Giant Solidarity G/T

Chapter XLI. The Transaction

*Author's Note: Apologies for how drawn out these next couple chapters will be, there's a lot to fit in here.*

Following a lengthy deliberation at the compound between us and the assembly of human Legionnaires, our scheme was ready to launch. Nervously aware of the accompanying risks, we nevertheless navigated through the woods via lingering, clementine-colored twilight. Following our design, the Legionnaire humans took an alternate route. Just before dusk, Harley and I arrived back at the parking lot by Lake Brobdingnag, the pickup point from which Eli had abducted our human friends, including Alma and Crystal. Just enough sunlight remained for me to angrily see my vehicle. "Look what those GRUDAT fuckers did to my car!" I shouted, walking around the wreck. All four tires punctured and deflated; the windshield was overtaken by a spiderweb crack. Plastic shards from my head and taillights crunched under my boots. They even had the audacity to key-scratch Bug Collector onto my paintjob. Another Colossus Axiom Forever was scraped into my hood too, adding insult to injury.

         I thumped my hood with a fist, wishing Evan's and Merle's heads were under it. Harley patted my shoulder. "Vic, you're insured man. We'll call roadside assistance afterwards." He pointed toward the Stortvann Minimart across the street and reached in through my broken back window. "We have bigger bastards to fry right now, man."

         "Right, of course." I nodded and retrieved my weapon of choice, the aluminum bat, from the passenger side window.

         "Good it's still here!" Harley fumbled under the backseat of my car, acquiring the police taser, which he had taken off Armstrong back at the causeway. Another incident that seemed like eons ago. 

         Both armed now, Harley and I got into position behind a patch of shrubs alongside the parking lot, with a relatively clear view of the minimart as well as the lake. At this hour, the convenience store remained open, but only one customer's car was parked by a gas pump. As soon as that driver peeled off, all exterior lights to the store turned off, including the blinking lotto ad. A moment later, the giantess storekeeper I had seen earlier emerged, flipping over the CLOSED sign, before disappearing down the road. "She secretly sells humans for food with fruit," I told Harley, shaking my head. "Guessing she took a GRUDAT bribe to close up early for this occasion."

         Jabbing me in the shoulder to be attentive, Harley pointed back across the street, lowering his head. "We got movement, Vic." In confirmation, I was able to see a couple pairs of headlights pull in beside the mart. Beyond that I couldn't decipher details from this far, but Harley could through binoculars around his neck. Bryce provided us with these giant-sized binoculars, from the stockpiled junk and clutter the human society had. They were seemingly large enough for humans to use as celestial telescopes. Through this gifted apparatus, Harley was able to see the cars and drivers via the single streetlight in front of the store. "Two cars... no three," he reported in a hushed voice, adjusting the vision. "Pickup truck, a van, and an SUV with a park ranger insignia. Giants getting out."

         "Anyone we know?" I asked, gripping the bat so hard my knuckles almost glowed white in the dark.

         Nodding in affirmation, Harley analyzed the men of ill-intent. "Yep, that's definitely your buddy Troy... I could recognize Evan even without binoculars, I think." Harley's brow embraced the eyepiece as he pressed it close, determinedly. "There's the ranger and the guy in the Javelin Alehouse shirt, who caught me and Reagan. Hmm, three other guys I don't recognize just came out of the van."

         "What's that, total of seven giants?" I asked, as Harley handed me the binoculars so I could do some recon myself. "Thought we'd be more outnumbered than that. Of course, we still might be if the customers arrive, whoever they'll be." I observed through the eyepieces, scanning the turnout of giants, who were chatting, and moving between vehicles. Under the misty yellow streetlight, I could see them as if I were standing on the curbside near them. "Shit, one of those other guys is Morton," I stated, distastefully. "Troy introduced me to him along with Boyd at Javelin. No idea who the other goons are though." These two burly, tattooed, blue-collar looking dudes I presumed were rank-and-file GRUDATs, for manpower. Returning the binoculars to Harley, I proclaimed "We should get over there before their slave-buyers show up. Probably keeping Crystal, Alma and the other humans in the back of one of those cars." I handed Harley my bat with a sigh. Already I felt vulnerable but needed to remain incognito for this stage of the operation.