Barren. Empty. Open. Deadly. Adam never thought he could characterize his boss’ office with such violent descriptions, but now what was once a small, homey little area had turned into an endless stretch of possibly deadly land. His mind was drawn back to documentaries he used to watch on his days off, of a place called no man’s land, in between the trenches during the war.

Men would run into those great stretches of open air only to be mowed down, shot, killed. Death was an ever present reality, one that each man faced when they stepped onto that dirt, knowing that their last breath could be only a moment away.

“Should we go?” James asked, his interruption causing Adam to jump.

“Yeah,” he said, uneasy. He gulped, then started to move. “Yeah, we should. But hurry.” He started jogging, not something he usually did, but now it seemed almost disgusting not to.

They continued, their strides bringing them minutely closer to their end goal. Agonizingly slowly they crawled over the tiles, crossing over the first and leaping over the slight indent between. Adam was cautious, throwing his glance towards his giant boss after almost every step, his breath held for that instant before he could see. Was she standing? Was she moving towards him?

But she was still. Sitting content at her workspace, unaware of the insects upon her floor.

“Adam…” James said, panting, when they had reached nearly the half way point. Neither of the boys knew how long it had taken them to make that much progress, but they could tell it was significant. The sun seemed to move over the tiles almost as fast as they were. Soon the work day would be over. Adam knew what would happen if they didn’t reach Mrs. Brooks’ shoes by then. “Adam, can we take a break?”

“What?” Adam spat back. “Break? If we don’t keep going she… No, we have to move.”

“I can’t, man.”

“If we don’t go we’re going to get crushed!”

“I don’t care.” He dropped to his knees. “I can’t run another step.”

“Fucking…” Adam gripped his fist, moving over to his friend. “We need to move!”

“I can’t.”

Before Adam even realized what he was doing his open palm impacted James’ cheek. The slap stung his hand as he pulled it away. “You were nearly stepped on before!” Adam shouted back, silencing himself a moment after when a slight creek reminded him of Mrs. Brooks’ presence. “If we stay here we’re going to get stepped on. We can’t. Get it?”

“I…” James rubbed his cheek, the skin glowing red. “Yeah, you’re right.” James picked himself up, looking over at the shoes near the corner of the room, lying in the shadow of a chair. “We should move.”

“Alright, good,” Adam nodded, turning back to the shoes and stepping forward. They continued to run, a bit slower than before, breath coming hard.

That was one of the first times Adam had ever hit someone. As the adrenalin faded from his system and the stinging feeling crept into his palm, as he kept running, as he pushed back the image of Mrs. Brooks’ foot slamming right next to his micro sized friend, he felt nearly proud. This was a new experience, something terrible and traumatic, something that would leave a lesser man catatonic. And here he was, taking charge, commanding, slapping some sense into people. Acting like a real hero.

He continued to run, sweating, panting, wishing to stop but knowing he couldn’t, smiling all the while.

And then he heard a squeak of metal hinges.

And then he heard a great sigh.

And then he felt the ground tremble.

No, they were so close. He could see Mrs. Brooks’ shoes, barely more than a five minute sprint away. If they just had a bit more time he could get to them, climb them, start jumping up and down and shouting and screaming, and finally she would see them and everything would be alright. And they would be rescued, and they would be turned back to normal, and he could keep on-

He nearly fell when Mrs. Brooks’ flat slammed into the tile a few inches in front of him. The impact was jarring, her thin sole compressing even more as she shifted her weight, the white leather that made up the sides bulging around the slender form of her foot as it pressed against the confines. And then, as suddenly as it appeared, it lifted up into the air.

Adam watched its path, seeing it fly over him and his friend, only to slam into the ground a little way behind, the giant continuing out of the room and into the rest of the office.

“Holly crap,” James said, his hand on his chest. “Did you see that coming?”

“Yeah,” Adam lied. “Come on, we need to reach her shoes.” And again they were running.

And running.

And running.

All the while Adam thought he could feel the earth trembling as one of the giants came closer. He braced himself each time, closing his eyes and fully expecting to be mercilessly crushed under the beautiful titans. The threat was always there, eating at the back of his mind, a faint tremble that he could never be sure was real or not. But the stomp didn’t come.

And then they reached her shoes, and everything was fine.

Mrs. Brooks’ sneakers lay before them like an alien megastructure, one sitting properly on the ground, with the toe section of the sole lifted off the tile, giving the tiny boys a view of the pink and white rubber that made up her treads. The other was on its side, the entire length exposed to them, from the meshed cloth near the toe section, to the laces that made up the middle, to the massive black hole near the heal that lead into the deepest cavern of death.

“Come on,” Adam said, motioning towards the toe section of the turned over shoe. “If we climb up that we might get to the top.”

“No way,” James instantly answered. “No, we don’t have time for that! It’ll take hours to climb all that way and… and man, we can’t! I can barely breath, there’s no way I can climb a mountain.”

“Come on man,” Adam tried to reason with the kid. “We need to get up there. What choice do we have?”

James turned slightly, his eyes catching the heel of her shoe. “We could just climb inside them.”

“No, that’s suicide.”

“No, its fine,” James said, walking towards the opening, smiling slightly. Dumbly. Foolishly. “When she looks down she’ll see us. It’ll be fine.”

“James, we can’t!”

But James wasn’t listening anymore. Instead he ran towards Mrs. Brooks’ insole, soon making it to the lip of the heal and climbing up. Adam went to pull him back, to try and reason with him, but he felt something.

A trembling.

A real trembling.

When he looked back he saw a shadow behind the glass of the door. Mrs. Brooks was back, and this was probably going to be it. Their last chance to be found. He turned to James, already halfway up the edge and climbing into the shoe. There was no time.

Without thinking he ran towards the toe section of her shoe.

As he jumped onto the light fabric he could feel tremors.

As he pulled himself higher and higher he could hear her booming laughter, her words crackling light thunder as she called, “Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He was almost at her laces when he felt the earth shake. When he looked out into the world he saw Mrs. Brooks clean legs standing less than a step away, her flats lying on the ground, a pair of white fluffy socks wrapped around her feet.

Before he could move a single inch she grabbed her running shoes, her hand casually spinning the one sneaker so that it slammed back into its proper position, spacing them out just enough that she could step in.

“Mrs. Brooks!” Adam started shouting, screaming to the heavens from his position on top of her shoe, realizing then that his plan was just as hopeless as any of the others. There was no way a god like her would look down and see them. No way a god like her would notice the bugs at her feet. No way a god like her would do anything other than crush the very life out of them.

Finally she lifted up her foot, dangling it threateningly over the open heal of the shoe Adam was in. “James…” he whispered, watching as she gently shoved her toes into the sneaker, using her pointer finger to pull the heal of the shoe back a bit. A twist, a little shake, and then…

Her heel slammed into the shoe, Adam’s world trembling, his body shaking, a slight cracking sound coming from the deep recesses of her shoe.

James had been reduced to a deformed blob of guts and bones, trapped deep in the black pits of her shoe, crushed under the full weight of his giantess boss.

And then she started walking.