Chapter 3: Tag Team

"30 REGULARS HAVE FAILED TO ACQUIRE 5 POINTS & REACH THE END, ELIMINATE THEM." a voice commanded around the room from a communication system somewhere. Multiple guards abandoned their posts to head into the maze, screaming could be heard around the room, mostly feminine vocals and they were quickly silenced. The guard in the corner who questioned Kristen mostly stayed put but then decided to approach the survivors in the victory area. They looked around at multiple people and down at the tinies, their mask stopping on a lady in the other corner who looked nervous, avoiding eye contact with the guards line of sight, she was sweating and staring into space. The guard approached her with  robotic soldier-esque steps. Stopping before the woman she turned her head to inspect her.

"Wha- what.. I'm here, I won."  the woman said very nervously.

The guard lifted her arm abruptly pointing towards the scoreboard. - "YOU ARE PLAYER 3. YOU HAVE ACQUIRED 4 POINTS." Her hand returning to her side acquiring her white weapon from her belt.

The woman's breathing shot up quickly as she took scared steps backwards, backing right into the corner. - "BUT I'M HERE, I MADE IT. LEAVE ME ALONE"

The guard took evil slow steps towards the woman, looking down on her as she fell to her bottom with her knees against her chin, frantically trying to compress her body into the wall even though it would go no further, attempting to avoid whatever was about to happen to her. The guard pointed their white weapon at the woman blasting her with it in front of the audience of victors who watched in curiosity for some, horror for others. What they saw was the very same woman they saw a moment ago lying on the ground at approximately an inch tall.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?" the woman yelped out below before a boot smashed straight onto her body destroying her instantly, the stomp was so fast and hard that the noise of the impact drowned out any violent noises below, the guard lifted it immediately and started walking back to the center of the victory area. The guards were robotic in every sense of the word, they took no emotion in their actions, the guard simply eliminated her and left immediately without savoring the moment or surveying her destruction.

"YOU MAY ENTER THE NEXT ROOM." the guard spoke to the others around them, everyone began moving into their relatively sized doors for each size. Joel began pressing forwards at the back of the queue, a big black boot appeared in front of him with creaking noises as it landed. The guard looked around at the others proceeding to the next room, checking to see if any of the competitors were looking in their general direction. Turning back to Joel who looked up in fear, they gestured with their hand by lifting two fingers up to indicate "two". But "two what?" Joel thought to himself. The guard then lifted their shoe and proceeded through the big door behind the other regulars.

30 REGULARS & 159 MINIMIZED ELIMINATED.

20 REGULARS & 41 MINIMIZED REMAIN.

All the survivors entered a large white room, it had a shower section and the same comfortable looking beds from the corridor rooms they started in. The remaining survivors tally was left on a giant monitor at the front of the room for all to see.

"REST. GAME 2 WILL BEGIN TOMORROW AT DAWN." the guard briskly walked away leaving all remaining survivors in the room together alone.

Most people were quiet and headed for the showers or a bed immediately trying to make use of this calm time they'd get to themselves.

"159 people... gone. Just like that." Joel thought to himself whilst zoning out staring at the monitor, the number "159" burned into his brain, whilst he was fighting his own battles, over a hundred and fifty other people were losing theirs. Him, Theo or even Lisa could've been part of that loss.

Joel & Theo resorted to two nearby small beds for their size as they were both utterly exhausted, it seems as though most of the minimized wanted to hit the beds immediately due to their exhaustion whereas the regulars did not, they hadn't had to work or panic nearly as much in the face of violent death constantly, as well as having a much easier path to victory. Both of the boys lay there in silence, not uttering a word. Murmurs filled the air as well as the constant thumping vibrations from passing regulars above. Joel let his eyes close slowly as he drifted off...

"HEY GUYS" Joel jolted awake standing up with his fists up in an instinctive defensive stance, behind him Theo was sitting with his knees up at his chest looking ahead. Joel looked up at the face of a stranger he hadn't seen so far, she was squatting over them, her big blue eyes scanning over them, her blonde hair was drooping down her side in front of Joel. He stayed with his fists up knowing he probably couldn't even take on her finger in a fist fight if he tried, his defensive stance made him feel safer so he kept with it.

