Costly Minute Oversights

The hustle and bustle of Minneapolis was always a burden, especially ever more so in winter. Hence, why Caitlyn was grateful for it being in the summer. Strolling along the sidewalk towards the train station, she tried preoccupying herself with tasks at the law firm. Sure, she was a rookie, but grunt work wasn't the only thing she was relegated to.

"Hey, watch it!" A voice from above her shouted.

Wincing from the booming overhead, she was startled, then turned to look upwards. A man in a leather man's jacket with a gut that displayed a few years of drinking in his later twenties, though lacking the workout discipline of his younger twenties, glared down at her from his chinless five o'clock shadow neck.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

She looked around for a moment. Finally pointing at herself, she asked him, "I- I'm sorry, but are you talking to me?"

"Who else would I be talking to?"

"What- what did I do wrong?"

"You almost cost me a lawsuit case. What in tarnation do you think you're doing on this side of the walk? The walk for your kind is over there." He crudely jutted out a finger towards a one person lane sidewalk more designed for a runway model to balance than for the everyday average person.

He wasn't wrong though, that was where her kind were meant to be, but not for their subjugation, but mainly for their protection. "I'm sorry sir, I'm sort of in a rush."

"Speak up, will ya'? I can't hear you from down there."

"I running late today," she yelled at him, whilst cupping her hands over her mouth. "My next train stop is a quarter mile away by the path, but only a fifty yards by walking straight towards it!"

The man rolled his eyes and sighed. "Ugh, why I oughta'. Enough of this," bending down he put out a hand before her, and with his other hand he waved her into his palm. "Come 'ere will ya'. You and the rest of the minis all want equal rights, but our struggles are very different fights."

"Huh?" Pushed into the palm of his hand, she grabbed a hold of his thumb and kept her tight grip on her purse.

"Alright, now where's your train spot," he looked down at her, asking away. Looking around from her new vantage point, she pointed out the spot and he lumbered forth. "Alrighty now, let's get you over there."

"Uh, thank you for this sir, but I really didn't need you to."

"Shaddup will ya'? Just take the gesture and next time don't wear heels. Sure, you may be lightweight, but they still hurt as hell. My doctor's been telling me not to use this hand for a week since my hammer accident, but look at me now. I'm pretty sure my insurance won't cover this."

Looking down at her shoes, she blushed a little bit. Yet, when she looked up at the line of the walk where she, and the rest of her kind were delegated to, all she could do was sigh. "The differences may seem minute, but the discrepancy is worlds away."

"Here ya' go," the scraggly giant of a man said as he placed her down. "Hope that'll help ya' get on wit' ya day now."

"Thank you sir," she bowed her head.

"Oi, don't be thanking me yet. By the looks of it, doesn't look like your a manual laborer, are you?"

She shook her head 'No.'

"Well then, what kind of job are you working for?"

"I'm a beginning lawyer in practice."

"Well now, that's a job that's at least more expandable across our people. Now then," he squatted down, "do me a favor and the rest of us by staying on the proper path. Some of us tall folks don't have the neck angle, nor the common decency to watch where we walking, aight? I'd hate to see one of you splattered on the side of the walk from being squashed."

She bowed her head in agreeance, "Thank you again sir, especially for not squishing me."

"Do a favor for me and keep fighting for your people's rights alright?" He grimaced for a bit. "My daughter has a few good friends of your size around her school, but they're separated by a glass wall like mice in a cage. I get it that it's for your own protection, but it pains me to see you guys being treated like toys and only being given toys. A doll house without proper insulation, running water, and ventilation isn't a house at all. It's a mockery of the American dream, but more importantly for human rights in general."

She blinked at him in surprise. First she thought he was just a rude man who begrudgingly helped her just to get on with his day, and to ease himself of a guilty conscience. However, his words were a bit of a shocking turn of events for her.

"Why the sudden kindness if I may ask?"

"I'm a carpenter, lady. I'm seen some shoddy craftsmanship in my life, but even worse is how the differences are glorified. It's another whole 'separate but equal thing' the media's pedaling. Take a gander at those men right there," she turned her head to follow his finger. "Sure, those two men of your kind may be driving nice cars, but they weren't made to be cars. Those were just repurposed toys. That man may think and act like he's driving a Ferrari, but it's just a chunk of cheap plastic with 24 double A batteries in it. It doesn't even have enough speed to be in one of our bicycle lanes."

