Great strides can only carry a person so far. Even her giant strides could only carry Hannah to the edge of the Carolina’s before she grew tired and had to rest. The best she could say was that she had not been attacked since she had crossed the Georgia state line. So as she lay her head down to sleep she worried about what the morning would hold.

As Hannah slept, around the world governments went to work solidifying their boarders to prepare for what they believed would be Hannah’s invasion of their sovereign territory. A few nations though were intrigued by the problem she presented. They understood better than most that if her growth was not halted that she would destroy the planet and everyone on it. Those nations banded together and began researching her condition pouring through every last one of her medical records to try and find something that might give them a clue to the root of the issue.

The nations interested in protecting humanity not just their boarders reached out to the United States and pleaded a case to allow them to study the girl and to stop the madness that had gripped the world in the past few days. They promised to be able to halt her growth. A promise that at the time it was made they were unsure they could keep.

With that promise though a shaky kind of peace was made. The American military would stand down and some of their top minds would join the group of nations to work on the problem at hand.

Planes lifted off from countries all over the world heading for the United States. Most hoping they could get there before the girl awoke so that she could be made stable. The girls parents were flown to the area where she slept so that they could try and beg her to stay put so people could study her. So that maybe they could help her stop growing and maybe keep the rest of the world safe.

As the world raced either toward oblivion or toward salvation the girl continued to grow larger as she slept. In the US screens were built and sound systems rigged so that once again the President could beg the girl to not move any further north and allow the doctors and scientist from all over the world a chance to solve her problem. As the world feared what would happen boarders became contested in Europe. Old rivals France and Germany broke out into a regional war that threatened to bring the rest of the world into play. Countries in the Middle East began fighting with each other. Over a third of the world found themselves in conflict as the sun began to rise in the Eastern United States.

Only a handful of the scientists that were coming were on the ground when Hannah began to awaken. Those that were could not believe what they were seeing. The girl was as large as a skyscraper. Each of them were amazed that there was almost no trace of radioactivity left on the girl. It was as though the girl had shed all the radio activity in a single night. Most were at a total lost to explain her or anything about her. She simply defied science. She simply shouldn’t exist. She was to big.

Hannah sat up rubbing her eyes when she noticed that a pretty large screen had been erected overnight near her location. She also noticed that there were a lot of people in the area but no real army people so that was something.

The screen came to life. The sound system crackled to life and in an instant the president of the United States was on the screen. “Hannah please accept my sincerest apologies. I had to look out for the very best interests of my people and we perceived you as a grave threat. Honestly most of the world sees you as one. I am not sure that I do not share that sentiment. However I have been told that there is a group of people there on the ground with you who are completely dedicated to helping you by stopping your growth and maybe even being able to get you back to normal.”

Hannah had been ready to smash the screen and continue marching northward but she had to listen to anything that might help her get back to something approaching normal. “Really you think these people can fix me?” The president continued, “I am willing to let them try and hopefully peace will prevail. This country will take no more hostile action against you as long as you remain out of populated areas. If they can not fix this please do the people of this country a favor and go east to another continent and allow the people of this nation in peace. As is I have to try and piece together the state of Georgia.”

The president disappeared from the screen and Hannah’s parents both appeared. Her mother spoke directly to her “baby please stop moving. Let these people try to help you. You don’t have to forgive the president what he did was unforgivable but right now there are so many people willing to help you please let them try. We just want our daughter back.” Her father echoed the same thoughts and so with that Hannah sat still and waited on what she figured would be a very long day on tiny people trying to understand her and what caused her to grow like she had.

Hannah doubted very much that anyone could answer that question she even doubted that they could stop what was happening to her as she seemed to get larger with every passing hour.

Hannah had kind of gotten use to the idea of being nude. Still knowing that people were around and were working around the clock to stop what was happening she was a little self-conscious and so she sat in a manner that kept her from being so exposed.

In the war room where scientist kept pouring in from all over the world theories came in all shapes and sizes. The one that seemed to be gaining the most traction was one that seemed to fit what they knew about her. She had abnormal growth hormones in her system. The human body normally stops growing because there is a set in genetic marker for height. People only function so well at certain heights so anything that harms the function has to be stopped. Growth hormone turns off because at some point a person is to big to function and can not consume enough food ect, ect. For whatever reason her growth hormone seemed to be in hyper drive. How it had been missed for so many years was a mystery. How it had not been treated was just as big a mystery. Still though the hormone should have checked itself and shut down in her body when she reached a certain height but now it was like her entire body was increasing the amount of the hormone instead of cutting back. While she should be slowing down in growth she was speeding up. Her body was in a war with thousands of years of evolution.

