3. All's Well That Burps Well

Against his ear, Tommy’s phone went dead. “Simon?” he said into the device. No response. “Damn,” he muttered, putting it back in his pocket. He was just going to have to fly solo on this one.

            It had been completely out of the blue. On any other day he might’ve even thought that Simon was playing a prank on him. But both his and Jenny’s voices convinced him. They were scared, alone, and in one of the worst places in the world.

            In the belly of the bitch.

            Tommy slicked his hair back and his stroll broke into a swaggering walk as he slid his hands into his jean pockets. There she was. Emma, off by herself texting on her phone and leaning against a pillar. She was away from her friends and all of her attention was focused on the screen, but she still looked gorgeous. He knew she always had, but it almost seemed that as she rose to queen bee status she had blossomed into queen bee looks. She had a different facial structure than the soft, pretty face of Caterina, but she was still cute. No he thought, Jenny was cute. Emma was sexy.

            She looked up at him with her sparkling eyes, surprised. “Oh, hey Tommy,” she cooed giving his body a once-over with her eyes. “What’cha doing out here?” She licked her lips and he did his best to prevent a boner from becoming noticeable. She scratched her exposed, seductive tummy and he heard it gurgle. That snapped him back into reality. His friends were in there. The boner faded and his cool-headedness returned.

            “Oh, ya know…” he began. “Simon and Jenny were supposed to meet me here later. You seen them?”

            “Not for a while,” Emma said. A little burp escaped from her lips. She brought fingertips up to her mouth and gave a little giggle. “You’ll have to excuse my tummy today. My latte must’ve been carbonated.” She gave a little giggle again. “But really, I haven’t seen Simon and Jenny for a while since they snuck out of detention.”

            “Snuck out?” he asked, playing along.

            “Yeah,” Emma said, smiling and thinking how she could alter the story to get the maximum effect out of Tommy. “I think they’re making out. Doing it when neither you or Claudia would notice. Mr. Lawrence thought so too.”

            “Shit,” Tommy said, pretending to be concerned. Now was his chance. He eyed her up and down, planting his tongue in his cheek and trying not to stare at her stomach. It was too eerie knowing his friends were in there. “Well, then I guess I’ll have to hang around here with you until they show up.”

            Emma’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

            “I’ve got nothing else to do,” he said, pulling up a chair from a nearby patio table. “So, you’re gassy huh?”

            Emma looked down at her stomach, blushing. “Um, yeah. I’m pretty good with burps, though,” she said matter-of-factly. “And eating, as you already know. She rubbed her exposed midriff. So hot, so awkward, Tommy thought staying focused.

            “Yeah, well I think when Jenny burps. But I think she’s done some bigger burps than you,” he said.

            “Me? No girl at this school can out-burp me!” she laughed.

            “Wanna bet?” Tommy said. “Why don’t you prove it to me?”

            “Are you asking me to burp?” she asked as if it were an unheard of request.

            “You do it so well. I just want to be sure to tell Jenny that while she was hanging around with my best friend I was busy chatting up a better burper than her.”

            Emma smiled. She looked over to the right and saw a Coke machine that sold plastic Coke bottles with people’s names on them. They contained a good deal more soda than the cans.

            “Wait here,” she said. She ran over to the machine and returned a moment later with a bottle that said “Share a Coke with Peter”.

            “Can you be Peter?” she cooed.

            “I’ll be your Peter,” he said, flashing a smile.

            Hungrily, she tore off the cap and threw her head back to chug.

^^^

It was over, Jenny thought sitting on the food. Simon was gone. And he was never coming back. And she was never going to get out of here.

            But just then, out in the darkness, she heard a head breach the surface of Emma’s stomach juices and gasp for air.

            “Simon?!” she yelled as loud as she could, the noise echoing off the walls of Emma’s churning belly.

            “I’m right here,” he said, waving the glowing smartphone screen. He was using it like a lantern to guide his way back to Emma’s lunch. Jenny helped him up.

            “Oh thank god you’re alright,” she said, hugging his drenched body tightly.

            He held the phone up to her. “They can put digestion-proof in the ads now.”         

            She giggled a little. “Probably more like digestion-resistant.”

            The way the glow illuminating her face combined with her small smile breaking through her facial expression of worry and terror made him feel like he was falling for her all over again. They kissed, his wet lips against hers.

