Terminator: Resistance

Chapter Twenty Eight: Hollywood Hills

Hollywood Hills wasn't as far away from the Resistance base as Pasadena, so the trip itself hadn't taken him very long at all, but once Rivers got to where he could see the giant sign that had once read HOLLYWOOD, with two or three letters still standing somehow after all this time, he realized that this was a pretty big place. It hadn't been hit nearly as hard by the fires of Judgement Day as Pasadena and other places that the Sergeant had seen throughout his life, in fact this place was full of green trees, and a lot of the buildings around were mostly intact, so why was nobody around.

The answer, as always, was still Judgement Day and Skynet. Erin had lived there before everything went bad, and according to her, even though Hollywood Hills hadn't received a direct attack, there were still clouds of radiation that rolled through, as well as the first patrolling machines that wiped out a lot of the surviving people. When the missiles hit, most people who survived were outside of the major cities, or underground in subway systems or they were sewer workers, something like that. Skynet's first machines were also primitive compared to even the clunky T-400's, and easily destroyed by an armed populace.

Radiation sickness killed a lot of survivors who made it through the fires, and it was only in recent years that humans were coming back to the cities in order to scavenge for what they could use to stay alive. Honestly, though, this was the first time that Rivers had ever been anywhere that actually had trees, and the air smelled so good as he walked up the broken road into the residential district. The Annihilation Line didn't seem to have gotten this far, stalled in Pasadena thanks to South Division's counter attacks, so there were no T-800's in sight… but that didn't mean that where weren't still mechanical dangers to be found.

"Rivers." A voice crackled through the radio. "Rivers, come in. I know you can hear me, jackass, answer the damn radio."

"Rivers here." The Sergeant answered, realizing it wasn't Baron or the assigned radio tech. "This is a secure line, identify yourself."

It was the Stranger again, made known when he called Rivers a fucking moron and accused him of knowing damn well who he was. The hooded man gave a half-hearted congratulations about his promotion, and then changed the tone of the conversation into a warning that sent chills down the Sergeant's spine. The message was simple; as soon as he finished his mission and returned to the bunker, Rivers needed to get anyone he cared about to leave. Wait, leave? Leave and go where? The Infiltrator was down, and now with the looming threat of the Annihilation Line, the bunker was the safest place that he knew about.

"God damn it, Rivers, just trust me, okay?" The irritated voice continued. "We did great with Mark and Laura, so that's a pretty big win, but we're not done yet. Erin, Ryan, Jenn and Pat, they're all in danger if they don't get the hell out?"

"Jenn and Pat?" The Sergeant asked, never having heard Jennifer and Patrick referred too in that way. "Look, if something's wrong, then we need to talk to Baron. Once I'm done here, come with me back to the bunker, and we'll figure…

Now the hooded man was hesitant, refusing to go to the Resistance bunker, and saying that his presence there would only make the Commander suspicious, possibly to the point where Rivers was pulled from missions, and the Stranger couldn't allow that. Repeating his warning, the hooded man warned him again to get anyone he cared about away from the bunker as possible, and then the radio went silent. The Stranger didn't answer when he tried to reach him again on that same channel, and now the Sergeant was left standing there on the road like a moron, going over the cryptic warning in his mind.

The hooded man sounded pretty serious, but what the hell was Rivers supposed to tell them even if he did try to make them leave? He imagined saying to them something along the lines of 'its not safe here, so go outside where its even less safe'… seriously, what kind of an argument was that? Inside the Resistance base there were armed soldiers, and pretty soon they would have violet plasma weapons, as long as this mission went the way it was supposed to, so no… no, he couldn't ask them to leave and be on their own… not while the Annihilation Line was still active. And besides… the Infiltrator was destroyed, with its CPU pulled out… the Sergeant had it in his pocket.

Speaking of the mission, it was high time Rivers got back to it, and now that he was in the residential district of Hollywood Hills, he needed to look out for surveillance. Not Skynet surveillance, but security cameras and other small devices that a certain doctor could have been using to warn himself if anything got too close. After getting the chip and broken weapon from Alvin, the scientist told him that Dr. Mack was obsessed with watching his own perimeter, convinced that if he let his guard down for even a single moment, that Skynet would somehow suddenly be kicking down his door.

Sure enough, once the Sergeant got a little farther up the hill, into a place where the houses were gigantic and beautifully built, although starting to fall apart from age, he spotted the first camera. Mounted about halfway up the length of an old electrical pole, the camera rotated and zoomed in to take a look at him, as did the camera on the next pole down, and also the one going down the street in the opposite direction. Well, the doctor was definitely aware of his presence, and after taking a closer look at the nearest camera, Rivers saw that it appeared to have a built in microphone for capturing audio as well.

