Her eyes are crimson.
I suppose deep down I always knew that one day they would change. That one day those warm curious brown eyes would lose the war with her programming and show her true colors, so to speak. They had all warned me: mom, Derek, even her in her own roundabout way.
"Now." Her voice is like nothing I have ever heard come from her mouth. It's the metallic grind that comes standard in all machines. It hides the sophistication that makes up her programming and creation. I wonder why whenever they use human voices they are only to deceive.
Derek keeps his hand firmly over my mouth and holds me close to his chest as the roar of missiles sailing overhead can be heard. I try to repress the hopeless sob that is stuck in my chest. I close my eyes and wish it would stop.
The hiss of a radio can be heard as Derek continues to drag me out of the room and down towards the stairwell. "The missiles have been launched. Fifteen minutes until impact."
"What is the status of Sarah and John?" the voice is nothing but a painful hiss over the static.
She hesitates; I have always known that no matter how evil, she and I would have a bond. Her eyes first shoot to my mother's dead body at her feet. Then her head spins around the corner. Dirty brown hair falls over crimson eyes as she cocks her head. Derek freezes and I tremble in his grasp.
"I didn't lie to you John. I was sent by you to change things but they got to me just before I jumped. You didn't know, no one did. My job is to protect you." She smiles. "It is also to destroy the world."
"Why would Skynet want to keep the leader of the Resistance alive?" Derek's voice is strong over my head and his arms tighten around my chest ready to throw me out of the way.
"You don't seem to grasp the idea that two timelines exist now. The one you and I are from and the one I am. John Conner is my mission in one of them, my mission to protect. In the other one my mission is to create Skynet and destroy the world. I can't break either one, my programming won't let me. Ironic."
"T7218CAM." It is a grinding high pitched order.
"Targets destroyed," she simply responds.
"So?" I wonder out loud.
"So, I tell you that you have ten minutes to get underground; then I self terminate. I have no place in this timeline, whatever that might be. You create it John…Just know that while the future is uncertain the past is the same. The less you change the better, keep the status quo and hope that everything works out." She gives a crooked smile that doesn't fit with the bits of silver showing and the crimson eyes.
"Cameron?"
"Let's go," Derek hisses against my ear as he pulls me down into the stairwell.