Chapter 1: Rebirth

Chapter 1

Rebirth

When the bullet struck Tom Atari’s spine he left us for a while. He was dissolved into whitespace, suspended in gaffa, absolved by the finer light and drowned in the ocean of space, and that’s when he saw it- a fuzzy cosmic cloud the size of a moth, and beyond that, humanity’s glowing future.

It was out there, beyond the horizon, a warm, pulsing sun, blinding in its radiance, biding its time and keeping quiet. Tom heard the beat, felt the heat on his chin, saw the schedule, the way it was supposed to be, and in spite of everything he knew he had to smile: was being alive so bad after all?

He woke up next in a hospital bed- wet hot with morning urine- to the nurses taking away his morphine: a woman, wordless, cutting the line with a knife, his blood suddenly lonely. He tried to remember he had really been there, had seen the future, but the body was a nuisance: the rage of broken skin came back into his head and he wrecked as his chest seized, sweat to kiss the tears as his forehead grooved apology.

The days went by, recovery taking time after time, and there were doctors repeating themselves, nurses polite, as he became ready to face Project Geronimo and all its gravity: the United States government enslaving its own people through mind control. Tom was resolved: they would be stopped, freedom would be restored, and he could finally get some rest, finally retire and play golf with tall Latin women. Down in Florida.

The Florida Keys. When it storms.

He reached for a glass of water, but no water came. He was wasting time on purpose.

Outside the hospital walls the Lipstick Killer was still running free, terrorizing the people, controlling them in fear. Tom wondered if he was just one man.

Sandy. She needed to be told.

Then his friends and family... he would do it slowly, gently. He eyed his revolver on the bed stand and laughed. Slowly. Gently. Saving the planet takes time.

One of the nurses came back and offered Tom a painkiller.

He turned her down.

.

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