Chapter 1418


That's Terrible


The prisoner was back on the main street. She was aware there was more of a chance of her being spotted. She needed to get some different clothes. She headed back in the direction that the truck came from. With all the starts, stops and turns she'd lost all sense of direction or even time traveled. She'd been unconscious twice on top of it since her capture.

There was a grocery store up ahead. She hurried there and found a donation bin for clothes out in front of it that was overflowing. There were sacks and boxes piled up around it full of clothes. She looked in a box and pulled it around the backside of the bin up against a wall. She didn't want to be obvious and draw more attention to what she was about to do than necessary.

She found some dark clothing in the box. She stripped off her shirt and tossed it in the box. She was about to put a sweatshirt on.

"What happened to you?" A female voice asked. "Are you hurt?"

The prisoner looked down at her burn scars and withered breast.

"I'm a little down on my luck." The prisoner said. "The scars are from when my apartment burned down. I lost everything."

She moved further behind the bin and quickly changed her pants.

"I won't hurt you." The female said.

The prisoner picked up a pair of sneakers that looked like they would fit.

"I need to go." The prisoner said.

"I can take you to a shelter." The female said.

The prisoner wanted to get away from here. She tried not to look at who spoke to her.

"How far is it?" The prisoner asked. "Maybe I better not."

The prisoner went to move off. She saw it was an elderly lady holding a box full of old clothes.

"You can look through my things. I was going to donate them." The female said. "Let me set this down. I can donate them to you. Please look and take whatever you want."

The elderly lady set the box down and backed away from it.

The prisoner moved up cautiously and looked in the box. The clothes were too nice for her to wear right now.

"I'll get jumped if I wear those nice things on the street." The prisoner said.

"That's terrible." The female said. "Has that happened?"

"Yes." The prisoner said. "No one cares."

The elderly lady looked concerned.

A horn honked twice.

The elderly lady looked over at a car. There was an elderly man behind the wheel.

"That's my husband." The female said. "We can take you to a shelter."

"Thanks but I don't want to be a bother." The prisoner said. "Sometimes bad things happen at those places too. Not everyone is nice. Normally once they get my shirt off they get disgusted and leave me alone. Not always."

"That's terrible." The female said again.

The horn honked one more time. It was longer and louder this time.

"I need to go." The female said.

She reached in her pocket and walked over and put something in the prisoner's hand.

It was some money.

"I can't take this." The prisoner said. "You look retired and are on a fixed income."

The horn blew again.

"We're good." The female said. "My husband was a lawyer. I'd give you more if I had it on me because he's rude and honking. He will be appropriately 'punished' for the next week because of this."

The elderly female turned to walk away.

"Thank you." The prisoner said. "Most people don't care."

The elderly female looked back.

"Good luck and get off the street before it gets late." The female said.

The prisoner watched her get in the car and drive away. The older man glared at her as they passed.

She looked at the money and saw it was more than enough to get a burner phone. There was a liquor store on the corner by the supermarket. She took one more look at the clothing from the elderly lady and took out a sweater and some socks. She put everything on and headed for the liquor store.

She paused and went back and took a blanket that was neatly folded. It might get colder later on. She also might need it to cover someone over if she needed to kill them and she did not want them spotted right away. This was about survival right now.


Cammy was still on an intercept course towards where the prisoner was.

"We just lost one of the trackers." Savannah said.

"There are still two more and there is a drone over her." Young Allison said.

"It looked like the other female gave her some money." Anna said. "She can use it to buy a burner."

"John Henry should be able to track it." Cammy said. "That's unless she's on some encrypted Wi-Fi VPN network."

Young Allison saw this as a 'break' for them.

"He just needs to track who she calls." Young Allison said. "That will be someone else in her group. We can see where that phone is at."

Savannah could see this might work out a little better than she'd thought at first. John Henry and CamNet should be able to track everything. Maybe this is the break they'd been waiting for. She would like to deliver a knock out blow to the anti-Metal group while Cameron was away. It should give her a little peace.


Allison and Vanna stripped and took a bath in the big whirlpool tub. They shared a playful time with each other. Vanna found a bubble bath packet and added it into the water. It was soon a frothing mass of bubbles.

They would spend some time 'relaxing' in the tub. They both 'found' a strong jet and let them go to work as they touched and kissed each other. They were both going to 'finish' before they even got started in the bedroom.

