Circumstances Scene 15

“Well, for starters we’re going to find out just what the hell is going on,” Jack growled and headed out of his room at a determined walk. Chastity was right behind him, and together they looked mighty ludicrous, as if they were overgrown children, complete with telltale diaper bulges and crinkles. Jean and Mary were coming around the corner from the hallway where the dining and entertainment rooms were, their immediately cheerful expressions at seeing their conscious charges awake and out of bed gone the instant they took stock of the not quite welcoming expression on Chastity’s face and the simmering thundercloud that was Jack.
“What’s wrong?” Jean asked, instantly concerned.
“We,” Jack began, in a grating tone, “Woke up wet.”
Both nurses’ expressions became quizzical, but only a few seconds later Jean’s turned to one of wide-eyed shock, and her hand went to her mouth. “Oh dear God,” she breathed. Jack and Chastity were instantly curious as to what Jean was so shocked about, but Mary beat them to it.
“What?” she prompted her colleague.
“The food,” Jean said. “It was meant for the volunteers who knew what they were getting into.”
Now Mary got it. “Oh no,” she whispered as she to covered her mouth. As if acting with unconscious simultaneity, both women turned to look at the babified teenagers, teenagers whose expressions had gone from different stages of anger to very nervous.
“What?” Chastity prompted. “What about the food?”
Jean recovered herself. “It was laced with a special formula designed to cause temporary incontinence.”
Chastity looked confused, and so did Jack. “You mean… we’ve been drugged?” he asked.
“Essentially, yes,” Jean admitted, suddenly looking very weary. “Basically, this formula was developed to cause whoever took it to… well, for lack of better words, to need diapers for a certain period of time.”
“How much time?” Chastity asked meekly, suddenly looking very worried. Jack looked about as worried as she did.
“Well, that depends on how much is taken,” Jean continued. “In your cases, it could be as little as a couple of days… or perhaps as long as a couple of weeks.”
Chastity blanched. “You mean I could be stuck wearing diapers for two weeks?!”
Jean only nodded. “I’m so sorry, kids; we forgot all about it after we found out you two weren’t total volunteers.”
“You’re sorry,” Jack almost spat. “And we have to pay for it.” He looked around angrily, as if the walls would give him answers. “How does this formula work?”
Jean and Mary exchanged a look, but Jean started to explain. “Well, basically it acts as a muscle inhibitor. After it gets into your system, specific enzymes target specific muscles and the body, in the course of taking nutrients all around the whole, delivers these enzymes, and when they enter the target muscle tissue… they effectively stop them from working properly for a short period of time. If this formula was taken over an extended period of time, the result could be total incontinence, which means that he or she would have to wear diapers, or the equivalent.”
“So we’re going to wake up with wet diapers all week?” Chastity groaned.
Mary winced. “You won’t just be waking up with wet diapers, it’ll happen during the day, too.”
Chastity looked sick and Jack looked about ready to kill someone. Jean did her best to salvage the situation. “Well… all the rest of the food for you two is no longer safe for consumption, as it were. I’ll place a call to research and development; they’ll know what to do. In the meantime, why don’t you two go get cleaned up; there are showers near each of your rooms.” Jean paused. “And, since we can’t serve you breakfast here, really, pick out some regular clothes, and after you’re diapered we’ll go out for breakfast.”
Jack was not to be immediately mollified. “What if we don’t want to be part of this crazy project anymore?” he asked testily.
Jean and Mary exchanged another look. “Well, that certainly is your choice, and since this has been a big mix-up from the start, everyone would understand if you two wanted to go back home. However, I urge you to think about it. We did make a mistake in forgetting what was in the food, but that’s done and we can’t undo it. If you two were to leave, you’d have to deal with this outside of a, shall we say, secure environment.” Jean paused to let that sink in. “Here we are equipped to deal with the effects of the incontinence formula, and after it wears off—which it will—you’ll be good as new.”
Jack thought about it and looked at Chastity, who seemed on the verge of tears. “I don’t like it, but we’ll think about it,” he said.
“That’s all we can ask,” Jean said. She caught Mary’s eye, and the two women withdrew.
Jack sighed. “Come on; let’s go get cleaned up,” he said, and guided Chastity back towards her room. They found the shower rooms easily enough, and Chastity—who had recovered herself by this point—went about starting her shower. Jack went back to the boy’s shower room and was heartily glad to be rid of his pajamas and soaked diaper. The hot shower he took felt very good, and he took an extra long one, but all the while he could only think about the suddenly darkened future that the week now held. He dragged his shower out, mostly because he wanted the privacy and the ability to think without fear of interruption by one of the nurses. However, even his extra long shower hadn’t done anything for his thought processes, and while he physically felt better, he couldn’t shake feelings of nervousness and melancholy over his newfound diaper-dependent state, even if it was temporary.