Crossing Worlds

The group stared at Hannah, one snickering, “What didn't you get enough of us earlier?” 

“No, I know what you are, and I want in.” Hannah reiterated. 

Lizzy stepped forward, pulling Hannah in and slamming her up against the wall of the house; her teeth bared, “What do you know, damn it? Who told you?” 

Hannah held up her hands, trying desperately to reclaim control of the situation as the boy who had been talking to her stepped forward with a sigh, “It was me, Lizz.” 

Lizzy let Hannah go, spinning on him, “Sam?! Why?! You may have blown our entire operation!”

Sam held up a hand, trying to stop Lizzy's tirade, “I know, I know. We need people, though, Lizz!”

“So you thought that she would be a good choice?” Lizzy spat, “She chose to come here; she wanted to be a Little; she enjoys being a baby.”

“Then why did she come to us?” Sam spat, his brow furrowing in anger, “If she actually did enjoy it as much as you say, why is she standing here asking to join?”

Lizzy turned on Hannah, growing, “What do you want? What, really? You aren't like us. You haven't lived your life, trapped her; I don't even know what Earth looks like, and you chose to leave it!” 

Hannah's mind was spinning; she hadn't thought she would draw such a reaction. What possible explanation could she have to satisfy Lizzy? “I did a lot of thinking on how we are treated, how little Amazon cares about us, and how they abuse us. Sam mentioned this group is working on ways to resist. If nothing else, I want to help my sister, Emily; I want to help her get back home.”

Lizzy waved a hand, scoffing, “What do you possibly know about what they do to us? You've only seen a few episodes of Naomi and Oliver. Have you had your memories snipped? Have you been force-fed drugs to induce lactation so they can harvest your milk? Have you been to the body sculptures to have your body molded to the exact likeness of your Mommy? Your hair color and length change on a day-to-day basis because it's fun for them. Have you ever been given to some young Amazon as their literal doll to play with? To you, this is all a game; you're here to have fun and piss off back to Earth and leave us to rot.” Lizzy laughed, a dangerous laugh, “Or! Maybe they will do the same thing with you as they do with other travelers and never see your home again.”

Lizzy was absolutely fuming. Another girl tried to soothe her, “Lizzy, you damn well know it's not her fault; you know she's ignorant, she hasn't lived our lives, but she does have those connections back home; we can use that. We can use her.” She said, trying to rationalize a choice to keep Hannah. 

Hannah had shrunk back against the wall, feeling stupid; she shouldn't have come here; she should have stayed away. She wasn't like these people; she hadn't been born here, and she hadn't lived her whole life here. At the girl's argument, Lizzy's storm had slowed, and she stared at Hannah, pondering. 

“You know what? You are right; we can. Tell Venli to pull her files and figure out the exact wording of her contact; it'll have a timeframe for her return as well as which portal. We can use this.” Lizzy said, slapping a fist into her hand. 

The other girl nodded, smiling softly, “Then we can send the call to mobilize the evacuation.” 

“Wait, does that mean I could get that serum to prevent the effects of the hypnotic messaging?” Hannah asked eagerly. 

Lizzy snorted, “Oh, absolutely not. We need your contract, not you. You're our toy now; you would actually be more useful as a braindead baby, so you can't tell anyone about the plan.” 

Sam spoke up again, this time, “Wow, wow, wow, not so fast, Lizzy; before you make that order, we may need someone on the inside. She's going to start attending the meetings for her return, so we need to know what they tell her. If her mind gets wiped, she's going to end up back here permanently.”

Lizzy cursed under her breath, pointing the finger at Hannah, “Make no mistake, baby, you may be a part of our plans and be of use to us, but you are not a part of our group. We will be keeping you on a very, very short leash. Do not double-cross us.”

Hannah opened her mouth to argue, but Lizzy, with rough hands, shoved Hannah from the house, slamming the plastic door. Sam exited the house a moment later, an apologetic look on his face. “Sorry about her.” He said, gently guiding Hannah away from the playhouse. “She's very passionate and doesn't like outsiders; she's been stabbed in the back one too many times.”

Hannah supposed she could understand that; she would feel the same way if her trust had repeatedly broken. She nodded, “Was everything she said true? About what they do to Littles?” 

Sam shrugged, “I don't know, to be honest. There are a lot of rumors floating around; it's difficult to know what is and isn't true. I can tell you from experience that most of what she said is true, though.”

Hannah nodded, her hands feeling cold and clammy, “I suppose that in itself is enough to join you guys; I feel as if I've been alone. I mean, I enjoy having my sister there, but I feel powerless.” 

Sam sighed, “Trust me, I understand that, and unfortunately, even as a part of our organization, you'll still feel that way, Hannah. We are only Littles, after all. As much as Lizzy may entail, we don't resist or fight back, as we make it more difficult for them to control us and help funnel people out of their control. Some groups abuse Littles; hard to believe, I know, but they are far worse off than us; we aim to help them first.”

Hannah nodded again, slowly, trying to process all this. The last hour had been an overwhelming information dump, and she knew it would take her hours, if not days, to process it all mentally. “Wait, so, how many Littles have you rescued? How many have escaped?”

Sam scratched the back of his neck, looking away as they continued their casual stroll around the playground. “Well, if Lizzy had gotten out, she would have been the first.” He admitted.

