Meal on Wheels by ParisGreen

“I know you’re in there.” Thorsten said as he tapped the bus against his palm, “there’s no point in hiding, just making this take longer than it needs to.”

The front end of the bus, engine, driver’s seat and all, had been torn away minutes ago by Thorsten, leaving a gaping, jagged hole through which the other occupants had already been poured out into his mouth. 

Half the people on the bus were dumped on his tongue the moment he tipped it over his maw, they were piled on his tongue in a screaming, squirming heap, fighting each other as much as trying to fight the undulations of Thorsten’s tongue as they desperately tried to make their way past the giant’s lips towards freedom. They never made it.

A dozen people, twelve breathing, living human beings, were pushed back all at once by a tongue the size of a flatbed truck, disappeared behind closed lips, and were swallowed alive with an awful ‘GULP’. 

He opened his jaws and they were gone. And then he went back for more.

Men and women tumbled from their seats onto his tongue. The giant’s shaking made short work of the grip of anyone who tried to hang on. They fell in twos and threes, then one by one as the bus was emptied, passing the man’s lips to a certain end, their cries muffled and drowned out with deafening, throaty gulps. ‘Glck’ ‘Glmmmph’.

Was he exaggerating each swallow to taunt those who were left? Or was he simply so massive that even the simplest of sounds from him was overwhelming?

The air was thick with his hot, humid breath that flowed in like a breeze as he opened his mouth to catch another victim. It fogged the windows and seemed to seep into the clothes of the passengers, it was as if they were already soaked by his slavering jaws before they even touched them. One man was blinded as Thorsten’s warm breath fogged his glasses. He reached up to wipe them just as Thorsten gave the bus another shake. Unable to keep his grip with just one hand, he slipped and tumbled down the seats onto Thorsten’s waiting tongue. He didn’t give the man’s panicked begging any special regard as he cut them short when he closed his jaws and swallowed him alive like the rest. A sigh of warm, heavy air that rolled through the passenger compartment was the closest to a eulogy he’d receive.

After dragging another occupant out with his tongue, Thorsten was left with just one last passenger. He saw them ducking behind the walls and seats of the bus as he peered, but they weren’t coming out as easily as the others. “If you think I’ll just give up and leave you, I already made up my mind. I’m going to eat you.” 

He gave the bus another rough tap against his palm, like trying to shake free a stuck chip in a tube of pringles. Nothing. The giant rolled his eyes.

“Whatever.”

With his thumb and forefinger he pinched the roof of the bus through the hole he made in the front and pulled, tearing the roof off the bus from front to back. The seats were all empty save for one woman trying to disappear between the cushions of her seat and failing. She looked up to see for the first time the full face of the man who swallowed her fellow passengers alive. A gray haired man with blue eyes seemed to pulse from some inner light. Somehow, there wasn't a hint of malice or sadist glee in his expression as he looked at her. Instead, it was stoic, cold. He was simply looking at her as he reached for her.

“W-wait! Stop!” She screamed as thick fingers wrapped around her. The moment he had her he let the bus drop away, crashing in a heap to the ground far below.

She found herself lifted higher still, dangerously close to Thorsten’s face all the while those uncaring, electric blue eyes cut into her like daggers. He was already beginning to open his mouth as she screamed again, “Why are you doing this?”

Thorsten huffed and shrugged, “Felt like it.” He spoke plainly, as if eating human beings barely registered as anything notable. In truth, Thorsten really liked it, even though his face sometimes had a hard time showing it. Being the most powerful thing on earth and hundreds of feet tall, it just seemed natural that he could simply eat a person if he wanted. It was a bit hard to put into

 words, but it was a waste of time to explain himself to someone who he’d be digesting in a few minutes anyways. 

“No! No! You can’t do this! You’re a monster! you… you…” she trailed off as she was met with Thorsten’s open maw. 

Warm breath hit her once more. Thorsten’s voice rumbled one last time, but she was too close to his mouth to understand before she was shoved past his lips and sealed and darkness as they closed.

Thorsten focused on the small body on his tongue. A human life held in his jaws that he could send down his throat at any moment. He didn’t know her name. It didn’t matter. He could kill her with a swallow. It was an immense feeling. He rolled the nameless girl on his tongue, feeling her fight against his palate. She was too small for him to know exactly what she was doing, but he had no doubt she was punching, kicking, screaming, doing everything she could to survive just a little bit longer. It was a losing fight. She could struggle for hours and she still wouldn’t change Thorsten’s mind about swallowing her. He’d keep her there for hours if he had the patience for it, but the crowd already in his stomach was beginning to settle down. He needed someone fresh.

Without any further fanfare, Thorsten swallowed her. Her screams, already barely audible in his jaws, were muted absolutely in his throat. She was too small on her own to feel her descent like the dozen he swallowed before. She was simply gone. Thorsten sighed.

He looked around for an idea of where to go next before stepping forward, crushing the mangled bus meters into the ground under his foot. The passengers could probably hold him over until he reached the city.