by Andrea White
Zert jogged along the sidewalk, stumbled off the end, and took the final few steps on his own power to reach the ordinary-looking front door. The green grass mat on the porch read:
The smallest forge our future
Zert knew he had a future. He just didn’t know what kind. He might have Superpox and die. Or he might live and shrink.
The front door sensors picked up their weight, and the door opened immediately. A figure in a white med-coat waved them in. Zert ground his heel into the word future before stepping inside.
12
A MYSTERIOUS STRANGER
Dr. Brown looked up and down the street before he shut the door behind them. “You left no clues as to your whereabouts?” Dr. Brown asked.
While Uncle Marin, his father, and Dr. Brown huddled together to discuss whether anyone could possibly have followed them, Zert studied the old-fashioned hallway. Pink roses dotted blue wallpaper. Roses. Rosies! Was this a joke?
Stairs, rather than a people mover, led to the next floor. Wood instead of that durable material, cybratom, covered the floors. Old photos lining the walls showed people doing the impossible things they did in the old days, like getting married in gardens, picnicking in fields of wildflowers, and fishing out of boats.
The house reminded him of visiting his Grandma Cage before she died.
But this house didn’t feel safe and inviting in the same way that his grandma’s home had. And he felt strangely itchy all over—not just on his back—but as if he were being watched. His eyes followed the wooden banister to the top of the stairs, where he caught a glimpse of a man with short-cropped reddish hair. The wild pattern of his retro-Hawaiian shirt swirled with greens, blues, and purples. The man stared at him, his eyes alive with curiosity. It was as if he was wondering, “Are you one of those weirdos who’s getting shrunk?”
“Who’s that?” Zert asked. But before he’d even finished the question, the man took a step back and disappeared into the shadows.
The adults looked in the direction of the empty stairwell.
Dr. Brown’s eyes shifted uncomfortably. “Doctor Rosario’s son, Benre, is here for a visit.”
If shrinking was so great, why wasn’t Dr. Rosario’s son a thumb? Zert wanted to call out, “Hey Benre, you can take my place.” But he remembered Chub’s empty cage, and his stomach began to hurt.
Uncle Marin’s gaze lingered on the spot where Benre had been standing.
“Where’s Doctor Rosario? Aren’t we going to get to meet him?” Jack asked.
“Unfortunately, Doctor Rosario was called away this morning. As you can imagine, maintaining Project Rosie is a major responsibility. He sends his regrets.”
It was an excuse if he’d ever heard one. Dr. Rosario was probably off twiddling his thumbs in some beautiful place.
“Hmm,” Jack mumbled. His dad always said you could tell a lot about an organization by its founder. Zert would have liked to have met the guy too. If he looked like a mad scientist, then he’d know for sure he was the subject of a crazy experiment.
“Come in. Come in,” Dr. Brown said, motioning Zert into the office.
It looked normal, except for a screen that hung on the wall with thousands of tiny blinking lights clustered in one corner. And he couldn’t ignore the tiny chairs on the doctor’s desk. They were sling back and thatched with green and black cybratom, like the ones at the indoor beach inside Ocean Mall. The chairs were the perfect size for some little thumbs to sit back and relax in.
Zert sat down in a regular-sized chair and turned his head to face a line of tall metal boxes against the wall. He did not want to know what he was staring at.
His breakfast chips rose up in his throat. He took a deep breath to try to settle his stomach. There was so much wrong with this plan. What if the Mag-Lev machine killed him, his father, and his uncle instead of shrinking them? Even worse, what if it actually worked and he became the size of his thumb? He could end up in Rosie land, in Rocky Mountain National Park, miles away from everything he knew and loved, barred forever from modern life.
Zert began to squirm in the straight-backed chair he sat in. He rubbed his back against the chair, but the movement didn’t quiet the itch. He tried not to think about the worst. Blisters, then welts, then boils, then pus, then …
If I make it, he vowed silently to himself, I’ll never risk my life for something stupid again.
His father’s face was bloodless. His fingers gripped the sides of his chair. Zert thought about how he’d brought his father into this too.
