Am I gettin' crazy

November 30th 2071

Looks like I'm pretty good at this cracking stuff so now I've got some kind of a new job with the hackers I think, although I would have preferred a job at the workshop. You know I like talking to machines and the software cracking units aren't very talkative.

Claire has been shopping, with our last 500 New Yen from selling the Medi-Van to the Rat's Nest's Doc. He seems to be a nice guy but a little tired and troubled from time to time.
So now we have a few sets of  presentable outfits and foot for the rest of this moth. Well you might wonder who Claire is. I will come to her in my story later, for now I can tell you that she's my best and only friend in this world, besides of being my roommate.
Oh, by the way, did I tell you about the cat, thats now living in our container, too? Well I'll do, I promise.

But now back to my story.
The dark silence that has fallen felt cold and empty and wrong. It was as if something vital has been taken from me. Almost as if someone has cut one of my senses and so this silence felt even less bearable than the voices and visions. Funny how quickly one can get used to something.
Than, after just a few seconds that felt like an eternity it all came back. How could I ever missed this feeling of my head being on the verge of explosion.
I buried my head under my pillow eyes shut tight but that didn't stop the voices chattering away into my ears. Some just a silent whisper, some of them talking and some screaming even. They all had so much to tell, so much information. Too much information.
At least I'd managed to shut out these flickering ghostlike visions.
"What do you want?"
But no one answered my question, at least not in terms that I could understand.
"Please tell me, what do you want from me?" I almost cried from pain and confusion.
Still no answer.

Next morning a new doctor came in. He didn't really seem fit in this kind of job. He told me that he was some kind of psychiatrist working for some high end institution sponsored by the Horizon Group and that my case had caught their interest.
I blinked at him, not sure if I'd understand him correctly. I hadn't slept the last night and all the voices and visions made hard to focus.
"What... Why..." I tried to organize my thoughts. "What case?" I eventually managed to ask.
"We were informed that you were one of the surviving victims of the matrix crash." he answered.
"Yeah, but they told me that everything is alright with me. No damage. Got lucky I guess."
"According to our information many of the victims suffer from some kind of psychic trauma. The symptoms develop shortly after the person awakes from the coma and it is of vital importance that we find and treat the these poor souls before they harm themselves or others."
I just nodded while blinking away some unidentifiable objects that tried with the utmost effort to block my view and I only just resisted the urge to try to wipe them away with my hand.
"It is called the Artificially Induced Psychotropic Schizophrenia Syndrome or AIPS Syndrome. The symptoms are often visual and acoustic hallucinations accompanied with a hypersensitivity to the electronic background radiation created by ComLinks for example."
I gave him a blank look.
"So if you seen things or heard voices you don't need to worry. Just tell me now I'll arrange your transport to our facility as fast as possible. Everything will be alright." he explained with a reassuring voice.
Well believe me, in this moment almost every part of my being wanted to tell him. Wanted this nightmare to stop. I think I would have agreed to his offer, but just when opened my mouth to almost plea him to make all these things stop trying to break my head and burn my brain, a thought shot into what was left of my consciousness. Abigale. What would happen to her when I was gone? By then she was almost six years old. I couldn't just abandon her, could I?
So I just shock my head slowly. "No. I've experienced nothing of the like." Today I know that this answer saved my live that day.

Ah, damn, there's something wrong with the matrix and the Doc's outside. Sounds like it's urged. Guess these two things are linked somehow.

Cya Sparks