing plastic surgery, and moving to Mexico would stop Arell from finding him if she really tried. But one thing at a time. First he still needed to figure out just how the hell he was going to get out of the town he was already in.

            Down the road, just at the outside of town, was a gas station, that had a bunch of cars standing, abandoned. Bradley ran in its direction. Checking the vehicles, he found one at the end of the line of pumps, a red Ford Pacifica. Its door was open, a gas nozzle was in the tank, and there was a cellphone lying off to the side, broken. Whomever had owned it had been talking or texting or whatever when Arell had beamed them up to her ship. But the one important question remained. Bradley went to the driver’s door and leaned over the seat. The inside of the car was a bit of a mess, with fast food bags and empty drink bottles littered on the floor, which was heavily stained. The seats were ripped in some places, and the radio was missing a few buttons.

            But the keys were in the ignition.

            Stupid, Bradley thought, this is stupid, you’re committing grand theft auto!

            Somehow, though, he suspected the authorities had more pressing matters to attend to than one stolen car. Plus, if they’d known where he was coming from, they’d probably understand more. Bradley took out the gas nozzle, hung it up, got into the car and shut the door. After putting on his seat belt, he was reaching for the key to start the car when he realized that the tank might be empty. It had been sitting at a gas station, after. And Bradley barely had enough money, and what he had wouldn’t buy him many miles. Timidly, he turned the keys. The car started up without trouble. The gas gauge was just slightly above “E”, and Bradley moaned. For an utterly terrible moment, he thought the car was useless, but then he saw the needle on the gauge move. It went up the arc of the meter with strong speed and didn’t stop until it reached the “F” on the other side. Bradley stared at this for a moment, and then turned and looked at the gas pump.

            On the screen, the sale was fifty four dollars, and it asked if he wanted a receipt. Bradley stared at that for another moment and then uttered a shrill, giddy laugh that would have terribly frightened him in previous days of his life. He pressed the gas pedal with and peeled out of the slot and shot onto the main road out of town. He had no real idea where he was going, but at least he was going somewhere. Arell could already have him pinned right now. Maybe she was watching his new stolen car race down the empty road, waiting for a good time to show up out of nowhere and snatch him up and break him in half. Maybe she had a special beam weapon on her ship that could fire at small targets on Earth and she would disintegrate the car and him. Perhaps she was preparing to have the world’s nuclear arsenal fall on his head, or blow up the United States for his disobedience. It was possible that she…

            Bradley moaned at the unknown of his situation and pressed on the gas pedal harder.

…

            Arell was not actually watching him, and she would have found it amusing if she had figured out that Bradley was panicking about such a thing.

            Instead, she was sitting at her desk, with the box of world leaders next to her. It was time to send all of them back, as promised. They had all agreed to her demands (though hesitantly) and allowed their power to be transferred to her. So, she now reached into the box, pulled out one of them, set the coordinates for the transporter and sent them on their way one by one. It was a long and tedious process, and Arell was getting quite bored with it. She bide farewell to each of her ‘guests’ in their own language, and by the time she got over thirty, these were merely grunts. But, within time, the transparent box was nearing emptiness, and the task would soon be done.

            It wasn’t until the last one that Arell perked up again.

            She offered the President of the United States of America a wide smile as she lifted him up to her face.

            “And then there was only you and me,” She said, teasingly.

            “Wh-wh-wh-what!?” The President asked, already getting scared. “What do you…you’re sending me home right? I’ve given you the U.S.A, though against my will. You’ve taken my position, my county, and my pride. At least have the decency to let me return to my family!”

            “In a minute,” Arell said, waving this aside, casually. “I need you to do a little work for me, President Earthy.”

            “W-w-work?” The Commander in Chief asked, nervous.

            “Yes,” Arell nodded. “I would like your help in finding a particular citizen of your country, one Bradley Peterson. You’ve met him. He’s my little Earthy friend that I’ve been keeping here on my ship. He managed to get away from me when some of your armed forces attacked me, despite my warning…”

            The President gulped. She had made the fact that she would tolerate retribution very clear. What would she do to the country for the actions of those men and women?

            “Specifically,” Arell continued. “I would like you to coordinate your little military to find him for me. I want him back, so I need your forces to keep him alive. If he gets killed…I won’t be happy, let’s just put it that way.”

            “You…you can’t find him..?” The President asked.

            “Oh, I can,” The giant woman replied, shaking her head. “But, you see, I have devices that act mostly like a RADAR. They are meant to detect and locate groups of intelligent life or other such things of interest. However, when it comes to specifically finding one Earthy out of millions, the task become much more difficult. If I am to locate my little Earthy, I will have to perform some alterations onto the systems, and that will take time. While I do that, I figure I might as well use my influence, and have some of my newfound subjects to aid me.”

            “But…” The President began.

            “If you do this,” Arell went on. “I will be more than happy to reward you and your country for your efforts. If you don’t catch him before me, then you get nothing. But, in either case, he needs to get to me alive. Understand?”

            “I…I suppose, but…” The Commander in Chief spoke.

            “Excellent,” Arell said, smiling. “Then we understand each other. Save what you have to say, because I’m not asking, I’m ‘telling’ you to do this. So, when I send you home, I suggest you get right on your homework assignment and try to get it in on time. Failure to do this…and you will answer to me.”

            The President guped. Arell smiled.

            “Well then…” She said, brightening. “Ta-ta, Mr. President Earthy.”

            With a push of the Transporter…the President was gone. Arell looked at where he had been, and chuckled softly.

            “Enjoy this freedom while it lasts, my little Earthy,” She mused to herself. “I will make sure that it does not last forever. The second most important rule that you need to understand is: You are now mine, and I intend to keep you as such…”