Stories of the Matrix,
Dreams by Tatiana Hahn
(The Matrix is copyrighted to Warner Bro. Entertainment and the Wachowski Brothers, this story is copyrighted to Tatiana Hahn, all characters and stories here in belong souly to her)
Its been 17 days sense I began running, 17 days sense things stopped making sense, 17 days sense everything I knew shattered into little nightmares, figments of something I understood. I woke up 17 days ago, and some where in the back of my mind I wish I hadnÕt. I remember how it was, what the world was to me then, how happy the simplest thing made me, and how happy the thought of seeing him again made me feel.
His name is Frank, I never knew his last name and I still donÕt, I donÕt know what drew me to him, other then his ability to see the things I couldnÕt to predict things, to know what was going to happen, minutes, hours even days before it happened. I remember in the beginning it was almost a joke, almost like a television show, if you had any questions you went to Frank. Frank looks like a television show hero, not the little pretty boy, but the rugged, almost ÒMacGyverÓ style hero. He has short brown hair, and brown eyes, his skin is a little worn with age, but its never the skin that draws a woman in, its always the eyes. He has the most amazing eyes, you look at him, and you swear he can see strait into your soul. I knew the first time I saw him he would mean something to me, if nothing more then a girlish style crush, I knew he would mean something to me. That was over three months ago, way before the chaos began.
He stayed in the office just above mine, well not mine, but the one I worked in, I hated my job, every moment of it, ever second I spent sitting at that desk, typing things into to that computer, pretending like I gave a shit about doing anything, I sat at that desk and typed in figures, and wrote stupid reports, for things that were way over my head. I handed them to some one who retyped in the same info, checked the report, and handed it to some one who understood. It was the most pointless job in the entire world, Above us, was a computer company, one of the soft-wear designers used to follow me around, take breaks at the same time I would, get off work at the same time I would, things like that. His name was Joe, Joe was a simple enough looking guy, shaggy dark hair, and dark eyes, his skin was always kind of oily looking, and he just seemed like a computer programmer, kind of geeky, but cute in his own way. I was never interested in him more then a friend and some one around I could talk with. One afternoon he invited me up to his office, to meet his friend, Frank. He told me he had met Frank a while ago, and they were good friends, and he wanted to introduce me to him. I had heard about Frank from some of the other ladies in the building who had Ôrun into himÕ although what I was able to gather, is no one had been taken meet Frank, they had just run into him by chance, I guessed I was special.
Frank by the time I met him already had a following, already had a group of women swooning over him, and was already telling people things he knew about there lives that he could never know. I walked up those stairs that day to meet him, and the first thing he did, was smile at me, he looked past all the other, more ÔattractiveÕ woman, and looked at me, and smiled. I melted, it was like a movie, he just smiled at me, and I knew I wanted to know him, I knew I wanted to be around him.
Frank told stories, he told the best stories, about the world we lived in, about the past, about the future, about everything, and I could have listened to him every day, every minute, but I had to work. Every free moment I had, when I wasnÕt working, when I wasnÕt doing things I should have been doing, I spent my time listening to Frank. I asked my friend, the soft-wear designed, Joe, where Frank stayed; he explained to me that his friend stayed in the office, with his dog. I found that a little odd, but I dealt with it, because in all honesty I really didnÕt care where he stayed. I found myself spending more and more time with Frank, and with Joe, and with the dog, a black a white dog that looked something like a sheep dog. I suppose the fact that an soft-wear firm allowed a man and his dog to stay in there office should have been a warning flag, should have forced me to question things, but again I didnÕt care.
It was soon after that, that Frank began warning people of impending doom, telling them that there lives were in danger, for one reason or another. One lady, he warned if she went on the freeway to work, she would be in 5-car pile up and die. She shrugged it off, but the next day when she came into work told us she couldnÕt bring herself to take the freeway, that Frank had frightened her so much, she just couldnÕt do it. A major 4-car accident happened that day; all the people involved were dead. Frank had saved her life, and everyone knew it. Although there were still a few disbelievers the rest of us, knew our own new kind of truth that Frank was a seer, a real psychic, not like the ones you hear about on television, but a real one.
One afternoon Frank began to warn me things were going to change, and I thought in my ignorance that he meant he was going to ask me out, or something, I had no idea the ramifications of what he meant. He told me people would be coming, and asking questions, when I asked him why, Joe shut him up and told me to leave. I figured it was just some weird thing about housing violations in an office building, and Joe just didnÕt want me to say anything. So I didnÕt, I just went on with my happy little life and went back to work. FrankÕs popularity grew among the people at work, all of them talked non-stop about Frank, and I in some ways felt threatened by all the talk, and in another way felt special, that he looked at me the way he did. With in three days, people showed up, asking questions, just like Frank said they would, three men in nice suits who talked like no was listening.
They questioned me last, as though I knew something the others didnÕt, but instead of asking me about Frank, like I knew they were going to, they spent most of there time talking about Joe. Asking me what I knew about him, asking me if I wanted to see him hurt, I couldnÕt understand what was going on. They asked me finally about Frank, I explained, he was JoeÕs friend, and that was all I knew. They threatened me, it was then that I knew there was something more going on here, but I had no idea what it was. I thought maybe Frank was a fugitive or something, and Joe was harboring him. I tried to explain the little that I knew, and they finally believed me and just at once let me go. I walked out of the office, and there was JoeÉ.
