Sunlight crests over the window sill early in the morning warming the cold empty apartment. Tucker laid out on the carpeted floor using a lost sock he had found in the laundry room. It made for a decent enough blanket that helped to bolster his body heat overnight. The sock also provided a degree of protection by shielding his body. While Tucker hadn’t seen any bugs recently he knew they were about.
The empty apartment had become Tucker’s home base of sorts. He had been stricken with Smallera and lived alone. He desperately tried to get out of his apartment and get help so that he could get the medicine needed to undo the miniaturization. However, he had lived alone so it took more than a day to get out of his apartment, and by then it was too late.
The idea of being forced into some kind of government facility only to be sold off to someone was not how Tucker wanted to live his life. He had always been a bit of an outdoorsy person. So he had no doubt he would be able to live off the land.
The building wasn’t the greatest as far as upkeep, but they got away with it because it was downtown. However, this was actually a benefit to Tucker. Once he had gotten out of his apartment to attempt to get help he found that he could not get back in. This led him to navigate the giant hallways and climb up mountainous staircases coming across a vacant unit that he was able to get in.
The vacant unit had leaky pipes in the kitchen and bathroom where droplets of water would fall onto the tiled floors. This led to an easy source of water. The most difficult part of this process was food procurement. As Tucker had to scavenge for food. He knew the outdoors were too risky. As there were just too many larger predators that could harm him.
This led to this vacant apartment being convenient as the wooden door jam was partially broken in the corner. This led to a gap being big enough for him to crawl through. So most days Tucker would spend his mornings and early afternoons when people were at work or classes looking for any food dropped in the hallways. Tucker had learned early on that mid-afternoon and beyond was too much traffic to safely navigate.
This was far from a glamorous living but Tucker was free and was getting by for a few months. All of that changed one afternoon when he heard keys jingling and a young woman walked into the apartment unit. She looked to be in her early 20s. Probably not far removed from High School based on her vocabulary.
Tucker had seen many giant people in passing. As they walked down the hallway. He had heard their loud chatter through the door and thin walls. However, as the building manager opened the door and this young woman walked into the unit. Tucker found that this was his first experience being so close to someone so large.
The loud footfalls felt different as they walked across the thin cheap carpeting. The floor had a constant rumble to it as she walked about. The loud creaking and squeaking of cabinets, cupboards, and drawers being opened and closed were disturbing.
When the young lady left Tucker felt a sense of relief. He hoped that such disturbances weren’t commonplace. As this had been a good setup and he hated if he had to leave. He was unsure where a new tenable home would be.
That next morning a large man walked into the unit much too early for Tucker’s liking. He scurried from his resting place and darted into the kitchen. There was a cabinet that wouldn’t close all the way. So Tucker was able to climb into the cabinet and peek out at the giant who had screwed lightbulbs and turned the breakers on. The most disturbing thing that happened was the maintenance man pulled away the broken door jam and installed a pristine door jam. He opened and closed the door several times testing it before finally grabbing the sock Tucker had been using from the middle of the room before closing the door once again. The loud clunk of the door being locked told him he wasn’t coming back.
Tucker rushed towards the door. While butterflies circled about in his stomach. The closer he got the lower his heart sunk. As he approached the door jam he could see no hope of escaping from underneath this door and with the apartment as barren as it was he knew there were no other alternate means.
Four days had gone by since Tucker had seen that maintenance man enter and seemingly ruin his world. Tucker had plenty of water but had grown quite hungry over the past few days. Early the next morning of the fifth day the young woman Tucker had seen before walked into the empty apartment carrying several boxes.
Tucker was unsure what to make of any of them. So he merely spied as she made many trips in and out of the apartment bringing in more and more boxes. She would drop the boxes off in the specific rooms they belonged in. As the giant woman walked into the kitchen Tucker was sure that she had seen him somehow. He found his heart to be racing with a level of fear he hadn’t felt in many years. He moved further away from the slightly ajar cabinet door he was looking out of. The young woman’s heavy footsteps grew louder and louder. Then he heard the boxes she was carrying get set down and the cabinet door that was slightly open close tightly.
A sense of relief hit Tucker as he realized she was dropping off the kitchen things and her leg was just pressed against the cabinet door. He just had to wait for her to walk away. However, a minute later he heard and felt the footsteps of the young woman depart. However, the door to the cabinet did not open. Tucker waited several more minutes before finally rustling up the courage to press against the cabinet door. As Tucker pressed against the cabinet door it didn’t budge in the slightest. What he couldn’t see were the boxes the woman had set down resting against the cabinet door leaving him trapped.
