Desolation Road
Terminator : Sarah Connor Chronicles
Fanfic
by Pjazz
2008
CHAPTER ONE
No end in sight
on desolation road
machines to my left and right
on desolation road
lord, why have you forsaken me?
on desolation road
-- Rebel folk song, 2033 AD
Origin unknown
Present day
Derek Reese woke with a heartpounding intake of breath. The nightmare faded immediately as conciousness returned. It was the same nightmare nearly every night.
My brother Kyle pursued by a Terminator while I stand by and do nothing. Nothing but watch him die night after night. And the terminator's face was Cameron Baum's.
He rose from the sweat drenched sheets, remembering to put on a pair of boxer shorts before leaving the room. Sarah Connor didn't care for him him wandering the house naked. Didn't care for him much period it seemed. Not the way she had cared for Kyle. Perhaps I'm just the unlovable type.
The bedside clock read 7 am. He walked to the nearest bathroom and pushed open the door. Cameron stood in the bathtub, wearing just underwear. She had shaving foam smeared on her legs and a Bic razor in her hand.
"Oh. Sor--" Derek stopped in mid apology. Damned if I'll apologize to a machine "What are you doing?"
"Depilating."
"Since when does a machine shave its legs?"
"I am designed to be as humanlike as possible."
"Yeah? You get periods?"
"No. I do not ovulate. It is not necessary for assimilation."
"Thank heaven for small mercies."
Derek considered leaving and using another bathroom. The house had several. Why the hell should I?
She's a cyborg.If she doesn't like it. Tough. He moved to the toilet bowl, took aim and let nature take its course. Unabashed Cameron continued depilating. Derek flushed and washed his hands. John popped his head round the door.
"Hey. Breakfast's ready. Fresh bagels and coffee." He noticed their skimpy attire. He grinned. "You two need some privacy?"
Derek grinned right back relishing the absurdity. "Not in her wildest dreams, pal."
"I do not dream," Cameron told him.
"You don't?"
"No."
Then for once I envy you, machine.
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Sarah Connor was absent from the breakfast table. Her turn for the supermarket run. She liked to shop early and avoid the crowds. With her gone Derek Reese could relax more, kick back and enjoy the unaccustomed luxuries of the early 21st century. He held a Coors in one hand and a hot pocket in the other. The bagels reduced to crumbs on a plate. Sure beats cold KP rations eaten in the shelter of a disused sewer pipe. His mood was only slightly spoilt when Cameron entered the room and sat opposite him. She spread school books on the table.
A terminator studying for exams. It truly turns the stomach.
"How's it going? Get any gold stars from teacher yet?"
"No gold stars. Plenty of A's."
"Well aren't you the model student."
"Yes."
"How are your history grades? Learning much? Like how it took the human race millenia to create civilization only for your kind to destroy it in a day. Think they'll give you extra credits for that?"
"Human history is based on warfare and conflict. You are a violent species."
"Perhaps. But it's slim justifcation for what you did. Will do."
"It is not justification. Merely fact."
"You remember the day we first met?"
"In the Skynet bunker. Before you were sent through time."
"No. Before that. In San Diego. I was with my brother Kyle. Your name was Maria then."
"No. That was not me."
"It looked exactly like you. Exactly."
"It was the same model, but not me. We are all identical. Built from the same mould."
John Connor looked up from his text book. "When was this?"
"A while ago. Kyle and I were on our way to join up with you on the New Mexico border. We'd made our way down the coast from LA to San Diego. You want to hear the story?"
"Sure." He loved to hear Derek Reese's stories, especially if they involved his father.
"Okay. I'll start when we reached the ruins of the city. Man, that was some sight...
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Future/past
Derek Reese crested the final rise. He whistled in astonishment. Before him lay the remains of the city of San Diego. Throughout history humans had gazed on scenes of utter desolation - the Great Fire of London 1666, Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1945, New York 2001 - but surely nothing could match this. From the tumbled oceanfront condos in the west to the buckled interstate freeways to the east there was nothing but utter devastation. Ruined buildings as far as the eye could see. A vast sea of rubble stretched to the horizon. On Judgement day Skynet had exploded a nuclear device a mile above the city. The blast wave flattened buildings, bridges, anything standing like a deck of cards. A city of three million people.The only saving grace, if you could call it that : the device was low yield, leaving behind relatively little hazardous radioactivity.
"Gnarly. Looks worse than Los Angeles."
