Chapter 1: The Plight of Zack Dugan

A group of people stood on a hill on California’s central coast in the pre-dawn hours of a Friday in August. The comet was visible only during night time, and dominated a quarter of the sky. A woman held her husband’s hand.

“Within six months, our entire civilization will be wiped out,” the woman said to her husband. “All of our monuments and achievements will be wiped away. Do you think another race will find our planet some day, and colonize it?”

“Never give up hope,” her husband replied. “I have faith that mankind will survive.”

“But how?” the woman asked. “Every reputable scientist from every country has said all intelligent life on Earth will go extinct!”

“That I don’t know,” he replied. “But I have faith in my higher power that we will pull through all of this.”

Later that day, Zack Dugan was penniless as usual, walking down the sidewalk, hoping his fortune would change. Zack had gotten to the point of ignoring the news, and just accepted that humanity would be wiped out by the comet that was on a collision course with Earth. He spotted a hundred dollar bill floating in the breeze near a bank ATM, and snagged it. About a block further down the street, an unusual vehicle was parked that resembled a Ferrari or a Lhamborghini, but was neither. Zack couldn't recognize the make or model of the vehicle. A young man got out, and introduced himself to Zack.

"Hi, my name won't matter to you, but I'm about to tell you something that is beyond belief, so please hear me out."

"What kind of a car is this?" Zack asked.

"It's not a car as you know them," the strange man answered, "this is a time vehicle disguised to look like a car."

"Really?" Zack asked. "You're from the future?"

"I'm from about five-thousand years in the future. I can win a spot at Oxford University in my century if I win a scavenger hunt, so I can’t afford to lose this contest. Getting into a prestigious University is much more difficult in my time than it is in the 21st century."

“How will humanity survive the comet heading our way?” Zack asked.

“I can’t tell you that right now, I just need to cut a deal with you,” the man from the future explained.

"I'm taking a year off from school myself," said Zack. "I graduated high school a couple of months ago, and I plan on starting junior college in about a year. So what do you need from me?" 

"I need a hundred dollar bill from this era, and I can't replicate it, or they'll know I cheated. I'm being monitored, and there are only specific ways I can acquire it. I can't steal it, someone has to give it to me willingly, but I'm allowed to trade for it."

"I have a hundred bucks I just found, but without it, I'd be broke as a joke trying to take a toke off a rope!” Zack replied.

"I think we can come to an agreement," said the time traveler. "In addition to making you immortal, so you'll never need food, water, or need to use the bathroom ever again, I can give you your dream. What is something you've always wanted?"

"How about a shrink ray gun?" Zack asked. "I could pick up on a hot college chick, and have her shrink me!"

The young man from the future pulled out a small device and handed it to Zack. It was in a baggie, with some paperwork and a flash drive inside, and a two chargers as well. "Here is a neutrino dissimilator! It's a more simplified version, so it can be easily reverse-engineered by scientists from your era. My counterpart from my near future traveled back in time to let me know exactly when and where to go, and what I would need to acquire the one hundred dollar bill from you, that's why I'm so well prepared."

Zack took the baggie with the device and other items inside.

The future man pulled out another device, and aimed it at Zack. "One pull from this trigger, and you're immortal. Do we have a deal?"

Zack pulled out his wallet, and handed over the hundred dollar bill. The man aimed and pulled the trigger. "You're immortal now. You're invulnerable to temperature extremes, you'll never need food or water again unless you choose to eat or drink, and you'll never need to use the bathroom unless you drink more water." 

The man pulled out another device and handed it to Zack. "This is a neural stimulator, if some woman swallows you after you're miniaturized, she can use this to make herself vomit you up. The immortality I gave you also makes you invulnerable to stomach acid. It was a pleasure doing business with you! Oh, and by the way, whoever keys that shrink ray gun to recognize their unique chromosome pattern will be the only person able to operate the shrink ray, so don't let it fall into the wrong hands."

The man got back in his futuristic vehicle, and the gull-wing door slid shut, and the vehicle sped off into the distance and turned a corner, and was gone.

"I'm in Alyssa Archer's neighborhood," said Zack to himself, "her dad is an electrical engineer and her mom is CEO of an electronics research and development firm, so maybe I should show her the shrink ray gun."

