Neo was the one. Well, that was what Morpheus claimed. A lot of people didn't believe him, and a lot did. The more supporters there were, it seemed like there were just as many skeptics.
"What do you believe (y/n)?" My best friend, Tamara Doran, and I were sitting in her "dining room", having a late lunch.
"What?" I had totally zoned out during her entire little rant.
"About Neo! Do you truly think he's the one? Or do you think Morpheus is just a crazy captain?" She had a look of anticipation on her face, which made me sure that she was gonna run off and tell everyone what I thought.
"I... I don't know. I mean, maybe he could be. There's not really any yelling at this point. I'm not for nor against him. I guess I'm remaining neutral for now. I mean, hell, I haven't even seen the guy!" She deflated and rolled her eyes at my answer. Apparently it wasn't what she wanted.
Before she could respond to me by telling me my answer needs to be a yes or no, someone was knocking on the door. Hard.
"Who could that be?" Tamara looked at me and I just shrugged my shoulders. She then sighed and got up to open the door. I tried to peek behind her to see who it was from my seat at the table but she blocked the person at the door. They started speaking but it was mumbled and I couldn't make out a word.
Suddenly Tamara runs towards me and grabs my jacket. "Put it on, now. We're leaving."
"What? What's going on?" I was getting a bit worried because of the tone in her voice and her urgency.
"Screw the coat and your questions." She was very impatient and started dragging me out of the house. As soon as we were out, she bolted. My hand was still locked in her grasp as she ran, and I, with not will to do otherwise, trailed behind her.
She dragged me all the way up to the living level that Nebuchadnezzar's crew was letting the first person off of. Of course, there were hundreds of people crowding around the elevator. Tamara was eagerly attempting to look over the other hundred individuals who are trying to do the exact same.
I shook my head and pulled her. "You dragged me here why?"
"So we can see him. What other reason would there be?" She scoffed and continued trying to catch a glimpse over everyone to see when the elevator would open.
I rolled my eyes and pulled her down to whisper in her ear. "Why don't we just go to his level so that we'll be able to see him get off? Maybe you'd be able to meet him too." She perked up at the idea of meeting The One and I had to stifle my laugh.
"Then we're waiting here why? Let's go!" She grabbed my hand and started pulling me again. Everyone started making a huge commotion as soon as we were almost down to the level below this one, and we both looked at each other because we knew the reason.
On the way there, we saw many people still going about their day, obviously not caring at all if Neo was here or not. They were probably skeptics. I'm not going to lie, I haven't seen any changes yet, and I'm starting to come onto their side just a bit. I mean, could he really free everyone from the Matrix? There were billions of people in there. Plus, how would we be able to take all of them in if he did free them? Not a lot of people believed him, so obviously there really hasn't been a move on making millions of new homes. We just make a few new ones after the vacant ones are filled up.
We finally reach the level that Neo lives on and people were crowded around there too, but not as much as the previous ones, so we were "easily" able to move up to the front. I nearly got knocked down three times and told to "watch my step" after being shoved, but we were finally in the front row of the crowd. Obviously, we were going to be here a while. Neo was probably busy with the thousands of other people who were begging for him to watch over their loved ones. Almost half an hour passed and I was getting tired of waiting, but the eager look never came off of Tamara's face.
"How much longer do you think he'll be, Tam?" I looked up at her from the ground. I was not standing there for hours just to be plowed over by the crowd, so I decided to sit.
"Not too much longer. I've only seen him once before though. I had to wait hours to even catch a glimpse of him." She told the story of her seeing him every chance she got. She swore he was some type of angel.
I let out a sigh and the elevator opened, but it was just Naomi. I guess she was, once again, helping Morpheus out in some way. She does that a lot. I heard they had some type of past, but no one really confirmed it with me. Maybe she still has feelings for him. That would explain why she's always helping him when he gets in deep trouble. I put my elbows on my knees and my head on my hands. This was going to be a long wait. Great.
An hour and a half rolls by and I'm nearly asleep from boredom, then it happens. The elevator doors open and Tamara is quickly pulling me to my feet, which jolts me awake. Everyone is starting to push forward, shouting out pleas of various wishes. I finally look forward and there he is. He's kind of pale, has black hair, and then I get to his eyes. They're soft. And tired. He's been at this for a long time. I'm ultimately pushed into him by the crowd and we both nearly fall. With that, the crowd falls silent.
"Oh my, I'm so sorry." I look up and he's looking down at me with concern. His eyes are a soft brown now that I'm seeing them up close.
"Are you okay?" His hands are on my waist and I can feel every receptor there light up with the feeling of his touch. He obviously feels it too by the way his hands are gripping a little tighter.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Thank you. Are you okay?" The crowd is just watching us. I don't think they've actually seen him interact like this before. I don't think many of the people here have even laid eyes on him before in fact. I haven't. But now here I am, his hands on my waist and still making eye contact with him. I'm never going to hear this end of this from Tamara.
"Yeah. I'm okay. Are you sure you're fine?" He was looking at me a little more intensely now, and I think he wants to get away from the crowd as much as I do.
I pretend that I hit my head and start blinking as if I'm trying to get back my vision. "Actually, my head kinda hurts, and I'm feeling pretty dizzy." I relax against him as if I'm losing my balance now.
"I better take you to the hospital then." He nods around at everyone and they look extremely disappointed, and it almost looks like he's about to change his mind, but he doesn't. He picks me up, cradling me close to his chest as he makes his way through the crowd. Apologies are pouring from his mouth all the way to the entrance of his living quarters. Luckily, no one followed him. He put me down and sighed. "Thank you so much for that. I've been dealing with people asking me things and berating me with questions for hours."
I guess we were late on hearing about their arrival, or maybe me and Tamara were there longer than I had thought. "It's no problem. I could see how tired you were. Must be pretty overwhelming to deal with all that. I don't know if I could handle that type of pressure."
Another sigh came out and he nodded his head. "Yeah. Don't get me wrong, it's nice helping, but it does get overwhelming. I don't know if I'm supposed to be saying that, being as they see me as a hero."
I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. "Nah, you should be able to say those kind of things. You're still human after all. You have feelings." I looked around and noticed that my living quarters were literally three doors to the right of his. My jaw nearly dropped. I have to get out more.
He put out his hand and I took it. "Thank you once again....?"
"Oh! (F/n). (F/n) (L/n)." There was that sensation again. It was like my skin was tingling every time he touched me.
"Nice to meet you (y/n). Well, I should get some rest. We have the ceremony tonight. I don't want to be too tired. I'll see you around." We each slowly pulled our hands away from each others' and I waved goodbye to him before walking to my living quarters. I looked back and saw him looking at me in surprise.
"I really do need to get out more." I muttered before opening the door and walking in.