LIGHTNOVELONLINE 11. Escape from the city
It was twenty minutes later when Abigail finally made it to the bakery. The building was large and round, it's roof dome shaped with a chimney sticking out of it, and completely devoid of any customers. She wasn't even sure there was anyone inside at all, but just in case there was, she knocked, wrapping her knuckles against the wooden door.
No one answered. The door sat silent, the bakery no doubt empty. She took that as an invitation inside, and pushed through, hips brushing the sides of the door.
It was a small moment of contact, but she jumped at the unexpectedness of it, sending her rump into a jiggling frenzy that lasted five, embarrassing, seconds. When it was finally over, Abigail stood there, mortified. She wasn't even sure how to react, and eventually she decided that it was better to pretend as if it never happened in the first place and continue on.
For now, she focused on the empty space that was the bakery. A wide room separated into two half's by a counter almost directly in the middle. She approached the counter slowly, taking her time to look around as she walked over to it. Then, with little effort, she climbed over the counter and into the back, where she found wooden crates rather than food waiting in store.
Curious, she pried one of the crates open and recoiled in shock at the smell that wafted up from within. It was somehow worse than rotten eggs and sewage left to sit in the sun for several days until it literally became an airborne toxin. Abigail closed the box before... Whatever was in it could achieve the same effect.
Then she carried on, deeper into the bakery, where even more boxes sat in organized groups of two's and three's. One of these groups stood out in comparison to the rest. The crates that made it up were lighter colored and stacked against the back wall. Which wouldn't have been so weird if they weren't the only boxes like that. Unsure if she was being paranoid or not, she walked over and opened one of them up.
It was empty, and so was the box beneath it. All of them were.
Abigail didn't check, but she was pretty sure that these were the only empty boxes in the bakery. All the other ones she passed so far had a faint smell to them hinting at their contents, all of them except for these ones, and she hazarded a guess that the secret entrance was behind them.
It was.
There was a hole in the wall, that the boxes covered up, snaking underground to who knows where. It had to be the exit Marl was talking about. It had to be, and she only hesitated a moment before getting on her knees and crawling into the hole. Which was thankfully large enough to fit her.
Still, it was definitely snug. Like the tunnel was some grand maw closing down on her, only stopped from completing it's descent by some mysterious force that clearly favored women on the larger side. A group that Abigail had no choice about joining. Either way, she was glad to finally fit somewhere for once as she crawled further in, all light gradually fading as she went.
When it was all gone, every scrap of the suns radiance ripped away, she started feeling her way ahead, using her hands to navigate. It was mostly pointless as the tunnel was a - not exactly - straight path leading to one destination.
But it made her feel better. Like she wasn't completely blind and groping around in the dark. Even though that was exactly what she was doing. It was a strange... Disconnect. Almost like she was purposefully lying to herself to make the agonizing truth that she couldn't see a little bit, just the tiniest amount, more bearable.
And for the most part it was working. She was making progress without feeling like she was completely lost and possibly going the wrong way.
Only for that sense of progress to suddenly vanish when her hand came in contact with something that wasn't dirt. She slowly, cautiously, felt it out and formed a picture of what it was in her mind. Then she tried not to instantly jump back in shock when she realized that it was a spider.
A very, very, stony feeling spider.
She removed her hand from it, after making sure that it was absolutely still, and pressed on as her mind put itself to work trying to forget about the spider. Until she encountered another one a few feet away from the first.
It too, just like it's kin, felt like a statue in the shape of an eight legged arachnid and Abigail hated that fact. Not because she was scared of spiders, she wasn't, but she wasn't very fond of the idea of sharing a cramped space with them. Like right now.
Fortunately, they seemed utterly docile, and she pressed on past thrm, her mind trying to forget about this second spider.
Then it was third and the forth she was trying to forget about. Followed by the sixth, seventh, and eventually the tenth.
Her feelings were the same towards each one. A smoldering ember of silent disgust fused with rage that wanted to jump out of her throat with childish insistence, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could hold it back. Not with how every few feet there seemed to be another spider just as still as the last. It was almost like they were statues, left where they were to spook anyone brave enough to take the tunnel.
But they weren't. No statue could ever fake the tell tale warmth of Ardin in the blood, flowing through a living creature and augmenting it's strength. Even if it was only by the smallest of margins.
