Chapter Eight: Hunted

The goal had quickly become to survey and study the construction of the structure in Ensenada, hindering it wherever they could without drawing direct attention from Skynet. After seeing John's performance with the damaged T-200, Sarah conceded that he needed to leave the bunker with her and get some actual practice in dealing with them. The bunker was too far from the structure and each trip was costing them fuel, but it would be too risky to repeatedly bring back more of the Terminators to their base in order to use them as target practice.

John and Sarah left in the old pickup truck, turning onto the highway as the sun began to set on their left. It was safer to travel at night as the HK's that patrolled the site only remained during the day, leaving at night to head back north. The drive was long and silent, both with a nervous anticipation at what they may find up there and how dangerous it might be. It had been a few weeks since the incident with the T-200, but now that they had laid low for a while, Sarah felt that now was a good time to go back there.

They drove through the familiar dead agricultural farmland south of the city, the empty fields stretching out on either side of them, ending in a gradual rise of mountain ranges. Soon they were passing rows of empty houses and shops and John began to notice the thin, dead bodies that littered the ground outside the doorways, shot where they stood long ago by some unknown violence. It was the first time he had been so far from the bunker since Judgement Day, and seeing how much the world had changed since then was sobering. He had been excited to come out but now the reality of the new world was staring him in the face and he couldn't turn away.

Sarah was quiet. There had been a dull pain in her legs recently that she realised had actually been there for some time, but its severity had only gotten worse with her increase in physical activity. The recoil of the shotgun's stock in her shoulder had left a surprisingly large bruise which had only now begun to fade. The drive itself had sapped energy from her, but the risk of what was up ahead kept her alert. She approached the usual right-hand turn and took it, aiming again for the hiking trail up the steep range that overlooked the empty city.

They drove partway up the trail and parked long before they would come into view of the structure. Sarah didn't want to push their luck. They pulled their rifles from the cab and holstered them over their shoulders before each putting on their leather gloves, taking a Termination Knife with them before making the walk up the hill. They didn't intend to get close to any Terminators but if they did, they didn't want to draw more attention with loud gunfire. They reached the top of the hill and the landscape below came into view.

The buildings and streets were dark and empty, and it was hard to imagine that it was once a bustling tourist city with an active nightlife. Now, the only thing that showed activity was the structure in the middle of the flattened residential block, this time lit up with spotlights on the corners. It was more complete than before, the walls now twice as high and it was beginning to look like a large warehouse or a factory. Walls were now being built around it closer to the block's perimeter, looking like the defensive walls of a fortress. Sarah and John took in the scenery, noticing the red eyes of two scout drones floating in the sky and the movement of the many T-200 Terminators that patrolled the area in a much higher number than before.

Under the shelter of a dead, overhanging tree, the pair watched the scene through their rifle scopes, whispering to each other about which ones to target first. Taking out the drones would be left to Sarah, who was quicker and more accurate with her sniper rifle. It had to be done quickly, or they would run the risk of being spotted by them and alerting all of the Terminators on the ground, and the looming threat of the HK being alerted to their presence always hung over their heads. Two quick shots brought them down to the ground—Sarah's shoulder screaming in agony—and they were free to continue. John lined up a T-200 on the far left corner of the outer wall. It was standing still like a sentry guard, holding a machine gun, turning its head left and right. An easy first target. Taking his time, listening to the sounds of construction from inside the structure, John focused and slowed his breathing.

He fired.

The bullet clipped the Terminator's shoulder, the force of it rotating its torso to the side as it stumbled on the spot. It regained its balance and raised its machine gun, aiming it at the spot in front of it. John fired again. The bullet pierced its head and the Terminator fell to the ground. Everything was silent. None of the other units had noticed anything, yet, primitive as they were.

"Well done, John" whispered Sarah. "Do it again and keep aiming for the ones on that side."

John surveyed the area carefully and picked his next target. Another T-200 was patrolling near the one he had just shot down, pacing back and forth along a section of the outer wall. It was reaching the far left corner of the wall when John fired again, this time the bullet flying through the back of its head instantly. It fell—almost comically slow—to the ground. Sarah commended him on another good shot.

"Excellent. You're getting better already. Let's see if you can do it again."

He lined up his third target—the next Terminator along the outer perimeter wall closer to them—and fired. John had become too confident in his abilities from his last shot and missed the exposed soft spot. The bullet hit the armoured chest plate, cracking it, and drew the attention of the Terminator. It raised its machine gun and moved quickly towards the direction of where the shot had come from. Panicking, John tried to steady his breathing as he lined it up. It was moving too much, and its head was too small and too mobile of a target to hit, so he aimed for the abdomen and fired, hoping to stop it. The Terminator lurched forwards and fell onto the ground, legs twitching as it tried to right itself. With one last shot, John's bullet found its mark as the Terminator's head crumped and blew out the other side. John breathed a sigh of relief. Sarah, no longer looking through her own scope, noticed a different scene above them as she became aware of a familiar hum in the air.

"Oh, shit. John, we've gotta move!"

