The Cosmic Treadmill

[device beeping] [phone ringing]

Bugs: Seq, I’m in.

Seq: Captain.

Bugs: You were right. The skylight was a windowpane.

Seq: I’ve got serious interference.

Bugs: Weird, it’s some kind of modal.

Seq: Looks like old code.

Woman: It feels really familiar.

Seq: Drop a pin. I’ll signal for backup.

Bugs: I’m gonna check it out.

Seq: Bugs? If the general finds out we’ve been fishing…

Bugs: A quick peek can’t hurt.

[static]

Seq: Did you hear that? Shit. I think our signal was traced. Bugs, this feels like a trap. Bugs!

[suspenseful music playing]

Swat Officer: Freeze! Do not move! We will shoot! Very slowly, raise your hands.

Lieutenant: Here we go. Hey, where are you going?

Agent: You were warned, Lieutenant.

Lieutenant: I think we can handle one little girl. You’re wasting your time! My men are bringing her down now.

Agent: No, Lieutenant, your men are already dead.

Bugs: Seq, you with me?

Seq: This old code keeps crashing.

Bugs: Your projection’s breaking up. Switch to audio.

Seq: Bugs, this is a direct violation of the general’s protocols.

 

Bugs: I know, I know. But something is happening here. Something important. Oh, fuck. We know what happens next. She kicks their ass. Now she makes a call.

Echo: The line was traced.

Bugs: And then…

Seq: Then she runs for her life.

Echo: Are there any agents?

Bugs: We know this story. This is how it all began.

Echo: God damn it.

Bugs: This is where he began.

Seq: You’re thinking this Modal is a loop? Or a treadmill? Some sort of sequencer evolving a program to do what?

Bugs: I don’t know. But I’m going to find out.

Echo: All right.

Bugs: So deja vu and yet it’s obviously all wrong.

Seq: Why use old code to mirror something new?

Bugs: I don’t know.

Seq: If that’s supposed to be Trinity, that’s not what happens.

Bugs: Maybe this isn’t the story we think it is.

Seq: Bugs, you have to get out of here. It’s gotta be a trap.

Bugs: Shit.

Bugs: Uh… You all carry on. As you were. I’m just gonna… see myself out.

Agent: Kill her.

Bugs: Oh, Seq!

Bugs: 

Why did you Save Me?

Agent: 

You first. Who are you? Where did you come from?

Bugs: 

Okay. My name is Bugs. As in “Bunny.” 

And tech that listens. 

Do you know this is a Modal?

Agent: 

What’s a Modal?

Bugs:

 It’s a simulation used to evolve programs. 

Do you understand that you are… digital sentience?

Agent: 

I know what I am. Just like I know 

my job is to hunt down and destroy synthients. 

Like you. 

And yet…

Bugs: 

Here we are.

Agent: 

Here we are.

Bugs: 

The other agents don’t know about this room? 

How’d you find it?

Agent: 

No one was ever in the key shop,

 so I started looking.

 

Bugs: More you looked, the more you found. Story of my life.

Agent: What?

Bugs: I feel like I know this room. Holy shit. This is his apartment.

Agent: 

You mean Thomas Anderson’s? 

I searched everywhere. 

He doesn’t exist.

Bugs: 

He stopped being Thomas a long time ago, 

but maybe you know him by his real name. Neo. 

You do. Oh, okay. Uh… 

I can’t believe this, after all these years. 

You see, most people think that Neo is dead. 

But I know he’s not. 

Because I’ve seen him.

Agent:  Where?

Bugs: 

It’s not something I can explain easily, but… 

But the moment he looked at me, 

I felt something… unlock my mind.

Agent: 

Okay. Something like that happened to me. 

I saw this pattern… and it was everywhere. 

We can’t see it, but we’re all trapped 

inside these strange, repeating loops. 

Somehow I saw it in the mirror. 

Just a flicker, but it was like you said. 

And suddenly I understood.

Bugs:

 This is not the real world.

Agent: For the first time, I felt real purpose. 

I knew who I was and what I had to do.

Bugs: 

Who are you? 

What do you have to do?

Agent: 

I am… Morpheus. 

And I have to find Neo.

Bugs: 

Morpheus. Okay. Okay. 

Oh, my God!

 I have to get you out of here. 

I need to figure out who built this Modal. 

Okay, come with me. 

You have to be ready to leave. 

You have to be really ready. 

And if you’re not, if you think that 

this is where you belong…

Morpheus: 

You call this A Choice?

Bugs: 

Oh, honestly, when somebody offered me these things, 

I went off on binary conceptions of the world 

and said there was no way I was swallowing some 

symbolic reduction of My Life —

And the woman with the pills laughed 

’cause I was missing The Point.

Morpheus: 

What Point?

Bugs: 

The Choice is an illusion — 

You already know 

What You Have to Do.