Chapter 9

Kyle's Future, 2026

The tunnel they were going through was dark and small, there were six of them Kyle and John led the group consisting besides them of Allison, Maggie, Mark, and Colin. They were searching for the next weapons cache left by John's mother they already found five of those since John appeared from thin air three months ago and told them about the caches.

Those three months have been difficult for John since he lost everything by going to the future with the T-1001 calling itself Catharine Weaver who left him immediately after coming here and didn't appear even since, he left his mother and everything else, sacrificing the future of humanity for Cameron he now understood why he did that, he didn't want to the savior of the human race in the war against the machines if she wasn't there, he did not want to fight against the machines for them but for her whom herself was a machine.

Anyway, he was now in this future where he was nobody, not the Great General Connor but merely a scavenger under his would-be uncle's command, and right now was on a mission with five other people going to the outskirts of the city that once was known as Los Angeles now lying-in ruins surrounded by wasteland. On the other hand, he got to know Kyle who had kind eyes as his mom told him, then there was Allison who made him feel uneasy because she was so like Cameron but so different from her.

John and the rest have been going for two days now trying to avoid machines and raiders, they were tired and wanted to come out of this tunnel as soon as possible to stop so they could rest before continuing, Derek was glad for the weapons from other caches, but they needed more for their survival in the world dominated by machines and despite his initial distrust toward John he decided that he would trust him on this.

Kyle trusted John already, he was sure that he wasn't a gray but at the same time he still thought that John was hiding something, he also observed that Allison seemed to be the closest person to this kid and actually she was acting a bit off these past months even before the mysterious appearance of Connor, she's been disappearing with frequency for days and all of this started when the rumors about rogue machines started.

Derek despite begin fond of Allison and treating her almost like a close family member was starting to be suspicious about this situation, meanwhile, Connor was curious about the supposed rogue machines and asked her frequently about what she knew. Kyle saw it all simply as an obsession and the fruit of desperation that Allison fell into and now was taking John with her.

After going through the tunnel for another mile the group finally arrived at someone's basement, it was more spacious than the tunnel they came from.

"Okey, I think we can rest there for a few hours, we should also establish some guards and send someone further to see If there are any machines or raiders" Kyle ordered the group as they put their things on the floor.

"I take the first guard," said John, he knew already that no one is ever safe, it was the mantra he learned from his mom he also knew that the machines weren't the only enemy and there were groups of people who despite humanity's extermination by Skynet still fought against other humans which made him sick.

"That's fine by me, I'll take the second meanwhile Mark checks what awaits further in the tunnel" Kyle spoke, that was the typical action they took upon stopping to rest.

Everyone went to do what they were supposed to as John sat at the best point to guard the entrance to the basement he heard someone from the group coming and when they said his name he instantly knew who it was, at the beginning he had difficulty since she sounded exactly like Cameron but now he knew the differences although it didn't make the things much better every time he heard Allison he still hoped that it was Cameron.

"Yes Allison, what do you want?" he asked with a friendly tone, she was the only person that seemed to trust him fully even though recently Kyle also seemed more open towards him.

"Can I sit beside you? It's not like I can sleep yet and besides, I would like to talk with you" she asked him with a tone that was too flirtatious to him, he liked her but only as a friend he could never think about something much more serious since it brought back the thoughts of Cameron.

He looked at her and smiled slightly at her and told "Of course, I like speaking to you, you've been my best friend since I arrived here".

She sat beside him and decided to ask a question "You know, we've been visiting a lot of your mom's weapon caches recently and there's one thing that caught my attention"

"Yes? And what it is?" he asked her curiously.

"They all seem old like they were made before the bombs drop, which should be impossible since you know about them as if you were present during their making" she eyed him questioningly, she was interested in discovering more about him since he was the only one who seemed to think that there could be rogue machines fighting Skynet, and she was still searching for any information possible about them despite Derek's protests.

John wasn't ready to tell anyone yet the truth about himself, not that anybody would ever believe his story about time travel, so he decided to not tell her the truth even though he didn't like lying to her "Well, my mom and I went a few times thought the caches before… I left her" he didn't know what happened to his mother, but he presumed she was probably dead since according to Cameron she might have had cancer.

Allison saw the sadness but was also curious about John's mom, so she asked him "Sorry if I brought bad memories, but I would like to know what she was like. Your mom?"

"That's fine she was taught like atomic nails, and really uptight…" those were the same words with which he described his mom to Cameron when they meet in Red Valley in 1999, he continued "I was everything she had ever since my father died before I was even born… I loved her but shortly before I left her, we had a lot of disagreements if I could change something it would be this…"

"Was it about this Cameron, you talked about before?" she sometimes heard him calling this name in his sleep.

