Chapter 364

Bad Feeling

Cameron was gone for a few days. No one knew where. It was nothing new. She was most likely tracking down a lead or enacting a personal vendetta against some local drug lord or crime boss. She specialized in bringing down sex trafficking. It became personal to her. Sheila, Ally and her were the perfect bait for getting inside these trafficking groups. It was simply another way to eliminate future Scavengers and Grays before Judgment Day. Cameron was still troubled by what happened to the girls in the future. She wanted to make sure Savannah and Young Allison were better protected.

Savannah worked with Cammy and John Henry. She wanted to learn everything about the large HK Tread and how to operate it as well as program it. She became very proficient at it. Vanna and Cam would come sometimes as well to assist.

Vanna knew of machines like this one in her future. She'd never personally encountered one this large before. She could see that Savannah was quite comfortable in training with it. It still seemed unsafe to her.

"Why are you doing this?" Vanna asked. "It's dangerous."

Savannah knew Vanna was her. It was still hard to believe but she was. The girls from the future all were tested in battle. They'd all faced the enemy against long odds. She didn't like what happened to them by many of the different groups of the future. The thought of being violated over and over bothered her. The girls all dealt with it and moved forward. Maybe after a few dozen times she would do the same. Vanna made it. That meant she could too. Her life was very controlled and sheltered at the base. She felt an obligation to do more.

"I want to be able to help when the time is right." Savannah said. "We all need to step up to save the future when the time comes. You've all done your parts. I haven't."

Vanna wasn't sure she'd done any part. All she'd done was survive. Many others didn't. Maybe in that regard she was lucky. Maybe she was the unlucky one by surviving. Skynet did great harm to the future and those in it. It also found many ways to kill and damage them. Her inability to carry a child more than a month or two before the pregnancy terminated greatly bothered her.

"We've also all paid a price with the chemicals, toxins and germs we've been exposed to." Vanna said. "Skynet found more than one way to eradicate us…."

Vanna absentmindedly touched her lower belly. If Skynet could prevent them from reproducing, they would win by default in the end. There wouldn't be any more humans at that point.

Savannah knew that Cameron set out to kill the scientists and engineers who assisted Skynet with the development of those chemical and biological weapons. She was aware that some of them were as young as her. It didn't matter. Skynet targeted her as a girl and John before he was even born. The future was ugly and there was a price to be paid by everyone. She would kill those people too on her own if she encountered them. She wasn't a murderer but she was a patriot for humanity. Everything in life came with a price.

"Cameron has tracked down every one of those people from both futures and terminated them." Savannah said. "That's not going to happen again. I am going to help her prevent that."

Vanna didn't like Savannah to need to fight and kill. Maybe that worry was already too late. Savannah's hands were already 'dirty'.

Savannah looked over the HK Tread and climbed up inside of it. Cameron helped her at first but she wasn't here now. Cammy went over everything about it with her many times. Cammy would do something to disable the HK Tread and she would need to figure out what it was and how to fix it.

This time she checked everything twice and couldn't find the problem. She thought about asking Cammy but in the battlefield Cammy may not be there. She may be on her own as part of an infiltration mission or she may be there to sabotage the equipment to deny Skynet its use.

It took some time but she found the problem. She buttoned up the HK Tread and took it out for a simulated combat patrol.

Vanna watched as Savannah put the HK Tread through a whole series of drills and simulated attacks. Vanna thought maybe she should practice too. There was always the fear that Judgment Day would happen and everything from before would happen again. It was a grim prospect.

Cammy and Cam posed as targets or in finding ways to defeat The HK Tread. Those were important tactics to learn and develop to combat Skynet going forward.

Savannah brought the HK Tread back to where she started out from. She opened the hatch and climbed out. It seemed to her that one HK Tread alone was vulnerable even if it could inflict great damage before it was disabled or destroyed.

"At best this is a diversion, while we strike elsewhere." Savannah said. "There would need to be hundreds of these to make a major impact."

Vanna saw that more with the HK Tracks than HK Treads in her future.

"That's what Skynet used. They used hundreds of them." Vanna said. "They built thousands of the smaller ones, the HK Tracks. They would roll in from several directions. The initial units would be destroyed but they just kept coming. There were HK drones all over the sky as well. Everyone needed to fallback but they still kept coming. It was terrible."

Savannah thought she'd trained enough and studied the plans enough to make a difference in an attack. If they only encountered Grays they would have an advantage. The fact that Skynet already made HK drones, Tracks and Treads was worrisome enough. Skynet attempted to get the upper hand for the future.

"I've worked with Cammy and identified all the weak points on this and on the smaller units that Cameron also made plans of, the HK Track." Savannah said. "I will make sure everyone knows where to hit to disable these things."