The spiders, unfortunately, were very much alive. They just weren't moving. Which somehow made it worse, as if they were planning something and just waiting for the perfect time to strike. It could be any moment now, and she'd be none the wiser. Just another victim to their nefarious ploy.
But if that was the case, Marl wouldn't have sent her down here. There were easier ways to get rid of someone and if he really wasn't on her side he would have just tried to arrest her. Right?
She wasn't one hundred percent sure, but she was ninety percent. Which was good enough to keep going, if a bit faster. Nothing more than a little bit of extra Ardin pumping through her veins to make crawling through the tunnel just a bit faster. A little Ardin, however, quickly became a lot when she sensed all the spiders abruptly come to life.
It was like a signal commanding them awake, and they obeyed. Every one that she passed, every spider that she accidentally brushed against, each and every single one rose to life. They were a tide. A eight legged tide with red eyes that all started crawling in her direction.
It was, honestly, one of the most horrifying things Abigail could imagine and it was coming straight for her. In a desperate bid to get away from it, she let her Ardin flow wild. It went from a slumbering beast to a raging river in seconds, and the effect it had on her was instantaneous.
She zoomed forward, arms and legs moving at speeds only achievable for some of the speedier animals in the world, and maybe it was too fast. The constant shadow in front of her became a blur. Darkness blended with itself in its own violent whirlpool, always a little ahead of her. It was as if it was trying to lead her, guide her towards the tunnel end.
Which she hoped to see quickly, as the spiders were increasing in number, their eyes now a feral red that even the darkness couldn't hide.
Nor could it hide the slowly rising tide of growth that rippled through her body, starting from the surface of her skin and traveling inward. Almost like a plague. A plague that made her breasts grow. Causing them to spread outward, to crawl away from her, pushing her already taxed chest piece to it's limit. While behind her, the same thing happened to her lower body.
Legs thickening, butt gorging itself with added pounds, and her hips vying to outpace it all. It was like an eruption, her body an island growing under the reckless touch of a volcano. Even worse, she was running out of room.
The tunnel was a narrow fit to begin with. Her current rate of growth was absolutely pushing the limits. It tested them with every breath, every hurried inch she crawled forward, trying to escape the spiders.
She was tempted to give up.
The spiders were catching up. There were more ahead, and she'd be stuck in the next minute or so. Why fight?
Right as she was about to actually consider giving up, light broke through the darkness. Up ahead, tens of feet away, was the exit.
Abigail surged towards it, adrenaline and Ardin fusing into a more potent mixture. They fueled her mad dash towards freedom. Her hands acted more like claws on her way there, and then when she reached it and found that the hole was too small, they became shovels. With them Abigail dug her way out, she threw dirt behind her, almost sealing the tunnel shut by the time she was finally free.
She took in a deep breath of fresh air that wasn't fresh. The tunnel hadn't left above ground, she was still in the same massive cavern as the city she just escaped.
But at least she wasn't in the city anymore. That was an improvement. A small one, that was made smaller when her stomach reminded her of the last time she ate. Which, suffice it to say, was quite a bit ago.
Seeing as how she was a bigger woman now, very literally, she'd have to change that. So she started smelling the air like a dog. It sadly wasn't the first time she'd been this desperate, and probably wouldn't be the last.
Fortunately, it didn't take long for her nose to pick a scent to follow. The smell, some form of meat being cooked over wood, came from somewhere... Distant. It was hard to say exactly where when the cavern had no landmarks that she recognized.
Most of it was just dark. The false sun's light too far to reach even half the cavern.
A real shame seeing as how Abigail herself didn't have a light. So, once again, it was back to darkness.
But before that, she examined herself. Taking a quick glance down at her body and hoping the damage wasn't as bad as it felt. Which it was. Worse than that, actually. It was really, really bad.
After all, butts weren't supposed to be so big that they had their own gravity. That was what it felt like, at least. Like her rump had its own pull to it that drew her eyes and her sense of balance both. Thankfully her breasts got the longer end of the stick.
They were only a little bigger than her head. Which was still small enough that her chest piece somewhat fit. A generous term considering it looked it might burst off her if she so much as breathed.
The same couldn't be said her her pants. They were practically threads now. Strings of fabric held together by the monstrous hills they were trying to contain. Hills that they clung to for dear life, hiding nothing and somehow making her rump Pop. Like she was trying to show it off.
Which was almost too embarrassing to even think about.
But not enough to stop her from heading out in search of food.