Zack walked a few blocks and knocked on a door. A dark blonde-haired girl about 11 years old answered the door, wearing shorts and a tank top.

"Hi, Zack!" said Alyssa. "What brings you here?" 

"You're not going to believe this!" said Zack. "I think I have a shrink ray gun!" Zack waved the baggie in front of her, and Alyssa could see what looked like a pistol inside.

"Come on in!" said Alyssa. "My parents aren't home right now."

"I met a guy from five-thousand years in the future, and he made me immortal and gave me a shrink ray pistol," said Zack. "I don't ever need to eat or drink water again, or use the bathroom."

Zack dumped out the baggie on the dining room table. There was a neutrino dissimilator pistol, a neural stimulator, two charging devices, a flash drive, and some paperwork. Alyssa took the paperwork and started reading.

Zack continued: "Since your Dad is an electrical engineer, I was hoping he could try to reverse engineer it, so we could find a way to shrink that comet! Your family might save humanity! Since your mom and my mom are friends, I knew I could trust you."

Alyssa replied: "It says here, that you shrink someone or something by keying one of the buttons on the sizing scope. Each button corresponds to a particular ratio, so one over seventy-two would reduce a six foot tall man down to an inch tall!"

"I'm just about six feet tall!" said Zack.

"Do you want to volunteer so I can test it out?" Alyssa asked.

"Sure, why not?" said Zack, and he stood up and walked to the center of the living room. Zack gave the thumbs up signal and said, “Rock and roll!"

As soon as Zack held his right thumb up, Alyssa pressed the 1/72 button and pressed the trigger, and Zack was instantly reduced down to an inch tall. Alyssa knelt down and looked at Zack. She lowered the palm of her hand in front of him.

"Step onto my hand, I command you!" said Alyssa.

"You command me?" Zack asked, as he stepped onto her palm. "Alyssa, don't get carried away!" Alyssa rose to a standing position, carefully cupping Zack with her right hand as he stood on her left palm.

"You don't get any say in the matter any more," said Alyssa, "You were stupid for trusting me. I'm keeping you this size, and I'm never showing the shrink ray to my parents, I'm keeping it a secret!"

Alyssa went to the kitchen and got a coffee mug that was too steep for Zack to climb out of, and dropped him in. She carried the mug to her bedroom. She set the mug on her desk, then retrieved the contents of the baggie the shrink ray pistol came in, as well as the neural stimulator. She had a home computer in her bedroom, so she plugged the flash drive into her computer, and began reading.

"It says here that I can key the shrink ray gun to my unique chromosome pattern, so no one else can use it. I think I'll do that!"

Alyssa went to a shelf and got some bubble gum, and opened a piece and began chewing. When it was moist, she followed the directions on the flash drive and hooked up the cable from the charger cord to the shrink ray pistol on one end, and into the USB port on her computer on the other end. She pressed the piece of bubble gum into a sensor on the pistol, and a green light came on.

"Done!" said Alyssa. "According to the instructions, I've successfully programmed the shrink ray to only respond to my DNA pattern!” Alyssa got the bubble gum and put it back in her mouth. "Zack, now that you're my prisoner, let's blow a bubble together!"

Alyssa dumped the inch tall Zack into her hand, and popped him into her mouth. She carefully maneuvered her tongue so she could manipulate the gum without hurting Zack, and tried to blow a bubble with Zack inside the bubble. Zack tried to stay still, but the bubble didn't stay whole for too long, and collapsed around him, so he felt himself being pulled back into Alyssa's mouth by her tongue.

She blew another bubble, and this time, Zack was successfully inside. Alyssa kept blowing the bubble until it popped, then laughed as she dragged Zack back into her mouth with her tongue.

"There's no escape from me!" said Alyssa. "So you're immortal now, right Zack? I wonder how long you can last in my stomach."

"Wait!" said Zack. "That other device is a neural stimulator, it will make you vomit if I'm in your stomach!"

Alyssa pulled Zack out of her mouth with one hand, then shoved Zack back into the coffee mug. She reached over and grabbed the neural stimulator.

"You mean this thingie?"

"Yes!" said Zack. "I don't want to be trapped in your stomach."

