The suited man looked up from his desk at the curt rap on his office door.
"Enter."
A slight blond admin assistant walked in, a sheaf of papers in his arms. He gulped nervously before proceeding in a querulous voice.
"Mr. Symonds, sir, um, I-uh, have some news about the Venus compound prototype shipment. Bad news."
The man grunted. "What kind of bad news?"
"There was a crash, sir. The, uh, the courier apparently swerved to avoid hitting a cat, and managed to dump the entire shipment of the product into the local feeder dam. The, um, dam that covers the water supply of the town he was driving through. Smallish college town."
"Jesus Christ, that's horrible! That's absolutely awful, what are we going to d- wait, did he report it?"
"Only to us, sir. We were able to dispatch a crew to tow away the vehicle and clean up what we could."
Symonds' lips pursed. "So, we haven't reported it to the town? The EPA?"
The assistant shook his head. "Not yet, sir. I've drafted an email-"
"Hold up, lad. The town doesn't know. The G-man doesn't know. There's nothing linking it to us. Son, have you heard the saying that when God closes the curtains, he opens up the back door?"
"Sir, I don't think that's the phra-"
"This is an
opportunity
, son! We've got a whole college town worth of test subjects to observe! That amount of data would have cost millions! Forget the email, send out an observation team ay-sapp!"
The assistant went to reply, spotted the gleam in his boss's eye, and nodded, spinning on his heel to rush out of the office. The man at the desk leaned back, grunted, and shuddered lightly, slumping lazily as an enormous mane of bright-red hair emerged from under the desk in front of him.
It framed an unbearably pretty face, one so perfect you'd think she'd had a team of makeup artists and digital airbrushers work on her in real life. Her lips were thick, deep red, and glistened in the afternoon light, and her wide, bright eyes were ringed with thick eyeliner and shadow. Beneath her exquisite shoulders were a hanging pair of perfectly-shaped teardrop breasts the size of her head with just the right amount of bounce and wobble to bump off each other as she looked up at the man, smiling serenely.
"Did you enjoy that, sir?"
He grunted approvingly, and her smile brightened even more.
"Thank you for being so understanding, sir. It was so nice of you to offer to let me suck your cock whenever I need it!"
"Well, I take care of my staff, Chrissy. Even if that means letting them take care of my staff!"
She giggled and stood up, re-buttoning the blouse that was hanging loosely on her arms. When her bras had begun to stop fitting entirely, Symonds had graciously allowed her to go bra-less to work, even though her shirts were so tight that the shape of her areola could be traced through the fabric and they bowed between the overtaxed buttons. A pencil skirt only barely contained wide hips and a pert, luscious butt, and her long, bare, unstockinged legs slipped into outrageously tall bright-red heels.
"I just... I know I haven't been getting as much work done because I spend most of the day having sex... You've been so sweet and understanding, you're the best boss ever."
Her eyes kept drawing themselves back down his body to what she knew lay beneath the desk. A flawless tooth gently bit her plump lip. Her chest heaved. Symonds feigned a deep sigh.
"Oh Chrissy, you're such a slut, aren't you? Do you want to come over here and use your big titties to get me hard again so I can fuck you?"
She gasped, her legs trembling and her mouth dropping slack. "C-can I? Please, sir?"
He nodded and she darted forward, actually ripping the buttons of her blouse apart in her desperation to release her tits, dropping to her knees and moaning in relief as she dropped her breasts into his lap.
This company was sitting on a gold mine. They were going to change the world, make tons of money, or both.
***
The water from the tap tasted sweet. The perfect sort of sweet, in fact; not cloying or rich, just enough to tantalise the taste buds. Casey took a sip, and then, without thinking, refilled the glass.
"It tastes funny, right?" Genevieve scowled from one of the plush chairs. "It started tasting like that yesterday. We all noticed it."
"I kinda like it." Rose was slumped backwards over the dorm common room couch, staring at the ceiling. Wisps of curly brown hair played across her eyes. Her overripe body strained at yoga pants and a too-small tanktop that showed off the curve of her hefty breasts, to her general approval, and the projection of her belly, which she approved of much less.
Gen leaned back, the chair creaking, her massive rump straining the rear legs. She was in her usual outfit of oversized hoodie and baggy jeans, hiding as many of the waves and rolls of her obese body as she could. Freckles played across her small nose and plump cheeks.
"And you're still drinking it! Why the fuck would you do that?"
Rose shrugged. "The city would have said something if it was dangerous, right? I don't feel sick or anything. Honestly, I feel really good."
Casey took another sip of the glass and then sat tailor-fashion on the floor, her skinny legs wrapped around each other. Brown-haired and rail-thin, with a pointed face and aquiline nose that projected out under big round glasses, she looked over to Rose, then to Gen.
