The Problem With Shrink Rays

In a suburb of Florence, Oregon on a bright summer’s day there was an unusual yard sale at the home of inventor Richard Wayne. He was somewhat of a mad scientist and had made many different inventions. But like most people in the country he too had been affected by the economic downturn. He was being forced to sell almost all of his inventions. This broke his heart but he needed the money.
Eventually a little girl with what seemed to be a ray gun came up to him. She looked up at him and smile.
“How much for this Mr.?” she asked.
“Be careful with that,” replied Richard. “That could cause a lot of damage and start world war three.”
“How much?”
“Ten bucks.”
The little girl gave Richard ten bucks and went on her way. He gave out a sigh before turning around to see another woman. This woman was 5’5 with long black hair and brown eyes. She wore a green shirt with blue jeans and white sneakers. She was very beautiful and around 25 years old.
“Eliza,” said Richard.
“Hi Richard,” replied Eliza. “What’cha selling?”
“All kinds of things. The wife doesn’t like me making all these useless inventions. Plus if we don’t make money we’ll lose the house.”
“That’s a shame. I’ll buy something from you. Every little helps.”
“That it does. And I have something that you’d love.”
Richard then took Eliza to a section where they was a very large ray gun and a small cage on the table. Eliza looked inside the cage and saw something that she thought she’d never see. It was a horse but it was only six inches tall. She was amazed by it. But at first she thought that it was an illusion of some kind. But when she picked it out of its cage she saw that it was a real horse.
“What is this some kind of robot?” asked Eliza.
“No that’s a real horse,” replied Richard. “Just smaller. And I did it with this.” He then pointed to the ray gun.
“Is that a shrink ray?”
“Not just a shrink ray. It also makes things bigger as well.”
“Oh my God you shrank a horse.”
“Yes I did now how about fifty bucks for the horse?”
“I don’t know it seems pricy.”
“I’ll throw in the ray for free.”
“Sold.”
Eliza happily paid for them and she began to take them home. She lived a couple of blocks away and thankfully the ray gun was on wheels so she was easily able to drag it away. She kept the horse in its cage for now and just walked back. It felt a little weird carrying a tiny horse and a huge ray gun. But she figured the quicker she got home the quicker she could test it out.
When Eliza got home she put the ray gun in the basement and took the horse into her kitchen. There she let it out of its cage and it ran around. She gave it some food and it stood there and ate it.
“Oh you’re so cute,” she said. “I’m going to name you Sparky.” She gently stroked the tiny creature with her index finger.
After about an hour of feeding and washing Sparky Eliza went back down to the basement and she wanted to try out her new shrink/growth ray. She wanted to make Sparky full size again so that she could ride him. She planned on shrinking him once again when it came to housing and feeding him.
She placed Sparky on the ground and pointed the gun at him. Unfortunately there were no instructions to the ray gun so most of it was guess work. She pointed the ray at Sparky after she had prepared it.
“Well here goes nothing,” she said.
She then activated the ray and it blasted a ray of energy that hit Sparky. It only last a couple of seconds before going off. She waited expectantly to see Sparky grow. But he did the exact opposite. Instead of growing he got even smaller. She watched him shrink from 6 inches to half an inch. She went over to him and picked him up. She couldn’t believe how small he was.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess I still had it on shrink.” She carefully put him back on the ground. She went to walk over to ray but she heard it start up again. “Oh crap.” She tried to dart out of the way but it was too late.
Eliza had accidentally also set the ray to operate again after twenty seconds. She didn’t have chance to get out of the way and the beam hit her.
When the beam stopped she saw the world grow around her as she got smaller. But thankfully for her, her clothes shrank with her so she didn’t have to worry about being naked.
When the world stopped growing around her Eliza was down to only six inches in height. At first she was freaked out. But after a minute or two she began to calm down before feeling something on the bottom of her leg. She looked down to see Sparky. He looked a lot bigger then he had done previously but Eliza was a still giant compared to him.
