Kelly’s massive footprints had been easy enough to follow. And then… they suddenly stopped. Lisa did not know what to make out of the situation. Her path was blocked by what looked like a mountain. It was not too tall, but still it was tall enough to prevent her from advancing. From her position, Lisa thought that the mountain probably was three or four times her own height. Kelly’s trail ended right there.

Lisa wondered if Kelly was so big that she had actually been able to step over the mountain… but then discarded the idea. True, she had been massive. But not that much. But still, there were no signs of her having turned either left or right in order to walk around the obstacle. And Lisa was pretty sure that whatever Kelly had done, there would be an easy enough to spot trail. Even if she had tried to climb, there would have surely had been some signs.

Lisa looked around. The only remarkable thing in her surroundings was the highway. It was still packed, the multiple accidents on each of its lanes rendering it impassable. Lisa knew what had caused that, of course. It had been Kelly. But this time, she could not blame her exclusively on the situation. The lack of any footprints was clear enough evidence that the object of her hatred had not directly messed with the traffic. The mess had been caused, this time, by the little people’s reactions to the sight of a giant woman. Lisa had experienced this herself on her way down to Hollner.

The highway was also the only nearby option to get through the mountains, Lisa saw. After a few seconds making her mind up, she decided that she should take a closer look at it and try to find out what had happened with Kelly. She was a little bit wary of it, at first, knowing perfectly well the sort of reaction she would get. But she saw no other alternative.

Predictably enough, the screams got louder as she got closer. And soon, packed cars started to crash against each other as a dozen of panicked drivers seemed to think that whatever had kept them stopped over the last couple hours was suddenly gone.

This time, Lisa got close to the road, almost until her toes were over the hard shoulders. Looking down she felt some guilt when she saw her impact on the already pretty fucked up highway. There was another feeling that was starting to grow inside her, though. Up to some point, she was starting to be fed up with the people’s reactions. She had done nothing to deserve them and they were not making things any easier for her.

A quick look along the road confirmed Lisa that Kelly had not moved through it. If she had, the consequences would be pretty evident.

“People, please, don’t be afraid” Lisa said. “I’m on your side”

Of course, it did not help at all. Lisa felt some frustration, but she tried to block it from her mind. She needed to learn what had happened with Kelly and she needed the people on the highway to help her with that.

“I just need some information. I know that Kelly… a woman that is quite bigger than me… was here not so long ago. I need to know where she went” she said

A few seconds later, it was evident that no one would volunteer to give her the information she needed. Sighing, Lisa crouched and sat on her haunches as she looked at the road and made a mental choice.

“It’s for the greater good” she thought

Then, she picked a woman in a blue summer dress with two fingers.

She screamed all the way to Lisa’s face. It made her feel bad. She was so focused on not hurting her that she almost dropped the woman when she was halfway to her destination. Lisa felt a cold shiver run down her spine before she could correct her grip and keep a hold of the woman. Not in the mood of taking any more risks, Lisa carefully dropped the woman in her cupped hand and then hushed her softly, hoping that she would stop screaming soon enough.

It took her a while, but finally Lisa felt that the woman was calm enough for her to address her.

“I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to help you” she said softly

The woman did not reply. She just looked at her with questioning eyes.

“I will set you down as soon as we are done” Lisa promised

The woman finally risked talking:

“What… what do you want?”

Lisa smiled warmly, trying to reassure her.

“I just need to know if you saw a giant woman, a while ago” Lisa said

The woman nodded. Then, she said:

“She was even bigger than you”

So, it was definitely Kelly, Lisa thought. She remembered that she still did not know where had Casey gone. And as much as she hated Kelly now, she was also very concerned about what Casey could do if she remained at large for too long. Worrying about Casey at this point was a little useless, though, so Lisa tried to focus back on Kelly. She looked back at the little woman in her palm.

“Where did she go?” Lisa asked

The woman’s answer took her completely by surprise:

“She just jumped over the mountains”

“Jumped?” Lisa asked, incredulous

The woman nodded. Then, she said:

“I don’t know what happened when she got to the other side. But on this side, it felt like an earthquake”

So, Kelly had kept on advancing north… where was she going? Now that she was a little calmer, Lisa could not prevent wondering about what were Kelly’s intentions. She could think on many different reasons why she would have gone to the FSD. But why was she heading further north? Both Casey and her had been kind of expecting Kelly to get back to them once she was done with the army. And she had just disappeared.

Lisa knew that Kelly always had a plan. She was not impulsive or mindless, like Casey. This made her hate her even more for what she had done at the FSD. What the hell could her plan be?

She had to find out. And she had to stop her.

Smiling at the woman on her hand, she said:

“Thank you. You have been very helpful”

The woman was still visibly scared. She asked:

“Will you set me down?”

