Rebirth I: Pete's Creation
By: JohnBoy

Dan Sharpe slowly took a step forward, trying not to let the leaves and twigs crackle under his feet. Just ahead of him, beyond the wall of thick, leafy brush, he thought he could hear a faint rustling sound. He tensed and raised his rifle, holding his breath...

There was a sudden, shrill chattering that made him jump, and then he saw a red squirrel running up into the trees.

Dan sighed and lowered his gun. Just a squirrel. He was getting tired of this; he'd been out here for hours and seen no sign of Subject H-16 at all. Maybe Carson and the others were right -- maybe this was just a wild goose chase after all.

But somehow, something told him his original instinct had been right: H-16 was still alive and still out here. Perhaps even stalking him at this very moment...

Dan took off his cap and wiped the sweat off his forehead -- it had certainly turned out to be a humid day. As he headed deeper into the forest, he found him- self wishing that he and Carson hadn't separated. He didn't want to admit it, but he was pretty scared. The trees almost seemed to be closing in around him -- he wasn't even completely sure where he was anymore. He was so nervous and hyper-aware of his surroundings that every little sound made him start.

He wanted to contact Carson again on the walkie-talkie for an update (actually for a little reassurance), but he knew how it would sound; he'd already called the guy 3 times in the past half-hour.

He thought again of what he was actually doing; it was all still a bit unreal to him. How had he ever ended up in this situation?

At first Dan couldn't believe how lucky he'd been to get a position at the new Igenics BioResearch Institute. He was just a lab technician, but still, he was doing what he loved: Science. At least his expensive education wasn't going to waste.

Though he was a bit shy, he got along quite well with his new colleagues. Dan was a very handsome young man, and he found that people (of both sexes) always seemed to respond well to that. He had a small, compact body, and his face was angular and somewhat serious-looking, with a neatly trimmed jet-black moustache.

Things were going well for awhile... but it wasn't long before he began to have serious doubts about the nature of the research being done at Igenics.

He'd never seen anything like this kind of bio-engineering -- animals were being mutated into new forms or grown to freakish sizes, often having their digestive processes and eating habits drastically altered as well. And it was all being done at the genetic level. Supposedy, the purpose of the experiments was to expand the range of foods that the creatures could eat and to achieve the highest rate of development possible, thus making for livestock that was more "efficient".

But they were creating monsters! Dan was sure that some laws were being broken; however, he didn't want to jeopardize his job so he remained silent. Still, it did concern him, and he suspected that there was more to the research than they were telling him.

He began to get even more worried when they started bringing in people as test subjects...

A man named Peter Callaghan was the one who the Igenics team eventually focused most of their attention on, as he seemed to have responded to the treat- ment better than anyone else.

His designation was Test Subject H-16.

Pete was a local man, a healthy, burly, bearded logger of slightly below average intelligence; he seemed like a fairly nice guy, though -- jovial, and eager to partici- pate. Dan doubted the man even knew just what would be involved when he'd agreed to take part in the experiment. Did he realize what it meant to have your DNA screwed around with? Maybe all he cared about was the $20,000 that Igenics was paying him to be their guinea pig.

All he had to do was get a shot, and hang around for a week or so for observation... or so they told him.

Dan didn't know all the intricate details, but apparently Mr. Callaghan had been given some type of modified virus that actually rewrote the human genetic code to produce new kinds of growth hormones... among other effects. (Dan himself had actually given Peter the injection.)

The team leader of what came to be called 'Project Gigas' was Dr. Van Dooren, the man who had designed and created the DNA-modifying virus. He was clearly a brilliant geneticist, but somehow Dan didn't trust him. He seemed to treat the human subjects with the same cold indifference as he did the lab animals...

Van Dooren predicted that the changes would begin very quickly, and that they should start to see visible growth in Subject H-16 within a few days.

He was right.

Dan was walking along a rocky creek-bed, heading upstream. It was getting late in the afternoon now, and the woods all around him were quiet... strangely quiet.

It still terrified him to think about what had happened on that day (it seemed like yesterday) when the experiment had gone so terribly wrong.

At least one person was dead, most likely two... and possibly many, many more than that. He felt guilty about it somehow. He knew he shouldn't, really -- the project hadn't been his idea, he hadn't invented the virus. But he was the one who had given Mr. Callaghan the injection. That made him at least partly responsible, didn't it?

He thought he heard a fast-moving vehicle somewhere up ahead; he must've been getting close to the highway.

