In a Line

[TFs: TG, Female to plant, Snake people]

A man follows the red and green striped runner on the floor to the woman standing nearby. "Am I in the right place," he asks her.

She turns toward him with her curly brown ponytail trailing behind her. "I dunno. I'm not entirely sure myself. Are you here for the test?"

He nods. "The one written on the handwritten sign stapled to the A-frame outside?"

She nods to that and they lapse into silence. Not wanting it to get awkward, he dives in, "That was one crazy door getting in, right?"

Her eyes go wide. "I know, right? It looked like an elevator door but with a human indention in it. I almost didn't realize that I was supposed to fit my body in it."

He's grooving with this and relaxes some. "Yeah, but what got me was the all the weapons pointed at that opening. I think I saw a laser gun and a robotic arm with a huge mallet. I'm not sure what the others were."

She agrees, "Yeah, I'm not sure either." Again, the conversation descends into silence.
This time, she takes the lead, "So, you think the door is keeping the rest of the volunteers away?" She looks past him to the empty hallway behind.

He chuckles, "Maybe. It almost kept me away." She tilts an interested head. "I think the opening was made for a woman. I had to duck down to see what the elongated rectangle at eye level was displaying."

She laughs at this as she looks up at him and his short brown hair. "I can see that. You are kinda tall."

Sensing that is the end of that conversation, he struggles to find something for them to talk about before the quiet. Something comes. "So, do you think whoever needed the volunteers is coming?"

"I hope so. I hope we are not waiting in the wrong spot."

"Yeah," he agrees, "The sign wasn't clear on where we are to stand."

"So," she tries to transition to another topic to keep the conversation flowing, "What brings you here? I mean, besides the sign."

"As in, why am I not a work," he fills in the missing question. She nods. "Well, I actually am at work. I'm on lunch break. I passed the alley and the sign promised a quick test, so I thought it might give me a little adventure in my day. Although, this is taking a while and the test hasn't even begun yet." He looks at his watch. "Maybe I should go."

Her hands dart to his arms, "Don't! I mean, please don't. I don't want to be alone in this place. I was getting pretty nervous until you arrived."

He puffs out his chest in false bravado, "Well, then, I shall rescue you, my dear, by staying by your side." They both laugh at this and then he gets a little more serious. "So, what about you?"

"Why am I here?" She blows her bangs up. "Well, I'm here because I need a couple of bucks. These test things usually pay you, right? And I was feeling a little bold, at the time, so I stepped in."

"I don't know about payment. I've never done one of these before." He swings his arms a little while tugging his long sleeves out of his suit coat.

Someone clears their throat. Both turn to the side to find their savior, at least they hope so. What they see is a blond, pigtailed teen wearing a white lab that is so long that it covers her entire body except for her shoes which are ratty tennis shoes. The only other thing of note is her fish eye glasses on her pale, freckled face. It is clear it was her who cleared her throat.

She slides her glasses back up her nose. "I am Doctor Mous, muss not mouse." She looks behind them. "Where are the rest of my volunteers?" Without missing a beat, she turns away from them and continues, "Well, no matter. I can work with two. Follow me."

They follow her swaying pig tails through all sorts of metal halls and motion sensor doors. Behind her the two volunteers whisper introductions with a shake. "John."

"Maggie."

"Pleased to meet you."

"You too." They disengage hands right as the doctor stops in front of them.

They stand in front of a slanted cylinder that looks like something out of The Fly, window included. The only things that are out of place on it are a number pad to one side of the door and a red circle button to the side of that.

"Well, I need to test more combinations on this device," she pulls a remote out of her pocket and presses the only button. A short hum is the only warning they get before a laser shoots a beam at them. Maggie jumps forward while John steps back and the beam passes between them striking a vertical metal sheet on the opposite side of the room. There, the laser slides up cutting through a slab of meat hanging on the metal.

Both volunteers look at her angry. She scratches her head with the remote. "That was not what I was trying to do. What is this even doing in my pocket?" Her eyebrows shoot up as she looks to where the laser is striking. "Oh! Hey, it worked. I got the machine focused properly." She takes half of the meat off the wall and inspects it. "And it's a petite sized steak, too. Perfect."

She slides both the remote and the meat into her pocket and pulls out another remote with a singular button. "Okay, this should be the right one."

John points to the beam that is separating him from the ladies, "What about this?"

Dr. Mous shrugs, "It'll run out of power sooner or later." Then she pushes the button in hand.

