Chapter 3: Approach
The Lilliputians looked up in horror as the Brobdingnagian’s foot returned, now bare. The red polish of her toes shined in the sun for just a moment, but the top of the foot quickly moved out of sight as the entire ped angled for a coming step.
The expanse of pinkish sole stretched for nearly a mile. Her foot alone was nearly one Lilliputian mile of flesh in length. Every winkle was something they could get stuck in. Every whorl on her toe print an elaborate, enormous design like some curious form of art. It was all heading towards them.
The buildings surrounding those Lilliputians were the first to meet that foot. Sturdy metal and concrete structures broke against that unyielding sole. They didn’t even buckle so much as break, instantly, like a sand sculpture just turning to rocky dust.
Debris fell all around them. Shadows covered them as that oppressive foot drew nearer, snuffing out more and more light as it drew closer to snuffing them out. They’d be flattened, crushed out and hardly noticed if noticed at all. All that for one step from the largest type of being on the planet.
The step finished. A wiggle of those titanic toes trailed a few mini-quakes to follow after the tremendous tremor that deadly step had wrought. Of course, the city was very earthquake resistant. However, no high tech materials or girder latticing could protect the city, its buildings, or its people from collapsing under a Brobdingnagian foot.
Lachelle wasn’t here to just step on the city. This wasn’t a show of force or anything like that. It was business. She was here to pick up an asset for Oshie Corp.
And thus, she took yet another devastating step.
Another bare Brobdingnagian foot, the right one this time, loomed over another pristine swath of the city. It was just a second or so till it fell. The Lilliputians below hadn’t even had time to scream before they burst into red mist against that hazelnut-skinned woman’s sole. Hundreds more died from the collapses of buildings near the impact of the foot. Their last views, should they have gazed up, were at the black lacy undergarments she wore beneath that skirt.
Lilliadventures HQ was deep into the city, at the other half of it really. Lilyork was one of the biggest Lilliputian metropolises, so even a Brobdingnagian like Lachelle had to take more than just *two* steps to get there.
As Lachelle moved, so too did the Gulliverian lawyers stomping around. They had no regard for the Lilliputians themselves, only their structures. One Lilliputian skyscraper was worth thousands of times more money than a Lilliputian person when it came time for the company to actually pay.
So, the lawyers had no qualms about flattening running or begging Lilliputians beneath their heels or flats. The vehicles, too, were easily flattened like tin cans beneath shoes that were over 70ft or so to the Lilliputians. Time was money, after all, and the lawyer women didn’t bother to adjust their steps less efficiently just to spare some Lilliputian lives.
On top of that, to be a lawyer was a stressful career with long hours in feet-hurting footwear. Few of those women, as a byproduct of candidate selection for their jobs, would pass up popping a Lilliputian under foot to pass the time or relieve some stress.
Indeed, one rather meek looking bespectacled lawyer was causing quite a massacre in the street she was assessing. Despite her gorgeous looks and golden blonde hair, she was quite the monster, and seemed to deliberately flatten a cluster of Lilliputians here or there almost whenever she had the chance. Of course, as a professional, she knew the limits of pushing-her-luck on an expense report, but the smile she shot her victims below let them know she knew exactly what she was doing between snapping photos of buildings and such.
It was more satisfying that way, she found.
Naturally, all those Gulliverian lawyers stomping about made Lilliputians want to run away from them. However, Lachelle didn’t exactly want to step on any fellow employees, even if they were smaller than her. So, also naturally, she would step where the lawyers weren’t, which was precisely where the Lilliputians would flee towards more often than not.
Thus, in the process of recording property values and damages, the Gulliverian lawyer task force indirectly corralled the Lilliputians to their dooms. So, in minimizing expenses for Oshie Corp, both Lachelle and the lawyer team had maximized the amount of Lilliputian causalities beneath every soft and awe-inspiringly destructive step of Brobdingnagian feet.
That’s just how things often were with this sort of business.
Just one of Lachelle’s crater-like foot prints put the Gulliverian ones to shame. Her steps were very impactful, and very expensive. It was unavoidable for her to flatten swaths of the city. But, it’d all be worth it in Oshie Corporation's eyes once they got to the target. Just a couple more steps and Lachelle would be there.
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“Where the fuck are those helicopters?”, barked Mr. Gonzalez towards the security staff. They had just arrived and formed a protective perimeter at the front of the executives. Due ahead, some Lilliputian citizens were trying to get into the courtyard, but the fence kept most of them out, and the few good climbers were simply knocked off the fence by security.
The security staffer Mr. Gonzalez was talking to spoke curtly with the barest tone of apology in his voice.
“I’m sorry Mr. Gonzalez, but with communication systems offline we don’t know. I assume the pilots will fly over when ready.”
The CEO gripped those ring-decorated fingers of his tight into a fist. “They better.”, he said, then near fell over from another booming quake.
They saw in the distance how her steps hearkened clouds of debris and cries of despair. Each dark-skinned foot’s rise and fall was an absolute disaster in its own right.
It was only internal denial that kept him and many of the other executives from stating the obvious for quite some time. Eventually, one of them did. That vulture-like older executive.
“S-she’s coming this way.”, he said.
“No no”, said another executive. “She can’t be.”
“She is, those feet are pointed right towards us. Just look at them.”
“I can’t bear to look!” spoke that blonde haired woman again. “We’re all gonna die. It was my vacation next week too, it’s not fair.”
“Quite everyone!”, spoke an older woman’s voice--another executive of course. “The helicopters will be here soon.”
She had glossed over the notion that they were the target. It seemed to be the case, more and more, with every step of that giant Brobdingnagian woman. Each one drew her closer and closer. Soon they could make out every detail of the buildings popping beneath her toes or under an unyielding heel. Soon, each quake knocked them over onto their butts. Yes, she was coming for them.
“Security, protect me!”, shouted Mr. Gonzalez.
The security staff turned to each other. Beneath their dark glasses were eyes marked with confusion. How could they possible defend against a Brobdingnagian?
“Is the company’s life insurance policy not generous enough? Protect us you fools!”, barked Mr. Gonzalez once more.
Said security staff did the best they could: they moved to the front of the executives, drew sidearms of some kind, and readied themselves to defend the company VIPs. The Brobdingnagian spoke some more words, presumably into a headset, they all assumed, as they couldn’t imagine their tiny selves catching her notice. None were stable enough, physically or mentally, to think and try to make out said words.
Lachelle’s next step had her bare foot fall right in front of the courtyard gates. In just one step of hers, all the screams of those Lilliputians trying to get in were silenced. They all disappeared beneath her toes, with countless blocks behind those digits flattened as her sole hit the ground.
The other foot settled right by that one’s side, and, finally at her destination, Lachelle sat on her haunches for a closer look at the target.
The security staff started firing, aiming at her toes and the bare dark skin of her legs. A few even aimed at her knees as she loomed over them with her semi-sitting posture.