Roxy's Summer Vacation

  It was a hot summers day when Roxy found herself standing out front of the movie theatre in the small town she was visiting her aunt in. All her relatives had to work during the week, so she was dropped off downtown and given some spending money to go around and do whatever she wanted. That would have been great, if the power at the movie theatre hadn't gone out.

  Roxy was drenched. Her short cropped fiery pink hair was drooping, her tank top clung to her with sweat, and her torn jean shorts offered just a small bit of comfort. That was all fine, but she really wished she'd worn her flip flops today. Roxy had opted for her sneakers, wearing them barefoot, and they now squelched with every step being completely soaked. It was like walking on a spongy surface.

  She sighed and looked down the street. This was her first day downtown and she had no idea where anything was. A drink was her first concern, she was eager for some kind of soda pop. But what way was the nearest store? The streets were empty with everyone staying indoors near air conditioning. All the neighbouring buildings were businesses too, so it wasn't like she could just walk in anywhere.

  Everything seemed cozy or at least more shaded down the street to her left so she sighed again and began taking squishy steps towards what she hoped was the direction of a store.

  *****

  Ryan and his four friends had an amazing day so far. They'd left the lab to run some experiments on their shrink ray and all five of them were now only an inch or two tall. All around them, grass towered over them and leaned this way or that ever so slightly. It was an incredible sight.

  They had left their backpacks and other gear at regular size. Downtown in the afternoon on a hot day like today wouldn't attract anyone outdoors. Let alone to check out some gear in the park like this. Everyone usually knew they ran experiments in this small grassy area. The whole park was only about a few arm lengths across and a few store fronts long anyway. It was just a quiet area where people could sit at benches and enjoy a rest in the easy going downtown of a friendly town.

  It's probably this sense of comfort that made Roxy stand out so much as the five of them turned their attention to the punk rock girl as she continued walking towards them. Her incredible size stunned the group of scientists and they were more curious watching how something so much bigger than them was moving so gracefully.

  *****

  "Water! Well it's better than nothing," Roxy comments out loud as her right sneaker slammed down next to a backpack sitting in the park. She pulled a water bottle off the side mesh pouch of it and crammed a five dollar bill in its place.

  *****

  Eric found himself sitting back on the ground, covered in dust from where a huge grungy sneaker had just planted itself down in front of him. With wide eyes and his head still spinning, he looked up at the titanic punk girl gulping down the bottle of water he'd brought with him.

  He could barely come to his senses as he looked up the smooth bare legs of this huge girl, up to her eager throat that was eagerly finishing off his drink. She wiped her brow with her forearm and pressed the bottle to her head to try to cool herself off more. With an exasperated sigh, Roxy fell backwards onto her butt, causing one of the other scientists to scramble away before she was sat on.

  Trish lay on her stomach, hugging the ground and glad to be alive as the jean clad butt behind her shuffled around on the dry dirt. Her tiny body breathing rapidly as she tried to calm down. Her eyes darted to Eric and Ryan as she got to her feet and quickly ran over to them.

  "What do we do? Tom and Ruth are on the other side of this girl and she could crush us if she keeps this up!" Trish burst with frustration at her two friends.

  Eric glanced up, "Well I guess the best thing to do is get her attention. She may be startled at first but at least this way she won't mistakenly hurt us."

  Ryan adjusted his glasses and nodded, "So... who's going to do it?"

  *****

  With a grunt, Roxy was pulling on her right sneaker with her leg crossed over her left knee. A slight sound of suction finally gave way and she pulled it off and dropped it behind her, safely away from her unseen shrunken scientists. Plopping her sweaty foot down on the dry ground, she crossed her other leg over and began working on her other shoe.

  *****

  Eric, Ryan and Trish now stood before this girl's hot bare foot. The smell was incredible and the force she'd stomped down with, daunting. They all exchanged glances and slowly moved closer together.

  "Well one of us has to do it and I don't want to," Trish explained, her arms crossed. She hadn't really been up for this experiment anyway. Too many variables, and the biggest one was now sitting before them airing out her feet and not noticing them below.

  Ryan slumped forward a bit and accepted that he was the one who would have to do this. The hot pink painted toenails and soft squishy foot of this girl who was giant sized to them looked like the place to start. He walked slowly closer and looked at the side of her foot, debating if that would be easier to climb, or if he could squeeze between her toes.

  *****

  With her other shoe off, Roxy looked down at her feet. She'd always taken such good care of them and they looked soft and cute as ever, but they were so warm still. Swirling the last of the water in the clear plastic bottle she held, she dumped it out over her toes.

  *****

  Ryan was holding lightly to the side of Roxy's foot, looking down the length of it as a huge tube of water poured over her toes that he had considered climbing. The gush of water would have definitely knocked him over if he'd gone that way but other than being wet he would have been unharmed. Still it didn't encourage him that this girl's casual whims could be the end of his experiment.

  The smooth sides of her foot felt oddly warm under his fingers. Like touching a tight waterbed full of warm water. He pulled himself up upon it and began to crawl across the soft skin towards the middle of her foot. Of course though when he finally got there that was when Roxy leaned back on her hands and stared up towards the deep blue sky overhead.

  He couldn't help gasping at the sight of her chest as it heaved with her back arching to relax, but he quickly reminded himself that this wasn't a situation to take lightly. He needed to get this girl's attention and soon before any accidents happened. So he got down on his knees and began pounding his fists on her foot in an attempt to get Roxy's attention.

  *****

  Everything seemed so perfect to Roxy now. She had time to relax and after having a refreshing drink this park seemed like a wonderful spot to just relax and take in the details of the town's downtown core. The sidewalks around here were even a tan cobblestone instead of plain concrete and various stores and plants out front to liven up the beautiful surroundings.

  That was wonderful to take in, but something was making her right foot feel funny. It was probably just an itch she assumed and raising her left foot Roxy prepared to scratch it lightly with her sole.

  *****

  Ryan breathed in deeply as the building sized foot to his right was raised up in the air. He tilted his head up, watching as loose dirt that hadn't stuck to Roxy's sweaty sole rained down and in the distance he saw Tom and Ruth staring at what was happening. What was happening anyway? Ryan considered that as some of the water Roxy had poured over her toes dripped down upon the dry ground a distance away.

