The same night John led another group out to see if they could find any humans. They traveled short distances, taking refuge wherever they could. They had been out for a little over an hour when they heard someone or something moving through the broken buildings. John motioned for them to take cover. A few moments later they heard voices. John hesitated, and then decided that the only way they would know if there were other humans in the area was to make their presence known. He stepped out from his hiding place and saw three human males, all in their mid-30's. When they saw John the reacted by aiming their weapons at him; sawed off shotguns in poor condition.
"Stop! We are not your enemy." John told them. He motioned for the others to come out of hiding.
"Who are you?" asked the man who appeared to be their leader. He was an African American male, about six feet tall.
"My name is John Conner. This is Brian McKay, Jason Fletcher, and Luis Vega. We came from a government shelter in Eastern California. I promise you we are harmless."
The three men looked at him for a few seconds. John wasn't sure if they believed him, or if they were going to kill him for his weapon. He was already regretting exposing himself to this danger when the leader motioned to the others to lower their weapons. John did the same with his group.
"My name is Elijah Brown. This is Tom Krueger and Alex Gonzalez."
The two groups exchanged their "hello's", still not certain what to think of each other. They decided that it was not a good idea to continue their conversation out in the open, so they headed for a pile of concrete that would protect them
"How long have you been in L.A.?" asked Elijah Brown.
"About 2 months." replied John. "How did you survive the bombs?"
"Some of us were in the subways when the bombs dropped. Others just came to L.A. afterwards. What about you?"
"Like I said, some of us were in a government bomb shelter. We waited until we thought it was safe to come out, and then we did some scouting. We found people to join us. We decided that it was time to fight so we came here hoping to find shelter and more people to fight." explained John.
The two groups continued to talk. John discovered that Elijah's group was made up of about 38 people. They had been living in storm drains and subway tunnels, barely existing on whatever canned food they could scrounge up. They didn't know the name of their enemy, but they did know that the war wasn't over. Elijah explained that they had destroyed a dozen or so "robots", and that they had lost 18 people since they got together. They didn't go out much during the day because they had been attacked by flying machines. John explained to them about Skynet, Terminators and HKs. He was astounded by the poor health of the group. They were all terribly thin and ragged looking. There were only 5 children in the group. John couldn't wait to get them below and get a decent meal into them.
After talking for almost 2 hours, John asked them to meet at the same place the next day. He also wanted them to think about moving down into the subway.
When they arrived back at the tunnels John told Kate that they had found a group of survivors. She was excited by the fact that there would be more soldiers to fight Skynet and hoped that they would join them.
John spent a restless rest time, worrying about the safety of his people and wondering if the other group would agree to join them. He thought they would since they were barely surviving on their own.
The next night John and his group met Elijah and his group.
"Have you decided whether to join us?" asked John.
"We'll join you, but we have to be able to make decisions too. We don't want to just be told what to do all of the time."
"Agreed. Everyone has a say in what we do, but remember, I am in charge. What I say goes. But I will listen to your opinions. You know the area better than we do."
Elijah's group had packed their few belongings and was ready to move into the tunnels. They would maintain Elijah's tunnels as a back up refuge in case patrols were attacked and needed a place to hide. This way they would not lead the HKs back to the main base.
He signaled them, and they all headed for the subway, and their new home.
They entered the tunnel and the sentries boarded it up behind them. John introduced Elijah to Kate. They got them fed and settled into their sleeping areas.
Bedding and food were becoming a problem. John decided that a group needed to go back to Crystal Peak and bring the remaining food, bedding and anything else they could find they could use. Brian McKay would lead the group, taking Elijah, Patrick Brooks, Julie Baker and Eddie Carmichael. They would take the largest vehicle they had and load it completely with supplies.
They took a few cans of gasoline and enough food to get them back to Crystal Peak and left late at night. They had to be extra cautious because Skynet had put out extra patrols of airborne HKs since they had arrived and destroyed so many HKs.
They arrived at Crystal Peak a little less than two weeks after they started out. They were relieved to see no trace of Skynet when they arrived. They spent three days gathering up what they would need and loading it on the truck. The return trip took longer since all but the driver had to walk. There were several times when they heard helicopters and HKs and had to hide wherever they could find shelter.
One day, just before noon one of the sentries reported that he heard movement in the bushes. He woke everyone in camp so they could be ready to fight if it was Skynet. Weapons were drawn and pointed towards the sound. A few seconds later a scrawny golden retriever puppy with matter fur and mud on its coat, emerged from the weeds. Julie Baker was the first to get to it. She picked it up, "Oh, you poor little thing. You look like you haven't ever had a decent meal."
The others gathered around it, all wanting to pet and hold the tiny animal.
"Let's get is something to eat." said Patrick as he headed for their food supplies. He found some canned ham and gave it to the puppy that wolfed it down in no time.
"Do you think there are any more puppies around, or is he the only one?" asked Julie. "Why don't we look around, see if we can find anymore from his litter?"
Brian agreed, but reminded them to be careful.
They scouted area and just as they were about to give up they heard whimpering from a hollow log. Patrick got down on his hands and knees and peered inside the log and saw two more Lab puppies, equally thin and matted. They had to coax them out with some ham. They looked around for a few minutes, but they could not find anymore puppies, or their mother.
They took the puppies back to camp and reunited them with their lost sibling. After cleaning the three animals up, Julie made some makeshift collars and leashes for them so they would not get away from them. These three dogs would be a great help in the battle against Skynet.
They arrived back in L.A. after dark and parked the truck in the same garage and covered it with camouflage netting. Taking the three dogs and what they could carry, they headed back to the subway to get help with the rest of the supplies.
When they arrived back at the subway, they were surrounded by people who wanted to pet the dogs. "Where did you find them?" asked Kate.
Brian explained how they found the dogs, and that they had looked around but couldn't find more.
John was especially pleased by their luck in finding these animals. After much discussion they decided to name them Max, Jada and Cleo. The children were thrilled to have puppies to play with, but John explained that the dogs would have to be trained to help in the fight against Skynet. When he saw how disappointed they were, he relented and said they could take care of the puppies until they were healthy again. Since Kate had worked with dogs at the vet's office, she was in charge of making sure the puppies were well taken care of.
The supplies were unloaded from the truck and brought down to the tunnels. There were cases of food, blankets, pillows, and books. John was hoping that they could make at least one more trip back to Crystal Peak to bring a few more things they would need, but that would have to wait until autumn. The nights were too short now to make long trips.
As the days passed the puppies gained weight. Their coats began to shine and they had the energy puppies should have. John decided it was time to start their training. He wanted them to be gentle with humans, but alert them to the presence of Terminators.