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clumsiestgiantess · 7 months

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Day 8: Puzzle

These are the true events that happened to an other-worldian named Wes. He was abducted during the invasion of giants donning hazmat suits. The full version of this sneak peek I posted a while ago.

It’s been almost a month since I announced this so if anyone here is still interested, read away! (@ndrogyny, @not-a-space-alien, @bittykimmy13, @itrenchcoati, @smolghostbot, @kindii, @agh-agh-agh, @hellbreakher, @littlescaryinternetguy, @endersyneart, @pablozqui, @waitisthatgt, @patrocolus3, @truegears, @jakersdaboss, @prettykittyfox, @yeerkkiller96)

(tw this stuff is torturous horror fuel; a lot of people will be punished/die unfairly)(these ‘giant’ people are the antagonists of the story for good reason)

Life had always been so monotonous that I desperately wanted something, anything to change. I didn’t mean like this. It had happened so suddenly I couldn’t even properly react. Gigantic beings clothed in sterile yellow-white hazmat suits and large filtration masks stepped out through a deep abysmal tear in the sky. How is anyone supposed to react to that?

They were taller than any building or tree as far as the eye could see — emotionless giants that trampled right over streets and houses as if they weren’t there. The invaders tore off roofs, bashed out walls of buildings, and shredded open cars. People were snatched hundreds of feet in the air, writhing and screaming. Cages awaited them in the hands of other gigantic beings.

I only regained my senses after something nearly missed falling on top of me from above. It landed with a heavy thud behind me, nearly startling me into a fetal position. I flinched away and whirled around to find a body; shattered bones tore through their skin, having been ripped open by the impact of the fall. It wasn’t even a gorey mess — barely any blood either. The body had simply been impaled by none other than its own bones, head bashed flat against the well-kept lawn. I turned and ran as another limp form collided with a telephone pole, jerking and coiling around involuntarily at the incredible surge of electricity coursing through it. I’d dodged the strike of the pole, but the electric snap it made alerted one of the giants in hazmat suits. I ran for a nearby car as fast as my legs could carry me, scrambling beneath it with the thunderous sound of impossible footsteps right behind me.

My labored breaths echoed around the underside of the car as I looked madly around all sides of me. The thick-soled boot disappeared. They’d lost sight of me. I took a shuddering breath of relief, keeping watch for anything else. Only a moment passed before I watched a pair of legs my own size dash toward my hiding place. A kid about half my age got down on his knees and reached beneath the car. “Please! Let me hide here wit- AAAAAHHHHHHHH!” I threw my hands over my ears as he screamed. Fingers as thick around as his body curled into him, dragging him up and out of sight. The shadow of his kicking legs slid down the street and over the roofs of nearby houses as he was lifted, the rest of his body engulfed in the shaded blob of a gigantic fist. I watched the shadow for as long as I could until it was too distorted by the distance to properly see much of anything else. All the while, the kid’s pleas grew fainter and fainter until they disappeared entirely.

There was a brief moment of deafening silence before a loud thud startled me. Long black rubber coils slid beneath the car, creating an awful metallic groaning sound as the entire vehicle was torn off the ground and into the air before being launched across the street. Those coils were actually large fingers, now reaching for me. I could barely get up before I was pressed against the flesh-warm rubber of the thing’s gloved hand.

The beginnings of a shriek escaped my lungs before it was squeezed out of me by fingertips digging into my back and chest, pinching me with crushing pressure. Briefly, I tried to wriggle and claw my way out, fight or flight instinct kicking in and immediately choosing the latter. Then I looked down. A dizzying drop was laid out before me. No wonder there were bodies falling from the sky; people were so desperate to escape the giants’ crushing grip that they were throwing themselves out into open air, and a long, deadly fall to the ground.

Breathing as shallowly as I could, I managed to make it to my destination without falling unconscious from the pressure on my lungs. Briefly, I made out a plastic cage with a wire mesh door — just like the kinds used for shelter animals. The cage was opened for a split second and I was thrown roughly inside, landing against something hard and warm. Whatever- whoever I landed on groaned painfully and I quickly tried to get off them. It wasn’t easy. The cage swayed as the giant moved somewhere else to get another victim, sending me and the person beneath me colliding with the side of the carrier. A sob wrenched out of them as I finally scrambled back. A woman who couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me stared up at me from the floor. Her chest heaved and her eyes moistened with tears. She whined as we were again jostled around, gripping her leg as her eyes squeezed tightly shut. I glanced down at it and gagged. Her whole right leg was twisted nearly backwards.

My shock was interrupted by the terrified screams of new people falling into the cage. I backed up against the wall and tried to take in the place. Between the humid, rancid air and the various sounds of people giving up on life, it was a grim picture. Dull slitted lighting gave the whole thing a hazy waking-nightmare-like feeling. Beams of light occasionally landed on awful scenes that made my skin crawl. There was everything from people scream-crying to people vomiting or wailing in pain to people who just sat in wide-eyed silence, staring at nothing.

The next time the cage door was opened, I noticed in utter horror that some people were waiting by the opening, throwing themselves out intentionally just to ensure their death over capture. A dying shriek reverberated through the air as an unlucky person got stuck between the metal bars as they fell closed. Only half of them landed back in the cage, spraying everyone in close proximity with blood and gore. Their severed legs writhed for a second before spasming and falling limply to the ground.

My eyes were torn away from the awful scene by a familiar sob that came from beside me. I turned slowly, still in shock, finding the woman with the mangled leg staring at the bleeding piece of body in distraught and terror. Her whole body shook violently, and the wet glint of tears slid down her cheeks. I slid a hand down and reached for hers, trying to comfort her. She flinched away from me, eyes darting back to mine. Recognizing what I had intended to do, she dragged herself closer, wrapping her arms around me and clinging to my side like a scared child. I didn’t blame her. I hadn’t expected it, and shied away from her touch at first. However, the ride was long and she refused to let go for anything. With all the nightmarish events happening around me, I soon found myself returning her frightened grip.