Dan looked down and stopped abruptly. On a large, rounded stone in the middle of the stream, he could see something, some kind of wet print. It looked almost like a footprint... a very large one.

He felt his heart rate immediately begin to go up. Was it made by a human foot? It was difficult to tell -- it was only a partial print, and only a few "toes" were visible. In addition, it was rather faint because it was evaporating rapidly. But if it was human, then it was made by someone of monstrous size. A giant.

Dan swallowed and looked around anxiously. "He's alive..." he muttered to himself.

His fear mounted. He looked down again -- the print had obviously been made only within the last few minutes. Really, it could have been anything, but his gut told him that it was H-16.

It was amazing to think that something so big had eluded them for so long. He hefted the rifle he was carrying; it was loaded with a tranquilizer dart. The dose was powerful enough to knock out a full-grown African elephant... but he knew he would've felt more secure with a shotgun.

He wanted to contact Carson again and tell him what he'd found, but first he had to be absolutely sure that the footprint was really what he thought it was.

Dan slowly advanced on unsteady legs. Directly ahead of him, through the thick trees, he thought he could just make out dark shape.... No, not actually a shape but a large opening of some kind. It looked like a cave...

Two Peter Callaghan had been a large man to begin with, Dan remembered (6'2", 263#). But by the end of the first week of Project Gigas, he was nearly a full inch taller and had gained 14 pounds.

Dr. Van Dooren was pleased with the results. But that was only the beginning of it...

Pete had shown himself to be a fairly big eater even before the virus had gone to work re-writing his DNA, but once he actually started to grow, his appetite became absolutely huge. In fact, Dan found it a bit disturbing just watching the guy eat.

The big lumberjack was always ravenously hungry now, and when he fed it was a sight to behold: eating with his hands, he would greedily bolt down his food as quickly as possible, snorting and slurping noisily all the while, with his face red and his eyes practically bulging out of their sockets from the effort. It seemed at every meal, he acted as if he'd not eaten in a week.

It wasn't long before he was consuming 20 pounds of food at a sitting; his stomach capacity seemed to be growing even faster than the rest of his body.

22 days into the experiment, the man had reached a height of 6-foot-6 and weighed well over 300 pounds. Thanks to the new instructions that his genes had been given, his metabolism was processing the food he was eating at an amazing rate, building up bone and sinew, fat and muscle -- but proportionately, he still looked much the same.

However it wasn't just the virus alone that was responsible for his stunning increase in size; he was also being fed a special high-protein diet laced with a drug that enhanced the effects of the hormones his body was producing.

Pete was quite fascinated by the changes he was experiencing.... Igenics "advised" him that he should stay awhile longer so they could monitor his develop- ment, and he agreed to this. But Dan knew the truth: even if he'd said no, they would've kept him against his will.

Dan found the whole thing very unsettling. What was Igenics hoping to achieve by this? Why anyone would want to do these kinds of experiments on humans was completely beyond him...

Soon Peter's diet consisted only of a fortified meat-like product, formed into thick bars. The "powerbars" (as one of the lab guys dubbed them) were fairly large, each more than a foot long and weighing 12 pounds, and at this point Pete could easily eat 3 of them at a time. However, he didn't seem to be bothered by the lack of variety -- he was eating his food so quickly now, it was doubtful that it stayed in his mouth long enough to be tasted anyway. Dan would watch, strangely transfixed, as the man would tear huge hunks off the powerbars and gulp them down without even really chewing.

But by the end of the first month, there was a change in H-16's feeding behavior...

Dan could still vividly recall the creepy, almost sickening feeling he'd experien- ced that day when he saw the voracious man pick up one of the bars and stuff the entire thing down his throat, whole. Van Dooren found this to be a fascinating development; Pete seemed rather pleased with himself. ("How do ya - uurp - like that, doc?" he'd said at the time, with a big satisfied smile on his rugged face.)

On Day 43, he had reached a height of 7 feet. He was gaining about 10 pounds of physical bulk a day.

Pete seemed strangely excited about what was happening to him, yet he was also growing concerned about something.... He'd been asking more and more frequently when he'd be allowed to go home, but Van Dooren kept putting him off with logical excuses. Dan felt sorry for him -- he thought it should've seemed obvious to the guy that he would NEVER be released. How do you explain to your friends and family that you've grown 10 inches in six weeks??

He was soon moved to a new room, a much larger one, to allow for the expected growth. (Dan knew it was also partly for security reasons; after all, they didn't want their most successful experiment to escape.)

