The young women were sitting around in the lounge the next morning. The youngest among them was 11, the eldest 27 (with Melissa being the second oldest, at 22.) Nami and Regina were 15 and 16, respectively. The group was wandering around, exploring every place they weren't met with a locked door (the big doors they had gone through to enter the dressing room, for instance, were locked.) There were a number of locked doors with a key-card console in a number of places. There were copious windows in every room, outside of which was
a big, expansive green yard. They were too far away from the nearest street to see anybody clearly, and were also on the second floor (having gone up a flight of stairs when they were being guided by the Tunisias.)
When exploring the dressing room, everyone noticed that the closets had been emptied. There were no other dresses to choose from; everyone was stuck with the one they picked yesterday. A bit creepy, that. But for the most part, everyone was in fairly high spirits. This facility represented more luxury than any of them had lived in before. It featured four bathrooms; one near the kitchen, another near the lounge, and two down in the hallways where the bedrooms were. The former two bathrooms contained a single toilet and a sink. The latter two, however, each contained two toilets (separated by stall doors), one shower area, and a large bathtub. Nami and Regina were excited to try the shower out.
"How long since you bathed?" Nami asked, as they found bars of soap and loofahs under the sink.
"Oh god... five weeks ago, I think." Regina answered, pulling her teal tent dress up over her head.
"Damn, girl. It was only like nine or ten days for me." Nami giggled back, lifting her own teal dress up similarly. "Didn't you at least have your own sponge?"
"Oh, we didn't have sponges. We just went down to the river to clean off." Regina explained.
"Oh. Ew." Nami reacted.
"Heh, and how long did you have to use the same sponge?" Regina asked, stepping into the shower.
"Hey! I got a new sponge every year!" Nami giggled, defensively. "...for a while. When I was a kid..." She avoided eye contact.
The two of them were silent for a moment, then burst out laughing. Nami stepped into the shower with her and turned on the water. They both let out a loud "WOO!" as the warm water struck their skin.
"Jesus... maybe we'll actually be cleaner as Feeders..." Regina commented as the pair of them scrubbed the bars of soap into their hair. They were both completely elated by the smell, by the rick, milky texture of the soapy water.
By the time they had stepped out of the shower and put a white towel around their chests, Nami and Regina were utterly blown away by how good they felt. Smells they thought were just part of life were now gone, replaced by the faint, pleasant smell of Ivory.
Regina had Nami sit down on a stool so she could do her hair (there was a single brush on the countertop.) Nami explained how she liked it done; poofed out behind the ears and parted on the right of her forehead. Nami's hair was thin, black and down to her jawline.
Regina's hair went halfway down her neck, and was lightly brown. They traded places, and Regina had Nami put the top of her hair back in the tiny bud it had previously been in (having held on to the rubber band she was using.)
Their teal dresses back on (genuinely more striking and pretty than most anything they had gotten to wear before,) Nami and Regina headed out of the bathroom and joined the rest of the group.
Someone in the group had noticed something. In the space between the kitchen and sitting area, was a touch-screen console installed into the wall. Navigating the menu of this device yielded live camera footage. A giant grid of displays, each showing a different part of the facility from a different angle. Several displayed parts of the bathrooms, including every bathtub, shower and toilet. Many of the girls were huddled around this screen, upset and murmuring about the violation of privacy. Melissa was summoned forth to investigate the display further, and she found that there was a long sheet of statistics being kept. AI in the computer was tracking where each of the girls was at any given time, and taking note of whatever they do. There was a list of everyone who had opened the fridge, who had checked their closet in the dressing room and when, ext. There was also a prominent display for everyone who had bathed that morning. It contained seven names, two of which were Nami and Regina. Regina turned to Nami to ask her what she felt about this, but neither of them could formulate a clear opinion.
The list of statistics and metric being tracked kept adding up as Melissa kept scrolling down. Everyone was questioning more and more what could be going on with this device.
"Seriously, though." The brash teenager from the day before yelled out. "Who the hell is watching us??"
"Oh, I am." Said Mrs. Joseph, having just come through one of the locked key-card doors.
Everyone turned to her and glared. They saw that Mrs. Joseph was holding a large tablet, and it looked to be displaying the same camera footage as the console on the wall.
"Look, I understand it could make you all feel a little uncomfortable. But we need to keep tabs on everything if we want to have the best possible time here, okay?" Mrs. Joseph explained.
"And just how much time ARE we going to spend here?" Melissa asked, standing up in her scarlet dress.
Mrs. Joseph smiled at her.
"That," she pointed, "is up to you!" She turned to the group--seemingly always eager to avoid talking to Melissa directly--and said, "You get to make your own choices, and live how you wanna live. If you want to leave, you simply have to choose to do so."
"Okay. I want to leave right now." Melissa said.
"Good!" Mrs. Joseph answered. "That's the first step."
"The first step?" Melissa groaned, knowing this probably wasn't to go anywhere.
