Show Your Hands: A Short Story

It's the year 2026. Outbreaks and lock downs have become the new normal. Our society has become more restrictive than ever. Changes have been made for public health and safety.
Clara Stanton has came of age in the time of the pandemic. She was an 18 year old recluse when the quarantines started. Being isolated was initially heaven for an introvert like her. Over the years the virus claims Clara's whole family. Due to a genetic fluke, she's immune to the great sickness. Emotionally devastated and financially constrained, Clara has to join the dwindling workforce to survive.

Being overprotected by her parents her whole life, 24 year old Clara has missed out on a lot of world experience. She's lonely and loveless. She wants nothing more than to have a relationship with a good man. The world has changed in the six years since she was a fumbling high school senior. Society is less populated. Good men aren't easy to find.

Clara meets a handsome young man at her job by the name of Albert Jones..Albert is a rookie police officer with a good head on his shoulders. Clara and Albert hit it off and fall in love. They appear to have a bright future ahead for themselves on the south side of Chicago.

Things are not what they appear to be on the surface. Technology, gentrification, and governmental control have combined in a perfect storm. Clara and Albert only want to find stability and start a family in the city they grew up in and love. Their future will not be stable. Life will change for Clara and Albert beyond anything they could have possibly imagined.