Joe sighed as he looked around the "hobby room" of the psych ward he found himself trapped since the Great Shift two weeks prior. Women sitting around, many of them former men like him, many also drugged to keep them compliant, hoping and praying for release. Few of them were actually patients there before, but swapped into the bodies of the women within. Few had any idea of the scope or scale of the Great Shift, just a few murmurs by the staff to indicate that it had happened around the world.
Unfortunately, while the government worked to make sure people swapped into prison inmates and psych ward patients were being identified and released, the warden here was a real piece of work. He didn't want to admit that any of his patients didn't belong and was trying to play it off as a massive delusion, despite members of the staff showing up in new bodies. Those who resisted were drugged or, worse, taken away and tortured into compliance. Joe was keeping his mouth shut and playing along, hoping that reason would eventually prevail while he tried his best to adjust to being a woman.
Suddenly, the fire alarm sounded and sprinklers started going off. The staff members guided the "patients" (whose white gowns, now wet, did little to hide their feminine bodies beneath) into the hall. As one orderly, a young man, escorted Joe toward his room, Charlie suddenly jumped out of a side hall and smacked the orderly over the head with a broken-off broomhandle. He continued hitting the orderly in the head until he stopped moving, then grabbed his keys and baton. "Come on! Let's get the fuck out of here!" Charlie shouted, grabbing a shocked Joe by the arm and pulling him along.
Charlie wasn't content with waiting and hoping like Joe. He had a wife, he had young children. He needed to know what happened to the during the Great Shift and get back to them to help. He tried to start a riot, made multiple escape attempts, assaulted several members of the staff...but couldn't get away. He spent the last week strapped to his bed, drugged hourly to keep him quiet. Joe had no idea how he escaped, but here he was, in his new petite female body leading him into the staff locker room which he unlocked using the orderly's keys.
"Find an open one and grab some clothes! We need to blend in!" Charlie shouted, doing exactly that once he found an open locker. Without hesitation, he stripped out of the patient gown and began putting on some nurse's scrubs he found within. "Hurry! I set a fire over in the physical therapy room, but it won't keep them busy for long!" Joe finally nodded and found an open locker of his own...one containing a fairly skimpy woman's dress that was a little too small for his new body. "It'll have to do! Go! Put it on!" Charlie commanded as he walked past to pull a fire extinguisher from the wall. Joe put on the dress...no bra or shoes...but at least it was less obvious that he was a patient.
The two rushed back into the hall, careful to avoid patrolling security and staff, glad to see that several other "patients" were using the opportunity to try to escape as well. Near a back shipping entrance, Charlie silently signaled for Joe to hang back and wait. He ran ahead where one guard was waiting by the door. Charlie hit him in the face with a blast from the fire extinguisher, disorienting him, then slamming the heavy metal cylinder over his head repeatedly. "Go! Go now!" he shouted, using the orderly's keys to unlock the door. Joe rushed through it but several other guards came running and one tackled Charlie. "Go! Run!" Charlie shouted, kicking and thrashing, getting free of one guard with a bite then using his broken broom handle to attack the others. Joe looked back briefly only to see Charlie surrounded. He thought about going back... "RUN! TELL MY FAMILY!" Charlie shrieked, continuing to swing at the guards but was finally taken down.
The fence surrounding the property had several gaps, allowing Joe to slip through. He hid behind a tree and looked back as the warden stepped outside to see the guards subduing Charlie with zip ties and a gag.
"Aww, poor dear," the warden commented, getting face to face with a helpless (but still visibly angry) Charlie. "Bring her to my office. Do not sedate her. I want her to be fully awake and sensate as I...apply my special treatment." Charlie shouted into the gag and tried to thrash free, but the bindings and multiple guards held her tightly.
"What about her accomplice?" the lead guard asked.
"We're very remote. It's five miles of harsh, cold, dark wilderness to the nearest town," the warden asnwered. "We'll call the sheriff there, tell him to be on the lookout. But I bet she comes back on her own, cold and hungry...or she dies out there. Either way, taken care of..."
Joe had to get word out. Barefoot and in a skimpy dress, the cold chill in the air already had him shivering, but he had to try. For every other patient. For Charlie...
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