I woke up, my head pounding horrifically.  It was like getting over the worst hangover ever.  Except I couldn't even recall what I had been drinking.  I shivered as a cool breeze ran over me.  I instinctively grabbed at my shirt to pull it closer to my skin.  Well until I realized by doing so I was actually touching my skin.

Holy shit!  Where were my clothes?  Why was I completely naked?  And sitting up I realized I was next to a few other people.  There seemed to be six of us total.  Four guys including myself and two girls.  And none of us had clothes.  What the hell had happened?  Standing up slowly I could feel my headache slowly starting abide although it still hurt.  For that matter where were we?  The ground was weird.  It looked like someone had done a drawing of gravel street.  The texture was strange too.  Not wood or cement or stone.  It felt familiar yet I couldn't quite place it.

Looking further I could see what what looked like a flat square object that was solid black other than the red X painted on it.  Walking across a crude drawing of the inside of a building I reached down and touched it.  It felt like the same material the ground was made of.  This was very strange.  Looking closer I could see the edges were a thick brown cardboard.  

My stomach started getting queazy as an impossible thought popped into my head.  Instead of looking close I looked farther in the distance, to see my surroundings in their entirety.  Closest to me was a cliff that I could fall down.  I didn't look down to see how far it could fall but a large brown barrier of wood rose relatively close to me. Looking to the right of it I could see in the far distance what looked like a cabinet with glass doors.  Except it was huge.  And inside were figurines of various animals made of different materials.  Some of glass.  Some of ceramic.  Some of stuff I didn't recognize.  But I suspected if I was closer even the smallest of them was over three times my size.  Turning the other way towards the far end of the strange object we were standing on I could see a wall made out of gigantic bricks.  And under it was a giant chain gateway that within I could see what looked like logs.  Massive ones that had to come from the largest tree ever cut down.

I shook my head some more.  This was impossible I was dreaming.  Something touched my shoulder as I thought and I turned suddenly ready for anything.  I probably blushed as I looked at a naked black haired woman who stood in front of me.  Oh yeah.  I'd forgotten about them.

"Where are we?  Do you know what's going on?"  The dark haired girl looked at me, fear and confusion in her eyes.  Before I could respond a loud grinding sound echoed through the room.  Both of us turned towards the sound letting us witness the most terrifying thing we'd seen so far.

A giant wall of white slid into some opening we couldn't see from our angle.  Pressing against what I realized now was a doorway with a sliding door was an imposibly massive hand.  One thudding step later and I got to see the titan that the hand was attached to.  

Well titaness.  She wore a plain brown t-shirt that fell in to a sort of greenish brown skirt that descended to a point a little above her knees.  She had a thick mass of brown hair that was cut relatively short, not even going down to her shoulders.  It looked like an unruly mess at first but then I realized it was a style as the unruliness was more organized than bedhead should look like.  She wore a silver chain around her neck which descended into half of a broken silver heart that rested on a rather impressive chest. .  A silver ring seemed to be attached to the bottom of her nose and I shuddered again as her blue eyes focused on us and a bright smile lit her face.  

The sound of giant bare feet pounding against a wooden floor overwhelmed my hearing followed by the sound of wood grinding against wood as the woman dragged back that wooden barrier I'd seen earlier and sat down in the chair that it was a part of.   Her right hand rose up above us before swooping down and I winced as it flew in before I heard a loud feminine shriek.  Staring I watched as the black haired girl who had been standing next to me rose up, struggling against the giantess thumb and index finger which held her tightly between them.  A small squeak of pain came from her as the fingers applied more pressure.  

"Uh uh.  You don't want me to drop you do you?  It might just be a little painful don't you think?"  The brown haired titaness giggled as she brought the other woman close to her face.  "The game will be a lot harder if you break a bone you know."   Watching the two of them made me realize that not only had we been shrunk somehow, but we'd been reduced to maybe an inch and a half or so in height.  And I was beginning to get what was happening.

