3 Linda’s Story

Sleep was a long time coming…

The Tinies had worked long into the night making as much of Jennifer’s small studio apartment as accessible as possible. Rope ladders dangled from the kitchen counter, her bed, her desk and she assumed her bathroom as some Tinies had emerged from there shoving a half-full bottle of aspirin, her dental floss, a roll of white surgical tape, a bag of cotton balls and a box of bandages. They had filled sandwich bags with safety pins, paper clips and clamps, sewing needles and small nails from a box on her dresser near the hall. They had taken batteries from her desktop, pushpins and even her old I-Touch and charger. From her purse they had taken nail polish and gum, a pack of cigarettes, matches and her Zippo lighter and fluid, an emery board and finally her cell phone that lay on the floor tantalizingly just out of easy reach.

Or would have been if she was not handcuffed and hog-tied, naked and gagged on the floor.

As dusk turned to night they had found her candles, several that were left over from the blackout after Hurricane Sandy, in the cabinet below the sink. They had scattered them about the floor of the apartment, lighting them and giving the scene a strange, surreal imagery as the Tinies did their assigned tasks, scurrying about the apartment. Most everything they had gathered was piled near the stove to be transported to their ‘Holt’ the next day.

They had filled several of her plastic take-out containers with water and dragged them near the pillows, lining them up in front of the radiator. Jennifer Monroe stared longingly at the water, her throat parched and her body dehydrated in the heat and the humidity of the summer’s night. They had worked hard to push a few of the containers into the bathroom, she assumed to use as bathtubs and a communal latrine.

Throughout, the tallest Tiny, Linda directed everyone in their tasks. She was definitely the leader of the group, and Jennifer suspected that the little woman had been in the military at some point, or at least worked in some managerial position where she commanded respect. All the Tinies jumped at her command and followed her lead without question.

“All right, let’s call it a night. Let’s eat and get some sleep. There’s still a lot to do tomorrow.” Linda turned as she spoke making sure to include everyone. “We did good tonight. A few more hard hours of work tomorrow and then we can relax for a few days.” A cheer went up at that and Linda turned to Jennifer with a smile and a wink. Jennifer thumped her head against the floor and sighed into the ballgag jammed into her mouth.

Jennifer jerked to feel a tiny hand stroking her cheek. Her eyes snapped open and she saw the tiny Linda standing beside her face, a sympathetic smile curling her lips.

“I really am sorry for all this,” the little woman said. “It’s just too good an opportunity to pass up. We need supplies. It’s a hard life living in the walls and eating garbage, fighting off the rats, looking over our shoulders every second. You ‘Norms’ don’t have a clue how hard it is for us.

“IF we get away from the sadistic psychos and perverts, we live like savages in the building walls, under the floors, in the sewers, wherever.” The woman shrugged. “It sucks, but it’s all we got. Very, very few people actually want to help us. Most want to keep us as pets or slaves. The government wants to experiment on us… ‘Cure’ us. Hah! What a crock.” Linda watched a moment as her people lined up for dinner; cold bits of lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, thimbles brought from their Holt filled with water.

“I was lucky,” Linda said with a sadness in her voice, “for awhile at least. I shrank in the first few months after the virus became public, but I was in my apartment- not so far from here- and my girlfriend found me, six-inches short and terrified as she towered over me. I shrieked like a maniac the first time she picked me up. I’d heard stories even then. She loved me though and set my fears to rest.

“She wanted to take me to the hospital, but I didn’t want to go. I’m a Conspiracy Theorist you see, one of those oddballs that thinks the government is out to control us and that a select few of the super rich call the shots and there are dead aliens being vivified in Area 51.” Linda laughed and plopped down on the floor in front of Jennifer’s face staring up at her.

“You look like Carol,” she said with a sigh as she stretched out her legs and crossed her ankles, leaning back on her arms. “A little bit at least. Hair’s about the same color but longer and your eyes a sparkling brown and dreamy just like hers. God, I miss her so much.” Jennifer felt a pang of sorrow as the tiny woman sighed and wiped at her eyes.

“She died about three years ago,” Linda said sadly, looking up at Jennifer, her eyes shimmering with tears. “Blood clot. Cut off the oxygen to her brain. She almost crushed me when she fell. There… there was nothing I could do. I had to… stand there like a fucking… DOLL and watch her… die! God!”

Tears welled in Jennifer’s eyes as she remembered her own girlfriend, the love of her life that had passed away by the same affliction over six years prior. Erica had been a health nut; running every day, no alcohol, no meat, no dairy except a very rare omelet with cheese. Little salt or suger. Didn’t smoke. She had died one Saturday morning in March in Jennifer’s arms. Jennifer mewled into her gag trying to make the Tiny understand that she understood. Linda shuddered and wiped her eyes again.

