John and Cameron sprinted through the tunnels towards the basement and all thoughts of tiredness had been abandoned in the former as he pushed himself on, knowing seconds were going to count. He entered the basement level of the tower, bolted through the corridor and into the hole in the wall that led to the TDE chamber.
Derek saw John burst into the room and recognised the look of abject fear on his face. "What is it?" he asked, suddenly feeling very afraid himself.
"Metal!" John blurted out. "They found us."
"Two armoured troop carriers – thirty-to-forty endoskeletons," Cameron added.
"Fuck!" Torrance snapped and looked up at the ceiling. "Give us a goddamn fucking break!" he shouted out to any deities that might be listening, and wondering what the hell they'd done to piss them off.
"Stand to!" Derek snapped at the others. They all instantly grabbed their weapons, vests and belts. Savannah clipped on her webbing belt and checked her weapons and ammo. She had plenty of ammunition left for the HK417 but only five grenades left for the M32. Shit.
"What's the plan?" she asked John. Though she wasn't sure what plan they could exactly use against thirty endos; they were pretty much fucked.
John turned to Weaver, still monitoring her laptop. "How long until it's ready to go?"
"Thirty-one minutes," she answered.
"Machines will take us all out in less than five," Cooper muttered.
"They're looking for a way in," Cameron told him. "It will take them time to find manhole covers.
"Then we wait by the nearest manholes and blow them away as they drop through one by one," Allison growled. "They can only get through one at a time: we smash the metals into junk as they do."
Weaver knew the layout of Zeiracorp better than anyone and also knew Skynet's tactics well. "That's a bad idea," she stared at Allison as if she were a teacher addressing a particularly stupid child, earning a scowl from Cameron's human twin.
"They have HKs," Cameron added. "They'll blast a wider opening."
"The best idea," Weaver said, "is to lure them through the tower above."
She had a point, John thought: the remains of the building above them would be masses of rubble and shattered walls and debris that would provide them with cover and obstacles to throw in front of the machines. "We'd better make sure the staircase is still intact," he added. If not then that plan would go straight out the window. A more urgent thought came to mind and he pulled out the very last block of Semtex they had, went over to the exposed electromagnetic tower and stuck it onto the far side, out of sight from anyone who didn't know what to look for, along with the remote control.
Allison looked at him strangely, wondering what the hell he was doing attaching explosives to the TDE.
"We can't let Skynet get its hands on this," he explained. "Once we're all through we've gotta make sure the TDE is destroyed. This one will go off ten seconds after the button's pressed."
"Makes sense," she shrugged.
Derek led everyone out the room towards the staircase leading to the surface but Weaver reached out and grabbed John. "We need to talk," she told him.
"I'll catch up," John said to Derek. He turned around to face Weaver and Cameron remained by his side. "What is it?" he asked.
"There's only time for one transition," she told him.
"And..." John stared at her, not getting her point.
"There's limited space in the sphere," Cameron replied, understanding what Weaver meant. "We won't all fit in."
"Wait a second," John said accusingly to Cameron, his eyes widening in shock as he took in what she was saying. They'd have to leave people behind. "You knew about this?"
"I didn't expect Skynet to find us this quickly," she replied. She'd genuinely believed they would have had time to send several bubbles back, given all the damage she'd done to Serrano Point's power distribution systems and effectively rendering the AI blind in the region. "I'm sorry," she added.
John nodded sullenly. He believed her, accepted it wasn't her fault. "How am I supposed to tell them all?" he asked.
"Don't," Weaver replied simply. She saw John opening his mouth to protest but she cut him off before he could say a word. "The three of us have to go back; the rest won't accept it: they'll fight over who gets to go. The machines will break through before the TDE's ready.
John froze for a moment, stricken with indecision. He couldn't believe the cold callousness of what Weaver was suggesting. It was just so completely, sickeningly wrong, but at the same time he could see she was right as well: they had to do whatever it took to hold the machines off or none of them would go back. So many people had already died because they'd followed him and now more would have to be abandoned after risking their lives for him; it made him sick to his stomach and he didn't know if he'd ever be able to forgive himself.
He turned away from Weaver, disgusted with her as well as himself, and left the TDE room to follow after the others. Cameron remained by his side the entire time as he quickly jogged down the corridor, passing several more empty doorways and turning the corner to see the staircase forty feet down the passage. They ran up it and emerged through the wide doorway at the top into the ground floor.
The pristine, spotless and immaculate corridors he'd seen when he'd last been here were gone, replaced by a labyrinth of rust and ruin. It looked like half the tower had caved in on itself and sent masses of steel, glass and concrete plummeting down into the building. Everywhere he looked steel girders and piles of concrete create scores of obstacles and dozens of places to hide, and that was just in the corridor; the lobby would be even more of a mess. Perfect, he thought. It was the exact kind of rubble he imagined his father, uncle, and his future self used to hide in, attack, and then melt away into the iron and concrete jungle before any surviving machines could counterattack.
"Derek!" he called out, not seeing him or anyone else. "Savannah!"
Derek appeared from behind a large concrete right-angle with steel poles protruding that had probably once made up the corner of the building. "What's the verdict?" Derek asked John. Allison, Savannah and the others filtered in from various other sections, seeming to appear from nowhere and reinforcing John's decision to use the place.
"This is where we make our stand," he told them. He turned to Cameron, "time?"
"Twenty-eight minutes," she told him. She was constantly keeping track of how much longer they had left before the TDE was ready. To be safe she'd deducted thirty seconds off the deadline.
"Hell of a long time," Allison said.
"We can hold them here," John replied. "Set up defensive positions from the building's entrance and all the way in. We draw them in and give them something inviting – us. Hold as long as we can in each spot and then move to the next." He looked at them all and saw nervousness on every face, even Savannah's, though she was doing her best to hide it well.
"Timing's gonna be critical," he added. "Don't fall back too late, or too early: we need to keep them interested so they don't try to find another way in, but don't wait too long or you'll be overrun."