The 'dessert' was good with the girls from the ship. This is where they most wanted to be. It was always in each others arms.


Hanna and Ally were headed to the casino.

They both received a message through their coms.

They were redirected to go to the top of the sky lounge and relieve Jim so he could return to his post. The message was from CamNet.

"It looks like we get babysitting duty instead of gambling action." Ally said.

Hanna saw it as a higher duty.

"If Cameron needs us, I don't care." Hanna said. "We don't sleep."

Ally did not really want to go to the casino anyway. Being there with Sheila caused enough anxiety anyway.

"I'm good with it too." Ally said. "We probably won't score with the girls from the ship now."

Hanna did not want to get pegged for not being Vanna.

"I've gotten by so far with the girls but I don't have a scar. My breasts are smaller than Vanna's and nothing comes out of them when someone tries to make it." Hanna said. "I could tell they checked me out but I quickly focused on them and they soon forget everything."

Ally knew they could take a human girl to the 'edge'.

"Taking a human female to heaven and holding her there will do that." Ally said. "You have to worry they will 'forget' how to breathe if you go too far."

Hanna was aware Gail did that with Jesse more than once.

They headed for the rear elevator. It opened as they approached.

Hanna thought about kissing Ally as the elevator went up but decided against it since CamNet would be watching them.

The elevator reached the top of the sky lounge and they exited from the small room the elevator was in out onto the deck. They went around to the back and found Cameron and Jim.

"Couldn't you two have at least been kissing or groping each other when we arrived?" Ally asked.

Cameron wondered why they were here. She figured CamNet sent them. She was ready with a quick reply.

"I just told Jim that you two would allow him to do that before he returned to his post." Cameron said.

Hanna hit right back.

"What makes you think we already didn't do that?" Hanna asked.

Jim was relieved to see them. He hoped they would both volunteer their chassis before Cameron asked him to borrow his. He was sure she was building up to it. He decided to make a break for it.

"I will leave you three here and get back to work." Jim said.

He excused himself and left.

Ally and Hanna were out in the cold air with Cameron.

"I've got hard nipples already." Hanna said. "Why are we out here again?"

Cameron touched herself. She was not cold but her sheath still reacted as a human female's would.

"I wanted to get away from it all for awhile." Cameron said. "I think everything is hard or shrunken on me by now."

"We could go down a deck and be inside the sky lounge instead of on top of it." Ally said.

"We can find a nice corner and settle in there until you need to go elsewhere." Hanna said.

Cameron felt bad the girls were going to be tied up with her.

"You two can go on and have some fun." Cameron said. "I'm good."

Hanna was not about to leave Cameron alone. The 'Vanna' in her would not allow it.

"Being with you is fun." Hanna said.

They went down the stairs on the outside and entered the sky lounge from the far corner. No one seemed to notice their arrival. They could see people dancing and hear the music. The alcohol seemed to flow pretty freely. It was the last night of the cruise and some people tried to make the most of it.

They would pay the price tomorrow in more ways that one. They would be hung over and receive their bar tab. For some people the bar tab far outweighed the cost of the cruise.


Mary and Laura gambled with 'Barbara', 'Mysti' and 'Lisa'.

That was really Camille-Holly, Holly-Camille, and Gail-Cam. Their chips were all in a different chassis right now. Their human girlfriends were all back in the private area in their suites.

The three of them helped Mary and Laura to 'clean up' some. They all seemed to have a good time with each other. The Metal girls hoped to be with Mary, Laura and Leticia later on.

Sheila was with Leticia.

Leticia thought Camille-Holly was Cameron.

"Will I get to be with 'Tony' tonight?" Leticia asked. "I don't mind. I'll let him do whatever he wants."

Sheila was aware that Cameron considered that option at one time but John was with Young Jesse currently. It seemed unlikely at this point.

"I think 'Stephany' has that covered." Sheila said.

Leticia would be happy to be with Sheila then.

"We can go back to my suite anytime." Leticia said. "Or do you want to win some more?"

Sheila already won plenty for Leticia.

"We can go back." Sheila said. "Did you want to be with Mary or Laura again?"

"We may hook up after the cruise." Leticia said. "I still need a place to stay since I won't be living with Tracy anymore."

Sheila already made plans for that.

"I'll help you out with that." Sheila said. "If Mary and Laura will have you and you want to make it a threesome that would be better for you."