Kyle Reese stood next to his older brother. Both men carried heavy rucksacks on their backs. All they owned in the world.
"How do we cross this?"
"We walk. We climb. We crawl, if necessary. We do what it takes. No one said this was going to be easy. Those days are gone. You ready for this?"
"As I'll ever be."
"I'll take point. Let's roll."
It took them two days to reach Balboa Park, a relative oasis amid the carnage. The nuclear blast had toppled the mature trees but fresh young saplings were already pushing through the dead branches.
Nature's endless cycle of renewal, Derek thought. Come back in 50 years and this will be a forest. If there are any humans left to see it.
"Hey, look at that."
Scuttling from tree to tree a family of baboons. Survivors perhaps of the nearby zoo. They ignored the humans entirely. Don't blame you. Some superior species we turned out to be.
"Wonder what they taste like cooked?"
"Chicken."
They'd met no one in the ruined city. But signs of scavengers both human and animal were everywhere. Dog carcasses, looted buildings, scorched remains of camp fires - even fresh corpses bloated in the heat, some with skulls blasted apart, a sure sign of death by terminator. So far they'd been lucky and not run into any metal. Long may it continue.
"Getting mighty hungry," Kyle complained. As usual his brother set a brutal pace. They hadn't stopped to rest for hours.
To travel light they'd decided to keep food supplies to a minimum. Forage off the land. And if the land was a lifeless moonscape? Then they dug deeper.
An hour of excavating fallen masonry by hand revealed the shattered facade of a 7/11 store. Pristine condition. No one had been here since the bombs fell. They climbed inside, eyes quickly adjusting to the gloom.
Derek made for the drinks aisle. He snatched up a bottle of cherry Gatorade and chugged it down. The entire 2 litres. He belched contentedly, swinging his torch beam over the dusty shelves. Yellowed and curling newspapers frozen in time on Judgement Day. A row of celebrity magazines, the era's opiate of the masses. Their covers showed a vapid girl singer caught by the paparazzi as she exited a limo sans underwear. Where are your lubricious girl parts now, honeybun? Still intact? Or are you dust in the wind?
He and Kyle had met a celebrity once. Back in the ruins of LA. A black rapper. Still wearing bling and surrounded by his loyal crew. All crammed into a delapidated Escalade with spinners on the wheels. Kyle had tried to warn them terminators were operating in the area, but they were too spaced out on weed and crack to take note. Ten minutes later, a huge explosion. By the time they got there the Escalade was ablaze. Direct hit from a plasma cannon. No survivors.
"Hey, they've got Captain Crunch. My favourite. You remember?"
"Long time ago."
The store's meat and vegetable produce had rotted away. But tinned stuff was fine as long as it didn't get too hot and spoil. Cereals were even better. The vacuum sealed foil wrappers keeping it fresh as the day of delivery. Derek and Kyle dined on Cheerios and Captain Crunch, mixed with dried milk powder hydrated with mineral water. Several cans of Campbells meatballs were consumed with plenty of apple filling and tinned custard for dessert. It was their best meal in many weeks.
"Hey, look over there. Got company."
Kyle shone his torch at a corner of the store. A skeleton in an expensive suit sprawled on the floor, its empty eye sockets ghostly white in the torch beam. A plastic badge on his lapel read store manager. At his post till the end. It didn't take Quincy to determine cause of death. A bullet to the brain. The entry wound cracked and ragged. A gun clasped in the bony fingers. Self inflicted then. Suicide. The easy way out.
"Coward."
"I dare say he had his reasons."
"A coward's reasons."
Kyle wolfed down a stale Oreo. "You think think this Connor will turn out to be all he's said to be?"
"Don't know. Possibly not. All I know is if he's learnt how to win against Skynet then he's someone worth seeking out."
In Los Angeles they'd heard persistent rumours from refugees and other itinerants of a John Connor, a messiah-like figure to many. That he had an army in the south. A mixture of tech guys and heavy duty military types. That he could make a cyborg switch sides and do his bidding. If he was half as good as his reputation, that would do for Kyle Reese.
"We've had our successes," he reminded his brother. "Remember when we took out those hunter killers with a C5 grenade launcher? Man, they went off like the 4th of July."
"We're just two men; this Connor's meant to have a fully equipped army."
"We could have an army if you'd learn to trust people more. What was wrong with that black guy, Carter? He was an ex-marine."