Since Sarah had taken down the two drones, four more had risen up out from the dark streets and were watching the site. One had noticed the two destroyed Terminators at the far corner of the site and was surveying them. The other drones had changed their patterns and moved towards the scene, then all rose higher into the air and circled around the immediate area, scanning for any activity. It was only a matter of time before they would head towards their spot on the hill and see their truck.

Sarah and John, aware of their position on the overall exposed hilltop, scrambled backwards while staying low to the ground until they were out of view of the cityscape. They ran to the pickup truck that was parked halfway up the trail and jumped in. Searching the night sky for any movement, Sarah lowered the handbrake and let the truck roll quietly down the gravel path. It was dark, but it was too risky to turn on the headlights. The ground levelled out as they reached the carpark at the bottom and Sarah had no choice but to turn the engine on and try to get out of the city unseen.

The engine turned over and sputtered into life, and John kept his eyes on the sky as Sarah pulled right onto the empty road, driving slowly through the darkened remains of the residential neighbourhood. They had the windows down, listening for any sound of approaching Skynet units. They were halfway down the road when John suddenly called out to Sarah that he saw something behind them in the mirror. She stopped the truck and looked behind them and spotted it. A drone hovered above them, high up in the air. If it weren't for the glowing red eye in the middle of it, it would have been invisible against the night sky.

Sarah opened the door and stepped out of the truck, pulling the rifle out as she did. They had to knock it out of the sky before moving on, otherwise there was no point in fleeing anywhere as it would just follow them relentlessly, always broadcasting their location to the nearby Terminators. They both fired upwards at it, but they were flustered and panicky, and the done was moving erratically. It took longer than they would have liked, but finally they shot it down, and it crashed onto the ground not far from them. They climbed back into the truck and had to decide on what to do next.

Skynet knew that they were in this current location, so they had to move quickly. The drone they shot down was only one of four, and the others wouldn't be far away if they weren't watching them already. Driving straight for the bunker wasn't an option as they would need to use the headlights and for all they knew, the HK-Aerial was only minutes away and would take them out in an instant. Out of options, they scanned the rendered, pascal houses around them and spotted one with an open, empty garage. Sarah put the truck into gear and drove quickly towards it, parking hastily inside and climbing out, pulling the roller door closed behind them.

John leaned over the seat and turned the key, killing the engine, then he and Sarah held still in the complete darkness of the garage, listening for any sound from the street outside. Sarah's mind was racing. She wasn't sure how long it had been since the first drone—and subsequently all of them—had seen them on the street. The HK could be only minutes away and she had seen first-hand the kind of damage those things could do to buildings.

Time seemed to stand still. They could just hear the sound of another drone as it hovered and moved slowly through the air on the other side of the wall. Questions filled their heads. Could it get into the house? Could it see them through the walls, or be able to detect them in the dark? The quiet hum of the drone seemed to fade and grow as it moved up and down the road and eventually, they heard not the sound that they had been dreading, but a sound that nonetheless made their blood run cold.

A series of heavy, mechanical footsteps were making their way up the road on the street outside. They marched past the garage door, one after another in a seemingly endless procession. As quietly as they could, Sarah and John crept out through the garage door into the next room of the house, rifles raised, watching for any movement through the partially-curtained windows. The Terminators' footsteps seemed to move all around them, as if deliberately encircling the house they were hiding in. Sarah and John knew that if they fired their weapons, every single one of them would be on them in an instant. They had to be smart if they wanted to get out of this alive.

Loud bangs rang out across the dark, empty street outside as the Terminators began to force their way into the surrounding houses through the front doors. Sarah scanned the open kitchen and living room they were in and saw that there was nowhere to hide in a hurry. A Terminator began to bang on their own door, forcing the flimsy wood off its hinges.

As quietly and as quickly as they could, the pair hurried up the stairs just as the door burst open. A T-200 marched in through the doorway and surveyed the empty living room, its clanking footfalls signalling its movements in the dark. Feeling his way through the upstairs hallway in the near total darkness, John crept into a bedroom on the right and immediately hid behind the open door, while Sarah disappeared further on down. John held his knife, feeling the switch at the end of the handle, and held his breath. All was silent in the dark, strange house apart from the muffled movements of the machine downstairs. John peeked past the door that he was hidden behind and saw that the curtains were drawn in the room, so he was out of view of the drone that continued to sweep the street outside, its red glow occasionally visible between the cracks.

John saw no way that they could get out—the street was being patrolled, their pickup truck had already been seen by the first drone and had surely been found in the garage by now by the T-200. Skynet must have known by now that the two of them were there. If they fired their weapons, they would draw the attention of the unknow number of Terminators nearby, and the odds of the two of them shooting their way out with sniper rifles were slim. And if an HK-Aerial was on its way to meet them, there was no way they could outrun it in their truck.

