Wakefield was a podunk town dotted at the rural edges of a mediocre-sized country named Lasly Lands. The place was a hive of activity. People from all classes – rich and poor, young and old – scurried about in the streets, settling things, with the main aim of getting the hell out of town.
A catastrophe was coming and they needed a safe haven. Perhaps a neighboring city? Or rather one on the other side of the country? No, a plan like that would not suffice – not while faced with an impendent disaster of such a large scale.
It was most fascinating to see the varnished layer of civility in society being scratched away so easily in the face of impending doom. People became desperate as their behavior sank to the lowest level of their survival instinct. In such a state, there was no room for trivial things like courtesy and small talks. Things needed to be taken care of – and preferable most sufficiently and quickly as possible. Survival of your own skin and blood had a key priority while determining your next move. Anything else was merely a side issue – just wildlife darting through your headlight's scope while driving toward better places. Some will be decent enough to evade them, but most will simply smack the cracked corpses of these poor critters to the side without looking back after road killing them hard with the front bumper.
Despair and a deep sense of gnawing dread made place for hope and relief when things turned out precisely according to plan. That did not matter, though. Everything was in vain from the outset for even the most fortunate of citizens of Wakefield. Because eventually, it was a dry fact that nothing could outrun Samantha's boot when it landed directly on top of Wakefield – covering the entire town and a significant part of the surrounding area.
"That it, Samantha?" Cristel looked her friend in the eyes indignantly. "No speech, no warning, no nothing?"
Samantha gave Cristel an indifferent look as her eyes seemed to speak the word 'whatever' and leaned her whole weight on her left leg – crunching the crushed remains of a poor lilliputian settlement even deeper into the ground.
"Is she ignoring me?" Cristel looked at Dina, who walked up to them. Claire and Haisley came also ambling up. Dina merely looked all expressionless at the lilliputian civilization sprawled out at their feet.
"Hello! Am I the only one who gets trifle irked by this?" Cristel looked around at her friends – all wired – urging them to aid her. "She's like, mocking with our tradition. Again!"
"You can't change someone's nature," Dina said. "Samantha does not respect anyone. Including herself."
Samantha's glare shot towards Dina, spitting fire. "What does that suppose to mean?!"
"It means that you're on the verge of being bumped from the group," Haisley said, staring at her all serious.
Samantha snorted, looked at Claire for a brief moment before ambling off – stomping whole blocks of lilliputian infrastructure under the weight of her parading boots.
"Did I do something wrong?" Claire asked a bit uncertain.
Dina snorted. "Like what?"
"I don't know… be here?"
Cristel hummed like she was pondering about some serious issue and said, "Now that you're mentioning it, Claire. I do recall that things like 'being here' is categorized as a capital crime. So you better watch out."
Dina chuckled, rolling her eyes by Cristel's quip before addressing Claire. "Samantha always had trouble staying between the lines."
"On the other hand, she never had trouble drawing lines for others, though," Cristel said. "That's where the friction between her and Haisley is formed." She added with a whisper in Claire's ear.
"We can hear you," Dina said dryly, which ignited a startled reaction from Cristel – who peeked with a bit of frightful uncertainty at Haisley.
"Where is she going?" Claire asked while watching Samantha's silhouette becoming gradually vaguer in the darkness of the night.
"To her Queendom. Just like all of us." Haisley said.
"Yeah, that's right, Claire," Cristel chimed in. "because, in the real world, we're little more than pesky juveniles. But in here, in Lilliland, every girl can be a Queen." she said, while theatrical imitating a royalty.
"But I don't have a Queendom," Claire said.
"Not yet, you don't," Haisley said. "Come." she gestured to follow her.
While marching in the midnight darkness after Haisley – who walked with a pretty brisk tempo – it was easy for Claire to see the spoiled parts of the lilliputian land beneath her feet. These spots had a pitch-dark mark in the shape of a footprint among a field of light. As Claire followed suit, she saw Dina and Cristel dispersing – obviously walking off to their own conquered lands.