            “We need to get out of here,” she said, pulling away. “Is Tommy working on Emma?”

            “I have no clue,” Simon said, looking out into the darkness of the girl’s stomach.

            A few seconds later, a massive amount of liquid began pouring in from the opening at the bottom of the esophagus. The “lake” frothed like a sea during a violent storm.

            “Hold on!” Simon yelled as he and Jenny clung on to the food like it was a life-raft.

            “Is she drinking more coffee?” Jenny yelled.

            “I don’t know!” he yelled back. “I think it’s soda! Tommy must’ve convinced her!”

            Her face lit up. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, the soda or whatever it was finished drizzling in and Emma’s stomach began to settle to accommodate it. The surface bubbled and the walls seemed to be expanding. It smelled really bad, but Simon knew what was happening.

            “It was soda. All the gas…it’s gonna make her burp!” he exclaimed.

            “Should we hold on?” she asked.

            “No, spread your arms and let the up-draft carry you back to her mouth.”

            The belly was gurgling churning a lot. It felt as if they would fall off and into the gastric acids.

            “Here it comes!” he yelled so she could hear him.

            Suddenly, a bunch of the gas was whooshed! upwards and Jenny and Simon found themselves being lifted up towards the valve…and then splashed back down into the rolling waves as the up-draft suddenly ended. They both re-surfaced a moment later to hear Emma’s tummy gurgling and readjusting now that it had relieved some gas pressure.

            “What happened?” Jenny yelled, struggling to stay afloat.

            “It didn’t work,” he said, beginning to text Tommy. “We’re gonna need a bigger burp.”

^^^

Tommy glanced at his phone as he received the text message. He was already pretty sure he hadn’t seen any tiny people come flying out of Emma’s mouth, but the text “BIGGER” told him everything he needed to know. It was going to take more than one Coke bottle in Emma’s stomach to create enough gas to get them out. He had to convince her to burp big or go home.

            “How was that?” Emma said, patting her cute tummy which she was showing off to him and rubbing as her other hand tossed the empty bottle away and let it roll across the ground.

            “Impressive, impressive,” he said, clapping his hands together. “But…Jenny burped louder than after eating a few chips once. I know you can do better.”

            He flashed her a little wink. She giggled. He had her right where he wanted her.

            “I’ll just drink another,” she said, running back over to the vending machine.

            She came back with another same-sized bottle of Coke and twisted the cap off. He could hear it hiss as it released pressure. Instantly, she starting chugging again. This time she only got halfway through the bottle when she suddenly put it down to the table, her hands drawn to her crotch. “Drank too much coffee earlier. BRB!” she squealed, running off for a bathroom.

            He sighed, hoping her sprinting wouldn’t disrupt Simon or Jenny too much in there. He got up to stretch and look around. He took out his phone and texted Simon: “Hang in there. I’m going to get you out.”

            Suddenly he felt a presence over his shoulder but it was too late to hide the text. He had felt a similar situation of someone catching up behind him to see him using his phone before. Tommy knew who it was before they even spoke.

            “Why hello Tommy,” said Mr. Lawrence. “Who were you texting?”

            “Uh, no one!” Tommy said, giving a little laugh. He knew it was hopeless. Mr. Lawrence was a government agent. He surely would have known about him being a friend of Simon as well as Jenny’s boyfriend, so when he saw Simon’s name at the top of the texting app, Tommy knew that Mr. Lawrence knew he was on to him.

            “Don’t lie, Tommy,” Mr. Lawrence said. “I’d hate to have to give you detention.”

            “You have no authority here,” Tommy said, suddenly getting defensive. “School’s over and we’re off-campus.”

            “Don’t you get it you little punk,” Mr. Lawrence said, advancing closer. “We have authority everywhere. You can’t stop us. So I’ve come up with something worse than a Saturday detention to get rid of you and your nosy friends.”

            He pulled out a shrink ray and Tommy’s eyes went wide, admiring it. He only knew of four in existence. This one, the green one they spent the first semester tracking down again, the Huntress’s one, and Karey’s one. Then it occurred to him that Mr. Lawrence was going to shrink him and put him in Emma’s Coke. Then no one could rescue them from her belly.

            “Goodbye Tommy,” Mr. Lawrence said, smirking.

            Tommy did something he had never been allowed to do during a class period. He kicked Mr. Lawrence right in the nights.

