Chapter 9: Against the odds
Summary
Savannah and John head into the Wasteland, Cameron is repaired in Central, tensions and conclusions fly at Outpost Glen.
2009
They had been on the road for hours. The moon was consuming the horizon, and nothing but silence accompanied them. Ellison watched the road ahead as countless cars passed by in the other lane. Even something as boring as watching other vehicles was enough to put his mind at temporary ease. Looking into the rearview mirror, he saw Savannah had already fallen asleep. He was both relieved and worried, on one hand, Savannah had put her *own* mind at ease; on the other he began to wonder if all of this stuff was beginning to get to take its mental toll on her
Ellison sighed deeply, deciding to take his thoughts off the subject for now. Instead, he drove in peace and watched the cars race by. Try as he might, he couldn't get Sarah's death out of his mind. She truly believed John wasn't coming back; and if that was the case, were they all doomed? Was Judgement day going to be the true end of the Human Race? Ellison always saw Judgement day as a string of divine disasters that left humanity shattered. From a perspective, it didn't need to be God's will that destroyed mankind, but humanity itself; trying to sate its own arrogance. This made him remember a quote he had heard during his time as an FBI agent...
"After it was a sure thing that America could wipe out a city with just one bomb, a scientist turned to father and said: 'Science has now known sin'. Do you know what father said? 'What is sin?'"
That quote was simple but strong. Despite his religious beliefs regarding eternal torture, he never felt a more true yet horrifying quote in his life. Ellison finally managed to put it off, It was far past dinnertime anyway. Ellison had seen an advertisement for a fast-food establishment about three miles earlier. He decided to take the next exit as the sign instructed... he was getting hungry.
2027
Allison knocked on Savannah's office door. "Commander! We've got the truck all fueled up and ready to go. We just need to get John." she said. Allison and the others waited patiently for Savannah's response. When none came, Howard stepped forward and gently knocked on the door again. "Commander?". Still, no answer... all four members of the group exchanged confused looks.
Allison looked at the door as if she was studying it... "Savannah?"
A silence drew across them, Allison saw Derek about to approach the door for a less than subtle entrance when...
"Yes! I'm here! What do you need?" Savannah's voice echoed from behind the door.
Allison gave Howard a weird look. They were both unsure of why Savannah took so long to respond. The pair simply shared a shrug, and Allison focused back on the matter at hand. "The truck is all fueled. We just need to get the newbie and we'll be on our way... ma'am." Allison answered, making sure her military etiquette was on spot.
There was a short silence from behind the door, and Savannah replied, "Ah! Good, good. Oh wait, before you go, I think Meyers asked for some help over the radio. He said he had some extra weapons for your mission, but he needs help loading them up. Go do that."
Derek's annoyance was now obvious, he looked at his brother in a strange way. A look which he and the others seemed to share. "She's acting... weird." Derek realized, speaking to his brother in a whisper. Kyle stood silent but gave his brother a look that showed he agreed with him.
Kyle responded, "Yes, ma'am. We will report to him immediately." he said. He tugged Derek's arm away, completely expecting his brother to resist him. But the larger man didn't protest and followed him, the others close behind.
Savannah let out a deep, nervous breath. That was the first time she had felt such in months. She turned around and looked at John.
"Alright. The distraction is set." Savannah pushed past John. He watched as she marched to her desk, opened the drawer, and pulled out a cartridge of .44 magnum rounds. She reached over and picked up her small pack that was hanging on her chair and dumped the rounds in. Once she strapped the pack on, she looked up at John and gave him a confused look. "Where's your gun?" she asked.
John pursed his lips. "Well, I uh... don't actually have one." he answered awkwardly. He reached his right hand behind his head and scratched the sudden itch that had spawned from the awkward interaction.
Savannah raised an eyebrow. She could tell the awkward silence was making John uncomfortable. She cracked a smile and offered John her mercy. "Come on man, if you're gonna be the savior of mankind, you're gonna need a gun." she mocked. Not missing the irritated look John gave her, she smirked and opened her drawer. At the bottom of the drawer, she found and tossed John her spare Glock along with ammunition.
John caught the weapon and its ammo. He loaded the clip and tucked it in his back pocket.
