Chapter 3: And a Lot of Running.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion. As John became painfully aware that his life was now, once more hanging in the balance. Cameron flung herself from her desk, moving as quickly as she could to place herself between John and the familiar terminator who had somehow escaped from the underground bunker they'd previously sealed it in. And just as said terminator began to squeeze the trigger of his looted side arm, John also caught a blur of rapid movement in his peripheral vision.
Suddenly a "BANG!", loud as thunder, ripped through the classroom, like the crackling of whip, and John's eyes instinctively screwed shut. But then his training took over. His eyes were back open in the space of a blink. And he was surprised to find the terminator's gun no longer pointing at him. Rather it was aimed straight up at the ceiling as Jason struggled with the machine.
Bert, his friends and the vice principal all beat feet out of the room, the gunshot acting as a starter's pistol for their mad dash for safety. The terminator let them go. John wasn't surprised. After all, it wasn't after them, just him... and anyone foolhardy enough to try to protect him.
Jason was still trying to wrest the gun out of the terminator's hand, but he lacked the strength necessary to overpower the machine in a straight up contest of muscle. However, Jason was able to get his hand around the barrel of the gun and bend it, rendering the weapon useless for anything other than a paperweight. The terminator seemed rather displeased by this, as he retaliated by grabbing Jason, lifting him over his head, and chucking him out of the classroom window.
Having cast aside the distraction, the machine focused its attention back on its target. However, before it could reach John, Cameron intercepted it and body slammed it into the wall of the classroom.
"John run!" the female cyborg yelled as she entered a wrestling contest with the larger T-860, and John found that his legs were already taking him from the battling, time-traveling assassins as fast as they could.
As he ran down the hall of the school, he could hear the smashing sounds of Cameron and the terminator fighting behind him. A part of him wanted to turn back, to see how the battle was going and if Cameron was going to be okay, but the wiser, more pragmatic part told him that he had to keep moving. Maybe Cameron stood a chance of taking out that mountainous mound of flesh covered metal with nothing but her bare hands, but John knew his frailer form would break like a toothpick if that enemy ever got its hands on him. So, the future savior and hope of the human race ran from the battle he was not yet ready to face, his destiny trailing behind him as his body guard fought to hold it back as long as possible.
A black, tan, and grey blur zipped past him as he continued on down the long corridor of classrooms. The force of the wind created by the blur spun the teen half-way around, and he saw the blur impact the enemy terminator, hitting it with sufficient force to drive them both out of the window at the far end of the hallway. John stopped and stared for a moment, but Cameron, her blouse torn and the right side of her face scraped up enough to expose bits of the metal which laid beneath the fleshy outer layer, caught back up to him and urged him on. "We have to go, now!"
The two ran to the nearest exit and headed for the parking lot, hoping that they could 'procure' a vehicle and escape before the enemy terminator caught back up with them again. And as they stepped out into the shadowed landscape of the school, somewhere in the back of John's mind, he became dimly aware raindrops striking his face, as a few brave rays of sunlight found holes in the cloud cover above and broke through to light scattered beacons of hope upon the trees and ground, a reminded that somewhere beyond the dark, discouraging storm, light still blossomed.
As the parking lot came into view, the enemy terminator reappeared, and John heard a boom of thunder somewhere out in the distance. Then he saw the speedy blur charge the machine yet again, only this time, the enemy was prepared for the blow. The terminator turned its upper body back and then sprang forward with an outstretched arm, striking the blur like a major league batter hitting a homerun. And the blur went flying up into the air. It came crashing back to Earth a second latter, smashing through the roof of a parked car in the process, and setting off the machine's alarm. "Step away from the vehicle. You are too close to the vehicle. And I am the vehicle."
The enemy terminator turned back to John, locking unto its target once again, and as the latter continued to run, the former moved to grab hold of a metal dumpster. It hefted the trash repository and hurled it into the air. John did his best to change direction, but his foot slipped on the wet grass and he fell. And then the teen's vision became filled with nothing but the rusted, green hull of the metal dumpster as it came lopping down at him. Lacking the time necessary to run, or even roll away, John's hands instinctively, futilely came up to shield his head, but Cameron managed to reach her charge just in the nick of time, raising both arms to catch the falling dumpster before it could squash John like a bug. Her legs to sunk a good ten inches into the soft, wet ground, but she'd succeeded in saving the life of the future leader of humanity yet again.
Suddenly, Jason reappeared next to Cameron. His clothes were torn and barely holding together. His head and body were blood stained. He looked like a wreck. Yet, he's still lived; and other than the blood covering it, his face showed little sign of fatigue.
"Throw it!" Jason instructed
"He'll catch it," Cameron informed.
"I'm counting on that," Jason replied as he squatted down and assumed a sprinters stance.
Cameron then threw the dumpster back at the other terminator and began to pull her feet out of the earth. And as soon as the enemy terminator looked up, preparing to catch the dumpster, Jason took off. John didn't even see the blur this time, but he did hear what he thought was a sonic boom. And then the teen of steel, running faster than the speed of sound, slammed into the enemy terminator with everything he had. The impact drove the machine back, causing it, too, to seemingly disappear from where it was and then reappear a short distance away as it flew through the door of a parked car in the center of the lot.