"And a morphine addict. His habit made him slow and clumsy. Sooner or later he would've got us killed."
"And Jeremiah? From the Ozarks. Real sharpshooter. I never once saw him miss."
"Old. With emphysema. He'd have slowed us down."
"Suppose I get old and sick? You gonna leave me behind too?"
"I'm always going to be older than you. And you never got sick in your life. Mom used to say you had the constitution of an ox."
Kyle tossed his empty Oreos packet aside and picked up some red wristbands from a store display. He waved them under his brother's nose.
"Kabahlah bracelet? Three bucks a pop. Put the world to rights for the price of a hotdog."
"Little late for that. Now get some sleep; we've a long journey ahead of us."
They slept for several hours, glad of the food and shelter. Awake they began reprovisioning for the journey. Sachet meals were good; light and portable. Bottles of mineral water. Protein tablets from the sports section. Packs of cigarettes. Excellent barter items if they met other folk with stuff to trade. Derek stuffed energy bars into his army fatigue pants. He eyed the booze aisle with regret.
Jack Daniels, Glenffidich, Jim Beam. What I'd give to take you fine gentlemen along.
But the bottles were too heavy. And alcohol a dangerous addiction, now more than ever. Too many survivors drank to kill the nightmare of present reality. Easy pickings for the machines. Derek added a small flask of vodka to his utility belt. Medicinal purposes. Ah, the hell with it, gimme the two litre.
"Hey, take a look at this," Kyle called from the entertainment section. He held up a DVD. "They stock Phantom Menace but not Revenge of the Sith. Now that is just plain wrong."
Derek smiled for the first time in days. The Reese brothers were crazy Star Wars fans. From way back. In childhood games he was Han Solo ; Kyle was Luke, until he realised Luke was a dork and switched to Boba Fett.
"Man, what'd give for a big plasma screen and a carton of popcorn right now."
Derek pushed through the checkout, pausing at the sunglasses carousel. It squeaked with rust as he rotated it. He selected a pair of Diesel aviators with mirrored lenses. 225 read the price tag. On the till register a sign caught his eye.
NO CHEQUES
and
PLEASE DO NOT ASK FOR STORE CREDIT AS A REFUSAL OFTEN OFFENDS.
He glanced over at the dead store manager. "Hey, buddy. Mr Hole in the Head. You accept Amex? That do nicely?"
He grimaced sourly. No. It'll be a long time before Amex did nicely again.
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Outside in the fresh air Derek pointed his cellphone at the sky. The phone network had died on Judgement Day, but the satellites were still up there in orbit round the planet. With a little modification the cell could be made to pick up an automatic GPS fix providing longitude and latitude coordinates to check on a map. They could track their position to within 3 metres anywhere on earth.
"We're here." Derek pointed with his finger at the large surveyor map of the area he'd spread out on the hood of a burnt out Oldsmobile. "And we want to head in that direction." He gestured to the south east.
"Let's try over that way," Kyle suggested. "Looks slightly less gnarly terrain. That's the Cabrillo Freeway. Maybe we get lucky and find some transport. Take us all the way to Mexico."
"That luck you keep hoping for - it ever arrive?."
"Aways a first time."
"We make our own luck. Always have and always will."
"Yeah, look where it's got us."
"You're not going defeatist on me, are you, soldier?"
Kyle saluted. "Sir, no sir!"
"That's cute. Real cute. If you've finished dicking around let's move. No sense making ourselves targets."
Kyle prepared to shoulder his backpack. His peripheral vision picked up movement.
"Christ! Derek! Look out!"
A large feral dog was barrelling towards them. A rottweiler. Its powerful hindlegs propelled it forward. Its jaws were agape, huge incisor teeth glistening with saliva. Derek reached for his Glock pistol. But his army jacket was laden with provisions. His hand snagged. He wouldn't be able to draw it in time.
BAM..BAM..BAM!!
Kyle's Glock fired three times. The hollowpoint bullets virtually disintegrated the rottweiler in midair. Its skull exploded, scattering bone, blood and viscera in every direction. The huge body convulsed, hit the ground and slammed into the Oldsmobile.
Derek finally managed to draw his gun.
BAM..BAM..BAM!!
He fired the shots into the beast's torso at point blank range, more to satisfy the adrenalin now pumping through his system than a need to kill an already dead animal. The creature's stomach sac ruptured, burst open and blood and digestive juices flowed out onto the sidewalk. They could see its last meal - a partially digested rodent. Not much of a meal for a big guy like you, Derekthought. No wonder I looked so tasty.