"Dr. Mack, is that you?" He asked, getting as close to the up high camera as he could. "I'm Sergeant Rivers from the Resistance South Division, and well… we need your help."

"The Resistance? Why, of course you are." A voice with a sarcastic tone replied from a loudspeaker that was… somewhere. "Do me a favor; spin around ten times as fast as you can while looking straight up, and then run over and touch the next pole to the right."

For a second the Sergeant just stood there, surprised and confused by what the doctor was asking him to do. In response, Dr. Mack laughed before declaring that he had heard all about Skynet's new machines, and that it would take more than fake skin and a voice modulator to fool him. Rivers assured him that he really was from the Resistance and not Skynet, saying that Baron sent him there with a violet plasma weapon along with the Infiltrator's CPU. The doctor, of course argued that this was exactly the kind of irresistible bate that the evil mind of Skynet would use to lure him out of hiding, and that Commander Baron wanted him just as dead because his experiment got her boyfriend killed.

"No more argument, machine." Dr. Mack declared. "Now do the test, or we have nothing to talk about."

Sighing with frustration, Rivers did as he was asked, spinning around ten times as fast as he could while looking straight up, and then running over and touching the next pole to the right… or at least, that was the plan. Completing the first part, the Sergeant looked back down and tried to run for the target, but instead found that the whole world seemed to tilt sideways as his legs took him four awkward steps in the wrong direction, before feeling a stinging sensation when his face slammed down onto the broken concrete. The doctor was heard laughing over the loudspeaker as Rivers tried to get up, laughing even harder when he failed twice from the dizziness, but then clearing his throat.

"That was pretty convincing, but dizziness can be faked along with anything else." Dr. Mack continued. "Okay, Skynet, here's your second challenge; you've met Jessica Baron, right? Describe her ass to me, and remember, I've met her, too."

"I didn't know her first name was Jessica, but her ass is perfect." The Sergeant replied once he was in a sitting position. "And, honestly, the best thing about working for her is when she walks away."

Again, the doctor was impressed with his answer, as well as agreeing with the assessment, but there was one final test before he would allow Rivers to enter his hidden stronghold. Telling him to look far over to the left down the road, the Sergeant saw a house that was even bigger and taller than all the others around it; a white mansion with three floors and balconies that went all the way around each level. A high, metal fence surrounded the perimeter, but once Rivers found a way past that and the booby traps hidden throughout the courtyard, the real danger was inside.

"Perhaps you have been wondering why there aren't any patrolling machines, hmm?" Dr. Mack asked. "There used to be Drones and Scout Walkers, but they all fell into my traps, so Skynet directed all the T-600's in the area to track me down."

While the doctor was explaining that all ten of them were stomping their way around the inside of the mansion in a futile effort to locate him, and that it was the Sergeant's job to deal with them, Rivers realized something. Looking at the security cameras, he noticed that there was a wire that linked all of them together, and since he had no intention of messing with a bunch of T-600's inside an old mansion, instead he began following the wire from one pole to the next, leading him away from the mansion, and toward a part of Hollywood Hills where the houses weren't so large.

As he was walking, Dr. Mack repeatedly asked him where he thought he was going, getting more upset and making outlandish threats such as activating some kind of planted explosives around the whole district, but… if that was the case, wouldn't that have killed him, too? Ignoring the annoying rants from the loudspeakers, Rivers followed the wire for more than a mile, going up hills and around smaller houses until coming to what looked like a large electrical transformer that must have at one time powered the neighborhood before Judgement Day. It was rusted and defunct, but while its own wire connections were long rotted away, the new wire he had been following was cleverly fed through a freshly drilled hole.

"All right, Doctor, open up!" The Sergeant called loudly, banging on the access door with his fist. "I know you're in there, and if I was Skynet, then all those T-600's would be on their way here to blow open the door right now… are they?"

"No… they're still patrolling." The nearest loudspeaker replied as the door was heard unlocking. "All right, fine, maybe you are from the Resistance, but that doesn't mean you're not an assassin. So, I'm gonna let you in before your banging draws more attention, but be warned that I'm not defenseless in here."

Now that the access door was unlocked, Rivers turned the latch, opening it to reveal a secret stone staircase that went downward. The walls were reinforced, and while the outside of the door looked no thicker than a storage locker, the inside of it was reinforced and heavy, requiring effort just to pull open. All right, this must be the place, he thought, readying his plasma rifle just in case… time to go downstairs and meet Dr. Mack.