9 Another Invasion

Jennifer gasped as she was fitfully burst from her dreams…

She had been bound and gagged, rope lashed tightly about her naked body and about the rough wooden pole that she had been forced against despite her wild struggles. The wood and harsh rope cut into her skin, biting into her scarred flesh to slice open the bloody welts she had received from the whipping that her tormentors had delivered the bight before. She was crying, begging into her gag for them not to do this, but her pleas were ignored save for an occasional burst of laughter or shouted lewd comment.

Men were piling sticks and branches of dead wood higher and higher about her lower legs as Jennifer mewled into her gag, struggling uselessly against the binding ropes. Another man was pouring a sickly smelling oil over the wood as the pile grew higher, chuckling with delight as he watched Jennifer struggling. When they were satisfied a wickedly grinning woman stepped forward and reached up to grab Jennifer’s thick, puffy nipples. She laughed as Jennifer squealed in agony, her nails biting into the already abused, hardening nubs as she squeezed and twisted mercilessly. The mob that had gathered cheered and applauded at Jennifer’s new torment.

“That’s enough,” someone said over the din and the cruel woman stopped. As she backed away Jennifer saw another woman step forward carrying a blazing torch in one hand, an over-sized cutlass in the other. Jennifer thought that she might have been beautiful except that she was dressed in rags and for some reason drenched in blood dripping from head to toe.

“It’s time,” the woman said coldly, her dark eyes reflecting the firelight. A brief, sorrowful smile passed her lips as she casually tossed the huge burning matchstick on the pile of wood surrounding Jennifer’s feet to her knees.

Jennifer screamed into her gag in fright, her eyes tearing as she watched the flames catch to the oil-soaked wood. She could already feel the heat as the fire grew in intensity, the flames growing higher and closer to her bare flesh. She looked up at the crowd beseeching them to free her but saw that most were watching gleefully, smiling and laughing, taunting her. The blood-soaked woman was grinning as she watched intently, leaning on her long sword. Only the older woman at her side seemed impassive, her face blank as she stared at the spectacle.

Jennifer’s fearful screams turned to shrieks of agony as the flames finally licked at her skin. She gagged as she smelled the awful scent of her burning flesh, her feet already ablaze with searing pain. Smoke stung at her tearing eyes, blurring her vision and clouding the shadowy, mocking faces before her. She squealed as the flames climbed ever higher, until…

Breathing hard and eyes wide with fright Jennifer looked about the oddly flickering dim of her apartment. She was shaking and sweating, her heart hammering in her chest as she glanced about wondering where she was and what had happened. Slowly she started to calm as the dream faded away to be replaced by the reality of her situation, which was only a little better.

She was still naked and lying on the cold, scratchy carpeting that covered her small studio apartment’s floor. Still bound with handcuffs and rope, hands behind her back and her roped ankles chained to the leg of her heavy, cluttered desk. Still gagged by the thick rubber ball jammed into her mouth and buckled tightly behind her head. Still aching from strained muscles and the wounds all over her tortured body.

Still a captive.

Jennifer craned her neck as her breathing finally slowed to normal to stare at her captors. The ten tiny people that remained all seemed asleep, though one or two twitched fitfully as they too appeared to be caught in the grasp of some nightmare. She glanced up at the clock above her bed, the glow of the red LED numbers declaring that it was almost five in the morning. The rest of the clan that had invaded her home and holding her prisoner for over two days now had yet to return from their murderous mission of retribution.

Jennifer sighed and lowered her gaze once again to the pillows on the floor in front of her bed and the slumbering group of Tinies. Despite all that they had done to her; stealing her food and clothes, the tortures and torments, she still felt a pang of sorrow for them. She could not imagine the hell that their day-to-day lives must be like to simply survive. The agony of being ripped away from their lives and loved ones. The tortures that some of them had to deal with when they had been abused by the cruel giant world that some random, incurable virus had thrust them in. The horror of having people they once loved turn into monsters that thought of them now as little more than pets or play things, no longer even human beings.