The plan that was being floated at the moment was a type of mixture that would shut down the bodies functions to produce the hormone. It would allow her body to stop growing. As to getting her back to a kind of normal that was something that at the moment had most of them stumped.

A couple of very well intentioned fellows from the Ukraine had introduced a shrink ray that they had been working on. It was mostly scoffed at but a team was developed to check the viability of the project. The two fellows had some success making a banana a little smaller before it exploded all over the work room still it was a lead worth checking out.

Hannah was feed daily as much as the area could provide for her and each day she grew more, and was becoming uneasy sitting there like a sitting duck. Each day she was given a briefing on what they thought was going on and each day there was talk of a new plan on how to help. Soon though a decision would have to be made she was as large now as an entire county. People had to be moved all the time just to keep them safe. She even gave the idea of heading to the ocean some serious thought maybe then she wouldn’t hurt anyone any more.

On the fifth day of waiting, when she was nearly to the end of her rope the scientist came to her about the idea of a hormone suppressant along with a so called “shrink ray.” They were not in love with the idea of the “shrink ray” but it was the only real option they had to even try and make her smaller. They were pretty sure they could stop the growth but she would have to take medication for the rest of her life otherwise she would risk undoing all the good that they had done. The plan was to try and “shrink” her a little at a time. That is after she drank a town entire water supply from a water tower that was loaded with bunch of stuff the doctors all said would help her. The way they figured it would take the better part of a week to get her back down to something approaching normal. They would start the next day.  

Wars raged on every continent. Overnight a military coupe was thwarted in Washington D.C. the very first attempt in the nations history. The world was on the verge of tearing it’s self apart in fear over what the giant woman might do if the last ditch effort failed. Everyone in the US doubted that the President would make it through the impeachment process that was about to begin. Turmoil was everywhere on the day that science attempted something it had never tried before.

At around noon the water tower was ready for her to drink. She took it in her hands as if it were a small Sippy cup. She turned it up as the world held its breath. If she didn’t grow any more that day then it would have worked which would be a huge victory but she would have to drink more each and every day until they got her back down to size if they could even do it. She had head about the exploding fruit and was not overly impressed with the idea of being exposed to it.  Honestly the people who were working to keep her from growing were not even sure if they could continue to produce “the cure” each day since the country was trying it’s very best to fall apart.

Still by around three in the afternoon it had been determined that she had not grown any and that at least phase one of their plan had worked and so now they were ready to try the ray. It was the most desperate thing they could think of. They had no idea of what kind of long term affects it could have on her but everyone agreed it was worth the risk.

So with a little fear of the unknown the ray was charged and turned on and ran for close to thirty minutes as everyone there watched in amazement as the gigantic woman in front of them became less gigantic. She had been as large as a small mountain and after the first use she was only as large as a large skyscraper. Peace broke out in most places of the world all while the US continued to slide toward anarchy.

By day three the government was on it’s last legs several states had withdrawn from the union. The good news was that Hannah was still drinking her medicine and was now the size of a pretty good-sized house. It looked like the plan was working and the world was ready to rejoice.

Two more days passed and civil war had broken out in the Americas. The lone good news was that Hannah was under ten feet tall and she was almost back to the height she had been before this whole crazy business had started. She and her family were taken into safe keeping by what amounted to the Southern States Union.

A lot of talk was had as to if she should be allowed to grow again so she could be a weapon on their side. It was tabled however when the leader of the Southern States said that she had been through enough and she was allowed to continue her treatments.
On day seven Hannah Prat was smaller than she had ever been as a teenager. The last day of the treatment had been used to give Hannah something that she had never had before. A sense of normalcy she was taken to a very reasonable height of 5’7” tall the average height for a girl of her age.

The world might have been falling apart around her but Hannah was able to wear a dress that her mother got for her. It was the first real dress she had ever worn that was a normal size and to her it was beautiful. It was white with big blue flower prints on it. A blue belt/sash tied around the waist. She looked like quite the lady. Now if only she had a place to wear it.