Kayla finished packing the few papers she was taking into her laptop case.

“I don’t know why you still mess with that thing,” Trixie said.  “A tablet or a smartphone is so much easier.”

Kayla shrugged.  “A laptop is what the company provides me,” she said.  “And my smartphone is mine;  it’s personal.  I don’t want to put any more work stuff on it than is absolutely necessary.”

Trixie sighed, avoiding looking at her lab mate.  “So, this is it, huh?” she said.

Kayla nodded.  “Yep,” she said.  I’m off to California.”

“Well, the money’d better be good, with the cost of living out there,” Trixie said.

“It is a promotion, and I already have my house there lined up,” Kayla said.  “I’m sure I’ll be fine.  What about you, Trix?”

Now Trixie looked  Kayla in the eye.  “I’ll be fine,” Trixie said.  “You know me.”

Kayla stepped over to her friend, looking down.  Kayla was nearly six feet tall and athletic.  Trixie was not quite five feet tall and tiny in every dimension.  “I do know you,” Kayla said.  “That’s why I’m worried.”

“What have you got to be worried about?” Trixie asked.

“What you’re doing right now,” Kayla said.  “You’re still working, hyper-focused on your insect hormone project with that tunnel vision you get.”

“They’re not hormones.  They’re pheromones,” Trixie said.

“I don’t care what kind of moans they are,” Kayla said.,  “Trixie, it’s quitting time, and the start of the weekend, and there’s nothing about this work you can’t set aside to get a night off.   How many times have I had to pry you out of here, just for some time off or a night out?”

Trixie chuckled.  “Too many to count,” she said.

Kayla got down in Trixie’s face.  “Promise me you’ll give yourself some space to actually live, and not just be a lab mole among the lab rats,” she said.

Trixie laughed.  “I promise,” she said.  “I’ll miss you, Kay.”

“I’ll miss you, Trixie.  Take care, and stay in touch, OK?”

“You got it,” Trixie said, grinning.  “Bye.”

“Goodbye,” Kayla said.  As she left the office, she looked back.  “Keep your promise,” she said.

“I will,” Trixie said.  As soon as Kayla went out the door, she set to work on the next phase of her pheromone project.  It was going to be a long night.

Kayla’s move was relatively uneventful.  Her new home was spacious and comfortable, and she had so little stuff that unpacking went well.

In her new job, Kayla was responsible for monitoring the output of and projects in different labs.  For the first few weeks, things went well that way.  She also began to flirt with a tall, handsome man there, and he was flirting back.  Charles was his name, and he was handsome and athletic and loved to run almost as much as she did.  They started getting together for morning runs.

After she’d been in California about three months, Kayla noticed a reference to Trixie’s work in the online documents she reviewed.  Her former lab mate had made repeated requests for permission to begin a testing program on her pheromone therapy, and was getting repeatedly turned down.  From the way things read, the lab supervisor was beginning to get tired of having the conversation over and over.

Kayla was seeing Charles over and over.  Soon running together in the morning became easier, because they were spending nights together, too.  It wasn’t long before Charles moved in with Kayla.  She was glad now she hadn’t had too much stuff for the move; his possessions took up a fair amount of space.  Burt the nights were worth it.

It was about a month after Charles moved in that she started getting odd reports in the documents from her old home base in the Cincinnati office.  The tone of the supervisor’s  reports had changed.  It appeared he was increasingly deferring to Trixie on many matters.  That made no sense to Kayla.  Dr. Blake had never been close to Trixie, and had only tolerated her work because the company thought there might be some profit in it, somehow.  Why would he suddenly be giving Trixie increasing authority?

Kayla began digging into Trixie’s reports.  She discovered less and less data was being sent from Trixie.

Charles came into Kayla’s office at the end of the work day.  “You ready to go?” he asked.

Kayla simply looked up at him, her brow furrowed and a frown on her face.

“What’s wrong?” asked Charles, pulling up a chair.

“These reports from Cincinnati,” she said.

“Your old stomping grounds?” Charles asked.

