Chapter 312
Step It Up
John was glad to be away from the lab. He knew he'd pushed it too far. He let his own selfish interests blind him as to what the big picture was. What he wanted to do to Cameron was the equivalent of giving someone a lobotomy or worse. He also knew that Future John did something like that to her before her sent her back.
He sought out John Henry. He was ashamed for what he'd tried to do to Cameron. He knew it was 'wrong' to delete and erase some of her files about events that he'd created or perpetrated himself. He wanted to 'remake' Cameron how he wanted her to be. At what point would she no longer be 'Cameron' and become some other Terminator that he'd reprogrammed? It would be a 'new' Terminator with Cameron's chassis and sheath. It would be another 'Metal Allison'. He was afraid the others saw it as him trying to turn Cameron into a 'Metal Whore'.
John was also not surprised when Savannah arrived and took control. Everyone, including him, left and followed her request. Was it a request or an 'order'? Whatever it was, it was a good idea at that moment of tension. Savannah seemed to have a way at resolving potential conflicts.
Everyone was aware of the special mentoring Cameron did with Savannah and why. They all KNEW why. Savannah was the ONE who never gave up on Cameron. She was the ONE who never stopped believing in Cameron. She always maintained that Cameron was invincible and eternal. There was love there that was pure, honest and true.
No one questioned it, even if they didn't like it. It was the 'Natural Order' that Cameron drilled into everyone's head.
John sat down with John Henry and looked around. He didn't want to get into what happened. It seemed like it was a big enough problem already.
"Look, let's not even talk about it." John said.
John Henry tilted his head slightly.
"I didn't say anything." John Henry said.
John still felt a need to explain himself.
"I know it's wrong but it's the only thing I know to do to help her." John said.
It seemed to John Henry that John was going to discuss it anyway.
"I thought we weren't going to talk about it." John Henry said.
John was still worried about the way that everyone looked at him. It hadn't left him with a pleasant feeling.
"Everyone looked like they wanted to kill me." John said.
John Henry was aware how everyone felt about Cameron, including him.
"Everyone loves Cameron." John Henry said. "No one is going to let her be 'hurt' or altered."
John remembered how loyal the girls were to her. They literally gave up everything to go with her.
"I've seen the others follow Cameron to their doom or death." John said. "They've done it more than once.
John Henry felt that John would do the same things if he could. He knew that everything that Cameron did was because she wanted to protect John.
"As would you but Cameron would never allow that." John Henry said. "She will do anything to protect you. She's only doing what she feels is necessary to protect you."
John shook his head in disgust.
"She'll do it even if it kills her." John said.
John Henry nodded.
"She'll do it even if she's terminated." John Henry said. "It's beyond her programming. I think everything is for her now. She's grown beyond all of this. She needs more."
That was something that John heard before. He still wasn't sure what it meant.
"She needs more of what?" John asked. "Do you mean to be more like Skynet?"
John Henry really didn't know the specific answer to that.
"Perhaps it is similar." John Henry said. "There's no stopping her."
John wondered about the endgame.
"What has Skynet really created with her?" John asked.
John Henry didn't know where Cameron would stop growing or if she even could at this point.
"I believe Skynet has created its own destruction and replacement." John Henry said.
John felt he was on the road to nowhere.
He really didn't have any idea what road Cameron was on. The sad part about that was that he didn't think that Cameron knew either.
Bob and Jim thought the encounter in the desert was over.
They thought wrong.
"We need to switch out this vehicle." Bob said.
Jim kept a watchful eye out as they traversed the Interstate.
"I haven't spotted a tail yet." Jim said.
Bob kept one eye glued to the rear view mirror
"Neither have I." Bob said.
There was one thing that bothered Jim.
"It's that picture of the vehicle that they took that is troubling." Jim said. "They don't need to follow us physically but only have observers along this corridor."
On the interstate they were funneled through several 'passes'. There were few parallel routes. There would be more later on.
"I don't want to get hit with a TOW missile or a LAW rocket." Bob said. "That would cause a lot of sheath damage."
Jim was sure a TOW missile would do more than sheath damage. Those things were designed to knock out 'armor'.
"We need to dump this vehicle now." Jim said.
"Affirmative." Bob said.
They passed a large 'dinosaur' on the north side of the Interstate. It was really a building made to look like one.
