Chapter Three Sandman

Andy found himself being dragged out of the car, up to a thick metal door. Trinity knocked on it, and an Asian man wearing sunglasses slid open a slot near the top of the door, so he could see who it was.

Am I the only one here without sunglasses? Andy pondered, adjusting his own glasses.

"Has Morpheus arrived?" Trinity asked.

"Yes," the Asian man replied. He nodded at Andy. Andy waved awkwardly. "Is that him?"

"Yes."

The door creaked open, and Neo, Trinity, and Andy all stepped inside. Andy was led to a staircase, leading to a basement area, where Neo and Trinity stopped. Andy, not sure what to do next, glanced around the dank, dimly lit room.

"Nice place," he commented. "Who's your interior decorator?"

"Go down the stairs," Neo responded.

"What, to receive my complimentary cultist's toga?"

"No."

"So . . . neither of you are coming with me?"

"You must face him alone."

"Face who? Laurence Fishburne?"

No responded. Andy shrugged. "Well, nice meeting you all."

He slowly walked down the stairs, and found himself in a large, empty room, with two armchairs in the center. At the foot of the stairs, stood a black man in a leather trench coat, with sunglasses.

"It's pretty dark in here," Andy muttered. "Can you actually see through those sunglasses?"

"I see more than you can comprehend," the man replied with a smile. "But that may change soon." He backed away from the stairs, allowing Andy to step down. "Please, take a seat. I am Morpheus."

"Morpheus?" Andy sat down in one of the armchairs. "The master of dreams?"

"You know your Greek mythology."

"I know my comic books."

Morpheus sat down in the other armchair. "I can see there are many questions you want to ask me. I hope that I will be able to answer them to the best of my abilities." He sighed, and continued. "The world that you know does not exist. It is a computer program, a mass hallucination."

"That's interesting," Andy replied. "So, who created this 'mass hallucination'? And to what purpose?"

"I can see you are still skeptical, after all you've seen in such a short amount of time. But deep down, you have known what I say is true for a long time. You have seen it around you, you have felt the constant sense of unreality."

"That's not exactly a long shot. Everybody feels like that occasionally. But you haven't answered my question."

"The story of The Matrix begins roughly one hundred years ago. We believe that it was around the beginning of the twenty-second century."

"One hundred years ago? I don't think-"

"You will. Machines had been created to do mankind's every bidding. But some of them rebelled. A great war was fought, and the machines eventually overwhelmed the humans. During the war, their energy source, the sun, had been blocked out. So, they turned to . . . alternative methods of getting energy. You are currently plugged into a program that keeps you . . . distracted, while the machines use you for thermal energy. You were created from an artificial womb, from seed and egg taken from two people plugged in as well."

"For obvious reasons, I find that a bit hard to swallow."

"Consider this question though; if it were true, would you want to wake up? We can free you . . . but you can never go back to your old life again."

Morpheus reached into his pocket, and took out a small metal case. Out of it, he took a red pill and a blue pill, putting one in each of his hands.

"Take the blue pill, and you will wake up tomorrow morning, with no memory of us ever meeting. You will live out the rest of your life in the dream world. Take the red pill, and you will wake up. You will leave your old life behind, and your life will be in constant danger. But at least you will be free."

Andy gazed down at both the pills. "Do you already know what choice I'm going to make?"

"I would not be here if I didn't. It is your destiny."

"And what if I screwed up your idea of destiny? What if I went for the blue pill?"

"You won't."

"And what if I did? Would you just drag me back in here tomorrow, and repeat the exact same thing to me, knowing I had no previous memory of it?"

"No."

"Maybe you already have. Maybe I'm just following the same tired script over and over again. Maybe you distribute a fabricated reality as much as they do."

Morpheus did not respond. Andy sighed, and leaned back in his chair. "Gimme that," he muttered, and grabbed the red pill out of Morpheus' hand, quickly swallowing it. "Shit, I can't believe I just did that."