The Matrix Uploaded: A Matrix Fanfiction Story
Historical File I: Naimah's Ascension
The sky had a eerie greenish shade to it. The Matrix 2.0's metropolis was busy as usual: Freeways, cities, and all. The side walls of the freeways were originally built by the Matrix: To make most any criminal getaway too bloody to bare, from Zion or not. Most drivers would do anything to get away from the chaos: Even at the risk of crashing at high speed themselves. But, underneath it all…there was a underside to the Matrix.
It took several cycles before most criminals just turned to the sewers for getaways. In a few years, it had become much more than a network of "abandoned" tunnels. It had become home for the broke…and the poor. Down here…Naimah had only know of green. And so…any color beyond the sewer lights seemed a "childish" fantasy.
She was in a battered dress that was purplish: Matching her medium purple hair. Since she was ten years old…it had been hers. And, despite how she almost tripped over the sheer size of it for years. Day by day, the other kids were playing with newspaper trash found on the streets above. Or, the occasional broken doll. Naimah just kept to herself…not even looking. They laughed at Naimah.
Day by day, she thought to herself, "let them laugh. I'm no child. Slight chuckle. They're children. They don't understand that I'm a woman. But…she does. And, that's all that matters: For my life here."
Life as she knew it…was Ookami. She was of Japanese and Chinese descent: Hated by both white and black people through her childhood. She had shoulder length silver streaked brown hair, stolen rags of a very dark brown dress, and purplish nails grown the size of toothpicks.
Ookami was a contestant with her boyfriend…on The Sirens. They were gathering a gang of gone missing preteens to be their gang: Long after their deaths. That is…until her boyfriend Abel turned her in to the police for the reward on her head. Ookami shot him in the head. But…the gang was separated and put into orphanages. Naimah was separated from them: The only preteen that Ookami managed to save from authorities.
In thought, Naimah went on, "she has given me life: In a world that looks away from the real me. And… If the cops came… I'd give my life for her."
And on that day…they found a love that only they understood. And what Naimah still didn't understand…was why the children laughed. It wasn't because of her ladylike personality: It was because of the lashes. Day by day…Naimah was bruised, scraped all over, and with drips of dark red liquid from her side. But, even then…she didn't even know the difference between sadistic pain and love. She just thought it was all the same: Coming from Ookami. The lashes of her nails…and her chilling kiss.
The children she knew were gone. They came and went…every day. Because every day…even sewer rats had to come up to eat. That was what most people so cruelly called them: Sewer rats. Like they were contaminated sewer water, threatening the streets with famine and disease. Even some of Ookami's scattered off friends had gotten killed by authorities: Agents or not.
Everyone living in the sewers was on the Agents's Most Wanted. Because, in this cycle… Not a day had gone by where the Agents didn't secretly fear another Zion resistance coming about.
That is…until a matter of days later. And Naimah was fated to find herself in the thick of it. But…there was something else that she was fated to see.
Naimah was making a trip to the surface. She had become quite the technical wizard in the sewers: Putting together junkyard parts with stolen microchips to make computers. Plus, she could run fairly far on her two feet: Chilly night or not. But, Ookami often watched her back anyway. They even had chillingly intimate chats sometimes. This was one of them.
With a ever so slightly cold voice, Ookami slightly laughed, "what is it, Naimah? Getting cold already?"
Naimah was dragging a trash bag of junk from behind…up in front of a general store modeled reddish computer store. Walls of pitch black seemed to pop out from the computer screens, in the store window. Naimah slightly chuckled, "no. This is just a light breeze. But…thank you."
Ookami slightly smiled creepily, "of course, dear. Of course." She had her nail tips coaxing the back of Naimah's hair.
With a chilling moan, Naimah slightly sighed, "umm… How can I say this delicately?"
Ookami whispered, "you always have. What's bothering you, dear?"
Naimah put a hand on hers, gently moving it away.
In a gently but disturbing way, she said, "I do want to. But…can't we take it inside? Without any cops to see us?"
Sounding creepily impressed with herself, Ookami figured, "that's very...protective of you. All right." Naimah slightly smiled back. She took out a junkyard wire coat hanger…which she had used to pick locks many nights before. The door opened with ease.
Some twenty minutes later…they were in the back. And, in the shadows of chilling moans and lashes. What was appearing on all of the screens though…seemed much more humane by default. It was a bluish green texting like message. It said:
Do you know of cyberspace? From what is real and what isn't?
In the cover of darkness… In Ookami's overbearing shadow… That's when she saw it: The message.
Naimah slowly backed away from her lips, "Ookami…what do you make of this?"
