“Babe, you got this,” said William, holding the shoulders of his nervous wife. Mary silently nodded her head and nervously looked towards the portal. They were standing together on the giant desk of their boss, Naomi, who loomed over the tiny couple as Will gave Mary a little pep talk.

“Just some cars and buildings, right? I don’t have to hurt anyone?” Mary clarified.

“Just some cars and buildings, babe,” nodded William. “Just enough damage to fill your quota. The contact lens you’re wearing will let you know your progress.”

“Although,” boomed the giant Naomi, “if you did step on anyone, that’s okay too. It would only help to increase life insurance policies sold.” Naomi smiled, but Mary felt sick to her stomach. She could never bring herself to step on anyone, kill them, or hurt them in any way.

“Mary, are you okay?” asked the giant woman.

“Yeah, yeah, I just am a little nervous is all,” answered Mary. She grabbed her stomach, “So many butterflies,” she laughed nervously.

“Everything will be fine,” said William, now visibly nervous. He had recommended his wife to Naomi as one that they could trust to contract a rampage, so he didn’t want Mary to freak out or get cold feet. William whispered closer to her, “Just remember the plan, getting you and the kids out of this horrible city.”

Mary nodded and smiled, “I will babe, I got this. Don’t worry.” Mary turned and headed toward the portal that would place her in some city hundreds of miles away. Naomi’s insurance company was nationwide, so they were systematically targeting cities that had the least amount of insured, to maximize their efforts.

“Just a minute,” said Naomi, effectively stopping everyone in their tracks. Mary turned around, looking at her tiny husband standing next to the giant woman sitting at her desk.

“Yes?” asked Mary.

Naomi snatched William off the desk between her thumb and forefinger. She leaned back in her chair and propped her giant bare feet up on the desk. Naomi smiled and winked at Mary as she squished William into the soft flesh between her toes. Naomi slowly wiggled her toes and watched as William wiggled and squirmed between her fourth and pinky toe.

“Will!” screamed Mary, running back towards him.

“It’s just a little ‘insurance’, if you will, some motivation,” smiled Naomi, “because William and I will be watching you on our monitor here. And if you choose not to go through with it, for any reason, then William here will just end up as toe jam.”

“It’s okay Mary, just go! I’ll be fine!” William waved his wife away. “Just remember what we talked about.”

Mary nodded, watching her husband struggle to get comfortable, his head and arms were sticking out from between the giant’s squishy toes. His torso and legs were trapped tightly, there was no way he could escape. Mary turned around and ran for the portal. A tear forming in her eyes. She was nervous for her job and scared to death for her husband’s life.

***

Mary stepped through the portal. On one side, she was an inch tall, barely the size of the toes that held her husband ransom between them. On the other side, her converse sneaker dwarfed the cars and people of New Mexico. Her shoe was dirty, but Naomi had told her to wear something comfortable and these were the most comfortable shoes she owned.

Through the contact lenses, Mary could see highlighted images of lifeforms and the boundaries. Naomi didn’t want too much damage done to the richer districts of the tiny people, after all, they were whose money Naomi wanted. It was better to damage the poor neighborhoods of people who couldn’t afford insurance to begin with. There was already no coverage, so there would be no pay outs. But the little people below didn’t know any of this. They hadn’t seen a giantess in so long and just assumed that Mary was here to crush them all.

Mary finished stepping through the portal and set her other shoe down next to the other. She was standing in the middle of a street that was packed with people screaming and running away from her. Mary was relieved to see she hadn’t stepped on anybody or anything yet, but it gave her an awful feeling in her stomach to see what effect she was having on them. Mary felt so bad for the tiny people, having been in there position a few times before, she knew what it was like to see a towering woman and know that you could lose everything, including your life.

The portal closed and Mary was left alone with the terrified tiny people. She smiled awkwardly at them and waved her fingers nervously.

“Hey guys…” she stammered, “sorry about this. I just have to do a few things and then I’ll be gone. Could you maybe just get out of the way?”

The reaction of the tiny people didn’t change, they were still panicking and running around. Mary wasn’t even sure they had listened to what she said. Her heart was beating fast. She knew she was allowed, even encouraged, to step on a few people, but she was going to do everything in her power not to. After all, she was here to motivate people to buy insurance, and what better way than destroying property?

Mary saw a minivan and took a step forward. People had pretty much evacuated this area, and her contact lens didn’t show any signs of life either. Mary lifted her foot and set it down on the van. She winced at the sound of creaking metal as it shifted under her weight. She opened her eyes and slowly formed a more confident face as she compressed the car flat under her shoe.