By Day 50, Pete's weight was up to 418 pounds, and he reached a new mile- stone: incredibly, he could now eat over 100 pounds of food in one sitting. Dan had watched through the observation window in awe as the huge man quickly swallowed nine powerbars, one after another, then sat rubbing his hugely distended gut in an almost sensual manner...

Needless to say, Pete had outgrown his clothes by now, so they supplied him with new ones that were designed to stretch and grow with him -- and of course they had to be especially loose-fitting at the front to allow for the massive expan- sion of his stomach after feeding.

Day 61 - Height, 7'8". Weight, 510#. Dan was beginning to find that he was actually a bit scared to be around Pete now. Not just because of his imposing size; maybe it was in the way that he had that perpetually hungry look on his face...

It was about this time that Dan began to feel real disgust -- not towards Pete, but towards Dr. Van Dooren. Once again Pete asked when he would be allowed to leave Igenics, and the doctor told him something that Dan knew to be an out- right lie: he said that at the moment it was impossible, as his metabolism had become too dependent on their food supplements for him to be able to survive without them now.

After that, Pete was sullen and uncooperative for awhile, but soon he regained some of that excitement he'd been feeling about his remarkable growth. Eating certainly seemed to cheer him up, and now it was almost as if he was trying to push himself beyond his limits...

Day 67 - He was up to 8 feet tall. That morning Dan saw a very hungry Pete devour 144 pounds of food. Dan worked this out to be about 25% of his body weight, an unbelievable amount (he knew the average human could only eat a maximum of 2, maybe 3% of their weight in a sitting). Although this figure seemed to be levelling off -- his stomach was no longer growing faster than the rest of him -- Pete was still developing as a whole, and so each day he could eat a little more. He didn't seem particularly concerned that he was turning into a giant...

Day 78 - Pete's weight was up to an amazing 742 pounds, and he was increas- ing in height by more than one-and-a-half inches per day. By this point, he was happy to go naked most of the time; he didn't seem the least bit shy about it. Which was just as well since even the specially-designed clothes couldn't keep up with his growth now.

Though they didn't know it, it was the second-to-last day that Peter Callaghan would spend at Igenics.

Dan remembered the weigh-in that day, how Pete had rested one of his huge hands on Dan's shoulder in an almost friendly way as Dan checked the scale. He'd looked up nervously into the large, craggy face looming over him and saw a half-grin behind the thick, reddish-brown beard. There was something disturbing about the way those big blue eyes gazed down at him, studying him. It made him wonder if the giant was planning something...

Later that afternoon, as they watched Pete consume more than 180 pounds of food, Dr. Van Dooren decided that the size of the food bars could be increased since it was clear that their subject could now easily swallow larger objects. One of the other technicians then made a surprising comment: "My God, he's eaten the equivalent of a full-grown man."

And Dan saw Pete look over at them, as if he'd heard...

Three It wasn't a cave after all, but a large, square, concrete culvert. A truck rumbled by somewhere overhead, and Dan looked up. He must've been right under the highway. Directly ahead of him there was a huge, 30-foot embankment with steep sides, and the culvert cut through it like a subway tunnel. The little stream he'd been following was flowing out of it.

Looking into the darkness, he felt his fear intensify. He knew he had to go in there...

Dan began thinking of the disappearances that had occurred around Silver Falls and Oxbow. Igenics had never been directly linked to them, but he knew there were rumours going around in the nearby towns, rumours of some horrible, mutant beast that had escaped from the labs.

The other scientists had projected that Subject H-16 might have reached as much as 11 feet in height by now, but it was considered unlikely since without the special diet he'd be unable to maintain his rapid growth rate. Being alone in the woods, they reasoned, it would be difficult for him to find enough nourishment just to get by -- in fact, it was quite possible that he had already starved to death, since someone of his size and metabolism would require so much food. So the continuing disappearances were probably due to some other cause.

But Dan knew that Pete Callaghan was an experienced woodsmen, and he convinced Igenics that they should keep looking. The guy was still alive, he just knew it. And he doubted that food would be a problem for the huge brute. After all, he'd seen first-hand just what he was capable of...

He personally felt that H-16 should be destroyed if he was found. It was a shame, and in a way he felt sorry for Pete despite what he'd done... still, the man was just too dangerous.