"Oh my gosh, sorry! Did I wake you? I didn't realize you were actually sleeping, that's an incredibly brave thing to do in here. Luckily you had your little friend watching over you, you never know what some of the girls in here might try to do." She spoke lightheartedly towards the boys, her face was steam covered and her smell was emanating over them. She must have been fresh out the showers. Joel licked his dry lips still scanning this girl for any hint of danger, but he simply couldn't find it. - "Hello? Come on, talk to me. I'm probably the only friend you'll find in here. I just wanted to talk to you both, I heard rumours you've been protecting the kid there, is that true?" she asked whilst tilting her head forward at Theo. Joel looked behind him and then back to her, giving a quick nod. - "That's so cute, I love that. Everyone here is looking out for themselves, I want to be better than that too. Let's all work together, I also think there's probably a game coming up that will be advantageous with cooperation between sizes. Well even if there isn't, it's worth teaming up anyways. Right?" She smiled wide and her eyes glistened in the light.

Joel couldn't help but trust her.

"I'm Joel, this is Theo." He spoke briefly without any energy to her, still implying his cautious behavior towards her.

"I'm Lara. Your new teammate. If you'll have me"

Joel nodded. - "Great." she exclaimed. "Now feel free to get some shut-eye, I'll keep watch for you." she stretched her legs out and lay on her back next to them, leaning against the wall behind them. She was unbelievably massive next to them on her back. There was no way he was going to let this stranger look out for him, he would rest but Joel refused to sleep another second with her sitting there, she didn't seem to be looking at him at all anymore. Almost like she didn't care if he even slept, everything about her demeanor suggested she was trustworthy. He turned towards Theo on his right as Lara wasn't looking, he used his two fingers and pointed towards both of Theo's eyes then back towards Lara, a gesture that implied to watch his back, Theo nodded three times quickly to show he understood the assignment. Joel turned over and began to lie down under his blanket.

"Whoever you knew on the outside, you don't know anymore." A guard stares at Joel, he couldn't see his own arms anymore, he was in the white room from the corridor.

"YOU ARE DESIGNED TO NEVER MAKE IT OUT ALIVE, A TINY HAS NEVER WON THE GAMES. WHY PRETEND YOU ARE ANY DIFFERENT. YOU MIGHT AS WELL JUMP TO YOUR DEATH AND GET IT OVER WITH." he looked over to the guard getting bigger and bigger into the sky, scaling twice as big as they were meant to when they are shrunk. - "I'LL TAKE CARE OF THE KID FIRST SHALL I?" their boot lifted directly over a bloody Theo on the ground who reached out for him.

"NOOOOO" Joel jolted awake in a great sweat as his own internal scream echoed in his mind, did any of that come out of his mouth he thought as he began to look around. He heard giggling as he came to his senses, becoming confused by this interaction faintly climbing into his ears. He turned to his left to see Lara with her knees up at her chest, Theo was sitting atop her knee in the air, they both had big smiles on their face. 

"That's so awesome, tell me more about her." she looked at him with curiosity and happiness.

"She would make really terrible pancakes, but- but they were like still her signature dish because only she could make them so terribly!" Theo shouted and laughed causing Lara to throw her head back with her mouth open in a smile, trying not to laugh. 

"How could you say such a thing about your mothers pancakes! Such an evil boy." she performed a fake angry facial expression whilst pointing her finger at his face. - "I'm sure she'll still be waiting for you Theo, I'm going to help you get back to her. No matter what" She wrapped her hand around him as he gave her arm a big hug. - "We should probably keep it down because Joel is probably-" she turned making eye contact with Joel who looked up with a smile on his face at the wholesome interaction he did not expect to see before him, a polarizing experience compared to the nightmare he woke up from. - "...sleeping. Never-mind, did we wake you? I'm soo sorry.. we tried to whisper but this little funny clown wouldn't stop making me laugh." Lara booped his nose with her finger as lightly as she could.

"Not at all, I just uh- had a nightmare. It woke me up." he explained whilst shaking his head trying to shake off the shivers from his night terrors.

"Aww. Well I'm sure you'll feel better soon." Lara said in an attempt to make Joel feel better.

"I already do." he smiled at her, causing her to smile back.

