Chapter 2 - The Chemistry Lab Accident

I was an average college freshman at CNU.  I was the normal guy in every sense of the word.  I stood at around 5’10” with a full-head of medium-length chestnut brown hair, with a slightly freckled face.  I was even a member of the cymbal line in the university’s world-renowned marching band.

I had survived my first semester of college and was ready to go home if it wasn’t for my last exam being on Friday afternoon.  I knew I could easily pass the exam as it was my best class, Music Theory 200.  I was a music composition major and was very successful at it thus far, putting in hours everyday to practice as well as writing original music.

I was looking around in the Forbes Math and Science Center on campus trying to find a free room that I could sit down and review my Music Theory notes in solitude.  I knew I would pass the exam but I wanted to look over the material anyway to ensure my success.

The Forbes Math and Science Center was a very large building.  It was built most recently due to the need of more academic space on the main campus, and because of this fact, many of the rooms were still unnumbered, especially in the back corridors of the second and top floors, where I found myself searching.

As I weaved through the maze of hallways on the second floor I couldn’t help but notice that virtually every classroom was occupied, despite the fact it was nearing 7:30pm.  I opened different doors and found that I was looking into labs for various sciences Biology, Physics, Ecology, and Chemistry to be more specific and found that there were one or two people studying in each.

I turned down a long, straight hallway that ran along the back end of the building and spotted a friend of mine named Megan.  She was a Junior at CNU and a fairly good-looking girl standing at about 5’3” with long chestnut colored hair that curled slightly at the ends and sun-kissed skin.  She was a former member of the drum line, where she had earned the nickname ‘Newton,’ and we hug out fairly often because she was friends with my girlfriend Steph.

“Hey half-brother,” she engaged me.  She called me half-brother because we shared the same last name.

“What’s up half-sister,” I responded, exasperated from my search.

“I am assuming you are looking for a study spot,” she inquired.

“How’d you know,” I joked dryly.

“Lucky guess,” she said with a smile, “if you are quick I just got out of a chemistry lab down the hall on the right about six doors down.”

“Thanks Megan,” I said with a relieved tone, “I am so lucky I ran into you.”

“No problem,” she responded, “I have to get going to do some lab work for my Ecology final tomorrow, but I will see you later.”

With that, we broke off and went our separate ways.  I found myself walking fairly quickly making a b-line toward the door she had described.  When I reached the door I reached out and grabbed the knob hoping I would not find anybody inside.  I turned the knob and pushed the door open and immediately noticed a smell resembling rotten eggs.

Looking around I saw nobody.  I mentally thanked Megan for being so helpful to me as I made my way to a table in the center-left of the room.

My binder seemed to feel as if they were getting slightly heavier as I reached out over the table and set them down.  I slid a blue hard-plastic seat out from the right side of the table and sat down.  Opening the binder, I began to turn to the section of notes for music theory, then everything started to swirl around me as my head fell toward the desk as everything turned black.

I woke up on a cold tile floor, not knowing exactly where I was or how I had gotten there.  The only observation I could actively make was everything was really big.  

Directly above me was a large, rough wooden surface that stretched about 15’ in either direction left-to-right.  This surface stood atop two large metal columns and a wooden wall that ran the length of the opposing side.

Beside me was a tall metal pillar that was slightly slanted with a large base.  It ran up to the underside of a blue plastic platform where it met with other metal structures.

As I pushed myself up to a standing position my head scraped slightly on the bottom to the wooden platform.  I came out from underneath and realised just where I was.  It all came flooding back to me.

“I must’ve shrunk when I passed out,” I thought to myself.

I walked over to the chair and stood next to it.  The platform now stood just underneath the level of my ribs.  I guessed that I was about 2’6”.  I braced my hands on the top of the chair and hoisted my body on top of it.

My binder was still on the table top, opened to a section of my notes for a class studying Greek myth.  I exhaled deeply as the gravity of the situation began to set in further.

That’s when I had a troubling thought, “how am I going to get out of here.”