Over the next few days, the Federal Government swooped in. They placed a gag order on all people involved in the rescue. As they were concerned there were no survivors, and the evidence helped support that. Besides the rescue, all records pointed that there were only 15 people at the site that day and 15 bodies were recovered. They moved Rick to an undisclosed location and kept him under observation. Over the next four months Rick’s body underwent dramatic changes, all unaware even to the most recognized scientists. It was May 28th before Ricks eyes opened and he was staring at an unknown ceiling.

Rick McAlister (RM): As my vision cleared, I looked around the room and saw that he was surrounded by his family. To my right is my mother, Susan. She is 39 and stands at an eye watering 6’3” (190.5cm) and weighs 210lbs (95.25kg). Even though she would be considered slightly chubby, she was still hot and made sure to keep up with her workouts. You could tell she was an athlete throughout her life. She had medium length dirty blonde hair and some deep blue eyes. Susan was dressed in a dark tee and some tight, not skintight, jeans. She had a mixed look of worried and care. To Susan’s right was my younger sister Lindsey. She is 17 and stands 5’11” (180.34cm) and weighs 176lbs (79.83kg). Due to her playing volleyball as a spiker and being a cheerleader, she has quite a slim body with well defined muscle. She had shoulder length platinum blonde hair and light blue eyes. She was dressed in a light pink tee shirt with white accents and black leggings. She has a quizzical look to her face. To my left is my oldest sister Brianna (Brie). She is 20, stands 6’2” (187.96cm) and weighs 190lbs (86.18kg). She has a slim athletic build due to her playing basketball as center and softball as a pitcher. She has short neck length jet black hair with dark purple highlights and has bright green eyes. She was wearing a black and purple light jacket and some black sweatpants. She had a weirdly whimsical look on her face. Finally, to Brie’s left was my youngest sister, Hailey. She is 16, stands 5’8”(172.72) and weighs 157lbs (71.21kg). Like the rest of the family, she has an athletic body due to her playing basketball as a power forward and soccer as a striker. She has very toned legs due to these positions as well. She has medium shoulder length black hair and soft teal eyes. She is wearing a tight, light yellow tea shirt and some dark leggings. She has a curious look to her face. There are two things I’m questioning as I take in my surroundings. The first is where is my dad? The second, why is everything so large looking?

By the time I notice my mom left, she is already returning with an older female doctor and a middle-aged man, who I assume is an FBI agent since he is wearing and FBI jacket. If I was in a hospital, the chemicals must have been worse than what my dad thought. I can’t believe a little accident caused the FBIs involvement. As I was sitting there, I heard, “Rick, Rick. Are you listening?” It was my mother. Agent Dobson and Dr. Haggerty are trying to talk to you.”

The FBI agent approached and in a gruff voice said, “Hello Richard. I am agent Fred Dobson from the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Anti-Terrorism Task Force.” I noticed my mom grip the bed as he continued. “There was a major incident at the Mirai Lab.” Major incident I thought. It was just a couple of chemicals. “I regret to inform you, that an explosion occurred and leveled the facility. You are the only survivor.”

My heart dropped. Only survivor…that means my dad. I couldn’t finish the thought. Agent Dobson cleared his through before continuing, “Due to the circumstances I have a few questions I would like to ask.”

I nodded and he started. “Firstly, if you aren’t aware, it is May 28th. The accident happened four months ago. You arrived several hours before you were scheduled to and your name was never registered as clocking in, why is that?”

My voice was shaky as I answered, “I was bored and wanted to hurry to the lab. I didn’t want to miss anything and figured it wasn’t a problem.”

He jostled some notes down before continuing, “Did you notice any suspicious persons?”

“No, I went straight to my dad’s office.”

“Why were you in the showers. As far as we can tell, no one was working on hazardous materials, especially the team you were on, that day.”

“I had an accident in the Chemical Storage room for the level 4 lab. The detection system didn’t detect any harmful chemicals and my dad said they were all benign.”

“Ok, that matches our records. Last question, do you know anything that was being worked on at Mirai that would have caused such a tragedy?”

“I do not. The main purpose of Mirai was focused on developing a better vaccine for COVID and hopefully a full cure.”

“That is all I had. I will be back after I talk with my superiors. Doctor, I will leave you with explaining everything else.”

Agent Dobson finished scribbling notes and left as Dr. Haggerty came forward. In a sweet voice she began, “Hello Richard. Is it ok if I call you Rick? I heard that’s what everyone calls you.” I nodded.

“It’s a miracle you survived. When we got word that they found a survivor we had the worst in mind. We rushed you to emergency surgery and were amazed that there was hardly anything wrong besides a few broken bonces and deep lacerations. There was one thing that bothered us, and the reason why you’re not at a normal hospital if you haven’t noticed. You are at a government run hospital overseen by the FBI and NSA. The reason for that is that you have shrunk, and no I am not joking. For three months me and my team observed you gradually shrinking and documented all of it. For the past month you have been just over 5” (12.7cm) tall and 2.5” (6.35) wide. Every week we ran test after test and came up with no reason as to why.”

I was flabbergasted. How could I have shrunk? What cruel being, whether it be a god or devil, would do something like this. That fucking fate bullshit really has some goddamn humor.

As Dr. Haggerty was finishing Agent Dobson walked in. “Good news for McAlister, but bad news for you doc. My superiors have said to release Richard to his family. They don’t see any value in keeping him here for study any longer. They want this to go away, so the quicker he leaves the better.”

“What?” Dr. Hagerty screeched in response. “They have no right; don’t they realize how valuable he is?”

As I sat there listening to them talk about me like I was just a specimen, I realized something, they’re right. If I truly shrunk, then the data that could be gleamed from studying me would be invaluable and may help advance science.

I was brought back to reality as Dr. Hagerty sighed. “Fine, even though I would love to do some more tests and try to figure out what caused you to shrink; I will discharge you.”

                “Thank you for not pressing doc.” Agent Dobson said. “As for you folks; this is a hush, hush scenario. No one is to know that your son is still alive or what happened to him. Keep him out of sight and the Government will keep him out of mind.”

                My Mom expressed her gratitude to the doctor and agent. She picked me up and held me like I was made of glass before leaving the hospital. When we got outside, I noticed that we were in the desert, far away from prying eyes.

                We enter my mom’s black 2021 Mercedes G-Wagon, and I was placed in the driver’s cup-*holder. I could hear my sisters begging to hold me, but my mom was adamant that I be left alone for now. I was grateful to her in this moment. I may not have cared for her, or my sisters for that matter, but I was happy I was being treated with respect like I deserved.