John had to say something, so he decided to tell a half-truth "Yes, but also there were other things, I was in a relationship with a girl and both my mom and Cameron were against it but I just ignored them and went on until the girl was killed and we had to flee from that place, soon after Charlie my mom's ex-fiancé was killed by grays and my uncle was killed by a machine…" he paused for a moment before continuing "Soon after my mom was imprisoned and we had to free her, Cameron got hurt in the process and was taken away by this John Henry character, I went after them against my mom leaving everything I had behind, I don't think that I will be able to return back…"

Allison was looking at him and saw the sadness and longing in his eyes every time he spoke about this Cameron girl, she felt jealous of Cameron because John abandoned everything even his mom for her, he was clearly in love even if he didn't tell it, she had to ask more questions "What was Cameron like?"

He thought for a moment and smiled and answered, "She looks very much like you, she could pass for your twin perfectly, she is fearless, taught, very intelligent and she has those cute quirks like tilting her head to the side when she's confused or doesn't understand something, and when you explain something to her, her answer usually is: 'Thank you for explaining. She and my mom taught me everything I know about the machines".

'Yes, he's definitely in love with this Cameron' Allison thought. "Cameron is a lucky girl for having someone like you John".

"I don't know, I was a jerk to her for a very long time, things happened she had an accident and tried to kill me eventually she turned back well almost to normal, but she said that I couldn't be trusted anymore because I risked my life for her, after that everything went simply wrong and when I realized that what I did was wrong it was too late… I won't forgive myself for what I did to her until I find her and tell her the truth" John answered as tears started to fill his eyes.

Allison seeing him so sad decided to comfort him with a hug.

After Mark returned informing that the coast ahead was clear everyone went to sleep except Kyle and John.

"So how far are we from this weapons cache?" Kyle asked

"Only two or three hours if nothing stops us" John replied slightly asleep.

"I hope but the truth is that the machines may come any moment" Kyle sighted

"Then we fight," John said.

"And get ourselves killed? I don't know what you do in the place you came from, but we just try to survive" Kyle wanted to fight but he knew wasn't possible at this moment, the resistance was destroyed a few years ago what remains are loose groups there and there.

"If we don't fight back then we die anyway, we have to fight or Skynet wins" John answered starting to get angry.

"With what? we barely survive with what we have John and your mom's weapons won't be enough" Kyle answered calmly.

"We need a leader, someone who will be capable of railing people and leading them towards victory, who knows perhaps Allison is right and there are rebel machines that fight against Skynet" John answered trying to control his voice.

"John, Allison is a good girl but even Derek thinks she has an obsession and simply wants to see something that doesn't exist, I don't think that there is any machine resistance against Skynet" Kyle tried to reason with John.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, and I think that you need some sleep I will wake up Maggie so she can take the guard in your place" John simply nodded not wanting to argue with Kyle and because he was truly tired.

Unbeknown to them Allison listened to all the conversation.

After they rested and ate, they continued their way through the tunnel until arriving at the manhole where they climbed to the surface.

John was still feeling uneasy looking at the landscape of the destroyed city of Los Angeles with the metal skeletons of skyscrapers and many buildings, with its ruins and streets full of human bones and skulls belonging to those who died in the blast or were killed by the machines.

They marched toward the cache taking as much cover as possible observing both for the endos on the ground and HKs in the air, they went and rummaged through the ruined buildings in the suburbs of the city taking anything they could use.

When they were about ten minutes from their objective Kyle saw movement and halted the group with his hand and moved further alone to see what it was when he climbed a small hill of concrete, he saw four endos patrolling, he signaled the others about the danger ahead and everybody took their position.

John was beside Kyle both holding their plasma rifles, Allison was a bit further with Maggie both holding shotguns with depleted uranium rounds and rifles, Mark was on the other side covered behind the wall of an old hardware store holding an RPG with Colin covering him with his automatic.

Kyle didn't like it, six humans against four terminators, wasn't fair but then nothing in this world was fair since the war started.

Everybody was tense and tried to concentrate on the task ahead, John tried to remember everything that Cameron tough him about the terminator's weaknesses he already had experience fighting them from previous missions, but it was still very dangerous and most probably they would suffer losses the most important thing was to maintain calmness, concentrate and search for enemy's weak spots.

Finally, Kyle gave the signal to fire, immediately the four endos were hit by the projectiles and quickly responded with their fire toward Kyle and John who for the moment represented a greater threat with their plasma rifles than Allison and Maggie and that was what Kyle wanted.

