- Literature / Prose / Fiction / Science Fiction / Short Stories
Two months ago Leona had quit her job at the Tuptin Research labs for their refusal to let her experiment with the shrink compound. Their damn concerns of the threat and danger of the compound was infuritating to her. Of COURSE it was dangerous, but so was nuclear energy, gasoline, gene-thearpy, etc... Even a hammer was dangerous if used incorrectly! But they, still, refused to see her point and would not let her test the compound. A potential brand new science denied simply because the fools only saw the threats and not to potential. But Leona was not going to be denied! She had not worked nearly twenty years in that lab only to have her work stonewalled! She KNEW this could be used to help people and she would prove it! So when she left, she made sure to leave with plenty of the compound.
Her first tests had been small, no pun intended. She used animals. stray dogs and cats mostly, and tested varying amounts of the compound. She made sure to only shrink the poor things a little bit and not go for the limits, that would be too cruel. Those early tests proved fruitful and spring-boarded her research on a cure. Best of all, she had three dogs and five cats to keep her company and their smaller than normal size let them fit in her apartment.
With those test done she moved on to inanimate objects. A few changes allowed the compound to affect rock, metal, cloth, basically anything it touched! Of course, this proved a bit troublesome when she tried to contain it, but a special metal alloy proved resistant. Anything else though, including her own clothes that one time..., was shrunk just by contact.
And that had led her to this test... a test that had been a resounded success...and an utter failure.
It had been so simple, just pour some into the water supply of the nearby city and see the effects. She had expected the place would shrink by ten or twenty percent. But an error in the distribution machine had caused it to pump out far too much of the compound. Leona could only watch in horror as the city shrank and shrank and shrank...and shrank.
Leona rushed forward toward the city, grimacing as the yells of alarm and terror began to echo out. By the time she reached the outskirts of it...or rather the new outskirts, the city was small enough to be mistaken for a model and was STILL shrinking! She couldn't understand how it had happened or what had gone wrong, but she knew she had to act fast. No one was going to believe her and anyone else was likely to annihilate the city without realizing it. She took out a case she had made of the resistance metal and placed the city inside. But even that small contact had been enough to infect herself and she felt her hand, and soon the rest of her, starting to shrink. Thankfully, she had keep some antidote on herself and applied it before she shrank too small and breathed a sigh of relief as she refilled her clothes.
With the city stored away in, relative, safety, Leona rushed back to her car and fled the scene as fast as she could. By the time news vans, police copters, and SWAT teams arrived at the huge crater where the city had been, Leona was back at her home. To her horror, the city had vanished from sight and fear of her having lost it somehow filled her mind. It wasn't until she ran a few tests on the case that she realized it was still there...and how much of a blunder she had made.
Somehow, the compound had evaporated and become airborne during its distribution. The, newly made, shrink gas had affected everyone and everything in the city. Worse, it had proven to be far FAR more potent and had shrunken the city so much that it was nigh impossible to see with the naked eye. Thankfully, the shrink air had shrunk along with the city which meant the canister was safe to open. But finding where the city was inside it...
A few modifications to her microscope had solved the issue and after a few minutes of searching she had found the missing city. It was...beyond tiny even WITH the microscope.
And that brought her back to the present. Leona was terrified by what she had done. An entire city now so small a stray hair could annihilate it, and almost had when one of her hairs had fallen off. Worse, she could have stopped it if she had just been smarter. She had had the cure right there, even used it on herself, but didn't think to use it on the city. Yes it would have been... worrying, but at least these people wouldn't be smaller than germs. She could try using the cure now, but even in its smallest form it would be like a tidal wave. And what happened if it worked TOO well? Their growth could cause even more devastation and death. No...no she could risk that, but then what did she do with these people?
One of her shrunken cats rubbing against her hand made up her mind. She couldn't turn these people back, but she could, at least, make their sacrifices mean something. It...was regrettable, but... but it was for the future of mankind.
Using the smallest twizzer she had, Leona removed the city from its container and placed it on a proper slid. She used her microscope to draw a small circle around the area of the city, unknowingly drowned a few people in ink or crushing them with the marker, to make it easier to find. She then took a deep breath and addressed the tiny people.
"Everyone, I must apolgize for what I have done to you. I wish there was some way to turn you back, but..." she let out a soft sigh, not realizing it was like a hurricane to the people. The force sent building tumbling, people flying to their deaths in the ink pits, and blasted the eardrums out of the lucky.
"But don't worry, you will aid me in learning how to harness this shrink compound to better aid mankind. So please, don't try to escape or anything, there...really isn't anything to run to. Just stay there and, hopefully, I can find a way to turn you all back," Leona said before letting out another sigh, with similar results. It was all she could really do... But worrying over what had happened was pointless, she had work to do and experiments to run. She WOULD make some good come of this, no matter what...
2 months later.....
Another easy capture. Europe would be in an uproar soon when they learned one of their cities had vanished, but they would be as ineffective in stopping it as the US. Four more cities had followed the first in disappearing without a trace and they were no closer to a suspect than they had been. To be fair, it wasn't their fault. Who would guess a single woman was behind it all? Or that that same woman had all fo- sorry, FIVE cities in her possession.
Leona chuckled to herself as she looked down at her ample chest. She had to fight the urge to toy with them, but knew the repercussions on her newest subjects would be dire. No, that would not do, she needed them to continue her tests, her work, her...project.
The last four cities were beginning to run low on subjects and breeding the micro-beings was proving difficult. Just feeding them had been near impossible as the smallest of crumbs would crush them with ease. And a water drop... she still was angry at herself for letting a sweat drop annihilate her first test city.
But Leona was much, MUCH more careful now. These new subjects would be well protected and treated by her new micro-dome. It would provide them with all the food, water, and other necessities they needed, as long as they provided the subjects. And all those needs would, ultimately, come from Leona herself. That was why the dome was set on her nipple. It would extract small bits of her blood, convert it into food and water, and distribute it. She and the city were one and the same now, as would ALL the cities be soon enough. She would be the mother to all humans, their protector and their provider. Assuming this biodome didn't fail like the others.... But if it did, it was just back to the drawing board for a few weeks and then...well maybe she would try an Asian city if this would failed.
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