Chapter 2

Vanessa haphazardly wiped at her face, hands smudging with her mascara and foundation as the scientist guiding her to a large luxury SUV helped her get on.

It was full with six other people sitting in the car, none of them students she could recognize. They were all either crying as she was, or somber and still from the shock still coursing through them.

The scientist got into the front seat next to the driver, another woman who was also a scientist.

One commented to the other, hands on the wheel as the doors locked and she began to drive to their destination. “Get any answers?”

The other woman laughed to herself as she tapped her board. “Nope. Not a single one of them gives me a single answer. Names, age, favorite food. Nothing.”

“C’mon Brittany,” the woman snorted, “It’s your second year doing this. You should know by now the routine.”

“Yeah, but you just think they would get used to all of this by now.” Brittany said as she crossed her arms over her chest with a sigh. “I mean, seriously Rebecca. Growing up with this and you’re literally this shocked?”

Rebecca shrugged her shoulders as she made a left turn. “How would you feel if you woke up today and got told you would end up weighing 600 pounds by the end of next year?”

A girl to the left of Vanessa screamed at the suggestion, bursting into even more tears as she sobbed to the point of nearly passing out. It wasn’t like Vanessa could judge either, she too cried the entire drive for all 30 minutes of it.

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The car drove into her city’s industrial area. It was near the eccentric downtown shops and grocers, but there was a clear distinction between the socialites strolling about and the employees driving to start their day.

Most people who worked in this area actually had very normal blue collar jobs: automotives, technology, etc. But… they also happened to have built many more food-related factories nearby as well.

They were large and prominent, painted externally either white or with shades of fun and friendly colors. Each factory had a prominent logo at the front and, overall, was nothing menacing to the unknowing eye. You only really had to be scared if you were in Vanessa’s shoes.

She’d finally stopped crying by the time the van drove to the backside of the factory, opening its large door to give room for large and intimidating security officers tl usher them into the building. As she was guided, now feeling her expensive high-heels dig into the balls of her feet and the backs of her ankles, she turned her head to find many more vans lining up to get even more graduates into the factory.

A chill went down her spine as she was physically pushed to get into a single file line. No one was tied or handcuffed, but no one dared to run.

Walking inside, she was hit with the freezing air conditioner and the strong, almost nauseating scent of frosting.

They were at the factory for Little Bertha’s. It was a popular and famous snack cake brand, well adored for their treats as they were delicious all while being low in calorie and sugar. Even doctors approved them, stating they were a relatively healthy snack.

Vanessa hated sweets.

Walking through the building, she could recognize that they were in the backside as they walked through clean and empty white halls. The doors were gray and on the occasion had a nameplate to label them as a laboratory for food testing.

But she was so lost in her world, mind racing a mile a minute, that she hadn’t realized someone was calling her name until someone snapped their fingers in front of her.

“Vanessa.” A tall, lithe woman with large spectacles held a stack of folders close to her as she spoke. “My name is Tammy, Tammy Schaffer, and I’m going to be your personal trainer moving forward.” An ironic phrase considering what Vanessa was about to experience. “Please, follow me to my office.”

The security guard standing behind Vanessa didn’t give her any other option.

---

The office space was only temporary for the day. It held two chairs, one desk in the center, and a few cabinets that were shut. The overhead light was a bright white and overall, the area felt like a doctor’s office.

“Alright, Vanessa, I like to move through things quickly in the beginning so that we don’t waste any time.” Tammy adjusted her glasses as she moved around the room and pulled out from a cabinet three 16 ounce soda bottles.

Vanessa only watched in silence from where she sat, body tense. “I don’t want to be here.”

“You’ll learn to love it. Everyone has so far.” Tammy wrote something down on her clipboard before motioning to the bottles with her pen. “Before I ask you anything, we need to start our initiation with you. I want you to pick a flavor, and drink the entire bottle without stopping.”

“I-I--” Vanessa shook her head awkwardly. “I don’t drink soda.” If she was to be a model, soda was off the table.

“Now you do.” Tammy’s voice was stern now. She prodded the bottles forward. “Do it now.”

With a shaking hand, Vanessa reached out and grabbed a bottle of cola. Slowly, she opened the bottle as though it would explode.

Then, ever so daintily, she took a sip and cringed.

“I… I don’t like the bubbles…” They irritated her nose and tingled her cheeks.

Sighing, Tammy set down her things before walking over to Vanessa. Standing at her side, she immediately grabbed her by her hair and tugged it back harshly. Keeping her in place, she snatched the bottle into her hand and tipped it into Vanessa’s mouth. It fizzed and bubbled loudly as she struggled to drink every last drop, making her feel bloated as air trapped itself in her stomach.

When Tammy emptied the bottle and tossed it to the side, Vanessa fell back against her seat with a gasp before immediately letting out a loud and wet belch. Her face turned a bright red as she began to burp, over and over again. So embarrassed over her behavior, she didn’t realize Tammy now held an open bottle of orange soda in her hand.

The process started again as Tammy grabbed Vanessa by her hair and forced another 16 liters into her body. But this time, Vanessa felt a strain.

Her stomach had never held this much before in a day let alone a few minutes as it was beginning to strain against her tight graduation dress. It began to growl, adjusting itself to the sugar and carbonation of the drink as Vanessa was forced to finish the bottle.

Once again, once Tammy let go, Vanessa began to burp. This time, her belches were louder, her mind slightly hazy as her stomach stretched itself to accommodate to it’s bloated state. She felt as though there was air trapped the she just couldn’t get ride of. But when she noticed Tammy opening the final bottle of lemon-lime soda, she began to cry again.

“N-No! No! Don’t!” She begged, another wet belch escaping her glossy lips before Tammy repeated the cycle one final time.

