Some hours later there was a gathering at the top of the Dam. Four humans ate breakfast around a crackling fire, telling stories as they always had done. They'd heard many of them before but that wasn't the reason they told them. Stories were told to keep encroaching world at bay. With them they would preserve what humanity was left in the world and with a little luck, someday they would build it again.
In this place there were as many things unsaid as said - a look shared between brothers, one lover with hands on another. The General, like a dutiful shepherd with his flock. None of these things were mentioned save through the ancient language that would survive as long as people lived to continue their traditions. They laughed because it seemed the right thing to do. They broke bread over the fire like people of old civilizations long since turned to dust, and they told their stories, each as changing and timeless as the light from that tiny fire.
The storm had passed and once again left them all living. For that, they were thankful but not unaware of how precarious it all was. Friendship was dangerous in this time because it made you vulnerable. They couldn't ignore it, they needed it to be called human. Other dark clouds grew on the horizon but with food and drink they could keep them at bay just a little longer.
They had been through tough spots, and tough spots never seemed to shake them. Somehow they had made it through. They were content with the knowledge that tomorrow their luck may run out, or perhaps their fellowship would come to an unkind end. Such was life in this place, so far away from what they had known when they were younger.
As the sun rose the conversation began to die down. They were drunk from exhaustion, and it was all each of them could do to keep from nodding off in the cool air.
Alison stood up first, reaching her arms up above her head in a 'V' until she felt her bones pop. "I'm going downstairs. Come find me, okay?" She spoke to Kyle directly.
"Sure sweetheart, I'll find you." He looked at her, thinking how lovely she was that morning, how warm she would be to sleep against.
They shared a quick kiss. "Don't be long."
Derrick felt the need to chime in as she walked off. "You know where she's going, don't you?"
"Check on John." Kyle said.
"Check on John." Derrick agreed. Not sensing the danger there that he expected, he continued to speak. "Strange kid."
"Real strange."
With Alison gone he seemed determined to bring out the questions that he had accumulated in the last few days, beginning with the first. "Who is John Connor?" Derrick asked.
James smiled as if he knew the question had been coming, surprised it hadn't come sooner. "Can't say."
"You mean after we came all this way you still won't let us in on the joke? There has to be some reason you would risk all our lives, your own even! You can't just say can't say!"
"Yes I can." This Was his only reply.
"Oh come on." Kyle said.
"But you know him, right? You have to know what this is about. Please tell me it's something important." Derrick said.
The general rocked back on his hands, leaning against the west wall of the Dam. The sun was rising in his face. It was full and beautiful, colored in lavender and searing orange. "I knew his mother. I suppose I knew John, a long time ago. Didn't get much of a chance to know him though, he left just before -" He stopped there. "Well, he left anyway."
"What was his mother like?" Kyle asked. "If you don't mind me asking."
James could only laugh. "You would have liked her. A lot, I suspect. She was this beautiful, dark woman. She was the bravest person I ever knew, dedicated her life to fighting the machines." He seemed to trail off. "That was a long time ago."
"Where is she now?"
He seemed to straighten up a little. "Somewhere out there, forgotten. Buried in a paupers grave where you could smell the ocean. Before the fire there was tall grass all around. She wasn't buried alone, that much she wanted. She wanted to be buried with family."
"How did that happen? How did she die, I mean?"
He shrugged. "Cancer. Or a broken heart. Both are dangerous, lethal sometimes even alone." His words were heavy with emotion. "When she died, I almost lost my faith. She had so much left to give. She was a light in dark places. I thank god she never had to see this."
"You said she died before the fire. How could she have dedicated her life to fighting the machines if she died before Judgment day?" Derrick asked.
James thought about how to answer this. "She knew it was coming. She knew it all, and she told me, and John. She prepared him for all this but when she tried to tell the world, well… You can imagine what people would say when you told them this was the future."
"He seems so young...if you knew him then, that would make him what, thirties? He doesn't look that old."
James got to his feet, realizing that he was on the edge of very dangerous territory. "He isn't"
"Run that by me again?" Derrick said.
"He is seventeen years old, if my count is right."
