Waking Nightmare: An Metalogic Story

[Metalogic]

The report of gun fire filled the firing range. I lowered my 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun down to my side with my index finger resting on the barrel above the trigger. I pushed a button to my left side and a machine buzzed into activity. My target paper came up to my face and my eyes darted studying my shooting patterns. The hairs on my arm started standing up as I felt a surge of energy in the air. A green-white light filled the space next to me before being engulfed by green code. The code took the shape of my Zion Captain, Kobalt. He was a weathered black man who had salt and pepper hair and beard. He wore a vest and camo pants with combat boots. In contrast, I was wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers.

“Nice grouping, hitting the right areas to disarm and then to terminate.”

“Had a 12 gauge in my apartment just in case someone tried to break in. Kill the perp without killing my neighbors,” I replied. I didn’t know how accurate that was, I never had to use my old 12 gauge. My apartment building was filled with people just going about their day, trying to get by in the big city. Kobalt nodded as I talked.

He let out a soft sigh and then brought his right hand up to his chin. “Let’s see how you do in a real combat situation.” I raised an eyebrow to him, “We’re going into The Matrix?” He gave me a sly smile, “Not exactly.” He reached into his left pocket and pulled out a cell phone, it was the same Nokia 8110 I carried with me on my job. I always kept it off when I wasn’t on the job.

“Operator, load The Office Map.” After the phone retracted back into itself, the world around us dissolved into a cloud of falling green code, then out of nowhere a new world rushed into view. I stepped back almost tripping over before my back hit a chair. Kobalt was nowhere to be seen, I looked around and my shotgun was still in my hands. Taking in my surroundings, I noticed a table with pistols, machine guns and boxes of ammunition. A smug smile spread across my face, ‘Okay, I guess we’re going to play this game,’ I thought to myself as I limped over to the table. I grabbed four pistols, and ammo for both types of guns I was going to carry into this little game.

The map had change. It wasn’t empty office space anymore, it was filled with people, going about their day. ‘Okay, that complicate things.’ I casually walked between the cubicles and desks, walking as softly as I could even with my limp. My eyes darted back and forth, looking for any sign of trouble or any sign of my captain. I got to the middle of the floor before I heard the familiar ding of the elevator door. Dropping to my left knee I brought my shotgun up and saw a man in a suit and sunglasses appeared as the door opened. A squeeze of the trigger barked out a buckshot from my shotgun as it impacted the man’s left knee. Afterwards I twisted my body to behind a cubicle wall. The pain from my bad leg shot through my body, I gritted my teeth so I wouldn’t give away my position.

The footsteps started coming towards me. ‘What the fuck?’ I thought to myself as I sat there, listening. The man was walking like he normally would if I hadn’t blown out his left kneecap. I scrambled to my feet, and I ran to a better advantage point. A bullet whizzed by my ear hitting the pillar next to me. The man was holding up a Desert Eagle in his hand. Taking a hard right I slid back down onto my butt and waited for the man. He appeared in front of me in no time and already had his gun pointed at my forehead.
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“Freeze,” a voice called out. Everything froze, it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Kobalt stepped out from out of nowhere and stood beside the man. “Meet Agent Brown. He is a computer program designed to do one thing, hunt and destroy. He is everyone and no one. Mere bullets and shotgun pellets are worthless against him. Even the best trained marksperson and marital arts expert have died to him. The only crew to successfully take down an agent was aboard The Nebuchadnezzar and The Logos.”

I painfully pushed myself back up onto my feet and steadied myself with a nearby chair. “How do we survive them?”

“By running and hiding. Anyone and any program still connected to The Matrix is an agent. They are the eyes and ears of The System we are trying to fight and that makes him our enemies.”

I looked around to all the office workers, frozen in time. “Does that include them? The people who are just going about their business?”

“Everyone and anyone,” Kobalt empathized. “Until they are free’d from the system, they are our enemy.”

A pain hit the pit of my stomach. I run my fingers through my hair and sighed and nodded my head, “Understood.”

“One more thing, your leg paint doesn’t mean anything in here. Nothing in here, is real. Like the orientation program said, free your mind. C’mon, it’s almost supper time.” I nodded again as he phoned the operator to end the program and jack us out.