The cage was so jam packed within only about a half hour that people were trampling and climbing over one another because there wasn’t enough room for everyone to stand. Bones and limbs were torn up or broken left and right as they were stepped or fallen on. Most of it couldn’t be helped. The cage swung along to the giant hazmat suit creature’s gait with no particular care for any of us passengers inside. The stench of such close quarters made everything all the more unbearable. Thank god I managed to get a spot against the wall and the thin breathing slits.

The woman at my side clung almost desperately to me then, trying to sidle her hurt leg between us so it wouldn’t be torn up further. “What happened?” I asked her, gesturing at her leg. It was the first thing I actually said to her. She seemed slightly shocked that I’d spoken, and glanced down at it before forcing her gaze somewhere else. “I- I was trying to hide under a stairway. One of those g- giant things grabbed me by my leg, but I held on to the railing. When I wouldn’t let go, they-” She took a shuddering breath, “They yanked and twisted it until I let go.” I sucked in a shocked breath of air. “I- I’m Tanya.” “Wes,” I replied.

We sat together in a small huddle as things continued getting worse around us. What did the giant hazmat creatures want with all of us? Why did they want so many people? Where did they even come from?

Unfortunately, we found out where they came from soon enough. With the cage full, the giant that held us stepped back through the tear in the sky. The transition made my hair stand on end. For the brief moment we passed through, everything became deathly cold, and I felt like I was being choked. It was like a whole other world opened up on the other side. I wasn’t close enough to the cage door to see anything outside, but the temperature dropped like we’d stepped into an air conditioned building, and echoes of unnaturally loud voices and footsteps bounced off walls. Along with the sounds of normal activity, there was an awful cacophony of begging, screaming, and crying, warped into one raucous sound by the sheer size of the large room.

The cage was roughly placed on a rolling belt of sorts, sliding down into some unknown space. Moments later, everyone was thrown partway into the air by the momentum of our cage hitting another in front of it. Soon enough, a similar chain reaction happened as another cage hit ours from behind. People started talking again, even yelling to those in other containers, searching for someone they knew. The spiking panic never quite went away though we were now left alone on the conveyor belt; it couldn’t. There were still the awful tortured noises, and with every move the belt made to pull us further, the closer the sounds became.

Theories were thrown around as to what would happen to us come the end of the line. Some thought we would be cast into a furnace and burned for energy, others thought we would be dissected alive. Neither idea made much sense — the beings would take everything, not just us, if they were feeding a flame-powered engine, and if they were dissecting us alive.. surely they wouldn’t need thousands of test subjects, would they? Despite neither guess being very logical, people were too scared to doubt anything. Along with theorists, there were others banding together at the entrance, trying to scale their way up to the lock and pick it open.

For the entire tenuous time we waited, Tanya and I had our own quiet conversation, which was mostly me trying to disprove the deadlier theories, and her nursing her twisted leg. However, after what might’ve been hours, the cage in front of us was hauled away. A brief glimpse of a large glass holding cell flashed in front of us before a cover slammed down over the belt tunnel, stopping our cage from rolling any further. Anxiety prickled through the crowd as more screaming and begging came from the voices we’d heard in front of us. Everyone got quiet after that.

At last, the screaming briefly stopped, but that was worse. The cries had always halted just before another cage was taken. We were next. Everything was suddenly hauled into the air, cage door thrown open. All of us went tumbling into the basin we’d caught a glimpse of earlier. Tanya fell on me that time, but neither of us cared much at that point. We just wanted to know where we were. Some people were unlucky enough to land at a very wrong angle. Of them, there were a lot of broken bones and dislocated limbs, but a very unlucky — or maybe lucky — few had landed upside down, snapping their necks or spines in the process — dying pretty much instantaneously. One of them was miraculously still alive, though. They wheezed out choked tears before a gloved hand descended from above. This glove wasn’t a thick rubber hazmat glove, but rather a thin steril blue one.

All of us watched stunned as the person was lifted up by the gigantic appendage. Frankly, I wasn’t even fazed by the near-dead person; I was fazed by the gloved being. No one had been able to see them before. They were covered head to toe in hazmat gear. This one wore nothing but a doctor’s mask and surgical gloves, as well as a crisp white shirt with a small logo in the right corner that I couldn’t read. Besides the being’s impossible size, it looked exactly like a person. She looked like a person.

The giant woman examined the wheezing, writhing person in her hand with a near deadpan expression. With one swift move, she pressed their spine between her fingers and squeezed, effectively snapping the person in two. Gasps and whimpers rose up around me as we all watched her casually toss the body into something below the tabletop where we sat, then dust off her hands like she’d taken care of a piece of trash rather than a dying human being. Afterwards, her gaze landed on us.

She replaced her gloves with a fresh pair, then reached into the container. Everyone scattered, trying desperately to avoid the hand that had just killed so easily. Some poor soul was swept away, and they became the new spectacle for the rest of us to watch. The man was strapped to a swiveling platform tray and brought beneath a large magnifying glass, lit up and attached to the side of the table. She examined him, tested his reflexes, drew blood with an incredibly thin needle — it was like being seen by a gigantic doctor. His blood samples were stuck into a machine for a minute while the giant continued to inspect his health. Finally, as the blood samples returned, he found the courage to speak.

