NOTE: This story begins immediately after the series finale Born to Run in the alternate future of the ending. Ensemble with John, Kyle, Allison, Derek, and Blair Williams from Terminator Salvation.
Numbered Days
-
-
Each storyteller begins the story a different way. Some start with Skynet; some with a woman named Sarah Connor, a prophet of the coming apocalypse. Sometimes the story begins with Judgment Day. Others start with Derek Reese, who led the fight against the machines.
This story begins with the arrival of Derek's nephew John Connor, in the tunnels of the Resistance in Los Angeles.
* * *
Not long after meeting him, Allison decided to keep an eye on John. There was something weird about him. He watched them all way too much. Not like he was metal -- she thought Derek was right about that -- but he was squirrely, especially around her and Kyle.
Right now, he was on the other side of the room, as far as he could get from where she was sitting next to Kyle. He seemed to be involved in the dice game going on, but she thought that was only because she was staring at him and he was trying to pretend he wasn't looking at her.
After finishing a dinner best not thought about for too long, she leaned into Kyle. "What do you make of him?"
Kyle was looking at him, too. "Doesn't seem like much of a tunnel rat. Or civvy. I tested him with guns, and he's experienced."
"He's trouble," she declared. "I think we should convince Derek to move him to another bunker."
Kyle shook his head once. "Derek wants to keep him close. Says there's something familiar about him."
Which, now that he pointed it out, hit her, too - especially from way over here in the dim yellow-ish light. Had they met him before? And yet, wouldn't anyone they'd met before, have also known she and Kyle were together and not stared like a moron at the sight of them kissing?
"He's weird,"' she insisted.
He laughed a little and kissed her cheek. "Ally, we're all fucked up."
She turned her head to capture his lips for a quick kiss, but then looked at John again, not distracted. "Maybe he's a spy for Command. You know they hate the way we do our own thing out here."
"Yeah, well, they can all fuck themselves." Kyle's attention was caught by a bit of movement at the far end and she turned to follow his gaze real quickly, seeing Derek come in with Jesse and Barnes in tow.
It was nothing unusual -- Derek always came in here to get his food -- but something about it made John jump to his feet, staring at the group.
Jesse sank down to the floor next to Allison as Derek and Barnes went to get dinner. She leaned her head against the wall, and shut her eyes with a sigh. "And to think I thought carrying him was the hard part," she muttered. "The sex wasn't good enough to make up for not sleeping and chewing on my damn boobs."
Kyle coughed, and Allison grinned at his embarrassment.
"May I?" Allison asked, perfunctorily, and lifted Billy from Jesse's arms. He was sleeping and stirred only a little, opening bleary eyes enough to recognize her as Auntie Allison, and then fell asleep again.
Allison brought him against her chest, nuzzling the soft hair.
"Hey there, little guy." Kyle tapped the tiny fist with a finger, then she felt him stiffen against her.
She wasn't entirely surprised to see John standing in front of them, staring down at Billy.
"Who - who is that?" John asked, his voice a bit hoarse.
"Another Reese boy," Allison answered for Jesse. "His name's Billy."
Jesse opened her eyes and, without moving, suddenly seemed very dangerous, and that was to Allison, who was sitting next to her. She hated to think what that dark-eyed stare would feel like in John's shoes. "And you are?"
"John. John Connor," he answered. "You and Derek?" he asked, "have a ... a baby?"
Jesse regarded him with her head cocked to one side, and pursed her lips. Her accent got a little sharper as it did when she was angry or upset, "He's not exactly a secret. I expect even Skynet got the word by now, so my question is why you don'tknow."
"I'm new here," John answered, with a shrug.
Jesse realized who he was. "Oh, you're the one Derek was talking about, who mysteriously appeared out of nowhere. Some tunnel rat stole your clothes and you took Kyle's jacket."
"I gave it back," John protested.
Jesse smiled at him, in cold warning. She didn't believe a word of his story, and Allison knew she had an ally in thinking John was going to be trouble. "Put my son in danger, I'll kill you. Just so we're clear."
"Now, Jesse, John's not going to do that," Kyle reassured her.
"Would you throw yourself between metal and Billy, kid?" Jesse challenged, not taking her eyes from John.
"Of course I would!" he objected. "I'd never let anything hurt my uh, uh, " he stammered and finished, "my leader's baby."
Derek appeared behind him and corrected, "Anyone's baby, John. There aren't so many of us we can picky about which kids to save, y'know."
John started a little at Derek's voice, but when he tried to move, Derek got in his way. "Got news," he told the little group. "Kyle, briefing in ten. Got a mission for you. And you," he turned his head to pin John with his eyes. "You come, too. Time to earn your red, if that's what you're after."