"They would surely, right? It's not as if they couldn't have noticed - Jack says his water's been tasting the same since the same time you guys noticed."
"Unless the city put it in there. You know, like one of those mass-medication experiment things they did in the 50s."
Casey cast her eyes over at the dark-haired girl, sitting legs-up on a lounge chair in her purple pyjamas. Dora had the skinny-fat look of someone working on their freshman fifteen, which unfortunately for Dora seemed to be going everywhere but her chest. Normally, copious amounts of makeup hid her acne scarring.
"You don't really think that, do you Dora?"
She shrugged. "I don't assume anything. Governments do weird things and cover it up. Happens all the time."
Gen grunted. "I just assume the water authority's fucking incompetent. Remember how long it took them to fix that pipe on Main Street?"
Casey realised she'd lifted the glass to her lips without even noticing until the cool, sweet liquid hit her tongue. She shook her head and put it down. She noticed both Gen and Dora's eyes were following it.
"So what do we do? We can't just, you know, not drink water. Nobody's gotten sick, it doesn't feel weird in the shower."
In fact, though Gen wouldn't have admitted it, her shower that morning had felt wonderful. The water had loosened all the tightness out of her back muscles, the tension she normally carried around constantly.
"We can drink things that aren't out of the faucet."
"What about showering? Brushing our teeth? Cooking?"
Gen shivered thinking about another shower. "I guess we just have to... avoid all that, too. Until we find out what's going on."
Dora sniffed. "Good luck with that."
"Well, what are you going to do?"
"Observe. Journal. Leave something so we can work out what's happened once we all go full Manchurian Candidate or whatever."
Casey's glass was half-full now, and the only hint she had that she'd been drinking was the moisture in her mouth. Her phone buzzed with a message from her boyfriend.
hey babe
u still good for tonite?
im lookin forward to doing things to u
with my penis
The soul of romance. Classic Jack. On the other hand, it was still appealing - she'd been wound up for a few weeks between assignments and prepping for mid-terms. She had one more to do, but she had her break tomorrow for it...
She sent back a thumbs-up, and slipped her phone back into her pocket. She stood up, gathering up her bag from the foot of the sofa. "Well girls, it's been fun working out if we're all going to die, but I've got a class to head to before I see Jack tonight."
Gen groaned, while Rose giggled. "Fuck him hard for me, Case!"
***
With her mind still on the water as she walked across campus, it took a little while to notice a certain pattern in a number of the people wandering around. They all wore the same expression - not necessarily a smile, but a serene, satisfied elation. They were common enough to be noticeable, but not enough that they didn't stand out. A pretty redhead curled up on a park bench with a magazine and a water bottle. A tall, handsome man leaning over the coffee counter, flashing straight white teeth at the chubby, blushing barista. A couple walking past, hands in each other's back pockets, the girl closing her eyes and pressing into her boyfriend's broad chest. As normal for her liberal arts campus, there were a lot more women than men.
Come to think of it, a lot of them were awfully good-looking, too. It may have just been Casey's drought of loving, but she found herself staring. The inner glow of comfort and happiness seemed to be manifesting as an outer glow of being strangely hot.
Casey ran into a classmate waiting outside their lecture hall, stopping and staring open-mouthed. It was still definitely Joanna - Joanna's ripped jeans, faded band t-shirt, knit beanie - but carrying the glow. Her bottle-blond hair, normally limp from repeated dye jobs and poor treatment, was thick and bouncy and lush, throwing off golden glints where it caught the light. Her eyelashes were thick and dark, her lips plump, her skin soft and smooth and blemish-free without a scrap of makeup. It was like she was looking at the girl through one of those beauty filters on her smartphone camera. She smiled, and Casey realised that her normally nicotine-stained teeth had gone white.
"Hey Casey!"
"Oh, hey Jo. You're looking good."
She grinned from ear to ear. "I
feel
good!"
"Did you go to the salon or something?"
"Haha, no, I woke up like this!"
Casey stopped dead, blinking slowly. The girl stared at her, gently chewing on her plump lower lip with a gleaming tooth.
"What do you mean woke up like this?"
"I mean I got up and saw this in the mirror. Isn't it awesome?!"
"Uh, it's something, alright."
Something fucking impossible. It could be hormones, but that doesn't explain the teeth...
Joanne flipped her hair to the side, sending out a waft of an enticing scent. "Hey, class is starting."
As they started to shuffle into the lecture theatre, Casey noted more odd behaviour. People seemed unfocused, and there seemed to be a lot of water bottles around. She barely paid attention as the lecture started, her mind flicking back to Joanne's changed appearance and the influx of remarkably attractive people on the college campus. Something weird really was happening. She was also incredibly thirsty.
There wasn't much to pay attention to in the lecture, and she spaced out. She was brought back to reality by her phone buzzing, then choked and nearly dropped it after unlocking her screen.