“P- Please! What do you want with us?” The giant glanced up at him briefly, then finished reading the test results. Without looking up, she replied. “I want to make sure you’re in good condition.” Confused silence. “You are, by the way. In good condition.” Jotting something down on her clipboard, she looked up at the man strapped to the tray in front of her. He squirmed slightly under her gaze. “Why?” She shrugged, “Pays well.” Her massive gloved hands reached for him and he struggled as she undid his restraints and placed him in a different container. It was smaller than ours and made of metal. The side was labeled ‘passing containment’; there was another bin beside it, but the label was blocked by medical equipment. “Alright,” the woman said with a sigh, “Who’s next?”

Everyone still evaded her grasp to the best of their ability, but someone was caught in the end. They were strapped down and examined in the same way. Her willingness to speak with us sent up a lot of questions from the group, but the giant ignored all of them. The only one she did answer was the question of the person on the lifted tray in front of her. “What will happen to us after this?” Quietly, she drew their blood and stuck it in the machine again. “I don’t know; that’s not my job. I just make sure you’re healthy when you come in.” “What if we aren’t?” someone called from somewhere to my left. She glanced at our container. “You go into that bin.” A long finger pointed out the second metal container. “Again, I don’t know where you go after that.”

The machine dinged, signifying the blood sample’s results were back. The woman turned to check on it, then huffed and checked again. At last, she turned back to her ‘patient’. “Do you know you have lung cancer?” she asked them. The guy sputtered, looking around as if he expected the question to be part of some cruel joke. “Wh- What? No I don’t!” “Says here you do.” He shook his head angrily. “Well, it’s wrong.” The giant shrugged, reading from the machine. “I’ll run the test again if you like.” After another few minutes, the results remained unchanged. “Well, into the unhealthy bucket for you.” “What?! What does that mean?! What’s gonna happen to me?!?” He panicked, trying to squirm out of her grip. “I told you, I don’t know.”

Every person was subjected to the same basic checkup, and were tallied down on whatever papers the giant had on her clipboard. All of us had to take a turn. All of us were afraid she'd find something wrong. Tanya shook me gently, “What happens when she gets to me?” There were a few people with broken bones or dislocated shoulders that had gone through the giant’s evaluation. She’d slid their tray into a black box-looking device and sat them in there for ten minutes or so. Some people took more time than others, usually the ones with more severe injuries took the longest. When they came out, their bones were perfectly rearranged and rebuilt. Others with more serious problems — illnesses and missing limbs — were thrown into the dreaded other bin. Funny; I doubt many of those without certain limbs had that issue before they were abducted. “They’ll probably just stick you in the healing machine,” I told Tanya quietly, “You’ll be alright.”

I let her go first. I wanted to be able to see what happened to her; if anything happened to her. The giant went to strap her to the tray like usual, but hesitated as she noticed her twisted limb. Her eyes narrowed, scrutinizing Tanya’s leg as she held it between two fingers. I held my breath the entire time, eventually letting it out in a relieved huff as the giant finally strapped her to the tray. She hadn’t immediately put her in the reject bin, or whatever it was. However, instead of reaching for the syringe to take blood, or the tweezers to move limbs, or even the small dull hammer to check reflexes, the woman reached into a drawer beneath those tools, hand retreating with a sharpened scalpel. My stomach dropped and Tanya struggled in her bindings. “Wh- Wait! What is that for?!” The giant bent over her, “I need a better look at your leg,” she mumbled, not exactly to her.

With expert movements, she cut a long thin slit down the length of the twisted pant leg. “Wait.. what are you-” Swapping the scalpel for tweezers, the giant pulled her leg out of her clothing, holding it up to the magnifying glass pinched between the metal prongs. Tanya cried in pain, and I had to turn away. Her leg looked so much worse without clothing to hide it. No wonder she hadn’t stood up since I met her. Not only was it twisted backwards, it was jammed up through her side, bone nearly impaling skin. The awful image of the person who first fell from the sky flashed through my mind.

“Yeah I.. don't think this’ll work,” the giant mused, “You’d probably die of shock if I stuck you in the Patching and Reworking device. I’ll just stick you in the unhealthy bin.” I spun back around just as Tanya started begging. “No! No, please! I- I’ll do it! I’ll try it! If I die, I die! Just don’t-” Her voice cut off in a pained sob as she was taken from the tray and lifted into the air. “Just let her try it!” I chimed in as she was lowered into the bin. The giant turned to me with a surprised expression, but it quickly faded into a pitying one as she reached for me.

“Sorry, little guy. If any of you come to me alive, I have to keep you that way. I can’t do it if it might kill her.” She explained it to me as if I were a little kid, her voice lilting and patronizing. “You snapped that first person’s spine! The hell are you talking about?!” She froze for a split second, eyes briefly darting to the bin beneath the counter. I could see it now that I was high enough in the air, and I immediately regretted it. There were way too many corpses in there. Like, really too many — more than the population of the whole town. How many places have they been to? How many people are here?!

I couldn’t even speak as I was strapped down and checked over. I was given the all clear fairly quickly, but I wasn’t worried about myself. Struggling in the giant’s hand, I tried to peer into the ‘unhealthy’ bin as I was whisked overhead. There were a few people lying on the floor, so I couldn’t even find Tanya before my vision was cut off by the metal walls of the bin. The last of the people in our group were checked; a few were reunited on this side, happy just to be together, others looked like they wished they’d jumped out of the cage while they had the chance.

With everyone done, the woman pressed a buzzer on the wall and finished up her work, dumping all the collective dead bodies that had complied during our trip into the bin beneath the table with the rest. Soon, we were taken out of the room by another giant. All anyone could see was the underside of our carrier’s head as they walked. Some people tried to ask what was going on, but we were all ignored. Our bin was deposited in yet another room. We couldn’t see anything beyond the ceiling high above, but we could hear the voices of other people like us. There was constant yelling, but that was nothing new. All I and anyone could do was wait for our turn to find out what was happening. My thoughts were preoccupied, though. The only thing I could think about was what might happen to Tanya and everyone else in the other bin. They weren’t being killed, right? I had to hold out hope that they were being brought somewhere that could treat them with another strange miracle machine, and not anything else. Please don’t let it be anything else.