Over the speakers a loud chiming noise could be heard echoing around the room, causing lots of heads to jolt up, giving the noise the attention it demanded. Followed by the robotic words over the very same speakers. - "YOUR MEAL FOR TODAY WILL BE GIVEN OUT, PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE TABLES."

"Nice, I thought they were never going to feed us, was starting to get worried there." Lara placed her palm out for the boys to jump on, which they did. She then got to her feet and began approaching the tables. All three of them noticing a set of tiny tables far right of the bigger one, separated by a fence and a couple of guards. To their right the black haired asian; Andrea passed them heading towards the tiny table which had 12 men already seated at it.

"Look at these amazing survivors down here, so small yet so strong. Maybe I'll recruit one of you for my team, wouldn't that be exciting..." she placed her hand on her chest gesturing towards herself whilst pouting, feeling her oats. - "...or I could just." She lifted her foot above the table, some of which began to scatter as an evil smirk crossed her face, some couldn't get out from under the table quick enough as her leg came down. Instantly stopped by a black gloved hand holding her knee up with great strength, Andrea looked up at a white masked guard, causing her to become afraid that she may have messed up.

"KILLING IN-BETWEEN GAMES IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. THOSE WHO BREAK OUR RULES ARE TO BE ELIMINATED." the guard stared into her soul with it's creepy emotionless white mask. She backed off a bit putting her hands in front of her, showing her palms.

"I don't hurt nobody, look they are fine. Right guys?" the guard didn't look down at the men below just as Andrea did, instead still looking at her identifying any quick movements she may attempt to make. - "See? they are fine. So we're good here right." The guard went back to their post behind the tiny table whilst Andrea headed to her regular table, blowing a kiss to the men below who were still recovering from their heart attack inducing near death experience.

"Sheesh, she's insane." Lara whispered to the men in her palm.

"Tell me about it, good thing we have you." Theo said looking up at her as she gave him a friendly protective smile.

"I think you guys should sit at my table next to me. It doesn't seem safe to leave you here, you have the guards but I fear they will still miss something. I can hold you close." She explained to them, Joel nodded in return.

"I agree" moving his head to Theo, not looking for a response from the kid but instead suggesting where his priorities were, protecting him from danger.

Lara headed towards the table finding a seat, she placed the boys onto the table, Theo was inspecting the food being placed trying to decide what he wanted to eat, knowing he was a picky eater and would have a hard time choosing. Joel instead chose to keep his eyes at who was at the table near them, attempting to be cautious of any dangerous people. On Lara's left appeared to be a random woman he hadn't seen yet with ginger hair and pale skin, she looked at him with a disgusted & confused look as she chomped into a piece of bread, ripping a chunk out. Joel shuddered at the violent mouth tearing looking into a different direction. On Lara's right was the athletic girl, "what was her name again? Alex- Alesha- no, Alessia! That's what her friend called" her he thought. In the far corner of their long rectangular table was Lisa, she was sitting next to Beth, they were both leaning into the table surface every few seconds, they must be talking to a minimized. He listened carefully to hear what they were saying...

"You're so smart Thomas, I love that idea." Beth said whilst Lisa nodded in agreement. Joel shook cursing at himself, that Thomas the scheming rodent, he'd went and scored a partnership with Beth & Lisa, not one but two giants. Looking to their left he could see Amy with her arms down by her side staring into the food, she wasn't talking to anyone and the girls around her seemed disinterested in speaking to her. Joel was surprised she managed to make it through even with her sympathetic personality, she was also quite slow during the first section, he would've thought any of the other 25 would've beaten her.

The other seats at this specific table seemed to be populated by giants he didn't know at all so they likely had no real vendetta against him but he'd have to be cautious still.

The food at the table appeared to be fairly mundane, bread, potatoes, plain biscuits that crumpled when you lifted them and water jugs. Lara asked Theo what he wanted whilst lifting him in the air with her fingers, he pointed towards the biscuit. She went in and picked it up for him placing it close to her chest on the table where he was safely able to snack in her protection. Joel looked on his far left past the fences towards the alone minimized on the floor, the guards were shrinking meals with their white firearms and placing them on the tables below, reminding Joel of the man from earlier who disobeyed and lost before the first game, they must've simply eliminated him after shrinking him.

