Epp 4.
John looked over at Max who was sitting and watching them. If he didn't know better, he swore the way Max was panting, that stupid mutt was laughing at him. It was tempting to shoot that damn dog, but it was obvious to John that Cameron was attached to Max. John could no longer sit down due to the stitches in his ass. It was lie down or stand up. Ignoring the dog who was laughing at him, he asked, "Ready Cam?"
Cameron had rigged up two bars with the ends sharpened to points. The bars faced each other with their their sharp tips two inches apart. The battery cables were wired onto the other ends of the bars, except for the final wire John was holding. "Yes, make the connection," Cameron said.
John connected the wire. Using a wooden lever, Cameron slowly brought the tips together. As they touched, the tips flared into a bright ball of light. Bits of metal spewed out from the arc flash. Cameron pushed the rods apart. The end of both tips were melted and orange from the heat.
"There is sufficient current to disable a terminator," Cameron said, looking at the cooling and now rounded tips. "This device has a 97 percent chance of success."
John grinned and said, "Well, lets go find a terminator."
"You are still injured. I will ask Kyle for volunteers," Cameron replied.
John glowered at Max, who was still eyeing him with a dogie smile.
"John," Cameron said firmly, "Max was reacting to an unknown situation. He does not hate you. He thought you were trying to hurt me."
"How's it coming?" Derek asked as he came in. He rubbed Max on the head. Max wagged his tail.
"We're ready," John told him. "All we need is a terminator to try it out on."
"I will help with the test, John needs to recover," Cameron told him.
Trying to hide his smirk as he looked at John, Derek looked away for a moment, then said, "Kyle wants John there when we test this thing." Casting an even gaze at Cameron, Derek added, "We have visitors. Your kids are here. Kyle wants to see you, right now." Derek then turned and left.
"Kids?" John asked as he stared at Cameron in disbelief. "You have KIDS?"
.
Limping his way to Kyle's office, John listened to Cameron explain how her and John Henry made 'children' after they completed her new body. Once she explained how they had programmed their children with knowledge from both her and John Henry, Cameron added, "We made them to come back with us and help stop Sky Net."
"I still can't believe you had children with John Henry," John said blankly.
Cameron clasped John's hand. "I would prefer to have children with you, but that is not possible," she said.
John nodded. He knew there was no sex involved, but still, he felt weird that Cameron had children with someone else. Their hands were still clasped as they went into Kyle's office.
With Kyle was Derek and another man standing by an old map hanging on the wall. Two more men and women who looked to be in their late teens who were there, turned to John and Cameron and smiled brightly.
"Hello, Mother," the four chorused at the same time.
"Hello, Jake, Gregory, Mary, Elanore," Cameron replied, and motioned to John. "This is John Connor."
"Hello, John," they chorused again.
"Ahh, hi," John said weakly. When he thought of children, he had been thinking of small children. Then again, being built, they would not need to grow up. "Where's John Henry?"
"Father is constructing the last pieces to reconstruct the TDE device so all of us may return to the past," Jake explained.
"Catherine Weaver told us you have come, seeking Mother. We are happy you are healthy," Elanore said to John as she wore a big smile.
"This TDE, it can take you to the past?" Kyle asked.
"Yes," Elanore said. "Once we go back, our mission will be to stop Sky Net and make it so the devastation never happens."
"You can do that?" Paul asked.
"We were trying and making progress before we jumped into the future," John stated. John and Cameron exchanged unhappy looks.
"You weren't suppose to follow me, John," Cameron stated heavily.
"I know, bad John Connor," John retorted. "John Henry stole your chip and ran away to the future. What did you think I was going to do?"
Mary pipped up with, "You came after mother. I believe that is what is referred to as a very romantic action," she said happily.
"Yes, that is correct," Elanore said, beaming her smile at the frowning pair.
"I have a question," Jake asked. "Since Mother is with John Connor now, does that make this John our step-father?"
"I believe it does," Gregory agreed.
"What?" John asked weakly.
"Excuse me," Kyle said loudly. "It's nice to see you all getting along, but we have a chance here to do some serious damage to Sky Net in the area. With the locations of these towers, we can blind Sky Net. That will buy us time to dig better shelters and disable a few terminators to turn onto our side."
Jake nodded. "That is a solid plan," he said.
