Utopia of The Infinite [C]

Auri gave a blink.

Fluorescent light buzzed coldly and steadily above her. She was seated in the classroom. A desk. Her desk. She used the same one every day in second year.

Outside the window, cherry blossoms floated slowly. To slow. She just stared.

The class was crowded yet silent.  Classmates chattered lightly.  Laughed.  I scribbled in notebooks.  Their faces were correct, but fuzzy.  Unmemorable.  They're like background characters in a dream.

She lowered her gaze. Uniform. Nicely pressed. Her name was embroidered onto the badge. Auri Vale. not Virellis. Her fingertips twitched.

The bell sounded, and everything moved at once. Students stood, collected their bags, and pushed seats back in unison. Nobody noticed her. They swept past her like a river around a rock.

She stood slowly, the chair legs scratching the ground. The sound reverberated too long.

Something was wrong.

Mira was sitting in the biology lab across the hall from me.

Everything was immaculate. The beakers were labelled in beautiful penmanship. Animals in tanks and glass domes owls, rabbits, and foxes are all frozen in mid-motion. She grabbed for the fox case.  Her fingertips quivered.

There is no breath. There is no sound.

She said.

"You're not real"

The fox remained still.
Wen opened her eyes to see a screen full of green code.

There are lines and lines.  Scrolling is excellent. But it was too beautiful. There were no mistakes. No errors. The system didn't respond to her. It was working for her.

She typed a variable onto the command line. The system replied promptly. Too quick.

Her eyes narrowed.

"This isn't my code"

A string blinks over the top.

"Cycle 07: System Harmony Maintained"

She stood abruptly. Her chair made a scraping sound. Lights flickered.

Lyra awoke on the roof, stars above her. She stood there, surveying the skies instinctively. However, nothing changed.

The constellations remained frozen. There is no motion. There is no drift. Every star is arranged like plastic beads on a background.

She held up her hand to trace them. Her crystal necklace remained dimmed.

"This sky doesn't breathe" she remarked quietly.

She made a turn. And noticed Wen running up the steps two at a time.

"It's a fake" Wen said, gasping for air.

"This whole place. It's a simulation. Comfort is manufactured"

Lyra gave a nod once. 

"I know. It's too perfect. Dead"

Wen took out a little tablet from her purse, which was a functioning clone of her own system. She connected to the network.

"The illusion is running on a logic loop" she said quietly. 

"It distorts our vision. It's more than simply visual. It is emotional mimicking"

She made a pause. 

"I think it's trying to erase our real memories"

Lyra reached for her necklace.