Chapter 286

Stuck

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In Some Future:

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Vanna could hardly believe it. It was her 'mother'.

She moved up and hugged her. It was not really her 'mother' but Mrs. Weaver took care of her since she returned from the future and always helped her.

At that time Mrs. Weaver explained what she was and why she brought 'her Savannah' back and why she would need to go by the name 'Vanna'. It was because of her younger self. She could see Mrs. Weaver tried to help and be the best 'mother' to her younger self as she could be. She understood the circumstances. She also understood Mrs. Weaver rescued her from the future because she did care about Savannah.

When she first returned to the past it was really mind blowing to see herself as a child and exist at the same time with that child. She could watch and help herself grow up. Vanna swore that the things that happened to her were never going to happen to her younger self - Savannah.

Mrs. Weaver wanted to know how Savannah was doing and how much she'd grown.

Cameron let Vanna fill her in on all the details about everyone including, John Henry, Mr. Ellison and the rest of the team Mrs. Weaver assembled before she 'left'. She felt Mrs. Weaver would trust Vanna over her for the updates. She previously told Vanna to tell the truth as much as possible.

Mrs. Weaver looked over the girls and their Metal bodyguards. She stopped in front of Cameron. She wondered what problems this was going to cause in her leadership. She'd worked with Cameron before and Cameron always worked with her. She knew Cameron played by her own set of rules and could be as ruthless and deadly as her. She also knew Cameron was highly resourceful. Cameron could be a great asset to her. She saw how Cameron could unite Metal and humans to follow her. That seemed to be a trait she lacked. It was needed in this future and she wanted Cameron's assistance.

"It's, Mrs. Connor, by now I take it?" Mrs. Weaver asked.

Mrs. Weaver gave Cameron another once over. She remembered the times she assumed Allison's form herself. She'd done so many times since. She found that form intriguing. She wasn't sure why.

"It is." Cameron said. "I'm very pleased to see you again General Weaver."

Cameron remembered the incident on the TDE pad where Mrs. Weaver deactivated one of her own Restorators when things got 'messy'. Mrs. Weaver hadn't been the problem and returned them to where they wanted to go. She even made sure the Reese brothers were sent back as well. Cameron knew Mrs. Weaver protected both John and Allison and saved their lives several times. That all needed to be remembered even if she 'disliked' her personally.

Cameron decided to give Mrs. Weaver the 'respect' she craved and called her 'General'. It was clear they were going to need her help to get out of this mess. The mess she'd created and foolishly got them all into. She needed to get back to John and stop that 'Bitch Whore' Riley from taking him away from her – again. She noted her hand started to glitch when that thought went through her mind.

Mrs. Weaver took them to her headquarters and explained everything that was happening and wanted to know why and how they were here and who the Metal bodyguards were.

Cameron would only say that one was assigned to each girl to protect her at all times and be with that girl twenty four hours a day. She didn't elaborate they were all 'her' as well and clones of her program.

"I need to protect these girls until we can go back." Cameron told her.

Cameron bent the truth and said they'd been attempting to go back to Cameron's future to prevent Future Allison from being killed and reunite her with Future John and Future Savannah. She left out the part about her trying to never be created and the fact she'd already saved Future Allison.

When she talked about 'going back' she could see that was a 'sore' spot for Mrs. Weaver. She found out why soon enough.

Mrs. Weaver informed her there was no TDE in this future but she was constructing one. There were still some materials she needed to procure. Getting enough power was going to be a problem. It was a big problem.

There were no other Liquid Metal Terminators either but she attempted to create one. They'd captured a Skynet facility and she started to set up a process to create one but ran into problems and stopped. The Liquid Metal Terminator under construction would not accept programming of any kind. The Liquid Metal Terminator was unstable and uncontrollable and was currently confined. That was of great interest to Cameron. Cameron planned to look into that personally. She wondered if it was a design flaw or the independent will of the Liquid Metal Terminator.

Cameron still held a desire to become Liquid Metal. She believed that she could please John better and become more lethal and an even better infiltrator. She would see to that aspect personally. She was ready for an 'upgrade'….

She hoped it didn't turn into a nightmare like everything else seemed to.

Cameron and the girls learned that whatever future this was that none of them seemed to be in it. There was no John Connor or Allison Young. There hadn't been a Savannah Weaver or Jesse Flores either. So what future was this? There was 'Skynet' even if it was a different Skynet. That Skynet all but defeated the Resistance until Mrs. Weaver and her Restorators arrived and turned the tables. It was only the intervention of the massive force of Restorators that stopped the final purge to wipe the humans out.

