Disbelief

"Pregnancies don't just happen," Lois said out loud. "People have to have sex first, and I haven't gotten laid in..." she tried to think and couldn't remember. Months ago, at least. Mentally, she counted back to the last time she had gotten laid.

Nine months? Had it really been that long? The reporter blinked, the details of the sexual encounter weirdly vague, but she was also sure that she had a sexual encounter, almost exactly forty weeks ago. A one-night stand, total stranger. That doesn't really sound like something I would do. Lois frowned.

Unprotected, too—I remember seeing the unopened packet of condoms in my purse from last year. I've really been on a dry spell... She gave a mental shrug.

"And even if they did," Lois mumbled out loud, resuming her previous train of though. "You don't go from zero to ready to give birth in a matter of hours. All that mass has to come from somewhere, the skin and muscle have to stretch...you can't compress all that into such a short length of time."

Lois' stomach growled, and she went to raid the fridge and pantry. She didn't feel empty, especially after all that ice cream and milk. Her stomach actually felt a little bloated. But the sudden craving nagged at her, and she gave into it, too busy thinking about the mechanics of the "rapid pregnancy."

Not that it would take much mass for a baby. Lois thought, crunching on crackers. She felt a craving for salty foods and...sour? A moment's digging in the fridge brought forth a tub of sour cream. The reporter dipped a cracker straight in the cream, and popped it into her mouth. The combination should have been vile, but Lois found it deeply satisfying, and dipped another one. Most are born at what, five pounds? Most women can stand to lose that much. Of course, there's more than mass to consider. Have to have the right vitamins and minerals.

Sitting back down at the laptop with her snack, Lois clicked open a few more of the stories. Wong's general outline seemed to be accurate—a lot of the same details in each story, highly compressed pregnancies with many of the symptoms. Swelling bellies and breasts got most of the attention, confused memories of sexual encounters, nausea and odd cravings... The reporter scraped up the last of the sour cream with the final cracker. Have to get some more the next time I'm out.

Something on the laptop blinked, and noticed the light above the monitor was on—her webcam was active. She frowned, chewing slowly, unable to remember doing that...or why she would. But the window popped up, the reporter staring at her topless self as she munched and crunched.

Weird...wasn't there something in the stories about that? Yeah, webcam videos of the "victims." Lois maneuvered the cursor over to where the X should be to close the webcam video...but there wasn't one. Her brow furrowed. Don't tell me I've got a virus or some pervy prick has hacked my webcam. Maybe I can't see it because of the light?

She stood up to adjust the screen...and froze.

The view of the webcam panned down her naked torso...to the small but noticeable belly bump Lois Lane was not sporting.