Big Corp Inc. (G/T)

Part 31: Martin's Inner Sanctum

Candy woke up to a clamorous rumble. Briefly, she forgot where she was and pressed her hands into the soft surface beneath her with confusion. It twitched in response, and then she recalled she was on Martin's belly. He was snoring, a deafening sound that had shattered her deep slumber and awakened her. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Judging by the soft blue light filtering in through the window, it must be early dawn.

There was no way Candy was going to be able to sleep with his snoring, and it was almost time to get up anyways. "Martin?" Candy called up to him, but her small voice couldn't reach his ears when he was sawing logs and dead to the world. She stood up and began hiking up the landscape of his body towards his face. The footing was unstable, due to his natural squishiness and his breathing, but she found better purchase for her bare feet on his rib cage and sternum, where there were solid bones beneath the skin. His mane of chest hair tickled her feet.

"Martin," she repeated, standing on one of his pectorals above his nipple. No response except another raucous snore. She reached one of his collarbones, and after a moment of hesitation crossed his neck like a bridge, making sure not to step on his Adam's apple, and hauled herself up his prominent chin to his face. The Giant shifted in his sleep and scratched at his neck, but still didn't wake up. He mumbled something incoherent and turned his head slightly to the side, causing Candy to topple forward onto his lips. Fortunately, his snoring had stopped after he moved. His lips were so big and plushy, like oversized pillows, Candy felt like she could fall asleep again.

Candy trusted Martin, and she was very comfortable, but she knew he was asleep, so she should probably move. She tried to push herself up but her arm slid between his lips, causing her to collapse back down, so she was immersed in his mouth up to her shoulder. Her hand touched one of his incisors deep inside. As she planted her other hand on his lower lip to pull her arm out, his lips parted and he drew in a breath, making her lose her balance and slide forward. To her alarm, she was unable to stop her fall as she slipped forward into his gigantic mouth. Poor Candy was unable to arrest her descent as she slid down his wet tongue and straight into his gullet with the force of gravity, since he was lying on his back.

When she hit the back of his throat, Martin was choked awake with a start. He reflexively swallowed, and before Candy could even scream she plunged headfirst down his throat. Martin sat up and gripped his neck with a cough. "What the hell was that? A bug?" He drank some water that he had on a glass on his nightstand. Whatever he swallowed went down roughly, but the water helped it drop into his stomach. He gingerly touched his belly. As his sleep wore off, he remembered that Candy had stayed the night.

"Candy?" She wasn't on his belly where he had left her. He froze. She was gone. He looked around in the folds of the bedsheets frantically, too petrified to move lest he accidentally crush her. "Candy?! Where are you?" His stomach lurched a bit, presumably with indigestion. He licked his lips nervously. With an unsettling feeling in his gut, that hinted further at the contents of his stomach, he tasted a familiar, sweet flavor on his tongue. "Oh God..." He jumped out of bed into action.

Inside his body, Candy had been fast-tracked down his esophagus with the additional lubrication of the water he drank. Even so, the meat walls crushed her on all sides, filling her with visceral terror, before she squelched into his stomach with a plop. She screamed in horror, thrashing about in the pitch-black darkness as the hot acid stung her skin and assaulted her eyes and nose with irritating vapors. This time was different from the last time he ate her. Back then, she had been half-frozen and hardly conscious; now, she was fully aware of the peril she was in, and she fought with every last ounce of her strength to get out.

"Martin!" she shrieked. "Get me out of here!" She cursed her own stupidity for going anywhere near his mouth while he was unconscious and waded through the churning gastric juices until she bumped into a curved, squishy, wrinkled wall. She beat on it with her fists to get his attention. "Martin!" she wailed again desperately. "Help!" His whole body staggered around her, causing her to fall backwards.