Outside the contestant’s house the air was still and there was scarecly a sound to be heard in the cool desert night. Inside the house all eight contestants of various sizes were sleeping in various rooms, some with each other, some alone. But down in the shadows of the compound there was movement as two tiny figures stood in conversation.

“Well, are you ready?” Said four-inch Sherri, stretching her arms and looking around the giant world with the same excited feeling she got whenever she went on these late night excursions.

“Remind me again what we’re doing?” Said three-inch Tom, looking up at his larger companion. Tom came up to the middle of Sherri’s chest, and he had become more-or-less her lackey for this excursion.

“We’re going to go to the house to check on a few things.” Sherri said. “It’s a lot of fun, I’ve been doing it every night since the contestants got here!”

“Remind me while I’m still smaller than you?” Tom asked dryly.

“Well, if you run into trouble I’ll be able to help you a lot easlier.” Sherri said. “Besides, it’s fun to keep you like this!”

“As long as you make me a little bigger next time we ‘do it’.” Tom said. “I thought I was going to suffocate inside of you!”

“It felt so good when you were squirming around,” Sherri said, smiling mischevously.

“You were twice as deep as I was tall!” Tom said. “I couldn’t find the exit!”

“Maybe that’s because I held it closed!” Smirked Sherri.

“Yes, very funny that was.” Tom said sarcasticly. Sherri put her arm around Tom and hugged him to her. Dispite all the good-natured bickering they were still having a great time with each other.

“I’ll race you to the house.” Sherri said. “Go!”

Sherri took off running, Tom behind her. The distance between the buildings was only about thirty feet, but it becomes a heck of a dash when you are only a few inches tall. Due to Sherri’s size advantage she moved further ahead of Tom and finished well ahead of him.

“I win,” Said a panting Sherri to the arriving Tom.

“No fair,” Said Tom, struggling to regain his own breath. “You’re bigger than me.”

“Ah, don’t be such a sore looser,” Joked Sherri. “Now, when we go inside, just follow me and try not to make too much noise!”

For a second Tom wondered how they were going to get into the house. Then he noticed a small crease in the pannelling around the base just to the right of the front door. The crease was rectangular in shape and just a bit higher than Sherri was tall. Such a thing would have been unnoticable to a taller person unless they knew where to look.

Sherri put her fingers inside the left part of the crease and the panelling opened like a door along tiny hinges. It revealed the opening of a long passageway that stretched the whole length of the house. Tom looked it with wide eyes-he had no idea there was this system of tiny tunnels under the house!

 “Come on,” Said Sherri, stepping in. Tom followed her into the dark passageway. There were no artificial lights and the passageway was almost pitch-black in places. However, reflections of light from the stary desert sky gave them enough light to guide by. As they walked along, Tom noticed passageways heading off to the left and the right, presumably one under each room of the house. At certain points they stepped over little crevaces in the floor—points at which parts of the house could be taken off and removed.

“This is the one we’re looking for,” Sherri said, pointing to a starlit sign that read ‘Bedroom Four’ and an arrow pointing down a passageway to the right. The two of them walked halfway down the passage until they reached an opening in the celing above them. There was a small ladder built into the side of the wall that got them up to floor level and the two of them climbed it.

Tom was astonished to see that they were now inside the wall between two rooms. The wall space was no wider than he was tall, but it seemed to stretch infinitely up above him. Fortuanitely they were not going any higher for they had reached their destination. Ahead of them was a small crack in the wall that took them behind a short shelf used for stacking shoes. It was really clever construction because it would take a very close inspection to realise that the gap led somewhere.

When they emerged from the gap Tom could see that they were in in a closet. The closet door was open and they could see out into the room. It was a massive room; the largest Tom had ever been while inside the house was eight inches, and that was only for a short while. But even as everything was vastly bigger than he remembered it the memories came flooding back. The competitions, the drama, the people….

“We need to get up there.” Sherri whispered to Tom, pointing to the back of the bed near the headboard.

“How?” Tom asked. The bed looked empty but he kept his voice down anyway. The last thing he wanted was for someone to come from another room and find him here three inches tall.

“Over here,” Said Sherri, and she ran off to the back of the bed. Tom followed her as she went behind the left base of the headboard. There she pointed out a little ladder built into the back of the support which took them up to the headboard above.

“Wow,” Tom said. “There’s a lot more to this place than I thought.”

“Yeah,” Sherri said. “But I’m saving the biggest surprise for the end.”

“Biggest surprise?” Tom asked, curious.

“Don’t be getting ahead of yourself.” Sherri said. “Now, you go up first.”