The sounds of the young woman moving in and out of the apartment continued for quite some time. The thought of another being entering what he thought of as his home was disturbing. Thoughts of having to find another vacant unit crossed his mind but this location was perfect. It was near the vending machines and the main door that people would drop food often enough.
This location worked so well that it seemed unlikely to find another. As the further into the building he went Tucker knew the harder it would be to get food. Plus the unit having leaky pipes like this one wasn’t a guarantee either. Tucker finally decided to just watch to see how things played out. Plus with the door jam replaced he was effectively trapped inside this apartment. The only hope he could think of would be if she had something he could hide behind near the door and then scurry out with her as she left. Even that had its risks though as the footsteps these giants took allowed them to move so much faster than he could.
Tucker listened to the footsteps of the young woman walking about the apartment. At one point the voice of what sounded like two males came into the apartment. He learned through listening to their conversation that they were a couple friends who were helping her with the heavy stuff.
Looking about the cabinet in which he was locked in Tucker hoped to find something to eat but while it was a bit dirty it was clean of food. Not having any other options he did the only thing he could do which was to sit and wait for the stranger to be finished moving in.
Tucker awoke to the sound of silence. The cabinet was completely black so he wasn’t sure what time it was. He made his way over to the door and pressed against it. Much to his surprise the cabinet door opened and he peeked outside. It was shocking to see his barren home transformed He hardly recognized the place.
The kitchen had a large table with hulking chairs. They were so large he could hardly tell what they were at first. They were just tan-colored shapes. That was the biggest problem he noticed about being small like this.
The other downside was that his vision wasn’t what it used to be. It seemed to scale with his size. A part of the home that to him was miles away was hazy at best. Tucker knew he had plenty of time to explore this home. What he needed to find was some food and check out that door while he could.
Tucker moved as quickly as he could towards the door first. As he needed to know if he was cut off. As he walked along the new door jam he saw what he feared. The seal along the door was tight. He wasn’t going to be able to get out.
Knowing he had little choice Tucker ran for the table and hid behind one of the furthest legs which were pressed almost squarely into a corner. He shimmied his way behind the leg and knew this would make for a good hiding space if needed. He then crawled out and sat next to the leg.
This was where he spent the next three days. The young woman was still unpacking over this time so she would come and go quite often. So it was hard to get a really good idea for her schedule. However, what Tucker did notice was that she was very clean. She wiped her counters down as she cooked. She washed her dishes after she ate. She swept her floors each night.
While he had water from the leaky pipes under the sink. He wasn’t getting any food. The constant growling of his stomach was getting to be too much. This person who had barged into his home and taken over was much to clean. He figured his best chance was to climb onto the kitchen counter. Tucker had scouted the kitchen when she had gone out enough times to know that the cord to one of the appliances dangled down to the floor.
Slowly Tucker crept his way around the perimeter of the kitchen towards the cord. Once the cord was in view he crouched down behind the garbage can. It was a good spot as on one side he could view the door and the other left him a straight shot to the cord. He sat and waited for what was a couple of hours before she saw him gather her things and head out the door.
Tucker knew that he didn’t know where she was going or how long she was going to be out. All of her trips were so random. Sometimes she would be gone for hours other times it was what seemed like a few minutes.
Being small like this had made Tucker stronger than he was when he was full-sized. As he dashed across the kitchen and grabbed the cord he was able to start climbing the cord like it was a rope pulling up his own body weight. Before Smallera this would have been impossible. However, being small and living like this. He had grown fitter than he ever had before.
As he reached the top of the counter Tucker quickly started searching around all the objects. He saw a couple of sprinkles of salt which looked more like an oversized block of ice. However, like the floor, the countertops were perfectly clean.
Tucker couldn’t believe it. He walked back and forth across the counter and this woman kept this place cleaner than any restaurant he had ever seen. Tucker’s stomach continued to growl to the point he finally just collapsed from the energy spent climbing and searching. He lifted his head a bit seeing he wasn’t too far from the sink. He figured he could just crawl himself over and get some water but his entire body felt sluggish and exhausted. As Tucker passed out he heard the door open. Every instinct he had in his body was to run and hide. However he couldn’t pick himself up or find the energy to move.
As the young woman strode into her new apartment she set her Starbucks down as she tossed her keys on the counter. However, as she tossed her keys down she saw something on her counter. She couldn’t believe her eyes.
Oh, you changed this one’s name.
It seemed like the name could be confusing as it’s based on a picture series I was doing which isn’t even posted anymore and I didn’t want the the Chloe title to be confused with the mainline Smallara series
Are you gonna turn the other images in the series into future episodes?
It’s a possibility. If there is more story to tell I would certainly want to tell it.