In this chapter: Life in Beleares is revealed after the traumatic destruction caused by Ana is remembered. Ana’s thoughts are being weighed down by guilt and regret as she has bouts of anger during volleyball practice. Ana attempts to communicate with her tiny land, but she is ready to deliver a cryptic warning to her people.
Day 15 –Saint Yves
It had been just over two weeks since Baleares was taken by the grey clouds illuminated with blue lightning, the relatively peaceful nation violently ripped through a cosmic anomaly only to call their new home a rug inside of a bedroom beyond imaginable size that belonged to a young woman with deep auburn hair and emerald-colored eyes. Since then, the nation and the millions of inhabitants have seen horrid atrocities, a 50-mile tall, beautiful colossus at the center of the destruction and death for the populace as their cries and pleads to be spared went unanswered.
Albury, the smaller city crushed out of existence by a few sweat drops and the overwhelming weight of the woman’s immense foot as it twisted and grinded the people and buildings into oblivion. Braidwood, similarly, snuffed out under the woman’s toes as she carelessly dragged them over the town and all its people in the early morning of the new world they belonged to. The capital city of Saint Yves was never prepared, their recon mission to establish contact failed miserably as only the military planes managed to return to the base, the rest of the scientists and soldiers died helplessly on the giantess’ massive breasts only to remain as microscopic red splotches that Ana washed off in the shower without giving much thought about them.
Now that the giantess was fully aware of the situation, she hardly interacted with the nation in recent days, although it was hard to ignore such an impossibly massive girl go about her day, strutting over the rug as the ground shook with each of her steps, the terrified people looking up helplessly trying to see beyond her long and athletic legs as they reached up farther than they could barely fathom from the ground, sometimes the massive woman would look at them with her green eyes, but the blank expression on her face frightened people even more. Her simple whispers and actions became louder than anything comprehensible, even her breathing while she slept at night made it difficult for a lot of the annoyed and scared citizens to achieve good sleep themselves.
Saint Yves pressed on though, the prime minister enacted martial law essentially removing himself from power and bestowing control of operations of the nation to the highest-ranking military official. Riots broke out in all the major cities and some of the smaller towns as people devolved into a hysterical craze after witnessing the last 2 weeks transpire, innocents were being threatened and hurt in the chaos, the military official in charge of the nation sent in all available military forces in order to lock down the riots and return people to their homes, thankfully the official in charge did not have the ideas to come up with punishments like Miranda for the criminals she had, millions of the people noticing brand new blue toes from the giantess as many of them wondered how they got there, but none of them would know that dozens of people died in the process of painting the massive nails that destroyed an entire town of people on the first day.
Fanatics started to appear in smaller towns and their ideologies were gaining in popularity amongst the lesser educated and more rural population. The fanatics all had different messages, but the main concerns all had common themes, the people of the nation deserved to be in this situation, their flaws and weaknesses were being punished by a powerful being, a living goddess in the flesh as she acted out her judgments on those who were deserving of her divine authority. Suicide rates were fluctuating with each day, sometimes when the young woman would stare at the nation in its entirety the rates would go up a few points in percentage, but the rates were steadily declining as the fanatics were gaining more traction, those who were hopeless fell into the easy and soothing message that these fundamentalists were delivering to them. It was becoming easier to deal with the situation if there was a simple answer for the reason why this was happening.
The military official ordered a return to normal life as students attended schools where they were now instructed to practice drills for safety reasons pertaining to earthquakes caused by footfalls, or what do to incase of an impending impact of the woman’s body upon their town, or city. A group of children in Saint Yves were laughing as they practiced taking cover under their desks as the teacher sobbed and cried from the useless protection that safety drill offered, the teacher knowing that nothing would be able to save them if the giantess interacted with them. Recovery crews were sent to Albury and Braidwood to find anything of value, but nothing could be salvaged, everything was flattened into the dry and upturned dirt, a new mountain range essentially carved out of the ground where Braidwood used to be and a massive crater the size of the ball of the woman’s foot where Albury once stood proud.