Not that I really had the privilege to worry about someone besides myself. The assembly line reached our bin. Ten at a time, people were scooped up and shoved into shelving that lined the wall. I ran away from the oncoming hand like everyone else, but where could we even run to? What was the point of delaying the inevitable?

I was shoved haphazardly into one of the shelves, which turned out to be a normal-sized room, decorated with nothing but a few rows of cots and two vertical empty tubes that stuck through both the floor and the ceiling. One small section with a sink and a toilet was blocked off by a curtain. All the walls were an empty, clean white except for one. The wall on the opposite side of the opening was made of glass so we could be viewed by whoever was passing by. It made my adrenaline spike for no reason other than the uncanniness of it all. A few others — nine others to be exact — were locked in with me. The final white wall fell closed on us with a dull click.

We all stared around at eachother — took it all in. There were three women, one of which sank to her knees and started bawling. The other two just glanced around uneasily. Three other guys beside myself stood around as well, two of them helped the crying woman onto a cot. The others were just kids. One of them was glued to the side of a man that hadn’t moved, and the last kid stood alone in the furthest corner. She might be closer to adulthood, but there was something about her features that made her seem younger.

It was about four days until our room opened up again, but I learned quite a lot in those first few hours alone. The younger kid was only nine years old, and the man he refused to let go of was his father. They were Jim and Darian. I thought the mother might have gotten separated from them during the day we were abducted, but she’d actually separated from them long before then.

The woman who’d cried throughout the whole first day had been taken from her wife and two kids, and she was fully convinced they were in the room next door. After calming down from crying, she began to call through the walls. Everyone kept trying to quiet her — the walls were soundproofed — but nothing could stop her from trying. She was Lucille.

The oldest person, the other man who’d tried to help Lucille up, had complained the most about her whining, and quickly began to resent her. He resented everything, though. That was Mr. Ferguson.

The two other women were about my age, as well as the other guy. We formed a sort of apocalypse committee where we hatched plans to escape. Well, Brendon, Sylvi, and I came up with escape plans. Emma, the eldest of us, shot them down. We let it slide though, because she was basically the mom of the group. She was practical, and reasoned with everyone, even Mr. Ferguson, without losing her temper. No one knew why or how, but it was nice to have someone who wasn’t freaking out. The older teen I never got the name of. She hasn’t spoken a word since she was put in here.

Our first night, we claimed beds and Emma assured us that we would be alright here. They’d checked our health and gave us a place to stay, which was a pretty clear sign they wanted us alive and well. For what, no one knew, but at the very least we weren’t strapped down or kept in those awful cages. Brendon determined that the best thing was being able to understand our captors. His first plan of many was to try and guilt-trip one of the giants into letting us go, but everyone thought that was an awful idea. None of them seemed very apathetic to our situation.

While we argued over what we could do, the pipes rattled in the wall. Our conversation came to an abrupt halt as water sloshed into a basin that jutted away from the tube. Moments later round pellets scattered down the second tube, falling into a similar basin. Everyone glanced around uneasily. The food smelled unappetizing at best, and the way we were fed was so eerily similar to a small animal or pet that it made my hair stand on end. Now that the idea was in my head, the entire room looked like a cage in a pet store, minus the cots and bathroom amenities.

Just as all of us began getting used to the new routine, things changed for the worse. Again. Mid-morning, shortly after the next round of water and pellets made their way through the tubing, the back wall was pulled away. All of us raced to the opposite end of the room, pressed up against the glass. A gloved hand reached in for us. I was pressed tightly between the others, all of us desperate to get back.

Despite our warnings against it, Brendon slid to the front to speak. “When can we go home?” he asked, “We’re thankful you’ve given us a place to stay here, but we don’t want to stay! Whatever you want with us — will you take us back afterwards?” The human sneered, hand retreating from the room. A moment later their head ducked into view to look at him.

“Sure, we’ll release you once we’re done with you.” Before anyone could react, the giant’s hand reached in and dragged Brendon out into the same type of bin we’d been carried there in. The rest of us were gathered up shortly after. I don’t know what I expected to happen to me, but it certainly wasn’t what did happen. I was stuck in a small room even for my own size, and given a ridiculously long exam. Yep. A paper bubble sheet and booklet exam where the booklet of problems was as thick as a novel and the answer sheet spanned several pages. I started taking it when I was told to by some giant outside the room, but after a while, I got up and wandered around. There was a metal box in one corner that I hadn’t investigated. Turns out, it was a fridge with concessions. A suspicious amount of concessions.

Hours in, I’d taken about a quarter of the test out of boredom, when at last I heard another voice. It was a giant walking by. “Wait! Hello?” I called, hoping they’d stop, “When is test time up? When do we finish?” I didn’t plan on taking the entire exam, which consisted of math, grammar, science, mechanics, illusions and puzzles, almost anything you could think of to solve. It was way too much for something I could care less about. “Your time is up when you finish,” came the giant’s response. “I.. Do you really expect me to finish all of this? This’ll take days!” I heard an annoyed huff. “Then you better speed it up, then. I’m not allowed to let you out until you’re done.” Just to spite them, I filled in all my remaining multiple choice answers as C, and any free response ones with whatever shit I could think of to write the giant overseers. It still took me a while just to do that and chuck all of it into the bin that slid out of the wall once I answered everything.

