Author's Note: So its taken me a bit of time to get this up. However, after re-reading, I feel its as good as I can get it so...here is Chapter 3 "Even the Young may Die". Enjoy!


Chapter 3: Even the Young may Die


Let us burn the flames within our hearts

To cast shadows of our dancing souls

As we watch the sunset bleed on the horizon,

And welcome the nocturnal majesty home.

We will glisten in the moon beam,

And twinkle with the stars in the glorious rebirth

Of night in all its darkened glory,

Where our cooled spirits can soar above the earth

In defiance of gravity, we are lighter than air,

As we float on the cold northern winds,

Sent by the ancient Gods to carry us

To the ancestral home of our kin.

Take the hand of Death

And follow my last breath

To the other side,

The ferryman awaits our arrival,

To cross the frozen lake,

To go beyond the realms of time.


Entry Number: 01010100 01101000 01110010 01100101 01100101
Date: October 2nd, 2013

"John Connor." Martin said with a smile as he shut the door to the small enclosed room behind him. "Never thought I'd see the day when I'd run into you again."

John Connor, stood from behind the desk, which he had been just sitting at, and walked around to stand in front of Martin Bedell. He was 23, dark black hair, hazel eyes, and wore his usual attire of a light jacket, jeans, and a t-shirt underneath. "...and here I thought you wouldn't be needing my help," John grinned back in reply.

"Who said I needed your help?" Martin said, looking a little surprised. "As I recall, it was you who needed to be rescued. Not me."

John shrugged. "It was all apart of my 'master plan'"

Martin laughed and took John's hand, greeting him like an old friend. "Considered the favor repaid, for last time you saved my ass. Now were even."

John walked back to the table, and sat back down as Martin followed to the front of the desk. "I hardly think this counts," he replied. On the desk sat a large spread-out map of Los Angeles, which contained many marks of enemy forces, as well as allies. "Anyways, we have a bit of a problem."

"That's what I'm here for," Martin replied examining the map, as he rested his hands on the desk, using it to support his own weight. He only weighed 150 pounds, but that wasn't the excuse he'd have made.

"Good, because I'm going to need you on this one." John began to point out various locations. "We got machines well dug in on three different locations, one of which my men are currently taking care of. I just received word that Kyle and Derek were headed from Kansas to Colorado to try and pull Skynet's attention that way; but we still have Jackson to worry about."

"Right. I sent a six man squad out to scout that location. I can have the Rangers and Marcus head to intercept, should by us a bit of time to at least the get the rest of the prisoners out."

John nodded, "I was thinking the same." He paused, thinking for a moment, then continued, "if you want to head to Colorado and help out Kyle and Derek with the distraction, I can pull the rest of the men my way to Jackson. Instead, we'll have Marcus take care of the rest of the prisoners. He'd probably be better for covert anyways."

"True enough," Martin replied. Marcus Wright was one of his best soldiers, who had recently seemed to have developed a keen interest on drinking and smoking cigars. He had known Marcus for years now, after he had arrived from the future to help protect Martin in the year 2010 from an 888 attack, one which still left Martin indebt to him.

Martin reached up to his ear piece to get on the com. "Marcus, where are you?"

The radio crackled for a moment then a voice came in response. "On the roof. We got movement to the north. My men are holding off, what's up?"

"I need you to get your guys ready to move. Your going to rendezvous with the Rangers at Jackson. You'll be taking Tango 7 Alpha with you. Think you can handle that?"

"Aww," Marcus replied in a slight complaining manner, almost childish really though Marin knew he was only joking to lighten the mood. "But I'm having so much fun here.." There was a muffled boom, and the ground seemed to shake around them as a bit of rubble and dust fell from the ceiling.

"Just do it." Martin replied, not feeling really in the joking mood at the moment.

"Got it. Will be down in 2." Then the radio went silent.

"Right." John said, picking up his M16A4. "If all goes well, we'll get in and out and away before Skynet knew we were there."

Martin nodded, strapping his own rifle to his back. "And if not...we all die. No pressure," He replies with a grin.

"You always were the one to be pessimistic," John replied heading to the door.

"My job is to be realistic, not hopefully." Martin replied follow after him and they headed back to the surface were Resistance troops could be seen moving about packing up equipment.

John turned to look at him one last time. "Good luck," he said solemnly."

"And to you," Martin replied, then turned and headed back out of the building moving swiftly down the street. He had forgotten all about mentioning Jash, but at second though he shook it from his head figuring it wasn't that important. After quickly scanning the road ahead of him, Martin turned down and ally way and raced off back to the Kansas Bunker, moving as fast as he could to intercept Kyle and Derek. In his mind he figured this was going to be one long fight. He could only hope it would pay off.