“Of course… of course” Lisa said as she gently picked her up again and then set her in the spot she had picked her from. “I’m sorry” she offered.

Standing up she thought that the people on the highway had somehow calmed.

“They are starting to see that my intentions are good” she argued.

Then, she looked at the road and convinced herself that she would be able to get to the other side if she walked through the narrow stretch of land right next to it. She had to walk almost like a tightrope walker, which required a lot of focus, but she felt proud when she got to the other side without making things on the highway any worse.

Once she was on the opposite valley, she only needed a quick look around to realize that Kelly had been there. If anything, it was even more evident by the massive fissure that started in the spot where she had obviously landed. And her trail was clearly leading into one direction: that of a small town in the distance.

“Oh fuck” Lisa said between her teeth as she quickly started walking into the direction where Kelly’s massive footprints were leading to.

Reverend Isaiah Jones knew he was one of the last figures of authority still available to Cranston’s population. The entire police force had disappeared under the woman’s foot and the mayor and most of the public servants had been in the city hall when she had obliterated it under her fist.

Reverend Jones was organizing private cars to work as ambulances. He was asking neighbors with big enough cars to drive around town to find any wounded they could see and bring them to the small hospital, which was luckily pretty much unscratched. This was a priority. He knew the death toll would not be short, but they could not worry about that until they had managed to help the survivors.

The screams from Main Street caught his attention as he was giving instructions to another group of volunteers. It was important to get the right profiles in each of the cars that would look for wounded.

From his position, he could not see what was the cause. He was pretty sure the woman had not come back. She was so enormous that she would have been easy enough to see from any spot in town. There had to be something else.

He could not prevent his mind to wander for a few instants on what had happened not so long ago. Images of the titanic woman flashed back. Isaiah still did not know what to make of her. She had called herself Goddess, but he knew she was not that. And he had heard some of his parishioners say that she was the devil. He wasn’t sure. He had never thought on the devil as something like her. It had been quite a long time since he had not been able to find an explanation to something. He forced himself not to think about that now, though. The town folk needed him focused.

Reverend Jones kept in pretty good shape despite the fact that he was getting close to 50. This helped him run the distance to Main Street fast enough. Then, he saw something else he could not explain.

Several of his town mates were running in his direction. He could see perfectly well why. Right behind them, in the spot where Main Street joined one of the roads that led into Cranston, there was another naked woman of impossible height. It was obvious enough that she was not nearly as huge as the one that had just turned their peaceful little town into a nightmare, though.

Apart from her youth, the appearance of the newly arrived woman was also quite different. She was much less voluptuous and her short blonde hair framed a face whose expression showed a mix of puzzle, embarrassment and goodwill. Nothing to do with the combination of arrogance, carelessness and curiosity that had made Isaiah very afraid the moment he had set eyes on Kelly.

His town mates did not seem to care too much about the woman’s expression, though. Apparently, they only cared about her height, as they tried to get as far away from her as possible.

“Kelly has definitely been here” Lisa thought as she felt as if a ball of ice were forming in her stomach. The buildings were quite short, so Lisa had a pretty good view of the entire town. And the cracks on the street, the cars that had crashed through the first and second floors of some buildings and the dozens of people wounded along the city were easy enough to spot. It was even easier to see the areas of town that had been completely flattened. There were at least a couple of blocks of houses on the west side of town and a large area in the center where it was obvious that Kelly had done something more than just walking around.

“Why Kelly? What can this people have possibly done to you? You must have killed hundreds!” she thought, feeling the anger rising inside her again.

When she heard the screams and saw the people on Main Street running away from her, anger turned into despair.

“Why are you scared of me? I don’t want to hurt you!” her mind protested

Then, in an impulse, she said:

“I know you are scared of me. I understand. I know I’m big, but I do not want to hurt you. I know there was another woman… one bigger than me… and I know that she has hurt many of you. But I’m not like her. I have a good heart” she tried to justify herself. Then, without knowing too well why, she added: “I can help you. If you let me, I can really help you”

A few seconds later, it was starting to become evident that no one was really interested on her offer. She was getting depressed again. The fact that they were seeing her like a monster… that they could treat her like Casey or Kelly… it was very depressing.

Then, when she was about to give up and keep heading north, following Kelly’s path, something weird happened. There was a man that was clearly running in the opposite direction to the crowd’s. He was running towards her!

She was taken so much by surprise that she needed several seconds to react. When she did, she focused on the man and saw that he was dressed in black… was that a white collar at the neck? It soon became evident that the man was a priest of some sort. For some reason, Lisa felt encouraged by that.

The man was still far away. Lisa took a step to the front, trying to cut the distance. Suddenly, the man stopped, visibly puzzled. Lisa stopped too. She realized that he was somewhat shocked by the fact that she had moved. He was looking at her, as if pondering what to do. He was not trying to flee, though.

