“. . . Four . . .”

No matter how far they seemed to run, Amy’s voice was always at their heels, encouraging them to run faster. Asphalt raced by with every step, but it never seemed to carry them away from her voice.

“. . . Five . . .”

Have to split up, Ben thought. Confusing her is our only chance of not getting caught and stepped on. He cast a quick glance over his left shoulder at Betty, who was doing a pretty good job of keeping the pace with all of them.

“Betty!” he called out. “you much of a runner?”

“. . . Six . . .”

“JV track in middle school,” she answered back. “Varsity in high school. I can keep up.”

Ben flashed a wicked grin that might have been a side effect of the adrenaline coursing through his veins. “Ok everyone!” he shouted at the whole group. “We split up! Mark keep with Betty, guide her through town! Keep heading to Amy’s house!”

“. . . Seven . . .”

“GO! GO! GO!” Ben roared in his baritone of a voice. Without another word the group split up, Johnny and Ben taking turns down different streets and alleyways, while Betty followed close behind Mark. Each in a race against a clock that couldn’t be outrun.

“. . . Eight . . .”

Mark and Betty sped down the alley way that they had chosen as their escape route. The path was littered with fallen trash cans and debris, having been tossed around by the impact of Amy’s fall. Mark smoothly vaulted over each and every one of them while Betty jumped and cleared the cans like track hurdles.

“. . . Nine . . .”

Johnny’s direction of choice led him right into a small parking lot. The only problem was that the parking was almost entirely fenced in, and the only exit was in the exact opposite way he was supposed to be going. Good thing then that he had already seen it coming and knew exactly how to get out. Launching off of his stronger leg, Johnny landed right on the hood of the first parked car in front of him. He didn’t care if he left behind scratches or dents, so long as he got away. With each step Johnny moved from one car to the other, his strides never slowing. He touched down lightly onto the hood of the last car and continued to run straight up the windshield, over the roof, and jump straight over the chainlink fence. Johnny made sure the first thing that hit the ground were his hands so that he continue to roll forward, and come right back up on his feet.

“. . . Ten! Ready or not, here I come!” the giantess gleefully announced. Amy uncovered her eyes and took a moment to pick out her prey among the buildings. But the town looked empty to her eyes. Even from a vantage point of 150ft, Amy couldn’t spot where her friends had run off to. With steps less careful than she normally takes, Amy began her search through town. In only two steps she heard a distinctive CRUNCH far below her. It took her a moment to figure out that she’d stepped on a car, and completely flattened it beneath her sandel.

“Whoops.” she sheepishly expressed. Just as she looked around to make sure that no one had seen what she’d done, her eyes locked onto Johnny, running across a baseball diamond.

“I see you Johnny,” Amy giggled. “You better run faster than that.”

Amy stalked towards Johnny, purposefully stepping down harder to make the ground shake. Johnny had a lead of about 300 meters, pure child’s play for Amy Jackson and he knew that. There was a short line of trees up ahead of him, but he couldn’t hide in there for very long, he knew that too. So it was lucky for Johnny then that he wasn’t in this alone.

Ben might not have been able to see where his friends were, but he knew that Amy had spotted one of them. With two quick steps against the wall he was running parallel to, Ben managed to jump onto a low hanging wall, and then from there jump and grab onto the higher wall of a GameStop store.

He took a few quick seconds to catch his breath, and then threw his arms into the air. “Over here Amy! Betcha can’t catch me!” he jeered

He didn’t even wait to see if she’d noticed him before taking off down the line of stores and buildings connecting to the GameStop he had climbed. It turns out that that was the right decision because Amy did hear him, the fact that she was a few blocks away meant nothing to her. In seconds she spotted her tiny friend sprinting across rooftops. Amy squealed in delight and excitement as her drugged mind became caught up in the chase.

“Betcha I can,” she retorted. At her feet was a BP gas station, devoid of cars or pedestrians to fill them up. They would have had very little to worry about in any case, because Amy stepped over the entire building as easily as if it had never been there. Her foot touched down on the other side of the building with an audible BOOM! With another step Amy cleared an office building more than twice as tall as the gas station. All the while she entertained herself with the sight of Ben running, vaulting, and jumping from roof to roof. The LSD actually made it look like waves of air were traveling behind him as he ran. All it took was one more step to bring Amy to the buildings Ben was running on, the buildings themselves were almost knee height.

“Told you I could do it, little man.” the blonde beauty taunted with an outstretched hand.

