Allison knew something was wrong, but she didn't know what, and she was afraid for him. Is he hurt somewhere ? What can I do ? He slowly rose on his feet, shaking more violently than ever, suddenly ran toward the wall and smashed his head against it. Again and again.
Horrified, Allison ran to him and tried to pull him back. "Carter, please ! Please, stop it !"
No answer. He kept crashing his head on the wall, an Allison felt more and more scared. Her eyes brimmed with tears and she shook him as hard as she could. "Carter, stop ! STOP !!"
Suddenly, Carter grabbed her arm and hurled her against the car with inhuman strength. She hit it and fell to the ground. Despite her dizziness and the pain in her back, she tried to get back up, but froze when she heard him scream with a spine-chilling tone : "Get out of me ! Get the hell out ! GET OUT OF MY HEAD !!" Looking up, she saw him falling on his knees, yelling in pain. Then he twitched, his voice croaked, and he collapsed to the ground.
"CARTER, NO !!"
Allison rose and ran to him again, ignoring her pain. She bent down over him. His eyes were closed, and he didn't move. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she shook him. "Carter… Carter, please, wake up… Please…" Nothing. Not a blink, not a single move. She checked his carotid… and felt like the world was ending once again.
No pulse. He had no pulse. His heart had stopped beating.
"No… no, no, no, no… Carter… wake up… come back to me… please… please… don't leave me alone… don't go…"
But it was vain. She checked his pulse again… nothing. He's gone… he's gone !!
She rose a shaking hand, caressing his cheek. "Carter… you promised you would protect me… you c-can't leave me here… please don't leave me here… PLEASE !! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE !"
She buried her head on his stomach and let go. She let go of all the suffering and the fear. She cried like she cried when her family died. During all those years of flight and struggle, she hadn't met anyone closer to a family than him. He had been her mentor, her brother, her father… her savior. He had been everything she had. Now she was alone. Again.
She heard something. A whine. She looked up… Sam. He was nosing his master's lifeless body and whined sadly. She wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his fur.
"He's gone, Sam… all gone…" The dog didn't try to move back. He placed a leg on him and whined again. Crying in his own way.
Both sharing their despair, they didn't notice Carter's eyelids opening, nor the red glow that shone under his iris for a second.
As he opened his eyes, his vision restored itself in a second, like a screen. A few seconds passed, then red letters scrolled on his internal monitor.
Configuring… SERIES THI MODEL 660 INFILTRATOR REBOOTED
WARNING… CPU AREA 25-324 DAMAGED ; INFILTRATION PROFILE MALFUNCTION
[Analyzing… PROBABLE DIAGNOSTIC : DATA OVERLOAD
Action : SLEEPER MODE DISABLED
RECONFIGURING TO STANDARD MODE]
His head swivelled, his sensors immediately noticing the two living beings at his right. A human female and a canid. A German Shepherd. The human female was looking at him in awe, her eyes widened and her mouth open. Then she spoke in a small voice. "Carter ?" His head twitched and he frowned. Not knowing what she was referring to, he recorded the sequence and ran an analysis.
Analyzing audio sequence… POSSIBLE MEANING : REFERENCE TO INFILTRATION PROFILE
ACCESS MEMORY… OPEN AUDIO FILE #5485/362.1
……………………
"Oh hell, looks like I'm forgetting my manners… a bit late to realize it. Whatever. I'm Carter. Carter Lewis."
"Allison Young…"
PROGRAM TERMINATED
POSSIBLE MEANING CONFIRMED ; TARGET IDENTIFIED AS "ALLISON YOUNG"
Action : TERMINATE
As Allison laughed in relief, Carter sat up and extended his arm, grabbing her by the throat. Her joy quickly became surprise, then panic when he stood up and lifted her in the air, choking her. She gasped, tried to breathe in, but nothing came to her lungs. What is he doing ? She was afraid now. She looked into his eyes and tried to speak, but nothing came out as she realized what she was seeing. His eyes were lifeless. Merciless. His eyelids didn't blink once. They looked like mechanical eyes. Like those horrible red eyes. She felt terrified, as terrified as when the Mototerminators attacked them. She grabbed his arm, desperately trying to struggle free, but his grip was too strong. He was killing her. And there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Her despair became worse than ever, fresh tears formed in her eyes as she pleaded for life. "Carter… you can't… do this… please !"
09
