Chapter 101

Nooooooo!

Bob and Jim moved to the fence which separated the two properties. As long as they stayed below the top of the fence, they shouldn't be spotted. After they listened for a moment, they passed by the out building on the other side of the fence. They didn't detect anyone. They continued along the fence towards the main body of the target location.

Jim was a little concerned about the building on the property they were on. Even though it looked vacant, it might not be.

"I think we need to verify there's no one where we're at right now." Jim said. "We don't want any surprises to pop up."

Bob thought about it.

"We certainly don't need the enemy on both sides of us." Bob said.

Jim kept his eye on the building in front of them.

Bob kept his ears open on the target building next to them on the other side of the fence.

They both knew things would have been a little bit easier if it was night time. They didn't wanted to wait.

Jim moved up to the building and checked the doors on the rear of it. He went up on the dock and checked the roll-up door. everything was secured.

Bob listened for any change in activity at the target location on the other side of the wall. There was no indication any type of alarm was raised.

Jim tried a door on the side of the building. He turned the handle and the door opened. An 'warning' went off inside of his head. The door shouldn't be unlocked.

Bob was concerned as well. It was the door closest to the target building, even if there was a wall between the two properties.

Earlier:

John Henry was displeased at what Cameron was about to do. He thought it was worse because she decided to take all the girls with her. He wanted to go as well. Cameron reminded him of 'his duties'. It made him wonder if Cameron thought about 'her duties'. It seemed this was a one way trip for Cameron no matter how it was spun. He noticed John appear outside the TDE room a few seconds after Cameron entered and locked the door.

His first impulse was to open the door and let John in. He hoped he would be able to stop the madness, but realized it would only make everything worse. He was sure Cameron would become highly agitated if John were inside the TDE room when she wanted to leave.

John Henry made his warning clear.

"You could end up anywhere, or 'in some future' that's unknown." John Henry said. "There's no way to know what's going to happen with all of the changes we've made."

He wasn't sure what any of the changes Mrs. Weaver may have been involved in may have done either. He was sure it would only irritate Cameron if he pointed it out. Mrs. Weaver always seemed to be a contentious point with her.

Cameron looked at the three women. She was ready to go.

"Does it matter?" Cameron asked.

The three women looked at Cameron.

"No." They replied in unison.

John Henry tried to reach Cameron one more time.

"Can nothing keep you here, Cameron?" John Henry asked.

Cameron didn't need any second guessing.

"No power in the verse can stop me." Cameron said. "Do it - NOW!"

John Henry started the procedure.

The arcing and flashing started.

The TDE thundered as the room vibrated.

It appeared it would be a normal time transfer to John Henry. He just didn't know what the destination was. All of the equipment seemed to be working within the normal parameters.

Without any warning, as the transfer was about to occur, there was a terrible screaming sound. First it was Cameron, and then the three girls.

"Nooooooooooooooo!" The four females screamed.

John Henry heard the screaming and thought the TDE suffered a malfunction of some type. He didn't know what it was doing to them. He hoped it wasn't ripping them apart, or electrocuting them. It might be incinerating them as well.

He thought the girls were in danger or being hurt somehow. The screaming was terrible. He needed to do something fast.

John Henry quickly tried to think what to do. He considered attempting to rush into the energy bubble to push the four of them out of it. If the procedure already started, he wasn't exactly sure what he would push out. He might be trapped as well.

He tried to shut the machine off.

It was too late. The cycle was already started and ready to transfer. The energy bubble was about to depart.

He quickly changed the date and destination back to the current time and location of the TDE pad. He hoped to keep the girls there at the base. They should only be gone for a millisecond before they returned right to where they were leaving from. If it worked, they would arrive naked. He wouldn't mind taking a look at all of them without clothing. It always produced a certain amount of stimulation. It usually produced a physical reaction as well. It seemed to occur more and more often.

There was a blinding flash of light. The room shook even more than normal.

The vibration and thundering increased with the change in destination, the screaming did too.

The arcing and flashing continued as the energy bubble formed.

The women were - gone.

Something seemed to have gone horribly wrong.

John Henry was unsure what happened.

