Rachel looked around the mostly empty bus and made herself comfortable. "Heh, why not?" she told herself as she stretched her legs over the free seat in front of her. She was going to be out for a long time, and it wasn't such a crime to rest her feet a while. The girl dropped her flip-flops on the floor and placed her bare heels on top of the warm orange plastic. She glanced with satisfaction at the nails she had painted just before leaving the house, a light blue that would match her new bikini.

Martin, once the worst of the fright was over, was able to admire the incredible spectacle before him. When he had seen the giant girl pick his seat, he had feared the worst. Her back came down from the sky like a meteorite. The young man saw it coming closer, becoming larger until it landed on his seat with a deafening roar. Martin was expecting to be annihilated. Fortunately, however, he had ended up exactly in the middle of the girl's thighs, a few feet from the hem of her short skirt. If he looked in front of him, he could see her crotch area rising up like a cathedral in the desert.

Trembling and barely believing that he was still alive, he couldn't help but be awed by the sight of the massive young lady who happened to be in front of him. "Hey!" he shouted. "Can you hear me?" Rachel did not react. Instead, she was rummaging through her bag to pull out a pair of earphones, which she brought to her ears and plugged into her phone. With music in her ears and the warm sunlight kissing her skin through the bus window, she closed her eyes and relaxed. She couldn't wait to get to the beach.

Martin decided to climb onto her thigh. He had to make himself noticeable, somehow, if he wanted to get help, or at least not be crushed. The girl's skin, however, was too smooth to offer a foothold. Her swimsuit, on the other hand, provided a wall of cotton fibers that he could climb somehow. And so, like a little ant, he began to climb the giant girl's knickers.

He had only traveled a few meters, but he could feel all the warmth and fragrance of the girl's intimate areas, protected by a thick turquoise blanket. He began second-guessing himself; first of all, how was she going to feel him if he was attached to her panties? He needed to get to her skin to have a chance to be discovered. Secondly, even if she discovered him, what would she have thought when she had found him right in the middle of her womanhood? The girl would have certainly mistaken him for a pervert.

On the other hand, what else was he supposed to do? The lack of alternatives forced him to keep climbing. Soon, he was startled by a thunderous roar. There and then, he thought the girl was getting up. Then he could smell it, a stench such as he had never endured. The girl had farted. The little man coughed, tears in his eyes, trying not to breathe in the unhealthy air. He had barely climbed an inch in her panties, but to him, it felt like being an adventurer in the Himalayas.

Rachel, embarrassed, rolled down the window to let some air in. The bus had stopped, and several passengers were boarding. She watched the various newcomers pick out their seats, until another girl sat down in front of her, in the seat next to which she had put her feet. She pulled an earpiece from her ear and asked, "Do they bother you?"

The other girl smiled and shook her head. The two discreetly observed each other. The newcomer was a girl in her early twenties with brown hair and blue eyes. Dressed in jeans and a collared T-shirt, she had a quiet, confident air about her. "Sorry," said Rachel, to whom the girl was familiar. "You work at ******, don't you?"

It was a downtown clothing shop that the girl often patronized. "Yes," said the other. "Are you a customer of ours?" The question was superfluous. Manuela had immediately noticed how the girl in front of her was dressed from head to toe in clothes that came from the shop.

Indeed, Rachel nodded vigorously. "It's one of my favorite stores," she beamed.

"Well," said Manuela. "That's where I'm headed. As for you..." she continued as she eyed her attire, "Are you going for a swim?"

Rachel nodded again. "Now that the semester is over, I can finally relax a bit."

Manuela had guessed correctly that she was a college girl. She might have been a year or two younger than she was, most likely a freshman. She was rather pretty, if a bit too slim. On the other hand, she had really shapely, long legs. It was at that moment, as she eyed her, that she saw him. Right in the middle of her thighs, attached to the young woman's bikini bottom. What the hell was a shrunken person doing there?

