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...Fifteen Years Ago, Seattle First Memorial Hospital

Smith hopped from the back of the ambulance, quickly dragging the gurney out. Looking to the side, there was another ambulance pulling up, then another and another. There was an entire line of ambulances. He'd never seen anything like it. Teams of nurses, interns, and doctors rushed to the ambulances.

"What happened to this patient?" a doctor asked.

"His legs were crushed." Smith answered. "He lost a lot of blood on the way here."

"Was this some kind of industrial accident?"

"I don't know. We picked him up from the movie theater like this. The whole government was there; the FBI, DoD, NSA, ATF, Homeland... They wouldn't tell us anything. I think it was some kind of terrorist attack."

"Doctor, this man can't wait any longer for surgery." a nurse yelled.

Smith watched as the wounded were rushed into the hospital. He heard the radio in his ambulance crackling in the background.

"Smith, get back in the bus. They're calling us back to the theater. There's more wounded." his partner called out to him from the driver's seat.

"What the hell happened at that theater Donnie?"


* * *




...Eight Hours Earlier, Center Square Cineplex

Alana liked it when the other students referred to her as a nerd. She was smarter than them. She knew it, and they knew it. But she didn't fit the stereotypical nerd paradigm. She had the looks too. All the guys at the high school, even some of the teachers, couldn't keep their eyes off her large breasts. Some of them preferred her long toned legs. She was the total package. And one day, she would be filthy rich thanks to her new invention. That would complete the trifecta; brains, looks, AND money. Not even out of high school, and she was already damn near perfect.

So why was she stuck at this crappy less than minimum wage job!? Because of a few stupid speeding tickets? The judge's ruling had infuriated her. But it was the movie theater, or lose her license until she turned 21. Community service was a pain in the ass.

And what did her glamorous new job entail? Mostly, doing the menial work her coworkers were too lazy to do. Alana found herself cursing her coworkers on a regular basis, under her breath of course. She didn't care what they thought of her or anything like that, but she didn't want her license revoked for failing to comply with the judge's orders either.

"I'm a frickin' genius, and I'm changing toilet paper rolls. This is bullshit." she muttered under her breath while she swapped one roll after another. "And why do I have to do this, because of these lazy bastards who will probably be working at this theater for the rest of their lives. Did Einstein have to change toilet paper rolls?"

"Are you bitchin' in there again?"

"Shut up Billy! I don't see you doing anything." Alana liked Billy, a little bit. She could stand to be around him for more than five minutes at a time. That was more than she could say for anyone else working at the theater.

"This place sucks, and you know it. I'm not doing anything unless they make me. Wanna go out back and have a smoke?"

"Maybe later, the boss is riding my ass. Which is great, because she doesn't give a rat's ass what anyone else does around here. Just me, because I HAVE to be here."

"It's just a few more weeks Ally, then you never have to come back."

"Yeah, a few more weeks of hell!" Alana wasn't sure she liked Billy's new pet name for her, but she tolerated it. At least she had someone to talk to... "If I have to listen to one more complaint from a customer, I think I'll go nuts. They complain about everything. The popcorn isn't fresh. The theater smells bad. Maybe it wouldn't smell bad if idiots would stop spilling their shit everywhere!"

"Calm down Ally, you're gonna have a heart attack or something."

"Do me a favor Billy, go home early tonight."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

"Yeah, whatever Ally." he agreed halfheartedly, pulling a pack of smokes from his pocket while he walked out of the bathroom.

Alana finished her important task in the bathrooms. As usual, most of her coworkers decided to leave early for the weekend. Didn't they know Friday night was the busiest night of the week? Like they cared... Once again, she was stuck running the place virtually by herself. Some of her coworkers stayed to watch the premier of the latest Hollywood blockbuster; something about robots again. She wondered how people could watch the same derivative crap over and over again.

Alana looked around the theater lobby. Everyone was gone or watching the movie. It was time. She snuck into the projection room and connected her device to the projector. By the time anyone noticed anything strange, it would already be too late.

Patting herself on the back, she went back to the concession stand and grabbed some candy from behind the counter. The device would burn itself out, but she could build another one. Prototypes were never perfect. Alana walked to the front doors of the theater with a long piece of red licorice hanging from her lips. She locked the doors to prevent any unwelcome interruptions.

