Thaila Davies was a young woman living in a big unforgiving city. Some people said she was a nobody, just went around with her head down staring at the pavement, because she knew... she knew that her life around her was an elaborate lie.
She couldn't remember how she came to this conclusion, maybe it was because of the dreams she had had since she was a teenager about another world where everybody on the planet was kept asleep in these pods for some reason. She never did find out why because a huge insect machine would chase her and she would fall down a cliff into a pod. That's also when she would wake up.
Her family had disowned her because of it, thinking she was crazy and she didn't care because deep down she knew that they weren't really her family. She didn't have no family. No one did.
Thaila moved to the city when the dreams began to get too much. She went to see a shrink who told her to express these dreams in another form. She choose to paint them. A collector had even offered to buy some of her pieces because he thought that they would fit in well with his futurist collection. Thaila never saw it as the future but as the present.
She was sitting in a cafe one day, staring out the window at the people walking along mindlessly. Living out their lives when she felt a presence by her. She looked to the left and saw a guy, about her age wearing a black leather duster and had his blond hair spiked. He was staring right at her.
Feeling uncomfortable, she left the money for her coffee and went outside. The guy followed her. Now she was curious. She stopped walking and he stood by her side.
"Thank god, I thought I was going to have to follow you through the city." He said with a smile.
"Why are you following me?" She asked but she wasn't looking at him but at the traffic going by.
"I'm here to warn you."
Now she looked at him, "Warn me about what?"
"They are watching you Thaila."
She stepped back.
"How do you know my name? Who is watching me?"
"I can't speak to you out in the open, it's too dangerous for the both of us."
"Well sorry but you might know who I am but I haven't got a clue who you are so I'm not going to go any where quiet with you. Understand?" She began walking away.
"My name is Vortex" he said as he followed her.
"Doesn't mean I'm going to go with you still."
"Please Thaila I'm running out of time, if they find me then they will kill you too, you have got to believe me."
At that Thaila stopped instantly. All her life all she ever wanted was some one to believe her about her dreams and she knew what it was like to not be taken seriously.
"Okay, I'll go some where quiet with you but be warned, I have the necessary fighting skills. You have to, to live here by yourself."
Vortex smiled, he liked this girl already. "Of course" and they went to a park and sat on a bench.
"So you have been sent to warn me about some thing?" She asked.
"Yes. Look I'm sorry about all this cloak and dagger stuff but it's not safe for me to be here any more."
"Be where?"
"The Matrix."
Thaila got up, she had heard that word before and it frightened her because she didn't know where she had heard it. She started running.
"Thaila where are you going?! Please come back! THAILA!!" Vortex shouted and ran after her but his phone rang.
"They've found you Vort, You better get your arse back to the exit now!" said Gypsy the operator.
"I can't, Thaila ran off, she got real scared, I think-" a bullet then whizzed passed his head.
"Oh shit!"
He looked behind and saw the Agents after him, Vortex had no option but to run.
"Gyps I need a closer exit!" he yelled in to the phone.
"All right! all right...got one! 40 Staton way, phone booth outside the petrol station."
"Okay thanks"
Vortex had to dodge though the crowded streets but from no where the Agents would appear, always in front of him with reloaded guns. Occasionally He got a shot at them but he hit nothing but an 'innocent' spectator.
He heard ringing and could see the phone booth. He was nearly there.
'I'm going to make it' he thought and that's when he came face to face with an Agent and his gun.
The last thing Vortex saw was the flash as the bullet left the pistol and entered his skull..
Once, twice, three times the Agent pulled the trigger and sent bullets through the rebels body before he let it fall to the floor in 'it's' blood.
How he hated them.
His hand went to his ear and listened to the orders from the system. It was now time to deal with the contact.
In a green flash the Agent left leaving behind a confused middle aged guy. The dead body of Vortex was no where to be seen.
Thaila kept running till she made it back to her apartment and she realised that no one was following her. 'Vortex must have given up, what sort of a name is Vortex any way?' She thought to herself.
She decided to take the elevator instead of the stairs as she was worn out from running. As she walked down the hall way she saw that her door had been left ajar and she was sure that she had locked it before she left...
Silently she went into her apartment and picked up the umbrella by the door for protection.
She crept towards her front room, brella raised so that she could swing it at who ever was in there. Thaila could hear her heart pounding and she was sure that the other person could as well.
She gulped down her fear and without looking, swung her umbrella with a great force.
It hit something solid and stopped.
Thaila looked and saw a man dressed in a suit, wearing sunglasses in doors and had a ear piece in. You could clearly see the curly wire running underneath the collar of his shirt. She also noticed he had grabbed hold of the umbrella. As if he knew she was going to hit him with it...
"I don't think that's wise Ms Davies, you don't want someone to get hurt."
