Chapter 116
Do This
John went with Bob on a recon mission. They needed to run down some more leads. The Skynet related activity dropped off some. It may or may not be a good thing. Skynet was getting harder to track. What they feared was Skynet was now better at hiding. In every encounter so far with Skynet, the Resistance was the victor.
John Henry suggested they concentrate on information which was gleaned from the alternate future. The files indicated there were still plenty of future Grays to wade through. He knew he could come up with more potential targets. They needed to be tracked down and terminated.
Later on:
John Henry provided John with a couple of targets.
John looked over the information.
"This looks like good intel." John said.
John Henry tilted his head slightly. It was the reason why he gave it to John.
"It is." John Henry said.
John wanted to act.
"Contact Bob and Jim." John said. "I want to get right on this."
John Henry knew Cameron liked to be included. There was less of a problem if she was. If she was excluded it became a major issue.
"Don't you want to wait for Cameron?" John Henry asked.
John frowned. There were a lot of thoughts on his mind. Cameron wasn't really one of them right now.
"Is she even around?" John asked. "I don't see her much any more."
John Henry didn't like John's attitude. He didn't think Cameron did anything of the same nature John did with Future Riley. Even if she did, he didn't see why John could complain about it. He decided to keep his response simple. There was no need to further aggravate the situation.
"I can check." John Henry said.
John wanted to go now. He hoped to get away before she could be found, or return from wherever she was at. He didn't like his activities in the field being restricted or stifled by Cameron. He was the General after all.
"Don't bother." John said. "If she isn't here, then wherever she's at, or who she's with, is more important to her. I don't want to spoil anything."
Bob and Jim arrived in the Command Center.
John stood up. He looked over at John Henry. He wanted to get moving.
"Fill them in. I'm going to hit my room for a few minutes." John said. "I'll be back."
He left and headed for his room. It really was 'his' room anymore since Cameron was no longer around.
He arrived there and looked around. The room was empty and cold. He shook his head in disgust.
He collected his gear and checked his weapons.
He looked over and noticed Cameron's poem book was out. He went over and picked it up. He looked to see if there were any new poems in it. There were. He quickly read them. It was clear to him now Cameron's poem book was her 'diary'. It was full of sayings and thoughts written down in rhythmic form. It was actually quite unique. He carefully put it back.
He used the restroom real quick and collected his gear. He opened the door to go out into the hall. He was a little surprised to see Bob and Jim standing there. They were armored up and read to go. They held their weapons ready.
Bob didn't look pleased with the wait.
"We've been waiting for you." Bob said.
John wondered how long he'd been in his room. It didn't seem very long. Time seemed to pass rapidly when he read Cameron's poems. Maybe it was because he thought about them and tried to figure out what she really said. The true message was often cryptic. Maybe it was cryptic to her when she created it as well.
"I'm sorry." John said. "I was doing something else."
Jim and Bob looked at each other. They looked at the closed door to his room.
"Is Cameron going too?" Jim asked.
John shrugged his shoulders.
"I have absolutely no idea." John said.
Bob looked back at the room.
"Can you ask her?" Bob asked.
John noticed they both looked at his room door.
"She's not in there." John said. "I was just inside a few seconds ago."
Bob and Jim looked at each other again.
John wanted to get moving.
"Nobody is in there." John said. "Let's go."
The three of them headed out to the carpool. John put his vest and gear on as Jim held his M4.
As soon as John left with Bob and Jim, the door to his room opened. A lone figure emerged from the room and ran down the side hall away from John, Bob and Jim. They were headed to the carpool from the back way.
John, Bob, and Jim made their way out into the carpool.
"Which vehicle are we going to take?" John asked.
They heard a vehicle start in the back of the carpool somewhere.
"It will probably be the one which just started." Jim said.
An SUV came around the corner. The lights were on so it blinded John a little. It stopped next to him and the passenger door opened.
"Come with me if you want to leave." Cameron said. "I'm ready to go on the mission."
John was very surprised to see Cameron. He was even more surprised to see she was ready to go on the mission.
Cameron exchanged pleasantries with the three of them.
John wasn't sure what to say. He was glad Cameron was there. He noticed there was 'a blankness' to her look. She seemed to be there, but not really all the way there.