"Target their plasma rifles," Cameron told them. "Stop them shooting back and they'll have to kill you with their hands; you'll have more time to fall back."
Savannah turned towards the group and pulled up her bandolier of grenades. She picked a few of the explosive orbs and handed them around to everyone; one per person.
Cameron had her own concerns; she only had twenty-four shots left in her plasma rifle; she needed to acquire one from any endos they eliminated.
"So that's it," John said. "Lure them through here, hold them as long as we can and fall back in stages to the TDE: any questions?"
"Just the one," Cooper piped up. "How do we make them come through here and not somewhere else?"
John led Cameron down the stairs and into the basement corridor. Everyone else but Weaver was up top, and she was in the TDE room making last minute alterations and monitoring any changes to the TDE, looking out for any problems that may arise. It was just them, and that's exactly how he wanted it.
Cameron looked at him quizzically. She didn't know what he was doing, moments before they were about to engage the machines. "We should be preparing," she told him. "We don't have long."
"This won't take long," John said as he led her around the corner and stopped there. He reached for her hand and held it gently in his, unconsciously running his thumb along her knuckles. He closed the distance between them, leaving only inches between their bodies as he looked squarely at her, locking their gazes together. "There's a good chance none of us will make it; you know that, right?"
Cameron saw something in his eyes she couldn't identify. He was nervous, which was natural, she thought, given what they were about to do. But there was something else; his expression was softer, a slight smile on his lips even as he admitted they had a low probability of survival. "I know," she said. She knew the exact probability but decided it was best not to mention it and to let him say what he wanted to.
"I've been thinking about Allison and Kyle; how she said to him life's too short: she was right." He took a nervous breath before continuing. "I'm sorry, Cameron: I'm sorry I treated you the way I did after my birthday. I shouldn't have: it was wrong and you deserved better." Jesus Christ, he thought to himself: that was an understatement. She'd saved his life day in and day out, always looking out for him, and he'd repaid her with complete hostility and running off with Riley.
Cameron curled her lips upwards in a slight smile. She recalled how he'd behaved towards her and she'd been confused by it. She didn't like it when she couldn't guarantee his safety, and she was uncomfortable not being around him. She realised it meant a lot to her that he said it, and she could tell from his facial expression and his vital signs that he meant what he was saying.
"I'm sorry too," she squeezed his hand gently, finding pleasure in the tactile contact between them. "For trying to kill you."
"To be fair," John said with a slight grin, "I was an annoying little shit back then; I probably had it coming." Fuck it, he thought. Allison was right: life is too short. He leaned his head down, closed his eyes and pressed his lips gently against hers, surprised at how soft and warm they were as his head started to spin. Cameron didn't move for a moment, she hesitated, unsure how to respond. She smiled against his lips, strangely enjoying the sensation and the intimacy. She didn't know why she liked it but she did. She kept her eyes open as she parted her lips and kissed him back, and decided after they returned to the present they would have to explore this in more detail.
John reluctantly pulled away and they stared at each other for a long moment, both knowing that this was unfamiliar ground they were treading on and unsure of the next move.
"That was nice," Cameron said, a slight smile still parting her lips. John simply nodded, still holding her hand. He didn't know what would happen between them now but he was adamant they'd both survive to find out.
What the hell am I doing out here? Savannah stepped slowly and quietly forward through the piles of rubble and collapsed ceiling as she made her way out through Zeiracorp's front entrance, the hairs stood out on the back of her neck and a chill ran down her spine. She crept forward, inching along and making sure she stepped as gently as possible, taking great care not to accidentally kick anything loose or tread on anything that might crunch under her boots.
She stepped out into the dark night air and heard the whirring of HK engines to the south, behind the building. She saw a few endos marching out away from the building, searching for a way in. The main entrance had caved in and been reduced to a space so small only a single person could barely squeeze through; meaning it would bottleneck the machines' entry but also force her to move like shit off a shovel before she got tagged by plasma fire. She stepped out away from the building and tried to push down the sheer fear that came naturally from being out in the open in the middle of LA, surrounded by three dozen endos searching for them. For the hundredth time she checked all her weapons were in place: HK417, M32, both pistols, both knives, and the three grenades on her bandolier. She still felt too lightly armed.
She looked around and counted the endos she could see: three were in her immediate sight but she knew once they'd spotted her the rest would converge. She raised the rifle above her head, took in a deep breath - pumping herself up for what could be a very short fight if things went wrong - and roared out at the top of her voice; a deep, animalistic scream of rage and aggression, using the anger and pain at losing Ellison to fuel her as she bellowed out a war cry as loud as she could, calling out a challenge to the metal to come and get her. She flicked her rifle to automatic and fired off a sustained burst into the air.
The endos immediately snapped their heads towards her in unison. The nearest unit glared at her with its gleaming, grinning skull and soulless, malevolent red glowing eyes that locked with hers. Time slowed down to a standstill as human and machine faced off against one another and Savannah found herself mesmerised, unable to tear her eyes away from its eyes; all she could do was stare back.
"Run!"
Cameron's voice snapped her back to reality and she bolted for the main entrance as fast as she could, weaving and jack-knifing to dodge the plasma shots that whipped above her head, so close she could feel the intense heat emanating from them. Her heart went berserk inside her chest as adrenaline coursed through her veins and pushed her through the exhaustion of the last forty-eight hours, renewing her strength.
She dived through the hole, just big enough to accommodate her slender form, and rolled on the ground beyond the entrance. She got back to her feet and ran to a pile of steel girders, office desks, and collapsed ceiling, ducking down behind it and finding herself next to John. "Nice work," he said as Savannah pulled out her magazine and slotted in a fresh one. The old one had been half full but she didn't want to run out of ammo at a crucial moment; if there was a lull in the fighting – and she wasn't expecting one – she'd worry about redistributing her ammunition, and not until then.
