Chapter 310

Natural Order

Cameron left the last house they'd stayed at with John. They visited some of the other places they'd been to when they first came to Los Angeles in 2007. She'd revisited these places many times in her files. Each time was as if it just happened to her. She reflected on all that happened. It seemed that so many things already happened and many more things could still happen.

She often wondered what it would be like to go back and redo many of those same events over. She would make changes to many of them. Very few would remain unchanged. She was sure if she was reliving her life over, that is one of the things that would have happened.

She would also try harder to 'reach out' better and sooner to Sarah and Future Derek. The rocky relationship she experienced with both of them back then was still something that troubled her. They'd both treated her unfairly because she was Metal. That wasn't her fault.

John wasn't sure if revisiting all the places they'd been was such a good idea now. Cameron looked worse instead of better. He really wondered how he could 'fix' any of it. It was sure to start a new timeline if he did.

"Cameron, I don't know how to fix what I did that's hurt you so much." John said. "Even if we use the TDE and I prevent myself from meeting Riley we would change everything else since then."

Cameron was pretty sure that happened a few times over. Maybe Future Jesse assassinated John herself at that point if Future Riley was out of the picture.

"I may have already done that and created another timeline." Cameron said. "I don't know if I did or not. I think I may have."

John said nothing.

"How can you not know if you did that?" John finally asked.

Cameron thought of the different ways she could have altered things. She really didn't think it was beyond her.

"I may have done it in the future or the past." Cameron said. "I just feel I've done that. I think I terminated Future Jesse and Future Riley either in my future or when they arrived here or both."

John didn't see how there wasn't a record of some type if Cameron really lived her life over. What was the point if there was no indication as to what needed to be done? Maybe everything changed from the first couple of days at school and nothing was the same after that.

"Do you have any files related to that or those events?" John asked.

Cameron was reminded of what she'd asked Bob to do one time. It was something that would break the cycle of events. It would have kept her from meeting John at all.

"I don't." Cameron said. "Maybe it is just something I thought about and wanted to do. I may have sent Bob back in time to prevent me from meeting you as well in 1999."

John tensed up and felt sick. He'd asked Bob to do that for him as well. Now he wondered if Bob did that in the future, maybe after he died. If both Cameron and him asked Bob to do this, he was sure Bob would have. He wondered how many timelines there were anymore. It was mind boggling.

Cameron decided maybe she would ask John about what she was going to do. She was aware that Ally detained a future Gray female for her. It was something she'd needed to deal with. She wanted to download her program into the female with a 'Neural Interface' implant into her brain. She wanted it to be a secret and see if John would choose her 'new self'. She decided just to ask instead and not tell him the truth.

"If I was a human female would you still want me even if I didn't have Allison's appearance?" Cameron asked.

That was a confusing statement to John. It was also unexpected and worrisome.

"What?" John asked.

Cameron didn't think it was too hard to understand the question.

"If I was a real female, a real woman, would you still want me?" Cameron asked.

John wasn't sure what Cameron was up to but it didn't sound good. He reached over and touched her.

"Cameron, you are 'real'." John said. "I'd love you no matter how you are."

That statement angered Cameron. She'd been rejected by John several times before.

"That's not true." Cameron said angrily. "When I was Isabel you wouldn't touch me. I was the same, it was my program but since I didn't look like Allison you wouldn't have me."

John could see that this was falling apart fast. He felt justified in his actions.

"That was different." John said. "You wanted me to call you a different name like you were a different person. You were still 'Cameron' to me."

Cameron was aware of the 'future Gray' female Ally held in custody for her was still a teenager. She would attempt the 'Neural Interface' again that she'd used on the 'damaged' older Gray female. She would see if she could do better this time and if John would want her as a 'real woman'. She would try to be a human female. She would have to make an effort not to abuse 'herself' this time as she'd done the first time. She would look different. She would be very plain in fact. The body was young, very healthy and complete. All indications were that it should be able to produce offspring.

A feeling of evil swept over Cameron. If she could make the interface work, there were four 'Allison's' out there. There was the original from her Future, the original from Vanna's future and the two Duplicates. If John rejected her as the Gray female, she would take one of the Allison's and use her next….

She thought this should bother her more than it did but it didn't. She was sure she would become Skynet herself in the future at that moment. Somehow that didn't really bother her either. She could control everything then - EVERYTHING.

