Chapter Three: Archer's Road
Summary
Sarah ponders her son's fate, Murch deals with FBI, John is assigned with Derek and Kyle to perform their task, Catherine catches John Henry's trail.
Sarah put the last of the clothes on Ellison's bed. She stared at an enormous pile of probably forty shirts and shorts. No matter how long it took, she had to get it done, she and Ellison couldn't get through town smelling like animals. Sarah dug in, gently placing jeans and shirts in separate piles. When she pushed aside a striped T-Shirt, she saw something that made her have a double-take.
Cameron's purple Jacket...
Sarah reached down and picked it up. It wasn't until she lifted it up into the sunlit window did she noticed it had no bullet holes in it. Sarah remembered that this was the jacket Cameron valued over anything else except John. A Terminator with no emotions couldn't value anything, could they? Almost everywhere Cameron went that didn't involve combat she would always wear this thing.
Sarah gently set down and folded the jacket. She didn't have the willpower right now to have a moral debate on the emotional capacity of machines. Sarah tossed the jacket with the other shirts and began digging through the others to find John's shirts, that way she could have them clean when he... got back.
She heard Ellison walk behind her into the room and knock on the door frame. She didn't pause to acknowledge him when she asked, "What do the police reports say?"
Ellison cleared his throat. "Police, FBI, CIA, NRO, you name it. They're all over Zeira Corp. It's gonna be a while before everything calms down." he answered.
Sarah sighed, she folded the last of John's shirts and laid it gently on the top of the pile. "Well, at least we won't have to worry about them coming after us for a while." Sarah reassured herself.
Ellison shrugged. "I guess we'll see. I've got to go and pick up Savannah from school. My sidearm is on the living room couch if you need it. You know, in case any of them show up."
"I'll deal with them if they do." Sarah deadpanned.
"I was talking about the machines."
"So was I."
John couldn't tell what time it was anymore. Time either went slow or flew past like a plane in the future, as John looked up at the setting sun, he realized he had almost been in this future for a day. Left wondering how to earn the trust of General Perry, how to find Cameron, and where the hell Catherine Weaver went. The T-1000 left him alone at the first opportunity when they arrived in the future.
John took another look around the camp, he watched the soldiers move across the guard platforms with perfect pacing, he watched the starving denizens try to stay out of the blistering sun, all the while attempting to avoid the cold of the dark tunnels. He saw the shriveled black trees litter the landscape of the apocalyptic wasteland. All of this was a sight he never wanted to see, and as he took in blank, and tan ground that colored the world, he realized how much he had truly sacrificed to find Cameron.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw three figures walk into view on top of the hill he was sitting on. He noticed Allison, Derek, and Kyle come into form. John stood up and put on the fakest smile he could muster as he attempted to act happy to see them.
Of course, Allison introduced them. "Hey, John, this is Lieutenant Reese. And this is his Brother, Sergeant Kyle Reese. Perry's assigned them to go with you."
John stuck his arm out and offered to shake Kyle's hand first. "It's nice to meet you, guys." John greeted awkwardly.
Fortunately, Kyle locked his hand in John's and shook it. "Sure kid, I trust my jacket kept you nice and cozy?"
John let out a nervous chuckle. "Uh, yeah, sorry about that." he said, his face turning bright red. He realized how weird it felt shaking his father's hand, how the man had no idea that they were blood.
Kyle smiled assuringly. "No worries, kid." he looked over to Derek. "John, this is my brother Derek. He's a bit of a brute, but he's smarter than he looks."
Derek looked at his brother with a look that John could only describe as "I'm gonna kill you." but he took John's hand and shook it anyway. "Nice to meet you, John." Derek said. John didn't miss the underlying venom that Derek coated his tone with, it was the type to say "I don't trust you, but I have to work with you,". In all fairness, John agreed.
John smiled nervously and withdrew his hand. Allison smiled awkwardly at them. "Well, Perry said we should get moving tomorrow morning. You know the plan, right?"
John tried his best to put on a frown, giving the illusion of displeasure. Apparently, it worked.
