Clothed in nothing more than the small black T-shirt clinging to her nubile body, a pair of navy blue denim shorts, and sunglasses with exceptionally dark lenses, the woman travels onwards through sandy desolation over dune after dune. The desert stretches on endlessly in all directions as far as the eye can see.

Her powerful legs, long, tanned, and toned, propel her stride. Each long, graceful step she takes sweeps air through her light brown hair, lifting it gently away from where it otherwise rests on her person, draped over her shoulders and hanging down along her back.

Her bare feet sink into the sand as she walks upon it, a small piece of the desert compressed beneath her silky pale soles with every step. Countless grains are swept up forcefully and made to flow between her toes as they slightly part, splaying outwards to better drift through the sand.

The light of the setting sun sparkles off of her toenails, each one meticulously adorned in a gorgeous purple polish. Though still quite humid, the temperature of the air begins to gradually cool down as the inevitable passage of time slowly turns day into night while the woman continues traversing the barren terrain.

Beyond the final dune she passes over, something in the desert ahead finally reveals itself to the woman, towards which she trudges onwards, keeping a steady pace.

The hive is abuzz with life as the woman draws nearer. The ground ahead is teeming with insects as they patrol the perimeter of their shelter. The swarm of terrestrial bugs is spread thin, covering a large area of sand surrounding the structure from which they enter and exit at will, going about the routines of their lives within the colony.

Insects capable of flight launch themselves from the ground and enter the air, through which they soar as the distance between themselves and the approaching woman steadily dwindles.

Lights flash on the surface of the hive itself, as well as all around its perimeter and on the tips of pole like structures sticking forth from the ground. Lights even flicker on the bodies of the insects, both the ones on the ground and the group that has taken flight. This gives rise to a revelation.

They aren't insects at all, and the structure they populate and surround isn't actually a hive. Here, in the middle of this barren desert, a secret military base has been constructed. It houses thousands of men and women whom have been stationed within it, as well as a large fleet of vehicles.

On the ground, a crew of several large treaded vehicles with sweeper-like contraptions fixed to their fronts travels in straight lines, revealing as they go a previously hidden yet enormous helipad-like surface which they work to quickly clear of sand. They complete their task and drive away through the sand. Just as they do so, the massive woman plants both of her gigantic bare feet down onto the surface they have cleared for her.

The woman stands completely still on the platform. Tiny vehicles, even the largest and mightiest of them amounting to nothing more to her than children's toys, scurry around at her feet, going about with their business at the base.

A Chinook helicopter chugs through the air. Just below it, airlifted in via the titanium cargo hook is a humongous pill. The vehicle rises and stabilizes itself. It hovers directly in front of the woman's face, its reflection visible in the black lenses of her enormous sunglasses. The woman carefully raises her right arm and positions her hand beneath the helicopter. The Chinook deploys its cargo, dropping the white capsule down into the soft flesh of the massive woman's palm.

The woman takes the capsule into her mouth and swallows as the helicopter begins flying away from her towards a helipad enclosed within the fence around the base where it will land.

Four trucks with heavily advanced pieces of technology mounted into the backs of each of them drift through the sand. The drivers of each vehicle bring them to a stop, positioning them in the four corners around the outside of the platform on which the massive woman's feet still stand.

Controlled remotely from somewhere inside the base, the devices are brought online and their barrels are aimed upwards and towards the woman. They each produce a loud whirring sound as they charge up before emitting a bright green laser which hits the woman.

The energy emitted by the devices has no effect on organic life unless a very specific amount of certain ingredients are present within the subject's anatomy. In taking the pill just moments earlier, the woman has ensured that the lasers will indeed have an effect on her body rather than just her articles of clothing.

The green lights glow even brighter, collectively wrapping around the woman's body. She begins to rapidly decrease in size. Within seconds, the machines are finished. They power down, returning to their silent state as the trucks carrying them drive away, kicking up sand behind their tires as they go.

The woman remains standing on the vast platform, now just as tiny and vulnerable as any of the other men and women stationed at the base after having been stripped of her immensity.  

Jessica

I stand outside the gates at the entrance to this impressive military complex with a clipboard tucked beneath my right arm and a pair of black flip flops in the grip of my left hand. The sun slowly sets over this beautiful desert landscape in a country that I never thought I'd visit.

Seriously, if you could ask a younger version of me if I thought I'd ever find myself here, or if I'd ever see this gorgeous view with my own two eyes, she would smile and give you a definite “nope.” But so much has changed in my life over the last couple of years.

And speaking of sights that a younger version of myself never would have expected to see, I just finished watching my own sister go from being goddess-sized to just another person of average height thanks to the help of a few green lasers like this were some sort of freaky desert light show. One second she was there, dominating the terrain as she stood further into the sky than anything else for miles, and the next, poof, she was reduced to being just another speck in the overwhelming vastness of this desert.

