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Chapter 34: They don't seem to like us
The light that encompassed the five chairs had expanded so that everyone could be clearly seen. This allowed me to clearly see the looks of open hostility and disdain in the facial expressions of the assorted humans. Only Morpheus seemed somewhat expressionless. Now that an adequate amount of serotonin was lingering in my cranium, I found that I was able to restrain myself from charging at him and reaching for his throat with an extended sword.
What I did do however was grin coldly at him, as well as a few of the other faces. This led to some angered twitching from some people; Morpheus remained motionless.
I walked over to join the rest of the ascended ones who had gathered themselves around the chairs. The looks on their faces were a surprising mix of embarrassment, confusion and anger. Not surprising really, they had just been saved from a painful death by Smith, who they (like the rest of the population of the Earth), still had lingering traces of hatred for and a handful of un-plugged humans. Despite all Manticore's talk of being superior without being an arsehole, the humans of Zion had, until news reached their ears of the end of the war and now Neo's destructive ways, always been something of a joke among the exiles of the Matrix. These were creatures who were fighting so hard to destroy their mechanical oppressors and free all of humanity, all the while they were completely ignorant of the levels of control the machines still had over them, and they were too blinded by whatever feelings 'fighting the good fight' gave them to consider that they might still be tools of the machines.
It was funnier when you were drunk.
Hawk and Dragon gave me a slow nod by way of greeting. Manticore and Hydra were unwilling to take their eyes off of Smith. I cast my eyes to where he was standing and suppressed a grin when I realised he had positioned himself between Morpheus and myself.
The eyes that everyone was staring at me with weren't exactly filled with warmth and compassion. From what Sparks had once told me when before we were attacked by a huge wave of sentinels, Morpheus was a legend among the people of Zion. His tales of bravery and dumb luck had surpassed all others with the sole exception of Neo. At the time I think I felt admiration, I had come to accept that my brother had been killed by a terrorist or some such arsehole. I hadn't expected it to have been a national hero that killed Seamus.
I turned my gaze towards Morpheus and stared at him with a look that probably showed exactly what I felt, that I was barely holding on to my sanity and it wouldn't take much for me to put a bullet through his skull. Assuming of course I could get Smith to give me my gun back.
"Right," Smith's voice boomed in the silent surroundings, "Now we do not have time for your vendettas and pitiful hatred. If you wish to save your species then we have to act quickly."
Everyone's eyes turned to face Smith who had somehow summoned yet another flat screen. It was displaying a needlessly bright light directly into my, and about four other people's eyes, (this may have been due to the fact that we were all standing in a pitch black room with only a dull spotlight for illumination. We all stepped to the side, as the screen changed to display another a map of what was once the world. This was slightly easier to look at.
"At present we are uncertain as to the exact location of Mr. Anderson, he has, unfortunately, been surprisingly efficient at disguising himself and covering his tracks."
Someone on my left sneezed. Smith stopped to stare at them for a few moments; he seemed both fascinated and disgusted by the occurrence.
"As I was saying," he continued, "We find it doubtful that he'll be located in any densely populated areas. He had inherited my hatred of humanity and we believe that he is currently unaware of how to copy himself." A strange grin broke out on his face; this was then replaced by a facial expression that could almost be described as a result of guilt. "This; coupled with some anomalous readings within the Matrix which we believe to be the construction of sentinels leads us to believe that he is in one of these six locations.
A series of small red dots appeared on various points around the map.
"So what's the plan?" This came from another anonymous Hammer crewmember, "go in with guns blazing and get killed by our Messiah?"
"The plan is to get me to Mr. Anderson. I will then distract him for long enough for the surrounding area, and everything in it, to be deleted."
There was another silence. My colleagues were presumably trying to justify the murder of the 'messiah'. A brutal stab of satisfaction went through me as I realised that it was pain they were feeling. (I hadn't taken kindly to the earlier glares.) I was distracted however by a question.