Only a few bodies were found and returned to the capital for proper burials, however, it was difficult to find bodies completely intact, most of those recovered were found half-crushed, or mangled beyond recognition. Saint Yves looked like a battle ground, the streets were nearly empty as all the citizens had a curfew to abide by, tanks and soldiers patrolled the streets at night with the help of the law enforcement, those who were caught past curfew were threatened with exile, which was relatively new idea being developed. The idea for exile was essentially an explorer’s mission beyond the outer limits of the rug and into the unknown territory of the bedroom, basically certain suicide. This made people return to their homes and obey curfew without question.
*** *** ***
Anastazja’s thoughts were twisting and turning in her head, the recent events in her life made her question everything she has even been taught, she had taken life, she had killed people, the overwhelming dark feeling in her head was making normal activities difficult. The words from her music professor were being tuned out as she sat at a small desk barely able to contain her athletic and tall body, she nervously twiddled her pen between her fingers as she bounced her leg up and down sporadically. Suddenly a loud opera piece played through a small speaker that the professor brought to class snapped Ana out of her daze. Ana brushed her wavy red hair behind her ears and focused on the music, closing her eyes, and listening to the beautiful voice of the woman as she sang in Italian.
Ana’s mind couldn’t focus entirely on the music, in-between moments of serenity and peace she had flashes of gore and fire from the destruction she caused, she couldn’t stop imagining the images as her foot crashed down over buildings, toppling them into dust as her toes descended further causing the people to panic uncontrollably, people running away as the shadows grew darker just before their lives ended with a small bloody pop and crunch. “Fuck!” Ana shouted in Ukrainian; her fellow music students could not understand her as they looked up confused.
“Is there something wrong with the singing, Anastazja?” The music professor asked as he turned down the small speaker at the front of the room.
“No… It is okay, I just need to use a restroom” Ana said apprehensively, a few of her classmates giggling as they were barely getting used to her thick accent. Ana stepped out of her small desk, making a little noise as the metal legs dragged across the floor as she struggled to get out of the tight fit chair. She walked quickly to the doors and stepped out into the mostly empty hallway in the arts building. Ana entered the small bathroom and splashed her face with water trying to clear her thoughts, but she couldn’t, she punched the paper towel dispenser with the side of her fist and grunted in a fit of anger. Ana just wanted to go to volleyball practice she thought, she would always use the sport to destress and unwind. Ana decided to endure the rest of her music class, she stepped back in, the music was resumed, and nobody could hear Ana curse under her breath as she scrambled to get back into the small desk.
3:20pm finally appeared on the clocks and Ana rushed out to the main courtyards of the campus, walking past all the buildings as she towered over almost everyone apart from a few people. Ana was used to getting a few looks here and there, but her head was in a buzz, and she hardly noticed the attention. Thankfully for Ana the indoor stadium was a relatively short walk from the arts building, she was one of the first few girls to enter the locker room and began to change into her volleyball outfit, she was greeted with a halfhearted hello from the coach and a few of her teammates that were also a bit early.
Ana was already dressed in her gear, the tight shorts hugging her ass revealing her athletic thighs, the tight practice t-shirt struggling to suppress her large chest, she was anxiously sitting on the bench as more of her teammates started to show up, Ana just wanted to release her anger and quickly, all of her teammates greeted her, but Ana ignored most of them, she just stared at the floor with her elbows on her knees as she bounced her legs up and down. All the girls were dressed and headed out to the court to start their warmups, Ana being the last one out of the locker room, Ana, someone who was so used to being one of the tallest people in a room felt a little small compared to some of her teammates as she followed behind them.
The coach instructed the girls to begin running around the court as Ana became the last to start running, normally Ana was at the front leading the pack, but her head felt heavier and heavier with each lap around. After a few minutes, the team started drills, hitting the ball and practicing serves and returns. Ana partnered up with one of the girls taller than her as they began to hit the ball back to each other, the taller girl was attempting to talk to Ana, but again she just tuned out all the extra noise and just focused on hitting the ball only, the face of the taller girl becoming confused when Ana didn’t respond to her. Ana was losing herself in the game and it felt good, not having to think about the tiny people that now lived in her bedroom on the inexpensive rug that she bought just to fill space. Time felt like it was speeding up for Ana as the coach was already instructing the team to begin a scrimmage game, splitting up the girls into two separate teams.