Thaila was dumb struck, how did he get in to her apartment? She decided to ask.
"H-how did you get in?.. No wait- forget that, who are you?"
"I'm Smith, Agent Smith" he removed the umbrella from Thaila and leaned it against the wall.
"You're an Agent? For what, the FBI?"
"Ms Davies if you would take a seat I will answer some of your questions."
She nodded her head, sitting down sounded good as too much was happening and she was beginning to get a head ache and by the look of Smith it seemed like it might be getting worse.
He sat in an arm chair opposite her and stared at her behind his shades. Thaila felt uncomfortable.
'First Vortex and now this guy. Well at least Vortex was able to smile.' She thought and she found it amusing but kept herself from laughing.
"Okay so what are you doing here?" she finally asked.
"I am here because I believe you could help us Ms Davies, you see we know that a man named Vortex has been bothering you."
"Yeah but I got rid of him."
"Indeed, he will not bother you again you can be sure of that but it doesn't mean that it won't stop others."
"Others?"
"Vortex was part of a hacker terrorist group that has been causing a lot of nuisance to the local authorities."
"But what do they want with me? I'm not a hacker, I'm an artist."
Smith looked at one of her paintings on the wall which showed a human in a pod which was filled with a pink gelatine substance.
"Yes Ms Davies, that is why they want you."
Thaila was finding it hard to concentrate, this Agent was driving her mad, why does he insist on wearing his sunglasses inside? It wasn't even sunny outside, plus the way that he talked was even more annoying, he held his syllables for way too long in her opinion and was mono-tone.
'Maybe that's the way the agency teaches them to speak.' she thought but then decided to pay attention, there was still so much she want to know.
"I still don't understand, My paintings aren't that great."
"It isn't you skills as and artist they are interested in but the subject you paint about. The other world where humans are in a sleep that they can't wake up from. They believe that it will help them in their cause to fight against certain organisations which help people survive."
"But these paintings are just from my over active imagination, there are many artist who paint the same thing."
Smith then removed his sunglasses and Thaila thought 'thank god' as she was about take them off, she hated not being able to see his eyes and when she did look into them she saw that they were an un-natural ice blue which made her blood run cold.
"Yet again Ms Davies you are missing the point entirely. It is because of your dreams that the terrorists are interested in you. They want you to help them stop this system which they believe enslaves every human being on this planet which is called the Matrix."
Thaila's heart stopped beating. She was finally thinking that this was perhaps the 'they' who Vortex was trying to warn her about. If only she had listened to him instead of running off.
"I don't know what you are talking about." she said, she wanted Smith gone in a hurry, then she could get back to living her life.
Smith leaned forward. "I think you do. And they know this and they want you to join them."
"But I don't want to join them! I want nothing to do with them!"
"Calm down Ms Davies, that is why we want to help you by you helping us catch them."
"And then everything will go back the way it was? You will leave me alone?"
"Yes.."
"Fine. What is it that you want me to do?"
"You will receive a phone call from another hacker asking to meet, you will go with them and we will deal with everything else."
"That's it.. just go with them?"
"We will be able to track you at all times, you won't be in any danger."
"Hmm I'm not entirely happy with this but if it will get them off my back then I'll do it."
"I'm glad to hear you say that Ms Davies. Of course we are willing to make it worth you while, give you anything you want, even stop you from having the dreams."
"You can't promise me that."
"Yes I can."
Thaila didn't know what to say, to no longer have the dreams would be a blessing.
She looked right into his eyes.
"I want to get rid of these dreams."
"Then if everything goes to plan that's what will happen."
In a fluid motion Smith got up, put on his shades and walked to the door. "Good night Ms Davies. Oh I suggest investing on a better door lock." With that Smith walked out of her apartment and Thaila was able to think about what had just happened.
******
"Oh shit"
"Gypsy what happened?"
"He didn't make it." was all she had to say, Topaz closed her eyes, not again.
"That's two in less than a week, either we are getting careless or they are getting better."
"It's what happens Topaz, we always put ourselves in danger when ever we go in to the Matrix." Said Space as he covered up Vortex's lifeless body.
"I know but god dammit it's just too much to take. We couldn't even get to talk to Thaila."
"Vortex said she was pretty freaked, I don't think we are going to get through to her." said Gypsy, turning her attention back to the screens.
"We have to. We can't give up on her now. I'm going to contact Mainframe, maybe he can help us get through to her."
******
Thaila looked around her in amazement. She was standing on a kind of plateau and all around her was thick black metal stems sprouting up from the ground and reaching endlessly towards a sky which was thick in cloud and lightning.
Attached to the stems were capsules filled with a pink goo. Each had a human inside that had wires coming out of their arms and legs. They had no hair what so ever.
There were millions of them.
Electricity arced in bright flashes and it made Thaila's hair stand up on end, she could feel it buzz through her body.
