Born Again by Jon Griffin

Author:Jon Griffin [Griffin, Jon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mayuli Press
Published: 2020-02-04T22:00:00+00:00

Jeff woke in a concrete room with a bed, a night table, and a desk. An effort had been made to transform the industrial space into something more homey and comfortable. It had almost worked, though the paint peeling in the corners of the ceiling and the diesel smell undermined the desired effect.

Sitting beside him was the Mexican Revolutionary who had escorted him earlier to meet with Ronnie. She was reading a novel and humming to herself as Jeff opened his eyes and only noticed that Jeff was awake when he finally sat up in bed.

“Hey, baby reset,” she said and set down her novel.

“Hey. Where am I?”

“Recovery room.”

“You don’t need to guard me. I’m not planning on running away.”

The guerilla laughed. “I’m here to make sure that you don’t swallow your tongue or some shit.”

Jeff stuck out his tongue to show her that it was still in its proper location, and she laughed again.

“I never got your name,” he told her.

“Lucía. Yours?”

“Jeff.”

“I knew that,” she smiled, “but it seemed like the polite thing to ask in return.”

“For a revolutionary, you have great manners.”

“Part of the training: help old ladies across the street, say please and thank you, overthrow the corrupt oligarchy built on ignorance and terror.”

“Is that what’s in my future too?”

Lucía shrugged. “Up to you. There’s lots of things to do in the Reset movement. Not everyone has to be a soldier for the cause.”

“Oh yeah, like what?”

“We’re self-sufficient. That takes a lot of work. You wanna be a farmer – we got hydroponic farms. You wanna be a doctor, we got a hospital and a training program. We encourage people to make themselves useful and can tell you what we’re short on, but the ultimate decision is up to you.”

Jeff sat up and swung his legs onto the floor, then tried to stand. A wave of dizziness made him unsteady, and Lucía grabbed his arm to keep him from falling on his face. He was impressed with how strong her grip was. It felt like she could snap his arm or throw him across the room.

“Easy, cabrón. After a reset, it takes a while to get your bearings.”

“I thought you said that you’d never seen someone from above before.”

“I lied, sorry about that. I mean, I didn’t know who the hell you were.”

“I guess the Mexican accent should have given it away. Reset is a bit too small to have multiple accents.”

“Yup. Was born in Mexico City. Made my way up north with my folks when I was a teenager, trying to get away from the heat.”

He grimaced in sympathy. “The Migration.”

“Yeah. My folks didn’t make it, and then they told me I’d have to be incinerated and reborn when I turned twenty-nine. I thought ‘to hell with that, I just ran away from being incinerated by the world’s longest heatwave.’”

“So you ended up here. More exciting than my story.”

“Every story is just a story. It doesn’t get you special privileges to have a better one,” she said, patting him on the shoulder.

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