John was fairly bruised and bleeding from the Kaliba soldier's beating. He had was breathing heavy as the soldier wiped the blood from his knuckles before reaching for a knife. The man sitting on the desk sighed.
"Come on, man." He said. "Just give us the answers that we want. All the boss wants to know is where can we find the AI that is attacking him. We need a physical location so we can shut it down. Just give us the location and all this can stop."
"Go…to…hell." John spat.
"Fine." The soldier stood up and walked away. "Have it your way. Let me know when you are ready to talk."
The soldier with the knife advanced and placed the blade against John's face. That was when the first shot rang out. Everything seemed to slow down as the soldier coughed and blood sprayed John's face. As the soldier slumped forward, he dragged the knife down John's left cheek, cutting it open. More shots rang out and, before John knew it, a battle was raging around him.
John dropped to the ground and used the desk as cover. Bullets where thumping into the walls around John and he could see several of the Grays falling to the ground, dead. John could also see where Danny was crouching behind his own desk, trying to avoid the bullets that was carving up the other civilians around him.
Despite the pain, John began crawling across the ground. He had to get Danny out of there. If Danny built Skynet, Danny could kill it. At least that was what John was hoping. John moved very slowly due to his leg but he had managed to cross the whole room without being shot.
"Danny." John hissed. "Come with me."
The boy looked at John for a moment before nodding. The two of them moved back across the room and hid again behind the desk. It was providing excellent cover from the hailstorm of lead flying all around the room.
"John." Danny said over the gunfire. "I think I have a way to stop Skynet. To stop all of this."
"How?"
"Skynet is a computer program. If we can contain it, we can upload a virus that will destroy it."
"Is there a secure way to contact the outside world?" John asked as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the single bullet.
"Yes." Danny pointed to a back room. "There is a radio in that room. If we can get to that room, we could use it."
John nodded his head and moved towards one of the fallen bodies. Picking through the body, John found a pistol and two clips.
"When I say, run towards the room." John turned the safety off the sidearm and took a breath. "Now!"
John stood up as best he could and took aim at the last Gray that was hiding behind a stone pillar. John took a breath and then squeezed the trigger. The man dropped with a cry. John then turned his weapon towards one of the T-888. John was pleasantly surprised to find Cameron smashing into the thick body of the terminator. Derek and Alison had engaged a second one. There was one left that was being ignored. It was moving up behind Cameron. John took aim and fired. The first bullet grazed off the skull but tore a massive chunk of flesh off. It turned and looked at John.
"Shit." John muttered.
Moving as quickly as his leg would let him, John moved towards the backroom. Danny was sitting behind a desk and was warming up the radio. Without a word, John leaned in and changed the channel so that it would connect with Lauren's radio.
"You will be talking with a woman named Lauren. Tell to that John Henry must find a way to contain Skynet. Hell, just tell her what you have told me." John said as he dropped the empty clip and loaded his last one in.
"Wait. What are you going to do?"
John looked at the terminator that was moving his way. "I'm go to meet my destiny."
Moving out of the room, John raised his weapon and squeezed the trigger. One bullet smashed into the kneecap of the terminator. It had the desired effect as the triple-eight's right leg gave way. It tried to stand up but John's aim was true. The knee was destroyed and wouldn't hold the weight.
John sent two more slugs at the terminator but these didn't have any noticeable affect. They just bounced off the metal chest plate and skull. Giving up on its knee, the terminator being dragging itself towards John. Normally John would have easily moved faster then this thing. Today, however, John couldn't. His own leg was threatening to give out on him again and the pain was becoming unbearable. He emptied his whole clip on the Machine before he dropped to the floor.
The Machine came up to John and seized him by the throat. It slowly dragged John's body closer to its own. Once John was face to face with it, the terminator began squeezing. John moved fast. His attacker had failed to notice the last bullet in John's hand. It failed to notice when John dropped the bullet into the chamber of his sidearm. It failed to notice when John lifted the weapon and held it inches from where the port on its skull was located. John pulled the trigger. The Machine's head snapped at the impact of the bullet. It's eyes flickered and then when out. The hand relaxed and John was able to pull himself free. He gasped for breath.
The sounds of battle had began to die down. There was still the sound of someone being thrown around but the gunfire had ended.
"John!" Derek was kneeling in front of John. "Are you alright?"
It took a second for John to process what his uncle was saying. As he finally was able to make sense of what was going on, John said, "Yes."
Looking around, John could see the bodies of the Grays laying around the room. The glass had been smashed and the body of one of the T-888 was sprawled across the now broken shards of glass. Near one of the farthest pillars, Cameron was on the ground. Next to her was the broken body of the last triple-eight.
"Help me to my feet." John said as he looked to his uncle.
"John, you need to rest. Just stay put." Derek said.
"Ellison." John said as the ex-FBI agent walked up towards him. "In the room over there, Danny Dyson is attempting to make contact with Lauren. Make sure that Lauren listens to him." Ellison nodded and moved towards the room. "Alison, Derek, help me up. Derek, take a look at that door and see if you can get us in. Alison, take me over to Cameron."
