AN: I want to apologize for the long wait between chapters, and I want to strees that I am not an expert in many of the themes this chapter touches on. Any factual errors are simply due to my own ignorance. Please forgive them.
Z Plus One Year One Hundred and Twenty Days.
In the burned out skyline of Los Angles, Colonel John Connor raised his collar against the night chill, and climbed higher. Above him was a shattered Cell Phone Relay Tower. The transmitter was hidden in the broken Cell Tower and the power lines ran down the inside of the tower. Connor picked up a radio microphone. "Ready?"
His assembled entourage, Lieutenant Lutz, Private Tracy and six year old Kyle Reese nodded. "Recording now."
"There is no fate but what we make." Connor said into the microphone. "Do not think that the war is lost, and hope lost with it. If you are scared; if you are hiding, trying to find somebody out there, this message is for you. You are not alone. Humanity has survived. And there is someone fighting back. We are outnumbered, but we are armed with the kind of strength you cannot build on an assembly line, and the kind of courage you cannot program into a robot. Rely on your own strength of heart and soul. Do not be afraid. Tenacity and determination are the levers that can move the world. I am sending this on every frequency. If you can record it, pass it on further outwards from the Los Angles area. This is an invitation for all who need a place to go, and a banner to follow. Rebuilding the human world has already begun, and we want everyone to be a part of it. If you're out there, give us your answer. We will hear it. My name is John Connor. Welcome to the war."
Connor switched off the microphone.
There was a beat of respectful silence.
"Tell me you recorded all of that." Kyle murmured.
"I did." Lutz promised.
Connor nodded. "Play that on a loop every half hour. Any answers you get, direct them toward each other. Don't call them toward LA yet, unless you can get a read on when they'll arrive so we can knock a hole in Skynet patrols for them."
"Yessir."
"Reset the cell repeater tower to transmit on all Military and Civilian Frequencies. No encoding."
The soldier at the base of the phone tower nodded and swiftly began spinning dials. "Yessir. Range?"
"Everywhere, far and near."
"Yessir."
Connor's radio buzzed. "Connor."
"Colonel, we have incoming." Reported on of the Decoy teams. "Three Ground based H/K's at six o'clock."
Kyle jumped to his feet. "We've gotta move faster. Give it to me. I can hook up the recording to the antenna inside the building. I'm small enough to get through the holes in the roof."
Connor took the tape off Lutz and handed it to the boy. "You know how to set this up on a loop?"
"Yessir."
"Move fast." Connor ordered. "Lutz, get downstairs, we'll be there quick as we can. Fall back to the kill zone."
The H/K came rolling toward the tower, its guns panned left and right over the shattered windows.
Connor didn't poke his head out to look, finding the location by how close the spotlights sounded. "Reese, NOW!"
Kyle slid his rail thin body out from the hole in the roof. "Mission Accomplished sir."
Connor grabbed the kid and yanked him toward the stairwell and keyed his radio. "Let's move. Decoys, three minute countdown."
Connor and Reese ran down the stairs, as Skynet's spotlights scanned over them, searching for a target. Plasma fire smacked against the walls and floors of the buildings, trying to flush out a target.
At three minutes and one second, at a few spots around the street, incendiary devices flared into bright hot flame.
The heat seeking H/K, stopped studying the tower and turned to fire at the barrels, each of them in a different direction. The closest H/K fired with mechanical efficiency, left right, left.
In that moment of diversion, Kyle and Connor bolted fast out of the building, sprinting across the street to a dead looking car. It had tires, but no glass in its windows or windshield, covered in rust…
As Connor and Reese came closer, Lutz and Tracy poked their heads up, and started the engine, which came to life with a clean roar. Lutz climbed into the backseat.
Connor made it to the driver's side door and let himself in. Kyle took the hood to the car at a leap and slid across it through the open windshield, taking shotgun.
The H/K saw the movement and swiveled back to fire, but the car was already moving as Connor gunned the engine.
The trio of H/K's took off in pursuit. The car was much faster in pure speed, but there wasn't a smooth road anywhere left in the world, and the car lurched up and down like a wild animal. The huge tank treads handled the terrain much better.
The H/K's were focused on their targets, moving into the streets to get better shots, seeking their elusive prey…
They moved in too close.
Connor spun the wheel and neatly drifted the car into a side street, too narrow for the H/K's to go unless single file.
Connor felt the ground rumble under his feet and dared a glance back over his shoulder. The air lit up with bright white flashes and the H/K's started shooting again…
"Agh!" Lutz yelled in the backseat, and Connor could smell charred metal and burned air. "It's not bad! I'm okay sir!"
Connor keyed his radio. "Rack 'em and Stack 'em."
The streets required that the machines split up to cover all possible directions the humans could take. The ones that broke off from the rear to take other routes found themselves without backup as Connors men jumped up from beside them, taking advantage of the H/K's huge size to toss mines in the path of the treads, and ducking back into the shattered storefronts, ducking out through the back ways they had cleared for themselves.
The H/K still in the lead was instantly aware of the explosions that gutted its backup and accelerated, determined not to let its prey get out of sight.
Connor leaned out his window and fired a flare gun straight up.
Far from the machines, someone saw the flare and triggered one of the dozens of detonators laid out in one of the lookout posts.
Next to the moving H/K, dozens of charges went off in one of the skyscrapers, and the building fell sharply to its left, thousands of tonnes of steel and concrete, dropping neatly onto the passing H/K as it chased Connor's jeep.
The jeep was bounced off the ground by the impact, and lurched against something hard enough to give off a huge grinding sound from the axle.
Lutz groaned in the backseat as his wounded body was knocked around.
"Cut that one kinda close didn't you Colonel?" Tracy put in meekly.
Connor looked over his shoulder. Even a three story tall Ground Based H/K had to stop moving when a building dropped on it. "Kyle, remind me to do something nice for the explosive ordinance detail when we get back. They put a lot of work into making these cars look old and wrecked."
"Yessir." Kyle chirped.
Connor pulled out a radio. "Eagle one to base; we need a medic out here, and a new set of wheels. Apologise to the motor pool for me."
"Yessir."
A few minutes later their transport arrived. A large open jeep, big enough for everyone; with a stretcher bolted across the hood. Kate was in the driver seat. She jumped out, took in the sight of a huge machine with a building on top of it, and hefted her medical bag. "Looks like your work John."
"What are you doing here?" Connor demanded.
"Heard you boys needed a medic." Kate said. "Your Decoys reported in as I was leaving, they all made it back safe. They took some damage, so the rest of my medical team went back with them. They told me your car escaped the falling building and everybody was able to run for it, so it couldn't have been that bad. I split with them and came for you to make sure you got in okay. Siddown Lutz, let me take care of that leg."
Lutz hoisted himself by his arms to the hood of her jeep and lay down on the stretcher. Kate ripped his torn trouser open enough to get to the wound. "Yeah, that's not too bad."
"Colonel!" Tracy shouted suddenly. "There are sounds coming out of the H/K!"
Everyone went silent, and then they heard it. Loud thumping and the sound of metal hitting metal.
"The H/K was carrying Terminators." Kate said, somewhat unnecessarily.
"Jammers!" Connor roared, and the radios lit up with a burst of static as everyone turned their radio down. "That'll keep Skynet from seeing what its soldiers see. They'll be on their automated program now. We can't let them get outside jamming range if they see the tunnel entrances." Connor sprinted for the jeep. "If we can get to good ambush points before they can-"
"Too late!" Kate shouted, and everyone looked up to see the wreckage torn open, and moonlight glinting off a chrome skeleton. It started marching forward, its red eyes gleaming.
It lifted its rifle and started shooting. The angles from the wreckage worked for the Resistance and everyone was able to find cover.
Kate's world dropped into slow motion. John was already bringing up his rifle, and shoving Kyle Reese behind him.
Lutz was up off the stretcher and he shoved Kate down into the dirt. Lutz started to run toward Connor. Kate reached up and pulled a grenade off his belt as he passed.
Connor and his men were up, firing their rifles back at the machine. Nobody had a clear shot. The H/K was still burning and smoking, mangled metal sticking up in every direction.
Kate pulled the pin; lobbed the grenade up, and it came down next to the Terminator as it exploded. Bits of the machine went flying in every direction.
Kate ducked as the top half of the Machine came down nearby.
But the soldiers had not time to relax before the wrecked Terminator was shoved aside from behind and a new one rose out of the wreckage to take its place. Unlike the first one, this one showed signs of damage. Only one eye was still functioning, one of it's arms was ripped away…
But it jumped down from the wreckage and started marching toward Connor.
Another climbed out of the wreckage and jumped down next to it. And a third.
Kate stayed down. She was unarmed, but for the 9mm in her belt and the knife in the boot. 9mm Bullets were nothing against Terminators. A knife was a joke.
Connor and his men had much more powerful weaponry, and opened up on the Terminators with everything they had, ducking back as the Machines started shooting. The humans started clambering up the pile of debris left by the collapsed building, taking higher positions and seeking cover where they could.
The damaged Terminator didn't bother to stop and shoot, marching quickly toward their cover.
Kate saw the battle turning as the human soldiers were in retreat, and suddenly her eyes focused on the top half of the machine she had hit with the grenade. Its skull was intact, but the red eyes dark… and its weapon-ized forearm was still attached to the shoulder joint.
She made a quick study of it. It still had the trigger/button but a Terminator hand was welded onto the grip.
Kate pulled her knife and started hacking away at the damaged forearm.
Connor ignored the weapon growing hot in his hand and poured on as much firepower as he could. His men had learned to triangulate their fire and the heavy impact of the bullets started wearing down one of the terminators. A lucky shot had apparently caught it in the pneumatics and it went down on one leg.
The other one had apparently decided that the humans had the strategic advantage with the high-ground, and went chasing after them, running mechanically, but very fast, up the pile of debris.
Connor knew there was a third one, too smart to think it was harmless just because it's gun had been ripped away, when a shadow fell over him.
Connor looked up and saw the damaged Terminator drag itself over the rise he was hiding behind.
Connor's hand flashed out and shoved Kyle aside and a fist came down with pneumatic force and slammed into the space between them. "KYLE! GO!"
Kyle hissed and ran, sucking in a pained breath. His arm was bleeding where the Terminator arm nicked him.
The damaged Terminator dropped down and started reaching for Connor's face.
Connor swung up his rifle and pulled the trigger. Click. Empty.
Lutz suddenly half leaped, half fell in from nowhere and shoved Connor aside with his body, and the chrome fingers wrapped around his throat. A metal skull with a perpetually evil grin considered him, and Lutz heard gears working.
Lutz felt his feet leave the ground and knew he was finished. He'd seen them do it back at The Alamo. A steel fist would close straight through his neck and pull his throat out mid-breath.
There was an electrical cracking noise like lightning had struck right in front of him, and Lutz felt the ground beneath his boots, the weight of the Machine suddenly lying dead on top of him, the fingers frozen around his throat.
He fought to get free and saw something unexpected.
Kate Connor, with a Machine Plasma Rifle in her hands, a chrome skeleton arm still hanging from the grip. She swung the gun around and gunned down the next Terminator.