  Then it dawned on him, it was his movements that had gotten her attention, just in very much the wrong way. The soft sole wrinkled as Roxy's toes scrunched down and she began to prepare to rub the bottom of her left foot onto the top of her right one.

  Everyone was yelling all at once. Ryan had dropped down on his stomach and began trying to just roll away down towards the ground from the side of the huge girls foot he'd climbed up on. Unfortunately he didn't think she'd move so fast and was surprised to see her sole already over him as he just rolled over onto his back.

  His hands rose up instinctively but they did no good besides getting some of the soft squishy flesh up off of him. The wrinkles of Roxy's foot smushed up under his tiny hands which quite surprised him. At her huge size he could still move her skin, even if it was completely unnoticeable to her.

  He braced himself as Roxy's foot began to move up and down the length of her foot, dragging Ryan along the smooth surface as she tried to stop the itch. Fortunately for Ryan, it was an awkward but liveable experience. Roxy's foot was so spongy from her warm sneakers that it gave way on top of him. Wrinkles of the huge punk girl's sole passed over him in waves, but fortunately they weren't hurting him.

  *****

  This wasn't working. Her slippery sole was too damp still and she wasn't getting anywhere trying to scratch her foot this way. So Roxy lifted her foot back up to inspect what was making her right foot itch.

  She glanced down and saw nothing on top of her foot at all. Raising an eyebrow she shrugged and began to lower her left foot.

  *****

  Panic had taken over Ryan as the soft surface of Roxy's right foot had been replaced with air. He was stuck to her left massive sole and was now positioned over the hard dry ground below. He hugged tightly into the soft surface above him but he knew when her foot landed it would be anything but the yielding surface he'd been pinned under.

  *****

  Roxy planted her foot down and felt something splat under it. At first she'd assumed she'd stepped down into the water at her toes. Then she slowly realized that wasn't it at all. Wondering what she'd stepped in, she grabbed her left ankle and held her sole up to look at it.

  It was just some red goo. She shook her head, not knowing what it could be. Dipping her fingers into the quickly evaporating water on the ground, she wiped at her sole, trying to get whatever it was unstuck from her foot.

  *****

  The four remaining scientists knew now exactly what risk they were taking by trying to get this girl to understand they were there. It wasn't long before they'd made their way beyond her toes and grouped up to try to decide what to do. The obvious thing all of them felt was that they needed to get away. The down side was that the shrink ray re-enlargers were in small side pockets on Ryan's backpack which now sat some distance behind Roxy.

  They were all calm and collect, realizing that panic wouldn't help them. They felt sorry for Ryan but there was nothing they could do now. The backpack in the distance was what they needed to get back to normal size.

  *****

  Content that she'd at least tried to clean her foot, Roxy stamped back down on the ground. This was nice, but she really wanted to find something to do now. So Roxy stretched out and began considering her options.

  *****

  Tom, Ruth, Eric and Trish had all begun the long journey towards the looming backpack in the distance. Roxy stretching out caused them to move a little faster, but otherwise they paced themselves to keep from wearing out.

  They all kept quiet, focusing on their goal. That was until they'd made it about half way and a huge voice overhead announced, "Well, I guess that's enough of a break! I better find something to do."

  The huge girl began to stand, one hand slamming down just beyond the four scientists, her arm arching up over top of them to her towering body. Her right foot slid back and braced itself as she stood slowly and yawned.

  None of them had actually experienced being around a regular sized person before during their experiments. They'd even always shrunk down at the same time to avoid any accidents. Now they couldn't help but stare in awe at the sight happening around them. Roxy was impossibly huge but so breath takingly graceful. Or at least as graceful as a worn out hot punk girl could be as she yawned and looked exhausted in the summer's heat.

  All four began moving again at the same time as if to say their observation time was over and it was time to get back to their goal. That didn't last long as Roxy spun on her right heel and slapped her bare foot down on the ground.

  Eric nervously looked back as the ground seemed to tremble from the impact. It seemed so odd to see something they knew to be a regular motion of a regular sized girl make the ground shake like that.

  They all broke out into a sprint, stumbling along as they tried to get away from the feet that were repositioning towards them. Had she seen them? Did she know she'd squished Ryan? No, of course not they'd assumed.

  *****

  "A map! Hmm, seems to be some science lab brochure," Roxy commented in her sleepy tone. Sticking out of the side pocket on another backpack was the object in question. "At least I can find out what's around here then."

  So Roxy began walking towards the backpack. Still a little tired she scooped up her sneakers in her left hand, dangling them from her fingers as she began plodding towards the map booklet.

  *****

  Tom spun around to see the pair of shoes get grabbed up by the huge punk girl's fingers and kept running as he glanced back down to those hot pink toenail clad feet that were starting to shuffle around, making a grinding noise against the dry dirt and small pebbles in the park.

  He was lagging behind a bit now and turned around to fully begin running again, when he tripped on his shoelaces that had become loose in all the commotion. Falling down hard he scrambled to stand back up as his friends glanced back and looked wide eyed at Tom.

  Just from their expression he knew what was happening and the dark shadow that slowly cast itself down over him filled in what he had assumed. Roxy was going to step down upon him!

  Looking back he realized her heel was about to land just a bit off in the distance. Tilting his head up he could see past Roxy's ankle and long legs that she was focused on their goal and not in any way at his tiny form under the looming shadow of her barefoot. His attention raced back down to the sole that was over him. Her toes were out of reach so even if he made a run for it he wouldn't get out from underfoot. The only chance he had was the arch of her foot.

  Rolling towards the smoother portion of Roxy's sole that wasn't a light rosey shade like the rest of her sole, Tom felt confident in his plan. That was until in her exagerated sleepy walk, Roxy's foot angled over top of him again and stepped down flat upon him with the pad of her sole landing on the ground.

  *****

  Roxy made an awkward face and looked down again. She'd stepped in something else. Lifting her foot again, she saw another red blob stuck to her wrinkled sole. She was getting frusterated. Was it gum or something? Grumbling she let go and her foot slammed back down to the ground. She began dragging her foot along the ground, trying to wipe the mess off into the grass nearby.