"It's amazing isn't it?"
Thaila immediately recognised that voice and looked over to see Agent Smith walking towards her. What was he doing here?
"Billions of people in an eternal slumber, unaware of the world around them." He said, it made Thaila shiver, she felt dizzy as she looked up.
She dropped her head and breathed in heavily, but when she looked back at Smith he was no longer there but a insect machine which was twice her size.
It seized hold of Thaila by her waist and lifted her into the air and took her up towards the pods. Thaila screamed and banged her fists at the machines mandibles but it just held onto her tighter.
The machine hovered above a pod which contained a young woman, although it was hard to tell seeing as she had no hair.
"Look familiar?" Said the machine but it's voice sounded like Smith only more hissed.
Thaila looked closely at the dormant figure and discovered that it was her in the pod, asleep.
"Oh my god!" she cried and then she heard the sound of a phone ringing. The machine let go of her and she began falling.
Thaila screamed and bolted up right from her bed. Sweat was trickling down her face and back.
She closed her eyes and sighed deeply. It was a dream.
Thaila then became aware of the shrill of her phone ringing. Slowly she got out of bed and answered the phone.
"H-hello?"
"Hello Thaila, this is Mainframe."
Thaila's eyes widened, it was another hacker. Smith was right.
"What do you want?"
"Thaila we need talk about your dreams that you have had since you were thirteen. We can help you find out what they mean."
In a whisper Thaila said.
"What do you know about my dreams?"
"That they have almost been driving you insane, that you believe that they are real but no one will believe you."
"That Vortex told you this didn't he?"
"Thaila, Vortex is dead. He was shot."
"Oh no!.. Mainframe I want to find out what is going on."
"Okay, meet us by the Hamsted bridge."
With that Mainframe hung up and Thaila got changed.
Thaila felt like everyone was watching her as she walked to the bridge, the feeling of paranoia was over whelming.
She only had to wait a couple of seconds when a black Lincoln Continental pulled up and the back suicide door opened to reveal a woman wearing tight black leather and short blond hair.
"Get in."
Thaila closed the door and saw that there were two people up front, the driver didn't bother looking at her but she could see he had his hair in a pony tail and was wearing tinted blue sunglasses- at night. Next to him was another girl with shoulder length hair, she turned around and aimed a gun at Thaila.
"What the hell?"
"Just sit there and don't move, understood Coppertop?"
"Don't mind Jinx, she's just for our protection." said the woman with the blond hair.
"OK. Um who are you?"
"I'm Topaz, the guy driving is Space."
He nodded as he looked at her in the mirror and Thaila smiled, he reminded her of Vortex.
"Where are we going?" She asked, looking out the window as the streets went by.
"Some where that will be safe for us to talk."
Thaila kept quiet and just stared down the barrel of the gun like it was a third eye. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea...
The car pulled up outside an old warehouse and Thaila looked up at it and gulped, this wasn't looking good at all.
Topaz took her inside and a man was waiting for them.
'These terrorists sure have a thing for black leather and sunglasses,' she thought.
"Thaila, take a seat. I am Mainframe."
She shook his hand and than sat on one of the arm chairs, Mainframe did the same.
"Okay Mainframe, I want to know what the hell is going on. I want to know how you know about my dreams."
"Of course. Thaila, the reason why we have brought you here is because we want to help you."
"Help me? What by putting a gun to my head?"
"It was necessary. Thaila have you been contacted by anyone else other that Vortex?"
"Only you" she lied.
"Good. Thaila your dreams aren't really dreams at all. You know this to be true."
"They are real?"
"Yes, more real than the world around you. What I tell you next is going to be very hard for you to contemplate but I will try to make it easy for you to understand... You have painted some of the dreams you have had which feature humans in a deep sleep surrounded by machines, what you don't know is that those humans are actually here, in the Matrix."
Thaila froze, there was that word again. Mainframe noticed that she had tensed up.
"Please Thaila, just listen to what I have to say."
"Okay."
Mainframe breathed in deeply, "those people in the pods are real, even you at this very moment are in one but you don't know because this world, the Matrix is blinding you from the truth."
Thaila was scared because for some reason she knew that Mainframe was speaking the truth.
"This.. this is all a lie?"
"Yes. Some how and we are not sure how you have been able to see past the Matrix and see what the world is really like."
Thaila didn't know what to say.
"It can't be true, it just can't be. It's too far out..."
"That's why no one can be told what the Matrix is, they have to see it for them selves. Do you want to know what it is."
Thaila looked around her, this was getting way to out of hand but Smith did say to go with them.
"Yes I doooo" Thaila couldn't control her speech, it ended up as a scream as she watched her body writhe and change.
"Oh shit!" Yelled Mainframe, getting up from the chair as he watched Thaila be replaced by an Agent.
