They tower over us. Impossible tall but all too real. Up close you have to strain your eyes upward to see anything other than feet and legs. From a distance, you can see the Giants look vaguely human. One head, two arms, two legs, stands upright. But they aren’t human. We aren’t even sure if they’re alive.
They walk. The walk in straight lines from one city to the next. They walk to the center of a city, stop, turn and walk to another city. All the while destroying anything in their path.
We can not stop them. Bullets, bombs, missiles, and even The Bomb(so long Vegas). The government has given up trying. All they can do is limit the loss of life.
I’ve seen two up close. One had skin black like coal, fire for eyes and it stunk of rotten eggs. The other glowed with a faint pale white light and smelt like fermenting fruit.
The city called us a week before it arrived to vacate the apartment. I got everything except the furniture out. My neighbors, whom I had never gotten around to meeting, and I watched it walk through the building, not trying to destroy but unable or unwilling to walk in anything other than a straight line. Like a force of nature with no mind behind it, destroying this house while leaving the one right next to it untouched.
I moved into a house with some friends in the country. They thought it would safer outside of a city. They didn’t take into account the fact the house was between two cities. Eventually one of them would have walked from one to the other. Eventually came sooner rather than later. We didn’t have as much notice as I did the first time. One morning, Jamie looked outside and there it was treading straight for us. We grabbed what we could and then stood back as it clipped the side of the house, not quite destroying it but making it unstable and unlivable. After scavenging through the wreckage, we packed everything left into our cars and headed to the nearest city.
—
The city is devastated. The Giants’ paths can clearly be seen in the wreckage of buildings. The center of the city has been stomped flat where they stop and turn before walking to the next city.
People now homeless are living in the parks. At first, they crowded into shelters but when those filled they had no choice but to find someplace to live. A few bought tents and began roughing it. Soon others followed suit and within a couple of weeks tent cities sprang up in parks. There are laws against camping in the parks but the police turn a blind eye. What else can they do? Arrest several hundred people?
Tents and sleeping bags have become a scarce commodity. It’s almost impossible to find any for sale. Jamie and Alex were avid backpackers and camped out at least once a month before the Giants came so there was no need for us to scrounge around for gear. Besides the one they gave me, they had one older tent that they sold for three times what they had paid for it new.
They also sold the car. I should say we sold the car since Jamie and Alex keeps reminding me that what’s theirs is also mine. It didn’t make sense to keep it unless we were planning on leaving the city. There’s no place any of us want to go and no place is much better off, most are worst off.
J and A’s credit and debit cards are still working for the time being. I wanted to empty my own meager checking account but the bank is refusing to allow large withdraws in excess of forty dollars. I’ve started taking it out forty dollars a day. J and A tell me not to worry about money that they can support me for now. I hope that’s true and worry about the day when it won’t be.
I’ve been looking for a job but with no permanent address and no phone number, it’s been slow going. I have to revisit every place I put an application just in case they want to hire me. No leads yet.
I met a lawyer living a few tents away. He lost almost everything when his apartment building was destroyed. He says he has never felt more at ease. No bills to pay. No rent to pay. No things tying him down. His office has a gym with locker rooms and showers. He keeps most of his clothes there in a locker. He had tried sleeping in his office but when security found out they gave him the boot. With no other choice, he found someone selling a tent and sleeping bag and set up a tent in a park near his firm. Most of the people he lives near are jobless.
I heard that two of the Giants are headed for the same city. I wonder what will happen if they meet.