Chapter 2: Procedures

The quakes continued and it wasn’t long till everyone in the boardroom crowded at the windows. None were afraid of the building collapsing from a simple quake, but that didn’t exactly sooth and nerves. Everyone in the city wondered what was going on, but the executives, being in the tallest building Lilyork City possessed, were some of the first to see the source of those disorienting tremors.

Steps. The quakes were the result of steps. Far on the horizon they saw those dark, divine pillars of legs moving through their country with carefree ease. They led to absolutely titanic feet, clad in black high-heels. Soon, those shoes were most anyone in the city could see. They loomed right at the very edge of the city as harbingers of doom.

One blonde executive spoke up, panic in her voice.

“It’s a Brobdingnagian! What is she doing here, this is highly illegal this-”

“Won’t be our problem soon enough.”, said Mr. Gonzalez. “I’m not about to die here, and if you’re smart, none of you will too.”

The man turned from the window and looked at a sharply dressed, bulky physique man donned with sunglasses.

“You there,”, he started. “We’re gonna make our way to the courtyard. Run to the communications room to rely that message; I know signals are down, but if anyone knows some way to get messages through to my private air-staff, it’d be them.”

The security staffer moved to leave, but the CEO called out again.

“Wait, also, before that, tell all other building security to meet us down there. Once the common rabble on the streets--not to mention the lesser employees--notice we have the means to evacuate, they might try to shove their way in to snag a spot on my private helicopters. We can’t have that now, can we?”

That sun-glasses wearing man nodded, then moved off.

Ms. Robinson--that meek looking brunette--adjusted her glasses before speaking up.

“Isn’t being out in the open dangerous, Mr. Gonzalez? Might it be better to hide in the building's basement, or perhaps even deeper?”

Mr. Gonzalez scoffed just as another one of the executives chimed up. It was a vulture-looking man: bald head, with gnarled facial features.

“C’mon now hun, if that Brobdingnagian means to break the city, she’s surely gonna target the tallest building. Can’t go deeper than a basement either. How would we? Underground? City protocol forbids hiding in sewers or the like during disasters unless there’s a municipal order to do so. This is basic Lilyork civics.”

He laughed a tad, as did the other ass-kissers of Mr. Gonzalez’s executive board. But, Mr. Gonzalez seemed less amused when he spoke.

“Correct Mr. Smith. I don’t pay for a CFO to be countermanded by them. Unless you want to try and hide in the sewer like the other peasants of this city, Ms. Robinson, you’ll come along with the rest of us.”

He grit his teeth and raised his arm in an exaggerated gesticulation.

“And if I hear another word out of you all the while, you’ll be fired on the spot, and non-employees don’t have a seat on my private helicopters. Now, let’s waste no more time. Is that understood?”

Ms. Robinson bowed her head in a defeated nod. Mr. Gonzalez smirked, showing those shiny white teeth of his. They and all the other executives hurriedly shuffled out the door to the private elevators.

--==--==--==--

Lachelle had paused right at the city’s borders. The very tips of her high heels nearly crept into that gray line separating city from highways: the latter of which was smashed a good deal beneath the unfathomable weight of her absolutely monolithic body.

She sighed, then spoke aloud and into her headset.

“So, just to confirm, it’s that skyscraper over there, isn’t it?”

The Brobdingnagian woman was looking straight ahead at the Lilliadventures HQ. It was by far the tallest building in the city, and on top of that it had an entire few blocks worth of space around it as a courtyard. That kind of real estate was a real premium in the crowded Lilyork city. It was arguably worth that area in gold, in fact.

“That is correct.”, said Himari Yamamoto. “It’s the tallest building in the city: over 2000ft.”

Lachelle let loose a tiny scoff.

“It looks like it’d barely come up past my ankles.”

“The measurement is in Lilliputian feet, so that’s to be expected.”

The courtyard space had a few buildings of its own within. Squinting her hardest, Lachelle could make out only a couple of them. She saw a rather wide looking building, flat, and pointed it out.

“Ah.”, said Himari. “Seems the company’s owner and CEO, Mr. Gonzalez, has a personal airport of sorts. That could be a problem if we need to intercept any crafts. With connection and communications signals down, I’m sure we will have plenty of time. Just proceed as normal.”

“Alright then.”, said Lachelle. She pulled up her purse. The metal of the Lilliputian-filled bracelet of hers glimmered in the gentle afternoon sun with that sudden shift of her arm. She unzipped that ‘little’ pink bag of hers and peered into it.

“You’re all ready in there, I hope?”, she said with a grin.

--==--==--==--

With that speedy private elevator, Mr. Gonzalez and the other executives made it to the courtyard in no time. The standard security measures of the property--some tall, spiky fences--were holding up thus far at keeping anyone from the streets out. There was plenty of space to themselves.

The CEO and the others arrived before security did, and thus had the wide, concrete-paved courtyard to themselves. The hanger building with the private helicopters stood a few hundred feet to their left, with a view of the fence and the city past it due in front. An ornate fountain hung near the fence-gate near where all the employees would enter. It was, of course, locked down.

Naturally, to kill time, the executives craned their necks to gawk at the giant 6 mile tall woman standing at the edge of the city. The feet were most anyone could see, and it was well over a mile to her knees. Still, at their distance of miles, they could just barely make out some of her outfit: an enormous black skirt and just the very hem of a white, short-sleeved blouse. At least, that’s what they thought it was.

“It’s absurd to think that people like that actually exist on our planet.”, said one man.

“Oh my, we’re all doomed.”, said that blonde-haired executive from earlier.

“Nonsense.”, said the ever confident Mr. Gonzalez. “We’ll be fine.”

With a rush of displaced air, that Brobdingnagian woman crouched down to her haunches.

