Hope
Chapter 07: Birthday
PLESARIO HOTEL – APARTMENT 19b – LOS ANGELES
FRIDAY 29th JUNE
5.42PM
When she was a little girl, Jesse was often told the ghost story of a hook-wielding killer who descended upon couples parked in the wilderness he inhabited. It was an old folk tale meant to ward off feisty teenagers from seeking out quiet places to make out when their parents' backs were turned. According to the legend, the hooked man would make a noise in the trees to spook the girl into forcing her boyfriend to step out of the car and investigate. The boy would then predictably fall victim to the killer's hook and die a bloody death.
And while the girl rings her hands in the car, waiting for her lover to return, the man would tie a rope around the boy's neck and hang him from the tree overshadowing the car. As his body swayed back and forth, his limp feet would just barely scrape against the roof of the car, causing the girl so much distress that she abandons said vehicle and discovers her boyfriend's fate shortly before sharing it.
This story used to scare her half to death and was the main reason she couldn't sleep as a child. It wasn't the killer or the hook that terrified her, however; it was the hanging. The rope tied around the victim's neck, denying him oxygen, choking the life out of his body: this was the single most horrific experience she could ever imagine at that age. It was a total lack of control over your fate, to not be able to perform the most natural function.
Ever since her youth she had feared constriction. It had a power over her that no other form of torture could achieve. Ethan knew this. He knew everything. He knew just how much pressure to apply so that she could still breathe and yet struggle to do so without ever actually being in any danger of dying. His strong fingers held her up against the wall, her legs kicking and scraping at the wallpaper as her eyes widened with pure terror. He had control of her fate now, and he could end it in a heartbeat if he so desired. Of this, she was in no doubt.
"What are you going to do about it?" he growled.
Jesse choked and continued to squirm beneath his grip, her eyes rolling up inside her head.
"I'll... I'll do it... I..." she spluttered between gasps.
"Do what?" he pressed.
"I'll finish it... I'LL FINISH IT!" she screamed.
Satisfied, Ethan relinquished his hold on her and let Jesse fall to the floor where she coughed and gulped down air frantically. Allowing her a moment to get her breath back, Ethan observed the woman's suffering with little sympathy. He had seen far worse in his time, and that this ex-soldier could be so easily crippled was quite pathetic to witness. Still, she had her uses and they were not to be wasted.
"I gave you a month. One month after tracking them down to perform the deed. It's time to make good on your word", he declared.
Clutching her bruised throat, Jesse turned her head up towards her handler, expecting his boot on her face at any moment.
"You will see it done. And since it's obvious you can't get it right on your own, I'll make it easier and flush them into a corner. But it is you who has to finish this. Understand?" he ordered.
"Yes", she replied with as much contempt as she dared to show.
Ignoring her insolence, Ethan stepped over her cowering form and grabbed a shotgun lying on her coffee table. He set the gun upon the bed and proceeded to the door, stopping to look over his shoulder at her one last time.
"Tonight, the child of John Connor dies", he said.
Without another word, he slipped through the door and closed it behind him, leaving Jesse to her misery. There was nothing else for it; she had to do as he said or else he would make her worst nightmares a reality. Nobody could save her now, not even Derek. She was alone and the only way out was to grit her teeth, grab the shotgun and finish what she started.
God, please forgive me...
-----000-----
'MOTHERCARE' BABY STORE – LOS ANGELES
6.15PM
Blue or pink? Pink or blue? Perhaps white would be more appropriate.
Cameron was no expert in effective marketing, but even she had to wonder why the store would only stock baby products in three colours. There really wasn't much room for creativity here. Staring at the selection of baby clothes and products before her, she wondered whether John was thinking the same as she. But it quickly became clear that his mind was on a slightly different track.
"Remind me again why we had to come all the way into the city just to buy baby supplies", he said pointedly to his mother.
Sarah replaced the rattle she was examining and gave her son a chiding look.
"Because Silberman's book is a big hit in Arrowhead city and it has my face splattered all over it, that's why", she replied.
"Oh yeah", he mumbled, returning his attention to the different sized bib collection.
"You can't shoot a gun in Arrowhead without hitting someone who knows her face", Cameron added distractedly.
"Well, look at you, little miss comedian", John teased.
Cameron flashed him a mischievous smile, happy that she'd succeeded in tickling his humour. Jokes and wisecracking were traits she had decided to work on developing since reconciling with John. By her calculations, he needed more levity in his life right now. Sarah was hardly known for her sense of humour and Derek was all but invisible most days, leaving only a stoic and occasionally quirky cyborg as John's only source of amusement.
Looking across the aisle, she examined his features as he rifled through several brands of pacifiers. He was strangely detached with no real emotion in his face, the faint Y-shaped scar on his left side neither creased nor stretched. This was his habit most days since the sudden "baby boom", as he called it. Cameron knew it must be difficult for him to come to terms with the idea that, in just a few days, he would become a father. The child's accelerated growth factor was not a welcome change.
Whilst watching him she noticed his brow creasing in that unmistakable manner that told her he was deep in thought about something. Cameron patiently waited for him to speak, predicting a 62% probability that he would seek her attention and not his mother's. When he looked up from the baby clothes and fixed her with a determined look, Cameron knew her calculations were correct.
"You know, if we're going to be buying stuff for this baby we might as well know what it's going to be, huh?" he reasoned.
His expression was perfectly innocent. Cameron could barely detect the mischievous intent behind his eyes. He's getting better, she noticed. John had tried many times to get an answer out of her, knowing every time that his attempts were futile, but this was the only instance where she felt compelled to inform him of the baby's gender. Instead, she gave him a knowing smile, making it perfectly clear that she was wise to his little games.
"Okay, fine, don't tell me then. I'll just buy white stuff and play it safe", John sighed, picking up a pair of white baby socks.
For reasons she couldn't quite understand, Cameron felt her walls crumble at the sight of his disappointment. John turned the socks over and examined the blue helicopters stitched onto the sides, a faint smile on his lips as he recalled his helicopter riding days. Seeing the blue stitching, Cameron reached over and plucked the socks from his hands and placed it back on the shelf. Before John could question her interception, she picked up another pair and put them in John's hands.
Looking down at the pink clothing, John's brain turned to cotton wool. Cameron simply smiled at him, however, letting him figure it out by himself. While she waited for him to say something, her sensors detected an unusual tremor inside her stomach region. Cameron's face became ashen as she stopped to analyse the anomaly, comparing it to previous tremors and finding something irregular. Before she could ascertain its origin, however, a second tremor ripped through her body like lightning.
