RR Nina Beckett - Chapter 13

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Reduction & Relocation: Nina Beckett

Chapter 13 - Pumped Up

[February 05, 2010]

“Did you hear about the subject getting returned?” Jenna asked. 

“No…” Jane barely looked up from the logbook.  “One of the daily commitment ones?  They get returned all the time.”

“No, it’s a long-term Participant returning him.  I heard Dr. Walker and Dr. Bexley talking about it earlier today.”

“Oh, really? Why’s she returning him?” Jane asked.

“Apparently he’s so mean she just can’t even handle him.”

“How’s a little thing like a subject going to hurt a girl’s feelings? Is she a child?”

“No Jane, you big meanie! Kelli’s soooooo sweet.  She really tried with him but he’s just so bad.  You wanna know what the last straw was?” Jenna rose her hands, as if to quiet down an enthralled, impatient crowd before finishing her statement. “She installed him one day just like any other…and he bit her.”

“Oof..” Jane winced.  “He’s fucked.”

“I know, right?” Jenna laughed. “He’s a real piece of work. I heard when the lab gets him back, we’re gonna give him to Janet Greene.”

Jane burst out laughing.  “Oh god, I take back what I said.  He’s not fucked.  He’s ULTRA fucked!” 

Jenna rubbed her chin.  “I wonder what would be worse…belonging to Janet Greene or Aiysha King.”

“I mean, that’s like asking if I’d rather die on a Monday or Tuesday.  Would it really matter?”

“I dunno…I was there for one of Aiysha’s checkups and I think she might be worse than Janet.”

“I guess we’d have to ask someone who was there for both Participants.” Jane said dismissively.

Jenna continued. Well..as long as we’re talking about the worst fates for a subject, I think he’d be worse off going to one of the twins.”

“Sophie and Stacy?  Is that who you’re talking about? Those blonde bimbos?”

Jenna nodded her head with a mirthful grin and Jane rolled her eyes.  “Those two…my god.  Barely two brain cells between the both of them.  And so freaking bratty.  The only thing they’ve got in greater supply than their entitlement is their tittage.”

“Tittage?” Jenna giggled. “That a technical term, Jane?”

Jane continued, unphased by Jenna’s joke.  “I had their subjects for subject monitoring one week…they constantly were trading their subjects back and forth between each other..it was so annoying trying to keep track of which subject was in which rear.  And plus, they barely met the DDM.  They mostly kept them between their huge freaking boobs…even when Dr. Walker called them, they still kept doing it. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen them in awhile; I wonder if they even still have their subjects.”

“Well, in all seriousness…they may be airheaded and ditzy.” Jenna offered, “But at least they’re clean.  If I had to pick between one of the twins and Janet Greene, I’d pick the twins every time….and you KNOW you would too!”

“Ugh…I’d never put myself in a situation like that…unlike our gullible subjects.”

“What’s so funny, girls?” Dr. Bexley asked as she entered the space.

“Just talking about that problem subject going to Janet Greene.” Jenna said, wiping a tear of jovial laughter from her eye. “I call dibs on Subject Monitoring for her next month!”

Dr. Bexley chuckled, setting her hands on her hips. “Nothing’s finalized yet, Jenna.  And you know we don’t do dibs here.” 

Jane couldn’t help but fantasize about somehow smuggling David onto Janet Greene’s body.  If she thought she could get away with it, Jane would happily wave that fat, cellulite-ridden ass goodbye as it took David away with it, chewing on him forever as if he were an everlasting gobstopper. 

Far from dignity.  Far from RR Labs.

And most importantly, far from Brandi.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so busy today.” The raven-haired doctor said to Jane, checking her wristwatch.  “Unfortunately, my day isn’t even close to being over . Would you mind doing me a favor?”

Jane set the last nV Kit down. “Sure, Dr. Bexley.  What do you need?” Jane made sure to impart an extra strong wiggle in her toes as she said Dr. Bexley.  She wanted David to hear down there that the one doctor, the only one that was weirdly nice to him, was right here…and couldn’t do anything to save him.

“Remember the bicycle seat experiment from earlier?  We’re going to launch another one tomorrow morning…and this time instead of being under a rear, he’s going to be under a foot.”

“Oh?  Under who?” Jane asked, trying not to laugh.