The sound of voices behind me caused me to turn and see two more people had risen up.  Unlike me they hadn't had a chance to adapt to their surroundings with our titaness captor being the first thing they saw.  Both guys, one a tall blond who probably turned a lot of heads when he walked by, the other with brown hair and slightly pudgy had their jaws almost dropping to their feet.  It would've been funny if the circumstances had been different.  

Suddenly the titaness right  hand quickly descended and her fingers opened up dropping the black haired woman on the ground in front of me.  She grunted in pain but I suspected it wasn't too bad as she'd already been close to the ground when she'd been dropped.  The hand then reached over and prodded our two remaining sleepers.  "Wakey wakey.  It's time to get up!"  The giddy happy voice of our captor rolled over us as her fingers continued to shove at our companions.  A pair of grumpy voices suddenly became shrieks of fear as they realized they weren't being awoke by friends, but by fingers longer than they were tall.  

"Good!  You're all up now!"  The giantess continued as if this was a normal every day gathering.  "So my name is Kara and I want you all to know how happy I am that you all joined me for my little gathering."  Kara then pointed at the black haired woman.  "That's Tiffany.  And he's Mark."  Kara's finger shifted to the blond haired man as she said this.

"Next up we have Alexa, Jeromy, and Brian."  Kara's finger pointed in order at the red headed girl she'd just woken up, the black haired man laying next to her, and finally the brown haired guy I'd already seen.  "And finally you have Brad."  Kara's finger was pointing straight at me.  I was wondering how she knew who we all were but her next words reminded me that was the least of our problems.

"So anyways we're here together to play games.  Winners will be rewarded.  Losers....well nobody likes losers right?  So don't be a loser."  Kara's smiled grew wider and I shivered once more as her tongue poked out  as she licked her lips.  "But if you are I promise even defeat will be exciting."  

"So anyways I'm sure you're all as eager to start as I am so enough chit chat and let's start playing.  Tonight's game is a fun little gem called Zombicide!"  Kara held up a giant booklet in her left hand.  I could see cartoonishly drawn men and women wielding swords while surrounded by zombies.  The text at the top said in giant letters "Zombicide: Black Plague".  

"Anyways the rules are simple.  You have to complete all the objectives in your quest and avoid being eaten by zombies!"  Kara's face descended lower, her lips hovering above me.  "Being eaten means you lose."  Kara's tongue lashed out, slamming me into the ground before sliding up my form and then retracting back into her mouth.   "Although I can certainly see what they want to eat you.  You're delicious."  Another loud giggle hurt my ears as Kara's face rose up and away from me.  

"Anyways I figure you can learn as we play.  It's the best way to start.  Everyone gather onto the square you woke up on."  Kara looked down at us.  "Now."  Her right hand curled into a fist and slammed down onto the table causing it to shake.  I barely held my balance.  As I tried to decide what to do I watched as Jeromy got up and bolted from the square he was on.  He didn't get far though before a massive finger came down upon his back slamming him into the ground.  "You're going to have to obey the rules.  Anyone who breaks them will be punished.  It's for your own good.  Anyways Jeromy has chosen to be an example for all of you. "

As I continued to watch, the fingers on Kara's right hand wrapped around Jeromy lifting him up into the sky.  Her left hand reached over and she tugged out his left arm between her thumb and index finger.  The next thing I knew the fingers pressed tightly and despite the distance I could hear Jeromy's scream.  I was glad I didn't have to actually hear the sound of bones breaking as she crushed his hand.  She then let go of his hand her and her right hand descended slowly, placing him gently back on the square where she'd said for us to stand.  

"Anyways I want to thank Jeromy for giving us a demonstration of the penalty for breaking the rules.  Let's all give him a round of applause!"  A loud cracking sound echoed through the sky followed by more loud cracks.  Kara was really clapping.  She was sicker than I could begin to imagine.  