The coach was watching from the sideline with his assistant as the scrimmage began, Ana positioned in the back. The practice game was underway as the team was preparing for their first real game coming up the following week. Ana was barely involved in the opening few minutes, this frustrated her, she moved herself up to the front by the net shoving her taller teammate out of the way just in time to jump up and spike the ball back down at her other teammate on the other side of the net, hitting her in the face as she collapsed on the floor. Ana was breathing heavily with a grimace and lowered eyebrows, everybody in the indoor stadium could tell she was pissed off at something, “Ana, what the hell?!” her taller teammate said. A few girls gathering around the player down on the floor covering her face as they lifted her up and comforted her.
“Ana!” the coach shouted from the sideline. Ana stood there, bent over as she slowly realized what she had just done. Her face going from a deep anger to that of shock and regret. Ana straightened her back and placed her hands on the side of her head as she closed her eyes tight, she was ashamed, Ana let her anger get the best of her again, as she had let happen in the past before she came to the United States. Ana walked over to her coach as her teammates stared at her confused. Ana placed herself next to the coach. “You will not be starting the first game, Ana, go home” the coach said as he looked into Ana’s eyes. Ana remained silent as she walked off towards the locker room to gather her things, she didn’t take the time to change as she picked up her bag and left still dressed in her volleyball outfit, she got even more looks as she walked across campus to her car.
Ana returned to apartments; she didn’t even play music on the drive back as she felt like she was on autopilot. Ana stepped through the front door as the cold air from inside the living room hit her, she was greeted by Miranda who was just exiting her room, “Hey Ana!” Miranda said excited with a bright smile on her face. Ana ignored her and walked past her straight to her room. Miranda stood in her doorway confused for a few seconds and then retreated into her room as she carefully closed the door. Ana shut her bedroom door behind her and stood at the edge of the rug, the tiny land spread out across the floor at Ana’s feet. Ana bent down on her knees, her crotch over the edge of the rug as Ana placed her hands on her head.
“Oh my god, I hope this works” Ana mumbled in Ukrainian to herself under her breath. “Miranda must be right, okay just do it…” Ana murmured to herself again, not knowing the full extent of her tiny whispers echoing across the entire land spread out before her. Anastazja began to slowly speak her number out to the tiny land, one number at a time in her thick accent. Ana looked down at the largest grey mass towards the center of the rug, she gave a forced half smile and a awkward look from her green eyes, Ana shook her head left to right quickly and stood back up to her full height as she sighed heavily. Ana stepped out of her blue Nike trainers and rested them under her desk.
She waited on her bed motionless while staring at her phone hoping something would happen. Hours had passed and the sun was starting to set in the sky while Ana was falling in and out of restless sleep. She started to get anxious while wondering why they haven’t communicated with her yet, she wanted to know about them, about the people she crushed, and about how their lives are. Ana felt frustration again, trying to battle it away by thinking of her home country and her favorite memories, but it was becoming harder to remember them. Ana scooted off the bed and stood by her door giving one quick glance at the rug. Ana stormed into Miranda’s room without knocking catching Miranda off guard lounging on her bed. “I thought you said it would work!” Ana shouted at Miranda.
“Shhh! They can hear you” Miranda whispered while pointing at Ashton City.
“I do not care” Ana said as she stepped closer to Miranda. “Why isn’t it working?” Ana asked as she threw her phone down on the end of Miranda’s bed.
“Whoa, it’s like going to be okay, Ana, I promise” Miranda said as she motioned Ana to sit down at her bed so they could talk. Miranda had been Ana’s only sincere friend since coming to the United States and Ana was hoping that she could help her snap out of the fit of anger she was going through.