Tom started ascending the ladder, the larger Sherri following under him. He didn’t want to give away his nerves to Sherri, but there was no mistaking that they were climbing several times his height into the air. He wasn’t sure how damadging a fall from this height would be on his tiny body, but he didn’t want to find out.

After half a minute of climbing Tom emerged at the back of the headboard and made way for Sherri to reach the top. He looked out on the bed and almost jumped. It was not as empty as he thought—a woman, shrunk but still far larger than himself—was sleeping near the top of the bed. He estimated correctly that the woman was quarter-height.

“Who is that?” Tom whispered to Sherri.

“That’s Vera,” Sherri said. “I like her. Remind me to show you videos when we get back.” Tom looked at Vera. Dispite the fact that she was too small to reach a doorknob on her own, Tom would not even come up to her knees if they were standing up. He wondered fleetingly what kind of woman Vera was, if she would play with him or leave him alone if she discovered him up here. He just decided not to think about it.

Sherri walked to the side of the headboard to a part where it boxed out in such a way that you would have to actually have your head inside the headboard to see. Again there was a crease, this time even smaller and finer than the one they had used to get into the house. It was unlikely a normal-sized person could spot it without magnification.

Sherri pushed the crease open and under it lied a small pannel, no more than two inches across, with three small screens and a keypad so small even Sherri had to struggle to use it. Tom walked over to get a closer look. The screens showed several images from in and around the room. The panel obviously connected all the cameras in the room, but it also mesured the temperature and humidity in different parts of the room as well as other readings.

“Can’t this be done remotely?” Tom asked. He couldn’t imagine Betty shrinking herself to check on these things durring the first season.

“Yes, but if something needs to be adjusted, I’m right here to do it.” Sherri said. She flicked though a few screens. “Everything checks out here. Come on.”

Sherri walked back to the ladder and started climbing down. Tom followed, trying to stay focused on not falling.

“Besides,” Sherri said, as they reached the bottom, “It means less people have to work on the show. The less people, the more secrecy.”

They walked back into the wall and down into the tunnels. They walked back along the branch to the central tunnel and walked towards the back of the house, this time taking a branch that went to the left. Again, they found an identicle hole that led them into the closet of a bedroom. This time the closet was closed, but the door was high enough above the ground that both Sherri and Tom could squeese under it.

There was definitely someone in this bed; Tom could tell by looking at the sheets from ground level. That meant whoever was sleeping here was more than quarter-size. This made Tom nervous because even a half-sized person could turn him into a human dildo at his size. But Sherri, nonplussed, urged him on.

Once again they climbed the ladder to the headboard and Tom looked out over the bed. This one was also inhabited by a girl, but she was half-sized. She was laying on her side and seemed to be sleeping much more deeply than Vera had been. Tom could only see her head but he could make out her outline under the sheet.

“She’s obviously taking this all better than Vera,” Tom commented to Sherri.

“That’s Carla, and she’s not the only one here, take a look.” Sherri pointed to the consol, which was identical to the last one they had used. Sherri pressed a button an an image popped up that surprised Tom. It was a view of Carla under the sheets and she was naked, but not alone. Inside her spoon was a man half her size, and inside his spoon was a girl half his size. Tom was surprised at the view; how could they get a camera down there? This added to the mystery of how so many of the voyeristic shots from the first season had been captured.

“That’s Andy and Marie. Cute, aren’t they?” Sherri said. Tom admitted it was kind of cute, but he knew that even little Marie was more than twice his height and Carla, by the looks of it, wouldn’t think twice about tuning Tom into a dildo. The fact that Carla wasn’t even full-sized as she towered over the group made Tom appreciate once again how truly tiny he really was.

“Everything checks out here.” Sherri said. “Only one more place to see before I show you your surprise.” Once again Sherri led Tom down from the headboard and back into the wall. They retraced their steps back to the central tunnel and started heading back in the direction of the house. They only went the distance of one room before turning off into another side corridor they had passed on the way here.

They entered into another closet, this one open, and Tom could tell right away that this room was inhabited by a full-sized woman. She was huge and magestic, the largest woman Tom had ever seen. She was lying flat on her back and fast asleep.

“This way,” Sherri said. Instead of directing him to the headboard as she had done the last two times she led him to the foot of the bed where covers were spilling over onto the ground. Her two gigantic feet came almost to the very end of the bed, like two large monsters looking off the edge of a cliff.

“What’s here?” Tom asked, not able to imagine anything of importance being hidden in this area.

“I’ll show you. Stay down here!” Sheri said. She walked forward to the bed and started climbing up one of the blankets. Tom’s jaw dropped as Sherri climbed the rest of theway up and emerged on top of the woman’s bed, where she was dwarfed by the woman’s feet. Then to Tom’s greater surprise, Sherri walked right over to the woman’s left foot and gave it a good tickle.