They both shook their heads. Kyle smiled, kicking a stone down the narrow path. "So you knew him when he was what...a fetus?"
Derrick and Kyle both got a good laugh out of this, but the General stood his ground. "What part of my story do you find amusing?"
Derrick chuckled a little bit more before finally getting out his answer. "The part where you're telling me he's seventeen years old. And you knew him, somehow, before the war. I'm not that great at math but there seems to be a few years missing somewhere."
"He's from the past."
The laughter stopped.
"Say what?" Kyle said.
"John Connor skipped ninteen years of time, give or take. The last time I saw him, he was just as he is today. The last time he saw me, I was working for Catherine Weaver as her head of security." James said this with a very straight face.
At first, the three of them were silent. James thought they might have believed him until Derrick spoke.
"Man you're so full of shit. Don't believe a word he says Kyle, he's pulling your leg. Can't you see the look on his face?"
They all smiled, Derrick pointing a finger at the General, wagging it like a cross parent. "This is just like the time you said Sherry Roark was waiting for me in my bunk."
"Naked."
"Yeah, right. She was naked. I go in there, pull back the coverers, ready to get going and what's sitting on the bed?"
"Wasn't Sherry." His brother said. "I would have warned you, but the General said I'd be scrubbing triple eights for a week if I did."
"Yeah you're fucking right it wasn't." His tone was accusatory, but their smiles had broken into laughter by now.
"And you were working for Weaver? What the hell is she anyway?"
"Mimetic polyalloy."
"Yeah, what the fuck does that mean?"
"Liquid metal." James told him. He had stopped laughing.
"Liquid metal terminator! Why didn't I think of that? Fucking amazing! God damn..." Derrick choked back the laughter that had infected him. "You know what pissed me off the most about that was I had to get Gabriel to help me get that thing out of my bed."
"I think he had a good laugh with us." Kyle suggested.
"Man that's great, just great." Derrick said. "I'll be sure to tell this one next time I need to get out of something."
"Why is it so hard to believe Reese?" This is what the General called them when he was being serious. "You live on a planet that's been taken over by hyper-intelligent machines. You spend your days hiding in tunnels and your nights moving from place to place so they won't find you. The world is a fantastic place."
"So you go from killer machines to time travel?"
"Is it really such a leap of faith?"
The elder Reese rolled his eyes. "Come on, time traveling robots? From the past?"
"They were from the future, then they went back to the past, now they're in the future again."
Kyle started to chuckle again, but this time he offered his own suggestion. "That's pretty amazing General. You know what I think?"
"What's that?"
"I think you're telling the truth."
"What? Come on Kyle, you can't honestly think that -"
"Well, think about it..." He began. "When we found John, he seemed to know us. All of us, but you and me particularly. He knew our names but he wouldn't tell us anything. We know he ain't crazy. Maybe a crazy shot, but he isn't crazy in the head. Come on, you've talked to him."
Derrick shifted on his feet, casting his gaze away from his brother.
"Come on Derrick."
"Yeah alright, he isn't completely nuts. Doesn't mean I think any of this is true."
"Well then what about your blood? How could he know he was a match to you? That's like two hundred to one - more than that even. He just knew." Kyle's interpretation was as honest as he could make it.
"Think about it. If he's from the past, then that means time is fluid, it can change. There is more possible futures than the one we live in. Maybe he -"
"You're going to have to stop right now before I throw down on you." Derrick warned him. "This is not an explanation."
"Maybe he knows us. Isn't that right General? Maybe that's how his mother knew. She met someone from the future. She knew, but no one would believe her, right? I mean, who would? It's insane."
"Very insane." Derrick deadpanned at him.
"I'm trying to put the pieces together here Derrick."
"Doing a pretty good job so far." The General offered.
"So, we've got time travel, a kid from the past, a machine from a different future, and she's been looking out for him since day one. Like, she's protecting him or something." Kyle seemed to be on the edge of something big, as if he might take a step back and be able to behold the entire picture.
"Why would she protect him? Did he reprogram her? He's important to her. He was important to you, enough so to send us out to get him. John is...the key to all this." He was frustrated at that point, and too tired to think about it anymore. "That's pretty amazing."