The final Machine, still chasing at the wrecked building, became swiftly aware that there was a better armed foe at its back and tried to turn.
Kate swung the rifle up and fired, teeth bared and an unholy look of raw hatred crossing her face.
She was too far to get a clean shot at the machine, and instead hit the wreckage beneath its feet. The heavy machine fell as its foothold shattered, and the Machine came tumbling down the pile of debris, Kate firing blast after blast of hot plasma into it as it tumbled.
It finally came to a stop at the base of the hill, and Kate marched right up to it, firing another load of liquid fire into its face, execution style.
Dead silence fell over the battlefield.
Breathing hard, Kate sucked in the smell of burning metal and ozone. Dead machines…
She looked up and saw John, Lutz, Tracy and Kyle staring openly at her.
Kate stared back. "What?!" She demanded.
Each man held up their hands in a placating manner. "Nothing."
Kyle beamed at Connor. "I like her!"
Connor came down the tunnel first, carrying one end of the stretchers with the wounded Lutz stretched out on it.
"Sir."
Connor turned and found Major Eric Walters, his second in command running up. "Eric. Are we transmitting?"
"Started about ten minutes ago, then the jammers came on." Walters reported. "Transmitting again now. I understand you had some excitement out there."
Kate Connor half-carried Kyle Reese with one arm, and hefted her new Plasma Rifle with the other. "What makes you say that?" She quipped on her way to the Medbay.
"Nothing we haven't handled before. No fatalities." Connor reported.
"That's good to know." Walters responded. "Sir, did you send Oldham out of the city?"
"Yes I did." Connor told him. "And I sent Dex out with his own team toward the coast."
"Why wasn't I informed?"
"Because you were busy training the new recruits."
"I can do two things at once sir."
"So can I Eric, but we don't have two things to do, we have twenty things to do." Connor told him. "I'm taking these guys to the Medbay, meet me in the Command Centre in two minutes, I'll tell you all about it.."
Kate tossed her weapon to Walters. "Eric, while you're waiting, get that Machine arm the hell off my gun, huh?"
"Yes Ma'am."
Walters was waiting as ordered, and Connor gestured at the map of LA which had updated information on all the Skynet patrols over the city, as well as the locations of all their sappers and decoys. "Your opinion of the tactical situation?"
"Skynet's getting reinforcements from outside the city."
"Correct. Once we get out past the buildings we lose our cover. Skynet can't fight it's way in with the crossfire, we can't fight our way out. But there's another factor at work. Eric, look at the pattern of these patrols. There's something not right."
"Yessir. It's... wasteful. Skynet doesn't strike me as being inefficient."
"Very good." Connor stared at the map long and hard. "I need a bigger map to show you why."
Walters went over to the cabinet and started hunting.
As he did, Connor spoke. "Remember how we started transmitting instructions out over Ham radio, Morse code, ULF..."
"Yessir."
"Remember how you said that the largest force we found was a Canadian Regiment a long way from here, and the closest population was a long way south."
"Yessir."
Walters fetched a topographical map and laid it out over the top of the city map.
"There may be something closer after all." Connor studied the larger map and traced out Skynet's circular patrol routes. "Okay, we know that there are two groups. Ground H/K's circles further inland to make sure we don't get out of LA, and the flying H/K's circle the ocean front to make sure we don't get out by water."
"But the ground forces aren't circular. They waste resources by making an odd patrol route."
"It makes sense if you think like a machine. They aren't searching one area, they're searching three. The reason the route makes no sense to us is because Skynet is using one set of machines to patrol three areas that are overlapping. It's efficient when there's more than one area being searched." Connor traced the Skynet patrols on the larger map. "If you assume that the other two patrols is based around an epicenter like it is with our base, and if you assume that the same distance from that center is being patrolled… then Skynet is also looking for something… There, and there."
"San Bernardino County? Why?"
Connor eyes had a glint in them. "Because Major, someone is there."
Walters nodded, swiftly understanding. "That's where you sent Oldham."
"Right."
"But there are two other searches going on. Ones over San Bernardino and the other epicentre is out over the water. What's out there?"
"I don't know. I sent Dex to take a look."
"Think he'll find anything?"
"We can't get out over the waves yet, and if Skynet hasn't found it from the air, then probably not. But I put our guys out there anyway once we started transmitting… just in case they feel like answering us."
Just then, the radio crackled, and a voice came on. "There is no fate but what we make." Connor's voice called. "Do not think that the war is lost, and hope lost with it. If you are scared; if you are hiding, trying to find somebody out there, this message is for you. You are not alone. Humanity has survived. And there is someone fighting back."
Connor swiftly turned down the radio. "Set the base radios to the new encrypted frequencies. I imagine we'll get tired of hearing that loop pretty quick."
Walters grinned. "Yessir."
Connor came out of the Communications Room and headed into the main tunnels, when he noticed everyone watching him. Some people were actually applauding, and after a moment he had realized why. The tunnels had made early radio transmission difficult until they could rig up relays for their field radios, and adapted the radio lines used by the civilians back when the trains were running through the subways.
They still received CB and Civilian frequencies. Every radio in the base had picked up the message he was broadcasting.
Connor ducked his head, still a little embarrassed by the attention. A man who spent his life being invisible in every crowd did not take well to the spotlight, however necessary it was. "Okay, back to work."
The applause intensified for a moment, and everybody turned back to their jobs with good-natured chuckles and smiles.
Connor headed for the Medbay.
"You know Connor, sometimes I think that the only reason I married you, is so I can listen to those wonderful speeches of yours." Kate told him once he came in.
Connor smiled and hugged his wife from behind. "I knew there had to be a reason. You sure didn't marry me for my money."
"So what brought that on?"
"Skynet has another patrol, on search and destroy mission out over San Bernardino County."
"That far inland? Why? We haven't been anywhere near there." Kate asked in confusion.
John looked up eagerly. "Exactly! LA isn't the only place they're patrolling. There's someone else. Someone not us."
Kate grinned. "Thank god. What now?"
"We've been transmitting non-stop all day from a tape hooked up to an antenna we ran through the cell phone towers above ground. All we can do is hope somebody answers us."
Kate nodded. "Your team from this morning are going to be okay."
"Good. Our guys are finally getting the knack for fighting machines."
"Is it really that different from Guerrilla warfare? Stay hidden, sneak attack, and retreat quickly before the counter attack can start…"
"That's the classic Guerrilla tactic, but the thing is, terminators don't mind getting shot. They don't take cover; you can't flush them out of hiding because they don't hide. They don't think like we do, their bodies don't work like ours do, they eyes don't see like ours do. Whole new war."
Kate nodded. "Well, we've been in LA two weeks since Skynet stopped its main offensive and haven't lost anyone else. That's because of you, y'know."
"It's because of all of us." Connor told her. "But we haven't been pushing out either."
"We'll get there." Kate promised him. She suddenly came to attention, saluted crisply, and cleared her throat dramatically. "Weekly Report Colonel?"
"Go ahead Major." John responded with formality.
"Major Bowman has trained our medics in something more than patching holes. Medical training continues for them at a pretty good rate. All civilians with medical or surgical training have been brought in from the civilian populations. Medical supplies that haven't spoiled or been blown up are being brought in by the scavengers, and yours truly is giving some of the other civilians some surgical training. Carla is now officially our Head Nurse and has begun working with some of the kids, teaching them about how to keep ahead of the diseases we can't restrict now. Lice infestations have been taken care of in the younger children, and we're setting up equipment that will help us rebuild vaccines that we're probably going to need soon."
"Good. Post-Op?"
"Just your guys from this morning, plus a few civilians that got into a fight and broke each other's noses. Kohler remains unchanged." Kate frowned. "The coma could last hours or months. We're keeping him fed intravenously. Carla's using his room to teach some of the new civilian recruits about long term care." She shrugged. "With the workload being what it is, we don't get a lot of long term customers."
"Kyle Reese?"
"Eager for more. Wouldn't shut up about you the whole time I was stitching his arm shut. Had a lot of questions about you and how we met. You're a Rock Star."
Connor smirked and changed the subject. "How are things going with Bowman?"
"He's a better doctor than I am, always has been. He's got a degree, surgical and medical training. He knows that he's smarter than me, but I think in his head, he's had to follow order from people he's smarter than his whole career, so that's not an issue. Plus his ego took a bruising during the retreat from the Alamo. He's much easier to deal with… and he's a little scared of Carla now, so that helps."
Connor chuckled.
Z Plus One Year One Hundred and Twenty Two Days.
"Why are we here?" Corporal Patterson asked.
Oldham checked the sights on his weapons again. "Because Connor said so."
"Sarge, just getting out this far is dangerous... if the machines find the Maintenance tunnel..."
"I know. Connor knows that too. So if he sent us out here, he had a reason."
"You don't have a clue why we're here either do you sir?" One of the men piped up.
"Of course I do. How else could I know when it's time to go back?"
"But you won't tell the rest of us?"
"Welcome to the Armed Forces, brother." Patterson mumbled.
"Hi boys."
The four soldiers spun around, aiming at the voice.
A slender woman in her forties, looking a whole lot older due to the feral look on her face, calmly stared back at them, not at all concerned by the huge guns pointed at her.
CHA-CLIK!
Oldham glanced over his shoulder and saw half a dozen guns aimed at each of his men.
Oldham stared. This woman and her people had snuck up on four trained soldiers. That demanded notice. "Who the hell are you?"
"Call me Lori. If you'll all be so good as to follow my friend Alexander over there, we'll all get out of the open."
Oldham took in the visible firepower and was willing to bet there were more guns they didn't see. He nodded to his men, who lowered their weapons, and turned to follow the and Lori indicated. As they walked, more people showed up from corners and piled debris. The soldiers were quickly relieved of their weapons and radios.
Lori fell into step as they were escorted down the shattered street. "So. Which of you strapping young men is Connor?"
Dex had always like LA in the summer. The beach was a staple for his family vacations.
The seaside was far less inviting now. Nuclear fire had flash-melted the beach sand, broken glass was everywhere. The ocean was covered by a thick layer of black tar, and the beach was lined by large skeletons. Too big to be fish.
"Why the dolphins?" Forrest asked him. "Why not fish?"
"Fallout. Fish got gills. They'd be safer down underwater. Dolphins had to breathe the air after the bombs fell." Dex explained.
"Still... dolphins. I liked dolphins." Forrest complained.
"INCOMING!" Someone yelled.
Dex and Forrest ducked as low as the could and sought shelter. A few minutes later, there was a rumble that shook apart the ground beneath their feet. The sound of jet turbines filled the air, and a quartet of flying H/K's flew over them.
Dex shut his eyes, thinking good thoughts. He heard a moaning noise. It was him, and he grit his jaw as tight as he could.
There was no fire, no heat signatures, and no fortifications. They were sitting ducks.
But then, the vibration slowed, the shaking of the ground eased, and the flying machines moved on.
An eternity later, Dex raised his head. "Sound off!"
"One." Forrest.
"Two!" Olivier.
"Three." Tate.
No casualties.
Forrest picked himself up. "They had us. What are they doing?"
The quartet of flying death machines had moved out over the water, and were circling, shooting down at the waves.