Zack tried to untangle himself from the bubble gum that surrounded his body. Alyssa reached in and grabbed him just as he untangled himself. She lifted him above her mouth, and licked her lips while gazing at him.

"How would it feel to end up in the belly of an eleven year old girl?" Alyssa asked.

Before Zack could respond, Alyssa let go of him, and Zack tumbled down onto her tongue. Alyssa closed her mouth around him, and swallowed him! Alyssa lifted her shirt slightly, revealing her belly button, and laughed. She soon directed her attention to the computer, and read up on the theory behind miniaturization. After about ten minutes, she felt she knew enough, and reached for the neural stimulator.

Meanwhile, in the depths of Alyssa's stomach, Zack swam around in her chyme. It was very warm, but the heat of her stomach didn't bother him, because of his immortality. The ten minutes swimming around went by quickly, so when Alyssa aimed the neural stimulator at her head and pulled the trigger, Zack was forced upwards through Alyssa's esophagus, and through her mouth and down and out into a bowl Alyssa had gotten from the kitchen. Alyssa fished Zack out of the vomit.

"So how was it in there?" Alyssa asked.

"Not too bad," said Zack.

"Well, you'd better get used to it!" said Alyssa. "It's going to happen a lot!"

To be Continued!

Chapter 3: Abandoned House Party

At an abandoned house in the central coast town where Alyssa lived, some teenagers were getting ready to throw a party. A 21-year-old agreed to buy a beer keg, and his younger cohorts helped carry it into the house.

Alyssa and her best friend Victoria were driven there by Britney, Victoria’s older sister. Britney was a college student and had a driver’s license and a car. Alyssa carried Zack, who was tied to a lanyard Alyssa wore around her neck as they walked inside. Alyssa stuck Zack in her mouth and sucked on him. 

There was a car battery hooked up to a power inverter, so they could have music and lighting. A teenage boy stood at the keg and pumped beer into the red plastic cups of the other teens. There was an equal mix of girls and boys, but most of them were high school freshman or older. Alyssa and Victoria were the youngest kids there.

As the afternoon progressed, the older kids started getting drunk. Alyssa stood on a plastic milk crate and made an announcement. She held Zack aloft and addressed the crowd.

“I’m Alyssa Archer, and this is my shrunken captive, Zack Dugan.”

The other kids stopped what they were doing and listened to Alyssa. 

“I miniaturized him with a shrink ray gun that is keyed in to my unique DNA pattern, so I and only I can use it. If any of you hurt him, I’ll shrink you too! Now, I need to leave him here so my parents don’t find him. Will some of you volunteer to keep an eye on him?”

A sophomore stepped forward. “My older sister went to school with Zack, I think she dated him. I’ll look after him!”

Alyssa took off the lanyard and handed the inch tall Zack to the girl. The two exchanged phone numbers and made small talk. “If you want to swallow him, you can,” said Alyssa, “he’s immortal, so you don’t have to worry about hurting him, just puke him up afterwards.” Alyssa turned and went home.

Lisa, the girl who agreed to care for Zack, set him on the palm of her hand while some of the other kids crowded around.

Lisa had long dark hair. Her friend, a girl the same age as her with short blonde hair, said, “His owner said you could swallow him, Lisa!”

Lisa smiled mischievously. “I’ve always wanted to swallow a shrunken man! In movies and tv shows, whenever someone is shrunk, they never get swallowed! That’s the first thing I would think of when encountering a shrunken person.”

“How do you feel about that, little man?” the blonde girl asked with a sinister smile. “Would you like to go on a journey to Lisa’s belly?”

“Now that I’m an inch tall, why does everyone want to swallow me now?” Zack asked.

“He’s tied to this lanyard, help me untie him,” Lisa asked her friend. The two of them, working together, managed to untie Zack.

Lisa lifted him high above her mouth, and said, “Prepare to journey to the belly of a mighty maiden!”

After saying this, she opened her mouth and dropped Zack. He fell straight into her mouth, and she clamped her jaw shut behind him. With one fluid motion, she forced him to the back of her throat and forcefully swallowed him. Zack was powerless to overcome the strength of Lisa’s throat muscles, so he slid down her gullet and splashed down in her stomach cavity.