They talked over a few more things and decided to leave. Mary and Laura left as well with them. They all went back to their suites.

Sheila turned Leticia over to Holly-Camille. That left three Metal girls with the three girls from the ship.

After they were in their suites Sheila went to the private area and went and checked in with Jim.

Cam-Gail was still there.

"Where's Jim?" Sheila asked.

"He went to get some supplies." Cam-Gail said.

Sheila knew she'd slacked off on her maid duties.

"That's my fault." Sheila said.

Cam-Gail got her up to speed with what was happening on the developing operation against the anti-Metal faction.

"I would've made that bird sing a long time ago." Sheila said. "I hope she is still alive when we get off the ship. I'll go and pay her a special visit."

Sheila didn't think there was much she could do about any of the outside operations until tomorrow.

She checked on how Young Jesse was doing. She really hoped to get Cameron to use her chassis one more time before the cruise was over. If not, she planned to be with the three girls from the ship one more time. It seemed all the Metal girls wanted that.


The prisoner was able to buy a burner. She went to the neighboring coffee shop and made a few calls. She didn't use the cellular network.

She watched a pick up truck pull up in front of the liquor store. When it stopped the driver ran up on the tire stop bumper and then backed up off of it. They staggered out of the cab and went into the store to buy more liquor. It was obvious to her the driver was intoxicated. This seemed like the opportunity she'd been waiting for. She sent one last message and went back outside. There was something she needed to retrieve that she'd left in the coffee shop. It was the blanket.

The driver returned to the truck and got in. They opened a bottle and took a heavy pull. They coughed harshly for a few seconds and took another long pull. That went on for a time until the bottle was empty. They tossed it in the back of the truck bed. They started the truck and were about to leave. Nothing happened. The truck sat there running.

The prisoner previously climbed in the back of the truck and covered herself with the blanket. She'd gone back to the coffee shop to retrieve it. There were a multitude of cans and bottles in the bed of the truck. They were all empty. It appeared the driver was an alcoholic. She was a little surprised when a bottle was tossed in the back and landed on top of her. It landed on the blanket actually.

She waited for the truck to pull away after it was started but it never did. It just sat there running. She lifted the blanket and looked out. She edged her eye up to the rear window and looked in. the driver was slumped over off to the side. It looked like they'd passed out.

The prisoner got out and tried the door on the driver's side. It was locked. She went to the passenger's side and tried that one. It was open. She opened the door and looked at the driver. She grabbed them and braced her feet against the side of the seat and pulled them over enough for her to get in the driver's seat. She hit the 'unlock' button to unlock the driver's door. She went around and climbed in. She put the truck in reverse and backed out of the parking spot. She looked around and headed out onto the main street.


Cammy's team watched the whole event.

"Now she has some wheels." Young Allison said.

The hope was that the prisoner would lead them back to her base of operations.

"All we need to do is follow her back." Cammy said. "It looks like easy money."

Savannah was not so sure about that.

"What about those calls or messages she sent?" Savannah asked.

Young Allison wondered about that too.

"I think she is going back but she is having an ambush set up." Young Allison said.

Anna thought of another issue.

"What if she directed them all clear out of wherever they were?" Anna asked. "They could all be gone by now."

If that was the case they would be even harder to track down. It looked like a lot of possibilities without any concrete answers.


John Henry tracked the messages even through several VPN sites.

"The messages make no sense." John Henry said.

Summer looked at them.

"They are prearranged trigger phrases." Summer said. "Whoever looks at them will know what each one means."

The messages did not go to anyone specific. They were posted into a search engine and popped up as part of the search list. They were all to common things that thousands of people searched for every minute.

"I don't have a target." John Henry said.

"You need to isolate any of the searchers within a ten to twenty mile radius of here." Summer said.

"I've done that." John Henry said. "There are dozens of hits every few minutes."

John Henry would try and correlate any of the hits with any of the other hits from her previous messages.

"I think that she will run through at least one ambush to get to where she is going." Summer said. "Warn the troops."

That was John Henry's assessment of the situation as well.

It seemed this operation had a lot of variables. He was sure that once she made contact with her group that they would find one if not both of the trackers on the female.


Sheila went out and found Jim. She took over anything he needed to finish up on.

She could see he tried to busy himself. It seemed that he was troubled.

"What are you so worried about?" Sheila asked.