Cameron didn't care for the way John looked at her. She wanted to know more about what they were to face.
"Fill me in." Cameron said.
John started out with what he knew.
Bob filled in all the details and specifics.
John noticed Cameron gave him a sly glance every so often.
It made him wonder about earlier when he was in his room. Bob and Jim seemed to think she was in there. He hadn't spotted her if she was. He wondered if she was spying on him.
Maybe Nobody really was in there. Maybe it wasn't an accident he found Cameron's poem book out. He figured she either left it there for him to read, or she was working on it when he arrived and hid from him. Maybe it was both.
There was a lot on Cameron's mind as she drove. She went over all the details of the upcoming operation. She wanted to make sure John would have maximum protection. She looked at the street signs and knew they were close.
"We'll be at the target location in three minutes." Cameron said.
Bob wanted to make sure everyone would be ready. He didn't want any confusion about the assignments.
"Jim and I will take the back." Bob said.
John nodded.
"I guess I'll know who I'll be with." John said.
Cameron didn't really care for John's response. She decided to make her response in the same way.
"The General and I will take the front." Cameron said.
Nobody spoke again until the mission was over.
They arrived at the target location and took the future Gray out in only a few seconds.
Cameron walked right up to the front door and knocked. She asked John to wait off to the side. The Gray opened the front door after he looked out through the little peep hole. It was clear he didn't suspect Cameron was a Terminator, or an threat of any type.
She grabbed the future Gray by the neck and took him inside of the room. She looked around for any other targets. None were spotted. She was about to snap his neck but didn't. She dropped him to the ground and shot him once with a firearm she pulled out from her vest. She also pulled out a bag with white powder inside of it.
Cameron left drugs and the weapon, previously taken from a gang member, at the scene. If the police looked into it, it would appear to be a drug deal gone bad. The weapon would most likely be traced back to additional homicides committed in gang territory. It would be a closed case which no one would look further into.
They headed back to the base. It was a very quiet ride without anything spoken.
Cameron felt there were a lot of issues which needed to be dealt with. Skynet wasn't the only threat to the future. She decided to concentrate on future Scavengers, while John worked on the future Grays.
To Cameron, the Scavenger problem was personal for what they'd done to her friends, and to females in general. She was a Terminator so she understood the machines followed their programming when they acted. They did what they did because they didn't really have a choice. The Scavengers however did. They did what they did because they liked it. They didn't care who in the Resistance paid the price as long as they got their way. It seemed worse to her than a machine doing what it was programmed to do. She didn't believe Terminators took any joy in what they needed to do. Scavengers on the other hand seem to thrive on violence. It was something they did enjoy.
She liked to terminate drug dealing operations and street gangs. She targeted them over a large area. Once she determined where they kept their money stashed, she would hit it. She would take the cash, valuables and all serviceable weapons with her as well. She tried to leave evidence of another local gang or drug operation so they would keep attacking each other and add to the turmoil. The more the gangs killed each other, the less she needed to kill them herself. She continued to obtain funds to run her own side operation this way.
Sometimes there were three or four different gangs involved in the local warfare. She would allow them to terminate each other and then go in and deal with the victor herself. It usually led to a larger collection of confiscated funds. Any of the illicit money she collected would be used to protect the future.
Since her actions against future Scavengers weren't directly related to Skynet, she worked outside of the Resistance in secret. She didn't want her actions to 'taint' the Resistance. She needed to roam in the dark underbelly of society. Even as she conducted her own private operations, she wondered if it is how she became Skynet herself, if she actually did. For her to become Skynet was her worst fear. She always believed some version of Skynet was attached to her in some manner.
Cameron didn't limit her activities against future Scavengers just to the local communities. She confiscated funds from the international drug trade. Once she identified the suppliers of the local drug lords, she went after the bigger fish. She took in millions of dollars as she worked through the various Cartels. What was irritating to her was, as fast as she cleaned one group out, another group sprung up to fill the void. It seemed to her at the rate people were willing to consume illegal drugs, Skynet could wait for a while and let the humans destroy themselves.