The blur was back again as well, and John could just barely make out it landing strike after strike as it darted about the dazed enemy terminator. The machine, finally recovered enough of its senses to realize what was happening and began swatting at the blur, like a human at a buzzing insect. But, just as an annoying insect, Jason continued to dart in-between the blows and land hit after hit.
Cameron finally freed her legs, and she grabbed John's hand and began to half pull, half lead him closer to the parking lot. The two were now running straight at the dueling machine and blur. It was a dangerous gamble, since it brought John closer to the enemy who only really needed to land one good blow to break him... and destroy humanity's only hope for the future. But there was really no choice. Both John and Cameron knew that they'd never escape the machine on foot. They needed a vehicle.
As the two reached the edge of the parking lot, John saw the terminator take another swing at the blur. But the blur moved around this swing as well and landed a double-fisted blow on the enemy terminator's back, knocking the machine to its knees. Unfortunately, the enemy was quick to recover, as it turned its upper body and managed to finally land a punch. Jason stopped, dead in his tracks, as his whole body seemed to bend around the machine's fist, which had impacted the teen in his gut and knocked the wind right out of him.
Cameron smashed the window of the nearest parked car, unlocked the door, lifted John, and tossed him into the far passenger's seat. Then she followed in herself, as the enemy terminator grabbed hold of the winded blur. It lifted Jason high above its head once more and then sent his body crashing into the concrete ground. Still stunned, Jason just laid there, as the terminator stood over him. Then, it bent down and began to repeatedly drive its metal fists into Jason's body.
Cameron succeeded in hotwiring the car, and as the engine turned over, the enemy terminator shifted its attention back to John and his protector once again. Cameron shifted the car into drive, and took off, the enemy terminator running after them, as fast as it could. And, surprisingly, it was even gaining ground on the small automobile. "Figures, just our luck that we'd get a car with no acceleration," John quipped sardonically as the machine grew ever closer.
The terminator was right behind them now, and just as the car shifted into its next gear and began to pull away slightly, the enemy machine leapt onto the back of it and began to pull itself up. Cameron yelled for John to grab the wheel; and just as he was about to, the blur appeared again. It ran up past the car, stopped, turned around, and then began to dash back it. Jason latched onto the enemy terminator as he ran by, ripping the machine from its purchase... and taking a decent sized chuck of the car's frame with it.
The car was still running though, and as John looked back in the rearview mirror, he realized that they were going to make it after all. They were going to escape. Then the blur smashed through the doors leading back into the school, and John realized that Jason was trapped back inside with the enemy terminator.
And as John's fight or flight instinct began to wane in the light of their safe escape, he became worried about the new kid who'd just saved his life... and possibly prevented Cameron's destruction as well. The teen turned to his cybernetic bodyguard and opened his mouth. But she preempted him. "We can't go back."
"He helped save us."
"You're more important. If we go back you could be killed. You must survive."
"You could go back and help him. Between the two of you, I'm sure that you could take out that terminator. You could meet me back at the house."
"Defeating that terminator is not one of my objectives. You're protection is. We can't return to the house either. More terminators might be waiting for you there."
"I'm not leaving Mom and Derek!" John insisted. He knew the drill. Pickup, move on, adopt a new identity, start a new life, and never look back. But no matter how many times he was forced to abandon the life he'd been building, no matter whatever sacrifices he was forced to make. He was not about to leave his family behind.
"You must. Your survival is all that matters. Besides, you have little choice in the matter. I'm the one driving."
"And if I open the door, roll out of the car, and go for them myself?"
"You would sustain injuries. This car is moving quite fast. You could die."
"Then you'll drive to the house, and we'll pickup Mom and Derek," John blackmailed.
"There is another way to keep you from exiting the vehicle," Cameron countered and reached over to grab hold of John's arm.
"Let go!"
"No."
John tried to twist out of Cameron's grasp, but he couldn't. His strength was simply no match for that of a terminator.
"You should stop struggling. You're only going to injure your arm. I don't believe that is a desirable outcome for either of us," Cameron continued.
And then an idea struck John, and he did indeed stop his struggling. Instead, he merely looked over at Cameron and asked, "Do you know what coyotes do when one of their paws is caught in a trap?"
"Yes. They chew off their own leg in order to escape." Once she was finished relating the raw data Cameron glanced over at John, an almost suspicious look on her face. "Why?"
John didn't say anything. He merely stared back and twisted his captured arm one more time. And Cameron caught the implication. "Very well," she replied, turning her eyes back on the road before them. "We'll go pick up Sarah and Derek... But we need to be quick. And I go in first to assess the threat level in the house. You stay in the car until I give the all clear. And if I don't; you run."
And, realizing that that was the best he was going to get, John agreed to his protector's conditions. "Deal."
