"Experiment" by Shuyin Liu: July 2024 2nd Place

“Alright!” Scarlett quickly ran down the stairs to get drinks. Her best friend Cynthia was here. The two planned an exciting afternoon after their first middle school year. As she reached into the refrigerator, a blurry image flashed in front of her eyes. Well, not necessarily blurry. It seemed clear, but it couldn’t be identified or grasped. Perplexed, she thought maybe it was the lighting and returned upstairs.

“Hey,” Cynthia murmured, “I saw this weird thing when you were downstairs. It was an image. Sort of.”

“You too? I thought it was the refrigerator light. Do you think-”

“A system error has occurred. The future is currently installing outside this room.”

“Who was that?” Scarlett questioned, “And the future is outside?”

Cynthis looked around in confusion. “We can take a peek.”

The two friends slowly approached the door and cracked it open. A blinding light leaked in. After regaining their vision, they found themselves standing in an infinitely large blank space. The only object was a tiny window a few meters away. They crept forward. Both of them gasped at what they saw. A cyberpunk city straight out from a movie.

“So this is the future?” Scarlett whispered in awe.

“No,” someone chuckled. Both girls whipped around to see a middle-aged woman looking at them.

“Then what is this?” Cynthia asked.

“Just a picture. Why, these really seem human.”

“But we are human!”

The lady smiled again. “I have spent my entire life developing an online world. Users inside can communicate with artificial characters. Such as you. An error occurred somewhere in you two’s code though, so I decided to conduct a little experiment. This is the future.”

The scene in the window changed to a barren wasteland with dirty tents barely holding together. Cynthia and Scarlett gasped, unable to believe it. The wind howled and no life seemed to exist.

“My world is for humanity to forget reality. People only need to log in.”

Scarlett suddenly lurched into panic, realizing what was next.

“Thank you for participating in this experiment. Your codes are being erased. Goodbye.”