"You guys aren't on your square yet..."  Kara stopped clapping and looked down at us again.  I immediately started running back to it and saw that everyone else was too.  "Good good.  I was beginning to worry you wouldn't want to play."  Kara grinned.  "So is everyone ready?"  

"So the first thing you need to know is that you each get three actions per turn.  Moving, attacking, opening doors, searching, and so on.  Each turn zombies will come out on the board and start moving towards you.  They like to go after the noisy ones.  Get XP and you'll grow stronger"  Kara smiled brightly.  "So for your first game I figured we'd start with an easy mission.  Your goal is to get all five objective tokens.  They're the red Xs.  Remember you can only enter the buildings from sides with the door tokens.  You also need to kill at least one necromancer and one abomination.  Everyone ready?  Let's see what zombies we start with!"

I watched as Kara reached down and looked at some cards.  She the reached over into a pile of grey figures.  I watched her grab a pair of figures standing up straight and put them on the map far away from us.  She then grabbed one that seemed to be hunched forward and placed it south of us before grabbing another fat figure and putting up north.

"Anyways Jeromy, you get to go first.  What are you going to do?"  Jeromy stepped back in fear as Kara's eyes focused on him, still clearly in horrible pain from the way his eyes were tearing.  "Guys, we should get to that top building fast."  We all turned as Brian spoke.  "I have no idea how this game is played but she said that zombie spawn every turn so early  turns are probably easiest and later turns will get worse as more things appear on the board.  That door up top seems to be near one of their spawn points plus we're close to it so it should be our first goal.

Jeromy nodded and moved into the square north of us.  "One."  Kara's voice echoed over us.  Jeromy then stepped over the door token.  As he did so Kara's right hand came down in front of him, and her forefinger snapped forward suddenly hitting him in the stomach.  "No cheating!  I told you it's an action to open a door."  Jeromy rolled on the ground, clutching his stomach with his uninjured hand in pain.  "Your punishment is that you lose that action.  You still have one more action."  Jeromy pointed at the door weakly shouting up at her.  "I open the damned door."  

A slight giggle came from Kara.  "I can't really hear you but I'm guessing you said you open the door?  Well let's find out!"  Kara pulled out a red six sided dice and rolled it on the table.  Hmm...2.  Sorry.  But you need a 4 or better to open that door.  Your turn Brad!"  While she looked at me she put a small tile with a picture of a bell on the square Jeromy was in.  Of course.  She had said something about noise.  Wonderful.  

This time I went up to the door.  Learning from what had happened to Jeromy I pointed at the door, waiting for her to roll.  Kara smiled.  "Sorry cutie.  But you have a bow.  You can't actually break down doors.  What do you want to do for your other two actions?"  Fuck.  She was deliberately making us waste our turns.  A bow meant I had a ranged attack though right?  There was that fat zombie to the side.  Maybe I could shoot it.  I figured it was probably slow but strong so I stepped over one square but not into the one next to it.  That would be three actions and I didn't want to get attacked by it.  

Tiffany went next.  It turned out she did have a sword.  Her first roll was another fail like Jeromy's but her second opened the door.  "Alright!"  Kara's voice rumbled over us.  "Lets see what's in here shall we?"  Kara reached over and drew two cards.  We watched as she set a zombie figure in the room in front of us and one of those hunched zombies in the room next to it.   She then flipped the door over showing it as open.  Two tiles sat in the room with the zombie in front of us.  One was a red X.  The other was a drawing of a golden door.  

Mark was apparently player 4 as he came up to us.  "So what now?"  he whispered under his breath.  Not that he needed to.  Kara apparently couldn't actually hear us.  "She said we can attack.  You have two actions left.  Go in the room and stab or shoot that zombie.  There's two more of us after you so we have to be able to kill it."  I gave a small shrug as  I spoke stepping to the edge of my square but not over it, I suspected that Kara was waiting for an excuse to abuse us for breaking the rules.  "Otherwise we sit here forever until there are so many of them that we can't win.  I don't see that we have a choice but to figure out the rules as we go and a single zombie seems to be the best bet.

