I'm not sure where to begin on what was essentially the worst day of my life. The only place that I suppose I can start is as the beginning of that day. Though I suppose I should also introduce myself before I get into my story. My name is David I'm twenty-six years old, I lived a pretty luxurious bachelor's life. My job was disease research, to be more exact I developed vaccines.

I awoke late that morning, my alarm had gone off, but I forgot to set my back up alarms, and when I hit the snooze I snoozed. I had about a hour to get to work, which gave me no real time to do anything, but take a piss, and get my clothes on. I still remember thinking that I was so dead, because we had a very important presentation that day, on a latest break through on a more aggressive flu vaccination, something they were almost willing to call a cure.

Somehow I got there on time, but it wasn't without nearly killing myself to do it, and even then my boss was jumping down my throat asking me what the hell kept me so long. Brushing my blond sweat drenched hair I explained to him briefly that I had overslept before I quickly ran to my lab to get my research notes, and that's when everything went south.

The research notes had vanished, someone had opened an email, that released a virus that crashed the entire network. This was rather ironic in hindsight, a virus crashed the vaccination company. A saving grace was the fact that I had, had the foresight to save the data onto a backup hard drive.

I had darted the halls running to the meeting room, and that was when it happened. Safety protocols for release of a contaminate is bright flashing lights, an alarm, and sliding glass doors that seal every room in the building. Simple enough contain any diseases from escaping the facility, and prevent any employees from spreading the released cotangent.

What we didn't know was that these containment protocols were basically a night light, because there were no actual safety protocols. In order to save some money the company had invested in some faulty equipment, mainly in the air filtration systems. As well as the doors that were supposed to seal the rooms to prevent cross contamination.

As I stood there waiting for things to cool off I felt a little funny, dizzy, as if the room were spinning. My green eyes tried in vain to focus on a single object, sweat saturated my forehead, and then the lights went out. I could hear noises, or maybe they were in my head, I wasn't sure all I knew was I felt as if I were floating for a few moments, maybe I was conscious and it was when the paramedics had picked me up and taken me on a stretcher.

The next thing I know I'm waking up to the smell of industrial strength cleaning agents, and bright fluorescent lights. My head was pounding, I felt like I had just gone through a night of extremely heavy drinking. The room would spin every time I tried to sit up, so I found it best to just lay there with my eyes closed. I had nearly dozed off again when I heard someone entering my room, the SHHHHTTTT of the door opening and closing told me that the door sealed itself, which could only mean I was in a hospital, and possibly in quarantine.

“Hey, doc I'm awake,” I say without opening my eyes.

“Well, that's good, but I'm not the doctor, I'm just a nurse coming in to check up on you, the doctor should be in shortly,” replied a deep male voice that I didn't recognize.

“T-Thanks sir, could, could you get me some water?” I ask in a cracked voice, my throat and mouth feeling like the Sahara.

I could hear the sound of water being poured into a cup, and knowing that I would have to see it, I opened my eyes. I grasped onto the smooth plastic pink surface of the cup, the water sloshed a little as I sat up in the warm light bed sheets. I brought the cup to my lips and began to rapidly drink the cool water. The liquid soaked and helped wet my parched mouth, I could feel it sliding down my throat making me feel better.

The nurse had walked out of the room not too long after he'd handed me the water. I sat there alone in the room, with only the sounds of people walking around, the only other sounds I hear were the occasional beeps of the heart monitor I was connected to. After what felt like hours, a middle aged woman with short, raven black, hair walked into the room.

“Ah good, you're awake,” she said as she walked over to me her brown eyes scanning over my body before she pulled her stethoscope.

She then began to check my breathing, heart rate, pulse, and then she pulled out a flashlight to check my pupil dilation response. Once she was satisfied with my over all health, she told me that I was going to have to spend the week in the hospital for observation as I had been exposed to an experimental virus, and that I should probably get a lawyer.

“Why is that?” I asked her curiously.

“Well, as it turns out....” she said as she checked my vitals. “That VitaCorp, has been doing a lot of illegal biological weapons,” she finished as she wrote down the readings.

“I assume you mean viral weapons,” I said as she looked back up at me.

“Yes,” was all she replied with as she walked out of the door.

I sat there for the longest time, mulling things over my hand constantly going back and forth between calling my lawyer, and trying to ignore what the doctor had advised me on. I had been with the company for nearly most of my adult life, sure their safety practices were a little lax, but to be creating bioweapons, that was something I just couldn't accept.

I set my phone down and off to the side and turned on the in room television, flipping through the channels I soon came to rest upon the news. There wasn't much about what I hadn't already known, they talked about the accident at the lab, how that some people were being quarantined, but they made no mention of illegal bio-weapons, but did say that a full investigation would be underway.

It was at this point that my phone begin to ring, I picked it up and smiled as a single word flashed on the screen. I flicked my thumb to the side unlocking the phone and causing it to answer.

“Hey mom,” I said smiling even though I knew mom couldn't actually see me.

“Are you okay, I just saw on the news that there was an accident at VitaCorp!” came her panicked voice over the speaker.

“Yes mom, I'm fine,” said almost laughing as I attempted to reassure her.

“Where are you? I'll come and get you right away!” she said panic still strong in her voice.

“I'm at the hospital, they have me under quarantine until they've cleared me,” I said feeling it best to not bother her with some of the things the lawyer had told me.

“I've told you, you should've just taken a nice teaching job here at the local high school, or even became a professor! It would've been much safer,” she says scolding me now that her panic seemed to have subsided.

“Mom this job was perfectly safe, it was just an accident,” I say trying to justify my career choice.

“And if you had been a teacher, or professor you would have never been exposed to whatever viruses that, that place was working on, and if I were you I would call a good lawyer, from what I just heard on the news that place's safety protocols were shit to begin with,” she said sternly.

“Yes, Mom, I will make sure to call a lawyer,” I say laughing.

“Well you let me know when you're released from quarantine, I'll be right over to fetch you,” she said in a tone that basically told me I wasn't allowed to argue.

“Yes ma'am, I love you too,” I say as I got off the phone.

The next thing that I did was take her advice and called my lawyer, I told him what had happened, as well as what the doctor had informed me of.

“Well, how would she know about something like that before it had been investigated?” asked a male voice on the other end of the line.

“I don't know, but I do know, and I agree it does seem rather fishy,” I reply.

“As your legal consultant, I would advise against taking any legal action against them for creating biological weapons until we're certain that, they have been doing illegal activities, but we can still get them for the faulty safety systems, or lack there of,” replied the male voice.

“Sounds good to me,” I replied.

“Also I would suggest not returning to your house, if what this doctor said is true they may try to silence you, and I would suggest that you stay with someone you trust,”

“I have some family that are out of town, I could stay with them,”

“Perfect,”

I found myself sitting in the passenger seat of my mother's car, the scent of french vanilla enticed my nostrils. The A/C blasted me with cool air as she drove me down the road. I couldn't help, but feel a little humiliated by the fact that I was restricted from driving myself until they were sure that I wouldn't have any hidden side effects from the virus, or viruses.

“Oh stop looking like you lost your best friend,” said my mother seeming to have read the look on my face.

“I'm twenty-six years old Mom I don't I should be able to drive myself home,” I say glumly.

“Yeah well, you probably can, but the doctors, and I don't want you to end up in a ditch somewhere,” she said with her no nonsense voice she gives me whenever she feels I'm acting foolish.

“I wouldn't end up in a ditch,” I say laughing, “I'd end up alongside the road somewhere,” I say smiling at her.

I just took in all of her features, her blond hair, brown eyes, pale skin, she looked more like she was in her early thirties then like she was forty-five. I hadn't seen her in about six months due to my job keeping me at work nearly seven days a week. As I sat there and watched the scenery change from a town to a suburb then to a wooded area. All the while I could only think about what the doctor had told me, that the facility had been manufacturing bio-weapons.

Trees, and bushes flashed before my eyes as mom drove us down the street, another thought kept echoing in my brain. The entire time that I had been in the doctor's office, I hadn't seen hide, or hair of that doctor that told me about the bio-weapons again. Even when they finally released me from the hospital, and I asked them about the doctor they told me that they had several people that fit her description, but that I should've grabbed her name off of her tag. It was at this point that I realized that she had no name tag.

So the real question that has been going through my mind is should I even take what she said seriously? Before I could continue my train of thought the car turned on to a short paved driveway, to a two story house. The roof is covered with black slate that adorns most houses, the outside walls are a white paneling, a long porch that stretches from one end of the house to the other caps off the front of it. I got out of the car and walked up the wooden steps onto the hardwood floor of the porch, it seemed smaller somehow, but I figured it was just because I hadn't actually been there in six months.

I walked in through the red door and into the living room, the gray carpeted floor looked as clean as ever, a typical sign that my mom was in one of her O.C.D. moods. The walls are an off white, the roof is bright white. There is a long sofa that stretches along the wall close to the door, ending just perfectly before a wall sized window. In front of that was a single round chair, this had always been my chair whenever we would have family movie nights.

“And you say I hate change,” I say teasing my mom.

“Hey, if it ain't broke,” she shrugged as she took off her shoes and headed out of the living room past another wall in front of which sat the t.v. and into the kitchen.

While she went into the kitchen to do whatever she was doing I headed upstairs, I couldn't help, but feel very nostalgic. Remembering running up and down these very stairs with my little sister, all the fights we had, all the times we'd played video games together. A smile curled on my lips as I then walked into my old bedroom, it looked almost exactly as I had left it.

My bed was made, with the covers of the sports team I used to like, below the bed was my dresser. To the left of me as I entered the room was my t.v. stand with my older consoles that I didn't take with me when I left for college. I smile as I just stare at the clean room, and then my vision is blacked out. I feel something soft press against my back and then I feel a warm breath in my ear as a female voice says.

“Guess whoooooo!” fairly loudly in my ear.

“Hello, Gwen,” I say laughing as I pull my younger sister's hands away from my eyes and turn to face her.

My sister is a head shorter than I am, she dyes her hair dark red, almost mahogany colored, her nose was much like mine, and our mother's, little buttoned nose. She had also inherited our mother's eye color of brown where I had the green from our grandmother. Her hair is shoulder length, she's wearing a striped shirt and a pair of pretty tight jeans. She has a hourglass figure, but by today's standards she would be considered pretty thick.

“Well blondie, I see you're still about as tall as Smurfette,”I say teasing her as I hug her in a bear hug.

“Oh shut up you ass,” she said laughing.

“Make me short stack,” I say messing up her hair which earned me a shot to the arm.

“Keep it up and I'll kick your ass, I've been working out quite a lot, and I'd bet I could probably put you on your ass,” she said with a teasing threat.

“Sis, you can work out as much as you want, but you'll never be able to out muscle me,” I say laughing as I grab her arm which causes her to try and pull away.

I could tell she was indeed stronger then what she had been when I last saw her, but she still wasn't stronger then I was. I pull her into a tight bare hug which caused her to squeal out and push away at me, acting like she was a cornered animal trying to escape a predator.

“Well, come on sis, you're supposed to be Super Girl now,” I say teasingly as she groans

“Okay, okay, you win, now let me go!” she said laughing as I give her a quick back cracking squeeze.

“One day bro, I will be stronger than you!” she said as she had dramatically fallen to the floor and raised her fist to the air.

I laughed as I helped her to her feet, but as I did I couldn't shake the feeling that something was a little off about myself. I push the thought to the back of my mind for now and figure it's just my imagination as I follow my little sister downstairs as mom had just yelled that lunch was ready.