Automatically, she clutched her stomach and wilted a little. John's heart skipped a beat as she gripped the shelf to hold herself up, a look of utter confusion on her face. The blip-screen that had been measuring the baby's heartbeat flew off the scale and Cameron's entire HUD was filled with flashing red colours. Unable to maintain her balance, Cameron fell to the floor with a soft thud and let out an involuntary gasp as she felt her waste extraction unit rupture all over the shop floor.
It took her a moment to make sense of the data whilst John and Sarah rushed to her side, repeatedly asking questions she didn't immediately possess the answer to. Like the pieces of a puzzle it all clicked into place and Cameron knew what was happening: the baby was coming. But it was earlier than she had previously predicted, and the trauma of birth was not something she expected to have to deal with in the current circumstances. Detecting the anxiety of those around her, Cameron realised she needed to put them at ease.
"Cameron! Cameron! Are you okay? Talk to me! Is the baby okay? Cameron?" John vexed frantically.
"John", Sarah interrupted before Cameron could speak, directing his attention to the puddle on the floor. "Her waters broke", she explained, idly wondering how a machine would even be capable it in the first place.
John looked from the puddle to Cameron and back again with a mixture of raw panic and disbelief, but he quickly mastered himself for what needed to be done. "Okay... Okay, we need to get you out of here. We need to get you home..." he thought aloud.
"And just hope she can hold it all the way back to Arrowhead? C'mon, John", Sarah chided.
"Then what the hell do you suggest we do?! Take her to the hospital?! I'm sure they deal with pregnant cyborgs all the time, huh?" John snapped back.
"Well if you've got any better ideas-", Sarah barked.
"Redbird", Cameron finally spoke, forcing an end to their bickering.
"What?" they both asked.
"Redbird Lodge. Take me to Sophie. It's the closest place. She'll know what to do", she clarified.
John and Sarah looked at each other and both knew what the other was thinking: no way were they going to try and birth this child anywhere within a mile of Jason and his witty repertoire. Like a premonition of sorts, John pictured Sophie removing the baby from Cameron...
"It's a boy!" she'd cry.
Smiles and squeals of delight would pour out of John and his mother whilst the latter got the first turn at holding the newborn.
Jason leans in; "Urgh! He looks just like his dad, the poor spud. You slapped him yet?" he'd ask Sophie.
She'd shake her head.
Jason would then say; "No worries. I'll do it", before slapping John across the room...
"Cameron... I don't think that's such a good-", John began, but was silenced by a sudden rushing feeling around his ears and the almost simultaneous explosion of shredded baby clothing overhead. A nanosecond later the noise caught up to him and John instinctively dived for the ground, covering Cameron with his body as a hail of bullets tore through the aisle. A second later, John felt himself spin around as Cameron forced him onto the floor and draped across him instead, her stomach pressing against his navel as she shielded him from harm.
It was proof like no other that when it all hit the fan, he would always be her choice. Nothing else mattered to her like he did. John loved her for that but he also hated her a little for it. To his right, Sarah drew a Glock from her belt and fired three shots in the general direction of the attacker. This seemed to have caught the gunman's attention, for the barrage stopped almost immediately. It was a small hope that Sarah's wild shots had, by some miracle, hit the attacker in question; but none of them were willing to make that assumption.
"Move!" Sarah ordered, grabbing Cameron by the arm and heaving her off of John.
They crawled down the aisle as quickly as they could, ever wary of their exposed position. Upon reaching the end, Sarah held out a hand for them to stop before poking her head briefly out from behind a stack of bottles. The checkouts were half-empty with the remaining staff in varying stages of abandonment. Customers screamed and ran as fast as they could to escape the mayhem. But Sarah could see no sign of their attacker amongst the crowd.
Before she could make a decision, however, movement in the corner of her eye narrowed their options to just one.
"Run!" she cried as the gunman stepped into the aisle from the other end. John scurried out of his sight and ran hunched down towards the entrance, Cameron close behind him. For the first time, Sarah got a good look at who she had no doubt was the assassin they were warned of. He, for the assassin was unmistakably a man, was dressed in dark attire with a black overcoat and a hood to shield his face. In each hand he carried an Uzi 9mm and pointed both at Sarah.
Before he could squeeze the triggers, however, Sarah raised her weapon and fired five times at the man. To her amazement the assassin ducked and side-stepped each bullet without breaking his stride, becoming a dark blur for a fraction of a second each time. Sarah had no time to make sense of what she had just witnessed, for the assassin sprayed the aisle with another burst of gunfire, forcing her to dive out of the line of fire and bolt for the door.
The assassin followed her with a wave of bullets and Sarah propelled herself through the glass doors, coming to a painful landing on the hard tarmac outside. Distantly, she could hear John screaming her name and Cameron yelling at him to leave her behind. But she knew he would never do that, despite his training. Ignoring the shards of glass as they imbedded themselves into her palms, Sarah pushed herself up from the ground and put one leg in front of the other before bursting into an agonising sprint for the car where John awaited.
"Mom! Watch out!" he yelled.
Sarah spun around in time to see the man crashing his way through the stuck doors and immediately locating them. Sarah dived into the back seat and closed the door a mere second before another burst of gunfire ripped through the metal. John snapped the car into drive and put his foot down, hurtling them forward and towards the exit as the vehicle took even more fire. Several cars swerved and honked their horns as they screeched onto the main road and roared away from the scene.
"Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!" John gasped as he tried to catch his breath. He felt like his heart was about to explode.
Cameron reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder, reminding him to stay grounded and not to let himself be consumed by the adrenaline of the situation. With several deep breaths, John got a hold of himself and focused his attention to the immediate.
"Mom, are you alright?" he checked.
Sarah was already in the process of unbuckling the first aid kit under the seat and extracting the bandages, however.
"I'm okay, it's just my hands. I'll be fine", she answered, gripping one end of the bandage in her teeth as she painfully applied them to her injuries. Sarah growled as her hands stung from the glass still digging into her palms. She was effectively pressing them deeper by bandaging them, but she would have time to worry about it later.
"Jesus Christ! Who the fuck was that?!" John asked.
"Who do you think?" Sarah replied through gritted teeth.
The faceless assassin they had been on the lookout for... but this made little sense to John. Why the hell would he wait all this time just to make a sloppy attack in a store? John wondered. Unless...
"That wasn't the person I saw back home", Cameron revealed.
John and Sarah both looked at Cameron with the same clueless expression as she explained; "I took a brief scan of his features and compared them to the partial records I have of the other suspect. They're not a match."
"How can you be sure?" Sarah questioned.
"My calculations are very acute", was all Cameron said.
