The Soulmate Curse

CARNATIONS (for friendship) - Part 3

It wasn't long before Finn and Zhen had formed their collaborative group for the camp. The other two members were a sweet couple in their 70s, who'd dropped acid before the party and were now tripping on the dance floor. Finn was taking care they didn't get into too much trouble. Zhen was enjoying every minute of their shenanigans, preserving it all for posterity on her VR recorder. The husband was shirtless on the dance floor. No one seemed to mind. He was chiselled to perfection, with washboard abs and arms that could probably crash a coconut if he flexed against one. His wife was nailing classic dance moves from the 20s that were popular on an extinct app called TikTok, back when social media was still a profit-based business and divided into all sorts of different platforms.

Finn was beyond exhausted when she stumbled back to her room and fell on the bed. Ares had to convince her to shower and brush her teeth, because she was ready to just burrow under the covers and pass out. About an hour later, her phone was ringing, which was impossible.

"Ares, why isn't everything on silent mode?" Finn asked, still groggy.

"I am sorry, Finn. I have experienced a security breach. I was attempting to fix it, but Zhen has convinced me that she is a friend and in need of your urgent assistance," Said her AI.

Finn lifted her head from her pillow, confused. "Zhen?"

"She is waiting outside your door, Finnegan."

She staggered out of her bed, yawning. "What happened to you calling me Finn?"

"Zhen says..."

"Ares, please stop listening to Zhen."

Finn opened her door. Zhen was laughing.

"Could you please stop messing with my Ares," Finn squinted against the bright lights of the hallway.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Sleeping. Like a normal person should be at two in the morning."

"Not during camp," Zhen said, like Finn had just broken a law that was punishable by death. She handed Finn a travel mug. "Here, drink this."

"What is it?"

"Don't worry. I wouldn't dose you with anything illegal," said Zhen, grinning. "Not unless you wanted me to."

"We have to be at the group workshop in like five hours."

"Exactly! Stop wasting time and drink up. It's a caffeine mix. It'll have you up in no time," said Zhen. She pushed past Finn into her room. "Then we've got to get you out of those ridiculous clothes."

"They're called pyjamas." Finn mumbled moodily. She sipped on the drink and decided she liked the taste enough to keep sipping.

"Who still wears clothes to bed?" asked Zhen, genuinely curious.

"I..." Finn started. The drink hit her harder than a wrecking ball. She was so awake and alert, it was slightly alarming. She looked down at the mug. "What the hell is this?"

"Like I said, a modified caffeine molecule I'm testing," Said Zhen. "How do you feel?"

"Like someone shot adrenaline into my chest!"

"Good," said Zhen, picking out clothes from Finn's wardrobe. She held up a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. The only clothes Finn owned that didn't have wearables incorporated into the fabric. "Wear this. Then we leave."

Zhen led them to one of the 3D printing rooms in the building. These printers were large enough to print house parts and usually required prior permission and lots of paperwork to use. Zhen had apparently hacked one of them and printed a two-person lounge raft. After retrieving the raft, they broke into Elk Grove High's swimming pool. It was now a large aquaponics greenhouse that fed the local community with rainbow trout, tilapia, catfish, and a ton of vegetables, while still being the preferred venue for local swim meets. They set the raft off on the natural pond swimming pool and laid back to enjoy the waterfall and water light display that Zhen had reprogramed to go with a playlist of classic songs from the 2020s.

"So many stars. Space is huge." Said Finn in a drawl.

They were lounging on the raft, looking up past the transparent greenhouse roof to the night sky. The playlist was over, and the light display had gone off, leaving behind a darkened greenhouse and a black bowl-like sky full of stars. Finn took a big pull from the joint that Zhen had brought, before passing it back to her.

Finn sighed and closed her eyes. She said, "If the universe is expanding, what's it expanding into? More space?"

Zhen was silent for a moment, enjoying her own draught of weed smoke. She slowly released it, watching the smoke form beautiful eddies around her face.

"Space doesn't exist." Said Zhen, her voice equally slow.

Finn turned to look at her, her eyes half closed. "You're a Simulationist."

Zhen took one more draught of the joint then turned to Finn, passing it back. "You're not?"

"I believe in a single consciousness shared by all of us. That our minds are constantly creating a mutual hallucination of reality born from the sensory information that we're constantly taking in," said Finn, a little too giggly. "But no, I don't think we live in a simulation."

"But there's so much logic to the simulationist theory," Zhen whined. "There's no way you can deny it all. It fits like a puzzle. Well, more like a riddle."

Finn giggled. "The Barber of Seville cuts all and only the hair of those who don't cut their own hair. Who cuts the hair of the Barber of Seville?"

Zhen smiled. "Exactly. Turtles, all the way down."