“She’s reaching in for something there, in her purse!”, spoke another executive.

Mr. Gonzalez tilted his head at the sight. Others did the same, or gasped--or did both.

“Are those... Gulliverians?”

The CEO’s trailed off at the strange sight. The Brobdingnagian woman’s hand had reached into her purse and snagged a handful of living, breathing Gulliverians. She then causally settled the back of her hand just outside the city. The motion flattened a few more highways into the ground beneath her knuckles.

Out from that hand came some variably-styled but invariably sharply-dressed women. Each one had a tablet computer with a handle in one hand. Their other hands were typically used to brush themselves off from their ‘landing’ of a few Gulliverian feet. That done, they stomped off across the city streets.

Littler quakes rung out as those Gulliverian women spread out across the city. All the while, the Brobdingnagian woman reached in for another handful of them, and then one more before she set her open purse down at the city’s edge. By then, the first two handfuls of these well-dressed Gulliverians had made their way pretty deep into the city. Their steps left high-heeled or flats-shaped indents into the concrete of the roads. Many of the prints were filled with crushed cars or red dots.

Said Gulliverians would stop at buildings from time to time, take pictures with their tablets, note things down with a stylus, then move on.

The executives were able to make out some of what those Gulliverians were up to: enough to be horrified.

“My word, what sort of horrible things are they doing? What could possibly be the purpose of this?”, said one older executive woman.

“I’m not sure.”, said another. “But whoever they are, they seem evil.”

--==--==--==--

“Alright, lawyers deployed.”, said Lachelle.

“Noted, and good.”, said Himari curtly. “They’ve already gotten started assessing the city’s property value. As usual, we’ll be on top of any exaggerated damage claims from the Lilliputian government before the bureaucrats even make them.”

“We haven’t lost a bill challenge with them yet, have we?”

“Indeed, you’re correct Lachelle.”, said Himari. “Though that doesn’t mean we’ve haven’t had high bills before. They assess the aftermath as well, which reflects on you.”

“It’s not as though they don’t also cause damage.”, retorted Lachelle.

“Please, Lachelle, you are over a hundred times their height. Besides, they are professionals: stepping on the cheaper-to-ameliorate Lilliputians over their expensive buildings just makes financial sense. Plus, by hiring female lawyers only, they take up less space. Less accidental building bumps in the streets. Anyways, mind your steps best you can.”

“Of course.” said Lachelle. With that, she lifted her foot as though to take a step in the city.

--==--==--==--

The executives, already thoroughly humbled by the movements of giant women in the city, felt another rush of air as Lachelle rose back to her full height.

Their little ears could barely make out her booming voice. They only gleamed a few words.

“Lawyers? Bill challenge? What do you think she meant by tha-Aaaa!”

That same skittish blonde executive from earlier broke out into a scream. Others followed her lead or simply gasped. Across the city similar sentiments rung out.

The Brobdingnagian woman had lifted one of her high-heeled feet up into the air. The sole of that shoe hung over numerous blocks. Each Gulliverian lawyer was near 500ft to the diminutive Lilliputians. Yet, to a Brobdingnagian, that sub-species of human seemed but an inch tall.

Though each Gulliverian could easily flatten a few buses in but one step, that Brobdingnagian high-heel stretched long and wide enough o flatten a swath of city blocks beneath its bottom. The heel alone could probably flatten a block or a few, and the entire shoed foot was heading down to the metropolis.

A swarm of panicked Lilliputians ran through the siren swarmed city below it’s shadow. It seemed like the end for them.

Then, the heel stopped right in the air. That gigantic Brobdingnagian woman paused her step there, letting her foot hang for a few terrifying and confusing moments.

--==--==--==--

“Stop!”, said Himari. Her tone was, of course, professional, but the word was rushed and loud.

“What is it?”, said Lachelle. She had done as Himari said and paused her step.

“The heels, they won’t work. How unprofessional of me to not check even sooner. The tech team in your bracelet just ran some numbers, those have to come off.”

“Really, again?”, said Lachelle. Despite the verbal protest, her step already moved back before the city’s border. In front and beneath her, some Lilliputians breathed a sigh of relief. A sigh that was all too soon.

“Yes.”, said Himari. “You’ll need to go barefoot again. Those heels weigh many thousands of Lilliputian tons. The city and the buildings within were designed by Lilliputians to their standards. They’ll add too much additional depth to your footprints, and the heel of them will focus too much of your weight to the city. It’ll blow the water and gas lines underneath.”

Lachelle frowned. “I should’ve worn flats like you then.”, she said. She then bent one leg back and, in a terrifying display of balance to the Lilliputian’s below, began to take off her left high-heel.

“No, that wouldn't have worked either. Same issue, just less magnitude. And yes, you’re going to rupture a few utility lines anyways, but it’s about minimizing costs, not removing it from the equation entirely.”

“Yeah yeah I get you Himari.”

“Mrs. Yamamoto.”, reminded Himari.

Lachelle smiled a tad then finished yanking that high-heel free. As a sort of ‘protest’ to having to take them off, she set it down without looking. The heel of it crushed a gas station near a highway behind here while the toe of it came down thousands of feet past it to flatten a few roads beneath its smooth black bottom.

The Brobdingnagian's woman freshly bare foot crashed back down to the ground and she removed her other high-heel shoe, placing it down side by side with the other.

The pleasant breeze hit her toes, which she wiggled in response. That drummed up a few more quakes, and earned some curt glances from the lawyers scurrying through veritable carpet of a city below her.

“Ready, Misses Yamamoto?”

“Good.”, said Himari. “You may begin.”

Lachelle took a step into the city and this time, she actually intended to complete it.