Taking her word for it, John ran through their options: retreating to Arrowhead was out of the question for many reasons, mostly due in to the fact that their pursuer knew its location and partially because of the mess coming out of Cameron still. Despite his misgivings, her earlier suggestion seemed most prudent given the current circumstances. Even he had to admit that having a psychotic cyborg nearby who might not kill him was far better than being anywhere near a psychotic cyborg who certainly would kill him.
His mother was oblivious, but both he and Cameron knew exactly what they were facing, for they had both seen it before: an Infiltrator Series 950. Everything from the way the assassin held his weapons to how he moved when fired at, speed and agility that no man or machine could pull off. John had seen this many times during his confrontations with Jason in the past. For all the pain he once caused John, the cyborg had certainly taught him a lot about his species.
As they hurtled down the highway, John glanced at the clock and was shocked to see that barely a minute had passed since they fled the parking lot. Cameron had her head tipped to one side, a vacant look on her face as she appeared to be listening to something he couldn't detect. John opened his mouth to enquire, but before he could do so the entire vehicle bucked. For a brief moment, John assumed someone had smashed into their rear. It was never so simple, however.
John looked over his shoulder in time to see a dark figure silhouetted against the blazing sun on the back windshield. The shadow drew its fist back and drove it straight through the glass, showering them in shattered fragments whilst he grabbed hold of Sarah around the neck. She gave out a strangled cry of surprise as the cyborg attempted to drag her out through the hole he'd made, but Cameron quickly grabbed the shotgun they kept under the seat for occasions such as this and fired into the assassin's face.
Sarah crumpled to the seat screaming in agony as the man gave out an equally suffering cry and fell from the back of the car. In the rear view mirror, John could see the I-950 rolling across the tarmac, causing several cars to swerve and crash into each other in an effort to avoid hitting him. John put his foot down and didn't relent until the Infiltrator was little more than a speck in the distance. On the back seat, Sarah lay bleeding from the ears, cursing Cameron for being so careless.
"He would have killed you", she reasoned.
"What?!" Sarah shouted, unable to hear Cameron's words through the ringing in her ears.
"HE WOULD HAVE KILLED YOU", Cameron repeated.
"I don't think she can hear you", John told her.
Deciding that arguing with a deaf woman was futile, Cameron sat back in her seat and examined the shotgun, checking its current capacity and loading a few extra shells for good measure. John watched her perform what amounted to a normal act in their life, but was confounded by the fact that she had time to worry about reloading a gun.
"Are you okay? Is everything... Is the baby okay?" John asked.
Cameron placed the shotgun on her lap and gave him a small reassuring smile; "The baby is coming. We need to get to Redbird."
"Yeah okay, but like five minutes ago you were ready to pop right then and there. What's up now?" he pointed out.
"I've dealt with the initial shock. All systems have recalibrated to compensate. I just need somewhere safe to see it through", she explained.
Oh, well excuse me, John thought in marvel of her coping mechanisms.
"Mom, are you alright?" he ventured.
No answer.
Cameron glanced over her shoulder to see Sarah stuffing her ears with tissues to soak up the blood and after receiving a scolding glare, turned her attention back to the road. "She's functional", Cameron informed him.
"So Redbird... Great, then what? What are we supposed to do then?" John asked.
"I give birth. We hold out until I'm recharged. Then I find and terminate the cyborg", she explained.
"And get yourself captured like last time? No way. You're staying where I can see you. Besides, the baby will need you", he argued.
"Why?" she challenged.
John looked at her incredulously.
"What do you mean 'why'?!" he exclaimed.
Cameron's expression turned blank and she fixed her gaze on the road ahead. John waited for her to reply, but after a few moments it became clear that she had nothing more to say. Infuriated, he concentrated on driving in an attempt to distract himself from his frustration.
"One of you give me your phone", Sarah suddenly asked.
Without taking her eyes off the road or even making any kind of change in stance, Cameron removed her cell phone from her pocket and held it over her shoulder. Sarah snatched it out of her hand and tapped into Cameron's phonebook, finding Derek's number and pressing the dial button. While she waited for Derek to answer, Sarah, her ears still throbbing and providing only partial hearing, felt around the car floor space for her Glock.
*Hello?*
"June twenty-nine", she said.
*Two thousand ten. What's going on? I've been calling for the past ten minutes. Why weren't you answering?*
"We were attacked. We think it was the same guy who blew up our Jeep at the house", Sarah explained.
"Structurally incompatible", Cameron interjected.
"Fine! We think he's working with the guy who blew up Tin-man!" Sarah snapped.
*Is everyone okay? Is John okay?*
"John's fine. I've been better", she replied.
*Where are you now?*
"We're on our way to Jason's apartment."
*You are? Sarah, he's not there.*
"How do you know?" she asked suspiciously.
*Because... he's here with me. Yeah, can it you- HEY!*
There was a garbled kafuffle on Derek's end before his voice was replaced with Jason's.
*I assume there's a good reason as to why you would choose my apartment over a hundred alternative safe-houses?*
"Yours is the only one that has a qualified tech medic, remember?" Sarah snarled.
Jason fell silent for a few seconds. Sarah could barely hear Derek's protests in the background and the low rumble of a motor vehicle: they were driving, likely returning from Derek's trip to Nevada, though what Jason was doing there was beyond Sarah. She had send Derek to search the site of the Burrower drones for any signs of recent activity. He was due to call in by this time, but the last thing she'd expected was for Jason to get involved.
*You're in luck. Sophie told me she'd be spending her day at the pool. So unless she lied to me and has something more stimulating in mind, you'll find her waiting for you. I'll give her a call and make sure she's ready. Just tell Cameron to cross her legs until you get there.*
Sarah was surprised he'd caught her gist, but then again he was always annoyingly observant. Derek's voice filled the other end once more, assuring her that they would meet them at the apartment. Sarah hung up and slumped back against the seat, idly wishing that her hearing would stay gone for just a little while longer. Ignorance in this case was certainly bliss.
"How long do you think it'll take them to meet us?" John asked.
Sarah sighed and closed her eyes, enjoying the cool air rushing through the back windshield.
"A few hours at the most", she replied.
John couldn't help but taste a bittersweet in that notion. Having Derek close by was a comforting thought, but knowing that Jason would also pay audience was just about the last thing he needed this day. His concerns were redirected upon hearing a tiny gasp to his right, however, as Cameron placed a hand on her stomach and wilted a little.
"How long?" he asked quietly.
Cameron didn't answer, instead choosing to compose herself and continue watching the traffic, counting red cars and blue trucks and calculating the variance in which they appeared. She liked mathematics; it was a peace pipe for her synthetic mind, allowing her to satisfy her need for daily amusement. But even her second favourite hobby could do little to hide the elephant in the car.
The baby was coming and there was no way to delay it this time. Cameron was becoming a mother whether she wanted to or not.