"They took the bait," she told him.
"Don't fire until I do," he replied. He made out the form of an endo approaching the hole and watched as it got closer. A metal fist smashed through the concrete and tore a large chunk of it away, widening the gap. It ploughed its foot through more as hard as it could and shattered the concrete, creating a man-sized hole through which it stepped and entered the building.
Cameron emerged from its side and tore the plasma rifle from its grip, then kicked it down onto its backside and stepped away.
"NOW!" John shouted as he pulled the trigger. Immediately Savannah's fire joined his as they poured rapid series of single shots at the machine. 7.62s smacked into the machine and caused it to twitch with each impact as Cameron turned the plasma rifle on it and shot three times, aiming for the chip port and blowing it apart. The machine dropped to the ground but already more approached the entrance: the plan was working. "Cameron, get back," he told her. She complied and moved beside him and Savannah.
"Feel better?" he asked Cameron. She'd been adamant she needed either another plasma rifle or a full magazine, and now she'd got it. That had been her insistence and he had to admit that with it their chances of actually making it through this went up a notch or two.
"Yes," Cameron replied as she held a plasma rifle in each hand. She couldn't tell exactly but she estimated she had at least forty-five shots in the new one. "Fall back," she told Savannah. The redhead nodded and reluctantly left them to retreat to another position further back. She moved to the side of the main lobby, along with Myers, to cut off the machines if they tried to flank them.
"You ready?" John called back to the smashed security desk behind him, looking like half a hexagon in shape. Support beams that had held up the floor above had snapped and collapsed down on it, crushing the middle, but the sides of the desk still remained.
"Ready," Derek nodded. He crouched behind the desk with Cooper at his side. As I'll ever be. He wasn't afraid to admit he was scared; he wasn't shaking or anything but deep down he was terrified; they were inviting the machines to come in and try to slaughter them. Thirty endos against nine of them – eight, he corrected himself; the liquid metal bitch wasn't even bothering to help them; it just pottered around downstairs with its damn gadgets.
"Don't fire until we fall back," John instructed Derek. He didn't want the machines to know how many of them there were, and everything depended on proper firing and manoeuvring to keep the machines bottled up top as long as possible.
Another endo reached the entrance and started to step through; behind it were more machines waiting to follow after it. "Try and bottleneck them here," John said quietly to Cameron. If they could force them to keep going one at a time they might last a little bit longer.
"Twenty-three minutes," Cameron told him. If it reached one minute and they were still fighting she determined she'd drag John down the stairs as fast as she could and throw him into the TDE.
John flicked his rifle to automatic as the first machine entered and stepped over the downed unit. "Firing!" John loosed several bursts at the machine and rattled its head like a pinball as the endo raised its own rifle and fired. Cameron fired a split second before it and her shot struck its arm and forced the incoming plasma bolt high, missing John by inches. She fired three more times and hit it in the face, smashing the armoured skull to pieces and revealing the delicate solid circuitry beneath. The machine still stood, however, and raised its weapon even though it had no eyes to see. John had already rolled to his right and fired another burst into its exposed inner workings, shattering its cybernetic brain and felling it.
More units outside paused in their advance, instead of approaching they held their ground, and seconds later they turned and started to march away.
"What's going on?" Derek asked from the desk behind them. They couldn't have just won the first round, could they?
"Get down!" Cameron shouted at all of them, forcing John down to the ground and shielding his body with hers as the entrance exploded in brilliant white flashes, vaporising the wall it struck and flinging fragments all over, erupting a cloud of smoke and red hot, melting segments of wall.
"What the fuck was that?" Cooper shouted.
Cameron didn't need to see it to know the answer; she'd already said it before. "HK: it made a bigger entrance."
John, Derek and Cooper all saw that Cameron was right; the HK's shots had blown the entrance wide open and he could see the machines all stood at a safe distance. Now they started to advance again towards them. "Let 'em just get inside," he said to Derek and Cooper as well as Cameron, as he switched his battle rifle for the AA12.
The machines moved forward and fired their own weapons as they inexorably advanced, sending a tidal wave of plasma shooting through the lobby and obliterating everything they hit. Worse, John saw, it was keeping their heads down and stopping them from slowing it. "Grenades," he called out to them.
Derek and Cooper both pulled the pins on their frags – courtesy of Savannah – and flung them in a high arc over the desk, sending the two spheres soaring towards the tin cans. Both exploded at once and the force threw back the machines nearest the entrance.
"NOW!" John roared as he pushed himself upright and unleashed a tremendous volley of explosive FRAG-12s at the endos still standing. Derek and Cooper joined in the fray and desperately kept firing burst after burst of 5.56 and 7.62 at the machines, peppering them and causing sparks when the rounds struck, but failing to penetrate. Cameron's plasma rifle, however, succeeded. She held out both weapons and fired at the same time, sending a stream of blue-white bolts into more machines and smashing the armoured chassis of one endo to pieces. John fired a dozen FRAG-12s at another endo and the armour piercing explosive shells chewed through its armour and punched through to the power cell. The machine raised its rifle even as the shells smashed into its power source, and pulled the trigger.
A single plasma bolt flew out and struck Cooper square in the face, sending him flying backwards to the ground. "Man down!" Derek screamed out and instinctively ducked back down and turned to check on him. There was a smoking hole where Cooper's face used to be and the rest of his head was little more than a blackened gourd with singed hair sticking out.
Despite their devastating barrage more machines had gotten through and started to spread out in the lobby. They unleashed their own waves of fire that forced the defenders to keep down as the plasma fire cut down everything it touched.
"Fall back!" Cameron told John and Derek as another incoming volley of plasma flew inches over their heads, so much it was like a blanket of glowing superheated gas above them. Not even a fly would have managed to escape that amount of fire. John nodded at her and quickly crawled on all fours back from his position, past the security desk where Derek was also retreating, and behind the large corner section of concrete where John had told them his plan only a few minutes ago.
