Twenty years had passed since the initial ruling. Twenty years since the Supreme Court first ruled that the Infected, an unfortunate chunk of the human race which had succumbed to a virus with shrinking effects, were animals. Initially they had left the ruling open to change, but after a few months it became apparent that there would be no change. It had turned out to be an extraordinarily effective, if callous, solution.

And now, twenty years later, Doctor Ross worked in a facility that performed tests on the Infected, though they referred to them as “Victors,” from the V in the military alphabet standing for “victim.” Still, to this day she couldn’t help but smile every time she called one of them a “victor” to their face. It was one of life’s simple pleasures.

Doctor Ross was at her desk, violin music playing softly in the background. She was filling out some preliminary paperwork before the day’s activities, when her door slid open. She lifted her eyes.

“Doctor Swanson,” She said, and briefly wondered if he would pick up on the disdain in her voice.

“Veronica.” He said simply, letting himself in. He stopped, and seemed to contemplate something. He pointed his finger unspecifically in the air. “The... Four Seasons?” He asked. She nodded.

“Winter.”

“Ah yes, of course.”

“What can I do for you today, Doctor Swanson?”

“Oh, nothing much. I just wanted to come in and see how your progress is coming. There are some very influential people who are interested in getting their hands on that vaccine.”

“It’s going as quickly as it can. So far we’ve done everything we can for the Vics but nothing’s taking.” There was a process to grow a tiny person by a few inches, but within minutes whatever virus had caused the shrinking in the first place shrank them back down to their initial, miniaturized height.

“Well, see what you can do about speeding it up. The rate of spread at this point is practically null but there are a lot of rich, paranoid people out there and they want their vaccine, Veronica.” Her superior said in a stern voice.

“I understand, Doctor. I’ll do what I can.” She reassured. He stared at her for a moment longer, then turned to leave. Veronica sighed and, once he’d gone, flipped off her speakers, then cradled her head in her fingertips. There was no need for a vaccine, not to mention an urgent one. But, it was her job. She quickly finished filling out the paperwork, filed it accordingly, and headed out of her office and into the lab.

“Doctor.” Her assistant said as she entered. Veronica just smiled and nodded, heading over to the cages. She looked down the rows of tags, her finger hovering over them as she mouthed them to herself. Finally, she stopped before one cage, seeming satisfied.

“Twenty-two V.” She said, addressing the tiny occupant. “Please come to the front of the chamber.” It was company protocol to treat their subjects with as much respect as possible, and while that rule was really just something to placate the public, Veronica still enjoyed observing it. She knew she occasionally over-delighted in her work, and observing the protocols regarding respect validated it, to her.

The tiny woman inside the cage appeared to be in her forties. She wore the standard white gown given to all subjects, and held it tightly against her skin as she stared up at Veronica frightfully. The doctor sighed, shifting her weight to one foot.

“Subject Twenty-Two V, please come to the front of the chamber, or I will come in there and get you.” She said more sternly. By now, her assistant had approached, and hovered over Veronica’s shoulder.

“Why don’t you just grab her anyway? We don’t really have to ask them for anything.” The younger girl, freshly eighteen, was an intern participating in a college program. She spoke with the unthinking derision of someone born after the spread of the virus, someone who had never known a world in which there were not tiny people. Veronica had worked with the girl for a few months, and it excited her to think that she handled the creatures, who were once humans, with the same regard that Veronica herself might handle a mouse.

“It’s company protocol, Miss Pierce; and beyond that, it’s just polite.”
Her assistant barely stifled a sigh. “Yes, Doctor.” She said robotically, moving back to the table. Veronica refocused her attention on the reluctant woman in the cage before her.

“Okay. I’m coming in.” She opened the door and reached inside, her hand looming impendingly before the shrunken woman, who cowered in the corner of her cell, yelling incoherent pleas up to Veronica. The larger woman smiled, and slowly let her fingers wrap around the tiny, twisting form. “I’m sorry to have to do this.” She said, the small smile never fading from her face. She was easily able to overpower the smaller woman, and enjoyed doing so. She gave a soft squeeze to subdue her quarry, and the subject’s struggles significantly lessened.

“The table is prepped, Doctor Ross.” Emily said. Veronica nodded, carrying the subject over to the table. Before she set her down, she noticed the small woman was looking at her oddly. She returned the quizzical look, prompting the woman to speak.

“R-Ross?” She asked tentatively. Veronica nodded

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Veronica Ross?” That was strange. While she supposed it was possible the subject had picked up her name through conversations, the tone in which she said it implied a deeper knowledge of the person behind the name.

“Yes. How did you know that?”

