Chapter 20

Savannah

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Resistance Base - Current Timeline:

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Cameron worked to make Allison look 'Tight'. It took her, Vanna and Allison to do it. She needed a lot of help. Once Allison was completely healed up, it would be easier.

Allison wasn't experienced in anything of this nature. She'd only ever relied on her natural beauty and charm. She didn't have the means, or time, to ever look nice, let alone Tight. She'd never even heard the term before Cameron said it. Beauty was something which needed to be hidden and concealed in the future. It was more of a liability than an asset. If someone was 'pretty', they ended up a target to be abused. It was worse if they fell into the hands of Grays or Scavengers.

It was more of a challenge to wonder when your next meal would be, or what it would be, than it was to worry about one's appearance. Until Kyle and Derek 'adopted' her into their 'family', it was a struggle to avoid Grays, Terminators, Tunnel Rats, or worse - Scavengers. Sometimes you did, sometimes you didn't. There were a few times she didn't. It happened to all the females at some point, ALL of them.

The Skynet forces weren't any better than Scavengers when a pretty female was captured and brought in for 'processing' at a work camp. She would be singled out and forced to perform her 'duties' in the Grays' living quarters. There they would be routinely beaten and abused. Once the Grays tired of them, or found a new and better 'toy' to play with, they would be dumped into the work camp. There the abuse would start all over again because they still possessed some beauty. Not everybody in a work camp belonged to the Resistance. Many didn't think they'd live much longer and lost all human decency.

It was the way life was in the future. It wasn't something anyone really even thought about. It was just the way it was. It was everyday. It was life.

Allison appreciated Cameron and Vanna helping her. She still wanted to call Vanna - Savannah. It was her name. Now she was able to meet Vanna as a girl, as Savannah, her younger self. To be able to see Savannah as a girl brought back memories for her. It made her think about when she was a little older than Savannah was right now.

They were troubled memories.

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Alternate Future Timeline:

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A Few Years Previous:

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Allison had been running almost non-stop for a couple of days. She was exhausted and drained. She was near collapse. She came face to face with a good looking young man with a kind face who smiled at her. It may be another threat, or it may be salvation. She was too tired to run anymore. Whatever was going to happen, was going to happen right now. She was done.

"It's OK." The young man said. "You need to relax a little bit. You're about to collapse. What's your name?"

It took her a moment to catch her breath.

"My name is Allison." Allison said. "What's your name?"

The man smiled at her again.

"My name is Kyle." Kyle said. "I need to make sure you're not injured or bleeding. I need to see if anything is broken."

She wasn't sure why he said it. She looked down at herself. Her clothes were ripped and torn in a dozen places. There was dried mud in various spots. She didn't remember when any of it happened.

Kyle took a quick look at her.

Allison was a little worried when he touched her, but it wasn't in an abusive way at all. He wanted to check to see if she had any broken bones. She felt more comfortable in his presence.

Kyle offered her some water and then some food.

She hoped she caught a lucky break.

Kyle found her after she'd been running for two days. There was almost no sleep and no food. She told him the story of why she'd been running. It was about what almost happened to her, and what happened to a pretty girl who'd sacrificed herself to save her. She couldn't cry anymore, her tears were gone. She wanted to go back and trade herself for the girl. Sadly, she knew by now it would be too late for the girl. She'd seen the mutilated corpses before. The tears came again.

It bothered her greatly someone would trade their life for her. It was someone she didn't even know. What happened that day changed her life. It affected who she was and who she would become. She didn't know it yet. The deck of life's cards was still being shuffled. Not all of the cards were in play.

Derek spoke with her after he arrived and Kyle filled him in. He told her she was just a kid and she did the right thing. He said between Scavengers and Terminators, humans were doomed at the rate they seemed to be devolving.

There was no leader and no real organized Resistance. There were only groups which banded together and conducted local operations.

Kyle and Derek both possessed guns. They talked briefly amongst themselves.

Derek reached in his pack and handed Allison a shiny silver revolver.

"Keep this with you at all times. Use it if you have to. Don't be afraid to protect yourself." Derek said. "When you're threatened, you need to shoot first and ask questions later."

