Chapter 13: Behind the Scenes

2 regulars remain

Joel spotted a closed door on his left quickly springing into action knowing she was about to tear this place apart. He jumped over Andrea's corpse and grabbed Lisa's body and threw her over his shoulder. - "You better be alive..." he muttered whilst firing his foot into the handle area of the door as his body weight carried him forwards it flew open and ricocheted off the wall from the impact allowing him to sprint up the empty corridor.

A guard presented themselves at the end of the corridor as he carried Lisa on his shoulder.

"HEY. STOP RIGHT THERE." the guard commanded whilst lifting the firearm up to him, the entire building shook violently causing lights to flicker, the guard fell into the door frame. Joel had plenty of experience dealing with the earthquakes of footfalls, he quickly lowered Lisa to the ground and sprinted forwards barreling his shoulder into the guard's masked face. They both collapsed on the floor struggling, the guard clutched their firearm tight as it slowly turned closer to Joel by the second.

Thrusting his head forward Joel crashed his skull into the guard's mask, grabbing the guard's wrist and throwing it by his side, the firearm released and skidded across the floor. He kicked it backward with his foot further down the corridor. He put the guard into a headlock and tried to remove the oxygen from his brain. The guard vanished from his grip as he got loose, Joel turned to anticipate an attack only to be met with nothing, he looked up the corridor to see Lisa's bloodied face pointing the firearm in his direction.

Joel looked at the ground to see the tiny guard walking backward away from him, he quickly ran up the corridor as the minimized guard scurried away to safety. Picking up Lisa and putting her arm over his shoulder. - "Thank god you're alive." he said.

"Thank me next." she mumbled through her blooded mouth, her head was wobbling struggling to place one foot in front of the other. Her body was barely functional it was a miracle she was able to land that shot. The building shook again causing them to bounce into the wall whilst holding each other.

"What.. the hell... is going on.. how- how are we alive?" Lisa looked up at Joel unable to open her eyes from being swollen.

"It's a long story but there's a giant on the loose." Joel explained as he kicked down a door, presenting the duo to a room filled with guards, they were frantically throwing their hands around panicking, in front of them were screens of the various game rooms. They turned around slowly to look at the open door looking at two of the competitors from the games wielding their special firearms, there were five of them.

Joel threw himself and Lisa backward whilst firing once forward hitting a guard. He rolled both him and Lisa around the corner as beams came flying out the door, he peeked and shot a few times, their room with effectively a corridor with no cover, they were like sitting ducks as he minimized all of them. He handed Lisa the gun as he lifted her back up to her feet to support her. - "Hold this. We're going through here."

They stumbled through the door watching the screens on the way past, inspecting one that showed two guards in a room they hadn't seen looking up, screams could be heard from the mini TV as a boot landed on them crushing them, the camera rigorously shaking then turning fully static from the damages. The building shook at the same time causing them to nearly fall over again. He noticed labels on all the the mini screens, they could use this as an escape guide

He lifted Lisa's arm off his shoulder and lightly lowered her towards the ground against a wall again, she landed on top of a guard crushing them. Her head dinked against the wall behind her unable to move most of her muscles. Joel frantically inspected the labels, the TV that just went out was labeled "CC", that's where Mineko went but this "Arthur" also left in that direction so it was likely a way out.

As Joel tried to figure out their direction Lisa was looking at a minimized guard on her right staring at her. - "Not nice is it?" she said bringing her hand up, charging up her finger one behind the other and pinging the guards head, it vanished into thin air generating a red mist as the body collapsed. Lisa sighed as she closed her eyes again.

"Okay. Okay. Okay. We're going now, Lisa. Let's go." the pair set off again through more sets of doors blasting every guard in their way.

"Why aren't... why aren't you killing the guards." Lisa breathed out the words with pain in her chest, her eyes constantly opening and closing. Joel knew most of them were doing the devil's work and they probably deserved worse, but he couldn't shake the idea that some of them were like Mineko even though it was horribly unlikely.

"It's a long story, Lis. Just keep moving." he encouraged her as he trod along, if she went any slower then Joel would be dragging her across the floor himself. The pair travelled from room to room, as they reached further away from the noise they started noticing considerably less guards and the detail in the rooms drastically decreased, the cleanliness dropped.