“I-it’s me! Leah! Leah Goldsmith!” The tiny woman shouted. Veronica suddenly felt short of breath, and a moment later her face flushed. She had known Leah when the two were children. Veronica had come from a well-to-do family, but had still been forced to go to public school. Leah’s family was significantly less fortunate, and while ostensibly she and Veronica had been friends, the latter had spared no occasion to make Leah feel bad for her family’s situation. Leah, her self-esteem low enough that she believed she would never make a better friend, stuck by Veronica’s side through high school, until she ended up one of the hundreds of millions who shrank. Of course, Veronica had known she shrank - but so had a fifth of her whole school. She’d put those lost out of her mind.
Until now.

She stared down at the tiny, still-squirming figure of her childhood friend. She remembered vividly what Leah used to look like; she had been a beautiful girl, nearly as pretty as Veronica herself. Now she looked significantly older, though Veronica attributed this more to the stress of day-to-day life for a Vic, rather than the age itself. She still had long blond hair, and her muscles seemed to be in great condition, Veronica mused as they strained against her hand.

“Leah?” She finally asked, as though if the tiny woman were lying, she would be unable to answer this question correctly.

“Yeah! It’s me! Oh thank god, thank god you found me! Please, please help me! Please, I’m so scared. Please tell me you’re not going to hurt me.” Veronica blinked. It had been a long time since one of her subjects begged. Usually, they were resigned to their fate in some way, but seeing Veronica seemed to have reinvigorated Leah. It had instilled in her a large amount of hope; this was obvious to both researchers. And Veronica suddenly wanted nothing more than to extinguish that hope.

“Of course I won’t, Leah.” She cooed in a soothing voice. Emily cleared her throat.

“Actually, Doctor, today’s procedure is-”

“Emily!” Veronica whispered harshly. Though her tone was one of annoyance, she couldn’t help feeling anything but elated. “This woman was a friend. One does not perform ‘procedures’ on a friend.” She looked down at Leah, who seemed relieved. “Get the live testing kit.”

“The l-”

“You heard what I said. Get it.” Emily stared for a moment, but walked away to retrieve what she had been told. Leah started to look apprehensive again, but Veronica ran a finger through her hair.

“It’s okay dear. I still have to do my job, you understand. But the live testing kit has an incredibly low mortality rate.” She said softly. This did not comfort Leah as much as the tiny woman wanted it to.

“Please... please just take me home! I’ve been a housepet before, I know how to do it! Please, let me be your pet! Don’t experiment on me!”

“Oh. Honey. That’s sweet, really, but I already have a few housepets.” Her mind flashed to the three people chained up in her house right now. “And besides, there’d be no way I could smuggle you out. You’ve got a teeny-tiny tracking device in your skull there.” She poked Leah’s head playfully. “So this is what it’s going to have to be, I’m afraid.”

“Please... please don’t do this. Veronica, please.”

Veronica’s eyes flicked up. Her assistant was returning, but she was still out of earshot. The Doctor’s voice lowered to a whisper. “That’s good - keep begging just like that.” She winked, then turned her attention to Emily, who set a small box down on the table.

“Thank you, Miss Pierce.”

“No problem, Doctor Ross.” Emily responded flippantly. Veronica let it slide. She opened up the box and began by drawing out a small vial and needle.
“Hold the subject down on her front. And remove her robe.” She instructed, handing Leah off to Emily, who casually pinned her down on her front after pulling off the robe. Her large fingers held each of the tiny woman’s limbs to the cold metal table. Leah squirmed, fear starting to return. She squeaked out pleas for mercy, but they fell on deaf ears. Veronica opened the vial and dipped the needle inside, letting it drip once before returning her attention to Leah.
“You’ll feel a small prick.” Veronica said, then gently stabbed Leah in the ass, through her left cheek. “This is a stimulant, it’s to keep you from passing out. We found a lot of people tend to do so during this procedure, so we developed this in cases where we’d like the subject to remain awake.”

Over the past few months, Emily had picked up somewhat on the level of enjoyment Doctor Ross gleaned from her job, and it made her uncomfortable. It was this discomfort that prompted her to speak. “I thought we don’t perform procedures on friends?” She asked, looking her superior in the eyes. Veronica looked up as well, her look a dangerous one.

“We also do not make friends of the subjects, Miss Pierce. If you’re unable to lie to these animals for the purposes of a procedure, perhaps this is not a field you should pursue much further.” Her voice dripped with venom. For once, Emily seemed phased, as she realized how easily her tongue could jeopardize the effort she’d put into this as a career option.