CHAPTER 2:

Good News, and Worse News

I had to have regular doctor visits, to keep track of whatever virus I had contracted, the plus side to the whole thing was that it didn't seem to be contagious after a 24 hour period. Which was good news for my mom and sister, but it still left the question of what the virus was, and what it would do to my body, if it did anything at all. So far the only symptoms seemed to be a slight case of nausea, and a constant feeling of something being wrong, but not being able to figure out what.

I was allowed to drive myself to the doctor's office again, and needless to say I was ecstatic as I hated being dependent on my mother, and sister. Though the former seemed to have enjoyed her baby needing her again, even if it was for a short time. I wasn't able to tell if my sister minded it, or not most of the time she just took me without much complaint, or comment, while she didn't show it I think she was worried that they might discover that it was some sort of killer virus and that I wasn't going to have long to live.

The doctor's office isn't quite as impressive as the hospital section of things, it is relatively dull with a plain white wall. The floor is covered with black and white checkered tiles the smell of industrial strength cleaners assaulted my nostrils. A nurse entered the office first, she took my vitals, and then the strange thing happened, when she checked my height she announced that I was five foot seven inches. The problem with it is, I had always been five foot eight inches, but I figured she'd just miss measured and shrugged it off.

After she left I was alone in the doctor's office, this was the part I always hated the most, you spend a hour in the waiting room, then when they bring you back you sit for another hour. Then when the nurse finally shows up to take your vitals, you have to sit there for another hour before the doctor finally shows up to tell you that you're either sick, or not. Sometimes I wondered if a doctor ever took so long that he came into his office to realize that there was a patient that had otherwise been completely forgotten, or if they walked in and found them dead from boredom. Just when I thought I was going to go completely nuts from the lack of sensory stimulation, the doctor finally entered the room.

This doctor looked like he was six feet tall at the least, his hair was salt and pepper, he looked like a man in his late fifties. He was wearing wide aviator style glasses reading off of a chart, his wrinkled face was stern looking.

“Well Mr. Smith, everything looks good, the only thing that seems to be a little off is you seem to be experiencing some weight loss, but I think that could be because of the nausea,” he said with a deep voice.

“Yeah, but I've also been feeling a little off too, but I can't place my finger on what it is that is causing me to feel like something is different,” I replied to the doctor.

“It's hard to say the virus could be messing with your equilibrium, we'll draw a blood sample and run some tests to see if we can pinpoint any abnormal activity,” he said walking out of the room.

So I sat for another hour, or so it felt as the nurse then returned with a needle without a plunger and a vial to contain my blood. My heart raced in my chest as I stared at the needle, this was one thing I had hoped to avoid, as I was never a big fan of getting shots, or being within the general facility of a needle if I could avoid it. I breathed slowly in and out as I felt the cool alcohol rub against my skin drying it out a little, but also disinfecting it for the needle. I turned my head to the side so not to see the needle plunge into my arm. I winced as I felt the cold metal penetrate my skin, and then I felt the blood begin to leave my body.

To say I was ready to go home after all of this was an understatement, I had basically given up my entire morning. I was poked, and prodded, and even had blood drawn! I walked out of the building, and across the parking lot, once again I had that very strange sensation like something was of. It was like experiencing deja vu, you don't know how to explain it, but you feel like it's happened before. In my case though it was like deja vu, but with maybe a slight twinge of nausea. Yet I had no fever, and within a few seconds the sensation was gone just as quickly as it had occurred. I shrugged it off, hopped into my car and began the journey home.

The drive back home seemed much faster then it probably should, mostly because I still couldn't shake that sensation of being off. Thankfully it didn't impair my ability to drive, it was like a tingle you get in the back of your spine when you think you're about to come down with something, and since I knew I had already contracted a virus, I figured it was just my body fighting off the infection. I looked up to see mom's car was missing, I gave out another sigh as I knew she was at work, even though I was able to basically set her up so she would want for nothing if she would let me, she refused, and insisted that she earned her money herself.

A small smile curled on my lips as I just now realized where I got my stubbornness from. I was just about to head into the door when I hear a loud thumping noise. I turned to see Gwen running up the driveway in a pink sports bra and short, and matching spandex compression shorts. This was the first time I had actually taken any notice of her since I had gotten back, mostly being preoccupied with the doctor visits, and the lawyer interrogations.

As I've said before, she's about a head shorter than I am, five foot even if memory serves, where as mom is five foot two. Her hair is tied back into a tight ponytail, sweat glistening off of her exposed skin, she breathed slowly in and out as she turned her back to me showing off her large round rear end. I couldn't help, but suppress a laugh as I recalled all the teasing I would give her when I was a teenager about how she could be like the bumble from Rudolph if she ever fell off a cliff she could bounce right back up. Her hips are wide, her thighs thick and showing some small muscular definition. After she finally caught her breath she turned back to me, and even though I am her brother I couldn't help, but notice that her chest was way bigger than what I had thought my baby sister should have, those things have to be at least DD's!

“What are you staring at?” she asked curiously looking around to see if she could see what I saw.

“Oh nothing, just the Abominable Snow Monster returning from the gorge!” I shout laughing as I start running away.

“OH! You are so getting your ass kicked for that one!” she shouted chasing after me having caught her second wind.

I ran with all my might, in my younger days I could easily out strip her, but I hadn't really done much running, or cardio in general. So when she caught up to me while I was huffing and puffing after having only really just ran maybe twenty yards max. The grin on her face said it all, not only had she caught me, but I was winded from the small sprint and the teasing was about to begin.

“I might be the Abominable Snow Monster, but you're Slow Poke Rodriguez, holy shit I don't think I've seen a fat guy breath as heavy as you are,” she said teasingly.

“S-Shut up, I'm j-just a little out of shape,” I said breathing in through my nose and letting it out through my mouth.

“A little out of shape? Dave, seriously you're so far out of shape that you sound like a winded rhino after it just charged. You're more than welcome to join me in the mornings it'll be like old times,” she said cheerfully.

“I might take you up on that sis, but I'll need to wait until after I get my test results back before I start doing a training regiment, it could aggravate things,” I said smiling at her.

“Whatever you say bro, in the meantime I'm going to get a shower,” she said briskly as she skipped into the house to get a shower.

Two days passed without a word from the doctor, which as with most things, meant neither good, nor bad news. It just made me all the more impatient, I had taken to checking my phone almost every hour on the hour just encase I missed the call, but no new numbers ever flashed.

On the other end of the spectrum the lawsuit with VitaCorp was going smoothly over all, at least that's what the lawyer kept telling me. From what he told me, depending on the test results, I could gain a fairly substantial amount of money from this lawsuit. Something that I really had no interest in, but hey, if you can make it take it.

It was about mid day, four days after the accident, that I finally got a call from the doctor, however the news didn't seem to be too good, as they'd asked me to come back in that day. My sister wanted to tag along this time around, more for moral support I think, but the company was appreciated all the same.

After sitting in the waiting room for what felt like hours, the doctor surprisingly took no time to actually get to me, something I whispered to my sister had to be a record, which caused her to giggle. However the giggling teenager didn't seem to raise the spirits of the doctor as he stared at me sternly almost with a grim look as if he were about to announce my time of death.

“Well Mr. Smith the results have came back, and they're very concerning,” said the doctor.

“What do you mean doc? What is this virus doing to me?” I asked him feeling butterflies float around in my stomach.

“Well, we checked, and rechecked, and triple checked everything, and Mr. Smith it would appear that this, this virus, this bioweapon, whatever you want to call it, is actually causing all of the cells in your body to enter what I can only describe as human cellular plasmolysis,” said the doctor completely astounded.

“And what the hell does that mean?” I asked feeling the butterflies in my stomach starting to swell to the point that I thought my stomach was going to burst, or that my heart was going to break my rib cage.

“In a less scientific term, you're shrinking,” replied the doctor.

I stared at the doctor in silence for the longest time, my eyes glued to his, I could hear my own heart beat ramming in my chest. Then I burst out laughing as if he had just told me the most fantastic joke.

“Okay doc that was a good one,” I say feeling the tension ease from my body for a little while.

“Um....Dave, I don't think he's joking,” came my sister's voice to my right.

“I wish I could say I were, but the tests, don't lie, you're shrinking, albeit, very slowly,” he said beckoning for me to stand up.

I did as he wished and followed him over to those collapsible height charts, and asked me to stand straight up. I kicked off my shoes, walked over to where he told me to stand and I stood up as straight as I possibly could. He moved the slider that ran up and down the measuring stick and then asked me to step away.

“When we first examined you, you were five foot seven inches” the doctor informed me.

“Yeah, the nurse made a mistake, I'm five foot eight inches,” I said correcting the doctor.

Holding the bar where my head had been only seconds before he beckoned me forwards to look at the numbers written on the bar.

“S-Sixty-six inches, but....but that's impossible!” I say not believing my eyes.

“It looks like what every they did to develop the bioweapon has just made the impossible quite possible. The only question remains is, how small are you going to get?” said asked the doctor rhetorically.

“Is there any way you can tell?” I asked nervously.

“Not at this juncture, but with how rapidly your cells seem to be regressing, you could end up losing over half your height at the least inside a month,” said the doctor.

I sat there just staring at the doctor, as he got up and walked out of the room allowing me, and Gwen time to process all of this. There was silence for the longest time, the air so thick that you could have cut it with a butter knife. After a few more minutes I turned back to Gwen from the looks of her puffed face she was trying her hardest to keep from crying.

“Well, I guess you'll finally get to be taller then I am,” I said joking finally breaking the silence, and hoping to cheer her up, this earned me a light jab to my shoulder and a wet sounding laugh as she then reached over and hugged me tightly.

To say things were a little awkward around home was an understatement, mom first thought it was a joke. It took the combined efforts, of myself, Gwen, and the note the doctor had given me with a set of instructions on ways to possibly slow my condition. Much to my dismay the list was a damn exercise program, though Gwen seemed to be particularly thrilled a this prospect mostly I think of being able to put me to shame by out running me again.

    After the initial shock of things wore off on her, mom started to try and keep things relatively normal for me, but at the same time started pushing me to follow the doctor's advice to the letter. So that means that I'll have to start eating a little healthier, and try and get my lazy bum back into shape again. The doctor thinks that it would boost my immune system which could cause my body to kill the virus faster which would mean I might not lose as much of my height, if any more then what I had at all.

    Gwen seemed to have made it her life's mission to get me back into shape and healthy again. The first morning that I was to get up and start running with her, I had refused to get up, or at least that's what she said, the alarm went off twice according to her. The next thing I know I hear a loud FRRRRRRRPPPP! And then my nose gets assaulted with a sulfuric scent which caused me to get up and jump out of bed gagging and gasping. Needless to say she laughed her rancid ass off while I called her every name in the book.

    The first week was murder, I couldn't even make it half the distance that Gwen could. She would constantly taunt me, telling me that I was going to shrink to oblivion if I didn't get my ass into gear and catch her. This of course only spurred me to a second wind, but I knew my limits and wouldn't let her goad me too far beyond what I could handle. In a way she kind of reminded me of my old football and wrestling coaches.

    I breathed heavily sweat pouring from my body, I shivered as I leaned against a tree the cool breeze that had wafted through the air caused my skin to pimple up. My arms felt heavy, it took all the effort I had to lift the plastic water bottle I had brought with me to my lips. The cool liquid slowly slid from my mouth down to my throat, causing me to want more, but I knew I would need to pace the drinks, or I could make myself sick.

