REAL WORLD: PART THREE Homeward Bound ... - Whoa is (Not)

Verne shrugged.
Neo was still staring at the boy, oblivious to the fact that everyone else was looking expectantly at him.
“Neo” Ted asked.
Neo blinked. “What… what do you mean, I die Six months… that’s… that’s four months from now…”
“It was in the movie,” Verne said.
Neo swore and dropped down onto the seat, face in his hands.
“…Are you okay, dude” Ted asked.
“No.”
And Neo remained not okay as the hover circuits powered up and the train lifted off into the sky, hit eightyeight
miles per hour and vanished into another part of the space-time continuum.
Down below, Frank waved goodbye. He sighed and shut the door.
Back to normal life again, he thought dully, as Eddie zoomed down the stairs, nearly bowling him over as the
ghost asked where everyone had gone.
"I wish I knew, Eddie," Frank murmured, staring wistfully out the window at the empty sky. "I wish I knew."
**
Zion
Six months after The Matrix
The train bucked violently as it entered the blackened sky above Zion, throwing most of its passengers off
balance and effectively shutting Neo up. Struggling back to his feet, Emmett activated the train's cloaking
shield and grabbed the navigation controls in time to avoid crashing into a swarm of sentinels ahead. More
of the machines surrounded them on all sides, pushing them relentlessly onward towards Zion.
"Is this the correct time" Doc shouted.
Verne stared around in awe. "Yeah... perfect... how'd you do that"
"You mean this was exactly when you meant I just sent us four months into the future from the time Neo
was taken. It wouldn't have been very accurate. We can't have landed so perfectly where we intended.
That's impossible."
"Not impossible," Neo said quietly, looking out the front window. "Improbable."
Back in the days when he'd been a trapped human in the Matrix, there had been a series of books – fictional
books – known as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In them was a device known as the Improbability
Drive, a wholly remarkable invention that ran on a cup of tea and made improbable things happen.
At present, what was fictional and what was real wasn't exactly very clear. And Neo wondered if perhaps
Douglas Adams' fictional contraption was currently playing a larger part in their lives that they'd have ever
imagined. Judging from the events of the past few days or so, he was prepared to believe almost anything.
Verne was starting to think that maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all, wincing as the train swerved
almost ninety degrees to the side to dodge a mechanical tentacle.
“Dad” he called out.
“What is it, Verne”