Oldham looked around again, taking everything in. She had taken them to The Orphanage, only a few blocks away from where they had been 'captured'. The entrance tunnels were no bigger than the ones in LA, but Lori had managed to dig her way into something much larger.
The main chamber was based in a huge concrete room, hundreds of feet wide. It took Oldham a good long while to figure out what it was. It looked like it had bee the sub-level of a parking station. He looked again and saw a ramp leading to the next level down. The above ground layers must have been torn up by the shockwaves, and buried in the rubble, hiding the levels beneath.
The parking lot was open, and Oldham could see that the place was largely organized by chance. People were clustered into groups, most of them glancing back at the newcomers. Oldham could see no weapon emplacements, no fortifications. There were weapons, but mostly hand-weapons, tucked into waistbands like Lori had.
There were a lot of younger people. But none of them younger than five or six. No babies or toddlers anywhere that the soldiers could see. No babies born in this little colony either apparently.
The place looked as though it was tacked together from what was left after J-Day. Chairs were here and here, lights were provided by camp-lights and lanterns. The walls were lit by Christmas lights and a bunch of holiday lanterns. The light actually gave off a warm glow, giving it an almost homey feel. The rest of the cavern was made to this feel, giving it a bohemian style. Walls were set up by tapestries and hangings to set off rooms.
Some of the youngest were playing hide and seek. Oldham smiled when he saw that. The youngest at the base played the same game. Connor had endeared himself to the kids on base by joining in the game, and impressed all concern by somehow managing to disappear better than kids' a third his size.
Oldham looked harder into the low light. There were drawings on the walls. Paints, crayons, charcoal... the walls had been decorated endlessly, and he could see rail-thin children adding to the pictures. It was something akin to tribal paintings, merged with finger-paints. The paintings were everything from mushroom clouds to flying machines to kids playing.
And over the entrance, painted in large letters, were the words 'The Orphanage.'
The soldiers had been brought to the centre of the chamber and given a place to sit. Lori had waved over at a group of young women, who had brought some drink.
Oldham felt his jaw drop. Coca Cola! Actual soft drink! He hadn't tasted cold sugary carbonated drink in so long...
Lori grinned. "Good stuff huh?"
"I had forgotten." Oldham grinned.
"So, how'd you find us?"
Oldham glanced over the rim of his can. "I was sent."
"By Connor." Lori responded. It was not a question.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"He wants to talk to you."
Lori laughed. "Not interested. I'll have some food brought to you, enjoy your meal, then beat it."
A young black man came running up to Lori. "Halloway's on the line."
Lori came swiftly to her feet faster than Oldham had seen anyone her age move. "Let's move. Alex, look after our guests would you?"
Lori and Danny came into the small room and pulled the drapery closed behind them. The Ham Radio had been set up on a folding table, and Danny took his customary seat, just as the radio came alive and someone screamed "Fire in the engine room! Seal the tubes. Seal them up! Right NOW!"
Another voice shouted, loud enough to be audible. "Surface! Now! Battle stations! All hands to battle stations!"
"Hal." Lori whispered.
"What are they shooting at?" Forrest demanded as steam started to rise from the water.
At that moment, from the waves, there came a sudden explosion of light and heat, as dozens of flares fired up from the surface.
The flying H/K's turned left and right to follow them, when the water seemed to boil briefly, and up exploded a shape from underwater.
A submarine. Missile hatches open.
The sounds of weapons fire rang out explosively, and a few flying Machines were being knocked down.
But not enough. An oil slick rose to the surface and caught fire from the H/K's fire, flames bursting up on the ocean surface.
Forrest dared to raise his head a little, Dex yanked him back down, as bodies started washing up on shore.
Lori grabbed the radio out of his hand. "Halloway?! Answer me!"
"Lori!" Came the answer. "Sorry about your groceries Lor, but Skynet decided to go fishing early this season!"
The radio crackled with the sound of fire and explosions. "Abandon ship!" Somebody yelled.
The radio went silent.
Daniel looked up at Lori. "I'm sorry boss."
Lori didn't respond. Not out loud, but Daniel could see the gears working behind her jaded eyes. It was a look that generally brought around disaster. "Where's the map?"
Daniel pointed to it, up on the shelf over the radio, and Lori pulled it down quickly, rolling it open. "Now, where was he?"
"The beachfront. LA." Daniel checked his controls and pointed to the spot on the map.
Lori traced between the beachfront and the Orphanage. "I met Connor's people here. So if they're in the tunnels... They're between us and any survivors."
Daniel read Lori's look. "Mind if I tag along?"
Lori blinked. "You?"
"Well, it'll be either me or Allie, and you'll want to leave Allie in charge while you're gone."
"You're too smart for your own good."
Daniel grinned. "Runs in my family."
Dex dared to raises his head. Skynet's air force had passed on at last, the submarines had left the surface, diving for the safety of the deep.
Dex moved first, moving away from his men, just in case Skynet was lying in wait for him.
Nothing happened.
Dex made his way back to the sick waves and started checking them, one by one. After a moment, his men joined him. The bodies were in pretty bad shape.
"Hey! I got a live one here!" Someone shouted.
Patterson finished his meal. Small portions, but the food was fresh. "So, what's the deal now Sarge?"
Oldham shrugged. "Connor said that there could be people out here. They weren't answering radio calls but we knew they were out here... Lori's either in charge, or speaking for whoever's in charge. Either way, it's clear they want no part of us..." He glanced over at Alexander, who nodded firmly.
Lori came back in and almost charged them. "On the other hand, maybe I should meet your guy." She said quickly. "Take me to your leader. Now."
Kate was the first to have words with the newest guest from the outside.
Bowman was working to her left on another patient, as Kate adjusted the mixture. "I can't believe we even have one of these on base."
"To be fair it's a portable one." Bowman said without looking up. "Private hospitals use them. Deep sea divers who get the bends were a serious concern in LA. All those amateur scuba divers. And people use them for other things: Mountain climbers who need immediate treatment, children or pregnant women who need hypoxia treatment or oxygen therapy. Most of our equipment comes from a Medical Supply depot in LA. Once we arrived our scavengers grabbed food, grabbed medicine, grabbed weapons. We knew the machines would make that difficult once they found us so…"
"The scroungers grabbed everything they could load into a truck." Kate finished. "Well waste not, want not."
"I admit when I saw a portable hyperbaric chamber I wondered what the hell we'd use it for, but now that I think about it, it may be worth more to us than just for submariners."
"Oh?"
"Lots of repository problems out there. LA never had clean air, and fallout can hardly make it better. Carbon monoxide poisoning, gas embolisms… living underground can be hard on the lungs. Plus premature babies, not uncommon in malnutrition cases. Crush injuries, compartment lung collapses, and extreme blood loss. A pressurized oxygen tent may be just what we need."
Kate nodded. "Well, it was lucky for this guy, that's for sure. Still, his case of the bends wasn't that bad compared to some I've heard of. My guess is he got knocked out before he could equalise pressure on his way up. Lucky our guys got to him on the coast before Skynet did. Another day or two in there and he'll be on his feet again."
"Did he tell you his name?" Connor asked.
Kate turned and saw Connor coming into the Medbay.
"He didn't say anything," Kate told him. "But his dog tags say he's Commander Halloway of the USS Stingray."
Halloway suddenly came alive in the pressurized tent and started yelling.
Connor jumped and quickly got control of the situation. "AT EASE COMMANDER!" He roared into the tent, and Halloway settled instinctively. "I am Colonel John Connor, commanding officer. You're safe. You were hit by Skynet, and my people brought you back here for treatment. You surfaced too fast, so you'll need to stay in Medbay a while."
"My men." Croaked Halloway.
Connor sighed. "We recovered nine more bodies. You were the only survivor we found."
Halloway groaned and lay still. "Have to contact my other boats."
"We can contact anyone you like."
"Not you. Me." Halloway insisted.
"Once you get out of here." Connor promised, and his radio buzzed. "Connor."
"Colonel, we've got Sgt Oldham on the line. They say that they've made contact. A woman named Lori, she won't give her last name, wants to talk to you personally."
"Tell Sgt Oldham permission is granted to bring her in." Connor shared an eager look with Kate.
"Lori," Halloway reacted numbly.
"I'll have the Mess Hall lay out the good china trays."
Z Plus One Year One Hundred and Twenty Three Days.
Lori made it to the base a day later, waiting a day to let Skynet's patrols pass over them, and taking routes into town that only Lori knew, slower but safer. Oldham's team and their guests made it to the Base without incident.
Connor was waiting at the start of the actual base, where the entrance tunnel branched out.
Olham made the introductions. "Colonel, this is Lori. Head of the Orphanage, Lori this is Colonel John Connor, Commanding Officer LA Command, West Coast Theater."
"Keep up the good work." Lori teased him gently, walked past him and looked around the tunnels, taking in everything. "Hmm. A fixer-upper, but definitely defensible." She turned back to Connor. "You have separate lodgings for the civilians?"
Connor nodded. "Everyone works, but the armory and such are kept away from the kids. Motor pool, Mess hall, and the unused tunnels are largely free to all. We like to have as many involved as we can."
"Good." Lori beamed, as though this was the best thing she'd ever heard. "People should have work to do." She gestured at the two men she had brought with her. "These are my guys. Isabel Saint, don't ever play cards with her, and my head Techie, Daniel Dyson."
Connor reacted and glanced over. The young man gave him a secret smile. "Pleasure to meet you Colonel."
"Mr Dyson." Connor responded, shaking first his hand, then Isabel's. "And Ms Saint."
Lori finished her brief walk around and came back to shake Connor's hand herself. "First of all, Saint, give Connor his watch back." She said. "Then introduce me."
Connor looked down and found t that in the space of a handshake he'd been robbed.
Isabel gave him a cheeky grin and tossed him his watch.
Grinning despite himself, Connor made the introductions. "Lori, this is my wife and Chief Medical Officer Kate Connor. My second in command Major Eric Walters, and Sgt Oldham you've met."
Lori nodded. "So, as soon as I leave your sight, I imagine that Oldham's going to report everything he saw and heard. The least you could give me is a tour."
Connor took that graciously. "Follow me."
The tour took on the Motor Pool, the tunnels in which soldiers and recruits were trained, the Command Centre, the Communications Room, the Storage Rooms, The Barracks, and finally the Medbay.
Each of the newcomers had a point of interest. Saint was most interested in the Storage rooms, taking careful note of what was available to the population, what was available to the soldiers...
Dyson took in the Communications Room, comparing what they had, and quickly made a few suggestions about frequency scramblers to Connors Men, who took advantage of his new viewpoint.
Lori had an excellent poker face. Everything she saw, she reacted to like she was duly impressed, without ever once letting on why. Her easy-going manner made it impossible to know what she was thinking.
Until the Medbay
"Our Medbay is fully equipped. We currently have four patients in Post-Op at the moment." Carla was reporting to the little tour group. "Two wounded in a skirmish this morning, both of which have been returned to duty, and two Intensive Care Patients. One of our soldiers wounded two months ago, and a survivor we had brought in this morning."
Lori's eyes focused hard on a soft walled tube at the end of a room. "That looks like a portable hyperbaric chamber."
"It is." Kate confirmed.