Derek opened the cylinder and showed her it held six shots. He then closed the cylinder.

Allison wasn't very familiar with guns. She wasn't scared of them. She just didn't know a lot about them. She was around them all the time. No one ever let her shoot one. It seemed on some guns, there were complicated things to do to make it work. It seemed the bullets went in one spot, and something was done to make the gun shoot. She felt she needed to point out her inexperience.

"I don't know how." Allison said. "I've never shot a gun before."

Derek smiled. It wasn't something he did often. It didn't seem there was much to smile about any longer. A fresh face made him think back on some of the old times. He wondered if he was about to corrupt the way she thought about things. It didn't really matter. What mattered was her survival and ability to protect herself. It was about survival.

"Point it at what you want to kill and pull the trigger." Derek said. "It's just that simple."

It did seem simple to her. It's something she wished she would have been able to do earlier. Maybe she would have been able to help the pretty girl. Maybe she would have been able to help herself. It was too late to go back. It wasn't too late to learn going forward.

He showed her how to load and unload the revolver. He let her dry fire it to get the feel of the trigger, in both double and single action. She was amazed at how easy it was to pull the trigger after she'd thumbed the hammer back and fire the revolver in single action. She could thumb back the hammer with both thumbs quite easily. The pull through double action was harder. She could fit both of her index fingers inside the trigger guard and pull it that way without too much difficulty. It also gave her a better grip on the gun with two hands.

Derek told her if it came to the point in time when she needed to use the revolver, the strength she needed would always be there. He indicated it was more about mental strength, than it was physical strength. It was the will to survive, over becoming another victim.

Kyle watched Derek show her while she practiced. There were a few pointers he wanted to give her as well. There were times when someone needed to act and not think about it. To try to think something through would most likely mean death.

"If you have to use the gun, you'll be pumped up with adrenaline. It will give you extra physical strength. Look, it's them or you." Kyle said. "It won't stop a Terminator."

The last part didn't sound too encouraging to her. Terminators killed everyone when they found them. If someone was unlucky and survived, they were soon headed for a work camp. It was its own Hell. There must be something to fight a Terminator with.

"What should I do then?" Allison asked.

Kyle knew there was only one option open to her. It wasn't a very good one either.

"Run." Kyle said.

Allison figured the only way she could get away from a Terminator was to get into an area which was too small for them to follow. It might work for now. She knew as she got older, anywhere she could go, a Terminator could go as well. It could also shoot at her too. It seemed the best thing to do was to avoid them.

Kyle gave her a few tips on using the revolver too. He showed her how to use the heel of her left hand to cock the hammer back when pushing the revolver forward with her right hand. He told her when the revolver fired, it was louder than crap and kicked like a mule. He pointed out the person on the front side of the barrel was going to be in a lot worse shape. He opened the cylinder and showed her where it contained the model number of the firearm. It said '66'.

Derek gave her six additional rounds for it. They were sealed in plastic to keep them dry. It gave her twelve shots. No, it was really only eleven. She decided to use the last round on herself. It wasn't a hard decision to make. She saw some of what happened in the Scavenger camp. She didn't want to go through the same thing herself. She knew it was only a matter of time. She'd heard all of the older females talk about it.

Kyle wanted to know more about the incident and how close the threat was to them.

"Can you tell us more about what happened and where?" Kyle asked. "We know it was two days ago."

Allison told them the story of what happened. She'd been searching for food. It was rumored there was a Terminator in the area. Two men appeared from nowhere and chased her down. They grabbed her and tied her hands behind her back. She could see how they looked at her. She knew what was going to happen next. She'd heard from some of the other girls what the men would do to them when they got caught. They said they'd all experienced it.

The only reason they didn't abuse her right then, was because they'd previously spotted a Terminator in the area. They needed to pull out or end up being discovered. They drug her back to their camp. They tied her to a pole once they were inside. They needed to make sure they hadn't been followed. The leader of the group came over and looked at her. It bothered her the way he looked at her pants.

The leader of the group told the half dozen other men in his group not to touch her. The leader made it clear if she was 'spoiled' before he had her, the man would die. There was a group of some other females also rounded up. One of the young teenagers approached the leader. They carried on a brief conversation. The two kept looking at her. She saw the teenager was quite shapely and very pretty. After the conversation ended, the leader took something from the open fire. It was a metal rod, it glowed red hot. It reminded her of what she'd heard they mark animals with. It was some type of a branding iron.