At the very end, Vanessa had drunk three entire bottles of soda within only 6 minutes. Her stomach was bloated entirely, reaching it’s limits only centimeters away. She felt like she was about to pop. She looked pregnant, her stomach a solid mass in front of her as she gently touched it out of shock and fear.

Returning back to her seat as Vanessa continued to burp and belch, her face truly red now from embarrassment and shame, Tammy wrote down a few notes before finally speaking again.

“I’m sure you just had a wonderful time, Vanessa,” Tammy said as she jotted down a few more things.

“Fuck--” Vanessa burped, feeling relief enter her body, “You.”

But Tammy ignored that. “I’m going to explain what all of this was, okay. I want you to first understand that what you know of this program is only the basics. What I’m about to explain is only what members of this program know.” She removed her glasses and crossed her legs. “Our program is designed for food safety. Companies manufacture food and we help them figure out what’s safe and what isn’t. Well, we also test a few more things.” She tapped her board with her pencil as she spoke. “We test how addictive food is, if a diet food doesn’t contribute to weight gain, we test stomach capacity, we figure out how much sugar or salt or any other ingredient one person is able to consume in a day. We even test how much weight someone can gain in a specific amount of time by eating certain foods.”

Vanessa was coming to lucidity, Tammy’s words hitting her hard. “I-I’m going to call my father.” She quickly wiped a tear from her eye to keep it from falling. “M-My mother. Both of them! I’m calling them and they’re going to take me out of this program!”

Tammy shook her head. “You know that’s not how this works. You’re an adult now and have been for four years now. Your parents are no longer yours and they will no longer keep contact with you.” She glanced at her board again. “Oh, Vannessa Perude. Now I get it.”

Vanessa blushed brightly. Her family was wealthy, beyond wealthy, really. And it was obvious that she was used to being spoiled and getting things her way.

“It’s funny. There’s actually a word in the program for snotty girls like you who become the size of houses. We-- well, the other participants, call girls like you lap dogs.” She laughed to herself. “Because once you start getting rewarded for gaining weight and following the rules, you immediately turn around and start following around trainers for attention and praise. Anything to get a pet on the head.”

“Don’t talk to me like that! I haven’t done anything to you!” Vanessa couldn’t stop her lip from trembling. “I don’t deserve to be here! I’m smart! I’m-- I’m supposed to signing up for a modeling agency right now!”

But Tammy ignored her, now returning to the rules of the program. “Now, we need you to understand how this is going to move forward. Today, by the end of our meeting, you’re going to have a chip implanted in your arm. It’ll be what lets us know everything about you from your weight to your cholesterol to even your speed of digestion. It’ll have all your personal information and will only be accessible by computer.” She flipped a page. “Today, I’ll assign you an official position and company. What this means is that your designated company will also be the one providing your space of living.”

Vanessa had heard about this before. She’d seen the neighborhoods on occasion. It was full of people who worked for usually a single company as their cow and living near others who did as well. She also knew that certain companies provided better living than others.

“You’ll be given a list of instructions to follow and live by. You’ll be given a regular paycheck bi-weekly but the following will be provided to you on a need-to-need basis: food, clothing, housing, medical care, transportation, and vision.” Tammy flipped through a few more pages before Vanessa began to tremble.

“I don’t want to be here…” her voice was soft and quick, little burps echoing out as she released the last bouts of air from her stomach. “I should be graduating right now…”

But Tammy didn’t care. After Vanessa, she’d have 10 more cows to talk to. “Returning to our little soda experiment.” She motioned to the empty bottles with the end of her pen. “This is actually a regular test we do with new patients. It’s a method of testing various things such as the quantity of mass your stomach can hold, how your body reacts to high sugar intake as well as high amounts of caffeine, and what we may believe your future standing to be.” That would be a fancy way of saying that the company liked to get predictions of who would be slobs.

Vanessa rubbed her bloated stomach subconsciously. “And…?”

“And…” Tammy pulled out a sheet to lay on the table. “I believe you’ll be best fit for our bulking department. We’ll be using you for mass consumption and weight gain variability.” She couldn’t help but giggle to herself. “Your stomach held three bottles of soda when the average person vomits after the second. You have more space than you realize and we’ll be using it to see the effects of consuming mass amounts of food within a day.” She quickly scratched something out. “Which means that I’ll be assigning you to work under the Rest foundation.”

Vanessa tensed, fingers gripping her chair so tight her knuckles were a bright white. “No! No!” She shouted, tears finally falling. “Y-You cant!”

She recognized the employees of Rest well. The company itself was a harmless overarching brand-name that made everything from cookies to chips to frozen pizzas to bubbly drinks and no one ever really thought much harm in them or the sub-businesses that they owned and managed. But their cows? Wobbling, heaping, massive things of fat and lard that seemed to find pleasure in stuffing themselves to the absolute brim.

Tammy only sighed with boredom as she pulled her phone from her pocket and requested for a nurse and security to enter the room. In an instant, the pair came with a security officer easily holding Vanessa down as the nurse prepped her chip.

“Oh Vanessa, you’ll enjoy this. There’s a lot of potential for you out there.” Tammy cruelly slapped Vanessa’s bloated gut, forcing another belch to come out. “But, I figure you would like a heads up. We don’t tell this to just anyone.”

Vanessa only vaguely paid attention as she frantically watched the nurse number her right bicep before punching in her new chip. It hurt like nothing before, making her shout in pain as the nurse pressed clean cotton against the puncture. She was now officially tracked. “What? What are you gonna tell me!?”

Tammy smiled brightly. “If you turn 30 before weighing exactly 1000 pounds, you’re removed from the program and are allowed to join society again. We even offer surgery, free of charge.”