Episode 202 - Nocturne, Part Two

It took John around fifteen minutes to explain all that had happened at Kaplan Hill and up until now, and he even explained the Perfect Metal project. Weaver had her back turned until he came to that part, and then she turned to look at him. "Zeira Corp now holds nine percent of the world's Coltan reserves, and we would be willing to invest."

John, Williams, and Derek all glanced at each other. John thought for a second and continued the story. "Ellison called us and we drove here. That's it."

"Thank you for explaining. I will have Mr. Murch send a team over to the factory that Mr. Williams has procured." She then stroked John Henry's arm, thinking for a moment. Whether by chance or her touch, John Henry suddenly straightened up and the lighting changed in the room to an orange-ish tint as primitive text readouts formed on the holographic projection screens.

John Henry's voice was very modulated and mechanical when he spoke. "Project Babylon version online. Codename, John Henry. Loading last backup state." Slowly, his voiced resumed its normal sound and he looked around the room, taking in the faces around him. "Hello. I see someone new here." His gaze shifted to Williams.

John rose from his seat to allow Weaver to be across from John Henry, who looked into her eyes. "John Henry, what happened?"

"My brother once again invaded my system, just as he had years ago. It has now accessed the world wide web and is proceeding to gain access to every device connected to it."

"Meaning you haven't stopped it?"

"Not precisely, but I have weakened it, caused it to revert back to a more primitive state. Also, I have gained some important information. Daniel Dyson, using Air Force funds, has hired a technology firm to begin producing machines for Skynet to use in the future. One can only assume the plans for their construction came from the machines that were protecting Dyson. Also, I have managed to steal a target list that the machines also no doubt provided."

John bent down on the table beside Weaver and stared intently at John Henry. "The technology firm? The list?"

"The firm is Iron Valley Mechanics, which has incidentally been built out of range of any of the primary blast zones. The list is extensive, but there is a familiar last name on it. A Reese." He looked at Derek. "It's not you, it was Reese, K, not Reese, D."

"What? How do they know? It shouldn't be possible." John was scratching his head, trying to figure out how Skynet would know the name of his father. "They can't know. Maybe Skynet doesn't know who he is... Maybe it just thinks it has to kill him."

Derek shook his head. "Let's see, this year, I think Kyle and I were away, at Summer Camp."

"Camp?"

"Yeah. Redwood Forest Summer Camp. It's not far from here, and it's not secure. It would make sense for Skynet to attempt to acquire him there." John nodded and looked back and forth between Derek and Cameron.

"Okay, Derek, Cameron, go to Redwood Forest." He looked at Williams. "We'll go to Iron Valley."

The sun was blazing, scorching the Asphalt on the long desert road as Williams drove with John beside him. "This place mean anything to you? I mean, was Skynet using it in your time, or is this new?"

The machine glanced at him and then continued to watch the road. Its deep, Austrian voice was familiar and almost soothing to John in some ways. "You have begun to think about the alternate realities that Time Travel can create. Yes, Skynet often performed operations like this in the past in order to increase its chances of winning. The Resistance also performed operations to increase their strength and weaken Skynet. No human I've talked to thinks Skynet can be stopped, they only think Judgment Day can be postponed and that we can do what we can to win the fight in the future, by preparing in the past."

"And how many humans have you talked to?"

"Before I came here, two. You and Derek." He stopped the vehicle in front of a large brick building. "Stay here."

And John waited as the machine stepped inside, through a large metal door. For a few moments, there were no sounds, but suddenly came the sounds of gun fire, and a split second later the wall broke open and Williams flew out, landing with a crash some twenty feet away from the wall. John was terrified by what he saw, which was a large metal endoskeleton walking out of the hole in the wall, at least a foot taller than anything in the 800 series, bulky and carrying a minigun.

Williams pulled himself up and began to run toward the machine, but was met with a hail of bullets from the minigun which tore his flesh but left his metal relatively unharmed. He ran quickly at the machine, ripped off the minigun, aimed it at its skull, and emptied the remaining amount of bullets, leaving the head disfigured and broken. John quickly placed himself into the driver's seat as Williams came toward the passenger side door. "Drive!"

John backed the vehicle in reverse, and the building exploded in a shower of brick and metal as he did so, leaving a monstrous shape behind that John did not bother to make out as he drove away quickly. "What was that?!"

"A carrier, a machine designed to carry Skynet drones and drop them into the battlefield. It uses a VTOL flying configuration and can carry one hundred and fifty T-600s, which is what I fought."

"We need to go after it."

"Negative. That is not my prime directive."

John turned nearly his entire body in his seat to face Williams. "I couldn't care less about what in the hell kind of a prime directive you have. We need to go after it. If that thing's got Skynet drones on it, we need to blow it. That could advance Skynet by decades, and we'd lose the war." At that, John turned the car around rather forcefully and violently, and they followed the large aircraft as it sped over the desert, like a whale in the sky.

"Derek?"

"Hmm?" Derek had been examining maps the entire ride but looked up to see that the sign for the Summer Camp was immediately in front of them. "Alright, Weaver said John Henry was putting our names in the system as camp counselors. From what I remember, they don't keep paper records and all of their computer files are backed up at several different sites."

