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Explosions sounded in the background, Connor instantly cursed, falling from his supposed bunk. He flung himself out the door, scurrying through the halls, there was a hole in the wall he had noticed once on a walk. It was a tiny hole, crumbling concrete surrounded it. It was the only weak spot in the whole base, the first left after the hall he was in. He took the first right he came across, ignoring all the resistance fighters. He ran to the 'civilians' bunk, flinging himself to the ground the second he passed the door. Not bothering to check to sea if anyone else was in the room with him, just concerned about getting out allive, he crawled towards the so-called-beds, removing any identifying clothing and flinging it beneath a bed several beds down. shoving his body into an awkward angle, he propped himself against the back wall, letting his eyes travel to the other occupant of the room. A blonde boy, not any older than seven. The kid had tears streaming down his face, and John was instantly thankful he didn't have the cloudy-headed fear and sorrow of the boy.

Patiently, Connor waited as terminator after terminator entered the room, scouring it for any hidden resistance fighters, anyone who might pose a threat to their cause. They barely even noticed John who whimpered against the wall, the picked him up and displaced him, to further their search. It was by no means gentle but they weren't out to kill him, he certainly wasn't complaining. They were not intentionally grabbing so strong, it was just the way they were built. The little boy's body couldn't take it. John watched as the life was drained from his body, as the first terminator held him up, scanning the floorboards beneath his watched as the fragile body crumpled to the floor and barely even blinked a metaphorical eye, ofcourse physically he kept up appearances by chocking out gasps and squinting. All the while, in his head he was just praying that none of the terminators that had infiltrated their base were ones from the past. None of the few, that had been in the past before the time change. But why would they, how would they even have those commands programmed.

He wasn't sure how long he sat, faking total fear. On the inside he was terrified, he couldn't feel that though. He had to make himself into who he was meant to be, and in order to do that he had to survive. He kept his head tilted back, through each terminator. Between every terminantor he began counting, he would try to count until he didn't know the next number. After terminator number seven, he achieved this. Standing once he did, carefully walking out to the hall, feigning an injury all the way.

He walked toward the hall with the hole. Frowning upon the sight of it in the same place and condition it had been since the first time he had stumbled upon it, while wandering around after being told off by the head resistance leader in his camp, Riemhofer.

Briefly, Connor wondered who all had survived the attack. Briefly John Connor freaked, was Kyle alright. Counting back from ten, John calmed himself. If Kyle was hurt, John should be the first to know.

He had come up with a theory while dancing with Allison Young, after a celebration, the two had been so drunk, and had ended up doing something regrettable. John had worsened the situation by accidentally calling her Cameron. Any shot he had at normalcy and comfort around her people had been officially busted in the ass. He hated himself for the whole sitation but there was nothing he could do at that point. Allison being the little bitch she was had made sure no one of power in the camp ever went anywhere near him or trusted him. She had begged to know who Cameron was, probably to beat the girl Not that Allison would have been able to do that Cameron was, as once to reffered as, one tough cookie.

John stumbled around toward the entrance. He had to find another camp. He needed to find the next camp or, they wouldn't survive. John Connor needed to be around, or the world wouldn't be around much longer. Stumbling towards the ladder, John desperately tried to hoist himself up, towards actual ground. The terminators had sufficiently cut off his oxygen intake for long enough for him to struggle to think strait. He shoved the top up, forced himself to crawl on the the destroyed land. There had once been a time where the people had stayed underground and underwater as much as they could, not ever taking the chance to go above ground. Fear of radiation had been overwhelming but luckily John only knew about this through stories. People had been surprised at his supposed ignorance. It didn't matter anymore though, now he could take all the time in the world to just roll around in the dirt. Terminators usually stayed out of their way in this area. They were somewhere in Oregon, some sort of desert, it had never been a big city, there wasn't much there. There had once, in the 20th century been a whole shitload of mustard gas in the area, buried after World War 1 in these mounds type things. The theory Riemhofer had on why the Terminators stayed out of the area is because they still believed mustard gas filled the area, that people were still too afraid that the Russian bombs had set loose the gas into the air. Logan James had been a World War 1 Fanatic, he had spent 3 years in Oregon, trying to convince the feds to let him onto the property, had traveled all over the state trying to find one of their training facilities that were still intact.