This was the first real test of her device. It was exciting. She knew it would work. But still, actually seeing its effects on real people would be a thrill. Although, she doubted the idiots in the theater would be as enthusiastic as she was. They wouldn't be happy at all.

Alana glanced at the timer on her watch. The twenty minutes were up. The people in the auditorium were ready for her to make her grand entrance. She could feel the excitement tingling through her nerves as she stepped through the large doors to the main auditorium.

One of them was already on the floor at her feet. The lighting was dimmed, but she still recognized him. It was Billy. Some of the excitement instantly drained out of her. Billy wasn't supposed to be there. She hadn't expected that.

"Ally? Is that you?" he squeaked up at her from the floor.

"Damn it Billy! I told you to go home. Why doesn't anyone listen to me!?"

"I just wanted to see the new movie! W-What happened to u-uss?"

Alana raised her knee, lifting her foot into the air. "I didn't want to do this to you. Fucking hell, I can't leave any witnesses! I'll make it quick. You won't feel it."

Billy fell onto his back, staring up at the dirty sole of Alana's black leather flat. She wore those same shoes to work every day, never with socks or stockings. They were dirty and dingy, and probably smelled. There were bits of popcorn stuck to the worn rubber tread. He wasn't anxious to become another stain on the bottom of her shoe. "Ally! Wait! For God's sak--"

She stomped her foot down, crushing her only friend at the theater. Alana took a few deep breaths while she stood on whatever was left of Billy. It was harder than she thought it would be. Billy was hard. The rest of the frickin' idiots in the auditorium would be easy.

Alana lifted her foot off Billy, stepping aside slowly. Her knees were trembling slightly. She couldn't bear to look down. "Sorry Billy." It was a heartfelt apology, genuine, something that wasn't easy for her. Not that it meant much to Billy now... Alana focused on the task at hand. After tonight, they would shut the theater down for sure. She would be one of the lucky survivors. Her community service would be over, once and for all.

Alana kicked off her flats, wiggling her bare toes on the red carpet. It felt good to get out of her shoes. She did her best to ignore the sticky feeling under her soles. It wasn't her feet. They weren't dirty. It was the theater's carpet. She knew this. It was always dirty, no matter how many times they cleaned it. There was always a new spill, a new stain, or more food crushed into the floor. There were about to be several more new stains.

A middle aged woman wandered out from under one of the seats. She saw a teenager standing in the middle of the room, wearing the standard theater uniform. The red shirt and black slacks were a dead giveaway. She was an impossibly tall teenager, standing in the center of the room with her shoes off.

"Hey! Down here! Help!" the woman shouted, straining her voice.

Alana noticed movement near her right foot. She crouched down, staring at the tiny thing moving closer to her. "What seems to be the problem, ma'am?" She gave the little woman her best fake smile.

"Are you stupid or something?" the woman shouted up at Alana. "We're all fucking tiny! You have to get help! Call someone! Call 911!"

The fake smile quickly faded from Alana's face, replaced with a deep scowl. "AM I stupid?" she scoffed "I know you're small. I made you that way. Did you think it was magic or something? You're so much easier to dispose of this way." She pinched the little thing between her fingers, lifting her from the floor. "Enjoy the smell." She shoved the woman into the space between her big and second toe.

"You can't do this to me! It isn't right! Oh God, it stinks..."

Alana curled her toes, slowly squeezing the life out of the woman. After a few seconds, the screaming stopped. She could only assume that her plaything could no longer breathe; her toes were crushing the air out of her lungs. It was probably a mercy. it had been a long day, and Alana had no doubt her feet smelled a little. The tiny idiot between her toes was beating her fists against her second toe, as if to cry uncle. Alana squeezed her toes together as hard as she could, causing a wet explosion. The woman burst like a ripe grape, spritzing Alana's bare skin with hot blood.

For some reason, the feeling made Alana smile. It felt nice. The pleasant warmth between her toes was quickly fading, but that was okay. There were plenty more tiny people that needed to be dealt with.

The movie was still playing, but Alana had no interest in watching giant robots save Earth from aliens for the umpteenth time. She sat down in a nearby aisle seat to watch her own special show. Tiny people scurried around the floor like bugs. Some of them were still in their seats, stranded on the cushions. Something wiggled under her butt.

"Oops, I should be more careful where I sit!" she laughed, crossing her legs.

