Chapter 20

Savannah

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Resistance Base - Current Timeline:

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Cameron worked to make Allison look 'Tight'. It took her, Vanna and Allison to do it. She needed a lot of help. Once Allison was completely healed up it would be easier.

Allison was not experienced in any of this. She'd only ever relied on her natural beauty and charm. She didn't have the means or time to ever look nice, let alone Tight. She'd never even heard the term before Cameron said it. Beauty was something that needed to be hidden and concealed in the future. It was more of a liability than an asset. If someone was 'pretty' they ended up a target to be abused. It was worse if they fell into the hands of Grays or Scavengers.

It was more of a challenge to wonder when your next meal would be or what it would be. Until Kyle and Derek 'adopted' her into their 'family' it was a struggle to avoid Grays, Metal, Tunnel Rats or worse - Scavengers. Sometimes you did, sometimes you didn't. There were a few times she didn't. It happened to all the females at some point - ALL of them.

The Skynet forces weren't any better than Scavengers when a pretty female was captured and brought in for processing at a work camp. She would be singled out and forced to perform her 'duties' in the Grays living quarters. There they would be routinely beaten and abused. Once the Grays tired of them or found a new and better 'toy' to play with, they would be dumped into the work camp. There the abuse would start all over again because they still possessed some beauty. Not everybody in a work camp belonged to the Resistance. Many didn't think they'd live much longer and lost all human decency.

That was the way life was in the future. It wasn't something you really even thought about. It was just the way it was and it was everyday. That was life.

Allison appreciated Cameron and Vanna helping her. She still wanted to call Vanna - Savannah. That was her name. Now she was able to meet Vanna as a girl as Savannah, her younger self. To be able to see Savannah as a girl brought back memories for her. It made her think about when she was a little older than Savannah was right now.

They were troubled memories.

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Alternate Future Timeline:

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A Few Years Back In Time:

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Allison had been running almost non stop for a couple of days. She was exhausted and drained. She was near collapse. She came face to face with a good looking young man with a kind face who smiled at her. This may be another threat or it may be salvation. She was too tired to run anymore. Whatever was going to happen, was going to happen right now. She was done.

Kyle found her after she'd been running for two days with almost no sleep and no food. She told him the story of why she'd been running. It was about what almost happened to her and what did happen to a pretty girl who sacrificed herself to save her. She couldn't cry anymore, her tears were gone. She wanted to go back and trade herself for the girl. Sadly she knew by now it would be too late for the girl. She'd seen the mutilated corpses before. The tears came again.

It bothered her greatly that someone would trade their life for her. It was someone she didn't even know. What happened that day changed her life. It affected who she was and who she would become. She didn't know that yet. The deck of life's cards was still being shuffled. Not all of the cards were in play.

Derek spoke with her after he arrived and Kyle filled him in. He told her she was just a kid and she did the right thing. He said between the Scavengers and the Metal that humans were doomed at the rate they seemed to be devolving. There was no leader and no real organized Resistance. There were only groups that banded together and conducted local operations.

Derek and Kyle both possessed guns. Derek reached in is pack and handed Allison a shiny silver revolver.

"Keep this with you at all times. Use it if you have to. Don't be afraid to protect yourself." Derek said. "When you are threatened you need to shoot first and ask questions later."

Derek opened the cylinder and showed her it held six shots. He then closed the cylinder.

Allison wasn't very familiar with guns. She was around them all the time but no one ever let her shoot one. It seemed on some there were complicated things to do to make it work. It seemed bullets went in one spot and something was done to make the gun shoot.

"I don't know how." Allison said. "I've never shot a gun before."

Derek smiled. That wasn't something that he did often.

"Point it at what you want to kill and pull the trigger." Derek said. "It's just that simple."

That did seem simple to her.

He showed her how to load and unload the revolver. He let her dry fire it to get the feel of the trigger in both double and single action. She was amazed at how easy it was to pull the trigger after she thumbed the hammer back and to fire the revolver in single action. She could thumb back the hammer with both thumbs quite easily. The pull through double action was harder. She could fit both of her index fingers inside the trigger guard and pull it that way without too much difficulty. It also gave her a better grip on the gun with two hands.

Kyle watched Derek show her while she practiced.

"If you have to use the gun you will be pumped up with adrenaline and that will give you the strength. Look, it's them or you." Kyle said. "It won't stop Metal."

The last part didn't sound too encouraging to her. Metal killed everyone when they found them. If you were unlucky and survived you were soon headed for a work camp. That was its own Hell. There must be something to fight Metal with.

"What should I do then?" Allison asked.

Kyle knew there was only one option open to her.

"Run." Kyle said.