    “Not too bad for a limp noodle,” came Gwen's sweet voice.

    “Oh shut it, you knee high smurf” I shot back teasing her as I always had.

    “Keep that up bro and you'll be running with me in my shoe,” she said smirking back at me.

    “Then I guess I had better kick your big ass before I get too short to do it huh?” I say chuckling as I kick her in the back of her skin tight compression shorts.

    “You keep that up and I'll have you between my big ass cheeks!” she said as she hit me in the shoulder.

    This little bit of normalicy between the two of us was what I needed. I could feel myself becoming a little stronger. Don't ask me how, it was probably just all in my head and it probably wasn't really doing me any good. It made me feel good though so I guess that is what's important, after we had a few more rounds of hitting each other Gwen took off again leaving me to stand there to finish catching my breath before I turned around and went back home.

    I arrived home just in time to see mom heading off for her job, I gave her a kiss on the cheek and a hug as she got into her car and left.

    “Be good, and make sure you take your vitamins!” she shouted out her window as she left me in a cloud of dust.

    “I will!” I shout back as I head into the house.

    I walked into the house, sweat soaked through my muscle shirt, and coated my skin in a thin film. I desperately wanted, and needed to take a shower, but at the same time, my legs burned and felt heavy, while I had garnered more stamina since I had first started, my legs still burned from the fact that I was doing something that I hadn't done in a long time, and they burned with every step I took. Breathing heavily I make my way up the stairs, every step causes my legs to feel like they're on fire.

    I groan as I sat inside of the tub, now filled three quarters of the way up with warm water, the soreness in my legs starts to melt away like butter. As I sat there naked in the tub I started trying to imagine how life was going to be for me when I got shorter. I got up on my knees, the warm water making the pain less intense, and tried to image things from the perspective of about three, to four feet tall.

    “So, this is what Mom, and Gwen have to go through daily,” I thought to myself bitterly starting to feel a pang of regret for having teased them for so much.

    Laying back into the warm waters my body just soaks in the heat of the tub, small wisps of steam curl and twist through the air. My body started to feel comfy, heavy, my eyes started to droop, but before I nodded off I heard the door downstairs slam shut, informing me that Gwen had arrived home and that my time soaking in the tub was over, since she would need to shower before going to class.

    Groaning I get out of the tub, dry myself off, and wrapping a towel around my waist I head to my room. I walk over to my dresser, and start digging through the clothes I wanted to wear for the day. Eventually I pulled out some underwear and a pair of shorts, since I wasn't going out today there wasn't any need for a shirt, I then slip the t-shirt over my head as I hear Gwen thunder up the stairs. I can't help, but chuckle to myself as she must've realized she's about to be late for school, as her footsteps sounded like she was running all over the place trying to get ready for the day ahead of her.

    After I finished getting dressed I headed downstairs to make some breakfast, for both myself, and Gwen. I placed a pan on the stove top, put a small amount of vegetable oil in it, and fired it up, while the pan warmed up I started to gather the eggs, and the bacon. Soon as the pan was hot enough I placed the bacon in first, and within seconds you could hear that delicious sizzle, and the intoxicating smell began to waft through the air

    Gwen came downstairs some time later she was now wearing a modest t-shirt, and a pair of skin tight “ripped” jeans. I say “ripped” because they weren't actually ripped they were manufactured to look ripped, but from the small amount of skin that was showing it looked like she might've just shaved her legs too. She grinned at me her full lips showing off her nearly perfectly white teeth, while they were a little crooked like Mom's it was never anything that anyone felt needed dental attention. She sat down in one of the chairs as I started filling two plates with the bacon and eggs.

    “You know, this isn't on the Doctor's meal plan” she said nearly snickering.

    “And you know that there is about as much chance of me giving up bacon and eggs for breakfast, as there is of a unicorn running through our yard,” I retort.

    “David that's not funny you need to start taking care of yourself, do you really think this is a joke? You saw it yourself, you've shrunk down two inches!” said Gwen.

    “Yes, I am aware of that Gwendolyn, but the doctor even said it might not do anything, but it could help me in the long run, meaning that I'd be stronger because I would be used to a heavier weight,” I snapped as I then handed her the plate of bacon and eggs I made for her as I sat down to eat my own.

    “Whatever, I hope you shrink down to nothing, that way we don't have to worry about you anymore!” she shouted back as she just got up and left the house to school.

    After she slammed the kitchen door behind her, I sudden felt a little bad, I knew that she meant well, but damn it, it was my body, my life, I thought to myself as I ate my eggs, plus hers. I then groaned as I got up and washed both sets of dishes, plus the pan that I had fried everything in. After everything was washed and put away.

    I walked stiff legged back into the living room, I sat down on the couch and propped my legs up on the soft cushions. My thighs were thumping, my calves were burning, I wanted so badly to just go back upstairs and strip down and soak in the tub again, but that would mean needing to use them again. So instead I resigned myself to sitting there flipping through different movies, and t.v. shows trying to find something to watch.

    After a hour of watching the same movies, I had watched time, and time again, God I was bored. I wanted to get out, to go do something, hell to even go to work, but because of the lawsuit, and the renewed driving restriction placed upon me by the doctor until the virus either ran its course, or the found a cure.

    “Ugh!” I groan as I stare at the ceiling, I stared until my eyelids started to droop, stared until the darkness began to shift into dreams.

    The room was quite, the ground was colored tan, the walls were black, I looked around trying to figure out what had happened, or where I was. I could hear thunder, but I couldn't make out where it was coming from. The only light was coming from a gigantic circle that was far out of my reach, another thunderous boom, and then the ground beneath me quaked as the light above began to darken, then what I saw next actually caused me to scream out, it was a foot the size of an entire city block! I breathed heavily as I looked around the living room, and breathed in slowly and deeply, it was all just a dream.

    I sat upright, turned myself so that I was sitting with my feet to the floor. I put my hand to my face and breathed in slowly, and out just as slowly. I could feel my heart beating hard in my chest as I tried to shake off the nightmare. What the hell was that? I thought to myself, then as I calmed down I started to laugh a little as I realized what had happened, Gwen planted it in my head before she left when she told me she wanted me to shrink away to nothing.

    “Well that was embarrassing,” I say to myself as I slowly get to my feet and head up to my room to play my game.

    I don't know how long I had been playing the game, but before I knew it the sound of the door opening caught my ears. Knowing it was Gwen I got up and walked, albeit slowly, down the stairs, and there she was looking a lot happier than when she left. However as soon as she saw me her face soured a little.

    “What do you want?” She asked me, but I just walk up to her and hugged her tightly.

    “I'm sorry, Gwen I know that you're just worried about me, and much like myself don't want me to shrink down anymore then what I have. Believe me Gwen I wish I could either stop it, or keep myself from shrinking down further, but for now. I'll do the exercises, but I'm not going to eat the crap that they're recommending I eat, I will eat whatever I want to,” I said to her as she stared at me with her tear filled brown eyes.

    “This is so stupid!” She finally said crying into my chest. “Why does this kind of thing always happen to our family?!” She wailed. “First dad, and now you!” she said her voice muffled in my chest.

    “Hey, hey, hey, I'm not going anywhere, you heard the doctor I'll get a little shorter, and even if I do, we could always play dolls again,” I say jokingly.

    “Yeah, I'll dress you up in one of my princess Barbie's clothes I'm thinking something pink, maybe with a dab of lipstick,” she said giggling as she hugged him tightly.

    “Now no more worrying about me alright? Or at the very least not trying to get me to stop eating bacon and eggs,” I said choosing to ignore her comment about dressing me up like a princess.

    “Okay, but please promise me you'll at least make an effort to take steps to reduce the shrinking,” she asked.

    “I will sis, I promise, I actually had an idea that I'll run by the doctor,”

    “And what would that be?” she asked curiously.

    “Human growth hormone,” I responded.

    “What's that?” she asked.

    “As the name suggest it's a hormone that causes the human body to grow, not taller, but it can cause you to bulk up, which is why you often hear of bodybuilders using it,” I responded to her with a grin.

    As promised I did indeed continue my training regiment with Gwen, albeit with better results now that my legs had finished healing. I had even started to out run her, much to her annoyance, mom had seemed to have an internal struggle with herself every time she saw me. As if she wanted to mother me, but at the same time she didn't want to dote on me either so it kind of turned into her mostly avoiding me, or at the very least trying to not talk about my condition.

    However it came to her taking me to the doctor's today, and this time I had the same conversation with her that I had, had with Gwen. Mom had to pull the car over to have a good cry much the same as Gwen, but after the air was cleared things seemed easier between us and we were laughing and joking again, as we had before I had received the virus.

    I sat inside of the doctor's office actually excited for a change, though it still took them forever, it seemed like it was even longer than normal. When the doctor finally came it, he seemed to be in good spirits as well. I sat there waiting for him to tell me how things were progressing.

    “Well Mr. Smith, it appears that you haven't lost any height, but that's not saying that the virus has subsided we still need to keep an eye on that, as it could flare up again, just keep on that regiment that I sent home with you and it'll at least help keep from feeling too much discomfort from the reductions, mostly joint, and bone pain,” said the doctor.

    “He doc, what about human growth hormone?” I ask curiously.

    “We have been testing that, but we're unsure if it would actually do you any good, but at the same time it wouldn't really hurt you either. However we still don't know with a hundred percent certainty what it would do to the virus, for all we know it could make it kick into overdrive and make you shrink even more rapidly than before. I can't in good conscience allow you to go through with that treatment,” he said.

    “Okay doc, at least it was something,” I say smiling.

    “Just keep up the exercise and it'll help bolster your immune system if nothing else to slow its progress,” replied the doctor.

    The ride home was fairly uneventful, but at least I knew that, at least for now, the exercise was yielding more than just muscular results. It seemed like I would have to tell Gwen that she was right for once....nah!

Three weeks had passed since my initial infection, and another two weeks since I had last had a shrinking episode. I was currently sitting at my computer doing some late night research, mom and Gwen were fast asleep. I just couldn't sleep that night, thoughts of what had happened earlier today still buzzed through my mind.

    I had gotten up the same as always to get on with my doctor's appointment, it was my mom's turn to take me this time, as she had some time before work that morning. Things were quiet between us she still hadn't wrapped her head around the fact that I was shrinking, hell I still hadn't wrapped my head around it.

    The doctor had given me the usual examination, took blood, checked my vitals, measured my height, and this part was actually surprising. I hadn't shrunk beyond five feet six inches, and this actually surprised the doctor, but I felt grateful. He checked, rechecked, double checked his recheck, but it all came back the same, the virus seemed to have become dormant.

    “Well, that's a relief, but then again, what will happen if, and when it reactivates?” I asked nervously.

    “It's hard to say, it could make you shrink ten fold, or it could make you shrink no faster then what it had when it was active, there is just no way to tell,” he replied.

    “So, are you any closer to a treatment?” I ask feeling my heart drop into my stomach.

    “No, I'm afraid not, we still can't even figure out how it's causing you to shrink to begin with,” he said.

    “Well, at least I have a reprieve,” I said with a small smile.

    “Not sure if it's a reprieve, or just the calm before the storm,” He said releasing me from his care.

    Knowing that I needed to take things into my own hands now. I started taking my own blood, and using a child's microscope to examine things as best I could. I began to look at my cells as they danced on the tray with the drop of my blood. I started to take notes on what I saw on a notepad, the problem was, is that it didn't look like anything out of the ordinary. Even my white blood cell count was within normal levels, was it possible that the virus had been eradicated from my body?