I was met with an extremely unamused look when I was let out. The giant above me lifted me up between two fingers, frowning at me. “Really? You didn’t even try. That’s going to mess up your results.” I tried to say something back, but I could barely breathe, and all I could do was wheeze. “Oh! You can’t.. Here.” Their hand opened, letting me fall into a palm the size of a small car. “Th- Thanks,” I said weakly. “I would've tried a bit harder if you’d let me have a fucking break.” The giant shrugged, bouncing me up and down with the large movement. “You could take as many breaks as you wanted; you just had to stay in the box.”

He ended up putting me back in my new room. It wasn’t that much of an improvement. No one else was even there. I guess none of them had figured out that they could just bullshit every answer to get out early. Remembering Brendon’s idea, I tried one last brief conversation. This was a giant I hadn’t met before — one that had the decency to stop crushing me to death, which was still awful, but it was better than the others. It couldn’t hurt to try.

“Hey!” I yelled before the wall was closed, “When do we get let out of this room?” When will you be done giving us stupid tests? Why are you even-” The giant’s face darkened, and I quieted anxiously. “W- What?” My voice echoed almost fearfully in the empty space. “Nothing,” he responded with a quick shake of his head, “I just... Don’t count on going back to your world anytime soon.” With that, he shut the door.

“Wait! WHAT’S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!” It was no use shouting now. The soundproofed walls would’ve kept him from hearing anything. I sulked in silence until someone came back. Sylvi was tossed back in a hurry almost four hours later; she’d been fighting through the two-handed grasp the giant had on her, caught inside the tightly enclosed space between their palms. She spat a few curses before the wall was sealed off. A shuddering breath escaped her lungs as she knelt on the floor where she’d been tossed, and I was scared that she’d start crying. She snapped out of it the moment she spotted me. “How did you get back so early?” Sylvi asked, quickly rubbing her face while she was turned away from me. I explained to her how I decided to finish the test; she had a good laugh at that.

The next to come back was the youngest kid’s father. He paced back and forth the entire time until his son came back. He was the last one because he’d actually been trying his hardest. It took him a day or two to actually finish everything. Again, Brendon, Sylvi, and I all argued over why they’d given us that test. Even Mr. Ferguson offered his opinion. The consensus was: we had no fucking clue. Abducting probably hundreds of thousands of people just to test them didn’t make sense. That night we all managed to get some decent sleep with everyone returned back. It’s a good thing we did. The following day we were all taken out again.

One by one, we were all stuffed away into a large container with others in the same row. I flinched as someone started sobbing behind me. Lucille rushed over to a woman huddling two kids close to herself and threw her arms around all three of them. The other woman — her wife, presumably — pulled her beneath her chin, kissing the top of her head. My heart wrenched in my chest knowing they’d be separated again. Memories of Tanya hugging me close threatened to make my eyes water, but I shook away the pain. She’s being healed up.. somewhere else.

Our group’s destination was a gigantic room about the size of a stadium, yet it was still dwarfed by the giant-sized room it sat in. We were all dumped in and sealed up inside. I tried searching for anyone I knew from before all this, but there were way too many people to pick out any familiar faces. A few billboard screens flickered to life around the room minutes after we were left alone. Welcome to your first assessment! a voice cheerfully greeted us from the speakers, In this trial, your goal is simple: leave the room before time runs out!

First an exam, now an escape room? Along with a way out, there will be numerous surprise chests scattered throughout the room, which reset every time they’re opened! You can win all sorts of cool prizes! Examples of them flashed across the screen, showing more comfortable amenities, private rooms, better meals, medication, and so on. What caught my attention was the prize of choosing a roommate. Sure, I could pick someone I knew, but if Tanya was somewhere worse off, I could at least get her to my uncanny, but otherwise tolerable place of living.

But watch out! the automated voice warned, Some of the boxes can spring punishments instead of prizes, so choose wisely! An animated stick person opened a chest onscreen during the warning. Moments later the cartoon effect of being zapped with electricity made their skeleton flash briefly across the screen.

The introduction video seemed so innocent it almost didn’t seem real, like this was all something pretend. But don’t worry; none of the punishments are lethal, so try your best! Despite the obvious dangers, I swore to myself that I’d try it at least once, just to see. Remember, get out before time runs out, and good luck! With that, the entire stadium rumbled to life.

Giants herded everyone into different hallways that had opened up around the stadium. People started yelling, getting separated from others they found in the crowd. I was corralled down a hall where I knew no one, but it didn’t matter much to me. We’d be put back in our weird rooms at the end of it all, anyways.

When we finally stepped out, the automated voice said: Trial Start! And the whole place lit up. Smooth grey walls shot up from the ground in random patterns, creating a labyrinth of hallways and cutoffs. I stared in horror as people rushed past me, driven by the timer flashing above our heads. Everything had clicked in my mind. This isn’t an escape room, it’s a maze — a maze of incentives and punishments for comparatively small living things to navigate for the gigantic scientists watching everything just outside. No wonder we’d been tested. No wonder we were kept in uncanny pet store rooms with little fucking food and water dispensers. We’re lab rats. All of us. And no one’s going home.

My existential crisis would have to wait, though. I’m on a time limit. I wandered the plastic halls searching for the exit before remembering the potential prizes. I didn’t want to give the scientists the satisfaction of learning some sort of lesson, but at the same time, the prizes were hard to pass up. The next time I came to a dead end in the maze, there was a small box at the end of it. I hesitantly stepped up to the podium where it sat and threw the lid open as fast as I could, bracing myself for something to happen. Nothing. Looking down, there was a small slip of paper inside. GOOD FOR ONE MODIFIED COT it read. Damn. Not the one I was looking for, but I’d definitely take it over electrocution or whatever else had been rigged.