But incredibly, Igenics wanted him alive to do more research! It was an almost sickening thought. Even after the disastrous events that had cut their little experiment short, they STILL wanted to continue with Project Gigas. Dan knew he didn't want to be a part of it anymore; he decided that as soon as Pete was found, he was going to quit.

If any good has come of this at all, he thought to himself, at least Van Dooren probably got what he deserved...

Day 79 - The subject was up to 8'10", and his weight was 778 pounds.

That morning, Pete had demanded to be released. He towered over Dr. Van Dooren, glaring down at him angrily, but the doctor was not intimidated. Van Dooren calmly told him it would not be possible, at least not until they found some way to wean him off the supplements -- something which, he promised, they would begin looking into as soon as possible. With that, he left the room and Pete slumped down into a corner, staring at the floor dejectedly with something like a sneer on his face.

Dan approached him, nervously. He wished he could do something to help the guy, but it could be the end to his career if he interfered... A stocky, middle-aged technician named Gerald was entering the room, wheeling in a large, portable MRI unit. Today they were going to do some bone scans on the giant's limbs to study how his skeletal structure was changing to support his constantly increasing mass.

Pete suddenly turned to Dan. "Will I really die if I leave here? Don't bullshit me, I want the truth." Dan could hear Pete's stomach gurgling.

Before he even realized it, Dan had whispered, "No, you won't."

"Then, why...?"

Not quite sure why he was doing it, Dan went on in a low voice: "They're never going to let you leave. Your genes have been permanently altered, and you'll probably never stop growing. So you see, you can't go back to your life. They own you now. I'm... sorry."

Pete's eyes narrowed; something made Dan unconsciously take a step backwards.

Gerald was coming up behind him. "Okay, big guy," he said, "I need you to just stick your arm in here. It won't--"

"Go fuck yourself," the huge man grumbled.

"Aw, come on, Pete," Gerald sighed. "You don't cooperate, you don't get fed, y'know?"

A strange look was creeping into the giant's face. Dan knew something was wrong, something was about to happen, and he took another step back. Was Pete going to become violent? He suddenly wondered if he hadn't just made a big mistake. Maybe the guy had been better off thinking he needed Igenics.

There was a faint sound.... A low, barely audible growl seemed to be coming from deep within Pete's chest. It rose in volume, then abruptly turned into a loud, open-mouthed roar as he suddenly lurched forward, knocking Dan aside and going directly for Gerald.

As Dan tumbled to the floor he heard a startled squeak, quickly cut off, and followed by a kind of deep, slurping "glorp" sound. He twisted around to see what was happening.

Pete was on all fours, hunched over the technician, who seemed to be sitting on the floor. Then Dan noticed that he couldn't see Gerald's head for some reason. He realized with some surprise that it was because it was completely inside Pete's mouth.

Before he could even react, Pete gaped his maw even wider and somehow began forcing Gerald's shoulders inside, while Gerald kicked and flailed his arms wildly. From inside Pete's throat, Dan could hear urgent, muffled cries...

"Holy shit!" Dan gasped.

Moving fast, Pete grabbed his victim around the waist, sat back on his haunches, and lifted the man high into the air, inverting him. With a heavy grunt, he pushed the frantically struggling form deeper down into his gullet, engulfing his upper torso. Another massive gulp and Gerald was in up to the waist, his arms pinned at his sides.

Dan couldn't believe it. He was actually watching a man being swallowed whole!

"Hey!" he yelled, "HEY!!"

Pete was eating Gerald at a frightening speed, like a voracious animal. It was incredible to watch, almost fascinating. His bearded mouth was stretched so un- believably wide, his neck grossly distended... obviously they'd never expected he could swallow something this big.

"Pete... Pete, stop it!" Dan said stupidly. He felt he should do something, any- thing, but he couldn't seem to move.

The technician's legs were already sliding down into Pete's hungry mouth. The fact that Gerald was fully-clothed hadn't dimished his appetite at all, apparently.

From behind the observation glass, he could now hear excited voices. Someone had finally noticed what was happening, but far too late for Gerald; Pete was closing his lips over the tips of the man's shoes, and with a final, straining gulp, it was finished.

"Holy shit..." Dan muttered. He could hear shouts, people hurrying up the hall. An alarm sounded somewhere.

Pete belched explosively and stood up, staggering from the weight of his enor- mously bloated belly. He turned towards Dan, looking at him squarely, and Dan felt a wave of total panic that nearly made him black out. For a moment he thought he was going to be next.... But instead, Pete reached for the MRI unit.