They passed Allison and Torrance, crouched behind another pile of rubble. "That didn't go well," Torrance commented.
"We took down maybe three or four endos," John blurted out as he got up to his feet and crouched behind them. "And we knew we wouldn't hold the entrance forever."
"Where's Cooper?" Allison asked Derek. He simply shook his head in dismay.
More firing erupted from the side of the lobby and John saw Savannah and Myers hammering away at the machines from another angle. "Fire in the hole!" Savannah shouted out as she launched four grenades from the M32 and quickly ducked back down behind cover as a plasma bolt sizzled and struck the wall behind where her head had just been. A split second later explosions rocked the entire lobby and more ceiling came crumbling down in an artificial avalanche, raining debris onto everything. She and Myers sprinted towards the back of the room and the adjoining corridor that led downstairs. The plasma fire ceased and the entire scene turned silent save for the creaking of the protesting structure around them.
"Think that bought us a minute or so," she said to John as she ran past his position.
"We've got another problem," Allison said as she watched a trio of endos walking through the smoke and the dust. She fired her M4 at them as she realised what they were doing. "They're going for the elevator shaft!" she called out, increasing her fire and wishing she had more than a crappy M4 on her.
"We have to move," Cameron told John once more. She turned to Allison and Derek. "Keep them away from the elevator," she ordered them, receiving a nod from them each in reply: their distaste for her all but forgotten in the chaos of battle. They knew if the tin cans breached the elevator shaft they wouldn't last another minute. Cameron grabbed John's hand and tore down the stairs, dragging him down with her as he tried to resist and stay up top.
"We can't leave them," John snapped at her as they got halfway down the staircase. He tried to break free from her grasp but she was too strong; he couldn't do it without dislocating his whole arm at the shoulder.
"I won't risk it," Cameron said adamantly. She locked eyes with him and stroked her thumb along the back of his hand. "I won't lose you," she added, her voice turning a tone softer. She heard a scream upstairs and knew someone else had been hit. She wasn't going to risk John being the next one. Once they were down to the basement she led him into the TDE room, where Weaver was still making minute alterations and working away on the laptop.
"What the fuck's wrong with you?" John snapped at her, his anger at being dragged down now turning on Weaver. "They're dying upstairs and you're fucking around down here."
"Come with me," Cameron told Weaver. The T-1001 stared at her for a moment in surprise. Weaver wasn't used to being told what to do; she was always the one giving the orders.
"They're expendable," Weaver said to both of them. "Their past selves will survive if we succeed in stopping Skynet."
Cameron stared at Weaver for a moment. "No one's expendable," she said, mirroring John's previous words to her. Human life was sacred – a value John Henry possessed but now she too was coming to understand. Some – John – were more important than others, but at the same time these people had risked their lives to help him and she wouldn't abandon them unless there was no choice. She was surprised at herself: beforehand she would have left them behind without hesitation. Now she wouldn't.
Cameron led the way out of the room and down the corridor towards the elevator doors. They were closed, which Cameron took as a positive: they hadn't breached it yet. The sound of gunfire drew closer and she heard Savannah shooting from the top of the stairs, and Allison shouting at Derek to fall back.
"Stay down," Cameron pushed John down into a crouch and stood partially in front of him, blocking part of him with her left leg and lower body as she raised her two plasma rifles. John nodded and raised the AA12 to his shoulder and aimed at where the upper chest would be on a tall man. Something thumped behind the doors, followed by second thud and a third. A second later there was a loud crash and the stainless steel elevator door buckled. More punches warped the metal until a fist emerged through the middle and pulled both doors open, revealing three endos inside the elevator car.
John and Cameron opened fire with an ear splitting salvo of explosive shells and plasma rounds that enfiladed the machines before they could fire a single accurate shot – a few were forced off target by the fire crashing into them and piercing through their armour. The machine John shot didn't go down, however, and Weaver instantly morphed her hands into large hammers and smashed them against its head, knocking it off balance. One of her hands moulded itself into a hook and she curled it around the endo's neck, and pulled with all her might, yanking it clean from the car and throwing into the corridor. She swept the hammer arm out and whacked its plasma rifle from its grasp, then brought it down hard on the machine's head.
The skull cracked beneath the tremendous blow but still held in one piece. It kicked out at Weaver and forced her legs out from beneath her. She stuck her arms out as she fell and her upper half split into two and instantly morphed into legs and feet as they hit the ground. The rest of her body turned silver and moulded; her head absorbing back into her body as her hips and original legs thinned out, redistributed her mass, and finally she returned to her original shape within a second of her losing balance. She stepped on its neck to pin it down as John aimed the shotgun at it and held down the trigger. The high explosive armour piercing shells tore from the weapon like thunder and crashed into its skull, shattering the metal and blasting its head apart.
"These things are really hard to kill," John sighed. Cameron made it seem easy with her plasma rifle but the rest of them were having a real tough time of it. She picked up the downed machines' rifles and handed them to Weaver. "Now you can help," she said.
John smiled slightly at Cameron, realising he'd been wrong about her when she'd dragged him down the stairs: she wasn't leaving them; she'd seen the endos going for the shaft, just like Allison had, and had planned to get reinforcements. He had to admit Weaver would be one hell of a cavalry charge. "Get up there and help them," John barked at her. "If you help we might actually have a chance."
Weaver stared at John and was curious if his future self had been similar. She'd never met the man before and if he'd been anything like this John then she admitted to herself she'd been too hasty in her judgement of him. In this timeline, too: between him and Cameron, they could accomplish something great; more so with her guidance.
"Very well," Weaver said, clearly irritated at being given orders. If she were human she might have sighed or rolled her eyes. She grew a third, chrome arm out of her chest and picked up all three plasma rifles. A fourth appendage sprouted out from her back. It extended up to the first floor, secured itself to a sturdy metal beam, and she reluctantly pulled herself up the shaft to the ground floor.