-----000-----
REDBIRD LODGE – APARTMENT 7c – LOS ANGELES
7.01PM
Sophie loved the sun.
In the world she came from the sun was forever blocked by clouds of ash and dust. In the rare occasions when the clouds would break enough to allow the sun to touch the earth its penetrating light brought little warmth. Even so, Sophie could still remember looking up in awe at it for the first time. The sun of this world was not quite as beautiful as the one she knew, for there were no black clouds to cast a majestic contrast to its glory. This sun was bold and blinding; ignorant of the privileges it would soon be denied.
Sophie considered this a minor slight, however, for it was still a wonder to behold and she could actually feel the raw heat and energy of the gargantuan mass. She, and those like her, retreated to this time with the intention of fighting for a better future: a future where the sun would not have a need to hide behind the clouds. But with her brothers and sisters dead, the only course left to her now was to enjoy the world in every instance. There was little she could do to aid Jason and the Connor's quest for victory... or so she believed.
She laid upon a sun bed, wearing little more than a two-piece and a pair of sunglasses as she quietly soaked up the sun's energy, passively keeping check on her cellular activity to meter its affects. Sophie had already allowed her skin to gain a small tint of bronze, but she was averse to letting herself cook. Though he had a lot on his plate right now, Sophie was sure Jason had noticed the subtle difference.
Curling her freshly painted toes, she allowed herself a mischievous smile as her mind drifted to Jason's little trip with Derek and the delightful barrage of nerve-testing he was sure to be inflicting upon the human. Jason's humour was one of just a few qualities he had yet to let go of, and for this she was grateful. If it weren't for his daily doses of witty cynicism, Jason would no doubt have succumbed to the grave depression of what was happening to him. Despite her confidence that it would be resolved one day, she had to sigh at the odds.
Suddenly, the skin around her navel cooled to a moderate temperature, suggesting a block between herself and the sun. She didn't need to open her eyes to know that it was caused by a shadow, for her readings suggested as much. Perhaps a resident has noticed me and wishes to purchase my attention, she mused. It wouldn't be the first time since they moved in that she had to fend off plucky males and their wasteful attempts at capturing her approval.
The pheromones in the air did not belong to a male, however, indicating that it was a woman standing over her. Intrigued, Sophie licked her lips to get a brief taste of the air, revealing a mixture of sweat and blood in the vicinity. The blood was familiar and, after cross-checking it with her CPU, Sophie matched it to the last woman on the earth she wanted to find looming over her.
"I suppose I'm not allowed a little 'me time', huh?" she sighed, stroking her thighs to clear the thin layer of perspiration on them.
"You were told we were coming", Sarah replied.
"Yes, Jason forewarned me of your interruption. He never mentioned you'd smell so bad. What is that; baby powder?" Sophie commented, detecting a dozen different infant product odours on Sarah's person.
"Long story. Are you going to help us or should we just let this baby birth itself in the car?" Sarah snapped.
Sophie had always felt a curious physical attraction to Sarah, but her bitter attitude towards those she was supposed to deem as allies was quite the turn off. She had to wonder how someone with that many options could keep herself chaste all these years. Maybe she eats the fathers, Sophie mused.
"Just know I'm doing this for the baby's future, not yours", Sophie replied, pulling her sunglasses down her nose.
"Whatever works. I'll get them over here. You open up and be ready for us", Sarah sighed, the fatigue obvious on her tired features.
Sarah promptly turned on her heel and made her way across the pool side towards the chain-link gate. Feeling like her evening had just been snatched away from her like a child losing its favourite cuddly toy; Sophie sat up and slid her legs over the edge of the bed. With one last sigh she stood up and straightened herself before tip-tapping across the stone floor, the sun baked slabs of concrete searing her feet. She did not mind, however, and continued towards her apartment on the ground floor.
Reaching beneath her left cup, she retrieved the door key and unlocked the apartment, stepping inside and leaving the door open for the Connors to follow. The room was markedly hotter than the outdoors, for she had kept all the windows sealed as a precautionary measure. Looking around, she realised that the small lounge would be unsuitable for what was required, the en-suite kitchen faring no better. Without little choice available, Sophie unlocked the pantry door leading down to the basement.
Distantly, she could hear John's voice as he soothed the cyborg with promises of nearing their destination. At first, Sophie did not give any more thought to the boy, but upon catching sight of herself in the mirror she realised that in a few seconds he would likely be giving more than a little thought towards her. Sophie quickly snatched her silk dressing gown from the side of the couch and slipped into it, tying the waist just seconds before he appeared in the doorway, his arm around a bemused looking Cameron.
Upon first glance, the boy looked more than a little worse for wear. Cameron, on the other hand, couldn't look any more relaxed about the situation. Her hair was a bit of a mess and she was sweating more than she should, but all in all she still looked like her usual unconcerned self. John awkwardly helped her into the room while Sophie was sure the cyborg didn't actually require his aid, but was allowing him to assist her so that he could feel useful. Sophie couldn't help but find this behaviour somewhat adorable.
"Take her downstairs", Sophie instructed, gesturing towards the pantry.
"Thank you", John croaked as he shuffled past with Cameron in tow, Sarah bringing up the rear with a bag no doubt filled with guns.
Sophie spared the bag a moment's contemplation before slipping past Sarah and locking the front door. She then followed them down into the basement, closing the other door behind them. John had already lowered Cameron onto the bed and Sarah was scanning her surroundings suspiciously, her grip on the bag tightening a little. Her eyes settled on the chrome casket sat upon the far desk, intrigued by the smoke rolling off it.
"That right there..." Sophie spoke, tearing Sarah's attention away from the casket; "...none of your business."
Taking the hint, and not really caring much anyway, Sarah dumped her bag on the end of the bed and stood over John as he tended to Cameron, brushing her hair out of her face and making sure she was perfectly comfortable. She's a machine, for Skynet's sake; she'd feel just as comfortable sitting on the ceiling, Sophie thought incredulously. Cameron suddenly clutched her stomach and let out a sharp breath, her eyes fixing on Sophie expectantly.
"The contractions are getting more frequent?" she asked.
Cameron nodded, further increasing John's anxiety. Sophie let out a sigh and stepped into the bathroom to grab some towels and a medical kit from under the sink. Vaguely, she wondered whether or not she should swap the sheets on the bed, but decided it would only disrupt Cameron further. With the med kit in one hand and two cotton towels in the other, Sophie returned to the bedroom and settled herself next to Cameron, popping the clips on the kit box and setting it aside for the time being.
"Oooooookay... so I guess mamma's finally gonna pop", she commented whilst prodding Cameron's stomach in key places.
"Is it going to... I mean... will it be a normal-", John tried to ask.
