Meg's Insistence

Class was predictably dull. The education system was a dinosaur: Always five years behind the latest developments and to fund anything that didn’t fit the Old World model of success: Doctors, lawyers, doctors of law and lawyers with docs. There were tech courses to be sure, but they were underfunded, underequipped and staffed by teachers who were clearly bitter that they hadn’t amounted to something more.

Nick’s eyes glazed over as he checked the ugly code in a dead language that Cherry had written under his name. It was worth every bit of the 65% mark he’d been given.

The next two hours were a blur. Nick’s eyes may have been fixed on the slideshow presentation, but his mind was still back in his room: Reliving the wind blowing through his hair as he leapt out of the plane, his eyes watering at the spectacular view, the drop in his stomach when his chute wouldn’t deploy and the babbling terror that lasted all the way to the ground, where the neural feed cut out before it could register any pain.

It wasn’t an exaggeration. It really was like he’d been there himself, jumped out himself, punched the crocodile, shot the terrorist and knifed the fellow inmate himself. He’d tasted the salt of his sweat, felt the blood on his hands, felt the water go up his nose and the bile rising up his throat. If the pleasure-seeker packs were even a fraction as real as the thrill-seeker experience, he was in for an incredible night.

He didn’t even wait to hear what readings would be needed for the next class - as soon as the final slide went up, Nick was on his feet and out the door.

Lunch was expensive and tasteless: A soggy, unseasoned chicken schnitzel with wilted lettuce and cheap mayo on a stale bun. Nick spent every mouthful looking at the immaculately presented faux food in the shop’s displays, imagining what it would be like to bite into a burger that tasted as good as the advertisements made it look. The Nerve meant that you wouldn’t have to make the perfect burger for every single person who bought it - you’d just need to make it perfect once.

And then wring the experience out of the brain of the person who ate it.

***

Meg seemed both expectant and cautious as Nick approached her outside the college library.

“Hey Nick. How’s Cherry?”

Nick found himself nonplussed - since when did anyone care about someone else’s copilot?

“Uh, yeah she’s doing fine. The mods are working pretty well - got me a pass for an assignment I missed, you know how it is.”

Meg’s unimpressed expression told Nick this wasn’t the answer she was angling for, which left him at a loss as to what she’d actually meant. Before he could clarify she beckoned him into the library and into the private room she had reserved for them.

“So did you try them out?” Meg had barely sat down before she asked.

Nick’s eyes darted to the room’s camera, but Meg waved it away dismissively.

“I’ve killed the feed. They’ll just think we never showed up.”

Nick was stunned at the idea of someone previously so averse to cybercrime now committing digital vandalism with such a casual attitude.

“Yeah, they arrived yesterday arvo,” he managed eventually.

“Which ones?” Meg said, leaning forward with an intense expression.

“I went through about half of the thrill-seeker collection, but I had to tap out after the first actual sim.”

Nick was expecting Meg to be impressed, or at least to echo his sentiment, but instead received a mild snort of derision.

“The thrill-seeker pack is trash! You didn’t try any of the pleasure trips?”

“...No, I was saving them for tonight.”

“You’ve gotta try them, Nick. They’re fucking INCREDIBLE.”

Nick found himself trapped by Meg’s intensity, but eventually managed to say “Okay? Tonight. I’ll try them tonight.”

In the silence that followed, Meg began tapping the table and biting her lip as if she wanted to say something. Nick was completely thrown out: This was not the generally unremarkable girl he’d almost failed a rudimentary tech unit with, and while people could certainly change, four months was too short a time period for this drastic a shift in personality.

“Meg?”

“What?”

“You’ve, uh… you’ve really gotten into the whole tech experience, haven’t you?”

Meg shot him a frustrated look before grabbing her bag and standing up.

“Just do a trip tonight, okay? One of the hardcore ones. You’ll know what I mean once you’ve tried them.”

Meg closed the door behind her, leaving a very confused Nick behind with nothing to do but wait until his next class.

[An Outfox Stories original by FeverDreamer. See more of FeverDreamer's stories & continuations here]