Twenty four hours later, Michelle was back at work. She worked at the local strip club, and was climbing into
a large hollow cake, when she first felt a bit queasy. She coughed a bit, and her nose felt cold, but the
show must go on.
Cosmo Kramer and his buddies George and Jerry and Newman are all in the strip club. Cosmo is his old college
buddy's bestman.
"Wait, Kramer? You went to college? Where? When?"
"Well, it was between my Swedish Saga, and my job at the bagel place - before the strike. The first strike,"
he added hastily, "now be quiet, they're rolling out the cake."
"Cake? Cake - you're kidding that's so cliche, a half naked girl jumping out of a cake? Really -actually, the
more I think about it the hotter it sounds."
"See!"
"What's going on here?" Elaine Benes said bursting in on the scene.
"What are you doing here, Elaine?" Kramer asked in embarrassment. He stood up and opened his coat to conceal
the cake containing Michelle.
"Let me guess, you juvenile men are gathered here to degrade women! I bet there's a half-naked woman in that
cake ready to jump out and yell surprise, any moment now!"
"Elaine, calm down. It's Kramer's just doing his job as best man to throw uh, John-"
"It's Jim, Jerry," Kramer corrects.
"-Jim a nice stag party. How did you find us?"
"I called your agent. You know we always have lunch at the diner and when you didn't show, I called your
agent. He said you were up at this club in the Poconos. I thought you were performing, and I get here and its
a strip club. And you, you must be Jim, does your fiancee know the sort of man you are and the friends you
keep. I plan to video this whole tableau and post it on you tube," Elaine said pulling out her iPhone.
"No, please," begged Jim.
Inside the cake, Michelle was vaguely aware of the commotion outside. It felt so hot. She was sweating, and
her hands and feet were cramping up. A layer of brown and white coarse hair covered all her skin. The long
hair on her head had fallen off in clumps, as antlers emerged from her head. Her muscles, bones and sinews
twisted and changed. She could take it no longer. She bounded to escape from her enclosure.
The cake exploded, people gaped, and gasped, and then Elaine started to laugh hysterically.
"You asked Kramer to throw you a stag party? I should have known, he'd get a real stag!"
Michelle was confused. There should be trees, there should be open space. She was trapped in place with
strange smelling people, and tables and walls. She didn't like it. She was confused. She had been camping.
Then she'd grown a penis? Then all the hormones, all the emotions. Then there was this awful high pitched
noise. She had to make it stop. She lowered her antlers and charged.
Elaine's hysterical laughter became a scream as the huge stag bared down on her.
The rest was a blur. Someone had opened the door to the bar, and light had streamed in. Michelle had bolted
out the door. Jerry, Kramer, George, Jim and Elaine had all been gored, trampled or slobbered on my the big
stag. They lay there on the floor of the club covered with frosting, cake, and blood. The table lay on its
side about 10 feet away. One man's nuts had been crushed by the stag's powerful hoof, one had been gored,
one's face was covered from mucousy slobber from the stag, one had deer fur all over and was sneezing, one had
a broken arm, and ...
In 24 hours, the effects of the virus to which they were exposed would begin to show itself.