Kayla nodded.  “Something’s wrong there.  Really wrong.  Trixie Minton, my old lab mate, is sending less and less detailed reports on the insect pheromone work she’s been obsessed with for years.  That’s not like her.  And Blake is giving her more and more control of the lab there.  That’s definitely not like him.  He’d never willingly give up authority, and if he did, it wouldn’t be to Trixie.  They got along like oil and fire.”

Charles placed a hand on Kayla’s.  “Are you sure?” he said.  “I mean, it’s been six months since you left.  Maybe things have changed between them.  And, if Trixie’s gotten additional authority, maybe that’s why her reports aren’t as detailed.  She just may not have the time.”

Kayla frowned skeptically.  “I suppose that’s possible, just barely,” she said.  “But I’m going to be keeping an eye on these reports.”

Two weeks later, Kayla knocked on the door of Charles’ office.  “Honey, I’m going to have to go to Cincinnati.  Something is really wrong there, and it’s my job to try to sort it out.”

“What’s up?” Charles asked.

“Look at this report,” she said.  “It’s for the entire office, but it’s signed by Trixie -- supposedly.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Look at the signature,” Kayla said.  “It’s huge, and kind of a scrawl.  Trixie always had some of the smallest handwriting, and it was always very neat.  I always thought her handwriting was like her: small and tightly wound.  Either someone else is signing documents in her name that should be signed by Dr. Blake, or something really wrong is going on there.”

“So you think something is rotten in the state of Ohio,” Charles said.

Kayla chuckled, getting his reference to Hamlet.  “Yeah, and it’s my job to find out what,” she said.  “I’m not just a desk-jockey, you know.”

Charles stood up and hugged his girlfriend.  “When do you have to leave?” he asked.

“My flight leaves at 6:15 tonight,” she said.  “I’m afraid I’ll be gone by the time you get home.”

Charles squeezed her.  “I’ll miss you,” he said.

“I’ll miss you, too,” Kayla said.  “See you when I get back.”

“See you then,” Charles said.

It was the last time he ever saw her.

The flight to Cincinnati was uneventful.  Kayla shivered when she got off the plane.  It was cold for April, even in Cincinnati, and, coming from temperate California, she’d been spoiled on dealing with weather.

Kayla got in early enough that she took a cab directly to the lab.  She was surprised to find that there was no security in any of the areas where she would have expected it.  In fact, there seemed to be no activity at all.

Kayla went to Dr. Blake’s office.  It was empty.

She went to the lab where Trixie’s work was supposedly being done, the one they had shared.  It, too, was empty.

Then Trixie began to feel it; a creeping sens of dread, a feeling that she should run away.  Why she felt it, she didn’t know, but she felt it.  And it seemed to be getting stronger.

Kayla looked nervously into the hallway.  She saw the first person she’d seen since entering the lab.  It was a young man in a lab tech’s coat, one she didn’t know.  He was walking -- no marching down the hall.  His face was expressionless.

What was even odder was that the man was carrying a huge platter loaded to nearly overflowing with meat; an entire turkey, a small ham, a stack of steaks and chops -- pork and lamb -- and even hot dogs stuffed into the gaps.

“Hey!” said Kayla.  “Hey, you!”  But the man continued without acknowledging her.

Kayla entered the hallway.  Her first thought was to run ahead of the man, since he wasn’t moving that fast, and get his attention, by force if necessary.  But, as soon as she was back in the hallway, the dread hit her in a wave.  She was terrified, and had no idea why.

Still, Kayla needed to know what was going on.  Fighting her instinct to flee, she made her way down the hall, managing to keep the man in sight, although his lead was lengthening as her terror increased.

Kayla soon realized he was heading to the amphitheater, a space used for major science presentations and the largest room in the building.  Hesitantly, battling her every instinct, she made her way to the door and pushed it open.

