NEO

Recently, I'd been feeling like the world around me is not real. It all started a few weeks ago and ever since then I've been feeling more and more disconnected. I'd spent nights on the internet reading articles on world events. I came an article that referenced something the government was keeping secrete; something called a Matrix. I started researching this Matrix and found that a lot of articles about it redacted. I picked up hacking skills solely to have access to files that the public didn't have access to. I found out that a guy named Trinity helped another guy named Morpheus hack into the IRS D-Base but, I wasn't too sure why. Though, really, I was just doing all this to avoid sleeping. During the day, my work seems to matter less and less to me. I'd never been a social person, so I don't have any work friends or any friends really. I'm not mean to anyone, I'm just not interested.

I woke with a start in my apartment with my head on my cluttered desk. I'd fallen asleep again but, when I looked at my computer, the screen was black, and it read:

Wake up Neo…

Neo's not my real name. It's my hacker alias. The screen went black again and the next message slowly typed on.

The Matrix has you…

I pressed esc; it didn't change anything.

Follow the white rabbit…

"Follow the white rabbit?" I mused. I tried to ctrl + alt + del my computer but it didn't work either.

Knock, knock, Neo.

I leaned in. That last one had me stumped.

Knock, knock! I jumped in my chair. Someone was literally knocking on my door. I looked to the door quickly and then back to my scree. How did it know?

"Who is it?" I called out.

"It's Choi."

Ah, Choi. He was a neighbor of mine. He occasionally asked me to help him out financially for… shady stuff. He felt indebted to me for covering for him once with the police. It was really a misunderstanding on my end but, ever since then he'd been trying to get me laid; because I guess he thought that was an appropriate way to pay me back?

I stared at my screen. It had gone black.

"Yeah, yeah." I said. I walked to the door and opened it. Choi was standing there with his girl of the week.

"Hey man, you got a twenty?" He asked. I rolled my eyes but went to my drawer and pulled out a couple of bills. I handed them to him through the crack of my door.

"Halleluiah!" He crowed enthusiastically. "You're my savior man! My own personal Jesus Christ." His girlfriend smiled and rested herself against him. I turned to close the door.

"Hey!" Choi added quickly. "You ok? You look whiter than usual."

"I'm…uh…" I struggled, "It's my computer, it uh… Do you ever get that feel where you're not sure if awake or still dreaming?" Choi nodded knowingly

"Mmhm." He said, "All the time. It's called mescaline. It's the only way to fly." I frowned. That's not what I meant, and it made me concerned for my sort of friend.

"Hey, it sounds to me like you need to unplug, man." Choi said. "You know, get some R & R?" He turned to his girlfriend. "Hey, what do you think Dujour? Should we take him with us?" I rolled my eyes again. I didn't really want to go to a loud obnoxious party.

Dujour's looked me over. "Definitely."

"No. I can't." I said. "I have work uh… tomorrow."

"Come on." Dujour said while draping herself over Choi. "It'll be fun. I promise."

I was about to refuse again when I noticed something on her shoulder that gave me chills. She had a tattoo of a white rabbit on her left shoulder blade.

Follow the white rabbit.

How did it know?

"Ok." I said. "I'll come."


So, the party wasn't that much fun. There was loud obnoxious music, people in tight leather dancing to it, and much more drunk or high people. I stood in a corner very slowly nursing a beer. I didn't really like alcohol, but I was didn't want to stay sober for this. I kept looking around for anything interesting. A young woman caught my eye. She was dressed in a burgundy dress and she was walking towards me. As she got closer I couldn't help but notice she had a very young face. I stared at her as she approached me. She stumbled on her heels a little and curtsied in front of me. That bit of cute made me smile.

"Hey." I said.

"Hello!" She said. She sounded so bubbly; so full of life. "You're so… I mean, hi! No, I mean um…" she pitched her voice lower. "Hello Neo."

Ok, I was officially intrigued.

"How do you know that name?" I asked.

She smiled "I know a lot of things about you."

"And who are you?"

"My name is trinity." She said. Woah, what did she say her name was?

"Wait." I said waving a hand at her. "The Trinity? The one that cracked the IRS D-Base?"

Her face lit up. "Wow! Yeah!" She said. "That was quite a while ago."

"Jesus." It slipped out. She looked confused for a second.

"What?" She sounded apprehensive.

"Oh nothing!" I assured her. "It's just that, I thought you were a guy." She looked relieved.

"Oh, yeah." She giggled. "Most guys do."

"Was that you on my computer?" I asked. "How did you do that?"

Trinity looked around, nervous all of a sudden. "Um. Right now, all I can tell you is that you're in danger. I brought you here to warn you."

"Of what?"

"They're watching you Neo." She said. "Th- - "

"Who is?" I cut her off.

"Please, listen." She stepped closer to me. I could smell her now; she was sweet like strawberries. My heart rate spiked as she whispered in my ear.

"I know why you're here, Neo. I know what you've been doing. I know why you hardly sleep, why you live alone and why night after night, you sit at your computer." I mind began to race. "You're looking for him. I know because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me he told me I wasn't really looking for him, I was looking for the answer. It's the question that drives us, Neo. It's the question that brought you here. You know the question. Right?"

"What is the Matrix?"

"Yes." She breathed, defiantly relieved. "The answer is out there, Neo. And it will find you, if you want it to."


Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep…

"Oh shit!" I slapped my alarm clock silent. 9:18. I was late again.

I work at a place called Metacortex. It's one of the top software companies in the world. When I arrived there I was called into my boss's office.

"Mr. Anderson." My boss said to me. "What's going on with you?" I stayed silent. "You're work quality has been going down these past few days and you've been late eight days in a row. I'm really concerned Mr. Anderson." He looked at me. I still had nothing to say. He shook his head. "Everyone here understands that they are part of a whole. If an employee has a problem, the company has a problem." He leaned forward. "Are you ok?" He remained silent, waiting for my response.

"Yeah." I lied. "I'm great!" My boss looked at me. I don't think he believed me.

"You have vacation days saved up and two sick days you can use." He said finally. "Look Thomas. You need to start doing better or I will have no choice but to fire you. I don't want to do that." He looked at me, worried. "Do I make myself clear?"

He did, transparently so. He thought that I was a little sick; that I needed a few days off. But that wasn't it. Nothing was real and nothing in this world mattered.

"Yes sir." I lied again. "Perfectly clear."

Once I was back to my desk, I returned to researching the Matrix. I had stopped caring about my work completely at this point. I had barely started when a delivery man came to my cubicle.

"Thomas Anderson?"

I looked up. "Yeah, that's me." He came to me and offered a parcel. "I didn't order anything."

"Oh." The delivery man said. "It's a gift."

I signed for it.

"Have a nice day!" He said as he left. I stared at him as he left. For some reason, I kind of didn't want him to have a nice day. I ripped open the parcel and dumped its contents on to my hand. It was a black flip phone.

Riiiiiiing!

I held the phone away from him. It rang the moment it was in my hand, like it knew. I answered it.

"Hello?" I asked hesitantly.

"Hello, Neo. Do you know who this is?" I my head spun. I had to lean on my desk.

"Morpheus?" I breathed.

"Yes. I've been looking for you. I don't' know if your ready to see what I want to show you, but unfortunately, you and I have run out of time." I didn't know I'd been living on borrowed time. "They're coming for you, Neo, and I don't know what they're going to do." I tried to remain calm.

"Who's coming for me?"

"Stand up and see for yourself." They were here? Right now?

"Like, right now?" I squeaked.

"Yes. Right now."

Trembling, I slowly peeked over my cubby.

"Do it slowly." Morpheus, instructed. "The elevator." I looked. By the elevator, three men dressed in black suites, wearing sunglasses were talking to the secretary. She nodded politely and pointed right at me! In unison the three men looked at me. My heart stopped, and I dropped to the ground.

"Oh, shit!" I whispered.

"Yes."

"What do they want from me." I tried and failed to not sound frantic. I knew what they wanted. I had broken the law by reading redacted articles.

"I don't know, but if you don't want to find out, I suggest you get out of there."

"How?" I asked.

"I can guide you and help you, but you must do exactly as you say."

"Ok." I agreed.

"The cubicle across from you is empty."

I paced back and forth nervously. "What if they- -"

"Go!" Now!"

I rushed across into the empty cubicle. I hid in the closest corner to me.

"Stay here for just a moment."

I nodded. I heard someone talking. It sounded like… me?

"I don't have anything to tell you guys." My voice said. "I'm just here, doing my job."

"We would like to have a word with you. Please come with us." One of the men said.

"When I tell you, go to the end of the row, to the office at the end of the hall. Stay as low as you can." I nodded, too scared to make any noise.

(!- - breath - -)

(!- - breath - -)

I looked to the direction of my cubicle.

"Go, now." I quickly squatted out and almost ran into the police officer who had escorted the mysterious men. They were trying to persuade a very realistic hologram (or something) of me to come with them but, fake me wasn't having it apparently.

I scuttled, bent over, to the end of the row and passed Bill, making a photocopy. I closed myself in the empty office, still squatting; afraid to break the 'stay as low as you can' rule.

"Good. Now, outside there is a scaffold."

(!- - breath - -)

(!- - breath - -)

"How do you know all this?" I asked.

"We don't have time, Neo. To your left, there's a window. Go to it."

I stood up and walked to it.

"Open it."

I opened it.

"You can use the scaffold to get to the roof."

I leapt away from the window. "What? No way! This is crazy!" I hissed into the phone.

"There are 2 ways out of this building. One is that scaffold, the other is in their custody. You take a chance either way. I leave it to you."

(!- - click! - -)

I looked at my phone and began to panic a little. This is insane. But then I thought. I care about this. All this emotion and panic; it reminded me that at some point in my life, things had brought meaning to my life. These past few weeks had drained the significance out of everything. I'd been getting by on pleasantries and half-assed small talk but, now I really wanted to see how this would end.

I walked to the window, climbed out onto the ledge and peeked over the edge. It was a pretty steep fall. I'll tell you that. I flinched back and braced myself. I waddled onto the ledge and tried to make my way to the scaffold. There was a metal pillar that blocked my way. I tried to climb around it but in the struggle, I dropped my phone and watched as it plummeted. I didn't even see it hit the ground. It had gotten too small to be seen by then. Suddenly my whole being began to scream "I don't want to die! I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" I clung to the pillar with my eyes squeezed tight.

"I- -! I can't do this." I choked.