'It was a trap' he thought and began running, the agent started shooting.
Mainframe ran past the others.
"It's an Agent!" He shouted, "RUN!!"
They didn't need telling twice and followed him with the Agent close behind them.
They got into a car and sped away but another car came up behind them.
"I can't lose them!" cried Space as he took sharp corners but the Agents kept up with him and were now shooting at them.
"Take a right down here!" yelled Topaz as she tried shooting at the Agents car, "We might be able to get lost in the traffic."
Space took her advice and swerved in and out of the cars travelling along. Mainframes phone was ringing.
"I've got an exit for you, Broads and taylors, old department store." said Gypsy.
"Good" and Mainframe told Space where to go.
The Agents were finding it hard to stay close to them now which gave the resistance an advantage and Space skidded to a stop outside the store.
The phone was ringing already and they exited.
******
Thaila's head was thumping and she slowly lifted her head to discover she was in a windowless white room sitting on a very uncomfortable chair in front of a black desk. Opposite was another chair.
What the hell was she doing there? The last thing she could remember was Mainframe asking her is she wanted to know what the Matrix was.
Thaila got up and walked over to the door and tried to open it but as she feared it was locked.
She backed away from the door and looked for another way out but there was none.
'Where am I?' she asked herself and she sat on the floor and waited in fear.
A couple of minutes passed before the door opened and Thaila saw someone familiar walk in.
"Smith. What the hell is going on?" She asked standing up.
Behind Smith was two more Agents, Brown and Jones they walked around Thaila, who eyed them suspiciously, and stood against the wall. Smith however sat down at the table and clasped his hands together.
"Ms Davies take a seat."
Hesitantly Thaila sat down and stared at Smith. This just didn't feel right.
"We said we would make it so that you wouldn't remember any of this Ms Davies, even make it so you no longer have any dreams but first we have some questions which need to be answered and it would be wise if you co-operated."
Thaila started to shake, this wasn't making any sense. Smith removed his shades and placed them on the table and leaned forward as he spoke.
"What did the resistance say to you?"
Thaila didn't know what to say at first, "Do you mean Mainframe? He told me what I already knew from my dreams, that this world is a lie.. to blind us from the truth. I never found out what that truth was, but if it is anything like my dreams then I really don't want to know."
Thaila stole a quick glance at the two Agents behind her, she didn't feel comfortable in their presence. Smith next words snapped her back to his attention.
"Yet you would have gone with them to find out.."
"You said that I had to go with them so I was.. and then I started screaming and after that I can't remember what happened. Did you show up and imprison them or something?"
"Yes but unfortunately they escaped."
"You're still going to stop the dreams though right? I can't live with them any more."
"Of course Ms Davies, we wouldn't allow you to live otherwise."
Thaila felt as if the room had shrunk considerably, what the hell was that suppose to mean? Was they going to kill her?
Smith replaced his shades and said, "When you wake up all this will be forgotten, you're life will be back to normal and will have never of heard of the word 'Matrix'."
"I'm holding to you to that." Said Thaila before Agent Brown injected her in the neck and she was out cold.
******
Mainframe waited as the old woman known to them as the Oracle finished up in the kitchen and sat down next to the little table. She smiled warmly.
"You look so sad Mainframe, surely it can't be that bad."
"I made a terrible mistake and nearly endangered the lives of my friends. I thought we had finally found the one but the Agents had got to her first. I went about it all wrong, we scared her."
"Mainframe she was not the One, the One will be a man and will be found by Morpheus and not you. You can't beat yourself up over every failed mission."
Mainframe looked out the window he didn't want to except the fact that Thaila was a failed mission.
"Mainframe I didn't tell you this when I first spoke to you but I now believe that it is the right time. One day you will be the captain of a hover-craft ship and a couple of years after that you will come across one person who will be different from the rest. They won't seem that way at first but slowly you will discover that this person will be important in the end of the Matrix. Not as powerful as the One will be but will still be an asset to the resistance all the same."
Mainframe didn't know what to say to this. He was to become a Captain of a ship! And have some one special as one of his crew.
"It won't be for a couple of years yet Mainframe and at some point you'll even think that what I'm saying to will not come to pass but it will."
Mainframe then got a call from his operator saying it was time to leave, Mainframe got up to go.
"Mainframe, leave Thaila alone, she can no longer be helped."
He looked shocked, "did they kill her?"
The Oracle shook her head, "No she's still alive but she is living another life, one where the Matrix does not exist for her."
"And I so sure we could have helped her. Oh well I suppose you can't win them all right?"
******
Thaila awoke to the sound of her alarm, she was going to be late for work at this rate.
She got up and got some breakfast and looked at her plain walls.
'Man I need to get some paintings or something, this place is so dull.' She thought to herself but then she was never really into art.
Hang on, that wasn't right.. was it?