But Ben wasn’t about to be caught so easily, especially after he’d evaded Amy multiple times before in the woods. Once the shadow of her hand fell over him, Ben launched himself off of the roof of the Chipotle restaurant he’d been running on, and latched his whole body to the street light he’d aimed for. His long sleeved shirt and jeans cut out almost all friction and Ben slid down the steel pole like a fireman. Even better was that the street light was on the opposite side of the buildings as Amy, putting at least one line of buildings between himself and the giantess, however short they might be compared to her. Ben kept running, but with Amy so close he knew he was only delaying the inevitable. He needed to lose her, but how-

“Amy!” someone shouted from far off. “Come and get us!”

That was all the distraction Ben needed. As soon as Amy’s head turned, even though it was only for a few seconds, Ben managed to dive roll and come to a halt underneath a table outside of a cafe. It hid him from Amy’s overhead view, and allowed Ben to catch his breath. Whoever had gotten her attention was a real lifesaver.

*****************************************************************************************

“Why the fuck did you do that?” Mark asked, never taking his eyes off of his giant friend.

“Because he was going to be caught and we can’t let that happen.” Betty answered from slightly beneath and to the left of him. They both stood crouched behind a dumpster, keeping a close eye on their pursuer. “If she catches us she may not choose to go home, and we need to get her out of here as soon as possible.”

“Ok, but do you have a plan to keep us from being caught?” he asked.

She sighed. “Not really. You?”

“Always.” he put simply. Mark stood up and stepped out from behind the dumpster. “Amy! We’re over here!”

Amy laughed when she finally caught sight of them. “Cool! I’ll catch two of you at the same time.”

“Follow me!” Mark exclaimed.

The two started for a building at the end of the street that was undergoing some serious reconstruction. Because of this there was a lot of scaffolding all along the outside and on the sidewalks. They both hopped over the blockers the construction crew had set up and, at his direction, Betty took a ramp that lead straight up to the second level of scaffolding. Mark chose to grab the first level of bars and swing between them like monkey bars on a playground. It took a few swings before he built up enough momentum to swing himself up and inside the first level of scaffolding. From there he stepped from metal bar to metal bar as he continued to hide from Amy, who was crouched down and looking in from the outside.

“Hehehehe, you guys are so adorable in there.” she giggled. “You’re like teeny tiny mice running around.” Then Amy held up a tentative finger. “You better watch out.”

Very slowly and carefully Amy inserted her finger between some of the bars of scaffolding, directly in front of where Mark was stepping. The sudden appearance of Amy’s massive digit startled Mark so much, for a moment he almost lost his footing on the steel bars. He let out a short cry of surprise.

“Poke,” Amy snickered.

Once she removed her finger Mark picked up the pace of his stepping. All the while Amy continued to tease and taunt him by poking through at the areas behind him, urging him to move faster. He could only move so fast, though, while maintaining his precarious balance atop the smooth beams. Once more Mark came within millimeters of slipping and losing his balance. He wasn’t high up, barely a story above the ground, but not a height he wanted to drop from, especially when over concrete. Then Mark looked down at the ground below him and adopted a look of terror.

“Betty!” he projected. “Keep moving! You can’t let her catch you!”

Amy followed his line of sight, disillusioned as her own might be, and looked for Betty Collins on the ground outside of the building. Even crouched down, Amy’s height made it hard to see too far beneath her. She had to adjust her position and bring her face down to street level in order to get a better view inside the scaffolding at the very bottom. However, try as she might, Amy couldn’t see Betty running anywhere. Bewildered, Amy cast her eyes questioningly back up to Mark, only to find that he had scurried up two more floors worth of scaffolding.

“Made you look!” Mark scoffed as he abandoned the openness of the scaffolding for the safety of the actual building. The addled look on Amy’s face turned cross when she realized that she’d been had, even though it took a few moments for her drugged brain to reach that conclusion.

“Why you . . .” she muttered. Amy wanted to reach in and pull Mark straight out, and she could have. There were no walls in place yet, only support beams to hold the floors up. The problem was that the LSD made it seems as if there were more beams than were really there, and aligned closer together. Despite being perfectly capable of fitting her hand inside, Amy truly believed that she couldn’t reach Mark, who was making his way to the other side of the building.

“You think you’re funny?” Amy challenged. “Well how about I lift the roof off of this place? Then I’ll get you.”

Betty, who’d really been waiting for Mark on the third story, froze next to him. “There’s gotta be like, five other stories above us. S-she can’t really lift all of that, can she?”