The door to the pod opens. "One of you step in," the doctor orders.

Both of them watch the laser separating them before Maggie's eyes lift to meet his, "John, you are on a tighter time frame than me. You go first."

John looks to the open door and the beam in front of him. Even though he thinks the laser wouldn't hurt him at this distance, he decides not to risk it. He ducks under and steps into the pod.

Sensing weight, the pod closes. Putting the remote back in her pocket, she strides over to the machine. "Okay. I remember that the number I was on had a 2, 4, and 7," she mumbles to herself, but Maggie can't help but overhear. She continues, "I know that I wasn't in the 200's and 2 was the last number ... 472?" She punches the number in the keypad.

Light floods out of the window illuminating the room. "No, wait. I was in the 700's. Oh, well. I'll get it right on her."

Inside the machine there is a hum, a loud hum. Blinded and deafened, John just stands there. Nothing seems to be happening. At last, the light dims. Ants crawl on his body as the numbness fades. As his body wakes from falling asleep, he finds that his body feels different. His chest tickles farther out from his body than he is used to. Looking down to comprehend the matter, female fleshy extensions greet his eyes. What? But as his brain processes the various sensations, there is only on logical explanation that explains it all. "I'm a girl." He pauses to reflect on this, "But how?" It all seems impossible to him.

The door opens again and he, no she, steps out. Maggie gasps and points at John, "You're. You're naked."

She hadn't even considered this. Looking down again, she realizes it's true. She thinks about covering her alien body, but logic asserts itself. We're all women here. But I should find some clothes soon.

Maggie is not satisfied with the new girl’s reaction. Turning to the inventor, she demands, "What are you going to do about this?"

Dr. Mous looks from one to the other and back again. Then shrugs, "She'll live." Her hand rubs her chin, "But now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure that wasn't the result for test 472. Something must be wrong." She heads over to the number pad and opens the panel. Wires and metal and chips fill the thing. "Oh! There's the problem." She pulls off a long plastic piece with its ribbon of wires off the side of the box and plugs it back into a similar jack at the bottom.

Dr. Mous dusts her hands after she closes the box, "There. All better." She turns to Maggie, "Now, into the machine."

Maggie stands there for a moment. What do I do? I don't want something crazy to happen to me like John, but I want to get paid, too. What should I do?

As if reading her thoughts, John, in her sweet voice, tries to comfort her, "It'll be okay. I'm sure she'll turn us back once we're done."

This is enough. Maggie summons her courage and steps into the capsule. 742 is punched and the outsiders are bathed in light again.

Maggie also loses feeling until the light is gone. Unlike John she doesn't feel ants on herself but rather a light breeze drifting around her body. Also, something heavy on her head is causing her to tip to one side. Despite her best attempts to stay upright, like a tree falling in a forest, she falls sideways toward the floor.

She reaches out to catch herself only to find that she has no arms. And instead of hitting the ground, she stops short held up by whatever is on her head. Stable and no longer in danger of falling, her mind begins to grasps other odd things. The first being that everything around her is huge.

After a time, the door opens. After that, the doctor as a giantess takes a single step in to reach for her. Her massive hand wraps around Maggie’s entire tiny body. In a panic that she might be crushed, she tries to push, kick and even bite to get free. Then she realizes that none of those work, at all, except her mouth. Her feet and legs seem to be fused together. In fact the most movement she is able to work up is a whole body wiggle.

In the doctor’s clutches, the room seems to zip by until Maggie is dumped into another woman’s soft hands. Looking around, she sees John looking down at her. “When you went in there, I was not expecting that.”

From her place, cradled in John’s cupped hands, she asks, “What happened to me?”

She sees a confused look on her guardian’s face. Her pink bangs slide from one side to the other as she bites her lips in uncertainty. Finally, in almost a whisper she answers, “You’re. You’re a human mushroom thing.” Before Maggie can ask for more, John’s melodic voice continues, “Your face and head and hair are all there, but the rest of you is mushroom.”

Maggie thinks about this and compares the words to the sensations she’s getting. It all makes sense now.

The doctor clears her throat again getting their attention. Maggie gets lifted and turned by gentle fingers but still rests in the cupped hands. Nearby, the doctor holds a granulated cylinder filled with dirt. She reaches over and plucks Maggie out of those safe hands and drops her in the chemistry container.

Maggie is panicked at first. Her toe finds the dirt and plunges in. Delicious food trickles into her body. More toes dive in until all of them are well planted and she is upright. Her eyes close as she is surrounded by euphoria.