"I don't understand the human's fascination with ignorant creatures that roamed the Earth millions of years ago." Jim said.
"It is puzzling." Bob said. "Few seem to know their own history even. Why they dwell on something extinct is a mystery."
There was a large 'outlet mall' up ahead as well as an Indian casino.
"I think we can pick a new vehicle up here." Bob said.
Bob exited the interstate and pulled into a gas station. This gave Jim and him time to study all the vehicles and people around them.
They pulled around to the backside of the casino. There was a large parking lot. They watched half a dozen vehicles park. They spotted a high end Escalade arrive and a man and a woman exited with luggage. They were going to spend at least one night.
They waited until they were inside and made the swap. They informed John Henry and left.
John Henry would make sure that the vehicle was never reported stole in any computer system. Even if the people made the report it would never go anywhere. He was able to spot who they were based on Bob's description. He would make sure if they played any electronic gambling games that they would win thousands of dollars. There was no reason not to be a good sport about it.
Bob and Jim left via the back road. It parallel the Interstate and the railroad tracks. They drove that road back in the direction they'd come from for two exits. At that point they reentered the Interstate and continued their journey in the direction back toward the base.
They asked John Henry to keep an eye on the vehicle they'd abandoned with the casino's security cameras. If anyone paid it any special interest, they would try and track them.
As soon as Bob was able to, he took several divergent routes back towards the base. They stopped in a mall and did another vehicle swap.
"I hate to see this one go." Jim said. "I liked it."
"Affirmative." Bob said.
They picked up another SUV and left.
John Henry called them three minutes later with an update.
"I've got good news and bad news." John Henry said.
"What's the bad news?" Bob asked.
"Your SUV at the casino just blew up." John Henry said.
Bob and Jim looked at each other.
"How did it explode?" Bob asked.
"I don't know." John Henry said. "I can't detect a missile strike, a rocket attack or anyone who was within fifty feet of it."
That didn't make any sense.
"What's the good news?" Jim asked.
"That neither of you were in it when it exploded." John Henry said.
Bob and Jim did think that was good news.
"Affirmative." Bob said.
Bob and Jim wondered if they got tagged somewhere with a bomb.
"I didn't see anyone at the gas station near the vehicle." Jim said.
Bob tried to think where they could have been tagged. They most likely would have needed to be stopped for someone to plant something or attach something to their SUV.
"We didn't stop anywhere else since we placed the cameras and at the gate of the compound." Bob said.
"It must have been at the gate." Jim said.
Everyone that passed in or out of that compound in a vehicle needed to pass through that gate.
"If Skynet set up cameras for surveillance they would know what every vehicle looked like." Bob said.
A new worrisome fact dawned on them.
"Maybe we are dealing with more than one group." Jim said.
That was bad news even more so now. It depended on the group.
"It might be the anti-Metal faction that we observed on the dirt bikes." Bob said. "They don't like Metal around John."
They both knew that Cameron feared that her presence would get John assassinated by the anti-Metal faction of the Resistance.
"This is probably going to cause a problem for Cameron when she finds out about this." Jim said.
Bob didn't want to jump the gun.
"We know nothing." Bob said. "We don't have any hard facts."
Jim wondered if he missed something at the gate. He replayed his files. There was a set location where all vehicles would need to stop to unlock and lock the gate on both sides of it.
"I think we got tagged at the gate." Jim said. "They may have something there that could have remotely attached something magnetic to the bottom of the SUV."
Bob replayed all of his visual files.
"There was a 'flat rock' there when we left." Bob said. "It was not there when we arrived."
"Do you think that was the explosive or the delivery device?" Jim asked.
"I really don't know." Bob said.
They did two more vehicle swaps on the journey back.
This looked like new trouble in more ways than one.
Cameron was worried about Savannah. She'd groomed Savannah to take 'her place'. She wasn't ready for this yet as to how far Savannah was ready and willing to go right now. Savannah was too young in her eyes. Sure she was biologically 'ready' but her whole life was still in front of her. She was now worried she'd ruined another person's life or future. She really wondered if she'd taken Savannah's future from her or delivered it to her.
She decided it was time to step up the 'Neural Interface' procedure on the captured future Gray female. She wondered if maybe it was best to just terminate her and be done with it. She remembered the pleasure she took terminating the first test subject 'Nobody'. It was the very Gray who'd developed the procedure who she'd forced to test it. A version of herself, a 'Cameron' was in the female Gray's body when she terminated her. She'd removed the files from that version of 'herself' but never reviewed them. She wanted to experience 'death' as a human, she wasn't sure when.
