I Need a Reset

You can call your friend right now, just by thinking of them! A warm thought, a song... hmm, a wish even, is now a reality with Neuron Connect! The newest device from Plum.

Imagine a population so intensely hellbent on being connected, must be one that's so disastrously disconnected.

They grew up on stories about something called the "digital phase"-- a curious time when the world was transformed by advancing technologies.

It sounds almost primitive to say.

For years Jason, Saraeh, Natalya, and Frankie had dreamed of living in such a world. Not being instantly connected, I mean-- "Nonsense!" The foursome would just laugh it off and resume their on-mind classes. If only.

Lately, however, Jason started to question everything. Are these classes real? Are their lives real? Is there friendship, even?

“Of course it’s real,” flashes the fiery Leo, Saraeh.

Jason, the air sign of the group and newfound skeptic, thought much differently. “I would be inclined to believe that, except we’ve all been wireless since we became of school age. And on top of that actually what is this construct of school?”

“No, guys he's got a point. We are learning 18 hours a day so we can enter the workforce and 'contribute' to 'society' or whatever. I am not a fan” Frankie affirmed.

"That's just because you think you can go straight into the workforce and that's NOT how it works." Saraeh chuckled causing the group to begin laughing so hard together they received an administrative warning to their interfaces.

Jason cut back in “--not to mention we have been suspiciously close to one another since childhood. Truthfully every clique in our neighborhood has had the same friend group forever.”

"And why is that weird all of a sudden?" Saraeh tried comforting Jason who began looking around rather uncomfortably.

“Yeah, something definitely has been off about you since you’ve been back.” Natalya was staring straight at Jason and had been for the past ten minutes.

After a deep sigh and apologizing to Natalya especially. “I don't know guys. I know I've been tight-lipped on MIT”

“No, shit Sherlock. You’ve barely even spoken about what you went through. None of us can seem to reach you anymore. Is your interface still busted?” Saraeh looked as if she almost had genuine tears in her eyes. She preferred to avoid this look altogether when possible, so, to Jason, this was concerning.

“Okay, when I left that day it was because I couldn’t log in to class”

“Aww, yeah, I remember you whining about an archaic error message you kept getting. Uhhh, rest your past” Frankie’s recollection triggered Saraeh’s memory more vividly.

“No! It was reset your password!” She jumped with excitement from being able to recall so clearly. Jason tapped on his nose and wiggled his left ear, a sign made up by Natalya when they were 6 to show that they were getting closer to the right answer. It also means being careful because too many ears were listening.

Jason continued cautiously, “exactly. Which we all agreed was odd because we don’t use those— not since the interface was launched that was--”

“When our grandparents were our age.”

"Thank you, Natalya"

“So what happened at MIT?” Saraeh pressed. Medical and Information Technology was an experimental government entity. Think of what the Center for Disease Control was to the continental United States. in the early 2000s.

Another benefit of the Neural Connect technology is being able to know things almost in real time. There’s debate, however.

“—well” except just then a message came through addressed to all four from… Unknown sender.

“That’s impossible,” they all thought.

The subject line—

RESET YOUR PASSWORD.

“This can’t be right. Is everyone else seeing this?!” Jason asked with concern filling his voice.

“Yep.” They all nodded in agreement. Natalya wrapped Jason's hands in hers and whispered to him, to all of them.