Jim did not want to say. He was pretty sure Cameron would want to use his chassis before they disembarked.

"I'm fine." Jim said.

Sheila figured it was because he was worried about doing 'chassis duty' in the Owner's Suite.

"I'll take your place, sport." Sheila said as they worked. "Don't worry about it."

Jim was worried about it.

"Thanks." Jim said.

They finished up and returned to the Control Center.

Sheila hoped Cameron did 'call' Jim. It would give her another chance to be with John with Cameron in control. She would even allow Cameron to switch chips with her. At this point she really wanted to switch chips with one of the male Terminators and make the rounds of the Metal girls herself. It would be nice to get the 'male feedback' this time as opposed to 'Steely Dan'.


Cam-Gail was surprised to see John leave the Honeymoon suite. She was sure he would stay there all night. He was out and went back to the Owner's Suite. He did pause as he was about to leave the Honeymoon suite and lean his head back inside. She saw two arms wrap around him for a few seconds and then disappear as he left.

Jim and Sheila were walking towards her when that happened. They missed it.

She quickly filled them in.

Sheila wanted her 'one time' with John like Cameron promised her. She looked at Cam-Gail.

"Jim is here, that frees you up, love." Sheila said.

"I'm fine assisting here." Cam-Gail said. "There are too many of 'Cameron' out now."

Sheila came up with a better idea. Cam-Gail could play 'Cameron' and she could go into the Owner's Suite with her for a 'chassis swap'. That way they could both get their 'one time'. Nobody really believed Cameron would make good on her 'promise'. She got what she wanted from each of the Metal girls. There was no incentive for her to reciprocate at this point.

"I just notified Cameron that John was back in the Owner's Suite." Jim said.

That was not what Sheila wanted to hear.

"Let me go over and see how Young Jesse is doing." Sheila said.

She wanted to check things out first hand.

"I already notified Holly-Camille that Young Jesse was available." Jim said. "She asked me to do that previously."

That was more bad news to Sheila.

"That is going to leave Laura without a partner." Cam-Gail said. "I can go by and help her out."

Sheila knew Cam-Gail must have been watching what was going on in the suites on the hidden cameras Jim installed for 'security purposes'.

"Camille-Holly is there now." Jim said. "You will need to go as 'Allison' as 'Peggy' since Camille-Holly is there as 'Barbara'."

"I'll do that." Cam-Gail said.

Cam-Gail left and passed Holly-Camille on her way back to the Honeymoon Suite.

"Cameron is on her way back." Jim said. "Ally and Hanna are with her."

Sheila figured she could do something with Ally and Hanna. She needed to speak privately with Cameron first.

"If you have everything here under control I will go meet them." Sheila said. "I will take the heat off of you with Cameron."

Jim looked relieved.

"Thank you." Jim said.

Sheila smiled at him and blew him a kiss as she went out into the private area.


John Henry directed the five teams on where the truck was headed. There was a drone with each team and two with Cammy's team. It was 'Coltan Overcast' and 'Cherry Bomb' that took over that duty. They wanted to be with Savannah and Young Allison.

There were two drones on the truck and several more on recon around the teams. Everything seemed covered. The only question was where the truck was going.

"She has started an evasive pattern." Summer said. "You need to have the teams back off or they will be identified with the maneuver she's started. This was the same technique that the anti-Metal team employed before."

John Henry knew that group ended up in the 'deep blue' when they were done with them.

"I have sent out the 'stand down' warning." John Henry said.

Summer knew there was another issue that no one mentioned.

"They most likely have an EMP or a few of them." Summer said. "We know they have possessed them before. Send out the warning."

John Henry did know that. That meant the burden of the assault would fall on Savannah's back again. The worst part of that was that Young Allison was going to be with her.

He wondered if he should involve Derek and Kyle at this point. Most likely Sarah would want to go along. If Claire found out she would want to go. That meant Jesse would go with her. They would need a Metal escort so he would need to go with them.

"I don't think you should involve them." Summer said.

John Henry checked his files. He hadn't said anything. Summer knew what he thought. He looked at Summer and nodded.


John Henry sent out the warning.

Cammy's team received the EMP warning.

"I won't be able to cover all the teams." Savannah said.

Young Allison saw this as her opportunity.

"I can cover two of them." Young Allison said.

Savannah knew that was a sound tactical decision. She knew Young Allison was not going to leave the fight at this point no matter what she did.