It flattened extremely easy; Mary’s mass was nothing compared to the tiny object. Mary’s heart was pounding. The full weight of what she had just done was sinking in. She knew that was someone’s car, but she had just stepped on it like it was nothing. Mary kept reminding herself of the words Will kept repeating to her, ‘Better them, than us.’ She just kept thinking that, repeatedly. ‘At least it’s not my car.’ thought Mary. Her car was safe, and so was her family and her neighborhood.

Mary looked ahead to another row of abandoned cars. The whole sight was so weird for her and it was difficult to get used to this perspective. Everything looked so different from up here. And for once in her life, she felt safe. For once, she was the one in charge and no one could hurt her from up here.

“Wow,” she said out loud. Was this how giants felt all the time? Because it felt amazing.

But it still didn’t change how badly she felt for the little people. She still felt sorry for them and felt terrible that she was scaring them like this. But a job is a job, and so Mary stepped on another car, flattening it under the heel of her shoe. Then she stepped on another car, this time under the toe of her shoe.

She winced slightly every time she crunched someone’s car, but it was slowly starting to get easier. She made it to the intersection and watched as a car sped past, running a red light. Her contact lens showed the life forms of a terrified family careening down the street, speeding away from her. She smiled nervously at them and waved.

“Bye guys, again, I’m sorry about this!” she called after them.

Turning her attention away from them, she looked down the street to see more cars parked down the street. She changed direction and stepped toward the parked cars. Each step she took destroyed yards, fences, and sidewalks. Mary barely noticed though; she was preoccupied with crushing cars.

Again, she stepped down, this time crushing two cars under her shoe. She stepped on another, and then another, and another. She was starting to get the hang of this! Her heart was still beating hard, but not from nervousness, this was starting to feel fun for her. Mary kept crushing and stomping empty cars, her nervous grimace had become an enthralled smile.

A sedan? Crushed. A pick-up truck? Smashed. A van? Squished flat beyond recognition!

Then a thought crossed Mary’s mind, how many cars could she step on at once? Curiosity got the best of her and she stomped her way over to a parking lot, tearing up a few more yards in the process, but again, Mary paid no attention.

Mary slid some cars together with her foot, lining them up next to each other. Then she lowered the sole of her shoe down on them. She rested her foot on top of the creaking cars and looked around both sides of her shoe to line it up. The parking lot was that of a grocery store, and people were starting to come outside to see what the booming quaking was from. They hadn’t imagined the booms were a titanic girls’ footsteps, but now here she was, playing with their cars. Mary noticed the crowd starting to gather.

“Hmm, looks to be about 4 car widths wide,” she said out loud for them to hear. She stepped down as she said it, crushing the cars instantly, without resistance. The little people were shouting, but Mary could not hear them. Instead, she lined up some more cars, longways this time.

“Just stay out of the way and you won’t get hurt,” said a gigantic Mary, “I promise.”

After lining up about 6 cars, Mary lined up the heel of her shoe with the back end and started to step down. With the toe of her shoe still high in the air, her heel was starting to squash the cars under it. Her heel met the ground and her sole slowly started to roll over the line of cars, flattening them like a steamroller until the toe of her shoe claimed the final car. The toe of her shoe curved up slightly, until she lifted her heel and pressed her toe into the ground, twisting it slightly. Mary had a big grin on her face.

“Hmm, just missed the last car guys!” she said, “So my feet are 4 car widths wide, and 5 car lengths long!” Mary held her hands at her hips and looked slightly proud of her handiwork. “Stay away from them if you don’t want to get hurt!”

Mary made short work of the rest of the cars in the parking lot as most of the tiny people fled the neighborhood grocery store. Mary was surprised that she was not bothered by stepping on cars anymore. In fact, it almost felt…fun. But Mary wasn’t just sent to step on cars, she knew she would have to step it up and destroy some homes and businesses too. She was already at the grocery store, so why not start there?

Mary did a quick scan with the contact lens and saw that everyone had evacuated the building. Her heart sank with guilt as she stepped closer to the miniature building. Just as things were getting easier, she started to feel bad again. Cars were one thing, but this was someone’s place of work, this would leave a lot of people without a job. Even though Mary felt bad, she took a deep breath, and started stomping away at the building. With only a few steps, Mary had crushed and flattened the grocery store along with everything inside of it. Mary stood in the middle of the rubble and debris, silently proud of herself for being able to go through with it.