Just then, Van Dooren ran into the room, closely followed by a security guard.

"What-- what's happened here?" the doctor demanded.

With a massive groan, Pete lifted the 500-pound unit and heaved it into the wall, smashing a hole right through the cinderblocks. He pushed at some of the loose bricks, causing even more of the wall to collapse. (Dan wondered, how had he known it was an exterior wall?)

Van Dooren turned to the guard. "Don't just stand there, you idiot! Stop him!!"

The wide-eyed guard pulled out his taser and fired, but his hands were so unsteady that he missed by more than a foot. The doctor snarled in disgust and ran forward towards Pete, as if there was anything he could actually do to stop him. Through all of this Dan was still crouched on the floor, watching everything in a state of shock...

Van Dooren reached up and grabbed Pete by the forearm, trying to pull him back. "Do you have any idea how much that piece of equipment cost? You--"

Pete merely picked Van Dooren up and easily tossed him over his shoulder. Then he crouched and headed out through the hole he'd made, while the doctor screeched and pounded on Pete's naked back ineffectually.

Pete paused for a moment. He turned to face Dan with a crooked grin and said, "You guys still owe me twenty grand." Then they disappeared into the forest.

It was all over so fast. Dan slowly stood up on wobbly legs as more people began coming into the room, asking him what had happened. But he couldn't speak. He was completely stunned. He felt a cold sweat breaking out all over his body, and wondered if he was going to pass out after all.

All he could think of was the absolute terror that Gerald must've felt as he was being swallowed alive. Indeed, he was probably still feeling it, since only a minute or so had passed; the poor guy must still be struggling around in there, slowly suffocating...

Dan breathed out a long, shaky breath. He felt guilty -- not because he hadn't done anything to try to intervene, but because he was glad that Pete had gone after Gerald instead of him.

Four Dan shuddered.... all of it was still so vividly fresh in his mind. But he knew he had to try to keep his head clear and concentrate on the here and now. He peered into the huge, dark culvert before him, took a deep breath, and stepped inside.

The water was only ankle-deep, but the concrete floor was slippery. In the dimness he could make out a few shapes: rocks and other debris that had been washed inside. The tunnel curved gently for some distance ahead of him, then opened out to sunlight -- as he stared down its length, he had the impression that he was inside a gigantic throat...

Dan made his way slowly, carefully along, one hand on the wall for balance. He seemed to be shivering uncontrollably. He thought that being eaten alive was probably the worst thing he could imagine Something came back to him: he remem- bered how years ago his big Uncle Rick used to joke that he would catch him and eat him. It hadn't been a joke to Dan; he'd found the idea terrifying.

It was still a bit hard to accept what had happened at Igenics. He hadn't thought that Pete would be capable of such a horrible thing. What had come over him? He'd seemed like a fairly nice guy. He could've escaped without needing to resort to... to what he'd done. Perhaps his hormone & drug-induced hunger had just taken over. Or maybe they'd changed him more than they realized. Maybe he wasn't even human anymore.

He couldn't seem to stop thinking about it. He had seen Pete swallow a 200- pound man with apparently little difficulty. And Dan was just a little guy, only 145 pounds -- he knew the giant could gulp him down in a second.

He told himself, no matter what, he would not allow that to happen to him.

As he wondered how long Pete had kept Van Dooren alive before finishing him off, he suddenly became aware of a sound that immediately brought him back to the present...

It was hard to make out clearly with the echoing of running water in the tunnel, but what he heard seemed to be, well... a very long burp. It had come from up ahead, from outside. And now he was aware of something else too: he could detect a faint musky, sweaty smell, almost like body odour or something.

He froze. He couldn't see anything, but whatever it was, it had to be just outside the entrance to the culvert. There was something alive out there. Dan tried to tell himself that it was probably just some kind of big animal, maybe a bear or a moose... but he knew what it really was.

Forcing himself to move, he advanced towards the end of the tunnel. His heart was pounding, and his legs felt almost completely numb. This was it.

Dan stepped out into the light. Just beside the stream, there was a small clearing; he could see a few logs laying by an old firepit, and several broken beer bottles. Beyond that, he could see some discarded clothing. Now he could hear splashing water, not from the stream but from somewhere to his right, and he turned...

There was Pete Callaghan. He was standing among the trees, with his back slightly to him, taking a piss.

"Oh my God..." Dan croaked, almost dropping his rifle.