"Birth?" Sophie interjected; "I highly doubt it. Cameron wasn't designed to even gestate a living organism, let alone squeeze it out afterwards. No, this is going to require a little creative surgery", she explained.
John's face dropped as Sophie picked up a scalpel from the med kit and examined it carefully.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked with a lump in his throat.
Sophie regarded the boy with genuine sympathy. In truth, there wasn't an awful lot he could do to ease the process. Sophie was going to have to cut Cameron open to get this baby out in one piece and distractions would only endanger the outcome. It was best for him to simply stay back but Sophie couldn't fathom a way to tell him this without making him feel even more useless.
"Hold her hand", Sarah suddenly suggested.
Everyone turned to look at her as she unzipped her bag and withdrew a Glock, purposely avoiding eye contact with any of them. John stared at his mother with an expression of both confusion and understanding, an antithesis that could only exist where she was concerned. Idly, he wondered if her suggestion was a small attempt to reclaim a fraction of the life she wish she'd had. That maybe seeing him hold Cameron's hand while she gives birth would grant his mother some closure for never having held his father's when he was born.
Tearing his eyes away from his mother, John slid his hand into Cameron's, allowing their fingers to entwine. She looked up at him with child-like wonder as he cupped their hands in his other and kissed her knuckles. She thought it unnecessary, for she was under little stress save concern for his wellbeing. The Infiltrator was still out there and would find them eventually. They always do.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to be trapped down here like this? What if we're found?" Sarah asked.
"Do you have any better ideas?" Sophie replied, casting her a disparaging look. "In all the time we've spent here there's never been anyone kicking down our door. So believe me; if this guy turns up with a bazooka and a bad attitude, I'll be the first to cry checkmate."
Sarah rolled her eyes and pulled a shotgun out of the bag, along with a box of shells which she began loading into it.
"At least tell me there's a way out of this room besides the bottleneck up there."
Placing the scalpel on one of the towels, Sophie pointed at a door to their left.
"That's the cupboard. It has an old fire escape at the back that was sealed before we moved in. Jason loosened it a little though, just in case. If anything happens, that's how we get out", she answered.
Satisfied for the time being, Sarah tucked the Glock under her belt and took up sentry duty by the stairs. Glancing back at Cameron she felt the months of baggage finally toppling the extent of her tolerance. "God damn it, John! Why couldn't you be careful with her?!" she finally exploded. John's jaw dropped at her sudden attack. Besides her initial surprise, to put it mildly, when she first learned of the pregnancy Sarah had never given him the verbal beating he'd been expecting.
"C'mon, Mom! How was I supposed to know she'd get pregnant? Seriously, how many laws of physics can you break before even considering that she might get pregnant?" he argued.
"How many knocks to the head does it take to even consider sleeping with the thing in the first place?!" she countered.
"Oh, like you never checked out Uncle Bob's abs when you were pulling bullets outta him!" John spat back, feeling a little stung by her referring to Cameron as a thing. Sarah then flew into a rant to end all rants while John continued to impressively hold his own, having learned from the best. Cameron simply watched impassively while they argued, allowing Sophie to take a blood sample from the baby.
"Are they always like this?" she sighed, dabbing a tissue on the needle hole.
"It is a habitual regularity with them. They usually build up to it after periods of silence and internalising. They don't always behave like children", Cameron explained with a quirk of her lips. Sophie smirked in earnest and left to sit at the desk, placing a sample of the blood on a slide and examining it under the microscope. According to her readings, everything was within normal parameters; or as normal as a human/cyborg hybrid could be. The nanites were perfectly bonded to the baby's blood cells with no signs of degradation.
"...I went through seven hours of labour for you! And yet here she is, not a care in the world! How is that in any way fair?!" Sarah screamed, making John growl in frustration and walk to the other side of the room. Happy with the results of the test, Sophie swivelled her chair around to observe the continuing tirade of pointless bickering for her amusement. So engrossed was she that Sophie did not notice as Cameron quivered and sat forward in bed, both hands cradling her stomach.
"It's coming", she announced, drowned by John and Sarah's shouting. Sophie snapped to attention, having heard her with help from her enhanced hearing. John and Sarah were oblivious, however, and their argument only escalated. Sophie opened her mouth to speak but before she could say anything, Cameron reached for the bedside lamp and hurled it at the nearest wall where it shattered with a deafening crash. They instantly fell silent, both looking at Cameron with startled bemusement.
"It's coming", she repeated.
John blinked as his brain struggled to catch up before quickly returning to his spot on the bed and stroking her head, looking to Sophie for guidance. Sarah sighed and slumped against the wall, idly remembering to pick up her shotgun and stand guard again. Sophie's attention was fixed elsewhere; however, as she stared at the remains of what was once her rose-coloured lamp.
"I really liked that lamp", she sulked.
-----000-----
20 MILES OUT OF MOJAVE
7.54PM
"Put your foot down, Jesus!" Derek snapped, wishing he could sprout a rocket pack out of his back and fly into the city.
"If I put my foot down any harder it will go right through the floor, will that help?" Jason replied, shaking his head at Derek's incessant stupidity. "And by the way, Jesus Christ is a textbook example of what happens when a deranged cyborg taps the wrong coordinates into the time machine."
"Will you just- wait... what?" Derek stumbled.
Jason just smirked and kept his eyes on the road, however. Derek sighed and took a deep breath, every inch of him itching to reach them in time. They were alone, vulnerable, with a bed bound cyborg and a shotgun as their only defence. He doubted that Sophie would be of any help should the assassin come calling either. And here he was, stuck in the desert with a smart aleck. He'd never felt so useless.
"You look tense there, Reesey boy. Want a skittle?" Jason quipped, holding a bag of sweaty candy under his nose. Derek snatched the bag and threw it out the window, however. "Yeah, probably for the best; you'll break a tooth on one of them", Jason quipped, reaching into the glove box and retrieving a packet of chips. "Lays?" he offered.
"What the fu-?! Where the hell are you getting this from?!" Derek exploded. "Is this all you do when I'm not around?! Think of new ways to drive me up the wall?! What am I, your... your jester?!"
"I prefer to think of you as my witless foil, actually", Jason replied.
"Well how about you direct that inventive mind towards a faster way of getting us to John?" Derek suggested.
"No problem, Batman. I'll just press this button here and watch as our humble Chrysler transforms into a drag racer", Jason joked, pressing a button at random, only for the lighter tool to pop out of its socket and land on Derek's crotch.
"Argh! Shit! Son a bitch! Argh!" he screamed as it burned into his lap before he quickly threw it onto the back seat.
"Huh, I knew there was a reason for that thing", Jason commented as Derek glared at him with almost murderous rage.