“It’ll be on Laura up at reception.” Dr. Bexley said.

Jane’s expression changed, as if she were disappointed. “Oh…well, she just sits all day.”

“That’s the point!” Dr. Bexley chirped.  “As soon as she starts her day, she changes into those adorable work slippers.  And then when she leaves, she changes back into her regular shoes and stores the slippers in her locker.  I want you to glue David to the inside sole of Laura’s slipper.”

“Okay,” Jane said.  “I’ll go get some Adhex.”

“No, not Adhex!” Dr. Bexley interrupted.  “We’re not trying to permanently adhere him.  Here, use this.”

Dr. Bexley handed Jane a small tube of industrial glue and continued speaking as Jane read the label.  “It’s strong enough that he’ll remain stuck wherever we put him, which I’d prefer to be up in the toe section by the way…and not so strong that we can’t neutralize it at the end of the work day.  Make sense?”

“Yeah, I got it, Dr. Bexley.” Jane was having a hard time hiding her disappointment as she left the storage room and headed toward the locker room.  She had to look on the bright side:  maybe David wasn’t going to be constantly pummeled by an active, dynamically moving foot but at least he was still going to be trapped under one, forced to smell it and be squeezed by it. Silver linings.

Jane could have very easily taken the toe ring off and given David a brief glimpse of the outside world–allow him at least a few minutes of fresh air not heavily filtered by the foot-flavored fibers of her black ankle socks, but she was thoroughly frustrated with how easy David was getting off on the next experiment. 

“Seriously?” Jane wondered out loud, randomly stomping her feet as she walked. “Of all the girls’ shoes he could be glued into, pummeled underneath an unforgiving foot for an entire work day, he’s going into Laura’s?” Jane liked Laura well enough, especially for how uncomfortable her dirty looks made the prospective subjects, but she just sat behind the desk all day long!  The extent of David’s experience beneath her feet would be gentle pressure, and occasional flexing of her toes while she worked–with luck, she might even get up once or twice to fill up her water bottle.

“And he’s just going to coast right on through the whole day.” Jane said scornfully as she entered the RR Labs locker room, scanning down the row of purple lockers until she found the one with Laura’s name.  She sat down on the worn wooden bench in the dimly lit locker room and stared down at her converse sneaker, where underneath David was going on his 5th hour trapped in Jane’s sock. A contemptuous sneer spread across her face.

Bang!

The sound of her sneaker hitting the locker bounced and echoed off the concrete walls as she begrudgingly unlaced her sneaker.  “And with my luck, Brandi will probably be all like ‘oh, look at you, David.  You helped us complete another experiment, my hero!’”. 

With a soft exhale, Jane leaned forward, reaching down. Her fingers slipped beneath the edge of her sock, feeling the fabric against her skin. The sock had absorbed the heat of her foot, and as she began to peel it away, a sensation of coolness spread across her toes. 

She flexed the long, painted digits and admired the way David wasn’t even visible inside of the jewel…and yet he couldn’t possibly ignore her foot. It was right where something as pathetic as him belonged–where he could spend the rest of his life for all she cared.  

“Hanging out with Laura’s feet all day…you deserve way worse.” Jane grumbled as she set the toe ring on the bench next to her and picked up one of Laura’s slippers.  She applied a small dab of the heavy-duty super glue that Dr. Bexley had given her, right where the center of Laura’s foot would come to rest. She curiously lifted the slipper up to her face and breathed in through her nose. “Oh, what the hell!  “It smells like frigging coconut!” She tossed the slipper back down.  It doesn’t even smell slightly bad!  Like..not at al!”  

The shade of Jane’s face switched from snowy white to blazing red as she tossed the slipper down angrily.  “You know what?  This isn’t going to work.” Jane said down to the toe ring, its occupant there on the bench next to her hip, waiting so patiently and so helplessly to see what she does next.  Jane stood up and stormed over to the other end of the bay of lockers, opening her own and rooting through its messy contents. The gears in her head were turning and a truly scheming plan was hatching.

“Ah-ha!” Jane held up a small bottle. By some stroke of luck, Jane had spent some time earlier in the week working on Participation Outreach signage which called for scissors, construction paper, and what she’d gone to her locker looking for and was now holding up for David to see: it was Elmer’s glue. 