John looked a little offended, but then he clenched his jaw and nodded very seriously. "I won't let you down."
Allison cleared her throat. Derek just looked at her, raising his brows as if he had no idea what her problem was. She glared at him. "And me?"
"I presumed I couldn't get you two apart with a crowbar," he teased, and flashed a smile when she stuck out her tongue at him. Then he handed one of his bowls to Jesse. "Here, babe. They said it's rabbit."
She sniffed at it. "Rabbit? Fucking liars," she muttered in disgust, but started eating it anyway.
He smoothed a finger over the baby's head and straightened again. "I'm getting your team together," he said, then went off toward Sayles.
John's gaze followed him, then he shook his head, still looking as if he'd been kicked in the stomach.
Kyle raised his brows at John. "Not every tunnel rat gets to go on a mission. Don't fuck it up."
"I won't," he answered, and for the first time, Allison believed him.
* * *
In the war room Allison went to stand next to Blair. The taller, older woman was Allison's hero - she was the one who had saved Allison, all those years ago in the desert and she had been the one to bring Allison to the Reese boys. Allison leaned closer and murmured, "You going, too?"
"Anybody else here flown over the west valley?" Blair retorted, with a smile, and Allison chewed on that, while Derek and Barnes came in.
"Listen up, people!" Barnes ordered, and everyone fell quiet to listen as he and Derek came up to the end of the table, to Kyle's right.
"Tell 'em," Derek told him.
Barnes nodded once and started talking. "Coming back from Serrano with the supply run, my team saw metal activity we never saw before, crossing Ventura up to Topanga canyon. A big convoy of supply and T-series metal and big fucking machines parts. We wanted to follow and see what the fuck they're building, but we had supplies. And there was metal crawling all over the fucking place." He waved one well-muscled arm in a circle, looking disgruntled by his failure to bring more intel.
"You brought the news, that's the important part," Derek told him. "So Kyle, you're going to take a team out to Topanga to see what's going on. Scout it. See if you can figure out what it is."
"Bomb it?" Blair suggested dryly.
Derek laughed. "Once they build it. Let's make sure they waste a lot of their resources on it first." Then he grew serious. "But I want to know what it is. Barnes, Jesse and I went over a route." He leaned over the table to the map there. "You go by the subway to universal, across the hills, west 'til you get to Sepulveda. Which is the problem like always."
"Sepulveda?" John asked, frowning.
"Metal use the old 405 as a highway to Century and their base in El Segundo. The north end of the Sepulveda pass, at Ventura, is a high patrol area," Kyle told him. "They don't want us to go over the pass or west to Serrano. So we cross to the far north usually."
Derek grimaced at the map. "I think you're gonna have to risk the basin tunnel. I'd hate to expose it, but I think this is worth it."
"What about Mulholland?" John asked. "Cross southward?"
"We use Mulholland across the hills occasionally, but it doesn't cross Sepulveda," Kyle said. "The bridge fell years ago." He frowned at John. "You know L.A.?"
John shrugged, uncomfortably. "I used to live here. What about more southward? The Getty used to have a tunnel under the freeway; if we could get under and go through the scrub on the other side..."
"There's a tunnel?" Derek asked, frowning. "I don't remember a tunnel. Show me."
John leaned forward, over the table and the map sketched on it. It took him a moment, but then he put his finger down. "Here. It goes underneath the 405 and intersects Sepulveda. If the machines stay on the freeway part, it could get us across. If it's still open," he added, with a rueful twist of his lips and half-shrug.
Derek frowned and nodded slowly, his gaze distant on the past. "I kind of remember that. Fifth grade field trip."
Not for the first time, Allison wondered what it was like to remember what the city used to be, before it turned to rubble and desperation and dust. Maybe that was why sometimes he got drunk and started to sing songs that hardly anyone else remembered.
Derek glanced at Blair, who nodded slowly. She answered, "They don't patrol that part as heavily. There are always HKs, of course, but we haven't done anything in that area in, what, three years? No reason for them to guard the middle."
"It'd save time," Kyle said. "And we could come at Topanga overland, rather than from the north. They won't suspect that."
"They suspect fucking everything," Barnes reminded them sharply.
"As much," Kyle amended.
"That's some hiking," Blair pointed out. "Lots of canyons, low scrub for cover."
"Still..." Derek started, looking thoughtful, and looked to Kyle, eyebrows lifted.
"Cross there or cross at the basin? They both suck," Kyle shrugged. "I'll try something new."
"Your call," Derek said, shrugging back. "Get your gear ready. You all go at first call tomorrow. I'm sending Barnes to Kansas and have them attack Century and draw some attention off you. Three days. Use it well."