Joel bashed through what he believed to be the last door falling into a damp black room, it smelled like stained carpets and old furniture, the sick yellow light struggling to illuminate the room as it flickered frantically. It was similar to the room he was in with Mineko days ago but it wasn't the same layout. Both of them stopped in front of a sign on a set of double doors.

Destination Zone: In order to cross this region you must have a note from your supervisor as well as a growth serum. Do not exit this point without a growth serum.

Attempting to make sense of it Joel thought deeply- were they talking to minimized, this sign wasn't even readable from the floor. He couldn't figure it out for the life of him. - "Fuck this. Worth a shot." he bashed into the door but it didn't budge, instead having to lower Lisa to the floor once again. He kicked again and again but the door was incredibly sturdy. - "Open. Up. You. Bit-" he blasted through the door shattering the hinges as it collapsed from the door frame, he rolled over the door on the floor skidding on his chest.

Surprised at the outcome of the door not intending to remove it from its frame. - "That's one way to open a door." he whispered under his breath, quickly jumping to his feet he looked at the room he had entered, the so-called 'Destination Zone'. It was a monolithic room with no end in sight, stretching so far into the distance that he couldn't see where it ended in the horizon. Turning to jump back inside and lift Lisa once more.

The two made their way across the matte white floor as a light glared at them from the sky, there was no wind and there looked like distant walls, they couldn't be outside. It simply couldn't be anything other than a gigantic room. A giant black boot stomped into their view in the distance as it leaped over the building they had just left behind, they stopped in their tracks, distracted by the sight of Mineko looking up above at her scarred Asian face, her eyes met theirs as she violently stomped towards them.

Joel sensed murderous intent in her walking throwing his hands up causing Lisa to collapse to the floor as her support released her. The grips of Mineko's shoes went to work as she came to a grinding halt looking deeper at the pair. - "Joel! I thought you'd left already." she shouted from above, his theory was terrifying confirmed, she was two seconds away from removing their lives from existence had he not called out to her.

Mineko turned and press onto the wall in the distance. - "Quickly, leave through this door." she nonchalantly spoke the word "door". 

"Did she just say door?" Joel asked Lisa who couldn't piece together much of what he was saying.

The duo reached the door frame which was a slight bump for them, forcing them to climb upwards, it was a black strip that contrasted the white walls and floor as it travelled upwards around the frame. Joel looked over Lisa's arm wrapped around his shoulder to inspect the facility behind them one last time before they left the vicinity. He watched Mineko going to town on the large facility, she frantically stomped everything flat like cardboard, her hands were tightened into fists as she did so.

A man came running out a set of double doors, a different set that they escaped from. As he ran through the door frames he fell to his knees, two guards desperately picking him up from each arm to his feet and rushing him across the floor. They watched behind at the giant as she was distracted, letting out her rage. Joel identified the man as the leader from earlier Mineko called 'Arthur', Joel quickly moving closer to the edge of the door frame to conceal him and Lisa from him, he was incredibly dangerous to their wellbeing, instead watching to see if the man would escape and how.

Arthur turned to the guard on his left. - "Do you have the jabs?" to which the guard nodded reaching into his back pocket to slowly reveal two syringes. The two guards looked at each other as Arthur snatched one of them for himself. - "Just hurry up and decide who is staying behind. The guard without the syringe just looked slowly at his guard partner, somehow able to sense defeat in his body language.

The guard who brought the serums walked forward with Arthur as they both jabbed themselves in the neck, causing them to skyrocket into size as they passed through the door frame. Mineko spotted a black figure passing through the door behind her as she ignored the facility below her and chased after him.

Joel waved his hands once more hoping to get her attention, Mineko removed her gloves from her hands throwing them to the side as she quickly darted to the floor sweeping the pair up in her soft skinny left hand. She removed the guard assigned white firearm from her belt. Shooting straight down the corridor outside the room at Arthur and his guard, the shot was perfect in its direction for Arthurs back, instead clipping the guard who was blocking him causing him to vanish into the floor. Arthur shot through the door ahead closing it behind him.

The trio travelled through the newer and bigger facility. - "What the hell is going on?!" Joel shouted above to Mineko.

"The games facility is already minimized." she said without looking down at him, her head frantically moving in all directions as she checked corridors that crossed into theirs to avoid being shot.

"An- and you knew this?" Joel shrieked in surprise, this was important information he felt he needed to know.

"Of course I did." she explained whilst trying to focus on not being minimized.