But make no mistake, despite being taken back down to size, Kelsey was still a goddess. At least in her own mind, that is. Anyone that's ever known her would surely be able to tell you just how high of an opinion she has of herself. Of course, the fact that she's absolutely gorgeous has always been there to feed her ego and keep her thinking that she's royalty. But now she finally has the means to make her body big enough to match that ego.

Yeah, Kelsey is definitely the more attractive sister. I'm just the more responsible one. It's not even fair, she even wound up being six inches taller than me! She was three years old when I was born, but growing up, I always had hope that one day I'd catch up to her in height. But no, here I am at twenty-two years old and she still ended up being taller and better looking. I actually look a lot like her, she's just a three years older, longer haired, six inches taller, much prettier version of me. Genetics is a cold bitch.

The men and women and various vehicles carry on their business around and throughout the base as I continue to stand off to the side of the entrance and gaze at the setting sun over the desert. I know it's probably just boring old sand to most people, but I find the sight to be beautiful, calming even.

It isn't long before I spot another person walking towards the entrance, the only person here other than myself that isn't decked out in full military uniform. My sister somehow walks gracefully through the awkward terrain. Damn it, I couldn't look that good traversing the desert no matter how hard I'd try.

In less than a moment, she reaches the gate and stops to stand just in front of me. Despite the long walk she's just taken through this rough desert heat, it hardly looks as though she's broken a sweat. That's another thing about my sister, she's always kept herself in great shape.

Kelsey takes her sunglasses off and tucks them away neatly into her shorts pocket. “Good test, right?” she asks.

“Yeah, everything seemed to go just fine” I reply.

“Just fine?” She laughs. “Come on, you saw me out there. I was born to do this. I was born to be gigantic, don't deny it.”

I laugh. “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Kels.” I notice that her feet are still bare as she stands in front of me and I suddenly remember the pair of flip flops I've been holding onto. I extend my arm and dangle them in front of her. “You know, you don't have to go barefoot across the desert, right?”

She rolls her eyes before taking the flip flops from me. “Oh, come on, Jess. Everyone knows shoeless is the best way to walk through sand.” She drops the sandals to the ground and they land with a light slapping sound.

“But isn't it uncomfortable, all that hot sand under your feet and between your toes?” I ask as she wriggles her way into the footwear.

“Nah, it feels good. You should try it sometime. Or maybe Jess is afraid of getting a little burny-wurny on her footsie-wootsies” she says, making a pouty face and mocking me in a baby voice. “See ya later, sis” she says before walking away from me.

Behind me, I can hear her stop and ask someone for a stick of gum before she once again begins walking away, traveling deeper into the base. 

Jessica

I often wonder if my sister even realizes just how lucky she really is. Not just because of her natural exquisite beauty composing her exterior, but for the intricate genetic makeup deep within her body as well.

Before the first attack, before all of this, I had been focusing on my education, working hard, studying each night, striving towards my goal of attaining for myself the means to a life I wanted to live.

And what of my sister? Well, as I've said before, I'm the responsible one. Kelsey has never been able to hold down the same job for more than a few weeks at a time. It's been the same story at each job she has abandoned.

In her eyes, regardless of the task at hand, she is simply too good to be spending her time and energy on it, and/or she believes she should be receiving higher payments for the effort she's putting in. I don't think she would be satisfied with any sort of employment unless she could manage to find herself a job that paid her superfluous amount of money for simply acting like a spoiled princess.

So, not too long ago, while I was off at school and my sister was... well, being her usual self, the first incident occurred. It was like something straight out of a work of science fiction. The biology class I was in at the time was interrupted by another professor. He was hysterical and frightened the majority of my class when he suddenly whipped open the classroom door and starting shouting.

He was out of breath and so shaken by whatever it was he was trying to convey to us that it was difficult to understand just what he was saying. Among the few words we managed to understand as they quickly poured from his mouth were “giant creature” and “attacking city.”

How ridiculous, I thought to myself. This couldn't be anything more than some sort of prank or practical joke. But as the professor stood there, continuing to spew what I still believed to be nonsense, a voice came over the intercom and requested that everyone make their way to their choice of a few different parts of the school for an assembly.

Most of my classmates grabbed their belongings to take with them as the voice on the intercom hadn't mentioned the duration of this assembly. I grabbed my backpack and sweatshirt and followed the others as we noisily made our way into the halls and talked amongst each other, wondering what was going on.

I decided to head to the auditorium. It was already packed with other students by the time I arrived, however there were still many unoccupied seats. There were TV's set up at the front of the room and everyone stood crowded in front of those screens. Every few seconds, members of the crowd gasped, some held their hands on their faces, covering their mouths. I couldn't tell what it was they were seeing but I just had to find out so I began making my way towards the front of the crowd.