"Just get us there in time or I swear to God I'll find some way to pull you apart, piece by piece", he threatened.
"Oh don't worry. I'm sure the squirt will somehow survive, even if everyone else dies. Remember how many times I tried to kill him?" Jason replied.
Derek couldn't help but smirk as he recalled those simpler times. "Yeah, you did a piss poor job as I recall", he reminded him.
"Right, so what chance does your squeeze have then? Not a lot, I imagine", Jason sniped.
"You don't talk about her", Derek replied quietly, the menace in his voice all too apparent.
Having grown bored with tormenting the human, Jason decided to comply for the time being and an uncomfortable silence hung over them as they both set their minds on whatever they might find when they reach the apartment. Jason imagined the door kicked in and a bloodied Sarah lying motionless at the bottom of the stairs, a single well-placed gunshot between her eyes. In the secret passage leading to the fire exit he'd find a severed arm belonging to John, though why this would be the case he wasn't sure. Jason chuckled regardless.
Derek on the other hand imagined the scene of a massacre, not having any knowledge of the apartment layout or exit strategies. Sarah sat slumped against a door with a grievous chest wound, as if a machine had punched clean through her ribcage. Sophie was not far away, her neck contorted in an unnatural angle and her eyes devoid of life. On the bed sat Cameron, fresh from giving birth but half her face blown off by heavy gunfire. And beside the bed lay John, beaten and bloody, a motionless infant still clutched in his arms...
As both were entranced by their respective predictions, neither noticed as flames started to flicker in the back seat. They still had a lot of ground to cover before being close to enough to stop what was coming and neither was willing to see it end in the enemy's favour. Jason did not mind if certain casualties were to incur, but if he lost Sophie he wouldn't know what to do. Derek couldn't lose John but neither could he lose Sarah. He would even find it difficult to come to terms with losing Cameron, should such a thing ever happen.
Despite their daily display of apathy both men had more to lose than they would care to admit.
"Can you smell something burning?" Jason asked.
Then again, there were some things that Derek wouldn't mind seeing the back of.
-----000-----
5 MILES FROM REDBIRD LODGE – LOS ANGELES
8.18PM
Jesse never liked smokers. The entire act of placing a paper filled with dried plants into your mouth, lighting it and taking a long drag of what was essentially cancer in smoke form disgusted her. However, she could not deny that at times like these it was a rather effective relaxant. Flicking the end to shed some loose embers, Jesse felt her day worsening as the familiar black truck pulled up beside her and its driver emerged.
"You got my message", he remarked.
"I got it. Seems like you had no luck, after all. And here you were telling me how incompetent I am. Go figure", she scolded.
Ethan smirked at her sudden bravado, noticing the bottle of scotch clutched tightly in her free hand while she continued to suck on the cigarette. "But unlike you, my 'failure' has a purpose", he countered.
"And what's that, love?" she slurred.
"They're cornered. Which gives you the perfect opportunity to finish the job", he explained.
"Oh... great... I get the honour of murdering a child before it's even born. Here's an idea: why don't you do it?" she challenged.
His tolerance for her insolence starting to wane, Ethan tapped the security button for his truck, popping the trunk.
"Take what's inside this truck and finish what you and the rest of your short-sighted faction started", he ordered.
Jesse fixed him with a look of pure contempt for striking such a low blow. Reluctantly, she snatched the keys from him and staggered over to the truck, taking another swig from the bottle before hurling it down the alley. "The address is in the glove box", he informed her as the truck roared to life. Jesse wasted no time in speeding away from her slaver, leaving him to contemplate the chances of her actually succeeding.
Not that she had any other option.
-----000-----
REDBIRD LODGE – APARTMENT 7c – LOS ANGELES
8.30PM
It wasn't how he imagined it. But then again, John had never imagined himself becoming a father in the first place, least of all under such bizarre circumstances. For some reason he'd pictured Cameron just calmly pushing the baby out of her body, unaffected by the pain and perfectly adjusted to the experience. Everyone was gathered to share his joy at being able to hold his child for the first time. It was happy, serene; just the way he wished his life could be. But of course, this was never meant to be the case for John Connor.
A blood-curdling scream pierced the tense silence that had blanketed the bedroom ever since Sophie began the first incision. It cut them all deeper than any knife ever could, but unlike the cries of agony and despair John was accustomed to hearing, this was something different entirely. It was a child's first experience of the world and he could not blame it for screaming, knowing the horrors it had been born into. The world was truly a terrifying place for one not adapted to its harsh cruelty, and for an infant this was doubly true.
The first thing the child ever saw with its unnaturally advanced oculus was the dark shimmer of a blade, followed by a blinding light that brought only pain and unwanted revelation. It would rather have remained within the soft confines of its temple than have the walls of reality bleed into its blissful solitude. The child felt like it was standing upon a precipice with the entire world above and below. One wrong step could send it hurtling into the abyss, doomed to fall forever.
Soft, steely fingers clutched its body and the world pulled it in against its will. The baby's screams intensified as the ribbon connecting itself from its mother was severed, leaving it adrift in this strange new dimension. Voices spoke but the child did not understand them, and as the world started to clear into some measure of coherence, the baby felt a familiar presence.
"It's a girl", Sophie announced, cradling the infant in her arms while it continued to protest.
John couldn't feel anything at the sight of his baby daughter. His entire body was numb save only for a slight tingling in his fingers and the desperate pounding of his heart. It took him a moment to remember to breathe, causing him to gasp and choke. Sophie smiled at his reaction and slowly held the baby out for him to take. Hesitantly, he reached out and felt her soft skin for the first time and as he carefully took her in his arms, everything finally made sense. This was what he was fighting for. This was what he was saving.
After a few moments the baby stopped crying and fell into a comfortable silence, replacing the screaming with gentle cooing as she looked up at her father. She did not know him but she felt safe with him; protected. John smiled down at his little creation in awe as he tickled her chin, only for the child to grab his finger with surprising strength and put it straight into her mouth. He chuckled and felt his eyes sting a little as they welled up with tears.
Sarah had never experienced such a cacophony of riddled emotions. For the longest time she had believed this child to be nothing but a bad dream, something best forgotten and put aside. She had never considered that it could ever bring any good to the world, but as she watched her son holding the passive infant in his arms, a part of her that once knew what it was like to stand in his shoes cracked through the iron cage around her heart. The baby seemed so human. No, it was human. And that was all the difference in the world.
Not knowing what to do with herself, Sarah placed the shotgun on a nearby chair and snatched up some towels and the jug of water Sophie had prepared. Realising her intent, John carefully placed the baby on a thick towel laid out on the desk and held his finger up for her to suckle on while Sarah tenderly washed the infant. She kicked her legs, knocking Sarah's arm aside with ease, causing her to gasp in disbelief. The baby quivered as Sarah applied the washcloth and started to grizzle once more, prompting John to take the cloth from her.
