We were on the periphery of Barstow, where the desert’s analogue silence meets the city’s noise, when the digital drugs rewired our neural pathways.
The skyline on the horizon shimmered, each pulse synchronising with the shifting colours in my mind. Beside me, Vega’s eyes glazed over, her fingers twitching as if deciphering code from a parallel dimension.
Vega held the NeuroStim in her palm. The sleek electronic device was the latest innovation from the underground tech market and could mimic any high. The NeuroStim promised all the highs of traditional drugs without the mess of chemicals or the risk of overdose. Vega’s favourite was a simulation of cocaine, while I preferred the dreamy haze of digital opiates. Tonight, we tried something new, an experimental program called Neon Wave.
Our ride, an old and battered muscle car, cut through the dust as we sped toward the city—rock music blaring at top volume on the radio.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Jack, you feel it?” Vega’s voice was a distant echo.
“I must stop,” I said. I pushed hard on the brakes and screeched to a halt at an abandoned gas station, leaving a long trail of burnt rubber. We stumbled out of the car.
She handed me the NeuroStim. I held the device against my temple, and I took another hit. The device tapped into my brain’s reward circuitry. Dissolving the distinction between reality and illusion, the surrounding desert blurred into a pixelated mirage. The gritty outskirts of Barstow fractured into a kaleidoscope of light and sound; colours bled into one another. The dunes morphed into a maze of blue and pink waves. Each step was a leap into a new dimension.
“This is... intense,” I gasped. My senses dialled up to eleven in the shifting hyper-real landscape.
For a moment, we interlinked with our digital nirvana. We realised we were nothing more than data points in a larger algorithm. “It’s all code,” I said.
Vega looked at me, a knowing smile on her lips. “We have hacked reality,” she said.