Shopping for Control

All Zero Malone wanted was some semblance of his old life. He knew there was no going back. The government agents who had given him the message that his father would start his long journey home soon had indicated as such. Of course, research would still be done, tests taken, data collected, but the scientists that had been able to return to their jobs were still utterly befuddled. It wasn't just that there was no cure for the Great Shift, but nobody even had a clue as to what had caused it.

That didn't mean that Zero was ready to give up on getting back what he had lost. He knew that his body was now that of a forty-year-old woman. He knew that he'd been cheated out of his twenties and thirties. He knew that he'd forever have massive breasts, tiny feet, and bright red hair. But Zero didn't care. Those were facts that couldn't change. He focused, instead, on things he could change. Things he could have control over. Because control was what Zero needed.

Zero's resources weren't unlimited, but he had saved some money away, all of which would be needed. Finding clothes that fit both his body and his style was a challenge. Some things he didn't fight. Bras, for example, were a necessity. So were panties. Luckily, he'd taken enough from Bianca's wardrobe when he left that he didn't have to waste his money. Zero had had the forethought to take pants, shirts, and shoes as well, although he considered these to be a stop-gap. Bianca's tastes had been expensive, and extremely feminine. The pants were tight and low-cut, the shirts were far too generous in their neckline, and every pair of shoes had at least a one-inch-heel.

"I'm going out," Zero had told his sister and mother the first day he'd headed to the mall to shop, "I'll be back before dinner."

There had been no response, of course. Something had happened between the two of them while Zero had been living back at Bianca's. Whenever Zero would bring it up, both of them would change the subject, but it was there. Tension. More than tension. Zero's sister and mother had always been close, but now they wouldn't even look each other in the eye.

It didn't help that Zero's sister, Melody, now had the body of a young stud, the kind of guy that Melody probably would have thrown herself at before the Great Shift. Every time Zero looked at her he had to remind himself that the man he was seeing was actually his sister. It made his home life very unsettling.

Another reason to take back what little control he could.

T-shirts were the order of the day that first shopping trip. Zero's new body wasn't big by any means, but his breasts were. This made sizing a challenge. Since he didn't care about showing off his figure, though, it opened up options. Shirts didn't have to fit exactly, they just had to fit over his frame. How strange he would have looked to anyone before the Great Shift, a forty-year-old stacked woman wearing an oversized Iron Maiden t-shirt, walking out of the mall with bags in his arms. The next trip he found baggy jeans. Finally, on his third trip, Zero left the mall wearing a pair of running shoes.

It was perfect.

Well, not perfect, but it was as close as he was going to get.

At home, his new clothes put away, Bianca's clothes settled into a box at the back of his closet, Zero wondered what had happened to the woman whose body he now possessed. Who had she swapped with? Was she alright? Had she returned home yet? On top of that, what had happened to his original body? The government had announced that a registry was going to be established, and anyone who wanted to, could opt in so that they could connect with people who either had lost their bodies to them, or now held their previous bodies. Zero wasn't sure what he would do, whether it would be better to have closure and find out more, or if it was best to just move on with his life.

Well, he didn't need to decide right then. There would be years and years ahead of him in his new body, and he could opt in at any point. In the meantime, Zero had only taken the first step in reclaiming his life. Now that he had clothes he could wear, he needed to start establishing relationships again. Zero had to get out into the world.