Chapter 13 - Promotion !?

“175 centimeters! ”, Dr. Vos said when he measured Wendy’s height at the measurement ruler on the wall. Those words startled the 20-year-old red-haired college student who only measured 170 centimeters at the age of 18 and never grew again. 5 months ago, she was still 1.70 meters.

 “Are you sure doctor”, Wendy said. Full well knowing that her suspicions of growth were being confirmed here.

 “Yes, Ms. de Vries, it says 175 centimeters. You have grown a few inches over the last five months.

A silence could be felt in the room.....

She thought back when it all started at least when she started to notice something was wrong. No that wasn’t accurate. She thought back at the moment she couldn’t deny it anymore.

Yesterday, at a volleyball practice in the locker room, Wendy was getting her sports gear on and immediately noticed it felt tighter and could barely fit her feet in her sport shoes. This wasn’t her first time it happened, a few months ago she was in a similar position but ignored it and bought new clothes later on.

 “Hurry up, Wendy, everything is already set and all our teammates are in the sporting hall waiting for us”, Wendy’s best friend Linda said.

Linda was a blond-haired girl who had one large ponytail and measured around 193 cm (6ft 5). They were almost their whole lives similar in length, Wendy being a little taller than her until the age of 15, when Linda made an enormous growth spurt to the tall woman she is now.

All the girls in the volleyball group measured between 192 cm (6 5) and 200 cm (6 8) with the exception of Bertha being the absolute giant of 210 cm (7 feet). Wendy by no means a small girl paled in comparison to the others in size.

What she lacked in size, she made up with jumping power, speed, and stamina. Although not as strong as the tallest among them, she had much more strength than you would expect someone of her physique would have.

Now that she and Linda took their places. Their practice started. After a while, the other players noticed something different about Wendy, but could not put their finger on it. She seemed to be just faster at arriving at places she should be, more than usual. She seemed to block more balls of the opposing team and her smashes seem more frequent and with more power behind it.

As the training went on, she grew more confident and was really wearing down the opposing team when finally,.. “Crack!!”, Wendy’s right shoe busted open at the front and her big toe stuck out the turned fabric.

“Wow, take it easy, save it for a real match”, one of the others said.

“Take a break Wendy”, the captain of the opposing team said somewhat annoyed.

 Wendy went back to the locker room and Linda followed after her.

The other girls just stood there surprised in silence until one of them spoke.

“Did that just happen?”, Bertha said to the other surprised players.

In the showers, Wendy was thinking back to what just happened. She felt good about herself by showing off like that. Usually, she felt small and somewhat inferior when she was among these giants even if she was one of the better players, but now she totally humiliated even the biggest among them and they just looked a bit less tall than usual.
This was completely out of character, Wendy was normally a girl who often with her efforts let others shine, and Linda next to here in the showers noticed that.

Linda: “Unbelievable, where did that come from, you were a beast today, girl. You somehow looked taller and stronger today, did you see the look on the captain’s face, priceless” she joked.

Wendy laughed about that statement and the compliment made her feel more satisfied with her achievement.

But that remark also triggered another feeling that was now driving the positive feelings away, replacing those feelings with uncertainty and a little fear.

Just a few years earlier she’d seen a documentary about people with strange growing disorders and some people who grew around the age of 26 to somewhat deformed giants of around 6 7 feet. That memory now popped up in her head. The thought of growing in that manor felt somewhat disturbing.  She had to quickly make an appointment with the doctor…..

Suddenly she felt a lot of stomach aches and fall on her knees holding her stomach.

 “Oh No, it is happening again.”, Wendy said with pain in her voice.

 “What’s wrong Wendy”, Linda said in a panic as she quickly walked to her friend.

 “They're just some stomach aches, can you get the pills out of my backpack”, Wendy said pretending the pain didn’t hurt as much as it did.

 Linda did quickly fetch her pills and gave them to Wendy. They seemed to help but then Linda heard ripping clothes sounds and saw her friend's sports outfit breaking apart.

 “Linda, get out of here now, it is not safe for you here”, Wendy said.

 “What is happening to you, can I help, do you need more pills….O my gosh, you are…. Expanding”, Linda said.

 Wendy looked at Linda and yelled at her to get out quickly. Linda looked in the pleading eyes of her friend and decided to leave.

“I’m going to get help for you”, Linda said as she hurried to the door.

Wendy’s growth started to accelerate at an enormous pace that Linda could feel some unexplained force coming from behind.

For one second Linda looked back at the direction of her best friend but instead saw a threatening wall of the flesh come towards her and just froze. In a split second, she saw that it was a huge hand, Wendy’s right hand.

 Linda tried to move away but it was too late as the extending arm and growing hand hit her against the wall killing her instantly.

 “O no, Linda please say something! Linda!”, Wendy yelled as she was expanding further.

Wendy tried her best to move her hand away from her friend, but the growth was preventing that and causing the hand to put more pressure on the wall and the lifeless body that was trapped between them.

Wendy could feel her friend’s bones breaking until her body exploded which caused a big red stain on the wall which was visible to Wendy.

 Before she could even grief, the building was starting to collapse around her…

 Wendy woke up from her nightmare in cold sweat. She was in her bed and room.

 “Must have been dreaming again,

What is the time? Wendy said to herself while looking at her digital clock.

"That late already, I have to wash and dress up quickly, don’t want to be late for my appointment with Helga", Wendy said out loud.