"Fall back!" Savannah shouted out to Derek and Allison. The pair of them had joined together after Myers had been killed, and now it was just the four of them – Torrance included – trying to hold back God only knew how many more machines.
"They've breached the elevator shaft!" Allison called out as she watched the trio of machines tear the doors open and drop down inside. She heard a brief exchange of fire and the loud, booming reports of John's shotgun, before it fell silent. That's Connor dead, then, she thought. Derek kept firing at an endo approaching as she pulled the pin on her grenade and tossed it forward. The grenade hit the ground and exploded, throwing the endo back into another behind it and enshrouding both machines in an erupting cloud of dust and smoke.
"Move!" Derek shouted to her, knowing that would only buy them a few seconds before the tin cans got back up. "Where the fuck is Connor?" he growled.
"I think he bought it," Allison replied. They darted around the corner and ran back towards the staircase as Savannah and Torrance came forward, the former wielding the RPG on her shoulder.
Torrance turned the corner and started shooting through the thinning smoke at the endos, covering Savannah as she took aim with the RPG, centring the crosshairs dead on its chest. Scores of shots surged forward, so dense and so rapidly it was like a sheet of plasma shooting through the air. Half a dozen bolts struck Torrance and his whole body flash boiled and fell apart. A red cloud burst from him as he gave out a short cry of pain.
One shot struck the rocket launcher, tore it from Savannah's grasp and sent her reeling backwards to the ground. She clutched at her face and screamed out in pain as molten flecks from the RPG struck her face and the sheer heat and light from the bolts so close to her eyes overwhelmed her eyes.
She turned onto her front and blindly scrabbled away on all fours but a metal hand grabbed her by the jacket, slammed her against the floor and lifted her up. In a daze, she blinked rapidly to try and clear her eyes and her vision started to clear. She saw a grinning, gleaming endo skull staring at her with glowing red eyes. It threw her like a rag doll across the lobby and she struck the wall and sank to the floor. She didn't know how nothing seemed broken or how she hadn't been knocked out, but she wouldn't go down without a fight, and loosed off a whole magazine from her HK417 into its face and chest, not even slowing it down.
It approached her, raised its weapon, and she braced herself for the shots that would burn through her any second now.
A rapid volley of plasma bolts shot through the air and struck the endo from the side, obliterating the machine's head in a split second and it dropped on top of her. She looked up and saw the liquid metal thing step out of the open elevator doors, brandishing three smoking plasma rifles in its arms.
Weaver turned the rifles on the other machines advancing and unleashed a devastating flurry of fire at their attackers. Savannah watched in wonder for a second as scores of glowing bolts zipped across the lobby and obliterated endo after endo, rendering Skynet's deadliest soldiers into little more than scrap metal without apparent effort. Savannah knew when to get the hell out and she dashed down the stairs, passing Allison and Derek.
"Where's Torrance?" Derek asked, seeing she was alone.
"Dead," she said as she started down the staircase.
"What the fuck's going on up there?" Allison asked her, hearing the constant thrumming of and high pitched whines of plasma fire out in the lobby.
"The liquid metal's kicking the crap out of the other tin cans," she replied.
"Get down here!" John shouted to all of them. "We've got trouble."
"What else is new?" Allison groaned as the three of them darted down the stairs towards the TDE room.
Weaver pulled her triggers again and again, releasing a torrent of fire into the endos, downing a third and then a fourth machine. More endos entered, however, and spread out as others acted as shields, taking the brunt of her fire whilst the rest manoeuvred away to outflank her. She aimed and fired to the side but one machine bore fired a pair of plasma rifles at her.
Searing, white hot plasma tore through Weaver and she contorted as the superheated gas boiled away a large section of her waist. Another shot hit her midsection and she was blown completely in half. She immediately reformed both halves into two smaller versions of herself and the two Mini-Weavers continued to fire in perfect unison, eliminating another endo each. The ceiling and wall at the front exploded and tore open as HKs outside fired more shots to create a bigger entrance for the attacking machines.
She saw a Centaur rolling by and its cannons turned towards the opening, and her. Massive plasma bolts smashed into the floor around her and boiled more of her away. One of the Mini-Weavers lost molecular cohesion and one whole side of her sagged down in a gooey mess.
For the first time in her existence she experienced fear as more and more shots struck her and the heat from the weapons vaporised parts of her mass on impact and ruined the surrounding polyalloy, damaging it to the extent she couldn't reform herself. Another shot engulfed one of her two forms completely and even though they weren't connected the other half felt the loss as much as if a human were to suddenly lose a leg.
She turned round and tried to retreat to the elevator shaft but a pair of endos targeted her and loosed a torrent of plasma shots on her, equalling the salvos she'd dished out to them. Each hit damaged her more and she collapsed under her own weight. She dropped to the ground and still the machines continued firing, pumping shot after shot into her until she lost all cohesion collapsed into a semisolid, gooey, twitching mass.
Weaver knew she wasn't going to make it back to the TDE: she'd been too badly damaged and she couldn't repair herself. She consisted of several billion minute, microscopic machines that worked in unison and whose attachment could be altered to allow her to change shape. More than half of those nano-cells had been destroyed by plasma fire and cohesion and communication between the remaining ones was severely compromised. She wouldn't make it back but John and Cameron still could return to the past and effectively fight Skynet, and she knew their best chance would be for her to stall the machines' progress as much as she could.
One arm still remained relatively intact and she pointed the plasma rifle it carried upwards, into the elevator shaft and pointing up to the top. She pressed the trigger down and fired a flurry of shots into the walls of the shaft, sending them collapsing down and caving in, filling the space with massive chunks of concrete and steel girders, effectively sealing it off. Another shot struck and boiled away the arm and left Weaver, still aware of everything going on around her, able to do nothing more than twitch and bubble impotently.
"Time?" John asked Cameron yet again, wishing the damn TDE would hurry up. He'd heard the intense barrage of fire upstairs and wondered if even Weaver could have survived that.