Lisa did not know what was really happening, but she knew that it was important. Looking at the priest with her most angelical expression, she said:

“I want to help”

The man seemed to understand. He nodded. Then, Lisa added:

“I’ll get to you faster than you can get to me”

The man nodded again. Lisa took that as permission to advance. She did, although taking care to be slow and gentle.

Soon enough, she was in front of the man. Without saying anything else, she decided to crouch down and carefully sit on her knees.

Something inside him had been telling him to turn and flee during the entire time the giant woman had advanced towards him. It was an instinctive part of his mind, crying for survival. Isaiah managed to control it and he stood still, waiting for the woman to get to him.

She was not nearly as enormous as the woman that had set devastation on his town, but still, the blonde woman walking in his direction was incredibly big. None of the buildings in Main Street could make it much higher than her knees.

Her nakedness did not bother him as much as most people would have expected. Sure, he did not feel entirely comfortable, but he understood that it was probably a consequence of her size, not her own choice.

Finally, the woman stopped half a block away from him. Isaiah swallowed hard. Each of her feet was quite longer than the SUVs parked on both sides of the road. Then, she started to crouch and finally rested her weight on her knees, placing her hands on them as she looked at him with an apologetic smile.

“I want to help” the woman said with a hesitant voice

Isaiah looked up. She was a quite cute young woman. She would have been cuter if her right cheek had not been bruised and her lip somewhat swollen.

“I believe you” Isaiah said

The woman then blushed and said:

“I’m… I’m sorry… I had some clothes but… there was a fight… I was trying to help the people in Hollner… and I lost them…”

“Don’t worry. This is not important” Isaiah said

The woman blushed a little bit more and asked:

“But you… you are a priest, aren’t you?”

He had to control himself in the last minute not to let a laugh out. She was nervous! Oh God, she was the size of skyscraper and she was nervous! Then, he understood: she wanted to be accepted. And he imagined that, with her size, she had not had too much luck with that.

“Yes, I’m Reverend Isaiah Jones” he said, smiling

“I’m Lisa” the woman offered, still sounding nervous

“Nice to meet you Lisa. You look like a good person” Isaiah said, trying to reassure her

Then, the woman’s eyes watered.

“I want to be… but Casey… and Kelly… they are fucking everything up” Lisa said. Then, as if realizing the language she had used, she said: “Sorry”

Isaiah understood that Lisa knew Kelly, the colossal woman that had previously visited Cranston. He decided against asking Lisa about her, though. It was obvious that what Kelly had done made Lisa feel very uncomfortable.

“Don’t worry. You want to help. That’s all that matters”

“What did… what did Kelly do?” Lisa finally asked

Isaiah shrugged, as images of what had happened not so long ago flashed through his mind:

“First there was this earthquake… a couple of buildings went down, but most of the rest held, even if some have some pretty bad looking cracks in their façades. Then we saw her. She addressed us, then she destroyed every single access out of town. She got to the opposite side soon enough. She … I think she blew at us. Several cars were sent flying and dozens of people crashed against buildings or where trampled by the moving vehicles. Then, the Sheriff’s people shot her… She… she brought her foot down on the area and crushed several houses, cars… I… I don’t know how many people was there. Then, she crushed the city hall and another section of the city with her hand”

“Oh God” Lisa said, his words clearly making her feel bad

“You want to help us?” Isaiah asked

“Yes… yes” Lisa said. “How?”

“Help us find wounded people, help us looking for survivors among the crumbled buildings, help us clean the mess…”

“I will” Lisa said

“Good” Isaiah replied, knowing deep inside that she was a blessing. He could only imagine how strong she was and which sort of tasks she could accomplish that no one in town would be able to tackle.

“I need you to tell me what to do” Lisa said

Then, she moved her arm and set her palm, facing upwards, right in front of him.

Isaiah understood. He swallowed hard. Looking up, Lisa smiled shyly and said:

“I can move faster than you. But I need you to guide me”

He shut the part of his mind that was screaming at him that this was not a good idea down and climbed into her palm.

With the reverend now safe in her palm, Lisa stood up again and looked down the street.

“Where should I go?” she asked

“There are a few buildings that collapsed at different moments, on the west side. You need to advance a few more blocks along this street and then turn left”

Lisa was about to start walking again when she remembered about something and blushed once more.

“I… I need to tell you something. I fuck the street up quite a lot when I walk…” she said. Then, she realized about her language once more and added: “Sorry”

The man on her palm seemed to think for a couple of seconds, and then said:

“Don’t worry. Saving lives is much more important than the streets”

Encouraged by his words, Lisa followed his directions until she saw a couple of crumbled buildings where he had told her they would be.

There were a few men working on the rubble. As soon as they saw her, they started to get away from their work and from her.

