Chapter 872

I Lost Mine

Ken and Lou were directed to take over Bob's earlier assignment. Bob was supposed to do some recon on several locations that they'd obtained information on from a few of the phones that were previously captured from some deceased Grays.

The first two locations that were checked were both burnt to the ground. That set off an immediate red flag. They didn't know if the locations were being watched to see who came to investigate or not. It was decided at that time to pull them out and proceed to check things in a different manner.

John Henry's server JH was who they dealt with. It was decided that a drone would be launched as soon as it was dark. It would be able to operate at a much lower altitude in the darkness. They would be able to view the other locations that were identified. A further check of fire department records didn't indicate any response or that the other two structures that were previously serviced by the fire department in any way. Because no response was indicated that raised another red flag.

John Henry always blocked any 911 calls related to any of the locations where they operated. If they wanted a structure completely destroyed they made sure that the fire department never responded. It would appear that someone else must have done the same thing at the two locations that were destroyed.

JH now set out to find who was responsible for the non response of the fire department. They didn't know if it was done by some version of Skynet or some other supercomputer. It could have also been accomplished by a Terminator or even Grays at some unknown location.

Ken and Lou drove to within a mile of the next target location. The drone scans indicated that the structure was still there. Several low-altitude scans were made to check for heat signatures. There were none detected in the structure. There were however two individuals detected in a vehicle that was parked nearby. The vehicle was able to view two sides of the target structure. They weren't exactly sure who the two individuals were in that vehicle.

The two Terminators decided that they would walk in. They would approach the building from the direction which the vehicle couldn't observe. They would check out the building and then they would check out the vehicle.

Ken and Lou parked one street over from the target location as they approached it on foot. They went through the property in back of the target location. They paused when they reached the fence that separated the two properties. They peered over the fence and looked at the building. There was no obvious surveillance detected.

"How do you want to play this?" Ken asked.

Lou studied the back of the building for a short time.

"I think we can approach it from the rear." Lou said.

Ken nodded in agreement. They both went over the wall. They quickly moved up to the back of the building once they were over the fence. They didn't appear to trigger any alarms.

"There's a roof access." Ken said.

They carefully looked over the ladder. There was a cover over the first ten feet of it. It was locked with a padlock. They checked to see if it was wired. No alarm was detected on the cover itself. Usually when there was a roof access ladder there was no direct access from the roof into the interior of the building. The satellite scans and the recent drone image verified that there weren't any skylights on the roof of the structure. The only thing visible was the heating and air conditioning unit.

They briefly discussed their options in that regard. They could go up on the roof and rip the ducting loose from the roof and enlarge the opening to enter the structure that way. Whether there was an enclosed attic space or not was unknown. If there wasn't, as soon as they ripped the air conditioning duct out of the way, it would be visible from the interior of the building as to what occurred on the roof.

They decided to check for any doors or windows that weren't locked or could be easily pried open. They needed to keep in mind that they could only operate on two sides of the building based on the location of the unknown vehicle that appeared to watch two sides of the structure. The vehicle was able to view the front and the left side of the building as viewed from the street.

There were two doors in the back. One was a standard pass door and the other one was a large roll up door that was big enough for a truck to back into the interior of the building. There was no external loading dock. Both of those doors were securely locked. There was a transom window over the top of the pass door but it was secured as well.

They moved to the right side of the building as viewed from the street. There were two utility room doors. There was a long driveway. It ran from the rear of the building to the street. There was a gate across the driveway at the front of the building. It was closed and securely locked. One of the two doors appeared to be the electrical room. The other one appeared to be for the gas and water utilities. There was a row of non opening windows along that side of the building near the roof.

"Let's see if we can gain access to the interior through one of the utility rooms." Lou said.

Ken thought that idea had merit.

They asked JH to another low level drone scan of the building and area.

There was no change in the interior of the building. The unknown vehicle was still parked in the same spot. One of the two individuals was now out of it and stood next to the side of it near the rear. They were clearly identified as a male. They were in the process of relieving themselves at the back of the vehicle.

"Keep us posted if anyone moves away from the vehicle itself." Ken said.

They looked over the two doors for the utility rooms. It appeared that the door for the water and gas utilities was less secure. Based on the fact that the building was being watched, they decided to pick a lock rather than force the door open.

Lou opened the door several inches. He figured if there was an alarm it would have been triggered as soon as the door was open. There could however be a booby trap that was triggered to go off when the door was open a certain amount. That's what he currently checked for. None was located. They opened the door further and determined that it wasn't wired. They looked at the big water meter and shut off valve. There was a similar setup for the gas line. After the meter and the shut-off valve there were various pipes that ran off in different directions.