"Eight minutes," Cameron said. They were close but the machines would come through before then. She could tell from John's expression he was thinking the same thing.
"So what do we do?" Allison asked, the fear clearly growing on her face. She wasn't the only one; John looked around and saw the same tension etched into everyone but Cameron, though he was sure she felt some apprehension too.
"Wait in here or take the fight to them," Derek answered. Neither one sounded like a hopeful prospect to him.
"What's everyone got left?" John asked them. They all fished through pockets and pouches, checking the last of their ammunition.
"One forty-mil, twenty rounds for the rifle, and two grenades," Savannah said dejectedly. She still had both her pistols but they were basically peashooters against metal.
"Two full mags," Derek reported with about as much optimism as Savannah. Allison had a single full magazine plus half of one.
"Two full magazines for the battle rifle," John said. He pulled out the AA-12's drum magazine and checked it too. "Five shells for this."
Cameron tossed one of her plasma rifles to Derek. He caught it awkwardly and slung it over his back. "It only has six shots," she told him. Her remaining rifle had seventeen rounds left.
"Better than nothing," he shrugged. Six rounds would be enough to take out an endo or two if he shot well enough.
"Seven minutes," Cameron told them. She heard an explosion out to the far right and instantly knew what it was. "They're coming in through the sewer," she said.
"For fuck's sake," Derek hissed savagely.
Savannah led the way out of the room and out to the right, away from the staircase and down the opposite corridor. She could see through the hole in the wall, leading into the sewer – where they'd entered from – another explosion that rocked through the tunnel. "They're blasting their way in," she said.
"Movement at the stairs," Cameron reported, hearing the endos starting to descend the staircase. The machines were attacking from two flanks at once.
"Hold them off at the sewer," John told the three of them. "We'll take the stairs." John and Cameron moved to the left to cover the staircase and waited for the machines to appear.
Savannah crouched behind the hole in the wall and watched as a third shot penetrated the ground above and sent debris raining down. One endo dropped through the hole they'd made, followed by another. "Contact!" She darted through the hole and took up position crouching in a side tunnel. Derek and Allison followed through and set up on the opposite side of the tunnel, in a small parting a few metres ahead of Savannah.
Derek opened fire first with HK417, the rounds barked out of the barrel, smacked into the lead endo with audible clangs and even dented the armour minutely in some places, but the machine didn't halt its advance even as Allison joined in the fray.
"Fire in the hole!" Savannah shouted as she tossed a hand grenade towards the machines, pulling the pin on her second and throwing it before the first had even gone off. Two explosions rocked the tunnel and threw the machines backwards, and she brought the M32 to bear as the smoke started to clear, targeted a third machine and fired. The round smashed into its chest and launched it backwards onto the ground with an eruption of smoke and sparks. The machine quickly got back up to its feet; its armoured breastplate and shoulder a charred, tangled mess. It tried to raise its plasma rifle but it appeared unable to move its gun arm.
Savannah dropped the grenade launcher and brought up the rifle. She started to take aim once more but the ceiling creaked and groaned loudly in protest above her. "Fuck!" She turned round and dived back through the hole, hitting the floor of the corridor with a grunt as she tucked her head into her chest and rolled with the impact, straight back up to her feet. She turned back to the hole and reached out. "Come on," she urged Derek and Allison.
The two of them backed towards it as Savannah fired through the hole, trying to keep the machines occupied as Derek covered Allison's retreat to the wall. The groaning increased and soot and dust fell down onto Savannah. She looked up in time to see the ceiling giving way and instinctively dived backwards away from the hole as the whole thing caved in and collapsed, sealing the hole and trapping Derek and Allison outside in the sewer.
She looked down her body and saw a thick, heavy slab of concrete on the ground hanging an inch above her shins. She stared at it, realising if it had been that one inch lower it would have broken her legs or pinned her to the ground. She got up to her feet and tried to pull away chunks of the ceiling and floor above. "Are you okay?" she shouted out. No reply. She could still hear firing behind the collapsed section and heard shouting on the other side, but she couldn't make it out. Seconds later both the shouts and the gunfire ceased. Shit.
Cameron fired twice at an endo as it descended the staircase; the first shot tore through its eye, vaporised the lens and cracked the armour around the cheek, eyebrow and the temple. The second shot struck the exact same place and shattered half its face, revealing the delicate circuitry beneath. It swayed on its feet and stared at Cameron with its one remaining eye until a single shot from John blasted through the exposed neural circuits and finished it off.
Before it hit the ground a second endo rounded the corner of the staircase and raised its weapon at Cameron. She remained routed to the spot and tried to bear her own rifle on it in time.
"Get down!" John tackled her to the ground as a shot flew over their heads, wrapped his arms around her and rolled her out of its line of sight. Cameron looked up at him in confusion. He'd saved her, risked his life for her when he didn't have to – shouldn't have done.
"I might have survived one plasma shot," she told him.
"And how would you get back?" John replied. "Your body didn't come through last time because of the damage; even if it didn't fuck you up you'd be stuck here." The bullet wound had just about closed up and formed a scab but any more damage would trap her here in the future.
"As long as you survive," she said. John shook his head at her but the endo jumped down the stairs and grabbed Cameron, deeming her the greater threat. It slammed her face against the wall and threw her into the corner. John raised his weapon but the machine threw a fist back and caught him in the face, sending him reeling to the ground with starbursts exploding all around him. He shook it off and realised he'd somehow managed to keep his weapons in his hands as he went down. It ignored him and advanced on Cameron as she started to get back up, but her own weapon had been knocked from her grasp and she was defenceless. A red mist descended over John at the sight of the machine a second away from killing her.
"Hey!" he shouted at the machine as it stepped towards Cameron and aimed its plasma rifle. It turned towards John as he snapped up the AA12 and fired his last rounds; the armour piercing shells ate into the tough armour and gouged deep holes, cracking the breastplate and forcing it a step backwards. The second the gun clicked empty John dropped it and raised his rifle.