“I-I’m sorry, Doctor Ross. I didn’t understand. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

“Good.” Veronica silently wished she had something more punchy. She let the word hang there for a moment, then turned her attention back to the small woman held by her young assistant. “Now flip her over and tape her wrists and ankles to to the table using this.” She handed Emily a small roll of tape. Emily silently did as she was told, easily managing Leah’s frantic struggles to escape her giant grip.

“Please! Please, Veronica, have mercy! Please don’t do this to me!” Her tiny voice managed to reach the giant women above her, and Emily’s eyes flicked to the Doctor’s face, instantly noticing the small smirk that tugged at the corners of her mouth. It made Emily shudder that both she and the Doctor knew what was in the kit. That she had chosen this fate for her former friend. She finished binding the tiny girl, and wondered how much harder that would have been if the subject had really understood what was going to happen to her.

“Now Miss Pierce, if you would be so kind as to set these up?” Veronica handed her assistant six small pegs that fit into small indents on the table. She set them up on either side of the tiny woman, three on each side. Leah’s head rolled wildly from one side to the other.

“What are these? What is this? What are you doing to me, Veronica? Please, please tell me this is going to be okay!” Leah’s heart hammered in her chest. The taller woman moved so she was standing directly over her diminutive friend, looking down from her full height. She wore a Cheshire grin, unable to contain it any longer.

“Miss Pierce, do you think you could fetch the anesthetic?” She asked knowingly. Emily looked from her wicked face to the helpless woman on the table, and back again.

“Th-there... there isn’t an anesthetic for this procedure, as far as I know, Doctor.”

Leah stared in horror deep into Veronica’s cruel eyes. “Oh. That’s right, I must have forgotten myself for a moment. There won’t be any anesthetic.” Though she addressed her assistant, her eyes never left Leah’s form. “Lay the instruments out, and hand me the scalpel.”

Leah struggled viciously against her bonds. She could hear the younger girl laying things behind her, but she couldn’t crane her neck back to see what it was. Small whimpers of exertion escaped her lips as she struggled, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Please... please Veronica...” She begged, and like that she was over twenty years younger, a teenage girl again:

“Please Veronica!” She had exclaimed, on the verge of tears. The cruel brunette sat on Leah’s chest, pinning her to the ground, while she held Leah’s cell phone to her face, focused on it.

“He says he doesn’t understand why you’re doing this. He seems hurt.” Veronica said coldly. Leah squirmed underneath Veronica, but her arms were bound by Veronica’s legs. She stared into her friend’s face, her eyes red and tear-filled.

“Please... I... I really like him... please stop...”

“Mm-mm. I’m doing this for your own good. Trust me, he’s a prick. You’re better off without him.” Leah sniffled, a few tears falling slowly down the sides of her face. Veronica glanced at her, and scowled. “You’re so pathetic. I’m trying to help you and you’re crying and asking me to stop?” She went back to texting Leah’s boyfriend. “You really are something. You’re just lucky I’m so gracious that I don’t care about your tantrums.”

“I... I mean... he was always so good to me.” Leah sniffed again. Her whining voice sent dual emotions through Veronica; on one hand, the sound infuriated her, and briefly sent violent flashes through her mind. On the other, it pleased her. She couldn’t understand why - she wasn’t mature enough yet to understand what about the situation made her happy, but she indulged the pleasure. She wanted more of it.

“It’s all an act. I know how he really is. I mean look at us. We’ve been friends since Kindergarten, and now we’re at each others’ throats over some boy we’ve gone to school with for a year?” She lifted her gaze from the phone, staring into Leah’s crying eyes. “Does that seem like a good thing to do?”

“W-well no, but... I don’t think it’s... I mean, you attacked me.”
Veronica opened her mouth to respond, but just then, the phone in her hands started ringing. She looked down at it in surprise, and saw it was Leah’s boyfriend. “It’s him.” She hissed. “Dump him.”

“I don’t wanna!” Leah whined, but no sooner had the sentence escaped her lips than Veronica’s foot slid up her body, resting on her throat. Her eyes went wide in surprise and fear.

“You. Will. Dump. Him.” She commanded, answering the call and leaning forward. She applied slight pressure to Leah’s throat, and held the phone to her ear.

“H-hello?” Leah said, her crying obvious in her voice. “Yeah... yeah I want to...” She looked at Veronica, who curled her toes against Leah’s neck. “I want to dump you. My- my reason?” She looked to her friend, who shook her head quickly. “No reason. I just don’t... I don’t...” She whimpered, and both girls could tell a fresh wave of tears was coming. Veronica sighed in disgust and lifted the phone to her mouth.

