Chapter 3: Loss and Gain

When Alice swam back to consciousness, a few things had changed. She was still naked, collared, and locked up in the old locker room. But she was now laying on Miranda's bench. Angela was laying next to her on another bench. Miranda was nowhere in sight.

When Alice managed to sit up, she saw that most of the captives were gone. Just herself, Angela, and an Hispanic woman were left. The other two were still unconscious.

"Angela? Angela! Wake up!"

"Uhhh..." moaned the groggy pharmacist.

"Miranda is gone! Almost everyone is gone!"

It took about a minute for Angela to get her bearings. "Miranda and the others may have been separated into another room."

Alice's eyes started to pool. "I don't think so. I think they are... are all dead."

"Why do you say that?"

"It is what Kay told me. She said that most of us would be dead in twenty-four hours."

"Who's Kay?"

Alice blushed. "She's, um, the woman in charge."

"She told you her name?"

"She pulled me aside, and offered to get me out, in exchange for me becoming her slave."

"You're blushing! What happened?"

Alice turned away. "I don't want to talk about it."

"So, she offered you a way out, and you didn't take it?"

"Of course not. She wanted to mold me in her own image. I don't want to be like her."

"Still, you would not be in a cage. You might escape. She might be killed."

"I know. But... but."

"I think I understand," said Angela, letting the subject drop. "Oh, look our other prisoner is awake."

The other captive was named Lupe Ortiz, age 55, mother of four, and grandmother of two. She was an illegal alien, who worked for Guido Silvani, a noted underworld figure.

Silvani thought Lupe only understood a few words of English. She actually understood English quite well, she just had trouble speaking it. When her boss discovered this, he saw her a security threat. Thus her abduction.

"Last thing I hear him say is he need more girls. I do not know why," said Lupe.

As they were getting acquainted, the double doors opened. In walked Kay, two goons and a slim balding man in a lab coat.

Kay, dressed in khaki shirt and shorts, looked slightly uncomfortable standing in front of the three captives. The men looked stunned, their mouths hanging open.

"I'm glad you are still alive, Number 23," said Kay.

Alice gasped. "Y-You mean Miranda..."

"... And all the others are dead. We hauled out their bodies before you woke."

Alice collapsed into Angela's arms, sobbing.

"They all died in their sleep, painlessly. If that means anything to you."

Angela whispered into Alice's ear. "It was how she wanted to go. Quick. Painless."

Alice nodded, but kept crying.

A single tear ran down each of Angela's pallid cheeks.

Steel returned to Kay's voice. "We now need to find out why you lived, when all the others didn't. We need a sample of your blood. After that you'll be fed."

The man in the lab coat walked up to Lupe, with a syringe. She held out her arm. Blood was drawn.

Alice was still crying into Angela, when her blood was taken.

After Angela's arm was poked, Kay walked out the door, and came back with a cardboard box. It contained bologna and cheese sandwiches and juice boxes. "Enjoy your meal," Kay said. She beckoned her entourage to follow her out.

Alice pulled away from Angela. "Kay, wait!" she cried.

Kay paused before closing. "Yes?"

"Our hair is a mess, it's all tangled and matted."

"Maybe your heads should be shaved."

"Kay, please. We just need a comb and some shampoo."

The short captor paused, and thought it over. "I'll see what I can do. No promises."

"Thank you, Kay."

Kay's hands shook as she closed the door. She walked down the hall to her room. As soon as she was alone, she pounded her fist on the bed.

What was wrong with her? She should have told them to submit to blood extraction, reward them with food, and left. Telling them about the dead and offering to help them with their hair was a serious break in discipline. It was a sign of weakness to her charges. A weakness they would try to exploit. She must be strong. She must not succumb to them.

A warmth flooded her as she thought of the three women. They were so very sexy, even the old Mexican. Kay unbuttoned her shirt and unzipped her shorts. She fondled her breasts with her right hand, and rubbed her pussy with her left. She fell onto her bed as her pace quickened. Kay arched her back and cried out as she came fast and hard. Her body continued to quiver for two minutes. Kay's body was drenched with sweat and her shorts soaked in cum.

She stripped off her clothes and walked naked down the hall to the showers. Now she knew something was wrong.

Damn that geek. What did he do to those women?

After Kay left, Angela hugged Alice. "That was great. You made some real inroads. Kay really likes you. We can use that to our advantage."

Lupe also congratulated her in fractured English, patting her on the back.

Just then the hissing of steam entered into the room. The wall of fog rolled in.

Alice moaned. "Here we go again."

But this time there was just fog. No unconsciousness.

Angela cried out, "The food! This water will ruin it."

All three ran to the box and wolfed down the food. Bologna sandwiches are pretty plain fare, but it had been over twenty-four hours since they had had any solid food. It tasted like heaven.

After having feasted, they laid back in the steam, relaxing.

"Say, Angela," said Alice. "When you saw the steam for the first time, you said 'oh, no'. What did you mean by that?"

"Well, we thought going in here that we were going to be guinea pigs for some new designer drug. I figured that we'd either be drugged with either, water, or injected outright. Using water vapor never occurred to me. It is not an efficient way to dose someone.

"Why do it then?" asked Lupe.

"I have no idea why they are doing what they are doing. But I think it is something that will affect our whole body."

Alice's mouth flopped open. "Why do you say that?"

"Water vapor soaks into your skin, enters all your body cavities and pores. It enters your lungs, which leads to bloodstream and all your organs. Depending on how efficient the agent is, you whole body, except for your bone marrow could be altered fairly quickly. "

Alice and Lupe mulled this over.

"What can we do to stop this?" asked Lupe.

Angela shrugged. "Nothing, unless you have any ideas how to escape this steam bath."

None did.

Angela continued, stifling a yawn, "nothing to do but get some sleep. Let the steam do its work, whatever it is.

"When you wake up, check every inch of you body. Check your mouth, eyes, teeth, skin color, moles, toenails, everything. Let me know if you find anything new or different, no matter how small."
"Will do, chief," said Alice.

"I am not your chief," said Angela.

"You are when it comes to this medical stuff."

"I guess you're right about that. But when it comes to major decisions, I want a vote."

The meeting broke up. The three went to sleep.

Alice woke to the sound of Lupe screaming. She was jumping around gesturing at her body, and babbling away in Spanish too fast for Alice to pick up anything from her one semester of high school Spanish. Angela, sleepily, was trying to calm her down.

Finally Lupe got out two English words.

"My body!"

Lupe stopped moving enough for Alice to see.

Lupe's body was not a thing of beauty. She was fifty-five years old, had had four kids and had breast fed each of them. She had a stocky muscular body, that came from decades of physical labor.

But this morning, Lupe was a new woman. Her pendulous breasts were full and round. Her sagging skin was now taut against her neck, arms, and face. It made her look at least twenty years younger.

Tears ran down her face. "I wish my Jorge was alive to see this. I am young again."

Angela seemed the most fascinated by the change. "May I touch you?" she asked. "Just to understand what happened," she added hastily.

Lupe nodded assent.

The pharmacist examined Lupe's hair and face, then neck and shoulders. Angela then felt her newly firm breasts. She gently cupped a breast in each hand, and gently squeezed.

Lupe gasped in surprise, her whole body quivered. "You bad girl," Lupe whispered huskily.