He launched himself at the metal as it took a step back, caught it off balance and the pair of them toppled down to the ground. John roared out in pure, animal rage – baring his teeth and sending flecks of spittle flying into the machine's face - and thrust the rifle at its head, forcing the barrel into its open mouth. He held the trigger down on full auto and the gun roared and shook violently in his hand as rounds hammered into the weaker plating in the roof of its mouth. Its jaw dropped and hung limply before it was severed completely by the burst, clattering to the ground.
It took only two seconds for John's magazine to empty and he immediately pulled the gun up and smashed it with everything he had into what was left of the machine's face, roaring out in blind rage as he did so.
The endo viciously backhanded the side of John's head and sent him sprawling to the ground. He lay there, stunned, as it got up to its feet and seemed to glare at him – the skeletal head even more creepy without a bottom jaw. Cameron leapt up to her feet and lunged at the machine before it could take a single step towards John. Desperate to keep it away from him she slammed its head as hard as she could repeatedly into the wall, leaving a large dent that cracked outwards from the impact. She wrapped her arms around its head and twisted to the side as hard as she could. The endo's neck snapped with a loud crack and the sound of tearing metal as neural circuitry running up its spinal column was severed. Its red eyes faded and dulled to black and she dropped its inert, deactivated body, discarding it as if were unwanted trash.
She stepped over it and helped John up, grabbed the two plasma rifles on the floor – becoming adept at scavenging weapons from downed machines, much like the resistance had. "Two minutes," she said to him. "We need to go, now." She handed one of the weapons to John and they fell back, firing and manoeuvring as they moved. Cameron fired several shots, covering John as he moved; then he lay prone and fired a dozen rounds as she fell back behind him.
"Savannah! Derek! Allison?" he called out as they rounded the corner and broke into a run towards the TDE room. They entered and found it empty apart from Cassie, sat down with her head on the floor, looking pathetically up at John and Cameron, whining slightly. He didn't recall when the dog had become accustomed to Cameron, just noticing she didn't try to bark or attack her on sight.
"Get in the crater," Cameron instructed John, pointing to the perfect circular indentation in the ground in the middle of the room. Sparks were already flying across the room and electricity crackled loudly. Cameron pushed John into the crater as blue lightning started to dance around the middle of the room in a circular fashion, as it running over the outside of an invisible sphere. It rapidly became more frequent and a sphere started to form around him, filling up the indentation in the ground and dominating the centre of the room. Cameron looked at the laptop's screen and the readout displayed 99% on the buffer charge.
"Where are the others?" John called out, shouting to be heard above the din of crackling electricity that grew louder by the moment.
"I'm here," Savannah said as she entered the room. "Ceiling collapsed and cut off Derek and Allison: they're trapped in the sewer.
John stepped outside the forming bubble, feeling his skin tingle uncomfortably as he passed through the charged electrons. "Then we go and get them back," he said, steel in his voice. So many had died because of him, he wasn't about to let them down too.
"There's no time," Cameron insisted. Just over one minute remaining. She looked at John and saw him fighting himself, in pain and filled with guilt. She knew he wanted to save everyone – even people who weren't his friends - and that it hurt him badly when he couldn't. "I'm sorry," she said sincerely to him. She heard machines close by outside and knew they'd reach the entrance in seconds.
John saw Cassie still sat miserably on the floor, waiting for Allison, not knowing she wouldn't be coming. "Cassie, get in," he called to her. The Alsatian just stared at John for a moment and looked away, giving out a slight whimper. "Come on."
Cameron snatched the plasma rifle from Savannah's grip and shoved the redhead into the sphere with John. She could hear endos approaching, only seconds away, and fighting them in the open corridor was useless. Instead she pointed the weapons up at the ceiling above the doorway and unleashed the last of her plasma shots into it, penetrating through until it caved in. Several tons of steel, concrete, and plaster collapsed from above into the corridor and sealed the entrance. She dropped the spent weapons to the ground, satisfied it would hold the endos outside for long enough.
The sphere was now fully formed and semi-transparent as she stepped inside with John and Savannah. Cassie lay still and whined, watching them through the haze of supercharged electrons. "Come on," Savannah tried to get her attention. She patted her knees, clapped her hands, whistled, and beckoned, but the dog wouldn't budge.
"Ten seconds," Cameron said to them both as they crouched down and huddled together closely. Not enough time to drag the dog inside. The crackling lightning and sparks had turned into a full blown roar, and it was impossible for them to hear anything going on around them. Blue lightning surged and spun all around them and bright white light emanated from the sphere, growing more intense by the second and forcing John and Savannah to screw their eyes shut. The noise and light show grew into a deafening, ear splitting and blinding crescendo all around them.
Finally the sphere flashed with the intensity of a miniature star, and a second later it was gone. The room was empty save for Cassie as she let out another low, sad whine.
"Come on!" Derek shouted to Allison as the pair of them tore their way up through a smaller section of the sewer. They'd fled the main tunnel as soon as the entrance to the basement had caved in. Derek knew another way around into the basement, though. They'd crawled through a small section of sewer pipe, only large enough for them to shimmy through in single file, pushing their weapons ahead of them using their faces, and had only just left it to emerge in a larger section.
Derek stopped running and slowed down to a halt. "It's just through here," he tapped his knuckles against the wall.
"Behind the wall?" Allison cast him a doubtful look. She leaned against it and tried to listen in. They'd heard a hell of a lot of noise a few moments ago that sounded like a thunderstorm underground, but now there was nothing.
Derek nodded and raised his rifle up to his shoulder, pointing it at the wall. In such a confined space this was gonna be dangerous, he thought. "Close your eyes and cover your ears," he barked at Allison. She did as he said, holding her hands over her ears and keeping her mouth wide open and eyes screwed tightly shut. Derek flicked his rifle to full auto and pressed the trigger, holding it down as the weapon roared loudly and recoiled mercilessly against his shoulder.