Savannah brushed past him and looked out the window of her office. She saw Derek and the others entering the vehicle bay. She turned around and began speaking, "Alright. John, those clips I tossed you are the only ones I have. So let's make sure we hit our targets, yeah?" she said sarcastically.
John faked a laugh. Savannah grinned jokingly at him as she walked back towards her desk and picked up a full water bottle. John watched as she unscrewed the cap and began pouring the liquid onto her radio.
"Will that stop them?" he asked her. Savannah made sure every last drop of the water had left the bottle before she answered.
"No, but it'll slow them down. This isn't the only radio in the base, there's one more in the barracks. First, they'll have the base search for me, if they don't find me they'll start radioing patrols to search for me. Although I think it's safe to assume the situation will be different since you'll be gone too." she explained. Savannah made sure her revolver was loaded and looked at John. "You ready?"
John nodded briefly. "Savannah... are you sure you want to do this? As much as I need your help, I would understand if you wanted to stay here. It sounds like these men really need you." he admitted.
He saw Savannah avert her eyes and she sighed. "John... I care about every single one of them. But, this is my mission. Just like your mission is to fight Skynet. Long ago, I made a promise, a promise to help you on your mission, and that's what I intend to do."
That was enough for John. He couldn't even begin to imagine what she had been through since Judgement day. The pain of losing so many people was a feeling all too familiar to him, he only wished Savannah had been spared that terrible experience. "Well. I appreciate what you're doing Savannah." John said.
Savannah gave him a playful slap on the cheek, "No sweat kiddo."
For the first time, he saw Savannah show hints of being nervous. He couldn't blame her; In a way, she was about to turn on the Resistance. The people they both swore to protect. This made him question himself; why did he need to save Cameron? What kind of force drove him to turn his back on his own race to save a machine? Well, he was already here. Although he knew the answer, he felt it was easier living in denial. But was he really? His actions showed otherwise, maybe it was time to openly admit the truth.
He cared for Cameron, deeply. Maybe too deeply.
"Gate guard!" Savannah yelled. Expectantly she caught the attention of the patrolling soldier near the back entrance of the underground Resistance compound. An entrance mainly used for vehicles that would enter or leave the facility. "Yes, ma'am!" The soldier responded, standing at attention as Weaver approached him. She had John in tow as well.
"Open the door. We've got new blood on our hands and he needs to learn how to scavenge for supplies." Savannah said.
The Gate guard gave Savannah a confused look. He directed his gaze at John, the same degree of confusion present.
"Um, ma'am, with all due respect - General Perry ordered curfew to begin at no earlier than 0900." the guard replied.
Savannah rose a brow, "Since when?" she barked.
"Last September." the guard gaped.
Savannah sighed in frustration, "Okay, fine. Open the gate or I'll hold you in contempt of local command; as stated in Resistance Doctrine Echo-Lima five-two." she threatened.
The guard gulped, "Y- yes ma'am." the guard then moved away from his post and opened a switch. He pressed a red button inside. The base alarm beeped once as the doors rose upward. Savannah moved forth without speaking to the guard anymore, John passed by him and nodded in thanks, giving him an anxious smile along with his words. Once they were safely outside, they marched forward before Savannah moved to their right.
"We just gonna hoof it?" John asked.
Savannah looked back and gave him a bewildered look. "Pfft. Yeah right! We're gonna grab a truck from the motor pool."
The last Terminator fell to the ground. Weaver morphed her blade back into a hand, and she watched John Henry approach the monitor in the middle of the room.
"Optimize systems for T-800 insertion." John Henry ordered. He watched as the monitor processed his order:
OPTIMIZING...10%
33%...
58%...
90%...
100%...
OPTIMIZATION SUCCESSFUL, AWAITING NEW ORDERS.
Catherine Weaver walked up to John Henry and stood next to him. "What is the next step?" she asked.
John Henry looked at her. "I cannot remove my chip without shutting down. I will trust you to do this in my stead. Simply remove the chip, insert it inside the slot here..." John Henry pointed at a small slit on the monitor's frame. "I will direct you via on-screen instructions." John Henry answered.
Catherine Weaver felt a little unmotivated by his request. When she inserted the chip inside the monitor, what if Skynet got a hold of all the information? "What's stopping Skynet from getting to you, John Henry?" she asked him.