"It may come to that." Savannah said. "The drones all need to get some additional altitude too."

Anna could see the effectiveness of the drones was being affected as well.

"They will be out of gun range and the EMP may affect a missile's trajectory." Anna said.

Young Allison was glad they'd previously developed unconventional attack methods.

"They can do gravity shots with the gun and a missile dropped like a bomb." Young Allison said.

Everyone knew those were techniques that Young Allison worked on and perfected with CamNet. They would be useful. They'd proven their worth more than once so far. They would most likely be tested again.

They would need to know what the yield was on the EMP devices. It could be a small one or a larger one. It was doubtful that any would have a range greater than a few miles. They did not know for sure if they even possessed any but they could. It was doubtful that anything that was detonated on the ground would have a range of more than five to ten miles maximum. The drones operated at that altitude already in the daylight. It seemed most likely that EMP grenades would be used. There were small, easy to use and affected only the immediate battlefield.

Young Allison wanted some safeguards.

"They could also have access to a Skynet jamming field." Young Allison said. "They could trigger that and then wait to use the EMP once everyone was cut off from communication."

Cammy could see the confusion in that. No one would know where anyone was at after a few minutes.

"What's your proposal?" Cammy asked.

"Savannah knows." Young Allison said.

Cammy looked at Savannah.

"I'm going to need to go in alone." Savannah said.

Young Allison looked at Savannah.

"You won't be alone." Young Allison said.

Savannah didn't want that but it may come to that. Young Allison already proved herself in battle. She didn't want Derek, Kyle or Sarah to get involved again. They'd done that on their own before. They'd done that to get her out of the building.


Cameron was elated that John returned to the Owner's Suite alone. She hurried to get back. Ally and Hanna needed to hurry to catch up to her.

"She seems fine to me now." Ally said.

Hanna thought so too. They didn't want Cameron to get sidetracked.

"We will follow her back anyway." Hanna said.

Ally hoped for a little action with the new girls.

"Maybe we can get the other Metal girls to share some with us." Ally said.

Hanna planned on something else if Camille-Holly and Gail-Cam were tied up.

"Maybe we can see Allison and Vanna." Hanna said.

Ally liked that idea if the new girls were tied up.

"That sounds good to me." Ally said.

Cameron started to pull away from them. It seemed that she was in such a hurry.

"Let's stay with Cameron." Hanna said as they hurried to catch up to her.


Cameron tried to keep herself from running. She felt a compulsion to do that. She knew what needed to be done and was fine with it. If John did his 'business' a few times and then returned to their suite, it showed he wanted to be with her. Maybe she would reward him with one of the Metal girl's chassis as part of a treat. Ally and Hanna were behind her. She would talk to him first and see who he wanted. Jim should be back in the Control Center. Maybe she would give John a real surprise…. She would really like to see the look on his face when she - started. The thought actually excited her. It would also give John a taste of his own medicine quite literally.


It was discussed and decided that the teams would combine into bigger units. Steve and Tom would be with Al and Ed in the same SUV. Richard and Michael would combine with Larry and Hank. One of them would go into standby and reboot every three minutes. That time may be cut shorter as they neared a destination.

Savannah took over the wheel of the SUV. Mel joined Cammy and her, when Young Allison and Anna left.

Young Allison took over the wheel of the other SUV. Anna joined her along with Randy and Brian.

That gave them four teams.

The drones all moved to higher altitudes and much wider orbits. This always gave the zoom lenses on their cameras a workout.

Cammy and Anna elected to be the ones in standby so they could be with Savannah and Young Allison after an EMP was deployed. All bets were off if there was a second EMP blast. Everything might fall on the backs of the girls - again.


The prisoner drove the truck they'd 'borrowed'. They were afraid the driver was going to wake up soon. She'd found a revolver in the glove box. She hoped she didn't need to use it on the driver but she would if she needed to. They were fighting a war and there were casualties in wartime. It would be the driver's actions that determined their fate. Maybe she should just dump them by the side of the road. She didn't plan to be in the truck much longer if her messages were received.

She was close to making contact with some of the people in her group. There hadn't been any tail spotted and she was sure her escape was genuine at this point. It looked like a clean getaway.

She was going to have one wild story to tell. She sure hoped she was not being tracked somehow. She really didn't know how badly she'd been set up.