The Terminator's footsteps were now on the stairs just around the corner, and John listened in fear as it made its way into his room and went silent. He could hear every whirr and click as it rotated and scanned the dark room. He realised that in this total darkness, the Termination Knife in his hand was useless if he couldn't see his enemy properly. The footsteps sounded again, and the Terminator marched back out into the hallway, the thin wooden door the only thing separating it from him. It moved on down the hallway and John began to fear for his mother. He listened as the machine searched the rest of the top floor, its movements becoming clear and then muffled as it went slowly from room to room. It entered a room at the end and then everything went silent.

John held his breath, heart pounding and sweat forming on his forehead, and listened for any sudden shots or screams from the other end of the house. None came, and time seemed to stop. Never in his life had he feared more for his mother's safety. He crept slowly around the door, careful not to move it in case it creaked, and leaned through the doorway to look down the hall to his right. There was a window down the end with a view to the street, the faint light of the night sky filtering in. The house was still and nothing inside moved. Somewhere, the Terminator still lurked.

Waiting at the doorway, John considered hurrying down the hallway to take out the Terminator before it found Sarah, who must have been in one of the two end rooms that were on either side of the hallway. Just as he was about to take a step, the loud mechanical movements of the Terminator resumed and it came into view from the right doorway and marched across to the room on the left. John whipped back out of view and froze, heart pounding in his chest. He could hear it clearer now as its footsteps landed on hard floor tiles of a bathroom, making it sound heavy. Then, it moved back into the hallway and began to walk towards him as it checked the rooms on the left.

Standing still behind the wall, no longer behind the door, John knew that he was now completely exposed if the Terminator came back into his room. He didn't dare make a sound; it was much too close. It stepped into the opposite bedroom and made its way back out into the hallway before heading back down the stairs. Only after the house had been silent for several minutes did John step out of his hiding place.

Creeping down the hall towards the window at the end, he whispered out for his mother. Movement came from the end room on the right and as John approached he saw her faint form as she stood up from under the bed into the dim moonlight. She was shaken but appeared unhurt. The pair stood near the window and looked out, careful not to stand too close to the glass. Sarah remarked on the Terminators' movements.

"It looks like they're passing us. We might be able to get out of here, soon."

The small red dot in the sky was further away as the drone and the mass of T-200's moved down along the road, searching the houses one by one. Their house was silent, but they still took care to not make any noise.

The street went quiet as the metal army moved back towards the structure, seemingly giving up in its pursuit of the two humans spotted in the pickup truck. After waiting in near complete silence for what felt like an hour, the pair made their way down the hallway towards the stairs. They were less careful about their footsteps on the creaky wooden floor and as they went down the stairs into the empty living area below, they were convinced that they were alone. With long strides, Sarah and John hurried towards the garage door to reclaim their pickup truck. They didn't notice that the door was now closed and that they had left it wide open when they first hurried into the house. They didn't notice the thin, scarecrow-like figure of the lone T-200 that had recognised the pickup truck and was commanded to stay there, waiting for them behind the door.

"Mom!"

The Terminator's machine gun fired in quick succession, each round echoing in the small room, ringing in their ears. Sarah fell backwards out of its view with a scream and dropped her knife. John dropped his rifle and grabbed Sarah around the armpits and dragged her further out of the way. The metallic clunk of the Terminator's footsteps came closer and John only had seconds to act. Its dark form appeared in the doorway and he could only think of one thing to do. He knew that they were clumsy and if knocked over, it would take it some time for it to stand back up. Staying low, he reached out and grabbed its ankle with a fierce, adrenaline-filled grip and pulled its foot out from under it. With a heavy thud, the T-200 landed hard on its back, its machine gun firing upwards into the ceiling, illuminating the room with a series of strobing flashes.

It was light, so John had no trouble rolling it onto its side away from him as it struggled to right itself. He grabbed his Termination Knife and forced it into its back just above the ceramic armour. He flicked the switch on the handle and pulled away quickly as the Terminator writhed and sparked on the floor. He picked up his rifle and aimed it, point blank, at its head. The batteries in the knife ran out quickly and the current stopped. Once it was still, John fired a single shot, completely destroying its head at such a close range.

John helped Sarah up onto her feet and the pair moved towards the truck in the garage, their ears ringing the whole time with the recent close gunfire. Once in the cabin and under the scrutiny of the interior light, John could see just how bad of a state Sarah was in. She was covered in blood, the dark stain running down her right arm and drenching her shirt. They cut the sleeve off and inspected the wound carefully. A single bullet from the Terminator's machine gun had wedged itself against the bone in her shoulder, and it was a painful effort to remove it. It was a rough job, but they had no more time to waste and needed to leave the city before dawn.

John lifted the garage door and looked cautiously up and down the street, making sure that it was empty. They were alone, the Terminators having long since gone back to the structure. John drove back to the bunker that early morning. Sarah's right arm was now useless, though if she hadn't been shot, she doubted that she would be doing the driving for the way back anyway. She was exhausted for reasons that she knew were beyond what had occurred that night in Ensenada. There was something else wrong with her. The bones in her legs still hurt, and with it came a deep, primal fear that it was an indicator of something worse.