The Office (Part 1) - Shrunken (Patreon)

It happened at the office, you caught the shrinking virus while taking a piss in the bathroom.

It was during the second wave of the pandemic, almost half of the males got fired last week, you only came to pick up your stuff and go back home to stay in lockdown.

You were one of the leading engineers, you thought they would keep letting you work from home but apparently no company was willing to take the risk as the government did nothing to support insurance companies for paying for the loss of employees to the shrinking virus.

You walked out of the booth, leaving your clothes behind, you started thinking about the government commercials about what to do when you shrink:

1 - stay close to a wall.

2 - better be in an area with cameras, so in case you get caught there will be a way to find who took you.

3 - get the help of someone you completely trust by getting their attention somehow.

So you quickly ran to the closest wall and got out of the men’s bathroom to the hall, considering your best options.

The R&D open space had some cameras, and Tracy was working today, your team member and best friend in the office. All you need to do is get her to notice you and you’ll be safe, if you remember correctly she came with flip flops today so it should be easy.

You took a deep breath and started walking in the open space direction. It's going to be a long walk and you’ll have to go through the office’s kitchen.

“Shit..” you mumbled as you heard the voices from the kitchen area, it was the QA girls, Alisa and Maya…

You continued walking close to the wall until you saw them, they both were sitting and drinking coffee, chatting loudly and giggling, they were facing the wall and kept looking at it.

You remained standing at the entrance, ever since the pandemic started all the girls became so overconfident and barely worked… coffee breaks got longer and they just didn’t care anymore…

You sighed and tried to think of another way to get there..

Maya hates you, you had an incident almost 2 years ago, something so stupid..

You mistakenly ate her lunch from the fridge, thinking it’s something Tracy brought you, Maya made such a scene over it and barely talked with you ever since, always opening stupid bugs on features you worked on and warning new employees about your ‘tendency’ to steal others' food.

No matter how many times you apologized and even bought her lunch the next day, she just couldn’t move past that, you gave up on trying to make it up to her.

You waited for 15 more minutes but they just sat there and kept talking casually. Alisa shared with Maya that her cousin shrunk down, and Maya said that her neighbor shrunk a few days ago, they were giggling about it, like the poor men who got infected were a joke.

It was beyond clear that if they noticed you - the last thing they would do would be to help you, but there’s no other way, you can’t wait here either, you must get past them and you can’t hug the wall because they were watching over it like 2 damn predators.

You took a long deep breath, you’ll have to try and pass beneath them, their feet where in the air and all the time you watched them they never looked down, it’s risky as hell but you just have to do it, so you started walking rapidly, you reached Maya’s chair, you looked up at her feet and gulped, then quickly got back to running.

“I’m going to make myself another cup, want some?” She asked Alisa.

“Fuck fuck fuck” you mumbled and started running.

“Nah I’m good, too much caffeine”

Maya sighed and looked down, then gasped, “hey, look!”

Fuck, she saw you.

“Huh?”

*THUD*

Alisa’s foot blocked you, you bumped into it and caressed your head, “oh no, fuck”, you prayed that someone will get to the kitchen now.

“Nice, you think it’s one of the engineers?” Alisa asked and giggled.

“Hey you, don’t you know it’s safer to hug the wall?” Maya asked with a giggle from above, looking at Alisa and laughing.

“Maya if it’s an engineer then it’s my turn!” Alisa said in excitement.

Maya got off the chair, “let’s see who’s this”, she bent over, you embraced yourself, trying to hide your face, her finger pushed your hands down.

“Hey don’t be shy, just show us who you a-“ she stopped mid sentence and gasped in surprise as she saw your face, then started laughing loudly and looked up at Alisa.

“Oh my god, it’s Travis!” She said while laughing, flicking your face with her finger, making you fall down.

Alisa gasped and covered her mouth, “holy shit, it’s the one you were waiting for right?”

“Yes!” She snatched you brutally from the floor, standing up and throwing you into her empty coffee mug.

“Shit, but it’s my turn”, Alisa giggled, you gulped in fear and placed your hands over the ceramic wall, ‘turn for what’, you thought for yourself.

“He’s a leading engineer, one of the firsts in the company, oh god can you imagine how many options they gave him???” Maya whispered in excitement.

“Holy shit, probably at least twice than what Shawn had”, she replied.

“Ok, let’s get the passwords away from this lunch thieving asshole”, Maya said and they grabbed their bags and went away, Maya was still holding her coffee mug with you inside.

They got into Maya’s car and she placed you in the mug’s holder.

“Wow, can’t believe we got him”, Maya told Alisa while driving.

“I think it’s going to be rather easy getting the codes out of him”, Alisa giggled, “right Travis?” She slowly got her foot over the mug, sealing you in darkness, you heard their muffled laughter.

She dragged her foot over the mug, making some debris and dirt falling inside.

“Lol come on, it's my coffee mug! I’m supposed to drink from it later!” Maya said while laughing and Alisa pulled her foot back down.

“Hahaha sorry, I just can’t hold myself, look how pathetic and scared he is”, she giggled and Maya joined her.

“It’s definitely going to be a walk in the park, Jeez I’m going to buy a new car with his money”.

“And lunch”, Alisa added.

“Hahaha yeah! The most expensive exaggerated lunch ever, and we are going to make him watch us eating”, Maya laughed loudly after saying that.

“Can we talk about what we do with him after extorting his options and savings?” Alisa asked, taking a glimpse at you, then biting her lower lip.

“Nah, not in front of him, I want him to be terrified”, Maya replied with a giggle, and she was right, you were terrified… by now you didn’t care much about the money, you only hoped you would get out of this alive.

————

End of part 1