After pushing my way to a place where I could sufficiently view the TV screens, I was shocked by what I saw. A red banner on the bottom of the screen flashed “BREAKING NEWS,” but I was much more concerned with the footage being shown. On the screen was a city somewhere in Japan, and the streets were stricken with panic.

Crowds of people ran, screaming as they passed in front of the camera which was held by whomever happened to be filming the event. Vehicles smashed into each other, blocking intersections as panicked drivers tried desperately to flee the scene. The cameraman turned his attention and filmed a spot further into the distance where entire rows of buildings had been torn into, many of them reduced to rubble by some as of yet unseen force.

In the auditorium, we wondered, was Japan under attack? Were we witnessing the beginning of World War III on live TV? Suddenly a loud shrieking sound accompanied by booms came over the speakers and our attention was glued once more to the screen.

The cameraman zoomed in on a massive building, still unscathed by the assault on the city but surrounded by thick smoke from the fires burning all around it. He was just in time to capture on film the sight of a giant exoskeletal claw piercing through the building, shattering glass and sending debris flying through the air. Fleeing crowds on the ground tried their best to evade the downpour of destruction and get to safety.

Panic ensued within the auditorium. The gasps continued and some people even screamed. I couldn't take my eyes away from the carnage on the screen as I wondered just what the clawed creature attacking the city could be.

Needless to say, classes didn't resume that day. We were all told we could go home, but most of us wished to stay put and watch as the events continued to unfold. Throughout the day, the TV's displayed live video of the event as well as home video footage. Some of my fellow students dug out their laptops and smartphones and got online to discover the internet was abuzz with photos and discussion speculating as to what was going on.

The next day, the creature was killed. The military swept in and evacuated the city as best they could before unleashing barrage after barrage of missiles upon the beast, continually raining fire down upon it until it was taken down. The world watched on through their television screens and the internet as the creature's campaign of devastation was brought to an explosive end. At the end of a trail of destruction blazed through part of that Japanese city lay the smoldering carcass of what resembled a crustacean of gigantic proportions.

This had been the first attack... but unfortunately, it was not the last. It wasn't long at all before another inexplicably large creature found its way to another heavily populated city and launched its own assault. And after that, there was another, and another, followed by, yep, you guess it, another.

Humanity, we were under attack by an enemy knew virtually nothing about. Each time military forces managed to slay one of these abominations, the corpse was studied, but the research never yielded anything of significant value regarding the animal's origins. These creatures were always like shellfish or insects, but they were somehow mutated and blown up to a massive scale. We were at war, and we needed a new weapon to combat this threat.

In fighting this war, military force actually managed to produce more destruction than the creature itself. It was time to discover a new tactic, something that would result in less devastation and fewer human casualties.

The United States was the first to come up with something promising. I'm definitely not the person to talk to about the specifics about how it all works, but our scientists somehow managed to discover a way to grow a human being to a large enough size to combat the creatures.

Originally, the plan was to grow US soldiers. However, there were many complications. Again, I'm definitely not the one to ask about the specifics, but for whatever reason, the size changing simply would not work on just anyone. In fact, it wouldn't work on males at all. And it just barely worked on females. It seemed as though only people with very specific genetic makeup were suitable to trigger the desired effects.

The government scoured the country searching for viable candidates with the genetics necessary to induce the growth and turn the human body into a weapon. One day, a team of what I guess you could call government scouts ventured to my school and tested the students. Imagine my surprise when it was my turn and the test results were positive. I had been cursing my genetics my entire life, and suddenly, I found out that I possessed something inside me so incredibly rare that it wasn't even fully understood yet by science.

Jealous eyes watched on as I was escorted out of the building and into a government aircraft, trembling with excitement and a goofy smile glued to my face.

Still faced with immense difficulty in trying to find successful candidates whose bodies would respond to the procedures, I mentioned to someone high-up on the science side of things that I had a sister, and that it might be worth screening her through the initial test. They agreed that it was worth a shot, so they flew her out to one of their secret bases and I'm sure you already know how her genetic tests went. See what I mean? I'm telling you, Kelsey definitely won the genetic lottery. And if it weren't for me speaking up on her behalf, she'd still be floundering her way through an endless string of trivial jobs rather than living out this amazing experience. She'd better appreciate it.

So that's how my sister and I got to be where we are now, in this secret base in the middle of a barren dessert. The government holds the routine growth tests on successful candidates out at locations here for many practical reasons, the biggest of them being the fact that it's better for everyone if someone is grown to gigantic size in the middle of a desolate area opposed to a densely populated piece of land.

Each nation wants a growth-enabled candidate of their own stationed within their country to protect them from the giant creatures in the event of an attack. The plan is to eventually make this desire a reality, but presently, there simply aren't enough candidates to go around.

It's early, but I should get to my quarters and sleep. With another routine test completed out here, tomorrow we'll be flown back to US soil.