Prologue

Today was the day... Today was the day...

My eyes flicked open, searching for the nearby clock in a room full of darkness. It wouldn't take me long to find it. 6:55am, five minutes away from the alarm... I sat up and collected my thoughts in the black room. Light started to sneak in behind the curtains as I tossed up wether the wait for the alarm or get up and face the cold early. With another glace at the clock, the promise of what today will bring flickers through my mind. My heart skips a beat, out of excitement or nerves, I wasn't sure. I threw the sheets off of me and propped my feet onto the hard wood floor, before lifting myself out of bed.

Somehow I managed to throw some clothes on myself and walk out to do the usual morning routine. The day started like any other, almost like any other person id assume. Get up, use the bathroom, stuff myself full of food to power myself until lunch, and make a coffee to get myself out of sleep mode. However today I was far to excited, the coffee was hardly required to wake up, I had hardly slept.

Once I was satisfied I was presentable to go out into the world and leave the home, I marched out the door and into my car, my head held high. I had a short drive to make to where I worked, but it still left me time the ponder the day ahead.

I was a young man, living in the outer suburbs. I worked at a nearby institute, but I was no scientist, more the dummy. My name is Russell Stone, and today I would be making history. Even for a test dummy what I was about to do would be a world first and perhaps even revolutionise the world. I tried not to get egotistical thinking over it, but yet what I would be doing was so significant. The moment in which my name was about written down in the history books would be a momentous occasion, the world would stop like the lunar landing to witness it's significance.

Although that said, unlike the man landing on the moon my event wouldn't be broadcast around the globe until the feat had been pulled off first rather than live. But still once the footage was released, every man, woman and child would be gathered around a TV set, or in this day and age their computers.

I had to stop my thoughts, as I pulled into work. I was getting rather ahead of myself, and I said I wouldn't get a egotistical over it! I needed to pull myself in, take a deep breath and calm down. Then the other thoughts poured in, everyone would see what I was going to do! The nerves of having my work exposed to the world was quite daunting. I was a wreck of excitement and nerves.

I stopped my car and took some deep breaths before I strolled into my building.

Today was the day...

I made my way through the security doors and staff to the lab. The first person I noticed was Neal the overseer of this little project. He waved me over.

“You're in early?” he said with puzzlement

“I couldn't sleep” I responded

“Ah, I understand. Well that is to be expected.” he paused “you'll need to be briefed before we can proceed, we've prepared a presentation in the auditorium”

“oh right...” I said feeling a little nervous, the moment was perhaps starting to get me.

“Why don't you get something to eat on the way over? Calm your nerves” Neal must have read me like a book.

“Sounds like a good idea” not wasting much time I turned to leave, Neal let out a slight grunt like he hadn't finished speaking.

I made my way to the auditorium like I had been instructed but I wasn't in the mood to stomach any more food than the breakfast that was already giving me butterflies.

I chuckled to myself, it had dawned on me that before I had thought to compare this day the lunar landing. Sure it was that important, but the scale of this project seemed so far away from that day in 1969. Man had touched down on the moon and while that had been a giant step for mankind, I was about to take a smaller one.

I Russell Stone was about to be the first man to be shrunk, but not only that make a routine trip inside the body of another person.

Today was the Day...