Chapter 4

The lorry was dark and hot and Abby was sweaty, when the doors were opened for the last time the day was bright and the air cold on Abby’s naked body, her nibbles erected. The women were unstrapped from their beds and led from the lorry into a building. The building looked new, a warehouse feel with no windows. Like a prison and a hospital. Abby couldn’t see any other buildings around; she had no idea where she was only that they had been driving for hours. It looked like the warehouse was on farmland.

The women were filed into the facility, and each provided with a jumpsuit, one size fits all. Except this time, the jumpsuit did fit most of the women, a little big on some. Then they were directed through to a briefing room, when everyone was seated a screen was switched on and the briefing played:

‘You are all at this facility because you exceed the maximum body mass for the state health service to continue with your care in society. As you failed to rectify this before the deadline you have been recategorized to ‘human livestock’ your previous rights have been limited and you will remain at this facility indefinitely so as to be of maximum use in society. While at this facility you will be required to adhere to the schedules and care plans set by the staff for your department. You will be assigned to either legacy, maternity, hospitality or diplomatic departments, this assignment may change during the lifecycle of your stay.’

The women were each assigned to a room and told they would be collected at mealtimes. Abby laid on her bed. It was a large cell, with a large white bed in it and a large toilet and sink. The lights were on but dim and there were no windows or a clock and nothing for her to do, so she slept. Abby didn’t know what time it was when she woke up, but she was hungry, she went to the cell door to look for someone and saw that other women on the corridor had the same idea and were calling out for food and water but no-one came. She waited for what felt like hours before giving up and going back to bed, this cycle repeated a couple of times, how long were they left? Hours? Days? Without food or water until the cell doors opened and they were all directed to the canteen.

Everyone was starving. Abby waited in line with the other women and was pleased when her tray was piled high with food by the servers. She sat at the long bench tables with the other women and ate gladly. Pizza, burgers, doughnuts and milkshakes, a feast for a starving fatty. When everyone had finished, they were filed back to their cells with nothing to do but sleep. It could only have been a couple of hours later and the cell doors were open again and the women were directed back to the canteen. Abby was confused, she was still full from the last meal but not knowing how much time had passed and aware that they were left for a long time before the first canteen visit, Abby took advantage of the filled tray of food and ate everything served to her. This cycle of sleeping and canteen visits repeated with varying gaps of time between. The women, not knowing how much time would elapse before they could eat again, always finished their meals.

Abby didn’t see a change in herself but started to see it in others. First there was the clang of a metal fork on the canteen floor that nobody heard, then there was the deafening and unmistakeable sound of fabric ripping as one of the inmates bent over to pick up her fork and her jumpsuit ripped. Abby looked around, they had all gotten fatter. Where some people’s jumpsuits were baggy when they arrived now looked tight in places. After that, jumpsuits could be heard ripping at every canteen visit, these weren’t replaced with bigger garments and so the larger women had to move about the canteen with rolls of fat, breasts, buttocks or bellies spilling out of their burst clothing.