They made a small hole in the wall to look inside the building. They weren't too surprised by what they viewed when they looked into the interior. It was empty.

Ken looked toward the two doors at the rear of the building.

"It's wired with explosives." Ken said.

They decided not to enter the building. They were unable to observe the front office area but came to the conclusion that it was probably wired as well. They decided to withdraw.

"Let's go check on our friends in the vehicle." Lou said. "I think they might be able to give us some answers."

What they wanted to see was if the men in the vehicle would be able to trigger the explosion inside the building from their car if they saw someone enter it.

They decided to go over the side fence next to where they were at after they exited from the utility room. They crossed along the back of the building that was next to the target location. They went over the side wall of that building as well. Once they were two buildings over, they moved to the back wall of that building and went into the property behind it. They asked JH to do another drone scan to make sure that nothing appeared around their vehicle while they were gone. It had been under constant surveillance from the drone.

Ken and Lou returned to their vehicle with the confidence that it hadn't been disturbed or tampered with in their absence. They weren't gone for more than thirty minutes.

They wanted to take a roundabout route to move to the other side of the street where the unknown vehicle was currently parked. They weren't sure how big of an area those two individuals might have under observation or what surveillance was set up.

They drove three miles away from their current location to come up in back of where the unknown vehicle was parked. They still parked half of a mile away.

JH informed them the other individual exited the vehicle and also relieved themselves near the rear of it. They were identified as a male as well.

They were able to move up behind the other vehicle and were on the other side of a fence several hundred feet away from it.

JH informed them that there was a white van that approached their area of operation. It was now on the street with the target building. If it continued on its current course it would pass between the target building and the unknown vehicle. They'd experienced some run-ins with white vans around the Palm Springs area previously. They didn't know if it was connected or not.

They had the unknown vehicle under direct observation currently. Lou kept watch on it. Ken checked this phone for the drone images. They wanted to see where the white van was going to go.

JH sent out a warning that the side door on the van was just slid open. They were two buildings away from the unknown vehicle. Ken and Lou were behind the unknown vehicle in back of a wall.

"It looks like a hit." Ken said.

Ken and Lou both dropped below the top of the block wall that they were behind. They figured it was sturdy enough to deflect any shrapnel but not strong enough to withstand a direct hit from some type of rocket propelled projectile.

They both watched the drone image on Ken's phone. The two individuals from the unknown vehicle exited the vehicle and began to shoot at the white van as it approached their position. It was almost directly in front of them. One of the individuals that exited the vehicle reached back inside. The van was directly in front of them when a tongue of flame shot out from the side door of the van. The building across the street exploded in a gigantic fireball. The shock wave and shrapnel rocked the van. It flipped over onto its side. Almost in the same instant the projectile that was fired at the unknown vehicle hit it and exploded. It turned into a raging inferno as well. The one figure that was out of the vehicle ran screaming down the street on fire. They didn't get far. They collapsed near the van.

Ken and Lou continued to watch the drone footage. The view was currently zoomed in on the van. They watched as a figure struggled to climb out of the driver's door window. It took them some time. They were lucky that the van wasn't on fire otherwise they wouldn't have made it. They finally made it out of the window and dropped down to the ground. They looked around at the two fires burning on either side of him. They look back in the direction that the van had come from. They started back in that direction with a severe limp.

"That was interesting." Lou said.

Ken looked over the wall at the limping man.

"It looks like we have a new target." Ken said.

Cameron's team made entry through the front door. Sheila was behind her and Savannah brought up the rear.

She scanned the interior of the converted house as she moved forward. The interior was dark. There was no furniture in the first room. It originally used to be a 'living room'. There was no one apparent where there shouldn't have been. Cameron advanced to her target area.

Cameron moved toward the location where one of the figures should be located based on the thermal scans from the drone. He was right where he was supposed to be.

It was a man working on a computer terminal. In fact, he used several computers. Cameron saw him reach for a weapon and moved to intercept him before he grabbed it. It was clear this group was armed and ready to fight.

Cameron watched him press a button at the same time he reached for his weapon. She grabbed him and threw him across the room. He slammed into the wall and collapsed like a rag doll. Behind him where he hit the wall, the lath and plaster was now smashed in. It was a very hard impact.

She looked at the computer screens and they were all in the process of erasing themselves. She looked at the rag doll figure on the floor to make sure he was down. She then tried to stop the programs from being erased. She called to Savannah.

Moments ago:

Sheila separated from Cameron as soon as they cleared the front door. Her target was in a side room, an old bedroom at one time. The door to that room was closed. Sheila crashed through the door like it was tissue paper.