Many of the girls appeared friendly with each other, acting like royalty without a care in the world, conversating more with each other than he thought they would. Andrea reached over for a biscuit causing Lara to instantly slam her palm sideways-up in front of Theo creating a wall immediately for his protecting and staring at Andrea. Andrea widened her eyes in a bit of a surprise. - "Relax, god. I was just going for something to eat." giving a light exhale of air from her nose in laughter. Lara bit her lip as she slowly lifted her palm away from Theo.

"Good reflexes." Joel said to Lara who looked down at him nervously nodding once.

"God these biscuits are so tasteless." Andrea said dramatically after taking a bite of a biscuit, she kept chomping whilst inspecting the biscuit.

Receiving a follow-up from Alessia "Tell me about it. I'll lose all my gains and ruin my diet with this serious lack of nutrition." she said refusing to touch most if and instead settling for a glass of water. 

"Oh woww we're sooo worried about your nutrition." She said sarcastically whilst rolling her eyes. - "I only care about the taste." She began reaching into the side pockets of her bottoms. - "Lucky I've got a topping for this biscuit." lifting a minimized person between her finger tips pulling him out of her pocket. Alessia's mouth widening in a smile.

"No. Way." Alessia said whilst laughing. - "Don't let the guards see you."

"I won't" she said as she winked at Alessia who was looking on in morbid curiosity. Joel was shocked staring at this man flailing between her fingers as Andrea dropped him onto her biscuit right where her first bite mark was. Darting his eyes up to Lara who wasn't paying attention to anyone other than Theo, he turned behind to see if any guards had noticed but they were all focused elsewhere, the redhead on his left watching Andrea and the man whilst finishing her bread. Andrea held the man from the head between her index finger and thumb, he was frantically using his arms to smack her nails on either side fearing that she was going to squish his head between them. Suddenly dropping him he fell onto his legs breaking his ankle and landing on his back on the corner of the biscuit. Andrea readied her hand around the biscuit elevating it up to her face, the man sitting upwards looking around to see fast approaching pink lips, looking down at his injured ankle and the bumpy sweet smelling surface. Quickly attempting to pull himself up to his other foot to start hopping, falling over almost immediately shouting "FUCK!". 

Joel started shouting at Lara. "You need to help him!" he said whilst pointing at Andrea.

The giant plump pink lips separated, strings of saliva bridging the parting flesh cushions, some snapping as the mouth got wider, her teeth then extending out more as the biscuit entered the darkness, the man was dropped closest to the edge exactly where she was intending on biting. "Please! You're not allowed to do this, stop!" he cried frantically hopping in the opposite direction, the travel speed of the biscuit was faster than his hopping as the inside of the lips and the outside world of the food table got further away. Looking up he saw the glistening white teeth directly above him, horror drooping all over his being.

"Help who? what?" Lara looked at Joel obliviously on her left, when the action was occurring on her right. She turned to see where he was pointing, seeing the side-wards silhouette of a man in Andrea's agape mouth atop a biscuit hovering inside her maw. Lara flinched gasping loudly Andrea chomped straight down through the biscuit closing her mouth over the minimized man instantly pushing the biscuit pile and the man to her molar on the left. Lara's loud gasp alerted a guard who looked to their right, coming over to inspect the table for trouble. Andrea started pasting the biscuit in her mouth, grinding through the hard surface with her large molars. The man looked at the biscuit being destroyed whilst leaning against the frantically moving wet tongue, suddenly pushing him face first into the wet paste in the molar, looking up he saw it falling as he fell off the tooth onto the cheek instead it slammed another smaller piece between the two teeth, the tongue retrieved him again and rolled him all the way back around. His body was drenched in saliva and brown biscuit paste, his ears were bombarded with violent crushing noises and growling coming from the back of her throat. The tongue pushed him onto the other molar on the right, he placed his hands up in panic as it finally fell onto his body.

The guard leaned onto the table causing all the competitors to stop eating and look at each other suspiciously, the guard stared at all the girls faces from left to right inspecting them for any sign of trouble. Andrea's face was incredibly still as the guard stared at her, not daring to move her jaw, she squinted her eyes into daggers as if challenging the guard. The guard turned to Lara who was leaning in talking to Joel but nobody could hear them.

