Braindead

Thank you so much for subscribing to my newsletter! As a thank you, here is the short story I wrote that inspired my third book, Original Thought. I wrote this short story based on a writing prompt, where I needed to include the words: “Always so dramatic. You forget, darling, that we have the same power.” 

Since Original Thought is part of the Internet Shutdown series, most of the information in this short story has been changed to reflect the plot, characters, and emotional tone of the overall series. This short story doesn’t spoil the end of Original Thought!

Thank you, and enjoy!

—🧠—

Jodi sipped her morning coffee as she scrolled through The Daily Douglas on her tablet. On the top of the page was none other than her President, boss, and former lover, extending his arms wide across the camera. The same arms that used to embrace her in the dark of night now embraced his beloved country, his new object of affection.

“Prez Announces New Project,” the headline read.

Jodi, just a few doors down the hall from President Martin, searched her mind database for any conversation they’d had. Not that he even spoke to her anymore. He’d simply implant the idea into her mind using his tablet. He often typed out the message, and it would transfer to her brain chip.

She was his first prototype, but he only won his seat in the Oval Office by promising the nation a brain chip that would cure them of every disease, especially memory loss. But when the population realized that it didn’t cure, but actually caused, fatal brain aneurysms, it was already too late. They had already been infected with a new kind of disease: mind control. Still, they discovered that mind control promoted world peace. When the brain chip chat room would get heated, President Martin would transfer a neutral thought into the group, causing the whole nation to agree.

Jodi felt her head buzz. A new message from the President: “Did you figure it out yet?”

She shook her head. Although he could see into her mind, she had no way of seeing into his. President Martin was the one who taught her how to manipulate the chip. If he didn’t teach her, she didn’t know.

“Don’t you remember?”

“No, I don’t,” Jodi typed on her tablet. She closed her eyes and continued to search her memory. The only thoughts that arose were of them before he was President, when he was just a man. When his hunger for power didn’t quench his humanity, or his love for her.

Jodi clicked her tongue and snapped back to reality. “Why do you taunt me with these memories?” she cried in her mind.

Leaning against the table, she willed herself to think of different memories. But willing herself to do anything these days was difficult. It had become second nature—even first nature—to use her brain chip. Able to connect to anyone with the chip, she was less lonely. Now she wasn’t the only one inside her chaotic mind. She could share the chaos with her most intimate friend, and her most random stranger. 

Jodi heard a beep, only this time, it was over the staff intercom: “Jodi Williams, please report to the Oval Office.”

Now everyone would know that she was meeting with the President. Well, thanks to her inability to control her own thoughts, everyone knew about her former meetings with the President as well.

“Ah! There she is.” President Martin’s dark eyes bore into Jodi’s flushed face. She drank in the intensity of his stare, and the passion in his stern smile. He tapped on his tablet, refusing to give Jodi the joy of hearing his natural voice. “Are you happy with my invention?”

Jodi curled her lips. “Yes, of course, sir. We’ve never been happier or healthier.”

“Yes, my dear. Now that we finally all agree, we can move forward as the greatest country that ever lived.”

“I agree,” Jodi said, then internally chuckled at her own choice of words.

The clock ticked on the wall to the left of Jodi’s peripheral vision. If there was any time to ask about what she read in the paper, it was now.

“I’m sure you’re wondering about the newspaper article you read earlier,” President Martin said, reading her thoughts. He leaned back in his chair. “I’m quite surprised that is on your mind, my dear. Haven’t you figured it out yet?”

Figure it out? Jodi hadn’t had an original thought in, well, quite some time. “I won’t know until you tell me.”

President Martin folded his hands over the table and raised his eyebrow. As sure as it was my own thought, it came to me: He’s going to shut down our brain chips.

Jodi gasped audibly, quickly covering her mouth. “Mr. President, how could you do this?”

“My darling, don’t you remember those fun times we had together? When time stood still, when our memories intertwined?”

Jodi cringed. “Why remind me of this now?”

“Because, my dear, I often told you how I dreamed of a day when we would have world peace.”

“You brainwashed me! You brainwashed the whole nation! What peace could we have now that you’re in our minds?”

The intensity in his eyes grew to a burning fire. “My dear, world peace is achievable, as long as we have a fearless leader who can help us stay in agreement.”

“And that’s you, I presume.”

His swelling smile was answer enough for Jodi.

“But how is shutting off our brain chips going to help with that?”

President Martin took out a giant red button, the master control to every brain chip. “Since you haven’t used your human brains, you will literally be braindead. You’ll be under my control.”

Jodi’s heart pounded as anger rose in her chest. “No! Douglas, you can’t do this. Please. You can achieve power another way.”

Without moving his mouth, without typing on a tablet, his words transferred directly into Jodi’s brain: “Always so dramatic. You forget, darling, that we have the same power.”

The same power? Jodi thought. But this time, it was her own thought. Somehow, she had access to her human brain again. Having not used it for several years, she found her logic to be a little foggy. But she had logic! Her logic told her to pay attention to how President Martin transferred that information to her.

“My dear, don’t hurt yourself,” he said electronically.

The same power. President Martin didn’t use a tablet. He didn’t use his mouth. He used his own brain. Only one people group was able to transfer thoughts without any external technology.

“Cyborgs,” Jodi whispered, speaking out loud for the first time in years.

“What was that?”

Jodi furrowed her eyebrows and searched President Martin’s face. There.  A bump on his head. His off switch.

“Sorry, dear, but it is better for you to die than for the whole nation to perish.”

Before he could protest, Jodi picked up the heaviest object she could find on his desk, a stapler, and rammed it into his head. Blood spewed from the new hole in Martin’s head. He fell to the ground, and his dark eyes turned cold.

Jodi gasped as she realized what she had done. I killed Martin! She could get arrested for that. But I also thought for myself! She could get arrested for that also.

Using her new brain power, Jodi swiftly picked up President Martin’s tablet. She sent a message to every brain chip in the nation: “This is Jodi Williams, your new President. I am a fearless leader that will help us stay in agreement with one another. But you need to know that we have the same power. We don’t need our brain chips anymore. We need logic, and we need love. Use the brain that your Creator has given you. Together, we can make the world a better place.”