Anomaly Detected
Anomaly detected.
The bright green words scrolled across the black LCD screen of the computer terminal. Neo tapped a combination of keys on the small keypad below the screen. He stood inside a phone booth on the outskirts of Old San Francisco, the once bustling West Coast city, now reduced to ruins. In the dark sky over the city, lightning webbed through storm clouds. In the distance, the cylindrical towers of the Matrix glowed faintly orange against the ruins of the city skyline.
Anomaly detected. Anomaly detected. Anomaly detected.
“Damn it,” said Neo. He glanced at his wristwatch. It was nearly five in the afternoon. He didn’t have much time. Soon the sun would set, and the temperature in the city would drop forty degrees.
As Neo typed a new command into the terminal, a quiet mechanical grinding sound broke his concentration. He looked up from the computer screen. The grinding noise repeated, louder than before. He glanced at the city skyline.
Far in the distance, a series of dim white lights drifted toward the phone booth. He grabbed his backpack from the dusty phone booth floor and strapped it on his back. He stepped out of the phone booth. A cold wind whipped up dust from the cracked and pitted concrete of the street.
As Neo made his way out of the city, the grinding mechanical noise echoed in the streets. He looked over his shoulder. The Machines were close, just a few city blocks from his position. He could see them now. Six Hunter-Seekers, metal spheres with eight mechanical tentacles each, flew toward him. He started to run.
Neo slipped behind the ruins of an office building, out of breath. His forehead shined with sweat. He unstrapped his backpack and dropped it onto the concrete sidewalk.
The Machines made a loud whirring sound. Neo glanced around the corner of the office building. The six Hunter-Seekers were floating over the street. He pulled a large gray device from his backpack. It had a long metal antenna and a keyboard. He extended the antenna. A message scrolled across a dull LCD screen. “Signal detected.” He tapped a combination of keys on the keyboard, and waited as the device produced a static noise.
After the static cleared, there was an answer. It was Trinity’s voice. “Neo, where are you?”
At that moment, the Hunter-Seekers reached the office building.
“Trinity,” said Neo. “Help.” He dropped the radio on the sidewalk and left it there with the backpack. He got to his feet and ran as fast as he could down the street.
At the end of the street loomed a collapsed concrete and steel bridge, an immense barrier that blocked his escape. He halted there with his back to the collapsed bridge. The Machines pursued him, reaching out with their long tentacles. As they got near him, the tips of their tentacles began to glow white. Neo groaned and threw his arm over his face.
A few moments passed, but nothing happened.
Neo lowered his arm. The Hunter-Seekers were still there, hovering in the air. They floated in a row back and forth, but they made no effort to engage him. He waved his hand in front of them.
The machines made no response.
There was a loud whirring sound, and then the Nebuchadnezzar descended from the bridge behind him. The ship’s main bay door slid open. Neo looked again at the Machines suspended in the air before him. They were still floating over the street just out of reach. He stepped onto the hovercraft bay, and the metal door slid shut in front of him.
