Chapter 17 - (part fourteen)

"Shh!" cautioned Daesti. She motioned furtively with her head and eyes. Mim was making the rounds, and within a moment was walking up behind Lina's chair.

"Enjoying the food, girls?"

Daesti was midway into a mountain of Axomamman mashed potatoes. She smiled and mm-hmmed and nodded enthusiastically.

Lina, meanwhile, was deceptively rearranging the food on her plate into little mounds to give the appearance that she had eaten a substantial portion.

"What's the matter, Ms. Lazuli...not hungry?"

Lina forced a smile. "No, no, the food's great."

Mim was unconvinced. "It's not wise to try to fool me, Lina. You've barely eaten since you've been here. I know this for a fact. It seems you are actually *losing* weight, which is the exact opposite of what we want, isn't it? So, Ms. Lazuli, I'm going to have to recommend that we ramp up your counseling sessions, starting today. Right now, in fact. I'll need you to come with me." She reached for Lina's arm. "And I do mean right now."

That was all the provocation Lina needed. Without blinking, she elbowed the enormous counselor sharply in the gut. Though the fat absorbed most of the blow, Mim was nonetheless doubled over with the force of it.

"Daesti, run!" exhorted Lina, who was already over the table and racing towards a back doorway that led to a service corridor.

Daesti paused a moment to swallow one more spoonful of food.

"Daesti! Come on!" yelled Lina, stamping her foot.

Then Daesti herself also leapt up and splattered the plate of mashed potatoes in Mim's face.

As the two young women bolted, the fatties, so preoccupied with their meals, barely acknowledged this turn of events, but now a murmuring arose from the Dining Hall, growing in volume as Lina and Daesti raced down the main service corridor, then dashed higgledy-piggledy through several intersecting passageways.

Now that they were on the lam, all their carefully conceived plans quickly evaporated in the panic of the moment. Daesti, puffing with effort and already lagging slightly behind Lina, paused to survey their options.

"Over there!" She pointed to a circular opening in one of the corridor walls, a sort of oculus, slightly out of her reach.

Standing on tiptoe, Lina was able to glance in. "Storage room, maybe. Looks safe."

"Give me a boost!"

Lina looked skeptical. "Will you fit through?"

"I think it's big enough." Daesti sounded hurt. "Hurry!"

Lina cradled her hands together to form a makeshift step. Daesti, winded, climbed up and began to clamber up into the portal. She had gotten her torso through the opening but now was trying to shimmy through to the other side of the wall. She stopped abruptly.

"Uh-oh."

"W hat's wrong?"

Daesti grunted. "I think I'm stuck." Her voice was muffled through the wall.

"No time to fuck around!" said Lina.

"I'm not! I'm stuck!"

"No, no, no!" Lina lamented. "Not now! Please, not now! Pull yourself through!"

"I'm trying!"

"Try harder!"

Daesti struggled. A few extra millimeters of flesh were all it had taken to prevent her from squeezing through.

"I told you not to eat any of that food! Now look what's happened!"