With a cold fury of the wind, Ookami glared coldly, "what? I'm not good en...?!" She looked ready to pounce…like a mountain lion.
Without even realizing Ookami's coldness, Naimah uneasily said, "no. You are. But… Slight sigh. Please. Just look."
Cooling off a little, Ookami figured, "o…kay." She then sees the message…still surrounding them in uncertainty. A scraped all over Naimah was wiping the drips of dark red with a old bright reddish rag. Ookami theorizes, "maybe it's some asshole's way of getting our attention. Sure has ours. That's for sure."
Naimah whispered, "no bugs." She was holding up a partly opened up faded blue walkie talkie: Adjusting the signal on it in hopes of picking up any radio transmissions.
More loudly, Ookami slightly smiled, "now, why would that be? Probably just a techie asshole set this all up for us to see…and only us."
A little worried, Naimah figured, "you think someone is offering us a high end job?" Ookami already had a keyboard plugged into one of the computers: Custom made. It was jet black, and made from government cellular phone circuitry. No one but the government could crack it…or trace it back to her. And, it certainly was not cheap to get by any standard.
Creepily, Ookami slightly laughed, "relax, dear. I'm just going to knock on their door: If they ask real nicely." She typed into the computer:
What do you want?
The texting seemed to type back:
I wasn't asking you. Good questions have a way of being known. A way of showing what kind of person you are. Not many can see the truth. Not many are ready to see it.
Ookami muttered, "oh, go kiss your ass!" She slashed the computer offline with her nails. The other computers went black. Naimah covered her ears, from the burglar alarms going off in a near deafening roar.
Naimah shouted over the noise, "what…did you do?!"
Ookami called out, "I just saved us from this…! …psycho "saint"."
Naimah muttered coldly, "are you absolutely sure?" Police sirens went off…from the road higher up.
Ookami slightly scoffed, "you'll thank me later. Come on!" Naimah and her ran for it. They got out the back: Just as the shadows of two Agents arrived…in the darkness. On that day…which sealed Naimah's fate.
The next morning, in the sewer level…
Ookami and Naimah were curled up together…like they often did at night. They were under some rags for sheets…on a pale grayish mattress. They were watching a film, on a patchwork styled television screen. And with blood a whole different color…Naimah was none the wiser.
It was called InfernoTown. A "Torture-tacular." That was the unofficial name for its kind, among many kinds like it.
Though...anything branded for the Matrix under "conspiracy investigation recommended" never went to theaters. They ended up on the black market…good or bad. Torturously bad or laughably good… Rich kid funding or not… It didn't matter. Not to the Matrix 1.0 and 2.0. All that mattered to them was order. Miserable, mind numbing, all too predictable order. From the country soap operas spun off Dallas…to the Manhattan Stock Market created as the ultimate scapegoat for the Matrix's corruption.
InfernoTown was just that: Miserable. Or… As the Agents would say to a shaking traumatized teenager, "you thought it was a harmless little anime for kids. Didn't you? Now…when you wake up… I can assure you that you won't remember a thing. The feeling won't go away as quickly, I'm afraid. But… Slight annoyed sigh. It's the best we can do."
It was about a sunbathing long blond haired supermodel in a marblish white bikini named Cassaffra Tempest…finding a modern Rome around her burning away. No one knew why, as they were dying by thousands by the hour. But…that wasn't the worse of it. It was burning away…by her own "fiery" temper. For she was the daughter of a sick elemental lady…who just came to make love to her struggling spitting image as the world burned. To a sickening knockoff piece of the song Monster by DEV...even though it was still 1999 in the Matrix. It was called "Monster Mother."
Naimah turned to Ookami, "what is it?"
Ookami slightly smiled sadly, "umm… It's not very hard to guess." Just as the world was going aflame onscreen…Naimah stopped the movie with a flat remote.
Naimah slightly sighed, "if this is about last night… It's nothing. Really. I know how your anger is sometimes."
Ookami whispered cruelly, "if I wasn't in this way…I'd choke you."
Disturbingly unfazed, Naimah figured, "Ookami, I know you wouldn't kill me. I'm too dear to you for that."
Ookami was scraping Naimah's legs…from under the sheets. She slightly laughed, "I suppose that is true."
Naimah slightly moaned. She insisted, "now…am I close?"
Ookami whispered, "yeah. All…too close." She withdrew her slightly reddish nails.
With a hand on hers, Naimah urged her on with concern, "tell me about it. Please."
Ookami glanced down at the sheets, "okay. Moderate sigh. What did I tell you…about my past? Before we met?"