*** *** ***
Meanwhile in Saint Yves the military was working on inputting the information into a transmitter, and the only viable source of communication was through an old piece of military equipment that spanned generations from their world. The text would have to be coded into an old computer, this task became incredibly tedious for the operator as the entire room would crowd around him and watch as he coded one letter at a time. The power needed to bounce the transmission off every radio tower in the country was astonishing to the people in the secret bunker.
The prime minister that established martial law was in the deep underground bunker supervising the operation, he was given authority over the men as the prime minister was very well liked across the nation. He advised the operator on what to say exactly, it was taking a while for them to agree upon an opening line to the giantess, many of the people in the bunker were angry, but they knew that a peace would have to be organized so that could focus their full efforts on trying to get back to their own place in the universe. Finally, they sent the transmission, a few sentences of text that took nearly 20 minutes to code. The minister giving the final approval to send the transmission through to the giant.
*** *** ***
Anastazja laid in Miranda’s bed on the soft plush blankets, death gripping her phone, which ironically had been used to crush a few people without Ana knowing, if she did know it would have just caused even more stress. “How long did it take them to talk to you?” Ana asked.
“Remember when we were at the Mexican restaurant?” Miranda said with a half chuckle.
“Yes” Ana said.
“That’s when they talked to me for the first time, and then like Jessica crushed that plane full of people…” Miranda said as a slight disappointed look spanned her face. “It took them only a few hours to talk to me, hopefully your city… I mean uhh… country, I guess, gets back to you” Miranda said, placing her hand on Ana’s shoulder who laid next to her side.
“I hurt too many already, they hate me, I know this…” Ana said with a low and serious tone as she turned over, burying her face into one of Miranda’s huge pink pillows.
“They’re probably figuring how to talk to you right now, don’t worry” Miranda said, now starting to rub Ana’s back in a friendly and caring demeanor, the nursing student coming out in Miranda.
“I did not ask for this, Miranda…” Ana said, curling her knees up towards her chest and still gripping the phone tightly in her hands.
“None of us did, but we have to make sure we don’t hurt anymore, god knows what Jessica does to her people… that bitch…” Miranda said. Ana mumbled something in Ukrainian again and sat in silence as Miranda continued to ponder the evilness of Jessica. Suddenly Ana’s phone vibrated as the screen lit up her face as she held it close to her chin, the noise scaring Ana as she sat up immediately, resting her back against the wall and kicking her long legs out and over the end of Miranda’s bed. A wide and genuine smile on Ana’s face as she opened the strange message.
“Hello, goddess, this is one of the leaders of the great land of Baleares, you have caused untold destruction and have struck fear into the hearts of our people. We simply want peace and understanding as we work on getting back home. Please tell us your demands so that we may not suffer your wrath again.” Ana read out loud to Miranda.
“Umm…. Goddess?” Miranda questioned. Ana and Miranda looked at each other perplexed, after a few seconds they started laughing to each other. “Hahaha oh my god, they like, think you’re a goddess.” Miranda said giggling. “Well… what are you waiting for, text them back” Miranda said.
“I… uhh… do not know what to say?” Ana said, gripping her phone with both hands as she stared at the screen.
“Well… what are you demands, Goddess haha!” Miranda let out a relatively loud chuckle and then almost immediately silenced herself out of respect for Ashton City on her desk. Ana began to type into the phone, deleting everything, and then rewriting only to delete it once more, she was starting to get frustrated, not knowing what to say to the tiny beings that lived beneath her. Ana decided she needed to be alone, well, as alone as she could be in her room that is full of millions of micro people. Ana thanked Miranda and left for her room, still holding on to her phone as she closed her own bedroom door behind her.
*** *** ***
Dust fell from the ceiling and onto terminals within the bunker, the nervous and scared people waiting patiently for a response. The quakes getting a little worse as they realized she was getting closer to the land. Meanwhile on the outskirts of the Albury crater a large group of mourners were holding a candlelight vigil in the dark to honor those lost under the foot of the woman. The massive crater spread out before them; it was immensely deep from their perspective as it went all the way down until it revealed the white of the rug hundreds of feet below. The crushed and flattened metal from buildings and cars could be seen scattered through the indentations in the earth, the broken streets cutting off where the ground started to dip into a steep decline in the concave. The salvage crews unable to venture into the canyon safely, the remainder of the destruction would just be condemned and abandoned.