John pushed himself to his feet, the nearest camp was in Southern California or there was one in Nevada he could also go to. Kyle Reese had been at his camp but he was from the California one. John would bet that was where he would go too.

"Help," a girl, probably a few years younger than John, muttered. She was leaned onto the crumbling remains of an old office building, there was a large rock crushing the girls ankle. John was about to turn back around, to keep going, the girl would just slow him down. But John looked beyond the dried out curly hair of Riley. "Oh my god," John instantly buckled to his knees, remembering seeing her frail, lifeless body just two years ago, or twenty-two years techniqually. He crawled over and pushed the rock off of her body as gently as he could, frowning at the sight of the blood dried over the wound. He watched as the girl who had inspired him rolled her head to face him, with a small smile adorning her features.

"Were you hit?" John asked.

"Uhm, no," she replied softly, allowing John to help her up, placing as little weight possible to her, on the injured leg. Even the regular 'citizens' were used to suppressing their pain, how pitiful was that? "I am so pathetic, I have been staying in this building for the past week or so, I tried to climb this wall to get to the next floor."

"I could have been a machine, why did you risk asking me for help?" John stood, about equal in height to the girl who could have modeling potential in a different world.

"I was dead either way, besides, a terminator would have seen me already. You didn't, I knew it was worth the risk."

John sighed at her answer, and offered his left side for support as they walked. He knew he had hit San Francisco by the sight of the shadow people or the crumbled buildidngs. It was going to get really dangerous from here onwards. The night time was drawing to an end, they would continue on then.

They were in LA the first time Riley complained.

"I'm hungry, I haven't eaten for the past week, I don't know about you but I am drawing on my limits. It was their third night together and they had taken refuge in an old dentistry building. Riley was reclined on the patient's chair.

"I'm not sure there is much to offer here except really, really old toothpaste."

Riley frowned, "What's toothpaste?" For the first time John realized that Riley hadn't even been born until after the bombs, she was what, 15 in 2029, the bombs had fallen in 2012. Ha wow, he had never really believed the world would end in 2012, who would have guessed.

John stood, watching as Riley practically flung herself into the kitchen a small smirk playing out on his face.

"I didn't peg such a skinny girl for such a heavy eater." John cursed himself for allowing someone to sneak up on him. He turned only to have his jaw drop as he took her in, but unlike all the It's Just Who I Am readers, he was just shocked to see Claire.

"You look surprised," she chuckled.

"You look exactly the same Claire."

"Yea it's pretty nice. Although there is a downside such as not being able to get into R movies or buy beer or for that matter, not being able to even get drunk. It does suck to be in a 15 year old mindset for my entire life but can I do, really?"

"How old are you really then?"

"Uhm, I will turn 40 next year, but I will always say things like totally and like. How about you, you don't have a power to blame so why do you look the exact same as you did twenty years ago?" He tone wasn't accusatory, bored maybe, but not accusatory, her face was confused though.

"Um, time travel, again."

"Ha, why do you do that?"

"Um, I had a weak moment, you know that terminator who was staying with us? She had jumped to the future, I had developed something of a crush on her after my girlfriend had been killed by my potential aunt, I was a bit of a wreck. So I went after her, desperate for her. I thought she was hot. I don't know, I ended up erasing my legacy. NOw I am trying to recreate it differently. You know just trying to survive. How about you, what happened after we split." He continued on with his story even as her face portrayed horror.

"That's terrible. How long ago was this, I mean I know it was twenty years ago for me but how long ago was it for you?"

"About three years."

"That's awful, are you okay?"

"Yea, I'm fine. It was awhile ago, I'm not weak."

"I didn't say you were," she rolled her head back, her eyes closed. "You know what nevermind."

"You never told me about what happened to you these past twenty years."

"Nothing much, I have been bumping around resistance camps. I was in on the resistance for awhile in the beginning but after I got out of too many impossible situations that they attacked me as a terminator, I barely got out and decided to work on my own for awhile that's basically it, I have been trying to stay underground."