Once the local district attorneys decided to stop prosecuting criminals, crime went out of control. She wondered how anyone expected the violence to stop if there was no punishment for it. She didn't know what the answer was, she did know what the cure was.
She really wondered how people thought drugs helped them with anything. They seemed to ruin more lives and set more people up to become future Scavengers when J-Day arrived.
With all of the modern day surveillance available to the different law enforcement authorities, there was no reason they couldn't identify where the drugs came from the moment they were planted or manufactured. Maybe she needed to look into it further to check and see if Skynet somehow blocked the tracking of the drug trade. Maybe Skynet decided it could kill more people quicker by letting them poison themselves and kill each other. It wouldn't attract itself as the target if it acted in such a manner. Somehow it seemed like an effective strategy with very little effort on the part of Skynet.
River was interested in Savannah. It seemed Savannah was like her in a way, at least like how she was before they started to 'work' on her. Savannah held such strong beliefs and ideas. She knew what her future held and with whom. It was her love for Cameron which surprised her the most. It was a deep emotional bond. It was a stronger love than any other she 'felt' from any of the other people. It included her future and the present. It was a love so strong, Savannah would die for it.
She wanted to know more why Savannah believed Cameron was invincible and eternal. River knew there was more to it than the words at face value. She felt somehow she figured into this equation of what Savannah believed. She wasn't really sure how.
River knew there was one other person she needed to meet on her own, it was Young Allison. She believed Young Allison was instrumental to everything in the future. She was aware of what needed to be done. She knew how to 'help'.
John could tell Cameron wanted to leave. She stood before him. She looked emotionless. He didn't know what to say. He felt he needed to say something.
"Isn't my love, our love, strong enough to keep you here?" John asked.
Cameron said nothing. She showed no emotion.
"Look, Cameron, I know you're unhappy." John said.
Cameron said nothing. Her face was blank.
"What can I do to make it better for you, Cameron?" John asked.
Cameron said nothing. She removed her clothes.
"Cameron, what are you doing?" John asked.
Cameron said nothing. She lay on the bed.
"I can't, not like this." John said.
Cameron said nothing. She stared at the ceiling.
"What are you doing?" John asked.
Cameron said nothing. Her eyes no longer blinked.
John began to feel a sick fear inside of him.
"Did John Henry reprogram you?" John asked.
His specific question seemed to trigger the first response from her.
"I am the new reprogrammed Unit." Cameron said.
John was caught off guard by the wording.
"What?" John asked.
The blank look remained on Cameron's face.
"My designation is - Nobody." Cameron stated.
John couldn't believe what he just heard.
"What?" John asked.
The blank look on Cameron's face somehow seemed even more expressionless.
"To provide you with sexual favors is my only function." Nobody said. "I am now nothing more than a mechanical love doll for your pleasure."
John looked in disbelief.
"Do as you please…." Nobody said.
The girls were ever increasingly worried about Cameron. No one knew how to help her. They wanted to help her, but Cameron was distant to them. They knew whenever Cameron was trying to distance herself from John or them, it was bad news.
Vanna felt as much concern as she did frustration.
"What are we going to do about Cameron?" Vanna asked.
Allison didn't have any answers.
"I don't know." Allison said. "We're losing her."
Jesse wondered if someone else wasn't to blame, even if indirectly.
"Is it River's fault?" Jesse asked.
Allison didn't think so. It seemed to her River tried to keep her distance from Cameron.
"No, River isn't encouraging her in any way." Allison said.
Jesse wasn't so sure. She wanted a better answer.
"How do you know?" Jesse asked.
Allison knew it was a little more profound. It involved her directly, even if it was indirectly because of Cameron's 'Neural Interface' with Future Allison when she was under Skynet control.
"River talked to me and wanted to know how to help Cameron 'get better' herself." Allison said.
Vanna could tell River didn't want to stay around any longer than possible. She made it clear on multiple occasions what she wanted to do and where she wanted to go.
"River wants to go home. She wants to go back to her brother and family, her ship family." Vanna said.
Jesse thought about their chance encounter with River. As impossible as it seemed, the event occurred.
"How did we bring someone from the future, in space, here anyway?" Jesse asked.
