The Great Awakening (Chapter 1)

The last image in Lilly’s mind just before she drifted off was that of the lush national parkland greenery blanketed under star-spotted darkness, towering oaks and craggy rock-climbing geometry stretching to the horizon that made her feel oh-so-small. Though she had a tent, the girl had elected instead to grab some Z’s with her sleeping bag out in the open, spread on a low-slanted rock formation, so she could have a view upon waking. As far as she knew, the wildlife didn’t come this close to the edge of the camp grounds, which meant all she had to fear was the solitude and sense of vulnerability she got in coming out to the silent wilderness. Groggy, Lilly curled up in the sack and sunk into slumber.

            When she came to, bathed in almost-blinding morning sunlight, Lilly was first surprised by the lack of warmth cuddled around her body. Her sleeping bag was nowhere to be found. Maybe an animal had sidled up in the night after all and taken it, which unnerved the girl, but at least her clothes had been left alone. And given that she’d worn one of her favorite outfits out here, a loose-fitting black blouse, thigh-baring skirt, and snow-white sneakers, this discovery at least was a small blessing. In a momentary panic she checked for her jewelry, and confirmed that none of it had been stolen in the night, either; her jade necklace, her crystalline beaded anklet, and colorful bangle bracelet were all still here, which was another tremendous relief. Running her fingers through her raven-dark hair and twirling the chin-length locks around her thumb, Lilly next glanced around her surroundings, and found she had far more troubling problems than her vanished sleeping bag.

            A pea-soup mist surrounded her, masking the tree-line and mountainous rockfaces she’d remembered from her chosen campsite. Only sunlight itself could punch through the cloudy fog. Lilly reached out, waving a hand through the cool damp air, and frowned. Even from her limited perspective with the mist closed in so near, nothing looked the same as it had prior to the sunrise. The rolling green hills had seemingly turned flat around her as though someone had taken a massive rolling pin to the topography, leaving only the slightest bumps in its wake; the tall blades of grass had evidently been shaved down to a bald moss-like texture. Lilly couldn’t even trust the shelf of rock she’d chosen to camp on, as it too had changed appearance, rounded now like a short igloo and leveling off at a dull point nearby where the girl’s head had been resting when she awoke.

            Something very strange was going on, that was certain. Had she gotten up and sleep-walked off into the forest? Even if that was true, nothing around Lilly reminded her of the national park she’d spent the previous afternoon trekking. Almost as though she was in a different land altogether.

            The girl’s pulse quickened, but she was smart, curious in nature, and resolved to investigate before she went jumping to conclusions. She traced her palm along the mysterious short rock cluster she’d been using as a makeshift pillow, admiring its intricate mite-sized details unlike any she’d found among the broad bases of the mountains yesterday. Almost like the rock was made of sugar crystals. When she squeezed the anthill-shaped top of the squat hillock, which Lilly estimated would have just barely reached above her knees if she stood up now, the sediment turned to powder like graham cracker crumbs between her grinding index finger and thumbpad. Examining her other surroundings only brought more confusion, too. The dirt had turned fine and sandy, with thick clay-like loam just beneath, not at all like the hardy rock-based trails she’d hiked yesterday. The rubbery heel of her left sneaker had come to rest in a thin puddle barely the width of a leaf, and not even deep enough to moisten the cloth instep of her shoe. She stirred her finger through the shallow pittance, watching it churn to a miniature whirlpool around her digit.

            Only when Lilly finally made the decision to lie down fully on the mossy terrain, bringing her face down close to the ground until her nose grazed the green so her eyes could zero with laser precision on the land itself, did the enigma of the altered forest finally give back an answer instead of more bewilderment. She massaged the tips of her fingers along the tender ground, the ticklish plant life brushing along every individual spiral of her oily fingerprints. Is wasn’t grass or even moss she was looking at, but thousands of microscopic oaks and pines forming a carpet beneath her, and toppling like standing hairs when she pressed down with the smallest effort.

            Lilly’s pupils dilated; her palms went clammy; her chest clutched; her soft lower lip gradually hung open, her breath escaping as a ghostly sigh. Maybe, just maybe, she hadn’t wandered off in the night. Maybe she was still precisely where she’d gone to sleep. If that was true, the landscape hadn’t changed in the slightest. Lilly herself had. And that big wide world she’d felt intimidated by just before falling asleep had shrunk significantly, or rather, the girl had arisen to untold heights, her body growing in perfect proportion to itself, without any pain or other symptoms aside from the inconceivable fact that she was now literal miles tall.

            She knew she should’ve been gripped by manic terror at this revelation. That was the logical reaction. It was pure insanity, something beyond the explanation of any science or faith known to humanity, a species which coincidentally now was just about too small to be seen with Lilly’s naked eye. Yet aside from the initial bout of shock, the girl felt herself recovering remarkably quickly, her heartrate returning to its formerly peaceful slow beat. Rolling onto her side, the girl looked to the ground where she’d lain overnight, discovering the formerly green earth and clunky mountain turf alike had been molded out to dust and dirt in the exact slender silhouette of Lilly, as though she had made a snow angel into the very crust of the planet without even trying.

            Well, that was interesting.

            Lilly stood now, gradually, wanting to witness the ground falling away, just to put her last suspicions to rest. Planting one sneaker-clad foot in the “trees,” and propping herself up on her knee, the girl spread her fingers and dug them into the squishy earth for purchase, giving herself a light push that launched her to a steady rise. The tread of her other sneaker met the ground beside its twin, and she could feel the buoyant earth compressing underneath. Higher and higher Lilly rose, not daring to blink as she ascended above the fog, which she now recognized as dizzyingly lofty cloud cover. By the time the girl had arrived back at her full stature, and looked around at her newly clarified surroundings, she finally felt a sense of familiarity, though it wasn’t from the previous day of hiking. Instead, the view was almost exactly that she perceived when peering out the window of a high-flying airplane. At last everything clicked into place.

            Sure enough, the pointed rock next to Lilly only reached a bit higher than her knee. It was, she realized now, not a mound or even a full hill, but in fact the tallest mountain in the state. From her reading before the visit, Lilly recalled the peak, which she incidentally had just shattered between her fingertips like wet sand, was supposed to stand two and three-quarter-miles tall. By holding her palm steady over the mountain and eyeballing its comparative position on her body, Lilly was confident that had arrived at no less than ten miles tall herself. Against the odds, a serene smile formed on her lips. For the first time this morning, with her perspective reaching far over the clouds to horizons beyond, the girl spied the infinitesimal sprawl of gray-and-metallic matter dotting the distant green patchwork, and becoming thicker and denser the further away it reached.

            Cities. Those were cities. Human civilizations, the most advanced on Earth, didn’t even stand as tall as the rubber rim of her sneakers. Somewhere dead-ahead, dozens of miles away but easily reachable now at her new size, was Chicago. Lilly’s smile widened, and with little plan in mind other than the growing, gnawing need to see them all for herself, and especially Chicago, the girl decided it was time to move.