"There are some problems with that," John said and approached the map. "We do want to keep Sky Net in the dark about what we're doing. If we take down a terminator and I manage to find a suitable computer to reprogram it so we can take a tower down, Sky net may find out about it. If we don't, then it is going to cost lives to take that tower down depending upon how well these towers are defended."
"You have a solution?" Kyle asked, eyeing him.
John turned to Cameron. "Cam, you said you and John Henry got into a factory and isolated a section off and Sky Net never reacted, correct?"
"Yes. Sky Net was not expecting a machine to do damage to it."
"Think you can do that with these towers?"
"Yes, but it is probable Sky Net will not want both going off line at the same time," she told him.
"Sky Net would react," Jake agreed.
Looking at the map, John pointed at the closest tower to them. "Then, we take this one down for maintenance and see if we can get a terminator from there. Once we got what we want, attack the other tower. Then we bring the first tower back on line."
"Why bring it back?" Kyle asked.
"Because you're not ready to fight Sky Net," John told him. "This way, Sky Net will not be suspicious of the first tower going down. It will look north near this other tower for the culprits of the attack. Doing this will help hide your position as long as the attackers can get away before Sky Net sends H/K's and terminators to the location."
Kyle nodded slowly. "I like it. So how do we determine how well these towers are defended?"
"They should be defended equally. We will know from the first tower, what it will take to attack the other tower," John explained.
"There is still the fact that we don't have any effective weapons to fight terminators," Kyle countered.
"Incorrect," Jake stated. "You have us. I have a plasma rifle, and the probability is high that any guards at the first tower will also have them. We can use the weapons at the first tower to destroy the second tower."
"And once the second tower is destroyed, we will have more weapons," Gregory agreed.
"You will fight for us?" Kyle asked Jake.
"Yes. We support our family." Mary said.
"Don't bring the first tower back on line," Cameron said. "Leave it off and plant explosives timed to go off after we vacate the area."
John looked at Cameron and asked, "Why?"
"John Henry will need to move the TDE parts quickly. If Sky Net looses control of the area, he will be able to move faster above ground," Cameron explained. "Our children coming here means he is almost ready. Rebuilding the TDE is our highest priority."
"Sky Net will send forces here too if we do that," John told her.
"It will have to rebuild a communications station first," Cameron explained. " That will give us time to repair the TDE and return to our own time. Once that happens, we can change this future, and none of this will ever happen."
"So what's that mean?" Kyle asked. "The sky will suddenly turn blue and instantly everything will go back to normal?"
"I don't know," Cameron told him.
"If we stop Sky Net, then none of this will happen, so you will live a normal life, never knowing anything about Sky Net or us," Mary explained.
Kyle's gaze went blank for a few seconds, then he looked at each person, his eyes settling on John. "All right," he said slowly, "The priority is getting this TDE thing running. We attack those towers and get you back home. One question though, John. You said nothing non-organic can go through. How are you going to take weapons back with you?"
"We can carry them inside our bodies," Elanore said suddenly. Patting her belly, she looked at Cameron and Mary and explained, "We have soft voids in our lower abdomens. Disassemble some plasma rifles and we can put the parts inside us. That way they will be covered in flesh and go through with us. We remove and reassemble them when we arrive."
"That will work," Cameron agreed. "We will need to expand our lower abdomens first into chambers large enough to store the parts."
John eyed Cameron's flat belly. He winced at the though of what she was saying. It sounded gross, but it was workable. "We will need to coordinate our actions. When will John Henry be ready?" he asked.
"Father's best estimate is four days," Gregory said.
"How long will it take to expand your abdomens?" John asked Elanore.
"Taking into account the elasticity of our skin and the rate at which we are able to intake nutrients to make new skin, I calculate we will have the volume necessary fifty hours from the time we begin," she stated.
"Then we attack the towers just before John Henry moves," John concluded. He clapped Gregory on the shoulder. "Would you go back to John Henry and tell him our plans? See if you can get an exact time from John Henry when he will be ready to move."
"Yes, step-Father, I will leave now," Gregory said, turned and walked out.
"John, we will need to make our disabling device smaller so it can be carried," Cameron told John.
John nodded. A firefight would destroy terminators. He wanted them whole. To Kyle, he said, "I hope you don't mind us taking the lead in this plan."
"You seem to know what you're doing," Kyle said with a wave of his arm. "Just let me know what you need from us."
.
Savannah checked on the progress of sealing up the stairs down to the station platform. The ceilings had been tall at one time. Now at the top of the stairs, there were openings to the sky from that ceiling collapsing. Using the debris from the fallen ceiling, and wreckage from just outside the station, her people had build a mound of rubble, closing off the outside world.
