Planet of the Titans

Chapter 14

When Leo finished his meal, he was given some equipment by Jake and the others who were the same size as him. He was given another pressurized pneumatic device that had a rope and a grapnel hook attached to it, as well as some other climbing gear. Leo and all six of the other captives were going on the mission to rescue some other captives who were also from another version of Earth. Jake showed them a map, the location was about seven or eight miles away on their scale. Melina wished them good luck, and they set out from their tunnel that led under the house, and made their way to the curb. They climbed down and made their way toward their destination. Although it was daylight, they were able to make progress toward their destination without being seen by staying in the gutters and only crossing the streets when they were absolutely sure no giants could see them.

Meanwhile, back at Zima's dorm, Nolan and Adonis were sitting on a couch when Zima returned with the basketball court that was on the same scale as Nolan when he was normal size. It easily fit on Zima's dining room table.

"How often do giants shrink down to our size and play games on Arcadia?" Nolan asked.

"We call ourselves titans," said Zima. "Get it right!"

"Sorry!" said Nolan, "How often do titans shrink down to human size and play in the games on Arcadia?"

"It's done more often than you might think," said Adonis. "Usually it's done by a man to prove his love to a woman, as with my situation with Zima."

"Wouldn't humans attack a titan who shrunk down to human size?" Nolan asked.

"It's been known to happen," said Adonis. "But if a human kills a titan, the punishment is an automatic death sentence! Are you ready to practice?"

Meanwhile, Leo and the six other fugitives who were staying with the giantess Melina were almost to their destination. Jake showed Logan the map on his GPS device that was built on their scale. It had been provided to them by Melina. About half an hour later, they arrived at the house. To the humans, it was colossal, but to a titan it was a modest three story house that was nothing out of the ordinary. It had two floors and an attic, but the attic could qualify as a third floor.

"I think we should climb to that top window and go through the attic," said Leo.

"I agree!" said Jake, and Jake fired his pneumatic tube that released the rope with the grapnel hook attached to it; the grapnel hook Jake climbed the rope, followed by Leo and the others. Once on the first floor roof, Leo fired his pneumatic tube, and the rope with the grapnel hook shot up into the air and broke through the window high above. After checking to see if it was secure, Leo began to climb. When he reached the window, Jake followed him up, and the other men climbed up one at a time.

They climbed through the hole in the window made by the grapnel hook, and found themselves on the window ledge inside the attic. There were drapes hanging to the floor, so they climbed down without any problem and made their way to the door, which had a clearance of about two feet on the bottom of the door. Jake borrowed some climbing gear from one of the other men. He tied one end of some rope to the leg of a chair, and pulled it under the door and to a flight of stairs. He threw the rope down the stairs, and the men followed him as he climbed down from the attic level to the second floor.

"I think two of us should go in opposite directions and scout the second floor," said Jake. "Leo, you go left and I'll go right, the rest of you stay here. We'll report back and describe what we see in five minutes!"

Jake and Leo split up. Leo walked down the hallway, and looked under the first door he saw. There was two feet of clearance, just like the attic door. Leo peeked underneath, and he could see two titanesses standing there observing some humans on a dresser. One was a brunette with a tan complexion and a short miniskirt, the other was a lighter-skinned brunette wearing pants. Leo went back to the other men just as Jake returned from his reconnaissance.

"I saw nothing, what about you?" Jake asked.

"I saw two giant women with some humans in their possession!" said Leo. "What are we going to do?"

"I'm not going in there," said Jake. "I say we wait until nightfall, then go in and try to perform a rescue."

"I'll go in now!" said Leo. "Someone give me a pneumatic firing tube with a rope and grapnel! Their backs are to us, so I think I can get inside undetected!"

Someone gave Leo what he requested, and he peeked under the bedroom door and saw that the two titanesses still had their backs to him. As he crawled underneath the door, he knew the party would be over if one of them turned around before he could find shelter. There was a trash can inside the room not far from the door, Leo quickly but quietly made his way behind it. He eavesdropped on the conversation of the two titanesses.

"I just don't know if there are enough of them for Lindsay's birthday party tomorrow!" said the tan brunette with the miniskirt. "We only have five captives, and there are eight of us!"

"Victoria, we can take them to Arcadia and gamble them to win more," said the lighter-skinned giantess in pants.

"I don't know, Charlotte!" said Victoria, the tanned brunette. "We could end up losing all of them. I say we keep the captives we have right now!"

"Well, let's go eat lunch, and we can decide then!" said Victoria. the two titanesses left the room, completely unaware that seven more tiny people were in their house, if only they could capture them and add them to their collection. When the titanesses were downstairs, Leo made his way under the door and made his way back to Jake Bowman and the other fugitives.

"They're going to lunch right now!" said Leo. "We have time to perform a rescue attempt!"

"Okay," said Jake, "three of you stay up in the attic in case we get captured. The rest of you, come with me and Leo!"

Once inside the room, Leo fired the pneumatic tube he was carrying, and the grapnel pierced the glass jar the other captives were trapped in. Logan climbed up the rope, and used a small tool to break through the glass of the jar, freeing the five captives.

"Come with us!" said Leo. "We're here to free you!"

The five men followed Leo without questions. They climbed down the rope to the floor, then ran across the room and climbed under the door. They made their way to the hallway, and ascended the stairs to the attic and climbed underneath the attic door. They ascended the drapes to the window, and climbed out and down the rope Leo and the others had climbed up originally.

