“Ah crap,” Mrs. Brooks said, glancing down at the paper on her desk. Not the thing she wanted to see first thing in the morning, a memo labeled, Potentially Hazardous Situation. Call me IMMEDIATELY! The woman picked up the sheet, looking at it more thoroughly. She had been hoping for a nice, easy day before the weekend. Looks like that wasn’t going to happen.

Outside her office, Sally was too busy looking at the odd little insect between her shoes to notice her boss’ panic. “What type of creature are you?” the girl hummed to herself, almost absentmindedly, looking at the curious thing.

“Sally, It’s me!” Adam shouted, on the verge of tears from being so close to safety, being so close to a creature that could help him, that could be his escape from this hell. “Please, I’m not a bug. It’s me, Adam!” He screamed again and again, jumping from his place on the floor, waving his arms, doing everything he could think of to make her realize.

“Hm…” The girl’s eyes continued to sparkle as they looked down, her imagination drifting off as she remembered some creatures she would read about in fantasy books. Elves and fairies, little creatures that would fit around the human world and sprinkle magic wherever they went. Not bugs, not humans. Special little things. This bug almost reminded her of what she pictured a fairy would look like. But a lot smaller, and a lot less charming.

The girl giggled as she realized what she was thinking about. “You don’t have wings, either,” she whispered.

“Wings?” Adam repeated, looking up at the titan towering above him. The girl was absolutely gargantuan, her face so far away her could barely make out the features he knew so well. Those great blue eyes that took up so much of her face, that cute button nose that he just wanted to bop, the faint freckles on her cheeks. Now it was like looking into space, staring at a far away moon. “Come on Sally, you know me! We talk every day, please!”

“Well,” the girl said, remembering that there was more to life than silly fantasies. “Guess I’ll take you outside. Okay little guy?” She started reaching down, her knees bending, her imposing form lowering as she came at him.

Adam was left stunned, the sight of the giantess moving for him, the sight of her hand eclipsing the sky, the world, as it became the only thing he could see. It didn’t feel like his savior was coming to rescue him. It looked like a demon about to wipe him from existence.

“Sally!” A voice came, a moment before impact. Mrs. Brooks stood at her door, her normal bold and bouncy expression replaced with a serious one. “I need to talk to you. Now.”

“Right away Mrs. Brooks,” the girl answered, taking her hand away from the bug.

“W… What?” Adam repeated, seeing his only hope leaving him. “No, Sally! No, please, no!” But the girl was no longer thinking about something so pathetic as the bug at her feet. She was a human, and the life of a bug was not something she needed to worry about. She took a step forward, her sneaker sailing over Adam’s body to crash into the tile beyond, her long strides taking her into Mrs. Brooks’ office, where the door was closed.

Adam was left alone.

Small and tiny.

Forgotten.

“Right, I understand,” Mrs. Brooks said over the telephone. Sally stood at her side, awkwardly playing with her fingers, unsure of what to do with herself. This was the first time she had been in a crisis situation. “I’ll get the team together. Yes. Yes I have a team. I’ll get this figured out. Okay, goodbye.” She hung up, gave a sigh, then turned to the girl. “We got a problem.”

“Yeah?” Sally said, concerned at the way her boss was acting.

“Turns out all the scientists down in the basement went missing. All of them. The guys up top are on me to figure this out and get all the paperwork together. I think we need to call everyone in.” Sally nodded, her heart pounding a little at the idea. She had never been part of something so big before. “Can you call everyone? Tell them to meet in the conference room immediately?”

“I’m on it!” the girl said, a little too excited.

Adam hadn’t bothered to move from his spot on the floor. After all that had happened, he realized it didn't really matter what he tried to do. He could run for hours, literal hours, and not even make it under the closest desk. No, the only way his life would change was through the involvement of the gods that walked above him. Weather they knew it or not, his life was completely, totally, in their hands.

So when the door to the office opened, when he felt a blast of hot air from the hallway gust over him, when he saw another giantess walking towards him, Adam almost felt relieved. He was scared, terrified, that fear of death the same as the first time he had seen one of these creatures, but he knew it was what he needed.

And he still had hope to be found.

He remembered the girl, remembered her soft features and pale complexion, remembered her blouse with little peacocks on it, though now they just looked like blue and green smudges, blurred by the immeasurable distance. She was Mrs. Sledge’s assistant, a bookish girl who was a little quiet and reserved, but so damn cute it was almost painful.

Her flat came down, the earth shaking under Adam’s feet. He readied himself, trying to pinpoint where her foot would come down so he could at least try to avoid it. She was walking quickly, her massive shoe lifting and falling, lifting and falling, until Adam was given a view of her sole.

He jumped, trying everything to avoid the crushing step of the giantess. Though he couldn’t help but notice one detail on the underside of her foot. Amongst the few particles of dirt that littered her sole, the loose strands of hair and lint, there was a splotch of dark red and black.

The crushed corpse of some poor soul.

SLAM! Her foot made impact with the earth, missing Adam by only a fraction of an inch, the wind gust of the step catching the small boy’s body in the air and throwing it forward, sending Adam tumbling on the ground, only to eventually come to a stop on his back, looking up at the ceiling far, far away.

He could barely breathe anymore. This was too much, being thrown around like a bug, being smashed into people’s shoes, being stuffed in their socks… he couldn’t live like this anymore.

But he wasn’t given an opportunity for rest. Only moments after he opened his eyes he saw another sole looming into view.

Adam lay speechless as the girl’s Ugg boot lifted into the air, a small clump of dirt dislodging from between her thick treads, slamming into the tile only a little bit away from Adam. And there was more still attached, so much more. The tiny bug could barely see a spot on her sole that wasn’t covered by dirt or grime, with tiny leaves crushed in between, held fast by the solidifying mud.

He knew whose shoe this was. He had looked down at her boot so many times, wishing to rub the soft fabric. And he had almost been crushed by it too. Amy… the cute girl who worked for Mrs. Beth, the silly girl who would never hurt a fly.

But this was it. Adam was right under the balls of her foot. Nowhere to run, no way to escape the path of her crushing blow. After all that time, after all that running, and screaming, and panting, and shouting, after watching his friend turn into mush, after everything, this was how he was going to die.

Amy’s boot came down, her treads crushing into the nano-sized bug beneath her.  

Adam’s scream was caught in his mouth, the jolt of the horrendous impact nearly paralyzing him. He tried to breath in, tried to shout, tried to move, but his entire body was being pressed upon, was being squeezed from every possible angle. What was this? Why wasn’t he dead?

It was only when the girl took a step, when she peeled her boot off the hard tile that Adam realized the truth. His miniscule frame had survived only by being crammed between her treads, shoved into the thick mud that had been wedged deep inside. And in that instant, when all the girl’s body weight was upon him, his limbs were mashed into the dirt, his face shoved into the mud, his body melded with the refuse.

He was stuck to the underside of her boot.

BOOM! Again her foot came down, and again his body felt like it was on the verge of being squished into nothing. He couldn’t even scream, for his mouth was sealed shut by the mud.

It was only when she lifted her foot again, when he pried his own face from the mud between her treads, that he was able to take a breath in. Whatever oxygen he took in was compressed out the second her shoe landed.

Again and again, the girl simply walked, unaware of the true hell she was putting her former coworker through. Step after step, crushing impact after crushing impact. Adam couldn’t breath, he couldn’t call out, he couldn’t even understand where he was anymore.

He blacked out, came back from the sudden pain. He felt like he suffocated, only to have his face shoved into the mud the second he started to breath.

Why? Was the only question that went through his mind. Why am I like this? Why is this happening.

Why am I a bug?