"Martin!" Derek called out from behind a barrier where he and a couple men hid, using it as cover. Martin ducked and dodged the bullets that flew around him and slid down beside him, checking his rifle then looked at Derek questionably. "Where the hell is Connor?!"

"He went with Marcus to Jackson," Martin replied before peeking over the top of the barrier and empting his clip into some nearby 800s that happened to have the unfortunate mishap of being in his line of sight. "They had a situation up, needed to by some time to pull the rest of the prisoners out."

Martin quickly surveyed the surrounding area and turned to Derek. "Seems you and Kyle got yourself into a nice pickle."

"Yeah well..." Derek proceeded to cover Martin, as Martin reloaded, firing a few rounds at another 800. "You know Skynet. They don't know when its over."

Martin paused, "But it ain't over yet is it?"

Derek shook his head. "We have to pull out. There are to many. I've lost 6 good men so far, and I can't risk losing anymore. We can hold for another 30 minutes, but we'll be overrun we stay any longer."

"Can't we head down main?" Martin asked, pointing across the square to a street to the North. "We could take the high ground and flush 'em out."

Derek shook his head again. "They already got that covered. The only way out is through 1st and they got a HK-Tank heading down this way."

Martin thought for a moment, raising his head again and shooting down two more machines before coming up with his next action. "Do you have any more EMFPs?"

Derek motioned for a soldier who was behind another barrier not twenty yards away to move to his position. After providing some cover, the soldier, a young lad by the age of 18 with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes, came running over and hunkered down beside Derek Reese. Derek reached into the backpack which the boy had been carrying and pulled out the EMFP.

It was a strange device, no bigger then the size of a round frisbee, with two handle bars to carry with and a sticky back which helped for planting it on the side of buildings, the ground, or machines. Another one of Tech Coms little gadgets that Martin would always admire. It worked two ways: one, by detonation from afar by a little black radio device that, to activate, was clenched in the palm of ones hand; or two, by manual detonation, which could be activated by the press of a button held on the device.

"Just the one," Derek replied handing it to Martin.

"Right. Here is what we are going to do then. Give me some cover, and I'll go plant it on the tank. We blow it to shit, and then have your men move out. Leave me a squad of 8 to provide the cover. We can hold up in one of the buildings just up the ally," Martin motioned up the street.

Derek thought for a moment. In his mind, he hated the idea, but knew it would be the only way. "Do it," he finally said standing up and gunning down another three more machines before having to reload. He joined Martin back behind the barrier, and Martin reached up to open his com. "Kyle, I need you and Jash back to Derek's position pronto. We're pulling the plug on this mother fucker as soon as I get confirmation from John and Marcus that the job is done."

There was silence and a female voice came to reply. "This is Jash. We're on our way. Kyle's been shot. Cover us."

"Roger. Got you covered. Out." Martin checked his rifle then proceeded to pull a grenade from his belt, then looked at Derek. "Lets kick some metal ass." He tossed the grenade over the barrier. After the explosion, Martin stood, clipping the EMFP to his waist and began to fire moving forward up the line. He ducked behind a large cinder block chunk and peeked out just in time to see Jash and Kyle arrive.

Once they were safe, Martin emptied the rest of his clip into four more machines before heading back to Derek, where a bleeding Kyle could be found. Derek worked frantically to patch the wound while Jash covered them.

"Its just a flesh wound," Kyle said as Martin came around the barrier to join them. "I've had worse."

"Can you walk?"

Kyle nodded, and suddenly Martin's ear piece rang. "Talk to me," he said as he pressed the button on the piece.

"John is dead. We have the prisoners. Get out. Get out now!" Marcus voice could be heard faintly over the gunfire on the other side.

"..." Martin paused, thinking for a moment. Wait what?! "Fuck!" Martin screamed and slammed his fist into the barrier. It hurt, but he didn't care.

"What..?" Jash looked over at him, seeming to have a slight bit of concern in his reaction.

"I want you to stay with Derek and Kyle. You are to wait for the explosion then move. Derek will lead the way, just make sure you cover their ass. Got it?" Martin said, his mind now racing. How could Connor be dead? That's not possible.

Jash nodded, making no move to argue with him. Martin turned to go as Derek reached out and grabbed him, "Martin." He said looking up at him sympathetically. "Run like hell."

Martin made no move to comment only simply stated "Wait for the signal" before he took off from the barrier. Bullets flew over head and around him from both sides as he ran up the ally way, and he sure ran like hell.


Only a silver slither of moonlight

Can penetrate the blackened depths,

We must catch the beam and sail across,

Forever journeying west,

Away from the eastern sunrise,

Away from the light of day,

Away from the living world,

On and on alone the ever winding road

To oblivion's quarter,

The graveyard of lost souls.