In the midst of the ruined building and smashed cars, Mary saw the quaint houses of the neighboring district. Her lens identified a boundary there, so she knew she was to stay away from that part of town. Mary sauntered away from the boundary, trampling the ruined store and flattened cars once again. She continued until she came across the neighborhood she originally trod through. Almost every car was smashed, and many trees had been trampled and crushed. Mary had originally left the homes alone; she couldn’t bring herself to destroy them. But then again, it was difficult to bring herself to smash the cars in the beginning too. And even more difficult to crush the grocery store. Mary briefly thought of her husband trapped between the massive toes of Naomi; she knew that this had to be done. Mary just repeated Williams mantra: ‘Better them, than us.’

Many of the homes on the block showed no signs of life, neither to her naked eye or to the scanner in her contact lens. Mary approached the first house. It was a small ranch style house that easily fit under her shoe. Just like before, as with the first car, Mary winced nervously as her foot came down on top of it unimpeded. The little house splintered into a pile of rubble under her massive shoe. Mary let out a breath of relief, it was a lot easier than she had anticipated. She scanned the row of houses down the block and the coast was clear.

One step after the other, she carefully stomped and crushed every house on the block. Where a house once stood, her giant shoe displaced it, turning it into a pile of debris. A smile grew on Mary’s lips, this was becoming fun for her again. For the first time in her life, she was powerful, and it felt good. She didn’t want to let go of this power so easily. She got a notification in her contact lens that she had reached her quota of destruction, and the portal opened back up.

But Mary was just starting to warm up. She made her way to the next block over and started kicking and stomping the houses over their as well. They exploded into debris as her shoes made short work of them. Mary was having the time of her life, she was laughing, and biting her lip seductively.

Then, she saw them… a crowd of people at the end of the block. They were crying and sobbing. The sight of them broke Mary’s heart. She had just destroyed their homes, and now they had no place to go, and no way to pay for a new house. There was no insurance for these poor people, they were now homeless. Mary destroyed their lives. Everything they had was literally trampled under Mary’s feet.

“I’m…, I’m so sorry…” said a very sad Mary. She started backing up slowly toward the portal. “Please forgive me, I didn’t mean for it to…” Mary’s eyes started tearing up and her voice was breaking up. “I didn’t mean for it to go so far…”

CRUNCH!

Mary heard and felt a sound that was unfamiliar to her. She quickly looked down at her shoes. ‘Oh God,’ she thought, ‘please no.’ She lifted her shoe to examine the bottom of it. Even without the lens, she could see the squashed bloody remains of a tiny resident stuck to her sole.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” she cried in disbelief.

The lens scanned the ground and she saw a woman and two children near the crushed man. They had been running to their car, trying to escape Mary’s crush-pocalypse. They were huddled together, crying.

“Oh no, was that your father? Your husband?” Mary asked. The tiny people nodded between sobs, too heartbroken to run. A tear ran down Mary’s cheek. How could this have happened? If only she were paying attention, this could have been avoided! Mary knew firsthand how this felt; her own father had died at the feet of a careless giantess. Mary was fully aware of the pain and suffering she had just caused. She knew that it would take years to get over it. And even then, the pain would never fully go away.

“Guys, I’m so sorry,” Mary said, trying to comfort them. “But please trust me, this is for the best, I promise.” With that, Mary brought her blood-stained converse shoe down on the tiny family, squelching their sudden screams of terror as they realized what was happening.

“I’m so sorry…” said Mary with another tear running down her cheek. She believed it would be best just to put them out of their misery. And in a way, she was right. But that didn’t change the situation for the crowd that was still watching from a safe distance.

Mary took one last look at the mob of sobbing citizens, then stepped back into the portal, which brought her back to her normal size on Naomi’s desk, where William was still squirming between her massive digits.

“Good job, Mary!” called Naomi, “I’m very proud of you!” She spread her toes and wiggled them slightly, allowing William to free-fall to the desk.

Mary ran toward William and embraced him in a crying mess of a hug as he stood up. The fall didn’t hurt him, but he did feel bad for Mary.

“I’m never doing that again!” Mary sobbed into his ear.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to,” said William. “Naomi was very pleased with your work.”

Naomi moved her feet off the desk and sat up looking at her computer.

“You know, thanks to you, the people from New Mexico are calling in droves to get insurance!” the giantess laughed. “Wow, the call center is lit up! And the online subscriptions are flying too! This plan really did work!”

William comforted Mary as he listened to his boss give him the results of the rampage. “Thank you, Miss Naomi, may I take my wife home now?”

Naomi smiled, “Of course, William.” She turned her attention to Mary, “Thank you so much Mary, excellent job today.” The two tiny people headed toward the elevator to leave and go home. “And William,” Naomi added, “I’m very happy with you. You have a bright future here.”

William nodded and hit the elevator button, closing the doors behind him and his distraught wife.