“I managed to call 911 on her cell phone. Cops came, paramedics, firemen, but it was too late. Carol was gone. They bundled her up and took her away. One of the paramedics said I needed to come to the hospital for the paperwork. I was numb as I directed him to insurance cards and ID and such. We went to St. Vincent’s and I spent a couple hours answering questions and making sure her insurance was in order. Then they took me to see Carol one last time.

“She was in a small room, naked and laid out on a bed still strapped to the gurney. She had a tube shoved down her throat. God… I started screaming and crying as the nurse set me on the bed to say goodbye.” Linda went silent for several minutes watching her people get their food and settle in to eat.

“The nurse checked on me several times. Let me have an hour with Carol and brought me water and a cracker and a ripped piece of surgical gown to cover up in. I had totally blanked that I was naked, but I couldn’t eat. The last time she came in she looked worried. Said the cops wanted to talk to me. I said I would, but she shook her head.

“They want to take you,” she said and I looked up at her in confusion. I wasn’t thinking straight just then.

“They’re gonna take you and give you to the Feds,” she had said. “Tinies are being rounded up.” Her words sank in and I knew exactly what that meant. Kept in a hamster cage in some lab in the CDC and experimented on until I died.

“I can’t keep you, but I can get you out. If you trust me.”

“I looked at Carol a long final time then turned to the nurse and nodded. She gently picked me up and stuffed me deep into her bra until I was nestled snugly between her breasts and hidden. She snuck me past the police telling them that I needed a bit more time alone and I spent the rest of the day in her locker. At the end of her shift that night she got me and hid me in her panties- they were checking everyone’s bags at the exits looking for me.

“When we were outside and well away from the hospital she dipped her hand into her panties and pulled me free. I was covered in sweat and her juices as she set me on the ground before a sewer grate. I looked up at her, shivering from the cold and fear of what was to come of me.

“Im sorry I can’t take you home with me. My husband…” she said shaking her head, a look of timidity clouding her face. “I’ve heard there’s others like you in the sewers. Maybe you’ll meet them,” she went on as she stood up. She looked down on me then, a giantess standing tall above me as she smiled sheepishly, then ran off, waving her arm and hailing a cab. I watched as she got in and sped away.

“I don’t know how long I stood there staring into the filthy dark sewer, but I jerked in surprise when I heard a shout: “Hey, look!”

I looked up and saw a group of teenagers hurtling towards me on skateboards; two boys and a girl all grinning widely. I thought for a split second about letting them catch me, then remembered how cruel kids can be. I took a deep breath, screwed up my courage and dropped down into the sewers. I was lucky I didn’t break my neck, but there was a short gutter to channel the rain down into the main line. I managed to stop my slide right at the edge of what looked to me like a drop of a couple hundred feet. It was probably more like six, but at our size…” she said with a shrug gesturing towards her companions.

“The kids had found a skinny tree branch and were trying to get me but they couldn’t get the angle. The girl even managed to squeeze her hand through the grate, but her arm was too fat to get past the wrist. I still had to duck under her long nails as I ran over to the wall and started rock climbing down to my new home and life.” Jennifer and Linda stared at one another for a long, thoughtful moment that broke with the small woman’s mournful sigh.

Jennifer watched as Linda stood and strolled towards where the Tinies had set out the food. She looked and saw that all of the others were seated on her two pillows, chatting away as they enjoyed their cold meal. She noticed that there seemed to be a few more of them than she first thought. She now counted twenty-three in the small group, plus Linda.

She saw Claire sitting high up on the pillow with her back to the massive wall of the bed, nibbling on a piece of tomato. Juice gushed and smeared her face as she bit into the soft vegetable and she wiped it away with a torn piece of paper towel. Jennifer noted Johnny, the one who had apparently discovered her and her helplessness earlier in the day. He was chewing on a tiny bit of lettuce and staring at her intently. Was that lust she saw on his face? He was young and probably shrank before his first chance at sex. She could only imagine what was running through his mind.

What made her eyes widen however was the small woman she saw reclining on the far edge of the pillows near the radiator. She was maybe three inches tall and young and pregnant. Very pregnant! Her stomach was huge for her size and it looked like she had swallowed a golf ball. She was trying to eat but looked miserable, sweating and in pain.

“That’s Anne.”

Jennifer jerked at the sound of the tiny voice beside her head. She shifted to see Linda standing near and crunching on a bit of carrot, sword in hand again and pinned to the floor.

“She shrank just two months ago. She was one of your neighbors actually. Lived on the sixth floor. Recognize her?” Jennifer shook her head indicating ‘No’. In Manhattan though, apartment’s changed hands frequently and it seemed that every month people were moving in and out. There were only a few of her fellow tenants that she recognized, and fewer still whose names she knew.

“Frank found her near frantic and in a bird cage on the coffee table in her apartment while on a scouting mission.” Linda pointed to one of the other new Tinies that Jennifer had not seen before. He was two inches tall, well muscled and black with a gray, unruly Afro.