Her gaze fell upon the dark stain blotting the edge of the pillowcase. She stared at the bloody spot that the Tinies now avoided; the spot where they had watched poor Anne die. The spot where the clan’s leader had killed the pregnant woman; putting her out of her misery as the baby she had carried for three months had grown too large for her stomach to contain any longer. Jennifer closed her eyes, blinking back tears as the horrible, frantic scene replayed vividly in her mind’s eye. Jennifer shuddered at the memories, wondering if she would have had the courage to do what Linda had been forced to.

Subtle movement caught her attention at the edge of her sight as she opened her eyes. She shifted her head slightly expecting to see one of the Tinies trudging sleepily back to the pillow after a trip into the bathroom -

Jennifer gasped! Her heart started to beat wildly again as her eyes flew wide with fright. Not a Tiny!

A Rat!

Jennifer was too shocked to move as she stared at the thing creeping along the boxes she had stacked beside the radiator. It was a motley dark brown and its body fat, easily six inches long with a wriggling tail doubling that length. Its black eyes sparkled in the candlelight as it turned its head to consider Jennifer, raising its long whiskered nose to sniff the air. After a moment and apparently not considering Jennifer a threat, it moved on crawling towards the pillow again, drawn by the irony scent of dried blood.

“NNNNnnnn!”

Jennifer screamed into her gag, finally overcoming her shock as the rat charged forward at the noise. She screamed again and bounced about as best she could trying to rouse the sleeping Tinies. The rat stopped and turned towards her, hissing as its tail lashed threateningly, declaring that it was ready to fight for its newfound prize.

“What the fuck?” she heard a voice groggily grumble, slurred from sleep.

“Is she trying to get away?” another voice asked, followed by others less clear. Movement on the pillow as the Tinies slowly came awake, drawing the rat’s attention. Finally someone screamed.

Jennifer struggled violently, trying to get the rat’s attention again, trying to sit up and hopefully scare the creature away, but apparently it was hungry; starving to not scurry off into the safety of whatever hole it had crawled out of. The Tinies were all smaller than it was, weaker and too tempting a meal. Jennifer knew that rats were almost omnivores; able and willing to eat anything. Their teeth were hard and sharp and able to chew through stone with relentless effort to get at whatever they were after. She remembered watching the old Seventies movie, Willard when she was a little girl. Watching in growing fright as rats gnawed away at a wooden door, then swarming over Earnest Borgnine and trying to devour him before he crashed through a window, trying to get away. She had had nightmares for weeks.

More screams as panic erupted on the pillow. Jennifer saw the little people struggling to rise, some running away even as the rat surged forward in a flurry of motion. She could not turn away as she scooted back, trying to get her arms under her again to push up on her elbows. She saw Claire struggling as well as the rat scampered close to her, its mouth open as it swept close to the pillow.

“Matt!” Claire screamed as the rat’s head twisted up, its snout high as it flicked from side to side. Jennifer blanched as she thought she saw tiny arms flailing, then disappearing down into the rat’s mouth. Jennifer forced herself to work harder, frantically pushing her body up to a sitting position.

Once up Jennifer waved her handcuffed arms up and down and all about, trying to get the rat to focus on her and maybe run away. It only glanced her way briefly, blood dripping from its snout before turning back to Claire, the old lame woman having collapsed back to the pillow, her gimp leg unable to support her without her cane.

Jennifer screamed pitifully into her gag and thrashed about, the rat ignoring her as it crept towards Claire. Then a dark flash and she saw the tiny black woman, Dani, charging forward with the razor blade axe held high. She jumped between the rat and Claire, slashing the empty air before her, her voice shouting shrilly threats.

The rat reared up to tower over the smaller woman, its tail lashing wildly, claws raking the air as it hissed its defiance. Jennifer saw Claire crawling slowly backwards, grabbing her cane at last and trying to get up again as Dani slashed the axe back and forth before the threatening creature. Some of the others were shouting and jumping up and down, waving their arms to draw the rat away, but it stayed focused on the two women directly before it.