Giving me a small nod, Mark went into the room and pointed at the zombie.  "Alright.  Brave man fighting the zombie!"  Kara's voice rang brightly as she rolled the dice.  "Ooh.  A six.  Your hammer crushes it's skull.  It's dead.  Well redead.  Dead again?  What do you call killing a dead thing?"  Kara's shoulders rose and fell as she gave a shrug.  "You get one XP.  Your turn Alexa!"  

Alexa came up to the room next using two of her actions.   "So if we win her game what do you think she's going to do?  I don't think turn us to normal is on her agenda, even if we do win." Unlike Jeromy she realized that shouting was fine.  Kara probably didn't care anyways.  "No idea.  But I suspect losing is worse so for now let's play her game.  When it's over we can try and figure something out then."  I gave Kara a quick glance.  "Maybe she'll go out or something giving us a chance to escape or there's someone else here who doesn't know what she's up to."  I didn't really believe it but even small hopes were better than none.

"Okay then."  Alexa pointed at the red X giving it a small kick.  Kara's hand reached down and lifted it up.  "Well you get five experience for finding it.  Two more and you level up!"  Kara grinned at Alexa.  "Good job oh mighty hero!"  Kara seemed to be in thought for a second.  "Oh yeah, you do have another action if you want to take it.  Your special ability is that you get to move once per turn for free."

Alexa looked around.  Going into the room with the zombie seemed dumb.  So the question was whether to come out or stay where she was.  She gave a small shake of her head indicating she was doing nothing.  "Alright, your turn Brian!"  

Brian moved up to the room with Alexa and Mark.  When he entered he pointed to the golden door.  "No can do tiny.  You only have a magic scroll.  Good for shooting stuff.  Not so good for door opening."   Damnit again.  On the other hand we at least knew what each of us had now.  Even if we had wasted some actions.  But we could plan better on future turns.  

Brian pointed at the zombie in the other room.  "If I'm a spellcaster maybe it's ranged?"  Kara smiled down at him, clearly getting what he wanted even if she couldn't hear him.  "Good idea.  Shooting the zombie it is."  Kara reached over and rolled her dice once more.  "Ooh.  Just a one.  Sorry, you missed."  Kara then looked down at Brian giving him a curious look.  Brian clearly nervous turned his face away from her.  "No more actions huh?  Man, if I had Spellcaster like you did I would've used my free spell to launch another shot at the zombie.  Oh well.  Too late now!" 

 
As I realized Kara had fucked us over again I watched as she reached towards the two zombies in the distance and advanced them one square.  Well that was good.  They were slow then.  She then reached for the hunched one and moved it up once.  She followed this by moving the one in the room above me into the room with the others and then moving the fat zombie into the square next to me.  Then she reached over and moved that hunched one up another square before turning her eyes on Brian, Alexa, and Mark.  "So you guys are in a room with a runner.  It gets to go twice each turn.  So it's going to bite one of you.  Pick."  

I watched as the three of them started arguing about it.  How many hits could we take?  Five?  Three?  Would one be fatal?  We didn't know.  Clearly none of them wanted to be the ones to find out.  "Five.  Four.  Three.  Two.  One.  I get to choose!"  Kara's voice giggled as she reached down towards the three of them.  Her hand wrapped around them and I watched as it rose up before her smiling face, opening so all three of them were staring at her.  Kara's tongue came out and licked her lips as the finger from her other hand softly touched each one of them on the head.  I could hear her going "Eenie, meanie, minie, moe" under her breath.  This continued for a bit .  "...and that is....Y....O....U!"  Kara's finger was pointing at Brian as she finished.  