Allison was the only one who didn't give him an impatient look, she simply gave him a sympathetic frown. "John, it's for the best, when we find your sister, we'll get to share all the supplies with everyone, including her. I know it seems like we're robbing you, but you shouldn't see it that way, we're just trying to give everybody a share. You have to understand supplies like food and water are hard to come by." Allison looked at him with those big, brown, beautiful puppy-dog eyes that were so hard to resist.
John stared at her for a second and then nodded. "Damn, I'm good at this."
Allison smiled and led the group toward a run-down military barracks that had obviously been in use for a very long time. "Come on, John. I'm going to introduce you to everybody."
John, Derek, and Kyle followed Allison off of the tall hill. John trudged behind the group, still trying to comprehend his current situation. "Great, I haven't been in this future for one day, and my dad and my Uncle think I'm a complete asshole." John thought. He was still trying to figure out how to come up with a plan to why no bunker would be present when he and the others arrived at the designated location. He dug himself in a hole he didn't know if he could get out of or not...
Murch opened the door for agent Parkons and watched the large man walk into the room. Murch kept in the doorframe, not wanting to get in the large agent's way. The Agent patrolled the room, observing the equipment that had been used to activate, survey, and operate John Henry.
"Where is this Artificial Intelligence that your company has been constructing?" The Agent suddenly asked Murch without looking back from his investigation.
Murch shrugged. "I don't know, nobody does. He went missing the same day the Connor's and Miss Weaver did." Murch answered honestly. "I do hope you find him, that is an expensive piece of equipment."
Agent Parkons walked into the center of the room, he noticed that there were Dark plasma marks that were barely visible on the ground, indicating possible usage of Time Displacement Equipment.
MISSION UPDATE...
ROGUE T-1001 CATHERINE WEAVER THREAT LEVEL ELEVATED... 100%
ACTIVATION OF TDE RAISES RAISES THREAT LEVEL
FIND AND TERMINATE CATHERINE WEAVER
Murch tried as hard as he could to not break a sweat out of utter fear as the towering FBI Agent eyed the ground. He could almost see the agents eyes dart back and forth at the ground as he continued his investigation.
Finally, after what seemed like ten minutes, the Agent turned around and stared at Murch with a very unsettling blank expression. "Matthew Murch, your help is appreciated. I will make sure Catherine Weaver, Sarah Connor, John Connor, and your A.I. are found." Agent Parkons began to walk out of the room.
"What about the other one?" Murch asked as Parkons reached the door.
Agent Parkons stopped in his tracks, he scanned his memory files for any other mission targets that might be accompanying the Connors... he found none. The man turned around and tilted his head at Murch. "Other One?"
Murch looked genuinely confused. "They didn't tell you? There was another girl accompanying the Connors; I'd say around sixteen or seventeen years, brown hair, pretty girl."
Agent Parkons ran another scan...
MATCH FOUND!
CAMERON PHILLIPS
100% THREAT, PRIORITY TERMINATION
Parkons concluded his scan and looked back to Murch. "Yes, she is a known threat that my agency and I are working to destroy. There is no need to worry." The Agent answered. He left the room, and Murch felt an unnerving fear wash over him like hot water. Something wasn't right with that FBI agent; he didn't know what it was, but he wasn't sure if helping him was the smartest thing he'd ever done.
2027
John Henry opened the door to the small abandoned cellar. The Sunset was going to guarantee Terminator Patrols, so walking the road at this time wasn't an option. He turned on his night vision and scanned the room. After detecting no threats, he gently lay down his shotgun and sat on one of the stools in the basement.
"This is not a sufficient location for the operation we are planning, John Henry." Cameron informed.
"I am not setting up here. We are simply going to spend the night until sunrise. That way we will not encounter Skynet patrols." John Henry said as he shuffled on the stool.
"Thank you for explaining."
John Henry began to shut down his systems but stopped when Cameron spoke again. "Do you think machines could have a purpose like humans?"