Finally it lunged, slamming into Dani and smashing her down. The tiny woman flew back, the axe lost to her grip and spiraling away as she was pinned under the vermin’s weight. Dani punched and kicked madly, then shrieked as the rat’s teeth savagely bit down into her throat. Everyone screamed as the monster ripped away at the woman’s flesh, blood spewing and driving the creature into a bloodlust driven frenzy.

Jennifer continued to shout and struggle, trying to draw the rat away, but it continued to rip into Dani’s now still body, devouring all that it could. She saw the tiny older woman Beverly charge forward then, scooping up the axe as she ran for the rat. She leapt as gracefully as a ballerina, seeming to float in the air like Michael Jordan for untold seconds before she slashed down with the axe. With all of her weight behind it the blade bit deep into the creature’s shoulder causing it to squeal in pain and abandon its feast. It spun about, its tail slapping into Beverly and knocking her away, the axe again tumbling from limp fingers.

And again the creature lunged forward, its teeth snapping at empty air as Beverly scrambled to her feet, running for all that she was worth beyond the rat’s reach. She bounded down the pillow, dashing towards Jennifer, the rat racing behind and at her heels, gaining swiftly. Jennifer saw the tiny woman look up at her, her eyes wide with fright and hope, knowing that she was too old to outrun the beast, moving now only on adrenaline. She charged into Jennifer’s shadow even as the rat leapt for the kill.

Jennifer groped and her fingers wrapped about the creature in mid-air. A shudder of revulsion swept through her as she squeezed, feeling the thing squirming in her ever-tightening fist, the rat squealing in protest. Jennifer yelped as the thing’s sharp teeth bit into her finger, but she did not lose her grip as it gnawed away at her flesh, trying to get free. She squeezed harder, trying to crush the thing in her grasp, and she felt bones snapping but she knew that rats were flexible and this one was far too determined to die.

“Down! Bring it down!”

Jennifer looked to the floor just in time to see the rat’s whipping tail slam into the one-inch tall Melanie, knocking her away. She saw the tiny Connie barely holding up the axe that was as long as she was tall, others approaching with safety pins and nails in hand. Claire limped up and took the axe from Connie as Jennifer lowered the squirming rat to the floor and held it, pressing down with all her might and weight. It squealed loudly as more bones snapped, shrieking in pain and panic as Claire stood before it, axe held high.

Claire slammed the blade down into the rat’s neck and it screamed, struggling even harder to escape, its tail lashing and tiny claws scrabbling.

Again Claire chopped down as Connie drove a needle into its shoulder, another Tiny following suit. Blood seeped from its wounds as Jennifer squeezed as hard as she could, but still the thing would not die, writhing in desperation.

Claire hacked into its neck again as Beverly drove a nail into its flanks. But it was Melanie that finally killed the beast with a well-placed pin shoved into the rat’s eye and spiking into its brain. Jennifer felt it expel its waste as she held it tightly through its death throes, the rat finally going limp in her fist. When it was finally still she swept her arms away and tossed it towards the refrigerator, shuddering in disgust.

***

It took awhile for everyone to calm down, but finally Claire took charge and started to direct the clan.

She directed Pete and Beverly to bag the rat, but rather than storing it in the refrigerator she told them to drop it into the walls stating that she hoped it would land in the basement and draw any other vermin away from them and this apartment.

She told Melanie and Connie to clean up Dani’s body before bagging her as well, then along with a three-inch tall Tiny named Mike they transferred her body into the refrigerator alongside Ed and Anne. There was nothing they could do about Matt except mourn. She set the rest to clean up Dani’s blood, then hobbled over to Jennifer, looking up at the gigantic woman towering over her. The two women stared at one another for a long while before Claire finally broke the silence.

“Thank you,” Claire said with sincerity. She was spattered with blood again but did not seem to notice or care as she spoke on, looking up at Jennifer. “After all they… we’ve… done to you, you still helped us. You probably saved most of our lives.” Claire sagged a bit as she leaned on her cane then looked off to the side, watching her friends.

“Lay back down. We’ll get that gag out of your mouth. Get you something to eat and drink if you think you can hold it down,” she said with a slight smile.

Jennifer nodded and complied…