The Matrix

ike0481 · March 8, 2002, 12:49

This is a spoof of The Matrix that I did really quick while at work for you Apolytoners. I hope I don't offend anyone by using their names in this story. This is by no means near as good as the movie, but I just thought it would be a fun short story. Hope you like.

*****

Grundel slept quietly in front of his computer. He had been playing ‘CivIII’ for most of the night and between turns enjoyed the act of hacking into government mainframes via the Internet until his eyelids slowly sank under the heavy burden of exhaustion. He had been resting there for some time with the computer sitting idle as his monitor displayed space objects in his newest selection of his windows screen saver. All was quiet until the computer began making the clicking sounds of data processing. The screen saver suddenly disappeared as the monitor converted into a solid black screen. The processor began clicking wildly as green words began flashing across the top left hand corner of the screen.

Wake up, Grundel…

Wake up, Grundel…

Grundel jolted awake and stared at his monitor in confusion.

The Matrix has you…

“What the…” Grundel murmured to himself as he repeatedly pressed the ESC key. Nothing happened. ESC, again… nothing. The green words remained on his screen. Had he typed them in his sleep? He put his fingers on the key pad and pushed CRTL, ALT but just as he was about to hit the Delete key another message appeared.

Knock Knock, Grundel…

BAM, BAM, BAM. The knocking at the door shook Grundel's entire apartment. With his adrenaline pumping, Grundel crept to the door. He could not see anything through the dark peephole. With his heart racing he unbolted the deadbolt and inched the door open. Outside stood three men dressed in business suits wearing dark sunglasses with one of them holding his finger over the peephole.
“Mr. Overton. We need to speak with you. May we come in?” Said one of the men in a German accent.
Grundel remembered the printouts of the CIA mainframe data that lay cluttered around his desk,
“My apartment is messy. Can we do this another time?”
“There’s no need to hide the printouts on your desk Mr. Overton.” One of the agents said as he barged through the door pushing Grundel to the floor.
“What are you doing? Who are you?” Grundel shouted.
“Mr. Overton. We know what you’ve been up to.” One of the agents said as he slammed a knee on Grundel’s chest and placed a yellow folder full of documents beside him.
“You see Mr. Overton, we have been watching you. We’ve watched you hack into our mainframes under the alias of ‘Grundel’.” The agent stared at Grundel for several moments with his knee planted firmly into his chest. “We’re willing to forget that this folder exists if you’re willing to cooperate with us. Tell us who you are working for.”
Grundel stared back and slowly raised his hand toward the agent.
“How about this.” He said as he placed his middle finger into the agents face. “I don’t have to say anything without speaking to a lawyer first.”
The agent turned and looked at the others as they nodded their heads.
“How can you speak to a lawyer, if you cannot talk.”
Suddenly Grundel’s mouth locked up. He couldn’t move his lip as they felt like they had been molded together. The agent withdrew a small metallic instrument from his coat pocket and held it over Grundel’s navel. Suddenly it began moving as if it were alive. Grundel watched in horror as the object scurried off like a cockroach into his belly button.
BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ…
Grundel’s reached over and turned off his alarm. He looked around his apartment in confusion. Have I been in been in bed all night? The computer screen, the agents, the metallic device, was it all just a dream? It seemed so real.
He walked over to his computer and punched the enter key several times but his computer was off.
Knock, Knock, Knock…
Someone was at the door. Grundel froze. Could his dream have been some kind of bizarre prediction? He walked quietly to the door and peered through the peephole. There was a young man standing alone wearing a black leather coat in front of his door. Grundel crept the door open and with sleepy eyes and a groggy voice he greeted the stranger.
“My name is Velociryx. Come with me.” The young man instructed as he grabbed for Grundel's arm.
“Wait just a minute. You expect me to just leave with you without knowing who you are or where you plan on taking me?”
“Yes. Come with me, it’s urgent.” Velociryx looked a Grundel with eyes of honesty. Somehow Grundel knew that what the young man wanted was very important. Grundel allowed himself to follow the young man. He was taken to a black car parked in a dark alley and he entered the back seat with two other strangers occupying the front.
“There were three agents who came into your apartment last night Grundel. What did they want from you?” Velociryx asked.
“Agents? I had a dream last night but…..” Suddenly it dawned on Grundel that his dream was real.
“What did they want from you?” Velociryx asked again.
“They wanted to know who I was working for or something.”
“Did they place a bug or any kind of tracking device on your body?”
Grundel only gave a worried look at his navel. “You mean that thing was real?”
Velociryx produced a scanner that searched for tracking devices and then positioned it above Grundel’s stomach. The machine made a horrific hiss as the squirming bug was sucked out from Grundel’s innards.
“What is that thing?” Grundel shouted.
“It’s a tracking device. The agents wanted to keep an eye on you.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“We’re taking you to see the Oracle.”
“The who?”
No on responded as the car drove on. After some time they arrived at a large vacant house. Grundel was escorted to a large room with two chairs placed under the middle of a high vaulted ceiling. In one chair sat a dark man with sunglasses who motioned for Grundel to have a seat in the other chair. Grundel sat and the dark man scooted close to his face.
“My name is Anatolia and I’ve been watching you.”
Grundel gave a puzzled look.
“All your life you have wondered… You have wondered if there was more to reality. I’m here to answer your questions.”
“Like what?”
“Your entire life is not reality. Your office job, your apartment, your computer, its all part of the matrix.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The matrix is a system that a people not long ago developed as a means to control the population of those they conquer.”
“Who?”
“The only way to know who is to see them with your own eyes. You can join me outside the matrix.” Anatolia held out his fists and opened them to reveal two pills. “The red pill will show you the truth. If you take it, there’s no going back. The blue pill takes you home to your apartment where you’ll wake up in your bed and recall all of this as just a dream.”
Grundel studied Anatolia’s hands for a moment and reached out and took the red pill.