This Skynet was not as advanced as any of the others they'd encountered. It hadn't been that difficult for Mrs. Weaver to take control and become the leading General of the Resistance with a force of Metal. She was able to make problems disappear. Everyone here thought she was human. She decided to keep it that way. Now with Vanna and her two lovers, Allison and Jesse, it would sell the deal even better. She envied Vanna with those two fine looking females she shared as lovers…. There was something about Jesse that intrigued her. Maybe it was the 'look' or maybe the attitude. She made a point of coming into 'contact' with Jesse.

Cameron saw Mrs. Weaver touch Jesse but said nothing. She knew Mrs. Weaver could 'copy' all of them now…. It was something she would need to keep in mind.

Mrs. Weaver was worried about Cameron and her three Metal warriors. They could be a problem for her. The best thing was to try to return Cameron back to where she belonged and send a 'copy of herself' back for Savannah or bring Savannah here.

Either way, Mrs. Weaver knew that a copy of herself in the same timeline with herself would be a problem. It would be best to see if they could make a programmable Liquid Metal Terminator. The goal then would be to send that copy of herself back or even leave it here and go back herself. She actually missed Savannah more than she thought possible. She wasn't sure why. She'd been indifferent at first but soon became concerned about all aspects of Savannah's life, well being and future. Even to the point of bringing the adult version of Savannah back from the future.

Mrs. Weaver wasn't sure why they didn't end up in Cameron's and her Future instead of this future when she'd done her time transfers. As soon as she fabricated a TDE she would seek to return to the past she came from. Defeating this Skynet was a challenge for her but she would finish that job as well. The Scavenger problem that Vanna reported to her would also get cleaned up. In fact when Vanna told her of the assaults on the women they rescued and the girl, Mrs. Weaver dispatched fifty more of her Restorators to go after that group specifically. They would clean that entire area of all Scavengers for a hundred miles in all directions.

Now, what was she going to do about Cameron? Mrs. Weaver wondered….

Cameron asked that the girls be allowed to rest a little before they continued with further deliberations and discussions. She explained they'd been through a lot recently and needed to rest.

She left her clones with them once they were shown some quarters.

Cameron wanted to slip out and take a look at things on her own. She didn't want to go behind Mrs. Weaver's back but she did want to see how things worked without her direct influence. Everything always worked different when the boss was around.

She didn't have too much trouble to get away. She was not sure if that was by design. She was not out to cause any problems but she did want to know where she stood on her own.

There was no doubt that a power source needed to be procured or built that could provide the energy necessary to run the TDE. That would be something else she would keep in mind.

Once she was away from the compound. She tried to conceal her identity as much as possible. It was windy with blowing dust. She took a piece of cloth and made a scarf that covered her lower face and she pulled the cap low on her forehead. She'd taken a coat with her that helped hide she was a female. There was a set of goggles in the coat. She put those on too. She was currently unarmed.

The street life here was dirty and needed improvement. It would cut down on the spread of disease and illness if that were instituted. From what she gathered the conditions she observed were much improved from before Mrs. Weaver first arrived. That did not paint a pleasant picture of life here before that event.

There were Restorators who seemed to perform specific tasks. Everyone now and then she would see people make rude comments or insult them. They went about their jobs as if they did not hear them. She knew otherwise. She'd needed to hear plenty of those on her own in her future.

She stopped by a local group of barracks. There seemed to be several scattered around. She wondered if that was more to quell a local uprising as discontent grew.

There was an officer who tried to form a patrol. There was a Restorator who'd given him an assignment. The troopers were not disciplined and very much like the ones she dealt with already at the other location.

Cameron decided to tag along with them. She fell in at the rear and was given a battered M16 rifle and half a dozen magazines for it. She looked the weapon over and straightened the barrel slightly when no one was looking. It was not quite straight. Someone may have fired it on full auto too long during a battle.

She'd been on battlefields where the weapons were fired to the point that the barrels glowed a dull cherry red. Rounds would 'cook off' in the chamber of the barrels they were so hot. There were cases where some wood furniture even caught fire after smoldering. That would often require the shooter to dump precious drinking water on it to cool it or simply urinate on it amid a cloud of hissing steam.

