Experiment Seventeen by Anonymous (Patreon)

Note:
This is a story entry for the Writing Contest.
The 10 participating writers will remain anonymous until 20 November.
For more information on the contest timeline, visit this post.

Related Work & Context: Prequel for Farrow

-

“Jen, can I ask you a favor?” Avery, her cousin, had come over for dinner. Jen didn’t particularly mind as Avery had brought the food with her, saving her from getting groceries until tomorrow.

She glanced up, confused. “Sure? What is it?” Avery wasn’t one to ask people for things, not since she’d been promoted to board of directors at the labs.

“Well…” She bit her lip. “You know how Tom and I have been trying to have kids and we had to stop when we found out I couldn’t carry to term?” Jen nodded along as she ate, the announcement had been the height of thanksgiving. “One of the labs is currently working on a surrogacy study, and Tom and I agreed that we would be interested in participating.”

“Congrats! But… what does this have to do with me?” Please don’t let this go where she thought this was going.

“That’s the thing. We need a surrogate, and I was hoping you would be willing to be ours.” She pulled out some sort of pamphlet from her purse and pushed it over. ‘Surrogacy Program’ was in big letters on the front.

Setting her fork down Jen turned her full attention to Avery. “While I know how much this means to you, I can’t say yes. My job is pretty labor intensive and I can’t afford to take too much time off.” She worked at a local shipping warehouse, it paid alright, but between bills and student loan payments her savings wouldn’t last too long if she stopped working.

Avery smiled and flipped open the pamphlet. “That’s the best part!” She pointed to a line. “Since this is part of a study they will be paying the participants. Meaning, you’ll be getting paid, and finally have some down time to find a job in your field, no more lifting boxes.”

That… that would be pretty nice. While she did enjoy the workout she got at the warehouse and what it did for her body; she also knew if she pushed a little bit too hard one day she’d be bound to hurt something, then she’d really be out of luck. The pamphlet did seem pretty promising though, stating if picked the study would pay not only more than her current salary, but they would also cover any medical fees.

It was just too good to pass up. She’d be helping out family, and finally having a chance to find a better job. There really was no downside that she could see.

“You sure this study is safe?” she asked, Jen just had to be sure.

“Perfectly,” Avery assured.

“Okay, how about you schedule an appointment and we’ll see if I even qualify, and if I do, you and Tom will have that kid you’ve been wanting in a few months.”

Avery reached across the counter to pull her into a hug. “Thank you so much! You won’t regret this. I think it’ll be a very transformative experience for us both.” She chuckled.

~*~

Avery managed to get them an appointment at the labs for the very next day. She must’ve been really excited because she even went as far as to pick Jen up so that she’d make it on time.

The second they walked through the doors everything moved strangely fast. Avery didn’t even wait for Tom to show up before leading her to one of the labs on the higher floor and shoving a medical gown into her hands.

“Change into this, they’ll need to do a quick exam to make sure everything will go smoothly,” she said, practically shoving Jen towards the bathroom.

She stumbled forward. “Slow your horses, I can get changed without you shoving me around. Just give me a minute.” She shut the door behind her. Did Avery always have to be so pushy? It wouldn’t kill her to relax for just a moment.

Changing, Jen took a moment to admire herself in the mirror. She wasn’t kidding about the warehouse job doing her some good. Her arms and legs were fairly defined at this point, and while she didn’t have abs or anything crazy, she would say she was looking pretty good. Maybe after this whole surrogacy thing was done she should take up modeling? Nah, she’ll probably lose it all while the kid’s growing.

A knock on the door startled her out of her thoughts. “The lab techs are ready for you if you want to hurry up. It’s rude to keep people waiting.”

Jen rolled her eyes but opened the door. “Let’s do this.”

She was a little confused by the fact that Tom never showed up. Wouldn’t he want to be a part of this? The lab techs were pretty fast though, doing some blood work and pelvic exam. They even did an ultrasound. Something about checking to make sure her uterus was in good enough condition for the procedure.

“Whatdya mean procedure. I thought the whole artificial insemination thing was pretty straight forward.”

The lab tech, Jack according to his name tag, nodded along. “This is a new procedure that’s just a bit different, but hopefully with a higher success rate. Now, if you’ll just sign these we can lean you back and go ahead with the procedure and-”

“Wait, what!? But Tom isn’t even here, don’t you need his… Y’know.”

Avery had the audacity to laugh. “They already have the samples from me and Tom. They can go ahead and do it right now.”
 Jen tried to wrap her mind around how fast this was happening. It’s not that she didn’t know what she was getting into, she just thought the whole process would be, well, a bit longer. “Well, I guess if they’re ready there's no sense in waiting.”

“Great!” Avery passed her a clipboard with a smile.

