Alice Dillon wheezed along the trail, amazed at how far a mile and a half can be when forced to run it. The distance seemed like nothing in her car, and she was even able to puff out three miles on the treadmill in her gym, but trail running was a new, and unpleasant, experience for her. Still, she was determined to see it through. Losing twenty pounds was the goal she had set for herself three weeks ago, when it seemed like all the world was against her. Her boyfriend had left her, she had her hours reduced to half-time at her clerical job, and her last remaining friend, the orange tabby Count McSparkles, had died from a liver infection. Alice considered taking up drinking in response to that series of misfortunes, but instead she decided she would take control of her health.
It was going well so far. She dropped two pounds in the first three weeks. Not quite as much as she had hoped, but at least it was a step in the right direction. Her exercise program was a tad too ambitious, though, as this trail run was painfully demonstrating to her. Her legs felt like they were on fire, and each breath was a labored wheeze. She moved slowly, hoping to catch her breath at a relaxed pace, but the hills on the wooded trail prevented her from doing so. When she tripped on a stone and bruised her shin, she decided to call it quits for the day. Drenched with sweat, she found a small stream at the base of a gully where she could cool off for a few minutes before limping the remainder of the trail back to her car.
Alice grunted as she removed her running shes and socks. The cool stream water felt good on her sore feet, but her breath was still coming in dry rasps. She briefly considered drinking the water directly from the stream, but then fears of parasites held her back. She was still a half a mile from the cooler in the back seat of her Civic, and she hadn't seen another runner in over twenty minutes, so she had little hope of mooching a sip off someone else's water bottle. Alice sighed. She would have to tough the dehydration out and walk the rest of the way back. She dried off her feet and was pulling her socks back on when she saw the answer to her prayers. There, in a wooden bridge under the trail, was a six pack of energy drinks, cooling off in the stream water.
Ordinarily, Alice would never dream of stealing someone else's property, but her ethics proved flexible following the most miserable workout of her life. Surely, she reasoned, this was an emergency, and the person who left these drinks in the stream surely could stand the loss of one. Besides, what if they had been placed there and forgotten? Alice was doing a public service, by removing littler from the park. Her conscience thus assuaged, Alice pulled one of the bottles out of its holder and drank the sweet orange liquid down. That was when she started to change.
++++++++++++++++++
Eleven hours earlier
Dale Montgomery walked calmly past the security desk, waving to Jake the guard as he left the labs for the evening. Jake looked up from his Angry Birds and unlocked the secure exit for Dale. Dale hoped the guard would not notice his rapid breathing or the beads of sweat on his forehead. But he had worked for the firm for over ten years. He was beyond suspicion, wasn't he? But the abrasive new boss and increasing doubts about the ethics of his research had eroded a decade's worth of loyalty. So, grimly determined, he had decided to unleash a virus on the firm's computers and steal the only prototype of the Delta Serum. He wasn't even sure what he was going to do with the awesome power once he had it in his hands--would he test it on himself? Sell it to the highest bidder? Offer it up as open source information? All he knew was that it represented a danger to the entire world if he left it in the care of Evan Donner, the firm's new CEO.
He did not breath easily again until he saw the gate to the parking lot swing shut behind him. he patted the bottles on the seat next to him, hardly believing that it could be so easy to smuggle the source of such awesome power out of his secure lab. But he worked with fitness nuts, and no-one gave a six-pack of Gatorade a second glance.
Then he saw the cars in his rear-view mirror as he headed down the mountain road. Black sedans, he thought. How cliche. But when he turned down a side street and both followed him, he knew that they had to be following him. Once again, his heart raced. If they found the Serum in his car, he was certain that they would not simply fire him. Even criminal charges might be getting off easy. Donner played for keeps, and the "administrative assistants" he added to the payroll were clearly hired muscle to ensure the ruthless businessman got his way.
Dale had hoped for a few hours before the virus was discovered. Now he had to figure out how to avoid Donner's clutches. There was still a chance that they could find no wrong-doing on his part. All he had to do was ditch the Serum. But the cars were just a quarter-mile behind him. They would see if he threw the bottles out of the car, or if he tried to make a break for it.
That's when Dale saw the entrance to a state park. There was a gatehouse where a ranger collected admission fees. Dale realized that if he timed his turn right, he could pull in right before a large RV turned coming the other way. The screening the other vehicle provided might just extend his lead long enough for him to find a hiding place.
He could hear the thugs searching his car as he ran down the hiking trail. He was not a fit man, and he realized that if they came after him, there would be little he could do to get away. Furthermore, on the lightly traveled trail, he realized that he might fall victim to an accident that they might arrange. He stashed the bottles under a footbridge, and continued up the trail. Hopefully, he could convince them that he was going on a perfectly ordinary walk to Lookout Point to watch the sunset.
Dale's body was found at far below the scenic overlook three days later. It did not make the news.
__________________________________________
The Present
Alice found herself flat on her back, looking up at the sky. She did not remember falling, and for a second she wondered if the sports drink she had downed had somehow been tainted. Then she realized that she did not feel nauseous, and counted herself lucky that she was apparently uninjured from her fall. In fact, she felt far better than she had moments before, as if she had somehow been completely replenished of the energy she had lost during her run. No...it was better than that. She felt more full of life than she ever had felt before. The bruise she had obtained earlier was gone. Her vision seemed sharper and the world around her seemed more intense and full of color. She could hear the buzzing of every single insect, and she could hear the wings of a sparrow beating over a hundred yards away. Alice got to her feet expecting to feel weak and dizzy, but she felt like she could take on an army. It was only then that she got a good look at herself.
Her formerly baggy sweats had grown tight. Her pants barely came to her knees and stretched tight over powerful calf and thigh muscles. Her college sweatshirt barely contained a new set of breasts that stood out proudly and firmly from her chest. Alice had always said that she had never minded her modest A cups, but now that she was apparently stacked, she nearly tore off her shirt out of a desire to inspect her new assets. Her sports bra strained valiantly to contain her new breasts, but even through the sweatshirt, her new curves made themselves known. Had the drink done this to her?
Because of her immense bosom, Alice's sweatshirt now exposed her midriff, and with delight Alice ran her fingers over her rippling abs. "A workout in a bottle," she mused aloud, her voice sounding slightly unfamiliar to her. She glanced down at the ground and realized that she was now taller than before, much taller. Judging by how much smaller her clothes were, she had to be at least seven feet tall. Alice didn't know whether to be amazed or terrified by this sudden transformation. She decided that she couldn't process everything here, so she decided to take advantage of her new energy and run back to her car.
The trip took no more than a few seconds. Alice was not even winded, but the cloud of dust she had raised on the trail stood witness to the speed at which she had covered the half-mile back to the car. She stood perfectly still for a few minutes, only half-believing what she had just done. Then, she realized that she had left the other five bottles of drink behind her on the trail. It was time for a test, she decided, and she began the loop again.
This time, Alice covered the mile to where she had left the bottles in about a second. She let out a whoop of joy. She was now gorgeous, tall, and had just shattered the world record in the mile. Life looked much better for her than it had this morning.
