It was getting crowded in the shelter. There were 175 people there now, and they were going to run out of food and water if they didn't do something. Carol Phillips, an avid gardener before the attacks, was working on a way to plant vegetable seeds in pots on a lower level and using indoor lighting as their light source. She had brought a few packets of seeds with her, hoping she could plant a garden somewhere.
John knew that it was going to get harder to train the new people too because of the limited space, but he knew he could count on Jose and Dennis to help him. John had come to depend on the two men. While he was gone Dennis had proposed to Elizabeth, who had recently discovered that she was pregnant. There was no minister to make the marriage legal so he asked John to perform the ceremony.
Although John still didn't trust Billy completely, he decided to give him a little more freedom. He thought that he was probably just a follower of Silas Ramsey and probably was not a threat to the group. Besides, he was a strong man who could be put to work and could be a good fighter.
They continued to practice their weapons and train in combat techniques for several months. John and Kate knew that it was getting close to the time when they needed to move from their safe bunker to Los Angeles where they could battle Skynet.
At their nightly meeting, John and Kate suggested that they start getting ready to make the move to Los Angeles. This was met by silence from the group. No one really wanted to leave the safety of the bunker.
It was Billy who broke the silence, "I agree, we can just hide here like a bunch of scared kids. It's time to fight back, take back what is ours!"
The others began murmuring in agreement.
"He's right. We have to fight Skynet. That's what we have been getting ready for." said Jose.
Kate suggested that they finally break down and use the radio to see if they could contact anyone in the military. Trained soldiers would be a great asset when they got to L.A. and began fighting Skynet.
There was a reference book near the radio that listed various frequencies for all of the military installations around the country. They decided that Kate should begin trying to make contact since she knew more about the military than anyone other than Colonel Perry.
She had only been scanning frequencies for a few hours when she found a group of soldiers that were excited to finally hear a human voice.
"Hello!" they shouted, laughing and cheering. "Where are you?"
Kate hesitated for a moment, and then answered, "We are in California. Where are you?"
"We are in Corpus Christi, Texas, at a Naval Air Station. You are the first people we have heard from in a long time. We used to be in contact with a group of people near Austin, but they stopped broadcasting."
"My name is Kate; I'm here with my husband John, Colonel James Perry and Dennis Reese. What is your name?"
My name is Carlos Valdez. I've got Michael Quintanilla and David Harper with me. Corpus Christi was not a primary target so we had quite a few survivors here. A lot of people left the base after the attacks, those of us who didn't have any place to go stayed here. We have a roof over our heads and a bay to get fish out of. It's not too bad here."
"Look, Carlos, we don't have a lot of time to talk. What do you know about this war and how it started?"
"Well, Kate, we don't know much of anything about how it stared. We do know that there are some kinds of robots going around killing people. We had a guy come in from the Houston area a couple weeks ago. He was telling us about how dozens of silver robots swarmed what was left of the city and killed a lot of people."
"Those are Hunter-Killers created by Skynet. Skynet is a computer program that started this war; its main purpose is to destroy all human life. We have to get as many people together and fight it." Kate answered. She paused, and then asked, "Would your group be interested in joining us?"
"I don't know," Carlos replied. "We're safe here, the weather is good and the fishing is great."
"Carlos, this is John Conner. It's just a matter of time before those robots find you. That's there job. They will try to find every human on this planet and kill them."
"I don't know, I still think we are safe here. Sorry, but you will have to look somewhere else for your help."
"Okay, but if you change your mind, we are headed for the city of angels in just a few weeks." replied John.
They took turns with the radio, hoping that they would find a group that was willing to join them.
Late one night while Dennis was on the radio and he came across a group of former army reservists. They had survived because their unit had already left the base when the attacks came. They went to their homes, gathered their families and headed into the mountains of northern Washington with as many supplies as they could carry. Their leader, a man named Jason Fletcher had sufficient survival training to keep them all alive through the difficult winter months. They had built cabins for shelter and had planted gardens to supplement their food supply. Hunting and fishing also helped to keep them fed. John figured they were probably doing better than most of the people who had survived. On one of their foraging expeditions they had seen first hand what the HKs could do, so they were very willing to join John's group and move to L.A. to fight Skynet. John was not willing to give out their present location so the two groups agreed to meet in L.A. in six weeks. This would give John's group time to pack, make the trip and find some type of shelter before the other group arrived.
They decided that they would begin packing what they would need for the trip. They would load all of the vehicles with food, water, medical supplies weapons, ammunition and whatever else they might need. The youngest children would be the only ones allowed to ride. It took them two weeks to pack everything. It was hard leaving the security of the bunker, but they knew they had to begin the fight against Skynet.
They finished all of their preparations and rested during the day. They would be leaving after dark that night. After eating their evening meal, they finished loading the vehicles with their supplies and started their journey to L.A. As the doors to the bunker rumbled shut and the vehicles pulled away from the garage, John and Kate felt sad to be leaving the only home they had had together.