Lisa threw her hands up in victory, and the kids cheered. She high-fived her blonde friend, then grabbed a red plastic cup and got some beer.

Meanwhile, Alyssa got dropped off at her house by Britney just before her mother arrived.

“Where is Zack?” Mrs. Archer asked.

“I told you, he went home,” said Alyssa.

“Your father thinks you shrunk him, and I’m starting to get suspicious as well.” 

“Mom, Zack is going to be fine! Now get back to work and I’ll order some pizza.”

Mrs. Archer pulled out her cell phone and called Zack’s mother. She questioned her extensively, but didn’t let on that Zack had given Alyssa a shrink ray. After hanging up, Mrs. Archer confronted Alyssa.

“I want you to stop playing games with me. You swallowed those gold fish we bought for you, and my gut tells me you did something to Zack! Is he here in the house? Or did you give him to somebody?”

Alyssa pulled out an Icosahedron die and threw it onto the dining room table. “Let’s roll for it! If you get a higher score than me, I’ll tell you where Zack is!”

Mrs. Archer grabbed the die and clenched it in her fist. “I’m not gambling with you, Alyssa, now tell me what happened to Zack! Did you swallow him?” Mrs. Archer tossed the die back onto the table.

Alyssa nodded her head up and down gently, indicating that she was implying the affirmative to her mother’s question.

“Alyssa, he was a human being! You had no right to end a human life like that!”

“It was satisfying, mom!” Alyssa replied. “It gave me a sense of power, and I was so overwhelmed with my emotions that I couldn’t help myself!”

“How long ago did you swallow him?” Mrs. Archer asked.

“A couple of hours ago,” Alyssa replied.

“Well, he’s probably been digested by your stomach acid by now,” said Mrs. Archer. “You need to keep this a secret from everyone except your father and me. When he reverse engineers that shrink ray gun, we will be the richest people on Earth!”

Mrs. Archer departed and went back to the research facility in her car.

Alyssa waited until her mom’s car was gone, then called Lisa.

“My plan worked, my mom thinks I swallowed Zack and digested him! How is he doing?”

“He’s Tommy-knocking around in my belly as we speak!” said Lisa. Both Alyssa and Lisa broke up in laughter. 

To Be Continued!

Chapter 4: Possible Breakthrough

At the Lorbrulgrud research facility, Alyssa’s father was making headway in his research of the neutrino dissimilator his wife had given to him. When Mrs. Archer arrived, he had great news for her.

“I’ve figured out how to isolate the graviton gauge!” said Mr. Archer. “With present day technology, it would take an object with the mass of Jupiter orbiting a neutron star to detect one graviton particle every hundred years. This thing can detect them in sub-atomic particles! We currently believe that gravitons are massless dimensional strings, but according to this technical journal on this flash drive, gravitons have mass.”

“Can you demonstrate it for me?” Mrs. Archer asked.

“Yes, you see that block of metal on that table? I have the graviton gauge hooked up to my the mainframe computer right now. It can detect every quark and gluon particle composing every atom in that block of metal!”

“How long would it take you to build one of your own?” Mrs. Archer asked.

“Not long,” he replied. “I can even name the gravimetric units after myself, I think I’ll call them Archons! I might win the Nobel prize!”

“Is that ethical?” Mrs. Archer asked.

Just then, a news report came over the radio that was playing in the laboratory.

“Scientists say the comet that is currently visible from the northern hemisphere at night for the past few weeks that is on a collision course with Earth now has a more accurate time frame for the collision. Scientists across the globe think it is capable of wiping out all life on Earth! It will collide within three months.”

“If I can make a working neutrino dissimilator on a larger scale, astronauts may be able to launch it into orbit and use it on that comet!”

“Can it work against something that big?” Mrs. Archer asked.

“Sure, one of these buttons is 1/500, if you aimed it at the comet and fired at that ratio a few times, it should reduce the mass enough so that it won’t hurt anyone.”

“Will it have that kind of range?” Mrs. Archer asked.

“I think it will, you know, I think that time traveler chose this era to travel back to because he knew this neutrino dissimilator could be used to save the world!”

“It’s too bad Zach never lived to see that, Alyssa told me she swallowed him a couple of hours before I arrived.”