A large part of the ground they were walking on was dotted with an innumerable amount of minuscule lights – some places denser than others, framing the rich amount of microscopic cities and settlements and roads. It was like watching the landscape at night during an aerial view high above the clouds. Various traces of dark footprints meandered criss-cross through the lilliputian landscape. Some of them were already present, while others were being created at this very moment. Haisley did not seem to bother her step – nor did Cristel and Dina – as their sneakers made new black footprints among the luminous lilliputian landscape. This part was obviously used as some passageway by the girls – just a path they could pass to reach other places. Sucks to be the Lilli's who lived there.
As Claire scuttled after Haisley – traveling deeper into lilliputian territory – she did take note that the latter was becoming more thoughtful in choosing her steps. Haisley aimed her sneakers deftly to fit in the already existing trail of footprints. It was pretty evident that Haisley did not want to destroy more lilliputian property in this region than absolutely necessary.
Is this part of her Queendom?
Claire heard Haisley snapping a whispered curse when she lost balance, and her right foot landed clumsily amidst a generously illuminated city – decimating a good part of it.
"Everything okay?" Claire asked.
"Yeah… just… follow me. Come," Haisley said. "and make sure to step on the footprints, please." she accentuated more firmly.
As requested, Claire did her best to place her sneakers in the already present footprints among the lilliputian landscape. This proved to be more complicated than expected, though. Haisley's a good bit longer than Claire – and so were her legs – so it took Claire relatively some trouble to cover the distance between Haisley's steps.
Now it was Claire's turn to cuss when her sneaker slipped and grazed a generous portion over the lilliputian landscape – bulldozing several villages along with it. She even uprooted half of a mountain when her sneaker tilted it over from the side.
"You alright back there?" Haisley called over her shoulder.
"Fine. Fine," Claire gained her footing and resumed her pace. "This your Queendom?"
Haisley hummed as an acknowledgment. "One of all six, to be more precise."
"Six? You have Six Queendoms?"
"Yes, of course. How else can I make society's fundamentals work?"
"You're losing me here, Hais"
Haisley sniggered and stopped in her track – careful to keep every sneaker stationed in an already existing footprint. "Listen, every Queendom has its own qualities, perks if you please – things that make them excel in certain areas. If you take This Queendom, for example." Haisley pointed.
"This one?" Claire nodded at her feet.
"That's right. The one where you just destroyed one of its many mines with your clumsy feet."
Claire gasped. "You noticed?"
Haisley nodded, smiling slyly. "It was pretty hard not to. You were groaning like a warthog back there."
"And you're not mad at me?"
Haisley shrugged. "Being the hottest girl in school has its benefits, I guess. Any other girl would get knocked down a peg for sure."
Claire blushed – which was impossible to see in the moonlight darkness – and smiled mischievously. "I saw you crushing half a city also, buster."
"Don't push my limits now, hey!" Haisley whipped her finger in Claire's direction. "Come. I want to show you something."
Claire jerked up, surprised when she felt Haisley's hand wrapping around hers. It surprised Claire even more that Haisley's touch ignited an electrical sensation to crackle through her body. She was yanked along by Haisley's firm grip. At this pace, it took Claire great trouble to keep aiming her sneakers at the black footprints. She missed one time, two times. Trice even – annihilating fragile lilliputian property. Haisley did not seem to bother, though. She appeared to be on fire for showing Claire something.
"Almost there," Haisley said.
The lilliputian landscape was gradually changing. Mountain ranges and hill countries made place for more impressive-looking cities – larger and more brilliant looking than the ones Claire had seen earlier, with gloriously shining monuments adorning almost each and every single city block.
"This here is my most favorite Queendom. The one where I hang out the most." Haisley said proudly as she towered over several cities with her hands on her hips. "All these billions of lilliputians are working, day and night, week in week out, processing tons of supplies coming from the surrounding Queendoms to pay homage to me, their Queen.
"And look here! Come." Haisley crouched down while pointing at a lit-up statue amidst a grand plaza. For a Brobdingnagian, the statue was not even taller than a little girl's pinky finger, but from a lilliputian's perspective – the statue soared majestically high above even the tallest skyscrapers.
Claire crouched down next to Haisley. "It looks like… it looks like you!"
Haisley nodded proudly. "And this here is my present to you, Claire."
Claire watched as Haisley's fingers picked up some sort of napkin to reveal another statue.
Claire scrutinized it. "That one looks like…"
"You!" Haisley finished while smiling warmly. "I want to rule with you, Claire. This Queendom, the world, anything that can be ruled. You're in?"