"Will that work," Ghost asked, staring incredulously at Smith, "if its that easy then why didn't the machines just delete you when you started to pose a threat to them."
"Mr. Anderson's power was reduced when he and I, died. If we act quickly enough, and are able to sufficiently distract him, he won't be able to save himself."
"It didn't take that long for his powers to arise after we found him." My nostrils flared as I heard Morpheus' voice. Thanks to Smith's informative speaking, I'd almost forgotten that he was there. Now the feelings of bloodlust and anger had began to seer through me once more.
I locked it down, barely.
"As for myself," Smith paused, I couldn't tell why, it wasn't regret that much was certain, "I will make no attempt to stop my own deletion."
"Yeah right." Someone whispered to another person who was seated behind me.
To be continued.
Bit of a short one I know, I shouldn't even be writing this really, I should be revelling in revision. I can never be bothered with it however; I always get bored and end up playing card games with a rugby ball. Anyway, now for replies:
Angel-of-lightness: Again I feel that I've replied to what you said in your review; hence I shall have to think up yet another thing to say. Um, I'm updating the website about once per day. Soon I'll run out of things and updates will take longer but there's probably some stuff there that you haven't seen just so you know. Anyway, thanks for reviewing and good luck with your SATS, whenever they are.
Agent Josie: You mis-spelled weasel, I'm appalled at this, its little short of blasphemy. Anyway, thanks for visiting the website and signing the guestbook. Like I told Naz there's probably stuff there you're yet to see and good luck with your SATS tests. And thanks for reviewing.
Tai Wilson: Once again you've given me a review that is difficult to reply to. I thought about saying 'of course I am, I'm always right', but then I realised that by writing what I've written, I could add more words. Thanks for reviewing.
LiMiYa: I don't really imagine the murder of a family member as being something that someone would want to talk about with anyone, I might be wrong though. Oh well, thanks for reviewing and are you planning to write anything for this website?
Chapter 34: They don't seem to like us
The light that encompassed the five chairs had expanded so that everyone could be clearly seen. This allowed me to clearly see the looks of open hostility and disdain in the facial expressions of the assorted humans. Only Morpheus seemed somewhat expressionless. Now that an adequate amount of serotonin was lingering in my cranium, I found that I was able to restrain myself from charging at him and reaching for his throat with an extended sword.
What I did do however was grin coldly at him, as well as a few of the other faces. This led to some angered twitching from some people; Morpheus remained motionless.
I walked over to join the rest of the ascended ones who had gathered themselves around the chairs. The looks on their faces were a surprising mix of embarrassment, confusion and anger. Not surprising really, they had just been saved from a painful death by Smith, who they (like the rest of the population of the Earth), still had lingering traces of hatred for and a handful of un-plugged humans. Despite all Manticore's talk of being superior without being an arsehole, the humans of Zion had, until news reached their ears of the end of the war and now Neo's destructive ways, always been something of a joke among the exiles of the Matrix. These were creatures who were fighting so hard to destroy their mechanical oppressors and free all of humanity, all the while they were completely ignorant of the levels of control the machines still had over them, and they were too blinded by whatever feelings 'fighting the good fight' gave them to consider that they might still be tools of the machines.
It was funnier when you were drunk.
Hawk and Dragon gave me a slow nod by way of greeting. Manticore and Hydra were unwilling to take their eyes off of Smith. I cast my eyes to where he was standing and suppressed a grin when I realised he had positioned himself between Morpheus and myself.
The eyes that everyone was staring at me with weren't exactly filled with warmth and compassion. From what Sparks had once told me when before we were attacked by a huge wave of sentinels, Morpheus was a legend among the people of Zion. His tales of bravery and dumb luck had surpassed all others with the sole exception of Neo. At the time I think I felt admiration, I had come to accept that my brother had been killed by a terrorist or some such arsehole. I hadn't expected it to have been a national hero that killed Seamus.
