Chapter 7: Ghost Town
The sun started to set; orange sky decorates the whole skyline above the two figures walking down the quiet road. Despite the scenery of an abandoned town around him, there’s a certain charm to see reddish light illuminates broken houses and buildings. The giant looked down on his cupped right hand and there’s Sena with warm smile written on her face, enjoying the pleasant evening breeze and the quietness of everything combined with the gentle movement of her giant bodyguard. Seeing the cute little thing drowned in coziness gave him a comfortable feeling inside.
After minutes of walking, there’s the house where Jack visited earlier. Then his mind thought on something; he remembered Sena says that there are three other tiny girls just like her. Now the gears started to grind inside him: how should he approach them? he already saw Sena’s reaction firsthand before. Do they really never saw someone like Jack before? Jack wanted to ask Sena about them, but… seeing that she’s injured currently, he’d rather hold off for now to allow her resting comfortably.
“Jack… you made funny face there, something the matter?” Sena noticed him.
“Oh, nothing… it’s just…”
+++
“It’s already evening…” Azumi gazes at the orange sky from the backyard. “She hasn’t returned yet,”
No reply from Marina and Athena either, their optimism slowly fades as hours goes by. Negative possibilities and horrifying thoughts started to seeping in despite their attempt to fight it off their minds. But… they saw him; the giant. His existence alone in the whole equation put Sena’s fate in doubt.
A subtle sound of footsteps reached their ears, snapping them off from their worry and deep thoughts. They turn their heads into the side of the backyard, anticipating the incoming giant…
Suddenly, a familiar human figure bigger than them appeared from the side of the backyard. There it is, black hair, leather jacket and worn off jeans. Hundreds feet taller than the girls, their eyes wide open looking at the moving mountain.
First, there’s Athena. Her serious look trying to anticipate every potential movements as she scanned everything bottom to top.
“Sena!!” Athena noticed her, cupped on his right hand right in front of his chest.
Then there’s Marina. The way she looks at the giant, her face turns red, it’s like she’s completely mesmerized by the appearance of this humongous human being.
Finally, there’s Azumi with her completely shocked face before her whole body gone limp and she passed out to the floor…
+++
“I’m Jack, nice to meet you all,”
Stood inside the backyard facing the patio, Jack waves his hand at the tiny girls. It’s such an amusing scene for Jack to see; there’s Sena being hugged by the other girl, there’s one… passed out no doubt shocked witnessing the giant. And then there’s one more… staring at Jack with angry face.
“Listen, uh…” crouching down, Jack reached inside his backpack and grabbed the remaining fruits. “I apologize for stealing this earlier… I’m here to returned them all to you,”
Still no words. The angry girl just keeps staring. Despite his intimidating height, Athena tried her best to look tough in front of him.
“Is there a problem?” Jack noticed the unamused girl.
“Yeah, there is a problem… Jack,” Athena crossed her arms and tapped her tiny foot. “You ate most of the fruits already, now we have food problem here. We wouldn’t have enough to survive for a month from now!”
Dammit, Jack thought. His mind trying its best to come up with solution, but how? He had just arrived here, the rest of this town is still unknown to him.
“Don’t even try to tell us ‘Just search for it’. No, we already did it, there’s nothing left out there,” Athena hammered down the nail even deeper.
“Wait,” Sena stood back up with the help from Marina. “Not entirely, there are places that we haven’t checked yet,”
“What do you mean?” Athena looks surprised that Sena seems to took the side of Jack on this one.
“What I mean is, there must be places that we’re unable to access to because of our… well, size,”
“I don’t understand… well, you’re the one usually travelling the furthest among us. What’s on your mind?”
“Give me one night rest… tomorrow, let me lead Jack to those places,”
Hearing Sena’s suggestion, Marina and Athena semes shocked. Is she actually trusted this giant?
“Come on! Look! I’m here, right? Trust me, he doesn’t do anything weird with me!”
Jack turns his face away in embarrassment…
“I don’t know…” Athena, being very cautious, thinks of every possibility why Jack keeps Sena alive… what if he’s convinced Sena so that he found their spot right now? Does he have any ulterior motives? Nonetheless, despite her cautiousness, Athena also didn’t want to betray her friend’s trust as well.
“Please… besides,” Sena whispered. “We didn’t have a choice, right Athena? Either we died of hunger or at least let me with the help of Jack here to find something,”
Deep in thought, Athena tried to think rationally… should she entrust the life of her friend to this giant that she only had been introduced just minutes ago? Is this all a clever trick for the giant to get into us? Why did he enter this town at the first place, even?
“Look, let’s talk for tonight then…” Athena tapped Sena’s shoulder. “Jack… you’re not sleeping here,”
“Hey, it’s alright, I’ll sleep at the motel for tonight,” Jack knows to play it cool for now as he stepped away from the backyard. “Well, if you wanna talk about it first for the night, go ahead. I’ll come back first thing in the morning, alright?”