Mineko safely moved them to the door Arthur just left from, deliberately repositioning her boot as she jogged to hit the guard below who held up his feeble arms as the boot treads compressed him into the clean matte floor below, the crushing noise audible to the pair in her left hand.

She peeked her head into the next corridor briefly seeing two guards at the end facing her with firearms, on her right were some elites who frantically ran out of a room and up the corridor towards the guards as quickly as possible, many noticing Mineko in the left door frame as they passed by. Many assumed she was just another guard and not the reason they were being evacuated.

The trio watched all these people dressed in lavish and expensive clothing running for their lives, women coated in sparkly dresses, some still holding champagne glasses, and men in pristinely tailored tuxedos. One such man came sprinting out stopping in front of Mineko's door frame as her eyes widened looking at the man's face, he frantically darted his head around him searching for someone? - "Lily? Oh gosh, Lily where are you, darling?" Instead, his gaze fell upon Mineko's as she stood to her feet pointing the firearm at him from a different room as people bumped into him passing through the corridor which he was now frozen in the middle of.

"Hey, E. Remember me?" Mineko smirked. The old man stared, petrified of the scarred face that threatened him. His fancy mustache and stubble added to his aesthetic, combined with his monocle he looked like a retired billionaire whether he was or wasn't.

"Mi- mi. I mean- how could I ever forget you?" E responded whilst swallowing, Mineko's existence seemed to shock him to his core, why was everyone so scared of this woman? thought Joel.

"I'm mainly here to kill Arthur, but I'll take a bonus." firmly clutching the trigger on her weapon, E lifted his hands in panic.

"Wait!" he shouted with his eyes tightened shut, disappearing into the ground below. E looked around him as the stampede of elites rushed past him, running to his left as a pointy black leather shoe crashed in his way causing him to fall to his ass, his nerves doing him no favors as he shook in terror turning in the opposite direction towards Mineko. He ran for the wall of safety his path becoming blocked again as a sparkly expensive high heel stomped in front of him. E turned once again running back into the middle, he looked up the corridor as a middle-aged woman stomped onto him, he sat between the sole and heel of the expensive high heel as it barely missed him.

A woman exited the room looking around for someone instead of following the flow of the crowd. - "Edgar! Oh, Edgar! Where have you gone?" she called out for E as he watched her from below, she tutted accepting that he had left her behind and escaped, saving himself. She strutted forward driving her high-heeled foot onto his body, his spine snapped in half as the weight collided with him bending him the wrong way, folding him like a chair, and crushing both halves of his body into each other leaving a mangled half of a man below. She felt nothing as she picked up her pace quickly making her way to the end of the corridor towards the guards who held the corner waiting for Mineko to pop out.

Mineko dropped Lisa & Joel on the floor next to the door frame. - "I need both my hands for this." she took note of the free cover she was receiving from these people, she threw herself onto her right shoulder into the corridor pointing the gun downrange as she supported it tightly with both hands gripping the handle. She let them have it, shooting consistently down the corridor, the guards returned fire but much slower trying not to hit the rich elites.

Mineko hit many of the elites as they made their way down the corridor, many of them started sprinting instead hoping not to be minimized as the people around them vanished into the ground. Down below tens of people ended up stomping and crushed from the stampede, many became aware of their fellow viewers who they'd squished into the floor unable to stop they kept sprinting mashing them up further.

Mineko couldn't get a good shot, the elites may have acted as good cover but that went both ways, she was unable to land a shot on the guards. The flood from the room behind had stopped, one last woman ran out, Mineko took her opportunity grabbing the woman by the neck and using her as a human shield. She walked up the corridor slowly hiding behind the woman's body, she looked glamorous and young, likely abroad for an older rich man. Unable to comprehend this mess, Mineko really didn't want to hurt her. - "What's your name?" Mineko whispered into the young woman's ear. - "Sofia..." she cried, feeling the weapon on her back, little did this woman know that it was a shrinking device and not a real gun, thinking she was going to be shot dead.

Joel followed them clutching the wall away from the center of the corridor for safety, dragging Lisa along behind him. He saw all the people in front of them at their size- suffering, some viscera was off-putting as entire unrecognizable ribcages were seen. They saw the corpse of a man, his skull fully intact but from the chest down to his knees was flattened. A woman crawled along with the floor mumbling without her legs, Joel shuddered. It didn't matter who this happened to he just couldn't stomach it.