Eliza carefully picked up the tiny horse and she looked at him. In comparison to her he was a little bigger then he had been before. But he was still tiny in comparison nonetheless.
The first thing that went through her mind was returning herself back to normal size. But she began to think that it would be an adventure to explore the basement. She remembered watching the Incredible Shrinking Man years ago and this reminded her of that film. The only thing that she had that he didn’t was a horse even smaller then he was. She thought that it would be enjoyable.
“You know Sparky maybe we shouldn’t return to normal too soon,” said Eliza. She then giggled. “I know we can have fun.”
“Neigh,” replied Sparky.
“Don’t worry I’ll make sure you don’t get hurt.”
Eliza then went towards a stack of shelves. It looked to be sixty five feet high. This just excited her. She had always wondered what it be like to be a game character like Lara Croft. Now she was going to find out. She had been climbing when she was younger but she had never done anything like this.
Using some string and a paper clip she found on the ground she made herself a hook and rope and used it to climb up the shelves. They were incredible dusty and a couple of times she sneezed. She kept a mental note that when she got back to full size she would clean them.
But just before she reached the op shelf she was confronted by a spider. It seemed huge but still a lot smaller then she was. Thankfully for her it seemed to be more intimidated with her then she was with it. It backed away towards its webbing. But its appearance had scared Sparky and he began to scream out and tried to escape. But Eliza stopped him from running off her hand. She attempted to calm him down.
“Calm down boy,” she said. “I’m not letting any dumb spider hurt you.” Thankfully Sparky seemed to be calming down. “That’s a good boy.”
Eliza finished the last step of her journey up to the top shelf and she sat down with her feet over the edge. She could see her entire basement from where she was. She didn’t realise just how big it was until she got up there.
She was tired from her journey and she decided that it was best to rest for a while before climbing back down. She could see the golden sun outside the window and it made her feel very relaxed.
She figured that she’d use the ray at other times to shrink herself and explore other rooms in her home. It would be a great adventure. If she ever thought that she needed a workout she could just shrink herself and go climbing. It wouldn’t cost her a penny in gym bills or specialised equipment.
She also thought about keeping the ray secret. She could use it to make a business of changing people’s heights. She could charge money for every inch given or taking. She could make tall people short and short people tall.
But then she felt Sparky get lighter. When she looked at her hand she saw that he was shrinking smaller. She expected him to stop within seconds. But when she was having difficulties seeing him she realised that he wasn’t stopping. She brought him closer to her eye so that she could see him better.
But eventually Sparky completely disappeared from sight. She tried to find him on her palm but he was too small for even her to see. This caused her to panic. Not only had she lost her fifty bucks but it made her think that it would happen to her.
But then she felt a shiver run down her spine. She watched the world around her grow once more as she shrank even smaller. At first she thought that she was going to shrink into nothingness. But she stopped shrinking at three inches. But she was still very panicky.
“Oh my God I’m even smaller,” she said to herself. “I’ve gotta reverse this before I disappear.”
She looked down from the shelves but now it seemed a very, very, very long way down. Her hook and rope seemed heavier now but getting down was only half the problem. She would have to travel across the ground and get up to the controls of the ray and activate it to the growing settings. Then she would have to get into the path of the ray so that it would return to her normal size.
With no time to spare Eliza started the long way down. It only took her a couple of minutes to reach the lower shelf. But the spider was back and now that she was smaller the Spider thought that Eliza would have made a nice meal. It came closer to her and she tried to back off.
But eventually her back hit the side of the selves and there was no way to go except down. But in her panic she had dropped her hook and rope. Now there was a giant spider between her and the rope. For now she had to bottle up her fear and try and fight back against the spider.
Eliza attempted to go around the spider to her hook and rope. But it caught her leg and she fell over. It began to crawl above her but she kicked it to one side. It flew off the shelf and it hit the ground. She looked down from the shelf and saw that the spider was getting back up to its feet. It also began to climb back up the shelves towards her. She wouldn’t have too long before it got back to her.