  *****

  That was two now, and the three remaining scientists didn't need any more encouragement to keep running. They all dashed forward with as much stamina as they could muster but it seemed to be too little as Roxy plainly dropped one ground shaking step next to them and then bringing her other foot up and overhead to land in the distance. Roxy's heel slammed the ground and she took a few more steps before kneeling down and looking at the map as she pulled it from the backpack.

  The three scientists stared at the large soles of this huge girl, her butt resting on her heels as she sat there reading from Ryan's booklet. All they could do was stop at the giant toes and look up the wrinkled soles that lay before them.

  Trish looked nervously to her friends. They all knew what she was thinking. If Roxy got the idea in her head that the backpacks shouldn't be left unattended like this, she may pick them up and try to drop them off somewhere local for the owners to find. Or she may just leave them there and move on.

  Eric and Ruth looked at each other and shrugged, turning towards the rolling hillside of the huge punk girl's wrinkled soles before them.

  "Oh no! I'm not getting on my hands and knees and climbing up this girls slimy feet! She's not going to take our stuff. If anything she'll just find a local restaraunt or something on the map and wander off," Trish explained in a panic. The idea of touching this girl's feet was just gross to her, nevermind getting right down on her soles and crawling up them.

  Eric rolled his eyes, "We can make it just fine and the pockets of her shorts are right there! They're not too tight so we can slide in and get to safty with the enlargement devices. Just a note too, we really do need some sort of remote control for those things."

  "But won't that affect other things within the distance between the remote and the devices?" Ruth commented.

  Trish spun on them both, "This isn't the time for contemplating how to improve our technology! If we end up underfoot too, it won't matter!"

  "Well then?" Eric encouraged, waving a hand towards the titanic soles waiting behind Trish. "If we're not on the ground at least she can't step on us."

  With a disgusted, "Ugh," Trish walked towards Roxy's cute round toes and grabbed the top of a smaller one, pulling herself up on it's textured surface. "This can't be happening."

  The three of them began slowly crawling their way up Roxy's massive left sole. It seemed to arch up the best toward a slightly out turned pocket that was stitched and held to her jean shorts with two metal buttons on either side.

  Their hands sunk down into the rolling hills of flesh that they were making their way across. Roxy's feet had cooled considerably and the dusty ground had added a layer to her sole that made it slightly easier to move across. Occasionally they'd step forward and find their leg slipping down into a space between the plush wrinkles. Fortunately dropping to their knee pushed Roxy's skin down enough to allow them to get free easily.

  They'd made it about halfway up when the booming voice of Roxy announced, "Oh good, there's a music store down the street! I can check that out for awhile at least. Sounds like they have a lot of classic stuff." Her decision was punctuated with the sound of the booklet being crammed back into the backpacks side pocket.

  Eric froze, "So she'll touch our stuff, drink my water, leave money to pay for it, but she won't take the backpacks to a local store."

  Ruth and Trish had already begun making their way off Roxy's foot to either side. They knew the punk girl who was giant sized to them was about to stand up.

  It was already too late for Eric to get away quickly so he grabbed onto the wrinkles of her sole tightly and laid down against her foot, hoping he could slide off.

  That's what he tried to do but he didn't count on Roxy flexing her toes as she brought her foot forward. Ruth and Trish both managed to drop to the dusty ground safely and began scrambling back away from Roxy. Eric on the other hand found himself unable to free his hands from Roxy's wrinkled sole and stared down at the opening of her sneaker that he was now held over. She was putting her shoes back on and he was going to go along with her foot inside!

  Both girls called up to Roxy with as much volume as they could muster, but it was no use as Roxy's foot slid into her shoe with Eric going along with it. The two scientists watched as Roxy adjusted her foot and began forcing her right foot into it's shoe.

  *****

  Roxy paused there for a moment. Standing up to full height with her shoes on. A nearby bus shelter ad had caught her attention and she read over it quietly to herself.

  *****

  The moment Roxy's toes made any sort of movement, Eric dropped down to the soggy surface of the insole of the shoe and began running foward. He assumed that at the very least, her shoe may be slightly bigger than her foot. If nothing else he could try to get under her toes and hide in the arch of them to keep from getting squished.

  That idea was quickly ended when Roxy's foot moved over Eric's head and her toes wiggled deep into the darkness dotted by beams of sunlight casting through the small holes in the top of the toe section of Roxy's shoe. Above him now was her massive sole that he was just crawling along.

  He didn't know what to do so he just laid down and squinted as his face pressed down against the wet surface of her insole. He figured if he laid flat out with his head turned sideways, her foot would be soft enough to just squish out over top of him.

  Her sole embraced him tightly and smushed down over him. Fortunately he was right and the pressure wasn't enough. If anything he figured he was just on the inner side of her arch and the lower side of her foot. Roughly just in the middle of her foot.

  It wasn't going to be fun, but as long as he held tightly to the spongy surface he was laying on, Eric figured he should be able to make it.

  *****

  Looking curiously at the ad, Roxy was finished reading and the impossibly huge girl walked off, leaving the backpacks in the park and unknowingly the two tiny female scientists.

  Roxy stepped across to the cobblestone sidewalk and began walking down towards the music store. It was only a few blocks. She decided to take it slow though, with such a hot day she didn't want to rush. Pretty soon though that soggy feeling returned to her damp sneakers again. She'd be glad to get them off again but they were comfortable at least.

  *****

  Ruth and Trish knew what they had to do. They'd need to use the enlargement devices to make themselves regular sized again and then rush down the street to warn Roxy about what had happened. Hopefully they'd be able to get Eric out of her shoes before he was hurt. They hoped it wasn't too late as they wandered up to the giant backpack and touched two small stitched on side panels only an inch wide each.

  The feeling was dizzying as energy raced through their bodies. It seemed to rush to their chest and then expand down their arms and legs. Breathing deeply they let the sensation take them over. Slowly they began to grow, the energy pulsing over their clothes as well and causing everything to enlarge along with them.

