Chapter 1 - the onset

© 2020 SLDB

Lauren nervously walked the city streets these days as if death was waiting around every corner. Afraid of contracting the new virus that had sent the nation into a panic, the skinny brunette wore a medical mask over her svelte face purely out of fear for her natural beauty. In the beginning of the outbreak nobody truly understood what was happening. It began a few weeks back when news reports began detailing how women across the world were going through bizarre transformations, often seemingly overnight. Lauren initially shrugged it off as sensationalist nonsense the media was pushing just for ratings, but that all changed when she came across a video online wherein a husband hugged his crying wife as she put on 50 pounds in a matter of seconds. The video frightened the 25-year-old to the core, sending Lauren on a multi-hour video binge where she watched countless women freak out as their bodies changed before their eyes.

From that point on, Lauren took the news as gospel, and in the coming days more information began pouring in from every corner of the country. Reports of women gaining weight, growing shorter, and changing skin color were everywhere and yet nobody understood why this was all happening. The fervor reached a fever pitch when the president held a press conference late last night with the nation’s top doctors and scientists. During the conference it was announced to the world that the changes were caused by a DNA-altering virus that was being spread via the air. While men appeared to be physically unaffected, the women who came into contact with the virus were transforming into overweight, dark-skinned blobs. The president went on to announce a nation-wide lockdown effective 24 hours from the announcement, which took everyone by surprise, especially Lauren who was running low on food. And so, Lauren woke up early, donned her medical mask, and left to go buy enough groceries that would hopefully last a few weeks.

The streets were about as busy as usual and yet the air was eerily quiet. Most people were electing to keep their heads down and many appeared to be avoiding any sort of interaction with one another. As Lauren walked through the grocery store doors, she found the scene to be quite different from the one outside. The shoppers seemed to be scrambling as they loaded up their carts with as much food and necessities as possible. Having no choice but to join the fray, Lauren proceeded to buy a diverse supply of well-balanced foods that would account for the lack of exercise she would be getting while locked up in her apartment.

When Lauren returned to her apartment complex a while later, she found her neighbor’s front door hanging wide open. Lauren’s neighbor was a 32-year-old fitness instructor named Ashley and while she had always been incredibly nice to Lauren, Ashley was also a very private person and would never leave her door open like this. Worried that something might be wrong, Lauren stood at the doorway and called for her.

“Hey Ashley, it’s Lauren, saw your door was open and just wanted to make sure everything is ok!”

A few silent seconds went by without a response, when suddenly the sound of a plastic bag getting torn open came from the direction of the kitchen. Lauren nervously stepped into Ashley’s apartment and followed the sounds towards the source. As Lauren turned the corner, she found her neighbor sitting on the kitchen floor munching on a very large bag of Cheetos, surrounded by a massive pile of empty junk food wrappers.

“Uhh Ashley are you ok?” Laruen asked, yet her neighbor gave no visible reaction, almost as if her mind was locked in a deep trance. Lauren knelt next to Ashley, but the girl just continued staring blankly as she scarfed down more of the cheesy snacks. Lauren looked towards the messy floor and tried to pick up a wrapper, but her world went tumbling as Ashley suddenly came to life, tackling Lauren to the ground. Before Lauren could react, Ashley moved on top of her and pressed her lips into Lauren’s, driving her tongue deep in her mouth. Lauren flailed for a few moments as her body was assaulted by the fitness instructor. Desperate to escape, Lauren concentrated her efforts and used all her strength to push girl off. Before Ashley could recover, Lauren shot up and bolted for her apartment, slamming the door behind her.

“What the hell was that?” was all Lauren could mutter, breathing as heavily as a runner at the end of a long exercise. Her thoughts were racing at a frenetic pace. Ashley wasn’t into women as far as she was aware. [Why the hell was she just sitting there eating all her food? She’s always been physically active and yet there she was, eating a pile of unhealthy snacks!] None of what had just happened made sense to Lauren. “Maybe she’s just on drugs? This whole end of the world thing probably just got to her.” The speculative lie was good enough for the moment, and so Lauren composed herself, double-checked that she had locked the door, and went about her business as usual, spending much of the day binge watching Netflix before eventually drifting off to sleep.

That night in Lauren’s dreams, she found herself sitting at a fancy dinner table in a large mansion. The table held a mountain of various fatty foods and each seat was filled by young and skinny women she had never met before. Lauren began to mindlessly chat with those around her before a dinging bell announced that it was time to dig in. As Lauren timidly moved some of the food into her mouth, she was amazed at how incredible the unhealthy food tasted as she would normally never eat something so fattening. Lauren began cramming all kinds of calorie bombs into her mouth before going into a food-induced haze as minutes quickly turned to hours. As the food in front of Lauren disappeared, her eyes began to wonder around the table as she noticed that all the furniture had become much wider and sturdier. As for the dinner party, the skinny girls from before had been replaced by morbidly obese women. If Lauren had to guess, not a single woman weighed less than 300 pounds.

[That’s odd, I don’t remember everyone being so big.] Lauren went to reach for her drink when she noticed something peculiar about her hand. [Huh, it almost looks like I’m... fat?] Lauren found herself staring at a plumped-up arm complemented with a fat wrist and large sausage-like fingers. “What the fuckkk is this?” Lauren suddenly became very aware of how warm her body felt; it was as if someone had wrapped her body in a layer of weighted blankets. Lauren turned her attention toward her now sweaty body where she was greeted by a massive stomach with huge shapeless breasts resting on top. Lauren audibly gasped and stumbled out of her chair when she felt someone place a hand on her shoulder. Lauren awkwardly turned around and found a very fat Indian woman roughly her age smiling at her. Before either could speak, the room began to shimmer as the world slowly faded to black.