Lisa felt a moment of frustration once more, but this time she felt like she had a good enough offer to make them.

“Please, I just want to help!” she said. “I’m working with Reverend Jones. He’s here with me!” she offered.

It was not enough to keep everyone by the building, but her words managed to convince about half of the people. Well, it was progress, she thought.

Soon, she was kneeling in front of the building and Reverend Jones was back on the ground, talking to the people that had been there. He was soon explaining her what was going on.

“They have heard some screams coming from inside. We know there are some survivors. We do not have the equipment to free them, though” he said

Feeling as if she had purpose for the first time in a very long while, Lisa looked confidently at the Reverend and said:

“Don’t worry. Leave this to me”

Picking some of the largest chunks of rubble and getting them out of the way was easy enough. Soon, she had cleared most of the way.

“Are you sure she won’t do anything funny?” Jack, one of the men that had been working on the building asked Isaiah, whispering

“She’s helping, isn’t she?” Isaiah said

“I know… I know… it’s just that… she is so big” Jack said

“And strong. Think about how many people she can save” Isaiah whispered

“I think I’m done” her thundering voice came from above

Jack saw that it was true. He quickly mustered the rest of the team and they got into the building.

Lisa felt happy for the first time in a very long while when he saw the little men she had been trying to help get out of the building with a woman and a small child. They were alive!

They were all covered with dust. But they seemed to be pretty well. Soon, a couple more men came out, holding a man that was visibly limping. It looked as if one of his legs was broken. He did not seem to be in very bad shape, either.

A man in his forties, who would have looked strong if he had not been so small, stopped, looked up at her and then said:

“Thank you”

Lisa smiled. It meant a lot to her.

“I’m glad I could help” she said

Reverend Jones did not let her relax, though. Seeing what she had just achieved, he made her move around the city, to every spot where there was a building that had come down on itself completely or partially. Lisa felt some frustration when no one could be rescued from the rubble, even after she had cleared a way in. This happened in very few cases thought. In most of them she was key to getting people rescued. Less than half an hour later, she had helped saving a couple dozen people and she started to feel as more and more of the townsfolk changed their attitude towards her. Having moved through the entire town, most of them must have seen her already. And it seemed that word of her deeds had travelled even faster than her.

When she was received with cheers in one of the destinations Reverend Jones had sent her, she felt warmth inside her that she had not felt for a very long time.

When she was done with the buildings, they asked her to get people across town and into the hospital. Many of the roads were blocked and the cars did not have a clear way from some spots in the city. She tried to repeat the same routes so that she would not unnecessarily damage new streets.

In her way, she removed some cars from the buildings they had crashed into.

She had been at it for a while when she looked at Reverend Jones, again in her palm, and asked:

“What should I do next?”

“I don’t know” he said

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Lisa asked

“No one is asking for help anymore. My cell phone is not ringing, asking for you. Everyone seems to be taken care of” he said

“But the town… it still looks pretty bad” Lisa replied

“It is pretty bad” Reverend Jones said. “A lot of people died, Lisa” he said. “And a lot of the town was destroyed. But without you, it would have been much worse”

Lisa suddenly felt bad again, thinking on all the people she had not been able to save, on all the victims of Kelly.

“I did what I could. I still could not stop her” she said, with a tone of regret in her voice

“This is not your fault. You cannot be blamed for someone else’s sins. We can only judge you for your actions, and they have been the actions of an extraordinary person”

Lisa felt blushing again. Reverend Jones just asked:

“What were you going to do, before you found this town and decided to help us?”

“I was following Kelly” she admitted

“Why?” Reverend Jones asked

“I wanted to stop her” Lisa said

“She is much larger than you” the priest said in a softer voice

“I… I have the feeling that I can solve that” Lisa said

“Then, go” Reverend Jones said

“But…”

“You have done everything you could do for the people of Cranston, and we will be eternally in your debt. When all this is over, make sure to come back here. We will thank you like you deserve”

Lisa blushed again, but she felt a pride that she not felt ever since she had saved Henford from Casey the first time.

“I will”

“Now, go and do whatever you were going to do. I’m sure there are many more people that need you”

“I will save the world from Kelly” she said, determined

“I’m sure you will” Reverend Jones replied

Without further word, Lisa carefully set him on the street and moved in the direction of the road out of town. People lined up in her way and cheered her. She could not prevent smiling during her entire walk.

“Even if Ron cannot make me small again, I have a purpose in life” she thought, her mind filling with ideas on how she could help the world with her new condition.

Then, she remembered about her husband and daughter, almost certainly dead as a result of Kelly’s actions. Her happiness gave way to anger and to a deep hatred.

“But first… first I will rid the world out of Kelly. And when I’m done with her, I’ll do the same with Casey!”