The Lord of the Rings 2: Judgment Day
Chapter 3
The four hobbits and their muscled companion sped through the darkness. The road curved and bent erratically, but the man always seemed to know where they were going. Nobody spoke, though it would have been hard to hear over the clatter the cart made on the rough country road.
Almost an hour after they had left Bree, the man slowed the cart down to a more leisurely pace. The horses evidently needed the change of pace; their heads were drooping. It was at this moment that Sam finally spoke up. "Alright, time out! Stop the cart." Without a word, the man pulled the horses over to the side of the road, coming to a stop in a clearing opposite the road from a patch of trees.
When the cart halted, the man calmly stepped down from the driver's seat and started untying the horses. "We will rest here for a short length of time," he said, "but then we must move away from the road."
Sam got off the cart as well, the other hobbits following more hesitantly. "Alright," Sam started, "suppose you just tell us who you are and what you're doing here?"
The man spoke, but didn't look up. "I am a terminator. I was sent here to protect Frodo Baggins from an assassin."
"That thing from the Inn?" Frodo asked.
"Affirmative. It is a T-1000."
"What?" Sam asked. "What's a T-1000? And what's a terminator?"
"A terminator is a robot or cyborg that is programmed to find and eliminate a target."
"Programmed?" Merry asked.
"Robot?" asked Pippin.
"Affirmative" the man replied. "A robot is a metal humanoid machine, controlled by a central processing unit." He had finished untying the horses, and now began fashioning two torches.
The hobbits took a moment to respond. "What?" Sam asked. "You're not real?"
"I am artificially constructed, but I exist."
"No, I mean… you're not a man? Why do you look like one?"
"Though my inner structure is metal, I am covered in organic tissue."
"How!"
"I do not have time to explain everything, but I am not from this world."
The hobbits, who had been simply confused before, burst out in a flurry of questions. The terminator wouldn't answer them at the moment, but only spent time saying that the T-1000 was also a terminator, and a shape shifter. Frodo tensed at the explanation, remembering how the T-1000 had tried to kill him. "Now get ready to move," the terminator said, "we must get away from the road. More than the T-1000 are after you, Frodo Baggins."
After he finished speaking, he pulled the cart into the brush at the edge of the trees, impressing the hobbits with his strength. The hobbits' few bags were loaded onto the horses, and they wasted no time setting out into the surrounding night. The terminator also brought out the two torches he had made earlier: one that he carried in the front, and another that Merry carried in the back. As they left the clearing, Sam asked "But where are we going?"
"To Rivendell, Samwise Gamgee."
"Rivendell! Mister Frodo, we're going to see the elves!"
Frodo would have been excited in other situations, but he couldn't find that excitement; not now, and not in this place he found himself in. He fell into his place in the center of the line as they soon passed out of sight of the road.
…
For days there was very little talking between the hobbits. They had plenty of time to ask the terminator more questions, but the drudgery of the journey stifled much conversation. Their leader kept them at a hard pace, traveling from sun-up to sun-down with only short breaks for meals. The hobbits did ask him some questions in the evening as they stopped for supper, but they usually just felt like going to bed. The terminator did tell them that the T-1000 was indeed sent by the Dark Lord, and that he was sent shortly after that.
"So is Sauron going to send more T-1000's? " Pippin asked.
"Negative," the terminator replied, "he only had one of them. Even if he had more he would not have had time to send them before he was destroyed."
"Destroyed? When was he destroyed?"
"In the future, where the T-1000 and I came from."
"What? How is that possible!"
"I will give a detailed explanation of our situation later. There are many things you do not know; and you must sleep, not listen about it all night."
Pippin wanted to ask more, but he realized that he was tired; and more than learning things he wanted to doze off after the long day. He slunk into his blanket, muttering to himself. "Metal people and traveling from the future. The Shire is much more agreeable…"
…
As the days drew on, the hobbits were falling into the pattern of sleeping and walking, sleeping and walking. The terminator never had to sleep; he sat watch through the night and kept the strongest pace during the day. The journey was the hardest one the hobbits had been on yet, and it showed. They were frequently lagging behind, and the terminator often had to wait for them and tell them to keep up.
They saw very few creatures out in the wild. The place was wide open, the horizon stretching farther than any the hobbits had ever seen. It was a quiet and lonely place, and the overcast skies did not improve the spirits of the hobbits. At least they didn't run into any servants of the Dark One; but that did little to comfort Frodo, who was plagued by unsettling dreams during the night. He had trouble falling asleep, and even then the sleep he got seemed to do little to give him rest.
In the late afternoon of the sixth day of their journey, the group came within sight of a large hill. It loomed above all the surrounding ridges, and was larger even than the hill of Bag End back home. The hobbits saw what looked like ruins at the top, a jagged circle of rock from an unknown past.
"What is that?" Frodo asked.
"That is Weathertop" the terminator replied. "It was once the Watchtower of Amon Sûl, before it was destroyed by the Witch-King of Angmar in the one thousand four hundred and ninth year of the Third Age."
"Wow," Merry said, "how do you know all that?"
"I have detailed files on Middle-Earth history."
"Oh…"
"We will camp at the top tonight. That will give us a wide view of the area in case of attack."