John watches as the plant rights itself. Happy that she is okay, John turns his attention to the doctor who is tapping her foot. Seeing that she now has the pink haired woman’s attention, she points to the pod. “You’re human. Let’s test.”

She rails back in concern. “What? You aren’t going to change me back?”

She shrugs, “Why would I do that?”

John makes a frustrated gesture with her hands, “Because if you don’t, it could mess up the results.”

“Nonsense. This machine is made to transform humans and you’re still human. So, the tests can continue.”

John is about to go with this when her mind takes a strange turn and flies away on a tangent of a thought related to the last thing said. “Wait. What happens when neither of us is human?”

“Then the tests are done until I get more volunteers.” She acts like this is all normal.

John doesn’t hear what she’s listening for, so she presses on, “So, then you are going to change us back to normal?”

The doctor frowns at this and pushes up her glasses. “Why would I do that? That’s a waste of resources.”

This gobsmacks John. “Waste of resources?” She swings her arm to point at the laser still continuing to fire at the metal sheet and melting a dent into it. “Isn’t this a waste of resources?”

She shrugs, “That’s different.”

“It’s exactly the same. Both run on electricity.” John throws her hands in the air.

The inventor shakes her head. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“I understand perfectly,” John’s sweet voice borders on becoming sour, “You just down want to change us back to normal.” She thinks for a moment and then softens her voice as she continues, “If you change us back to normal, you can run more tests on us.”

Maggie comes out of her stupor to agree like a drunk, “Yeahhhhhh...”

Dr. Mous rubs her temples, “Fine. If you both go in there, I’ll change you back to normal.”

With a dazzling smile, John dashes over and scoops up the container with Maggie the mushroom. Partner at her breasts, she darts into the pod that closes behind them.

Dr. Mous ambles over and presses 743 on the panel and then the red circle button to the side. It flashes red over and over. Light fills the room like the previous two times. She mutters to herself, “And this is why I don’t change humans back to themselves. They get all whiney.”

She starts to wander away to her next project, if she can remember what it is, but stops. “Wait. There’s two test subjects in there. I’ve never tested that before. That might make some new cases.” She sticks her tongue out of the side of her mouth to help her write a mental note, “I’ve got to remember that when I reach the highest number to start again with multiple specimens in there.” Then she straights her lab coat and glasses and heads deeper into her lab.

The light dims and the blindness begins to lift for the two women. But before they can even take stock on what happened to them, they hear a sliding of metal on metal. Not loud, mind you, but there nonetheless.

John finds herself tipping forward. She tries to throw her hands out to catch herself, but nothing responds. In an act of desperation, she attempts to throw herself to one side. It works, mostly. Her shoulder lands on cold metal and the friction slows her descent.

Maggie finds herself in a similar situation as before. She also, starts falling forward and also has no arms. Not having the same luck as John, she hits the floor. Her nose hurts, but, she realizes, worse things could have happened. An end of her begins to drop. She's not quite sure how she knows it's an end since she's not even sure what she is. Still, she looks over in that direction and the sound makes sense.

The floor is opening like an shutter in a camera. She feels more of her body drop as she watches a lavender scaled tube thing slide into the enlarging opening. Off to the side she sees a pink scaled snake body.

Maggie panics for a second until she recognizes that it is the same color as John's hair was before. Nervous, she traces the coiling tail away from the hole and finds a familiar female torso with pink hair. Upon closer inspection, she confirms that it is John. She calls over to her, "Am I a snake person, too?"

Turning to Maggie's voice that sounds a little off, she looks to her side and sees a different Maggie lying on the floor. Her purple hair is splayed on the floor to match her purple eyes. Continuing down her body he notices the lack of arms and then the violet scales. Following it all the way down, he spots the opening and her tail falling into it.

John feels part of her legs falling and looks to see some of her pink coils dangling like the purple one. The hole is getting bigger. "We've gotta get out of here."

Maggie's voice rises up to John, "How? I haven't even figured out how to move yet."

Her cheek against the wall garbles her voice a little, "We're snakes. Think like a snake." Both struggle to move, shake, sway, anything. Not much happens other than the ever increasing vortex sucks more of them in. John does manage to get halting progression like a new driver learning a clutch transmission and gets to the door.

She tries to knock on the door and remembers she doesn't have arms or fists. In desperation, she swings her head at the glass. She makes contact, but the blow is cushioned by her breasts. Pain causes her to rethink the banging. She looks out to see if anyone is there. No one.