“I don’t love you. I hate you, bye.” She imitated Leah as best she could and hung up, tossing the phone onto Leah’s bed. The two girls stared at each other, Leah sobbing quietly. Veronica just gazed at her dispassionately, and very slowly started pressing her foot down. Leah’s eyes went wide with shock and she squirmed, using her one loose arm from Veronica shifting her leg to try to lift the foot up, but she couldn’t budge it.

Veronica gave a shove with her foot, and Leah let out a horrible retching noise that scared both girls. Veronica quickly scrambled off of Leah, who rolled over and started violently coughing. The brunette knelt beside her friend, her voice trembling from what she misidentified as fear.

“Hey, come on. Come on, you’re okay. Shut up, I didn’t even push that hard. I was just playing.” She reassured, rubbing Leah’s back. Leah just laid on her side after the coughing had subsided, thinking about what had just happened. Veronica continued to console her for a while longer, but eventually she fell silent too. The room was quiet for a long time, both girls feeling the impact of the past ten minutes. Veronica ultimately broke the silence.

“Want to come over tonight and watch movies?”

“Please, Veronica...” She whimpered in a familiar tone. “You’re scaring me.”

“D-Doctor,” Emily said, shifting her weight uncomfortably. “The scalpel?” She had had her arm extended for almost ten seconds, offering the instrument to Veronica, who was absorbed in the fear coming off of her tiny quarry in sheets. She looked up.

“Of course.” She smiled warmly. “I’m sorry.” She took the instrument, rolling it between her fingers. “Would you mind terribly taping the subject’s mouth closed? She seems to have a hard time controlling herself.” Emily did as she was told, applying a thin strip of tape across Leah’s mouth. The tiny girl tried to resist, but Emily’s fingers were well-accustomed to insubordinate tinies, and her struggles did little to even delay it. She stared up once again at Veronica in mute horror. She wondered how her friend could do this to her.

Veronica had delayed her satisfaction enough. She could barely hold her hand still, trembling so hard was she with sadistic delight. She lowered the blade to the tiny woman’s chest, placing the very tip at her sternum, between her breasts. Leah just shook her head back and forth, her eyes wild. She whimpered as loud as she could, straining against her bonds. With slow, cold precision, Veronica dragged the blade across Leah’s warm flesh.

A shrill shriek erupted from Leah, and Veronica could only imagine how loud it would have been had it not been muffled. She shivered excitedly and continued to drag the blade slowly through her childhood friend, careful to slice open only the flesh. She stopped when she reached Leah’s pelvis, and made a few more incisions at each end of the long, vertical cut. Veronica gently placed the scalpel down and admired the form of her tiny, sobbing friend.

“I’m so sorry this hurts so much, Leah.” She whispered. Emily chewed her lip, wondering if the Doctor even still remembered she was in the room. “I promise to kill you eventually, to put you out of your misery.” With that, she picked up a small needle and some string. Using the needle, she peeled back the flaps of flesh on Leah’s chest, and slowly ran the needle through it, fastening the string at the end, then attaching it to one of the fixtures to Leah’s side. The process was excruciating, and the poor woman’s struggles only served to make it hurt more. Veronica repeated the process five more times, and soon enough Leah laid on her back, her insides laid bare for observation.

“Look! It’s not often someone really looks inside themselves.” Veronica teased. Leah didn’t have the stomach to look. She focused on keeping the back of her skull against the table, her eyes rolled up as far as they would go. She looked at the assistant, an obviously younger girl. She looked uncomfortable with the situation. Leah believed the discomfort was from watching one human being torture another, but in Emily’s mind, the situation was nothing like that. She was disturbed by how happy Doctor Ross seemed to have become just from hurting an animal.

Veronica placed the needle down beside the scalpel, and now took up the tweezers. “Start the recording, Miss Pierce.” She said. Emily took a small recorder out of her jacket, and hit the ‘Record’ button.

“The subject seems normal on the inside... the infection does not appear to have affected any of her internal organs, beyond shrinking them to scale with the rest of her body.” Veronica said mechanically. “Even at her advanced age, it does not seem to be deteriorating her in any way beyond normal. This suggests the virus has no symptoms other than the shrinking itself.” She lowered the tweezers into Leah, and began gently tugging at her intestines, straightening them out and laying them out along the table. Leah groaned and twisted in discomfort, tears rolling down her face at a steady rate.

Emily stopped the recorder. “Doctor, what are you doing now?” She asked. Her voice was not to appear in recordings - she just wasn’t important enough to have it happen.

“I’m just... inspecting her.” There was a small beat. “Keep the tape off. That’s all that needs to officially happen, anyway.” She said. Emily did as she was told, though she felt she was being coerced into some sort of conspiracy. She twisted her mouth to the side, looking down at Leah.

