The Purge - Chapter 9

Layla is secretly sheltering tinies, when an unsuspected visitor arrives.

+++

"Please, do not grieve, people. I'm positively confident that the caretaker is on her way." Samson, the community's leader, spoke intending to soothe his people. It had been days since the shrunken members of the community had eaten a proper meal. Their storage was empty, and the hunt for scraps was fruitless as it merely resulted in casualties when predatory insects or dwarf creatures jumped some.

An old lady with many deep grooves upon her face and a skin like crumbling parchment stepped forward, eyeing Samson with an earnest look. "We haven't seen the girl in weeks. What makes you think she still cares about us?"

"But she does!" Samson said. "Have you already forgotten the things she has done for us? The aid she has given us in creating this community?"

The old lady shook her head. "My naïve twenty-year-old self might have believed your words, Sam, but now I won't indulge in such fairytales. We should go search for luck elsewhere - maybe in the countryside."

A murmur of approval was heard coming from several people in the surrounding crowd.

"We'll be nothing more than nibbles for stray wild there!" A man in the back called out.

A few others agreed with him.

"We'll find a solution like we always do." The woman spoke up over the noise. "I have never agreed to remain in this so-called safe-haven-for-the-unfortunate-ones, but was forced to because of the lack of support. This is, however, different now, Samson." The woman looked proudly at the faces in the crowd of those she knew would support her. They far outnumbered Samson's followers. She saw this crisis as her moment to seize control of the community.

Samson flashed a finger at her. "This is what you always wanted, Dorothea! You're no better than those megalomaniacal giants towering above us."

"Says the gentleman who has resided in the seat of power since this community's inception," Dorothea replied.

"That's different!" Samson said. "I've been democratically chosen. What you're doing is vilely plotting a–"

Samson abruptly halted his speech when the ground quaked beneath them, making everyone's eyes dart with apprehension.

"It's her!" one person called out. "She has finally come to safe us!"

"What if it's someone else? Someone with malicious tendencies?" another said apprehensively.

+++

Hopping like a lamb across the vast garden of her grandmother, 10-year-old Layla swung her bag with supplies over her shoulder and began running when a dilapidated barn came in sight. The barn has been adopted as a sanctuary for all the shrunken people Layla has held under her care for the past few months. And there were many of them - easily reaching up to a hundred, and those did not even include the speck-sized ones. There were thousands of those.

It all began when, on a day, Layla found a few strayed boys, runaway brothers who had been struck by the DeFa virus and miniaturized some days before.

They feared the clutches of their labile stepsister, so they'd chosen to go on the lam instead, hoping to find a dignified existence as freshly unfortunate-ones elsewhere. So Layla took them in. First in her own home, but when she'd found more unfortunate-ones who tried their luck elsewhere than in the household they came from, she'd recoursed to her grandmother's barn, which has not been used for years.

Layla's compassion for the shrunken people spread swiftly among the unfortunate-ones. And thus, more and more were able to find their way to her.

Within the relatively secure walls of the barn, Layla was able to aid the shrunken people in building a village for themselves – fabricated from cardboard, tape, glue, and neatly cut plastic bottles and cups. Those structures could function as residences for the 2-inch-tall people. For those whose measurement of height was close to 1mm, a more sophisticated solution was needed.

Luckily, Layla's grandmother – the only one who knew about her secret – was able to secure a significant amount of nano infrastructure through unregulated connections.

That was the only positive thing the 1mm peeps had compared to the 2-inch tall ones – they lived in more luxury. But it came at the price of being forced to live in a more daunting world than one could imagine.

Heaving from exhaustion from sprinting, Layla swung the creaking wooden door of the barn open and hurled her voice in. "Hello? Tinies? You there? It's me."

Slowly, more and more minuscule shapes came crawling out of corners and from under boards and leaves.

"My lady, you're finally there!" Samson beamed while walking up to the twin-tailed youth towering above them with her mighty existence.

Layla returned the greeting with a radiant smile before lowering to her haunches, spilling the contents of her bag onto the floor. The shrinkees became crazy with hunger and dashed for all the bread, cheese, and sliced sausages Layla was placing down for them to consume, attacking it like vultures. The auburn-haired youth also poured fresh water into a miniature tank the shrinkees used.

"Oh, I'm so sorry for letting you all wait in vain for my arrival for so long." Layla apologized as she noticed the famished state of her people and the bone-dry water tank. "My trivial struggles in daily life shouldn't be more important than your survival."

