Friday 30th August 1996 – 6.03 am

Patton's key turned in the lock. The many flights of stairs had been a challenge for Markus, but he had managed. Patton crossed to the window and peeked through the slats of the closed blind. Then she walked around the room examining various objects.

Markus began to speak, but she silenced him by putting her finger to her lips. Eventually, everything seemed satisfactory – nothing had moved.

"We lost him back at the hotel, I think." As she spoke she crossed back to the window and pulled open the blind. Light flooded into the room, and Markus got his first proper look around.

It was a dingy studio. There was a mattress on the floor, a couple of cabinets in the corner, the couch Markus had slumped down on and not much else.

There was also a door; Markus leapt to his feet, crossed the room and dove head-first into what he hoped was the toilet. What followed – a few minutes of retching, interspersed with brief moments of rest – left him empty and hollow. He almost fell asleep on the floor right there, his head resting peacefully on the porcelain, but Patton helped him impatiently to the mattress.

He passed out.

Saturday 13th October 2029 – 8.30pm

Everyone had arrived a few minutes before, and they were chattering loudly. These meetings had taken place mostly in one of the classrooms, but the last few had grown so big, they'd moved to the barn. The room was a little less than half full. Half the people in the camp. Erica shook off the thought. She stood in her usual spot, at the front of the balcony, but now she was alone up there, looking in.

One of the older men, a civilian, took to the stage. Erica recognised him. He had taught her to read. He started to give some speech about how Connor was failing them as a leader, and needed to be replaced. Erica sort of zoned out, and became much more interested in how the crowd responded to what he was saying. In the beginning, a couple of people nodded in agreement to everything he said, but as the speech progressed and the man got more impassioned, so did the crowd. His final words were met with a rousing cheer.

He wasn't quite finished when something distracted him. He died off, and clambered off the stage. Someone else climbed on.

Sackhoff.

The crowd, already worked up, went wild, but Sackhoff shushed them. One or two people slipped out of the room.

"I am here because I cannot condone the actions of John Connor any longer."

There was silence. This, coming from Connor's most trusted lieutenant was almost blasphemy.

"He was once a great leader, but he has become corrupted by the words of that metal BITCH -" he was cut off by the fervent roars of the assembled crowd.

"That metal bitch who whispers in his ear and convinces him to do exactly what the machines want. He spends all of his time locked up in his room with her, and only comes out to issue his decrees from on high!"

This was news to the people of the mart and the crowd frothed at the mouth. The din was deafening. The decibel meter on the mic from the camera maxed out, and Erica wished she had better equipment. The people who had left returned, with more and more people from the mart.

"This latest plan of his is suicide. It will mean the end of the human race. We will not walk blindly to the slaughterhouse!" The crowd was still growing. Erica could see that not everyone agreed with what Sackhoff was saying, but everyone wanted to hear it. Those that did agree shouted loud enough for everyone else.

"I will not tell you the details, because we cannot trust everyone in this room, but believe me when I say, this plan will be the death of us all." The crowd hushed suddenly.

John Connor had entered the room.

Alison, as usual, stood beside him. Sackhoff saw him and faced him unashamedly at the head of his masses, but many others in the crowd started to slip away. Even more hid their faces and looked at the ground. No-one wanted to be seen standing against Connor.

Sackhoff hopped off the table and approached Connor. He looked from Connor to Alison and back again. And then he walked away. The crowd dispersed.

The room was empty now, apart from Alison and Connor, and Erica, unseen, up on the balcony. She zoomed close on Connor's face, and, just for a moment, she saw it crack. The facade slipped and he looked utterly helpless.

Then they were gone, and Erica was left alone to try and figure it all out.

Friday 30th August 1996 – 4:20 pm

Markus awoke to the smell of food. Patton shoved Pot Noodle in his face, handed him a fork and sat on the couch to eat her own.

Now that the alcohol had worn off, Markus felt like shit. His head pounded, he was seriously nauseous and his left arm hurt. Badly.

"Why's he after you?" Patton asked.

"I don't know. I thought you did."

She shrugged. "Sarah told me to get you to Panama and keep you away from the bad guys."

"Panama? What the fuck is in Panama? Who are the bad guys? What the hell is going on?" Markus, all of a sudden, was seriously pissed. It didn't look like he was going to college any time soon. Felicity had always said he'd drop out, but neither of them had expected it to be before he'd even gotten there.

Felicity... Felicity. His parents.

He slowly put down the Pot Noodle, concentrating very hard on not spilling it. Then he didn't know what to do with his hands. He held the injured one up in front of his face and looked at it, without seeing it at all.

He stood up, almost completely unaware of what he was doing and began to pace furiously. He had a vice-like grip on the ring finger of his left hand and he shook it fiercely until all the other fingers flapped around uncontrollably. The pain helped him focus."The news. I need to see the news."

