CHAPTER 2
"Morpheus isn't Trinity supposed to be in the construct?" Delete asked intently staring at the screen. Morpheus came up behind her resting his hand on her shoulder but it was not the construct screen he was frowning at, it was the matrix code.
"Tank." He said quickly beckoning the freeborn over. "Can you see what I am seeing?" He asked half hoping he was wrong.
Tank stared at the screen carefully watching the code scroll down with growing concern. Why hadn't he noticed this earlier?
"What's happening?" Delete asked looking at the code clueless.
"She's running." Tank said his eyes wide. Delete looked at Morpheus for confirmation.
"From six agents." He said quietly suddenly pale. Delete had never seen him like this and it scared her that he should feel this way. She turned to look at Trinity's heart monitor. Her pulse and respiratory rates were extremely high, they were right. She was running for her life.
Delete had only been on the Nebucadnezzer for two months and she had never gotten to know Trinity despite the fact that they were the only two women aboard. She had thought they would talk to each other but Trinity didn't talk to anybody. She seemed to keep everything locked up inside, the last thing she would do was cry.
"Someone has to tell Neo." She said finally.
Morpheus turned to her.
"Can you handle it?" He asked quickly. "He's down in the cabins." Delete moved to go when Morpheus stopped her.
"Be gentle with him."
Delete smiled nervously and nodded. Gentle, she could do that.
When she reached the cabin that the two shared Neo was doing his best to create a warm looking space with the aid of flea bitten sheets. Any other time she would have laughed at the site but not now.
"Neo…"
"Hey Del, where's Trinity?" He interrupted standing up.
* * *
Were they still following her? Trinity didn't know and she didn't care. She had to stop out of pure exhaustion. Her breathing was quick and ragged as she stumbled down the concrete steps into some seedy basement bar, praying it was a strip club.
Luckily no one turned on her entrance so she quickly moved through the crowd towards the female toilets. She noticed a few couples crammed into toilet cubicles passionately making out against the walls. The fourth stall was free and she locked the door quickly in a sudden feeling of panic.
She was sure that she hadn't been followed but her subconscious thought otherwise and the nauseous feeling caused her to vomit into the off white toilet basin before she sat down on the lid shaking.
She managed to block out the groaning sounds coming from the cubicle next door but the feeling that they were here would not leave her. Especially when she heard slow and precise footsteps clicking on the tiled floor. She could almost sense the disgusted feeling of the agent at having to follow her into a place like this, could almost smell the loathing.
Trinity turned to look behind her but there was no air vent to squeeze through, only a dank mould stained wall staring back at her through graffiti covered tiles.
Exhaustion threatened to overwhelm her coaxing her to sleep. No, she scolded herself, not now. She couldn't out run an agent now and he was probably not the only one.
Standing on the toilet lid she raised her eyes to look over the door.
There was no one there.
Doubt flooded her mind, had she heard the agent come in? Was it actually an agent? Her instincts told her that something was definitely not right, but what could she do?
Suddenly the door opened letting in loud music as a two women entered kissing hastily trying to get to a cubicle before the moment was lost.
Embarrassed she quickly stepped down and opened the latch flinging the door open.
He was there.
Trinity pushed herself off the ground careful not to hit the ceiling and lunged over his head but she didn't get high enough before his hand connected with her back and slammed her into the mirrors. She dropped heavily onto the sinks making out the two lesbians who were running out of the door colliding through the small gap before she fell unconscious defeated.
* * *
Tank and Morpheus watch the agents carry her out in the most inhuman, methodical way they could have imagined. The shock that agents had defeated Trinity of all the unplugged still had them both grounded to the spot. Tank knew that Morpheus hated being powerless to help Trinity from the real world and hoped that Neo wouldn't insist on going in there again.
"What's happened?" Neo asked striding towards them with Delete running to catch up. He looked at the screen reading the code as if it were a storybook. He frowned trying to fight back the stinging tears that had begun to form in his eyes.
"What are we going to do?" Delete asked noticing his discomfort. Morpheus turned to her with a bemused look creasing his features.
"We can't go in." He replied thinking aloud.
"No." Tank piped up making his views known. "You would never get out if this virus does not get cured and I don't think it's worth the chance…" Tank knew what he had said the second it rolled off his tongue. He turned to Neo, who looked as if he would explode, and grinned sheepishly.
"Not the best choice of words…what I meant was…"
"If we all get stuck in there…" Delete interrupted moving into Neo's view range. He stopped her with a effortless gesture of his hand leaving a slight pause.
"She's worth it." He said simply. They all knew that he was going to try and get into the matrix avoiding being connected to the system.
"Neo you can't, you don't have enough energy please…" Delete tried but Neo wouldn't listen and she could see him already preparing himself. Morpheus would have tried to reach him if he had thought that it would work. But Morpheus knew Neo, and he knew that opposing him would do no good.
"You need to go and prepare, we will use your cabin."
So, Morpheus the leader had spoken and Delete was supposed to go along with whatever he said. She paused in her thinking, which was fine. Just as long as Neo didn't think that Trinity would be his last.
They prepared his cabin; he sat wondering. Wondering whether being the one was really worth it if this is what happened to his loved ones. Loved. The word made him smile as he thought about Trinity being his lover; it all felt so strange when he really thought about it. Made him realise what he had.
"Neo, you can come and lie down now." Del whispered to him as she laid her hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her careful to guard his feelings.
"Thanks." Neo muttered as he lay down shutting his eyes. He felt them all leave and heard the heavy clang of the door before he truly began to relax and feed his consciousness into the matrix.
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
Every time he loaded into the matrix computer system this way it felt like his brain was being sucked into a vacuum cleaner. Not entirely pleasant at the best of times. Right now all he concentrated on was Trinity. He could see her face when he shut his eyes; even hear her talking to him as if she was right next to him. He tried to listen harder to what she was saying but he lost it in the depths of his thoughts.
He opened his eyes and banged his fist on the metal bed in frustration. He couldn't reach her; something or someone was trying to stop him. Trying being the key word here, he had to try again and keep on trying until he emerged by her side. Wherever she was.
* * *
It was dark. A car—She knew she was moving in a car.
Forcing all of her energy to her eyelids Trinity attempted to open them for longer than a couple of seconds.
She blinked and forced her eyes to stay open, fighting a wave of nausea as the road flashed passed her as some unearthly speed.
She raised her hand to rub her eyes suddenly concerned if her mascara would run, a typical matrix custom. Her hand was snatched by someone next to her – an agent, and forced back down. What did they think she was going to do? She barely had the strength to move it upwards.
"Nearly there Miss Evans." Smith patronised, clutching at her hand in some kind of mutilated notion of affection. They must have given her something because it felt numb, even though her mind was screaming at her to move the five digits away from him.
"Oh god." She murmured as another wave of sickness came over her, the movement of the car didn't do much good either. "Where are you taking me?"
It seemed like the perfect thing to say in this situation, something that was a cliché in every movie she had seen in the matrix.
Smith switched the lights on in the car and uncomfortably glared at her. A smiled played on his lips before he spoke, Trinity felt the urge to hit him but still he hands would not oblige.
"Somewhere that they can't find you, somewhere no one will hear your screams…" He stopped, smiling again. What was this? Smith, an agent was actually joking?
Trinity nearly smiled, but he was being deadly serious that she could see in his eyes.
