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

Verne got up from the bench and headed to the front of the cabin. “Dad, we can go…”
“What” Emmett asked. “We haven’t even dropped Neo off…”
“He doesn’t live in the city, he’s from a hovercraft, and he doesn’t know where it is now… it’ll take a while to
find it, and we gotta get Ted to a hospital and everything…”
Emmett sighed. “How much further into the future from our last departed time do we need to go to get out of
here safely”
“About two hours, I think.”
“Is Neo fine with this”
“Yeah, I think so.”
Doc set the new coordinates, and he hit the accelerator. Verne remained at the front of the cabin with his
father as they approached eighty-eight and the electricity started to crackle around the train again.
At the back, Marty looked around in bewilderment as the train started to pick up speed. “We’re leaving”
“Yep!” Verne said brightly.
Neo crouched back down and reached out a hand to the injured teenager. Ted grasped hold of it, their
fingers interlocking in an eerily perfect fit.
And they held on, as the four sonic booms filled the air and the train vanished through space and time.
Entering the future, they found the now-deserted sentinel-created tunnel and made their way out with less
problems than before. Doc keyed in the destination for a future year in his own universe, and they left again.
**
8 th November 2030, Sunday
Hill Valley, California
Last day. This was his last day to be free. The last day before returning to life as he knew it, the last day
before the fate of mankind would once again rest in his hands. Neo wanted to enjoy this day.
This was Hill Valley, year 2030. Nobody knew who he was here. In this place, he was no different from
anyone else. This was freedom.
It was a strange but welcome change to no longer have people’s eyes on him wherever he went. It was
back to his life before learning of the Matrix; a time when he had just been an ordinary citizen known as
Thomas A. Anderson living on an ordinary planet known as The Earth that revolved around an ordinary star
known as The Sun.
It felt almost nostalgic.
He liked it. This way, he could pretend that everything was normal and that nothing out of the ordinary had
ever happened to him. It was strange how he had, for so long, taken ordinary life for granted – now that was
one thing he cherished more than any other.
Keith had been right in some areas. It was because of the scientist that Neo had had the opportunity to
experience, however briefly, a life which those of his world could only dream about. They would never get to
see the sky, or the sun, or the trees, and so many other things. He had received that chance, and for that
he was grateful.
It would be nice, he reflected, if he could just bring Trinity over and have the two of them start life over in this
world. They could get married, buy a house, have kids, get a dog, and never again have to worry about the
end of humankind.