  It felt like waves of energy pulsing down their arms as their muscles strained tight with the sensation. Really it was their bodies becoming bigger, literally. Their muscles doubled in size with each pulse and gave the feeling of their bodies stretching outward, the feeling of change strong and noticeable across their skin as they patiently waited for the transformation to complete it's process.

  Gradually huge blades of grass became small plants and eventually the small green patches they were used to looking down at. The ground went from an overly detailed dry dirt expanse to a flat looking tan surface, dotted by the larger sized pebbles they'd been so tiny next to only moments before.

  The two of them held their hands out at arms length, studying their fingers to see if they still felt that pulsing sensation. It seemed to have stopped for Ruth first and she reached down, grabbing Ryan's backpack.

  "Let's go! We need to catch up to her. Hopefully it's not too late!"

  With their process of growing back to normal size complete, two female scientists found themselves standing in a downtown park. One had long red hair and dark rimmed thick glasses named Ruth, and the other was a slightly shorter blonde with shoulder length hair named Trish. Both wore white polo shirts with their lab's logo on the breast pocket, and tan coloured shorts.

  The two had just been through quite an ordeal. They'd shrunken down at this park as part of further experimentation with a shrink ray their lab was developing. Originally they were a team of five. But after a punk girl wandered over into the park, two had ended up squished underfoot and a third was now trapped in her shoe. She was walking off down the street towards a music store she'd mentioned.

  Both Ruth and Trish looked at each other.

  "What are we going to do? Tackle her and see if he's still alive in there?" Trish asked frustrated, realizing they had to act now since each step put their friend Eric at the risk of being smushed underfoot.

  Ruth shrugged, "Well we can't explain it to her. That could take too long and who's going to believe us?"

  That was true. Trish pondered for a moment and replied, "Well, what if we shrunk the girl? Then she'd have to believe us and she could remove Eric..."

  "Whom would then be microscopic inside of her shoe and hopefully we'd be able to use the enlargement devices to bring him back to regular size. That's way too risky," Ruth interrupted.

  After a pause Trish responded, "Unless we made her grow."

  Wide eyed Ruth looked around the street, "And what? Demolish buildings and everything in the process? The size difference would be huge and we've already almost been squished under this girls feet several times now!"

  "Nevermind trying to crawl up her sweaty soles," Trish commented, sticking out her tongue as she remembered the events of only minutes before.

  They began walking down the street after collecting up the two backpacks that contained the gear they'd all brought with them. Their minds were still racing, how could they possibly make this make sense to a complete stranger. Though they couldn't help feeling that they knew her now, which was just a reaction of being so small around her.

  *****

  Roxy had a tune in her head that she was humming along to as she wandered down the street. She casually walked along with a bounce in her step, which wasn't helping the shrunken person trapped in her left shoe. Eric had ended up basically under the middle of her foot and found himself slipping around under her sweaty foot and soggy insole. Fortunately her foot was soft and the shoe squishy enough that her steps wern't hurting him so far.

  She was stopped abruptly when two girls ran in front of her and stopped her eagerly. Both looked out of breath and had an odd smell to them. Raising an eyebrow, Roxy looked back and forth to the two of them.

  In her soft quizical voice she asked, "Can I help you?"

  Ruth cleared her throat and began, "We're two artists and your shoes are exactly what we've been looking for to complete our school project. Can you take them off so we can draw them?"

  Roxy wiggled her toes in her shoes. She would have been happy to sit down and take her sneakers off until she felt that damp squishy feeling of wearing them barefoot out in the hot summers day. Slightly embarassed, Roxy tried to avoid the idea, "I'm in a hurry, so I don't think I can help."

  Way too enthusiastically Trish grabbed Roxy's shoulders and stared straight into her eyes, "But you must! We really need this! I mean, they're just exactly what we're looking for. Can't you just spare a few minutes for us?"

  "Can't you just draw them on my feet?" Roxy asked, twisting her left foot back and forth as they talked, drawing a nervous glance from Ruth.

  "N, no! We need to be able to see the inside angles too. It's the shoe that's the main focus," Trish explained.

  Roxy looked back and forth between the two of them, "I guess that's okay. I'd rather not, but you two seem like you're really happy about this."

  "Oh it would be wonderful! Your shoes are exactly like what we're looking for, they're so..." Ruth stopped herself as she looked down to the well worn pair of sneakers on Roxy's feet, "Well loved!"

  "Well that's true," Roxy sat down on the curb and started pulling her shoes off. Ruth and Trish had seen this exact same scene but from their shrunken size in the park. It was much less unnerving from regular size. It seemed so high above in comparison now. "I've had these for a long time."

  The punk girl started with her right shoe, making the two scientists squirm as they looked down toward Roxy's left shoe that contained their friend. With her ankle resting on her left knee, they worried that the pressure may be too much on poor Eric.

  "There we go, there's one," Roxy spread out her toes and rested her sole down upon the edge of the sidewalk. The two girls watched as her other foot was crossed over. They'd already watched this girl unknowingly squish two of their friends underfoot. Hopefully Eric was still okay.

  *****

  Eric was clinging to the sole of Roxy's foot as tightly as he could. The whole shoe had turned sideways and he was afraid of falling down towards the section of her foot that was pressing flatly to her insole.

  Instead, his vision went pure white as the dark room around him was suddenly removed and he realized he was now holding onto her foot high above the sidewalk. He couldn't do anything but hold on and hope for the best.

  *****

  Ruth was the first one to notice tiny Eric hugging the wrinkled sole of Roxy's foot. He was only an inch tall but she knew what she was looking at. What could she do now? It felt awkward from crawling across this girl's sole at a shrunken size and now being unable to touch the exact same foot that she was so small on.

  She was desperate to just reach down and pick Eric off. After all this was a matter of life or death! If Roxy just plopped her foot down on the hard sidewalk, Eric would just splat.

  Before Ruth could react, Trish dropped to her knees right next to Roxy's foot and grabbed her ankle tightly, "Well, I've uh, never seen a sole so..." Trish swallowed hard. She didn't want to be near Roxy's feet when she was shrunken, and she didn't want to be near them now. That wasn't going to stop her from rescuing her friend though. "It's so wonderful! It just feels..."