With that, Jack is gone from the house for the night…
+++
…
…
…
The next morning…
Jack walks the empty road once again deeper toward the empty town. On her left shoulder… there’s sitting the three-centimeter girl Sena.
“Really? She actually does that?” Jack is glad that he’s not walking alone anymore now.
“Yeah, Athena stood guard all night while we’re sleeping… she doesn’t trust you yet,”
“Well… I won’t blame him. Being your size, I probably understand how it feels seeing someone like me for the first time in your life,”
“Seeing it in photos is nothing compared to looking at the real thing… it’s uh… breathtaking,”
“I see…” Jack still amused at the reactions of these tiny girls at his presence. “By the way, how’s your left leg?"
“Oh, it feels much better now, thanks! Looks like your medicine works well!”
“Really? It didn’t hurt anymore at all?”
“Yeah, it’s like I was never injured!”
That’s interesting… is it because of her tiny size that the medicine works faster? Another reason why Jack couldn’t sleep really well last night, he is so intrigued at these tiny girls. Giving a slight glance, Jack noticed how Sena seems to be a bit more relaxed than yesterday sitting on his shoulder now. In some ways kind of warming his heart even more knowing how he’s being trusted as her protector now. Especially after being alone for a really long time before, it’s kind of nice to finally have somebody to talk to…
“That blue house seems interesting, may I take a look?” Jack saw a blue single-story house ahead of him.
“Yeah, but the doors closed, you need to go through the window there,”
“You usually did that?” Jack cupped Sena on his right hand as he put her on the ground.
“Yeah, I’m just climbing up there usually… but currently there’s nothing left inside,”
“Well… let me take a look, at least. Maybe there’s something for me,” turning the lock, it won’t budge. Then Jack took the step back and dashes forward, his left shoulder collides with the door as it breaks open. Sena just stood speechless witnessing the power display, the scary power that this giant possesses…
…and Sena wonders how is she still alive until today.
Inside the house, Jack looked around; nothing but scattered furniture covered in dust. Interestingly enough, there are many decorations consisted of medals and military photos. Guess what Sena said is true, there’s nothing useful left to plunder. But Jack noticed something… the wooden floor. His scavenger mind came up thinking about possibilities…
Onward to the living room, there’s a carpet already torn after years of being abandoned. Trusting his feeling, Jack grabbed the edge of the carpet and lifts it away as cloud of dust spreads out all around him.
Bingo.
Years of scavenging around made Jack a lot more observant to many things. If there’s a wooden floor, most oftentimes there’s a secret door to the basement.
“Find something, Jack?” Sena approached from behind.
“Yeah…” Jack crouches down and pulled the handle, revealing a set of stairs leading downward to the basement.
“Whoa, there’s a secret path there!?” the tiny girl looks completely surprised at the discovery.
“It was beneath the carpet,”
The discovery really blowing Sena’s mind. Looks like the decision of scavenging alongside Jack started to bear fruits, after all.
“Well, shall we?” Jack placed his right hand on the ground. Excited at the discovery, Sena jumps right on top of it as they descend the secret basement…
+++
Everything gets darker as the two scavengers descend the basement. Thankfully, Jack got a lighter on his left pocket and turning it on. Still, darkness envelopes them all around as the lighter only gave them a spark. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Jack extends his right hand forward trying not to bump into a wall.
“Damn, it’s too dark here… ah!”
What a miracle; Jack stumbled upon a lantern on his feet. Not wasting time, Jack lights up the lantern and unexpectedly, probably because there’s a leak or faulty inside it, the lantern shines brighter than expected. Gone the darkness, now the whole room is completely illuminated by the bright lantern. What Jack saw around him though, caught him completely off guard…
Rows and rows of shelves stretched out around the entire wall of the basement. The shelves are stacked high with boxes and containers. On each boxes written ‘FR’.
“Holy…” Jack couldn’t believe it. “This guy… he hoards all of this or something?”
“What are those?” Sena saw the boxes.
“’FR’ stood for ‘Forever Rations’,” Jack carefully lifts down one of the boxes and quickly opened it. Stacks of ration packages wrapped in gray plastic containers revealed with various writings about its content. “Basically from what I’ve read somewhere, years ago, scientists finally found a breakthrough to made food that could last for more than around fifty years,”
“WHOA! Really!? It’s that possible?” Sena got taken aback by the ridiculous fact.
“It’s kind of artificial though… more chemicals and substances than real ingredients, but it really was a food replacement. People opposed this back then, so it wasn’t sold freely into the public. Usually they’re only provided as emergency food or military needs,” Jack opened one of the rations and sure enough, food that shapes like a clay filling up the entire plastic container. Looks unappetizing and unappealing at all with its bland colors, but Jack dig through it with his fingers and after such adventures for days previously, it tastes like heaven. “Hmmm… meat,”
“Meat?” Sena tilts her head.
“Oh, right… you only eat plant-based the whole time, huh… why don’t you try this?”
Jack extends his finger toward Sena on his shoulder. Curious, Sena gave the crumbs of food on Jack’s finger a tiny bite…
“Mmmm…!!”