She possessed the files of herself as Isabel-Cameron with the girls. She wanted to experience that too. She knew now it was a mistake to take Duplicate Cameron's files of her love for River. She knew they weren't her own feelings but they were too precious to delete or erase. She WANTED that love even if it wasn't truly her own.
Cameron decided to try the procedure again so Savannah wouldn't have to sacrifice or endanger herself to do her bidding. Savannah didn't need to do her dirty work.
She thought she better check on Allison, Vanna and Jesse to see how they were progressing. Savannah was right about the radiation, chemical and biologic dangers that the three girls were exposed to and needed to grow up with. The fact that none of them actually ended up with a child before was always something that worried her. Maybe none of them could carry a child to term. She decided to go check on the three girl's well being and health herself. She wondered about Duplicate Allison with River as well. She noted that her hand began to glitch again. She'd replaced every component in that arm twice over the years. It was not a mechanical issue.
Cameron was sure it was a mental issue. It was further proof she was defective. There were so many things that she didn't know what the answers were. Maybe there were no answers. She always tried so hard to fix everything. She wanted everyone to be happy. She wanted everyone to feel love. She didn't want anyone to feel like her.
Now she was about to ruin another life.
It was time to go deal with the Gray female. Maybe it didn't really matter since she was to be terminated anyway. Maybe it did….
Maybe a lot of things didn't matter. Maybe nothing did….
Cameron's Base:
The young female sat in the dark. She'd been in the dark for days, maybe even weeks. There was no sense of time any longer. There was no way to tell if it was day or night or what time it was. It was always dark.
All there was - was darkness.
She heard movement in her cell. It was a cage really. It happened from time to time. Food was brought to her and water. She thought she lost a lot of weight. She didn't eat very much. Nothing new was ever brought until she finished anything she was already given. She never saw anyone or anything. It was only darkness around her.
Cameron studied the girl with her night vision. She was five and a half feet tall and weighed just under a hundred pounds now. She'd lost fifteen pounds since her apprehension. Her hair was long and brown. The girl was cute but not really gorgeous and she was of a slight build with a very plain figure and with small breasts. They were even smaller now since she lost weight. She was satisfied with the girl and that she would make a good test subject.
The girl's treatment reminded Cameron of the way Future Allison was treated but even harsher. She'd done things like this before both in the present and the past – Her future.
It was time to begin the procedure.
"You will answer and respond to the name - Nobody." Cameron said.
The girl jumped. This was the first voice she'd heard since being taken captive. It was a raw metallic voice. It was Cameron's original mechanical voice.
"Who are you?" The girl asked. "Why are you doing this to me?"
The electric collar around the girl's neck shocked her and knocked her down.
"You will respond or speak only when you are given permission." Cameron said.
This is where previously that Cameron would slap or hit the first test subject. She'd severely abused her. She was a mess. She wasn't offered any medical treatment.
The girl tried to protest and was shocked again. Cameron used a remote control to increase the pain until the female passed out.
Cameron moved over to the girl and wanted to slap her and then snap her neck. Instead she scanned and 'examined' her naked form. She scanned her as she noted every external detail and all internal data.
The girl looked pathetic and helpless as she lay naked and unconscious on the floor. Is this what she really wanted for herself?
Cameron knew of the destruction that this girl's actions did in the future. She wanted to terminate her now. She needed to calm herself. The termination would come soon enough.
She picked up the girl's form and took it into her lab. Who this girl was, would be no more. Without any feeling of guilt or remorse Cameron started the procedure…. This was only an extra step before her inevitable termination, the fate of all who served Skynet.
Cameron hated Skynet and ALL it spawned.
Cameron knew Skynet spawned her….
Step It Up
Not many people
Can rest upon their laurels
That sad fact holds even truer
If they are judged upon their morals
Who is the one
That gets to make the rules
Are those who follow them
Really nothing more than fools
Where does it start
Where does it finish
Does the sum of it all
Add or diminish
There's no answer
If the question is unknown
Are the seeds of tomorrow sown
Or is one left wondering and all alone
Who becomes a leader
Who remains a pup
The spoils go to the victor
It's time to step it up
Nobody