She took a quick hot shower and was done in record time. The moment she put on her last piece of clothing was her cue to speed walk with much haste out of her apartment.

“Haven’t eaten since yesterday and now I’m skipping breakfast again.”, Wendy said.

When arriving at the rendezvous point, Wendy decided to discuss parts of her dream with Helga because it felt so vivid and real. Helga listened calmly.

“An interesting dream with a scary ending”, Helga said.

“Luckily the ending wasn’t real off course”, Wendy said relieved.

“The part of my friends being bigger than me since my age of 15 on the other hand is….”

Wendy started thinking how ironic it was to finish that sentence now that was over 21 meters tall.

“You felt like they were leaving you behind, with their growth spurts”, Helga said.

Wendy hesitated to answer, it bothered her that she would have to admit she was jealous of her friends. No, Helga’s description was more correct. They made her feel as if she didn’t mature, that she was a child among gigantic adults. She wasn’t at the same level as her friends anymore, standing still in her development from 15 to the age of 20.

The giant pair started walking and continued their conversation.

Helga took Wendy to a part in the area of the base she hadn’t been before. They were in a standard sporthal-looking-locker-room and Helga started to undress. She told Wendy beforehand that to enter that part, they had to be completely naked to fully enjoy the experience. Helga was surprised that Wendy needn’t a short time to make up her mind and agreed with these terms.

Even so, Wendy undressed herself much slower and wanted to see Helga really going through this first.
As Helga removed each cloth piece, Wendy became a little unsure of herself. Helga had a very beautiful figure.

“What’s wrong Wendy, you don’t have to go through with this, if you don’t want too”, Helga said

“No, I want to do this, the locker-room just reminded me of some uncomfortable moments back home just before volleyball practice”, Wendy said.

“Well no need to hide yourself, there must be a beautiful young woman behind those clothes”, Helga said.

Encouraged by those words, Wendy sped up her undressing speed as she looked at the already naked Helga.
She noticed that Helga nether regions had an enormous bunch of blond hair.

Wendy was relieved to see that, as she hadn’t shaven down there in a few days and she got a small line of hair around it. Now she was less embarrassed to show it and took off her last piece of clothing.

“Good, you look great. Now let's go through this door”, Helga said.

Wendy walked behind Helga and read “Habitat 61 – Mesozoïcum” above the doors.
Helga opened the doors and a bright light appeared before them and they walked in.

“What is this place. Helga. It looks beautiful.”, Wendy said.

“This is our relaxing spa, you helped built this place.”, Helga said.

Wendy turned her face and looked in confusion at Helga.

“Just look around and you will see what I mean”, Helga said.

Wendy looked around. The word spa didn’t do it justice. It looked just like the outside of the Island, with beautiful green plants and trees. The effects of the blue-sky colored ceiling were the same as in Ismaning.

Then she recognized the small animals that were hiding in the bushes. It was the dinosaurs she helped carrying back to the Hive facility placing and categorizing them in a huge storage room.

“You did a very good job with them and you were so excited and surprised it was cute to see”, Helga said.

“I had never seen living dinosaurs before and the strange size difference made it even weirder. That was my first time outside the base as a….21-meter-tall person. That whole trip was a life-changing experience.”

“I know the feeling my dear. Walking in a shrunken world for the first time is like arriving on a different planet. You adapted quite well to life on the Island and the Hive.

“Follow me to those hills, over there we can further in more depth.”, Helga said.

Wendy complied and followed. As the pair came closer to their destination, they saw a big crater filled with water. Bubbles and some smoke came out of it. Helga stepped into the pool and lowered her giant naked body until only her head and shoulders were visible.

“Ahh, that feels relaxing, come on in Wendy. This is really soothing for the body.”, Helga said.

She looked at it and dipped her right foot in and the rest of her body followed.

“The builders did excellent work, I will have to give a special thank you to those people for their exceptional craftsmanship.”, Helga said.

“It feels really good. So relaxing.”, Wendy said.

Then the mood got quite for a few minutes as they both relaxed enjoyed the warm bath.

After that, Helga started the conversation again.
“You probably have a lot of questions, but before that let me tell you that I, the council and the leaders of Genetics Tech are very happy with your progress and decided that you should be trusted with more responsibilities, information, and access through certain areas in this base.”, Helga said.

“That is so cool, looking forward to it. I want to learn so much more about this Island and amazing facility”, Wendy said.

“Good to hear that. Your interactions with the animals, small people and the rest of the staff are very good so far. Within a few days, you will get more challenging and interesting tasks to do. In the coming months you will get a deeper understanding of what we are doing here and some of our main goals”, Helga said.

Wendy nodded satisfyingly. This whole internship was already an amazing adventure from the moment she set foot on the Island. Helga was just like Gene Wilder leading Wendy through an amazing tour of a magical factory.

She already witnessed many amazing unbelievable unforgettable things, but the way Helga said those words sounded more like, “You haven’t seen nothing yet”.

After some small talk and relaxation, they got out of the pool and got dressed again. Helga took Wendy to another area she hadn’t been to before.
“By the way, here is your new keycard. It will grant you access to many more places within this facility. Which areas exactly I will show you later.
The place we are now is one of those areas you will now have access to.” Helga said.

Wendy looked at the signs next to the door. “Habitat 16”.

“Before we enter, I will explain what we are doing here. There is an interesting little side project for you.