When I came across the next box, I was nearly shoved to the ground by someone wanting to get to it first. I watched from against the wall as they flipped open the lid and reached inside. This was followed by the noise of a mechanical lock. “Shit! Not again!” The person who shoved me strained to move away from the box, but their arm was locked into it by a metal clamp. A punishment in action. I’d heard people yelling about them, but I hadn’t seen one actually happen. It didn’t seem all that bad.

On my search for a different box, I came across the exit. There were a good deal of people already outside, but I wanted to try one more box, so I turned and headed back into the maze. I opened the next box expectantly, only to be blasted in the face with a bucketload of freezing water. Damn the psychology of this maze bullshit. I’m going back to the exit. What direction was that again?

I glanced up at the timer; five minutes left. Surely I could find it by then. As I raced back through halls I might’ve been down before, I caught sight of a group of three panicked people. Two of them were desperately trying to get the other’s arm out of one of those traps. If it didn’t unlock soon, they’d have to leave them there and make a run for the exit. That’s if they knew where the exit was.

Thankfully, I managed to find it with a little more than a minute to spare. I didn’t know what would happen if I was in there past the time limit, but I didn’t want to find out. The second the timer ended, a wall slid up from the floor of the maze and blocked the opening. Those of us who’d gotten out were congratulated by the automated voice and herded into another bin before being lifted away. Through the hazy plastic, I could catch what the punishment was for not making it out.

The whole maze had shifted. Walls had gone up everywhere so the interior of the box was filled. For a brief and terrifying moment, I thought they’d filled the box completely, crushing anyone still left inside. Then I noticed little pockets of space. They couldn’t have been bigger than six by six foot squares. Anyone who didn’t make it out was forced to sit in a little claustrophobic box within the maze. Who knows when they’d be released.

I was lifted out of the container a while later and scanned by some sort of machine before being placed back in the room. I’ve never been more relieved and repulsed by a place in my life. The others were all put back too. Well, almost all the others. Mr. Ferguson hadn’t made it back. Each person shared some sort of story about what they saw except Lucile, who sat on her bed in teary-eyed silence. Emma’s story was the worst. She saw someone — still sopping wet from a water-based punishment like mine — get an electrocution punishment back to back. They’d spasmed and hit the floor unconscious. She’d rushed over to help them, but had to leave them behind.

“They were still breathing, thank god. But I couldn’t do much else for them. Hopefully they woke up before time ran out,” Emma said with a shudder. “We.. we’re being experimented on, aren’t we?” Sylvi asked, glancing around at everyone, “This is far from over.” “We’re just lab rats,” I added solemnly.

Everyone was in a pretty gloomy mood after that, but right before dinner, the wall behind us opened up again. A jolt of anxious fear spiked through me. I thought we were being dragged off to another test. “Any of you want to cash in a ticket?” the giant asked. I forgot about that. Digging into my pocket, I pulled out mine and hesitantly raised my hand. “Alright, give it to me.” Their outstretched hand slid into the room and everyone backed off. From as far away as I could, I passed them my slip of paper. The giant stuck it into some kind of reader, then nodded. He reached for something below what I could see, and brought up a whole bed. “Which one is yours?” he asked, nodding to the cots. I pointed it out and he replaced it.

“Anyone else?” Jim lifted his hand hesitantly. “I- I have a lone room, but I.. Can I bring my son with me?” The giant narrowed his eyes in thought. “Hmmm…. You won it, so I guess you can decide.” Jim nodded happily, “In that case, you can take my ticket, and I’ll bring my son.” He handed off the ticket and both he and the little guy were taken to a different room. None of us ever saw them again, and frankly, I don’t know whether that’s a good or bad thing.

Mr. Ferguson finally returned as the rest of us were going to bed. Brendon dared to ask him what had happened, and he mumbled under his breath something about having to repeat an entirely different maze before he was allowed to leave. He only spoke one other time to ask where Jim and Darian were before silently going to sleep. Speaking of, that night was the first night I’d slept longer than an hour at a time. My new bed was no joke. It felt like a normal mattress from the beds back home. It probably is. They probably stole it.

The next day was apparently a rest day. Brendon, Sylvi, and I tried again to come up with a plan of escape. Even Emma got involved. She was beginning to doubt her own idea that the giants wanted us safe. They wanted us alive so we could be experienced with. “What if we just refuse?” I asked the group, “I did that for the test and all the punishment I got was a stern talking to.” “Or they could pour boiling water on you,” Sylvi interrupted me, “or fucking blind you. That’s how they punished me in the maze.” I groaned, “But that was when you were playing their game! What if we decide to just sit out?” “Somehow, I don’t think they’ll let us do that anymore,” Emma said solemnly.

“I’ll try it.” Everyone turned to the person who’d spoken. It was the teen who previously hadn’t uttered a word. She slowly glanced between each of us like she was confused why we were all staring at her. “I’ll refuse to do the next test. I don’t really care what the giants will do to me, anyways.” We all glanced worriedly at eachother. “A- Are you sure you want to try that?” Emma asked, “They.. can do a lot worse than what they’ve been doing if they wanted to.” She nodded, and it was settled.

The following day we were all dragged off again. Another maze awaited us, only this one was filled with visual puzzles. Another automated video explained the different systematic sections of the game, but I could hardly concentrate. Again I searched the waiting room for someone I knew. There were less of us today. I recognized two people from my town, but I didn’t know them well enough to bother going up to them. When the gates opened, I stayed towards the beginning for a second, watching the teen. She stood unmoving at the entrance. A giant told her to go in, but she shook her head; I watched her speak to the giant, then yell at them. Their fist slammed into the ground beside her and I flinched. Miraculously, she remained still.