She did not protest at his attention and allowed him to gently wipe the grime of birth from her tiny little body while Sarah watched with barely contained nostalgic glee. While they fussed over the baby, Sophie sat on the bed and threaded a needle for Cameron before passing it to her so that she could stitch up her stomach. Cameron pressed the skin together and began sewing the wound together again, seemingly unaffected by the bizarre turn of events.
"How're you doing in there?" Sophie asked whilst packing up the first aid kit.
"I am returning to optimal functionality but it will take time before I'm one-hundred percent again", she replied, her attention fixed on her work. Sophie regarded her disinterest with a knowing sigh, for if she were to bet her entire ill-gotten fortune on Cameron being a doting mother she would be living as a pauper. However, she had expected at least some curiosity from the machine. Sophie watched the cyborg as she meticulously wove her skin back together, making sure that it would heal in the shortest possible time.
Several minutes passed them by as Sarah and John bathed the child and Cameron tended to her souvenir. All the while Sophie just sat and observed their behaviour; from John and Sarah's jubilation to Cameron's apathy. Even after all this time humans still found ways to surprise and fascinate her. Skynet had created the I-950s to be superior to humans in every way imaginable, but for all their strengths they still lacked or found it hard to grasp the single most vital concept: their humanity.
Emotions were there but did not carry the same nuances of meaning. Hate was not hate, but simply determination to right a wrong. Sorrow was not sorrow, but merely the self-derision of one's failures. And love was not entirely love, but a nostalgic sense of unity and belonging. Watching the humans' joy over the newborn, Sophie knew she could never truly understand what it meant to feel a life in her arms. Looking from them to Cameron, Sophie realised that she was trapped between the two: the ultimate fate of a true cyborg.
And yet somehow she knew that the child would not be challenged by this impediment. It was something else entirely.
Cameron snipped the suture, her flesh sewed back together once again. Snapping out of her self-pity, Sophie moved aside as John carried the baby over to the bed and sat down beside Cameron, whose eyes were fixed on him and not the child. She continued to stare expressionlessly at him as he shuffled closer and all but placed the baby on her lap.
"Cameron, look what we made", John said with barely contained glee.
Cameron glanced down at the dosing child with that same detached expression, her head twitching a little as if a part of her was in a state of disbelief. John's smile faded a little at her nonchalance but he chose not to read too much into her apparent disinterest.
"You wanna hold her?" he asked hopefully.
Behind him Sarah uncrossed her arms and made to move towards the bed but stopped herself, the concern obvious in her features. Cameron did not reach out with her steely fingers, however, and simply remained as she was without any indication of changing her mind any time soon. John couldn't help but feel his heart sink at her behaviour. She'd promised to love their child; to protect and care for it, and yet here she was, without a care.
"Cameron, what's wrong?"
She didn't know how to answer for she did not know what was wrong with her. For weeks now she had been preparing for this moment, confident that, should the child survive, she would be able to bond with it in a similar manner to John. But looking upon the helpless baby in his arms she could not put any of her preparations into practice. Whatever it was she was supposed to express in this moment, she couldn't summon it. The simple and awful fact was: she genuinely felt no love for this child.
Cameron's lips parted as she calculated the best lie to deflect his concern for the time being, but before any words would leave her mouth her proximity sensors, long since dormant during the pregnancy, suddenly burst to life with an overwhelming tirade of hazard warnings. Much to the others' surprise an almighty crash erupted from upstairs, an act of violence that sent the pantry door off its hinges and crashing down the stairs where it cracked and splintered all over the floor before them.
A second later the sound of metal on wood replaced the crashing of the door as a heavy steel drum bounced down the stairs and into the room, hitting the corner of the bed and bouncing back again. Then everything went deathly silent... Everyone in the room was frozen on the spot, unable to react to the abrupt change of their circumstances. After what seemed like an eternity, one last intruder joined the remains of the door and the steel drum: a live grenade.
Between the unhinging of the door and the hurling of the drum, it was the grenade that rippled through their bodies an instinctual recognition that the beautiful moment of birth had spiralled into a horrific likelihood of death. John wasn't sure who shouted for them to move; a distant part of his mind believing it to be his mother, but his body obeyed the command without hesitation. His arms pressed close to his chest, holding the baby firmly against his heart while his legs launched them off the bed and into someone's grip.
Sophie grabbed onto his jacket and practically carried him away from the bed, half throwing John and the baby into the closet room where they landed safely against a pile of Jason's clothes and fresh towels. She followed suite, closing the door behind her and dropping to her knees with her arms over her head. John's heart stopped as an ear-splitting explosion tore through the bedroom, filling the cracks in the door with burning white light and almost blasting it off its frame. He could feel his flesh flash-boiling from the heat in the other room.
"MOM! CAMERON! NOOOOOOOO!!!" he screamed, pushing himself back to his feet and charging at the door.
With one kick it was open and it looked to him like a postcard from hell: the entire bedroom was devoured by flames, the furniture blackening and the bed itself obliterated by the force of the blast. He could not tell if Cameron was amongst what remained of the mattress or if Sarah was lying, immolated, upon the floor. The heat was unbelievably intense and it took him a moment as he raised his hand to shield his eyes, to realise that his daughter was screaming at the top of her lungs.
Horrified, John covered her face and backed away from the inferno, turning to see Sophie attacking the wall with several well-placed kicks. Smoke crept into their presence and he started to choke, unable to draw a fresh breath of air from the smog that surrounded them. With one last kick, the emergency escape burst open and Sophie was immediately bathed in moonlight. Clean air rushed inside along with a brief waft of cold wind from the outside.
Wasting no time, they rushed out into the open night and the heavy downpour that greeted them. John had never been so grateful to feel rain on his face as it cooled his sweltering body. Looking down at his daughter he was relieved to see that she was unharmed, despite her incessant screaming.
"Shhhh. Hey, it's okay now. Everything's okay now. We're safe now, I promise", he assured her, gently bobbing his arms to calm her.
"A little premature, don't you think?" Sophie interjected.
John spun around to find himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun, its owner having just emerged from the apartment, her raven black hair scorched by the fire and a look of dark intent burning within her eyes. She stepped out into the rain, forcing them further into the alley as she levelled the shotgun not to his head, but to the child in his arms. Instinctively, he turned his body to shield his baby from her aim but he knew it was futile, for her gun would rip right through him and kill his daughter regardless.