She quickly grabbed her hook and rope and began to climb down the shelves. Although this would bring her closer to the spider it also brought her closer to the ray gun and her normal size.
But as Eliza got further down her fear began to grow. She knew that the spider wasn’t too far from her. At her current size she would just be able to fight it off. But if she had another shrink spurt then she would be in trouble.
When she was two shelves from the bottom she was face to face with the spider once again. She knew that it wasn’t going to give up easily. The only way she could truly get away from it was that she’d kill it.
Eliza looked around the shelf to see if she could find anything sharp. She found a tiny shard of glass that would be ideal as a dagger for her. But when she turned around the spider was almost on top of her.
“Eat this!” she shouted. She then stabbed the Spider in one of its eyes and it began to scream out in pain. She then stabbed it in the head and she pushed the shard as far down as she could. The spider gave out one more scream before falling to the ground dead. Eliza seemed to be happy with her achievement. “Sorry but I’m nobody’s lunch mister.” She then laughed.
But she continued her climb down the shelves and now that the spider was gone for good she didn’t have to worry about it anymore. But she had to be fast. She didn’t want to suffer the same fate that Sparky had. She wondered what he was doing now. She guessed that he’d probably been eaten by bacteria or galloping on an atom. This could very easily happen to her.
But after several minutes Eliza reached solid ground. She was tired from her climbs but she couldn’t stop to rest. This would waste valuable time and there were probably other creepy crawlies who would like nothing more then to have Eliza in their stomachs. But she was a tough cookie.
Eliza then ran towards the shrink ray. But she approached a step. She had gone down it when she was six inches tall. But now that she was on three inches tall it was going to be another climb. Except this one was a lot smaller then the shelf.
“This isn’t going to be too hard,” she said to herself. But then she felt another shiver run down her spine and she shrank once again. Thankfully for her sake she stopped at an inch and a half. “Crap I’m even smaller.”
She looked at the step once again. But now it seemed to have doubled in height. She had one more problem has well. Her hook and rope now seemed very heavy and she had difficulties throwing the hook up.
If she survived the experience she decided to give the shrink ray back to Richard. It was a lot more trouble then it was worth. But she just hoped that she’d be able to get a chance to give it back. If she wasn’t quick she’d shrink to nothingness. Although she’d experience something no human had ever experienced she would most likely not survive at all.
She threw her hook as high as she could and she just about reached the top of the step. She then began to climb up the step. It was similar to climbing a vertical rock face. But it was made out of wood instead of rock.
But with each obstacle Eliza had to go through was taking more energy out of her. If it wasn’t for her level of fitness she would have collapsed from exhaustion by now. But she still had someway to go.
Eventually Eliza climbed up the top of the step and she stopped for a minute to catch her breath. She looked up and saw that she wasn’t too far away from the ray gun. This made her feel happier.
But she was confronted by a puddle. For a normal person it was fairly deep but by her standards it was quite deep. She would waste valuable time going around it so she would have to go through it. She hoped that her swimming lessons would come in handy right about now.
She stepped into the puddle and walked into it until it got too deep. But she was struggling to stay afloat because she had the hook and rope. But she couldn’t leave without it. Without the hook and rope she wouldn’t be able to reach the controls of the ray gun and doom her to shrink to nothingness.
The water was surprisingly warm and she just swam like her life depended on it (It did). But again this was taking valuable energy out of her body. She just hoped that she didn’t have another shrink spurt before she reached the ray gun.
When she reached the other end of the puddle again she was out of breath but she kept going. She was practically right next to the ray gun now. But she had to climb up it. But this was going to be a very difficult task. If she had been a little bigger she would have been able to climb up the leg. But she was too small for this so she had to use the hook and rope.
The controls were a little more then a metre above her. But at her size to be around seventy top eighty feet up. But there were places on the leg where her hook could grab onto and allow her to climb up.
But she was still getting tired of all of her effort. She hoped that she would return to normal size soon.
