“Hello everyone,” Mrs. Beth said to the small group sitting around the conference table. In the instant she had entered the room, she had commanded attention, her confidence and wholehearted devotion to her job speaking more than her words. “I’m glad you’re all here, and in one piece. But let's not chit chat and waist time. We have a potentially hazardous situation on our hands, and we need to move quick.”

“Hazardous?” Amy said, concern apparent in her tone. “Is it really that bad?”

“It might be.” Mrs. Beth turned to the senior member of the team. “Mrs. Brooks, what have you already covered.”

“The basics, pretty much,” the other woman answered. “What the possible causes are, how we should handle the paperwork and the organization.”

“That’s good, I won't have to cover any of the basics then.” She turned to the rest of the group. “I just came back from speaking with some of the higher ups, and they think they have isolated what happened. Chloe, do you have the pictures?”

“Of course,” the girl answered, rushing over to the projector to connect her computer. In a few minutes she had her email open, and was scrolling through a group of images. The first few were of the science labs downstairs.

“So, as you know,” Mrs. Beth started. “We have a vast amount of research being conducted in this hospital. That includes experimental treatments that are… well, radicle is the only word for them. Our current theory is that one of these tests produced a harmful gas that was accidently released into the open, which made its way through the ventilation system and eventually into the entire hospital.”

Clair and Bree glanced at each other. They worked down in those labs. If anything had happened, they should’ve been the first to hear about it. “Hey,” Clair whispered to the other girl. “Did you see Brandon today?”

“No,” Bree answered, concern coming over her. “Crap, I actually didn’t see a lot of people!”

“Excuse me,” Erin said. “What type of contaminant was it? A disease? Is it deadly?”

“Not strictly,” the woman answered. “It was a treatment for some muscle diseases. The idea was to shrink the patient to a smaller size so there would be less stress on their bodies. Current theories have it that only small amounts of the population were affected by it, however. Our current guess is that a concentrated form of this treatment was released, and everyone who has gone missing has actually shrunk.”

The entire room looked shocked. Mrs. Brooks was the first to ask, “How small did they get?”

Mrs. Beth shrugged. “Some guys are saying an inch, others guess that they might be microscopic. So far we haven’t found any but…” she was cut off by a knock at the door. “Well, speak of the devil.” She opened the door, a young member of the custodial staff standing there.

“Uh, hello, Mrs. Beth,” the man said sheepishly. At seventeen years old, Josh was far from confidant around a woman as powerful as Mrs. Beth. “I, uh, I think I might have found something.”

“Good,” the woman said, turning to the rest of the group again. “I asked members of the staff to come to me if they saw anything that might be a shrunken person.” She turned back to the janitor. “Show it to me.”

“It's actually close by,” said the man as he moved away. The entire group stood to follow him. They went into the hallway just outside the group of offices. There, by the wall, is where they found it. A tiny little blotch of red against an otherwise white tile.

Mrs. Beth and Mrs. Brooks were the closest. They leaned down to look at the tiny spec. It was hard to make out, but there was clearly a form to it. “Chloe,” Mrs. Beth called.

“Yes?” the young intern answered, walking next to her boss.

“You have good eyes. What does it look like?”

“Um…” the girl peered down at the splotch, squinting to make out its shape. After a moment she knew the answer, but she needed to be sure. “I think it's a tiny person. But he's…” she didn’t need to finish.

“Horrible,” Mrs. Beth said, shaking her head. Mrs. Brooks looked completely distraught, horrified that something so terrible could happen in her place of work. “We will need to start a quarantine. Make sure no one leaves the hospital. And we will need everyone looking. Well, those who aren’t trying to make a cure yet. This is going to take…”

“Wait,” Chloe said, looking down at the blob. “I think I see something else.” She leaned in closer, until she was only a few inches away. “There’s an imprint in its body, I think.”

“An imprint?” Erin said, from the back of the group. “What does it look like?”

“I think it's a word… G… E.... I think that’s an L. GEL?”

The group looked to each other, not understanding what it could mean. Then, suddenly, Amy remembered something. “Mrs. Brooks, you have a pair of sneakers that you wear a lot right? You know, the ones that you always use when you work out?”

“Yes,” the woman answered. “What about them?”

“Don’t they have a small thing on the sole that says GEL in it?” The woman’s face plummeted. For a moment she didn’t believe it was true, couldn’t possibly imagine that something like that could even be the case. Her, crush another living creature? She didn’t even step on bugs! She always tried to find a cup and take them outside. This… this had to be a mistake.

“No, I don’t think so,” she answered. “Look, I have them in my office. We can go look right now.” She stood up and walked away from the grizzly scene. A few of the girls stayed behind to look at the sorry stain, but most followed Mrs. Brooks, eager to know the truth of the matter.

They went into the offices and quickly shuffled into Mrs. Brooks’ room. She grabbed her gym bag hurriedly and opened it, taking out one of her sneakers. It looked the same as it always did. A little worn out and used, with a more pungent aroma than she would have wanted, and old, discolored laces. But that wasn’t what she was looking for. The woman flipped over her shoe, looking down at the sole. Sure enough, right in the center, was a small plastic circle with the word, “GEL” embossed on it.

There was even a slight red stain around the words.

Mrs. Brooks’ face went white, and she lowered the shoe onto her desk. The guilt she felt at that moment was like nothing she had ever experienced. Whether she knew it or not, whether it was an accident or not… she had killed someone.

“How horrible,” Mrs. Beth said in a near whisper.

The rest of the group was quiet, suddenly realizing and appreciating the situation they were in. A hospital full of people, with an untold amount of poor shrunken victims running around, trying to survive. And they, in their normal state, were gods.