"For treating decompression sickness. You got submarines Connor?"
"We don't, but our new guest did. We're actually having trouble figuring out who to contact. We know he must have friends."
Lori knew he was fishing for information, and didn't care. She pushed past Carla and hurried into Post-Op. She saw him reclining on the cot and rushed over to give Halloway a tight hug. "Halloway."
"Lor!" Halloway breathed. "You miss me?"
Lori leaned back enough to see his face. "With every shot so far, but at this range..."
Halloway laughed and pulled her into a deep kiss.
Kate, Saint, Dyson, Bowman and Carla just watched with their jaws hanging open.
Nonplussed, Connor smirked. "So. You two have met then?"
Another day, and Halloway had been released from Medbay. Connor had called a meeting. Lori, her two companions, Halloway, Kate, Walters and Oldham were all there.
Connor got things started. "So you can probably guess why I wanted us all in the same room."
"Probably." Halloway agreed.
Connor launched right into it. "It's been a year and a half now. The fires of Judgment Day have cooled, and the survivors are looking for a direction beyond living out the day. But Skynet still has it in for us. It's time to start hitting back. The people in this room have found ways, not only to survive, but to build. Lori's Orphanage is self-sustaining, it's people know everything inland from LA far better than anybody else could. Halloway and his submarines, actually managing to adapt the power systems and use empty missile tubes to grow and store food. A portable colony easily sealed up and safely underwater before attack. In this room we have soldiers, we have workforces, we have knowledge of battlefields and salvage beyond what any of us can do alone. It's time to organize how we plan to fight back."
Silence.
"Excuse me." Lori raised her hand like she was in school. "I have a question: Why would we want to fight back?"
Silence.
"Skynet hasn't stopped with bombs." Connor said slowly. "Its machines hunt day and night for people it's missed."
"And it hasn't found us." Halloway said with brutal calm. "Connor, I know Skynet will gladly kill me if it can. But it can't find me. If I sign on, it will, and my people will all die. We're under their feet now. Why should we poke our heads up?"
"Because it's the only way we're ever going to retake our world." Connor said.
Lori shook her head. "We don't have a world to retake."
"Yes we do. We retook LA, we can retake the rest."
The newcomers laughed at him.
Just then, Carla came rushing in, made her way straight to Kate. "Kohler's crashing."
Kate jumped up and followed Carla out quickly without another word.
The conversation picked up neatly, ignoring the interruption.
"Connor, you've been smart, and you've been brave, and you've been lucky. You've done incredible things, but Skynet has the whole world against you." Lori chimed in.
"We've fought and won victories."
"Really? Because it looks to me like you broke a bunch of people you can barely feed out of a death camp, and got driven out of the only base you had set up for your trouble."
"A strategic withdrawal to protect hundreds of people? That's the nature of war." Walters defended.
"So is taking casualties." Lori argued. "For all we know we could be all that's left. The people in my Orphanage have lost everything, and they survived. We found a place, we found food, we found people, and made something that we can live with out of less than nothing. I'm not going home and telling them that John Connor wants them to go charging into a meat grinder!"
"In the meantime, this is the one place I've found where people know that they can actually force the machines back when they come." Walters barked. "Not just escape them, beat them. Your submarines can't say that. Neither can your Orphanage."
Heavy silence.
"Connor, you've got a great thing here. You've got miles of space, dependable borders, lots of people, self sustainability. That's so much more than any other survivor can boast. But you cannot absorb casualties. Bite off more than you can chew, and you will lose everything and everyone. By all means, keep them out, trade supplies, whatever, but it's never gonna get better than that."
"It can." Connor said sharply.
Lori leaned forward and took up the argument. "Connor, every day I go to the people in my Orphanage, and tell them that there's still hope. It's the one thing nobody has ever figured out how to kill. Not even Skynet. But my people don't hope for fame or wealth or prosperity. My people don't even hope for big families and sunshine. My people hope they don't starve by the end of the day. We pray for smaller miracles now Connor. We have to. Like everything else, they're in short supply. You can't save the world. The world's already dead."
"Connor, if it meant beating Skynet, I would gladly give my life." Halloway said. "If it meant getting the world back, I would gladly order my guys to fight to the last man."
"That is exactly what it means."
"No it isn't. The war is over. We have lost. The empire of man has fallen." Halloway said plainly. "Skynet's too powerful, and we are too few. If you actually had a chance, we might consider it, but so far you've run and fought, and run some more." He looked harshly at Connor. "And now you've finally run so far you can't push back any more, so you want us to sign on and help you charge down the guns."
"Do you really think you can win?" Lori demanded. "Or are you just wasting our time, asking us to join a suicide mission?"
***
Connor came into his quarters. Kate was already there, having walked in just a second ago. She looked up at her husband from the cot and saw the tightness around his jaw and eyes. His frame was tense. "We... decided to adjourn for the night." he told her.
"Need a drink?"
"Or a weapon. Either is fine." John gritted out.
Kate produced a flask from somewhere and tossed it to her husband. "I take it the meeting went downhill from where I left?"
"It's like stacking marbles in a corner. They've all got the same paranoia and survivor's desperation as the rest of us, but the war so far is something that's happening to other people. Trying to convince survivors and refugees to fight was hard; trying to get people who have actually managed to build something for themselves to come out of hiding and draw Skynet's attention is..." He trailed off and took a drink. "Kate, it's never been done before. Not like this."
"A leader is a dealer in hope." Kate told him.
"Napoleon." John recognized the quotation.
"Really? I thought my dad made that up!" Kate pulled John to sit next to her on the cot, and started rubbing his shoulders. They were silent for a long moment. "They're afraid. We know what we have to do John, but these guys..."
"They aren't scared of dying. Life's too hard to be prized that highly now. They're not scared of Skynet. They're outside Skynet's notice for now... They're more scared of me."
"Of you?"
"They won't tell me what they have because they know I want their little empires in my own. They aren't scared of dying, just of losing what they've managed to make for themselves."
They were silent for a long moment, curled up together on the cot, Kate hugging him tightly from behind.
"I don't know how to convince them Kate. They believe Skynet's the enemy. They believe Skynet would kill them. But they aren't hungry. They aren't alone. They aren't prisoners. Unlike every other human we've met so far, they'll live longer if they don't join the fight, and stay hidden."
Long silence.
Kate traced her fingers over the back of John's neck lightly, and found a light burn scar. She pulled the back of his collar down lightly to get a better look. "This one's new." She murmured, tracing its redness. "You didn't tell me about this."
John flushed. "Um, that one I got yesterday... in the shower."
Kate laughed. "What?!"
John looked embarrassed. "They rigged up a new hot water system; but they...uh..."
"They made it too hot." Kate giggled. "The techies want to say they gave the Colonel his first hot water shower in months."
"Something like that."
"And as CO, you are of course obliged to test anything yourself before your men do." Kate teased.
John smirked. "Burdens of Command."
Long silence.
"Kohler didn't make it." Kate said softly, gesturing at the flask on the end of the cot. "It was his."
John sighed hard and half turned on the cot, pulling her into a hug. "You did all you could."
"I know, but the thing is... he's been hovering for months. And the only thing that keeps coming back to me is that I should have let him go the day we abandoned the Alamo."
John pulled her in closer and started stroking her hair gently. "What do you mean?"
"He was taking up a lot of meds, just on the chance that... John, we aren't getting resupplied, and now that I'm responsible for it... God, I hate myself for it, but I just keep thinking that if I let him die that day, there'd be a lot more to go around in the future."
"Supplies that tight?"
"Not yet, but there's only so much left to salvage from LA, and if Lori and Halloway stay off the reservation, we can't get to any other scrounge..."
"You couldn't let him die Kate. A machine would, for that reason. I would too, and then you'd forgive me for being cold and I'd feel guilty... but not you. That's not what you do. You care too much. I remember Crystal peak. You mourned every single death in the world, and I love you for it. So does everyone here, because they know you'll never let go when they're hurt as bad as Kohler was."
Kate nodded. "Nice to know, but..."
"Until Skynet's gone, it'll only get more desperate. Another reason to win."
Kate leaned back on the cot, closing her eyes. "So, how do you think the day's been so far? Scale of one to ten."
"Don't ask me yet, the night is young." He sighed again. "You know what the worst part is?"
"What's that?"
"The worst part is, a part of me feels like I'm lying to them." John whispered, exhausted.
Kate pushed him back to lie down on the cot and curled up under his arm. "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." She said quietly.
"Eisenhower." John recognized the quote.
Kate blinked. "I'm starting to think my dad wasn't half as smart as I thought he was."
John chuckled. "Everything we've done... we've been lucky, and we've been desperate, and we've been pushed back. Our soldiers have instinct, intuition, fury, imagination and most important, judgment of a situation. Our enemy is automated and unthinking, but their army rolls of an assembly line." He sighed. "The stone cold fact of the matter is that if we kill a hundred Terminators for one human casualty, it's a net victory for Skynet. If we can't prove ourselves a match for Skynet without them, they won't join us."
"Then prove yourself a match for Skynet without them."
John smirked and put an arm around his wife. "Just like that?"
"Just like that." Kate tilted her head up and kissed him softly.
"It's impossible."
"Then you're the right one to ask."
John started to answer her when the base Alarm suddenly went berserk.
Klaxons' rang through the base, and the Connors scrambled for their clothes.
The Alarm was blaring loud through every tunnel. The civilians were running back and forth also, shouting for their family members, hunting for cover.
Dozens of them went running after the Connors, seeing their leaders.
""We're working on it!" Kate yelled, so that John could get closer to the Command Center. "For now, just get to the shelters."
At almost the same time, Walters voice came over the Subway speakers. "Colonel Connor, report to the Command Center. All Civilians to the Shelters."
The shelters were the Subway maintenance tunnels, which had an extra wall of concrete around them, and had doors, set up to seal them off.
The civilians quickly followed the order, when Connor outpaced them.
"Report!" Connor roared as he entered.
"Radar operators at LAX reported a bogey heading straight for the centre of town. Speed and size say it's a missile."
"Oh god." Kate whispered. They'd rigged a generator at the Air Traffic Control Towers at the LA Airport to keep an eye out for airborne attackers.
"Time to impact?"
"Any minute now."
"Do we have a connection to LAX?"
"Frequency Six."
Connor pulled his radio and spun the dial. "Kate?"
Kate shut her eyes for a second, thinking. "Uh, Surface team today is Sgt Andrew Sanders."
Connor lifted the radio to his lips. "This is Connor. Sanders? Are you there?"
An answer quickly came. "Yes sir. Right here. It's an honor Colonel."
"Thank you Sarge. How many bogey's are you reading?"
"Just the one sir." Sanders answered. "Colonel, my team and I have taken a vote, and decided that if it could help, we're willing to stay here, right to the end."
Connor was silent a moment. "Sanders, if that Missile is what we both think it is, the surface is not going to be a good Real Estate investment."
"That is understood sir."
Kate shut her eyes. He sounded so... young.
Connor spoke again. "Sanders, I want to tell you, that there are a whole lot of people in here that are getting ready. And they would have been taken completely by surprise if it wasn't for you. That's a very fine job you did soldier."
"T-Thank you Colonel."