“We’re excited to be here,” Uncle Marin said, as if shrinking were as ordinary as foaming his teeth. Zert turned away before his uncle’s stupid foreboard lit up.
“Let’s get the exam over with,” his father said.
“Good idea,” Dr. Brown said. “Come with me, Zert.”
The doctor took his identity wand out of his pocket. It was a standard model, the length and width of his ring finger. He waved it in front of a gleaming white door, and the side panels retracted.
As Zert followed him, he glanced over his shoulder at his father. His father stared straight ahead, his large hands clenching his knees.
The sharp itch kept biting into his back, no matter how hard he willed it to go away.
A narrow table took up most of the examination room, and complicated metal instruments lined the walls. As Zert hoisted himself onto the table, he tried to forget Cribbie’s blistered face that night outside the store’s front door … and Chub’s empty cage … If only he hadn’t opened the front door. But he hadn’t meant any harm. He had only wanted to help his friend.
Sometimes, nothing made sense.
Like Project Rosie.
Dr. Brown waved his hand in the corner at his RASM portal, the newest model of computer, and said, “Begin calculations.” He nodded at Zert. “The calculations have to be checked and rechecked, so we’ll begin that process as I conduct the exam.”
A screen on the wall lit up with his name, “Bezert Jackson Cage.” Measurements lined up next to some pictures of odd shapes that he assumed had to be his organs.
He reached around and tried to scratch his back. But his arm wouldn’t bend enough, and the itch raged worse than ever.
Dr. Brown walked over to the table and checked Zert’s reflexes and his blood pressure. He listened to Zert’s heart and lungs. In between, the doctor jotted down notes on his tablet. He met Zert’s gaze.
“Strip off your shirt, please.”
Zert peeled off his shirt one arm at a time. As long as he didn’t know for sure, he could pretend he was healthy. He began shivering, and it wasn’t because the room’s weather system was set on blizzard. The dead center of his back itched uncontrollably.
Dr. Brown pressed a glow ball against his forehead, until the object ionized and stuck. Holding a magnifier in one hand, he began examining Zert’s hands and arms. Then he turned to his back.
Zert held his breath. The blisters on his back had grown into welts. They were rising like fiery volcanoes from his skin. They’d joined up to form boils. They’d start popping soon, and he would feel the warm, wet pus gush out and drain down his back.
“See any signs of the pox?” his father’s shout came through the open door.
“All I see …,” the doctor began. As the doctor straightened up to answer his father, the round light aimed straight into Zert’s eyes. Behind the magnifying glass, the doctor’s eye had grown to ten times bigger than normal. It didn’t seem like a body part, but a weird, living creature. “Is a healthy crop of freckles,” Dr. Brown called back.
He exhaled. I’m going to live!
Yes, he would need to live as a tiny person. But his feelings weren’t tiny. They were BIG.
13
KILLER UNDERWEAR
Thousands of lights blinked on and off on the map. It hung on the wall behind the desk.
The map with the blinking lights reminded Zert of the trip he and his father had taken to the graveyard observatory. His m
other’s urn was marked, but his father had forgotten his skyoculars, and all they could see were millions of blinking lights.
“What’s the story with that map?” Zert asked, nodding at the screen on the wall.
“The fifty thousand lights all represent Rosies,” Dr. Brown said.
Zert gulped. Soon, he’d be light number 50,003.
“Once you’re minimized, you’ll head to a place called Ellis Log. It will be marked. That’s where you’ll get your vaccination pill.”
“A pill?” his father said, scowling a bit. “You didn’t mention that. I’ve never heard of a vaccination pill before.”
“They’re effective.” Dr. Brown paused. “Think of the suspicion we’d arouse if we started making tiny syringes.”
That reminded him. “Why is this top secret?” Zert asked.
Dr. Brown said, “Can you imagine what would happen if the world found out about us? The reporters? The holo-imagetube cameras?”
Minimized would be a really good reality show.
Dr. Brown touched his wrist device, and a beam of light flowed out. “Zert, I recommended to your father and uncle that you all head for a settlement called Paradise, population 103.” The beam from Dr. Brown’s wrist device hit the map in the bottom right-hand corner. “Some of our settlements have grown so big that they risk discovery. Paradise still has lots of room to grow.”