The occupant of that room heard the doors in the front and back crash in and tried to make an escape. He jumped through the window to try and get away. Sheila raised her M4 to take a shot at him but he disappeared out the window. Sheila remembered Frank was outside and the man wouldn't get very far.

Sheila looked at what the man worked on before his sudden departure. There were several computer screens up and all of them were now in some type of self erasure mode. Sheila looked at the fleeing figure to make sure he was intercepted by Frank. She then tried to stop the programs from erasing. She called out to Savannah.

Moments ago:

Savannah followed behind Sheila as they entered the house. It was her job to cover their six and double check an empty room. It appeared that it used to be the living room. She looked around and checked a closet in the hallway. She saw Sheila crash through a door. It was followed almost immediately by the sound of breaking glass. There was a loud 'thump' from the direction Cameron went.

"Savannah, cover me." Both Cameron and Sheila said at the same time.

Savannah moved into the hall between both of them.

"I'm in the hall." Savannah said. "I have it covered.

There was a drone close overhead. It searched around the outside the structure to make sure no reinforcements arrived and ended up behind them. They didn't want to get trapped in the house. The other drone was on a wider recon. It checked for the same thing. Both so far didn't show any new threats. That could change.

Seconds ago:

Frank heard the two teams breach the front and rear doors. There was the sound of one more door being forced open followed by a loud 'thump' from another room.

An instant later, a figure crashed through the window on his right. Frank immediately grabbed him. The figure struggled briefly before he realized he was in the clutches of a Terminator.

The man's wide staring eyes looked insanely at Frank. A few seconds later pink foam began to come out of his nose and mouth.

"They're taking poison." Frank shouted. "These are the Fanatics."

That was news no one wanted to hear.

The Fanatics liked to blow themselves up when they could.

Seconds ago:

Cammy's team was at the back door. Dan was behind Cammy and Gail brought up the rear.

Cammy burst through the back door and headed for a hallway that ran along the back. Her target frantically pushed buttons on his keyboard. There was an M1 carbine next to him. As she closed on him he reached for it. She heard the commotion occur in the rooms on the other side of the house. They were from Cameron's team.

She was faster than the man. She grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up as she choked him. She saw the computers were in some type of self destruct mode. She held him with one hand as she tried to assess what was happening and stop it.

Dan was aware of the events happening across the house. Dan's target wasn't where he was supposed to be. They'd checked the last thermal image right before they'd breached.

"My target is gone." Dan called out a warning.

There was the sound of water running in the bathroom. It was the toilet. One of the men must have just used the bathroom as they were about to enter.

Dan noted several computer screens. They all showed files being deleted. He needed to make a choice. He could either look for the man or try to stop the computers from erasing.

Gail was behind Dan. She checked the kitchen area and it was clear. She was to back up Cammy and Dan. She was also going to back up Savannah.

She heard Dan say his target was gone. She scanned the hallway and picked up a rapidly fading heat signature on a hall closet door handle.

"I'm on it, Dan." Gail called out. "Stick with the computers."

They heard Frank shout out that one man took poison. The news that they were the Fanatics followed. The Fanatics were known for insane behavior.

Cammy looked at the man she held. There was pink foam and blood coming out of his mouth.

She dropped him and concentrated on the computers. She frantically worked to save what information she could. She was aware the Fanatics battled other groups of Skynet Grays. Maybe some of this information would lead to those groups. It was being erased faster than she could stop it.

Cameron heard Frank call out about the poison. She turned away from the self destructing computers and quickly moved to the rag doll man lying on the floor where he fell after he impacted the wall. He was still unconscious. Cameron forced his mouth open. She was careful not to break his jaw. She wanted answers from him. She looked for the 'poison tooth'. She spotted it and yanked it out. She double checked for a second one.

When Cameron looked back at the computer screens, they were all blank.

Savannah moved up to reinforce Sheila after the sound of breaking glass from the room she'd entered. She saw Sheila frantically working with the keyboard. She entered the room and yanked the power strip cord out of the wall.

Sheila watched as the monitors all shut down.

"We might be able to save some of the data if we can go through it ourselves later." Savannah said.

John Henry or a team of Terminators could take apart the towers and see what information they could save. Maybe they could stop the self destruct procedure. It depended on the types of hard drives they were using.

Savannah moved back into the hall to check on Cameron and the front room area again.

She heard Dan call out his target wasn't there and Gail say she was on it.

There was some dragging type noise from the room Sheila was in. Savannah saw Frank hand Sheila the dead Fanatic through the window. It looked like everything was under control on that side of the house. She decided to help look for the missing man.

"Sheila, cover the front and Cameron." Savannah said. "I'm going to back Gail up."