Watching the two men, she overheard one of them saying, "I know you think that you're driving a bargain find, but that's just something anybody could've pulled off a shelf at Walmart, Gregg. If you wanna get a real model car that drives and handles like a full-scale car, you should've gotten something from Eaglemoss. Besides, everybody knows that your overpaid Italian stallion can't compete with the price and performance of Japan's Godzilla."

"See what I mean?" She stared at him. It was a shock for somebody with such a different life from her, not just size difference, but with a different career, lifestyle, and personal responsibilities, as well to express such thoughtfulness to them. "Toys for toy-people. They don't see you as real. I bet you some of these people here have seen a few of your bodies squished on the side of the road like a frog and have only cared about whether or not they got their tires dirty. Please, keep fighting. It's not just an uphill battle, but an upscale battle for the lives of ya'."

Standing up to walk away, he turned on the foot of his heel and strolled on over towards the staircase. "Thank you again sir," she yelled. Raising a hand up to signify he heard her, there was something about his words that just stuck with her. "It's not just an uphill battle, but an upscale battle."

Turning to board her train, she got on and found a decent spot. Not wanting to take up excessive space, she clutched her bag tightly, and started thinking about all the mini cases she'd have to tackle that would lead to huge ramifications.

While drifting off in her thoughts as the train carried her to the other side of the city, she thought to herself, "Well, he may be right about the toy things. Still, this train, though a model, is actually more advanced than what the tall people have." Mulling over her thoughts, she reached an odd conclusion because of it, "Toys for toy people, and he said that they think of us as mice. Well, it would make sense. The budget for our needs are smaller, so we're practically guinea pigs for the feds, at least that is before the regs. With less needs, it's easier to provide the necessary resources. We may get new things, but they use them to test on us first before they even implement them for those upscaled."

Sighing whilst looking at her window, she knew that it was useless to stare out the model bullet train. As the only thing surround both windows was the metal track. Sure, she couldn't see any tree or buildings go by, but if she slouched in her seat hard enough, she'd be able to see the blue of the sky.

"God, it's going to be a long ride," she told herself. Just as she yawned, the train jerked her forward all of a sudden. It was as if the bullet train has lost all mag-lev power, and was grinding to a halt. However, that split second was all that was needed to send her flying into headfirst into the hand rail of the seat in front of her, even with her seat belt still on. With the blunt trauma and whiplash being so sudden, she passed out immediately.

When she woke to her senses several of her train cars' lights were dangling from the ceiling, flickering in and out like a scene from an indie horror movie. Looking around her, there were a few passengers that were already awake, a few groaning from coming to consciousness, some that were still asleep, and for those that grieved, those that would continue to remain asleep.

A mother clutched onto the body of her toddler, hand over her mouth. A sizeable indent was present within his forehead from the hand rest of the seat in front of them. A man started to patrol the car, taking a headcount and asking for names. An elderly couple, most notably, the husband kept a hold of his wife's hand as the hoses to her oxygen tank left out a silent hissing. She stared into his eyes before blinking and resting her head upon his shoulder.

Getting out of her seat, she stammered to her feet. The man that was taking a headcount had approached her. Her head was still spinning a little bit. "You there," his deep voice rumbled into her ears making her concussed migraine even worse, "are you okay? Do you have any internal bleeding? Are your organs intact?"

She put a hand up, "I'm sorry sir, but could you repeat that for me please?"

"Do you need immediate medical attention or do you believe you'll be alright?"

"My head hurts, but I think I'll be alright."

He looked at the mark on her forehead, "You're probably gonna need some ice. I have to say, you're pretty blessed. Count your stars kid, especially if you start seeing them zoom in around your vision."

Moving onward, he kept moving forward to the door of the train's cabin. Upon reaching the door, and yanking on it he realized that it was locked. Moving her way forward as she watched him yank on the lock continuously, trying to joggle it into place, she asked, "What about the cabin behind us?"

He answered, "It's no use. I tried it when I first got up."

"How long have you been awake?"

"Give or take about five minutes. A few people must've been awake before me. I thought the lad next to me was just drifting off into space, but he actually had drifted off into space."

Looking back over her shoulder, she saw a row at the back of the train that had an splatter of blood on its window. She grimaced whilst biting her tongue. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Don't be sorry for me, be sorry for those that lost their own lives, for they can't be here to console the ones they love."

Something still wasn't right though. The atmosphere was just off. Sure, they were minis, but for an accident of this magnitude, even though being miniscule in comparison to those taller than them, but she didn't hear any sirens going off. She could hear any knocking from the doors of the other cars. It was as if, they were isolated.