Derrick could hardly stop shaking his head. "I can't believe you're encouraging this. How and I going to explain to this child that there is no such thing as time travel? He'll be up all night. All day, anyway."
"Maybe you should ask John when he was born." James suggested.
"Yeah, I'll be sure to do that." Derrick was beginning to walk off, trying to get the tired out of his eyes. He felt like he could sleep all day and all night. He looked forward to trying. "Be sure to let me know what you guys come up with."
Kyle only nodded as he watched his older brother walk away. When he was sure he was gone he turned to his General one last time.
"It's true isn't it? No bullshit this time."
James smiled and nodded deeply. "Yep."
"Holy shit. I mean, really holy shit. This means, this means we can change the future! We can change history! This is amazing!"
James contained himself where Kyle did not, but he couldn't help but agree with the assessment. John's arrival was just what they needed. The war, he knew, was in its waning days and the outcome was very much stacked against them. Whatever John had, they needed it. He needed to go back. If he had beaten them once, he could do it again. He put his hand on Kyle's shoulder and began to lead him back to their sanctuary.
"So you know how important this is. You know this is bigger than you or me. John has to get back. If he can, we can avoid this. His mother tried to stop it, hell even I tried to stop it but we were too late. John has something we don't."
"What is that?"
"I think it's fate. His mother always said no fate, but I think there is fate, destiny. I think this is John's destiny." James said as they left the morning behind, descending down the first of many flights of steps. "But it's a heavy burden for one man Kyle. He can't do it alone."
(*****)
Alison reached the bottom of the steps so tired she could hardly stand. She was strangely exhausted and anxious at the same time. Her last real conversation with John had been days ago, when he told her his secret. Since then they'd only shared the occasional glance or words in passing. She'd kept her promise though, not another soul knew. Not even Kyle, though she had come close to telling him.
Still, when she looked at him she didn't see a General. She saw a boy who, though brave, was still green and youthful. If anything he said were true, and she was more convinced of it now than she had ever been, she wondered when life would start to wear on him. At what point would the reality of what had to be done set in, what man's death would see his energy drained. She had watched it once in a man she knew and loved and would give nearly anything to stop to from happening again.
John was right where the big endo said he would be. Once she finished speaking with him...it, she left in a scurry, as if she could feel the red glow on the back of her head, tracking just where it would put the bullet.
John was in a small, immaculate room. She shielded her eyes at the harsh light, suddenly wishing to be asleep with Kyle. But she worried too, and so worn was her mind it was hard to say where the girl ended and the dreamer began.
"Is that you Catherine?" He heard footsteps behind him, light on their feet.
"It's me."
He turned so quickly that he dropped what he had been working on. John fumbled to catch it before it spun to the floor.
"Sorry. That was loud."
It certainly had been. She cringed as he picked it up, then dropped it again. It spun to the ground, bounced off something and careened to the middle of the room. Alison picked it up carefully, not wanting to hear any more of them racket.
"Here you go." She dropped it in his hand. "How's it going?"
"Slow."
"You're tired. Get some rest."
John nodded. "Yeah, but I don't think I can sleep. Besides, I just have a little more to go I think." He motioned towards Gabriel, who was sitting on the table in many, many pieces. Alison turned away as she saw his face. His eyes were still open.
"You really think you can fix him?"
He nodded again. "Yeah, I do. Just need time."
"He's a mess. God, look at how bad he got shot up. Where are you getting parts?"
"There's some around here..." He motioned around but tried to keep her away from the table where the other endoskeleton was completely covered. "But I had to send Two out to get some things from the battlefield. The seven-hundred series have a lot of parts that are a good match for Gabriel, and we trashed a lot of them."
"Two? Is that what that...big one is called?"
"Nah, the one outside is One. God only knows why John Henry named them like that. He's a machine I guess, through and through. You just have to get used to it."
You mean you have to get used to it, she thought. She didn't think she ever could, yet John was here surrounded by machines. She thought he looked more comfortable than he had in days.
"After you get him fixed, what are you going to do about the skin? Will it just grow back?"