"A choice is more than just saying you want something. A true 'choice' is something you really commit to, something you have the will to live by." Mrs. Joseph explained. "If you want to leave, great! Say that you want to leave! Make that perfectly clear to everyone! That's great, that's the first step! Now if you stay committed to that choice, you'll be out in no time!"
"I'm not really keen on your vague answers. What specifically do we have to do to get out?" Melissa asked. "We have to become Feeders and Feedees, right?"
Mrs. Joseph turned to Melissa and smiled.
"You can choose to be whatever you want to be. Different choices will cause different results, though. Take your time here to learn and grow, and find what kind of life is best for you, okay?" Mrs. Joseph looked thoroughly done with asking questions. "Now who wants breakfast?" She asked.
Despite their contempt for her, Mrs. Joseph had the whole group diligently following behind her as she unlocked a door connected to the kitchen, which lead down a big hallway. As the group moved through this hallway, the sound of a distant crowd grew near. A moment later, another door was opened and the group found themselves in a very large room, it was akin to an auditorium. It had a hard wood floor and was scattered with thick rugs, pillows and carpets. It featured many foldout tables and chairs, as well. Most importantly, there were other people here. Four different groups of women, for a total of 80 people, were now pouring into this room, guided by a total of four Community Directors.
Regina stared off into the mass of people. All of them were also wearing the tent dresses, and in the same seven colors. Regina kept looking at them, until a familiar face appeared in her line of sight; staring right back at her.
"PAULA!" "REGINA!" Paula and Regina exclaimed at the same time, running towards one another into a full-body hug.
A minute of "I missed you"s and "oh my god"s later, they asked more pointed questions about what's happened. Regina learned that Paula had gone through more or less the same experience; she's now locked up in a facility with a bunch of small rooms and a lounge, and is overseen by a fat lady who calls herself a "Community Director."
"Though, I'm a little behind." Paula admitted. "I was asleep through it all until this morning, but the other guys let me in on everything."
"Heheh..." Regina chuckled, wanting to tell Paula how cute she was, conked out in her seat on the truck, her drool pooling up between her legs, but she thought that would be rude and kept her mouth shut.
"So, I guess we're not all isolated. These rooms seem to connect together into big auditoriums like this." Paula said, looking around at the high walls.
"Dude, Regina, is this the best friend you told me about?" Nami asked, walking up from behind.
Another minute of introductions and "nice to meet you"s ensued, during which Paula introduced her new roommate as well: Robyn.
"So what did you guys get tagged?" Robyn asked, running her hair back behind her ear.
"We both got the double-circles." Nami answered.
"Ah, me an' Paula both got triangle-stars. Guess we four are nice and symmetrical." Robyn nodded.
"Yeah, the two of us are already the best of buds. Honestly." Paula said, hanging onto Robyn's arm.
"Me and Regina are, too!" Nami nodded. "I mean I think we are, are we?" She looked over at Regina.
Regina gave her a firm nod with a smile.
"So you guys got any plans yet?" Robyn asked.
"Plans for what?" Nami asked back.
"Plans to escape." Robyn answered.
"Oh... I don't know..." Nami began to struggle with her answer.
"We don't plan on escaping, at least not yet." Regina butted in. "I don't want to risk causing any trouble."
"So you're really gonna just go with the flow and let them fatten you up?" Paula asked, getting a little apprehensive.
"Uh... no. Well... I guess?" Regina replied, stumbling on how to answer.
"Weird. Paula told me you were a big time rebel of the system. That you hated it more than anybody, and stuff." Robyn commented.
"Well, I DO..." Regina said, increasingly defensive.
"But what?" Robyn said. "But you've finally given up?"
"Well..." Regina bit her tongue.
"But we can't exactly jump out the window and make a run for it!" Nami answered, coming to her defense.
Regina looked over at her new friend, and smiled.
"Yeah." Regina said. "Resistance is about more than brute force. I'll never stop resisting, but I'm going to be diligent and patient about it. I'll do what I can, WHEN I can."
"Dude... Regina..." Paula said, worried. "Are you saying you're just gonna let yourself turn into a Feeder?"
"If that's what it takes." Regina said.
Paula stared back at her, horrified.
"I didn't know... you were like that..." She said.
Robyn just stood there, unsure of what to think. The two of them turned around and broke off. Nami and Regina still stood there. Nami was distinctly offended, but didn't want to say anything judgmental about Regina's childhood friend. She wouldn't have the chance to say anything in a second anyway, when a pair of double-wide doors at the end of the auditorium burst open.
"Breakfast time!" Announced one of the Community Directors, as she and a few others pushed out giant carts of food. Table after table was rolled into the center of the auditorium. "Have as much as you'd like!" That same Director announced.
Mrs. Joseph collected the girls of her own group, and got them all ready to head for the tables.