Out loud, Naimah realized, "not much. Just that you were very rebellious in school. And…with most everyone else."
Ookami slightly smiled nervously, "of course. Though…I hate religion more. But "saints"… Slight laugh. I'll take any job to screw them: For free, even."
Uneasily, Naimah realized, "You were in a super-religious family…weren't you? Sniffle. Shit. That must have been hard to live with."
Ookami moderately sighed, "don't even get me started. I could go on and on about the bodies."
Naimah figured nervously, "I won't then. But…can I ask about the message? The one from last night?"
Ookami irritatedly muttered, "I don't think so. But… Moderate sigh. I might as well say it. Most of my friends are on the far side of town…or dead. I even had a boyfriend once. But, you know all of this."
Naimah lightly pushed, "so…?"
Ookami reasoned coldly, "I think the government knew where we were that night. I think this afternoon…we should go to a far side of town. At least, until the hungry ghosts stop…looking." Almost like clockwork…they heard footsteps. And, gunshots. Ookami and Naimah hurried to their faintly blackish pistols…on opposite sides of the bed. Ookami urged, "that's them. Come on!"
Further down Tribeca city's sewer tunnels…
Several Agents were firing their blackish pistols…mercilessly at the children. They fell dead in seconds. Leading them was Agent Brown…before his deletion. Agent Brown ordered, "cover the back." The other three agents nodded. They stood around the ladder up: Up to the sky overhead. Agent Brown started to make his way down a tunnel…in Naimah's direction.
Several more shots echoed across the sewer pipes. Shadows of the dead fell…into the ankle high sewer water.
From the other side of the tunnel…
Naimah and Ookami heard the gunshots. Naimah whispered to her, "this way!" They ran into a branching off tunnel. Sewer water splashed. Agent Brown ran after the sound. Naimah and Ookami backed against the sewer wall…pistols ready. Ookami fired her pistol at Agent Brown. He easily shifted in place to dodge the bullets. Agent Brown fired back. Ookami called out, "go!"
Naimah insisted, "not without you! I'm staying."
Ookami slightly laughed, "suit your…" Agent Brown suddenly caught sight of Ookami. He left a scruffy man's body behind: To possess Ookami's. Her eyes had a sharper blackishness to them: Like that of a wolf…on the hunt. She checked her gun for ammo.
Naimah nervously checked, "Ookami? Are you okay?" A possessed Ookami aimed her gun…straight at Naimah's head. Naimah nervously sighed, "guess that answers…"
Then…Neo came around the corner: In his jet black jacket. The other three Agents were deleted quickly from above: Through the pothole, by his pistol. He saw Agent Brown…about to fire. But, Neo had his gun out and aimed at him. Neo muttered coldly, "drop it. Or, I will kill you before you pull the trigger."
A fearful Naimah slammed her pistol hard, into a knocked out Ookami. She muttered coldly, "I don't care what you think: I'm not standing around to let you kill her!" Naimah stood in front of Ookami's body, her pistol still in hand.
Almost smiling, a impressed Neo said, "I hoped it wouldn't be necessary. We're not your enemy." He put away his pistol.
Naimah slowly put down hers. She realized, "you sent the message… that night. In the store. You were trying to warn me. But, why?" Swirls of color were starting to become more clear…in the greenish shade of things.
In widely mixed feelings, Neo figured, "unfortunately…I never got to finish the message. I don't blame your…"friend" for what happened. She's very protective of you...isn't she?"
Naimah knew there was a kind of pity in Neo's tone: A pity for her relationship with Ookami, which she could never understand. But, Naimah didn't say anything of it. Not now…not here. For that matter…probably hardly anywhere at all. Naimah pressed the question, "yes: But…why?"
With a slight sigh, Neo concluded, "now that…is a very good question." He took out a red pill and a blue pill: One in each hand…much to Naimah's puzzlement. Neo continued, "if you want to know the truth… If you're ready to know the truth… It's here."
Some hours later…
The sewer tunnel is in full color now: With the walls a dull yellowish gray…and Ookami's bruised head against the wall. The water was slightly distilled more so…by the dark red liquid swirls coming from further down. Ookami's nails were slightly dark red. She was just coming to…with a pounding headache. But, floating in the water…was a trash bag. Naimah's trash bag. And on top was Naimah's keyboard. Several more trash bags kept the cord afloat…all the way back to the television screen.
On the television screen was a bright green texting like message…programmed to appear a hour after Naimah left. The message was as follows:
Not dead. Love you. But, couldn't take you with me. Going to a better place now. Out fighting the government, front and center. But…kick ass for me? Please?
-Naimah