“I could’ve predicted that myself,” said Mr. Archer. “Alyssa is very mischievous. But we need to build a larger shrink ray to attack that comet. I have a cousin in the military, I can inform him of my discovery! I might be able to duplicate this graviton gauge with my own equipment, but I’m going to have to burn the midnight oil!”

Meanwhile, back at the abandoned house party, the kids had heard the announcement over the radio. Lisa was concerned, but had an idea she wanted to share with Kylie, her blonde friend.

“If that girl acquired a shrink ray gun from a time traveler like she said, maybe that means the comet won’t kill everyone.”

“Call her and tell her!” said Kylie.

Lisa got Alyssa on her cell phone. “Do you know anything about that comet that is on a collision course with Earth?”

“I wasn’t told anything about that,” Alyssa replied. “Why don’t you ask Zach?”

Lisa said she would and put her cell phone away. The other kids were in a somber mood after hearing the news report. They gathered around Lisa, expecting her to vomit Zach up and find out more about the shrink ray.

“Lisa, puke up that shrunken guy!” said Kylie, Lisa’s best friend. “Everyone wants to know if the time traveler he encountered said anything about the comet.”

Lisa knelt down and gagged herself until she vomited Zach up. He landed on the wood floor of the living room of the abandoned house where the party was, in a puddle of vomit. Lisa scooped him up.

“Zach, could you hear anything we were talking about while you were in my stomach?” Lisa asked.

“Nope!” Zach replied.

“You know that comet that we can see from Earth at night?” Lisa asked. Zach nodded the affirmative, indicating the answer yes.

Lisa continued: “It’s on a collision course with Earth. We just heard a news report saying it will collide in less than three months! Did that time traveler who gave you the shrink ray say anything about the comet?”

“No, he just mentioned that he was trying to get into Oxford university. Oh, and he said he was from five thousand years in the future.”

Lisa held Zack in the palm of her hand, while the other kids crowded around to listen to him.

“How did you end up shrunk around Alyssa?” Lisa asked.

“I was stupid enough to trust her. I chose to show her the shrink ray gun because her parents work for an electronics research facility and her dad is an electrical engineer. I thought he could reverse engineer the technology. She used a piece of gum that she chewed to wire the shrink ray so it only responds to her unique chromosome pattern.”

A teenage girl with blonde hair in a black leather mini skirt and fishnet stockings and mid calf boots approached Lisa. Zach looked her over, from her tank top down to her boots, and thought she was the sexiest girl he had seen in real life.

“If we’re all going to die when that comet hits, there’s something on my bucket list,” the girl asked Lisa.

“Yeah, what’s that?” Lisa asked.

“I’ve always wanted to swallow a shrunken man, but up until now, it was just a fantasy. Can you let me swallow Zack?”

Lisa looked at her friend Kylie, then back down at Zach. “I’ll leave it up to Zachary. Zach, do you want to be swallowed by her?”

“Definitely!” Zach shouted, and the girl grabbed him and knelt down in the ground. Zach climbed across her left thigh, climbing the fishnet stocking. 

“Do you like my legs?” the girl asked. She was only about a year younger than Zach, but he didn’t know her, because she ran with a different crowd than he did when he was a student at her high school. He knew her by face, but didn’t know her name, despite living in a small town on California’s central coast.

“You’ve got the best legs I’ve ever seen!” said Zach.

The strange girl grabbed Zach again, stood up, and lifted him over her mouth. She dropped him down onto her pink tongue and forced him to the back of her throat and swallowed him. Zach glided down the gullet of the beautiful behemoth, completely unable to resist being overpowered by her mouth and throat muscles.

Within seconds, Zach splashed down in her stomach cavity. While this was happening, the girl who swallowed him made a bee line for the door of the abandoned house, and went who knows where.

“Lisa, she’s taking Zach!” Kylie shouted at Lisa. “She’s kidnapping him!”

Lisa and Kylie tried to race to the front door, but once outside, the strange girl was nowhere to be seen.

“She’s gone!” Lisa shouted. “If anything happens to Zach, Alyssa might shrink me!”

“Then you’d better find that girl!” said Kylie.

To Be Continued!