Vanna often wondered some of the same things herself. There seem to be a lot of possibilities as to what could occur and what did occur. Cameron once told her she believed there were 'tides' in time. It was where certain events always seemed to end up at, regardless of the timeline.
"Who knows? It seems anything is possible around here, time travel, both forward and backward, different timelines, Liquid Metal, cyborgs, people that were dead are alive again…." Vanna answered.
Jesse wondered how much they could change the future.
"If we can stop Skynet, will any of this still be possible?" Jesse asked.
Vanna didn't have a clue. With multiple timelines, it seemed there was no way to tell what was going to happen next, where, or when.
"Who knows?" Vanna asked. "Who really knows?"
Allison believed part of the problem was their inaction. Because they didn't do what Cameron wanted them to do, it caused her an extreme amount of frustration.
"We need to do what Cameron wants, what we want…." Allison said.
Jesse, like the other girls, had been in John's bed naked and ready. He wouldn't have any of them.
"Tell John." Jesse said. "It takes two to Tango."
Allison planned to do so. She thought John was as much part of the problem as anything else was. It was time to take action.
"I'm going to do it." Allison said.
Vanna was willing to try anything at this point.
"We can't lose Cameron, we have to do something." Vanna said. "I can't lose her."
Jesse felt her gut tighten.
"I won't lose her." Jesse said. "She's everything to me."
Allison always saw Cameron as a unique individual.
"I love her too, as strange as it seems. I see her as HER, not as looking like 'me'. I only see myself in the mirror a few times a day. I don't really even look. I seldom saw myself growing up. I see Cameron as Cameron all day. Besides, she's way hotter than I could ever be." Allison said.
Jesse wanted to know what the girls wanted more.
"If you had your choice, would it be Cameron or John…?" Jesse asked.
Vanna and Allison didn't even need to think about it.
"Cameron." Both Vanna and Allison said in unison.
All three girls giggled. It was a unanimous choice.
John opened his eyes. He sucked in his breath. He sat up in bed. He looked around. He was in his room. He was in his bed. He'd been asleep.
'Thank goodness, it was a dream.' He thought.
He looked and Cameron was in bed next to him. He jumped.
Cameron was lying on the covers next to him in a dress.
A dress…?
"River?" John asked.
"Yes." River replied.
"Why are you here?" John asked.
"I'm here for Cameron." River said.
"Did she tell you to come here?" John asked.
"No." River said.
"You know I won't touch you, right?" John asked.
"Yes." River said.
River knew John wouldn't touch her, she also knew he wanted to. She always felt it when he looked at her. He felt it for the other girls too. It was just stronger for her.
"Then why are you here?" John asked.
"I must try to help Cameron." River said.
"I don't understand Cameron anymore." John said.
"I do, I see everything in her mind. She's going to destroy herself, John. I need to do this for her, or take her back to my future with me when I go. Maybe we need to go further into the future. She belongs here but if she stays she will self-terminate. It's the only reason I'm here. It's for HER. I must save her."
"Do YOU want to 'do this'?" John asked.
"No." River said. "I don't WANT to."
"Then why are you here?" John asked.
"I'll do anything for Cameron. She's like no other. I'm like no other. We must 'help' each other. No one understands us. No one CAN understand us. We should go into the future of my future. Maybe we'll be accepted there. I can't protect her HERE. I can't protect her from herself."
"River, I can't do 'this' to you." John said. "Not like this. I can't."
Cameron came into the room. There was a look of sadness on her face. She said nothing.
River got up and straightened her dress. She walked out of the room with Cameron.
Cameron took River's hand as they walked away.
River looked back once as the door closed behind them….
Closing monologue by Cameron:
Dance Is The Hidden Language Of The Soul
Dance is fluidity of movement
Whether it is styled or freelance
It can physically express one's feelings
Even take a cunning chance
With proper choreography
And a well timed glance
One can send a signal
Even a desire for romance
With good form
And a proper stance
One can enthrall the spectators
Hold them in a binding trance
Dance is poetry in motion
Smoothly sidestep or advance
Pirouettes, spin, turn, back step
Or expand and enhance
One can physically express emotion
It can help make one whole
To those who appreciate metamorphosis
Dance is the hidden language of the soul
Nobody