Sarah was sitting in the living room, enjoying a rare moment of relaxation and indulging in a little personal reading. They weren't safe of course; no one was ever 'safe'. But for the moment it seemed as if the struggle she faced with the future had eased from trench warfare to near cold war calm. A short time jump had taken them out of there proper place in the time-stream, and Skynet had lost track of them. They still had to be cautious of course - especially when they moved against their future foe's current plans - for machines from the future still stalked the city streets as men and women, but at least their enemy didn't know where to hunt them. And, that provided a small amount of peace of mind and a chance to occasionally indulge in the illusion of safety... just for a time. She should've known it was too good to last.
Suddenly Cameron burst into the house and her head jerked back and forth as she examined the surroundings with in-human speed. And, instantly, Sarah knew that something was very, very wrong.
"What's happened?"
"A terminator came to John's school."
The mother was suddenly filled with a rush of volatile emotions as her mind flashed with images of her son forced, once again, to square off against an enemy he was not yet prepared to face... and the guilt that came with not having been there to protect him. "What happened?" Sarah repeated her voice rising as the frustration of not knowing filled her.
Cameron didn't reply. Instead she merely continued her examination of the house, Sarah staring at her with nervous eyes. And the latter was only one step away from grabbing the former and shaking her until she answered, when Cameron finally used her cell phone to send the 'all clear' signal, and John pulled up to the front of the house in their stolen, battered car.
The son threw the door open and ran into the house, as anxious to discover his mother's and uncle's fate as Sarah was to discover her son's. And the mother wrapped her arms around her child and held him close. "Are you okay?" she cried.
"Yeah, Mom, I'm fine," John replied, looking a little uncomfortable with the display of maternal emotion, now that his own worries had been sated.
Sarah held her son for a few more seconds, before the full realization of their current circumstances set in. Then she broke the contact as she came to understand that if the terminator tracking John had been unsuccessful at the school, the home would be its next stop. "We have to leave."
"Yes," Cameron replied as she reached under the couch to retrieve a pump action shotgun and a shoulder strap full of spare cartridges.
Sarah pulled a Glock from the drawer of a nearby desk and cocked it as she ran to the bottom of the stairs. "Derek!" she hollered up.
The uncle's must've sensed the urgency in the mother's voice, for he appeared at the top of the staircase almost instantly, double barrel in hand. "Metal?"
Sarah nodded.
"Here?"
"Not yet."
"Guns and money."
"John and I will get the money, you and the terminator pack up the guns."
Derek looked a little displeased by the idea of being partnered up with the terminator, but recognizing the urgency of the situation, he didn't bother protesting. "Right."
"Wait, there's something else," John interrupted, as his family began their well rehearsed, essential pack up routine.
"Another threat?" Sarah asked succinctly.
"Well, no. It's mo-" John began to reply, but was cut off before he could finish.
"Then it can wait until we're in the car and headed away from here. Go bag up the cash, while I get the diamonds."
"No, wait, you don't understand. We-"
"John! We'll talk about this later. Right now we've got to-" Sarah forcefully interrupted as she tucked the Glock into the back of her waistband, and began dumping the diamonds stored in the bottom of one of the kitchen drawers into a Ziploc bag. Once finished, she opened the back door... only to find a teenage kid standing on the other side, his hand raised into a fist and positioned as if to knock on the wooden frame.
The kid was wearing a football uniform that was at least two sizes too big for him, and there were streaks of dried blood running across his face, through his hair, and down the sides of his arms. In the hand not currently bawled up into a fist he held the uniform's helmet. His face bore a slight look of surprise at the door having been flung open before he had the opportunity to knock. But the surprise faded quickly, and was soon replaced by polite curiosity. "Excuse me, but is this John and Cameron's house?"
Sarah just stared at the kid strangely for a second, not quite sure what to make of him. He didn't carry himself like a terminator, yet he was covered in blood, and asking for her son. Then Sarah decided that cautious inquiry would be the best way to resolve the issue at hand. She reached behind her, pulled her Glock back out, and leveled it at the kid. They were already leaving for good, and there was little point left in being subtle. "Who are you, and what do you want with my son," the woman demanded, not asked, with all the authority of a lioness protecting her cubs.
The teen just sighed at the gun. And then, faster than could be seen by the human eye, pulled it out of Sarah's hands. "Sorry, not really in the mood for threats right now," he replied almost tiredly the initial courtesy of his tone having faded with the sudden appearance of the side arm.
"John, RUN!" Sarah yelled as she positioned herself in front of the teen, who she was now all but convinced was some new form of infiltration model.
"Jason?" her son called out in surprise as he disobediently poked his head around the kitchen corner to find out what was happening with his mother.
And Sarah just stared dumbly once again as she became aware of the fact that her son knew this intruder... and didn't seem to be afraid of him. "Who are you?" she finally asked.
Well, hope you all enjoyed the third chapter, made up with contents taken from the original third and forth. ;)
Have a good day, and God bless.
Metropolis Kid and Chris St. Thomas.
