Waking Nightmare: An Metalogic Story

[Metalogic]

I don’t mind the goop that we eat on the hovercraft for three square meals every day. It tastes like runny oatmeal. However, having it every single day for every meal, gets a bit tiring. At least in The Matrix, I could buy a variety box of Oatmeal to eat. This came to my mind as I pour the goop into my tin bowl can and hobbled over to the mess with the others, the clank of my metallic peg leg hitting the metallic floor of the hovercraft. I sat with the crew of six and toyed with the goop with my spoon before taking a swig of what I suspect was some form of bug juice.

“So, you’re one of the survivors of the code bombs, right?” a voice asked. I looked up and it was Alpaca. He wore a dark red beanie and had thick glasses. In his hand was a fairly used paperback book which I could barely make out the writings of. He intently studied me behind his thick frames. I cleared my throat, “Um yea, was rescued by the hover barge Lusitania. Spent my recovery there before I got taken to Zion and assigned to this ship.”

Alpaca licked his lips, “what was it like, to be awakened in such a manner?”

I looked up again in slight annoyance, “Ever had a moment where you’re nestled all nice and comfortable in your bed, you’re warm and everything is just perfect? Then someone dragged you out of bed, splashed you with ice cold water and then threw you out the window naked? It was a bit like that.” I dropped my spoon into the tin bowl and made some noise that sounded like ‘excuse me’ and walked out of the mess hall down the corridor of the hovercraft.

A hand grabbed my shoulder. I quickly turned around and there was a smaller woman in front of me. She had long jet-black hair, the deepest brown eyes, her brow furrowed in a look of concern. She went by Nikko, she usually had a sunny deposition, but that wasn’t the case right now. I wiped my forehead and ran my fingers through my hair. “H-hey Nikko, sorry, you startled me there.”

She gave me a slight smile before placing her hand on her hips. “Don’t let Al get to you like that. He’s a little too, inquisitive for his own good. He’s, he’s not that great with boundaries and sometimes doesn’t know when to stop.” I sat down on one of the jack-in chairs facing her. “I understand, it’s just not something I want to relive anytime soon.”
“I gotcha, I can’t imagine how hard it is to go from one life to another in such a short amount of time and you basically had to hit the ground running.”

“Is that a jab?” I asked with a smirk.

Nikko blushes, “I did not think of your leg when I said that.” I gave Nikko a friendly soft punch to the arm before standing back up and turned towards my bunk. “I’ll catch you later Nik.”

“See you later Meta.”


* * *

I always had problems falling asleep, but somehow, I would end up asleep. I laid in my bed looking up at the cold steel ceiling then the lights buzzed on with activity. With a groan and a bit of effort, I push myself up to a sitting position on the bed. After strapping on my boots and slipping a white wife beater shirt on, I walked into the main section of the hovercraft where everyone was already gathered. Alpaca was already at the Operator’s station typing away on his keyboards, green code flowed from the three primary screen in front of him. Captain Kobalt cleared his throat, “Time to jack in Operatives.”

One by one, we jacked into The Matrix and our RSI loaded up inside of a Tea House in International. I gazed out of the window and noticed that we were in Akasaka. The crew was sitting at a table inside the tea house, Captain Kobalt to my opposite, Nikko to my left and a fourth operative to my right whose alias was Amity. He was a muscular white man who was a Kung Fu grandmaster in his previous life. His white spiky hair and deep blue eyes scanned the documents that sat on the table before us.

“We are looking for a courier,” Kobalt began, “a courier that works for The Merovingian. This person, or exile is carrying a floppy disk that has all the traffic that’s going in and out of Mobil Ave, and Zion been keeping an eye on it. While we’ve been able to gather bits and pieces here and there, this disk has the entire roster of exiled programs that visited Mobil Ave.”

My left eyebrow went up as I looked over the papers and photographs. ‘Exiles? The Merovingian? Who are these people?’ I thought to myself. “Usually the courier is unarmed,” Kobalt continued, “and without escort. However, neighborhood gangs have been known to be the eyes and ears for The Merovingian.”

Kobalt then gathered up the photos and files and rolled out a map of the city. “We know that the courier usually leaves The Abandoned Subway Station in Rogers Way. He’ll first take the green line to Manssen Park, then jot over to Stamos to take the red line to Camon. From Camon he’ll take the blue line to Sai Kung. Finally, he’ll take the purple line to Shinjuku where he’ll drop of the disk at a drop point for The Merovingian. Our best point to intercept him will be between the green line and red line at Stamos. There’s an alleyway that we can block off and quickly surround him. We’ll use the Stamos Northwest Hardline to get there and set up.” The group nodded and then got up and piled out of the tea house.

Within a few minutes, we were in the alleyway at Stamos, right next to the Stamos Red Line Station. I was put in charge of lookout, I leaned back against a building that has seen better days and started looking around. Several bluepills going about their daily lives, a couple of gang members. I had no idea if they were also bluepills or exiles. I even wondered if it made a difference. My foot began tapping against the building as I watched the street traffic passing me by. There’s just something I miss about being ‘them’, just going about my day, minding my own business. Now I’m supposed to help shake down someone on a bike? I don’t know who this Morpheus person is, and I don’t give a damn. He robbed my life from me and that’s something I’ll never forgive.

I closed my eyes to recompose myself when I heard a whistle. That was our cue to get into position. I started walking towards my spot, putting my hand on my shotgun. The courier turned a corner and came face to face with a group of redpills. It was a kid; it was a damn kid. Couldn’t have been more than 15 years old and was still fresh faced with freckles. His bike came to screeching halt as Amity towered over him with his arms crossed. Kobalt was standing next to him with his coat pulled back exposing his pistol in full view. In a low voice, Kobalt began. “Listen kid, you have something that we need. Regardless of what you think of the people who employed you to carry this over to Shinjuku, it can’t reach there.” The kid started to stammer and tried backing away, but Nikko blocked the path behind him. I’ve already released the grasp on my shotgun and walked to the other side of Amity. I cleared my throat trying to sound as gentle as possible.

“Look, we just want the disk, it has some secret data that’s been leaked and if we don’t contain the leak, our bosses over at Metacortex are going to put our asses in a sling.”

The kid looked confused and unsure, “look, how much are they paying you? I can double it.”

The kid stammered, “$100 mister.”

I raised an eyebrow but reached into my pocket and pulled out my wallet. I pulled out a $500 bill. “Let me see the disk,” I commanded. The kid reached into his satchel and pulled out a black floppy disk with a fresh label on it, wasn’t even written on yet. The kid and I traded, and I held the disk in my hand in front of Captain Kobalt. “Money talks better than threats, captain.”

He grunted under his breath and grabbed the disk out of my hand and stuffed it in his coat pocket. All the sudden, all our cell phones went off. We all answered it at the same time and was greeted by Alpca’s voice, “Morpheus has been killed. Jack out immediately, Captain Niobe will contact each Zion hovercraft on the meeting location.”