Land of the Giants
Author: Unknown
Short story published in the 1972 TV21 Annual.
Original copyright 1971 Kent Productions.
Transcribed by Squeezynz.

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The blades of grass reared upwards like giant, rough-edged swords. They formed a deadly jungle from which daffodils and bluebells towered skywards in terrifying splendour. Every normal thing was a frightening, menacing hazard. Three small forms moved warily through the deadly maze of what was a garden. They were humans, three of a spaceship crew marooned by the crashing of their craft. The forced crash-landing had left them on the hostile Planet of the Giants. Everything looked like Earth. The same find of vegetation, identical buildings and civilisation. Only size was different. The humans were dwarfed by a giant world inhabited by giant people. In proportion they only stood inches high. Steve, captain of the crashed Spindrift, looked back to Dan and teenage Barry behind him. Without a word to each other they picked their path through the jungle of lofty grass. Food was their need. Food to take back with them to Mark and the other members of the party. The camp they had left was temporarily situated in a sheltered cave set safely in the roots of an apple-tree. Their journey towards the nearby cottage had already taken what seemed endless hours. The jungle finished. Suddenly they were moving over a plain of ridged concrete. Ahead of them a sheer cliff of huge bricks cut off the light of the sun. "The cottage! Now we only have to get in," Steve said, resting for a moment till the others drew level. "We'd better get lucky," Dan answered. "Any ideas, Skipper ?" Steve shook his head. Luck was the only thing required constantly. To them, ordinary garden insects could be menacing killers. It was a world of fear. That they had grown used to it just proved their courage and the will to survive. "I've brought the rope, Skipper," Barry said cheerily. His cheeriness came from boyish excitement. "Here, how about me taking the lead ?" The rope was part of a reel of thread they had found near a monstrous dustbin. to them it was as strong as a hawser. "Pipe down, young'un. You get too keen," Dan answered. He nodded to Steve and took his turn at moving ahead of them. His instinct and reactions were safer to rely on. Barry shrugged and reluctantly brought up the rear. Suddenly they jerked back. With a noise like thunder, part of the world seemed to have opened. Door hinges screamed ear-splittingly. A huge foot missed them with only inches to spare. Fear exploded through them. Had they been seen? Every giant regarded the small survivors as enemies. Capture meant their imprisonment as 'specimens'; something to be studied in vast laboratories. Even worse, they could easily be crushed. A crack in a low doorstep seemed like a canyon. They darted into is and crouched down, breathing hard. Shuddering footfalls were proceeding into the garden. Beyond and above the canyon yawned the space left by the part-open door. "Climb!" Steve commanded. "Make if fast. It's our only chance of getting into the cottage." "Right, Skipper! Go on, Barry. I'll give you a leg up." Dan bundled Barry ahead of him. The climb up the crack in the doorstep was a feat of sheer endurance and skilled rock-climbing. The next scaling feat carried them over the threshold. They lurched against a doormat with bristles that formed an uncanny springboard. "Run! Make for cover!" Steve's yell was swamped by booming noises which came from high above them. Barry flashed a glance upwards and recalled how he had seen Big Ben in London. The sounds issued from a kitchen grandfather clock!