"It will but I have another little device here. I've never seen anything like it, but it's pretty slick. I think it's called a bio-mimetic generator. Basically it'll generate the living tissue required to make Gabriel into a brand new cyborg." He motioned to a large apparatus in the corner. Alison thought it looked like an iron maiden. She had no desire to see inside.
"So, is she here?"
John paused. He didn't want to think about it but to be honest he had done nothing but think about it. He motioned to the corner where Cameron's chip lay, now extracted from its housing. "Yeah, she's there."
Alison regarded the chip with a thoughtful expression. She knew there was something else going on. "So why haven't you turned her back on and had your tearful reunion?"
The words stung, but John didn't blame her. He was only glad it wasn't Derrick. "She's damaged, something wrong with her chip. John Henry explained it but I'm still trying to get my head around it." He looked at Alison and tried to banish his mournful expression. "Long story short is I have to purge some malfunctioning programs, but it'll erase all her memories. So it won't really be her when she wakes up, if she wakes up at all."
Alison didn't know what to say, so instead of words she let her hands speak for her. They touched his shoulders, right around the base of his neck and squeezed just like the way his father liked it. "I'm sorry then. I guess you came a long way for nothing."
"Please don't say that. I just...can't think about it." John sputtered.
Alison could see the hurt in him and wanted to make it go away, to force it back down under the surface. "Well, we had breakfast. I brought you something." She pulled a small pack of rations from her pocket and placed it in his hand, closing his fingers around it. "Eat."
"I will, I will. I just need to stay here for a while longer. Things need to be done, you know. Things that only I can do." He felt like he could control himself, if he just tried a little harder.
Alison regarded him with wary eyes. She could see he was running on empty but it was more than that. She remembered him from the tunnel, when he had found her munching on leftovers. He'd been so nice to her. He cared, not even knowing her name. For a while she wondered why, but understood that it didn't really matter. It was nice to find someone who cared without expecting anything in return.
"Come on, you need to sleep. We've all been up for twenty four hours. You aren't one of them." She pulled his arm, giving him a tug that said she wasn't joking.
"I'm sorry, I just can't, I have to stay here. I can't leave."
"Why not? Come on, you need to rest."
"She's here. I can't leave her." His eyes were on Cameron's chip, not ten feet away. "I can't leave, I just got here."
She followed his eyes to the machine. The delicate core was sat on the table and somehow held the secrets to making this strange journey mean something for him. She wished she could reach in and pull out whatever was in there. She knew that whatever secrets lay within that little metal tab, they may stay hidden forever.
"This is what you came for." She chose her words carefully. "So you can't just leave."
"Yeah. And I know she's a machine, but you have to understand." John swallowed hard. She saw his face for the first time in the light, saw the red cheeks and streaks of moisture that made his eyes glisten. "That was one of the last things I told her." His words were laden with regret. "Just a machine."
She didn't reply with words, again squeezing his shoulders. She could feel the slack in his arms, a resistance that had faded hours ago. "I don't think she'd want to see you this way."
"I'd give anything to see her again. Just to talk to her. She was funny, you know? Dense, silly sometimes. She was my friend, you know? I don't have many friends."
"I find that hard to believe. You have friends here. Derrick, Kyle. Me. We're not going anywhere."
"I just meant...she was special." He was frustrated because Alison had to see him like this, once again the tears flowing down. His work had been going so well. Gabriel was coming along - he was sure now that he could fix him if he could find the parts he needed. His mind had just begun to wander when she came back in and brought reality with her. Still, he couldn't help but pull the woman closer and shake out a few last tears on her shoulder.
He was sure, that with enough time and effort, he could fix it all. He'd convinced himself of that much.
When he was done he swore that he was done for a good long time, and he thought he might actually mean it this time. "Thanks." Was all he could say.
"You're going to stay here?"
"Yeah, I think I'll stay for a bit longer. See if I can work a few of these things out. He's a mess." His voice creaked like a sailing ship.
"Stay here then, let me go get something."
When she came back, Alison had a blanket from her own pack. She took off her jacket and placed it on the table, rolling it up to a pillow and placed it under his chin. She draped the blanket over his shoulders and made sure it would stay, leaving in silence as he had already fallen into a deep sleep.