Felicity – no, Patton switched on a small television with a cracked screen that Markus hadn't noticed before, and they watched. It was the local news channel, and Markus paced his way through the weather, a story about a water-skiing canary and the presidential candidates' visit to a school in the Bronx. Markus was almost beginning to relax – surely it would have been on by now. Then -

"And back to our main story of the morning; there has been attack on a hotel in Manhattan in the early hours of the morning. The Sackhoff family from Charlotte, North Carolina were brutally murdered in their hotel rooms. They are believed to be the main target of the attack."

"Three other guests and a security guard were also killed, but out of respect for the families we are not currently releasing their names. The main suspect is shown here in CCTV footage entering the hotel..." They displayed a grainy image of the man-from-the-puce-volvo. It was the first time Markus had gotten a good look at him.

"... was seen leaving the hotel a few hours later. Still missing is eighteen year old Markus Sackhoff. It is still unclear whether he was involved in the shooting and both suspects are to be treated as extremely dangerous. Anyone seeing them should immediately call 911." They were now showing an old photo of Markus – it looked like the one his Dad carried in his wallet.

Markus started out calm, but was getting more and more desperate as the reporter spoke, until suddenly the words were too much. There was a ringing in his ears and he stared unseeingly at an oddly shaped knot in the wooden floor.

Patton paid him no attention and kept eating. The television prattled on, but only one more sentence caught Markus' attention; "more updates on this tragic story to come." He absent-mindedly wondered what they would be.

Sunday 14th October 2029 – 8.14am

Erica wandered the halls of the military part of the camp. Having this new area to explore unhindered was weird to say the least, but she was fascinated. It seemed to go on forever. A door was open, just a crack, up ahead, and she heard raised voices. She poked the camera inside, enough to remain unseen. She figured if it was nothing interesting she could always tape over it.

She couldn't make out faces, but she thought one sounded like Sackhoff. Then someone crossed in front of the door and she saw the face of the young solider who'd shown her to Connor's room yesterday, but it looked different now. It was twisted, angry. He wasn't wearing his uniform any-more.

He was saying "they saw us straight away. They had to have known we were coming. My brother -" His voice gave out and he stopped, gathered himself then continued - "my brother went down first. I turned, ran. I abandoned them. If I hadn't - maybe..."

The one who sounded like Sackhoff stopped him. "You couldn't have helped them." He sounded kind. "If you'd have stayed, you'd be dead too, like the rest of them."

"That's the thing," the solider continued, "I don't think they killed all of them. Anderson definitely looked at me as I ran. What if they captured him? He knows everything."

Everyone paused, then Sackhoff (Erica had decided it was definitely Sackhoff) said, "Okay, thank you for coming to me with this." Erica realized he was about to dismiss them and disappeared down the hall just as he said "I'll deal with it."

Sunday 14th October 2029 – 8.31am

Erica got back to the mart just as the lights were flickering on. Dazed adults shuffled out of bed, while most of the teenagers rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Kids raced around, screaming at the top of their lungs and generally made getting up a lot quicker, and a lot more tense. Erica had eyes for none of this however.

Collette was sitting up in bed. This was huge. Colossal. Monumental. Even from across the room, Erica could tell that she hadn't been this well in weeks. Erica hardly even noticed crossing the room – she was just suddenly right by her mother's side.

Wordlessly, Collette reached up and touched Erica's cheek. It was then that Erica realized it was wet – she was crying. Everything that had happened the last day, the good, the bad, hit Erica. Seeing her mother like this, looking so well, Erica became a child again.

More than anything, Erica realized that the reason she'd been avoiding her mother was that she just couldn't bear to see her like that, couldn't bear to loose her.

"Mom..." Erica couldn't get out more than that. Collette reached up and gently pulled her daughter into bed with her. She put her arm around her and they lay like that for a few minutes, completely serene in the middle of a chaotic whirl around them.

It was easier to talk like this, without having to look her mother in the eye. "I'm sorry for not being here." Erica tested her out – she didn't want to upset her.

Collette started stroking her head.

"I miss you mom."

And that was it. That was all Erica got. She turned to look at her mother, but she knew what she would see before she saw it.

Collette had disappeared again. There was none of her spark left in her eyes.

Sunday 14th October 2029 – 8.52am

Erica rounded the corner outside Connor's room. Alison was standing guard outside.

"I need to talk to him."

"Which him? There are many males." A typical machine response.

"Connor."

"He's busy."

"It's really important."

"He's talking to Sackhoff. You can see him after."

Sackhoff? That was alright then.

"You know what, never-mind" Erica turned to go, but Alison stopped her. "Do you want to interview me?"

This was unexpected. "Oh, um, why do you ask?"

"John said you might want to interview me." John. Erica had never really heard anyone call him John before. Then again, they didn't exactly swim in the same social circles.

But this was interesting. Could you even interview a machine really? Sure they could give you answers, but could those answers really mean anything?

"Yeah, definitely. Let's do it."