The wheels of the Jeep thumped over the uneven brick tiles through Dr. Gerben’s backyard. They rolled past fallen and rusted garden tools which, to a Tinyling, appeared hundreds of feet long. They passed by dandelion stalks as thick as telephone poles. Behind, the Escalade followed them in low gear. Its tires skidded slightly over a patch of mud the size of a swimming pool. Dome 101 was gone—left far behind. And ahead of them stretched the vast, unknowable mysteries of the real human world; a world of giants.

  Beau leaned forward in his seat aboard the Jeep’s command booth. His eyes squinted against the sunlight which poured across the overgrown backyard. It was their first taste of genuine human daylight. There was no artificial glow from the ceiling panels. There wasn’t a programmed morning cycle. The light above them came from the real world—and now, for better or worse, it touched the survivors of Dome 101.

  Then, Beau saw it. It was bolted to the roof of the backyard garden shed. It was tilted slightly, but unmistakably a security camera. Its lens was cracked, but a single red light blinked. It was slow and steady.

  He leaned closer. “Tessa…” he murmured, nodding toward the corner of the roof. “Look at that.”

  She followed his gaze. “Is that thing…on?” The light blinked again.

  Beau blinked in confusion.

  “Why is it recording?” Tessa asked. “Is someone…watching us?”

  Beau didn’t answer. He just stared at the blinking red light, the lens reflecting their tiny convoy crawling across the snaking garden path.

  “Are the humans still alive?” he asked.

  “Want us to turn around and try to solve the mystery?”

  Beau scoffed. “We’re not going back in there. Not ever again. If there are real sized humans roaming about, we’ll deal with that problem when we get to it. But so far, we haven’t seen any evidence of it.”

  “I guess Dr. Gerben’s message about there being some kind of apocalypse was true. But what kind of apocalypse was it? There is no poison gas and everything looks overgrown. It’s like humanity just disappeared and left the faucet running.”

  “Yeah…maybe the answers are out there somewhere. In the meantime, let’s focus on surviving.”

  “Yeah…I’m with you.”

  Their vehicles rumbled forward.

  Mayor Carnie sat behind him, arms crossed in thought, while Chief Mahoney monitored their surroundings from a lookout perch bolted to the top of the door. Dr. Lorne examined the notes on her tablet as Tessa scanned the left flank with her hand resting on her Vindicator. The convoy was quiet—everyone was too focused on their surroundings to speak. They were all too aware of how small and insignificant they really were in their giant new world.

  “Look, the street,” Beau said.

  The Jeep rumbled over the uneven asphalt, after exiting the garden, onto what had once been an ordinary residential road. It was cracked and split into jagged fault lines. Weeds grew up through the cracks. There were still plenty of human artifacts lying about. They passed a pair of rotting shoes, empty water bottles which rattled as the wind pushed them down the road, and torn pages of magazines which took flight as they drove by.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Tessa scanned the street signs, looking for indicators of their location. She stood crookedly and examined the map, then compared it to their surroundings.

  “Unbelievable. I knew we were in Deadwood,” she said. “Just…it’s the real one. And everything is exactly the same. Well…nearly.”

  “It’s the same layout,” Beau confirmed. “Same names. Same roads. But everything is massively scaled up.”

  “Feels like we drove through a magic door and into the land of giants,” Beau said.

  “That’s because we did,” Dr. Lorne murmured. “There are sure to be differences beyond the size. We don’t know what’s out here with us.”

  The Jeep trailed past a car—an old blue sedan. Its cracked windshield glinted. It sat rusted, its tires deflated. It loomed a couple hundred (Tinyling) feet above them. As they drove by the passenger door, Beau felt a shiver crawl up his spine.

  Tessa’s voice turned sharp. “Stop the convoy.”

  Rick hit the brakes. The Jeep squealed to a halt. The Escalade behind them mirrored the maneuver with a hiss of its wheels and a jolt of the frame. Dust rolled through the air.

  From the tree line ahead, something stepped onto the road.

  It emerged slowly—first its antlers, then its tall chestnut body, hundreds of feet tall in their eyes. Its muscles moved like strong cables, sleek and silent. It took slow steps onto the road. And then it turned its massive head toward them. Its black eyes looked down at the convoy.

  Behind it, a second deer approached. A doe. Then two smaller shapes appeared—a pair of fawns, legs thin and trembling like the reeds they emerged from.

  Everyone in the convoy held their breath.

  To the one-inch-tall Tinylings, the deer was more than a creature. It was super massive. Its hooves alone could crush their truck without a struggle. If it panicked…or attacked them…they were finished.

  The buck scuffed one hoof on the road. The sound echoed like an explosion, kicking up pebbles the size of bowling balls. It took one step toward them. Then another.

  “Weapons ready,” Beau said under his breath. He grabbed his rifle.

  Tessa flinched. “We’re not really going to shoot it are we?”

  Dr. Lorne looked up in awe. “What could we even do against something so massive?”

  “Yeah…” Mahoney said. “Beau, I wouldn’t.”

  The deer stared at them. Then it twitched. Its nose flared. Tessa gripped her rifle tighter.

  Then, light flashed in the sky and they heard the deep crackle of thunder.

  The buck raised its head at the commotion. Beau imagined its next move. A charge or a stomp? But instead, the great deer snorted—and turned away from them. The doe and fawns followed the buck, bounding into the woods. Their white tails flicked behind them.

  The road was empty again.

  Beau exhaled. “Keep moving.”

  The convoy rolled forward again.

  The world was very different. It was vast, dangerous, and alive with things that could easily kill them if it wanted.

  Ahead of them, in the distance, the forest gave way to the neighborhood houses which crested the hill overlooking Crystal Bridges Trail. The house sat there nestled among thick trees and wild hedges. To a human, it may have looked somewhat ordinary. To the Tinylings, each house was a mega fortress big enough for a kingdom where they could build a new beginning together in the strange world.

  Tessa leaned closer to Beau as the Jeep rumbled down a street named Black Apple Lane. “Do you really think we can make a home here?”

  Beau didn’t answer immediately. He watched the last rays of sun flicker through the canopy, lighting the road. Lightning flashed again. Thunder crackled overhead. It would rain soon.

  “We’ll make it work,” Beau said. “We don’t have a choice.”

  Behind them, he heard the excited chatter of those in the Escalade which parked beside their Jeep. Beau motioned with his hand. Both the vehicles pulled up the vast driveway of the red studio barn house on 321 Black Apple Lane and parked. While the others were excited, Beau knew they weren’t out of danger just yet.

  Next, they had to clear the house of all hostile insects.