Utopia of The Infinite [C]

Chapter 7: The Replica

"Then we need to break it fast"

Auri walked along the corridor, past lockers that wouldn't open and bulletin boards with the same message.

"You are secure now. You have arrived home"

The voice over the intercom was very smooth and too nice.

"Good morning, students. Please go to your appointed Joy Stations "

“What is Joy Stations?”

Auri's hands tightened. She walked past a mirror. Stopped. Her reflection was clear, poised, and uniformly sharp. But that's not right.

You are too young. There are no scars. She has no weight on her shoulders.

"I'm not her anymore" she said softly.

She lifted her hand and struck the mirror. It cracked, sending light trembling behind it, like static on a screen.

Wen and Lyra moved quickly.

"We'll find the others" Lyra said. 

"They're trapped in their own comfort loops"

"We'll need to cause disturbance. Personal. Specific" Wen answered. 

"Emotional override will be stronger than logic here"

In the auto lab, Rhei was elbow-deep in the ideal engine.

It worked perfectly. Every bolt snapped into place. There are no misfires. There are no leaks. She should have felt proud. She hadn't. There was something missing.

Izzy emerged at the doorway, her uniform half-buttoned and her hair skewed. 

"Hey" she spoke gently. 

"Wanna mess it up a little?"

Rhei gave a blink.

"What?"

Izzy gave a grin. 

"Perfection bores me. Let us break it"

Rhei laughed, really laughed for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. The engine began to splutter. The lab lights lowered.

Sera stood in the nurse's office with her hands folded neatly in her lap. No one need assistance. Her room was neat. Her tools remain undisturbed.

A knock sounded.

Mira walked in, clutching something little in her hands. A little creature, feathery and shimmering dimly. It took a quick glance at Sera. Sera exclaimed with surprise.

Zephyra's mark.

Her recollections returned in such force that she had to sink to her knees.

"This isn't real" she said.

Mira knelt alongside her.

"No" she answered. 

"But we are"

They reunited on the rooftop, one by one. The school shimmered behind them. Faint glitches flew through the sky like tiny fissures in ice. Wen plugged her iPad into the broadcasting system.

"I can corrupt the loop with recursion" she informed to all the girls. 

"Make it fold in on itself"

"How long?" Auri inquired.

"Thirty seconds. Maybe"

"Do it"

The intercom blared one last time.

“Return to rest. Accept the cycle. Reassimilation starts. Now"

The sky became crimson. However, it was too late. Wen pressed the keys. The entire universe caved inward.

Hallways folded and bent like paper in a fire. Glass cracked without making a sound. Clouds appear pixelated. The desks melted. For a little period, everything disappeared.

Then, Breath. Real breathing. Dust. Pain. The sound of the wind.

Auri finally opened her eyes. They returned. The undiscovered realm. Pale, still fragmented, but authentic. The dream vanished. The replication had failed. They had remembered.

Sera sat besides Mira, shivering. 

"They wanted to erase us"

Wen gazed at her hands. 

"They attempted to readjust our mindsets. Reassign us”

Lyra stood and stared at the sky. A new star sprang into view. Auri tightened her jacket and said quietly and clearly.

"Then we remind them who we are"