            The agent/teacher dropped the weapon and clutched his family jewels like there was nothing more in the universe, his mouth agape as some form of guttural cry/grunt came from his mouth.

            “That was for giving me a D on the last test, asshole,” Tommy said, reaching down to scoop up the device. He grabbed it, but as he got back up, Mr. Lawrence tackled him. The shrink ray went off and the next thing he knew Tommy hit the ground while Mr. Lawrence vanished.

            It didn’t make any sense. He got up and looked at the table, and realized Mr. Lawrence had been shrunken down to 1/4th of an inch and was clinging to the inside of the rim of the top of Emma’s Coke bottle.

            Tommy walked closer and peered at the little man, now so helpless to save himself. “Help me!” his little voice squeaked. Then he fell down and splashed into the liquid of the hall-full bottle.

            Just then, Emma came out walking towards him. “Hey, that’s my Coke,” she said, wagging her finger seductively.

            “Uh, I was just…”

            Before he could say anything, she snatched up the Coke and lifted it towards her face.

            Inside the container, Mr. Lawrence looked up through the opening and screamed in horror as Emma brought the bottle closer and closer towards her open mouth…

^^^

Inside Emma’s belly, Simon and Jenny clung to what little was left of their food-raft. Everything had sloshed around when Emma had run off somewhere and most of the lumped mass of her lunch had finally broken off and was now melting down in the acid pit that was the girl’s stomach.

            Just then more Coke started pouring in.

            “Good,” Jenny said. She looked sea-sick from earlier but her face was warmed up by her smile as she watched the liquid pour in. “More gas and we’ll be out of here.”

            Then he saw it. It was dark, but it appeared to Simon, just for a moment, that a figure with an actual solid shape came down in the torrent of carbonated beverage and disappeared under the frothing surface.

            “Did you see that?” Simon asked.

            “See what?” Jennny said.

            He shook his head. Maybe it was just his imagination…

            Finally, as Emma finished downing the second half of her second bottle, everything started to settle down again. The stomach resumed its groaning and its glorping.

            “Get ready,” Jenny said. He assumed she meant the burp, but just then a human figure clawed its way out of the sea of gastric juices and onto their raft. Jenny screamed and Simon turned on his screen as he tilted his figure towards the man.

            It was Mr. Lawrence.

            “You fucking kids have ruined everything!” he screamed.

            Jenny started to get up to move away, but he grabbed her, smacked her across the mouth and then pushed her overboard into what Simon could be pretty much be accurately described now as “the drink”.

            Simon threw a punch at him but Mr. Lawrence was in rage mode and had government training. He grabbed Simon’s fist and gut punched him with his other hand. Simon clutched his belly and keeled over. Mr. Lawrence kicked him and he toppled overboard into the lake.

            “Simon, I’m over here!” Jenny cried out somewhere in the distance. It was too dark to see. He heard a splash behind him as Mr. Lawrence dove in. He turned around, trying to swim away from where the man had jumped in.

            Too late. Mr. Lawrence surfaced behind him and held him in a tight headlock.

            “If I die here,” hissed Mr. Lawrence, “then I at least want the comfort of knowing I completed my task annihilating you two fuckers.”

            And with that he forced Simon’s head under the surface. The last thing he heard was Jenny calling out for him.

^^^

“You ready?” Tommy asked, eyeing her gurgling stomach.

            She looked down at it, considering. “You know, I think I might still need more.” Emma walked over to the vending machine and bought a third Coke to bring over to the table, slapping the other one off as she returned.

            Tommy scratched his arm as he watched her crack this one open. He was really hoping this would work. He had no clue what was going on inside her tummy right now as soon as she had swallowed Mr. Lawrence. But he had a bad feeling about the kind of trouble he would cause Jenny and Simon inside there.

            Emma threw her head back and chugged. He watched her as her throat gracefully pushed in and out as she guided the soda down. He admired the way her belly softly expanded and contracted as she consumed new material and he imagined the gas swirling around in that beautiful stomach of hers and how he really hoped his friends would be okay.

^^^

The lake began churning again as Simon surfaced, Mr. Lawrence having somehow lost grip of him in the waves. “JENNY!” he screamed out loud.

            “SIMON, I’m over HERE!!” she called.