Lisa pushed herself off Joel's shoulder, standing on her own. - "Are you okay?" he asked, her mouth agape and eyes wide as she saw the violence of the minimized for the first time at normal size, the detail was unmatched to anything she had seen before. It was almost as if the shock of the violence has cured her as she stumbled forward towards the crawling woman, she took the woman's hand as she drooled blood.

"Help..." the woman let out as the glint in her eyes faded forever.

"This... this is... I-" Lisa couldn't even find the words to describe this situation that she was experiencing. Bodies littered the corridor, in conditions that ranged from fully in-tact sprinting down the corridor crying to human liquid. Joel approached her from behind and took her shoulder. - "I know. I know. Try not to look." he supported her.

Her eyes looked into his, Joel could sense her innocence was shattered. - "This is what you... what you saw.. everyday?" her lip trembled. He nodded in return as they kept moving forward, he held both of her shoulders as they progressed alongside the two giant pairs of feet on their right.

A giant black pair of boots belonging to Mineko shuffled along behind a pair of soft-looking bare feet, they took dainty steps as they moved as slow as possible up the corridor, Sofia high heels dangled from their strap above in her fingers. Mineko quickly took the girl's shoulder throwing her around in a 180 spin so that she was facing the Asian guard, Mineko looked at her eyes still pushing forward which was now backward for the young woman, known as Sofia.

Sofia spotted the strange gun in the scary Asian woman's hand realizing she was trying to use her as cover to kill the guards. The Asian woman smiled at her and spoke- "I don't want you to see this." quickly peeking to the right and shooting over Sofia's shoulder dinking a guard shrinking him. The other guard saw his fellow guard disappear, realizing the predicament he was in, if he ran he'd be killed by his own and if he stayed he faced the same fate. Would anyone notice a young woman missing, he decided he had to try shooting straight through her to get to the Asian woman behind.

The guard jumped out of his cover pointing the gun forward, Mineko noticed the difference in his demeanor, he was shooting to kill regardless of Sofia. She pulled the girl violently to the left with her as they hit the wall, she then jumped right again shooting the guard successfully in the chest ridding of both guards. She caught her breath, feeling like she was holding it that entire time whilst fighting for her life.

Mineko lifted the woman from the floor looking into her face. - "You're free to go, also stop selling yourself to old men, you're worth more than that." she spoke down to Sofia.

"How do you know-" Sofia asked but was quickly interrupted by Mineko- "It's really obvious, just go." Sofia nodded in return and she turned to run away.

"You might wanna-"Mineko tried to speak to the girl again but she quickly ran away to the end of the corridor. Lisa flinched backward into Joel's arms as she watched a man missing his lower body reach out towards them get crushed into the floor by Sofia's giant foot as she took off into the distance, she looked horrified. - "Stop looking!" he raised his voice at her, she nodded rapidly turning away.

Sofia passed over one of the guards as he saw her dirty sole pass over him at extreme speeds, he watched forward as it crashed into the floor compressing his co-guard into the floor, he listened to the bone-crunching noises without flinching, the foot taking off the floor just as quickly as it landed, slapping away into the distance.

Mineko sighed. - "...-you might wanna put on your shoes." she finished her pointless sentence in a whisper towards Sofia who was now gone and out of sight.

She ducked down picking up Joel & Lisa. - "Are we okay?" she asked, Joel simply nodded not wanting to explain anything going on with Lisa, no doubt she just looked injured as normal and not mentally distraught so Mineko wouldn't question it any longer. Mineko elevated into the air again holding them in her left hand once again as they pressed forward.

Mineko sprinted down the long corridor after progressing through tens of rooms all serving a different purpose, some were entirely irrelevant to the game show and were used for some other operation the corporation was cooking up. She reached the end of the corridor kicking through a set of double doors. She caught many guards inside by surprise quickly shooting all of them one by one with a flawless marksmans accuracy, pointing to the last one she shot hearing no electric shot, Mineko realized her firearm was empty throwing it off to the side.

In the center of the room was a metal staircase that spiraled 50 feet into the air, looking above whilst still hiding behind cover she saw a man and three guards rushing up the stairs, they were nearly at the top. That had to be Arthur she thought, she peeked out of cover too far as a shot blasted past her nose causing her to jolt back in.

"Our window is about to close, we need to get past this guy!" she gritted her teeth, unable to see any way to get close without being shrunk.