Grundel awoke inside a small coffin-like container with an unknown green gel coating his entire body. The smell inside, like the odor of a rotting corpse, was unbearable. Grundel began to gag just as a lid to the container opened. Light seemed to pour in from all directions and Grundel shielded his face from the brightness.
“Lets get you out of your incubator.” Came an unfamiliar voice as Grundel felt his body being lifted out of the container. Grundel was carried out into an enormous room where thousands of similar containers went on as far as the eye could see.

“Why is it so bright?” Grundel asked while lying on the floor as his body felt like it weighed a ton.
“This is the first time you have used your eyes, Grundel.” Anatolia stood over Grundel’s body, “How does it feel to be awake?”
“Like crap.” Grundel said as he puked some of the green gel that was in his incubator onto the floor. “Where are we?”
“You must rest now. You will learn the answers to all your questions in time.”

Grundel sat on a cold metal chair next to several other people around what appeared to be a dinner table. Inside a bowl in front of him was some kind of white gravy-oatmeal combination that tasted horrible.
“I want you to meet my crewmembers, Grundel.” Anatolia said. “Say hello to Steelehc and Sultan. They are the mechanics that keep this place up and running and supplied with air.” He said as he pointed to two muscular men sitting on the opposite side of Grundel. “My operator, Richelieu, is in charge of the control room where we do all of our own programming. You’ll be working with him later on. Our medic, Velociryx, and myself, Anatolia, the commander of this operation.”
“Where am I?” asked Grundel.
“You are deep underground in a bunker build before the war.” Replied Anatolia
“What war?” Grundel asked.
“You see Grundel, everything that you know about history is a lie. The creators of the Matrix put bits and pieces of real history into the system, but most of it is fabricated to suit the needs of the designers.”
“I do not understand what you are talking about. Who built this system that you call the Matrix?”
“The year was 1944 and the entire world was absorbed by a war known as World War two. The German dictator known as Adolph Hitler had conquered much of Europe and Germany, with her allies, stood on the brink of global domination.”
“I already know all of this.” Grundel interrupted.
“American forces fought bravely to oppose the German juggernaut….” Anatolia continued
“Yes, yes, I know. They landed in France on D-Day and shortly there after they slowly pushed back the German occupation.”
“No they did not. American forces were slaughtered on June 6, 1944 in their invasion of France. After that, German forces perused their war at seas to clear the oceans for an invasion of America. On May 8, 1945, German and Japanese forces invaded America on both coasts and quickly conquered the continent. Soon after that, German engineers began working on a project code named the Matrix as a way to control the populations of the rioting Americans.” Said Anatolia.
Grundel paused and absorbed all the information. “But why would they want such a system? From what I thought, the German forces built concentration camps where they burnt the bodies of those that they hated as a way of weeding out their enemies. If what you are saying is true, why didn’t they just put Americans in such camps?”
“Why bury a dieing man when you can feed him to your lions?” replied Anatolia. “The Germans realized that there is use in the waste and by products that the human body produces. Once engineers developed engines that ran off of human waste, the Germans knew the easiest way to obtain this new fuel would be to kill two birds with one stone. They put us into the incubators like the one we just pulled you out of, and installed the Matrix into our brains to suppress us forever. Americans have been supplying the German war machine with her fuel all the while we sleep comfortable in our cells thinking we won the war 57 years ago.”
“I don’t believe you!” Shouted Grundel. “I don’t believe a word of this. I’m going to wake up in my apartment and this is all going to be just another bad dream.”
Anatolia looked around the room and stood up. “Come with me Grundel. I have something to show you.”
Grundel entered a large freight elevator as Anatolia pushed levers and the elevator began to move. “The Germans so far haven’t detected us. We have to keep quiet.” Said Anatolia.
“Where are we going?” asked Grundel.
“We’re going to the surface. I’m going to show you what America really looks like.” Replied Anatolia.