            He swam towards her. He pulled and kicked with all his might and finally bumped into her, embracing in the stinky, horrible substance that was slowly trying to digest them all. The soda-fall was reduced to another drizzle.

            “Brace yourself,” he said, waiting for the burp.

            Suddenly, Mr. Lawrence launched himself at them from behind and grabbed firm hold of them both. His timing was perfect. At that moment, the valve at the top of this cavern opened and they all found themselves being sucked up like dirt in a vacuum cleaner. Simon looked up as they whooshed their way back up the esophagus tunnel towards the light that shone in through Emma’s mouth.

            It was all less than a second, but it felt so beautiful that to Simon it seemed like an elegant glide up and out of Emma’s bowels. But as they re-entered the throat, the boost was gone and they started slowing down as they neared the back of her mouth.

            For a horrible moment Simon thought they were going to drop back down directly into her nightmarish stomach but mercifully the next thing he knew they were tumbling and rolling apart from each other on her tongue. It was wet, but rough and textured. He got to his feet and turned to see beautiful daylight through the opening in Emma’s teeth, which began to close as her lips moved back together.

            Suddenly, he heard a loud grunting noise and turned around as Mr. Lawrence drove his thumbs into his throat and he fell back onto the tongue.

^^^

Emma groaned and looked down at her tummy, which was starting to get a little bloated from gas, even her last burp. She hadn’t finished her third Coke bottle yet, and still had about ¼ of it to go.

            Tommy was nervous. Emma had delivered a pretty big burp, but he hadn’t seen anything fly out and he had been eyeing her mouth very closely as she belched. He could smell the soda mixed with whatever she ate earlier as it wafted over to him.

            “You are going to finish that Coke right?” he teased, knowing it was the only way to get to her.

            “Of course,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “You don’t think I can finish it?”

            “Show, don’t tell,” he said, smirking.

            She smirked to and then stared down at both the Coke can and her gurgling tummy as she put a hand at the side of her exposed midriff.

^^^

Simon couldn’t breathe. Mr. Lawrence’s soulless eyes were digging into him with a penetrating stare so sharp it could have impaled him. Emma’s mouth was moving as she talked, something about finishing the Coke, and everything shook around them.

            Not that Mr. Lawrence, if that even was his real name, cared. For a moment, Simon thought that this might truly be the end.

            But then Jenny came up behind and leapfrogged Mr. Lawrence, throwing her arms around his throat like a loose. Angrily, he spun around and threw her off and she landed next to Simon.

            Mr. Lawrence cracked his knuckles. “Sorry kiddos, class-time is over. I’m getting the fuck out of here.”

            Simon looked behind them as Emma’s mouth opened again, allowing more light to stream in. Suddenly, the top of the Coke bottle appeared, tipping back towards them. It was like Simon had a lightbulb appear over his head.

            “No, you’re not,” Simon said. He didn’t scoff, didn’t say it arrogantly, but rather as if it were just a simple fact. Mr. Lawrence looked angry for a moment, then looked past him and his eyes widened. But by then Simon was already up and running for the teeth to the side pulling Jenny along after him. They climbed and rolled across one of the front molars, down into the safe zone between the gums and the flesh of Emma’s inner cheek, leaving Mr. Lawrence in the center of the tongue as the bottle connected with the girl’s lips.

            She titled her head back and Mr. Lawrence grabbed hold of her rough tongue, looking down past him as the back of her throat opened up to welcome him back down to her belly. The thought of going back down there horrified him. But now it was inevitable. He had been so close to escape. So close to victory. So close to promotion.

            But then Mr. Lawrence looked back up as the rush of Coke swept down towards him and he screamed at the top of his lungs. Then he was gone, washed down her gullet in a single gulp while the rest of the bottle’s contents followed quickly.

            Emma opened her mouth to sigh as Jenny and Simon leaned back out over the teeth to look at the tongue to see an empty cavern and no sign of their enemy. But then suddenly another massive burp blew them out and then they were sailing, flying over her incisors and her lips and then out into free air. It was almost fun, Simon thought.

            Then they spread their arms and used the air resistance to land. It was dizzy at first, but then they came to their senses.

            “Where are we?” Jenny asked, a hand to her hand.

            Simon turned around to see the beautiful giantess Emma patting her gurgling, slightly protruding tummy and licking her lips in satisfaction. Her belly towered over them and they could see the girl’s fine blond hairs marked across it in much greater detail from here.

