By the end of lunchtime, every television in the state had been turned to the city news. A breaking news alert flashed on the side of the screen, and there was an unmistakable quiver in the newscaster's voice as he spoke.

"...and if you're just joining us, we're bringing you the story live as we find out what we can...
The downtown area is currently under attack by two gigantic beings of unknown origin. Each about thirty feet in height, they outwardly resemble two ordinary human women, but they... am I reading that right? They just started taking bites out of things...?!"

Nieman blinked twice. He'd seen a fair share of unbelievable headlines in his career at the news desk, but this was just something else... still. Composure was essential in keeping the public informed. He cleared his throat and looked back at the prompter.

"...anyway, er... an evacuation has been ordered, and residents are advised to stay indoors until further notice. We dispatched Irene in the station's helicopter to report on the situation live... that was about half an hour ago, and we'll have more for you as soon as we..."

It finally became too much to maintain. Nieman's eyes twitched as something within him finally snapped.

"Oh, to hell with it. Are they there yet?! Is the feed going? Can we show the live feed? Not even I know what the hell's going on anymore! ...huh?"
His earpiece buzzed with pleas from the news crew to calm down.

"I don't care what's out there. I want to see it with my own eyes! How are we supposed to report on this if we don't have any feed?! Irene!! Are you out there?! What's going on? Where's the feed?!"

Irene, however, gave no reply. Reluctantly, the editor cut to the feed from her camera; Nieman's face immediately went pale as the footage filled the screen.

Exactly as he had demanded, there was his feed alright - or perhaps it was more appropriate to call it a feast. The reports of thirty-foot titans devouring all they could get their hands on had already become outdated - thousands of screens were filled with the sight of two absolutely bloated behemoths, each standing at least a full head higher than the ten-story buildings surrounding them.

One of the pair, a dark-haired blob with sharp teeth and a roaring stomach large enough to fill a lake, wordlessly tore a gigantic tower to shreds and shoveled the twisted metal into her jowls. The other sprawled lazily across the town square, her belly surging from her midsection with the imprints of vehicles and trees she had swallowed whole. Above her head the news station's helicopter jerked helplessly in her grasp, held effortlessly with a single hand as if it were a toy. The footage had sound, but Irene still had yet to say a word, her camera focused with machine precision on the grinning face of their captor.

"I-I don't think I can pull us out!!"
The pilot's voice came through the microphone. Her grip on the helicopter's controls loosened as sweat drenched her hands. "Irene! What the hell are you still doing over there?! You're gonna fall right in!!"

The pilot's pleas fell on deaf ears. Irene had always dedicated herself to journalism above all, perhaps to her own detriment. Gripping the helicopter door in one hand and her beloved camera in the other, she was in a world of her own. Her mind was unclouded by fear or any instinct for survival; only the importance of maintaining a steady hold on the camera mattered now. She had already accepted that this was likely the final footage of her career -- might as well make it worth watching.

"Ah, fuck...!"

The helicopter jerked suddenly to the side, and the mic picked up the only two words Irene spoke. The camera slipped from her hands, tumbling through the open air right into the awaiting maw. The feed plunged into darkness, its last sounds it picked up a horrible blend of muffled screams and earth-shaking rumbles before a final, sickening splash. Static filled the screen, and the editor wordlessly switched the broadcast back to the newsroom.

Nieman sat in stunned silence, completely oblivious to the frenzied chatter in his earpiece. The audience had grown at least tenfold since the beginning of Irene's feed, but now there was nothing left to watch save for a grown man with an utterly broken expression. The producer motioned to the booth to cut the feed. The station's final broadcast ended not with a bang, but with a test pattern.

The skyscraping woman gave a satisfied sigh as the last of the helicopter sank into her throat, thinking little more of the vessel than simply another morsel in her ever-growing feast. An entire world of tantalizing treats now spread before the duo, and there was certainly no longer anything to bite off that was more than they could chew.

From here the feast would only continue... in fact, it had to.

------


I wanted to try something a little different with the story for this month. The rest of the series won't focus as much on outside perspectives, but I thought it would make for an interesting change of pace. Let me know what you thought of it!

Art is, as always, by the excellent  GrayonCrayon.

For more information on this sequence, as well as early access to future pages (currently up through page 06), check out the announcement post here!

https://aryion.com/g4/view/1087384

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