A corpulent contagion has slowly begun to infect the citizens of a small college town. Our small group of students will need to protect themselves from this blubbery fate, even as one of their own begins to show signs of expanding~

Artwork by  Mazaku
Written by  EmeraldOcelot

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Round ©:  roundfeline

DragonTzin ©:  Dragontzin

Tony ©:  plokishmok3

Chapter 1: Attachment
Tony stood in front of his mirror and sucked in, annoyed by his jeans unwillingness to close. Since the game last week Tony hadn’t been able to go to a single practice and get an
adequate workout. Most of the team seemed to be out, the majority of them claiming to be ill, to the virulent displeasure of their coach.

He would have gone on his own, but after playing 2 v 2 the first day, and horse with the only remaining member who showed up on the second, he wasn’t getting the workout he
normally would have and figured that he would just wait out whatever bug seemed to have taken out his team. Unfortunately Tony’s normal hunger hadn’t subsided, and in fact seemed to have increased in the past few days. Tony knew he couldn’t have gained too much weight, and these pants were always on the tight side, but he didn’t want this becoming a bigger issue than it already was.

“Looks like someone may need to go on a diet soon,” he heard a sensuous voice whisper in his ears before he saw bright pink arms wrap around his waist from behind. He felt
the vulpine press his entire body against his back. Tony could feel the pink fennec fox’s shirt rubbing against his back and catching on his fur.
“Guess you found your clothes after all,” Tony said slyly, “and what happened to I could stay in bed with you all day?”

The fennec smirked, “could and will are two very different things. You’re not yet important enough for me to derail my entire day.”

Tony gave a half laugh, “probably could help with that if you actually told me your name.”

“Shh,” the fennec said while grabbing his bike helmet with one hand, and pushing the index finger of the other up against his lips, “don’t ruin it.” He straightened his skin tight red dyed jeans to remove it’s creases before pulling down his somewhat loose t-shirt, the band name ‘Freezing Teeth’ emblazoned on the front with a sloppy lettering and psychedelic colors. “I will however take you up on that breakfast you so helpfully promised.”

‘Ah crap,’ Tony thought, ‘I completely forgot about that.’ Tony wasn’t exactly the best cook outside of making a sandwich, or a protein shake. He could survive on these basics, but
he wouldn’t consider himself gourmet. A thought buzzed into his head as he heard the saving grace of the blender being run downstairs. Kent was very particular about his diet, and generally the only day he would be messing with the blender was on his cheat day, where he always made a milkshake of some kind. Why
this was a saving grace for Tony was while his cooking skills may be lacking, Kent was generally always trying to make something new, and while not always succeeding he could generally make something palatable for everyone.

“I get the feeling that there might be a kitten in the kitchen who will be able to start the process of whipping you up something amazing,” Tony said wrapping his hand around the
fennec’s waist and leading him towards the door. “You don’t say,” he said, fluffing the now cerulean blue streak he had going down from
the top of his head to his shoulders, further emphasized by the rest of his pink dyed fur.

“Pancakes do sound good.”

Tony smiled, “Indeed they do. Go down and ask him to get it started, I’ll be down in a moment after I finished getting dressed.”“Don’t take too long, or that lil dragon may have eaten them all,” the fennec said teasingly. Tony was surprised that he had even noticed Maz. Before he could even say anything though, the fennec fox had stepped out of his room and into the hall, leaving Tony to work on getting his stubborn pants to close.

After a few more straining pulls and nimble contorting of his fingers, Tony finally managed to get his pants buttoned. He let out a sign and relaxed his muscles, seeing the tiniest
of pooch’s peeking over his waistline. ‘Maybe I’ll stop by the gym after classes today.’ Tony reached into his drawer and pondered which shirt he was going to wear. He’d be
happy to just go out shirtless, but not everyone would find that acceptable, which is why he had Tank tops in every color imaginable. ‘I mean, when you’re this hot you have to share it with the world right?’ Tony spotted a shimmering gold one in the back of his drawer. ‘Yeah,’ he thought, ‘let’s go flashy today!’
Quickly grabbing the tank, he began putting it on while going down the stairs. Despite knowing that he needed to start watching what he was eating he was absolutely starving. His
stomach was screaming at him, demanding to be fed. “It’s almost 1:00 in the afternoon,” came an incredulous voice from the kitchen.