"We're going to stay on the line with you." Connor promised him. "For as long as we can."
"Yessir."
"Where are you from Andrew?"
"Kansas." Sanders responded. "I joined the military to pay for college... Skynet had other plans."
"Farming family?"
"My father. The farm always had trouble making ends meet. It was why I went to-Colonel! I have a visual on the Bogey."
Kate stood a little taller. So did everyone else.
"It's... it's stopped its rockets... I see...chutes. The Bogey has deployed parachutes. It's floating down. I can see... a spike on the front. Maybe six feet long. It's coming down point first."
"Give the count soldier." Connor ordered.
"Why chutes?" Oldham whispered.
Walters looked at him grimly. "To make sure it soft lands. The spike will hit the ground and detonate the warhead while it's still up a few feet. Keeps the bomb from being half buried in the ground when it hits. Spreads the blast radius evenly."
"Impact in maybe five seconds... four... three..."
Kate slipped over to John, threaded her fingers through his.
The radio went quiet.
Everyone held a breath. As though the slightest noise would destroy the world. Nobody spoke, nobody moved, nobody even breathed.
The deafening silence went on forever.
Until finally, Connor lifted his radio. "Andrew? You still there?"
Beat.
"Yeah!" The young voice almost screamed. "We're here! Holy god in heaven! WE'RE STILL HERE!"
Three people let out a breath explosively. Kate could feel her heart start again. Through the radio she could hear Sanders and his team cheering. Eric and Oldham were grinning stupidly at each other.
Connor was not. "Quiet! Sanders, what can you see from the impact site?"
Sanders quickly responded. "I see... A lot of clouds. Like... Like a dust storm coming from the crater. The winds blowing it around a lot through..."
"Gas bomb?" Kate guessed.
Connor looked darkly at her. "Aerosol."
Kate quickly returned to the Medbay and started organizing the anti-biotics. "Bowman?" She called.
Bowman came in quickly. "Ma'am?"
The awkwardness between them had faded, largely because Bowman's ego would not let him ever forget his moment of weakness during the Alamo retreat.
Kate waved him over. "Bowman, how are we doing on harvesting anti-biotics?"
"It's a tough balancing act Major. Try keeping people away from the bread long enough for the mould to grow."
"I want to use as much of the stuff we grow as we can. Keep the professional medicines for as long as the use-by date will allow. If that missile is what we think it is, we're going to need something soon, but we don't know what we'll be treating yet."
"Do we know where exactly the missile came down?" Bowman asked.
"Yes we do."
Kate and Bowman both turned. Connor had appeared in the doorway. "Bowman, give us a minute."
"Sir." Bowman quietly excused himself.
Kate turned to her husband. "What's the word?"
"We got a fix on the location. The nearest tunnel exit is a good half-mile from it. The area in question is the LA Freeway, so we can't drive. Total gridlock in dead cars. We'll have to walk it. But the winds are blowing away from the base, and the Skynet patrols have been drawn around the outside edge. It came down close enough to the city to be inside their patrols."
"Could be bait. Skynet sends its patrols far enough from the crash-site, we send a team out and the H/K's come running in."
Connor shook his head. "We've still got our guys at the radar tower. It's not going to be easy to sneak up on us. This is something else." He took a deep breath. "I'm taking a team out to-"
"Whoa. Back up." Kate told him. "I'm CMO."
Connor took a breath. "I know. Yet strangely, I don't care."
"John." Kate said seriously. "I'm doing this. I'm doing this, because it's my job. You've got to treat me like any other soldier."
"Any other soldier wouldn't question an order."
"Any other soldier wouldn't get ordered to not do her job." Kate told him. "John... we're the first married couple in the Last Army. We're making up the rules about fraternization as we go along. What you decide for me will decide how-"
"That's not fair!"
"I know." Kate sighed. "And as much as I hate the fact that your image affects things, you know it does. This war has to be bigger than us. We agreed that."
John pulled her closer and ran a hand protectively over Kate's stomach. "The last time we made that argument, it cost us."
"I know." Kate said softly. "Doesn't mean we were wrong."
Silence.
"This is the problem your having with Lori and Halloway." Kate told him. "You won't risk me until you're sure I'll be safe. They won't fight for you until they know you'll win. John, you can only rely on me if..."
"If I let you into the war." John finished. "I know."
She kissed him again. "I'll be careful."
"I know."
Kate tilted her head back as far as she could, swallowing reflexively as Dex started taping a small pad to the very base of the throat with surgical tape.
"Okay Major, the MX-1 throat mike, is the same kind that NASA used, when they faked the Apollo Moon Landings." Dex said seriously.
Kate quickly sent him a look.
Dex grinned and handed her the earwig. "Just kidding. But seriously, these are used to keep Level One teams in contact. The mask will knock around a headset, so the mike is taped to your throat. You don't have to have a headset on."
John was hooking the radio to her belt. "The radio will fit under your Hazard suit, and the cable up to the throat mike will go under your clothes. The rest of your team will be wired up the same way. The mike will work from vibrations through your vocal cords, so you won't even have to raise your voice. We'll hear you."
Kate nodded, and took a breath. Carla and Bowman had set up the Bio-Hazard suit. John held her steady while she stepped into the huge rubber boots, and they started fitting her into the large yellow one-piece jumpsuit. Once it was zipped up, Kate worked her fingers into the thick rubber gloves, while Dex helped her with the oxygen tank backpack.
"Leave the mask and visor till last. Bowman, set up a Decontamination station at the entrance."
"Yessir."
"Let's get her support team geared." Carla directed.
Two or three of the trainee medical staff got to work on Walters and two of his soldiers.
Connor slipped over. "Eric, I would give my left arm to go in her place."
"I know sir. She's the right choice to go. She's medical, and if that missile was what we thought it was..."
Connor nodded and looked fiercely at him. "Eric, you are personally responsible for my wife's safety out there."
Walters didn't look away from him. "Yes Sir."
Kate hated the walk. Aside from leaving the tunnel to collect her husband, (a trip which had taken about five minutes,) she hadn't been to the surface yet. In fact she hadn't been in LA since the morning before Judgment Day.
The full head mask had a huge Plexiglas visor, larger than her whole face, giving her full visibility, but cutting off almost all noise except her own breathing.
"Kate? Talk to me."
"We're getting closer John." Kate reported. "God, I feel like I'm from another planet though. And it's not just the spacesuit you've got me in."
Time had not been kind to the City of Angels.
The bombs had fallen in the middle of rush hour. Kate knew from experience how densely packed the streets were in LA. The bodies of pedestrians were laid flat like cut down grass, rows of skeletons in the rubble.
That's it Kate, keep it abstract. She told herself. She came to a small city park. The burned out swings and the tiny skeletons nearby made her sick.
She heard muttering and curses over her headset. It was getting to all of them. Idly Kate wondered if any of her escort had been from California too.
Kate had met Scott here. She was exercising one of the dogs from the Clinic; he was babysitting his niece...
Don't think about the fact that you're on 32nd street. Don't think about the park where you met Scott. Don't think about that restaurant down the street where he proposed. Don't think about the coffee cart...
The coffee cart was right in front of her. Her favorite coffee cart where she stopped every Saturday, or when she was in town...
Oh god. Kate thought, fighting the bile. That kid always had the cart on Saturdays. The shy kid who had a crush on me, and always gave me free biscotti... I never even knew his name!
There was a skeleton next to the overturned cart. It was wearing a barista apron.
Kate fought an overwhelming urge to kneel down next to it and look for a name-tag... say she was sorry, say goodbye...
"Doc?" Walters put in gently.
Kate shook herself firmly. "Sorry. Wasting time." They started walking again.
The streets were cracked, but no weeds had taken root. There was no greenery of any kind. No life at all. The cars that hadn't been tossed on the roads were rusted and still, the glass windshields and the rubber wheels gone. Still skeletons sat at every driver seat, one or two with arms covering their eyes, locked in their moment of panic beyond their death.
But eventually, they made it out of the middle of town.
Kate shivered. She felt exposed. She was out in the open. She could see sky; see the horizon... the small buildings had been knocked flat. LA no longer had suburbs.
"There it is." Walters called through the radio. "Area is clear."
"You guys stay here." Kate ordered. "I'll check it out."
Kate inched over toward the crater, breathing a little harder through the gas mask. The missile had come down perfectly straight. The spike had dug its way into the dead soil.
"John?"
"Go ahead Kate."
"Looks like the thing was meant to come down from above. The top of the missile is buried five feet deep."
"Our guess is that it came in from so high because Skynet was worried about the jammers. If it came in straight, it wouldn't go far off course."
"The thing is covered in what look like... oxygen tanks. You were right. It started spraying its payload once it hit. Looks like its done spraying now though."
"Can you tell what it was?"
"No markings on anything. I guess Machines don't have to worry about warning labels."
"Kate, the prevailing winds are blowing toward..."
"The reservoir." Kate finished. "It's a fair distance from here, but if Skynet wanted to give a decent margin for error with a gas of some kind, this'd be as good a target spot as any given the weather."
"Dammit." The radio line suddenly cut out. Kate knew he'd be snapping orders soon to isolate the water supply.
Kate very carefully eased down on one knee, starting to collect samples.
"Kate?"
"Go ahead John."
"I've ordered the feed from the reservoir closed, but it's been over an hour since the attack. Someone may have got to it. What do you think will happen?"
"No way to know until I get these samples back."
"Carla's at the Decon station. Give her your sample case, and she'll scrub it and take it to Bowman while you get cleared."
Kate led the way back into the tunnels.
Halfway in, the trio were stopped by a wall of plastic wrap. The plastic was taped airtight in two overlapping parts a standing wall across the tunnel, except for a point where the two sides of the whole overlapped. Kate undid the cable ties on the overlap and let herself in.
A second wall of plastic had been set up the same way. Kate could see people on the other side, further into the entrance of the base. Kate slid the sample case through to Carla on the other side. Her friend was wearing a surgical mask, long sleeves, thick gloves, and quickly took the case over to a basin, scrubbing it harshly.
A pair of marine showers had been set up on either side of the tunnel, within the plastic airlock. Kate waved to Carla as the showers rained water on her suit hard, and she started scrubbing herself down.
Connor came into the Medical lab, Oldham at his side. Bowman was hunched over a microscope, he didn't even look up.
"So, what is it?" Connor asked right off.
"This is something new. If I had to guess, I'd say it looked like Staphylococcus. But it's been changed somehow..."
"What kind of symptoms should we be watching for Doctor?"
"Colonel, I can't even be sure what this is yet. When I figure out what I'm looking at, maybe I can give you an answer."
Carla came in saluted Connor. "Doctor, I have the blood samples from Kate's team."
Bowman immediately pulled the Sample slide from the microscope. "I'll get right on them."
Connor nodded in gratitude. "Doctor, everyone heard the Alarm. Everyone knows the water line's been blocked. Everyone wants answers. Give me whatever you can in an hour."
"Yes sir." Bowman looked to Carla. "Get the computer booted up." He told Carla. "Now."
Connor left, and Bowman slid Kate's blood sample under his microscope.
Lori, Halloway, Saint and Dyson were waiting in the hallways. "Well?"