They were closer to her now and she could hear most of their conversation.

The teenage girl looked at her and then faced the leader.

"Do we have a deal?" The teenager asked.

She watched the leader roughly touch the teenager's body. He looked at the teenager for a long moment and then at her. She watched as he moistened his lips. He turned his attention back to the teenager.

"We do, if you do this freely." The leader said. "I'll believe you. If you don't resist and don't fight."

The teenager looked at her again. She returned her attention to the leader. She swallowed hard and she looked at the red hot metal.

"Will you give her a three hour head start?" The teenager asked. "If you want it all, she has to be given the opportunity to escape."

The leader glanced at Allison and then looked back at the teenager.

"Yes." The leader agreed. "You better keep up your end of the deal. If you don't, I promise you a slow, painful, violent death."

He told the teenager to lie on the ground and expose her lower mid section. She did so without hesitation.

The teenager glanced in her direction and then back at the leader.

"A three hour head start and no one follows her." The teenager said.

The leader's eyes were focused on the teenager.

"Yes." The leader said.

The teenager looked resigned to her fate.

"I will do whatever you ask of me." The teenager said. "Do it."

The leader smiled and moved forward with the red hot metal.

The teenage girl screamed as the red hot metal touched her. White smoke poured out around the metal as her flesh burnt. After a few minutes the teenager got up and came over to her and untied her.

"You're being released. I want you to run from here and don't stop running until you can't move." The teenager said. "What's your name?"

Allison was very traumatized at what she'd just witnessed. Maybe this was a trick before they started to abuse her. They would try and give her false hope and then brutalize her. It would probably be a bigger blow to her mind if it's what they did.

"My name is Allison. Why are they letting me go?" Allison asked.

She could see the teenager was in pain and clutched the burnt area.

"I made a deal with the leader." The teenager said. "If he lets you go, and no one in this camp follows you for three hours, I'll do whatever he says, wants, or asks of me freely. I'm his property now. I'm a slave."

Allison couldn't quite process all the information. She couldn't imagine ever doing the same thing.

"Why would you do it for me?" Allison asked. "You don't even know me."

The teenager looked defeated. There didn't appear to be much light left in her eyes.

"I was you once. I was captured and I'm a prisoner now. It's happened to me several times since I was younger than you. I know what happens next. It always does. It's going to happen anyway or worse. I might as well try to have something good come out of it this time." The teenager said. "I've been through this before. I never was branded like this. He said he marked me as his property for life. To have me do whatever he wants,0 for as long as he wants, is worth more to him than the two minutes of pleasure he'll have with you. You're still a girl. I became a 'woman' years ago. Maybe I can buy you a year or two if you're careful. Try never to be alone if possible. Whenever you're alone, bad things happen. Try to stay a girl as long as possible, being a woman - sucks."

Allison looked at the burn on the teenager. It said something she couldn't quite make out. The teenager held her hand over it. It looked very painful.

"Now run, Allison, run." The teenager said. "Don't stop and never look back."

Allison looked around in fear and got up. She started to leave.

"I'll never forget you. I'll never forget what you did here for me today." Allison said. "Thank you."

The teenager pointed for her to go.

"RUN." The teenager said.

Allison looked back at the teenager.

"What's your name?" Allison asked.

Allison would never forget her flaming red hair.

"My name is Savannah."

Closing monologue by Cameron:

Beauty

Is beauty a weapon
Or is it a liability
Does beauty hinder judgment
Or enhance natural ability

Is beauty dangerous
Can it be a curse
Perhaps in some situations
Beauty can make things worse

Is beauty the cause
Of something statutory
The sad fact is
Beauty is transitory

Is beauty even real
Not all see beauty the same
When it happens
Who is the one to blame

Is there beauty in beauty
Or is there a price to pay
Beauty may become a duty
So others may have their way

Is beauty the cause of pain
Can it cause a bitter fight
Sometimes beauty requires sacrifice
When one must do what is right

Nobody