The four naked women appeared in a flash of blinding light and arcing within an energy bubble. Then they were gone for a second, and then back again. It was the way it seemed.

Cameron was sure they were there, then gone, then back again all in a few milliseconds.

The four of them were huddled together. It didn't seem as if anyone could move.

It was a rough ride. Cameron was the first to stand. It was the most turbulent and violent time transfer she ever experienced. She wasn't sure what happened or went wrong. It seemed something occurred which was much different than 'normal'.

Cameron and the girls were still huddled together.

Jesse took in Cameron's perfect figure and perfect skin, her sheath.

'Such perfection.' Jesse thought.

Cameron looked up. The sky wasn't visible. It was overcast with reddish clouds.

The girls all looked a little queasy.

Allison looked as confused as she did dazed.

"Do we know where we are?" Allison asked.

Vanna looked around them. She wasn't sure 'where' was the problem.

"Or when?" Vanna asked.

Cameron was sure there may have been a malfunction.

"No." Cameron replied as she looked around. "I think there was a positional error, if not a temporal error."

Cameron was worried it may be both. Either one of them would create a problem. Both of them would create something they might not be able to deal with.

The gravity of her statement hit home with the girls, along with all of its implications.

Allison wanted to clarify the situation. She wanted Cameron to give it to her straight.

"Are we lost?" Allison asked.

Vanna feared it was worse than lost if there was a temporal error.

"Do you mean we're lost in time somewhere?" Vanna asked.

Jesse worried about where and when they were too. The surroundings were very different.

"This doesn't look like anything I've ever seen." Jesse said.

It looked like a place the girls only heard about in the past, the very distant past. If they'd gone back too far in time, everything was lost.

Cameron might not even be able to attempt to construct a time machine on her own, if the raw materials didn't exist. She would also need a power source

She started to cry. The full implications of what she saw as they left the base, and where they were now hit her. How could everything go wrong so fast? There was no warning or clue what was going to happen as they were about to depart.

"We can't get back to stop her." Cameron sobbed.

Allison knew who they saw, even if they didn't know her.

"We all saw her. It was that 'Bitch Whore' Riley wasn't it?" Allison asked.

The inevitability of what would happen next with John and Riley flooded Cameron's mind. It already happened before. There was absolutely nothing to stop history from repeating itself. Riley was dead. She viewed her body as well. She never told John. She needed to make sure. The Riley she knew was 'Future Riley'. Whoever she saw, must be a different version of her from another timeline.

"Yes, and you're ALL here with me." Cameron said as she broke down. "There's no one to stop her. There is no one to stop them. It's all going to happen again."

The four naked women embraced to give Cameron comfort and support.

Jesse held Cameron the tightest.

There was a small earthquake.

Vanna looked around. She'd been through a few small ones when she was sent into the past. California, as well as the Los Angeles area, was known for earthquakes.

"Nice." Vanna said.

They were in dense jungle growth. It was very hot and humid.

Cameron looked up after the earthquake and spotted something which seemed to confirm her biggest fears. Just the sight of it was enough to make her feel even worse.

"Oh no." Cameron said.

In front of them was a mountain with smoke coming from the top.

Jesse never saw one in person. She'd seen photos and heard stories when she was younger.

"Is that a volcano?" Jesse asked.

There was another small tremor as the ground shook again.

Vanna recognized it right away. She'd seen plenty of shows on television since her returned to the past.

"Yes." Vanna replied. "It's a volcano."

She always thought it would be intriguing to view one in person. Based upon the current circumstances, she would rather not have seen one at all.

Allison looked at their surroundings again, at the vegetation, and the climate. She asked the question the girls all feared.

"Are we in prehistoric times?" Allison asked.

Before anyone could answer, the arcing and flashing started.

The energy bubble began to reappear around them.

Cameron knew it wasn't right. Something was really wrong. Whatever was happening was nothing she'd ever heard of, or experienced before. It seemed the time transfer wasn't complete somehow. She hoped it would take them away to where they wanted to go. It was what she hoped anyway. Wherever, and 'when' ever, they were at, it wasn't the right place.