It was a bit difficult to read with everyone hovering around her like that, so she skimmed the paperwork for the most part, maybe even skipping a page as Avery’s nonstop foot tapping started to get to her. She signed and the clipboard was quickly taken and glanced over.

“All the signatures are there,” Jack said. “Let’s get started.”

~*~

Jen had gone in for one follow up appointment a few days after the initial one. They’d confirmed the pregnancy took and she texted Avery who seemed overjoyed, already making plans for a baby shower. The same tech from before had given her some vitamins to take and a few sheets, listing possible side effects of their new method, the first one being weight gain.

The first little while she hadn’t really thought of the list, being occupied with binging a few series she missed out on and working on her job search. It was week three that she started to notice a few things though.

First of all, she was eating way more than she was used to. It was like she could never get enough. Where her normal breakfast was just some cereal or oatmeal, she now found herself eating enough food to feed three or four people… at every meal.

The study was paying her more than enough to cover her new food budget, so it wouldn’t be too bad, if it wasn’t already affecting her body. Where her arms and legs had been toned, there was now a thin layer of fat covering them, and that wasn’t even mentioning her stomach that looked more like it was at three months than three weeks.

She was just happy that she had an appointment today at the labs. They could tell her if this all was normal or not.

When she arrived in the usual room Avery was already waiting there along with lab techs. Odd, after the first appointment Avery had been too busy with board meetings to attend. She looked pretty serious though, setting Jen on edge.

Once she sat down Jack started speaking. “I’ll get straight to it. Your last blood work ended up getting delayed, but we noticed something… odd. Your hormone levels are off, and we’ll be needing to keep you under observation here at the lab until further notice.”

She blinked at him and looked to Avery who simply nodded. “That’s… what? That doesn’t sound right. Can’t I just keep coming in for the appointments? Why do I need to stay here?”

He pulled out some papers and handed them to her, very familiar papers that she had signed. “When signing the contract there was a clause that if we found something that could endanger the study we could keep you for observation until the problem was resolved.”

“I- but.” Jen was at a loss for words. Sure, she wanted this pregnancy to go smoothly for Avery, but she didn’t want to move into the labs.

“We can press legal action if you try to do something to endanger this study. In this case, being away from the labs.” Jack didn’t leave any room for argument.

“...Okay? I guess I’ll stay here?”
 Avery smiled and touched her leg. “I know how hard this will be for you. Thank you for doing this for me.”

That made her feel a bit better about this whole thing. “Yeah… you’re welcome.”

~*~

The next few weeks proceeded oddly. She continued to take her vitamins, and her already concerning appetite only seemed to increase. The doctors and techs assured her it was nothing to be worried about, but she couldn’t help but worry.

She tried to curb her appetite by eating a bit healthier, but the food that she found, or what was brought to her were all foods heavy in carbs and starches. On top of that the food had a chemical aftertaste that left her cringing.

Her weight seemed to skyrocket after the second month. Her arms and thighs wiggled as she walked, and her stomach now had an actual underside. She would blame the pregnancy, but there was a thick layer of fat covering the whole thing. She was feeling claustrophobic in all her clothes that Avery had grabbed from her apartment, so much so that one of the lab employees had actually brought her some different clothes.

Currently, Jen was two and a half months into the pregnancy and feeling miserable. She hadn’t left the lab since she was told she’d need to stay here. She was getting restless. She tried pacing the room, but she found the action beyond uncomfortable with her body’s newfound jiggling. So she’d taken to reading a few books she’d been brought.

Reading only kept her attention so long though as she shifted, only to let out a low groan. There was just so much pressure in her body right now. She’d just eaten enough to count as a meal for an entire basketball team, leaving her stomach heaving. Jen swore she could see her stomach slowly pushing up the shirt that had fit fine that morning.

On top of her stomach, her breasts had been absolutely aching lately. They were Cs and hadn’t seemed to put on much weight along with the rest of her, but now they were starting to. They were hot as they pulsed on her chest, leaving her squirming, trying to push them out and make room for her stomach.

“I- I can’t.” She groaned again and dropped her book, letting her hands shift up to massage at her breasts. Maybe if they just grew a little bit they wouldn’t feel so… so pressurized.

Her stomach heaved and she let one hand fall to her stomach to massage the fat there, the other half heartedly massaged her breasts.

When they weighed her the next day they announced that she’d put on about seventy pounds since she was first inseminated. And yet, they discouraged her from trying to eat any less. They said it could endanger the baby. She was starting to feel like a pig.

~*~

She felt so stupid. Jen should’ve realized there was something more than a little weird about this whole thing. Avery never wanted her to help in the first place. All they needed was a lab rat.