  Trish traced her fingertips along Roxy's sole and silently grunted to herself at the slimy texture. Remembering partly why her clothes were soaked was the sweat from this foot, Trish tried again to focus on her task. Her fingers moved closer to Eric until she was able to grab him between her thumb and forefinger.

  "Feels so, what?" Roxy asked, looking confused at Trish.

  "Fantastic! I'm sure that's what she means," Ruth quickly commented, "Come on now Trish, let's take a look at our friend's shoes here and let her be on her way."

  *****

  Meanwhile, Eric was having a hard time breathing as Trish's fingers were squeezing him ever so lightly. To her it felt like she was barely able to hold on to him any gentler without dropping him. To Eric it was one fingertip pressing into the small of his back and the other pushed right up against his chest.

  He just layed there, letting his arms and legs drape down the slender curves of Trish's fingers. Her hand was straight down at her side but occasionally she'd move it a bit and send his world into a blur.

  Eric was happy to be free of Roxy's stinky shoes, but things still weren't all that easy yet. He assumed his friends didn't want to use the enlargement device in front of this punk girl and so he would have to wait patiently at his shrunken size for them to wrap up what they were doing and move on.

  That was when things went from bad to worse.

  *****

  Playing along with their story, Ruth sat down and began looking through one of the backpacks. She figured if nothing else she could use one of their text books as a make shift sketch pad.

  Finding that and a pencil she pushed up her glasses and began inspecting Roxy's sneakers. If anything she began to take in all the details and wondered what it must have been like for Eric to be in there. At his size it must have stretched on for about a city block down to the toe section.

  Placing the backpack down next to her, it fell over and the contents spilled out next to Roxy.

  Ruth didn't even think as she began drawing what she saw. When the punk girl perked up and commented, "What is this? Some sort of ray guy?" all Ruth could do was stare blankly at the ground.

  Trish was already making a move forward to try to grab the shrink ray out of Roxy's hands but the punk girl was already far too facinated with it. She looked up at Trish and laughed. Wide eyed Trish watched as Roxy's eager finger pulled back on the trigger.

  A brilliant light blinded Trish as she fell to her knees on the sidewalk. In the process she ended up dropping Eric, but fortunately it was just a short fall to the sidewalk from him after she'd knelt down. He quickly checked himself over and fortunately it seemed the ray hadn't affected him.

  "Oh I didn't know it did that sorry! I thought it was just a prop toy that made noise!" Roxy was instantly appologetic. Getting up and coming to the girl's side.

  *****

  Again Eric was standing before the huge punk girl's bare feet. It seemed he just couldn't get away from them. He looked up at Trish who soon would be dwindling down to his size, and then back to the big toes before him. At least with Trish, she may shrink down next to him and help him be noticed.

  That would have been the case if Roxy didn't move in closer to Trish's side and plant her left foot down over Eric. He held his breath as his vision went black. Slowly though his sight returned and he realized he'd fortunately ended up under the arch of Roxy's toes. Small beams of sunlight brightly lit the concrete below the massive barefoot, and then fell off into dark shadow where Roxy's huge toes blocked out the daylight.

  He slowly breathed, afraid to move since just even one twitch could be just enough to squish him into the ground. Roxy's feet may be soft, but against the hard concrete he didn't think it would be as safe as her squishy insoles inside her sneaker.

  Looking up he saw that Trish was beginning to get smaller now. She looked down at herself and sent a concerned sideways glance to Ruth. "Help me! She's shrinking me!" Trish cried high over Eric's head, but Ruth seemed not to care.

  *****

  Ruth came over and stood next to Trish who was now a foot shorter than her regular size. This wasn't what she had expected, but the results of studying her friends at a tiny size interested her greatly. It was going to be months before they finally reached this stage. They'd all agreed that being shrunk and vulnerable with one of their regular sized friends was far too much of a risk yet. Roxy had proven that to be true with the two scientists who had been accidentally squished under her bare feet.

  It wasn't right and Ruth didn't want to take advantage of the situation, but the data she could collect here and now would be so valuable. Everyone was tired of waiting for results. Roxy could fill in the blanks on what she had experienced with her unaware squish stress tests.

  Sighing Ruth just gave in and accepted that as much as she wanted to do this for their experiments, she also wanted to experience what Roxy had.

  All of this was very disturbing for Trish who was now two feet smaller than her regular size, and she knew the bright eager look in Ruth's eyes. Ruth had always been the one to test things before really considering the outcomes. In this case it looked like she was just eager to have fun with her two shrunken friends.

  "Do something Ruth! Get me the backpack! Come on, I'm shrinking down again. I don't want to be small anymore," Trish complained. She really didn't. Being tiny in the park and watching this huge punk girl's bare feet walking around her small friends.

  She grabbed onto Ruth's shirt and looked desperately into her eyes but the scientist just took a step back and Trish's shrinking hands lost their grip quite easily.

  "What's happening to her? This is a shrink ray?" Roxy managed to finally ask in startled surprise. Unable to accept the dwindling blonde before her, she looked up to Ruth for answers.

  "No no, she's um, it's a game you see. A game we play back at our lab. She's like a projection of the real girl. It looks like her but she's just a copy of sorts. We like to go out at lunch and see what trouble we can get into being shrunken sized downtown," Ruth lied. It's not like Roxy wasn't going to believe her. It even sounded more plausable than Trish's genetic code rewriting itself and knitting molecules into tighter spaces to accomodate a slow shrink process.

  Roxy smiled and looked wide eyed, her mouth partly open, "Really? That sounds amazing!" She glanced to the backpacks, "OH! I stepped on some of you in the park! That's what was stuck to my foot!"

  With a nervous laugh Ruth explained, "Right, that was just some of the guys. No big deal. Like I said, it's just a game. They're all safe back at the lab right now."
'
  Trish was exasperated, "What are you talking about Ruth! They're squished under this girl's feet! Don't listen to her, this is all real! It really is a shrink ray!"

  Ruth laughed, "Don't mind Trish. She has a hard time dealing with these experiments. It feels so real to us."

