Chapter 2

The room grew ominously quiet after Derek and the rest of the group departed leaving John alone with his guard. Hearing that another Terminator had been located inside the tunnels had greatly disturbed John. Was it John Henry? Was there another Terminator attempting to infiltrate this particular establishment? And if this was John Henry would they attempt to destroy him and worse yet, Cameron's chip? Would his discovery further jeopardize John's safety? All these questions weighed heavily on John's mind and as the seconds dragged on his anxiety grew worse. John felt his heart begin to race as the deafening silence grew longer.

Suddenly, John heard the sound of distant plasma rifle fire echoing down the hallways along with some far off shouting. The weapons fire was sporadic along with the yelling. Then almost as suddenly as it had all begun, dead silence engulfed the room again. The soldier that stood in front of John looked at him and then back at the corridor behind John nervous, quickly snapping his head back and forth between the two points of view. He almost looked more nervous than John, even though John doubted that this was possible. The silence continued on for several more seconds until the soldier produced a slight smirk and spoke,

"I think they got it." John was completely unsure how to feel. Should it be relief or fear that something could have happed to John Henry and in turn Cameron's chip? And where was Catherine Weaver in all this? John had assumed that surely her primary goal in all this would be to protect John Henry. If he was indeed the Terminator that they had caught then where was she? The minutes John spent waiting were excruciating to him.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity Derek emerged through the open door. Out of sheer nervousness this time John stood to his feet. Immediately, the soldier who had remained in the room with John raised his rifle slightly when he saw John move.

"Stand down Perkins…" Derek replied to which Perkins responded by slowly lowering his rifle. Derek took a long hard look at John before speaking again, still with suspicion intermixed in his tone,

"You know we never had one make it this deep inside before." John felt his fear for Cameron's safety growing. "I don't think any base has…and well lived to tell about it." John remained silent all the while feeling as if he were dying inside.

"I find it curious that you seemingly appear out of nowhere, past all our perimeter security, past the dogs, past everything. And then as soon as you show up a machine is caught deeper inside than any other has managed to get before." John clenched his jaw tightly as he attempted to contain all of his emotions. Derek continued,

"So, Martin Bedell?" He asked. John took a long hard swallow before answering.

"What about him?"

"How did YOU ever manage to hook up with him?" John thought for a moment before answering. He knew he could not even use a truthful statement such as they met at Presidio Alto given the age gap they would now have due to John's time jump. However, the next thing that came to John's mind was much more plausible.

"My uncle attended Presidio Alto with Bedell…I met him through my uncle." Derek looked at John cynically not speaking for a moment.

"Alright…" Derek grumbled in a barely audible tone then raised his eyebrows slightly. "Where is your uncle now?" Derek asked no with emotion in his voice. John swallowed again trying with limited success to fight back his own feelings.

"He's dead…He was killed…A machine killed him." John's voice trailed off as he spoke. Derek continued to look at John in a very distrustful manner.

"Were you and your uncle close?" John thought for a brief moment, his responses becoming more jumbled in his head. Finally, he replied in a monotone voice.

"Yeah…he stayed around after my father was killed." Derek tilted his head to the side slightly.

"How was your father killed?" John took another breath still trying to contain his emotions; however he found that this grew harder as every second passed by. Fighting back his tears he responded again,

"The machines…They killed him too." While John did find some sort of strange comfort in the fact that he was discussing a real truth with Derek he also found that the emotional upheaval was nearly too much to stand.

"He was killed by the machines as well?" Derek asked, now slightly acting as if he believed John. Then Derek's expression changed for a brief second. His look was almost compassionate,

"There's a lot of that going around these days." John felt a split second of relief; that is until Derek's cold demeanor returned.

"I'm having Alison look into your Bedell story…We'll find out soon enough if you are telling the truth." John secretly prayed that Martin would still remember him…and more importantly that he still believed him. Another brief second passed before Derek spoke again,

"Why do you look at her that way?" he asked, presumably talking about Alison. John scrambled for an acceptable answer.

"She…she reminds me of a friend." Derek wrinkled his brow for a moment.

"And where is your friend now?' Derek pushed on with the questioning.

"I don't know." John replied in a very somber voice. Then slipping he added, "I was trying to find her."

"Is that how you ended up here?" Derek asked.

"Yes…" John replied still in his solemn voice as he glanced downward. Derek nodded his head, then quickly narrowed his eyes.

"Strange…" Derek replied to which John looked up at him. "That Terminator…He didn't put up much of a fight." John felt his heart plummet into his stomach. "It was like he wasn't even here to fight at all." John felt the strength begin to drain from him as he realized the inevitable.

"No…" John whispered in a barely audible tone to which Derek gave him a curious look. No longer able to stand the uncertainty and not caring what the consequences would be John spoke quietly, trying desperately to hide his emotion, but still allowing some to slip through,

"Her…Its chip…What did you do with it?" John asked. Derek gave him a confused look and answered in an almost matter-of-fact way,

"What do you think the first thing we destroyed was?" John felt as if he were going to be sick. He searched behind him with his hand for the wall to prop himself up as he felt his knee's beginning to go limp. Derek looked at John curiously for another moment as this strange young man struggled to remain on his feet clenching his jaw trying to show no emotion. After another brief second Derek turned and motioned for Perkins to follow him through the door that closed behind both of them, leaving John alone in the room. The moment the door closed John fell back against the wall and then slid down it. When he reached the seated position he brought his knee's to his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs and began to sob…

"Cameron…" He said quietly as the tears ran down his face.