She was four months into the pregnancy when an itching below her breasts had become too much to ignore. She heaved her basketball sized stomach up with a groan. The amount of weight she had been putting on was insane. She hadn’t been able to see her feet for a while, and recently her breasts had grown large enough to block the view of her stomach.

She walked over to the mirror, ignoring the way she probably wasn’t too far away from waddling. Her stomach looked practically enormous, and her breasts looked like they’d been professionally augmented.

Lifting her breasts with a whine, Jen could do nothing but stare slack jawed at what it revealed. Underneath her breasts was another pair of nipples, red and hot, much like her upper breasts had been when they started growing.

She dashed her way to the door as quickly as she could and pounded on it. “What the hell are you people doing to me! This is sick! Let me out!” When had they even started locking her door? She couldn’t remember.

Avery had paid her a visit a bit later, not even bothering to deny what they were doing. Instead she smirked as Jen failed to get up from the bed and left behind a thanksgiving feast. Plates piled high with fried turkey, bowls of mashed potatoes with so much butter they were a creamy yellow. There was an entire pot of cranberry sauce, steamed vegetables that looked soaked in fat, and several pies.

Hours later Jen rubbed at her stomach and groaned. The pressure was almost too much as her stomach strained to contain everything she’d shoved down her throat. Sweat rolled down her face and she watched with horror as her stomach rolled out, she looked at term with twins. By the end of the night her lower breasts were no longer hidden underneath the top, she just wished the growing pressure within her two pairs of breasts wasn’t so foreboding.

What was happening to her?

~*~

Six months into her pregnancy she could barely move. Whatever was in her stomach was frequently squirming, causing her to shift in discomfort, and on one memorable occasion, squeal as her belly button popped out.

The lab techs didn’t even bother to bring her new clothes anymore, leaving her to sit there and watch in horror as her body continued to grow out of her control. Her stomach now sat in her lap, pushing up her three pairs of breasts into her chin. She worried that sleeping in the wrong position would leave her suffocating.

Jen was honestly lucky at this point if she could get out of bed, she was practically immobile unless she pushed her legs to the limit to carry her to the mirror. Doing that only showed her a different angle on her out of control body. She wasn’t even sure if they bothered to lock her door anymore. Even if she left the room there was no way she could get out of the building to ask for help. She wasn’t even sure she wanted help. At this point she was a freak. She was more breasts and stomach than woman at this point, and if she wasn’t imagining the way her nose and ears were pushing out she had a feeling things were about to take another turn for the worse.

The only interaction she got at this point was Jack, who was apparently the lead doctor, or the tech coming in to examine her. They were more than happy to fill her in that she was the first successful experiment, number seventeen. The others apparently hadn’t taken as well to the experiment as she had, if you could call a medicine ball sized stomach taking things well.

She sighed, there was nothing she could do. Jen tried to reach for the TV remote on the end of the bed, grunting at the pressure it put on her… everything. Her breasts felt squished to the point of pain, and her stomach refused to yield under her reach.

Jen tried to push a bit more, she almost had the remote. The pressure in her breasts peaked, reaching her nipples and starting to spray. She fell back as all six of her breasts continued to gush, spraying every which was and soaking her and the bed. And yet, this was the most relief she’d felt in weeks.

She groaned and massaged her top pair, trying to encourage them to release everything, get rid of as much pressure as they could. Eventually she switched to the middle pair, doing the same.

She didn’t even bother to stop when a tech came in to take samples. Apparently they wanted to find out why it took her so long to ‘burst’.

~*~

Jen had managed to push through it, the entire experience that was. She had been right to be worried about the more animalistic features she thought she’d been imagining. She was now sporting some form of snout and pig ears, and she’d spotted a curly tail in the mirror.

By the time she’d given birth to an entire litter of overweight piglets Jen couldn’t even move enough to make herself sit up any more. Now her stomach was deflated, a bit, but so long of being inactive left her legs completely accustomed to her weight, she could still barely move.

Her breasts had doubled in size after giving birth, gushing at the slightest touch. The doctors had been kind enough to allow her to pump so they could feed the piglets. She’d overheard them talking about letting her do it naturally for her next litter, and she’d frozen at that.

For some reason, she’d thought they’d let her go after this was over. She wouldn’t even be able to go to a corner store without being gawked at like a horror movie monster. Why did she even expect to get out of here?

That’s why she didn’t put up too much of a fuss when her stomach started to bloat again a few weeks later. They must’ve given her something else as well, because her ass was beginning to plump up underneath her, providing some cushion Jen hadn’t realized she’d been needing. At least she could feel better knowing that she was the last one, she was their ‘successful’ experiment, no one else had to get involved.

She winced as Jack took her blood. “Did I ever mention that I have a wife?” Jen didn’t bother to answer. “Her attitude reminds me a bit of yours when you’d talk back to director Avery.”

And that, that was haunting.