Every one of the 80 girls had been enjoying their soft dresses and comfortable beds, and all of them were elated to have running water, but their previous pleasures had been nothing in comparison to the culinary luxuries as they began to indulge in. Several people in the auditorium approached the carts and tables, and grabbed a plate or a bowl (sometimes both.) They grabbed a nearby spatula or ladle, dug into one of the many entrees on display and scooped some of it out for themselves. A moment later, a few dozen of them were sat firmly down at one of the tables, happily gorging themselves on the food.
Nami and Regina approached the tables and looked around at what was available. Pancakes drizzling in syrup; waffles covered in chocolate; a giant pile of french toast with cream cheese frosting on-tap. There was fruit salad, drowning in frosting. There were biscuits and gravy, eggs and sausages, and all of which had sugar worked into them in one way or another. There was nothing on this table that wasn't excessively fatty, sugary and in giant proportions.
By now, most of the girls were happily munching away on the meal, but a small handful kept glaring apprehensively at the table. Two of them were Nami and Regina.
"What's wrong, guys?" Mrs. Joseph asked, coming up from behind.
"...don't you have anything vaguely healthy for us to eat?" Regina asked her. She was a bit nervous, this was her first time speaking with her.
"Oh, we sure do!" Mrs. Joseph answered, leading the two of them over to a table in the far corner. "This should be exactly what you need, right, Nami and Regina?" She asked.
"Uhuh..." Regina answered automatically, not actually looking at the tables yet.
"Good! Now you two keep tight, and eat up." She patted them both on the shoulder and walked off to consult with other girls in the group.
"...how did she know our names?" Regina asked, worried.
"We wrote them on our closets." Nami answered.
"Oh yeah." Regina said. No longer distracted by that, she looked down at the table they had been guided to.
Asparagus, spinach, hard boiled eggs, and chopped tomatoes. These were the only foods on the table, along with a pitcher of water. They were in decent quantity, however. A few other girls had eyed the table and gotten their portions already, and there was still plenty left for Nami and Regina to fill their plates up with it. They headed to the table, thanked God for their food and dug in.
"I mean... it's still better than I used to get." Nami said, nibbling on an asparagus head.
"Well, it's definitely nice to have a full plate for once..." Regina said. "I can't say the quality is better, honestly. I ate stuff wild and caught, and we farmed some chickens, too." Regina noted the lower taste of the egg.
"Oh. We mostly ate trash..." Nami said.
The two of them had a pleasant time with their meal, satisfied and full by the end of it. They nonetheless felt awkward, however, because of all of the kids surrounding them. One of them looked down from her octuple-stack of caramel-coated pancakes with whipped cream and chocolate chips, over at Regina's tiny plate of spinach and eggs, and just looked at her weird. Almost all of them had pink lemonade or chocolate milk, in contrast to the water she and Nami had poured for themselves.
Soon after the eating was done, the Community Directors got everyone huddled back into their group, and drawn back through their respective hallways, back to their smaller facilities.
"Have fun now, ladies!" Mrs. Joseph said, making sure they knew the kitchen was filled with snacks, and where the remotes were for the TV. She disappeared again, this time into a different key-card door entirely.
----
"I don't get why they'd make it so obvious!" Regina said, making sure to speak loudly enough for Nami to hear her through the stall door. "They give us super fattening food on the first day, and the only healthy food is deliberately made as boring as possible."
"Yeah, well, almost everybody is cooperating with it." Nami answered, waiting outside the stall. "I asked a couple of people, and they didn't even seem to be aware of it or think about it at all. They just kept eating, not even questioning it."
"It's ridiculous. I mean look, I know they're probably gonna force us to become Feeders eventually..." Regina said, finishing off her business and grabbing the toilet paper. "I'm sure Mrs. Joseph is totally full of shit when she tells us we have a choice in this. I just don't get why you'd want to resign yourself to it SO quickly." She stood up and flushed the toilet.
"I dunno, man." Nami said after Regina opened the stall door. "Most of the people in my enclave didn't have this big, idealistic opposition to the system like you have." She walked into the stall door that Regina had just stepped out of and closed the door behind her. "They were just scared of it, but often told me they wished they could be captured. We had a couple of people deliberately get themselves caught every year."
"Hoh. I guess I can understand why people would feel that way." Regina said.
"Yeah, you told me your family and everyone in your community were big ideologues; morally opposing the aliens and wishing to one day eliminate them, but that wasn't my family at all." Nami said as she lifted her dress and sat down on the toilet seat, still faintly warm from when Regina sat on it.
"Well, that's okay, honestly." Regina said. "I know that the life of a Feedee and a Feeder are easy, and probably a lot of fun. I get that. It's just not right. It's wrong to live your life without any worry, and indulging in whatever pleasure you want. It can be 'fun', but it doesn't result in true happiness."
"Yeah." Nami replied, not knowing how to follow that up. She sighed as she began to release her bladder.
"We're going to keep making our own decisions. Even if we end up absorbed by the system, we will maintain our individuality at any cost." Regina said, nodding to herself.
"Yeah." Nami replied, still not knowing how to talk all 'inspirational speech'-ish like Regina does.