It took them over five weeks to make the trip to Los Angeles. During the trip they lost two people to accidents, one to a heart attack and one to food poisoning. Elizabeth Reese gave birth to a beautiful baby boy while they were on the road. She was in labor for 12 hours. Elizabeth and Dennis decided to name their son Kyle. The trip was exhausting. No one was use to walking very far, especially at night. The roads were badly damaged and people had a hard time walking without tripping. Each morning when they made camp everyone was so exhausted they could hardly force themselves to eat before they fell asleep. The people were hot, dusty and on edge from watching for HKs.
They arrived late one night. The devastation in Los Angeles was overwhelming. There were no buildings standing. As far as the eye could see there was only ruins from the buildings; chunks of concrete, broken glass and twisted rebar. There were thousands of skeletons, all burnt, crushed and covered in ash. Neither John nor Kate could recognize anything about the city they had lived in most of their lives. John hoped to find a subway entrance so that he could get all of his people underground before they were attacked. He knew he had to find something before daylight exposed them to Skynet.
He was able to find a parking garage that had not collapsed completely that they could take refuge in. They found signs that there were other humans in the area. There were places where campfires had been built, empty food cans, and cast off clothing littering the area. Someone had spray painted "people live!" on the wall in red spray paint. John hoped that they could find some of these survivors and have them join in the fight against Skynet.
John had everyone but a few men stay with the vehicles while he and the small group scouted the area. He didn't like going out during the day, but they would not be able to search effectively after dark. They searched for over three hours before finding an entrance to the subway that they could remove enough rubble from so they could all get inside. John led them down into the tunnel and looked around. They found tunnels, service areas and platforms that were still intact.
"There's plenty of room for all of us down here." John said.
After returning to the parking garage, John decided that they should spend the rest of the day in the garage and then make the move that evening. They posted 10 heavily armed sentries to keep everyone safe while they slept. They put the campfires out and covered the openings with boards and bricks.
They all awoke just before it got dark, ate, and then they began moving small groups of people into the subway. Their vehicles would have to be left where they were for the time being.
Using their lanterns and flashlights they began setting up their new home. They put the children in the service areas that were not accessible from the outside. Weapons and ammunition were also placed in hidden service areas.
After thoroughly scouting the tunnels, it was discovered that there were only 5 tunnels that were still open to the outside. Sentries would be posted round the clock at these openings until three of them could be sealed. There was a subway train tunnel that led to Union Station. From there they could travel to different parts of the city, all without going above ground. This would have to be heavily guarded because he knew that Skynet could get to them from this entrance.
Teams would be sent out to see if they could scavenge for any items that might be useful. Wood was going to be needed for cooking and heating fires. Metal would be useful to make weapons. They were also going to need water eventually.
John, Kate and Sarah settled into their alcove. John had found a few sheets of plywood he could use to build walls for a little privacy. Kate had John fix up an area for Elizabeth, Dennis and Kyle that was close by. Elizabeth was spending all of her time and energy on Kyle while Dennis was helping to make their tunnel secure.
A small generator that was brought from Crystal Peak was set up on one of the subway platforms near the hospital. It would have enough power to provide lights to the hospital in case of an emergency. The gasoline was drained from all but one vehicle and stored near the generator.
After several days of scrounging they found enough metal bars, bricks and wood to block off three of the entrances to the subway. The entrances needed to be hidden, but fairly easy to open in case of an emergency. The entrances that were not blocked were hidden with boards.
The scavenger groups were made up of 3 people per group, which went out daily, at different times to see if they could find anything useful. They also looked for any sign of Skynet. It was difficult, searching through the ruins, walking over the skeletons, and trying to concentrate on what had to be done without letting the death and destruction overwhelm them.
A week after they arrived in L.A., Jason Fletcher's group arrived from Washington. There were 23 people in his group, including 8 children. John was grateful for the additional soldiers. Their training would be a great asset in the fight against Skynet.
The two groups of people began to adapt to their surroundings. They spent their days being trained for the battle against Skynet, and their evenings on patrol.
Carole Phillips had saved some of her seeds and was able to plant a small garden underneath a vent so the plants would get some sunshine.
Dr. Eldridge set up an area for a hospital in one of the vacant service areas. She knew that the hospital would be one of the most important areas after the fight with Skynet began. One of the reservists from Washington, a man named Samuel Dalton, had been trained as a medic and would help her treat any injured patients.
A school area was set up for the children. A cemetery was set up a short distance from their refuge.
John didn't want to take a chance using walkie-talkies and being overheard by Skynet so they set up a system for communication that involved using the children. Each sentry post had two children of at least 10 years old assigned to it. These children were used to pass messages back and forth. They were could move quicker than the adults, fit in smaller pipes so they could get around easier, and it was never too early to train them for being on sentry duty.
Colonel Perry continued to train his soldiers. He showed them how to scout for HKs without being seen, set traps and make weapons out of scraps of metal, chunks of concrete, whatever they could find.
Two months had passed since their arrival in Los Angeles; John was out scouting with his group when they heard weapons being fired. They hid behind the wreckage of a building when they heard something approaching. John peered out from behind the piles of concrete and saw three heavily armed silver robots searching for humans in the rubble. They were and walked upright like humans and looked like Terminators without skin. He had never seen anything like them. They must be the bipedal HKs the other groups had told him about. John waited until they got just passed their hiding place, and then motioned for his people to fire. Two of the HKs were destroyed, the third one turned and fired on the group, killing a young woman named Teri Bowen. David Perry was able to destroy it before it killed anyone else.
"Let's get out of here." John ordered.
They picked up Teri Bowen and made their way back to the tunnel.
The sentries met them at the gate. "What happened?"
"We ran into some HKs. One of them killed Teri before we could destroy it." answered David.
"I want the sentries doubled, and I want them to carry extra clips of the armor piercing rounds." ordered John.
The next night they buried Teri. She was the first fatality since their move to Los Angeles. John knew she would not be there last.