Derek gave a frustrated grunt and helped pick his nephew up off the ground. Alison positioned herself under John's shoulder and excepted most of his weight onto her body. She groaned slightly under the weight and then moved towards where Cameron was laying.
The little cyborg's left hand was twitching more than it had ever done in the past. Parts of her flesh were torn away from her cheeks and arms. There was a mechanical grinding sound coming from her left leg. John could immediately see that the leg and been crushed and pulled out of its socket.
"Are you alright?" John asked as he knelt down besides her.
"I'm broken." She said. "I won't be walking out of here."
"Don't say that." John looked up to see Catherine Weever and his mother running into the room. "We're all getting out of here. Mrs. Weever, would you please help Cameron over to the desk?"
Catherine nodded her head and picked up the little cyborg. John, with the aid of Alison, stood up and hugged his mother.
"Mom, where is Martin?" John asked after he left her embrace.
"Hurt. We were not sure what was going on, so he stayed behind. We'll get him and bring him here as soon as we know what is going on." She looked at her son. "Oh, John. You look like you've been through hell."
"I'm alright."
"No," Alison said. "You are not. I should know, I'm the one who is holding you up! Your leg is useless to you."
John opened his mouth but stopped himself from saying anything. She was right. He was in pain, he had been beaten. His leg was no longer willing to support his weight or allow him to move independently of Alison. To top it off, his throat was sore. It felt bruised from the terminator's attempts to cut off his oxygen.
"Let's get him over to the rest of the group." Sarah said as she took half of John's weight upon herself. "What is going on here?"
"We found Dyson." John said. "He might have a way to kill Skynet. We just need to contain the program."
"Excellent." Sarah said.
"Derek is attempting to get us into the next room." Alison said. "John ordered Ellison to help Dyson get ahold of Lauren."
"What do we know about the rest of the Grays in the facility?" John asked.
By this time they had returned to the desk were Cameron was laying and Catherine was examine her. Catherine looked up and said, "Most are dead. Some have run. I was able to terminate most of the humans in this place. I haven't found many terminators. They maybe deeper in the facility. Wherever they are, I would guess that we will see the rest of the Grays and the terminators before we leave this place."
John nodded and looked towards Derek. "Where are we at with the door?"
Derek kicked the door in frustration. "Stuck. My guess is that there is a magnetic seal. We are going to need a helluva hacker or the code to get in."
"John!"
John turned to see Ellison's head poking out of the radio room.
"We got ahold of Ms. Fields. She says that when John Henry has isolated Skynet, they will let us know."
"Good!" John smiled. "Ellison, bring Dyson out here. We need him. Alison, please watch the radio."
John and Catherine had both examined Cameron's leg. After some trial and error, they had been able to pop the leg back into the socket. Cameron tried to move the leg only to find that it was damaged beyond what repairs could be made without major surgery and replacement parts.
Finally, Cameron had told them that it was pointless to attempt to fix her. Faced with the importance of the moment, John hadn't argued it further. Instead, they had placed her on an office chair with wheels. While she still struggled to move about, it at least allowed Cameron to be able to get around. For now, it was better than nothing.
John had taken Cameron's place on the desk and it was his turn to be examined. Catherine had examined his leg for a few minutes before declaring that the bones were not broken but the muscles and ligaments were either torn or weak from the weeks of lack of use. She assured John and Sarah that if John were to rest and keep his weight off the leg, it would heal.
Danny Dyson had been able to get the doors open and the team was introduced to the Skynet servers. Derek had simply wanted to smash everything and blow it all to hell. Dyson was quick to point out that Skynet had backdoors. It had ways that it could copy itself and hide away should the servers be destroyed. It had to be isolated an killed first. Dyson had left Derek and Ellison to load the place with C4 while he went to one of his computers and began work on a virus. Danny told everyone that it was something he had been working on during his spare time. It was meant to destroy John Henry, but it would work on Skynet as well.
As everyone moved to accomplish something, John felt useless as he sat on the table. He wanted to help but knew that he would only cause more problems. Catherine had left the room and returned no long after carrying Martin. The soldier looked like he was in bad shape. Catherine patched him up as best as she could before returning to John's side.
"How is he?" John asked.
"He is no' in great shape." Catherine responded. "He has lost a lot of blood and still has a bullet in his gut. He is strong, however. No' many people would have survived this long. If we can get him out of here and to the proper medical personal, he will be fine."
John nodded his head and then looked to Cameron who was still moving around with the aid of an office chair. "What about her?"
"We are programed to repair ourselves. She is a resilient cyborg but I don't know what we will be able to do for. She has the knowledge to fix the leg but lacks the parts and the tools to do so. We might be able to pull a leg off of one of these terminators but without the proper tools, it would be for nothing. She is a different model then these cyborgs as well. Her body may no' function with the common parts of the T-800s series."
"So there is little we can do until Skynet's factories come online?" John said looking back at Catherine.
The T-1001 nodded her head.
"I can't leave her behind." John muttered.
"And what would you have her do if she does make it out of here?" Catherine asked. "If she survives, her purpose will still be to protect you. She is crippled beyond repair. I don't think she will be able to fulfill her purpose if she loses her leg."
"We will think of something."