Hannah felt cold, her brow furrowing, “Wait, so you have saved anyone? This whole thing… How many of them are you?” She asked. 

Sam gave a cough, clearly uncomfortable with her line of questioning, “Oh, uhm, we have maybe 20 or so across the school. Anyway, I got to go; we’ll keep in touch.” He said, darting off. 

Hannah wanted to stop him but chose not to. She shook her head; what had seemed like a grand army she was joining was turning out to be some begrudged Littles who were upset with their treatment but may not actually be doing anything to stop it. What was the term? Armchair warriors? She sighed, her fingers rubbing her temple; even if their group turned out to be a farce, she could still learn from them. 

A thought occurred to Hannah: where was Emily? She glanced around and spotted her on the playground, sitting on the side of one of the platforms, her feet kicking playfully, relaxing. Hannah felt the tension leaving her chest as she jogged up and climbed up to her, plopping down next to her. Hannah felt her diaper as she sat; it had grown warm and squishy, and she had gone pee recently. She gritted her teeth, just another aspect of this world that was slowly grinding her away. Had Hannah's bladder control deteriorated this fast, or was there something else at play that was causing these accidents? Either thought was concerning.

“Making new friends?” Emily asked.

“Something like that.” Hannah grumbled, “Just some group of angry Littles.”

Emily giggled, leaning back, “They'll figure it out sooner or later; there's not much we can do about it.” 

Hannah's brow furrowed, “I mean, how can you say that, Em? How have they been treating us? How have they been treating you? Don't you want to go home?” 

“Well, of course I do.” Emily said defensively, “But I also know that it's mostly out of my control, and I have to take things as they come. I'll get back; it just may take a little while, but that's all.” 

“Are you sure? How long have you been here, Emily?” Hannah asked. 

Emily's legs stilled, and she sat up more straight. “I don't know; I think a few weeks. It's fine, Hannah, really. We are under a contract that'll let us get back home once our week at school is up. We just got to keep our heads down and make it through.”

“But what if they don't?” Hannah asked more intensely, “What if they keep finding excuses?”

Emily shifted, clearly growing uncomfortable. “I… don't know Hannah. I've thought about it before, but honestly, what else could we do?”

Hannah deflated, pulling her legs up to her chest. The resistance had mentioned they were trying to get people back home to Earth but had yet to be successful. If they weren't able to, they indeed were at the mercy of these Amazons. “I don't know, and I suppose that's what scares me the most,” Hannah said softly. 

Hannah felt Emily scoot over and wrap her arm around Hannah's shoulders, pulling her close. Hannah rested her head on Emily's shoulder, enjoying the feeling of her support. “We just got to keep our heads up and our wits about us, Hannah. We will stick together and get through this as long as we are together. Deal?” She said, offering a pinky.

Hannah couldn't help but grin at Emily's optimism, and while she didn't feel it herself, she knew Emily was right. She hooked her pinky with Emily's “deal.” She said with a giggle, glancing around the playground. “Take the slide and then go swinging?” She asked.

Emily grinned, giggling and pushing herself to her feet, “First one, there is a rotten egg!” She squealed as the two girls climbed the rest of the way to the top of the playground and slid down, giggling. 

The two girls ran to the swings, where a worker promptly scooped either girl up and deposited them into their swing. Moments later, both girls were hurtling through the air, squealing with joy and excitement. 

Hannah’s mind was racing with everything she had learned. She felt as if she had discovered a considerable amount regarding the Amazon’s treatment of Littles while also learning a bit about an organized resistance that was actively fighting for Little’s rights; well, in some capacity, anyway. It seemed to Hannah that the resistance was more of a mindset these Littles had, to fight back in some way that inconvenienced Amazons rather than make any substantial changes themselves. She couldn’t fault them; they seemed to have lofty goals, breaking Little out of horrid living situations, allowing them to get back to Earth, and aiding in blocking Amazon's hypnotic messaging. Sam mentioned that the group had developed a blocker of sorts through scientists that helped the resistance, but when probed more for details, they seemed to hint that the group was relatively small and hadn’t made any substantial changes in the world. 

To Hannah, it felt as if they were playing two sides; they were putting up a front and trying to throw off any suspicion that the group was an actual large organization. It made sense as well; if Lizzy didn’t trust Hannah, it seemed she had sway over the group and would likely ensure Hannah was only fed the tidbits of information that wouldn’t get them in trouble. She had seen such organizations as well, only feeding people the information they absolutely needed for whatever mission they found themselves in; that way, if they were caught, they couldn’t disrupt the entire movement. Or, in Hannah’s case, if she went to the Amazons to tell them of what the resistance was doing, she didn’t honestly know enough to hurt them and would likely be laughed at, patted on the head, and sent on her way with a comment about her silly daydreams.

Yet, there was a certain allure to the group, not because she necessarily needed their services herself, even if they did exist, but because Hannah was curious to see exactly what this group was up to. What kind of secrets did an underground Little Resistance find? What dark, troubling things did Amazons do to Littles that she hadn’t seen yet? Lizzy had mentioned some truly troubling activities they partook in; was it all true? Would Hannah be allowed to return home at the end of her week?

Questions clouded Hannah’s mind, and the gleeful smile on her face was a facade that shadowed her inner turmoil and confusion. The only thing Hannah knew for sure was no matter what came her way, no matter what anyone tried to do to her, she would not go down without a fight. 

End of Chapter 22