Savannah went through the kitchen and saw the open door that Gail disappeared into. It looked like a closet. She hurried after her. She saw Cammy and Dan working with their captured computers.

"I stopped it." Cammy said.

Dan looked stone faced.

"I lost mine." Dan said.

Savannah looked at the open door across from the bathroom. There was a ladder in the closet. It was actually the attic access. Gail was already at the top and disappeared from sight as she looked up. This made no sense. The attic should be a dead end with nowhere to go. Why would anyone trap themselves up there? Maybe it wasn't to trap the person fleeing but to trap anyone who followed them.

Alarm bells went off in Savannah's head. This reeked of being a 'set up' in some way.

"Frank, look up on the roof on your side and the in the front. Someone may be out there on the roof." Savannah called out loudly; she knew Frank would hear her.

"Dan, cover Cammy and the back." Savannah said as exited through the back door.

Savannah decided to move back outside and see what she could spot if there was any way out onto the roof. She would check the back and the side opposite from Frank. She wasn't sure what she would find. She felt it wouldn't be anything good.

Seconds ago:

Gail looked in the small closet opening. She spotted the ladder. She looked up. She could hear someone up above her in the attic. She went up the ladder rapidly. There was a fumbling noise and some beeping sound. It sounded like some electronic device was being used. That was followed by a loud 'screech' of metal scraping.

She popped up from the opening into the attic. She saw the person's foot disappear through a roof vent, which was now off. She moved to grab them. She reached out and grabbed for their foot, she got the shoe. It came off in her hand and they slipped away.

Gail started after them when she saw something in the corner of her eye. It was an electronic timer. That must have been what the beeping noise was. There must be a bomb connected to it. She let the person flee and called out a warning. The timer showed twenty seven seconds.

"I have a bomb." Gail shouted. "Twenty six seconds are left."

Gail started to try and disarm it. The seconds continued to count down.

Savannah was outside when she heard what Gail said. She remembered Frank's earlier warning that this group was the Fanatics. The Fanatics never surrendered. They liked to use bombs whenever they could. They were also known to take poison so that they couldn't be questioned and reveal anything that they knew. She was sure none of the Terminators would leave on their own accord. It was against their nature to run. The decision came instantly to her. She didn't like to give 'orders'. She understood it was necessary in this instance.

"Everyone get OUT now." Savannah said. "That's an ORDER. The building will blow up."

They all heard Savannah's command. It was an ORDER. They knew any order from Savannah needed to be followed immediately. They all instantly headed for a way out. Cameron picked up the still unconscious man and crashed through the window in the room she was in to get outside. Sheila grabbed the computer towers Savannah shut down earlier and tossed them out the window to Frank. She jumped out the window and followed after him.

Cammy picked up her two hard drive towers and handed one to Dan and they both headed toward the back door.

They all counted down the seconds from Gail's earlier warning. The seconds went by fast.

Gail looked for the bomb until she heard Savannah's ORDER. She pulled herself up through the missing roof vent and onto the roof. She saw the timer was down to a few seconds.

Savannah moved away from the house as she looked back up to the roof. She spotted a figure on the roof. She saw them jump to a large tree that adjoined the house. She noticed they wore only one shoe. She moved back against the house to get a better firing angle. She was aware the seconds were counting down.

She felt a bullet pass next to her head. There was the loud sound of a shot almost immediately. She reflected briefly on the fact they say that you never hear the one that gets you. That was because most bullets traveled at supersonic speed. She saw the muzzle flash and fired half her magazine at and around it in a figure eight pattern.

Savannah knew she needed to get away from the house and took off in a 'zigzag' pattern around the corner and across the lot. There was a 'dull thud' behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Gail just landed in back of her.

"Keep going." Gail said. "I have your back."

Savannah was aware that Gail could have gone off to the side or passed her. Either of those options would have been faster for her to get away. Instead Gail stayed right behind her. It was clear that Gail used her chassis to shield her.

There was a bright flash of light all around her and Savannah flew through the air as the concussive blast wave reached her. She hit the ground and it felt like she was being crushed at first. It was Gail shielding her. Debris rained down all around her. Something metal bounced along near the side of her head, it just missed it. She stayed down as debris landed around her and Gail.

Savannah could tell that it was a big explosion.

I Lost Mine

What is the right direction
Is there really such a thing
When the wrong choice is made
Get ready to feel a sting

What is the real destination
Is there really such a place
Maybe sooner rather than later
There's a slap on the face

Who can one trust
For how long will it last
Maybe that's why the characters
Are all soon replaced and recast

Whatever really changes
It seems not to be much
Victory goes to the one
Who allows the other to touch

One better look for a sign
Before they build a shrine
The way forward is hard to align
Find the map of life, I lost mine

Nobody