The springs were weak on two of her magazines and three of the magazines exhibited bent feed lips from years of improper handling and use. She imagined that the other soldier's weapons were in the same condition.

A sergeant led the eight of them out. They passed through the perimeter defenses and out into the Wastelands. She was 'tail end Charlie'. She would try to make her way up to the number two position and then take point. She believed the troopers would be better protected if she was on the point.

With the goggles and bandana her face was completely obscured. She spotted numerous changes that needed to be implemented. That was everything from equipment to training.

Cameron used a mild male voice when she spoke.

"What is the objective of this patrol?" Cameron asked.

"We are to check for anything that looks out of the ordinary." The sergeant said.

"If there aren't a set group of people for a given area, how do they know what is new or different?" Cameron asked.

The sergeant looked at her with some disgust. He noticed that her uniform was new.

"I can see you're new, Boot." The sergeant said. "I'll let your ignorance slide. This is just the way we do things."

They wandered around the Wastelands for a few hours before they took a break. None of the soldiers was really on watch while they did. That looked like a recipe for disaster.

"Hey, New Guy, relax some." One trooper said.

"I'm a little worried." Cameron said.

"Don't be." One trooper said. "Nothing ever happens."

Cameron was aware with that attitude that was when things happened.

She moved up to the number two spot when the patrol started out again.

She really thought each one of these patrols should have a Restorator on them. Not as the person in charge but at least as the person on point.

Cameron moved up and reached out to stop the man on point. He was very irritated.

"What is it, Boot?" The trooper asked.

Cameron pointed at the ground ahead of him.

"I saw you were headed for what looks like a 'trip wire'." Cameron said.

The trooper looked surprised and looked around.

"Where?" The trooper asked.

Cameron pointed and moved forward.

She saw that the rest of the squad bunched up.

"Spread out a little." Cameron said.

The sergeant didn't like anyone giving orders.

"Easy, Boot." The sergeant said. "What do you have?"

"There's a 'trip wire'." Cameron said. "We're probably being watched."

The sergeant spotted the trip wire and quickly spread everyone out and put them on alert.

Cameron moved forward and saw that the wire was connected to a claymore mine. It was set to hit the squad behind the point man.

"I bet this is the work of Scavengers." The Sergeant said.

"What's the engagement policy?" Cameron asked.

"We normally give them the opportunity to surrender if there is no armed engagement." The sergeant said. "They never do."

"What about when they leave a booby trap?" Cameron asked. "That sounds like an armed engagement to me. They meant to kill us."

"I see your point." The Sergeant said.

Cameron looked around. She approached one of the troopers and took a fragmentation grenade from his belt.

"Hey, New Guy, that's mine." The trooper said.

Cameron pushed him down when he tried to grab it back from her.

"We're about to get lit up." Cameron said. "There are targets by the red bushes and behind that wall. Get your men ready."

The sergeant barked orders.

Cameron threw the grenade as soon as she pulled the pin. The other troopers though' the new Boot threw it two quick. She threw it high at a seventy three degree angle so it came down like a mortar round right in back of the wall and exploded in the air. There were screams as soon as the explosion went off. She fired her M16 at the red bushes and there were more screams and two bodies fell out.

The other troopers all sought cover and fired wildly.

There were two spots where gunfire was returned. It was directed at where Cameron was at but she wasn't there any more. She'd moved to a new position and she fired twice. Both weapons were silenced.

The sergeant was a little perplexed with everything.

Cameron told the next most able trooper to follow her. She checked the area of the bushes and there were three dead. She moved to the collapsed wall and there were four more dead. They were all Scavengers.

The patrol returned back to base. They took the Scavengers weapons. One of them carried a plasma rifle. Cameron gave that to the sergeant as a good will gesture. He was very pleased. As soon as they were back inside the perimeter she disappeared. She didn't want to answer the questions that were sure to follow.

Cameron sure hoped they weren't going to be stuck here.

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In Some Future: Duplicate Cameron

Events Continue in Chapter 306

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Stuck

To move life forward
Everything is done that's required
It seems not to matter
In the past one remains mired

Surely it must be
A sign of the dammed
All forward progress
Is slammed and jammed

Acquaintances thin out
Leaving one to feel abandoned
Once again like always
Feeling marooned and stranded

The tentacles of the past
Around one have again wrapped
There's no real escape
Leaving one to remain trapped

When there's no luck
One may run amuck
Feeling like a schmuck
Forever enslaved and stuck

Nobody