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THE FALL OF WATER
Fall A1A
[Choose Fall A1A to forget it, 'This isn't worth it,' and skip the exit.]
"F*ck this!" uttered Diva. "Forget it! This sh*t isn't worth it!" With her heart throbbing through her chest and through her ears, she quickly passed the Rainbow Avenue exit and continued northward to the next exit to take the overpass and turn back southward in the opposite direction.
"What's she doing?" whispered the bearded mussy-haired operator of the hundred-year-old hovercraft 'Nosferatu.' He maintained his bright-eyed focus on the descending streams of green-glowing code filling his station monitors. After tapping a string of characters into his keyboard, he placed a fingerless-gloved hand to his headset, and into its microphone, called anxiously, "Sky? Are you there?"
"Right here, Flicker," Sky answered through the headset. "What's going on?"
Following the raining code, Flicker said, "I think Waterfall's bailing out."
"Dammit!" cursed Sky. "Is anyone following her?"
"Nnnn-no, not that I can tell."
"Good... Well, we'll just have to try again later."
"Sorry."
"Find me an exit, Mr. Flicker."
Reflexively, Flicker glanced at the real-world Sky lying back in her favorite battered chair, eyes closed and plugged in, nothing at all like the polished hard-edged warrior-image that roamed the Matrix.
"Sure thing," he said.
"Nothing," muttered subordinate Agent Graves, scanning the deserted storefronts and streetlights along Rainbow Avenue -- left, then right, then left again -- through his spotless sunglasses, through the spotless windshield of his black 2003 Cadillac.
As he sped westward towards Lakeview Boulevard, he began to experience the initial tinges -- Repulsive! -- the repulsive human emotion of -- What was it called? -- hopelessness.
"Repulsive," Graves spat.
Then suddenly, the corner of his shaded eye caught a spotlit flash of bright blue and yellow. The figure -- Yes, a yellow-haired figure in a bright-blue jacket! -- dashed away briefly, and just-as-suddenly disappeared into an alleyway.
Rising from the depths of repulsive hopelessness to the growing sense of delicious confidence, Graves savored the name of his identified prey.
"Sky," he whispered.
Taking the highway southward back to her apartment, Diva finally allowed herself to breath freely. Leaning back in the fabric seat of her Toyota, she convinced herself that the truth of "what the Matrix is" was definitely NOT worth the risk -- the risk of losing her life, even if it was a life of endlessly punching clocks, mind-numbing data-entry screens, and dragging-on late-night shifts.
'But if Sky could call while I was still online,' she pondered uneasily, 'I wonder what else she might be able to do..."
Choose Fall A1A1 to stay away from her apartment for now.
Choose Fall A1A2 to head straight back to her apartment.
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