The dog population in San Diego pre-Judgement Day had stood at 400,000. Appoximately the same number of cats. Once their primary food source - humanity - had vanished, those that survived the initial blast had to fend for themselves. Only the larger predators survived - Alsations, Dobermanns and Rottweilers. Cats were now extinct in the city. But the dogs still had to eat.
"That was too close for comfort," Derek admitted. "Thank you."
"Hey, I've always got your back, big guy. The same way you've got mine. Right?"
"Right. That's how we roll."
They high-fived. It was a moment Derek Reese would play over and over in his mind when Kyle was dead. I was wrong. I didn't have your back after all.
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They walked for several hours. Glass crunched under their heavy army boots. They tried to avoid treading on the skulls and human bones wherever possible, but the glass was impossible to miss.
Is there a single intact pane of glass in this whole goddamn city? Derek didn't think so. The noise made them an easy target for an ambush. And not just machines: there were desperate humans out there in hiding, just waiting for a free lunch to pass close by.
Kyle halted. Derek walked on several metres before he realised.
"What is it?"
"You hear something?"
They listened. There. Faint but distinct. A woman's voice.
"Help me. Please, someone help me."
Both brothers drew their weapons. Glock 9mm with the hollow point ammo that had eviserated the rottweiler. The only ordnance that could at least slow down a terminator. Derek put his finger to his lips. Kyle knew the score;his brother drilled him regularly. Covert advance. Protect yourself at all times. On my mark. Go.
Derek assumed the advance position. Rounding a burnt out Volkswagen he could now clearly hear a woman whimpering. And there she was. Her back to him. Tan cargo pants. A black singlet. Shoulder length brown hair. She was on the ground, her right leg pinned by a block of fallen masonry.
Christ!
No more than a four metres away were two men. Prone. Face down. Machine guns lying next to them. Derek Reese kept totally still, hoping like hell Kyle remembered his training. Neither of the men seemed to be moving. Wait. Something's odd about their body posture.
He crept forward, exposing himself to a lethal counterattack if his hunch was wrong. Nothing happened. The men were dead.
"Help me. Please. Someone help me."
He stood up and walked forward, gun trained on the woman. She heard him approach and turned to face him.
Derek Reese gazed on the cyborg model he would one day know as Cameron Baum. She smiled up at him. Big bambi eyes squinting in the low sun.
"Please help me."
" What happened?"
"We were attacked. By one of those machines."
"Where is it now?"
"Gone." I'm right here, human. "That was hours ago. I passed out."
Kyle Reese appeared, creeping forward, gun held in a combat stance.
"Area secure?"
"Could be. But keep your weapon drawn. This is terminator handiwork."
"Locked and loaded."
The terminator smiled at the newcomers. She'd tracked three humans through the ruins. Two she'd killed easily. The third threw a percussion grenade that had brought part of the building behind her down, pinning her leg. Even her enhanced strength couldn' t move it. Then she'd heard these two humans approaching. She'd adopted a poor helpless female act.They would help her escape and she would return the favour by killing them. A deadly quid pro quo.
Kyle examined the bodies. "Broken necks, looks like. Who were they? Family?"
"Travelling companions."
"What's your name?"
"Maria Morgan," the terminator lied smoothly.
Maria Morgan had existed. Once. A real living breathing human being. Captured hiding in a toppled La Jolla condo. She'd begged for mercy after the terminator had finished extracting information on other humans in the area, spilling details of her life amid a torrent of sobbing. The terminator had opened a memory cell to record the life details. She accessed them now, assuming them as her own.
"I'm 19 years old. From up the coast. La Jolla. But I'm originally from the midwest."
"Long way from Kansas, Dorothy."
"My name is Maria. Not Dorothy."
"I'm Derek Reese. This is my brother Kyle."
"Hey."
"Hey."
"You in any pain, Maria? That's a mighty heavy chunk of masonry."
"No. My leg is only trapped, not crushed."
"Then you're a lucky girl. Rock that size falls on you, odds are we'd be amputating your leg right about now."
"Can you help lift it off me?"
"Sure thing."
Derek and Kyle pressed their shoulders against the ferro-concrete and pushed. It didn't budge.
"Gonna need block and tackle to move it," Kyle suggested.