Paradise was a dot next to a square marked parking lot. “Why is the city close to a parking lot? It seems like Rosies would want to be as far away from …” He hesitated. Thank goodness Rosies were humans. Not something even worse, like vampires. “What do the little people call us?” he asked.
“The Rosies call us BIGS,” Dr. Brown said.
“It seems like Rosies would want to be as far away from BIGS as possible,” Zert said.
“I had the same thought, Zert,” his father said.
“The lottery system enacted by the World Council to protect the parks ensures that almost no one uses them,” Dr. Brown said. “However, you know human nature. Even a few people leave a lot of trash. The Rosies like to scavenge.”
“So Rosies hunt for food?” Zert said.
“I suspect food is only part of their interest. Since all the Rosies kids were born in Paradise,” Dr. Brown explained, “the BIG world fascinates them.”
“Born in Paradise?” Low City DC had hololaser movie theaters, idearooms, anti-gravity fun houses, inside vacation spots that mimicked the lost outdoors, and a million other things that a kid wouldn’t know about if he’d only vacationed in a parking lot.
Dr. Brown nodded. “Rosie kids have only ever known that world,” he said.
Questions tumbled together inside Zert’s head. What kind of music do they listen to? Do they learn about BIGS in school? What do they do for fun? He settled on: “How many kids live in Paradise?”
“We aren’t in close communication, but I’d guess a dozen or so,” Dr. Brown said.
“How old are they?”
“Paradise was founded fifteen years ago, so the oldest adolescents should be thirteen,” Dr. Brown said.
“Their parents did this to them before the first Superpox epidemic?” Zert asked.
“Yes,” Dr. Brown said. “They did. A lot of our clients were minimized after the Nuclear Mistake.”
Clients? “Are we paying money to get shrunk?” Zert blurted out, turning to stare at his father.
His father’s neck turned red. “We won’t need money where we’re going,” he said.
“You’re only paying your costs,” Dr. Brown interrupted. “Even though a vaccination for a Rosie sells for a fraction of what it costs for a BIG, we still have to charge you.” He paused. “And the ride in the 3-D Mag Lev is”—he rolled his eyes—“so expensive.”
No one Zert knew had ever traveled by 3-D Mag Lev, and he had always wished that one day he would be able to. But he wasn’t going to get to enter an ordinary 3-D Mag Lev. His would have a minimizer function.
“I told your father and uncle this, but I should warn you that after you’re minimized, you’ll briefly pass out,” Dr. Brown said. “Upon awakening, some Rosies are disoriented. But everyone is usually fine within a few hours.”
Usually fine? What happened when things went unusually? What happened if something went wrong? Would he be a dumb thumb? And what if the shrinking wasn’t evenly done? Could he explode or end up in pieces? Would he become a huge arm with a tiny person attached to it?
His father and uncle just nodded. They had heard this all before. Zert took a deep breath and forced himself to listen.
“Our arrival booth,” Dr. Brown was saying, “is located in the base of an ordinary light post next to the parking lot. That’s where you’ll wake up.” He glanced at his wrist. “You have plenty of time to reach Paradise by nightfall. The parking lot will be to your east. Ellis Log will be to your west. You’ll find clothes and backpacks, along with the vaccination pill, in Ellis Log.” His gaze focused on Zert. “Remember to take your vaccination pill, Zert. We don’t want to take any chances.”
Dr. Brown stood up. “If there are no more questions, let’s get busy.” He pointed at the series of metal boxes that Zert had noticed earlier. “These are our 3-D Mag Levs,” he said. “We have five of them.”
Zert had more questions, but his father stood up with his gaze fixed on the 3-D Mag Levs.
Dr. Brown opened a drawer and held up some white gowns. “Please remove your clothes.”
Just when Zert thought things couldn’t get any weirder. “You mean I have to do this naked?” he asked.
“I have this for you.” Dr. Brown handed them each a robe. “These disintegrate midflight.” He paused. “Even your underwear could smother you on landing.”
What a death. Zert took the robe and started to undress. He definitely did not want to be killed by his own underwear.