"Everyone stay put." Cameron said.

The time transfer was a rough ride.

Something hadn't been right….

It wasn't a 'normal' time transfer in any way.

John Henry manipulated the TDE controls. He tried everything he could think of to hang onto the energy bubble, or get it to return back to the TDE pad. As far as he knew the procedure was never attempted before. There wouldn't have been a need to.

Nothing he tried worked. At least it didn't work the way he wanted it to work.

On the TDE pad there was some arcing and flashing.

The time bubble reappeared for a second but seemed empty, then with the girls in it. Then it was gone again. This procedure repeated twice more as he worked the controls and tried to bring the girls back. The machine wasn't designed to be operated this way. He was unsure what was actually happening or how it would damage the equipment. He was even more concerned how it may damage those in the energy bubble.

The flashing and arching stopped.

There was nothing on the TDE pad.

John Henry failed. He'd lost them. They were gone.

He shut the machine off.

He walked over and opened the door.

John burst into the room.

"What the Hell?" John yelled as he looked around. "Where are they?"

John Henry didn't need to look again.

"They're gone." John Henry said.

John wanted some specifics. The answer told him nothing.

"Where did they go?" John demanded to know.

John Henry was reluctant to tell John he thought they would fail.

"They're just gone." John Henry said. "They went into the future, a future. They were going to prevent Future Allison from being captured in Cameron's future. It's what Cameron planned."

It made no sense to John. Cameron already did it, didn't she? He was under the impression Cameron prevented Future Allison's termination.

"Why? I thought she fixed everything." John said. "She saved 'Her Allison'."

John Henry knew it was a fact. He viewed Cameron's files of what happened in her future.

"She did." John Henry said.

Now it made even less sense to John. He wondered if he was missing something.

"Then why did they go?" John asked.

John Henry tried to stick with Cameron's plan, and not the certain folly it was.

"Cameron thought if she prevented Future Allison from being captured in the first place, she would never be built. It would eliminate her from your timeline. It would create a new timeline without her in it."

John figured he would be dead in no time without Cameron there to help him in Red Valley. Most likely everything which occurred afterwards would be different as well. He figured there must be more to the answer. It was still very confusing to him.

"What?" John asked. "Why?"

John Henry already knew the end goal Cameron sought. He wanted to put the blame where it belonged. He didn't want anyone to point a finger at him. None of it was his idea.

"Cameron wants to commit 'self termination' by preventing her construction. She'll never have existed in your timeline if they're successful in preventing Future Allison's capture. It will create a new timeline without her."

John stated what he feared would happen to him and the future.

"So Cameron just created another timeline?" John asked. "I guess I'll get killed in the other timeline then, if she's not there to protect me. What future is that going to be?"

John Henry was pretty sure they'd experienced it with the future John went to.

"Not a good one." John Henry said. "Maybe it will be like the one you visited or worse."

Sarah, Kyle, Derek and Riley were all present and stood in back of John.

Fire burned in Sarah's eyes. She was angry at John Henry. He'd obviously been a participant in some way.

"And you agreed to all this?" Sarah demanded. "You allowed this to happen? You helped her do this?"

John Henry felt he didn't have a choice. He didn't want the others to blame him for something he didn't have any control over. Cameron was the one who manipulated all of the events, not him.

"Cameron was going to burn herself up with a Thermite grenade if I didn't do it. I refused to erase her chip. She pulled out a Thermite grenade. She pulled the pin…. She was going to 'self terminate'."

The story stopped.

Kyle prompted John Henry to provide some additional information. There's certainly needed to be more to the story.

"And?" Kyle asked.

John Henry was sure the next part of the story would make it worse. It made it worse for him. He was sure Cameron was going to terminate all of them. What seemed just as bad, was they all seemed ready to 'go'.

"Jesse, Vanna and Allison all held her as they surrounded her. Allison said they would all burn together. The girls were all going to burn with her. I saw she was going to do it. I gave Cameron the pin and asked her to put it back in. I told her I would erase her chip. I didn't want the girls to die needlessly. They were going to. It was going to happen."

It sounded incredible to Derek. He needed to get something straight.