Sophie stood rigid to the side as she desperately ran through a multitude of table-turning tactics but all of them ending in both the child and John's deaths, no matter how fast she moved to protect them. The hunter had her prey perfectly cornered with no chance of escape, no opportunity to strike first. Facing such a hopeless scenario, Sophie could only set her sights upon one definite: she either wait for the inevitable and then terminate the human in a most painful fashion, or step between John and the shotgun and sacrifice herself.
Her decision made, Sophie commanded her body to increase its adrenaline levels...
-----000-----
5 MINUTES EARLIER
Grenade. No pin. Standard delay: 5 seconds.
"MOVE!" Sarah screamed.
5........
John obeyed, kicking himself off the bed.
4........
Sophie hurled him into the closet whilst Cameron leapt up off the bed.
3........
The closet was too far away. Cameron grabbed Sarah by the collar and threw her into the open bathroom door where she landed hard against the bath tub.
2........
Cameron jumped into the room and turned to close the door, stopping for a second...
1........
...to see Sophie slam the closet door shut. Hoping that John would be safer than she, Cameron closed the door and stood with her back against it. Silence swept through the basement for the longest second in the history of Sarah's life. The world seemed to freeze all around her, and yet she could still feel her heart beating heavily against her chest and the air desperately clawing its way into her lungs. Cameron remained rooted to the spot, her hair slowly cascading down her shoulders as she stared blankly at the far wall.
The clock above the sink was missing a hand but the inner workings still carried out their duty, and a tiny click heralded the end of that never-ending moment in what Sarah truly believed would be her last seconds of existence as her senses overloaded with white noise and the bone-jarring tremor that exploded from the bedroom. Tiles burst off the wall, shattering into powdered fragments on the floor all around her. The mirror shared a similar fate as she hurled herself up and into the bath tub.
Cameron bucked a little under the force of the blast but stayed her ground, keeping the door on its hinges and the searing flames in the other room, though she knew they would soon consume the entire building and them along with it should they stay for much longer. The tremors faded as soon as they started and, confident that the door wouldn't collapse on top of her, Cameron stepped away from her charge and began scanning her surroundings for the weakest section of wall.
"We... We need to... get to John... We... Cameron!" Sarah choked, struggling to sit up in the tub.
Smoke was already pouring under the door and filling the room with a suffocating cloud. It was becoming harder and harder for Sarah to see anything more than a few inches in front of her, but Cameron could see everything; including the loose brick in the western section of the wall.
Curling her fist into a ball, Cameron drove her arm through the mortar with one precise thrust, then removed it and watched as a sizeable hole materialised from the falling bricks. Calculating an effective pattern, Cameron struck left and right of the hole, creating a larger gap before driving her foot below it to create a new doorway for the property.
The light of the outside world flooded the bathroom allowing Sarah to see through the smog and taste the promise of clean air. Not wanting to spend another second in the basement, she scrambled out of the tub and staggered across the room and all but threw herself through the hole. The sky growled with thunder as the rain intensified, bringing them both a welcome shower of much needed hydration.
Thick and heavy droplets splattered all over Cameron's body as she looked up at the sky and observed the crackle of lightning. It shot across her retina in an instant, yet she captured the moment and replayed it slower with perfect clarity. The rain was hammering down hard now, drenching her body all the way through. She didn't mind it at all, for it was only moisture. And yet she could not fathom the intensity of stimulation that each drop delivered as it struck her skin and rolled across its surface.
She could feel it. She could feel it just as Sarah felt it. Her skin crawled in discomfort from the cold and a breath escaped her lips.
Something was different... changed... altered.
She felt...
"Please. Please don't do this."
Cameron's eyes snapped open upon hearing John's voice filtered through the roaring of the rain and the inferno.
She could see him further down the alley, cradling their child with Sophie standing restively at his side; her fists clenched but not shaking. In front of John stood a woman whose face she recognised. With a quick check of her database the name she sought came to her almost instantly: Commander Jesse Flores.
The Resistance fighter was pointing a gun at her John for reasons she couldn't determine. But her being her at all suggested purpose, a mission... intent. The intensity in her eyes burned with it. Cameron took a step forward but stopped herself, realising that she would never reach them in time should she be spotted, and she most certainly would be. The alley was far too narrow and offered little cover.
Sarah also knew this, for she rooted herself to the spot, her face awash in panic as she tried and failed to think of some way to save her son without being the sealant of his fate. For once in both their lives there was nothing either of them could do, despite being so close. His life sat upon a knife edge, and he would fall one way or another.
They could only hope he would fall their way.
-----000-----
"Please. Please don't do this."
John knew it was a futile gesture but he had nothing else to lose.
"Shut up", she replied dispassionately.
The cyborg at his side tensed a little but did not move from her spot. Jesse recognised that face, the whore of Jason and his ilk. If she made so much as one wrong move Jesse knew to blast her head off and empty some extra buckshot into her implants for good measure. But her focus was set primarily on John and the screaming infant in his arms.
Screaming...
The child was afraid, terrified. It had feeling. Or was it simply a chemically mechanical response to impending danger?
No, this isn't some tin can, she reminded herself.
No amount of self-delusion could alter the truth that stood before her: this was a living breathing human child.
Perhaps not pure, but human nonetheless; and more importantly: innocent.
This baby, this girl, would one day grow up to be a lifesaver. She would perform medical miracles that save the lives of countless soldiers in the field, many of whom were Jesse's dearest friends. But the aftermath of the war, the carnage and self-annihilation her experiments would cause; it had to be stopped. She couldn't let the human race tear itself apart like that again. She just couldn't.
But... that was one future. One end. One in a million possible outcomes all of which could lead her down an entirely different road.
Jesse's finger tightened around the trigger as the baby's crying intensified, rising above the crashing of the rain. Even though the child was soaked, she could still see the tears falling down her little face.
Fuck all of it! her conscience screamed as her grip on the trigger slackened and her aim slowly diverted to the floor.
Her decision made, Jesse let out a deep sigh and inclined her head to one side: a silent permission for him to take his daughter and leave.
John could hardly believe his change of luck but was averse to looking it in the mouth. With a grateful nod he set off, only for Sophie to grab his arm and draw his attention to the other end of the alley where Cameron and Sarah stood, a familiar black truck pulling up behind them: Derek's truck.
With one last look at his liberator, John hurtled down the alley with Sophie close behind, leaving the assassin to ponder her decision alone. She watched as they all climbed inside the vehicle and sped off without further ado, escaping the torment she had brought them. The damage was done now and her choice could not be changed, no matter the stakes. There was only one thing left to take care of before it would all be over, and she knew that in all likelihood she would not succeed.
Regardless, Jesse turned her back on the mission she swore to complete and started the long return to her apartment.
It was over.
To be continued...