Thaila shrugged off the feeling and left her apartment for work. It was going to be just another normal day...
She couldn't remember how she came to this conclusion, maybe it was because of the dreams she had had since she was a teenager about another world where everybody on the planet was kept asleep in these pods for some reason. She never did find out why because a huge insect machine would chase her and she would fall down a cliff into a pod. That's also when she would wake up.
Her family had disowned her because of it, thinking she was crazy and she didn't care because deep down she knew that they weren't really her family. She didn't have no family. No one did.
Thaila moved to the city when the dreams began to get too much. She went to see a shrink who told her to express these dreams in another form. She choose to paint them. A collector had even offered to buy some of her pieces because he thought that they would fit in well with his futurist collection. Thaila never saw it as the future but as the present.
She was sitting in a cafe one day, staring out the window at the people walking along mindlessly. Living out their lives when she felt a presence by her. She looked to the left and saw a guy, about her age wearing a black leather duster and had his blond hair spiked. He was staring right at her.
Feeling uncomfortable, she left the money for her coffee and went outside. The guy followed her. Now she was curious. She stopped walking and he stood by her side.
"Thank god, I thought I was going to have to follow you through the city." He said with a smile.
"Why are you following me?" She asked but she wasn't looking at him but at the traffic going by.
"I'm here to warn you."
Now she looked at him, "Warn me about what?"
"They are watching you Thaila."
She stepped back.
"How do you know my name? Who is watching me?"
"I can't speak to you out in the open, it's too dangerous for the both of us."
"Well sorry but you might know who I am but I haven't got a clue who you are so I'm not going to go any where quiet with you. Understand?" She began walking away.
"My name is Vortex" he said as he followed her.
"Doesn't mean I'm going to go with you still."
"Please Thaila I'm running out of time, if they find me then they will kill you too, you have got to believe me."
At that Thaila stopped instantly. All her life all she ever wanted was some one to believe her about her dreams and she knew what it was like to not be taken seriously.
"Okay, I'll go some where quiet with you but be warned, I have the necessary fighting skills. You have to, to live here by yourself."
Vortex smiled, he liked this girl already. "Of course" and they went to a park and sat on a bench.
"So you have been sent to warn me about some thing?" She asked.
"Yes. Look I'm sorry about all this cloak and dagger stuff but it's not safe for me to be here any more."
"Be where?"
"The Matrix."
Thaila got up, she had heard that word before and it frightened her because she didn't know where she had heard it. She started running.
"Thaila where are you going?! Please come back! THAILA!!" Vortex shouted and ran after her but his phone rang.
"They've found you Vort, You better get your arse back to the exit now!" said Gypsy the operator.
"I can't, Thaila ran off, she got real scared, I think-" a bullet then whizzed passed his head.
"Oh shit!"
He looked behind and saw the Agents after him, Vortex had no option but to run.
"Gyps I need a closer exit!" he yelled in to the phone.
"All right! all right...got one! 40 Staton way, phone booth outside the petrol station."
"Okay thanks"
Vortex had to dodge though the crowded streets but from no where the Agents would appear, always in front of him with reloaded guns. Occasionally He got a shot at them but he hit nothing but an 'innocent' spectator.
He heard ringing and could see the phone booth. He was nearly there.
'I'm going to make it' he thought and that's when he came face to face with an Agent and his gun.
The last thing Vortex saw was the flash as the bullet left the pistol and entered his skull..
Once, twice, three times the Agent pulled the trigger and sent bullets through the rebels body before he let it fall to the floor in 'it's' blood.
How he hated them.
His hand went to his ear and listened to the orders from the system. It was now time to deal with the contact.
In a green flash the Agent left leaving behind a confused middle aged guy. The dead body of Vortex was no where to be seen.
Thaila kept running till she made it back to her apartment and she realised that no one was following her. 'Vortex must have given up, what sort of a name is Vortex any way?' She thought to herself.
She decided to take the elevator instead of the stairs as she was worn out from running. As she walked down the hall way she saw that her door had been left ajar and she was sure that she had locked it before she left...
Silently she went into her apartment and picked up the umbrella by the door for protection.
She crept towards her front room, brella raised so that she could swing it at who ever was in there. Thaila could hear her heart pounding and she was sure that the other person could as well.
She gulped down her fear and without looking, swung her umbrella with a great force.
It hit something solid and stopped.
Thaila looked and saw a man dressed in a suit, wearing sunglasses in doors and had a ear piece in. You could clearly see the curly wire running underneath the collar of his shirt. She also noticed he had grabbed hold of the umbrella. As if he knew she was going to hit him with it...
"I don't think that's wise Ms Davies, you don't want someone to get hurt."
Thaila was dumb struck, how did he get in to her apartment? She decided to ask.
"H-how did you get in?.. No wait- forget that, who are you?"