While the endos fired at Kyle and John, Mark was aiming the terminators with the RPG when they were on the spot he fired and the projectile hit one of them in the abdomen separating its torso and legs, the others instantly fired at Mark while he dived for cover Colins covering him with his fire.

The legless terminator continued to fire at John and Kyle while Allison launched a thermite grenade toward it that exploded melting part of its head and destroying its chip.

"One down, three remain" someone cried.

One of the terminators shot toward Maggie's and Allison's position just as the former was about to throw her grenade at them three plasma projectiles hit her in the chest, and she feel unmoving.

In that instant, Mark fired another rocket that hit the ground between two of the machines throwing them in opposite directions and damaging their legs, the other one remaining shot him before he was able to dive and redirected its fire at Colins shooting him in the head killing him instantly and redirecting its fire towards John and Kyle missing their heads by centimeters.

The other two machines rose from the ground and clumsily tried to reach Allison's position who launched her grenade at one melting its chest and destroying the power source, the other was shot in the head by John obliterating its chip.

Kyle raised and shot at the remaining terminator in its right visual sensor destroying it and its chip but not before getting shot in the shoulder, he collapsed crying "Motherfucker got me!".

"Allison check if Mark is alive, meanwhile I help Kyle with his shoulder!" John ordered and turned toward Kyle who was now sitting against the remains of the wall they used as cover "Let's see the wound" Kyle showed him his wound "It doesn't seem to be serious we should clean it and put some bandages on it".

"Well, it hurts like hell for something not very serious" Kyle replied gritting his tenths.

"At last, you alive" John retorted "We can't say the same about Maggie, Collins, and probably Mark", it was one of those things he hated the most that the people died and he felt guilty because he was the one who told them all about the caches that they were searching for and begin killed because of that.

At that moment Allison returned confirming that Mark was indeed killed "We should take from them what is necessary and go before more machines come to check what happened" she told them.

"You're right, the cache isn't too far and it's a good place to hide" John responded and helped Kyle get up.

After collecting the weapons and food from the fallen they went toward their objective.

After twenty minutes, they arrived at the place that the three of them only John knew about since he prepared it with his mother Sarah before the war, John knew also that like the other caches they visited there wouldn't be too much firepower inside since it was too close to the city for his mom liking to set up a cache with RPGs or grenade launchers.

It took him a bit to remember where the hatch was since all their caches were underground.

"It's here" John showed Allison and Kyle where it was, "Allison can you help me open it?".

"Fine" she replied and tougher they opened the hatch uncovering the entrance to the underground storage of weapons.

They climbed down using the ladder and closed the hatch in case any machine was to see the opening.

When they were in, they had to use their flashlights since it was dark when they did, they saw shelves full of weapons mainly rifles, shotguns, and pistols all covered in dust and cobwebs, there were also some crates presumably with ammo, and luckily with some explosives and medical aid and perhaps even MREs, there were also some bags and at the end of the cache.

"Well, well, this isn't just a weapons cache," Kyle said with astonishment while looking all around the cache "It's a full armory".

"Yeah, my mom was ready for anything," John said with pride but also sadness.

"I would like to meet her," Kyle said, and John had to smile at that, "but now it would help if one of you could treat my wound".

Allison nodded and took a first-aid kit from her backpack to treat Kyle's wound meanwhile John started checking the list of weapons left by his mom in the cache, he started checking if every weapon on the list was still in the cache when he was at the end of the cache a box caught his eye, it was rather a small box unlike the others he saw inside but like everything else in the cache was covered with a layer of dust and cobwebs but he could still see his mom's writing on it that said the package was only for him.

Curious he opened it, in the box, he found a holster with a pistol inside taking it out of the holster John observed that it resembled the M1911 he also saw letters saying "F.B. RADOM" below them seemed to be a date "1938r" to the left was an eagle which he thought was manufacturer's logo and then more letters saying "VIS-wz. 35" below was what appeared to be a serial number, it seemed to use 9mm rounds not good against machines but enough against raiders and greys.

His heart skipped a beat when he saw inside the box a letter addressed to him 'It must be from mom', he took the letter to read it later, the only thing left inside the small package was an old photo of his mom where she was pregnant and seemed to be thinking about something sad.

"Who's that? She looks beautiful although sad" John looked back to see Kyle looking at the photo of his mom.

"That's my mom, Sarah Connor" then he thought about what his mom said about his father and the photo of her he had in the future given by future John, 'Perhaps is the same photo?' so he asked Kyle "Would you like to have it?".

"John, I don't know, a lot of people don't have anything to remind them of their loved ones…" John cut him "Kyle, I don't need that picture of her because she's always with me in my heart and my memories, she's been my guardian angel my whole life so please take it, let her be your guardian angel now", he handled the picture to Kyle who with a bit o hesitation but also a slight smile gently took it.