The man lay on molar with another one pressed on top of him, the pressure was immense but not increasing and not enough to cause damage to him. Why had she stopped? he tried not to squirm for fear of changing this circumstance in any way, he didn't want to ruin his chances of staying alive.

"You have to help him!" he shout-whispered at her.

"Joel, I don't think you understand where we are or how any of this works, but not everyone is going to make it. We can't be superheroes and save everyone." she whispered back whilst leaning so close to him that she covered both Theo & Joel is a dark shadow.

"At least it'd be in a game where he gets a chance to try! Please!" He had his arms out practically begging her to help the man Andrea had just eaten.

"I can't do it Joel." she said in disappointment towards the man, Theo looked at both of them in the same way he had watched his parents fight when he was younger.

"Oh yes you can!" He shouted at her for real this time. Lara's face turned stern as she looked at Andrea smirking at the guard not speaking for fear of opening her mouth. Lara sighed really loudly whilst shaking her head, quickly rising her head and looking at the guard letting the words-

"This woman just ate a minimized!" she shouted at the guard causing everyone at the table to turn around and look at her in disbelief, she had just ratted her out and protected someone for no reason, effectively making her chances of winning slightly lower. Andrea slowly turned to her with a poker face mixed with passive anger for what she had just said. Everyone at the table watched this showdown happening with anticipation, Andrea slowly used her tongue to reposition the tiny man in the middle of her wet tongue, he frantically gripped the buds of her tongue to hold himself up and prevent his body from slipping or sliding around into places he didn't want to go, staring into the complete darkness of her closed mouth, it was exceptionally hot in here and he couldn't breathe for much longer.

The guard leaned in quickly with their hand out reaching for Andreas jaw, suddenly the people at the table all jumped in fear as the shatter of a glass was heard, everyone quickly turning to their left to see a shattered glass on the floor. Lisa was sitting there gritting her teeth. "Oops, fuck. Sorry." she said.

One moment was all it took, Andrea smiled instantly throwing her head back generating instant saliva and throwing it with forcing into the mans body, he went flying downwards slithering down her tongue. Screaming for his life as he went barreling down her throat. Joel & Lara watched the guard looking away for the briefest of moments whilst Andrea had her chin sticking upwards seeing her throat move at the same time just as the guard looked back at her, her chin was already lowered. Joel looked shocked to his core.

The man bounced in eternal darkness slamming into the slimy surface that was constricting him from above forcing him downwards and side-wards, hearing strange gurgling noises, the temperature absolutely skyrocketed within seconds as he groaned from the force on his body. Eventually splashing straight into a foul smelling hot liquid that he couldn't see, dunking under the surface frantically trying to swim to the surface as his muscles weakened.

The guard gripped her jaw once more forcing her mouth open, her gaping maw visible to the entire table with nothing visible. The guard looked at the regulars then back to Andrea, who shrugged in fake confused expression. Finally standing up and walking back to their post without ever saying a word. Andrea turned to Lara and snarled with the most foul expression quickly switching it up by turning to Lisa on the corner and lifting her head up in a quick respectful nod, which Lisa returned. Joel couldn't believe his eyes, Lisa had deliberately helped Andrea rid of the man, she didn't even know who he was and yet she helped this woman commit murder unfairly outside of the game-show setting.

Lara lowered her head in shame. - "It's fair to say we've likely made a lot of enemies today, Joel. We need to be very careful from here on out..."

Joel cursed internally at himself, this heroic attempt was different from previous ones, this one put other people in jeopardy rather than himself. As much as he wanted to commend himself for trying he couldn't, he had to admit to himself that he had made a mistake attempting to save that man who was already doomed and now the guard would never know as the evidence did not exist anymore.

Andrea looked down at Joel & Theo whilst patting her belly, Joel looked up in anger, his body containing inhuman levels of rage. Theo was simply shocked to his core unable to comprehend what had unfolded before him.

The man slowly bobbed lower and lower in the pitch blackness as his muscles melted away, his nervous system broken and destroyed by the ruthless acid around him, unable to feel anything anymore, his body went numb as his body turned to bones below the liquid line. He passed out falling backwards into the acid, it slowly dissolving the rest of the flesh on his face. Sinking below, his fate sealed as the 160th elimination within the game-show.

REMAINING LIVES

20 REGULARS, 40 MINIMIZED