Three small forms - grasping, panting, hurled themselves for where shadows and cover loomed welcomingly. They drew back and waited until they could size up the position again. Near them was what Barry first thought was a swimming-baths. "A drinking-bowl for a dog or cat," Dan told him grimly. "Animals mean trouble! They not only see us they can scent us out too." Their ears became accustomed to the many loud sounds about them. When all seemed safe, they crept from cover and investigated again. Vertical pillars proved chair-legs; others - mighty as towering monuments - were the legs of a table. "Food!" Dan said, sniffing. "Fresh bread and cheese!" "We'll never climb the chairs. We haven't the gear and it's dangerous. Too dangerous," Steve added. "Somewhere there has to be a larder - a store cupboard." Barry called from near an obstacle which was actually a dropped matchbox. A long vertical slot stretched away to right and to left, being roughly at head-height. It was the crack beneath a giant door. Steve and Dan ducked across to him. It was easy to tell they had found a main food store. Familiar scents were so powerful they almost drove the three humans back. "Like a food warehouse! Come on, we're going in," Steve was leading. "Beware insects! Barry, you bring up the rear." The gloom of the cupboard interior closed about them. They climbed to the first shelf, Steve roping himself to Dan and to Barry. It was like mountaineering. One slip meant serious injury or death. There was fresh food in plenty; it was impossible to miss it. Using Barry's claspknife, they cut meat from a cold chicken of unimaginable size. Three bags they carried were filled with fragments which would help the spaceship party to survive for the next week without further expeditions. It would need preserving, but they had their own means of doing that. "Right, let's get back!" Steve began the descent. "We'll get out while the going's still good." It all seemed so easy. Everything was going like clockwork. Carrying a slung-bag each, they at last crept out beneath the foot of the door. They had travelled about three hundred yards when it happened. The fire-engine, a bell swinging madly, hurtled from out of shadows formed by one chair and table. It was a death-dealing juggernaut, driverless; a hurtling monster of red. "Look out!" Barry dragged Steve from his balance. "Dan!....Oh, Gosh!" His cry was barely in time. The slipstream of the speeding toy - it was actually that!- seemed to engulf them. They went flat and rolled over. Then paralysing fear had them back on their feet and set them running again. A second shape was chasing after the fire engine. At least until it scented the humans. Now Barry realised what the dog-bowl had meant! The puppy, for it was little more, was larger than a primeval monster from the age of the Earth's dinosaurs. "It's after us! Run beneath the grandfather clock!" Steve shouted, face white. "Quick! Quick!" The puppy skidded, trying to turn after the fugitives. Its needle-sharp teeth-they were terrifying fangs by Earth standards - meant to seize playfully but would have instantly killed. The fugitives dived beneath the foot of the soaring clock and heard a massive body thump against the woodwork. The excited puppy was sniffing and panting, clawing beneath the clock's base with one mighty paw. "BAD BOY!" a voice boomed. "What are you after?" The child - the young giant was a boy - strode to where the yapping puppy clawed at the clock. "Is it a mouse, Fido?....Stay there, boy. I'll get the vacuum-cleaner. That'll draw or drive it out," boomed the excited voice of the youthful monster. Steve's face was like granite. He, Dan and Barry heard the crashing footfalls going away in search of the vacuum-cleaner. The puppy stayed behind, snuffling and clawing at the foot of the tall grandfather clock. "If the cleaner's used, it's our finish," Dan said softly. "We might as well be caught in a tornado. The sound alone could almost destroy us." "I know. Yet we daren't dash out. The giant puppy will have us," Steve answered. "We'd be pounced on before we reached the back door." Time was precious. Any time the young monster might return with his mother's vacuum-cleaner. Barry suddenly had an idea. "The fire-engine toy! Skipper, perhaps we could turn it - set it moving again. The puppy was chasing after it," he shouted. "it's worth a try! The puppy might chase it AGAIN." Steve nodded. They reached the fire-engine where it had stopped against the clock at an angle. Its clockwork motor was still partly wound up. "Push!" Steve said. "Dan, brace your back and shoulders against it. The wheels are at an angle. If we all thrust together, the clockwork motor might manage the rest." They all stooped to their task. Despair gave them strength and for once they were lucky. The 'engine' moved a little at a time.....Then......Braaaaaaaaa......and the red juggernaut roared away over the oilcloth. "Woof......yak-yak-yaaaaaak!" The puppy was after it. "Now!" yelled Steve. "Run for the door!" He almost hurled Barry before him and then came out last from the cavity. The door was ajar, its bright daylight and fresh outside air beckoning them on. The puppy turned. It sensed their movement and abandoned its capture of the already over-turned fire-engine. Its rush across the room sounded to them like the movement of an approaching express. "The door! The door!" Steve's last cry drove this companions to one last desperate effort. Fresh-air enveloped them. Then the puppy collided with the inward opening door. He could have had them. Only his excitement - his real playfulness - made him misjudge the pounce. Weight and movement slammed the door, closing it firmly. The sound all but deafened the three humans who lay sprawled just outside. Steve and his pals rose shakily upright. Swiftly they lowered themselves into the canyon formed by the crack in the outside step. From inside the room the roar of the vacuum-cleaner was now rising, and the sound was appalling. They still moved at frantic speed, ignoring the perils of falling. Later they again sought the cover of the lawn's 'jungle' grass. "Made it!" Dan said, finally breaking the silence. "Pheew, it was close." "Too close," Steve agreed. "Never mind, we have the food." Barry was grinning. He was cheerfully whistling, too delighted to say what he was thinking. He felt proud. "All right, young'un. Trust you to have the fire-engine idea! Dan and I are older. We haven't as much experience of toys," Steve suddenly chuckled. "It's not quite that. It's just that it was LONGER AGO, Skipper," Barry winked. He ducked just in time!

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The end.