"Why not a bulldozer while you're at it."
"Got a better idea?"
"Maybe."
Derek examined the wrecked vehicles lining the sidewalk. He smashed their trunks open using the butt of his rifle, carried three carjacks from their toolkits over to the fallen masonry and set them up on one side. He cranked the handles.
"Applied physics, little brother. Give me a fulcrum and I could move the world."
"So, Maria, where are you heading?" Kyle asked as the jacks took up the slack and the boulder began to shift ever so slightly.
"South." Her combat routines went primary. Soon she would be free. She would kill the humans and resume her patrol.
" Ever hear of a John Connor?"
A red warning icon flashed in the terminator's visual display.
Subject: John Connor
Priority target
Terminate on sight
"I have heard of John Connor. Do you know where he is?"
"We've a pretty good idea. We're heading there to join up with him. You're welcome to come with us."
Maria smiled. Her combat routines powered down. A greater prize awaited her. John Connor. Thorn in Skynet's side for so long. And these humans will lead me right to him. And I will terminate him.
"I'd like that very much."
"Kyle, grab her arms and try pulling. These jacks won't hold forever."
Kyle gripped Maria's hands and managed to drag her free. She was surprisingly heavy for such a petite girl. She stood up and brushed the dust from her pants. It's like she wasn't bothered in the slightest, he thought. A real cool-headed chick.
"How's the leg?"
"Good. Thank you."
"C'mon, you gotta at least have cramp. Don't try and be brave just for the sake of it. I'll check it out if you like. We've got med supplies."
"That won't be necessary. I'm fine," Maria informed him. An internal diagnostic indicated the skin dermal layer was breached in several places. An examination would reveal her metal skeleton.
"What are your friend''s names?" Derek asked.
"My what?"
"The dead guys. They have names?"
Her CPU selected two names at random from a memory database. "Ben. And...Jerry."
"Ben and Jerry, huh?"
"Ben is short for Benjamin; Jerry short for..."
"Gerald?"
"Yes."
"How well did you know them?"
The terminator sought information from Maria Morgan's life history. She had been a promiscuous young girl. Easy with her favours.
"They were my sexual partners."
"Both of them?"
"Yes."
Derek and Kyle exchanged looks. Oh man...
The brothers dragged the corpses off the street, cleared a spot on the sidewalk and laid them down side by side. They used larger pieces of rubble and rusted car panels to create a makeshift tomb. A tyre iron served as a cross. Derek bowed his head.
"Dear Lord. In your infinite wisdom you've seen fit for man to wage war against the machines he created. These two men were victims of that war. I don't know if they were sinners or not, but we commend their souls to you in the hope of everlasting life. Amen."
"Amen."
Maria watched with curiosity. Who are the humans talking to? Her infra red sensors indicated no life forms within a hundred metres. Did they have a hidden communication device? And everlasting life? She had snapped their necks. They were dead. But she could think of no way to question them without arousing suspicion.
"Sun's going down," Kyle observed. "Not dark yet but it's sure heading that way. You want to find shelter for the night?"
"We've got an hour of daylight left. I want to get clear of here in case it's part of a regular patrol area. Maria - can you walk?"
"I think I can manage to." Her power cell would allow her to circle the globe a dozen times before it was even half depleted.
"Good. Here, drink some water."
She accepted the mineral water bottle, took several swallows and poured the rest of the liquid over her face. She had seen this action performed by other humans. It was supposed to be refreshing. The water ran down her neck, soaking the singlet's thin material. The older man briefly stared at her breasts, before averting his gaze.
So, you desire this body, human? Interesting...
"We set?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. Kyle, take point. Maria, you next. I've got our backs."
They moved on. The city absorbed them; tiny insignificant figures amidst the vast mountains of rubble. They had travelled far on this desolation road and the end wasn't nearly in sight. They'd find shelter soon. Skynet ruled the night. The infra red sensors on the hunter killers giving it an edge lone humans found difficult to counter. Besides, without a full moon to illuminate a path traversing the ruins was madness. One slip and a broken limb could prove as fatal as a plasma cannon.
But tomorrow? Who knew what that day might bring?
END OF CHAPTER ONE
I don't often write multi chapter fanfics but here goes, I guess. The first chapter was long but subsequent ones should be much shorter.
Incidentally, is it cheques or checks in the USA? I've used the English version so if it's wrong, my bad.
Thanks for reading. Reviews welcome.
PJ