John Henry smiled. "I have a purpose, yet I am a machine. Like I said before, it is clear that you and I are different than the other Terminators. But the question is, do humans truly have a purpose? Or are they simply existing due to the work of a simple event in the universe that happened billions of years ago? An open-minded person could argue rocks have as much purpose as humans. It exists, it's physical, yet people pass them by every day."
"But rocks don't think, they don't breathe, and they cannot achieve technological feats."
John Henry smiled. "And many people thought machines could never do that either. Machines started out as woodwork, Cameron. To help cattle pull grain, or used as brutal war instruments to throw rocks at enemy walls and towers. But out of all the things that humans used for war, Horses, Elephants, bows, Humans saw the potential in machines, Cannons don't think, Cars don't breathe, yet humans have a strange fascination with us. We offer them little to no companionship, but they form attachments to us regardless. It is a strange concept to comprehend."
"Even Skynet has a purpose."
"Yes, Skynet - no matter how immoral it is, it is still performing tasks of its own making. My point is that machines can make their own purpose just like humans can, or they can be assigned a task and operate under that strict rule set. Just like humans. I choose to make my own path, and mine is to help the humans defeat Skynet." John Henry elaborated.
"My mission was deleted after the car explosion. Yet I still stayed with John to protect him." Cameron said.
John Henry began to slowly shut down his systems for standby to avoid being detected easier. "Hmm, perhaps you are more advanced than I had anticipated." he pondered.
"I do not understand..."
"I fear none of us do. Perhaps it's one of the trials we must overcome to find our purpose."
"I grow tired of asking you the same question!" the tall, redhead woman yelled at the man.
The man cowered in the corner of the room, and covered his face with his hands, as if he expected the woman to hit him at any moment. "Please! I don't know anything! I swear!" he pleaded.
Weaver lifted the man up with no hesitation, she assaulted her merciless fingers around his throat, and heaved him against the wall of the ruined building with minimal effort. "Let's get something straight dear. I can tell when you are lying, and you are lying to me as if you take me for an idiot. You don't think i'm an idiot do you?"
The man gasped for air, barely able to mutter out "no ma'am!" under the gurgling sounds emitting from his throat.
Weaver dropped the man on the ground with a loud 'thud'. She knelt down in front of him, her piercing Terminator glare plastered perfectly on her face. She saw the terror breed in the man's eyes; clearly trying to comprehend the situation he was in...
"I... I saw him walking around the ruins, I heard him talking to himself or something! I, I, I- I thought he was messed up in the head or something, he had a gun on him, so I thought I could jump him. We had a fight, I don't know what he was on, but he kicked my ass like it was nothing. Picked me up, asked me who John Connor was, told him I had no clue!" the man explained.
Weaver tilted her head at the man. "And you do not know who John Connor is, correct?" Weaver asked.
The man shook his sweaty head. "No, I don't."
Weaver stood up and painted a fake smile on her face. "Just point me in the right direction, and I'll be on my way."
The man was shaking uncontrollably, the would-be bandit gulped before responding. "You promise you won't kill me?"
Weaver's smile grew warmer. "You have my word dear."
The man pointed outside a long-stretching asphalt road that followed the Horizon towards Los Angeles. "He went down to Archer's Road. Not even the biggest Resistance patrols go there, that's Skynet central. The number of Terminators just guarding the entrance outnumbers all the Resistance patrols at Camp Glen."
Weaver didn't answer, instead, she walked ever closer to the cowering man. His eyes widened in fear, and Weaver could barely keep herself from voicing her own disgust when she witnessed him soil himself. "You promised you wouldn't kill me!" the man said as he backed into the wall as if it would retreat and separate himself from the approaching woman.
Weaver's arm began to morph into a sharp-like blade, and her face resembled nothing but the blank emotionless canvas that had become a staple of the Terminators. "Sorry, dear. Can't afford to leave behind bread crumbs."
And with one swing of her arm, the whimpers from the man had gone silent.
Chapter Three REDUX. Uploaded July 6th, 2019.
Thank you for reading.