“Doctor, I... I don’t think there’s anything we need to do in there anymore.” She suggested softly. Veronica just shook her head. She had pulled out as much intestine as she felt she could, and it lay beside Leah in a long loop. Now, she pressed the end of the tweezers against Leah’s ribcage. She gripped one of the ribs with the tweezers.

“I understand your hesitance, Miss Pierce, but I assure you there are things to look for that come with experience.” She twisted her wrist ever so slightly, and the rib snapped off, held only in the tweezers now. Leah let out another scream of agony, as Veronica just set the rib beside her. She pinched another rib, and did the same thing, setting it beside the first.

“Doctor!” Emily said, her voice rising. Veronica, having bent over Leah for a closer look, straightened up, her gaze one of malice.

“Miss Pierce.” She hissed. “If you are interested at all in the position I suggest you stop interrupting me. You may feel free to leave if you like. Your presence is no longer required here.” Emily stood stunned. She had known the Doctor enjoyed to play with the subjects, but she had never seen her behave like this. She wasn’t sure what to do. Slowly, she began to walk towards the door, but just then it opened, and both women looked over to see who had come in.

“Veronica. Emily.” The older man said. Veronica’s mood soured immediately.

“Doctor Swanson.” Veronica said bitterly. “How can I help you now?”

“Did you forget the conversation we had not an hour ago?” He asked, his stern attention focused on Veronica. He walked over to the table and looked down at Leah, who stared up at him with pleading eyes.

“I did not, Sir...” Veronica explained slowly. “I was just beginning the tests on this subject.”

“Did you believe she was hiding the vaccine in her stomach?” He asked. Veronica’s lips curled up into a snarl, but her boss’ hand reached out and he pressed his thumb over Leah’s face, pressing the side of her head roughly against the table, and smothering her mouth and nose. She tried to scream and get away, but it was useless. She was too weak, and too little. This is how everything she had been would end. Forty years, most of them spent in a fight for survival no human before her had had to endure for centuries, and here she would die, on a cold metal table under the thumb of a man who didn’t acknowledge her as human. Somehow, in these last moments, that made sense to her. She was a bit surprised it hadn’t occurred to her earlier.

“S-sir!” Veronica stammered, but he cut her off.

“No, Ms. Ross. Between you, me and the wall here,” He shot a dark look at Emily and she nearly died on the spot. “We’re all aware of your proclivities, but this is crossing a goddamn line. I’d send you home for the day but I don’t want to have to explain why the day after being given the order to hasten I cut my workforce.” He didn’t give a single thought to the tiny struggles beneath his thumb. “I don’t know what set you off, and frankly I’m not sure if I can trust you with the other subjects. Can you still do your job?”

“I... I...” Veronica stammered. Her face was a bright red, and her mouth had dried up.

“They knew each other.” Emily said softly, cutting her off. Robert Swanson turned to look at her, and she took a step back. “Before she shrunk. The subject.” She clarified. “S-so... so Doctor Ross probably won’t do this again. Because that’s a pretty rare coincidence. Right?”

He chewed this over, then looked back to Veronica. “You’ve got a good girl here. Is it true?” Veronica just nodded. “Fine. But from now on, you keep. Your shit. Together. Do you understand me?” Veronica nodded again, furious at how powerless she felt. Robert looked down at the tiny girl. Due to Veronica’s procedure, they could see her lungs had stilled, and her heart had stopped. He lifted his thumb up and turned it over, checking for blood. It was clean. “Clean her up and dispose of her. Then get back to work. I want a report by the end of tomorrow with a vaccine or a justification of your continued employment.” He turned and left the room as suddenly as he had appeared. Veronica let out a large breath and leaned against the table, screwing her eyes shut.

“Sh-should I still...”

“Go!” Veronica yelled. Emily quickly trotted out of the room, and Veronica felt bitter tears sting her eyes. She allowed herself a single whimper, then cleared her throat, wiping at her eyes with her sleeves. She looked up at the camera in the corner. “Fuck off.” She whispered.

Leah’s body held no interest to Veronica once she was dead. The doctor cut the strings away, and quickly wiped her body into a wastebin, using a few pieces of cloth to wipe up the blood. She looked at the limp, mutilated form lying in the trash, and thought about Robert Swanson. Her lips slowly curled into a snarl again. There was no vaccine because people would never believe the truth of the virus. But Veronica was smarter than them. She was better than them. And though she hadn’t done it yet, she was sure she could replicate the virus. She was sure she could shrink people. People like Robert Swanson.

And once she had, she’d be more than happy to justify her continued employment.