Joe had been beaten beyond the point of recognition, his nose was bloody, his arms bruised, his breathing labored. I ran to him, he was, and had been, my best friend, for a long time now, I never understood that until I saw him lying there dying. I grabbed hold of him and held him, he told me that the three men had beaten him that they wanted him dead, but he had to tell me something. I told him that it would be all right, that I would stay with him, but he spoke to me anyway, his words still as clear now as they were then.
ÒAlexÓ he called me, he always called me Alex, no one else did, I always preferred to be called Alexia but I let him get away with it. ÒFrank isnÕt realÉ. Frank is a computer Program; I created him, for you. You never looked me, not the way I wanted you too, so I made him, so I could know, if nothing else you would look at someoneÉ I trusted that way.Ó I almost dropped him, I couldnÕt believe what he was telling me, I had touched Frank, I knew he was real, I knew he wasnÕt a computer program, I knewÉ.
ÒHe loaded onto about a thousand different DisksÉÓ Joe went on ÒBut if they find them, they will destroy them, you have to find one, and keep it, you have tooÓ I tried to say something, anything to him, anything to get him to explain, but he wouldnÕt let me. He simply stated, and IÕll never forget it as long as I live.
ÒThey donÕt want him, they think he knows about them, they will kill him, and you if they have the chance, donÕt let themÉ donÕt let theÉ. matrixÉÓ And he died there in my arms, and I held him, and I cried, and I cried. When I smelled it, fire, they were burning the office. I had to go, I had to know the truth, and I left my best friends body there to burn. I ran up the stairs to the computer company, it was up in flames, and there was nothing left, but oneÉ blue disk, it was like no disk I had ever seen, and on it, it said ÒFrankÓ.
Oh godÉ. He wasnÕt lying or delusional, he was telling the truth, the man I had fallen for was nothing more then a computer program, what did this all mean? I grabbed the disk, when she saw me, who ever it was that was burning the office, she saw me, tall, dark haired Asian looking woman, who looked right at me, and laughed, she laughed and told me to hand over the disk, I told her no, and I ran. She called herself the Goddess, the only real thing in this world. She laughed, this questionable frightening laugh that sounded like it rose from the pits of hell. I ran as fast I could to get away from her, to be safe, from what ever she was, I headed down the stairs to the exit.
The building shifted, it was the strangest thing I had ever experienced in my life. The building was suddenly somewhere I had never been before. I ran through it, I looked at it, I opened a door, and suddenly, I was in a recording studio, with no other exits. The lights on, the place empty, and I was alone, behind a locked door. There had to be somethingÉ some reason I was here but I couldnÕt figure out why. Like it had been planned before hand, I had no where to go, but back out that door where she was ready to tear me apart, take the disk, and destroy Frank. I couldnÕt let them, I couldnÕt let them kill him, they already killed Joe, I couldnÕt let them kill him too, no matter what he was, and I couldnÕt let them. I had to get out, I had to get free, I had to get away from here, oneÉ. Window. I hadnÕt noticed it before, like it wasnÕt there before, the whole place kept changing.
If I were going to die, I would take my own life, and take Frank with me, I ran full force at the window, I felt the glass tear through my skin, I felt the blood, drip down my arms, drip down my skin, I could feel it all, I could feel it and I could feel myself falling, the air pushing hard against my skin, I heard her from above me, laughing, and then it stopped, the laughing stopped, and the air, stopped pushing against me. I looked up and he was there, he caught me.
I grabbed hold of him, and he began to run, the dog still at his side, we ran as fast as we could, getting away from where we were, he held me so close as we ran, and I held on, I could smell him, he couldnÕt not be real, he couldnÕt be a program, how could I love something that wasnÕt even human?
We ran for I donÕt know how many hours, we ended up here, in this pit of hell, a little place under a freeway bridge, where they wouldnÕt be able to find us for a while. Where I could rest, and he could take care of me, at least for a while. I asked him if it were true, if he were nothing more then a computer program, and he told me, what I feared the most, that it was trueÉ that Joe had made him. I asked him how it was possible, how things like this were possible, and he explained the best he could, things about computers, things that the woman who chased me was a program, that the men who killed Joe were a computer program.
That Joe had found a backdoor into a system that people were never supposed to know about, it was some kind of grand system, called the Matrix. The Matrix, just like Joe had talked about, just like he said before he died. It was, as I had feared, it was all-true. Frank tried to explain the matrix to me but he couldnÕt, he could never make it, make sense, all he could explain was that I was in danger for knowing the things that I did. He showed me how to reload the disk he was on, onto a different server if the secret one he was on, was ever tampered with, he told me it wouldnÕt be, because of the way things were, he was loaded onto an untouchable system, what ever that meant. I told him I loved him, and I knew he couldnÕt feel the same way back. He told me he did, he told me he loved me, and he didnÕt know for sure how or why it was possible, but it just was. It didnÕt matter any more after that what he said, or what anyone said, he loved me, it was enough.
That was 17 days ago today, 17 days ago I was in love with a man, today IÕm in love with a computer program, which was made to love me, by my best friend, who was killed because of him. 17 days ago I was normal, now I have scarsÉ more then physical ones, ones that will never heal, not as long as we both exist in this world, what ever it is.