What Kayla saw prompted her to gasp.  There was an enormous mound of flesh, clearly alive and apparently female, eating all the food from the massive tray in about four bites as it poured the food into its huge maw of a mouth.  The giantess was between 25 and 30 feet tall, and was immensely fat.  If she had been a normal-sized woman, she would have weighed nearly 400 pounds, but this woman clearly weighed tons.

Then, as the woman swallowed, Kayla gasped again.  The moment the food was in her gullet, the giantess swelled even larger. She was now obviously more than 30 feet tall, and had become even fatter as her hips widened and her breast became more massive.

The giantess looked down at the man in the lab tech’s coat.  “Wait,” she said.  Then she turned and looked Kayla in the eyes.

Kayla couldn’t help it.  She screamed in terror.  Why she was terrified, she didn’t know, but she was.

“Kayla!” said the giantess.  “Good to see you again, lab mate.”

Through the overwhelming fear, what the giantess said reached Kayla’s mind.  She looked nothing like the woman Kayla remembered, sounded nothing like her, and yet …

“It’s OK if you don’t recognize me,” the giantess said.  “I have changed, after all.”

“Tr - Trixie?” Kayla said.

“That’s what I used to go by,” the giantess said.  “It’s Beatrix now.  Queen Beatrix, to be precise.”

“Qu-  Queen Beatrix?”

“You see, Kayla -- hold on, growth surge coming on,” Beatrix said.  She swelled to 36 feet tall; her butt now filled the stage-area of the amphitheater.

Kayla screamed again.  She wanted to get out of there as fast as he could, but was transfixed by what she was seeing.

“You see,” Beatrix continued, “De. Blake wouldn’t allow me to test my pheromone project, so I tested it on myself.  It worked better than I hoped.  My pheromones became so strong that I began to be able to control men, and drive women away.  It’s what you’re experiencing now; the “fight or flight” response.  That’s why you’re so afraid.  And you should be.”

Kayla was beginning to cry, the fear was so bad.  But she was also so terrified she couldn’t move.

“There was also an interesting side effect,” Beatrix said.  “I started growing; and the more I eat, the bigger I get.  And the bigger I get, the stronger my pheromones become.  Protein triggers disproportionate growth.  A little protein and I grow a lot.  A lot of protein and I become …”

She stopped as another wave of growth washed over her.  She was now six feet taller.  She was nearing the roof until the stage collapsed under her increasing weight.

Then Beatrix got even bigger, adding another 10 feet to her height.  “Hard impacts make me grow, too,” the giantess said.  “My body absorbs energy and converts it to mass.”

Then the floor of the room collapsed and Beatrix fell through into the basement.  Then her head arose.  She was getting thinner as she grew from the impacts. She was again able to stand, and now stood nearly as tall with her feet in the basement as she had been in the amphitheater when Kayla first saw her there.

“I need more protein,” Beatrix said.  She grabbed the man in the lab coat and moved him up to her mouth.  A look of ecstasy came across the slave’s face as she popped him in her mouth, chewed and swallowed.

Immediately, Beatrix grew even larger, and the protein in the man’s body caused her breasts to swell and bobble.

Beatrix looked around.  “I’ll be too big for this building in minutes!”  she said.  “You’re just in time, Kayla.  The growth has really taken off today.”

All reason vanished from Kayla’s mind.  This scream was blood-curdling.  She pivoted to run, and was immediately snagged by three large men behind her.  She recognized one as Dr. Blake.

“I don’t even need to tell them what I want them to do now,” Beatrix said.  “My pheromones to that for me.  I don’t know if you can really hear me through the fear, Kayla, but, in case you can, I’ll tell you this.  I need more protein, and you … you just got added to the menu.”

Kayla’s lip quivered.  “You’re … You’re addicted,” she said.  “You’re addicted to growth, addicted to power.”

Beatrix smiled.  “Guilty as charged,” she said.

“You’ve got to fight it,” Kayla sobbed.  “Please, please!”

Beatrix was still smiling as he picked up her former lab mate.  “Not a chance,” she said.  Then she popped Kayla in her mouth, chewed and swallowed.

