Before I start, I think a few thanks, and a few explanations are in order:
I'd like to thank all the people who reviewed chapter one. You'll be pleased to hear that I have not used the word 'Silas' so much in this chapter, I think.
Also, some of you may have realised that chapter one said that the fan-fic was called "Reality". This was the original name, which I changed when I realised that two other fan-fics also had the same name.
Finally, about the summary, the name of the document which contained chapter one had some obscure name like "Pvarthwalb", or something equally foolish, hence I thought that was going to be the title. Oh well, enough of this,
___________________________________________________________________________
Real, Chapter 2: Tension
Silas found it impossible to concentrate on his work; it was like being back at school on the day before the Christmas holidays started, only worse. In spite of everything that had happened, the situation still seemed impossible to believe. The Matrix was real. The Matrix, a highly successful trilogy that had inspired him to buy an oversized leather coat was actually real.
"Are you alright?" Silas looked up from his desk to see the face of his friend Susan Trenis staring at him with a touching look of concern.
"Yeah," he began after a few seconds, "yeah, I'm just not feeling too great today, bowel problems or something."
A small smile appeared on his face as he watched Susan wince at the mention of Bowles.
"Why'd you come in to work then?" She asked.
"Well you know what my attendance record is like. If I miss one more day or if I come in late again then I'll be lucky if I don't get hurled out of a window."
Silas began to feel slightly better as he saw Susan laugh. This was short lived though as his overactive mind fund itself constructing an image of Susan lying motionless in a tank with numerous tubes sticking into her skin, like himself, just two among billions.
An icy chill went through Silas and looking down he noticed just how pale his skin was beginning to look. At the same time, his stomach was telling him just how queasy he was beginning to feel.
"Speak of the devil" he said, rising to his feet.
"Oh," Susan said, "I'll leave you to your devices then, feel better."
"Thanks."
Silas pushed through the toilet door and walked about aimlessly for a few moments.
"Come on, Come on" he began to whisper, even though there was no one around to hear him. The tension was close to unbearable, as were the questions which, despite his greatest efforts he could not banish from his mind. The most troubling was whether or not he was prepared to leave everything behind and help humans, (who until yesterday had been nothing more then entertaining, fictitious characters), fight a war against thousands of intelligent machines.
Silas took several heavy breaths and began to walk towards a nearby urinal. Hearing the door open to his left however he turned his head and felt another, colder chill go through him.
"Cypher?" The word barely emerged from Silas' quivering mouth.
"Yep, it's me pal, we should probably get moving."
Silas stood still for a few moments. Part of him was worried about slipping away from work. This was quickly silenced however by more sensible voices which reassured him that it didn't matter.
The strongest fear was whether or not he could trust this guy? Cypher's actions in the first movie were hard to forget.
Fairly soon it really didn't matter. Cypher sighed heavily and grabbed Silas' sleeve.
"Listen," he said, "I know what you're thinking. How can you trust the traitorous shit that is me right? Well I sincerely doubt that I can get you to trust me any time soon so let me just say this, I'm not the Cypher you saw in the movie, you can take your chances with me, or you can wait for an Agent to show up and take your chances with him, and believe me pal, one's coming."
Silas nodded, still not sure if he trusted the man in front of him but nonetheless he began to follow Cypher towards the door.
"Just act natural," Cypher said casually, "no one's gonna give us a second look if we don't draw attention to ourselves."
"Got it." Silas stuttered quietly.
It was an unbelievably sunny day, especially for February, yet it was windy, and strands of eerily long brown hair that had somehow escaped Silas' ponytail were constantly getting in his eyes. Cypher was as expressionless as a blank piece of paper.
Things were starting to look better, the tension was still there, but not to the extent that it changed his skin pigmentation, and despite his shady reputation, Silas found that having Cypher nearby was very comforting.
"Get down!"
Before the last word had been finished, Silas found himself being pushed to the floor. He remained motionless for a few seconds, listening to the sounds of gunfire and the screams of pedestrians. Turning his head, he saw what had caused the outburst. Despite all he had tried to prepare himself for, seeing an agent dodge bullets at the speed at which this one was dodging Cypher's was breathtaking. Despite his fear, Silas couldn't help but feel impressed.