            “And to think we were just in there…” Simon muttered.

            He and Jenny turned around.

            Jenny screamed. A giant hand was dipping towards them. They didn’t have time to run before they were captured. It was dark for a while. They felt the giant figure moving.

^^^

Then when there was light again, Simon saw they had been put down on a vast expanse of asphalt.

            “What’s going on?” Jenny asked.

            They looked up to see Tommy standing over them and aiming a giant shrink ray with a red-streak on it down. There was a weird tingling sensation and the next thing each of them knew, they were back to normal size. They were in a parking lot behind the plaza, where loading trucks brought in goods for the stores and stuff.

            “All in a day’s work,” Tommy said, turning off the device and pocketing it.

            “Shit, thanks man,” Simon said. “You really saved us.”

            “Don’t mention it,” he said, walking forward to embrace and kiss Jenny. It made Simon feel awkward. “Jesus, we’ve got to wash all of Emma’s gut juices off of you.” She gave a little laugh and then kissed Tommy on the cheek again.

            “I’ve got to go get you towels,” he said. “I think the pool store here should have some.”

            “Where’s Emma?” Simon asked.

            “I just told her you guys texted me and that I had to go. Be right back.” And then Tommy was off.

            Once he was out of sight, Jenny looked around, and making sure no one was in sight, she hugged Simon and kissed him full on the lips. It lasted no more than five seconds but felt like 15 for Simon.

            Still with her arms around his shoulders, she pulled back and looked into his eyes. “I couldn’t have gotten through this without you either.”

            “And I couldn’t have gotten through it without you either,” he said.

            They kissed again.

^^^

Emma had lost track of her friends and was getting bored so she decided to wander around the place. When she came around back to see Tommy, Jenny, and Simon hanging around by Tommy’s Jeep, she frowned. Tommy was hot and he’d be a good trophy boyfriend to have around. It would help her popularity, certainly.

            She was kind of hoping that shit she’d made up to tell Claudia early about Simon and Jenny fucking each other would be true. But she knew that was all fake. She watched Jenny kiss Tommy and knew that he still loved her and would never leave her for him. But Emma wondered how much Jenny loved him back.

            She envied Jenny, a knot forming in her belly that replaced the gassy feeling she felt only moments ago. How dare that bitch hog Tommy all semester long? The school year was going to be over soon. Maybe they’d break up over the summer and Tommy could date her next year, but…

            Then Tommy walked off, leaving Jenny and Simon alone. He didn’t look back but she appeared to be waiting until he was gone. Then she started looking around. Emma ducked behind a corner and when she turned around she saw an unbelievable sight before her eyes.

            They were making out.

            Then they stopped, said something to each other, and made out again. Emma quickly ran out from her cover and ducked behind some truck that was closer. In fact, she could hear what they were saying.

            They were talking about how much they loved each other, even though they didn’t want to end their current relationships. Emma suddenly realized that no one would believe her without proof. So she took out her phone and leaned around the corner.

            And then they dropped the motherlode.

            “When I did with Tommy over Spring Break,” Jenny was saying, “it just wasn’t the same. I’m glad you were my first.”

            “Me too, Claudia’s just not as great in bed as you honey,” he said, then kissed her again.

            She pulled away. “Wait, he might come back.”

            They resumed their normal positions and just acted like they were casually chatting. Tommy came back around with freshly bought towels which Emma had no clue what they were for. But she was too excited with what she had just filmed to care about anything else. She waited until they dried themselves off and then got in Tommy’s Jeep, which pulled out and drove off.

            Then Emma ran, looking everywhere. She found her clique hanging out by their cars in the parking lot in front of the plaza.

            “Oh hey, Emma,” Rachel said. “We were wondering where you were.”

            “You guys have no idea what I just found out. It’s huge. Here, I filmed it.”          

            She pulled out her phone.

            “Perfect,” Rachel added. “You can show her too.”

            “Her?” Emma said, glancing around.

            “Yeah, Kelsey’s back.”

            Emma turned to see a beautiful brunette girl who looked about their age and had no features that distinguished her from the girl she had last seen at a party near the beginning of the year walking towards her in a red crop top and denim short shorts. Her hair was done back in a ponytail and everything about her just said sexy.

            “Hey Emma, it’s been awhile,” the Huntress said, coming closer. “So what did you want to show us?”

THE END