October 2021: NYC Midnight Short Fiction Challenge –
For this story I was assigned:
- Genre: sci fi (which I don’t read)
- Required word: wing
- Required activity: recording a conversation
- Word limit: 250
- Time allowed: 24 hours
My writing process: Panic as assigned words collide in my head, then just start free writing whatever pops in first. The result:
If Atlas Shrugged and 1984 Had a Baby and Franklin Graham Were Its Godfather
The Righteous-Thought chip in Kayla’s neck jolted. Home alone, she’d uttered another truth about power – her third offense.
The Thought chip recorded everything – fights with best friends, that curse when you stubbed your toe, lovers’ whisperings. Your mandatory bedtime prayers. It flagged keywords identifying you as trouble. Eventually you shut up.
When rightwing extremists had taken over years ago, “truth” legally became only what Truth Social proclaimed. No need to lobotomize an entire nation: relentless pronouncement of insane information – wrapped in godly language, punctuated by well-placed violence – did 99% of the trick.
Kayla belonged to Antifa’s Emergency Innovation Wing, underground since the executions. Some EIWs worked to disable the email- and text-scanning networks that reported truths contradicting Righteous Thought. She led the team working to deactivate the Thought-chip.
Her chip zapped again. She’d rip it out, but they’d installed it near the carotid to ensure bleed-out.
She’d head for Canada or Mexico if she had time, resources. But escape was impossible, anyway, if they’d activated her GPS.
She ran from her apartment, door left ajar. Two blocks to the public square. She stepped onto the low brick wall surrounding the fountain, took a breath, and began reciting every truth she knew. Her neck chip went crazy. She shouted past it.
People gathered. She’d had no doubt: if she spoke it, they would come. She wasn’t sure who’d get her first: brown-shirted police? The torch-and-pitchfork crowd?
A teenager with fading blue hair flashed a thumbs up.
Maybe her legacy would be hope.