In one swift movement, the giant picked her up by her arm and dragged her inside it himself. I dashed behind a corner to watch how things played out. Despite being literally manhandled, she still refused to move from wherever the giant put her. The only way she’d complete the puzzles would be if the giant did them for her, and that would defeat the purpose of our little experiment. “Do the damn puzzles you little bitch!” the giant growled angrily, “Or I’ll put you in an experiment that you can’t refuse to participate in!” A forced experiment? They have those? Briefly I zoned out, thinking through what that might look like, when I heard a loud yelp. The angered giant had snatched up the girl rather forcefully, taking her away to some other place.

I tried to complete the test as fast as possible, hoping to see what happened to her, but the puzzles became too complex to speed through them. The first part of the maze was a mirror maze, similar to the ones in funhouses. That would end, and I’d be given another one. About five mazes in, I realized they all had the same layout, and rushed through. My sixth attempt, some scientist must’ve realized I’d solved the puzzle because the next room was completely different. Similar little mindfucks were presented to me throughout the day. I was starving by the time I made it out. When I was placed back in my room, there were food pellets waiting for me. It was the first time I enjoyed eating them, though their taste was still horrific.

All of the others were returned one by one. And finally, lastly, the teen who’d refused. I still don’t know her name; I don’t think she’s given it. Everyone was anxious to hear what happened to her, especially since she was sopping wet — a sign of a few of the punishments. All of us crowded around her as she relayed her story.

“It- They put me somewhere different,” she told us, “I refused to do any of the maze so they put me into one where I.. I didn’t have a choice.” She choked on her last sentence, taking a shaky breath. “I.. I killed someone.” Her whisper sent chills down my spine. I could feel the hair on my arms prickle against my clothing. “It wasn’t my fault!” she exclaimed suddenly, “They- The test, it- it made me! I-I couldn’t save them! I tried! I really tried!” “What are you talking about?” Mr. Ferguson asked. “What.. What do you mean you killed somebody?” Brendon asked quietly. “They.. It’s.. There’s this deep empty basin,” she exclaimed. “The giants tell you that you have to climb out, which is easy enough; there are footholds in the side of one of the walls. Then they…” She took another breath and Emma sat down beside her, offering some comfort.

“They put another person in there with you, right as they announce that the trial is starting. The other person.. they were covered in chains and weights. They could barely move. They were angry and confused, and I tried to explain what was happening, but then the water started coming in.” She was silent for a bit. “They were weighed down.” Her voice grew quiet again. “They started drowning. I- I tried to help them up the wall, but they were too heavy. Th-They begged me to help them, b-but I couldn’t lift them! They- I- I had to let them go! Don’t you understand?! I would’ve drowned too if I didn’t drop them!” The girl broke off and started wailing. Emma hugged her close with a darkened, faraway look. The rest of us stared around at eachother in horror. There were worse punishments. A lot worse.

Throughout the week we were tested over and over again, except for that teen. Every single day she was put in a basin with another person chained up. Every single day she had to watch someone die in front of her, knowing she couldn’t save them. One day, she didn’t come back. No one wanted to ask why, but Lucille did. “Oh,” the woman who’d come to get us responded, a bit shocked she’d been spoken to. “The one in the Basin Trials? She died — drowned trying to save someone she couldn’t. It was an anomaly case. Usually she gives up on the victim eventually, but that time she didn’t.” She shrugged, “Our hypothesis is that she might’ve known them, but we can’t be sure.”

I don’t know how long it’s been since everything started; time seems.. I don’t know.. blurry? It’s not definite anymore. Now time is based on whenever food and water get delivered, and when the day’s trial happens. Sometimes it’ll be just you alone in a room — tested physically, mentally, or both. Other times you have to work with or even against others. I don’t know what I did to attract attention to myself. I think it’s because I keep solving the logic puzzles too quickly, either that or it’s because I helped someone with theirs. Whatever the reason, suddenly I was brought to a completely different test. Alone.

The ever-present automated voice told me what to do while I stood in an empty room. It was uncanny. I hadn’t had time alone since.. I don’t know. The screen in front of me showed the rules to the game, which was basically Tetris. I had to stack and clear rows of differently-shaped blocks without letting them hit the top. If I did, I would be punished. I’m familiar with the punishments by now, not that I’m used to them. They’re still awful.

When the room opened up, a slim glass box sat in front of me, as tall and long as a gymnasium, but only thin enough to fit two people shoulder to shoulder. The pieces would fall in from the slot at the top, and I had to control where they fell in the box with a joystick and button console in front of the giant glass box.

I stood at the controls, expecting the voice to announce the game’s start, but it was still silent. Suddenly, a back door opened, and three people were shoved inside. They all stood at the bottom, where I had to stack blocks. “Wh- What?!” I gasped, looking around for a giant supervisor — there was usually at least one. That time, there weren’t any. “I… Why are there people?” The automated message again stated how to win. “I know how to win! B-But there are people down there! What do you want me to do, kill them?!” The only response I got was: Trial Start!

A large block about four feet tall slid down from the ceiling, and everyone inside panicked. They couldn’t see me on the other side, but they knew someone was controlling things on the outside. That first run was too confusing; I just piled all the blocks in one long line at the opposite end of the glass box from the people inside. One of them was significantly slower at moving than the others — I had to be wary of her. The game ended rather quickly as I stacked a pile up to the ceiling. The moment I did, electrical currents ran through the floor, briefly burning me from the inside out. I spasmed, falling onto the controller in front of me. Gasping for air, I glanced up at the people trapped between the glass. Did they know what was happening to me out here?