It wasn’t as strong as the heavy duty stuff that Dr. Bexley had given her, not by a long shot.  And that was going to be a key component in Jane’s devious plan.

She squatted down and pulled open a locker–but it was a different locker this time.  Not Laura’s locker.  

Jane was already internally congratulating herself on the boldness of her plan as she ruffled through the locker right next to Laura’s, but it could all blow up in her face if the other key ingredient was missing. 

Right there, next to a textbook on advanced differential equations was the other part of Jane’s master plan just waiting to be used.  She smiled as she pulled from the purple locker compartment a pair of pale pink Nike sneakers.

“Have you come across Jenna Hernandez yet, microbe?” Jane asked David.  She tugged a balled up, gray ankle sock out of the sneaker and set it next to the toe ring.  “She’s pretty smart. I think she’s helping out Dr. Becotte in The Third R.  She’s…kinda conceited and clique-ey at times, but aren’t we all?”  Jane’s nose disappeared into the mouth of the pale pink sneaker and although her expression soured on reflex, the higher part of her mind bent on revenge commanded her to smirk.  This was going to be perfect.  

“She’s big into running.  And a fun little fact about Jenna: she likes to run barefoot.  Isn’t that quirky?”

With no care, Jane scooped up the toe ring and unceremoniously dumped David out onto the sole of the sneaker.  If she wasn’t watching the little fleck of nothing bounce as it landed atop the cushiony sole, she might have lost him. Luckily, her green eyes were tracking him the whole time.  

“I guess I wouldn’t expect toe lint to know those types of things…or anything really, for that matter.” Jane continued to insult David as she applied a dab of Elmer’s glue up at the toe section of Jenna’s left sneaker.  “But it’ll probably be nice for you to be back with your kind, huh?”

Jane shook the shoe as if she was sifting for gold, keeping a watchful eye on the random and chaotic movements of the nearly microscopic subject as he rattled about, bouncing like a pinball against the cushioned walls of Jenna’s sneaker until finally he stopped abruptly when he hit the dab of Elmer’s glue.  Jane squinted and couldn’t help but laugh, watching his tiny little digits wriggle and squirm as he gradually hardened into the weathered, faded sole. 

“Ya know what, Microbe…I had a hard time deciding.whether I should have you smooshed by Jenna’s heel, or surrounded by the far smellier area of her toes.  I guess ultimately there are no wrong answers…you’re right where you belong.” 

There were five little darkened circles, graduating from the largest on the right down to the smallest on the left at the toe section of Jenna Hernandez’s left sneaker, and David was now glued to the space between the dirt prints left behind by Jenna’s big toe and second-biggest toe. 

“Don’t worry about getting bored, Toe Lint.” Jane smirked, stuffing Jenna’s gray ankle sock back into the sneaker, making sure that it was properly seated as deep into the sneaker as it could get. “These are Jenna’s running sneakers.  There’s no way she’ll be leaving for the day without them…and I think you’re gonna like what she’s got planned over the weekend.”

Jane brought the sneaker up to her face once more, taking in another breath of the vinegary, earthy aroma.  The thought of David having to smell that for an entire weekend brought such joyful satisfaction to her that it felt like she was floating.  “And one last thing…if I ever see you trying to wiggle your way into good favor with Brandi…I promise you’ll regret it.”

With a near-maniacal laugh, Jane gave an over-exaggerated middle finger to Jenna’s left sneaker before tossing it back into Jenna’s locker and slamming it shut.

“Jane, come back!” David shouted as loud as he could but his the soundwaves of his voice couldn’t even make it through the sour insulation of Jenna’s gray ankle sock, let alone the mouth of her sneaker and out of her locker…and to the ears of the sadistic intern who’s footsteps were getting further and further away. 

“I didn’t do this!  I didn’t ask for any of this!” David was more crying out to himself than anyone else now…he was the only one who would listen. Him and maybe Dr. Bexley…but she was nowhere to be seen.  And of course Brandi, the peppy, chipper girl with the huge ass…but any little pleasure he might feel from feasting his eyes upon her body or even from her being a shoulder to cry on was tainted by the consequences that would follow from Jane.  After all, it wasn’t even his fault that he’d gone near the mean gothic chick’s puppy-love crush…and yet he was being punished for it.  Maybe she’d actually succeed in keeping him away from not only Brandi, but with the bonus of anyone else…except for Jenna…specifically her toes.  Who knew if he’d ever see any of them again.  