Mark hesitated as he considered the possibility. “Truthfully, I’ve never seen the limit of what she can lift. And I’ve seen her lift a school bus full of kids like it was a toy.”

Betty gulped. “Oh my God, she wouldn’t . . . .”

*****************************************************************************************

Johnny sighed. “Of-fucking-course she would.”

Even from his crouched position on the ground he could easily see Amy’s form kneeling besides the construction zone. They had all been running more or less in the same direction for a few minutes, and were less than ten minutes away from the woods on the outskirts of town. Those woods were where they really needed to reach because they would lead the group straight to Amy’s house. From there they would be able to run to Amy’s house more or less in the open, as the trees would provide enough cover to make spotting them difficult. Gazing down the street Johnny could see the tops of those very trees, jutting out above the buildings in the distance. Even as he stood crouched behind the parked BMW he knew that at this time, Ben was making his way towards those very same trees. The smart thing to do would be to high tail it after him as fast as his legs could carry him. Mark and Betty were probably already outthinking and escaping Amy. They were fine, the two of them could take care of themselves.

With another sigh, Johnny stood up from behind the car, and kicked the front bumper as hard as he could. After several hard, practiced kicks the car alarm sounded with a cacophony of beeps and sirens.

“Just once,” he muttered to himself. “Just fucking once I’d like to just choose the smart fucking option and run away quietly.”

The car alarm caught Amy’s attention almost instantly. She turned so suddenly to discover the source of the noise, for a moment she completely lost her balance and had to brace a hand to the ground to steady herself. When the vertigo ended Amy was able to get a look at the source of the noise, a BMW that Johnny was running away from as fast as he could.

“Ok Johnny, round two.” she called after him.

That was his cue to disappear. Johnny turned into the first alleyway on his left, and then turned back right, continuing on his way towards the woods of safety. The adrenaline in his system set his heart pounding to the point that he could feel it all throughout his body. At least, that’s what he thought to himself. Johnny didn’t want to acknowledge the real source of the jarring vibrations, Amy’s feet. As the giantess demonstrated earlier, buildings were no obstacle to her. But he was not without hope. At the very end of the long alley way was a Peco truck, parked right at the mouth of the alley. Up above that area, suspended between the apartment buildings were canopies that could potentially obstruct Amy’s birds-eye view. He just had to time it right, it could work.

“Fe fi fo fum!” she proclaimed with every step. “I still see you, you better run!”

“That doesn’t even rhyme!” Johnny shouted back, just before running under the shelter of the canopies. The second he reached the mouth of the alleyway, he dropped to the pavement and rolled until he was hidden underneath the Peco truck. It was an effort not to begin gasping for breath, but Johnny forced himself to breath slowly and quietly. He needed to be able to hear Amy, now that he could no longer keep an eye on her activities. The first thing he heard was a befuddled “Huh?”, followed the vibrations of more steps. Amy must be wondering where Johnny had disappeared to. He could imagine the sight of Amy crouching as low as she could to get a view of the alley underneath the canopies. With enough luck, maybe she’ll give up and go back to looking for someone else. Luck, however, was not on Johnny Rice’s side.

If it wasn’t for the sight of her fingertips along the truck, he would have had no warning whatsoever. Johnny reached out and grabbed onto whatever metal he could hold onto, likewise using his feet to brace his lower body against the underside of the truck. Then the several ton Peco truck began to defy gravity and rise. After what felt like an hour of being lifted, the truck stopped it assent somewhere around fifty feet in the air. Johnny was not normally afraid of heights, countless days spent with Amy had cured him of that. But this was completely different, there was no palm between him and the ground. The only thing keeping him from falling was the strength of his own arms and legs. So he kept his eyes shut tight and focused every fiber of his being on holding on to the truck. He couldn’t tell how long he stayed up there, mere moments probably, though it felt far longer than that. When the truck finally touched back down to the ground, Johnny’s body dropped with it in relief. Only then did he start breathing heavy.

His breath, and his heart, caught right in his throat when the truck was once again lifted straight into the air, leaving Johnny completely exposed on the bare street.

“Aha! Caught you!” Amy roared triumphantly, until for some reason, her smile turned into a frown. Johnny mustered up the courage to uncover his eyes and stare up at his towering friend. Amy wasn’t look to the ground where he lay on his back. Rather, she was frowning at the underside of the truck, right where Johnny had been hanging from just moments before. For a moment he almost made a dash for the alley he’d just run out of, but decided against it. Maybe her drugged mind would over look him if he stayed as still as a main character in Jurassic Park. Amy turned the truck over several times in her hands, looking all over and inside of it for her tiny companion.

