Chapter 8 - the experiment, part 8

Before the nurses left the room, she weakly called out to one of them. "Hey, will I ever get to eat some real food? I mean, I know It won't be necessary but..."

The nurse came back and talked to her. "Well, we figured if we're constantly feeding you fluids and nutrients you wouldn't have to. Your stomach is gonna be full, honey. All the time. You shouldn't even feel hungry or thirsty, ever. We're also trying to maintain a good weight on you and ensure your heart stays healthy. Your body is going to be under a lot of stress from now on..."

She felt irritated. "But that isn't the point! Maybe I just enjoy the taste of food! Pizza, burgers, ice cream, anything! Can't I eat a meal once in a while?"

"We'll think about it."

"Pleeeeeeeease???"
< br>"...Let me talk to your doctors about it and we'll get back to you."

"Okay." She sighed. She slumped back in bed, holding her belly, feeling her tummy growl. She wasn't sure if she really felt hunger or if it was a contented feeling of fullness, her gut slowly trying to process what they were filling her up with. She started to slowly rub her extended belly in a round motion and it seemed to calm her. She noticed how soft and wobbly her belly was. It reminded her of when she used to bloat herself with warm water. When she gently rolled from side to side, she felt the liquid slosh around and it made a sound like a soda bottle laying on its side. She wondered how much her stomach could hold now....probably over a gallon and a half. She patted it and watched it ripple. Then she held it in and pushed it out a few times, listening to a splashing sound like water in a bucket.

About every two hours the pumping machine would flush her fluids...it would fill her up to capacity and then force it out of her, to keep her kidneys hydrated. This would always make her urinate involuntarily. She looked at the clock...it was about to begin.

She heard the aquarium pump kick on next to her and knew it would be uncomfortable shortly. Sure enough, she felt the cold injection of water and then a steady growing warmth as her stomach began to fill up like a big water balloon. There was a pulsing sound and she could already feel her belly growing, slowly but steadily as the water flowed up into her backward through the catheter, up into her colon and through the tube into her stomach...bypassing her small intestine to avoid that discomfort. It was like the time she put a garbage bag under her shirt and stuck a shower hose in it.

Over the next few minutes she felt the pressure building, as her belly stuck out further and got rounder and wider. Imagine a basketball inside you that was being inflated. She watched as her belly protruded out past her breasts, pushing up her gown and making it tighter. A dull ache in her abdomen started to occur as her midsection swelled, like a beach ball inflating slowly. There was a tightening sensation around her navel area. She started to squirm a bit as her belly continued to expand visibly. She rubbed it and started groaning a little, quietly. Then she sensed she was nearing her capacity. The dull ache became a pain as she started to exhale sharply, practicing blowing her breath out to lessen labor pain. The pain was her ab muscles moving apart and stretching with her ballooning stomach. It carried on until she felt like she could no longer hold anymore, her skin felt tight as a drum. Her belly was a perfect sphere now, stretched to its limit. Her navel had popped out again! She winced and felt as if she was about to pop...she really, REALLY had to pee.

Then, the pump motor noises stopped. She opened her legs and it instantly released...."Aaaaaahhhhhh". The warm liquid squirted out of her urethra into the clear tube which took her discomfort away....she felt herself emptying out as her bloated beach ball belly went down and shrunk like a deflating balloon. In about half a minute, she was back to normal. They had flushed her out.

Then it was business as usual. The nutrient machine started to pump the saline into her IV tube as her arm swelled up again.

This was going to be hard to get used to. How were they gonna keep her healthy, always motionless in bed and gaining all this weight? She was still sad about realizing she would probably never walk again or be able to live like a normal girl her age. It would be all pregnancy and bed rest for her as she turned into a gestating blob of flesh...constantly fed by her subjects, like a queen bee or a queen ant...what a life. She would be pampered and cared for while her body focused on motherhood.

She was already having second thoughts about this...but it was too late to go back.