"Looks like it's something engineered. Bowman thinks it looks like Staph."
Lori paled. "I have to get back to my people." She whispered. "Is the south tunnel still clean?"
"It was targeting the reservoir, so you should be clear to get home."
Dyson piped up. "Um, Lori if it's okay with you I'd like to stay here for a while."
Lori blinked. "Really?"
Dyson nodded.
Halloway looked to Lori. "If you want some company on the way back to your Orphanage..."
Lori smiled gently. "What about your guys Nemo?"
Halloway gestured at Connor. "If you think a tunnel is a bad place for an infectious disease, you should see a Submarine. I ain't going back till I'm sure, and Skynet's still patrolling the coast anyway. Too dangerous for me to go back, and I sure as hell ain't staying here."
Connor grunted. "Don't think I'm done with our conversation yet."
Halloway and Lori left through the south tunnels. Connor and Dyson made his way to the Mess, helping themselves to coffee. It was the first time they could talk freely since John was ten years old, insisting that Daniel go to his room while their parents talked.
"As soon as you, your mom and the big guy left for Cyberdyne, mom took us to a hotel. I didn't know what the hell was happening, or why your mom was so set on killing my dad. We went back a few days later. The house had been broken into. We grabbed some stuff and ran."
"When did she tell you?" Connor asked.
"After we got word that dad died and Cyberdyne was blown to hell. We cashed in dad's insurance and went south. Sold the house over the phone, stayed out of the cities. I didn't believe it. I don't know what my brother believed, but mom did."
"So you stayed out of the cities."
"For as long as I could. Then we found out that the military had restarted the Skynet Program. It was a military contract. There were backups off-site from Cyberdyne. Copies of the early work that my dad didn't know about. When we found out Skynet still existed, one way or another we tried to find you."
Connor shook his head. "Me and mom were long gone by then. We didn't know Skynet survived either."
"August 1997, mom said it was time, and made us some drinks. I didn't drink it. Mom did, so did my brother. They died a few minutes later."
Connor looked at him with sympathy. "My mom died that month too."
Daniel sighed. "She figured killing me, my brother and herself would be a mercy. I knew she was losing it. Had been getting progressively manic, and it was worse and worse since the night dad died. I didn't drink. Call it instinct. And you know what? The sun came up the next day. Nothing happened." He threw back his coffee. "I figured you were a conman. Or if not you, then at least your mom and the big guy. I figured you'd conned my mom, and killed my dad."
"That's not how it turned out. Your dad died a hero Danny. He went down trying to kill Skynet, and he held out long enough to save me and a dozen cops."
Daniel had tears welling gently in his eyes. "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Daniel wiped his eyes. "Thank you."
"So what happened after that?"
Daniel looked sheepish. "I hated you so much when mom died. Whatever you did to her, whatever you told her, it sank in enough that she would rather die than risk you being right. So I went looking for you. I got some work with some... disreputable people in Mexico. Apparently I have my father's luck with computers, and I tried to hunt you down."
Connor shook his head. "I split when my mom died. I haven't lived in a proper city for more than two days since I was ten years old."
Dyson nodded. "I figured my new friends could help me find you."
Connor glanced over the rim of his coffee cup. "What would you have done if you'd found me?"
Daniel had no particular rage. "I would have killed you. Revenge for making my mom think it was real. Then J-Day actually happened; and I kinda felt stupid about thinking it was all a con." He sipped his coffee. "I was doing something... illegal in LA, we were heading outta town like crazy with the cops chasing us, when the world just lit up like a flashbulb, and my next clear memory is sitting in the back of a truck, with my head bleeding, a half a dozen survivors around me and Lori in the driver's seat." Dyson shrugged. "Been with her ever since. She had use for a techie."
"She seems a natural leader."
"She's the heart and soul of our Orphanage John." Dyson said plainly. "She decides not to sign on with you, I go with her. I don't care what the Gospel of John Connor says."
Connor grinned. "Fair enough." He finished his coffee. "In the meantime, let me show you our setup here. If Lori decides not to come with us, there may be something that'll keep you ahead of Skynet anyway."
Dyson nodded and followed the colonel to the Tech-Lab. After a moment, he spoke. "He was a machine wasn't he?"
John knew exactly what he meant. "Something we haven't seen yet."
Dyson leaned forward. "Mom told me that Dad's work was based on it. Told me that they looked human. You're ready for that right?"
"I am."
"Just sayin', everybody knows to watch out for the enemy. We're the only ones who know to watch out for our friends."
Given a clean bill of health, Kate had headed out of the Medbay, turning toward the Mess Hall. Given the fact that humanity was underground, there was little point of working to a regular day/night cycle. Most of the Last Army was split into four shifts, two during the day, and two during the night. While some worked, others slept. The Mess hall, the Barracks, the Training Grounds and the Command Centre working non stop.
Kate quickly got a tray of food, and scanned for John. it looked like he'd just left the room, so she sat down to eat with Dex and Oldham.
A few minutes later, Bowman appeared and sat down with her at the Table. Carla sat with him. "Major."
"Afternoon." Kate acknowledged both of them.
Carla was bouncing up and down in her chair a little, a bundle of nervous energy.
"Everything okay Carla?" Kate asked.
Long silence.
"Yes." Carla said finally.
"Major, after lunch, we need to have a word with you about your test results." Bowman said professionally, taking a sip of coffee.
Dex and Oldham, sitting close by, heard that and froze, forks hanging in mid-air.
Kate looked at the two soldiers out of the corner of her eye. This was how rumors started. "Anything serious Doctor?" She asked politely, keeping it calm.
"No, not really." Bowman said easily. "You aren't infected." He promised her. "But there are a few things we need to cover and-"
"You're pregnant!" Carla blurted.
Sudden silence.
Reaction to such news in their post war hell was mixed and emotional at the best of times. Dex and Oldham stopped pretending they weren't hearing, and everyone within earshot stopped to see Kate's reaction.
"Are you sure?" Kate croaked.
"The fetus is young." Bowman said quickly. "There's no sign of illness or radiation damage, though it's early. By the chemical markers in your blood, I'd say almost a month old, maybe a little less. But yes, it's confirmed."
Kate reached across the table, grabbed Bowman and kissed him square on the mouth for half a second, then scrambled up from the bench she sat on, and went sprinting for the tunnels, looking ten years younger.
Carla looked at Bowman, a little put out. "I told her first." she groused.
Z Plus One Year One Hundred and Twenty Five Days.
Colonel Connor and Major Eric Walters held weekly briefings with all department heads. With the work ongoing night and day in the Underground, in three shifts, different units and squads had different duties.
Kate was a relatively new addition to these meetings, having taken Bowman's place as Chief Medical Officer. Her inclusion had brought relief to those in the Chain of Command that were glad to be free of Bowman's impatience with their new circumstances since the war began. Her arrival had also brought discomfort to those who still viewed her as The Colonel's Wife. But having a rank and position on the base helped.
Organization was only half the problem, with the circumstances of every war subject to change. Rumors and scuttlebutt could be both helpful and dangerous, and Connor had directed that Walters keep his men informed.
"All right people, this is rumor control." Walters said clearly to his assembled commanders. "Lori and Halloway are not military, nor are they being conscripted. They were invited, and The Colonel is hoping to get them on-board. They have thus far resisted this, but they have the Colonel's confidence. Some of their people have provided us with technical support, or shown us new scrounge that we hadn't found yet. They are not prisoners, nor have they acted hostile toward us."
Oldham raised a question. "There's a rumour that one or both of them work for Skynet..."
"Rumors that our guests are connected to the chemical attack are groundless." Walters said bluntly. "Skynet knows where we are based; they just can't get to us. The missile, as far as we can tell, was loaded with a chemical or biological agent. The target was not the tunnels, the target was the reservoir. The Colonel believes that Skynet is poisoning the watering holes, so that any populations that may be within our defensive zone, but not affiliated with us will be affected."
"Are the water supplies bad?"
Eric directed the question to the CMO. "Major?"
"Bowman has determined that the bio-agent that infected the reservoir has a half life of six days before it breaks down in potency." Kate assured everyone. "The reservoir feed has been sealed, and no symptoms have been reported, so it looks like we caught it in time."
Walters picked up the story from there. "The radiation from the first shock-waves cannot be absorbed by plastic and killed almost all of LA within a day or three, so all the bottled water remains untouched and untainted. We have enough bottled supply to wait out the virus."
"There's nothing to stop Skynet doing it again next week." Gault volunteered.
"Wrong." Walters said with pure iron in his voice. "There is us. The Colonel's orders are to locate the missile base, or where the biological agent was cultured. It's our next target." he concluded. "Any questions?"
Beat.
Oldham slowly spoke. "Sir, there's a fairly credible rumor that Major Connor is pregnant."
"I'm sitting right here, Sarge." Kate said calmly. "And Oldham, you were there when I found out, so let's not call it a rumor shall we?"
Smirks went around the room.
"Major Con- Kate," Eric began. "Kate is in a position of authority its true. But she is not a combat officer, nor do her duties take her up to the front. Her pregnancy does not in any way affect her work, at least not for the next several months. Major Bowman has been given medical authority over her case, she is not treating herself." Eric looked cannily around the room, knowing the real question his soldiers were asking. "But why doesn't someone say what they really want to say?"
Kate smirked despite herself and looked around, wondering which of the battle hardened combat soldiers would dare to ask about her husbands stance on dating in the Underground.
"Sir, regulations regarding fraternization... Has The Colonel...?" Dex stammered suddenly, not knowing how to phrase the question.
"The Chief Medical Officer is also The Colonel's wife." A voice interrupted.
Heads turned, and lo, The Colonel himself came in. Everyone stood up in his presence, and he made his way to the head of the room. "Eric, if I may?"
"Please."
Connor held out a hand to Kate, and she took it gladly, standing before all the commanders as husband and wife. "The way to protect our people is to fight back Skynet, but the way to save our race is to start expanding our race. As cold as it may seem, our people are an endangered species."
"Sir," Gault began. "I have no say in how you raise your family, but given the circumstances, you really have to ask yourself.... what kind of life could this child possibly have? Skynet's a much more important priority. Take it out, and there's a world to raise children in."
"But there's more to it than that." Connor told him, and turned to his wife. "Tell him."
Kate fought to keep her face level in the face of sudden spotlight. Tell him what?! She asked him silently.
John's look was encouraging. What you feel.
Kate took a breath, trying to keep her chaotic emotions in check long enough to make something coherent, and suddenly an endless rush of words came pouring out of her.
"The Underground is full of people." Kate said quietly. "Including children. I see how people look at the children; I can see all the sons and daughters lost to our people in their eyes. These people aren't looking after themselves. They can get enough food to be healthy, if lean, but they don't eat. They have cleaning supplies enough to make their living arrangements healthier, but they don't make the effort. What's eating our people is decay. Skynet's a problem when they figure out how to get past our sappers. Despair is a problem now. Soldiers have work to focus on, and a target for their rage. Civilians don't." Kate held a hand over her stomach, making no effort to hide the gesture. "Most of you don't know this, but this baby, is not the first I would have had. Skynet has already claimed the first of our children." her face went fierce. "They will not claim another. I will use every weapon at my disposal down to my own teeth to protect this place, and the people in it. I have something to live for that I didn't have a week ago. And it is strong. It is stronger than anything the fate of my race could ask of me."