Vanna thought that was a good idea. She was aware that two of Cameron's Terminators concentrated their gunfire to disable an HK Tread in place so it was stuck. It could still fight but it couldn't go anywhere.

"That's great planning, Savannah." Vanna said.

Savannah didn't think there was enough training and preparations that they could do. It seemed like everything would not be enough for the real threat. It would all come down to numbers. Who was willing to sacrifice the most and throw everything they possessed into the fight. For Skynet most of that would be machines. For the Resistance most of that would be people.

"There are many things we need to plan for." Savannah said. "I intend to be ready. We're not going to be lucky forever. The future is coming. We need to be ready."

Cam and Cammy listened to Vanna and Savannah. They were each pound of 'their girl' and cared for them deeply. They both saw Savannah and Vanna as 'their girl' in reality. They were the same person.

Cam scanned Vanna. She asked Cammy to scan her too.

"I need to get a hold of Cameron." Cam said. "No one knows where she is."

Vanna thought Cam seemed a little worried over nothing. Cameron was often busy.

"That's nothing new." Vanna said. "Savannah, do you know?"

Savannah was worried herself. Cameron always contacted her if she left a message. So far Cameron' hadn't responded.

"I don't know. I've tried to reach her as well." Savannah said. "She usually will respond soon after I attempt to contact her."

Vanna knew that was true. Cameron never neglected Savannah for anything.

Cammy could see Savannah was more than concerned, that made her worry more herself. She checked her phone and sent out several inquiries. None of them came back with positive results.

"I have a bad feeling this time. Ally and Sheila have lost contact as well." Cammy said. "I'm putting everyone on this."

Cam developed a bad feeling too….

Now everyone was worried.

Savannah and Cammy took the disturbing news to John in the Command Center. They were worried about Cameron. She still hadn't responded to Savannah even after more attempts to contact her. They even indicated it was urgent. There was no response.

"John, Cameron is missing." Savannah said.

John thought Cameron was gone a lot anyway. How was this different?

"What do you mean she's missing?" John asked.

Cammy laid out what they knew. It wasn't much.

"No one knows where she's at." Cammy said. "No one knows what she was doing or working on."

John still didn't see the problem.

"That's nothing new." John said. "She will go a week or more without contacting me."

Earlier John decided to use this opportunity to track down a new lead with information Sheila was able to extract from the truck driver. With Cameron away, he'd decided to check it out himself, with Bob. Dan and Al had also come along for extra muscle. They took down another small location but didn't glean anything new.

"John Henry, do you have anything?" John asked. "Has she done anything she shouldn't have?"

John Henry checked again for any developments. He knew Cameron could cause great damage if she wanted to. He was always on the alert for that. He needed to put some spin on anything like that.

"Negative." John Henry said. "There aren't any new news reports. I haven't come across any events or incidents yet."

John Henry widened his search parameters and double checked everything. It was always bad news when Cameron 'disappeared'. He was afraid she was having an 'incident' of some kind or may have been damaged. No one even entertained the thought of her being captured or destroyed.

Savannah saw things from a different perspective.

"Cameron always responds to me when I call her." Savannah said. "This is different. This is something more."

John knew that Cameron was infatuated with Savannah. He was aware that as much as Cameron tried to get Savannah into his bed, she also tried to keep her out of it. It was her programming conflicting with her personal desire. Cameron was in love with Savannah. Now he was really worried. Cameron should have responded to Savannah.

"I want the drones on standby along with the Blackhawk. Get several strike teams ready. Derek and Kyle can each lead one." John said. "Maybe we need to prepare for the worst."

Savannah stepped forward. John didn't look at her. He didn't want to encourage her.

Cammy knew what Savannah wanted. She wanted to 'step up'.

"Savannah is here as well…." Cammy said.

John looked at Cammy and then at Savannah.

"John, I wish to lead a strike team also." Savannah said.

John didn't say anything at first.

He could see how important this was to Savannah. It was important to him as well. This was personal.

"OK. I want a lot of Terminators with her." John said.

Savannah knew the Metal girls would back her play.

"Cammy, Ally and Sheila will all accompany me." Savannah said.

John felt the Metal girls would look after Savannah. They also needed to consider some more ominous threats now as well. Cameron could have been captured. There could be Grays going through her chip right now. The entire operation could be in jeopardy.

"OK. John Henry, I want the Details on alert as well as the base." John said. "We never know what direction these things will go."

Actually they did know. They all went bad sooner or later. That is just how it was. The bad feeling was everywhere now.

Hanna came over from the Detail house and joined Claire and the Young girls. She sought out Allison. She'd been informed by Cammy of the current events. She'd thought about what she wanted to do before she came over. She decided to relay the bad news.