“Not only that; the Rosies don’t want technology in the settlements. Rare goods cause trouble,” Dr. Brown said. “You can be assured that all your valuables will be donated to Project Rosie.”
Zert’s Cool Man shirt with only one hundred mini-fans, his pants made from Breathe fabric, and his Wing sandals, “Faster than the fastest feet,” already lay in a pile near his feet. “I don’t have any rare goods,” he said.
Dr. Brown gestured to the T-shirt on the floor. “Your T-shirt alone, Zert, would cause a sensation.” He approached Zert, holding a straw basket. It looked like an offering basket for a church. He knew Dr. Brown was a doctor, but still, Zert felt embarrassed as he took off his underwear and dropped it into the basket. As fast as he could, he slipped his robe on.
His father took something out of the pocket of his shirt. It was the photo of Zert’s mother on their wedding day. He held it up for Dr. Brown. “I already know the answer, but I have to ask anyway. May I keep my wife’s photo?”
Dr. Brown shook his head. “I’m sorry. No exceptions. It’s for your own safety.”
Zert saw his father’s eyes grow moist. His father kissed the picture, gazed at it one last time, then dropped it into the basket. Zert tried to catch a last glimpse of his mother in the basket also.
His father yanked his T-shirt over his head. He dropped his blue jeans on the floor, and they made the same sad shape as Chub’s blanket in her empty cage earlier that day. The pocket of his father’s jeans was torn. His father had worn them almost every day for the last month. Like Zert, his father was leaving the only home he’d ever had. But Zert had lived on Flade Street for only thirteen years; his father had been there for forty-eight.
Uncle Marin had stripped and changed into his robe. He was whistling as he dropped a handful of crypto credit coins into the basket, along with his I-ring and identity wand. He placed a sleek xiathium tube on top of the pile.
“Blood red,” the label on the tube said. “One application, and you’ll love your lips forever.”
Glade’s? Glade didn’t need a tube of Permanent Lipstick. She already had permanently red lips.
“When I close the door after you enter, transmission will be instantaneous,” Dr. Brown said, pointing toward the line of 3-D Mag Levs.
Eek! The moment had come. Barefoot and wearing only his robe, Zert found himself counting his steps as he walked toward the line of boxes. One. Two …
“This is an adventure of a lifetime, boys. Remember that. An adventure of a lifetime,” Uncle Marin said. His forehead flashing, he hurried over to the wall.
Jack’s jaw was set in a grim line.
Zert drew closer to the door. Three. Four. Five. He felt like a prisoner walking a gangplank.
Dr. Brown carefully opened the first door. “Zert,” he said, “I wish you well.”
Jack reached out and squeezed Zert’s hand. “I love you,” he said. He pulled Zert into a hug.
“Me too,” Zert said. He did not want to, but after a moment, he let go of his father, and with his hands clenched into fists, he entered the box. He saw his father’s knotted eyebrows as he looked back. His uncle wasn’t smiling either. Would this be the last time he would see them? His feet felt like lead weights as all the blood in his body rushed to his head.
The box was smaller than a vertical people mover in an office building and barely bigger than a coffin. It had no windows. When the door closed, there would be no way he could escape. Zert tried to breathe evenly, but the metal room was stuffy. His breaths sounded outsized as they echoed off the walls.
Dr. Brown stepped up, and before Zert could even wave, he wrenched the door shut. Metal clanged, and the room went from dimly lit to pitch black.
A second clang sounded, and Zert heard the doctor shout, “What are you doing?”
Something had gone wrong. Were they going to die?
PART TWO
14
BETRAYAL COMES IN MANY SIZES
Zert couldn’t tell if he was racing or if it was the walls of the metal box that were sliding past him, faster than the speed of light. Pink, purple, and blue beams of color pelted him on all sides until they began to blur together into a single, blinding white light. His body was a balloon, quickly losing air, and he was being sucked down a drain … or was it a dream … or a dream of a drain? As though a giant were sitting on his chest, his chest contracted. He felt as if his ribs were starting to crack, and the breath left his lungs. He smelled something strange, like cauliflower doused in chemicals. His last thought before he blacked out was: This is worse than being crushed by an asteroid.
