Other Side :: MatrixAgents.net

(cc) Ag3ntJ0hnson
Rating: PG
Summary: Gerald Herbst remembers that day at work, when his whole life went up in flame...
Disclaimer: All characters and ideas from The Matrix © Warner Bros and the Wachowskis
Author's Notes: My first story in the Matrix univ; it's not the best.

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Gerald Herbst stamped his signature onto another file. He delicately lifted the paper and placed it in his “out” basket. It was his last file of the morning.

Smiling at his efficiency in completing his work, Gerald spun his executive chair around to look out the window of his 60-th story office. Gerald had worked hard to get this spot. Now he enjoyed its benefits.

The phone on Gerald’s desk rang. He spun around again and picked it up. It was wife. She asked Gerald to come home immediately, much to the bureaucrat’s surprise. Nearly in tears, she told him about some sort of terrorist attack downtown.

Gerald, never one to lose his cool, told her to calm down and assured her that he would check it out and be on his way soon enough. Gerald hung up and sighed. He turned back to the windows of his office and stared toward the tall government building a few blocks away.

Gerald gasped in horror.

A helicopter was smoking in the air over the skyscraper across the street. The black chopper was headed straight for Gerald’s building.

Gerald barely had time to duck for cover under his desk before the impact. Time seemed to progress slowly. About ten floors below the man was the sound of glass shattering. The wire mesh trays on his desk shook. Gerald held his breath.

Then came the explosion. First Gerald’s office windows bent and splintered. The room shook violently, and a fireball could be seen coming from below Gerald’s office. Gerald’s hearing was deafened from the boom of the impact.

The sprinkler system came on. Gerald, huddled beneath his dented metal desk, could hear only a ringing and see only spots. He glanced around in a daze.

Glass shards were imbedded in his exposed skin. His designer clothes were shredded and covered with blood. He didn’t remember being hit by anything, but he felt a dull pain in side. When he managed to look at it, he saw part of a tube from a fluorescent light piercing his body.

The physical pain was nothing, however, when compared to the emotional trauma. Gerald knew that it was in the middle of the workday. The offices and cubicles on the floors below him were fully occupied. Dozens of people would be dead. Hundreds more would be injured.

Gerald crawled slowly toward his exposed windows. The wind was blowing in, splaying the fire-control water into his burning face. When he reached the former windows, he titled his head down. Through the incredible smoke, he saw debris covering the street below the skyscraper. People in cars were trapped or hurt. Pedestrians were undoubtedly dead. As he moved his gaze upward, Gerald saw the wound in the edifice. Smoke poured out of the hole, obscuring the injured man’s vision.

With his last clear glimpse of the event, Gerald saw somebody on the roof of the building across the street. Three people. Three males, it appeared, in uniforms or suits. They were surveying he wreckage. Even from this distance, Gerald could see the anger in the frontmost one.

Gerald closed his eyes in fury. Words could not convey the anger he felt. He’d make whoever did this pay. Whatever terrorist group flew that helicopter into this building was going to regret doing it. Gerald would give his money, his happiness, whatever remained of his life to stop those monsters.

And he knew those suits across the street would help him do it.

Those below him may not have survived, but Gerald Herbst would walk away with something very powerful: a need for revenge.

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