"Shit! Get up Silas, we've gotta move!"
Instantly dragging himself to his feet, Silas ran as fast as he could in an attempt to keep Cypher in view. It was not easy, especially not with the bullets from the agent's firearm ricocheting off of walls, which were disturbingly close to him.
Somehow he managed however. Cypher occasionally turned his head to make sure that his travelling companion was still with him. Unfortunately, the agent proved equally hard to loose.
As the two came to a busy road, Cypher came to an abrupt stop. Silas instinctively stopped beside him, wondering at once what he was doing. He wanted more then anything to keep running. Something deep within him stopped him from doing so however.
Soon enough, both heads turned at the sound of a screeching, black car speeding round the corner at a ludicrously high speed. It came roaring down the road towards Silas and Cypher before stopping right beside them.
A rolled-down window revealed none other then Trinity,
"Get in!" She said calmly. Cypher flung himself into the back, followed instantly by Silas, who then turned his head to see the agent appear around the corner he had just taken.
"Go!" Screamed Cypher and Silas in unison.
The gunshots the agent fired missed the car by millimetres. When he was out of sight, Silas breathed a huge sigh of relief and sank into his chair.
"Thank you." He said to no one in particular.
"You're welcome" said Trinity in the same tone of voice as she had before.
Silas sank deeper into his chair; the relief was almost as overpowering as the tension had been earlier. A pestiferous thought reminded him however that e was not out of the woods yet.
After almost quarter of an hour, the car came to a stop outside of a nondescript, almost dilapidated looking building.
"We're here" chortled Cypher.
Silas inhaled deeply and stepped out of the car. The air was colder then it had been before, but the wind had died down.
"Follow me" Trinity said quietly.
The building looked worse on the inside then it had from the outside. Peeled wallpaper and pieces of the ceiling littered the floor, and the stairs looked older then the local church.
Eventually, the three came to a door which was at the end of a needlessly long corridor. Trinity overtook the others and rested her hand on the door handle.
"Remember, some of the things you saw in the movies are the same, but a lot is very different."
Silas nodded and watched as the door flew open to reveal three more people in aged leather chairs. One of the faces Silas didn't recognise. The other two however were clearly identifiable as Morpheus and Neo.
"Welcome Silas." Boomed Morpheus in a tone of voice that could almost be described as 'amused'. Neo and the third figure simply nodded in acknowledgement of his presence.
Silas wasn't sure whether to walk forward, say something, or just do nothing. The solution was provided by Morpheus who offered his hand. Silas shook it before taking the seat Morpheus gestured at.
"You undoubtedly have numerous questions; however, like your arrival here has probably shown you, we do not much time. Hence we must proceed to the final choice."
Morpheus reached into his pocket and produced a small box, when he opened it, Silas felt yet anther icy chill, as a blue and a red pill lay before him.
"I don't need to tell you what each pill does. And I'm sure you have a fairly good idea about what you are getting yourself into. So I leave it to you."
Morpheus laid the box on the table in front of him and sat back. All eyes were focused on Silas, but he barely noticed them. The questions had returned; questions like 'Is it worth leaving it all behind?'
Random voices circled in his mind, trying to push the argument one way or another. But fairly soon, Silas barely noticed them too, he already knew which pill he was going to take.
Reaching forward, he took the red pill, placed it in his mouth, picked up the glass of water and swallowed the pill. He half expected Morpheus to crack a grin as he had done in the first film, but he simply nodded his head slowly.
"Come with me."
The layout of the room was exactly the same as it was in the first movie, except that there was no mirror next to the seat that he had been led to.
Assorted people either sat themselves behind computers or walked up beside Silas' chair.
"Tell me something Neo," Silas began, trying to sound calmer then he felt, "Is what was in the movie what it's really like when you get to the real world?"
"Afraid so pal," said Cypher before Neo could speak, "just remember to breathe."
Silas' response to this news was slightly better then he had expected it to be. However he soon found out that he didn't have time to dwell on this thought.
"Are you ready?" Asked Morpheus.