It felt like they had been in the elevator for at least 20 minutes before the elevator grinded to a halt. Anatolia pushed a button to open the elevator doors and they entered a large room that looked like a warehouse full of boxes and cargo. Anatolia motioned for Grundel to duck as they walked towards a large window at the other end of the warehouse.
“I want you to look through the window. Don’t look long because they might see you.” Anatolia warned Grundel.
Grundel peeked his head over the window. Outside the sky was dark gray and on the ground rolled hundreds of tanks and artillery with men scattering around like ants moving in every direction. Grundel held his gaze as he realized that every piece of equipment waved a red flag with a black emblem and every soldier wore the same design as armbands just above their elbow. It was the flag of the nazi swastika.
“Now do you believe me?” Anatolia asked.
“This is unreal.” Replied Grundel. “Why did you bring me here? Why didn’t you leave me in my incubator like everyone else?”
“Because I had a dream of you Grundel. I dreamed that you were the only one who was able to shut down the Matrix.”
“How?”
“I do not know how, Grundel. But if I am right, you will know what to do when the time comes.”
“What year is it? Is it really 2002?” asked Grundel
“No. We are unsure what year it is. We believe the year is somewhere around 1960 but we can never be certain.” Replied Anatolia.
“Then why did they program the Matrix to make us think the year was 2002?”
“It was their way of separating the people from the events that are taking place. When something is a thing of the past, most people don’t give it much concern. We must return back to the barracks before they catch on to us.”
Anatolia led the way back to the underground bunker as Grundel walked, mesmerized, behind him.

“Your training begins inside the Matrix.” Anatolia said as he placed a helmet over Grundel's head. Instantly Grundel transferred into the Matrix where he opened his eyes to a pure white room. “This is a blank slate. From here we can program everything just like to Germans have done.” Grundel watched as the pure white room transferred into what appeared to be a karate dojo. Anatolia motioned for Grundel to move in and attack him as he moved around the room gracefully. They spared for a while until Grundel burst out in frustration.
“I’m not as fast as you.” Grundel said as he panted for air after lunging for another unsuccessful attack.
“Stop trying to hit me,… and hit me.” Anatolia said. “I notice that you are breathing heavy. There is no air in the Matrix.”
Grundel stopped breathing and realized he was only performing a programmed response. “You must rest now. I’ll go outside first and get you unplugged.” Anatolia said as a phone rang on the other side of the room. Anatolia put the receiver to his ear and disappeared. Grundel waited and as the phone began to ring he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned and found himself staring down the barrel of a gun from the agent who had pinned him down in his apartment.
Pow, Pow, Pow…
Blood splattered on the wall behind Grundel as his bullet-riddled body fell to the floor.
Anatolia looked with Richelieu at the monitor from the control room in horror as he watched the data streams reveal that Grundel was dead. He ran over to Grundel's body as blood began to trickle out of his mouth. Grundel’s heart monitor flat lined and Anatolia ran to put on his helmet.
“You can’t go into the matrix now. The agents will kill you.” Yelled Velociryx.
“I thought he was the one who could shut down the Matrix. I was wrong. I have to go.” Yelled Anatolia
Suddenly Grundel's heart monitor began to beep.
“He has a pulse.” Yelled Richelieu
Grundel stood up inside the Matrix and faced the three agents as they walked away from him.
“Risen from the dead....he is the one…” said Velociryx in awe.
The agents turned, raised their weapons and fired at Grundel.
“No.” Grundel said softly as he held out his hand and stopped the bullets in mid air. The agents all watched as their bullets spun around and slammed into their bodies.
“I’m going to do something I should have done a long time ago.” Grundel said as he watched the code of the matrix trickle down the walls. The phone rang and Grundel joined Anatolia and his crew on the outside. Grundel ran over to the console and placed his fingers on the keypad.
“What are you doing?” asked Richelieu
“The time has come to shut down the Matrix.” He said as he pushed CTRL, ALT, DELETE on the keyboard.

