A MONTH LATER
At one past midnight and five miles to the north of Newport town, the wind was talking with the leaves in soft whispers as the two men shoveled dirt into an open grave. The carefully extracted coffin was resting to one side of the grave—it was their bounty. The crickets had chirped constantly through the night, while the two men had worked at a frantic pace.
“We should be done in about half an hour,” said the fatter of the two.
“I’m gonna take a vacation after this job,” said the other.
“Where you gonna go?”
“Vegas.”
“And be broke within a week?”
“I’ll stop after doubling it this time.”
“Ha, won’t work.”
“Piss off. I can’t believe we’re making half a million for this job. I’d kill for that much money.”
“We got lucky.”
“Or unlucky.”
“Why?”
“Maybe the grave is cursed.”
“Cursed, my ass. The only thing we gotta worry about is getting caught digging up a grave.”
“It won’t be that bad. We’ll get charged with vandalism, and be out in a few months.”
“We’re useless if we get caught robbing a grave in the middle of nowhere.”
“Keep shoveling. We’ll be done soon.”
The tombstone resting on the grass next to the empty grave read:
BRENDA ANN COLLINS
MARCH 14 1996 - JUNE 23 2013
In Lord’s house may you find the joys that life promised you.
###
THE NEXT DAY
“I seriously doubted if it was going to work,” said Stuart.
“It worked alright,” said Nick. “Look at her. She looks the same.”
They both stared with surprise at their high school crush, Bree Collins. Half an hour ago, they had placed her long dead corpse in the metallic room. The stench from the corpse had made Stuart almost throw up. It wasn’t much of a corpse anyway. Just a bunch of rotting smelly bones. They had then put in the vital organs, made out of stem cells, along with the corpse, and ran the machine more in hope than anticipation. Now, there she was, lying naked on a couch in front of them.
On seeing her shiver and move her head a little, Nick covered her with a towel. Slowly, she opened her eyes, and it took her about a minute to find focus and come out of a blurry world. When he saw her familiar blue eyes, Nick spoke in choked voice, “Bree, how are you?”
Bree looked at them with a puzzled expression. She didn’t respond, but looked around the room, and then at herself. She soon realized her nakedness and adjusted the towel to cover herself.
“Wow, this is strange. Am I dead?” she asked as she looked at her arms in disbelief.
“No Bree, you’re dead no more. I’m so sorry for what happened,” said Nick as tears filled his eyes.
YOU ARE READING
RESURGENCE
Science FictionHumanity’s desire to be immortal is finally fulfilled when Stuart and Nick, two mischievous yet brilliant young men, figure out a way to reverse age. Over the next few years, they sell life to the aging population and build Phoenix Corporation: one...