Allison was a little surprised to see Hanna in the house. She knew her mother was going over to the Detail house to 'associate' with Hanna. She was pretty sure what that 'association' involved.

"What's up?" Allison asked.

Hanna decided to get straight to the point.

"Word just came in." Hanna said. "Cameron is missing."

Allison sucked in her breath a little. That sounded like bad news.

"I hope she's OK." Allison said with genuine concern.

Claire heard the discussion and came over immediately. She was worried about Cameron. She wanted to know more.

"What's wrong?" Claire asked. "Is something wrong?"

Hanna took her hand. She tried to use some tact.

"Cameron is out of 'contact'." Hanna said. "She will turn up."

Allison noted the open affection her mother and Hanna displayed. She wasn't happy about that. She could see that the closer her mother got to Hanna, the farther she got from her father.

Claire noticed Allison's displeasure. She wasn't ashamed of her feelings.

"Allison, it's what I want." Claire said as she embraced Hanna.

Allison frowned even more.

"What about Dad?" Allison asked.

Claire wasn't sure about what or why. Cameron would provide her with assistance and income.

Allison watched her parents slowly drift away from each other. Unlike her and Vanna, they never drifted back together. Now with Metal in the picture, they never would.

"Think of the girls, Mom." Allison said. "I mean ALL three of us."

Claire needed to think about herself too. Her feelings mattered too. She felt desires and wants like everyone.

"I have been. I'm still here, aren't I?" Claire asked.

Holly and Hanna didn't want to get into this discussion. It would only end with angry words and hard feelings. Both thought now was not a good time to point out Allison drifted off also from her long time lover.

Before Cameron left she'd followed through on her plans. The test results came back, both Claire and Allison were pregnant. Claire carried Allison's child, her own grandchild…. She hadn't informed her husband Paul. She hadn't been with him for months. He would assume the worst when she turned up pregnant.

"Allison, if you want we can tell your father 'everything'." Claire said. "I'm carrying your child. He's never going to believe it. He will think I'm having an affair with another male."

Allison just wanted everything to be simple.

"I don't know, Mom." Allison said. "I really don't."

Allison wondered what would happen if she and her mother both ended up having a baby, her babies. She wondered if they would be considered fraternal 'twins'. They were both her genetic material. Allison was sure Cameron would take one of them away from her if they both were carried to term and born.

Holly wanted to refocus this discussion. The main issue here was that Cameron was missing.

"At the first sign something is off, I'm taking all of you to the bunker." Holly said.

Hanna looked at Holly and nodded. Cameron's orders were for Allison and Young Allison to be protected at all costs. Summer and Claire were secondary. They were aberrations to the future, Cameron's future. Cameron still wanted them protected if possible.

Claire previously visited the Resistance base with Cameron. She liked the security it offered. Young Allison was being home schooled. She learned everything at a rate far beyond her grade school years. Holly was her academic teacher most of the time with Allison and her. They worked on the non academic aspects of her life, the arts and physical education. Cameron was heavily involved in all decisions regarding Young Allison. Cameron may not have physical control and custody of Young Allison but she controlled everything about her and for her.

Cameron worked with Allison as she'd done for Future Allison as well. She'd learned so much from Cameron. She learned more all the time from Holly too.

Cameron wanted all the 'Allisons' to be highly educated and become teachers themselves when they were needed in the future, in every future.

Holly's phone buzzed as did Hanna's. They looked at the messages and then they both looked at each other.

Allison and Claire watched. They both knew it was 'bad news' of some type. The bad feeling they both already felt just got worse.

"How bad is it?" Allison asked. "Was Cameron damaged?"

Holly could see Allison was filled with even more worry and anxiety now. Claire didn't look any better.

"You both need to remain calm." Holly said.

Holly scanned Allison as Hanna did to Claire.

"We don't know yet." Hanna said. "There may have been an 'incident'…."

They all knew the 'incidents' never ended well. They were usually a catastrophic event of some kind.

Allison felt guilty. Maybe she should be doing a little more. She was living a sedate life at 'home'. The fighting was left up to the others at the base. Now she was pregnant again. Maybe she should chance it. Her mother stood a better chance at having her baby anyway.

"I should do more." Allison said.

That was about the last thing Claire and Holly wanted to hear.

Bad Feeling

Some things leave one feeling happy
Some things leave one feeling sad
Maybe for all the things in between
One should feel indifferent to glad

Does happiness really exist
Or is it just a state of mind
When one really looks around
What is it they will actually find

Many things are fleeting
They can come and go
In the end little matters
Who don't think so

There is what's right
There is what's wrong
Events can make one weaker
Or events can make one strong

Some get through life by stealing
Others get through life by concealing
Little happens to do any healing
Leaving behind nothing but a bad feeling

Nobody