With no feeling, no remorse, Beatirx followed the action by reaching over to the men and grabbed them one at a time.  Dr. Blake was the last to go down the hatch.

Adding more than a third of a ton of protein-rich food made Beatrix swell even more.  The mounds of fat flowing out on her began to squeeze the walls, even as her head popped through the building’s roof.  She flexed her pecs underneath breasts that were now several stories across and deep, and the lab’s wall gave way.

She looked down and picked through the rubble, fishing out the bodies of the tiny men who were in the lab, then popping them into her mouth.  As she continued to grow, men from the surrounding buildings, the surrounding blocks, approached, all prepared to do her will.

Beatrix smiled.  She was Queen Beatrix, indeed, and her empire was growing as fast as she was.

By the time she stopped growing, Beatrix now was better than 250 feet tall and nearly as big around at the hips and belly as she was tall.  She was too fat for her legs to lift her from the rubble, so she rolled, rather than walked, into the street, where a series of vehicles, including two semis and a city bus, immediately ran into her.  That had the effect she desired.  She stretched longer, but became leaner in the process.

Now more than 350 feet tall, she started scooping up people from the street for her meal, starting with the bus.  She decided the bus was small enough that she could simply pop it in her mouth and chew it up.  She did so, removing the metal frame, which was no more than a bit of foil to her, when she was done.  The tires she swallowed with the seats and people.

Adding the protein from 40 people, and with protein’s disproportionate impact on her growth increasing fast,  Beatrix shot up to nearly 600 feet tall, and was back to being immense in all dimensions.  She loved the feel of the wobble of her fat at the belly and breasts, of her butt spanning across the entire street and knocking over buildings. She had managed to tap into ancient genetic wisps still in the human system to find the path of the queen insect’s pheromones, and she liked the play on words of calling herself “Queen Beatrix.”  After all, Beatrix was her real name.

Beatrix simply picked up a toppled building and punched her way in, popping whole floors worth of people into her mouth.  In a matter of minutes, she had become a human mountain, more than  1,200 feet tall, and her widening hips were nearly half again as big around as she was tall.

Then Beatrix felt a small itch on her legs and butt.  She was sitting now, and realized that it was men -- hundreds, if not thousands of men -- who were climbing all over her body.  She smiled as she realized they were trying to get to her mouth, to feed her instiable desire for growth.  The pheromones had completely enslaved every male within several miles now, and were leaving all the women as huddling masses of terror or fleeing in blind panic.

To aid the men in their quest, Beatrix lied down, then opened her mouth.  In a matter of seconds, she felt the bug-men climbing up her hair, face and neck.  It took more time than she wanted for them to reach her mouth, but she didn’t mind too much.  She was no longer having to exert any effort.  She was truly their queen.

Then, after awhile, the men started reaching her mouth.  They simply climbed or walked in, depending on their angle.  Any who got stuck on her teeth she flicked further into her mouth with her tongue.   Then the growing started again.

As Beatrix lied there, the media started reporting that there was some sort of disturbance in Cincinnati, but no one could determine what it was.  All contact with the city center had been lost, and the impact area seemed to be widening rapidly.

As the communications blackout spread, so did the nationwide panic.  People entering the area to investigate were immediately lost into the same bizarre phenomenon.

Meanwhile, radar maps were showing a large and rapidly increasing area of a solid echo over the Cincinnati area.  It, too, was speading into the surrounding area.  What was happening in southwest Ohio?

The commander at the U.S. Air Force’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton decided to send in a drone plane with a remote camera in an effort to find out what was going on.  By now, the blackout had gone on for hours, and was widening both into Kentucky and Indiana, and spreading northward toward Dayton itself.

What they saw from the drone astonished and terrified them.  It was what appeared to be a colossal human woman, now spreading across the tri-state area near where Cincinnati used to be -- the entire city was now completely covered by the woman’s 20-mile-wide right butt cheek.  She was about 35 miles tall, with breasts that jutted at least that into the air and a belly that extended even further up. The wind moved her breasts and belly in an oddly seductive way.  More than that, she was growing at an impossible rate.