"I'm Smith, Agent Smith" he removed the umbrella from Thaila and leaned it against the wall.
"You're an Agent? For what, the FBI?"
"Ms Davies if you would take a seat I will answer some of your questions."
She nodded her head, sitting down sounded good as too much was happening and she was beginning to get a head ache and by the look of Smith it seemed like it might be getting worse.
He sat in an arm chair opposite her and stared at her behind his shades. Thaila felt uncomfortable.
'First Vortex and now this guy. Well at least Vortex was able to smile.' She thought and she found it amusing but kept herself from laughing.
"Okay so what are you doing here?" she finally asked.
"I am here because I believe you could help us Ms Davies, you see we know that a man named Vortex has been bothering you."
"Yeah but I got rid of him."
"Indeed, he will not bother you again you can be sure of that but it doesn't mean that it won't stop others."
"Others?"
"Vortex was part of a hacker terrorist group that has been causing a lot of nuisance to the local authorities."
"But what do they want with me? I'm not a hacker, I'm an artist."
Smith looked at one of her paintings on the wall which showed a human in a pod which was filled with a pink gelatine substance.
"Yes Ms Davies, that is why they want you."
Thaila was finding it hard to concentrate, this Agent was driving her mad, why does he insist on wearing his sunglasses inside? It wasn't even sunny outside, plus the way that he talked was even more annoying, he held his syllables for way too long in her opinion and was mono-tone.
'Maybe that's the way the agency teaches them to speak.' she thought but then decided to pay attention, there was still so much she want to know.
"I still don't understand, My paintings aren't that great."
"It isn't you skills as and artist they are interested in but the subject you paint about. The other world where humans are in a sleep that they can't wake up from. They believe that it will help them in their cause to fight against certain organisations which help people survive."
"But these paintings are just from my over active imagination, there are many artist who paint the same thing."
Smith then removed his sunglasses and Thaila thought 'thank god' as she was about take them off, she hated not being able to see his eyes and when she did look into them she saw that they were an un-natural ice blue which made her blood run cold.
"Yet again Ms Davies you are missing the point entirely. It is because of your dreams that the terrorists are interested in you. They want you to help them stop this system which they believe enslaves every human being on this planet which is called the Matrix."
Thaila's heart stopped beating. She was finally thinking that this was perhaps the 'they' who Vortex was trying to warn her about. If only she had listened to him instead of running off.
"I don't know what you are talking about." she said, she wanted Smith gone in a hurry, then she could get back to living her life.
Smith leaned forward. "I think you do. And they know this and they want you to join them."
"But I don't want to join them! I want nothing to do with them!"
"Calm down Ms Davies, that is why we want to help you by you helping us catch them."
"And then everything will go back the way it was? You will leave me alone?"
"Yes.."
"Fine. What is it that you want me to do?"
"You will receive a phone call from another hacker asking to meet, you will go with them and we will deal with everything else."
"That's it.. just go with them?"
"We will be able to track you at all times, you won't be in any danger."
"Hmm I'm not entirely happy with this but if it will get them off my back then I'll do it."
"I'm glad to hear you say that Ms Davies. Of course we are willing to make it worth you while, give you anything you want, even stop you from having the dreams."
"You can't promise me that."
"Yes I can."
Thaila didn't know what to say, to no longer have the dreams would be a blessing.
She looked right into his eyes.
"I want to get rid of these dreams."
"Then if everything goes to plan that's what will happen."
In a fluid motion Smith got up, put on his shades and walked to the door. "Good night Ms Davies. Oh I suggest investing on a better door lock." With that Smith walked out of her apartment and Thaila was able to think about what had just happened.
******
"Oh shit"
"Gypsy what happened?"
"He didn't make it." was all she had to say, Topaz closed her eyes, not again.
"That's two in less than a week, either we are getting careless or they are getting better."
"It's what happens Topaz, we always put ourselves in danger when ever we go in to the Matrix." Said Space as he covered up Vortex's lifeless body.
"I know but god dammit it's just too much to take. We couldn't even get to talk to Thaila."
"Vortex said she was pretty freaked, I don't think we are going to get through to her." said Gypsy, turning her attention back to the screens.
"We have to. We can't give up on her now. I'm going to contact Mainframe, maybe he can help us get through to her."
******
Thaila looked around her in amazement. She was standing on a kind of plateau and all around her was thick black metal stems sprouting up from the ground and reaching endlessly towards a sky which was thick in cloud and lightning.
Attached to the stems were capsules filled with a pink goo. Each had a human inside that had wires coming out of their arms and legs. They had no hair what so ever.
There were millions of them.
Electricity arced in bright flashes and it made Thaila's hair stand up on end, she could feel it buzz through her body.
"It's amazing isn't it?"