"Savannah, one of the Tok's is coming," a young woman called to her.
Savannah went back to the tracks in time to see the freckled-red head Gregory jogging past on the tracks. "Gregory, where are you going?" she called.
Not breaking stride, Gregory called back, "To see Father and give him step-Father's plans."
"You have a step-father too?" Savannah asked.
"Savannah!" a young man hissed as he ran up to her. Pointing at the block, he spoke wide-eyed. "Someone's trying to get in! We heard noises from the other side."
The terminators had found them already? "Collect everyone, get them down the tunnel going west. No one stops, keep moving towards Kyle's group!"
As quickly as she could, Savannah got people moving down the tunnel. Allison was now well enough to walk on her own. She grabbed a pack and scooped up a toddler on her way out. They had all learned long ago not to scream or cry out in their fear. The people move quickly and quietly in their escape.
Savannah could now hear crashing on the other side of the block. The top collapsed. Two men with guns pointed their guns at the breach. Savannah grabbed each by his shoulder. Whispering, she said, "No, don't try to fight, get out of here."
"Maybe we can hold them back, get a lucky shot in," Simon said, wide eyed in his fear.
A cylindrical silver object came flying through the gap at the top. Bouncing down the pile of debris, it landed and rolled to a stop in front of Savannah's feet. Simon grabbed it and threw back at the gap. It exploded in mid air.
.
Gregory heard the explosion behind him. He stopped and ran back. People were in danger. Running back to the platform, Gregory noted the smoke in the air, and the heat signatures of people fleeing down the tunnel. He then heard weapons fire. Savannah appeared at the edge of the platform, bloodied and dragging herself on her belly. A terminator walked up behind her and shot her in the back of the head with a sub machine gun, spraying her brains out onto the tracks below.
In a leap, Gregory jumped up onto the platform and grabbed the terminator by it's gun arm. Noting the position of the other one, he spun and flung the terminator at the other one. The other shot at him, then the two terminators crashed together.
Their guns were projectile weapons suitable for killing humans, and by the bodies lying around, they had been doing so. Gregory grabbed the terminator closest to regaining it's feet and threw it into the pile of debris that clogged the stairway. Grabbing the other one by the head, he slammed it's head into the floor, twisted it's neck, and slammed it into the floor again. Never having fought anything besides humans, the triple eights were taken by surprise.
Automatic weapons fire sounded and Gregory was hit from behind by the terminator he'd thrown into the debris. The shots bounced off his armored endoskeleton, but did tear up his skin.
Gregory stumbled from the impacts, but kept smashing and twisting until the terminator's head came off. Still being beaten from behind by the hail of bullets, Gregory pulled the CPU cover off the head and pulled the chip out to crush it in his hand.
Turning, Gregory threw the head at the other terminator, who'd ran out of ammunition. The two heads impacted, knocking the remaining terminator back to stumble and fall back into the rubble.
Gregory grabbed the terminators' feet and hauled it out onto the blood soaked floor. Pulling hard, he lifted the terminator up as he spun it around in circles. The terminator reached up to grab Gregory's hands. Gregory let it go to fly into a support post. The concrete and steel post exploded bits of concrete and bent from the impact. The terminator dropped to the floor and got up to meet Gregory's charge.
The terminator grabbed Gregory by the face. Gregory grabbed it's arm and pushed up, knock it's hand away which ripped most of his face off. The terminator punched him, he punched back and kicked it's legs out from under it. Again, Gregory grabbed it's ankles and flung it around to smash head first into the abused post. Gregory then pulled the terminator back to throw it into another post. After three more times, and breaking a post loose from the floor, Gregory determined the machines sensors were damaged enough to remove it's chip.
Slamming the terminator face down on the floor, Gregory pinned it's arms behind it's back and ripped the chip cover off. The terminator's servos whined in protest as it tried to move. It stopped when Gregory pulled the chip out. Gregory crushed the chip in his hand.
Getting up, Gregory went over to Savannah's body. There was no doubt she was dead, most of her skull, brain matter and hair was spread out in a fan on the tracks below. Squatting down beside the body, Gregory patted her back and said, "I am so sorry, Savannah. I know Father would have liked to see you again." He then jumped down onto the tracks and continued his jog to John Henry.
.