Brian instinctively started backing away but it was futile.  The finger that was pointing at him hooked under him and he was swiftly tossed into Kara's mouth.  As it slammed shut I saw her swirling something that I assumed was him in it as her cheeks puffed out.  She set Alexa and Mark back on their spaces on the board before spitting Brian out onto the table.  He hit it with a hard thunk and I winced as I saw him grasp his arm where it'd hit the table.  I didn't think it was broken but I wasn't a doctor and even if not broken it still had to hurt.   Not to mention he was covered in Kara's saliva.

Which was apparently why he was there instead of on the board.  Suddenly he was covered in a massive white sheet that I realized a second later was a tissue as Kara started rubbing it swiftly over him, getting her saliva off.  It looked painful as she didn't seem to be worrying over much about his size and that rubbing seemed intense.  Then it was lifted off of him and I watched as she casually grabbed him and dropped him back on the square with the zombie.  

"So Brian has taken one wound.  Two more and he's zombie chow."  She then drew more cards from that pile I'd seen earlier and I watched as she placed more zombies in the spots above and below us but not in the far area.  "Lucky dogs.  You got a nothing card over there."  

"Anyways it's time for your guys next turn.  You get to go first this time Brad!"  I looked over at Brian and Jeromy, both in a partial state of shock from their experiences and then up at Kara's smiling face.   I shivered as I comprehended what losing meant.  I'd suspected it of course.  But now I was sure.  And I was equally sure that Kara was fully intended for none of us to win this game.  

I wanted to curse at her but it was pointless.  Kara would probably declare I forfeited an action or something.  So instead I pointed at the zombie in the square next to me.  I'd stepped here to shoot it and so shoot it I would.  The sound of dice rolling reached my ears and Kara looked down and gave a shake of her head.  "Sorry.  No dice.  You rolled a one which is a miss."  She giggled at her own pun.  Wonderful.  Our kidnapper thought she was funny.  

I pointed again.  Killing a zombie would be best after all.  Another roll.  "And you have a four!  Hit.  Your arrow sinks into it's flabby tummy.  Alas it's far too fat for your arrows to do much more than get stuck into it.  If only you had a weapon that did two damage instead of one.  Like a hammer."  

Fuck her!  She'd done it again.  Two more wasted actions.  So once again I stepped back a square and called to Brian.  "We need to figure these rules out and fast.  We're losing too many actions.  And I suspect we're not using the best strategy either.  She's making us waste time figuring out the game."  

"She said something about searching.  Someone should try that after getting rid of those zombies."  Brian pointed at Tiffany and the others.  "Lets kill the one with you guys in the room and then try searching and opening that golden door."  

Luck finally shone on us as Tiffany offed the zombie in her first try.   Then she tried pointing at the floor away from the door making a motion like digging.  "Wanna search huh?"  Kara giggled from above.  "Okay.  Hmm...you find a sword.  Not too bad.  Better than your shortsword anyways."  

Tiffany's luck continued again when she successfully opened the golden door.  Looked like there were no special rules for that.  Or maybe it was just for this mission.  No idea.  Apparently while she wanted us to lose Kara was going to abide by the rules if we guessed them correctly.  The question being did she intend to let us live even if we did win?

The new room that opened then spawned another of those fat zombies but Mark had remembered her hammer comment from earlier.  So in he went and our luck continued to shine as he offed the zombie.  The only bad part was as this room wasn't actually part of the map it meant Kara got to pick him up.  And I could see her fingers carressing him as she deposited him in the other room.  I suspected that he was feeling humiliated.  I know I would've in his place.  But the room had some sort of special item in it, an orcish crossbow.  Apparently a higher damage ranged weapon.  Our odds were improving.

The next few turns went really well.  We were able to come up on the other side of the map via the room as it apparently was a secret passage of some sort.  Of course the smooth sailing couldn't continue.

