Tuesday 16th October 2029 – 3.11am

The lights flickered back on in the mart. They'd only gone out twenty minutes ago, and most people still hadn't gone to bed – no-one had wanted the party to end, because if it ended, the end began.

Erica rolled out of her cot. Neil had slept in her mother's old bed, right beside Erica, and his eyes flickered open now.

"Get any sleep?" he asked blearily.

"No." Erica answered, searching her shoe.

"I think I did. Five minutes anyway." He showed no signs of getting up.

"3.12. THAT'S FOUR HOURS UNTIL THE MACHINES' COMMUNICATIONS GO DOWN. FOUR HOURS. LET'S MOVE!" Joan yelled across the room.

Nearby, Erica saw an old woman give Mr. Sansom a peck on the lips and say "I'll see you when you get back." That nearly broke Erica.

"Ugh," Neil said. "Do I have to go?"

Erica smiled, jamming the shoe on and tying up her laces.

"Uggggh," he whined, but sat up, and pulled a t-shirt over his head.

Sunday 1st September 1996 – 11.17pm

They'd left the city behind hours ago, and drove down, what Markus was very gratified to discover, the Pan-American Highway. It had been a very beautiful but very uneventful journey. They were climbing high into the mountains now, and even the occasional small towns had disappeared.

Jungle grew around and above, and the sky had turned pink, purple then black by the time they'd turned off the main road. They drew up outside a couple of low concrete buildings that blended into their surroundings so well in the dark that if Markus hadn't known they were there he would have missed them entirely.

As they came to a stop, three armed women came up to them. They waved their guns around threateningly but stopped when they saw Jack. He held up his hands jokingly. "Please, don't shoot!" The leader shot him a dirty look as he got out of the car, and he said "You know you love me really."

Markus wasn't sure that she did. "This is them?" the leader asked.

"Yurp. Barrel of laughs they are too," Jack responded as he walked away.

Markus wasn't really sure what to do next; he and Patton stood by the abandoned car as the others walked inside.

The leader-woman turned back, "Are you coming?"

She opened the door to one of the buildings and light flooded out. Markus hurried gratefully towards it, Patton following silently. They stepped into a low room, lit by a single bare bulb. There were a few chairs scattered around, and an impressive-looking computer in the corner. A young teenage boy with unnessecarily long hair sat working at it, and he waved at them without looking around.

The woman sat at one of the chairs and gestured for Markus and Patton to do the same. Markus hit his hand off the arm rest as he did so, and he winced.

"Let me see it," she said. Markus offered it up, and she examined it. "You should have gotten this seen to."

"You mean in between dodging bullets, running for my life and getting nearly everyone nearby killed?" Markus was not in the mood. "Are you Sarah?"

The woman nodded, but didn't say anything.

"And that's John?"

Both Sarah and the teenager looked at him. "How did you hear that name?" Sarah demanded.

"So he is John?"

Sarah nodded again.

"Jack said something. Are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on?" Markus just wanted to know. He wanted to know what and how and why. Mostly why.

"You're probably not going to believe me," Sarah went to a table nearby and pulled out a first aid kit. She waited to sit back down before she started to talk. "In the near future, we think you're going to become one of the leaders of the human resistance."

"Okay, great. What are we resisting?"

Sarah gave him another look, and he shut up.

"A computer programme called Skynet ends the world with a bunch of nukes, and the machines spend the next few decades trying to wipe out the human race."

"Robots? You're talking about robots. Robots from the future. You're telling me I'm being hunted by a killer robot from the future?"

Markus could not deal. This was ridiculous His first instinct had been right when he'd answered that phone, Sarah was crazy. His hand was in the hands of a crazy woman with guns. His life was in the hands of a crazy woman with guns.

Sarah ignored him and kept talking. "We're not really sure why they're after you, but everyone else they've come after has been high up in the resistance. John is going to lead the human race and destroy the machines."

Markus looked at him. John still refused to turn around from the computer, but he suddenly tensed up. That guy? Markus thought to himself. We're all screwed.

"But not until they've killed most of the human race?"

Sarah nodded. She finished wrapping his arm.

He'd started to add things up – the man-from-the-puce-volvo hadn't died when they'd hit him with the car, he hadn't died when those security guards shot him. He'd found them wherever they'd gone. Sarah had known where and when he'd be, how to help him, how to save him. Maybe killer robots from the future wasn't such a huge leap.

"How did you know about me?"

"We got a message a few weeks ago." Sarah cut the end of the bandage.

"Does that happen often?"

"No." She stuck the bandage down.

"So how did you get it, from who?"

Sarah started to gather all the first-aid-y things together.

"We don't know. We killed this terminator that had been looking for us for a while. John dug out his chip and plugged it in."

Markus was kind of following this.

"Few minutes later, this message came through, saying how to help you, when to call, where to send Patton, where to send Jack. Even the bow and arrow."

"How did you know it wasn't from them? The machines I mean."

"We didn't. But we had to risk it."

"Even though you don't know why they're after me?"

Sarah stood up and brought the first aid kit back to the table. "Yes."

"Um. Thanks."

"Why haven't you tried to prevent it?" Patton asked.

"Yeah. You know what's going to happen, surely you know how to stop it," this had been bothering Markus for a few minutes too.

"We've tried. Last year we thought we had, but -" she paused and looked over at John. "They kept coming back, kept coming for us, so we figure it didn't work."

"Say I believe you, say you're not completely nuts. What do we do now?" Markus asked, watching her face carefully.

"Well, right now, I'm going to bed." She stood up. "You need to sleep too."

Tuesday 16th October 2029 – 3.22am

"EVERYONE, FIND YOUR TRACTORS!" Joan roared at them. They were inside, in a garage, still somewhere underground.