  Looking sadly down to the now two foot tall Trish, Roxy commented, "Wow, I'm sorry for your friends. That must have been horrible to be under my feet. They've been so hot in my sneakers all day."

  "Yes! I'm sure it wasn't fun at all because they really were under your feet! This isn't a game like Ruth is saying, it's all real and I'm shrinking down more and more! You've got to get her to help me! I don't want to be this tiny again!" Ruth begged Roxy.

  Meanwhile Ruth was mimicing a talking motion with her right hand, "She's always worked up like this. Hey, where's our other friend?"

  "There's another one? Already shrunk?" Roxy asked, taking two steps back and staring down at the sidewalk. To her surprise a tiny form rolled over a few times as her toes passed over him and she looked down in surprise at the shrunken scientist. "Oh wow! So tiny."

  It took Roxy a moment to realize this shrunken person had just spent this conversation under her toes. She felt pretty bad for him, but better when she remember that Ruth had said this was all just a safe controlled lab experiment.

  "Hey! I should crush him too! Just like I did his friends. It won't really hurt him right? It's like playing cat and mouse. Lets see if he can get away from my big feet!" Roxy seemed to brighten up at the idea of making her new found scientist friends' game a bit more challenging.

  Ruth grinned up to her, this was just the kind of data she was looking for. The moment the element of danger was removed, Roxy did act like it was just a game. She didn't care that these tiny people would be under her enormous sweaty feet, she just thought it would be funny to play around with them. "Yeah go for it! I bet he doesn't make it far away and the other one is only about half his size now. Isn't that right tiny Trish?"

  Some small squeaks could be heard from Trish but by now she was way too tiny to be heard. Instead she waved her arms and tried to get anyones attention that would help her. Moreso she realized as Roxy stood up that it may be a good idea to get as far away from Eric as she could. Sure she didn't want to abandon her friend, but it wasn't like she could stop Roxy's big bare foot either. That and she didn't like the idea of touching it again anyway.

  *****

  Eric was bewildered by what he'd heard. The giant punk girl was going along with Ruth's lies and he was going to be chased around by the bare foot he'd just been pinned under in Roxy's giant sneaker.

  He looked sadly at the feet before him. They were so cute and the hot pink nail polish was just so playful it seemed impossible that he'd been afraid of these things for so long now. He certainly didn't want to get stepped on, but he truly hoped that his friend was maybe just playing a game.

  If she was, she didn't do anything as Roxy raised her huge bare sole in the air. In fact, instead of coming to his rescue, Eric heard the gritty sound of Ruth's shoes sliding back along the sidewalk away from him to give Roxy more room. This couldn't be happening! Off to his left, Trish was scrambling away, ever so slightly still shrinking down a bit more as she began to look the right size to be in the same shrunken state as Eric.

  Eric was in a panic, looking up at the huge foot looming over him. Roxy's sole had become grey and dusty from walking on the pavement and in the dirt of the park. Bits of dirt fell down around him as he stared up at his impending doom. As much as Eric wanted to run, he didn't see the point. Her foot would easily stamp down on him. He needed a better idea.

  Taking a deep breath, he dashed towards Ruth who looked down in surprise and started shuffling back to try to make room for Roxy to step down on her shrunken friend. Instead Roxy placed her foot back down on the ground and it softly smooshed out under her weight.

  It upset Ruth to see her giving up so easily.

  "Aww it looks like he doesn't like this game. Oh well, I'm sure he's been through enough," Roxy laughed as she stepped back towards her shoes. "I take it you're done with these?"

  Frustration filled Ruth. Things weren't going as she'd planned and Eric was now at her shoe, pounding away furiously on the outter rim of it's sole.

  Ruth stepped over Eric quickly to Roxy's side, not noticing as he fell over and was left laying on his back, staring up at the mighty shoe's patterned sole passing high overhead. "You can't do that Roxy!"

  "Why not? The guy's obviously against the idea," She flatly replied, picking up her shoes.

  "Well wouldn't you be?" Ruth tried to convince her, "It's not about him liking it. It's a game! He's safe back at the lab, so there's no harm having fun with him."

  Eric was yet again back over at Ruth's shoe pounding away and looking up eager for any sign of her paying attention to him. Roxy was however and said high above, "It looks like he's more interested in you anyway."

  That made Ruth pause. Certainly that was an idea she hadn't considered. She could just squish him herself. Eric must have sensed what the silence meant because he'd already ran off to try to join Trish who was now near the building they'd stopped Roxy outside of.

  Ruth bent down and began unlacing her black casual dress shoes. This seemed to make Roxy happy and she went over to make sure the two shrunken scientists didn't get away.

  "What about the girl?" Roxy called over her shoulder. "Hey, know what would be funny? If I ate her!"

  There was a short silence as Ruth considered what Roxy was saying again. She almost told her no, since she'd made her conclusion that if this was just fun and harmless to the shrunken people, Roxy was fine with it. This was taking it pretty far, but then she considered that if Trish was eaten at least she wouldn't have to deal with Roxy's feet.

  "Yeah, alright. Gulp her down!" Ruth encouraged.

  *****

  The two shrunken scientists were now hugging eachother. Huddled together in hopes that their towering friend and the punk girl they'd got to know far too well would leave them alone. There had to be some way to convince them they didn't want to be a part of Ruth's imaginary game.

  Trish was actually honestly curious, but didn't want to participate in Roxy's idea. The concept of being so tiny and being able to explore the punk girl's mouth sounded interesting but being swallowed didn't. What would the pressure be like if she tried to bite down? How about the texture of her giant tongue at such a size? She'd be so small in there.

  Meanwhile Eric was much more focused on his friend's shoes being unlaced in the distance. Would Ruth really do this? She'd already tried to get Roxy to squash him, surely she would.

  They watched as the impossibly titanic girls before them considered what they would do. Ruth tugging off her black socks, bits of fluff stuck to her feet. Roxy high above, looking down at the two of them as she licked her lips. At least the punk girl didn't realize what was going on. She thought it was just a game. They didn't understand what Ruth was thinking though. It was like she wanted this.