    I continued to monitor my body over the next few days after that, taking my blood, and testing it for infections, or signs of the virus. Yet each time I tested myself, or examined my blood it all came back negative, even residual traces of the virus didn't seem to exist inside of my body. Was it really a virus then? I thought to myself as I examined my blood sample yet again.

    Days went by, more tests, but still no results, maybe it really had run its course? I could only hope, as I really didn't want to lose any more height. The running had gotten easier, much, much easier than it had been when I first started. I was even starting to out run Gwen by quite a large margin, much to her annoyance since she could no longer be able to make fun of me anymore.

    I had gotten up bright and early on a cool Sunday morning, something had woken me up, but I was unsure what it was. Groggily I got out of bed, I stood up and stretched, I still felt like something was off, but I was unable to place a finger upon it. I went to the bathroom, did my normal routine, and get dressed to meet Gwen at the front door for our morning run.

    Everything seemed normal, Gwen is still shorter than I am, so I hadn't lost any height, or had I, and it was too minute to notice. I decided to measure myself after the run, but the feeling just wouldn't leave me. Sweat poured from my body as I ran beside Gwen, we were going farther then we normally would today, I think she wanted to try and see if she could outlast me this time since she was no longer able to out pace me.

    Eventually we came to a stop in a large grove of trees, it had been some time since I had been this far into the woods. When we were kids Gwen and I would come out here and play hide and seek, or tag, or something to the effect. Now it was a nostalgia trip, something to bring me back to a more innocent time in my life. Back to when my sister had pigtails, and would run around in pink dresses, or miss matched clothes, often polka dot shirts and striped pants.

    Now she stood before me at the cusp of womanhood, her pigtails traded in for a ponytail, her polka dot shirt, a dark blue sports bra that seemed to almost barely contain her heaving breasts. Her striped pants now traded in for a pair of dark blue skin tight shorts. I breathed heavily as I took a sip from a bottle of water I had brought with me.

    “S-So, what did you drag me all the way out here for?” I asked gasping for air.

    “I-I just thought it would be fun to visit our old haunt,” she replied with a grin.

    “Yeah, more like you wanted to see if you could run me out of gas first, but you forget, I know how to control my breathing so that I wouldn't gas out too soon,” I replied laughing as I took another drink.

    “Hey, it was fun while it lasted,” she said not losing her smile.

    “The real reason I brought you out here was because I didn't want mom to over hear, look are you still shrinking, or was that just something that you made up for attention?” she asked.

    “I don't know, as far as I can tell I was shrinking, or at least I lost an inch in height,” I said not sure where she was going with this.

    “Look, you've got mom in a ripe state, while she's not showing it, she's worried sick that you're going to end up dead,” said Gwen staring up at me with an almost glaring look.

    “Hey I'm a jokester I don't deny that, but I wouldn't do something like this, trust me, I wasn't thrilled to be in a hospital for three weeks, and then told that I was infected with a virus that would cause me to....” I stopped mid sentence as that feeling of something wrong was happening again.

    “Dave, you okay?” came Gwen's voice.

    “I-I think I'm.....” I say still kind of dazed.

    The next thing I knew I was being leaned up against a tree, sweat now rolled in large beads off of my skin. I could feel a warm hand pressed against my forehead.

    “Maybe we pushed it a little too far,” came my sister's voice almost echo like in my ears.

    “I-I'm fine,” I croaked, but she just ignored me and whenever I would attempt to stand up, she would force me to stay down.

    “Just sit there for a minute until whatever the hell is going on with you passes!” she said sternly.

    I sigh knowing that I can't move anyway, let alone fight my much more physically fit sister, at least at this current time.

    After about twenty minutes, or so the feeling finally subsided, and I was able to finally stand up. I knew it without Gwen saying a word, I could feel it without looking at her shocked face, I had indeed shrunk again, and while it wasn't significant, as I was still looking down at Gwen it was still noticeable this time around, the real question was, how much had I shrunk, and was the intensity only going to be worse?

    It was a lot slower getting back home, we had both decided that it was best to not aggravate my condition further, and we walked there. Mom had gone by the time we got there, though something told me that she wasn't going to be to too happy about Gwen missing morning classes. I quickly took some blood and examined it under the microscope while Gwen called the doctor for me. As I scanned the dyed blood I finally saw it, the virus, the source of all my problems.

    “Now the question is, what triggered it after so long?” I asked myself as I watched the virus attack the cells in the sample, only for the virus to get absorbed.

    “That's strange,” I say again to myself as I continue to watch the red blood cells absorb the virus.

    “What's strange?” came Gwen's voice from behind me.

    “This virus, I've finally found it, but it's not acting like any virus I've ever seen before it's being absorbed by the red blood cells, and yet it's not mutating them, other then the obvious. It's almost as if my body were manufacturing the virus itself,” I say to her finally looking up from the kid's microscope.

    “So, don't blood cells do that anyway? I mean the white ones do it, but I remember health class saying that viruses would mutate cells which is what causes us to get sick so doesn't the cell absorb the virus anyway?” She asked confused.

    “Normally yes, but it usually deforms the cell in some way to give a clue that there is a virus, this virus almost seems like the cells are breeding it, but the question is, what is triggering the virus? If it were stress from today, why didn't it flare up before when I first started running?” I both answering my sister and responding to what I was sure to be her next question.

    “See, there's the flaw though, you didn't really run that hard before today. Think about it, we eased you into it, we never actually did any hard running until today, and apparently that was foolish,” She said looking guilty.

    “Don't you dare blame yourself for this!” I shouted at her not really meaning to.

    “But it was my fault! I goaded you into running that fast!” she said with tears in her eyes.

    “It was my choice! I chose to run that hard, to keep up with you, to chase you to the grove, it was all on me, and now I suffered the consequences for my actions!” I said again.

    “But, but....” she started.

    “No buts! You keep blaming yourself and I'll kick yours,” I say now smiling at her as I walk over to her put my arms around her and pull her into a hug.

    “I'm alright it was an accident, you're not at fault, if the doctors don't figure it out, hopefully I will, and if not, well I'm sure you always wanted to be taller than me,” I say smiling down at her staring into her brown eyes.

    “Yeah, maybe I'll be able to use you as an armrest for a change!” she responded hugging me back.

    I spent the rest of the day on the phone with the doctor, I had told him everything that I had experienced, and even my findings. He seemed to share the same sentiments as Gwen, in that I had overexerted myself and this caused the virus to rear its ugly head and cause me to shrink down.

    “You were the one that told me to start running to begin with Doc,” I say almost laughing.

    “Yes, I told you to exercise, not to overexert yourself, keep that up, but try to keep yourself stress free, and do not overexert yourself,”

    “Okay Doc,” I say giving him a goodbye and hanging up the phone.

    After I hung up, I had Gwen measure me before she headed out to her midday classes, and I was rather relieved that it had only been three inches, but still that put me at only an inch taller than mom. I couldn't help, but wonder what that was going to look like, especially since I haven't literally seen her eye to eye since I was in my early teens.

    “Keep on shrinking!” shouted Gwen playfully before she left the house.

    “Very funny!” I shouted back at her.

    When the door closed I found myself once more alone in the house, to basically be bored out of my mind. The only upside to today was that it would be the last day for the preliminary hearings for the lawsuit, and prospects were still good that I was going to get a large settlement. Small comfort though if I ended up too small to actually spend it on anything, but then again it would be able to help mom out too, so I suppose a few lost inches for what was looking to possibly be hundreds of thousands, if not at least close to a couple million dollars in the settlement fee.

    Mom came home early today, and needless to say the reaction was priceless. Particularly when she started shouting at me about pushing myself so hard this morning. I was than enthralled in one of her lectures, I had heard these so much the last couple of days alone that I had pretty much learned to tune her out, but at the same time I knew she cared about me, so when she finished I just stood up and hugged her.

    “Hey look at it this way, I can't make fun of you for not being able to reach the top shelf of the fridge anymore,” I say chuckling this earned me a bop to the head.

    “Keep that shit up and you'll be riding around in my purse,” she said sternly.

    I just sighed knowing that there wouldn't be any point in trying to turn this into something comedic with her in this state. So I just stopped hugging her and went up to my room and started playing my Xbox again. I wasn't really sure what everyone was expecting from me, there wasn't any point in worrying about it, while I really didn't want to lose anymore height, I also wasn't looking to walk on eggshells about it either.

    After a while I got bored of my game and I got up and headed over to my computer and started doing some research on autoimmune diseases. While the virus wasn't a true autoimmune disease it gave me something to do besides dwelling on either my own emotions, or trying to deal with my family's feelings.

    I could eventually hear Gwen come home, her voice carried throughout the whole house as it always did whenever she shouted that she was home. I left out an audible groan as I heard her running up the stairs, what I had expected was for her to burst into my room and check on me to see if I had shrunk anymore, much like how mom had done all week. However she surprised me, instead she just went straight to her room, and really didn't bother me until dinner time, and that was only because I had fallen asleep.

    Though I wasn't sure what it was, but it almost looked as if Gwen was taller than I was now, but I hadn't felt the same strange feeling I had felt before. The problem is though I had been doing everything in my power to keep my mind distracted. I could also have shrunk when I was asleep, but I didn't have any nightmares, at least not any that I could remember anyway, so I shouldn't have been stressed out, or gotten my heart rate up.

    I followed her down the stairs and it wasn't until I got to the carpeted floor of the living room that I realized that the reason she looked so tall was because she was wearing platform heeled shoes! I couldn't help, but smirk now as I knew what she was trying to do, she wanted to pick on me, but very subtlety so that mom wouldn't notice, or rather so that she wouldn't think anything of it at any rate.

    “Very funny sis, but next time walk a little quieter,” I whisper in her ear.

    “I don't know what you're talking about, I just wanted to wear these things because they need broken in,” she responded with a mischievous grin on her beautiful face.

    “Just try to not fall flat on your face this time, I'd hate to have to climb over your unconscious body just to get to my doll house,” I say chuckling, and this earned me a punch in the arm, at least there was one person that was willing to keep my mind off things in this house.

    The morning started out like normal, woke up early, used the bathroom, got dressed, but that was where I discovered the problem. The only clothes that fit me now were my elastic shorts, but even those were starting to get a little too loose for me. My shirts were almost two sizes to large for me now, and this was only from losing a total of five inches! I had to dig through my old dresser and almost gave up hope thinking I would need to go up into the attic to see if maybe Mom saved any of my old clothes and skip the run this morning, but thankfully I found a pair of old sweat pants and a much smaller sweatshirt.

    It wasn't ideal, but it would work for the time being, but unfortunately this was the sign I would need to get my ass over to the second hand store to get new clothes. Not something I was looking forward to as I knew that Gwen would start teasing me, especially if I shrunk anymore, but for now I could at least still look like I was wearing normal clothes.

    I had started taking the run at a much slower pace after I had, had my shrinking episode, mostly on both Mom, and Gwen's insistence. Though Gwen didn't show it, I could tell that the episode really shook her pretty heavily, and she seemed determined to prevent another episode. We would constantly stop every couple of yards, or so, so I could “take a break”, even when I had barely worked up a sweat.

    “Look, Gwen I'm alright, it was a learning experience, I'm not going to have another one, t least hopefully not for some time. So please stop having me stop every five seconds, this is becoming more of a waste of time than a workout, and I need to keep in shape if I'm to stave off the shrinking,” I say to her when we stop for the final time before we turn around to go back.