The woman stirred and Tom was mortified. The feet shifted as Sherri quickly started sliding down the covers to the ground. Tom didn’t know whether to run, hide, or wait. But Sherri was quick in coming back to the ground, and it seemed the woman wasn’t destrubed enough to be woken up.

“What was that all about?” Tom asked incredulously.

“It’s funny! You try it!” Sherri said.

“No way,” Tom said, taking a step back.

“Come on,” Sherri said, giving Tom a playful push forward. Tom sighed. He knew there was no getting out of this one. He walked forward to the base of the bed and tried to figure out how Sherri climbed it. It was not to hard to figure out—there were plenty of handholds making themselves apparents that would have never been visiable to a full-sized person.

Slowly Tom climed up to the surface of the bed, which to him seemed several stories above the ground. He was standing just inches away from a foot that was over three times his height, as wide as he was tall, and nearly as thick too. It was standing upright supported by the tremendous ankle bone, the bottom side covered in curled and wrinkled skin. Tom could not believe that this was part of a human being.

Tom looked beyond the foot to the rest of the woman. She took up the majority of the huge bed, and like Carla seemed to be sleeping peacefully. But when Tom looked carefully he saw something else. On her chest wrapped up in her arms was a quarter-sized man, and he was awake! His eyes were open and he was staring at the walls. This caused Tom to nearly jump in surprise. The man was clearly drowsy; perhaps he had woken up and couldn’t get back to sleep. That meant it was unlikely that he would look down there, and even if he did, would he see Tom in the shadows?

Tom looked down at Sherri and pointed to the man in alarm. Sherri merely made tickeling jestures back. Tom wanted to shout down to her but that would certianly attract the man’s attention. Either Sherri didn’t see him or didn’t care about him. Well, let’s get this over with said Tom to himself. He walked over to the woman’s foot, let out a big sigh, and tickled it with both hands.

There entire bed shook as the woman started shifting around. Tom thought he had woken her up. He quickly ran over to the side of the bed and leaped into the covers below, sliding down. He picked up a suprising amount of speed but then stumbled on a large protruding string. He went tumbelling down and finally rolled to the ground.

“That was hilarious!” Said Sherri, who had run over to Tom and was now helping him to his feet.

“The woman’s awake!” Tom hissed, “And she has a man with her!”

“She’s not awake.” Sherri said. Indeed the stirring had stopped. Evidently the tickling was not enough to rouse the sleeping giantess.

“She does have a man with her though, and he was awake.” Said Tom, as they made their way back to the seceret entrence in the closet.

“That’s Hailey and Jerry,” Said Sherri. “They’re nice people, but I think Hailey’s getting a little power-drunk.”

“I think Jerry’s a little uneasy if you ask me.” Tom said. “I don’t blame him.”

“Tomorrow will be an interesting day,” Sherri said. They lowered themselves back into the passageway and were heading back towards the central walkway.

“How come?” Tom asked.

“Because of the surprise I’m going to show you,” Said Sherri, smiling secretly.

“It doesn’t involve tickling any more toes, does it?” Tom asked.

“No, no,” Sherri said. “Just follow me.” They walked a little ways down the main passageway and then turned off to the side. This time they did not go halfway down the walkway but merely a few feet before there was an opening. They climbed the ladder and once again they were inside the wall. This time, however, large thick pipes ran along the side of the wall, many of them going into the wall at points far ahead. Clearly, they were in the wall behind one of the bathrooms.

“This way,” Said Sherri as they made their way along the narrow space. Many times they had to step over or slide under small pipes running along the ground. Finally they came to a thin pipe that seemed to have some kind of aparatus attached to the base. It looked like some kind of motor or pully device. On the other side was a small platform with a feeble-looking railway.

Sherri stepped over to it, and Tom tentatively followed, not liking what he was seeing. “We’re going to go up!” She announced.

“Up?” Tom asked, dubiously.

“Yes, what I’m going to show you is above.” Sherri said. “Hold on!” With that she twisted a small valve that was attached to the aparatus. There was a sound like water rushing through a pipe, and suddenly the platform took off towards the celing. Sherri whooped as Tom hung on to the railing for dear life.

The platform ascended into blackness and started slowing down. Finally there was a clicking sound as if the platform was being locked into place. Tom estimated that they were now at the height of the celing.

A small automatic light came on and revealed that they were indeed in a narrow crawlspace between the celing of the rooms and the roof of the building. Narrow was a relative term, of course, since to Tom it was at least three times his height.

“That was fun, wasn’t it?” Sherri said, grabbing Tom’s hand and leading him off onto the landing.

