Title: Akin
Author: gega cai
Pairings: Derek Reese (centric)
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers for S1 of TSCC Episode "Queen's Gambit" and on.
Summary: Young Derek Reese will do anything to survive and find his brother, Kyle, who he lost to the machines years ago.
Disclaimer: Characters and other likely inventive scenarios based on the world created by James Cameron, William Wisher Jr., and Josh Friedman.
Author's Note: Set in 2019. Next Chapter coming soon!
Akin
Chapter1
Half a day's journey was a welcomed change for the small group of five human survivors as they stood against the setting sun. Their journey from one place to the next usually took several days and, sometimes, even weeks. A global nuclear fall out and advanced artificial intelligence with no regard for anything but themselves will have that affect; desolation and a crumbling civilization with nothing to offer for survival was all that was left to be seen on their way to where they needed to be. The group rested to survey the landscape ahead of them: Another Skynet camp waited on the horizon.
One of the youngest, was a young man whose dark wit, quick instincts and brooding hate for the machines had been with the group for several months now. He had proved himself time and again and they no longer thought of him as a liability when he first joined. He understood what must be done to survive. Sneaking up on metal and stealing from Skynet what was once theirs to begin with was a means to an end. They knew his story, though. The young man, Derek Reese, had a personal reason for wanting to walk into Skynet's camps. Derek and his companions were risking a lot to get so close. But it was a necessity to scavenge what the metal did not need. Skynet conveniently piled the kind of things humans needed off-site after the prisoners of the extermination camps sifted through the bodies for orderly disposal. Derek could only imagine what a task like that must be like. The moment images flashed across his mind, he quickly shook them away. There was enough seen on the outside to bother with what could be happening beyond the camp's walls. "We all have our own horrors we live through," Derek thought to himself.
Dee, the oldest companion and their leader, motioned to the rest of the group. Derek nodded at her along with the others. The second in command, who was not much older than Derek, smirked. "S'gonna be a beautiful evenin' --Hell, when was the last time we saw a golden sunset like that?" the man asked nodding to the setting sun. He was right. The sun rarely peeked through the scorched skies.
"Get moving before you jinx us, Rook," Dee commanded. She smiled when he tipped his cap to her in compliance. The golden sun warmed her face and Derek noticed for the first time she had bright yellow-brown eyes. With the sun came so many colors --Derek had almost forgotten. Eight years since the bombs fell and four years since...
A loud whistle rang out and four heads turned to the source. A companion motioned that he found an entrance. One by one, they entered the Skynet death camp. The stench was non-existent for them. They were all used to the smell of death after so many years. Death was so much a part of life. Getting into a camp was the easy part. The outer walls were not as heavily guarded as the fences that kept in people with the bodies. The group had a lot of ground to cover to get to the salvage yard.
A few moments later and they had breached the high security fence. From his position, Derek could see the salvage yard directly across from endless rows of stacked bodies through his night vision goggles. The darkest pitch of night greeted them in these camps. Only the bodies were lit for the prisoners to see as they worked to move the bodies. The night sky was compounded with the dark ash that seemed to blanket the air at night. It was a habit for Derek to peer across the Skynet camp grounds at the bodies stacked several feet high. Sometimes, his thought he saw Kyle's face in there. Fortunately, it was always just someone else's kid brother.
Ducking behind bodies, rubble, and burned out vehicles, the group worked their way to the salvage yard. Derek crouched as a lookout as Dee and Rook approached the yard. No metal for yards. Everything was going smoothly until Derek saw through his hazy green night vision one his companions signal. Something was wrong. They were signaling the approach of something but they didn't finish with the sign for 'Skynet' or 'Machine.' Instead, they signaled something armed was approaching.
"Wha-" Derek said under his breath. He peered over the twisted junk metal between him and yards of Skynet camp ground to see exactly what they were talking about. Only it wasn't one, but several heavily armed and uniformed people ducking in and out of the salvage yard. Derek couldn't believe his eyes and signaled back to get Dee and Rook out of there. A run in with another salvage group was rare and even more rare that they would bother with sharing without an introduction.
But, it was too late. Everything happened at once and Derek found himself looking down the barrel of an automatic pulse rifle.
To be continued...