Radio operators conveyed the news that the blackout area was now only minutes from the base itself.  Commanders tried to scramble all aircraft, but none got off the ground in time.  However, the radio operators did manage to get both radio and Internet communications to the Pentagon before Wright-Patt entered the blackout area and they, too, were enslaved.

On receiving the messages, Pentagon officials nearly panicked.  The whole thing would have seemed like a joke if it weren’t for the situation reported in the media from Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, and now hearing Illinois.  They notified the president.

Meanwhile, Beatrix simply was basking.  Her breasts were each now taller than the highest mountain, and her belly jutted far above them.  Her massive, nearly immeasurable weight was causing her body to sink into areas where the soil was soft.  She couldn’t even feel the tiny men climbing into her mouth.  She didn’t know that some of those men were carrying terrified women into her mouth with them.  Farmers were herding cattle, pigs and sheep toward her maw.  Her growth made it hard to get the large animals there, but the male animals were overcome by her pheromones and actually charged to their deaths, diving into her miles-wide mouth.

More drones were sent in by the Pentagon, and they confirmed that the woman, now bigger than most New England states, was still growing, and the effects surrounding her were widening as well.  The President felt there was no choice.  For the sake of what was left of the country, a tactical nuclear strike was called for.  He ordered the missiles fired at the woman immediately.

By now, Beatrix was so big she couldn’t even hear the missiles approaching.  Basking with her eyes closed, she was unaware of the missiles arrival until they hit her.  She looked and saw the mushroom clouds where two dozen missiles hit her body, then felt5 the surge from the impact as he body both absorbed the kinetic energy and converted the nuclear energy in to kinetic energy for her to absorb.

Beatrix felt an unimaginable upward surge in height.  She was growing so fast it hurt.  Now hundreds of miles tall and swelling into the thousands of miles, she glared at Washington, which she could just make out.  “You’re … going to regret that,” she said.

Then Beatrix dropped to her knees.  It was becoming harder to think.  With her last coherent thought, she realized the nuclear weapons had interacted with the pheromone therapy and all the safeguards she had built in to protect herself from harm.  She was becoming even more of the queen of a colony of what were, to her, microscopic human insects.  And the queen is nothing but a machine that eats and makes more insects.

Even on her knees, Beatrix’s head was above any breathable atmosphere, but that didn’t matter to her anymore.  Conscious thought was gone.  Managing to flip around, she fell over and continued growing , and growing, and growing.

Eventually, Beatrix stopped growing.  Her belly, now fat but not proportionately huge, as in what had been the Midwest of the United States.  Her feet were in extreme northeast Canada, and her head lay well into southern Mexico.  She was continental, and her growth in height had at last played itself out.

Other governments around the world tried to figure out what had happened in the United States, Canada and Mexico.  Only Alaska and Hawaii remained of the U.S, along with some Canadian lands near the Alaskan border.  Everywhere else was blacked out, and all their ambassadors, to the United Nations and elsewhere on the continent, appeared to simply be gone.

It took some of the other countries some more lost lives before they found out what had happened in the U.S. through satellite technology.  Realizing what a nuclear strike had done to Beatrix before, no one dared launch another.  North America, except for Alaska, became, top the rest of the world, a dead zone.

Meanwhile, men were growing food and feeding that food and females to Beatrix. She grew  fatter over the centuries, but never any taller, and her pheromone influence field had stopped spreading.  Other men were climbing into her vagina, making their way to the constant flow of egg cells she produced.  Those men’s entire bodied were used as sperm cells, impregnating eggs that split hundreds of times to produce more offspring to function as food, food collectors or living sperm.  The pheromones caused the men to mature in a matter of weeks, making them fit for the continental woman’s needs.

At her size and with her metabolism, Beatrix would live for untold millennia, with almost all of North America as her slaves.  The reign of Queen Beatrix would be nearly never-ending, and she would be oblivious to it all.  She had gotten her wish, and would be forevermore unaware of it, or anything else.