“I could have done without it,” Said Tom, still a little bit shaken.

“It’s not far now,” Sherri said. The crawlspace was divided up like the rest of the house and there were walls around them. They walked through this space until they reached what was clearly a door ment for people Sherri’s height. Most peculiarly, it had a lock.

“This area is extra-secure,” Sherri said, pulling a key out of her pocket and putting it in the lock. “I’m technically not even allowed to bring you up here.” The door came unlocked and Sherri pushed it open.

The door opened on a large room that was almost entierly taken up by a gigantic device that seemed to resemble a cross between a computer motherboard, an engine, and a complex electrical switchboard. There were dozens of knobs and dials indicating various levels of this, that, and the other thing. Tom could hear a faint buzzing along with what seemed like a bubbling sound.

“Any idea what this is?” Sherri asked.

“A shrinking machine?” Tom wagered.

“That’s right!” Sherri said. “This is what they look like.”

Tom walked around, looking at the various parts. Being no mechanic, he couldn’t make heads or tails of what any of the parts actually did. But he knew he was in the presence of something very powerful.

“This is something.” Remarked Tom. “Have any idea how it works?”

“Not a clue.” Sherri said. “Betty knows quite a bit about it. She said this one has advanced field projection capabilities.”

“So it can shrink anyone in the house?” Tom asked.

“Right.” Sherri said. “This model’s identical to the one in the compound, the one that shrunk you.”

Tom grunted with mock appreciation and dinged a piece of metal with his finger.

“It was just installed today.” Sherri said. “It actually takes over twelve hours to warm itself up. But once it’s warmed up it can keep running for weeks!”

“I’m sure glad we didn’t have this thing durring our competition,” Said Tom. “At least we all could feel secure in our sizes as long as we were outside the booth. I guess the players won’t have that security anymore!”

“No they won’t!” Said Sherri. “It’s going to be an interesting dynamic. Betty’s giving me a lot of imput into what happens.”

“Really,” Said Tom, impressed. “I would have never thought she’d give control to anyone!”

“I’m sure it’s not much and she holds the final cards.” Sherri said.

The two of them stood in the room, looking and listening to the human-sized machine that was going to make life very interesting for the eight people sleeping in the house below.

“Well,” Sherri said. “Let’s get going. I’m getting a bit tired and I don’t want Betty to be suspicious.”

“Good idea,” Said Tom, ready to leave this odd place and return to the relative normality of Sherri’s apartment.

Sherri locked the door as they left the room with the shrinking machine. They then made their way along the top of the celing to the point in which the elevator was still locked in. Tom was more reluctant than ever to step in, but he figured there was no use staying stuck up in the crawlspace.

Sherri turned the knob and the transport moved—to Tom’s relife—slowly back to the ground. He could hear the sounds of water running as they descended and figured the system must be hydraulic. It made sense, seeing that it could be tied right in with the shower system and avoid the need for a completely separate form of transport.

The transport reached the ground and there was another clicking sound as it locked into place just above floor level. Tom was thankful to be back at ground level as Sherri lead him back along the wall and into the underground passageway.

“Oh yeah, one more thing I wanted to show you,” Sherri said.

“Oh no,” Groaned Tom.

“It’ll be quick, I promise!” Sherri said. She lead him down the main passageway towards the front of the house. When they were only a few feet from the front she lead him down a new side passageway that terminated suddenly with no doors except what looked like a storm door built into the ground.

“What’s that?” Tom asked.

“I don’t know.” Sherri said. “I tried opening it but it won’t budge.”

“That’s odd.” Tom said. “Is it some kind of…storage space?”

“I don’t think so,” Sherri said. “What would we need to store down here anyway? I think that it’s a doorway to a tunnel of some sort.”

“A tunnel?” Tom asked. “To where?”

“Somewhere in the compound, I’m sure.” Sherri said.

“But who would use the tunnel? You don’t!” Tom said.

“That’s the thing, I can’t figure it out!” Said Sherri. “I’ve seen nobody else here but Betty. That can only mean one of two things; either she shrinks and uses it, or else there are more people here, four inches tall!”

“Geez,” Said Tom, “You know, that wouldn’t surprise me if Betty had more shrunken people here. It would be just like her to keep them under her thumb, maybe use them as toys as she used me,”

“You’re starting to remind me of Bill,” Sherri said, “He was always full of conspericy theories. I was just saying it was odd, that’s all.”

“Well,” Said Tom as they turned to go, “I always thought there was more to this place than we were let on about.”

The pair of them walked out through the passageway and sealed the door behind them. They then returned to the compound and went to bed. For a few hours at least everyone was asleep before the sun came up on another unpredictable day at the Shrinking Show.