"You think we'll be attacked?" Frodo asked.
"It is highly probable…"
The climb up the great hill was long and slow. The trail that wound its way around the sides would have taken some time at a steady speed, but after their hard traveling the hobbits were not able to keep up such a pace. The terminator took to walking ahead, waiting for them to catch up, and then walking ahead again. As the grinding trip finished at the top, the cloudy western sky was shifting to the red hue of evening, with clouds blazing with the light of the sun just behind them.
"We need to fortify this location" the terminator said.
"What… for?" Sam gasped between breaths.
"To prepare for a defensive operation to repel the ringwraiths."
"The what?
"Ringwraiths. You may know them as the black riders."
"Black riders? What black riders?"
"The ones approaching from the southwest."
Now Pippin spoke up. "There are black riders coming! How do you know?"
"My sensors first detected them when we started ascending the hill. Since then I have been able to determine their course and speed. They are riding towards us at a rate of 30.9 miles per hour. They will arrive at the base of the hill in about one hour, give or take a few minutes depending on the exact route they take."
As the other three hobbits furiously asked more questions, Frodo's attention faded from the scene around him as the dread of an unseen evil swept over him again. He felt almost as if he could hear the wraiths calling to him, telling him to put on the ring. His focus was jostled back to real life when Sam shook his shoulder and asked of he was alright. Frodo was released from the feeling of dread, but he still carried the sick feeling of fear in him. "I'm fine, Sam."
The terminator ignored their exchange as he continued to speak. "We don't have much time. We must also prepare weapons. My shotgun only has two rounds left, and that will be insufficient to meet our defensive needs."
"We have our swords" Pippin said.
"Those will only be effective if you get a clear shot to the face, which is unlikely given your lack of experience. It is more statistically probable that you would be terminated before getting within three feet of them."
Pippin cast his gaze at the ground as the terminator told the other hobbits to start making a campfire and to keep the torches ready. As they worked, he started disassembling his shotgun and taking apart the lanterns. Pouring all the fuel into one container, he attached that to the ammo feed on the top of the weapon. Tying it on with string, he also tied a small bit of the lantern wick on the end of the barrel. Having completed it, he laid the contraption aside and turned towards the hobbits, who had gotten a fire going with the little wood they had carried with them. With those tasks done, they waited.
Darkness crept over the landscape below them, then covered the hill as the sun fell below the horizon. Nobody spoke as the night came upon the landscape. The hobbits stayed huddled around the fire, staring out into the darkness. Sam ventured to ask if it would be a good idea to extinguish the fire, so they would be less visible.
"Negative. They are drawn by the ring, so putting out the fire will not increase our likelihood of hiding from them. They dislike fire, so keep torches ready and between you and the wraiths." The hobbits took his cue and held out a torch in front of each of them. It was not long before the terminator spoke again. "They are at the base of the hill. Get ready."
Pippin spoke. "It took us a while to get up here, won't they take time getting up here like we did?"
"You were on foot; the wraiths are on horses that have unnaturally enhanced levels of stamina." As he said this he picked up the contraption he built earlier and lit the piece of wick on the end of the barrel.
Sam was about to ask what was taking them so long when a looming shape barely discernable from the dark of the night rose up behind a gap in the ring of ruins. The hobbit had just recognized it as a dark rider when the terminator stepped forward and pulled the pump handle on the device that had been his shotgun. Flames spouted from the barrel and hit the wraith's front side. The figure shrieked as it fell back amongst the ruins. The hobbits were staring at what just happened when Merry yelled "look out!" as a wraith reared up behind the hobbits. Sam shoved Frodo out of the way of its blade as he swung his torch at the figure. It jumped back as the terminator pushed Sam out of the way and blasted the thing with flame, sending it stumbling away as the black robes covering it ignited.
It was now that the four hobbits realized that the ringwraiths had surrounded the hilltop and were attacking from all sides. The terminator brought his device around to fend off another one, but it managed to knock the weapon away before he could fire. He grabbed the thing's neck as they started a shoving match, locked in each other's grasp. Sam was busy fending off one wraith when another one knocked away his torch. He dove for it, but only as he dove for it did he realize that in doing so he had left Frodo exposed to their attack. As he turned to look back, a blank look of fear covered Frodo's face; and Sam saw that he had dropped his sword and was holding the Ring out in one hand. As Sam struggled to his feet, Frodo put on the Ring and disappeared. The wraith halted for a moment, but then didn't hesitate to lunge at the empty space with its sword. Frodo cried out in pain as Sam jammed his torch into the wraith's back. The thing shrieked that same raspy cry and lurched off into the night as fire consumed it.
Frodo became visible again and fell to the ground, yelling in pain. As the hobbit collapsed, the terminator was grabbing a nearby torch as he held a wraith back at arm's length. With one stroke he thrust the torch into the wraith's face, then let go of the figure. As the being crawled and then ran away ablaze, the last of its companions abandoned its confrontation with Merry and Pippin and fled into the night.
Sam immediately ran to where Frodo lay. The terminator straightened up, walking to the edge of the ruins to watch the wraiths' retreat. Merry and Pippin also looked out into the night, breathing heavily. Silence again took the hilltop as the wraiths' cries faded into the darkness.