Insomnia
The Matrix
Amos Whirly

Word Count: 227

It's cold tonight. The thermal sensors on the engineering level must be malfunctioning. I pull my blanket tighter and try to find a comfortable position on my old, lumpy mattress.

I must sleep well tonight. As soon as the Nebuchadnezzar is charged up, we're leaving again. Morpheus thinks he's found the One. That's where we're going. We're going to get him, to free his mind. If he'll let us. He's older than normal. He might not even survive the transition. But Morpheus says he is the One. So he must survive.

He must.

People who've lived so long in the Matrix have a hard time adjusting to the real world. This real world is cold and stormy and dark; cruel, dangerous, deadly, and full of monsters. Some days there are parts of me that wish Morpheus had never found me. On night like these, I wish sometimes I was still in the Matrix where there was light and heat and relative peace. Then, I remember what the Matrix is – control, an illusion, a trick designed by the machines to keep us under their thumbs. If this man Morpheus has found is the One, he'll put a stop to it all. He'll defeat the Machines. He'll end the war.

But that is tomorrow, and right now it's still night. Day will come too soon, and I must be ready.