Meanwhile...
Emily McLaglen just got off her first job waitressing at a local restaurant.
She was twenty two and had dropped out of college last year, but she was thinking about going back soon.
Until a few days ago, Emily had been straight. Maybe she had been a touch bi curious, she did have a few girl crushes every now and then, but she was mostly into men.
But that had been a few days ago. Which felt like a lifetime ago.
Now?
Now she was full blooded lesbian.
She had been turned to the new religious cause by her already lesbian roommate Nicole.
Nicole had joined that new cult that sprung up in town earlier in the month, and the unassuming young woman had quickly converted.
It may have been in Nicole's nature to be religious. She had grown up in an evangelical Christian household, and alhough she had hated repressing who she was and had escaped the second that she turned eighteen, part of her still clinged to faith, and she still kept and read The Bible in their apartment.
Nicole's excitement at her newfound immortality and purpose in life led to her impulsively kissing Emily on the lips, in the attempt to "free" her from the shackles of heterosexuality.
Fluids exchanged, and lack of consent notwithstanding, Emily was now fully on board #TeamSappho.
Both girls, both of them converts to the new faith, were dreamy eyed at Meiko and Brenda's promise of a world dominated by women. Women free without the burden of the patriarchy, death, disease, or the need to procreate to weigh them down. Free to live their lives in pleasure. They were hardcore true believers.
Emily's last call had been a couple.
Brad and Amy.
Both Brad and Amy were pretty young, in their early twenties, and they were semi regulars, so Emily had gotten to know them a little bit over the past year.
In that time, Emily thought to herself that Amy could do better than Brad, but she never said anything.
Not that Brad was a bad guy. Just... Amy should be with someone else.
It was good that they were young, Emily thought. That meant there wouldn't be any dramatic transformations like had already happened at the nursing homes and hospitals.
It wouldn't draw as much attention for a young person to age regress a couple of years as an old woman suddenly becoming young again and bopping to Lizzo.
Emily had spit into Amy's soda behind the counter when nobody noticed. She watched her saliva dissolve into the drink, and walked out with their meals.
She talked to them for a few minutes in her naturally friendly, gregarious way.
As Emily clocked out for the day, already in the parking lot on the way to her next job, she heard the commotion in the restaurant as Amy realized that she wasn't in love with Brad anymore.
Emily smiled. Her next job, for the next few hours, was as an Uber driver.
She had plenty of bottled water in the back for her customers to drink from.