“How the hell . . .” she pondered, never once looking down at the street. “Son of a bitch.”

Without any real thought to the action, Amy clenched her hand into a fist, and the Peco truck screamed and twisted like an aluminum can in her mighty grasp. In fact, an aluminum can might be a poor comparison, Johnny thought. He’d never once crushed an aluminum can with as little effort as Amy had with the several ton truck, in only one hand. The demolished remains of the vehicle fell to the Earth with a thunderous crash of warped metal, about a dozen meters from where Johnny lay still. Amy stood up without a word and proceeded back towards the construction zone to look for Mark and Betty. It took Johnny a full two minutes to recover from the shock of the ordeal, and continue running away as fast as he could.

*****************************************************************************************

“Wait!” Betty quietly urged. “She’s going back. What’s she doing?”

“I don’t know,” Mark replied. “She probably thinks we’re still in there.”

While Johnny had so graciously offered himself up as the next distraction, Mark and Betty had made their escape from the construction zone and were now more than a block away in an alley. The alley followed in a straight path directly opposite of the building they had previously hidden in, so that it still remained in their line of sight. Now they stood still, watching to see what Amy would do, while catching up with their breath.

“Ok guys,” she announced to the empty building. “I’m giving you till the count of three to come out, or I’m coming in after you.”

“She’ll what!” Betty squeaked.

The eight story structure of concrete and support beams barely stood at hip level with Amy. When she bent over it, her body completely eclipsed the soon to be building. Very carefully Amy slipped her fingers between the support beams on either side of the structure along the fourth floor, more or less the middle floor.

“One . . . .” she counted. “Two . . . . .”

“Amy!” Betty screamed. “We’re not inside, we’re over here!” But her protests went unheard.

“Three!” Amy cried. With that, she grasped the concrete ceiling and drywall ceiling, and lifted with all of her awesome strength.

Rocks shattered.

Metal screamed.

And the entire building, from the fourth floor to the top, was ripped away by the unfathomable might of Amy Jackson. The sight could be seen throughout the town by all four of her separated friends. They all stood frozen in place, wherever they happened to be, all watching Amy accomplish the impossible. The building itself felt like nothing more than a moderately heavy box in the hands of the giantess. As quickly as it happened, though, the moment ended. Without a proper support system, and its structural integrity compromised, the building caved in on itself and collapsed. Over three hundred tons of raw materials fell from Amy’ fingers like sand, only to crash down upon the other half of the building still remaining on the ground. The impact was breathtaking. Ben, Johnny, Mark, and Betty all gaped in utter silence as a dust cloud larger than any explosion they had ever seen, rose high above the desolated construction zone.

Amy herself could do nothing more than stand in place and admire the scene, the LSD in her brain painting a vivid picture of color and beauty from the carnage. She stood there for almost two minutes before she remembered the game she was playing with her friends.

“Guys?” she asked, looking around. “Guys? Where’d you go?”

“We have to run, now!” Mark hissed at Betty.

The two of them continued along their way, making a solid sprint for the tree line at the edge of town. By the time they had reached it, Amy had once again spotted them, and the chase was on again. Once in the woods, as predicted earlier, the group had a much easier time of eluding Amy. The cover from the trees would clash against her hallucinating eyes, all but obscuring them from her detection. Five minutes later Mark and Betty emerged from the woods in front of Amy’s house, and found Ben and Johnny there catching their breath.

“Are we safe?” Betty called out.

“Almost!” Ben answered. “Get to the door now!”

Just as they made it to the gigantic door of her house, Amy herself stomped up to them, her footsteps almost knocking them from their feet.

“I’ve got you now!” she grinned mischievously. “That was a fun chase, you guys were great. But no one can beat me.”  Amy stood triumphantly over her friends, before slowly reaching a menacing hand towards them. On weak knees that wanted nothing more than to collapse, Ben stepped up in front of his friends and confronted Amy himself.

“Amy, don’t you remember?” he questioned. “Your house is home base. We won.”

Just like that, Amy’s descending hand froze as she considered the words spoken. She clenched her hand into a fist and gave a rueful chuckle.”Oh yeah, I forgot. Then I guess I have to give this one to you guys. Congrats.”

Ben smiled with approval. “Thanks. Now what do you say we all go inside?”

“That sounds great,” she answered. “I’ll see you inside then. We can have even more fun togther!”

Amy used the door to enter while her friends took the elevator up to the platform in her room. By the time the doors opened and they stepped inside, Amy was already sound asleep on her bed.