Chapter 13
Scavengers
Cameron sent for Sarah. She wanted to formulate a plan to go back to the future. She only thought she could trust Sarah, Vanna and Allison to back her play unconditionally. She planned to do whatever was necessary to get John back. She wasn't going to let anyone stop her, no matter who they were. It included Mrs. Weaver. She decided to keep the last part of it to herself. There was no need to create any unnecessary friction in the present. What happened in the future might be a different story.
Sarah received the call to return to the lab. She'd just been there a short time ago. Something must have happened. She hurried back and walked into the lab. It made her smile to see Allison and Cameron standing next to each other.
"I didn't know the 'Olsen Twins' would be here." Sarah said.
Allison and Cameron looked at each other and then at Vanna, all four of them laughed.
Cameron turned her back to Sarah to show her she was no longer tethered.
Sarah sucked in her breath slightly. She felt something inside of her change. Cameron was mobile again! A new sense of hope shot through her. She wasn't sure how, but Allison must have been involved. It meant Cameron was going to go after John now. Nobody said anything about it yet, but she knew it was about to happen. Cameron quickly went over what occurred in her absence.
Cameron told the three females what she wanted to do and where she was going to go. She needed some more information from Allison and John Henry first. The more information she obtained, the better her chances were to bring John home. There was a lot of information on her chip. She needed more current information and where everything was at specifically. She didn't know what Mrs. Weaver's endgame was. She would need to tread lightly around the issue until she could find out. She hoped John Henry would be more forthcoming.
Allison thought she could help Cameron. She'd just left the future less than an hour ago. She knew all the 'ins and outs' of everything. She believed she could offer crucial assistance.
"I'm going back with you." Allison said. "I know the details of everything. I can help you with many things."
Vanna was a little shocked to hear Allison say it. If she went into the future, she might not come back again. The prospect of Allison returning and leaving again in such a relatively short time, was hard for her to process. She didn't want to lose Allison again. She decided if Allison went back to the future, she was going to go with her. She didn't want to lose her beloved. She didn't want her to be killed either.
Sarah wanted to go too. She knew Cameron would find John. She wanted to make sure they all returned. She could help them. This was about getting John back. It was about bringing John home. She realized it could cost her life. To return John to the past, the present, was worth it. He didn't belong in a Skynet future. Not yet anyway.
"I'm going too." Sarah said. "He's my son."
Cameron knew the extreme risk the future presented. There was a chance, and it was a good one too, she may be terminated in the future. She would do whatever she needed to do, to get John and bring him home. She didn't want to risk anyone else.
"NO, Sarah." Cameron said. "Allison, I can't ask you either. Your future is here with Vanna."
Allison looked upset. She wanted to help.
Cameron could see the way Vanna looked at Allison. She understood what would happen if Allison went back to the future. She didn't want to bring it up. She didn't want Vanna endangered either. She wanted to point out the obvious.
"Besides, you've only been here less than an hour." Cameron added.
Sarah wasn't going to give up easily. She noticed the sores and cuts on Allison. She wanted John out of the future.
"I want my son." Sarah said. "I want John back."
Cameron would do it. She would do everything to bring John home until her power cell ran out, or she was terminated. She was going after him and there was nothing which would stop her.
"I'm going to get him. I promise, Sarah." Cameron said. "No power in the Verse can stop me."
Allison still wanted to go. She was aware of everything in the future. There were many dangers. Cameron needed someone to watch her back. The future was a dangerous place.
"It's too unsafe to go alone. There are Terminators everywhere. If the 'Liquid Metal Terminator' hadn't been there, we would all have been dead ten times over." Allison said. "It always watched over John and me. It was unstoppable in combat."
Sarah was a little surprised at the news. Her initial meeting with Mrs. Weaver hadn't gone very well. She thought Mrs. Weaver was building Skynet. She may be on their side, or she may have her 'own side'. Her end game could be something different. She wanted to verify the extent of assistance Mrs. Weaver rendered.
"Mrs. Weaver helped you?" Sarah asked. "She protected John and you?"
Sarah hadn't expected it. Actually she didn't know what to expect. Maybe she wouldn't need to terminate Mrs. Weaver the next time they met. She still wanted to do so after their first encounter. It left an unpleasant taste in her mouth. Mrs. Weaver was a Bitch, a 'Metal Bitch'. She was a threat. Everything about her was unknown.
