Don't own anything. In the timeline of the series. Oneshot.
If there was anything wrong, he wasn't letting on.
"Should we call?" I asked, this was my second foray into the matrix, and I was scarred out of my mind.
"Shhh," he whispered while placing his index finger over his lips. He was seasoned. After 3 years being on the Becon, he was seasoned at dealing with the dangers of moving in and out of the Matrix.
But, me, I was scarred.
I clutched my handgun resting on my hip, knowing that if it were an agent we were hiding from the gun would do no good. And knowing that if it was an agent the department store between us had an exit.
"When I move, you move," he said while his eyes darted back and forth down the quiet street. Weren't there supposed to be more people here, I thought, but decided to keep the question to myself as Rey was already moving forward.
He stood up slowly, still monitoring the street with his cautious eye. I stood with him, handgun ready, heart pounding so loud in my ears I thought he would hear me.
"Go," he said. And in one quick moment my feet were pounding the pavement. Buildings whipping passed me, as I kept my eyes focused on Rey as he ran faster than ever towards our exit. I hadn't been here long before I understood that when you're here, it's your life on the line. That when you're inside, when you've got a mission, you do it and get out. No sightseeing, no lollygagging—get the job done and go.
Please let us make it, please no…
He was on the ground before I could catch myself. My foot tripped, my face hit the pavement, and the taste of metal and salt filled my mouth. I turned quick, pulled the gun around to face the agent I though had shot at us. But, nothing, nothing was there.
"Rey," I called. "Rey, get up, let's go." I said this all while pacing the alley with my eyes. No sound from him, I looked over to see what was wrong.
He let out a defeated sigh, "They have snipers now," he said in a kind of daze. Frantically, I looked him up and down to see where he was wounded. "They're smarter than I thought, and yet—" he coughed up blood, and I realized where the bullet went. I ripped off his jacket, and starting trying to stop the blood pouring out of him from his stomach.
"Just get up, c'mon, please," I started, but knew that I wasn't strong enough to carry him, and he wasn't strong enough to walk.
He looked right at me when we both realized that he wasn't going to make the exit. I began to tear up.
"Stop," he began, "this is the risk we take, this is the price for freedom." His wisdom pushed past his pain and the bleakness of his future. He told me in that statement that I was to suck it up and get the hell out of here.
I looked at him, then the door to the entrance of the store. "It's on the first floor," he began, but I remembered.
"I know," I held on to his hand until I realized that the shooter hadn't shot again.
Rey followed my eyes to the building we believed the shot came from. Nothing there. My confusion must have shown on my face. "You have to go."
"But, there's no one." I said as I stood up to see better.
I scanned the alley again, up and down, back and forth. Then, a shot. I moved quicker than I thought and it grazed my leg. The fear was rising up in me again, and I began to realize that I faced the same fate as Rey.
"I can't make it out of here," I said, voice shaking, as bullets flew past our heads.
"You can and you will," Rey starred at me. The statement was a command, not a word of encouragement. "Now, go!"
With a final nod, I stood and began running towards the door. I turned as I reached the door, seeing that Rey had garnered enough strength to sit up and shoot his last bullets at the approaching agents. Of course no match, they made short order of my mentor. And I darted into the store as their bullets reached the door. I locked the door, and gazed down at my hands covered in blood. They'd got me. And even in that instance, as I fell to the floor, guilt rising up in me, fear covering my resolution, I knew it wasn't a fatal shot.
Get up, it's not fatal. GET THE FUCK UP!
The phone rang, and sounded like angels blowing trumpets in my triumph. I stood up, collecting myself, just as the agents began beating the door down. I knew where the ring was coming from, and my mind made up—I was getting out of here.
Running to the end of the hall, I found the door to the room. Opening the door hearing shots as the agents ran after me. Stepping inside I saw the landline on the wall—ringing, calling me to freedom. Calling me to my real life.
The world seemed to slow as I ran over to the phone, picked it up, and felt my real life coming back as I took a breath. I saw them, defeated, as I passed from their falsified world, from their mind-fucked reality, into my true self and genuine certainty—I'd did it, I got out.