    “I don't care, I don't want you to go through that again! You have no idea how much pain you were in, I thought you were going to die!” shouted Gwen shiny tears in her brown eyes.

    “I'm not going to die alright? I'm fine, it was just a bad episode, worst case scenario I might end up the size of a doll a little faster, but I'm not going to die,” I say trying to reassure her.

    “I thought they said they were going to cure you,” she said hugging me tightly her red hair just below my eye level so it was at least a slight mental relief for me to know that I was taller than she was, but the question was, for how long?

    “They said they were researching a cure, but viruses are tricky, the fact that we've never cured the common cold, even though it's been around for millennia proves that much,” I say smiling as I then kiss her forehead.

    “Now stop worrying about me, I'm perfectly fine, and I'm not going to die on you, I know we lost Dad to a virus, but that's not going to happen to me, I promise, I'll always be around,” I say comfortingly.

    “Yeah, especially, if I keep you in my pocket!” I she said teasing me.

    “As tight as some of your clothes are I don't think I'd survive,” I say earning a punch to the arm.

    When we got back Mom informed me that the doctor had called and asked for me to come in for an examination. The problem with that was that it meant that Mom would have to take me, and take off work. That wouldn't have meant much, unless you were me, and you were shrinking away, and your mother is a worry wart. Normally I would have asked Gwen to take me to the doctor, but she had to take an examination to take at school today, and she couldn't afford to miss it.

    I was able to wear my old jeans for a little while longer, but only because I found an old belt that was just small enough to fit me, after I notched it anyway. The t-shirts thankfully weren't a problem, but I knew that there was no doubt about it I was going to need to get new clothes, or hopefully the research laboratory managed to find a way to cure me. If it did then I wouldn't need the new clothes, I'd be able to just enjoy being tall again.

    The drive was slow and tedious, Mom drove like an old lady, and just had to blare Britney Spears over the radio. So needless to say it was a very miserable experience, thankfully it only lasted for about ten minutes, but it felt a lot longer. When she parked the car I practically jumped out of the seat and wanted to run into the building, but I had to keep some form of maturity.

    I sat on the uncomfortable table top that every doctor office had, the white paper that covered the pleather surface crinkled and crunched with every move I made. Unfortunately for me, my mother decided she wanted to sit in on this visit instead of waiting in the car like I had asked her to do. It didn't take long before the doctor walked into the office, his usual look of absolute seriousness plastered on his chiseled face. His dark hair had white sides, like Mr. Fantastic from the comic books, he looked to be as old as my Mom, and from the look on my Mom's face she didn't seem to mind him too much.

    The barrage of tests soon followed after he gave me an initial examination, he took my vitals, checked my eyes, ears, had me strip so that he could checked my nether regions. It was starting to feel like I had come in for a sports physical instead of a life saving check up. The doctor left, the nurse came in, drew more blood, then the doctor came back in some time later.

    “Well Mr. Smith you're physically healthy as a horse, if it weren't for the virus running through your system, I'd say there was no point in coming here at all,” He said smiling at me.

    “The reason I called you here today is because there is a chance we may have found a way to halt the virus, it won't stop it for, forever, and if possible it may even make it worse, or accelerate it, there is no way to be sure until we run some tests on your blood,” He said again.

    “Well what would this treatment entitle?” I ask curiously.

    “Well, we would be using an extremely heavy dose of powerful antibiotics. If it works, you'll be bought a little more time,” He said.

    “But wouldn't that completely trash my kidneys and liver?” I asked knowing that this was a bad idea.

    “That's the risk that one runs with all antibiotics as you're aware, and we feel if this does work it could extend your time at this height by maybe a couple of years so long as we get the dosage and time between them correct,” said the Doctor.

    “I don't think I'll take the chance, even IF you did manage to slow it down, you said it yourself it would only be temporary. And I'd rather have my body functioning than to have something inside of me that would damage me further,”

    “Well it's your choice Mr. Smith, but I strongly suggest you think about it before you make a complete decision, sleep on it,” He said smiling kindly.

    “I don't need to sleep on it Doc, I have a doctorate in Virology, my entire job was to know what antibiotics would do to the human body, and I am not going to damage my own body in a slim chance,” I replied firmly.

    The drive to the store was a little quiet, Mom didn't really say a word, she didn't even turn on her radio. This I knew meant she disapproved of my decision, but I knew more about this field than she did, but I suppose at the same time, I would need to explain it to her, because all she knew was this would be something to save her son from possible oblivion.

    “Look I know you don't approve of my decision, but trust me, it's better that I just either let it run its course, or I get shorter. Trust me Mom it'd be better than having my kidneys trashed so badly I'd need to go on dialysis, and even if the antibiotics did work, once the virus mutated so that they wouldn't work it would come back in full force and possibly nuke my entire system,” I explain to her.

    “You're not even going to give it a chance David, you're just giving up!” she said almost crying now.

    “Mom, I'm not giving up trust me, I've been running my own tests on my blood and tracking the virus, so far it seems to trigger only when I'm having heavy periods of physical exertion, or when my immune system is low. As for curing it, it's like any other virus it mutates and is hard to create vaccine for, but if anyone can find a treatment to either stall it, or stop it, it will be me,” I say reassuring her.

    “You better, I don't want to lose one of my kids, on top of losing a husband,” she said smiling through tear stained cheeks.

    “I'm not going anywhere, but home with you, and eventually back to my own place,” I said chuckling as I hugged her tightly.

    The rest of the day went fairly normal, we stopped and went grocery shopping, and got me some new clothes, even a few smaller sizes, just encase.

    When I got home however I was met with Gwen, she looked less than pleased about something.

    “Hey Gwen, what's wrong?”asked mom.

    “I just got off the phone with your doctor, and he was still insisting on you getting some sort of treatment that could slow your shrinking, and you refused! Why?!” she shouted at me.

    “Like I told mom, there is no guarantee that it would work, and it would do my body more harm than good,” I said calmly.

    “Bullshit!” she shouted with the same tear filled look mom had given me.

    “No, it's not, sis they're just trying to go that route because they don't want to look for the cure, they just want to try and make me feel better emotionally. Because the antibiotics they were prescribing would have trashed my kidneys, or fried my liver before they even got close to finding a cure, and that's assuming that the virus wouldn't mutate and become immune to the antibiotics to begin with, and if it did then it would kick into overdrive. I'd shrink more rapidly, and possibly more painful than what has happened to me so far,” I say hoping to bring her around like I did mom.

    “But how can you be sure?! There is no way of knowing unless you actually try!” She shouted almost screaming at me.

    “Gwen I literally did antibiotics for a living, if anyone is going to know about this sort of thing I think it would be me,” I say smiling as I walked closer to her.

    “You're just giving up!” she said now crying harder as I started hugging her she pounded on my chest.

    “I'm not giving up, I've been working night and day trying to find something to treat myself, safely,” I say hugging her.

    “Y-You better be you asshole, because otherwise I'll drag you there myself and you'll get those antibiotics if it kills you,” she said hugging me now.

    “I promise,” I say grinning.

    When she finally left me go I walked into the house and ran upstairs to my room, while the doctor's might have given up on trying to cure me I truly hadn't. I walked over to my computer as I saw a message had appeared on the screen while I was away, I had been analyzing the DNA structure of the virus to see if I could break down what it had been created from.

    Genome sequences, and protein sequences flashed on screen as the computer gave me the rundown of what the thing was made from. It appeared to be a form of A.I.D.'s only instead of it causing my immune system to attack my cells and destroy them it was causing the cells to reduce not just my blood cells, but the very cells that made up the structure of my body. I actually sat there and nearly laughed myself stupid.

    If I had taken that antibiotic treatment that they had suggested it would have sent this shrinking virus into overdrive and I would have probably shrunk within the week instead of the rate I was going at now. Though the one thing that still bothered me is why they would have suggested something like this, surely they would have came upon the same results I had?

    My mind started to flash back to when I had encountered that female doctor when the accident first happened. I then decide to actually look into my current physician, my eyes widened with horror when I read through his profile.

    “Employed by VitaCorp, as a lead researcher in autoimmune disease,” I said reading the words out loud.

    I quickly ran out of my room and down the stairs taking them two at a time, I had to show this to both my mother and my sister.

    Thankfully they were both sitting on the couch, I breathed heavily, as I quickly told them to follow me back up the stairs. First I showed them the results of the scans of my blood, then I told them my thoughts and how I couldn't understand how the doctor's office didn't find this the same way that I did. They nodded and began to follow the same line of thinking I was now.

    “So, I did a little research on my doctor,” I say bringing up the web page showing my doctor's profile.

    “B-But that says,” stuttered my mother.

    “That he works for VitaCorp,” I finished.

    “S-So do you think that this is all apart of that crap about the bioweapons they were planning to make?” asked Gwen anger showing on her face.

    “Sis I think that's exactly, what's going on, they are still continuing their research, but under the guise of trying to help the victims,” I said almost spitting.

    “We have to go to the police about this!” said mom.

    “And do what mom? We have no proof about any of this, and the worst part of it is, I have to keep seeing this doctor at least until the trial is over,” I say as my eyes widen.

    “That's why they wanted to give me the antibiotics! They wanted to accelerate the process! I shrink down and disappear and they don't need to pay out for damages rendered,” I say almost shouting angrily.

    “Sweetie you can't go back there, if you do they're going to kill you!” said my mom.

    “Mom I have to it's a court order that I have to see these doctors until I get my money, and Vitacorp and all of its constituents get a one way trip to jail,” I said sensibly.

    “But, but,” she said trying to argue.

    “No, buts this time mom, I have to do it, it's the only way don't worry I won't take anything they give me, or try to, unless I check it out for myself,” I say reassuringly.

    “I just hope we can get you through this before something bad truly happens,” said Gwen.

    “Yeah me too sweetheart, I don't want to lose you,” said mom.

    “I promise I'm not going anywhere, though I might need to ride around on a drone,” I say chuckling then I actually sat there for a moment and just imagined what that would be like then I shivered because I knew the only way that something like that could happen would be if my sister were to be the one driving it.

    “I'll just make sure to leave you on the roof,” Gwen replied laughing.

   Two weeks have passed since I saw the doctor last, I have been missing my appointments, mostly due to the fact that I don't want them to continue to push their bullshit treatment on me. I've instead been enjoying my free time with my sister, and mother, especially since we finally heard back from the law firm that took the case for all of those that were afflicted by the accident. I'm supposed to meet with my lawyer today, some woman named Nicole.

    The drive there was long one, mostly due to the fact that Mom lived so far away from the city, and I was never particularly fond of car rides to begin with. As per my usual I slept through the majority of it, it never fails I sit, I get bored, I fall asleep. What kind of worried me though was when I awoke my clothes felt looser. Sweat covered my brow, but it doesn't look like mom had noticed it, so maybe I hadn't lost too much height yet?

    We eventually reached our destination, the building was rather plain, large gray stone slabs made up the walls of the square building. A single large sign embossed with golden letters sat on the neatly trimmed lawn read, “Law Offices of Charles and Raymond”

    When we walked inside, the atmosphere seemed stuffy, everything was neat, tidy, the floor was carpeted in green. The waiting room furniture was leather seats, with brass studs embroidering the outer edges, with red stained wooden arm rests. The coffee tables looked as if they were made of real stained wood, I couldn't help, but feel a little grungy, even as well off as I was, this place just seemed way above my pay grade.