"John!" Maggie's panicked voices calls for her. John turns back and that is the last thing she manages to do at the door. She sees Maggie sliding toward the hole most of her tail has dropped from sight. John dives for Maggie, again forgetting that she has no arms. The leap falls short and Maggie's chin hits the edge. She falls into the darkness unconscious.

It's not long before gravity gets a hold of John as well. Feeling her tail slide away, of its own accord, is quite unnerving. Still the opening grows and consumes everything. At last, the downward momentum is too great and John's body gets whipped and tossed into the darkness. The centrifugal force is too great and she descends into darkness in more ways than one.

The stench. An odor most foul invades Maggie's nose. It reeks of decay and poop all manner of death. Something slimy drips on her cheek and and rolls down and into her mouth. Gaggling and spitting, she rears up and away, trying to get from whatever that was. In the process, a yuck covered bang slaps down on one eye.

She reaches up to wipe it away when she remembers she can't. She shakes her head instead, and that does the job sorta. It slides the offending hair to one side of the eye allowing her to use it once again. Around her in the dim light, she sees shadowy piles of what she is sure she doesn't want to know. Parts of her tail are half submerged in a liquid she hopes is water.

She starts breathing with her mouth and slithering forward. Not that she wants to. But if she's going to find where she's at, then she must. As she does so, her coils rub over other scales that aren't hers. John! She calls out to him.

A very feminine groan replies. After a moment, the tail under hers moves. At last, a disgusted John asks, "What is all over my body?"

"I don't kno--"

She gets interrupted by, "Oh! What is that smell?"

"I'm hoping I'm wrong, but I think we are in the sewer."

"That would make sense. I'll try to hold back my impulse to barf."

"Don't you dare throw up. If you do, so will I." She gags a little before suppressing it. "Well, let's see if we can find a way out of here."

John starts slithering one way. "Good idea. You go that way and I'll go this one."

They head in opposite directions. Like synchronized swimmers they turn back and start speaking over the top of each other. "DHoo wy oaur ef weee mlo vtihnagt??"

"What?"

John speaks before Maggie can say a word, "You first."

Maggie cuts to the chase and repeats herself, "Do you feel that?"

She tilts her pink head to one side then the other, "Feel what?"

She puckers to one side, "I'm not sure. It feels like a breeze, but instead of blowing around me, it flows through me. It's the oddest sensation."

John tries to imagine the same thing happening to herself, "I'm not feeling that, I think."

Finding her question answered, Maggie bounces it back to her companion, "What we you saying?"

"I was commenting that we are moving like snakes now, when we couldn't before."

Maggie looks down at her tail and realizes that her torso is upright and her 'legs' are like a child's drawing of waves behind her. "Huh. I guess before our bodies were new to us."

John completes the thought, "and now our bodies have finished and our minds have figured them out and have set them to unconscious. Makes sense."

As if choreographed, they both turn away and continue in their own direction, for about a step, "Wait," Maggie calls over her shoulder, "It's this way."

John turns to face her, "What's that way?"

In an almost hypnotic tone, she answers, "The exit. Don't ask me how I know, though."

With an upraised eyebrow, the pink one asks, "Sooo, I should just follow you and hope that your 'sense' is right?"

The lavender snake shrugs, "It's better than splitting up, getting lost and separated, and not finding each other again."

"Makes sense. Let's go." The two serpent people slither in the direction indicated. Stagnant water begins to trickle as they move forward. As the distance increases the garbage shrinks. They pass occasional rotting corpses. Some are part human, part something else.

Before long, though, they reach their first obstacle, a cliff face. The stream, they've been paralleling, dribbles off the concrete edge to the small pool surrounded by banks of assorted refuse. It's only six to eight feet down, but without hands or feet, it might as well be miles.

John turns to her companion, "What do we do?"

"Jump?" The lavender one coils up and prepares to spring.

Desperation inspires an alternative, "Wait!" Maggie relaxes. "I'm. I'm not keen on jumping." Looking over the edge John indicates the next part, "There's rungs here in the cement. Maybe we can use those?"

"I suppose we can try that. You go first or me?"

Uncertainty fills John's face as she bites her lip, "It was my idea. I suppose I can go first." She lowers herself to near horizontal for maximum leverage. Sliding forward with caution, John dips over the edge and weaves between the steps of the embedded ladder. Roughly three fourths of the way, her body starts moving of its own accord. I'm falling! In a panic, the tip of her tail latches on to the nearest thing. In this case, it's the top rung. A foot or two farther is the pool. "Okay, ready. Now just climb down me."