“So… about pancakes,” came a coy tempting voice.

“I’m not going to make you pancakes,” Kent yelled. Tony instinctively avoided the kitchen and hid partially in the living room till he saw an annoyed flash of pink fly out the front door,
slamming it for dramatic effect. With the likelihood of a dramatic encounter gone, Tony stepped out of his hiding spot and into the kitchen where Kent and Maz had finished up making milkshakes. The mixture in the blender was a pale pink with splotches of red throughout it. Strawberry. The shake in Kent’s hand looked like it was the mixture that was just in the blender, but looking over at Maz’s, Tony could see a distinct swirl of chocolate sauce that was coating the glass. ‘Just like the little porker to add more sugar than he’d be able to burn off.’

“I guess I won’t be getting a second date?” Tony said sheepishly.

“I guess that's what happens when you make promises you can’t keep,” Kent said sipping on his milkshake.

“Couldn’t have done me a solid this one time I guess,” Tony said with a shrug.

“It’s not my job to take care of the squeezes you bring home,” Kent said with a mildly disapproving glare.

“No need for the dagger eyes,” Tony brought up his arms in a faux attempt to look submissive. Turning his head to the trash can he saw the emptied ice cream container
whispering to him of a lost opportunity. “Couldn’t even leave me a little bit of ice cream, could you?”

Kent smirked at Tony, “sorry, we’re out of ice cream.” He turned and leaned his elbows up against the kitchen bar, straightening out his back and looked down at the book he was
reading.

Tony couldn’t help but look down at Kent’s grey pajama bottoms which while normally loose and flowing were now lying in just a way to where he could see the perfect outline of his
butt. He was tempted to reach out and grab it, but his better judgement stopped him. Instead he softly put his hand on Kent’s left shoulder.Kent quickly turned his head towards the hand, and while he was distracted Tony quickly ducked in and took a long gulp of Kent’s shake. Realizing that Tony’s face was right beside his Kent’s arms instinctively thrust upward and in the process his elbow smashed into the side of Tony’s jaw. It wasn’t the worst hit that Tony had endured, but it had more force than he was expecting. Tony smirked with the knowledge that if Kent had ever truly intended harm his elbow game could be dangerous for his opponents.

“You wound me good sir, quite literally in this case,” Tony said, rubbing his tender jaw.

“Try that again and I will,” Kent said absentmindedly rubbing his elbow...

“If it means anything…,” Tony said before taking a massive step forward pushing up against Kent and grabbing his hand so he couldn’t attempt an intentional strike. “It was worth it
for the sweet taste of victory.” With that Tony put his mouth around the straw in Kent’s glass, took a another good long gulp of the milkshake before backing off with a smile.

Kent rolled his eyes, “you’re lucky I know you. Try that with anyone else and you’d have more than a swollen jaw.”

Tony’s grin grew ever wider, “how else am I going to get a good taste of your milkshake?”

“Grab your own glass next time,” Kent said before putting his straw back up and draining what was left in the glass. “Though if you’re hoping to still have visible abs next summer,
perhaps you shouldn’t. Starting to look a little soft around the edges Mr. Olympian.”

“All the better to snuggle up against when I finally get you in bed,” Tony winked as he walked around the kitchen bar and wrapping his beefy arm around Maz’s shoulder “don’t you
think so nerd?”

Maz looked terrified at the question, “Um… huh, what?”

“C’mon,” Tony said with a sly smile “I know what side of your bread is buttered. Tell me you wouldn’t be able to resist that-” Tony stopped as his face contorted before “BWAAAP.”

Maz wiped the saliva off of his face from Tony’s massive burp, “excuse you.”

“Heh, guess it proves I’ve been eating well,” Tony let go of Maz before heading back towards the stairs. “Oh, I almost forgot!” Tony said snapping his fingers. “Marion will be stopping
by later today, to drop off some notes for one of my English classes.”

“Cool,” Kent said, not even looking up from his drink. “I’ll be grabbing groceries a bit later so you’ll probably need to get the door yourself.