Joel walked up to Lisa in the palm, lifting up her wrist he removed the weapon she was holding and had used, he lifted it into the air to show Mineko. - "We can use this."

"It's minimized for me and the guard, it won't work, not enough energy." she responded, Joel frowned into a disappointed expression. How else were they going to get through?

Joel leaped off Mineko's palm and began moving out of cover. - "Joel, what the hell are you doing?" she shrieked, fearing for the safety of her companion.

"I'm going to distract him." he responded, she couldn't believe her ears.

"Are you out of your mind? you're just a minimized right now, that guard will destroy you if they see you." she looked at him bewilderedly, was the trauma getting to his head? it must have been if he thought this was a good idea.

"I'm not just a normal minimized." he spoke proudly as he ran out in a full sprint towards the guard. The guard kept his firearm focused on Mineko behind cover hoping for her to peek so he could minimize her and end this situation. He finally noticed the tiny running towards him. The guard pointed his firearm downwards and began letting off rounds towards the man, only a minimized holding a growth serum would sprint towards a regular in such a suicidal way, he had to eradicate him right now.

The minimized got too close, the guard swiftly began stomping their boot around the man, hoping to kill them quickly, he kept missing over and over again. Who was this minimized? he was skittish, able to dodge all of his massive stomps effortlessly. Joel quickly ran between the guard's legs behind him, the guard looked back to the cover where Mineko was only to be greeted with her sprinting towards him clutching Lisa in her left hand, clashing her left shoulder into their jaw sending them crashing onto their back.

Mineko flopped onto his body from the momentum, she gripped his arm clutching the weapon with her right hand, the weapon shook violently from the pressure of both forces attempting to push it forwards and backward at the same time. The woman's strength prevailed as she pointed it under their chin and shot.

Joel watched the guard on the floor from behind as he flopped onto the floor out the air, now minimized to the same size as him. He walked forwards holding his own weapon. The guard stood up removing their mask, a black-bearded man stood there, he looked around 40. - "Who the hell are you?" he shouted at Joel in distress.

"I'm the winner of the Fifth Minimized Championship Games." he replied proudly, lifting his firearm and shrinking the man for a second time.

Joel looked up at Mineko waving his hands getting her attention as she got to her feet, trodding forwards to reach for him Joel watched as she pulverized the immensely minuscule man underneath her boot treads, it was like watching an ant go under a car tire turning to dust and blowing into the wind like ashes. She picked him up as she began sprinting up the metal stairs. - "Where'd the guard go?" she asked him.

"I took care of him." Joel lied to her, to which she replied with a nod.

The group reached the top of the stairs running out onto the rooftop of the facility, the wind and rain ferociously attacked them as Mineko tightened the grip on her left hand to protect her companions. She held her right arm in front of her eyes, shielding them from the falling rain and the wind that carried it. Pressing forwards they saw the helicopter and helipad it lay on.

Arthur turned to see them as he stood inside clutching the door handle of the chopper. - "I gave you 9 years to think about this operation and everything it achieved, if you're still here trying to destroy it then you truly learned nothing!" he roared over the trashing weather as it beat them down.

"The damage I could do to the real world with my power is incomprehensible but I choose to act upon a smaller section of the populace, if you prevent these games from occurring them you leave me no choice! The millions that suffer will be on your conscience!" Arthur slammed the helicopter door shut as it spun faster elevating it into the air, the wind throwing it from left to right as it disappeared into the clouds out of sight.

Mineko cried as she frantically padded her clothing looking for another shrinking weapon realizing she didn't pick up another one after hers ran out. - "Fuck!" she shouted falling to her knees. The rain splashed on her face soaking it, they dripped from her chin onto her hands below drenching Joel & Lisa who looked at her sympathetically, they wanted the psychopath dead too but not nearly as bad as this woman did.

She sat in the pouring rain and the strong winds for two minutes, letting the cold air and wet rain soak her soul. She climbed to her feet sighing, turning around to enter the facility again. She stepped down the stairs - "We'll need to go back and get you guys a growth serum."

As the trio back-tracked from their failed mission through the facility they found tens of regular-sized guards splayed along the floor, Mineko removed their masks, they were frothing at the mouth, all of them. They must've taken their own lives since the compound was evacuated, to avoid information being taken? Mineko speculated. Why would they go so far for Arthur, what did he have on them that made them so scared to disobey? She would never know.