"Yes."
To be continued.
I'd like to thank all the people who reviewed chapter one. You'll be pleased to hear that I have not used the word 'Silas' so much in this chapter, I think.
Also, some of you may have realised that chapter one said that the fan-fic was called "Reality". This was the original name, which I changed when I realised that two other fan-fics also had the same name.
Finally, about the summary, the name of the document which contained chapter one had some obscure name like "Pvarthwalb", or something equally foolish, hence I thought that was going to be the title. Oh well, enough of this,
___________________________________________________________________________
Real, Chapter 2: Tension
Silas found it impossible to concentrate on his work; it was like being back at school on the day before the Christmas holidays started, only worse. In spite of everything that had happened, the situation still seemed impossible to believe. The Matrix was real. The Matrix, a highly successful trilogy that had inspired him to buy an oversized leather coat was actually real.
"Are you alright?" Silas looked up from his desk to see the face of his friend Susan Trenis staring at him with a touching look of concern.
"Yeah," he began after a few seconds, "yeah, I'm just not feeling too great today, bowel problems or something."
A small smile appeared on his face as he watched Susan wince at the mention of Bowles.
"Why'd you come in to work then?" She asked.
"Well you know what my attendance record is like. If I miss one more day or if I come in late again then I'll be lucky if I don't get hurled out of a window."
Silas began to feel slightly better as he saw Susan laugh. This was short lived though as his overactive mind fund itself constructing an image of Susan lying motionless in a tank with numerous tubes sticking into her skin, like himself, just two among billions.
An icy chill went through Silas and looking down he noticed just how pale his skin was beginning to look. At the same time, his stomach was telling him just how queasy he was beginning to feel.
"Speak of the devil" he said, rising to his feet.
"Oh," Susan said, "I'll leave you to your devices then, feel better."
"Thanks."
Silas pushed through the toilet door and walked about aimlessly for a few moments.
"Come on, Come on" he began to whisper, even though there was no one around to hear him. The tension was close to unbearable, as were the questions which, despite his greatest efforts he could not banish from his mind. The most troubling was whether or not he was prepared to leave everything behind and help humans, (who until yesterday had been nothing more then entertaining, fictitious characters), fight a war against thousands of intelligent machines.
Silas took several heavy breaths and began to walk towards a nearby urinal. Hearing the door open to his left however he turned his head and felt another, colder chill go through him.
"Cypher?" The word barely emerged from Silas' quivering mouth.
"Yep, it's me pal, we should probably get moving."
Silas stood still for a few moments. Part of him was worried about slipping away from work. This was quickly silenced however by more sensible voices which reassured him that it didn't matter.
The strongest fear was whether or not he could trust this guy? Cypher's actions in the first movie were hard to forget.
Fairly soon it really didn't matter. Cypher sighed heavily and grabbed Silas' sleeve.
"Listen," he said, "I know what you're thinking. How can you trust the traitorous shit that is me right? Well I sincerely doubt that I can get you to trust me any time soon so let me just say this, I'm not the Cypher you saw in the movie, you can take your chances with me, or you can wait for an Agent to show up and take your chances with him, and believe me pal, one's coming."
Silas nodded, still not sure if he trusted the man in front of him but nonetheless he began to follow Cypher towards the door.
"Just act natural," Cypher said casually, "no one's gonna give us a second look if we don't draw attention to ourselves."
"Got it." Silas stuttered quietly.
It was an unbelievably sunny day, especially for February, yet it was windy, and strands of eerily long brown hair that had somehow escaped Silas' ponytail were constantly getting in his eyes. Cypher was as expressionless as a blank piece of paper.
Things were starting to look better, the tension was still there, but not to the extent that it changed his skin pigmentation, and despite his shady reputation, Silas found that having Cypher nearby was very comforting.
"Get down!"
Before the last word had been finished, Silas found himself being pushed to the floor. He remained motionless for a few seconds, listening to the sounds of gunfire and the screams of pedestrians. Turning his head, he saw what had caused the outburst. Despite all he had tried to prepare himself for, seeing an agent dodge bullets at the speed at which this one was dodging Cypher's was breathtaking. Despite his fear, Silas couldn't help but feel impressed.