    “Mr Smith, Miss O'Malley will see you now,” came the voice of the receptionist.

    The receptionist was a squat woman, a little taller than myself, with her salt and pepper hair done up in a semi beehive. She wore a pair of horn rimmed glasses, and a tweed jacket and matching skirt. She didn't appear to me much older than maybe fifty, but I was never good at guessing ages, so I could've been completely off.

    What I saw when I entered the office nearly blew my mind, behind a heavy black hard wood desk sat one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. She couldn't have been much older than me, her red hair was shoulder length, and she had the brightest greenest eyes I'd ever seen in my life. She stood up and was a head shorter than I am, an even though she was wearing a white blouse and coat over top of that, it couldn't hide her generous bosom, and her skirt fit her curves in just the right way that made me happy to be a man right now.

    I quickly snapped out of my observations of my lawyer when she reached out to shake my hand, she gave me a bright bubbly smile, her lips as red as her hair.

    “A pleasure tae meit ye Mr. Smith, aam Nicola O'Malley an' I'll be handlin' yer case,” she said her Scottish accent incredibly thick.

    “Nice to meet you too, Miss O'Malley,” I say sitting in one of the chairs she had indicated to me as she then took her own seat.

    “Sae, why dorn't ye teel me exactly whit happened?” she asked as she turned on a tape recorder, gave it my name and the date, and the reason for my being there.

    I sat there and told her everything that had happened up to my present situation, she listened intently as the recorder took in my every word, when I finished she stopped the tape.

    “How tall waur ye originally?” she asked me.

    “I was five foot eight inches,” I replied.

    “An yer current 'eight?”

    “The last time I was measured I was five foot six, but I may have lost an inch, or two within the past two weeks, as I haven't been to the doctors recently,” I said.

    “'Hoo come?” she asked me.

    “Well, I found out that the doctor that I had been sent to was a VitaCorp employee, and because of my background in viral research I knew that what he was prescribing for me wasn't the right thing,” I replied.

    “Weel Mr. Smith, I'd be happy tae tak' yer case,” she said smiling.

    “That's awesome, but Miss this is one of the biggest law firms in the state, there's no way I can afford you,” I say nervously.

    “Ah, du nah worry aboot, tha' the partnars are very intarested in yer case, an I 'ave somethin' of a personal stake in this mah self so I shall be representin' ye free of charge,” she said brightly.

    “B-But Miss,”

    “At, at, not another word from ye, nah get on home, and dunna be goin' to tha doctar any more lest ye shrink away ta nothing,” she said winking to me before she lead me out of her office.

    “I'll be seein' ye in two weeks, fer da firs' trial,” she said as she walked my mother and I to the door.

    What followed after that was relentless teasing from my mother the majority of the drive home. Mostly of her telling me I should hook up with my lawyer, while I wouldn't have minded taking her home, something told me that she wasn't the type that liked to date her clients. I did wonder what sort of stake she had in this trial that would get her to represent me for nothing, maybe the law firm just wanted the publicity, and decided to make the victims charity cases? I figured it would be best to not look a gift horse in the mouth, and just be glad that I wouldn't have to pay any out of pocket costs.

    The drive back home was just as boring as the drive out was, and once more I ended up falling asleep. As I slept I had something of a nightmare, I dreamed that I had shrunk down so small that nobody could see, me that I was practically invisible, then a roar, then I woke up just as a dark shadow had been cast over me. Once more sweat had covered my brow, and my clothes felt even looser than what they had when we entered the lawyer's office.

    The next couple of weeks are sort of jumbled together, it feels like it was all blurred into one big beating. Three weeks had gone by since I had gone to see that layer, and thankfully the shrinking actually didn't occur that day, it was all in my head due to the mental stress. The loose clothing was just because I had worn a larger shirt than I should have.

    The trial started today, so I had to pray that I could keep my stress levels down, Gwen suggested going on a run before then. While that would've probably helped wear me out I figured it would be a good idea to just keep myself as fresh as I can. So instead I just took a shower and tried to meditate, didn't help any, but it kept my mind off of things for a few seconds, okay it didn't help at all...

    I wore an old suit and tie of my dad's, thankfully he had been shorter than I was before he passed away. Mom didn't much care for me wearing my regular clothes, she watched too many t.v. shows where they always wore suits in court. I took in a deep breath as I sat in what could only be described as one of the most uncomfortable chairs imaginable.

    Mostly because the fact that it was all about whether, or not VitaCorp would pay for their crimes, and hopefully be shut down, permanently. I sat there sweat pouring profusely from every orifice of my body. I could hear the legal jargon, back and forth between the VitaCorp lawyer, and the thick Scottish accent of Miss O'Malley as she pleaded the case for our defense.

    One by one different people were called to the stand to testify, all of them were of varying sizes. The ones that were lucky enough to have been close to the blast, but were still large enough to be seen had to be handled by either loved ones, or family members, and held against the microphone. I could only feel sorry for the ones that were too small to be recovered.

    It was my turn before too long, I felt myself slowly walking up to the witness stand, I sat in the even less comfy hard wooden stool. I set the suitcase I had brought with me down beside the stool.The first one to speak was the VitaCorp lawyer.

    “Mr Smith, is it?” he asked

    “Yes sir,” I replied.

    “Mr. Smith, what was position while working at VitaCorp?” asked the Lawyer.

    “I was R&D for anti-viral, and antibiotic cures, and treatments,” I replied.

    “And were you among those that were afflicted?” asked the Lawyer.

    “Yes,”

    “But you don't seem like you've lost any height, or at least anything noticeable,” replied the Lawyer.

    “I was on the far side of the explosion so my exposure wasn't as severe,”

    “How much height have you lost since your exposure?”

    “Two inches,” I replied.

    “Two inches, Mr. Smith, who diagnosed you with the virus?” asked the Lawyer.

    “The company doctor, the one that I've been seeing since the accident,” I replied.

    “Interesting, because when I questioned the doctor he claims that you didn't show any traces of the virus in your system, and that you're being treated for a bacterial infection. He also stated that you refused treatment for the infection,” said the Lawyer going over his notes.

    “That's a lie, I did my own blood work separate from his, I have the virus,” I said trying to keep my temper in check.

    “Ah, yes given your background in the field it would only be natural for you to do so. So, you believe that your doctor has falsified your diagnosis?” asked the Lawyer.

    “Well it's pretty obvious that he did,” I answered back.

    “The evidence points to the contrary for you Mr. Smith, you claim to have only lost two inches, and haven't had any substantial height loss, and your given doctor claims that you have a bacterial infection, so how could you possibly have the virus?” asked the Lawyer.

    “Because it's not a bacterial infection, as I said I ran tests on my own blood, I have charts and lab reports to back it up,” I said as I began to pull some papers from my suitcase.

    “No, that will be quite alright I'm sure you did a very thorough job. However since you haven't had any substantial loss in height I don't see how your testimony could possibly be relevant to this case,” said the Lawyer.

    “Objection yur Honor! The defendant's records prior to the accident have shown him to originally be five feet, eight inches, and he now stands at five feet six inches, so while he may, or may not have the virus now is irrelevant he did at one point have the virus,” came Miss O'Malley's voice from the other side of the room.

    “Sustained, Mr. McCoy please keep the questioning to the incident,” replied the judge.

    The questioning went on, and on either repeating the same questions in a different way to catch me off guard, or getting me to say something that I didn't mean to. I did my best to answer each one, all the while praying that I could get out of the courtroom soon, as it was starting to make me sweat. When he finished his line of questioning it was Miss O'Malley's turn.

    “Okay, Mr. Smith..... are you feeling okay?” she asked as her green eyes scanned me as if she were a robot.

    “N-No miss.... I....” I never got to finish, because the next thing I did was let out a scream of pain.

    The muscles in my body felt like they were on fire once more, my bones ached, my head felt as if it were going to split. My teeth ground so hard into each other they were surely going to break, or crack. My heart raced, and pounded hard in my chest, I could hear a collective gasp from the people around me.

    When I came too I was in a hospital bed, a wet cloth on my head, the sounds of various machines, and people rung in my ears. I slowly blinked my eyes causing the room to come into focus, I felt something heavy on my chest, and looked down to realize it was my mother, sound asleep, but how long had I been out?

    A slight snore caused me to jump out of my skin for a moment till I realized it was just Gwen curled up on a chair with a blanket wrapped around her sleeping soundly. Her dark red hair hung over her face acting as something like a stringy mask. I tried to sit up, but I didn't want to disturb my mother, but eventually I didn't have much of a choice, as my bladder had decided that it was time for me to empty things out.

    I then started to rub my mom's blond hair covered head, she groaned a little at first, then when her brown eyes locked onto mine they were a look of shock and joy.

    “Oh my God David I thought for sure you weren't going to wake up this time!” she shouted hugging me tightly.

    As she hugged me and I hugged her back I couldn't help, but notice that she felt stronger, her grip on me seemed more powerful. How much had I shrunk this time? I thought to myself as I finally slid to the side of the bed, my legs couldn't even reach the floor now. I took a deep breath and slid off about a foot.

    When I stood up I found that I was still taller than my mom sitting down so that was a plus, but how much height had I lost?

    “If you're wondering, it's three inches this time,” came Gwen's voice as she too had woken up.

    “Well that puts me at an the same height as you sis,” I say smiling though in the back of my mind I can't help, but feel that I might be looking up at her soon.

    “Yes, it does dear, and after that little episode of yours the Lawyer lady said that the case was a slam dunk, there's no way VitaCorp is going to worm its way out of this now, she said that you should be very well compensated,” said mom smiling.

    “Hey, as long as they go under for what they did I don't care about the money,” I said hugging both my younger sibling and my mom tightly.

    “As long as I can find some way to cure you, and the Judge said you'll need to find a new doctor, since the one you were going to was on VitaCorp's payroll it's possible he might try and increase the rate of which you shrink down,” my mom said to me.

    “I think I'll just work on it myself, at least for as long as I can anyway, if I get shorter than Gwen then I'll need to get some outside help, after all I don't want to have to look up to my might midget sister,” I say teasingly.

    This earned me a punch in the arm, and a threat to keep me in one of her shoes if I didn't watch myself. Even with everything being as bad as it was, it was nice to know that I still had my family to fall back on no matter how tough things got for me.

Time marched on as it often does, we won the lawsuit by a landslide, thanks in no small part to my loss of height, I had gained a hefty increase in my bank account. Enough to pay off any lingering bills that I had, as well as any that my mom had. I then decided that it was best to just sell off my place in the city, I just kept a few trinkets from the place, and left the rest for the next owner to do with as they pleased. Eventually mom sold the old house that I and Gwen grew up in, and we got a place near the beach that was closer to the school that Gwen was attending.

Now to the part I'm sure many would like to know, in all of this time, how small have I gotten now? Well, I did shrink a little more over the last few weeks, I now stand at four feet even, much to Gwen's utter delight. Things are a lot tougher for me now, I can't drive anymore, at least not without any kind of special assistance equipment, but I don't feel there's any need for it as I don't really go anywhere.

Gwen on the other hand loves the fact that we live near the beach and practically lives there. She has become so tanned that at times I have to make sure that it's actually my sister when I see her. She has since dyed her hair back to its natural color, and added pink streaks, giving her a punk rock look, her personality though has remained pretty much the same, though she does love “accidentally” walking into me so that I have to stare up at her, much to my annoyance.