For some it was far too early in the morning for that kind of noise, but for most, it was still too late at night. About half of the new recruits were drunk out of their minds. It was a two and a half hour drive, and Erica really hoped they'd have sobered up by the time they got there.

The "tractors" were some really big military truck type things. They fit about forty people in the back, and everyone squished in. Someone closed the tarp that covered the back, and thumped loudly on the metal. The truck took off, one in a long line, stretching out in front and behind.

Erica was put up near the front, right behind the driver, so she could record both the road ahead, and the people sitting in the back.

She'd asked for Neil to be with her – this wasn't the time to be left alone, so he sat across from her. The road outside was too dark for anything to be seen, so she concentrated on the people in the back with her.

For a while they were silent, each thinking their own thoughts. Erica looked at them, and tried to figure out what they were thinking – some of their loved ones at home, surely, and some of what was coming.

Then, slowly, they began to talk to each other. There was no complaining any-more – everyone had accepted it, what would happen would happen, and there was nothing they could do about it at the moment. So, they laughed, they joked.

Eventually, someone produced a bottle of the spirit that someone – Erica had never been able to find out who – brewed at the camp. There was a hearty cheer, and they started to pass it around.

"To absent friends!" someone shouted. "We're glad you're not with us now!"

Everyone took a sip, and by the time it got to Erica, it was nearly gone. She'd debated taking a sip while it was going around. She figured if she did, it was one less drink that someone else had, and maybe they wouldn't get killed because of it. Maybe.

It burned her throat as it went down, and she spluttered a little, much to everyone's amusement. One of the actual soldiers had begun to say "Never had a -" when there was an explosion behind them.

The people at the back unclipped the tarp and raised it up. The tractor two back had exploded. The ones behind it were driving carefully around.

Another explosion, up ahead.

Erica whipped the camera around, and a couple of tractors ahead, another one had exploded. They watched as a missile dropped out of nowhere, and blew up the tractor right in front of them.

There was a blinding flash and a deafening bang. The driver swerved uncontrollably.

Their tractor skidded off the road, and ended up in a sort-of ditch. They were thrown forwards, then backwards, then to the side. People rolled and jumped and were flung out of their seats. Erica banged her head, hard, and didn't see any more.

Tuesday 16th October 2029 – 5.58am

Neil was shaking her awake. "You okay?"

Erica nodded roughly. The ground under her vibrated, and she realized she was in another tractor.

"They picked us up," Neil said. "We're nearly there. I didn't think you'd want to miss it."

Nearly there? Shit. Now that it was so close, Erica had this uncomfortable sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"How many did we loose?" she asked, holding her pounding head.

"About a quarter."

She looked at him. About a quarter meant nothing to her at the moment – her head was too sore to do any mental maths.

"We've got about seven hundred and sixty people left," he clarified.

Seven hundred and sixty? A little over a thousand had left the camp.

"Two thousand, two hundred," another voice piped up. "Two thousand, two hundred people left."

The human race was shrinking.

"Help me up," she said, and hands pulled her up off of the vibrating floor. As she stood, the tractor gave a lurch and stopped, and she nearly fell right back down again. The tarp lifted up, and Joan's head appeared. "We're here."

Everyone crowded out. And stopped, and stared. The sky unfolded out above them. It wasn't blue, like Erica had heard, it was grey and full of clouds. It was still quite dark, but everyone from nineteen, everyone who had never been outside before, couldn't help but look at every single little thing around them.

They were in sort of a valley, and grass rose up around their feet. There was a tree – Erica had never seen a tree, standing a little way above them. Connor was there, beside it, shouting to get their attention. Alison, as always, stoutly by his side.

This was the first time Erica had seen Alison since the attack. And Alison looked like shit. She had a black eye, a bunch of cuts and her metal still showed through on her skull. Erica felt horribly guilty, but she wasn't actually sure if she'd done anything wrong by cheering.

"You all know we have lost the element of surprise." Connor was saying, "But we have not lost hope that this mission will succeed. We can do this. We can save everyone."

Odd turn of phrase, Erica thought. They definitely couldn't save everyone. At this point, Erica would be surprised if they could save anyone.

"The Skynet base is about a twenty minute walk south,"

Erica didn't know how many people were in a fit state for a twenty minute walk – between the old people, the sick people, the drunks, and Erica's head wound, a twenty minute walk sounded a little far-fetched.

"It's in an old school, big building, so those of us going inside will have to spread out to find what we're looking for."

Some of the soldiers were passing out walkie-talkies.

"Stay in touch over your radios," Connor shouted. "We've only enough for about half of us, so if you haven't got one, pick someone who has and stick with them."

"Remember, the people back at the camp are listening in over the radio, so try and sound... optimistic."

Really? Erica thought. The idea that the people back at camp were listening in was a new one to her, and she didn't think she liked it. But then, they did deserve, as much as anyone else, to know what was going on.

She felt whoosy, and her legs gave out under her a little, but Neil caught her on one side. Mr. Sansom came up on the other, smiled wordlessly, and put her arm around his shoulders. Between Neil and Mr. Sansom they managed to carry two large guns, Erica's camera and support Erica herself.

"Once we get there, you know what to do," Connor was saying. This wasn't strictly true. Everyone had some vague idea of what their assignments were, but nothing specific enough to really be helpful.

"Are we ready?" Connor asked his subordinates around him. One by one they nodded that their groups were ready, Alison nodded last of all, and Connor said "Right, let's go."

It started to rain. Erica discovered she really didn't like rain. And they started to make their way to the Skynet base, a mismatched group of ill-prepared fighters.

Humanity's last hope.