As she reached the top of the leg she used her hook and rope one last time to reach the controls. They now seemed completely alien to her now. But right next to her she saw a flick switch. It was pointing down to the letter S. Above it was the letter G. She figured that they stood for grow and shrink. She flicked the switch up to the growth setting and she moved to the keyboard.
Eliza set the ray to activate in twenty minutes. This would give her enough time to climb down and get to the right point for the ray to hit her. She also set it to maximum setting since it was most likely to return her to normal size and stop her from shrinking.
No sooner had she completed the settings she began her decent down. It would be easier then getting up.
But when she was half way down the leg she felt the shiver run down her spine once again she began to shrink. She thought hat this would be her final shrink spurt. But thankfully she stopped at half an inch. This was how tall Sparky was before he shrank to nothingness.
“Next spurt and I’ll be nothing,” said Eliza.
But now the decent seemed even further. It was like being over one hundred feet up. But the string reached the ground. She began to abseil down since this was the fastest way of getting down.
But getting down leg had taken her roughly five minutes leaving her fifteen minutes before the ray activated. If she missed her opportunity she would be too small to activate the ray again and she would be microscopic before she was able to reach it.
Once again when Eliza was on her way to the place where the ray would hit she was confronted by the puddle. But now it seemed a lot bigger then before. She didn’t have much energy left but she still swam. She swam as fast as an Olympic swimmer. But this was out of sheer desperation. But since she was too small to carry the rope and hook she had to leave it behind at the ray gun.
After clearing the pool she was faced with the step again. It was too high for her to climb down. If she had her hook and rope she would have been able to get down. But since she didn’t have it she would have to think of something else. She also only had ten minutes before the ray would activate.
Eliza began to think of a way down but time was running out. It was too high for her to jump and she could see any other way down.
But as luck would have it there was a very tiny piece of cloth not too far from where she was. Most people wouldn’t have noticed it. But she thought that she could use it to glide down the step. She probably wouldn’t be in the air for too long but if it got her down safely that all she needed.
In almost no time at all Eliza was able to pull some of the fabric to make it just like a parachute. She wrapped herself in the strings and she jumped off the steps. She figured that if she tried it she would most likely die. If she didn’t try it she would be dead anyway so she took the risk.
As if by magic Eliza began to glide slowly down the step. She was happy to see that one of her plans had worked.
She remembered to lift her feet up when she landed. If she hadn’t she could have broken one of her ankles. But now she only had five minutes to reach where the ray would hit. But gliding had given her a minute or two to have a rest. But she began to run to where the beam was going to hit.
At her size the journey would take a couple of minutes and she could hear the ray gun starting up again. She knew that she didn’t have much time. But when she was almost there she felt the shiver run down her spine. She realised that she was going to shrink again. But she tried to ignore it and she just ran. The world around her grew once again as she shrank.
But Eliza had just reached the point when the ray activated. It shot a beam and it hit the shrinking Eliza. This caused her to stop shrinking and she felt herself getting bigger again. She gave out a huge sigh of relief.
“At last,” she said to herself.
In about a minute she was back up to her normal size and she expected to stop. But everything around her still got smaller.
“Ok maybe being a couple of inches taller isn’t too bad.” But then her head hit the ceiling and she could feel herself still getting bigger. “Wow too big. Way too big!” But she wasn’t stopping.
Eliza was beginning take up room in the basement. She sat down but her head was still pressing against the ceiling. But she was still growing and she could hear a cracking sound. She realised that it was her head going through the ceiling.
Meanwhile outside random man was out having a beer. He felt the ground shake and at first he thought it was an earthquake. But within seconds he saw Eliza explode out of her home as she continued to rise up.
But now she was out of the house she stood up to look at everything around her. She could see everything continue to shrink and she thought that it would never stop. But eventually she did stop growing when she was over eight hundred feet tall. At first she was shocked at everything around her. It looked like she was in some kind of model town. She then looked further down and saw what was left of her home. Everything had been destroyed. This included the ray. It was the only thing that could have shrunk her back to normal.
“DAMN IT!”

The End.