"Thank you," Kyle said.

After that, they started taking the weapons they needed the most at the base and started cleaning them.

After hours of cleaning guns, they would take they had to stop and get something to eat luckily, they still took some MREs from other caches, but they would still check the crates for more.

For John, the MREs were a welcome change from rats they had to eat normally in the tunnel, and surprisingly he missed his mom's pancakes despite their rather questionable taste since Sarah wasn't the best cook and neither was, he.

"What do you have?" Allison asked them.

"I have something that should taste like chicken and you?" Kyle asked.

"Mine, in theory, is beef brisket but it seems to have lost the taste, either way, it's still better than the mystery meat we eat at the base," Allison said chewing her food "And your John?".

"Chili, it tastes like it but without any intensity, and I have to agree I prefer that to what they serve us at the base" they chuckled.

"We are lucky that Derek isn't there, he would eat everything himself" they chuckled again at Kyle's words.

This brought some memories to John of the Derek he knew, the one who was his uncle who just like this timeline version of him would eat anything, he also remembered when his uncle took him to the park to see his father who was then a kid and now sat next to him around ten years older than him, he was brought back from his reverie by Allison.

"John are you all, right?" she asked him.

"Yes, I just thought about my uncle who just like Derek liked food he told me once that his favorite food was hotdogs" he answered.

"Just like Derek" Kyle chuckled "They might be relatives".

'If you only knew' was the thought John had at those words.

"Anyway, we should get some sleep, and tomorrow we go back to the base with as much as we can" continued Kyle.

"I will take the first guard," said John 'and I can read the letter my mom left for me'.

After finishing the food Kyle and Allison went to sleep meanwhile John remained awake to stand guard for the next two hours when he made sure that nobody was looking, he took the letter from his pocket and gently opened it seeing his mom's writing made his heart skip another beat like earlier, he was nervous about what his mom wrote to him, 'was she disappointed with me for leaving?', after taking a deep breath John started reading the letter.

Dear John

It is difficult for me to write to you knowing that perhaps I will never see you again, but I will because I love you and I want you to know that I understand why you went to the future, and I know how stubborn you are.

I might never accept why you did that but I'm still proud of you and you remind me very much of your father who went to the past for the love of his life whom he knew from some old picture and stories told by your future self.

Anyway, if you are reading this then probably you already have the gift from me, I was told is one of the best handguns in the world and I hope it will help you in the future.

You should know that after you left, I tried to stop Skynet but if you are reading this it means that I hadn't succeeded but at least delayed Judgment Day by a few months. I hope that you become the man who will destroy Skynet once and for all.

I left for you another gift but not there, but it is in the middle of nowhere where we were just before this happened there you will find what you are looking for.

John, I don't know how much time I have and if I ever see you again but I want you to know that I love you, and please forgive me for begin the worst mother in the world, I never could give you a normal life and did not show you any affection that other mothers show their children but I always loved you and always will even if we separated by the time and space I will always be with you, please never forget that.

I love you

Mom

John had tears in his eyes as he finished reading the letter, he wanted to be with her and hug her and tell her how much he loves her despite everything that happened between them and that he has already forgiven her.

He understood also what his mom meant by another 'gift' and he understood she meant Cameron's body which he didn't believe until rereading the letter a few times he also knows where the body was but for now it was out of his range and even if it was, he still didn't have her, her chip was still gone.

"I love you too, mom" he whispered.

When they woke up, they gathered all the things that would take with them, left the cache, and headed toward the tunnel they come from standing alert for any sight of machines on their way, finally, they got inside the tunnel and headed towards their base.

"John, are you all, right? You haven't spoken for quite some time" asked, Kyle, who was worried and despite not knowing Connor too well felt that there was some connection between them.

"I'm fine, I had just a lot to think about" replied John.

"If you want, you can speak with me," Kyle said to John wanting to get him to know better.

"Thank you, I'm sure I will" he wanted to know his father.

"You can speak to me too" Allison added.

"Sure, Allison", John replied and decided to change the subject "So, do you think that Derek will like the results of our expedition?".

"For the weapons, ammo, medical staff, and food yes, for the death of Maggie, Collins, and Mark not so much", John and Allison nodded, and continued toward the base.

When they arrived, they were greeted by Derek who has been worried but relaxed at seeing them, especially Kyle alive.

They debriefed with him, and he took everything just as Kyle has told them he would.

After everything, John went to his bunk and lay down, took the letter from his pocket again, and started reading it again.

"I will not disappoint you, mom," he said after finishing.