Shocked, Sena closed her mouth with her hands… what is this taste? It’s… salty. There’s no fruits or vegetables that tastes like this! The glimmer on her eyes tells Jack that she had just discovered something entirely new in her life with that tiny tastebud.
“St-strange! What is this taste!? It’s kind of strong! It’s… good though… really good!” now Sena is excited after tasting the unknown flavor.
“Look, I’ll explain later, alright? Let’s carry one of these to your hungry friends… oh look, there are some bottled waters up there as well. Might as well,”
Up above the highest part of the shelves there’s a bunch of bottled water lining up. Getting back up, Jack planted his right foot on the lower shelves, trying to reach for the bottled water above and…
CRACK
The lower shelves collapsed under Jack’s weight, causing him to stumble back down and landing with a thud on the concrete floor. Some boxes and plastic bottles scattered around as Jack tried to hold onto something earlier.
“Ouch…” feeling a bit dizzy, Jack tried to recover himself but he felt something on his face. Refocusing his eyes, he saw Sena’s face right in front of him… turns out Sena fell right on Jack’s face, now her tiny body hanging on his nose bridge.
“Wha…uaaaah!!” clenching her whole body, Sena clearly embarrassed as her whole purple tanktop-covered chest now pushing against Jack’s nose alongside her short jeans-covered hips and her exposed thighs wrapped nicely around it. Now she’s paralyzed in place, so embarrassed that Sena didn’t know what to do.
“H-hey, you can get off my face now!” Jack obviously flustered especially feeling those tiny amounts of smooth skins currently making direct contact with his face. Ticklish yet adorable but Jack didn’t want this to get weird fast, he needs to get off this awkward position smoothly. “Hold on… I’ll lift you up if you wanted me to help,”
“Ye-yes…”
Couldn’t see clearly, Jack tried his best as his right hand move toward his own face. Thumb and index finger extended. He reached for tiny Sena, yet he felt something tiny and squishy…
“HYAAAAAA!! NOT THERE!!” Sena felt her butt being pinched from both sides by the gigantic fingers.
“Oh shit! Sorry! Sorry!” Jack quickly eased his grasp, his face redder than before. At least after knowing tiny Sena’s exact position, Jack moves his hand above just a bit and this time he did it. The fingers positioned right on her torso and carefully grabbed her under the armpits, lifting her up gently not to stagger her with sudden movement.
Now that Sena secured tight on his right hand, Jack lifts himself up into sitting position. The whole mundane motion unexpectedly stopped in the middle as both of them locked eyes. There’s Jack examines the tiny girl being held firmly between her two fingertips under her armpits where Sena’s tiny arms holding on the trunk-sized fingers on each sides trying to balance herself as her feet hanging in the air below, all while looking back at him in awe everytime the size between the two parties became the main focus inadvertently.
Once again, time stand still as the mood gradually grew intimate between the two, the empty and quiet basement only amplifying the sound of each heartbeat from both of them that grew louder with each passing second as their eyes completely locked with each other, admiring the ridiculous size difference of the two. Not helping how Sena felt the warmth of Jack’s fingertips through the gentle grasp on both sides of her body only made her feel smaller than ever, feeling him grabbing her whole body like this caused a feeling of insignificance to struck her mind. If Jack wasn’t such a nice guy, he could just tightened his grasp around Sena right here and now and her body probably squashed like grape effortlessly…
Somehow the wild imagination caused Sena’s face turn redder than before, her breath goes heavy thinking about it adding with her heartbeat rises uncontrollably thinking such thrilling thoughts. Considering her adventurous and thrill-seeking personality compared to the other girls, it’s no surprise there’s a small part of her that enjoys this…
Meanwhile Jack who held the tiny girl like this for the very first time albeit involuntarily, to have a delicate three centimeters girl wrapped nicely around his firm grasp takes him back to just previous day when he examined Sena for the very first time. Despite everything, he is the bigger one here, the one that has the power over this fragile human being whose life is literally in his hand. Seeing Sena unable to free herself from the gentlest grasp of Jack once again makes him self-aware of how much dominant he is, just apply enough force toward his grasp on Sena, he could take her life like nothing…
But NO, the nightmare that he had yesterday haunts him once more immediately, he won’t let his intrusive thoughts to took him over. Sena observes everything through the expression of the giant doctor, she just couldn’t help but holding her giggles whenever Jack shook his head. Sena don’t know why, it’s just a silly sight for her.
Through unspoken words a sense of trust and affinity manifested through a whole new level between them…
“Oh-uh…” Jack broke the silence, snapping the two out of their trance. “A-anyway! Got some foods to deliver! Don’t want your uh… friends get hungry, right?”
“Yeah! Yes! Let’s return!” Sena tried to compose herself, calming her intense heartbeat after the silent exchange of affection.
Grabbing a box and some bottled water, Jack carried it upstairs alongside Sena sitting back on his shoulder, successfully solving the food shortage for the tiny girls…