Pete was absolutely enormous, truly giant-sized. Dan was stunned -- he could hardly believe how much the guy had grown since his escape. It looked like he was nearly 15 feet tall! This was much more than the projected size; apparently, he'd been eating well.

Dan gazed up at he huge man in absolute awe. Pete's naked, hairy body was thickly muscled, more powerful-looking than ever. It seemed that he was in excellent health, although his belly looked quite fat and distended. From his 2-foot-long cock a heavy stream of urine thundered out.

For a few seconds, Dan just stared stupidly with his mouth hanging open. Then he realized he hadn't been seen yet, and had the sudden urge to just run back into the tunnel, run and never stop.

But he had a job to do...

He stepped up out of the stream and fumbled for his walkie-talkie. When he depressed the button, the crackle caught Pete's attention.

"Carson... Carson, you there?" Dan's voice sounded a little too high.

Now the giant's head was swivelling around; the large, clear blue eyes fixed on his. The stream of piss dribbled to a stop, and Pete gave himself a shake as he turned completely to face him. A broad, furry grin of recognition was spreading across his weathered face.

"Hello, Daniel. Long time no see."

Pete was a good distance away yet, and Dan felt fairly confident that he could put a dart into him fast if he decided to charge. He tried to contact Carson again: "Sharpe here.... I've just located H-16. Can you hear me?" But there was nothing but static. He must've been out of range, or maybe the embankment was blocking the signal.

Pete was speaking to him again in a deep, rolling baritone, "Aww... I'm hurt, Dan. You used to call me Big Pete, remember?" The huge man took a step towards him.

Dan immediately raised the gun. "Stay away. I mean, don't move. Peter. Please, I don't want to have to-"

"Come on, you think a puny little tranquilizer dart is gonna knock me out? Heh heh..."

Dan glanced again to the articles of clothing strewn about, then back to the giant's swollen stomach, and he felt sickened. Pete was still eating people, obviously. Judging from the amount of clothing, it looked like perhaps two of them this time.

Despite his fear, Dan found himself doing some quick calculations in his head: At his present height, the giant probably weighed at least 3700 pounds. Meaning it was quite possible that he could swallow 4 or 5 men in a single meal. He was quite sure that Pete had more than enough room left for little ol' Dan!

Just then he had a sudden wild, weird thought: maybe Project Gigas had been all about controlling human overpopulation?

The massive man took another step closer, and Dan instinctively took a step back. He could see that Pete's lips were shiny with saliva. There was a dry leaf caught in the heavy, reddish-brown beard. Dan looked again at the bulging, hairy belly and thought he could actually detect a small amount of movement in there. Whoever he'd just consumed was still alive!

"Jesus," he muttered.

Pete was aware of what Dan had noticed. He looked down at himself, chuckled and slapped his gut. "Man, you shoulda seen the guy I just ate..." He moved closer still, smiling all the while. "Well, I guess you'll be seein' him in a minute."

Dan tried to speak, his voice barely above a whisper: "You... you have to stop this. You can't just go around eating people!"

"Hey, you're the guys that did this to me, remember? You made me what I am, what d'ya expect? Not like I ain't enjoyin' it though!" He smacked his lips noisily. "I always liked you, y'know. Hope you don't take this personally but food is food, I just can't pass you up."

Now Dan was rooted to the spot, completely petrified -- it felt as if liquid nitrogen was flowing through his veins, freezing him. He tried to bring the rifle to his shoul- der to take aim, but in his terror he could not budge. It had been a mistake to try and confront H-16 alone. He knew with awful certainty that in a moment he was going to be swallowed whole, and he was powerless to do anything about it.

Pete could somehow sense his paralysis; Dan could see it in his expression.

"Sorry buddy. A man's gotta eat..."

Without warning, the giant suddenly lunged towards him and covered the distance between them in only a few strides. Dan could feel the ground shaking at his approach. He was not aware that he had pulled the trigger, but he heard the gun go off with a sharp report, like a branch breaking. It was knocked from his hands a half-second later, and his cap fell off as he rose swiftly up into the air. Huge hands were clutching him around the torso almost painfully tight.

Too frightened even to scream, Dan covered his head with his arms and clenched his eyes shut. He got a whiff of the overpowering man-smell, sensed the heat radiating from the big, sweaty body of the brute, felt the coarse beard brush his arms... hot, humid breath blowing out over him....

Dan dared to look, and saw the monstrous mouth only inches away, gaping wide to take him in.

And he fainted. (to be continued...)

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