The few hundred people stopped dead in their tracks as they felt a lower tremor, and another. Suddenly the massive girl came around the corner of the room, all eyes were upon her as the light revealed her legs going all the way up for miles, the people closest to her could not see beyond her chest that blocked out her face. Her bare feet coming closer to the edge of the rug, they seemed so far away, yet immediately gained all the distance in just a few short strides. The feet settled by crater beyond the canyon of the people, they straddled the area for miles in each direction as the giantess began to look down over her large chest. The people on the ground getting the full sight of her massive toes as they were barely able to see past the underside of them as they stretched up a mile into the sky.
The quakes shaking most people as they fell to the ground, dropping their things as they struggled to find stable ground to hold on to, the canyon getting wider as more dirt and debris rolled all the way down to the bottom of the huge canyon. The canyon split even more taking a few individuals as they were sent into a narrow and deep ravine only to smash against the rock and dirt hundreds of feet below. The screams from the crowd got louder as they began to run away back to their cars, some of them were upturned from the biggest tremor from earlier. People were clambering into whatever vehicle was available and driving away as quickly as possible to the next closest town.
*** *** ***
Ana stared down at the tiny landscape spread out before her toes, for a brief moment she admired the fresh blue nails curtesy of the Ashton City criminals. Anastazja was feeling all the emotions at once, regret, shame, anger, and pride. She felt bad for hurting her teammate, she felt even worse for knowing that she snuffed out an entire city, not knowing that her actions just now sent a few people deep into the ground. Ana threw her phone on her bed from where she was standing, she placed her hand on her hips and pivoted to get a better angle downwards. The emotions building even more in her head now, she didn’t want these… things here anymore, she could feel the anger building up, she thought of the message she received earlier, being called a goddess felt weirdly good to her.
She began to speak, “You have 60 days to find a way home, or find new home, or else” Ana said, her heavy accented words echoing to every single person. She decided in a split second to raise her right foot, her hands still at her hips as she curled her toes downward, she slowly lowered her toes and the ball of her foot towards the carpet placing it softly. Ana backed away and left her room, she headed towards Miranda’s room and opened the door once more shocking Miranda. “We are going out, you and me, okay?” Ana said excited, without even hearing Miranda’s response Ana closed the door, it felt like the emotions washed away, she gave the tinies her ultimatum, they were no longer her responsibly, surely, they would find a way home.
*** *** ***
Everyone watched as the foot came down, even at the capital the foot dominated most of the view as it slammed on the ground, everyone could feel the quake, the people that were attending the mourning vigil were headed full speed to the nearest town, those looked back in the rearview mirror as the flesh was the only thing they could see. As her foot made contact the immense tremor shook the cars off the road, they were sent into each other in violent crashes, or off the road to a screeching halt against the shrubbery or a tree, many people were injured and a few dozen were killed instantly from the impact.
Meanwhile at the deep underground bunker the prime minister was on a phone call with the general who had taken over control of the government. They were both speechless, 60 days was unrealistic, and the remaining scientists who didn’t go on the communication mission to the giantess’ body were few in numbers and were barely getting sleep as they worked tirelessly to understand the full scope of their predicament. The fate of the entire nation was at stake, nobody knew if the giantess was completely serious, but her raw display of divine power was clear and frightening for everyone. The prime minister and the operator discussing the next thing to transmit to the giantess, however they all agreed to wait until the morning as they wanted to be home with their families in this terrifying and trying time.
*** *** ***
Ana and Miranda excitedly walked out of the apartments, both feeling great, their friendship growing even more now that Ana finally felt a little freer, the word goddess kept repeating in her head as she let out a confident smile while getting in her car, the music came on and Miranda sang along as they went out for a quick and easy dinner to talk about their lives and the lives that they controlled as goddesses. The fate of an entire nation rested in Ana’s hands as she was hoping they could figure out how to find somewhere else to go within 2 months… or else...