Girl Who Came Shrinkwrapped

I had really drenched the city.

Waiting for my height to drop down under a mile, I ventured in, looking for a good place to come in. The aircraft moved in tight whenever I got too close.

"All right, boys," I said. "Let's just wait."

And wait we did.

When I was down to four hundred feet, a barge came out, guided by two large tugs. It moved in close to my shins and the tugs dropped anchor. On shore and basically everywhere I looked, thousands of tiny creatures very much like myself waited and watched. When I waved at them, they all waved back. Ships with red and white markings--my God, they looked just like Coast Guard cutters--cruised slowly back and forth, and eventually, all but two of the military aircraft left. They were replaced by the dozens--hundreds--of prop-driven aircraft and helicopters with bright and strange markings.

When I was down to a hundred feet tall, a group of pseudo-humans came out and circled around my thighs.I had taken off my lab coat and slung it over my shoulder, but my skirt was a foot deep in the bay.

As I grew smaller still, the group of observer's grew more bold. They touched my skirt occasionally and my hands when I'd let them; they tried to communicate in sign. Their features were generally like my own, but with slightly more oval faces, and the women had very small breasts. Some of the men were balding and some of them were fat, and more than a few sported mustaches and beards--but strangely, all of the women were dark brunettes and all of them were short. If that held true, I might be the only tall blonde in town.

Eventually I hit sixty feet and the observers motioned my forward. Climb up! they mimed, up onto the side of the barge. Grabbing the low-lying edge, I swung about and jumped up on my rear end, then slid back until I hit my knees. Then I scooted about and brought my feet on board. My flats were ruined with mud.

On shore, thousands of people waved and yelled while closer at hand, the Coast Guard-like cutters kept back the overly-engrossed.

As my size continued to dwindle, I removed my pack and set it safely in my lap. I tried to answer their questions as best I could; relying on rudimentary sign-language I got across the idea that yes, I was tired, yes, I was hungry, and no, I didn't need to pee. I had already gone in the bay.

As twenty feet gave way to fifteen, and fifteen to ten, I opened the backpack and removed the flask. I stood up and let them poke me and pinch, but refused to let them tough the bottle.

I continued to shrink.

At about six-foot five, I uncapped the flask and indicated when I intended to do. This seemed to overly concern the majority of my observers, especially the women--did I mention they all had very small breasts--but no one tried taking the flask away.

When down to five-foot nine, I took a deep breath, upended the flask--and instantly gagged. I tried to throw up right away and only two hands over my mouth kept the liquid from spewing out.

The precious, precious liquid.

Dropping the flask to the deck, I staggered into the arms of one the observers--quite cute for a pseudo-human--and then slipped to my knees. I spasmodically jerked and flung myself backwards onto the deck, screaming, and was immediately surrounded by men. They held me down and administered CPR and chest compressions, and eventually the spasming stopped. I lay there panting on the cold metal deck, blouse ripped apart, my nipples kissing the cool ocean air and I just didn't care. I could not move. I could not move a muscle. Did this mean the serum was working?

I guess I'd find out.