  "It's just research to her. She wants to know how this girl will react in order to consider the risks involved in being so small," Eric explained as Trish hugged him closely. "Why she wants to step on me, I'm not sure. I think the outcome of that is pretty obvious."

  Trish looked up to him briefly, "Unless she just wants to play around with you underfoot. See how tough we are when treated gently. I don't think the girl is going to be as playful with me."

  Eric considered that. After all, it did seem like she was more interested in watching the punk girl than the girl just squishing him. It still didn't make them feel much better. Either way odds were they weren't going to survive either situation.

  "If we could just make it to the backpack," Eric began, until he saw it past Ruth's feet that were now standing on the sidewalk, her toes wiggling in anticipation.

  Looking up at Roxy, the shrunken scientist girl realized she didn't have much hope of running away either.

  "But if we both ran at the same time..." Trish began.

  Eric knew what they had to do. They were both stuck anyway, they may as well try for it and see if one of them could reach the backpack and hopefully have time to save the other.

  *****

  "Well go ahead and pick her up," Ruth encouraged Roxy as she felt the pavement under her feet. Her narrow feet actually felt kind of clammy on the warm cement. She was sure it was just in comparison on such a hot day, but she took note of it.

  Roxy looked back at Ruth, "She's kind of tiny. I don't want to squish her between my fingers. Isn't there an easier way to do this?"

  By that time, the two shrunken scientists had already run past the giant punk girl's feet and were making their way towards Ruth whose eyes were already wide with anger.

  "They're getting away!" She yelled, surprised by what was happening. Did they really expect to escape?

  Ruth had began to duck down to catch them up in her hands, but she didn't expect to see Roxy's toes slam down over top of Trish and scrunch close to the ball of her foot.

  "I've got her! Get the other one!" Roxy laughed as she held the tiny struggling form tightly with her toes.

  *****

  Trish was too exhausted to be angry at her situation. The two toes she was closest two were wider than her vision as she stared straight ahead, looking out towards Ruth in the far distance. Her tiny body was held tightly to the soft spongy ball of Roxy's foot. This fortunately made the experience pretty painless, but Trish still didn't want to be there. There was no way to get out from between the huge toes. All she could do was watch Ruth rise to her full height and glare down at where she assumed Eric had run to.

  Beyond the reach of Roxy's toes, Eric had reached the halfway point between the building and the backpack. Unfortunately he had Trish's full attention and she was already going about what she planned to do. To step on Eric and try to see how much pressure he could take.

  Ruth's long red hair fell straight down her back as her glasses slid down her nose slightly. Her legs stretched high above to her tan shorts where her hands rested on her hips.

  "Come on Eric, you really didn't think you could outrun someone so many times your size now did you? Just take it easy and I'll do the same to you," Ruth explained, flexing her toes as she stepped forward. One foot and then the other on either side of her shrunken friend. To him, they were impossibly long, stretching out behind him.

  There wasn't much of a point to continuing on. Any more progress and Ruth may just step backward accidentally and squish him under a misplaced heel. His best choice would be to lay down and let her preform her experiment with the least possible chance for hurting him. If a city block sized sole could be considered something that wouldn't hurt as it played with him.

  He did just that. Eric sat down and laid back on his back, figuring that standing he could just get hurt even more. It wasn't what he wanted to do, it's what he figured would be the safest course of action. He thought it was funny that he'd always admired Ruth, and now he was possibly going to be squished by her. He'd never even been able to hold her hand, but now he would be pinned under her foot.

  "That's better. See, it's so much easier to just go along with things Eric. Who knows, maybe you'll prove that my tests aren't painful at all." Trish heard her giant sized friend say in the distance. She didn't know what Eric was doing but she just wished she could escape from between this girl's toes.

  That's when her whole world suddenly began to shift and she found herself staring down the sidewalk from high above and then up to the sky with Roxy's smiling face looking down at her.

  "Hello there little snack!" The giant punk girl said.

  *****

  Roxy was looking down at the wrinkled sole of her foot. Moreso at the tiny girl trapped by her toes and held tightly to the ball of her foot. She didn't care much for the idea of picking the shrunken scientist from between her toes and eating her still, but it's what she'd decided to do.

  She imagined what it must be like for Trish to be staring at her huge fingers slowly closing down towards her small form and plucking her up between two of the huge digits. The shrunken girl was raised high into the air and Roxy let her foot slap back down on the ground far below.

  Playfully, Trish was held high over Roxy's mouth, her head tilted back.

  "What's wrong? This is going to be fun! Just imagine what you can tell your friends tonight that you did? Hey I was eaten by a giant girl today at work, what did you do?" Roxy laughed at the idea and opened her mouth wide. Trish had already been staring down into it while Roxy had been talking. Now she was squirming as much as she could, wishing that she could just convince this girl to let her go and she didn't want to do this.

  That wasn't going to happen. Roxy began to slowly lower Trish down towards her lolling tongue with a big smile making her mouth appear even larger. As she was lowered closer, the cherry scented breath from this giant girl washed over her. There was no escape.

  Roxy's fingers touched down first, smushing into the soft surface of her giant tongue. Trish was then pressed deeply into the wet flesh and found herself stuck to it as Roxy began to pull her tongue back into her mouth.

  By this time Trish had already forgotten about her interest in exploring Roxy's mouth as she watched the huge archway of the giant girl's upper lip pass by overhead. This wasn't funny anymore at all.

  *****

  "Mmm, she's not going to be able to get away from me now," Roxy commented, her voice echoing to Trish.

  The shiny slick walls of Roxy's mouth around Trish looked incredible. The detail in everything around her was amazing. She'd thought that the ground and grass at a tiny size was amazing before. But now being stuck down to a lush bed of tastebuds, and surrounded by glistening walls of Roxy's warm mouth, it was just stunning.

  That was until Roxy's lips closed behind her and everything plunged into darkness. It didn't take long before bubbles of saliva began gathering around her as the punk girls tongue moved about in her huge mouth.

  The sticky liquid began to cover Trish and she tried desperately to slide it off her arms and stand up. She managed finally to raise to her feet, her outfit now completely soaked.