Beyond the gates,

Beyond the tears,

Beyond the pain and suffering,

To the ecstasy of perfect peace,

The eternal bliss of nothingness,

To accept oblivion's offering.


Some say freedom is free, but today, as any other day, Martin would have disagreed with you. To Martin, his freedom had always been won by fighting. Whether that was with a gun in his hand, or his own two fists, he had earned his freedom. However, of all the situations he had been in, this was different. He had walked away from all of those, yet today Martin had a feeling he would not be walking away from this.

He wouldn't let that thought slow him down, however, as he raced up ally-ways and around street corners. He had strapped his rifle to his back, now only using his side arm - a trusty M9 that he had been given to by Marcus back in 2011 - and put a bullet into the skull of every machine that came in his path.

Some would say he was born to run, and today he surely proved it as he reached the tank with a couple feet in a matter of 2 minutes flat from where he had stood behind the barrier back with Derek, Kyle, and Jash previously. In Martin's mind, nothing would stop him from completing his task.

Bang! Then it hit him. There was no feeling at first, just the sound of the shot, which rung in his ears. Then he felt it. Sheering pain as the bullet ripped through his shoulder, tossing him to the ground.

On any other given day, he may have screamed out in pay, put today it only made him angerly. For John. For Lauren. For the Resistance. He crawled the last few inches getting within blast radius and unclipped the EMFP from his waist. The planted it up against the side of the tank, which still seemed to be unaware of his appearance, distracted by something else.

The T-800 that made the shot came around the side of the tank and watched as Martin finished planting the bomb to the tank. Martin now leaned against the tank, using it as a prop to hold his weight, and removed the detonator from his jacket pocket.

The machine walked over to Martin and picked him up by the throat, off the ground. Suspended in mid-air, Martin could feel his windpipe slowly closing on him as the machine proceeded to crush his throat.

"See you in hell," Martin choked out before he detonated the bomb. Suddenly, Martin had a new feeling about him. No longer the feeling of pain, but the feeling of peace which he had longed for such a long time.

He knew his time had come, and this would be his sacrifice. John had told him this would happen. Explained to him how he would die, but Martin never realized that it would become reality. He had worked his entire life to avoid this situation and it hadn't crossed his mind until now that...he could not have escaped this fate. John always said, "No fate but what you make." But this fate, this was the one he had chosen. The path he wish to took and now, as the flames and pressure from the EMFP shredded against him, throwing him to the street wall where he would die, he was surely happy with it.

He would save 48 lives that day, not counting his own men. Derek, Kyle, and Jash would proceed to escape up the road through the hole of chaos which he had just created, and back to base. Cameron would join them not long after, and there they would begin to plan their next move.

36 men, good men, including Martin and John, had died that day; but Skynet had come to the belief that one man could not change the fate of Humanity. Its belief was now that it had won and it wouldn't be long before the Humans would surrender.

Yet, someone, somewhere else, among the ruins of Los Angeles, had a different plan. A plan that would soon become Skynet's worst nightmare yet. The war was far from over, in the Resistances eyes. To them, the war had only just begun.


Author's End Note: I'm going to be completely honest with you, this chapter was a lot harder to write the second time then it was the first. First time around, I had made it vague and didn't really explain Martin's or John's death. Of course, the first time around, I had Martin kill John Connor, but after thinking about it I figured this would be a more "appropriate" way to approach this scenario.

Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed every story I have ever read about John Connor, especially the more recent ones I have started to read by an author named "bigbew" which, by the way, if you have never read any of the stories bigbew has written, I highly recommend going to check them out. That aside the point, I have always felt the need to be different with my writing. I don't like keeping to one set storyline that may have already been written. Instead, I like to take them and write my own twists into them, which is why I enjoy working on this story so much. I hate the long periods I have to go without writing of course because my current job prevents me from being able to sit down and actually work on this. I always have new ideas and concepts I wish to add in however, I figured I'd still be able to work on this, would do it as often as I can.

Its been a very long 2 year process, and I know...sad that I'm only on Chapter 3; but after the decision to rewrite the previous 24 chapter story that I had written, I feel this is well worth it. I have a lot more knowledge on writing, and a lot more lee-way then I did previously. That in mind, I want to thank you all for reading this chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it. Feel free to ask any questions you may have and I'll be more then happy to answer.

A special thanks, of course, to my Co-Author Jashykins for helping out with this. If you don't know who she is, check her out as well. In the mean time, its getting late here so I'm going to bug out. I hope you all stay tune, our dear friend Martin Bedell may still have many adventures yet to come ;)

Have a wonderful evening, happy holidays to all! And a very wonderful New Years as well. I'll see ya'll real soon. Signed, yours truly, Sverrir