CHAPTER II – THE RED SANDAL

- Ow, my head… - Riley was waking up from what seemed to be a strange dream. However the hard floor he was lying on definitely wasn’t his bed. Then it all came back. Adam. The lab. The shrinking machine.

Looking around he saw the rest of the group, all waking up and looking in shock at their surroundings. They were in the middle of a flat surface, and around there were some kind of colossal buildings. But wait, those weren’t building. They looked like furniture…

- What happened? – said Riley. - Where are we?

- Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap… - Adam was freaking out.

- What the fuck man… - Sam sounded really concerned. He was staring to put the pieces together.

 - Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap…

- Adam what is going on? – Mike also started to become worried.

- WHAT DO YOU THING, NUMNUTS?!!!! WE SHRANK!!!! – Sam already figured it out, and was also starting to freak out. – ADAM, WHAT DID YOU DO?!!!

Adam was desperately looking for an explanation. - The power outage must have rebooted the machine and…

-  YOU´RE FUCKING KIDDING ME RIGHT?!!! – Jerry shouted out. The rest of the group realized the horror of the situation. – ADAM, PLEASE TELL ME YOU´RE FUCKING KIDDING ME!!!!

- Holy fuck man… - Riley was starting to feel dizzy. All around the depth of field was incredibly shallow, the walls and the furniture in the distance looked fuzzy. This whole new perspective was really hard to process, the brain simply refusing to accept the reality of the situation.

- Ok, ok, everybody calm down, we need to… - Adam was suddenly interrupted.

- Calm down? CALM DOWN? WE SHRANK!!! WE ARE THE SIZE OF ANTS!!! THIS IS YOUR FAULT ADAM!!! YOU NEED TO FIX THIS!!! – Jerry hot-headed nature was not helping in this situation. - FIX THIS, GODDAMMIT!!!! – He was grabbing Adam by the collar, shaking him off.

- JERRY, CALM THE FUCK DOWN!!! – Sam came to the rescue, separating Jerry. He looked back at Adam, who had a very distant look in his eyes.  – Adam, hey Adam look at me – Sam snapped his fingers in front of his face. – How do we go back to normal?

- Back… normal… yeah, yeah, back to normal... The control panel, we need to access the control panel… It’s the only way. – Adam still looked pretty shaken.

- The control panel? But it’s up there! – Mike pointed towards the rectangular panel, in front of colossal machine – It’s way too high. We will never reached it, never in a thousand years!

Mike was right. The control panel was almost two thousand feet high at this scale. And the machine was on top of an unclimbable table.

- Prof. Yen, we need Prof. Yen… - Adam was starting to speak to himself, a habit that his friends always found hilarious, except this time was not for hilarities.

- What are you babbling about? – Sam inquired – Prof. Yen? The physics teacher? What’s her deal?

- She’s my supervisor on this project… Well supervisor is too strong of a word, she’s more of a consultant, she’s doesn’t know the whole purpose of the machine. I wanted it to be a surprise. But if there is someone who can help us, it’s her.

- Huh, guys did you forgot that we are THE SIZE OF FUKING ANTS?!!! HOW HE SHE’S GOING TO HELP US?!!! – Jerry was freaking out again.

- Jerry, I swear to God if you don’t shut up, I will smash your face – Sam said to Jerry very calmly. Being the tallest of the group, Sam wasn’t the kind of guy you wanted to piss of, especially if you’re the smallest of the group. So Jerry immediately shut up.

Sam seemed to be in control of the situation. In reality he was freaking out has much as Jerry, but he knew someone needed to keep the group in check (and especially Jerry). Riley in the meantime was still looking around, his brain still having a hard time processing this whole situation. Mike approached his brother and tried to bring him back to reality.

- Ok, Prof. Yen. Good, so how do we get to her… - Sam eyes then widened – Wait, our phones, let’s use our phones!

Everybody (except Riley who was still in shock) pulled out their phones faster than ever in their lives. However the joy and hope in the face of the five friends immediately disappeared.

- Shit, it’s fucked – Mike said while still holding Riley with his other arm.

- Mine too – Sam looked disappointed at his phone. A blank screen was the only sign of life it was emitting.

- Well, apparently the shrinking process screws up the electronics.

- Of fucking course, that would be too easy – sneered Jerry.

- As I’ve said, I’ve only tested the machine with simple objects, furniture. I didn’t know what effect if would have with electronic equipment. To be honest I didn’t even know what it would do to organic matter.

- Thank God it doesn’t screw it up too, we seem to be fine – Sam looked at everybody, only Riley seemed strange, though surely that was more the shock than everything else.

- Well, in that case how do we… - but Mike couldn’t finish his sentence.

Out of nowhere, a huge noise was felt, coming from the lab door. Then repeated explosions were heard. Wait those weren’t explosions, they were footsteps…

- FUCK MAN, WHAT’S THAT? – Jerry went back into freak-out mode.

From the open door, a gigantic girl stepped in the lab, while chatting through her cellphone.

- ASHLEY, THAT’S ALSHLEY!!! – Jerry shouted.

Ashley Thomson was Jerry’s girlfriend. The two were chatting right before Adam interrupted them in order to show Jerry his “masterpiece”.

- I don’t know where he is, he said that he went in the 106B lab but he is not here… - Ashley was talking to a friend over the cellphone, clearly wondering where his boyfriend went. The petite brunette was wearing a denim jacket, jeans and red sandals. She was quite attractive and Jerry always praised her when he had the opportunity, to the annoyance of his other friends.

- ASHLEY!!! ASHLEY!!! OVER THERE BABE!!!! – Jerry was jumping up and down, waving frantically his arms.

- I don’t think she’s going to hear you – Adam tried to reason with Jerry, but he was clearly not listening.

The steps became louder and louder, as the unaware teenager was approaching the group’s position. The ground trembled at each step, to the point where the boys were losing balance. Thankfully though she stopped right before them.

- ASHLEY!!! ASHLEY!!! I’M HERE!!!! I’M HERE!!!! LOOK!!! – Jerry sprinted towards the girl’s sandals, still waving his arms. The euphoria was clouding his judgment, clearly not realizing the danger of the situation.

- What the hell is he doing?! JERRY!!! JERRY, STOP YOU IDIOT!!! – Sam shouted, but to no avail. Mike was still holding Riley, who was terrified from what he was seeing. Adam tried to stop him, but Sam quickly hold his arm.

- Dude, what are you doing, we need to stop him – Adam looked at Sam with a furious look.

- No way, it’s too dangerous. - As much as Sam liked Jerry as friend, he was not going to commit suicide for him, nor let his friend for the matter. – Look.

Adam looked back and to his horror saw Jerry right near Ashley’s sandals, her red-painted toes wiggling with impatience. He was still waving his arms and shouting loudly like a maniac. Adam knew at that moment what was about to happen. And that realization send a terrifying shiver trough his spine.

- Well, I guess I’ll just look for him back to the library… - and with that she turned back. Her sandal raised above Jerry and came crushing down. A new set of loud booms and tremors were felt, as she went back to the door and closet it.

When the four boys rebalanced themselves, they looked in horror were Jerry used to be. But instead of a jumping, shouting maniac, there was only a red splat…