Almost as if being driven by innate instinct, Caitlyn walked over towards a window. As if the force of the crash had applied enough downforce on the entire train car, all of the windows were closed. Opening one up in an attempt to see outside of the glass, her eyes were greeted with a dark blue.

"Hey," she turned around towards the middle-aged man, "what's your name?"

"It's Austin."

"Think you can give me a hand, Austin?"

"Yeah sure." Walking over towards her, he took a long look at the window. "I think we can knock it out."

"The dark blue?"

"Well, it looks like something's been covering it up. I wonder if a poster got wrapped around it. I got a multi-tool on me, but I'll need something heavier to knock the window out, let alone get it to shatter."

As if a bolt of lightning struck his head, he left Caitlyn in the aisle to move over towards the elderly couple. Whispering towards the gentleman, the old man nodded his head, and Austin took a knee thanking him. Returning to the aisle he presented Caitlyn with an oxygen tank.

"Here," he started, "you might wanna move out of the way. I don't want you getting splashed with any glass shards."

Stepping out of the aisle and turning around in a crouched fashion she waited to hear the sound of shattering stop. Once she heard the sound of metal thud, she turned to look the progress he had made and approached him.

"Huh... That's odd."

"If it was a poster, the glass would just fall down right?"

"Yeah, but," he continued "I don't think this a poster."

"Well what is it?"

Putting his hand on the surface, trying to avoid all of the small glass shards, he felt an instant stickiness. "Ever been to a Menards?"

"Yeah."

"I think this is blue tape."

"Can you cut through it?"

"I can try." Popping out the blade on his multi-tool he covered his eyes as he proceeded to stab at the tape like a serial killer in slasher film. "Shit! Ow!" He pulled his hand back as hundreds of little glass shards remained embedded in his wrist and forearm.

"Here," she said, taking off her blazer, "wrap this around your arm."

"Thanks." Continuing the task at hand, it took several deep jabs and pulls to get the cuts united from all four sides. "Glad I started at the top." Putting his multi-tool away, and grabbing the oxygen tank behind him, he readied to clean the sides and bottom of debris.

Just as he had turned around, they were thrown over their seats. The entire train car almost went sliding. Since most people had chosen to remain in their seats, they were safe, but those that had laid out on the floor thrown into the metal of the seats beside them while others hit the wall.

"Is everyone okay," Austin spoke up. With a few groans as an answer to his query, he turned his attention to Caitlyn. "Hey, we're gonna need you to climb through that."

"What? Me?"

"Yes. You."

"Why me?"

"You're more cognizant of what we're doing, plus you're one of the only people who's of small enough size to fit through the window. I can't fit through it at all, I'm too boxy."

She sighed, "Alright."

"Just take a quick assessment of our surroundings and return if you need help, even if you haven't found any yet."

"Alright, will do."

Moving back over towards the aisle with the broken window, he placed her blazer on the edge of the window, shielding her from more any possible glass shards. After plopping out of the side window, she fell for a few inches before hitting a hard metal floor below her.

"You good?"

She answered him with a thumbs up.

"Alright, get back safely."

Walking around the side of the train, she found that her part of the car that she rode on was one of three that were detached. They all had different numbers that weren't chronological to one another. It was as if somebody had picked the train cars randomly. Thing was, she could still tell that they were moving. Sure, the train may have crashed, but something was acting as a vessel for their vessel.

Walking around on the metal floor, she initially thought it was an ambulance based upon the floor's pattern. Yet, if it was something wasn't right. Where were the emergency physicians, paramedics, and other sorts of equipment. There wasn't even a spot reserved for a paramedic team of their scale. This may have looked like it previously was an ambulance, it no longer resembled such.

"Hello!" She cupped her hands around her mouth. "Is anybody there?!"

From above a blackened window slide out of place revealing the face of a gruff looking man. Making eye contact she felt that they were saved for a moment.

She began, "Help! We have injured and dead among us! Please help!"

The man turned his head towards the driver, who's face Caitlyn could not see. "Ah shit, Lauren, some of em' are alive."

"Even bettah'," the driver responded, "they'll go for an even heftier price than the dead ones."

"Toys for toy-people." Her first thought rang in her head. "Uphill battles and Upscale battles." The second thought struck clear as daylight. "Mice. Guinea Pigs." Her innate sense of dread began to sink in.