Thaila immediately recognised that voice and looked over to see Agent Smith walking towards her. What was he doing here?
"Billions of people in an eternal slumber, unaware of the world around them." He said, it made Thaila shiver, she felt dizzy as she looked up.
She dropped her head and breathed in heavily, but when she looked back at Smith he was no longer there but a insect machine which was twice her size.
It seized hold of Thaila by her waist and lifted her into the air and took her up towards the pods. Thaila screamed and banged her fists at the machines mandibles but it just held onto her tighter.
The machine hovered above a pod which contained a young woman, although it was hard to tell seeing as she had no hair.
"Look familiar?" Said the machine but it's voice sounded like Smith only more hissed.
Thaila looked closely at the dormant figure and discovered that it was her in the pod, asleep.
"Oh my god!" she cried and then she heard the sound of a phone ringing. The machine let go of her and she began falling.
Thaila screamed and bolted up right from her bed. Sweat was trickling down her face and back.
She closed her eyes and sighed deeply. It was a dream.
Thaila then became aware of the shrill of her phone ringing. Slowly she got out of bed and answered the phone.
"H-hello?"
"Hello Thaila, this is Mainframe."
Thaila's eyes widened, it was another hacker. Smith was right.
"What do you want?"
"Thaila we need talk about your dreams that you have had since you were thirteen. We can help you find out what they mean."
In a whisper Thaila said.
"What do you know about my dreams?"
"That they have almost been driving you insane, that you believe that they are real but no one will believe you."
"That Vortex told you this didn't he?"
"Thaila, Vortex is dead. He was shot."
"Oh no!.. Mainframe I want to find out what is going on."
"Okay, meet us by the Hamsted bridge."
With that Mainframe hung up and Thaila got changed.
Thaila felt like everyone was watching her as she walked to the bridge, the feeling of paranoia was over whelming.
She only had to wait a couple of seconds when a black Lincoln Continental pulled up and the back suicide door opened to reveal a woman wearing tight black leather and short blond hair.
"Get in."
Thaila closed the door and saw that there were two people up front, the driver didn't bother looking at her but she could see he had his hair in a pony tail and was wearing tinted blue sunglasses- at night. Next to him was another girl with shoulder length hair, she turned around and aimed a gun at Thaila.
"What the hell?"
"Just sit there and don't move, understood Coppertop?"
"Don't mind Jinx, she's just for our protection." said the woman with the blond hair.
"OK. Um who are you?"
"I'm Topaz, the guy driving is Space."
He nodded as he looked at her in the mirror and Thaila smiled, he reminded her of Vortex.
"Where are we going?" She asked, looking out the window as the streets went by.
"Some where that will be safe for us to talk."
Thaila kept quiet and just stared down the barrel of the gun like it was a third eye. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea...
The car pulled up outside an old warehouse and Thaila looked up at it and gulped, this wasn't looking good at all.
Topaz took her inside and a man was waiting for them.
'These terrorists sure have a thing for black leather and sunglasses,' she thought.
"Thaila, take a seat. I am Mainframe."
She shook his hand and than sat on one of the arm chairs, Mainframe did the same.
"Okay Mainframe, I want to know what the hell is going on. I want to know how you know about my dreams."
"Of course. Thaila, the reason why we have brought you here is because we want to help you."
"Help me? What by putting a gun to my head?"
"It was necessary. Thaila have you been contacted by anyone else other that Vortex?"
"Only you" she lied.
"Good. Thaila your dreams aren't really dreams at all. You know this to be true."
"They are real?"
"Yes, more real than the world around you. What I tell you next is going to be very hard for you to contemplate but I will try to make it easy for you to understand... You have painted some of the dreams you have had which feature humans in a deep sleep surrounded by machines, what you don't know is that those humans are actually here, in the Matrix."
Thaila froze, there was that word again. Mainframe noticed that she had tensed up.
"Please Thaila, just listen to what I have to say."
"Okay."
Mainframe breathed in deeply, "those people in the pods are real, even you at this very moment are in one but you don't know because this world, the Matrix is blinding you from the truth."
Thaila was scared because for some reason she knew that Mainframe was speaking the truth.
"This.. this is all a lie?"
"Yes. Some how and we are not sure how you have been able to see past the Matrix and see what the world is really like."
Thaila didn't know what to say.
"It can't be true, it just can't be. It's too far out..."
"That's why no one can be told what the Matrix is, they have to see it for them selves. Do you want to know what it is."
Thaila looked around her, this was getting way to out of hand but Smith did say to go with them.
"Yes I doooo" Thaila couldn't control her speech, it ended up as a scream as she watched her body writhe and change.
"Oh shit!" Yelled Mainframe, getting up from the chair as he watched Thaila be replaced by an Agent.
'It was a trap' he thought and began running, the agent started shooting.
Mainframe ran past the others.