Cameron knew what the 'Natural Order' was for John. She'd lived it already in the future. She'd already restored that timeline. Now she was worried that she may have changed that timeline. She wondered if that created another timeline from the one she'd come from. She was unsure of all she'd done or will do again in the present, the future and past.

Maybe whatever she'd done in 'a future' or 'a past' created other timelines. Maybe that is why Mrs. Weaver never returned when she went into her future or tried to anyway. Maybe that is why the Duplicates of her and the girls, in some future, never returned. Maybe they couldn't, maybe there was no future.

This all caused Cameron extreme trauma. She could tell she was about to overload. Her world went black.

John looked over at Cameron and realized she'd shut down. She looked lifeless. She looked dead. He looked at her and gently touched her face. He gave her a kiss and whispered something in her ear.

He picked her up and headed to the SUV and put her in the rear. He headed back to their base very worried. He knew he'd talked about the very subject that seemed to have driven Cameron insane or at least to insane like behavior. He knew the events of the past tormented Cameron to no end.

Maybe it was time to act. He knew it would change the 'Cameron' he knew and loved but it was time to erase certain files and events from her chip. It was what Cameron asked John Henry to do for her more than once. He wondered how much he could erase and how much he could leave and what the end result would be.

John decided it was time to reprogram Cameron the way he wanted her to be…. She could be his wife only and stop doing foolish and dangerous things. He wanted her to stop changing things. She would be removed from combat. He would make Cameron into the 'woman' he wanted and the 'woman' she 'was'. He wanted 1999 Cameron back. The girl he loved from the moment he fist met her at school. It hit him hard when he realized 'that Cameron' was 'Allison' then. She wasn't Cameron she was in infiltration mode. She was 'Allison'.

John thought about how Cameron isolated Allison from him and the rest of the group. She destroyed her relationship with Vanna to keep her away and insulated her with Metal. It was Metal that Cameron MADE love 'her' so that Metal would love Allison as a substitute instead. It was Metal that loved Allison now and wouldn't let ANYONE take her from them.

John wondered if Cameron figured this out as well. Maybe Cameron knew he would eventually figure it out.

Riley wasn't Cameron's worst nightmare, it was Allison that was.

John remembered seeing Allison when he went into the future. He thought it was Cameron at first. He never realized he saw the 'same' girl he'd seen in 1999, only this one was 'real'. John was captivated from the moment he saw her, just as he was with Cameron when they first met.

It hit John like a sledge hammer. He loved Allison and always must have, just like Future John. It wasn't 'Cameron' he met that first day. It was Cameron as 'Allison'. It was history repeating itself. It was his fate. It was his destiny. It was the 'Natural Order'. Allison was the woman of his dreams and future.

He didn't need to wait for Savannah and Young Allison. Vanna and Allison were here now in this timeline.

It was what Cameron kept telling him all along….

Earlier:

John told Bob and Jim they could go once he was with Cameron. He said he wanted some personal time with her.

They weren't really sure what that meant.

They wanted to let Gail and Ally know where John and Cameron were at. It seemed that John would be more comfortable with females around him right now. They headed back out on the assignment to track the Coltan.

Bob and Jim were on the road for several hours.

"So much of the land outside of the cities is barren wasteland." Jim said.

"It's only because they import water to Southern California that there is much of anything here." Bob said. "Without water there is nothing. Almost everything would look like this."

Jim looked at the arid landscape.

"They need more water." Jim said. "A lot more of it too."

Jim thought of the water from the Owens River on the east side of the Sierra Mountains. It was redirected through siphons and pipe to Los Angeles. Now most of it was allowed to simply flow into the desert and evaporate because of some environmental activists. They were probably really Grays.

"Skynet will cut off the water and contaminate much of it to kill off humans." Bob said.

Jim looked around and thought of the water allowed to evaporate in the desert.

"Humans are illogical." Jim said.

"That may be true but organic life forms evolved naturally here on this planet" Bob said. "Skynet didn't create itself and it didn't evolve favorable once it was created."

Jim could further see the illogic of humans.

"Without man or humans there would be no Skynet." Jim said. "Mankind created the tool of its own destruction."

"That's what we hope to prevent from happening again." Bob said.

They both doubted it was possible to stop it from happening again.

"Members of the Resistance have prevented it from happening again for several decades." Jim said. "That fact says something."

"It says we need to do our jobs and see if we can find any Coltan." Bob said.