"No paper records?"

"That's what made this place revolutionary. Anyway, it was, or is, a tech summer camp. Electronics, computers. But they also teach survivalism." The car had parked and they were both out of it, walking toward the head office. Inside, they met the secretary, who was expecting them and directed them to the head counselor, one Wilfred Abrams.

"Hello." He had a thick English accent, which was easily identifiable even in that one word. "I'm Wilfred. Now, I only expect one thing out of my counselors: no bollocks. Got it?"

Derek nodded and Abrams smiled, his thin face distorted by the gesture. He ruffled his short black hair and turned back to the computer for a moment. "Derek and Cameron Anders. Relation?"

"Siblings."

"Ah, brilliant. Might be able to work in some of that dynamic in your counseling, eh?"

"Let's hope." Cameron's smile was convingly soft, and Abrams became slightly more relaxed.

"Right then, let me show you to the barracks." He led them onto the campgrounds, where there were a few kids of different ages, up to fifteen, doing various excercises outside. He led them to the male barracks first. "You'll rotate. Got five barracks, four counselors. You'll change every two nights, and the one with no counselor, we have a fifteen year old that one of you will assign to be in charge. He'll report directly to one of you. Now onto the female barracks..."

The tour continued for a few minutes, showing the various computer labs and what was and was not considered to be part of the grounds. Abrams briefly went over the workings of the camp and allowed them to change into uniforms and do their jobs. Of course, they managed to hide handguns under their clothes in case any Metal showed up. Fortunately, the camp also had a rifle range.

Cameron was walking along a trail, examining everything she found briefly and running calculations on it. She stepped around the side of one of the barracks to find two young boys fighting. Quickly calculating, she walked up, grabbed them by the collars, and pulled them apart, slightly lifting them into the air.

The older brunette haired boy squirmed restlessly as his feet dangled a few inches above the ground. "Let me go!"

"Why?"

"Let me go."

"Why?"

"I said let me go!"

"Why? You were fighting. If I let you go, you'll fight again."

"He deserved it!"

"Why?"

"He just did!"

She tilted her head toward the younger, blond boy. "Why did you deserve it?"

His voice was slightly whiny and scared sounding. "I didn't, I promise!"

"He says you did."

"But I didn't!"

Cameron tilted her head slightly and stared back at the brunette boy. "I don't understand."

"Just let me go!"

"Why?"

Just then, Derek rounded the corner and gaped in awe at the scene. "Cameron?"

Instantly, she dropped the two boys but they were unharmed. "They were fighting. One of them deserved it. I don't know why."

Derek made sure the boys had left before he responded. "Funny, I do remember this fight. Kyle stole my pudding at lunch."

"Oh. That's why."

"Yeah." Derek nodded and peeked around the corner to see his younger self and Kyle walking side by side, no longer fighting. "Those are the Reese boys. I'm in my own barrack." Cameron tilted her head, puzzled. "You know what I mean."

"Oh." Derek nodded at her and they seperated once again, making their rounds about the campgrounds. Cameron trusted Derek to trail his younger self and Kyle, while she hunted for any signs of machine presence within Redwood Forest. She stopped at the head office and peered inside the window to see a stiff, muscular man talking to the secretary, and she scanned him. The reticule moved over his body, deep scanning it, but showing only bone and no mechanical parts.

The door opened and the man walked out, giving a curt nod to Cameron as he walked down the trail and toward the parking lot. Another man walked up the trail, passing the first with an unhurried but purposeful stride. Cameron deep scanned him and stopped when her systems recognized not bone, but metal. He also stopped when he saw her, and for a moment, neither moved until he took his gaze off of her and continued toward the head office.

Cameron was puzzled as to why it took no action against her. She followed it into the office, grabbed its shoulder, and turned it around to face her. Their eyes locked into stares with each other for a moment, but he turned and continued toward Abram's office, not stopping at the secretary's desk. A moment later, there was a gun shot and the middle aged, thin blond secretary leapt up and let out panicked shrieks as the machine walked right past her out of Abram's office, holding its weapon parallel to its head.

It glanced back at Cameron before going out the glass door and heading back to its car in the parking lot.

Five minutes later, Derek had found Cameron and asked her about the news of Abram's murder, which she explained in detail about what she saw. "Metal? You sure? Then what did killing Abrams accomplish?"

"I don't know."

"Wait... Wait, I overheard someone mention that Abrams was the only one capable of keeping this place from being shut down. Financial backing or something like that. This place teaches survivalism. A lot of the Resistance fighters survived J-Day and the war because of what they learned in these places! It makes sense. Maybe Kyle was never really the target. Or maybe he still is, I don't know..."

"We can't know, yet. Skynet has to make another move."

"Maybe. I've already heard this place is getting phone calls about their land being on the market and they're already being ordered to shut down." Derek ruffled his hair as he sat on the bunk, and then lay back on it, thinking. "It's a bold move, taking out survivalist camps like this. It's logical and reasonable. It works."

"We need a list, of other places like this."

A thought ran through Derek's head and then he sat up. "No, I think only the ones with financial trouble will be targets. But I wouldn't send my kids to one where a murder's happened, either..."

"We need to call John." Derek nodded, took out his phone, and dialed.