Nobody had to ask what the big hurry was. Mysterious machine installations could only mean bad news.
* * *
The night passed slowly. Both she and Kyle were at first too keyed up about their first mission since Billy's birth to do anything but toss restlesly in their blankets. Then she put her hand down his pants, and soon enough they were expending energy a much more pleasurable way. She figured they wouldn't have the chance out in the wild, so better to do it now.
She bit her lip, trying not to disturb the rest of the people in the room too much. Everyone ignored it anyway, to give them the illusion of privacy in a place that basically had none, but Allison never liked to be too loud.
Afterward, cuddled together, he murmured stroking her hair, "Do you want a baby? Like Billy?"
She heard a quick intake of breath from across the way, from where John was and wondered what the hell his problem was. But then she thought about what Kyle was asking and forgot all about weirdo John Connor.
Since they'd been having sex for more than a year without a baby, she figured it wasn't possible. So she shrugged. "If it happens, it happens. I wouldn't mind. And if not, there are always kids to take care of." They had both been one of those kids -- she raised by Blair, and him by his brother -- and maybe they'd have to take care of Billy if something happeneed to Derek and Jesse.
Kyle's thoughts were following similar paths. "I want to give Billy a future without machines."
"He will," she decided. "We'll make it happen." She said it boldly, and she meant it, even if she didn't know how. The few human survivors were like rats - they were hard to kill, but they weren't going to be running the planet again anytime soon either. Skynet had numbers and technology and complete air superiority on its side.
He kissed her. "Sleep, Ally. Long day tomorrow."
* * *
At the north exit, Jesse and Derek saw them off. Derek gave Kyle a hug and told him to watch his ass, while Jesse pulled Allison to the side. "You watch him," she ordered softly but with a hard tone. She wasn't talking about Kyle. "If it starts looking like a trap, kill him. There's something not right about that kid."
"I know," Allison agreed. "We'll be careful. Keep Billy and Derek safe."
Jesse nodded and stepped away.
"All right, people, let's go. Door doesn't stay open forever," Kyle ordered.
Sayles went through the opening first, and with his bulk, pack, and weapon, he barely fit. Timms and Kyle and John followed, then Blair gestured Allison to go next. She gave Muffin a last scratch behind the ears and slipped through easily, into the tunnel beyond. Blair brought up the rear, and the door closed behind them. Sayles and Kyle replaced the grate, which would never stop a terminator, but would hopefully make it appear that the humans couldn't use the old sealed-up tunnel in case the machines ever got this far.
Everyone carried water, ammo, and at least two weapons. Allison carried her favorite sawed-off shotgun, and a handgun. The Beretta wasn't much good for fighting terminators, unless she could peg its eyes, but it was still comforting to have. Otherwise they carried only a little food and space blankets which were supposed to muffle their thermal signatures.
The first part of the journey was all underground. They passed through basement to parking garage to tunnel, making their way to the forward resistance bunker, near old Metro Center. Then through the maintenance tunnel, heavy door, and emerged into the subway.
They made good time in the tunnel, walking swiftly.
"What if they're in here?" John asked once. "Shouldn't we be more stealthy?"
Kyle shot him a look. "Don't kid yourself. If they get in here, we're all fucking dead."
"That's why we're careful," Blair added, swinging her submachine gun over her head by the strap with a casual ease Allison still envied. "We blew the stations years ago. Risked bringing the whole thing down but we had to control access. Metal went through not long after Judgment Day and killed everyone hiding down here. We try not to give them reason to find a way back."
"If it's safe, why don't more people live down here?" John asked, kicking a can out of his way. The tunnel was full of the detritus of human civilization - trash, waste, rats, roaches, and a few skeletons, but no one else alive.
No one wanted to answer such an obvious question, until Allison responded with a shrug. "What people?"
"We're the only ones dumb enough to live this close to a main Skynet base," Blair answered.
"Or crazy," Sayles said back over his shoulder.
Blair shrugged. "Same difference. Civvies don't live in LA anymore. It's us and the machines."
That seemed to give John something to chew on, and he walked quietly, a little apart from everyone else.
Despite what Kyle and Blair said, no one treated the tunnel as safe, because there was no such thing. Still, it was safer than their mission was going to be, and they made good time through the wide subway tunnels.
Allison always found the station platforms sad by lantern light, so forlorn and abandoned, as if the stations missed the people who had once waited there. At Vermont, the way was narrow, between two large slabs of concrete that had fallen during the station's collapse. Blair brushed her hand across, smiling a little in reminiscence, as they went by.
to be continued...