Allison glanced at Vanna and took her hand.
"Yes, the Liquid Metal Terminator helped many times. She even prevented me from being abused by a group of Scavengers." Allison said. "The Scavengers captured me. There was no stopping what they were about to do to me. I knew what was going to happen. My body would be forever altered, if I lived."
Vanna visibly winced at the thought. She held Allison's hand tighter. She knew of the horror which would have followed. She tried to comfort some females who'd survived the encounter. There were things she'd witnessed with her own eyes. Some of the screams still echoed in her head at night. Some of those screams were her own.
"Scavengers?" Vanna asked. "How many were there? That's terrible."
Vanna absentmindedly touched her scar on her abdomen. She knew Scavengers brutalized their victims and marked their bodies in various ways.
Cameron saw and noted Vanna's actions. She knew Vanna must have suffered at the hands of Scavengers before. It's where her scar must have come from. She planned to do something about it when she was in the future, if time permitted. Retrieving John was the most important thing. He didn't belong in the future.
Allison looked at Vanna for a moment before she continued. She understood the history of similar events. She would try to keep it simple and not get too graphic.
"There were six of them." Allison said. "It would have been fatal. Each one would have been more brutal than the last. The first one was going to carve his initials in me. I have a new scar to prove it."
Everyone sat in silence as they waited for Allison to continue. It was a story none of them wanted to hear, but they needed to hear it.
Allison let out a sigh and continued.
"We'd been on patrol." Allison said. "There was word I was specifically targeted for termination. There was an ambush. I was separated from the group. John always tried to watch out for me. I did as well for him. I couldn't find him. After about ten minutes JH found me."
Cameron took in the news. She knew Allison and her looked the same, so John would be attracted to Allison. She could understand it. She started to worry. Allison was - real. She knew she wasn't. A lot of things could have happened…. She could see Allison's natural beauty, even in her current condition. She knew if John was with Future Riley, he could have been with Allison too. Given her appearance, it was very likely. Allison would only have known only what John told her. John may have 'forgotten' to mention her. She's written about 'lies of omission' before. She didn't want her mind to go down a rocky path without any additional facts.
Sarah wanted to clear something up. She was a little confused at whom Allison mentioned. There was an obvious connection to the initials.
"Who is JH?" Sarah asked. "Is it John Henry?"
Allison briefly looked at Vanna.
"Yes and no, it was a dog similar to the German Shepherd which Savannah gave me when she'd left. Savannah named him. I know why now. He ran away but I found another one just like him when I met John. I still called him JH because I missed him. A lot of things were like that. People died and disappeared around us all the time."
Sarah noticed Allison referred to Vanna as Savannah.
Allison paused. She sighed and resumed her story.
"JH spotted two Terminators stalking me. He ran off towards them." Allison said. "I went to hide. It's when I was grabbed. I'd inadvertently hid in the opening to the Scavenger's bunker. They grabbed me and drug me down a tunnel. They pulled my clothes off along the way as we went. I tried to fight them but it was impossible. Four of them pinned down. I knew what was going to happen for starters."
Allison didn't want to think about it, even if she needed to. The story resumed.
"Instead of starting right in, the first one took out a knife. He was about to cut me." Allison said. "He said the screaming only added to the excitement. They all groped, leered and laughed at me. I knew they were all going to do the same thing before they started in, one after the other. I've seen some of the damage done to females. I knew it was going to happen to me. Scavengers liked to mark their victims. They liked to keep some things as 'trophies'. Some of the females lived, most of them didn't. Maybe they were the lucky ones."
Vanna faced Allison. She wanted to comfort her. She didn't want the story to continue. She was very aware of the terror Allison must have felt. She didn't want to hear how Allison was savaged. She already knew what it was like. She didn't want Sarah or Cameron to hear what it was like.
"You don't need to finish, Allison." Vanna said. "Please stop."
Allison looked at the three of them. It was important they knew. The truth was out there. There was no need to dance around it. The events which immediately followed were still hard for her to comprehend.