After a couple of false starts, Maggie figures it out. Using a spiraling pattern, the lavender snake constricts down John and dips into the pool before slithering onto a bank. Upon turning back, John notices a lack of breasts. Pectoral muscles, sure, but nothing like what she sports.

"Should I come over there to let you climb down me?" Maggie seems pensive, although John is kinda in euphoria from the full body hug she just got. So, much so that she lets the matter of Maggie's gender drop.

Then she realizes that Maggie asked a question. "Uh, no. I'm good." As John tries to figure out what was asked and what she denied, she notices that she's full. But she's also not. Her stomach growls. Oh yeah, it was almost lunch time. John looks to the waiting Maggie and sees that she's not coming back. Oh. She must have been offering to help me down. I guess I'll have to get myself down the rest of the way.

Weighing her options, since she's as still as a rope, her only option is to let go and use friction and the last couple of rungs to lower herself. So, she does that. And it doesn't quite work like she expects. The dribbling waterfall has made the concrete slippery. John covers her face as she crashes toward a bent rebar step.

Her arms hit something.

With her eyes closed, John switches her arms and pushes off the concrete. She slams into a soft tree-like thing. And then she lands in the garbage that has surrounded them the entire trip. Struggling up, John feels that the tree she just hit feels a lot like Maggie. Checking, her purple friend is there under her on her back.

Maggie opens her eyes. She mutters, "What happened? I feel like I was hit by a truck."

John looks from the concrete wall across the pond to the pile they are in now. How did I get here? "I don't know. I pushed from the wall and landed here."

"You don't have arms," Maggie frowns and says in a monotone.

"I know," John insists, "but that's what happened." She peels off Maggie and helps her up.

"How are you doing that," she asks as her violet body is pulled out of the gunk by invisible hands.

"I don't know. I'm just acting like I have hands and I do. I guess." She lets Maggie drop as she reaches up to grab the sides of her head in frustration. Her pink hair splays like imaginary fingers are tussling her hair. "I don't know what's going on anymore."

A couple of coils surrounds John's torso and squeeze. Maggie's breath is in her face. "John," Maggie gently calls her. Pink eyes open to see purple ones a nose length away. "John. It's going to be okay." Arms wrap around her torso and Maggie hugs her.

John melts into it and tears begin to flow. She sniffs. "Could you? Could you give me a whole body hug?" More scales cover her body as she is lowered to the ground. One enduring squeeze engulfs her.

Once again, Maggie slides in front of her face, "Better?" John nods with red around her pink eyes. "Good. Let's get out of this muck. Maybe sometime this century we can get clean again." John giggles a little.

They disentangle and continue down the cylindrical tunnel. Once again, a stream follows them, Maggie leading the way to wherever they are going. The pipe empties until only water and the two of them remain.

Darkness grows to dim light that illuminates to full light. Outside sounds echo into their path. Freedom is right around the corner.

Until they turn that corner and find a grate sealing them in.

Maggie charges the barrier and crashes into it with her full weight. It doesn't help. Maggie grabs the metal and shakes it with her invisible hands. It vibrates but nothing more. "Come help me," Maggie implores.

John comes to her, "What do you want me to do?"

"Push it, hit it, do something." She blows a purple bang out of her face.

Summoning her almost full stomach, John concentrates on hitting the grate. She swings as hard as she can. Her knuckles strike, and the metal flips end over end for a hundred yards or so.

After tearing her eyes away from the spectacle of the power of John's strike, Maggie looks down to see another drop off. This one is to the ground with no hand holds.

Maggie takes things into her own hands. She coils up and springs out and toward the ground below. Using her 'hands' to break the fall, her momentum flips her over onto her back. She quickly rights herself and looks up at John looking down at her. "Come on down."

"Are you sure?" Her pink tail wiggles a little nervous dance.

"Absolutely. I'll catch you." Maggie puts her arms up, and then realizes that John can't see them. She ducks her head down to hide the blush.

From above comes a giggle, "You just held your hands out, didn't you?"

Maggie nods and confirm, "Well, I am going to catch you. So, jump already."

John does and Maggie adjusts her position to be in line with her target. The two collide in an awkward, unpracticed embrace that spins the two of them around. Their stomachs growl in unison. They slither into the bushes. "Let's get something to eat."

"Yeah."