I stumbled over, reaching for the glass. My heart jolted in my chest as I got a good look and the designated victims for the first time. The slower one.. it was Tanya. I wasn’t sure at first; I hobbled over to the glass beside her, putting a shaking hand against it. It really is her. Her leg had healed all wrong, and she couldn’t even bend it. “Tanya!” I yelled for her, but she didn’t react. You’ve started a losing streak! the automated voice stated cheerfully. The more times you lose, the harsher your punishment will become! Let’s start another round! “I- I don’t want to do this anymore!” I shouted at the machine, “This isn’t right! I… Why do you want me to kill them?! This isn’t an experiment; this is torture!” Trial Start!

Again, I stacked the blocks in a single line up to the top. I didn’t know what else to do. Obviously, I wasn’t going to hurt the people trapped in there, but there weren’t many alternatives. For my next punishment, they’d upped the voltage. A shriek exploded from my lungs as waves of electricity tore through my skin, leaving parts of me burnt. I lay on the ground, wheezing for ragged breaths. If I keep this up, I’ll die. If I don’t keep it up, they die. What if.. What if I just try building around them? I can still complete rows above them, I just have to get the right pieces to suspend the rest of the blocks.

The next time the machine said Trial Start I put my plan to work. The designated victims couldn’t hear or see me, so I had to herd them with blocks to somewhere safe. It was hard, but I managed to build a small space for the three of them to huddle in while I filled up the rest of the board. I began scoring points. Enough of those and I can secure a win, breaking my nasty streak of losses. However, my plan began failing after only a few minutes. The tight space I’d left was surrounded in layers of Tetris-like pieces, sealing off air from getting in. Around ten minutes after enacting my plan, the victims began banging on the glass walls of their accidental prison, shouting that they couldn’t breathe.

In a panic, I let the pieces stack up and ended the game. I hadn’t won, but at least everything would clear away. All three people collapsed thankfully to the floor as their airtight box vanished. Relief briefly calmed my heart before I was thrown to the ground by another large shock. It hurt so badly I myself couldn’t breathe, and when it finally ended, I cried out in fear and staggered upward. I couldn’t see. Everything was dark and swirling like my eyes were closed, but I knew they weren’t. A minute or two of cursing and crying, my vision finally cleared. A smile involuntarily spread across my face, relieved that my vision had returned. Trial Start!

I wanted to violently bash whoever was controlling this game with a fucking baseball bat. Desperately, I tried to form another plan, trying to build a staircase out of blocks so the people inside wouldn’t be stuck at the bottom, but keeping up an even staircase was hard to do without accidentally stacking pieces a bit too high. Even then, it was pointless. Tanya couldn’t get up the makeshift stairs in time thanks to her damaged leg. The others did try to help her, but only after they’d gotten themselves out of the way first. I was only a few pieces away from losing again. Fearing for my own life, I quickly spammed the buttons on the controller. Rows cleared. Blood trickled down them.

I won the game with enough points, but the game wouldn’t end. Looks like there’s still a hazard left on your game board! Your game will continue until it’s cleared! Tanya was still on the board. She was the only one I spared.

She lay on a flatter part of the stacked blocks, hands over her head like she expected to be crushed at any moment. I tried to avoid her as long as I could. The game just kept going. Twenty minutes in, and she just sat there staring at the glass, confusedly watching piece after piece fall around her, but never on her. All that effort, only to hit the top and lose. “Wait! Wait, please! I won! I got almost double the points you wanted me to! You didn’t say I had to kill everyone to end the-” My open mouth frothed out saliva as I was electrocuted again. I spasmed and shook and foamed at the mouth like I’d gone insane, then passed out.

Blindingly bright light gleamed directly into my eyes when I woke up, making my head throb. A moment later, it was blocked out by someone sitting above me. “T- Tanya? Did.. I save you?” She sobbed, gently lifting my torso up so she could hug me. “Oh god, it was you out there. I.. I wondered why the controller kept trying to keep me alive.” I tried to speak, but only coughed. Tanya lowered me back down. “Where are we?” I asked faintly. Trial Start!

Adrenaline spiked through my veins, getting me up in an instant. There were glass walls all around me, two of them much further away than the others, like the inside of an ant farm. A shadow passed briefly overhead before sliding somewhere else. “What…?” My stomach dropped as a larger-than-life Tetris block thudded to the ground behind me. Oh.

I glanced back at Tanya and she gave me a heartbroken expression. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I… I think we’re going to die.” Tears welled in my eyes and I brought her close. Another shadow fell over us and I dodged it, dragging Tanya along with me. I tried climbing the side of some blocks like stairs, but she couldn’t do it. Tears slid down her cheeks and she shook her head. “No. No, I’m not letting this happen!” I yelled frustratedly. Rushing back down the block, I hoisted her into my arms, and climbed up the side of it carrying her. Her eyes widened — tears stopping briefly as she stared up at me in shock. We managed to bide our time for a bit longer that way, but eventually my arms gave out beneath her and we landed in a painful heap.

“Wes,” she addressed me in a defeated whisper. “Thank you, but you have to leave me.” “N-No, I-” “Please! If.. If there’s a chance you can make it out of here…” “No, no, no, there’s no point! Get out and do what?! Come back here tomorrow to crush more people to death to earn points in some sick fucking game?! I just-” My voice cracked as a shadow slid over us. “I want to stay with you.”

I was pulled forward suddenly, lips suddenly locked with mine. Tanya’s breath was hot on my face as she kissed me with a passion that could only be brought out in someone’s last moments. Darkness gradually surrounded us as the lights above were blocked by a descending object. I returned Tanya’s affection, sliding her up until she was pressed against me. My eyes squeezed shut as the last of the light died out. I focused on the two of us — bodies close, breath synched, mouths locked on eachother. Then it was over.

#yes this is CURRENTLY happening in the background of the Other-world Universe #and similar occurrences will continue to happen unless someone manages to stop them #g/t #giant tiny #other-world universe #horror #promptober/inktober #tw death #tw injury #tw torture

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