"It's an Agent!" He shouted, "RUN!!"
They didn't need telling twice and followed him with the Agent close behind them.
They got into a car and sped away but another car came up behind them.
"I can't lose them!" cried Space as he took sharp corners but the Agents kept up with him and were now shooting at them.
"Take a right down here!" yelled Topaz as she tried shooting at the Agents car, "We might be able to get lost in the traffic."
Space took her advice and swerved in and out of the cars travelling along. Mainframes phone was ringing.
"I've got an exit for you, Broads and taylors, old department store." said Gypsy.
"Good" and Mainframe told Space where to go.
The Agents were finding it hard to stay close to them now which gave the resistance an advantage and Space skidded to a stop outside the store.
The phone was ringing already and they exited.
******
Thaila's head was thumping and she slowly lifted her head to discover she was in a windowless white room sitting on a very uncomfortable chair in front of a black desk. Opposite was another chair.
What the hell was she doing there? The last thing she could remember was Mainframe asking her is she wanted to know what the Matrix was.
Thaila got up and walked over to the door and tried to open it but as she feared it was locked.
She backed away from the door and looked for another way out but there was none.
'Where am I?' she asked herself and she sat on the floor and waited in fear.
A couple of minutes passed before the door opened and Thaila saw someone familiar walk in.
"Smith. What the hell is going on?" She asked standing up.
Behind Smith was two more Agents, Brown and Jones they walked around Thaila, who eyed them suspiciously, and stood against the wall. Smith however sat down at the table and clasped his hands together.
"Ms Davies take a seat."
Hesitantly Thaila sat down and stared at Smith. This just didn't feel right.
"We said we would make it so that you wouldn't remember any of this Ms Davies, even make it so you no longer have any dreams but first we have some questions which need to be answered and it would be wise if you co-operated."
Thaila started to shake, this wasn't making any sense. Smith removed his shades and placed them on the table and leaned forward as he spoke.
"What did the resistance say to you?"
Thaila didn't know what to say at first, "Do you mean Mainframe? He told me what I already knew from my dreams, that this world is a lie.. to blind us from the truth. I never found out what that truth was, but if it is anything like my dreams then I really don't want to know."
Thaila stole a quick glance at the two Agents behind her, she didn't feel comfortable in their presence. Smith next words snapped her back to his attention.
"Yet you would have gone with them to find out.."
"You said that I had to go with them so I was.. and then I started screaming and after that I can't remember what happened. Did you show up and imprison them or something?"
"Yes but unfortunately they escaped."
"You're still going to stop the dreams though right? I can't live with them any more."
"Of course Ms Davies, we wouldn't allow you to live otherwise."
Thaila felt as if the room had shrunk considerably, what the hell was that suppose to mean? Was they going to kill her?
Smith replaced his shades and said, "When you wake up all this will be forgotten, you're life will be back to normal and will have never of heard of the word 'Matrix'."
"I'm holding to you to that." Said Thaila before Agent Brown injected her in the neck and she was out cold.
******
Mainframe waited as the old woman known to them as the Oracle finished up in the kitchen and sat down next to the little table. She smiled warmly.
"You look so sad Mainframe, surely it can't be that bad."
"I made a terrible mistake and nearly endangered the lives of my friends. I thought we had finally found the one but the Agents had got to her first. I went about it all wrong, we scared her."
"Mainframe she was not the One, the One will be a man and will be found by Morpheus and not you. You can't beat yourself up over every failed mission."
Mainframe looked out the window he didn't want to except the fact that Thaila was a failed mission.
"Mainframe I didn't tell you this when I first spoke to you but I now believe that it is the right time. One day you will be the captain of a hover-craft ship and a couple of years after that you will come across one person who will be different from the rest. They won't seem that way at first but slowly you will discover that this person will be important in the end of the Matrix. Not as powerful as the One will be but will still be an asset to the resistance all the same."
Mainframe didn't know what to say to this. He was to become a Captain of a ship! And have some one special as one of his crew.
"It won't be for a couple of years yet Mainframe and at some point you'll even think that what I'm saying to will not come to pass but it will."
Mainframe then got a call from his operator saying it was time to leave, Mainframe got up to go.
"Mainframe, leave Thaila alone, she can no longer be helped."
He looked shocked, "did they kill her?"
The Oracle shook her head, "No she's still alive but she is living another life, one where the Matrix does not exist for her."
"And I so sure we could have helped her. Oh well I suppose you can't win them all right?"
******
Thaila awoke to the sound of her alarm, she was going to be late for work at this rate.
She got up and got some breakfast and looked at her plain walls.
'Man I need to get some paintings or something, this place is so dull.' She thought to herself but then she was never really into art.
Hang on, that wasn't right.. was it?
Thaila shrugged off the feeling and left her apartment for work. It was going to be just another normal day...