After climbing down the other rope, they were in the front yard of the house. There were now twelve of them, and they all ran back toward Melina's house.

Before the house they escaped from was out of visual distance, they could all hear a scream. Back at the house, Victoria and Charlotte had just discovered that the tinies had escaped from their clutches. They saw the broken jar, the grapnel hook, and the rope leading to the floor that Leo and his crew had hastily left behind.

"Let's check around the house!" said Victoria, as she clutched the rope hanging from the jar.

"They probably climbed out through the attic!" said Charlotte.

The two titan women ran toward the stairs leading to the third floor attic. They found the rope hanging down the length of the stairs, and opened the attic door to see that the rope was tied around the leg of a chair.

"Look!" said Victoria. "Another grapnel hook hanging from the window! Little people must've came through here to conduct a rescue operation!" Victoria looked out the window and saw the rope hanging from the rain gutter.

"We need to get to the ground floor and get outside!" said Victoria. Both women ran down the stairs and headed outside. Since the house was located in the middle of the block, there were only two directions the tiny men could've went.

"You go East," said Victoria, "and I'll go West! Yell if you find any of them! Maybe we'll catch more than we started out with!"

Logan and the other had covered quite some distance since they had hit the ground, but they could still hear Victoria and Charlotte.

Jake tried to do damage control. "All of my guys, team up with one of the guys we rescued and take off in a different direction, and we'll meet back at Melina's!"

Leo took a captive and guided him through a backyard to another street on the other side of the block they were on, away from Victoria and Charlotte. He had memorized the map Jake had shown him, and knew how to get back to Melina's. By taking a different route, it took a little longer, but by nightfall Logan and the captive he had befriended had made it back to Melina's. During their journey, Leo had explained to the guy about Melina, and the underground resistance. They went through the tunnel to get inside the house, and were met by Melina.

"The others arrived twenty minutes ago!" said Melina.

"Did everyone get here okay?" Leo asked.

"Yes!" said Melina. "You guys did an excellent job!"

By that time, back at Zima's dorm room, Nolan and Adonis were finishing up their practice session. Both Nolan and Adonis had been reduced to human size by Zima's shrink-ray pistol, and they were practicing taking shots with the basketball. Zima had tired of watching them, so she had gone to her desk to do some homework.

"Take another shot!" said Adonis, as he tossed the basketball back to Nolan. Nolan took the basketball and threw it in the air, and he made a perfect swish.

"You're getting a lot better in a brief span of time," said Adonis, "you were playing horribly when we first started."

"Once I warm up, I can do pretty good," said Nolan. "Hey, there's something Zima told me about your society that I was wondering about."

"What?" Adonis asked.

"Is Catholicism the official state religion? Nolan asked.

"Yes, the founder of our society was a Hispanic guy from future Earth. He was Catholic, so he made that the official religion of our society."

"There's something that doesn't add up for me," said Nolan after he caught the basketball from Adonis, and threw it for another basket. "If everyone here is Catholic, how can your society be so evil?"

Adonis caught the ball and threw it back to Nolan. "That's easy to explain," said Adonis. "The people of our society don't die, except by accident. Most of the people who were here when Octavian Ortega founded our society five-thousand years ago are still alive! The people who run our society are relatively young in comparison, and most of them are unbaptized. The government of Thanatar is run by secular society, the Catholics stay out of it."

"Zima said the people who are into dominating captives from Earth are in the majority!" said Nolan. "How can that be possible if most of the people of your society are older?" Nolan shot the ball and made another basket.

"In our society, in order to have the right to vote, you must serve four years in the military," said Adonis as he ran to catch the ball, then threw it back to Nolan. "Nobody over thirty can be in the military, so most people who vote are younger people, therefore, our society is run by the younger generation!"

Nolan made another basket. "But what about all the people who served in the military who had the right to vote? There should be more of them than the younger people! Shouldn't their opinions sway the way this society is run? If older people are against what is going on at Arcadia, why don't the older voters put a stop to it?"

"Thousands of years ago, they passed a law that people over sixty-five years old can't vote any more, regardless of whether or not they've served in the military." Adonis caught the ball and threw it back to Nolan.

"That's insane!" said Nolan, as he made a basket. "A law like that could never be passed on Earth!"

"Since people under thirty outnumber people over sixty-five, the law has never been repealed. Hey, I have a question for you."

"What?" Nolan asked.

"Who do you think Zima will lose her virginity to?" Adonis asked. Nolan tried not to smile, knowing that he had made love to Zima, and Adonis obviously had not.

"Why are you smiling?" Adonis asked.

"Because I already boned Zima the first time she enlarged me!" said Nolan.

"Nolan!" said Zima as her face came into view. "Why did you tell him that?" Zima had been eavesdropping on their conversation. Zima reached for Nolan and lifted him to her face. "Now he's going to tell my parents that I'm not a virgin!"

"You would have sex with a game piece from Earth over me?" Adonis asked.

"Shut up, Adonis!" said Zima, "I'm dealing with a situation."

Zima looked at Nolan and said, "I have to punish you, do you have any last words?"

"I love you!" said Nolan, and Zima plunged him into her mouth and swallowed. Nolan felt himself pulled down her esophagus and quickly splashed down into her belly. Nolan wondered how long his air would hold out. Despite having doubts, Nolan felt in his heart of hearts that Zima loved him, and that she wouldn't kill him. But how close to the truth was he?