As dire as his situation was, David had to celebrate the minor victories where he could.  At least he was finally away from the oppressive odor of Jane’s foot!  It wasn’t as if the scent was horrendous, but at his incredibly minute size, even the slightest slip-up in proper hygiene translated to a disastrously traumatic experience for David.  Even though Jane’s foot was long gone, the thick and pungent signature of her pheremonic foot cloud had settled into his skin. And now that aroma was intermingling with the barely-better scent left behind in Jenna’s shoe . Much more intimately familiar with Jenna’s foot was her sock, and now that sock may as well have been getting intimate with Davdi. The mixture of powerful womanly scents made him want to cry..he would have rather breathed a mixture of chlorine gas and bleach. 

David immediately recognized that the glue, while incredibly firm and restricting, was nowhere near as intense as the Adhex.  The irony was not lost on him that the restrictive, imprisoning glue would actually have been his saving grace, protecting him from becoming dislodged and lost in a world so absurdly large by comparison that it couldn't possibly track him. It dawned on him that Dr. Bexley’s original prescription of industrial strength glue was to be used for that very reason: to make sure that he could be recovered at the end of his stint in Laura’s shoe.  

As angry as he was at RR Labs for the humiliation and emasculation they were continuing to put him through, David decided right there, in the dark potent mixture of sweat and cotton, where every breath he took was filled with a musty aroma that made his lungs want to fold in on themselves, that he would get out of this.  He would get back to the lab.  He would get back to Dr. Bexley.

Jenna’s insole felt like a grim, desolate, and foreign planet, its surface worn and pitted from years of bearing the weight of Jenna’s feet. It was a patchwork of discolored, compressed foam and tattered fabric, but nowhere was it more tattered and weathered than where her five toes naturally came to rest…which was on either side of his glued body. Dark patches where moisture had long since seeped in dotted the expanse, creating a nauseating blend of salt-scented dampness and stale, acrid foot odor that assaulted David's nose with every labored breath he took. He could see tiny fragments of dirt and dead skin cells embedded in the fibers, creating a grimy, uneven desert of detritus.

Hulking (to him) specks of dust, lint, and who-knew-what-else had collected over time and the fabric was frayed and peeling in places, the foam beneath it exposed and crumbling. The air was thick and musty, carrying the distinct scent of sweat that had soaked into the material over countless hours. It was an overwhelming, suffocating atmosphere, and David couldn’t escape it.

He tried to move, but the adhesive held him firmly in place. The glue had dried, hardening around his tiny form and rendering him completely immobile. His limbs were pinned, his bare back, ass, and legs pressed against the gritty surface of the insole. He could feel every rough patch, and it made his skin crawl. The helplessness of his situation was crushing. He was utterly at the mercy of events beyond his control, forced to wait for Jenna to unknowingly put on her sneaker and trap him beneath her foot.

Time seemed to stretch on endlessly in the dim, claustrophobic confines of the shoe. Each second was a battle to maintain his sanity against the overwhelming stench and the sense of vulnerability that gnawed at him. And then, David heard the door to the locker room open..and his heart sank.

Despite the overwhelming discomfort and hopelessness, David prayed to just stay here where it was safe. It wasn’t as if he was okay with literally being glued to the toe section of a girl’s sneaker. He could have done without the rough sole made course through thousands if not tens of thousands of steps creating tiny abrasions against him when trying to move.  And the smell.  It definitely wasn’t as bad as being in Jane’s sock all day but it was still distractingly unpleasant…and it was only going to get worse.  

But despite all that, David prayed that he could just stay here all weekend.  Couldn’t Jenna just forget her sneakers?  Couldn’t she just go home and leave him here all weekend? Despite his prayers–or maybe even in spite of them–the footsteps became louder, clearly moving directly toward him.  

The sad truth of the matter was that David was free to dream but reality, dictated completely by the powerful and intelligent women surrounding his life, was far outside of his control.  Metal squeaked and rubbed as the locker door opened and David’s world began shifting.

~