Micrometry

Her head pounded as the tingling began to subside. The stars in her eyes began to fade, the stack of reports still in front of her. Smiling she leapt to her feet, “Lizzie’s gizmo works!” Sprinting forward, she marvelled at the tower of documents. 

It felt like she was sprinting on the athletic field, she was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that the distance was merely a few inches. Her smile faded somewhat as she drew near, the stack began to loom in front of her, looking like a two- or three-story apartment block. The yellow and black blocks dotting it’s façade actually simple alligator clips. 

One sheet of paper jutted out, and through the thick material she could vaguely make out the coat of arms for her school. “Oh boy, I may have overdone it…” She mused, running her hands along the heavy coarse ‘Wall’ before her. Doing so moments ago would have probably resulted in a paper cut, but her hands were small enough now that she could practically grip each sheet like it was a broom handle or a bit of comparatively thin lumber. 

Something wrapped about her feet and looking down she saw a course bit of fluff mixed with shiny articles caught on her skin, pressed against it by a jet of warm air. Reaching down she tugged it free, holding it up before her, she considered the detritus in her hands. It had weight and looked a bit like a tumbleweed, scraps of incredibly small paper were tangled in it’s coarse and gnarled fibres. “So this is what a dust bunny looks like up close...”

Dropping it back down, she danced aside as it continued tumbling along the desk surface. She let her head follow the wind back to its source. A few dozen meters away, comparatively, she saw the vents for Lizzie’s laptop. It had been pretty quiet from her former perch, but now she was aware of a low drone as the fans inside whirred to keep the machine in operation. 

Jogging across the desktop, she smiled, the paperclip she’d balanced against it’s edge was still angled appropriately from the top to the desk. “I wish I’d chosen sneakers this morning.” She thought, as she ran her bare feet along the surface of the clip. “Still, better barefoot than in my heels.” 

She leaned forward, placing her weight on the clip. To her shock, the clip barely shifted. It was as if she weighed nothing. Balancing carefully, she made her way up along the clip, before hopping down onto the warm laptop work surface. 

Stretched out before her was a maze of plastic, the keyboard almost unrecognizable from her diminished perspective. Lights blinking on and off as the screen refreshed. Looking up and trying to take it all in, she was stunned. The diagnostics read normal, her jaw dropped open. “I don’t even weigh five milligrams!?!”

Suddenly she felt every tremor and vibration in the machine. The heat of fans she probably wouldn’t have even noticed. “Hoh-kay… you’ve had your fun McKenna, time to grow back.” Looking behind her, she saw the probe slowly cooling in the far distance. Her shrinkage made it hard to make out the finer details, it was like looking at an airliner from Grosvenor Bridge. 

As best she could, she gauged that the probe was about a half kilometer from her position. Probably half that distance from the edge of the desk. “There’s no way I can set the restore function and get out there…” She whispered. 

“I could try and signal her…” She looked about, hoping to see anything she could use to affect her rescue. There weren’t any pens or pencils laying about, not that McKenna had any chance of using anyway. Plodding across the surface of the laptop, she came to a small depression in the surface. “Oh! The Trackpad!” 

She stepped down, and felt a sharp tingle roll up her leg. She saw the mountainous screen flicker and change as the start menu popped up. “Ooh! I’m so small I can feel the current!!” Hopping onto the pad, she watched as the giant cursor selected an option. Looking up at the monitor the shrink ray’s control program disappeared, leaving a photo of herself and Elizabeth embracing during Pride last year. A single gray block “Shut Down” with two options. “YES and NO.”

She gasped. "Nononononononono-no!” Carefully, McKenna walked along the pad, guiding the cursor up towards the window. The icon crawling across the enormous field sized monitor. The ticking of a distant clock grating on her with each small step. 

As the cursor crossed the border of the window, she heard a loud bang. Jumping and twisting in space, she looked into the distance. An enormous shape shambled into the room through a titanic doorway. “Lizzie! Hey Lizzie!” She said, jumping up and down on the trackpad waving her arms. “Hey! Down here!”

The gigantic Lizzie shambled through the space, seemingly oblivious to the microscopic young woman on her laptop.  Putting her hands on her hips, McKenna felt herself grimace. “Guess I’m too small to hear.”

Pondering the notion, the little blonde froze. The gentle thrum of the mechanisms in the computer beneath her feet suddenly died, slowing until the computer was incredibly still. Looking around, she buckled as she looked at the black screen filling her field of view. “Oh no! I shut it off?!” 

“McKenna! This is so irresponsible…” Came a heavy rumbling voice above her. 

Elizabeth marched forward, before disappearing below the edge of the desk. “She’d forget her... Ugh, whatever.” Her voice shook through the desktop, until she reappeared with her now building sized shoes.

“Lizzie! Lizzie I’m down here!” McKenna screamed, her voice straining as she darted to the edge of the laptop. 

The enormous woman stooped forward, gently grabbing the top edge of the monitor. The laptop shook as she began slowly closing the lid. Time began to slow, McKenna glanced behind her and then back to the keyboard. 

As the lid slowly descended, McKenna sprinted towards the spacebar dropping into a slide as she skidded across the large key and into a small depression between the spacebar and the adjacent keys. The laptop shuddered as Elizabeth lifted if from the desktop. The space rattled, then began pitching forward. Bracing her tiny hands and feet against the screen, she was blinded as the world outside the closed screen spun.

Her stomach lurched as the laptop slid down into some dark void. For a moment everything was quiet, she could hear the spring pinning her to the monitor creaking. Suddenly she felt her stomach shift and sway. 

“Oh no! No! Lizzie! Don’t leave!” She screamed, the sound barely echoing in the dark, cramped space. Through muffled material, McKenna heard Elizabeth’s practical sneakers squeaking on tile, she pounded her fists against the dark wall pinning her to the keys. Eventually she felt everything lurch again as her titanic friend sat down, presumably on the bus or in an Uber. 

Periodically she called out, yelling until she felt her voice begin to strain. “God I hope the nerd has some homework to do…” She muttered to herself as whatever vehicle she was in rumbled down the road.