I turned my gaze towards Morpheus and stared at him with a look that probably showed exactly what I felt, that I was barely holding on to my sanity and it wouldn't take much for me to put a bullet through his skull. Assuming of course I could get Smith to give me my gun back.
"Right," Smith's voice boomed in the silent surroundings, "Now we do not have time for your vendettas and pitiful hatred. If you wish to save your species then we have to act quickly."
Everyone's eyes turned to face Smith who had somehow summoned yet another flat screen. It was displaying a needlessly bright light directly into my, and about four other people's eyes, (this may have been due to the fact that we were all standing in a pitch black room with only a dull spotlight for illumination. We all stepped to the side, as the screen changed to display another a map of what was once the world. This was slightly easier to look at.
"At present we are uncertain as to the exact location of Mr. Anderson, he has, unfortunately, been surprisingly efficient at disguising himself and covering his tracks."
Someone on my left sneezed. Smith stopped to stare at them for a few moments; he seemed both fascinated and disgusted by the occurrence.
"As I was saying," he continued, "We find it doubtful that he'll be located in any densely populated areas. He had inherited my hatred of humanity and we believe that he is currently unaware of how to copy himself." A strange grin broke out on his face; this was then replaced by a facial expression that could almost be described as a result of guilt. "This; coupled with some anomalous readings within the Matrix which we believe to be the construction of sentinels leads us to believe that he is in one of these six locations.
A series of small red dots appeared on various points around the map.
"So what's the plan?" This came from another anonymous Hammer crewmember, "go in with guns blazing and get killed by our Messiah?"
"The plan is to get me to Mr. Anderson. I will then distract him for long enough for the surrounding area, and everything in it, to be deleted."
There was another silence. My colleagues were presumably trying to justify the murder of the 'messiah'. A brutal stab of satisfaction went through me as I realised that it was pain they were feeling. (I hadn't taken kindly to the earlier glares.) I was distracted however by a question.
"Will that work," Ghost asked, staring incredulously at Smith, "if its that easy then why didn't the machines just delete you when you started to pose a threat to them."
"Mr. Anderson's power was reduced when he and I, died. If we act quickly enough, and are able to sufficiently distract him, he won't be able to save himself."
"It didn't take that long for his powers to arise after we found him." My nostrils flared as I heard Morpheus' voice. Thanks to Smith's informative speaking, I'd almost forgotten that he was there. Now the feelings of bloodlust and anger had began to seer through me once more.
I locked it down, barely.
"As for myself," Smith paused, I couldn't tell why, it wasn't regret that much was certain, "I will make no attempt to stop my own deletion."
"Yeah right." Someone whispered to another person who was seated behind me.
To be continued.
Bit of a short one I know, I shouldn't even be writing this really, I should be revelling in revision. I can never be bothered with it however; I always get bored and end up playing card games with a rugby ball. Anyway, now for replies:
Angel-of-lightness: Again I feel that I've replied to what you said in your review; hence I shall have to think up yet another thing to say. Um, I'm updating the website about once per day. Soon I'll run out of things and updates will take longer but there's probably some stuff there that you haven't seen just so you know. Anyway, thanks for reviewing and good luck with your SATS, whenever they are.
Agent Josie: You mis-spelled weasel, I'm appalled at this, its little short of blasphemy. Anyway, thanks for visiting the website and signing the guestbook. Like I told Naz there's probably stuff there you're yet to see and good luck with your SATS tests. And thanks for reviewing.
Tai Wilson: Once again you've given me a review that is difficult to reply to. I thought about saying 'of course I am, I'm always right', but then I realised that by writing what I've written, I could add more words. Thanks for reviewing.
LiMiYa: I don't really imagine the murder of a family member as being something that someone would want to talk about with anyone, I might be wrong though. Oh well, thanks for reviewing and are you planning to write anything for this website?