I have long since stopped going to that quack of a doctor, and have started doing my own research here at home. I have my own lab set up to try and produce some sort of an vaccine to get rid of this virus, and maybe restore some of my height, but unfortunately all of my attempts have been for naught. I have for the time being though at least boosted my immune system to stanch the shrinking, and so far it seems to have worked, but I worry about what's going to happen when the virus eventually builds up a tolerance, I could be in for a powerful shrinking episode.

I write all of this down in my journal, as I stare around my laboratory, the walls were concrete brick painted white. Various machines, and computers were running in the background, beakers, and vials containing various chemicals, and solutions glistened innocently beneath their clear glass containers. I had taken to writing down my thoughts and feelings for the past few months, as it has just been a whirlwind of good fortune, and it just all some how seemed to be marred by this tragedy, when I knew I should be happy.

I heard a knock coming from the door upstairs, then my mom's voice carrying down reminding me that supper was getting cold, and that I needed to go up and eat. I smiled, and shook my head, some things never change. Mom refused to stop working, even though I told her that there was no point to it anymore, but she said she liked keeping busy, and that she didn't want to come off as snobbish because we suddenly got a good windfall.

It was probably good that my family kept me grounded, otherwise I'd have probably left all the money go to my head. I just walked up the stairs a few minutes later, and as I did I ran smack dab into Gwen's breasts.

“GLAH! C'mon Gwen did you really need to do that?” I ask annoyed as my sister stood in front of me wearing a yellow bikini top, and a pair of Daisy Duke's.

“Hey, you did it to me all the damn time when we were growing up short stack, all I can say is karma is a bitch, and so am I” she said giggling as she jostled my hair before she swayed away to the kitchen.

This was something else I had to deal with now, ever since she finally got taller than I am, Gwen had been more assertive. Her once modest clothing choices now started to become more, and more revealing along with this new found confidence. Much to my dismay, though if she had been anyone, but my sister I probably would have loved seeing her in some of these clothes.

There was a knock on the living room door, since I was kind of standing here rather dumbly I just walked over to it. Grabbing a nearby stool, I climbed up and looked through the peephole. All I saw was darkness due to the fact that whoever the person was, which I had a pretty good idea by this point, had their finger tip covering the glass lens on the other side.

I stand there for a few more seconds, waiting to see if said person would remove their finger. I then smile and get off of the stool, and then put it away. I hear another knock on the door, this time a little more forceful. I just chuckle and then open the door, standing before me was one of my sister's friends. This lass is tall, by normal female standards not my standards, girl of Asian decent. This woman was Jasmine, and she was anything, but the typical Asian in her build. While her father is Asian, her mother is Caucasian, and she definitely got the best of both worlds.

Her skin was smooth, and pale, her eyes were a beautiful almond shape, and she had a figure that would put most model's to shame, in my eyes at least. She had thick thighs that were muscled and well defined, breasts that I could only describe as E cups. Dark long hair that seemed to flow from her head like a black river of silk.

“Hey, lil bro!” she said teasing me flashing her white teeth to me.

I groaned, but just shook my head and smiled back at her. I was older than her, by about the same range as I was with my sister, but she and Gwen had been best friends practically since the crib, so she came to see me as a surrogate big brother, since she herself didn't have any siblings.

“You do know I'm not actually your brother right?” I ask her as per our ritual whenever she greeted me like this.

“Yeah, I know, but you won't date me, so it's the best I can get,” she said shrugging as she left herself in and messed up my hair.

“You're my sister's best friend there's no way I'd date you,” I say laughing.

She sauntered away from me, deliberately making her hips shift from side to side, her blue sweat pants. Her loose t-shirt flowed a little as she walked, her sneakers squeaked on the hardwood floor of the living room.

“Something tells me I don't think she'd mind too much,” she shot back before she headed upstairs to my sister's room.

“Come on!”

“No,”

“Come on!”

“No!”

“Come on!”

“I said NO!” I shouted at Gwen annoyed as I looked through a microscope taking notes of the reaction the virus was having to a powerful antiviral.

“Oh, come on!” moaned Gwen practically laying her tits on my head at this point, annoying me further.

“I'm not going to the damn movies with you and Jasmine! I need to focus on trying to cure this virus!” I say trying to push her off, but because of the fact my body is still fighting the virus I'm weaker than what I should be, even by my stature's standards.

My sister might be an adult, but she was still a teenager, and often times acted immaturely, this was one of those times. Using all of the strength I have I pushed her away from me, I only hoped that she wouldn't notice how much effort it took.

“C'mon get off of me ya goof!” I shouted.

“Just come with us! Pleaaaase?” she whined.

“I said I'm not doing it, I've got too much work I need to get done,” I say in the same whiny voice that she's using.

The door to my lab suddenly burst open again and this time Jasmine walked in, or rather sauntered in. I don't know what it was, but for some reason I felt my heart skip a beat when I saw her. I think it was just the fact that she was in just her bra, or what I assumed was a swim suit bra, that was two sizes to small for her chest. Her breasts that were almost the size of a normal man's head were easily twice the size of mine.

“Yeah, c'mon big brother!” she said walking up to me, and hugging me into her chest, the soft squishy breast flesh pressed against my face.

“K-Knock it off ya damn idiots, I'm not going to the damn theater, I need to try and find a cure for this crap, I'd rather not shrink into oblivion,” I say, my voice muffled by the tit flesh.

“Oh, pish posh, you'll crack it eventually, but how long are you going to be able to hang out with your favorite little sisters?” asked Jasmine giggling at the word sisters.

“I said no, now damn it,” I say finally managing to untangle myself from Jasmine's embrace, though I think it was more from her letting me go than my own power.

So, we found ourselves walking down the sidewalk, Gwen had just parked the car, I had two beautiful girls towering on either side of me as we walked towards the movie theater. I couldn't help, but feel more like their little brother that their mother forced them to allow to tag along instead of the full grown adult. Still I suppose things could've been worse, I could've been getting experimented on by VitaCorp.

The evening was cool today, sunlight still shined brightly even though it was almost seven, the only thing I wondered was what movie it was we were going to see. The girls wouldn't tell me saying it was a surprise, even going so far as to make me wear earplugs and blind folding me when we actually got inside the theater so that I couldn't hear what they were saying, or read their lips as they paid for the tickets.

We entered the dark theater, few people were in there, so we had our choice of seats. The best place being in the center of the center row that way you get the best audio and visual experience. Then the theme song for “My Little Pony” played through the speakers, and I left out a very audible groan which caused the girls to laugh their asses off.

I made several attempts to get up from the movie, but each time I did I'd feel two hands on either of my shoulders, and I'd be more, or less forced back down. As I sat there I was starting to allow my mind to drift. The realization that I might not ever return to my original height began to swirl from deep within my psyche, because there was no way to actually restore my height. Even if I did find a vaccine for this virus, I wasn't going to ever be able to return to being five foot eight.

The noises of the movie played through the background, but I didn't really hear it. It's kind of like when you turn on the t.v. while you're doing something else. You hear it, but you don't hear it. Once in a while, my wandering mind would return me briefly to catch bits, and pieces of what was playing on the screen, but all the while I was miles away.

I then turned my attention to my enraptured sister, for the first time in my life actually looking at her. Dyed red hair, brown eyes, full plump lips, and breasts that would make any guy not related to her weep. She wasn't as large as Jasmine in that department, but she was at least, a D, of not a double D, from my guessing.

I then began to wonder, was I really trying to cure myself? I mean I obviously didn't want to shrink any smaller than what I was already. Yet at the same time, if it had been one of my family members I'm sure I would've put in way more effort than what I was into curing them as soon as I could. Did I subconsciously want to be shorter than the people around me?

The ending theme of the movie started playing in my ears and it jerked me out of my thoughts. I watched my amazonian sized sister, and her much taller friend rise out of their seats. I did the same, and we walked out of the movie theater. My mind was still completely in conflict with itself, and I didn't really pay any notice to any of the teasing, or taunting being tossed my way by Gwen, or by Jasmine.

The slapping sounds of our footsteps hitting the concrete sidewalk was the only thing that really seemed to keep me anchored to this reality. My mind still buzzing with these different thoughts, of what would happen if I didn't find a vaccine in time? What would I do if I were to really get smaller? Would I even still be human? Would anyone else still see me as a human being, or would I simply become part of the food chain?

Well, as it turns out fate as a nasty way of showing us our worst fears, but not always in a poetic way. As we walked I was wrenched from my thoughts by someone standing in front of us, I still to this day have no idea who he was. His face was hidden beneath a ski mask, I remember a brown shirt, and jeans, the rest is foggy.

“Hand over any money you've got,” he said his voice deep and gravely.

“Hey, just take it easy buddy,” I said as I slowly reached for my wallet in my back pocket.

“Hurry up!” he shouted as he pulled a gun from behind his back, and pointed it at the girls.

Heart pounding in my chest I fumbled with my wallet and pulled out a twenty, and some singles, and handed it to him. He scoffed, then turned his attention to the girls.

“Both of you, empty your pockets, now! Any jewelry, or cash you have, give it to me,” he said his white eyes now bulging from the holes in the mask.

Heart pounding in my chest, the pistol at my eye level, his arm just inches away from me, adrenaline surging. I don't know what made me do it, I don't even really know how I did it, but one second I was standing there. The next thing I knew I had the man's arm that was holding the gun and bringing it down with all of my weight telling the girls to hurry and run for the police.

The last thing I remember was hearing a loud bang, I could feel searing pain all through my body. I started to lose consciousness, I could hear screaming. My mind was going in and out of focus, it hurt for me even breath. I gasped for air one last time, then I knew no more.

I felt myself slowly regain consciousness for a minute, it sounded like an engine was roaring, it might have even been a siren. Then everything faded to black once more. Again, this time I was in a white room, on a bed, moving very quickly down a hallway, then I was out once more.

It wasn't until much later that I finally did regain consciousness. My eyes felt heavy, almost burned to even look at the bright white walls. I had no idea what time it was, or how long I had been where ever it is, that I was. My chest still hurt whenever I'd breath, but it was manageable, I then slowly sat up.

My heart began to pound harder in my chest, as my mind cleared enough for me to understand the gravity of my situation. The bed I was laying in, was my size, the sheets were a bright, powder blue, and from what I could tell I was elevated off of the ground. I swallowed hard and looked around harder.

The bed I was in, was a nursery bed! I just sat there in complete silence, suddenly realizing there was a rapid beeping noise coming from my right ear, a heart monitor no doubt. It couldn't be, no way that the human body was capable of shrinking this small, but there was no doubt in my mind. I couldn't have been more, than maybe two feet tall, if not less. I was the size of a new born baby!

I then heard a loud snort, and it brought me out of my thoughts, there, in the corner curled up puffy faced. Cheeks red, no doubt from crying so much, were three of the tallest women I had ever seen in my life. One was my doting mother, the other, my sister, and the last was Jasmine, they looked as if they had been here probably all night, and had worn themselves to exhaustion with worry. It was at this point that I knew things were going to be hopeless for me now. There was no way I could ever lead a normal life, even if I did find a cure.

Then I almost gave myself a large enough of a gasp that I could have passed out from it, the name of the hospital was visible from my window. It read, “Mundo Memorial Hospital,” a cold chill ran down my spine. Mundo, is a subsidiary of VitaCorp.