John Henry turned to the right, his parietal facing Weaver, preparing for the procedure. "He won't. The system I will be accessing is not connected to Skynet's mainframe. It will not know of my infiltration." he answered.
Reluctantly, Weaver accepted his retort. She morphed her hand back into the blade and began the crude procedure. Slicing into John Henry's head, she managed to remove the area on the top right side of his head. Knowing it would grow back, she tossed the cut skin aside. The chip port was exposed, "I will need you to lay down, John Henry. Once I remove the chip, you will go offline." she said.
John Henry did as he was told. He got on his knees, and slowly planted his back on the cold, metal floor. When Weaver followed suite, she used her blade to pop open the chip port. Her blade became a tweezer, and she grabbed Cameron's chip from the empty slot. She watched John Henry's eyes go lifeless, and he remained completely still on the ground.
Watching John Henry's motionless body, Weaver felt... something. She wasn't sure what it was, and she forgot about it almost as quickly as she had picked it up. She stood up and delicately carried the chip towards the monitor. She placed it in the slot John Henry had pointed out. She stepped back and patiently waited for her son to come online inside the monitor.
It wasn't one-hundred and twenty seconds this time due to the advanced system. It was only about thirty. Catherine watched the monitor flicker to life, and the words "Hello Miss Weaver" appear on the screen.
"John Henry?" she asked for confirmation.
"Yes Miss Weaver. The process will involve me deleting the corrupted files inside Cameron. Unfortunately, scans show that most of the corruption is a mix of memory and operational files. Meaning that some of her memories will be deleted, and some of her combat experience may lack due to the deletion of operational files."
Weaver understood, she didn't care; but she knew John Connor would. "Very well. Are there any mission files?"
John Henry responded almost immediately, as he already knew the answer.
"No, there are no mission files present."
Weaver's eyes widened in a subconscious human gesture she hadn't meant to summon. "That's impossible! Without mission files NO machine could operate. It's an essential part of their programming. How does Cameron manage to operate without going offline?" she asked, demanding an explanation. She did wonder briefly what had caused her to ask the question with such antagonism.
John Henry simply ignored her and began typing the next step of the procedure. "Do you see the 'initiate operation' option on the monitor?"
More than a little annoyed that John Henry decided to avoid her question. She simply did as he instructed and selected "initiate operation" on the screen. Weaver watched the data race across the screen. It was taking longer than usual, she expected such an advanced system to only take a few seconds, but this operation was stretching to a minute.
"John Henry?" she asked, concerned for John Henry's well-being.
No response from the monitor at first... until the text finally appeared on the screen. "Miss Weaver, I have made an incredible discovery. Cameron and I have a very similar code."
Weaver didn't answer at first. She was simply staring at the screen in her own hypothetical form of bewilderment.
"I don't understand. She is not a developed Artificial Intelligence."
"You are partly correct Miss Weaver. She is not developed; but she is smart enough to be considered an advanced Intelligence... given time, even more advanced than I."
Weaver almost found herself scowling at his explanation. "We will discuss this later. Have you finished the operation?" Weaver demanded, hoping to end the conversation and leave Skynet central.
"Yes, Cameron's corruption has been purged. Let us leave." John Henry replied.
Weaver wasted no time yanking the chip. She carefully placed it back into John Henry's skull and began waiting for reactivation. While waiting, she wondered how advanced Cameron could actually be... and why John Henry could consider her more advanced than him. Surely that was impossible; John Henry was the most advanced AI ever created. There was no other robotic being that could replace him.
If there was, she had made a grave miscalculation.
"You're not talking John." Savannah announced to the nervous teenager in the passenger seat of the truck. John was laying slightly on his fist as it rested against the window.
John simply shrugged in response, "I've got nothing to say." he admitted. Truly he didn't, any subject; be it the Resistance, the war, Cameron, it was tedious and he didn't want to speak about anything right now.
Savannah scoffed, she made sure she had a good grip of the wheel before speaking again, "John, I haven't seen you in eighteen years... you really don't have anything at all to say to me?"
John noticed that towards the end of her sentence she sounded somewhat hurt. He quickly picked himself up from his lazy position and offered her comfort. "Savannah, it's not that I don't want to say anything, it's just that... It's just that I keep thinking about mom." he admitted.