  She struggled to adjust her eyes to the darkness, but it did no good. All she could do was stumble around on the constantly moving surface of Roxy's tongue. Trish fell to her knees, sinking softly into the muscle she was struggling upon. That was when everything suddenly began to pull her forward. Roxy was swallowing.

  *****

  Ruth had stopped for a moment to observe what Roxy was doing. What she didn't expect was while playing around with the shrunken scientist in her mouth that Roxy's eyes would go wide as she accidentally swallowed. Her throat gulped down everything in her mouth and Ruth blinked for a moment. She really did it. Roxy ate Trish.

  "Oh! I swallowed her! I didn't mean to, I was going to play around with her for a bit and give her back to you. Wow I sure hope they can turn off those computers back at the lab, I didn't even chew her up," Roxy explained in surprise, sounding very embarrassed.

  Breathing deeply Ruth just stared. Her friend was just swallowed whole down into Roxy's stomach. Ruth laughed as she again flexed her huge toes, ready to enjoy toying with her friend. Her eyes trailed down to Eric and she grinned down to him. Softly she said, "Now I'm the only inventor of our shrink ray."

  "That was so funny. I really didn't mean to," Ruth overheard Roxy saying. She really didn't care anymore. Soon she could play with Eric and go back to the lab to continue their research. "Hey, you should be getting stepped on!"

  Ruth's blood ran cold. Her hands went from resting on her hips to feeling her pockets. Her eyes dashed to the backpack, still open on the sidewalk. So quickly the truth became obvious as she looked up to Roxy to confirm her worst fear. Roxy still hand the shrink ray in her hand.

  Before she could even say a word Roxy had blasted Ruth and the red haired scientist was already dwindling before her.

  "No, it's all a lie! We're real people, I just didn't think you'd do it! My friends aren't back at the lab, we're all right here!" Ruth pleaded as she felt the sensation of being pulled down. Her hands instinctively closed into fists and she watched as her perspective narrowed. Everything around her appeared to be growing larger.

  Roxy just laughed, "Don't be silly Ruth. You didn't mind it when your friends were at my feet. This way you and Eric was it? You'll both be able to experience it together! Then back at the lab you can tell everyone how you got squished by me. Well... besides the girl I gulped."

  Stamping her foot Ruth glared up at Roxy, "This isn't a joke. I really did lie to you! You squished a bunch of my friends and ate Trish!"

  The punk girl laughed more and watched as Ruth became smaller and smaller. "I'm going to make sure I play around with you before you go splat underfoot. I can't believe you're so worked up over this. You thought it would be a funny practical joke to play on your friends. So just go with it."

  "There is no joke about it! This is real!" Ruth screamed, which sounded like her regular volume by the time she'd shrunk down to a foot tall now.

  It was far too late though, Roxy had completely bought Ruth's lie and the scientist girl watched as Eric scrambled to stand up and stumbled back towards her. They were both almost the same size now.

  As much as he was mad at her, Eric had an odd suspicion that Ruth really wouldn't have stepped down on him to squash him. He tripped into her arms and looked nervously back over his shoulder at the huge punk girl stomping her way towards them.

  With a smirk on her face Roxy laughed down at them. "Tiny little things. The two of you can't get away now." She reached forward over their heads and to their dismay she snatched up the backpack and slung it over her shoulder. "There's no way out this time."

  Roxy was really into this by now and her right foot swung forward, eagerly pushing at the tiny people at her feet. They fell over right away and tried to get away from the massive toes that were poking at them. She tilted her head and playfully used her other foot to move Eric off to one side and grabbed him with her toes, using the same technique that she'd used to hold Trish with her foot.

  Meanwhile Ruth was screaming up at the towering punk girl. She was mad at herself for not realizing what could be going on and now she was at the mercy of this girl who didn't think she was really a shrunken person. Roxy seemed quite pleased with touching her foot lightly down on Ruth and pinning her to the sidewalk.

  She did this a few times with her right foot while Eric tried to squeeze his way up between Roxy's toes. He was actually making some decent progress with it before Roxy's toes spread apart and he fell back down between them and was embraced in their grasp yet again. He gave up then when he looked up and realized Roxy had done that completely subconsciously with her attention still focused on Ruth.

  Roxy's foot padded down again and again on Ruth. Pushing the shrunken scientist down under her soft sole over and over. The cushioned ball of Roxy's foot was just moulding down over Ruth's body but she was afraid of what would come next. Each time Roxy stepped down, Ruth expected it to be the stamp that would be her last. Meanwhile Roxy was just having fun it seemed.

  There was no way out of this. The punk girl's two massive feet had both scientists trapped and this was it. Roxy laughed high above and thought it was a funny game making them struggle under her dirty bare feet. Meanwhile the two shrunken people were fighting for all they were worth to get away from the titanic girl.

  Then Roxy leaned back on both her heels. Both large soles rising up above the small scientists. Her wiggling toes being the highest parts of her foot that hovered overhead. "Time to squish you two! If you ever see me around town again we'll have to hang out. It would be fun to hear what this was like for you two."

  With that she brought her feet down upon Eric and Ruth. Either one under their own giant foot as they watched the giant sole rush down towards them and step down upon them. The feeling of Roxy's soft foot covered them for just a moment. Ruth was able to look down the long tunnel that was the arch between Roxy's toes and the ball of her foot towards the foot Eric was under. She was laying on her back, looking sideways over towards where he would be. In one quick motion Roxy's toes scrunched, pulling her foot forward and up above Ruth. She looked up at the ball of Roxy's foot, the detailed waves of patterns on her sole, as it came down upon her with one final step.

  *****

  Roxy felt them both splat under her feet and stood there wiggling her toes for a moment. Enjoying the feeling and smiling down to her new found friends who had given her such a unique experience.

  She tugged on the backpacks strap over her shoulder and realized she still had the shrink ray. This stuff was probably expensive. Roxy decided after she found a store to finally get another drink at she'd have to try to find the lab and return their property.

  Stepping off of the two shrunken scientists, Roxy sat down and tugged her sneakers back on. She sat there for a moment, looking at the red smears on the ground and wondering if she was just imaginging the squirming feeling she felt in her tummy.