GOMORRAH

I cringed inwardly, not knowing what they were going to do to me
-- but knowing right off that it wasn't going to be pleasant.
Lisa came over to the chair and began pulling on the ends of the
wires attached to me and the chair, and I saw in the mirror that
she was connecting them to a panel on the floor next to the
chair. Like an operator's old-time plugs, she simply pushed the
ends of the wires into the appropriate holes in the panel and
stood back, checking things over one more time.

"I think she's ready, Doctor."

"Good, then let's proceed."

I hadn't been allowed to eat anything substantial since I'd made
the mistake of coming here. My stomach didn't make funny sounds
anymore. It ROARED major disapproval of the way it was being
treated. On top of the severe ache of hunger, once again, I felt
the fingers of fear gripping my insides.

"What are you going to do?" I said with as much backbone as I
could muster.

"We're going to help teach you that food isn't as pleasant or
desirable a thing as you've always thought, Janine. We have you
wired once more into a console that can almost read your mind.
It will determine your synaptic responses to the various foods
that nurse Lisa and I will indulge in before you -- and each time
your body reacts with a desire for the foods, you'll be given
some negative reinforcement to break those nasty old habits of
yours. Habits like having your mouth water at the mention of
bacon and fried eggs, for instance."

The stabbing pain of electricity felt like it was about to burn
the skin of her legs, quickly washing away thoughts of the food
on the table, or the food that the Doctor had merely mentioned.
`Oh God,' I thought. `Now what? I only have to >think< of food
and I get zapped?!' Immediately, after my experiences with this
thought provoked torture, I tried desperately to clear my mind.
But unlike the time I'd spent on the table before, and in the
sensory tank... there was no reward for being good this time.
Just pain if I... "Ahhhh!" Once again, the thought, fleeting
though it was, of sizzling bacon, and the smell of the bacon on
the table was enough to bring the pain searing into my flesh.
"Please, Doctor, I've lost three pounds in one day. Three
Pounds!!! Surely you must know that I will continue to try!
Please don't do this to me anymore. Please."

But the good Doctor never once showed any reaction to my pleas.
He merely turned back toward that damn table, with all of its
brightly colored, aromatic, hot, cold, sweet, salty,
you-name-it-flavored foods and sat to his breakfast.

The short lull from the pain didn't last long. The moment Dr.
Newlin sat at table, the pain began in earnest. No matter what I
did, I WAS hungry, and the food was irresistible in its
proximity, quantity and quality. Each time my body dared to
respond in any way to the presence or need for the food, the pain
would shoot through me.

Over and over again, the pain touched my breasts, my tummy, my
legs, and sex. Over and over again, the pain mounted and grew to
unbearable proportions, and my mind would reel and unfocus and my
body would stop reacting to the food and the pain would diminish.
Over and over again, I repeated this autonomic cycle until...

BEN GALAHAD

Dr. Newlin placed a new item of food, if it could be called that,
in a dog dish on the floor. It was a green and grey pile of
mush.

"Your husband has provided us with all your likes and dislikes in
food. It seems that the healthiest foods, you hate. Well,
that's going to change. After all, we don't want you to starve
to death..."

In spite of her great hunger, Janine was disgusted by this
substance, which smelled like elephant dung mixed with overcooked
broccoli and spinach.

"Get on your hands and knees," said Dr. Newlin. Much to her
shock, Janine was on the floor on her hands and knees before she
even thought about it. She had become that submissive in only a
day? "Now, eat this food like the dog you are, and you will
ENJOY it. It is a mixture of cooked buckwheat, broccoli, and
turnips. Of course, there is absolutely no seasoning," said Dr.
Newlin.

Janine averted her eyes in disgust, and she was filled with pain.
She tried to force herself to eat the food, and the pain stopped.
She stopped at the last second, and the pain started again. She
went down and started eating it. And she discovered that the
relief from the pain was making her actually enjoy the food. She
was beginning to LOVE eating this disgusting junk like a dog.
`No,' she thought; and the pain shot right through her again.
She shuddered at the way the very core of her personality was
being changed by the treatment. And there was nothing to do
about it. She looked at Nurse Lisa. She had begun to be
subjected to the same treatment; surely she would find some
sympathy there. But, when she looked, she realized it was NOT
Nurse Lisa. It was a different nurse. The Nurse Lisa that SHE
had met was over there, on the other side of the room. `Yes,
there she is, and oh... my... god... Is THAT going to happen to
me?' Janine wondered in horror...

JANINE RUSH

It was simply not possible to take in all that she saw, all the
she felt, and all that she feared without being changed in a most
basic way. She fell quickly to forcing the muck down her throat,
slurping, licking and slopping it all over her face in the
process. Better this, she thought, than to allow them to do THAT
to her. She knew, immediately, that there was nothing else she
wouldn't do to avoid what they were doing to Nurse Lisa.

Could any woman survive that -- and still maintain her sanity?
So she opened her mouth wide, dug into the vegetable drek in her
doggie bowl -- and quickly polished off the >food< they'd given
her. No more pain from the behavior mod devices. No more
hesitation. She knew -- really KNEW -- that she would now obey
all that they asked of her.

If only to avoid...

She wondered at just what Nurse Lisa had done to deserve such
punishment. It couldn't have just been... that. Could it? "Ok,
bitch, get up!" ordered Newlin; and Janine sprang to her feet as
though springs had been attached to her feet. Saying nothing,
she determined to obey every command, or even wish or desire
these people made of her.

Any...

But when Dr. Newlin began pushing her in the direction of Nurse
Lisa -- the instant fear and panic that set in made her knees go
limp and Janine crumpled to the floor -- blubbering.

"Please, doctor, please." A whimper, a whine. Not the kind of
thing that Janine was used to doing. Not the attitude that she
had possessed only hours ago. Pleading, begging, even though no
direct threat had been made.

Pleading, begging -- only because of what she could plainly see,
and hear.

Pleading and begging -- because deep inside of her, she was
imagining them doing that to HER...

"Now watch, you stupid bitch, what we do to those who don't obey
the commands we give." And with that, he slaps Janine hard
across the face, making her twist and turn as she falls to the
floor only feet away from Lisa's heaving body.

Unable to turn away, yet unable to watch, Janine begins to
quietly sob to herself as Dr. Newlin, ignoring her for the
moment, goes to Lisa's side and chats with the women who are
turning Lisa into a mindless, savage animal by simply...