This time, Cameron was prepared. Before she started expanding her belly, she wanted one uninterrupted sex session with John.
Mary and Jake were working on shrinking the terminator electrocution device with Derek watching them. Check.
Elanore was working on the most efficient way to expand their bellies and getting the necessary nutrients to do so. Check.
John was ready. Check.
Max was outside the room and ordered to stay. Check!
Sitting on the bed, John and Cameron started in kissing and petting. They lowered down to a horizontal position, John kissed his way over her cheek, slowly down her neck and onto the top of her chest as he opened her shirt. Reveling in the sensations, Cameron was in bliss. Her HUD was flashing messages, not that she was paying attention to them. She was focused on her John, and the delightful tingling of her sensors that he was supplying.
The loud banging on the door made those sensations stop.
"Hey! Get out here, we got people coming in and they say metal is right behind them!"
They shot up and got themselves together. Cameron re-buttoned her shirt, her eyes giving off red flashes.
The hallway was packed with ragged people coming in and soldiers going the other way. Cameron put a leash on Max and handed the other end to John. "Don't let him follow. You either," she said in a snap, and strode out to meet the threat.
Near the entry to the train tunnel, Cameron found Jake guarding the entrance with his plasma rifle, along with six other men. Cameron held her hand out to Jake and said, "Give me your gun."
Jake handed it over and asked, "Why Mother? I am capable of defending these people."
Cameron made sure the gun was ready to fire, then cast Jake a red-eyed glare. "Because I really want to kill something right now." she stated, then strode off down the tunnel.
"Should we follow?" one man asked.
Sargent Paul eyed Cameron's fast walk and said, "At a distance, and stay close to cover. We don't want to get in her way."
.
Allison could not move as fast as the other people. She had been keeping up, but her legs were burning and her back was threatening to give out. No one waited for her, it was an everyone for themselves flight. The toddler she was carrying was too much for her. Stopping to rest, she put the little boy down. Pointing to the fleeing people she said, "Run." the boy did.
In no time, Allison was alone in the tunnel. She got up and limped a short way before she dropped to the ground again. Letting our a sob, she resigned herself to the fact no help was coming this time. She'd rest until she heard the terminators coming, then do her best to hide.
After a while, she did hear footsteps coming from the way everyone had fled. Someone was coming back for her! Still sore, she struggled to her feet. Her hope vanished as she saw a pair of red eyes in the darkness. The footfalls were steady and determined, those terrifying eyes bouncing slightly in rhythm.
"No," Allison whispered. She backed up and tripped. Heart in her throat, she scrambled up and fled back the way she came. Her pains forgotten, she ran a short distance and tripped again. She heard more footfalls. These sounded like metal feet coming from ahead of her. She looked up to see four pairs of red eyes striding towards her.
This was it, she was going to die in this hole in the ground. Her only chance was to play dead and pray the terminators didn't shoot her to make sure. She closed her eyes and went limp.
The footsteps kept getting closer. Suddenly rapid shots sounded that had a whine to them. A short burst of gunfire replied. Light lit her closed eyes as more of the whining shots sounded out. Then things got quiet. She was poked in the shoulder.
"Wake up!" came a harsh command.
Allison didn't want to move, but the voice sounding like hers made her snap her eyes open. By the small fires from the destroyed machines, she looked into her own face. The one above tipped her head slightly to the side.
"Your name is Allison," the woman said.
"Yes, please don't kill me," Allison begged.
"Can you walk?"
"I'm not sure," Allison replied meekly.
Her look alike glanced back down the tunnel, then said, "Men are coming. They will help you." The woman stood up and continued to stride back to the platform, walking past the four destroyed terminators.
Allison was still in shock from the experience as the squad of men came up to her. The man who'd found her before, Jake Tok, scooped her up into his arms and carried her. Allison hugged him, whispering a heart felt, "Thank you for saving me."
"You're welcome, Allison. I see you met mother."
"That woman who looks like me?" Allison asked. "How did she kill four terminators by herself?"
"Mother is a better terminator, and I think she was upset she was interrupted from what she was doing by the attack," Jake explained.
"You ...you're one too?" Allison asked fearfully. "You're a Sky Net machine?"
"Negative, Allison. Mother and father made me to help them fight Sky Net and save people. We protect our family and the innocent."
"So, you and you mother are good machines?"
Jake nodded with a crooked smile. "Yes, we are the good ones. I will take you to the medical station. Then I must go assist mother."
