Before, the change had produced very gradual, minimal changes. People got fitter, losing fat and gaining muscle. Their skin cleared up, and hair becam...e healthy. That was it. Cosmetically there just wasn’t a lot of changes. Personalities hadn’t changed radically either. Alex was probably the biggest. She’d lost some, although not all, of the brusque, always right edge she’d had when I’d first met her. Not that it was all gone, of course, but she was more considerate and thoughtful of her actions. ."Questions erupted, but another sudden six-inch drop immediately fixed that. They'd lost half my body height now, so the perspective was getting silly. When the Christians recovered from the shock, the older man led them in a charge at me, very roughly pushing intervening people aside as they rushed at me, the rear two raising crucifixes while all three of them told some guy called Satan to get back to Hell. They apparently had me confused with someone else.They violently pushed their way. "How can this get any worse?"That query was answered by a most unlikely source. A child's voice spoke squeaked from very close by."Mommy? Wake up . . . I hungwy." The next sight that David saw chilled him to the marrow. He turned his head to see a little black girl, who couldn't be any older than 2 to 3 years old, standing in a doorway. She was looking at him with a sad, innocent look in her eyes.When David reached to draw away the long, tangled dark hair that had fallen into his eyes, he. .. what... are you going to... do to us?"The truck driver says, "You will find out! Now! Get in the back of the truck, with Ben! And don't make a sound." Crazy Al and the two boys enter the cargo area of the truck. "My name is Crazy Al, but you can call me Al, and the other guy, is Ben. What are your names?"Scared of being hit again by either of them they have no choice to tell them their names. "I... I'm Robert, and this is Joey." Please to meet you, both. Now! You two boys are going to take.