"Oh, um that's actually really cool."

"Yea I thought so too for awhile, how do you handle all this pressure of wanting to save people, no that's not right, of needing to save people. I have been trying to do this for the past 14 years and it just really gets to me. I went through a phase of trying to kill myself every time I let someone die. I felt all the pressure of needing to save everyone. I thought of you a lot. My situation just made me think of how you must have felt being raised into this world." Claire said, it seemed to the passer byers as seductive, but John just didn't see it.

"Yea, you notice I rebelled a lot." He said, "I never really knew how to handle it either."

"Yea, speaing of, how did things go with your mom? Were ther fireworks?" She was full on grinning.

"Yea, you so did not want to see that. I completely expected to die. Cameron was there and she was going over the flaws in my plan. Then when they found out I was in jail Mom like clotted my ears or something, you know she grabbed them and dragged me to her car completely made like we were going to leave, we probably were. Cameron talked her out of all the flaws in that plan though. It was terrible, I repeatedly told my mom Fuck you. It was a very long grounding." John told her, grimacing at the recollection of the annoying portion in his life.

"I'm sorry, it was all my fault, they arrested you because I accidently led them to you and then you were helping me find my way back." Claire said, her brown eyes completely apologetic.

"It's okay, it was a long time ago." John almost thought it was funny how she was apologizing for getting him grounded two decades ago.

"So that girl, I recognize her, did she jump through time with you?"

"No actually, she was from the future, and this is her present self, she is the girlfriend who died."

"Oh my god, now I feel bad, I just cannot stay on a happy topic with you." Claire brown eyes still holding the apologetic gaze.

"Well it's not like we have any movies we can talk about anymore."

"Did we ever, all I have ever seen is chick flicks, and YOu lived with an tomboy mom and terminator, unless you were hiding something from me I doubt we ever had a common movie we had seen." He smirked and nodded his head as if to say true. "What about your thinking on gay marriage."

"Um, whatever floats your boat I guess, are you...?"

"No, I'm just thinking because when I first met you I thought you were gay then when I met you again, you just didn't seem that way anymore. Maybe you were going through a confused phase."

"I wish I could remember what I was thinking." John truly tried not to think of anything that might lead him to thinking of those lost years.

"Hmm, well, maybe I will see you around."

"Oh, yea, what are you doing here anyways. If you have been trying to stay underground, why go straight to the people who you have been avoiding."

"Yea um, I was picked up after having a pole go straight through my arm a few years ago, I accidently ended up donating som body organs while talking gibberish because of some gas they released into the air. Ever since then I will occasionally come down to donate like a heart or blood or something." She paused a moment, "Um, I have a friend in there, knows what I can do, contacted me when som guy named Reese or something needed a new heart. Well I am going to head out now, I will see you later or something." She said, picking up a grey duffle bag, some sort of black cloth hanging from the only partially zipped opening. Leaving John in a state of shock.

"What was Reese's first name?"

"Um, Kale or something with a K? Why?"

"Kyle?"

"Yea, if you know him he is going to be fine, it worked. He is in recovery now, I am sure you can see him there."

"Thanks, um, bye again." Claire smiled, nodded and walked out the door. John noticed she wasn't dressed the same as most the people of the time, she was wearing some sort of a red skirt with a white top. He didn't know it but it was her first cheerleading uniform, it had been in the storage she was sharing with Peter in Mexico. They kept their favorite things they would hate to lose. The names they used to to register for it were Klair Lauper and Dylan Sullivan. Claire had thought Klair looked like a badass name, she really wanted to obtain the whole look and died her hair redbrown. She had kissed her uncle in that storage shed, then promptly thrown up. She had kept her crush on her uncle until seeing him die, killed after attacking a terminator, he provoked it and it killed him. Claire had tried to get him to absorb his power, had put her blood in his system but all his brain was gone, there was nothing to power the blood to save him. Afterwards she had gone back down to the shed and found all her old stuff and became who she was before. She tried to become the good little soldier that everyone wanted her to be. He didn't know she was going to try to kill herself over and over because the friend who had called her had been Simon Petrelli, the brother who had rejected her. Simon had always treated her like scum.