“She’d been shrunk for a little over a week. Her husband found her the first day when he came home from work and she said that he was caring at first, for a couple days anyway. Then one day he came home with some woman from his office that he had apparently been having an affair with. Anne said, at first the woman was just shocked and curious, watching her. Then she started wanting to touch her and poke her and finally picked her up with an approving nod from her husband.

“The woman pulled off her little piece of scarf that Anne was wearing and started to rub her breasts and then between her legs. Eventually as the woman got more bold she popped Anne into her mouth and sucked on her for awhile.  When she finally spit her back out Anne started to beg but that only got her husband and his mistress more excited. They tortured her then had sex right in front of her. Then they had sex with her by stuffing her inside a condom.

“That happened almost every night for the rest of the week. When Frank found her she was numb from shock but started shrieking for help when she saw him.  He took her into the walls after he got her out of the cage that her husband had bought her as a ‘gift’. Fucking bastard. Him and his whore broke her arm while they were fucking. Didn’t care.” Linda frowned then took another bite of carrot as Jennifer peered at the tiny girl only then seeing the makeshift toothpick splint taped about her far left arm.

“Worst thing is she’s three months pregnant,” the Tiny said sadly. It took Jennifer a moment to realize just what that implied. She looked at the young woman and the huge bulge of her belly and her eyes went wide in horror.

“Nnnnn…”

Linda nodded glumly. “We think the baby doesn’t have the virus and is growing normally. It’s so sad and sick.” Linda paused and she and Jennifer watched as the woman seated next to Anne wiped her down with a bit of damp paper towel.

“We’re hoping things will change, but not likely. When it gets too much for her, we’ll put her down. Otherwise the fetus will just explode out of her belly. Sucks. She’s such a sweet kid. The hell she’s been through… Going through…” Linda’s voice was choked with tears before she went silent and Jennifer watched as Anne lay back on the pillow and relaxed as best she could, rubbing her huge, bloated stomach.

“Sucks to be us. Sucks to be tiny.” Linda popped the last of the carrot into her mouth and turned back to Jennifer. “It’s hell trying to live like this. Trying to find someplace safe, gathering food, trying not to get caught or stepped on.

“The sewers and subways are a horror I learned quick enough, but better than the streets. It’s fairly cool or warm depending on the season, but the water is rancid more often than not and food is scarce. Rats are rampant under the streets and vicious. And then there’s the Homeless. Most of them are on edge all the time, one step out of Bellevue. They’re cruel…” The woman hugged herself, shivering from some memory.

“I was lucky and hooked up with this group after a few days down in the tunnels. It was run by a guy named Tony at the time. Real Guido, but he knew his shit. Had everyone organized. He got us into your building through the gas lines when they were working on the boiler last summer. We found a place beneath the basement- it used to be a Fall-Out shelter he said, back in the fifties. A storage room now but hardly ever used or opened.

“Him and a few others got crushed a couple weeks later. They were scouting an apartment early one morning and the tenant came back for some reason after she had left for work. She smashed Tony under her shoe and two others, grinding them into the floor like they were bugs, cursing like a sailor and laughing. They were people though. Good people…”

Linda plopped down on the floor again setting her sword aside. She looked at Anne but the girl was asleep now, wrestling with her dreams. “I became leader of the Clan after that. There were others been with the group longer, but I was in the army for six years. Two shifts and left a Captain. I knew how to get things done and organize people.” Linda sighed, leaning back on her arms and stretching out her legs, feet crossed at the ankles.

“I hate it. Hate being in charge but someone has to be. It sucks having to decide the fate of others.” Linda glanced up at Jennifer giving a wan smile. “Anne for one. And you…

“A couple people wanted to kill you outright so we can stay here until the stench gets to be too much and someone comes to investigate. A few others agree but want to starve you instead. Just let you wither away and die for however long that would take.

“Don’t worry. I know someone will come looking for you eventually. My peers don’t always think things through. Most of the time we live moment to moment. It’s rare we get an opportunity like this. After a few days, we’ll leave. Hopefully without having to find a new building to live in, or go back to the sewers.

“I know you’ll probably tell the Super, call the cops. They won’t find us, but we’ll have to move on cuz everyone in the building will be looking out for us and the Feds will probably be called in. Too bad too. I like it here.”

Jennifer stared as the tiny woman stretched and stood again, using the sword to get to her feet. She turned to the other Tinies, most of whom were drowsing on the pillows. “Lights out!” she called out as she moved off and started to walk about the apartment to extinguish the candles. All save one that was set near the doorway to the bathroom. She left that one burning as she strolled back past Jennifer’s face. The tiny woman reached out and patted Jennifer’s cheek.

“Hope you can get some sleep, Hun,” she said then moved on towards the pillows where she laid her sword aside and collapsed. Within moments, Jennifer saw that her little captor was asleep.

Jennifer stared at the Tinies arrayed on her pillows, exhausted and asleep from the day’s efforts. Her gaze lingered on Linda as she thought about all that she had said.

Sleep was a long time coming…