Nathan Evans

"Nathan Evans is my name. I lived in the state of Texas. I remember vividly to this day everything that had happened the day the bombs fell and covered the Earth in darkness, the time was 6:18 p.m.. I was 17 at the time. Before all of that, I was upstairs playing my PS2 when I got a call from Kevin Rice, a friend of mine since elementary school. He was a year older then me. He told he had gotten the new Tekken game and wanted me to come by. I told my parents where I was going and they gave their approval. Mom told me that my sister Jamie was out with her boyfriend and would not be back for tonight. I already knew what was going down between those two, and you do to so I won't go into detail. I got into my car, a blue Taurus, put the car into reverse, and drove down the street. I arrived at Kevin's house about fifteen minutes later. We went upstairs into his room and he popped in the game. We played for hours, with me using Paul, him using Heihachi. After I lost I put the controller on the floor and looked outside for awhile to rest my eyes. I then saw something glimmer in the sky. I called to Kevin and told him to look in the sky. He saw it to and told me we should go in the shelter his parents had built two years back. I asked him what for and he told me just a feeling he had. I thought he was nuts but I listened anyway. I'm glad I did, otherwise I'd be extra crispy. The shelter had everything. A radio for calling out and listening, a restroom, food, a year supplies worth, guns, grenades, first aid kits, beds. His parents didn't fuck around, and I'm glad they didn't, for our sakes. I remember how violently the ground shook and Kevin and I held on to the walls for support. After it stopped, there was silence. Horrific, muted silence. We didn't say a word to each other for hours, as we were listening for sounds above. There was a single noise, my stomach. I walked over to the canned goods and opened a can of grapefruits. I ate them slowly, still listening and worrying. My thoughts were on my sister and my parents. Where they alright? We're they killed in the explosion? I hoped not. Looking at Kevin who was looking at the door above, I could tell he was thinking the same thing.

After I finished eating, I turned on the radio and began tuning into frequencies. All I got was static. The next few weeks after that seemed like forever. Kevin and I got into an argument one day. We settled down though, arguing wouldn't make the situation at hand any better. We were tensed, thinking about our families and friends. We soon heard General Connor's voice on the radio. With relief, we hurried over to the radio, but he was only on for about twenty seconds. He told us who unleashed the bombs on us. A program called SkyNet. It would soon send out machines to look for survivors to either kill, or enslave. Kevin and I looked at each with fear in our eyes. This couldn't be right, the government should be sending out FEMA or somebody else to help. And a program built to kill people? It was just unbelievable! But sadly we soon realized we would have to help ourselves for now. We turned off the radio after he warned us to keep radio silence as SkyNet was capable of tracing radio frequencies. He also said where to go. Crystal Peak, a shelter where survivors were gathering. After the warning, his voice was gone and there was only static. I turned off the radio. I looked at Kevin who wore the mask of fear on his face. I couldn't blame him either."

"We have to go outside and look for survivors," I told him.

"Ok, but my first thought is my parents and sisters."

"Of course."

We walked up the stairs and slowly opened the door. What we saw outside made the tears run down. Every green thing was gone. The trees, the grass, the plants, everything. We saw dead bodies baked in the yard and in the street. The sky was dark as night, it was only 10 in the morning.

"Oh my God….," was all Kevin could mutter. We walked about five minutes down the street when we saw an Explorer. We walked up to it and found that the keys were still in the ignition and undamaged. We got in and I drove. After about two minutes we saw someone from our school walking down the street. It was Joe Faultz, one of the asshole jocks in the school. He and his football team of assholes were always picking on people to make themselves look better, now look at him. He flagged us down and we pulled over. He was battered and bruised. His red shit torn and ripped as well as his jeans. His head was bleeding and he still had his Clover High School jacket on, which was burnt and beat up. It also had dried blood on the white sleeves of the jacket. He got in the car and laid down in the back seat.

"Joe are alright?" I asked him.

"What does it looked like?!" he snapped.

"Anyone with you?" Kevin asked.

"They were. Some machines came from nowhere and started shooting up the gym. About five of them. I don't remember what happened after that, just had to get out of there."

That was exactly what General Connor said would happen. The machines were out and were looking for survivors to enslave or kill. I drove back to the shelter and locked the door behind us. We treated Joe's wounds and bandaged them the best we could. My mother was a nurse so knew a few things about healing and treating the wounded. We told Joe about what was happening and he buried his head in his hands. First a nuclear strike now machines were killing everyone, it was enough to make anyone break down.

"Survivors gathered at what was left of the high school. We all stayed there for about a week. Last Thursday somebody came in screaming for help. He'd been shot by machines he told us. We couldn't believe what he said until they burst in after he was ripped apart by their firepower. We scattered and ran. Bullets were flying everywhere. I can still see the people dropping around me, blood flying everywhere. It was so fucking horrible man!"

