The Princess of the Atom by Ray Cummings

Dianne's hand came from her belt. "Here -- take this! Just touch it to your tongue. Only that! Then give it back to me!"

Her hand went to her own mouth. I moistened my tongue with the pellet.

Togaro had almost reached us. Drake leaped forward. Dianne cried in agonized terror, "Oh, Drake -- Drake, you took too much!"

Drake had gulped all of his pellet. He leaped at the oncoming figure of Togaro. They locked together, fighting. I broke from Dianne. As I jumped forward a corrugation of the floor caught my foot. I fell headlong; stunned for a moment, but I got up.

In the center of the cavern the swaying forms of Drake and Togaro were fighting. They were both already far larger than Dianne and me! Giant fighting forms. Growing swiftly. In a moment they looked fifteen or twenty feet tall. A weaponless, hand-to-hand fight. Togaro was bending Drake backward. Drake's hands gripped the fellow's throat. Then they went down. Rolling together, each struggling to land on top. Still larger now -- their lurching bodies filled one end of the cavern.

Dianne clung to me. I became aware that I was struggling to escape her. And aware also that the cave seemed dwindling. A slow contraction, but the dim space here was already noticeably smaller.

"Dianne, let me go!"

"No! They're too large! You'd be killed!"

Large! They were gigantic! A sweep of one of their massive arms or legs would have flung me headlong as though I had been a child. I crouched with Dianne, watching them. Powerless to help Drake.

Then I realized: "Dianne, give me more of the drug."

"No! " She called, "Drake! Drake, you -- "

Her words were lost in the turmoil of the fighting giants. The roof of the cavern had a long irregular opening into the space above it. Light filtered down. The light illumined the huge threshing bodies. Togaro was on top. His arm, longer than my body now, went up as he tried to strike at Drake. Then Drake heaved him off.

They had rolled away from where Dianne and I were crouching. They were soon so large that half the cavern scarce contained them. Togaro tried to stand up with Drake lunging at his waist. His shoulders brushed the roof. He could not stand erect.

Dianne was screaming now. "Drake! Drake! Climb out of here! You'll be crushed! " An agony of fear was in her voice.

It swept me with a realization of horror. Growing so fast, these fighting giants, that in a moment more the cavern would not be large enough for them! Crushed in here by their own growth.

I added my shouts to Dianne's. "Drake! Climb out -- through the hole up there."

They both realized the danger. They were almost wedged between this hundred-foot floor and roof. We could see Togaro trying to cast Drake backward -- trying to escape through the gash overhead. He seemed to succeed. His fist caught Drake full in the face. Drake crumpled, but in a moment recovered. Togaro had cast loose. Scrambling, half climbing, his great body lurched up through the roof opening.

But Drake was after him. He stood, bent double within the narrow confines of these walls. He scrambled up, against all the efforts of Togaro to shove him back.

They fought in the space over us. Already too large to come back. Their bodies fell as again they locked together. Fell across the roof opening, so huge now that we could see only a portion of their legs.

Again the space up there must have been too small. They scrambled higher. The sounds of the fighting faded into the upper distance.