"Kate and I are aware of the numbers." Connor said calmly. "We know that the odds are against us, but that's been true every minute of every day since the war began. Perhaps since long before that. But making a decision about the future of your family, or your people by the numbers is what Skynet would do." His voice grew strong with pride and with compassion. "I am going to be a father. That's not something to fear, it is a time to celebrate."
The room was full of gentle smiles. These people were happy for their leader, but feared for him too.
"This war is going to be ugly, and it's not going to be safe for my child, but when this war ends, and the earth is ours again, you better hope that there are a whole lot of people like my wife, who aren't so afraid to lose something that they won't dare have it, or risk loving it in the first place. That is the purest thing that our wretched little race has to offer, and I'm not gonna let Skynet steal that from me too." Connor said, clear and strong. "Major Walters, under my authority as Base Commander, I am suspending the typical regulations regarding Fraternization in the ranks. Tell your men why, tell your men to be responsible about it. I am authorizing the use of our Food and Medical supplies for the civilian population. I am also giving priority in treatment and food rations to pregnant women, and infant children. I am further authorizing use of base personnel to care for these women and their children until such time as they can look after themselves."
"This may just be the first war-zone that encourages War Babies." Oldham muttered.
"It's a survival game. We learn or we burn." Connor said.
Kate recognized Mac's line and smiled.
Z Plus One Year Two Hundred and Five Days.
Kate's pregnancy was the talk of the Underground. Kate's was not the first pregnancy on base. Human nature was more or less unchanged, and these desperate people who had lost it all and had much to fear. The base had been reduced to a mix of modern technology with caveman living arrangements. The base had been without contraceptives since Judgment Day, but of those who had gotten pregnant, almost all were civilians from the camps, malnourished and generally unhealthy. The healthy had been terrified of the idea, or had been pressed into needed service.
To date, no babies had survived.
Kate's new medical status slowed her down not at all. In fact she took advantage of it. She was constantly active with the civilians, organizing them to work, but with everyone quickly aware of her pregnancy, her work with the civilians quickly expanded to include how her Pregnancy was progressing in the underground.
Kate kept making the same points. Women had been having babies long before hospitals had come along; there was no reason they couldn't continue long after hospitals ceased to exist. Yes she was scared of losing her baby, but more scared of never having it to love at all. Yes she knew it was going to be difficult, but her own personal stakes had never been higher.
Kate had made her case to those who asked, and they had all agreed.
Halloway had not had to deal with anything of the kind, cobbling together his little band out of submariners, all of them military, almost all of them men. But even he could see: Kate was the highest ranking woman on the base, and wife of John Connor, who had something of a cult following in the underground. The people who lived here were far more invested in her health and her baby than they were in anything else.
After a while, Kate finally got people moving, and despair and depression gave way to activity.
The Last Army continued it's offensives around LA, but the war remained in stalemate.
Halloway refused flatly to allow Connor's soldiers into his submarines, but was trapped in stalemate himself. Skynet had control over the underwater sensors left over from the cold war, as well as all satellites that could track heat plumes. Halloway's small fleet couldn't leave without their captain, and with Skynet hammering patrols over the waves, there was no way to get Halloway back aboard his submarine.
During his time in the Underground, Halloway was aware of the effect that Connor was having on the men. He trained with them personally.
Halloway was in charge of his own group of survivors. He had kept his men going by keeping them busy. Connor had apparently done the same, but there was always work to do on submarines. The majority of the civilians had little to do. Connor kept them going with work, with stories, with speeches, with anything that came along. And it was having an effect. Halloway saw it. Connor was keeping the entire LA underground going, almost by sheer force of his own will.
Connor's men did not have enough force to start pushing out past the LA perimeter. once the buildings thinned and the tunnels stopped, open warfare became strictly Skynet's game.
Lori's people had an intimate knowledge of the area, and could have snuck them out past Skynet's patrols, but Lori had refused to play ball. Despite her refusal to join Connor's army, she had become something of a fixture at the base, electing to spend a lot of time with Halloway. Connor approved her permission to come and go as she wished, as she usually brought some supplies with her, as well as Daniel Dyson. The underground viewed her arrival as something akin to a traveling show. When she came she brought luxuries like toothpaste for the adults and treasures like crayons for the kids.
Connors men kept hunting for the missile base, but it was outside their circle, beyond the reach of the Last Army.
The training continued, Connor explaining the difference between fighting machines and fight humans, and little by little, the soldiers started to unlearn all the things they had been taught. The Last Army was slowly being remade in Connor's image.
Then, after a while, something unusual started happening.
People started coughing.
Z Plus One Year Two Hundred and Sixteen Days.
The next briefing had an underlying tension.
"We now have a total of fifteen infected." Kate said seriously. "The rumors are getting ugly though. Some people are saying it's the Black Death, some saying Ebola, a few people think that Skynet managed to weapon-ize AIDS..."
Connor looked around the room. His men were getting worried. Skynet's army was bad, but diseases could not be gunned down. Knowledge is a weapon against fear. his mother had told him. Knowledge gives you control over some part of the situation. "All right, this is rumor control. It is not Ebola, it is not a weapon-ized super-bug."
"Are we sure? If Skynet wanted to make something that could wipe us out, why not Ebola or Smallpox or something?" Oldham put in.
"If I had to guess," Bowman responded. "I'd say that maybe the labs that had stored samples of those kinds of diseases were wiped out in Judgment Day, or had fail-safes."
"Fail-safes?"
"Labs that store the Planet Killing kind of viruses have safeguards to insure they never get released. I know that if I were in one of those labs when Judgment Day hit, I'd use my last breath to make sure the Virus Cultures burned. Failing that, the samples could have perished when the power failed."
"Skynet has to work with what's left same as we do." Connor told Oldham. "Kate, is the virus from that missile three months ago?"
"Actually, Doctor Bowman has a theory on that." Kate said.
Connor smirked. Kate had learned how to handle people as well as he did. "Doctor?"
Bowman took up the narrative. "Yessir, we don't actually think that this is from Skynet yet. All early results were that this is acting like a flu virus. It's still early days, so we're still collating information, but for now, this looks like the flu. A disease that's inconvenient three years ago, dangerous enough now. But I must stress again, we don't know for sure what this is."
"How do we make sure?"
"We're currently testing the sick right now."
***
Carla brought in the new tray of sample slides, and put it on the workbench next to Kate. "The newest batch of samples and the early test results Ma'am."
"Thank you Carla." Kate didn't look up; her eye practically glued to the microscope. She slid one slide out, took a new slide from the latest batch, and slid it into position, all without raising her head from the eyepiece.
Carla hung back. "There's a rumor that one of the salvage teams found a petting zoo outside town. Most of the animals were dead but some got into the storage room with all the feed."
"The rumor is true." Kate said, still not looking up. "Dex's team brought back a pig, two sheep and some chickens."
"Chickens. My god Ma'am, I have not seen a fresh chicken egg in two years."
"And you won't see it for some time yet." Bowman reported, coming in early enough to pick up the thread of the conversation. "We're setting up a battery farm. Work the lights right and you'll get more than double usual egg production, and all those go into breeding new chickens for the future. Wait another year; you'll have your eggs freshly powdered."
"Freshly powdered?" Carla whined.
"We can't transport them over destroyed roads in eggshells Carla, we've got to feed everyone."
"There it is." Kate called suddenly. She rose and let Bowman look.
"Yep. I'd say that's it." Bowman agreed. "Carla, inform The Colonel that we've isolated the Virus, and can now begin testing suspected cases for confirmation."
"Then it's not something natural?" Carla asked fearfully. "Some disease that came back because we can't immunize people?"
"'Fraid not. I don't recognize it from anywhere else. Ma'am?"
"No, me neither." Kate agreed. "It's official. Skynet Virus Oh-One."
"Sounds like the sort of thing they'd name it." Carla muttered, and handed Bowman the folder. "The early test results Doctor."
Carla went to relay the information to The Colonel, as Bowman started flicking through the folder on the workbench. "Carla!" he shouted after her.
She quickly poked her head back in. "Sir?"
"Are these the early results from the confirmed cases?"
"Yessir."
"Tell The Colonel that SV-01 is airborne."
Z Plus One Year Two Hundred and Twenty Days.
The next Staff Briefing was quick and pointed.
Connor started the meeting. "All right, once again, this is rumor control. Our Medical Staff has confirmed that the virus is not natural. We have been attacked. Kate, you have the floor."
Kate cleared her throat. "We have isolated the virus. It's not anything we recognize. Ordinarily we would derive a name from Patient Zero, but given the incubation rate, we don't know who that is. We have therefore designated it Skynet Virus, Zero One." She cleared her throat. "It's not chemical. It's clearly active on its own, with no rate of molecular decay that we've seen. It is a biological attack."
Bowman picked up the briefing. "Yes, we think that Skynet did not create anything new, just distilled two or more cultures into one. The missile was three months ago, and the test results then said that it had a half-life of six days. We now know that timeline was false."
"Three months in the water." Walters moaned. "Three months before symptoms appear."
"No." Bowman interrupted. "If that were the case, there would be a 100% infection rate. The fact that it's starting slowly tells us that only a few people were actually exposed."
"It took us a few hours to cut the water feed three months ago." Connor pointed out. "Nobody got sick so we didn't bother with it."
Kate nodded. "It's called Latency. The virus was in these people, but it didn't show. If it was communicable then, everyone would have it now, and they don't. So if it mutated into something airborne, and I would bet a bar of soap that it did, that means it starts moving once symptoms appear, just like the flu virus."
"What symptoms are we watching for?"
"Early symptoms of SV-01 are coughing, sweating... So far the virus has properties of something called Hemorrhagic fever, and simple stomach flu." Bowman explained. "Stomach flu, everyone knows about. Sweating, vomiting, coughing, sneezing... dehydration is a serious concern. Hemorrhagic fever is more dangerous. The usual hemorrhagic fever; and I must stress that we don't know how this variant compares; attacks the kidneys, and shuts down the renal system. With the dehydration, the infected will be drinking more. Urinary output drops to a much lower level because of the renal failure, fluids and toxins back up in the body, and the patient could actually drown in their own tissues."
"With the heavy dehydration, we shouldn't restrict fluids. But with the kidney failure, we have to." Kate finished. "Stomach flu includes vomiting, with very quickly dehydrates, and given the circumstances, that could easily make the fever fatal."
Bowman nodded. "We've started isolating the current cases in one of the Barracks, but if it keeps going, we're gonna run out of room real fast."
"Anything we can do about that?"
"The waterborne variant got to people months ago, and we don't know who. We don't have a Patient Zero, so we can't identify who might have got it from whom. With three month latency, it's possible it spread to the rest of the base. If it is airborne, then it won't have been able to spread too far until the symptoms like coughing and sneezing appeared. Other transmission methods… we don't know."
Silence.
Connor spoke first. "Major Walters, I am hereby giving an executive order, placing the base under Quarantine. Set up isolation wards for the infected as required. Keep the foot traffic between the different areas on the base to a minimum. Inform your men what to look for. Majors Connor and Bowman have jurisdiction over all suspected cases. Doctor, needless to say this is your top priority."