I sat there in a bed used for newborns, dressed in a powder blue sleeping gown. If humiliation had a dress code, this was it. I wanted to pull this crap off of me, but unfortunately I was still heavily bandaged to the point that I couldn't move more than to sit up on the large pillow that I also used to sleep on at night like a mattress. I wasn't able to leave the hospital, no matter what I tried to tell them, as they said that as long as I was in the I.C.U. I was their responsibility, and couldn't even discharge myself as I was far to weak to move of my own free will.

Mom and Gwen visited me as often as they could, Gwen often staying all night with me, while Mom went off to work, or went home to sleep. Jasmine hadn't reappeared since I first woke up, she seemed to be blaming herself for what had happened to me, even though I tried to assure her it wasn't her fault, but I don't think the words actually reached her. Gwen told me that Jasmine felt that if she hadn't badgered me into coming with them that I wouldn't have been shot and shrunk so small. Which of course was ludicrous, I would gladly trade my height all over again if it meant saving both her, and my sister.

I had been there for two weeks before I was finally pulled from the I.C.U., the doctor's insisting that I stay until I had begin physical therapy. To which I started to find, that I was garnering less, and less choices in what I wanted to do. Any time I said I wanted to become discharged they would either ignore me outright, or tell me that I was still considered in intensive care, even though I had gone so far as to threaten them with a lawsuit if I was not released.

Surprisingly though, they hadn't run any tests on me beyond what any normal person that had gone through such trauma would have been given. What surprised me even more was the fact that they even gave me my treatment of anti-viral medications that I had been giving myself at home to counteract the virus' effects on my body. As accommodating as they were though, I couldn't shake the feeling of keeping my guard up, because there was just something about this place that felt off.

Mom and Gwen both had that same feeling, but just as I was they were unable to convince anyone to release me, or transfer me to another hospital. Gwen had even began to call Miss O'Malley, unfortunately she was already in another court hearing as she had gained some fame from winning our case. Though she promised that she would do what she could when she had the chance to do so, but right now she was spread too thin and needed to focus on getting through this next set of court hearings.

In the mean time all I could do was what they told me to do, which mostly consisted of going through group physical therapy. To say that I had wished I had been given private therapy sessions was an understatement. Any time I would be brought into the room, carried by Gwen, my Mother, or a nurse, like I was an actual baby, was embarrassing enough. Let alone the stares and confused looks I would get every time people would see me enter. The only upside to this whole ordeal was the physical therapist was very, very good looking.

Her name is Carina she has dark hair, baby blue eyes, D cup breasts, from what I could tell, toned stomach, thighs, and a killer ass. Though the thing that really set her apart was her height, according to her, she had gigantism, and to be honest I believed her. She shared with me on my first visit with her, that she was eight feet six inches tall, which made her the tallest woman on the planet!

To watch her move around was truly something to behold. Barring the fact that she seemed to have suffered from none of the usual ill effects that most gigantism patients suffered. Something she had said was very fortunate for her. She would often just lift me up in one hand as effortlessly as if I were a doll, and help me get through my therapies.

If I needed to push on something, rather than have me use some kind of equipment, she would simply have me push against her palm. If I needed to lift something she more often than not took off one of her hiking boots that she wore every day and, while spotting me, would allow me to lift it into the air. I still to this day don't know if she was just very creative, or wanted to just put me in humiliating positions. Though giving what happened a little later, I think it was the latter to the former.

It was my last week of physical therapy, after that I would finally be allowed to be released from the hospital. I stood there on the floor of the therapy floor awaiting the gargantuan woman to appear. She had been late today, I stayed there and just began to do my stretches as I waited for her. She eventually did appear through the automatic hospital doors that lead into the room. She was wearing a tight fitting tank top that showed off her tits to the point that they left very little to the imagination. A pair of hiking boots, as per her usual, but this time she was wearing a pair of spandex shorts.

To say that I found this outfit arousing would be an understatement, it actually had my heart pounding to the point I thought all the blood would rush to my head and cause me to explode, or to shrink down as the case may be. Once more the gigantic woman lifted me up gently into the air, I could smell a faint scent of perfume on her warm flesh. She flashed me her dazzlingly white smile, her hot minty breath washed over my face as she told me that she had a surprise for me.

Curious as to what this could be, she carried me out of the therapy room, and outside into the fresh air. The sunlight nearly blinded me as we stepped out into the natural light leaving the artificial white light behind.

“I thought we could go on a hiking trip today as a physical therapy test,” she told me, her voice deep, but still feminine, her full lips still in a wide grin.

“B-But I could never keep up with you,” I said nervously.

“Oh, don't worry about that, we're not going to go very far,” she said as she carried me down a pathway behind the hospital.

“I do this with every one,” she said as she eventually came to a stop in front of a large row of steps.

“The test is simple, if you can make it up these stairs then you're fit enough to go home,” she smiled.

I was about to say that this sort of thing would be impossible for someone like me, but she cut me off as I had begun to open my mouth.

“I already took your current handicap into account,” she said smiling as she then set me down four steps away from the top of the stairway.

“You'll only need to make it up these four steps,” she said as she set me down.

I found myself standing eye level with the lower half of her shin, my heart racing once more as I watched her lift one of those impossibly large shoes into the air. Then she took a single step and had ended up at the top of the stairs. She stood there and leaned against the handrail her breasts resting against her forearms. I then took a breath and stared at the expanse of steps. Each one came up to my knee caps. I started to find myself once again wishing I was normal again, as this would have been nothing for me then, but I had to do this if I wanted to get out of here.

I then grabbed onto the edge of the step, and pulled myself upwards, I was actually surprised at how easy this had been. Maybe my muscles were just used to lifting Carina's heavy boots? It was hard to say, but the next step wasn't any harder, I was already half way there, then the third, then the fourth, I found myself eye level with the tread of Carina's boots. I stared up, at her as she stared down at me, her beautiful smile never left her face.

“C'mon big guy, just one more step,” she said encouragingly.

I felt a rush of adrenaline, as I jumped as high as I could, and actually managed to clear the step entirely and landed on both feet on the cold hard surface of the concrete.

“Congratulations!” she practically squealed with delight as she picked me up in her massive palm.

The air rushed around me, my stomach lurched as she picked me up much harder than I think she had intended to. She then brought my tiny form into her warm, breast flesh and pressed me deeply into her cleavage. She was giving me what she thought was a light, warm hug, but the pressure was very strong against my tiny form. I had actually thought I was going to lose consciousness as the tit flesh pressed upon me. She held me there for what seemed like forever, I was seeing spots both from the loss of oxygen, and the fact that her breasts were so firm, that they had knocked me silly.

When she released me, she then did something that shocked me, but also made me understand why she had chosen this particular venue for my final test. She had kissed me full on the face, thankfully she hadn't been wearing lipstick, no doubt to make sure that there wasn't any evidence of what was about to happen.

“I-I'm sorry,” she said blushing

“I just, I've really grown fond of you these past couple of weeks,” she said knowing that this was highly unprofessional, and probably frowned upon to the point that she'd get fired if we were caught.

“Well, I won't tell if you won't,” I winked up at her.

She blushed again, but this time carried me along a small pathway that lead into the woods behind the facility.

“Normally, I would have you do 100 yard jog, but I have something far better in mind, if you're okay with it,” she added quickly.

“It depends on what you have in mind,” I say pretty sure where this was going.

She didn't say another word, but instead carried me over to what looked like several sleeping bags stretched out behind a grove of bushes and trees that were well hidden from view.

“I was wondering if you'd like to have sex,” she said blushing so hard that I thought her hair was going to catch fire.

“Are you sure it's safe?” I asked.

“The worst that would happen to me is I might actually become a normal sized woman,” she chuckled.

I only gave her a smile, as she then took this as my consent and set me down upon the ground. This time she slowly stood back up, rubbed her hands along her smooth thighs, bringing them up to her shirt. She began to shake her hips, and turned away from me, her sexy ass hidden beneath the spandex Her arms pulled her shirt up over her head exposing her bare back, and showing that she wasn't wearing a bra!

When she turned back to me, her breasts wobbled ever so slightly as she shook her hips, and began to slide her thumbs down the sides of her shorts. She then slowly shimmied them off, and tossed them onto my head. I found myself covered in the heavy fabric, the scent of her was all over it, I took in a deep breath breathing in her scent. Then I eventually pulled it off of me, when I did I found the largest pussy I had ever seen in my life staring down at me, dripping with anticipation.

Thick hairs covered the long luscious labia majora, her labia minora puffed out from beneath them thick and heavy with dampness. Her clit peeking from beneath its hood was about the size of a corn cob to me. She then slowly lowered herself down, her knees touching the sleeping bags on either side of me. I smiled as I felt the soft brown hairs of her snatch tickle my clean shaven face, I opened my mouth and began to lick the velvety lips.

The next morning, I was at long last discharged from the hospital. I felt an extra spring in my step, figuratively speaking, as I had been carried out of the hospital by Gwen. Thankfully she and mom hand managed to find me some actual clothes that would fit me, but it felt so awkward to be pressed against my sister's DD's. Though that was not the most humiliating thing that was about to happen to me. She brought me to the back seat of the car, and there was a baby's car seat. Though uncharacteristically of her, she didn't mock me, or even tease me, and I didn't fight her about it, as I knew it was something that had to be done, however I did at least latch myself in, until I tried to push down the final latch to which she had to assist me with, with barely a push of her finger.

The drive home was quite, and very awkward, neither of us really knew what to say. What could you really say? I was a full grown man, but I was the size of an infant, even though for a glorious hour yesterday I felt like a real man again, it was only a fleeting dream. The only noise that came through the air was whatever music that the D.J. played on the radio.

Eventually we made it home, I tried to push the button to get it to release, but once again it was beyond me, and I had to wait for Gwen to release me. She did thankfully just pull me out of the car and set me down onto the ground. I stared on wards to the house I had just purchased not even a couple months ago, but it seemed almost alien to me now. I stood beside Gwen, her mid thigh now at my eye level, bare due to her wearing short-shorts again.

“Welcome home Dave,” she said trying to smile bravely, but her brown eyes betrayed her, as they were watering with tears.

“It's okay Gwen I'll find some way to cure this,” I said as I touched the warm flesh of her thigh.

I felt her recoil slightly, as if she were afraid of my touching her, but she didn't move away from me, instead she knelt down in front of me.

“Dave, I'm so sorry for how I treated you, you must think I'm a terrible person,” she said to the point of crying.

I stared at her dumb struck for a moment as if she were about to tell me that this was one of those gotcha moments, but the tears streaming from her eyes told me otherwise.

“Gwen you never treated me bad, you've always been an amazing little sister,” I say consolingly.

“But, but, I did such horrible things to you, like farting in your face just to get you up to come do a run,” she said snot running from her nostrils now.

“Gross yes, but it's just the kind of relationship we have, I know you've only had my best interests at heart, and when you start doing those kind of things again I'll know things are back to normal,” I say firmly.

This got her to smile, and even laugh a little as she brought me into a warm hug, her plump breasts, hidden beneath a rather conservative shirt for a change, pressed against my chest as she hugged me. I hugged her back, though awkwardly as there really wasn't anywhere else I could grab, but her breasts, so I just went with it and hugged them.

When we pulled away her face was red, both with embarrassment and from her tears.

“If you don't find a cure soon, I'll have to carry you around in my cleavage,” she said choking a laugh through her tears.

“God I hope not, I'd fall out due to how tiny they are,” I tease her, this earned me a face full of cleavage, but I took it in stride and laughed as I pushed against the breast flesh in vain.