This choice: Kim is approached by Dr. Laise • Go Back... “Ms. Rhodes—I’ve been looking for you!”
A voice from further up on the beach took Kim away from the long-overdue look at her gut and force it towards the mainland. Dr. Laise had approached her every so often during the duration of her quarantine to keep her updated, and had refused to start referring to her by
“Kim” despite her request.
As a tall, pale-skinned woman with long dark hair and the slightest hint of a European accent, she was as much of a native from the island of elites as there could have been. Dr. Laise looked every bit as beautiful as the models, celebrities, and other members of the rich and famous that had been on the island at the start of Kim’s extended vacation. In the helicopter full of regular people, contest winners like herself, Kim remembered that Dr. Laise had stuck out like a sore thumb.
“We were about to begin the buffet lunch at the Eloi lobby and we were concerned when you weren’t accounted for.”
With the way she spoke, you would have thought she was both Kim’s superior officer and her best friend. She had this way about her that made Kim feel like she’d known her almost all of her life. It did wonders for talking her into participating in all of the complementary resort activities that they held during the quarantine.
“O-Oh!” Kim smiled, lowering her sunglasses, “I thought… well I was thinking that I’d sit out on this one.”
She took a telling, cursory look at her stomach as it continued to rise and fall with the tides. It was starting to get pink around the crest, where it bulged out between her two pieces of swimsuit.
“How often can a woman eat a seafood medley, am I right?”
She laughed uneasily in the face of her director looming overhead, sending ripples through her chin and down her stomach. In truth, she’d been avoiding all temptations (successfully, she might add!) for the better part of twelve hours now. Starting when she’d turned down the make your own sundae bar last night that had been offered to residents of the island at the low price of one tenth of an E-Coin.
However, Dr. Laise didn’t seem to share that point of view. Her lips slipped tightly towards the side as her hands moved to her hips.
“I think that I can get behind that.” She said with a smile, “I’ll make sure that we try to diversify the menu a bit. I’m a little sick of crab myself.”
She took a few steps forward.
“If you’ll check your room, we’ve delivered a few things to make life a bit more comfortable here on the resort.” She said, leaning forward slightly towards the fat woman sunbathing on the beach, “A few complementary gifts as our way of saying Thank You for enduring the Yamanashi Viral Outbreak with us.”
“Oh wow, really?” Kim blinked behind her sunglasses, “You’ve already done so much for me, I can’t imagine—”
“Think nothing of it, Ms. Rhodes.” Dr. Laise said with a smile, “We’re the reason that you’re here in the first place, it would be awfully rude for us to not make sure that your stay on the island was as enjoyable as possible.”
Her painted lips spread into a perfectly pearly white smile. That was the thing about Dr. Laise, she never seemed to falter. Despite the fact that the rest of the world was undergoing an outbreak, she never cracked. Not once! She had always maintained a sense of familiarity and comfort between the staff and the other guests—Kim in particular had already netted an extra allotment of E-Coin, a free basket of soaps and the like, as well as a bath robe that may as well have been made out of Nimbus clouds. This woman was, and had been, her saving grace throughout this Quarantine nonsense. Always there with a helping hand, ever persistent to please those who had been wrongfully detained during this escalating crisis…
How was she supposed to say “no” to a woman who made sure that she had lobster dinners every night, should she so desire it?
“Thank you so much, Dr. Laise.” Kim said, fighting the urge to stand to such an occasion, “You’ve been such a help to all of us during this whole Quarantine thing and—”
“Don’t say a word, I’m happy to help.” She said with a smile as she bade Kim farewell with a soft brush of her shoulder, “Although I would recommend stopping by the lobby sooner rather than later—you know, before all the good stuff gets eaten up.”
Kim smiled uneasily from behind her sunglasses as she watched the smaller woman go, suddenly feeling guilty for having passed up another meal. Another free meal—the staff had been so kind in not charging her or the other contest winners for what they went through in their buffet lunches. It seemed silly for her to go back to her room, just to order something with E-Coin…
And the more she thought about it, the more Kim reckoned that she was hungry enough to eat anyway.
***
From the Eloi Penthouse Suite, all things were possible.
As Dr. Laise stood in front of the panoramic view of the outfacing sea, as she often did when she was lost in thought, she was reminded of that.
“Dr. Laise—all essential guests have been airlifted off of the island.”
She nodded in approval towards the voice that had sounded into her earpiece. As much as she understood the importance of their goal here, she also realized that any undue attention towards their social experiment would cause enormous amounts of backlash towards anyone and everyone involved. By allowing many of the celebrities and dignitaries, some of those fat cat businessmen and their third wives, to exit the island via private means she was ultimately saving face.
While the rest of the world scrambled to deal with a virus that had been covertly developed by partners in the Yamanashi prefecture of Japan, eyes would turn away from the island resort for the ultra-rich. Nobody would stop to think twice about those who were fortunate enough to be stationed in the world’s most luxurious resort when the Yamanashi Virus hit—and if they did, it certainly wouldn’t be for a while.
“Very good. Now that anyone of importance is out of range, feel free to increase the dosage to Group B.”
Her chin held high against the sea, Dr. Laise folded her arms behind her back proudly.
“We’ve a lot of work to do, and a lot of ground to cover.” She said stoically to the room, “And not a lot of time to do it in.”  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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