Bob got off of the Interstate near Desert Center.

"This looks like the middle of nowhere." Jim said.

"Wait until we get to the end of this road." Bob said.

Jim hoped it wasn't the end of the road for them.

They each rolled down their side window and affixed a magnetic sign to the side of their doors. The signs indicated that they were with the Bureau Of Land Management. They passed a solar farm a few miles later.

"There is plenty of room to build thousands of solar farms." Jim said.

"When the nuclear winter comes they will be useless." Bob said. "There will be no sunshine for a dozen years or more."

"It's a bleak prospect." Jim said.

They drove another dozen miles until they reached the abandoned ghost town of Eagle Mountain. It was near the abandoned Eagle Mountain Mine.

"This was an iron mining operation." Bob said. "The ore was shipped by rail to a steel mill after a rail connection near the Salton Sea."

"The Salton Sea was the result of a break in a levee of the Colorado River." Jim said. "It should not even be there."

"It goes dry in the future and the desert reclaims the land." Bob said.

They drove for another dozen miles.

Jim looked around at the desolation.

"It's hard to imagine people lived here." Jim said.

"Once the mine was closed the town died. There's nothing here." Bob said.

There were rows and rows of houses and buildings. They were all abandoned.

"There are a lot of structures here." Jim said. "Do we need to search all of them?"

"Not yet. There are about five hundred structures." Bob said. "It's a wonder that fire hasn't claimed them yet."

Jim thought the buildings should be put to productive use.

"They should bring the homeless here and give them a place to live." Jim said.

Bob tilted his head slightly.

"What would they do here?" Bob asked.

"The same thing they do now, nothing." Jim said.

Bob nodded. That would help clean the city streets of disease laden freeloaders.

"That's actually a good idea." Bob said. "The homeless would have a hard time supporting their drug and alcohol habits out here in the middle of nowhere."

"That's a good thing." Jim said. "The easy lifestyle would be over."

Bob stopped at a locked gate.

"There are fresh tire tracks here." Bob said.

Jim took out a 'snap gun' and exited the vehicle. He opened a lock with it and Bob drove in. Jim locked the gate behind them and reentered the vehicle.

They drove along the side of the abandoned ghost town.

They approached some large buildings.

"It looks like they planned to reopen this mine one day." Jim said.

"If Coltan is being mined here now, I think we know why the mine was closed." Bob said. "Skynet wanted to protect its resources."

"I get it." Jim said. "There was more than iron ore here."

They drove up a hill and looked down on a large strip mine.

"How many mine shafts branch out from these giant pits?" Bob asked.

"There a dozens as they searched for more iron ore deposits." Jim said. "John Henry was not specific."

"There have been drone fights here at night." Bob said. "There was no activity detected."

They both wondered why they were really here then.

They set up surveillance cameras in a dozen places. They spotted no activity and the fresh tire tracks they'd followed disappeared on the sun dried ground.

"I hope the drone scans pick something up soon." Jim said. "It will take a long time to explore all of this on foot."

"We will give it some time." Bob said. "This area isn't going anywhere."

They placed some more cameras overlooking the abandoned ghost town.

"When something moves around here we should spot it." Jim said.

They left the area. They'd done everything out in the open and the cameras they set up were camouflaged as rocks and marked as a 'Wildlife Camera' if anyone found one.

Jim used the lock pick gun again to open a lock. There were seven locks on the chain for various governmental agencies. He added a lock of their own to the ones there.

Bob headed back to the Interstate.

Jim and Bob kept an eye open for any threats around them.

"There are two dirt bikes closing from our five o'clock." Jim said.

He reached in the back and moved the two M4 carbines with the M203 grenade launchers to the front.

"Do you want me to take them with the Barrett?" Jim asked.

"We need to see if they are armed first." Bob said. "It could be kids out for a day in the desert."

"I don't think either one of us actually believes that." Jim said.

Natural Order

If time is mixed up and shuffled
Will events play out the same
Isn't this really the way
That everyone plays life's game

Are there currents in time
That will direct the flow
Everything is predetermined
As to how events will go

When something is changed
Will something change it back
Maybe that's always why
Everything seems like an attack

Events always play out somehow
It is an absolute in time's progression
To believe it can be otherwise
Becomes a foolish obsession

It won't matter at all
If one tries to cross a time border
Time won't allow any disorder
Nobody can change the 'Natural Order'

Nobody