Terminator: Resistance

Chapter Ten: Odd Behavior

"Hey shithead, got a question for ya." Colin's voice crackled in over the radio. "Does everyone in the Resistance wear them stupid uniforms like yours, or do they sometimes wear regular clothes?"

After splitting up with the rude guy after their last argument, Rivers was starting to believe that he was finally free of the constant insults and irresponsible behavior, only for it to all come crashing back like a recurring nightmare just after the Private had reached the site referred to as Warehouse Beta. This one was built into what was left of the basement of, uh… well, there was so much random stuff laying around, that it was hard to tell what the original purpose of this building was… but like the other possible Resistance base, there were no guards to stop him from walking through the front door.

"No, we all wear uniforms; disguises don't matter much to Skynet." The Private answered, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness before going any farther. "Why?"

"Oh, must be nothin' then." Colin replied, pausing for a second. "There's some guy wanderin' around out here; thought he might've been one of your boys, the way he's just struttin' down the street like he don't know the dangers. Huh… if he's a scavenger, he passin' up a ton of good stuff… now where the hell are you goin'?"

At the moment, Rivers wasn't interested in some random scavenger wandering around in search of… whatever he happened to be looking for, not when he still needed to find what happened to Commander Baron and South Division. Like the other building, there was plenty of evidence of people having lived there, along with most of their possessions being left around as if they had been planning to come back eventually, but enough dust was building up on the sleeping cots for the Private to know they had been gone for a few days. But where? Where had they gone?

The long range radio had been destroyed, and papers were scattered about the floor, but nothing useful written on them, at least nothing that Rivers hadn't learned at the first site. Bottles of water were always useful, though, so he took one from a crate in the corner, and drank the contents while entering the last room of the base. This one had a few chairs lined up in rows in front of a partially broken chalkboard, and the Private was about to dismiss it as nothing, especially since he had seen a similar setup at the first site, but then he saw that something different was written on this one.

Partially erased as if someone had tried to clean it off in a hurry after the last briefing, Rivers was able to make out a few of the words, reading something about a university hospital, and… and something else drawn underneath it, but that part had been cleaned too well. Maybe Ryan or Erin knew something about this hospital that was mentioned, and… and hell, maybe that was where Baron had moved her division. With the Annihilation Line approaching, it made sense for the soldiers to occupy a place that was more fortified than a couple of rusted out warehouses, and more importantly it was the only lead he had.

"All right, Colin, we're done here." The Private said into the radio, walking toward the exit. "Both sites were abandoned, looks like a few days ago… you don't happen to know anything about a nearby university hospital, do you?"

"Hmm, nothin' but that old nuthouse downtown." The rude guy's voice replied, quietly laughing a little bit. "You thinkin' about checkin' yourself in, soldier boy? Good place for a nut like you… damn it, what is this screwball up to?"

Apparently the whole time that Rivers was investigating the possible Resistance sites, Colin had been following his mysterious scavenger all over the warehouse district as he walked through every building and investigated each broken down vehicle. The guy was disciplined, too, not taking breaks even for a second, and what really spooked the rude guy was that the random scavenger always seemed to walk out in the open when the Spiders and Drones were going the other way, like he had the luck of the devil. Thing was, most scavengers would be taking things from everywhere they went, you know, food, water, tools, etc. But this guy wasn't touching a damn thing.

"Weird… it's weird, I tell ya, even weirder than you." The rude guy continued. "Whatever he's lookin' for, it must be damn important… he's goin' toward that big factory over east… I'm gonna follow him, see if I can't find out what that thing is."

Even when he as just a kid learning how to find scraps for food, Rivers had been taught to only stay out as long as it took to fill his bag, and then get back to the shelter as fast as possible, since each second one of them was out in the open, it was another chance for Skynet to find where the people were hiding. The behavior Colin was describing was exactly the opposite of what any sane person should have been doing, so yeah… it was pretty fucking weird. As much as the Private wanted to leave the rude guy to his own devices and head back to the hideout, something about this whole situation didn't smell right, so it looked like a side trip to this factory was in order.

Like good machines, the Drones that were passing overhead stuck to their regular patrol routes, so it was easy to sneak past them with a little patience. The factory was also pretty easy to spot, since it was the largest building toward the east as soon as Rivers was back on the surface, and thankfully there weren't any Spiders around… at least none that he could see. Little shiny bastards were probably still searching the area around where Colin shot that first one by the old diner, making it much easier for the Private to sneak toward the factory's chain-link fence. The front door was the most obvious way to go in, he thought while crawling underneath a section where the fence had broken off the pole and started to roll up, but then again…

"Colin, which way did you go in?" Rivers asked, using the radio while ducking behind some old trash cans for cover. "I'm here, but I don't wanna startle this guy and get shot."