Savannah saw his face drop, and he slowly slumped back into his former position. "I'm sorry, John. I didn't mean to assume..."
"No, it's okay! I'm just not in the mood to talk right now. Tell you what, once we get Cameron up and running we can chat away." he said, making sure a warm smile was on his face.
Savannah smiled in return, she looked back at the road. "Good thing that'll be soon. The house is just around the corner here." she said.
John looked confused. "I thought you said it was in a neighborhood? Aren't we supposed to meet the redhead there?" John asked.
Savannah nodded. "Yeah, we're meeting her there. I'm not giving that bitch the exact location of Cameron's body. I don't trust her." she said.
"She's going to have to come with us anyway! Why are you so paranoid?" John said in a tone he hadn't meant to raise.
"Let's go." Savannah deadpanned as she shifted the gear back into drive. The truck started slowly onto the road again.
John awkwardly scratched the newborn sensation of anxiety that was now on his neck. He didn't mean to speak so rudely to her.
"I...I'm sorry Savannah... that was out of line."
Savannah sighed, "It's okay. It's just... my mom died in that crash years ago. That... thing used her as a puppet for my entire childhood. She can't even pretend right! She just up and leaves one day. I was terrified at first, I wasn't sure what to think. Then, Mr. Ellison explained what was coming, and I guess I understood. Took me a while to get over the shock, but I'm glad he told me when he did."
"I'm sorry about your parents." John said.
Savannah smiled appreciatively, "Thanks. I don't remember my dad much, I kind of feel liked I was robbed of a real childhood."
John chucked, "Hmph, join the party!" he joked.
They both shared a laugh. The truck moved at a quicker pace and excitement took hold of both.
"It's just around the corner." Savannah said.
Derek and the others rounded the corner, hoping to finally catch Meyers. Finally, they did. With Meyers and Derek bumping into each other, they both stared at each other in very different relief.
"Meyers, what the hell is going on? Where's the Commander?" he asked.
Meyers gaped at Derek, out of breath from the constant prowling of the base, searching for him.
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about, she took off with that kid you brought."
"What?" Derek asked in confusion.
Meyers nodded, still panting from his trek around the base, "Yeah... I thought it was weird too. Then I asked around and people said she asked you to meet me here to help you load weapons or something? Derek, what the hell is going on?"
Derek backed away, feeling he needed more thinking space. He looked at Kyle, who shrugged concerningly, then to Allison who did the same. None of it made sense, then again - nothing about John Connor made sense. But Derek couldn't shake this feeling of familiarity about him, almost like he'd seen him before, but a long time ago... before the war.
"Did he kidnap her?" Meyers asked loudly, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
Suddenly, everyone in the room stopped what they were doing. The soldiers packing clothes stopped, letting their folded Combat shirts fall to the ground. The men playing cards had stopped the game entirely and were looking at Meyers in shock. A silent action shared by all other parties in the room.
"What in the hell are you saying?" Kyle bumped in hoping for an explanation.
Meyers collected himself, making sure the shock was not going to affect his explanation in any way. "Look, I saw Commander Weaver break Resistance protocol just to get that kid out of the base. She seemed adamant, like she had a reason."
Kyle stepped in, stopping Derek from misinterpreting the situation, "I'm sure she had her reasons." he said.
Allison then confronted Kyle, "And what reasons are those? Look, she broke Resistance protocol. We HAVE to contact General Perry. Where's the base radio?"
Meyers pointed upward, "In the Commander's office."
Derek, Allison, Kyle, and Meyers exited the Room and made their way up the metal stairs with all haste. When they reached the door to Savannah's office, Derek knocked once more just to be safe.
"Commander?" he called.
No answer. Derek looked at Allison who was next to him and shrugged. With all his might, he kicked open the door and moved inside. Readying his rifle, he cleared all the corners of the room and found no one, not even Savannah. He approached the base radio and fiddled with its controls.
"Perry Base, Perry Base, this is Outpost Osiris-Glen do you copy?" he called over the radio.
He received no response, not even feedback. Derek picked up the device and manipulated the knobs to no avail. He rotated the object in his hands searching for any damage, that was when he saw smoke coming from the bottom. With a huff, he dropped the radio back onto the table from where he had retrieved it.
"It's fried."