The briefing ended and John and Kate left first. They made their way through the tunnels toward Med Bay.
"Kate, what's the easiest way to keep this thing from spreading?" John asked quietly.
"Fortunately, the Underground is already aware of how dangerous diseases can be now, so people showing symptoms are being avoided like the plague." She winced. "Sorry. Bad choice of words."
John sighed. "Kate, you're CMO... but given your circumstances..." He ran one hand over her stomach protectively. The pregnancy was starting to show, even in fatigues.
"I'll be careful." Kate promised him. "I'm not losing this fight John. Not again."
"I don't want you going into the isolation ward until you figure out how this thing is transmitted."
"I won't."
Z Plus One Year Two Hundred and Thirty Five Days.
Connor had come into The Mess Hall, and was immediately noticed by the serving staff, one of whom quickly left the room discreetly.
Connor saw it out of the corner of his eye but didn't react. The Officers Mess was one of the few areas where favoritism was expected. The Officers table had always been singled out for priority in every army. Privileges of Command. Most of those privileges had been destroyed with the rest of the world, but with scavengers bringing in all sorts of things from LA, plus whatever Lori's people brought with them when talking to their chief, some few luxuries were starting to trickle in.
John had been refusing such little luxuries. He had gone without them his entire adult life, and saw no reason to be singled out now; but with Kate's pregnancy, her dietary needs were changing, so John accepted the mild favoritism from the Kitchen staff and timed his meals to meet with Kate.
He sat down across the narrow table from his wife and she started speaking without even looking up from her medical textbooks. "We had to expand the Quarantine again."
"What is that, fourth time this month?" John verified.
"Yeah."
"So what's the count now?"
"Close to a full third of the population. People are starting to panic." Kate said, suddenly lowering her voice. "I told them that it's like a regular fever. Mortality rate is 20%"
"What's the real number?"
"Closer to 70% of the infected won't make it."
John shuddered. "How long do they have?"
"That's the only hopeful note. It kills by dehydration mainly, so it's a slow killer."
"Slow but reliable."
"Yeah." Kate lowered her voice further, so that only John could hear her. "Her name is Lisa."
"Who?"
"Colonel?"
Connor looked up and found a young woman with military fatigues and a kitchen apron. She was holding a tray. "With the compliments of the kitchen staff."
"Ah, thank you Lisa. Thank them for me."
Lisa smiled at the sound of her name, and turned to go back to the chow-line. "Sir."
John took a bite of his powdered eggs. His wife hadn't even looked up when the tray came over. "Kate, how'd you do that?"
Kate turned the page of her textbook. "I knew it would be Lisa. She always serves your tray. She has a crush on you."
John blinked. "Really? I hadn't noticed."
"Good answer."
John swiftly changed the subject. "How are you doing?"
Kate sighed, looking miserable. "Back pain faded. I think my spine's getting used to it, but I just keep expanding."
John chuckled. "Do you have any idea how beautiful you look?"
"Oh stop that." Kate told him, suddenly furious. "Two dozen soldiers and civilians have told me I'm glowing. Private Lutz is having sympathy cravings. Bowman won't let me pick up a damn file folder in Medbay because he's convinced I might jiggle the baby! The entire army has lost its mind around me!" Huge tears suddenly formed in her eyes. "I spent months trying so hard to be counted like an actual part of YOUR army here, and I was just starting to seem credible and suddenly I'm made of glass and everybody's being so OKAY with it, and I know I'm making too much of it because I'm pregnant and having stupid mood swings and I just can't help myself, and it's all YOUR fault because I used to think clearer before I was carrying around your child in me; but I can't take it out on you because I wanted this and I love you so much." She furiously wiped the tears away, angry again. "I HATE THAT!"
John didn't move, frozen still, halfway between wanting to help and wanting to keep his distance.
"And stop looking at me like that!" Kate snapped.
"Like what?"
Kate's nose suddenly twitched, and a dangerous glint came into her eyes. "Like Bambi stuck in my headlights! For crying out loud, Man Up Soldier! I'm your wife and oh my god Do I Smell Bacon?"
John slid a knife under his powdered eggs, and there were indeed a few strips of bacon there. "Oh, that poor pig. Survived Judgment Day only to meet its end after the resistance brought it in from the cold."
Kate hadn't taken her eyes off the bacon. "Too old to be good for breeding more piglets. Too thin to waste food fattening it up."
"You want it?"
Kate picked up her fork. "Oh I couldn't possibly." Kate said, absolutely delighted. "Gimmie!" John slid his tray over, and Kate picked it up, almost inhaling the bacon. "Mmm. Oh and you need to eat something too."
"I eat enough."
"To feed an eight year old maybe."
"That's the standard diet these days."
Z Plus One Year Two Hundred and Sixty Five Days.
Connor was one of the few people that came and went at will into the Quarantine bays. Gloves, hospital scrubs and surgical masks were required attire in Quarantine.
The Quarantine bay had started at the end of a barracks tunnel. As the virus had spread, the plastic wrap that isolated the rest of the tunnel moved further down the tunnel. It did this several more times until it filled tunnels from the end of the line to the wider cavern.
Guards in Bio-Hazard gear held vigil over the entrance to Quarantine. The one person who was refused entry was Kate. Connor had suddenly been making many more trips in to see the infected.
Nobody knew why. Not even Kate
"Evening Kyle."
Kyle Reese coughed weakly and looked up at Connor. "Sir."
"How you feeling?"
"My mom got sick after the bombs. Before she told me to leave her at the house, she told me that the sickest I've ever been was when I caught the measles. I don't really remember that, but I think this might be worse." Kyle croaked out.
"I know. I been sick lots of times. It always sucks."
Kyle looked around the room. "Little worse this time." he coughed again and looked up at Connor. "I'm going to die."
Connor sat down closer and looked intensely at the little boy. "No. You will not."
"S'Okay sir. I'm not scared."
"Kyle? Do you trust me?"
"Yessir."
"Then listen carefully. You're going to be okay."
"Yessir."
"In the meantime, I have a lot of people to talk to. I want you to look after some of the people around you. When I get sick I always feel lonely. Can you help with that?"
Kyle went paler still. "I don't think I can."
Connor leaned in. "When I was your age, my mom left me by the side of the road in Brazil. They didn't speak English there. She told me that I had to get home alone. Ask for help in Spanish, steal cab fare, stowaway in a bus, anything went. I told her I couldn't do it. You know what she said?"
"What?"
"She said: 'You will, because I said so, and I'm your mother'."
Kyle chuckled. "She sounds tough."
"She was."
"Wish I was that tough." Kyle murmured, falling asleep.
"You are Kyle." Connor promised, tucking him in. She told me so.
Connor left Kyle's bedside, and made his way down the tunnel. Row after row, after row. The people in the beds were motionless, some of them crying quietly, most of them just staring listlessly.
One after another, all slick with sweat, all pale, barely moving.
Connor wandered down the aisle between the rows of beds, offering a smile or a comment where he could, but it felt like a useless gesture. The lights were low. Everybody seemed desperate to shut their eyes against the grey numbing sickness that seemed to fill the tepid air.
Kate would tell me their names. He thought idly. No. Not this many.
Connor left the Quarantine Bay, and found Bowman waiting for him. "I have updated reports on infection rates."
"We're going to need a second Quarantine Bay." Connor said. "They've run out of room in there."
"No sir, we don't."
Connor felt sick. "People have started dying."
"Yessir." Bowman reported. "Quarantine protocols demand that we incinerate the bodies, and allow no contact with the rest of the population. I want your permission to set up a makeshift crematorium nearby. We can set up pipes that'll take the smoke out through the manhole covers, like we do with the antenna cabling."
"That close? Make it seem like an orderly assembly line?"
"Either that or we carry infected corpses through the base to the exit."
Connor growled under his breath. "Permission granted. Do we have enough beds for the new cases?"
"That's the updated report sir." Bowman grinned. "There are no new cases."
Beat.
"What?" Connor demanded. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, the rates of infection have plateau-d. There are no new reported cases. Sir, I think we managed to Quarantine all the infected Personnel."
"Are you sure?!"
"Five days since a new report came in. I haven't reported it because we just aren't that lucky."
Connor rubbed his eyes. "Well, that's goo news, but in the meantime, there are a lot of sick people on the other side of that plastic sheeting."
"Yessir. But in the meantime…"
"In the meantime?"
Bowman looked around and lowered his voice. "If we can't beat it, people are going to start getting terminal in there… at an accelerating rate. If enough of them panic and try to get out… They may not have the strength to get far, but they may break Quarantine and we do this all over again."
Connor took measure of the man in front of him. And finally lifted his radio slowly. "Walters."
"Here sir."
"Doctor Bowman informs me that we have finally managed to stop any further cases of SV-01. We can't let anyone break quarantine. Set up a second Decontamination Station. Anyone coming or going goes through double decontamination measures."
"Yessir."
"And I want more guards down near the Quarantine Bay." Connor reported. "Anyone attempting to break quarantine is to be stopped. The use of deadly force is authorized."
Beat.
"Yes sir." Walters responded.
Z Plus One Year Two Hundred and Sixty Eight Days.
Kate woke up coughing. Her mouth was dry and her throat painful.
She fought her way over to the washbasin, always kept with half a bowl of water. She felt hung-over. She washed her face again and again, trying to clear her head.
John came in a few minutes later. "Hey. We might have a chance to convince Halloway to sign on. He's not going back to his people until we've got a grip on the virus. He's keeping busy though, learning how we do things, hearing stories from the civilians, getting to know our guys, and now that we've been able to quarantine the infected, he's willing to come and go." he grinned and shrugged off his boots. "Personally, I think he wants to stick around so that he can spend more time closer to Lori."
"Lori still here?" Kate scrubbed her face with the washcloth and checked the mirror. There were dark circles under her eyes.
"Her own people don't want to take her back." John said. "The Orphanage is infected and doesn't have proper isolation wards like we do, they don't want her to get sick. Fine with me, the longer she's here the more her people get to know ours." He pulled his jacket off. "Even if she refused to join up, we're going to have to work with her one way or another."
Kate ran a hand over her forehead. Kind of clammy... "Why do they keep sending people if they don't want her to get sick?"
"She's in charge over there. She doesn't trust our radios for private conversations unless her own guy is running things while she talks, so they keep sending people to talk to her in person."
Kate held out a hand. It was trembling.
"In the meantime, she and Halloway are earning their keep while they're here. Halloway's spending most of his time with the surface teams. He's been underwater since J-Day so I think he likes being able to see the sky again. And Lori's guy Dyson is everywhere at once. He's a damn good techie. He was able to set up those diagnostics in Medbay for you and rework the kitchen roster almost on the same day."
Kate coughed again, fought to hide it. "Good. The new computers in Medbay are making the tests go a lot faster. We're studying fourteen serums a day instead of six."
Her nose was running and her sides ached, deep inside her ribs. Right where her kidneys were.
"Pass the basin? Is that water hot?" He reached over.
"Don't come near me." Kate said sharply. "I'm infected too."
To be continued. Read and review!