"Shit! Get up Silas, we've gotta move!"
Instantly dragging himself to his feet, Silas ran as fast as he could in an attempt to keep Cypher in view. It was not easy, especially not with the bullets from the agent's firearm ricocheting off of walls, which were disturbingly close to him.
Somehow he managed however. Cypher occasionally turned his head to make sure that his travelling companion was still with him. Unfortunately, the agent proved equally hard to loose.
As the two came to a busy road, Cypher came to an abrupt stop. Silas instinctively stopped beside him, wondering at once what he was doing. He wanted more then anything to keep running. Something deep within him stopped him from doing so however.
Soon enough, both heads turned at the sound of a screeching, black car speeding round the corner at a ludicrously high speed. It came roaring down the road towards Silas and Cypher before stopping right beside them.
A rolled-down window revealed none other then Trinity,
"Get in!" She said calmly. Cypher flung himself into the back, followed instantly by Silas, who then turned his head to see the agent appear around the corner he had just taken.
"Go!" Screamed Cypher and Silas in unison.
The gunshots the agent fired missed the car by millimetres. When he was out of sight, Silas breathed a huge sigh of relief and sank into his chair.
"Thank you." He said to no one in particular.
"You're welcome" said Trinity in the same tone of voice as she had before.
Silas sank deeper into his chair; the relief was almost as overpowering as the tension had been earlier. A pestiferous thought reminded him however that e was not out of the woods yet.
After almost quarter of an hour, the car came to a stop outside of a nondescript, almost dilapidated looking building.
"We're here" chortled Cypher.
Silas inhaled deeply and stepped out of the car. The air was colder then it had been before, but the wind had died down.
"Follow me" Trinity said quietly.
The building looked worse on the inside then it had from the outside. Peeled wallpaper and pieces of the ceiling littered the floor, and the stairs looked older then the local church.
Eventually, the three came to a door which was at the end of a needlessly long corridor. Trinity overtook the others and rested her hand on the door handle.
"Remember, some of the things you saw in the movies are the same, but a lot is very different."
Silas nodded and watched as the door flew open to reveal three more people in aged leather chairs. One of the faces Silas didn't recognise. The other two however were clearly identifiable as Morpheus and Neo.
"Welcome Silas." Boomed Morpheus in a tone of voice that could almost be described as 'amused'. Neo and the third figure simply nodded in acknowledgement of his presence.
Silas wasn't sure whether to walk forward, say something, or just do nothing. The solution was provided by Morpheus who offered his hand. Silas shook it before taking the seat Morpheus gestured at.
"You undoubtedly have numerous questions; however, like your arrival here has probably shown you, we do not much time. Hence we must proceed to the final choice."
Morpheus reached into his pocket and produced a small box, when he opened it, Silas felt yet anther icy chill, as a blue and a red pill lay before him.
"I don't need to tell you what each pill does. And I'm sure you have a fairly good idea about what you are getting yourself into. So I leave it to you."
Morpheus laid the box on the table in front of him and sat back. All eyes were focused on Silas, but he barely noticed them. The questions had returned; questions like 'Is it worth leaving it all behind?'
Random voices circled in his mind, trying to push the argument one way or another. But fairly soon, Silas barely noticed them too, he already knew which pill he was going to take.
Reaching forward, he took the red pill, placed it in his mouth, picked up the glass of water and swallowed the pill. He half expected Morpheus to crack a grin as he had done in the first film, but he simply nodded his head slowly.
"Come with me."
The layout of the room was exactly the same as it was in the first movie, except that there was no mirror next to the seat that he had been led to.
Assorted people either sat themselves behind computers or walked up beside Silas' chair.
"Tell me something Neo," Silas began, trying to sound calmer then he felt, "Is what was in the movie what it's really like when you get to the real world?"
"Afraid so pal," said Cypher before Neo could speak, "just remember to breathe."
Silas' response to this news was slightly better then he had expected it to be. However he soon found out that he didn't have time to dwell on this thought.
"Are you ready?" Asked Morpheus.
"Yes."
To be continued.