Kyle gave her a few tips on using the revolver too. He showed her how to use the heel of her left hand to cock the hammer back when pushing the revolver forward with her right hand. Kyle told her when the revolver fired that it was louder than crap and kicked like a mule. He pointed out the person on the front side of the barrel was going to be in a lot worse shape. Kyle opened the cylinder and showed her where it contained the model number of the firearm. It said '66'. Derek gave her six additional rounds for it. They were sealed in plastic to keep them dry. That gave her twelve shots. No, it was really only eleven. She decided to use the last round on herself. It wasn't a hard decision to make.

Kyle wanted to know more about the incident and how close this threat was to them.

"Can you tell us more about what happened and where?" Kyle asked. "We know it was two days ago."

Allison told them the story of what happened. She'd been searching for food. It was rumored that here was Metal in the area. Two men appeared from nowhere and chased her down. They grabbed her and tied her hands behind her back. She could see how they looked at her. She knew what was going to happen next. She'd heard from some of the other girls what the men will do to them when they get caught. They all do it.

The only reason they didn't abuse her right then was because they too previously spotted the Metal in the area. They needed to pull out or end up being discovered. They drug her back to their camp. They tied her to a pole back at their camp. The leader of the group told the half dozen other men in his group not to touch her. The leader made it clear that if she was 'spoiled' before he had her that man would die. There was a group of some other females also rounded up. One of the young teenagers approached the leader and they carried on a brief conversation. The two kept looking at her. She saw the teenager was quite shapely and very pretty. After the conversation ended the leader took something from the open fire. It was a metal rod, it glowed red hot. It reminded her of what she heard they mark animals with. It was some type of a branding iron.

They were closer to her now and she could hear most of their conversation.

The teenage girl looked at her and then faced the leader.

"Do we have a deal?" The teenager asked.

She watched the leaded roughly touch the teenager's body.

"We do, if you do this freely." The leader said. "I'll believe you."

The teenager looked at her again.

"You'll give her a three hour head start?" The teenager asked.

The leader glanced at Allison and then looked back at the teenager.

"Yes." The leader agreed. "You better keep up your end of the deal. If you don't, I promise you a slow painful violent death."

He told the teenager to lie on the ground and expose her lower mid section. She did so without hesitation.

"A three hour head start and no one follows her." The teenager said.

"Yes." The leader said.

"I will do whatever you ask of me." The teenager said. "Do it."

The leader smiled and moved forward with the red hot metal.

The teenage girl screamed as the red hot metal touched her. White smoke poured out around the metal as her flesh burnt. After a few minutes she got up and came over to Allison and untied her.

"You're being released. I want you to run from here and don't stop running until you can't move." The teenager said. "What's your name?"

Allison was very traumatized at what she'd just witnessed. Maybe this was a trick before they assaulted her. They would try and give her false hope and then brutalize her.

"My name is Allison. Why are they letting me go?"

She could see the teenager was in pain and clutched her burnt area.

"I made a deal with the leader." The teenager said. "If he lets you go and no one in this camp follows you for three hours, I'll do whatever he says, wants or asks of me freely. I'm his property now. I'm a slave."

Allison couldn't process all of that.

"Why would you do that for me?" Allison asked. "You don't even know me."

The teenager looked resigned.

"I was you once. I was captured and I'm a prisoner now. It's happened to me several times now since I was younger than you. I know what happens next. It always does. It's going to happen anyway or worse, so I might as well try to have something good come out of it this time." The teenager said. "I've been through this before. I never was branded like this. He said he marked me as his property for life. To have me do whatever he wants for as long as he wants is worth more to him than the two minutes pleasure he will have with you. You're still a girl. I became a 'woman' years ago. Maybe I can buy you a year or two if you're careful. Try to stay a girl as long as possible, being a woman - sucks."

Allison looked at the burn on the teenager. It said something she couldn't quite make out. The teenager held her hand over it. It looked very painful.

"Now run, Allison, run." The teenager said. "Don't stop and never look back."

Allison looked around in fear and got up. She started to leave.

"I'll never forget you. I will never forget what you did here for me today." Allison said. "Thank you."

The teenager pointed for her to go.

"RUN." The teenager said.

Allison looked back at the teenager.

"What's your name?" Allison asked.

Allison would never forget that flaming red hair.

"My name is Savannah."

Beauty

Is beauty a weapon
Or is it a liability
Does beauty hinder judgment
Or enhance natural ability

Is beauty dangerous
Can it be a curse
Perhaps in some situations
Beauty can make things worse

Is beauty the cause
Of something statutory
The sad fact is
Beauty is transitory

Is beauty even real
Not all see beauty the same
When that happens
Who is the one to blame

Is there beauty in beauty
Or is there a price to pay
Beauty may become a duty
So others may have their way

Is beauty the cause of pain
Can it cause a bitter fight
Sometimes beauty requires sacrifice
When one must do what is right

Nobody