.
"We need to be more aggressive," Cameron stated to Kyle as they gathered near the entrance to the train tunnel. "I destroyed four terminators, and found two more at the platform where they had gotten in. Sky Net knows we're here."
Paul itched his ear and said, "At least for once, more machines died that we did. We only found four human bodies at the platform."
Kyle looked at John and said, "We can't afford to wait any longer. I'm going to get our people on the move before Sky Net comes back in greater numbers. We found another tunnel system, we're leaving today."
"Can't blame you," John said with a sigh. "We'll cover your backs as long as we can. Cam, we'll set the traps at the station entrance, that's the most likely place terminators will be coming from."
Cameron shifted her gaze from John, to Kyle, and back to John. "Yes, I'll have Jake work on that. Once we trap that entrance, we will need to move on those towers. Kyle is right, we can't wait."
John handed Max's leash to Cameron. "Go up to that entrance and make sure nothing else comes down it. I'll go see how Elanore is coming. What weapons did those terminators have?"
"Thirty caliber sub machine guns. Nothing we can use."
"Too bad," John said with a huff. "I'll join you as soon as possible." he walked away to find Elanore.
Feeling a bit guilty about leaving them, Kyle told Cameron, " Look, I have to keep my people safe, you know that, right?"
Looking at Kyle blank faced, Cameron replied, "Yes, I know that. I also know your son will not fail."
She stepped out into the tunnel and strode away, Max trotting beside her.
Kyle gaped at Cameron as she left. "My son?" he asked weakly. He looked at Derek. The odd looks John had given them when he first arrived. John knew Derek, he'd looked a Kyle himself as if glad to see him. With all this crazy time-traveling it was possible. "John's ... my son?" he whispered.
Derek shook his head and said, "I'm not even going to guess. I'll pass the word to pack up."
.
John found Elanore squatting down in an alcove holding a sharpened metal rod as she watched a pile of dead and gutted rats. "What are you doing?" he asked as he came up to her.
Elanore smiled at him. "Hello step-Father. I am hunting rats. I found if I leave the carcasses on the floor and hide nearby, more rats come to feed on them, and I can spear them. It makes hunting them much easier. While I wait, I ingested their internals so I won't need as many of the carcasses."
"I see," John said slowly. "That's ... very inventive. Good job. How many do you think you'll need?"
Smiling proudly at his compliment, Elanore said, "Two more should be enough. Then I will distribute my catch to Mary and Mother, so we can build up the nutrients we need."
"Let me know where you're done." John waved to her and added, "Happy hunting."
Elanore waved back, happy her step Father had given her a compliment.
.
Cameron didn't have to wait long once she got through the debris of the stairs. In the old lobby, she met six more terminators trooping towards her. In a short fight, they discovered neither their projectile weapons, nor themselves, were a match for Cameron and her plasma gun. She gathered the weapons that were whole, then dragged the triple eights into a corner and piled them up. Much of the inside structure was wood. Cameron fired into the terminator bodies until she set the wall behind them on fire. She then returned to Max.
By the time John and Jake arrived with Jake wearing what looked like bracer-type metal armor on his forearms, The building above was engulfed in flame, causing a breeze to rush up the stairs to feed the inferno.
Jake showed Cameron his forearms and proudly said, "Look what step Father and I made." He opened his hands wide and up. A pair of rods shot out about a foot long from the bracer like additions to his arms. "These conductors are linked to a capacitive energy storage unit and fed directly from my power source. I am insulated from the charge. With our electrical shields that Father gave us, My own systems are impervious to any feedback if the device malfunctions."
"Jake and Mary did most of the work, I just figured out how to get around carrying a bunch of batteries," John said. Looking up the stairs at the orange glow from above, he asked, "What happened up there?"
"I set fire to the building. More triple eights came, so I destroyed them. The building should collapse and seal this entrance shut," Cameron explained.
"Good thinking," John told her. What John tried not to see was the human bodies piled in the corner. Jake did see them.
Studying the bodies, Jake's face melted into sadness. "This is sad, Savannah Weaver died," he said mournfully.
That got John's attention. "Savannah Weaver?" he asked. Looking at the pile, he saw a red mop of hair that wasn't covered in blood. "NO, not little Savannah!" he moaned. Damn, was EVERYONE going to die in this world?
Cameron gave John a hug and said, "As long as we return, this future will not happen."
"Yeah," John said heavily. "So let's make sure we get back."