The wiggling stopped suddenly. The little lump under her butt seemed to flatten out. Her pants felt damp under one of her cheeks. In the back of her mind, she knew there would be a stain on her pants that she would have to clean. It was worth it, she decided.

There was a whole tub of popcorn just sitting in the seat beside Alana. And tonight, it WAS fresh. She grabbed a small handful of popcorn, popping it into her mouth one piece at a time while she watched everyone running around screaming. Shrinking them sure didn't make them any smarter.

As she went to pick another piece of popcorn out of her hand, she felt something squirming between her fingers. A tiny man looked up at her with fear in his eyes. The man must have been trapped in the popcorn tub after he shrank.

The tiny thing wriggled between her thumb and forefinger. A thin coating of butter from the greasy popcorn on Alana's fingertips made handling the squirming toy a bit tricky. When she put more pressure on it, squeezing it harder, it squeaked loudly. She rolled it around a bit with her fingers, listening to the funny sounds it made.

"I wonder what you taste like?"

"Oh God NOO! Please don't!" the man screeched.

Lucky for the tiny thing, Alana was a vegetarian. She mashed her fingers together, squishing the life out of it. A greasy mess oozed down her fingers. Alana wiped them clean with a paper napkin, wadding it up and tossing it aside.

"Enough fun, time to get to work." she declared to her captive audience.

Alana rose from her chair, charging a nearby group of miniature patrons. They weren't prepared for her speed. Her foot landed squarely in the middle of the group of people, flattening several of them instantly. With a twist of her ankle, she swung her foot over the survivors. It was a little too easy, disappointing in a way.

"Come out come out wherever you are."

Alana walked up and down the aisles squishing people. She experimented, using different parts of her foot to dispose of them. Some she crushed with her heel, others with her big toe. and many she smushed under the ball of her foot. Looking back at her handiwork, she wasn't doing a very good job. Many of the people were still alive, only partially crushed. She could have gone back and finished the job, but why bother? Surely they would bleed to death eventually, succumbing to their injuries.

Stifling a yawn with her hand, she decided to postpone cleaning up the mess she'd created. She could come back in the morning, before the theater was scheduled to open. All that cleaning would be so much easier after a good night's rest. It would be like all those people just vanished, a mass disappearance.

Walking back toward the entrance to the auditorium, Alana thought about whether or not she should clean her feet. She would get the insides of her shoes dirty if she didn't. Ultimately, she decided it didn't matter. No one would search for the missing people in her footwear. The thought of the police combing her shoes for missing people made her laugh.

Right as she was about to leave, she spotted another small gathering of people hiding in the corner. "You sneaky little bastards!" She bent down to pick them up, chuckling to herself. "I guess you were the smartest ones here, thinking to hide like that. Too bad I'm smarter!" One by one, she deposited each of them inside her flats. She could hear them screaming, and complaining about the smell. "Oh if you think it's bad now, just wait!" She stood back up, raising her left foot over her shoe. The screams grew even louder.

Alana tried her best to put her shoe on without crushing them. She felt a small pop under her heel as she slipped her foot all the way into her flat. "I guess that's not so bad, only lost one so far." She nudged her other shoe with her big toe. "Your turn!" The remaining screams were silenced as her foot lowered into her shoe. She was sure they were all still screaming their heads off under her soles; she just couldn't hear them anymore.

She took a step forward and instantly laughed. All of the little pops reminded her of stepping on bubble wrap, albeit very messy bubble wrap. The insole in her shoe felt damp and spongy.

Swinging her other foot forward, she felt another shoeful of people squish beneath her. "What a pathetic way to die..." Alana fished her car keys from her pocket as she strolled out of the theater.


* * *




...Present Day, Seattle State Penitentiary

Alana sat in her cell in the high security wing, staring at the wall. In less than a week, she would be dead at the ripe old age of 32. She hadn't received a penny of the revenue generated by the shrinking technology she had pioneered. Instead, a large percentage of the proceeds were distributed amongst the families of her victims. If only she had known her victims would return to their normal size after a few hours, she would have gone back to the theater sooner and cleaned up her mess. All of her calculations had suggested the effects of the shrinking device were permanent. It was a mistake she'd been beating herself up over for the last fifteen years. She wasn't in prison for killing those idiots. She was in prison because she was caught, because she failed to test her device more thoroughly. Hindsight is a bitch.

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