It was one of the most frightening developments of the last few months. It would happen, for reasons not yet understood, that random unlucky people would suddenly shrink to the size of insects. Since the circumstances under which the shrinking occurred were unpredictable, it was impossible to avoid serious accidents. A tragedy occurred on the day that a bus driver suddenly shrank, the vehicle ending up flying off the road, condemning its passengers to a terrible death. Although in most cases the shrinking did not cause such damage, most of the time those affected quickly reached an unfortunate end, helpless as they were at the size of small insects.

Mass psychosis was spreading, although cases were still quite rare. Certain people had stopped leaving the house altogether, to avoid finding themselves in unpredictable situations should the worst happen. Others wore extremely garish clothing so that they could be easily noticed in the event of shrinking.

There were also people, like Manuela, who were rather fascinated by the bizarre phenomenon. That's why she couldn't stop looking between Rachel's legs. She would have liked to catch the bug-sized man, but she couldn't just put her hand between that girl's thighs. She had to say something to her first.

"Listen," the girl said, pointing her finger toward Rachel's legs.

"Yes?"

"Don't freak out, but... you have a shrunken person on your swimsuit."

Rachel's eyes got wide as she looked down. She pulled up her skirt and observed the area, then she made a horrified face.

"What's it doing on me?" she said, as she tried to pull it off her panties with her index finger.

"Careful!" said Manuela. "You're hurting him like that. Wait." The girl approached Rachel and put the back of her hand over the surface of the seat. "Jump down," she said, addressing the little man.

Martin, terrified and rather battered after the encounter with Rachel's fingers, decided to trust the girl's gentle, if deafening, voice. After a flight of several meters, he landed on the fingertip of Manuela's middle finger. "Poor guy," she said. "He must have shrunk here on the bus."

"Yuck," Rachel quipped, observing his tiny figure in the middle of Manuela's hand, which looked as big as a square in comparison. "What was he doing on top of me, though?"

"Maybe he likes you," joked Manuela. Martin looked at the woman's gigantic face with a mixed feeling of terror and adoration. She was truly pretty; at the same time, her calm smile was reassuring. Yet, given her size, it was impossible not to be nervous in her presence.

The girl looked at her surroundings. She was getting to her stop. "I'll take care of him," she said. And she dropped him into the pocket of her jeans. Rachel stared out the window, watching her get off the bus and walk towards the shop.

*

The following hours were very monotonous for Martin. Trapped in Manuela's trouser pocket, he could do nothing but wait as he was tossed up and down with every step the woman took. At one point he was hit on the head by a soft object that smelled like food. A crumb from the giant woman's lunch. The man, who had gotten rather hungry, bit into it. The fact that she was feeding him confirmed his idea that she meant well, and he spent the following hours with an optimistic disposition.

When Manuela came home, she took off her jeans and laid them on the bed. "Come out," she said, turning to the little man. "Please, don't keep me waiting."

Martin could do nothing but trudge along the surface of the pocket until he was outside. After so many hours spent in the dark, his eyes burned a little. He looked around. He was in a bedroom, albeit an oversized one. And over him was the girl from that morning, looking at him through a magnifying glass.

"We have a he, huh? And he looks pretty handsome, too," she commented. "What a waste." Martin felt flattered by the giantess' words, though he recognized the cruel irony that came along with them.

The woman took him between her forefinger and thumb very gently, then she quickly carried him to the other side of the room. Eventually, he was dropped on a soft surface. "We have a newcomer," Manuela announced. "Please welcome him properly," she said.

Martin looked around. He stood over a surface that seemed to be made of wood, and seemed to stretch for hundreds of meters. Soon, he saw himself surrounded by a small group of people, all the same size as he was.

"Heh," sighed one of the tiny men. "Haven't seen new faces in a while. Welcome aboard, mate," he told him, extending his hand.

"Thanks," Martin said, impressed by the man's hair and long beard.

A rather comely blonde stared at him. "I no longer remembered what men without beards looked like," she said, smiling. "Are you okay?"

"I think so."

"Good for you. You look in better shape than I did when I got here," said the man who had spoken earlier. "I am Leon, and you?"

"Martin."

"This is Sara," he said, pointing to the blonde standing next to him. He then pointed to an emaciated-looking brunette who appeared younger than the others, "This is Priscilla," then to an older man with white hair and a beard. "And this is Gabriel."