He began crying. I patted his back. Joe was a bully in high school this much was certain, but the recent events had humbled him greatly. We told Joe our story and he listened. We fed him and nursed him back to at least half strength before we set out again two days later. We were armed with shotguns and grenades. Our plan right now was to find survivors, bring them back to shelter, and nurse them. The machines didn't know about our shelter yet, which was good. We found three women and we brought them back to our shelter. Once again, we encountered no machines. Luck was serving us well. Their names were Melinda Creeks, Heather King, and Savanna Cole. Heather was healthy, only a few cuts and bruises, Savanna as well. Melinda hadn't been so fortunate. She'd been shot by the machines in her left arm. Heather was an accountant at a business I knew not where, Savanna was a college student and Melinda was a worker at Best Buy. They each had terrible stories for us after we fed them and treated them.

"We can't stay here for long," Joe said sternly. "they'll find us eventually like they did at the school."

"But we are underground and as long we keep silent we'll be okay. And also the door is covered to make it blend with the ground," Kevin said reassuringly.

"We also have food here," Heather added.

Joe nodded his head, and so we stayed for another two days, never leaving the shelter. I woke up one night to the sound of someone talking. I found Melinda by the radio talking through the receiver. I got up quickly and turned off the radio.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" I yelled at her.

"I'm trying to get help! I can't be in down here any longer!" she snapped back. I told her that SkyNet could trace radio frequencies and she just put us in danger of being traced. Everyone else looked at her like she was the most stupidest person in the world. Half an hour later we heard footsteps outside. This woke everyone up and Kevin quickly motioned for everyone to be silent and to grab the nearest weapon. We all took shotguns and grenades and listened. They began to kick the door in, and my heart began pumping madly. Joe, Kevin, and I walked up to the door, aiming and preparing to fire, and fire we did. No sooner did they wrench the door from the hinges we saw those metal faces of death. Terminators! We opened fire as soon as we saw them. They were thrown back by our combined fire power. Three of them they were.

"Go fucking go!" Joe yelled.

We ran out of the shelter and bolted for the Explorer. Our hearts sank when we saw it was destroyed. They wanted to cut off all means escape.

"No! God no!" I heard Heather yell aloud.

"This way!" I yelled pointing north towards the woods. I hoped we could lose them there. I doubted it though, as there were no leaves or bushes to cover us. We ran at speeds we didn't know we had down the street as the machines fired upon us. A few bullets whistled past my ears as we ran. I could her Joe turning back once in a while firing back. We ran for a full five minutes before we reached the woods. We made turns together, wanted to stay as a group. I looked back after awhile and I saw that they were no longer behind us. Neither was Melinda. They caught her back there and I knew she was either taken or killed. We cried at our loss. We walked through the woods for hours. We cried for Melinda, but we didn't cry long. We set camp after the fourth hour of walking. We were warm by the fire but we were hungry as well. During our flight we didn't bring any food or ammo which we were low on. Relationships and feelings began to emerge during our time together. Joe warmed up to Heather, Kevin to Savanna. We set out again the next day, and the path we took inside the woods lead us to the freeway. We saw a car with the door wide open and the engine running. Someone was here recently and probably had to run. Unfortunate for him but fortunate for us. We got in and to our dismay we only had a quarter tank of gas. Not enough to get to Crystal Peak. We drove down the freeway and came to a town we knew. Heather spotted a ruined Wendy's and we decided to stop there. We went inside and saw the inside littered with dead bodies and blackened skeletons. We shut our eyes to this horror and continued onward. In the kitchen I saw something I will never forget. My father was laying on the ground. He was here, maybe trying to eat because his body was so skinny it was like looking at a toothpick. I knelt down and tried to revive him but it was no use. That meant my mother and sister were out there somewhere. I cried over my father's body and felt something wet. Blood. They shot him, those machines. I hate them! Kevin and Joe helped me up and told me we needed to eat and get out. And eat we did. Already cooked meat, fries, chicken. After we ate we heard the metal footsteps outside. Terminators. We went in the back and exited that way, taking care to keep quite and duck under the junk. What we saw full our souls with horror. We saw HKs flying in the sky, looking for survivors. SkyNet knew that some survivors were still in this area and sent an army to flush them out. We saw terminators loading people up into the HKs to be carried off to those concentration camps they built. We didn't stay long though, we had to keep moving. We felt like rats, coming out only at night.

"We have to avoid coming out in the open," Joe said fighting back the tears.

"We're going to Crystal Peak. There's a man there called John Connor gathering up survivors," I said quietly.

"That's way out in California! We'll never get there without being caught!" Heather said sadly.

"We will. Once we do we'll figure out what to do," Kevin said.

Which is exactly what we did. Yes I know it is hard to believe. Luck favored us those three years back. We arrived as Crystal Peak about a week later and was welcomed by General Connor. He was gathering survivors and forming a resistance against the machines. We all excepted being a part of it. Kevin lost his family sadly. I was reunited with my sister a month later. She was in one of those concentration camps the machines set up. Joe is an LT of his own unit. He and Heather have two children. Kevin and Savanna are still together. Savanna is a medic for the resistance. Myself, I'm mere one of General Connor's LTs. We are known as Tech-Com, and we'll fight to preserve the human race.