Mark picked up another of those red X's and Kara clapped announcing that he'd leveled up to yellow.  Which meant he would get one extra action each turn.  Which sounded great.  Until we got to the end of the round and we noticed she was putting a lot more zombies on the board than she had prior rounds.  Noticing our concern she grinned.  "Oh yeah, just so you know the higher your level, the more zombies that come out.  It's always based on whoever has the highest level.  So Mark here means yellow level zombies instead of the blue ones you've done til now!"

Then I heard a happy squeal again.  "Ooh, a necromancer just came out from below.  And a new spawn point.  You better hurry and kill it or even more zombies will keep appearing."  Kara pointed at the spawn point back near where we started.  Of course it would be in the most out of the way location.  

Brian looked over at us.  "I think we need to barge up north.  That door in the building above the one we're in has two Xs in it.  Plus we can cross through there to get closer to the other rooms and maybe thin out some of the zombies around us as well.  Plus we need to see where that necromancer is going to move so we can head towards it. "

I then looked at Mark after we all agreed with Brian's plan.  "So no killing anything except those fat zombies until we level up.  The last thing we need is for you to get to level 3 while we're still level 1.  I can only imagine the size of the swarms then."  
And with that we had a plan.  We moved up and soon were slaughtering our way through zombies.  Honestly for a little bit I think I forgot about our situation as things were going so well.  We opened up the new house and watched as a veritable horde of zombies appeared in it.  It turned out that every single room in the house was connected.  With a total of nine spawning points.  Each time she put more down it looked ever worse.  

Then Kara's smile grew wider and I knew we were in trouble.  She reached over and picked up the biggest figure we'd seen yet, standing almost half again as tall as us and placed it in one of the far left rooms.  Luckily not right next to us.  "And there's the abomination.  Now you guy have access to everything you need to kill.  Good job!  Get the necromancer.  Get the abomination, get the red Xs and you win!"  

I looked back at the others.  "The abomination can't be that easy to kill.  She was smiling too much.  Bet you there's some secret to taking it out like with the fat zombies and she's hoping to screw us over again."   Brian nodded in agreement.  "Lets get the Xs and the necromancer first while avoiding that thing.  Then we can see what we can do to it.  Hell, maybe that's what we need to kill it."  

We decided that we'd split up.  Three of us going for the upper red X.  Three of us thinning out the zombies and seeing where the necromancer went so we could kill it.  Kara had mentioned extra spawns while it was around so we needed to defeat it.  

Clearing the first room was easy.  And necessary as it had two of those fast zombies.  Brian and Jeromy ended up in there with the remaining four of us stuck just outside after killing the zombies on the road.  Nobody went further up as there were four of the slow zombies in the next room. It'd be easier to let them come to us so we could kill them.  

As expected she moved each group of zombies one square closer to us.  The group of four ended up in Brian and Jeromy's spots but they weren't going to attack as only the running ones got to both move and attack.

Kara then started drawing cards for the next round of spawns.  "Ooh."  I did not like that almost happy inflection to her voice.  "Extra activation for all the walkers!"   I turned to Brian and Jeromy as I heard the ominous pronouncement from above.  "You guys have four wounds to take.  And no armor.  And poor Brian already has a wound.   So no way for you both to survive."

I stared in horror as Kara reached down and wrapped her left hand around the two of them, lifting them up into the sky in front of her face before opening her palm so she could stare at them both.  "Luckily you can give all five wounds to just one of you thus saving your friend.  So who's it going to be?  Who is going to die so the other may live.  If you guys don't chose I'm going to choose for you.  And if I choose one of you will be at two wounds and the other still dead so it might just be better for you to decide.  

Kara continued to stare at them, smiling as her tongue poked out of her mouth and slid along her upper lip and then her lower one.  "Clock is ticking.   Here let's use this as a timer."  Kara walked over to the shelf where she had all the animal memorabilia before coming back to us and plopping down an hour glass.  "It has sixty seconds.  Decide before the sand runs out."  With that she turned it over and I watched as a small white stream started pouring out of it.