Protector of Men Ch 67

"There's no time," Neo told Zandra, holding her head in his large hands. She looked at him detachedly, but understood his words. The footsteps were growing closer and louder. Shade took her hand tighter in his as he drew himself upwards, and she followed suit a few seconds later. He squeezed her hand.

"Zandra," he asked, she nodded. "You're okay."

The words hit home – she was okay. She was fine? No, not fine. But it reminded her of what she had told Stephen so long ago, and she steeled herself for the coming fight. She didn't feel well, still clutched the item in her hand. Soon Cover was ushering her behind Neo down another hallway, but they stopped. The footsteps were still coming, now they could hear bits of French floating down the dank airwaves of the dungeon.

"The key?" Neo asked Zandra, his outstretched hand reaching for her.

"You have it," she responded, her speech beginning to come back. She felt better, but something was still wrong…

Neo nodded quickly and fumbled in his own coat for a moment before procuring the talisman. He then unlocked the door in front of them and ushered the group in before closing and locking the portal once more. He sighed before putting the key back in his pocket, and they all had another moment to relax.

Zandra looked at the object in her hand.

Candy.

The candy that the oracle had given her. She looked at it for a moment in the silence, admiring its inactivity, its… sedentary nature in a place where it seemed like everyone was trying to kill them. She looked at it some more. It just looked back at her emotionless, she was jealous of its carelessness in the world. What did it to but sit around? Stupid oracle – she was probably trying to make her nostalgic; Probably to make her go insane or something. Zandra almost laughed at the thought. After all I've gone through, she mused, I don't think I'll ever be sane in the first place. She unwrapped the candy tentatively, enjoying the sound of its crinkle in the empty room.

She looked around for a moment to take in her surroundings, and was surprised. They were in a ballroom – near the center of a great hall. against the walls sat ornate chairs, great Greek pillars stood at each door (of which there were two on the walls to her right and left; three in front and behind), and high platforms rested at each corner of the room that went up at least thirty feet. Above them scaffolds held up the central chandelier and the adjacent tapestries that hung down. Below stood a great fountain, to its right and left were Greek statues of Ares and Hades. It was all very ornate and lavish – a welcome change from the dank hallways of the dungeon. Not thinking, Zandra popped the candy into her mouth.

The taste exploded on her tongue, and she was suddenly reminded of fifteen years ago… playing with Barbies, the sweet smell of childish strawberry in the air… convincing Stephen that My Little Ponies really was a masculine game after all… In a matter of moments she had left the present again for a time more pleasing.

"Zandra," Neo asked, suddenly thrusting her out of her world, "Do you have your sword?"

Zandra looked down; in fact, her sword was gone. "No," she responded a bit lazily, "I guess I left it…"

Neo shook his head and continued to look at her. Something was up, but it was different now.

"I don't get it," he murmured under his breath. Suddenly they heard a pound on the door behind them, and then silence again.

"Take mine," he told her, handing over his own weapon. She nodded and took it, the candy still dissolving in her mouth.

"Do you feel allright?" he asked, his eyes prying into her code.

"Better," she told him. It was true – with each moment she was feeling stronger. It was a momentary thing, wasn't it? Yes. It's all in your mind. It's not real.

She forced herself to think of Stephen.

It's not real.

"We have to find that door," she said. They all nodded and looked around.

It was then that the doors all burst open.

"Kemp!" Trim screamed! "Kemp!"

It was no use. She couldn't hear him. There was only one thing to do…

Trim blasted the warning siren from the innards of the ship. It beeped loudly three times – and just about caused all of Purgatory to have a heart attack. Back in the matrix Zandra felt a ripple of something pass through her, and was momentarily confused. But it passed.

Kemp turned around to face the ship and was instantly aware of the new threat.

"Do it!" Trim shouted, even though he knew she wouldn't be able to hear him. Just as he had hoped, she aimed the EMP gun and shot at the sentinel that had just landed on Purgatory, and it collapsed onto the hull with a crash. Kemp could see the ship bounce slightly from the hit. But there were more. Many more. Kemp was struggling under the weight of the gun; with her small body, with each passing second, she was finding it harder to hold it upright. Just a little longer, she urged herself, you're fighting for all of them!

The sentinels were buzzing about in what looked like random paths in the pipeways ahead of them. They knew that Purgatory had weapons, and had reconfigured their attack pattern to be more erratic so that they would have less of a chance of being hit. The less predictable they were, the harder it would be to shoot them. Kemp stood like an ant witnessing a swarm of bees on the attack – they flew in figure eights in front of her, all the time getting closer and closer to their home; their haven.

Kemp knew that her job was to stop them.

Another shot landed into the metal close to her; she screamed once and moved closer to the ship. Some of the sentinels had started to fire their own weapons – something Zion hadn't heard of before.

As of late, it seemed like Purgatory was the testing ground of the world. Everything new was found by them. Zandra… Neo… the new agents… Smith… the Oracle… the Merovingian… and now the new sentinelian attacks. It was all a bad sign. But Kemp hadn't regretted any of it. Anything to be out of the matrix. If she died, she died. It would be for a purpose.

She turned to Purgatory and aimed her EMP at another sentinel that had found its way to the ship's hull. She aimed her weapon and fired… but missed.

With a blast of light the sentinel began to break open the ship's hull. She could imagine everyone screaming inside – fire again!

This time she was dead on. The sentinel banged against the ship with a clang and fell to the ground in a heap, deactivated. That was too close.

Zandra looked at the weapon in her hands before finding a place to hide herself. Neo's sword… not hers… her mind was still moving rather slowly.

In fact, everything seemed to be moving rather slowly. The men were still bounding into the hall with their guns drawn, the Purgatory troupe was just beginning to react, beginning to guard themselves against the coming flood. Zandra pondered her situation: fight? Or hide? There were too many men to take… perhaps she'd sit this one out… Neo could probably do everything…

The others were getting into action, running to the center of the ballroom to assess their enemies. Shade was a bit worried – it looked like a lot. They all ran into the room and paused for a moment, looking at each other. What are they doing?

And where was Zandra? Shade looked about the room, worried. But he soon found her – shrunken against the wall on top of a support at least twenty feet above the ground. What was she doing? It seemed that Neo read his mind, for he too looked up to where Zandra stood. They were both speechless for a while during the silence.

And Zandra continued to watch from a distance. She still felt detached, as if she were watching in on the battle from somewhere else.

What am I doing?

A small part of her wanted to come back, but got lost again in the sea of randomness. Her muscles began to tense with her inner struggle; her jaw clenched in frustration. Her candy crunched in her mouth and she swallowed it. Soon the memory of strawberry was gone. Come back…

The doors opened again; everyone was anxious to see who was behind it.

Neo recoiled and jumped to the ceiling, now balancing precariously on a beam of the ceiling. Shade and Cover stood cemented to the ground. It was Smith.

Smiths.

Thirteen of them.

The battle now commenced.

A/N – any constructive criticism? Ideas on how I can improve this? This action scene is very hard, and I just don't know how to make it flow better. Help!