"Will you jus' shut the hell up?" The rude guy replied, almost in a whisper. "Come up through the basement around side… he's not touchin' nothin' in here, neither. I tell ya, soldier boy, this dude's upto somethin'."

A stairwell down into the basement was visible from where he was hiding, so the Private told Colin to back off and wait for him to get there, before staying crouched down as he moved out of cover, and headed for the stairs. Trying to move both as quickly and quietly as he could down the cracked concrete stairs, Rivers got to the bottom, but then stopped to look at the open doorway for a second when he saw that the lock and handle had been destroyed. No scorch marks, so explosives hadn't been used, and the dents in the metal were going outward, so nothing had been used to ram it. It was like something incredibly powerful had simply grabbed onto the door and pulled it open hard enough to bend metal and rip the deadbolt right out of the wall.

The only thing the Private could think of with the required strength was a T-600, or God forbid one of the 800's, but even the most advanced Terminators couldn't seem to understand the concept of stealth, and as far as Rivers knew, all of the T-800's were marching with the Annihilation Line. The 600's were so heavy that their footsteps cracked concrete, but there was no evidence of that when he moved into the darkened corridor, nor were there any glowing eyes to greet him, so whatever had done that to the door must've been long gone.

Passing a couple locked doors, and whispering Colin's name at each of them in case the rude guy was hiding inside, the Private kept his rifle up just in case a Spider or one of the bigger Scouts crawled out at him… at least Drones didn't like tight spaces, so that was nice. However, so far there was no sign of the rude guy or the strange scavenger he was following, prompting Rivers to duck down at the top of the stairs just before passing through the doorway into the much wider factory floor. Suddenly Rivers jumped a little when a short burst of gunfire rang out, but then everything was silent again… for several seconds… and then more time passed.

"Colin, what was that?!" He asked quietly, yet urgently into the radio. "Colin, are you all right? What's your status? Colin, respond?!"

"I believe I asked you to be quiet." The rude guy's voice replied, making him let out a sigh of relief. "I had a weapon malfunction, this… damn thing went off by itself. The target was wounded, and I'm attempting to give aid. Please come and assist me… God damn it."

Jesus Christ, the Private thought as he got up and walked out onto the factory floor, leave it to Colin to turn something simple like trying to follow a guy, into a serious medical crisis. There was nothing off to the right except the wall, so Rivers went left and started walking around the conveyer belts and large machines of the factory floor, hopefully toward where the weapon malfunction took place… yeah, he was going the right way, there was some blood splattered on the floor. Poor scavenger must've been terrified after that moron started shooting at him, and tried to get away by running further into the factory.

Heh… weapon malfunction, more like a brain malfunction, the Private thought as he reached the center of the building where the wounded scavenger was laying on the floor against the largest support pillar in the place. Hopefully, this poor guy didn't die of blood loss while… while… what the fuck? At first Rivers was angry when he didn't see Colin around, figuring that the rude guy had left the wounded scavenger on the floor to die, but once he got closer and rolled the body over, he saw that the reason for this was that it was Colin lying on the floor. He had a still bleeding wound in his stomach, but his head was tilted way too far to the side as if his neck were broken, and…

"Thank you for coming so quickly… soldier boy." Colin's voice suddenly crackled through the radio. "You have proven difficult to track."

A knot formed in the bottom of Rivers' stomach when he heard slowly approaching footsteps from behind, and now the Private's breathing was rapid, his mouth running dry when he realized who, or rather what was speaking to him on the radio. How had it followed him there? As far as he knew, Rivers lost the damn thing way before even getting to Pasadena, but regardless of how impossible it was, those footsteps were getting closer, so the Private remained in his kneeling position, turning toward the sound while raising his rifle, and seeing… a man?

Yes, it wasn't a machine at all that was approaching him, but just… a man. A human being in tattered clothes and a blank expression on his face as he… as he crushed a blood stained radio in one hand, before dropping it on the floor.

"Jacob Rivers." The man said in a calm, yet stern voice as he stepped on the broken radio while approaching. "You have been marked for termination… this will all be over soon."