Tony smirked. Marion had been around enough due to them both being on the basketball team that Kent was pretty much used to his personality, which Tony had to admit to
himself could be a bit abrasive. Tony’s mind couldn’t help but flash back to the first time they had met. He was instantly attracted to Marion’s aggro attitude and couldn’t help but get turned on when he would get flustered when he flirted with him. He was certain that he liked him, but wasn’t wanting to get involved. He was pretty sure he liked guys, but maybe he was closeted?

Either way Tony was certain that he was going to have fun breaking down his walls to get at the spoils within.

“I’ll take my lunch up in my room, a ham sandwich if you please, with a side of Kent’s ass” Tony yelled while he began his ascent up the stairs.
As Tony trailed up he could hear Kent’s irritated voice call behind him, “never gonna happen!”

---

Maz was the only person who had classes on Saturday and usually biked to the school. Sometimes Kent would be nice enough to drive him there, but he went out and got groceries for
the house, and wouldn’t be able to pick him up on time so Maz decided that the bike was the best way to go.

While Saturday classes usually weren’t as busy as most, today’s attendance was particularly scarce. About a third of the students who would normally be in class had gone
missing, some of whom had never missed a class before. The thoughts of why so many people could have possibly gone missing flew through Maz’s mind and distracted him to the point where he almost missed his street. Snapping out of his brief stupor, Maz made a hard turn onto Gordo street, his back tire skidding across the pavement.
A ways up he could see his Fennec neighbor just arriving home. Maz sighed, he hated that guy. He was such an ass.

While Tony picked on him regularly, he knew that he didn’t mean anything by it… usually. Whenever the Fennec was on his own though, his comments were usually nasty and biting. He was the type of person to mock anyone he felt didn’t meet his standards, commenting on Maz’s weight, complexion… everything really. He was hoping that he would be able to scoot by without making contact, but something caught his eye.

The Fennect let his helmet fall to the ground without much fanfare, and desperately reached into his backpack and pulled out… a burger? Maz had never seen the fox eat anything
that was so loaded in calories before. He was even more surprised when he tore into it, mayonnaise and mustard squirting out the other side. Maz slowed to a stop as he watched him
tear the burger apart, wolfing it down like he hadn’t eaten in days.

Within less than a minute the burger was completely gone, leaving only grease and streaks of mustard left behind on the vulpine’s mouth. He was breathing heavily, and Maz
guessed that he probably hadn’t even given himself a moment to breathe while nearly swallowing that burger whole. Maz slowly began to pedal forward, and the fennec’s eyes
cleared for a moment, looking straight at him for the first time. ‘Did he not notice that I was there?’ Maz wondered.

The fennec's face grew red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. He had not enjoyed being caught in such a gluttonous act, especially not by Maz. “Anything you have to say
tubby?” he sneered.

Maz pursed his lips and looked right past him, he had no desire to get into an argument with this guy.

“Yeah, keep silent. At least I exercise once in a while, I’ll have this burger worked off by the time my head hits the sheets tonight,” the tirade was spewing out of the fox’s mouth like
vomit, Maz wasn’t certain he could have stopped talking even if he tried. Maz kept silent and pulled up into his driveway. The fennec, clenched his teeth. Obviously angry that his words weren’t having the effect he desired. He reached into his bag and pulled out… another burger? Was his backpack justfilled with burgers? Maz flinched a bit as the fox pulled back his arm about to chuck the burger in his direction… before he paused. His eyes looked at the burger longingly for a split second before he shoved it back into his bag. “It’s not like you need one anyway,” he scoffed before grabbing his backpack full of burgers rushing into his house and slamming the door behind him.

“What was that,” Maz questioned under his breath. Still somewhat stunned by that interaction, Maz stepped into the front door where he almost immediately ran into a slightly
worried looking Kent anxiously having a video call on his phone. Next to him was Marion, one of Tony’s friends on the basketball team. The coyote’s dark hair was parted in such a way that he looked like a 90’s hollywood heartthrob. The two turned to see Maz walk in, and before Maz could say anything Kent pulled him over to him.
“Maz are you okay?” Kent asked, his face looking like he was one step away from a full on panic attack.

Maz was happy that Kent worried about him sometimes, but he also felt that he sometimes went overboard. Maz was certain that Kent felt that he was as fragile as crystalline
glass, but he wasn’t going to break just because some fox decided to be a jerk to him.

