Wind rushed through my body as the blurring scenery filled my senses with stimulation I couldn’t begin to process, but this was how I got my thrill. The world came to an abrupt halt and I rolled to my own stop on a steep cliff face, barely holding onto the small, metal pole that secured me to the ground. A small chuckle broke the still air as I tried to relieve the tension in my nerves. I almost died. Like, for real. I pulled my leg away from the edge and stepped back onto the wooden platform before looking down at the long drop to the stoney floor. 

“Eyes on the target,” I muttered as I watched my prey cross through the threshold just a little way west of my position. 

Or, maybe it was east? Nah, it felt north. Then again, every forward feels north so I guess north would be the original position of- it didn’t matter! The world suddenly shifted again as my perch started to pivot back into its secure frame and all it took was three steps and a leap for me to be airborne. This was it. The swan dive of death and not even my own death. 

This was it. The time to turn the tables. The time to get the upper hand. That rare time I got serious. The world seemed to slow as I began my descent and I found the time to look at the beauty of the world around me. The world of giants, no place for me, but it had some badass decor. Now, to the untrained eye, it just looked like a scaled up version of the normal human culture, but to me, it was so much more than that. It was a reminder that none of we did was exclusive. We used to think the human race was untouchable. We weren’t. 

We were insignificant. Just a world of weaklings breaking our backs just to gain the next step towards our deaths. Bugs. Worthless. But I was sick of it. I was about to express that. With a narrow window slowly closing, I dove faster and straightened my body to slip through the narrow gap in the slowly closing opening in the giantess’s bag. I curled into a ball and bounced to a stop on the large synthetic canvas that acted as the perfect way to break my decent. 

“In position,” I whispered as I pulled the small needle off my waist and shoved it through the silky fabric to give myself a window. 

I watched the world soar by as the giant set her bag on a small kitchen island before walking out of the area. I was in. I pulled myself out of the confines and slid down the slick surface onto the cold marble of the countertop. Just as planned, there was enough food to feed the whole-... er, well, feed me. As if on instinct, I moved for the snacks set up on the table, but stopped just short as I noticed the cutting board ahead of me and the knife looming over head. I moved the eye of the needle to my free hand and casually ran a thread through it before tying it off to my torso and pulling back the sharp point like a spear. 

With a good throw and a quick tug, I knocked down the blade and carefully crossed its steel blade which spanned the length of about a car to me. I didn’t get this far without being cautious. With needle resheathed, I moved over to the food, but stopped as I saw my reflection in the smooth plastic protecting the pack of snack cakes. What had I become? A pair of tired, brown eyes on an unshaven face. My once kept brown hair now messy and greasy. Too many stains covering what was left of my labcoat to count. 

“Yikes,” I muttered as I plopped down to the countertop, “I guess the loneliness is getting to me more than I thought.” 

I stopped as I looked down to my calloused hands and scarred body before sighing. 

“Fuck it. Who cares?” 

It wasn’t hard to split through the plastic and squirm through the hole I made and I was suddenly in snack heaven. This was where I wanted to go when I died. Not that it lasted too long. I was very suddenly grabbed without warning by the ankle and pulled backwards to the point where I landed on my stomach on the cold stone of the table top. A razor sharp edge pressed down lightly on my back to deliver a point. 

“Who the hell are you?” a woman asked as I slowly turned around to see another human. 

She was covered from head to toe in makeshift armor forged from everything from old cans to buckles off watches. In her hand was a long sewing needle with a razorblade strapped to the end of it and pointed at my chest. 

I thought very carefully before I spoke and said, “My name is Ryder. I’m just a guy trying to find some food. Starving isn’t on my agenda.” 

She scoffed before lowering her weapon and holding out an iron clad hand for me. She pulled me off the ground before looking me over. 

“Hazel,” she introduced, “You haven’t gotten used to this yet, have you?” she asked.
“I mean, I feel like I have,” I defended and scratched the back of my head, “Actually, how did you get here?”
“Here?” she asked, “How do you think? I walked.”
I sighed, “No, here. Ya know? The planet?”
“Planet?” she asked, “Kid, we’re still on earth ya know.” 

I nearly passed out when she said that. 

“That’s…” I muttered, “That’s the best fucking thing I’ve heard in my whole life!” I exclaimed before hugging her and quickly backing off, “H-How do you know?”
She shrugged, “How do you not?”
“Well, teleporter gone wrong, blacked out, woke up in a forest of grass, you make assumptions.”
“Huh,” she muttered, “Well, I was awake the whole time I was being zapped down to the size of an ant. It kinda hurt.”
“Well,” I started, “If we are on earth, then my lab is still here and that means I can get to the teleporter and reverse whatever happened to me- er, uh, us now, I suppose.” 

She stopped for a second before dropping her head. 

“Wait,” she said suddenly, “Are you saying you caused this?”
I felt like the full truth would get me decapitated, so I lied, “No! No, of course not. I was just a lab rat in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was the subject, not the inventor.”
“Damn it,” she muttered, “I was hoping to bash in the skull of whoever played god with me.” 

It seemed like playing innocent was the right call, but guilt did start to eat at me once I realized that there were others living through hell because of my experiment. She suddenly looked back up towards me with a forced smile before gently punching me in the arm. 

“But if you can fix us,” she said, chipper, but faux chipper, “Then I might get my wish!” 

I swallowed heavy as my throat suddenly felt very dry, but it wasn’t the tension of the conversation or even the lie, no, it was… an ominous feeling of being watched from an all too powerful gaze. My blood froze in my veins as I followed the shadow up from Hazel’s feet across the countertop to the large body of a woman looking over us. Her very presence seemed to suck the light out of the room and leave nothing but a dark shadow that she cast with her immeasurable mass. 

My body tingled as my skin crawled and my hair stood on end which left a warm, staticy feeling in my skull of adrenaline trying to move my body against my will. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t. My legs wouldn’t move. All I managed was a point. Hazel seemed to realize without turning around. We were spotted and, as far as my experience went, that meant we were dead.