"It's okay, my lady. You're here now. That's what matters," Samson gave Dorothea an askance look. The latter ignored him as she also tried to score some food for herself.

Unaware of the exchange, Layla granted the shrunken old man - who could have been her grandfather - a smile warmer than the sun before walking off. "Enjoy the food. I'm going to check out the micros."

Layla edged towards a small recess further ahead in the barn. She'd bend around a wall, and a smile crept upon her face when her keen eyes spied the infinitesimal structures tucked in the corner, forming the housing of thousands of micros.

Relatively speaking, the community had the size of a small village, with houses, stores, workplaces, and even a church. For Layla, however, the community as a whole was barely bigger than her hand.

An immense shadow drifted over the village as Layla leaned down, keeping her hair out of her face until her countenance was level with it. She chuckled softly, washing a stream of warm breath over the miniature society as tiny people spilled out of their homes to greet her.

Layla smiled and whispered a greeting in return. All of them have been struck by Adoration Syndrome, so each saw Layla – regardless of her age – as their Goddess and an individual who needed to be worshipped. They all began bowing down frantically before the gigantic face of the young girl hovering above their village and uttering words of gratitude Layla could not hear.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" An unknown voice reverberated through the barn, demanding attention.

Layla stood up and saw a figure standing at the doorway. A girl. Her frame was silhouetted by the sun beaming behind her.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? This is private property." Layla said as she courageously positioned herself in a protective manner between the girl and her shrunken people. The girl walked up to Layla, her boots clattering on the wooden floor.

She's so tall! Layla thought in despair as she saw the girl sauntering her way to her, making it easier for her to asses her height.

"I said this is private property," Layla repeated, not as confidently as before.

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time, kid," the raven-haired girl said absentmindedly as she positioned herself within a few inches from Layla, accentuating the great difference in height.

Layla gulped when she was forced to crane her neck deep to look up at the girl, who had a marvelously beautiful face with a glint of arrogance in her eyes. The girl's attention was solely focused on the jury-rigged structures where Layla's people were cowering in fear.

Layla attempted to sound calm and composed, keeping her voice low, but her nerves got the best of her. "C-can I help you?" she said, adopting a more conciliatory tone than usual, as she knew full well that she'd never be able to overpower the girl if it came to a clash. The girl's smug expression found Layla's.

"Now that you mention it." the girl said. "Yes, you can. Word is you've got a bunch of micros in your possession. Is that true?"

Layla could feel herself breaking out into a sweat. "Who told you that?"

The girl grinned and held her hand up. "They did!" Upon the girl's hand, Layla saw a couple she'd recognized of one of her shrunken people quivering with fear. "Guess not everyone is content with your altruistic act of harboring these critters from the big bad outside world."

"Yes, I do have some tinies here roaming about," Layla said, seeing no other way than to admit it.

"Yeah, I see them." The girl walked past Layla, making her way toward the fabricated village. Upon seeing the gigantic intruder approaching, with clattering boots that trembled their flimsy houses, the 2-inch-tall tinies tried in vain to find a better hiding place by crawling under beds and in closets – anything to be out of sight of the monumental scary teen girl.

Feeling powerless to do something, Layla kept her eyes transfixed on the ebony-haired girl as she paraded in circles around the little village, eyeing it intensely as if she was looking for something.

"My grandmother can be here any second, you know?" Layla said, hoping that saying something like that would make the girl anxious to leave. It did not have the desired effect. The girl kept scrutinizing the village at her feet. She crouched and lifted one of the cardboard houses with a chuckle, revealing three trembling tinies hiding beneath it. "She gets help from my Dad and uncle to fix this barn's roof." Layla bluffed. "They should be here shortly."

"Great!" The girl beamed. "Maybe they can clarify to you what will happen to these tinies if you don't show me the micros this instance."

Layla scoffed. "I already told you, I do not have–"

"One…" The girl said while lifting her boot and making it hover over one of the cardboard houses brimming with tinies. "Two…" She lowered it dangerously close to the house.

"Don't!" Layla shrieked.

"Ai! There goes their lovingly constructed roof," The girl said, as the bottom of her boot was busy steamrolling leisurely through the house.

"In the back. In the back! Just leave them!" Layla ran up to the girl and pushed her aside, saving the nearly trampled tinies.

The girl grinned at Layla. "I knew I could count on your cooperation."