Martin nodded.

"If you're hungry, there's food over there. For your toilet needs, you can use the tissue there in the corner. There," he said pointing to a pile of pink fabric, "is where you sleep."

"Thank you," said the newcomer.

"You're welcome. Well, I don't want to force you or anything. I understand you're overwrought. But if you'd like to come and sit with us for a while and tell us a bit about yourself, we'd all be very happy to listen," Leon then said.

"Sure," said Martin.

The five then went to sit on two toothpicks that Manuela had placed in the middle of the box. It was a rather convenient arrangement, since for the tiny little people who lived in there, they were the perfect height to be used as benches. As for length, there was no need to worry: each toothpick could accommodate dozens of them.

"Are we standing on a stool?" he then asked, looking around the seemingly infinite space of the bedroom.

Sara and Leon nodded. "Crazy, huh?" said the blonde. "It's the size of a mansion for us. So," she then added. "Fill us in. We are completely cut off from the world here. Have there been many cases of shrinking?"

Martin thought about it. "I'm not sure. I don't keep up with the news very much. I guess I should have," he said with a bitter laugh. "I don't think there has been an increase, though."

"So," the woman then asked, "you don't know if they found a cure?"

"No," Martin said as he shook his head.

"I'm going to die here," said Gabriel dejectedly, looking down.

"There, there, Grandpa," Leon said, tapping his back. "You'll see we'll be out of this soon."

"Why, how long have you guys been here?" asked Martin.

"When I arrived it was November," said Leon. "Wait, what day is today?"

"June seventh," said Martin.

"I thought so. It's starting to get hot. When I arrived, it was just me and her. Priscilla was the first to be found last summer. Then Sara and Grandpa arrived around February, right?"

"Yes," Sara confirmed, nodding. "It's already been four months then," she added thoughtfully. "It seemed like an eternity to me."

"And this poor girl has been here for almost a year," Leon said, pointing at Priscilla. "Excuse her for not being much of a talker," he added, turning to Martin. "She's the one who's finding it harder to cope."

Then Sara whispered something in his ear. "You'll have to help us keep an eye on her. We're all afraid she's going to jump down one of these days."

Martin glanced at her. So far, the girl had avoided his gaze. "In the end," the young man then said, "it could have been worse. I don't know what happened to you, but I could very well have been crushed."

Leon nodded. "That's the spirit. It might not be a great life, being the size of ants and stranded on this stool, but at least we're still alive and can hope to one day return to normal."

"That is if she will let us," Sara then said. "I know she is enjoying keeping us like pets at her mercy."

Leon made a contrite face. "Don't say that, not after all she does for us."

"So," countered the blonde, "why doesn't she take us to the clinic, to be identified and returned to our families?"

Leon did not know what to answer. Priscilla suddenly burst into tears. Leon put his arm around her back. "Do you see what you did?" he told the blonde. "We must try to stay positive."

Sara looked away with an annoyed face.

"She's right, though," interjected Gabriel. "My poor wife doesn't even know what happened to me."

"She doesn't seem like a bad person to me," Martin said. "But you have certainly known her for much longer. So what can you tell me about her?"

"We used to be colleagues," Leon recalled. "She used to be quite a popular person. Well, you saw her didn't you? Of course, she always had a line of guys hitting on her. Just like Sara here, of course," he added, not wanting to belittle the very proud blonde.

"And then?"

"And then, I shrunk. She found me by chance at the shop where we work. There's no point getting around it, she saved my life. If she hadn't intervened, someone would have ended up crushing me. It really was a miracle that she saw me and recognized me."

Martin nodded. "It was the same for me," he said.

"Tell us then," he said, "Tell us about how it went for you."

"Well, I was on the bus, on my way to class," he explained. "Just like every other morning. Then, bam, I suddenly found myself like this."

"It was like that for all of us," said Leon.

Martin went on to recount all the details of that fateful morning. The girl almost crushing him and Manuela picking him up out of her bikini bottom.

The story was interrupted by the door of the room opening. Everyone saw the giantess enter, covered by a bathrobe, humming a popular tune.