The rounds tore through the wall and he swept the weapon left to right, hosing it down with fire and shattering concrete, throwing hundreds of little pieces back at them until the weapon clicked empty. He dropped the rifle; it was useless now – that was his last magazine. He grabbed Allison's M4 and fired a number of bursts, then smashed the butt against the weakened, pockmarked wall until chunks of it broke away and there was a hole large enough. He squeezed through and held out his hand to help Allison follow.
They emerged into a bare room. There was no John, no Savannah, and no tin can. Their clothes had been dumped on the ground in three piles, even their boots were stood in place, as if they'd just vanished into thin air all of a sudden.
"Cassie!" Allison cried happily as the dog jumped up at her and smothered her in licks. She hugged Cassie tight and fussed over her as Derek checked out the TDE. He looked down at the laptop and read the screen. Time displacement successful; estimated time until next displacement: 24 hours, 58 minutes.
"Fuck!" Derek kicked viciously at the laptop and smashed the screen. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"
"They're gone," Allison said sadly, stroking Cassie between her ears and scratching her with her other hand. Cassie nuzzled her face affectionately and snuggled up to Allison, revelling at her attention and knowing nothing of the dire state they were in. Behind the collapsed entrance that led from the TDE room to the corridor they could hear machines picking, punching and heaving chunks of concrete and metal away. They were trying to break in.
"Bastards left us behind!" he growled.
For the first time ever Allison found herself sympathising with John. "They didn't have any choice," she said reasonably. "The liquid metal one said it would go off as soon as it was ready: if they didn't go then nobody would have," she sighed. They probably would have done the same thing in his shoes.
"What're we gonna do?" he wondered out loud. Obviously they'd never last another day down here: the tin cans would break through in minutes. "We can get out the way we came in," he said to Allison. "We know these sewers; we can find a way up top, get out, and head south like we should have done all along." He realised that would have been their best chance; teaming up with Connor had been the worst thing ever to happen to them. Mac, Michelle, Marlin, Torrance, Myers, Cooper, Dyer, Kyle. Not to mention Briggs, Mason and everyone who'd died in the Triple-Eight attack. John Connor had brought them nothing but death.
"We could just... let it go," Allison said resignedly. She'd had enough now; enough of running and hiding, of losing her friends, of losing Kyle. "Even if we made it out, we've got nothing. Skynet's won," she said, fighting back tears that started to form in her eyes. How much longer would the pair of them last, scavenging, worse off than they'd ever been; alone and miserable, struggling just to survive another day, and for what? Would it really be worth it? What would they have to live for now?
Derek caught on to what she was saying. It went against every fibre of his being; his instinct was always towards survival. He went over to the exposed electromagnet, hearing the machines removing more and more debris blocking their path as he did so. He took the remote detonator from beside the Semtex block and held it up, running his finger over the single switch.
Allison got up and went towards him, Cassie following behind her as she joined Derek in the corner, and together they sat down with Cassie between them, their backs against the hot electromagnet, acting almost like a radiator as they leaned against it. She relished the heat emanating from it for a moment; she couldn't remember the last time she'd felt this warm. Then, sadly, she did: in Kyle's arms the night before they'd all set out; the happiest she'd ever been in her life had been when they'd been tangled together inside his sleeping bag and sharing their body heat, tired, sweaty, but content. She clung on to those memories of Kyle as hard as she could.
"You want to do it, or should I?" Derek asked, holding out the remote for her.
"You do it," she said. She looked at the perfectly circular indentation in the ground, deep in thought for a long moment. "You think they'll manage it; stop Skynet?" she asked as Derek wrapped an arm around her.
"I hope so," Derek said. "Good luck to them," he crossed his fingers for John Savannah, and even the tin can. "Don't let it happen again," he said to an absent John.
A chunk of concrete exploded outwards into pieces and a metal fist broke through the rubble barrier. It pulled backwards and ripped a larger chunk out. More fists hammered and tore at the pile, quickly decimating it until it was large enough for the first endo to step through. A second followed it and then a third. They marched into the room and spread out, the lead endo looked at Derek and Allison and then at the electromagnet behind them. Its mission was to find what had caused the power drain through the sector and eliminate any resistance they encountered. These humans weren't resisting so it didn't shoot. It stepped closer and stood tall over them, casting a looming shadow over the two humans.
"What is this device?" it asked them with a tinny, metallic and slightly guttural voice, like a cross between a vocal synthesiser and a 60-a-day chain smoker whose vocal chords had rotted almost completely away.
Derek couldn't help but grin; he'd never, ever heard an endo speak before. "Fucking stupid voice," he chuckled. He pulled Allison closer and she leaned into him, wrapping her arms tighter around Cassie and sobbing fearfully. She nodded her head against Derek's shoulder and he flicked open the safety switch on the remote. Good luck, Connor, they both thought in unison as Derek pressed down on the switch.
In less than one hundredth of a second the signal flowed to the detonator attached to the Semtex and the timer counted down. The endo snatched the remote from Derek's grasp but it was too late. Derek grinned up at the machine and flashed his middle finger as he hugged Allison tighter. Seconds later the Semtex exploded, blasting apart the electromagnet which itself erupted in a brilliant orange and black fireball that blossomed outwards and consumed Allison, Derek, Cassie and the endo.
The explosion overloaded the three remaining electromagnets and caused catastrophic failures through the system, feeding the energy back into them and the superconductors. The TDE exploded in second, massive fireball that spread outwards and tore through the basement and the ground floor, annihilating everything caught in its radius. The blast obliterated the building's foundations from under it and the remains of the Zeiracorp tower collapsed completely, causing an unstoppable avalanche from which nothing escaped. With their last breaths, Derek Reese and Allison Young had wiped out Skynet's assault force and forever denied the AI the secrets of the TDE.