“Yeah, I’m fine. He was just being a jerk,” Maz shrugged.

Kent and Marion gave each other confused looks before Kent spoke up, “what do you mean?”

“The fox, from next door? You saw that right?” Maz explained, maybe Kent wasn’t worried about that after all.

The ocelot shook his head, “no I didn’t, but that’s not important right now.” Maz was somewhat shocked, he had never had Kent blow over anything that was bothering him like that
before. Kent waved him over, “Dragontzin, tell him what you told me.”

Maz walked over to the phone where he saw Dragontzin’s face staring right back at them.

Dragontzin cleared his throat, “Maz have you not heard the warning? Listened to the news?”

Maz shook his head kind of embarrassed, “what news? What’s going on?”

Kent interrupted, “to be fair Dragontzin, this news didn’t come out until mid-day, I didn’t even hear about it until I got home from the store.”

“I didn’t hear anything either, not until Kent mentioned it,” Marion said a puzzled look of worry furrowing his brow.
Maz looked around and noticed that most of the groceries were still on the counter, ‘how long have they been lying out?’

Kent looked behind him before giving a soft answer, “about a half an hour. I thought that Tony was putting them up but…”

Marion snorted, “ha, as if. I saw him grab something out of the bag and then hoof it to his room. Didn’t even say hi to me.”

Dragontzin pinched his nose, “none of that really matters right now, you need to keep up to date. Especially when something like this happens.”

“When what happens?” Maz blurted out. “An outbreak,”

Dragontzin said, his face grim. “Some sort of… infection has begun to spread. They aren’t sure exactly where it started, but they are certain that it is some sort of
virus. The proper tests haven’t been done but they are certain that it is extremely infectious.”

“Who is going to be doing tests?” Maz interrupted.“The C.D.C. of course.” Dragontzin paused for a moment, “Kent, you were at the basketball game last night, right?” Kent nodded. “Did you notice how few players were on the other team?”

Kent nodded again, “Yeah I think Tony mentioned something about that last night.”

Dragontzin sighed, “well, there is a reason for that. I can’t tell you where I got this information from, but it’s very likely that every member of the basketball team was infected.”

“How can you be so sure,” Maz asked quizzically.

Dragontzin hesitated, “they’ve all been shown to have… symptoms.”

“What kind of symptoms?” Kent asked, his eyes showing more and more worry by the second.

“It’s the damnedest thing, the most common symptom is just… hunger,” Dragontzin paused. Maz glanced at Kent with a confused look, which he returned. “It’s not just a basic
hunger though. From what I’m hearing it’s an intense, unyielding need for food, one that seems to bypass everything else.The basketball players I mentioned, they are currently under
observation but one of them had raided a market and was eating food off the shelves. It took three people to hold him down before the police arrived.”

“So… it’s some sort of a hunger virus, that doesn’t sound that bad,” Maz said with a shrug.

Dragontzin nodded, “as odd as it is, I would normally agree with you were it just the hunger, but when coupled with another symptom it becomes… problematic.”
Maz and Kent remained silent, waiting for their professor to continue. Dragontzin sighed, “it also seems to increase a host’s ability to store fat. It’s not yet clear
yet, but with the virus someone could put on a ton of weight really quickly.”

Maz let out a nervous laugh, barely believing what he was hearing “so you’re saying it’s what? Some sort of super fattening virus?”

Dragontzin shook his head, “despite how crazy that sounds that may be what we are dealing with. I’ve managed to pull a few strings and I should get a sample of the virus later this
week. Until then, both of you need to stay inside, avoid contact with anyone who might be infected.”

A sudden realization hit Maz, the fennec from next door he was scarfing down burgers like no one’s business. He never would have done that under normal circumstances. Was it
possible?

“So we need to stay inside and away from anyone who is infected, and wear masks when we go outside,” Kent said, trying to hide the nervousness in his voice. “It’ll be fine, we’ll be
fine, how hard could that be?”

As if on cue, Maz heard a heavy thud behind him. Maz turned and was face to face with a shocking sight. There standing before him with an empty half gallon of ice cream under his
arm, his tank top stretched out holding a stuffed and swollen belly, was Tony. He wiped his mouth, and gave Maz and Kent a toothy grin.

“Sorry, guys we’re out of ice cream.”