"No, I need to finish." Allison said. "All of a sudden there was a female voice. It spoke with a Scottish accent, 'You boys need to learn some manners.' The strangest part of all was, she was wearing a white dress and matching high heels. It was like a photo out of a fashion magazine. Then in like two seconds, all six of the Scavengers were dead. I looked up in shock at her. I didn't even know what she was at the time. She tossed me my clothes and said, 'Come with me, if you want to live'."
Sarah immediately caught Allison's words. They were the same words Kyle said to her. Sometimes it seems like yesterday. Other times it seemed so long ago.
Allison looked at Vanna before she continued.
"She said she was a friend of Savannah's, and no one was going to take anything away from Savannah ever again, especially someone Savannah cared about. I was scared to death of her. She seemed to say all the right things so I trusted her. What else could I do? She'd just saved me. I told her there were Terminators stalking me and we needed to be careful. I said they were looking for me specifically. She just smirked and said, 'Oh, I wouldn't worry about them'."
"I came up out of the tunnel first and I said, 'Everything looks clear.' I looked around again and only JH was standing there, his tail was wagging. I asked, 'Where have you been?' There was no sign of the 'woman'. JH and I made it back to camp. I was really unsure about what I saw in my rescue. I know what I saw, but it was unbelievable."
Allison reflected on what she would tell the others. They would think she was insane if she told them the truth. They might not trust her if they heard what she said happened. It was what happened. She'd been a part of it. She needed to tell someone. John was the closest one she trusted.
"I saw John getting ready to lead another patrol out to look for me." Allison said. "I called John aside and told him what happened."
She remembered how John wasn't surprised at all. He didn't even question what she'd seen, but what was actually done and how.
"John asked me if I'd seen the woman 'clearly' and what she did." Allison said. "I told him it sounded crazy, but her arms looked like blades for a few seconds. It all seemed so hard to believe. I KNOW I saw the woman and what she did. He then took me into his confidence and explained everything to me. At least now I knew why John stared at me every second he thought I wasn't watching. I looked exactly like the girl he loved, he told me later on."
Cameron took note of the word 'loved'.
Sarah did as well. She wanted to verify what she'd heard.
"John said 'loved'?" Sarah asked.
Allison didn't understand at the time. She did now.
"Yes - LOVED." Allison said as she looked at Cameron. "Exactly like the girl he loved."
Cameron returned Allison's look. She was sure there was more to the story. She knew she was probably not going to like it. Once she returned John back to this time, she would deal with it. John was allowed freedom of choice.
She remembered the last time John made a 'choice'. It was Future Riley, not her. It wasn't something she wanted to dwell on. She could have offered John everything Future Riley could have. She needed to suppress a glitch impulse as she thought about how she'd offered herself to John. He blew her off. He ran away to south of the border with Future Riley.
Cameron was ready to act.
"I need to go now and bring him back." Cameron said. "I need to bring John home."
Sarah could tell by Allison's story how dangerous the future was.
"Cameron, you can't go alone." Sarah said. "You need to have some help and someone to watch your back."
Vanna looked at Cameron and whispered something in her ear. She was unsure how Cameron would want to address it, if at all.
Cameron looked at Vanna and nodded. There was a way to help herself.
"Vanna suggested since we have the Mr. Ellison Terminator's chip ready, we can download my program into it to make a second copy of 'me'." Cameron said. "We would then place it in the chassis of Jim. It will be Cameron Two in Jim's chassis. Then I can go with someone who I can trust with my life and not need to worry about their safety. I don't want anyone I care about getting hurt on my behalf. I think it is a good plan. Let's do it."
Cameron also considered the possibility she could borrow John Henry's chassis again. No. She wanted John to see her how she was. She wanted John to look at her. She liked it when John looked at her. It made her feel special. She wanted to feel special again.
Closing monologue by Cameron:
Scavengers
Everyone wants things
Some people take
Only when they get caught
Is it a mistake
No animal on earth
Is crueler than man
Especially when they form up
Into some kind of clan
To be human
Is to be flawed
If they were a machine
Maybe they would be awed
The greedy seem to win
Those are the ones who use
Let it be known in the end
They are the ones who will lose
To all they encounter
They bring many dangers
Beware the unwitting amateurs
Who encounters any Scavengers
Nobody