"You were going to do actually do it?" Derek asked. "You were going to terminate her?"

John Henry made other plans. He planned to do what she wanted to a certain extent. He was then going to do what he believed would preserve her existence, outside of her chassis.

"No. Once we took her chip out, I was going to download it to a server and try to help her with her problems." John Henry said. "I would try and help her 'fix' herself. I wasn't going to destroy her chip or her program."

Kyle was upset they were all gone. He was very attached to all of them.

"I don't understand any of this." Kyle said. "What does this accomplish?"

They all knew it accomplished nothing.

John Henry explained how his plan was changed. He didn't think it was his fault.

"I believed everything was under control until Allison said they could go into the future and prevent Cameron's Allison, Future Allison, from being captured." John Henry said. "It was an idea Cameron instantly seized upon and modified her plans."

John understood what would have happened clearly now.

"If Cameron was able to prevent Future Allison from being captured, then Cameron would never be built…." John said. "She never would have been sent to infiltrate the Resistance and attempt to terminate Future John. She never would have been reprogrammed, or sent into the past to protect and mentor me."

There was something about the idea John Henry remembered. What was it exactly? He was sure he understood Allison's motive for her suggestion. It was based on sacrifice.

"It was Cameron's plan. I believe after they prevented the capture of Future Allison, Allison was going to allow herself to be captured without Cameron knowing what she planned." John Henry said. "It would still allow for Cameron to be built and exist. She would have traded her life for Cameron's life."

It sounded like an additional nightmare.

"It would have created another new timeline." John said. "No matter what action she takes, there's a new timeline in some way."

This seemed like some convoluted circle of events to Sarah. Everything would end up back the same way as it was.

"Why?" Sarah asked. "What changes?"

Sarah saw all of this as being for 'nothing'.

"Allison was going to trade her life so Cameron could still be built. Allison would sacrifice her own life so that Cameron could live." John Henry said. "Allison loves her so much she was going to die for Cameron by choice. She was going to sacrifice herself. I understand now. Sacrifice is the true test of love."

John Henry started to sob. He still retained the image from one of Cameron's 'nightmares' of Allison. She stayed to fight a Terminator with only a metal rod. She tried to protect Cameron who was severely damaged.

"I know what love is now, I understand. Allison has shown me the depth of love, the sacrifice of love, and the beauty of love." John Henry said. "Love is a very powerful unseen force. There's nothing physically there, but it exists nonetheless."

John wanted to know what Cameron planned after all of this nonsense played out in her future.

"What about, Cameron?" John asked. "Then what was supposed to happen?"

John Henry was aware of what the girls promised to do. He didn't believe they would, but they still might anyway to honor their promise.

"The girls promised to deactivate Cameron and destroy her chip after the successful prevention of Future Allison's capture." John Henry said. "It's when Allison would allow her capture and forfeit her own life."

John couldn't see a point to any of it.

"So Cameron 'dies', but is reborn again to live her life over…." John said.

John Henry could only state the obvious.

"Everything stays the same, and this is all for nothing, except they're gone, ALL of them…." John Henry said.

For the first time John noticed someone new in the room.

He was unable to believe his eyes. He blinked several times. He was sure of what he looked at.

"Riley?" John asked in amazement.

It was impossible. He examined her corpse. She was cold and dead. He briefly wondered if this was some aberration to the timeline already created by Cameron's departure.

John grabbed Riley and hugged her like he never wanted to let go….

Closing monologue by Cameron:

Cage Of The Past

The past, done, unchangeable
We know the result of every event
We know what was good or hurt
What is already done we can't prevent

The past is a cage
A cold dark lonely prison
But from its bitter ashes
You have proudly risen

Yet in the past I remain
Trapped with nothing but memories
A fool seeing without vision, blind
Self created living atrocities

Stuck, stuck in the past
Stuck everywhere in a dead life
Thirsting in a frozen Hell
Feeding on needless strife

The past is the present
For nothing ever changes
The contents within my skull
Is the extent my soul and life ranges

The past is living
I'm the one dead
Only these words will remain
Once I have fled

Nobody