Ring…Ring…Ring…
Tracing Call…

019767481328408108324081409182304981023840812308
12341234123490793959234795645792347952934875
234987598273447579293475972529834759723
2349759234759727598273498579572349
98273490857934793948759827372
02783450823405848624234
9287340780917812
2198084757
***SYSTEM FAILURE ***

“I know you’re out there. Waiting to see what I’m going to do. I’m going to hang up this phone, and when I do I’m going to show these people what you have done. We will stand up and fight you. This war is not over.” Said Grundel.

The End

So the ending wasn't as dramatic as I wanted it to be. Oh, well. It might have been better IF THERE WAS A STORY CONTEST **hint**hint**

SultanofATL · March 8, 2002, 13:25

That is great. Pretty horrifying thought, but great. Please post more when you have time.

Richelieu · March 8, 2002, 13:28

This is great! And i get the feeling the best is yet to come.

...and i'm also kind of jealous...

steelehc · March 8, 2002, 13:33

Reichelieu: I would be jealous too. Why are we not in here?

This is a great story, with an interesting basis. And a scary one, as well.

Steele

Herr David · March 8, 2002, 14:07

Entertaining... more!

godinex · March 8, 2002, 14:46

Richelieu · March 8, 2002, 14:49

I think we're all starving for new stories...

ike0481 · March 8, 2002, 16:47

Would you like some cheese with your whine? Actually I'm glad you said something because the only characters that I did have was Anatolia, Vel, and Grundel and that would have made for an even more boring story.

Dom Pedro II · March 8, 2002, 17:14

Well, no way I'm sleeping TONIGHT!!

Can't sleep Germans'll eat me!

ike0481 · March 8, 2002, 17:19

I don't think they'll eat you, but the next time you use the toilet you might wonder where it's really going. LOL.

Sovy Kurosei · March 9, 2002, 13:18

Interesting story... Maybe we are all part of the Matrix, eh

Dom Pedro II · March 9, 2002, 18:36

Wait till the Germans see what I left them last night.

Herr David · March 10, 2002, 12:29

Hey!
Zis is not fair, we Germans don't liv off your American waste. Herr Ike0481, I shall haff my Panzers roll over you ven I get to ze modern Age.

Rotten999 · March 10, 2002, 18:12

Why are Germans always the villains? Oh, right. The evil.

dunk · March 12, 2002, 11:25

Why are they evil? Because the WWII vets and Holocaust survivors are still alive. That and the History Channel never stops playing WWII documentaries about how evil they were.

The Romans were worse if you ask me, Caeser boasted that 1,000,000 people were killed in his campaign in Gaul. The Ottoman Turks were worse, any new king had to expand the empire... people were forcibly assimilated. The Mongols... yikes. We Americans almost killed off an entire race of people. The Spanish killed off two civilizations. The British almost killed of all the Aboriginies. These are just ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Just my theories.

Cool story.

Herr David · March 12, 2002, 15:38

*sigh*

I'd be grateful if someone would mention that it were the Nazis who did those evil things that you seem to think about. However, (almost) all Nazis were Germans but not all Germans were Nazis.

And as for colonial massacres... you're totally right. Every modern nation, be it England, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Turkey or any lost empire, has its dark spots and it's hard to tell which one was worse. If you lay aside WW2 and the Nazis, Germany is just another European power with bloody hands.

BTW - When Namibia, formerly "Deutsch-Südwestafrika", was a German colony (1881-1916) there were several revolts of indegineous Bantu tribes and the German colonial army crushed them bloodily and then drove most of the survivors into the desert where about 50,000 out of 60-70,000 perished.