Chapter 282

Friendlies

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In Some Future:

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Cameron made sure the girls were as secure as they could be. She was able to collect a little more food and water along the way back from some of the dead Grays when she obtained her Skynet uniform and the other clothing. It wasn't much, but it something to start with.

Once she was sure the girls were as secure as she could make them, she headed out to infiltrate the Skynet facility. She hid the girls away with supplies and told them not to move for at least two days if she wasn't back sooner. She didn't want them to jump the gun like they almost did before. It would have been a mistake for them to venture out earlier. She didn't want to see it happen again. She MADE them promise to wait at least two days. If she didn't return, they were to make their way back to the Resistance complex. They weren't supposed to attempt to find her. If she was captured or destroyed, the same thing would happen to them. They would have to start their lives over from that point. It would mean they were most likely marooned there until their deaths. It was a sobering prospect.

Cameron obtained a couple of sets of communications gear from some of the terminated Terminators. She altered the frequency. She set a random list of times for the girls to turn it on. It was only at those specific times when she would transmit. She would use Bob's voice. She told them to never turn it on otherwise. The communication units showed the time on them.

She left the girls with tears in their eyes. She was ready to give each of them a real kiss before she departed. She wasn't sure if she'd return. The prospects of success seemed slim at best.

Vanna stopped her. She didn't think the circumstances were right.

"I'll save my real kiss for when we get out of this mess." Vanna said.

Vanna feared if she kissed Cameron for real, it would be the 'kiss of death' and she would never see her again. It turned out it was the same 'feeling' Jesse and Allison shared as well. It wasn't a good feeling.

Cameron was a little surprised. She gave the girls all a kiss on the cheek and a long slow hug before she departed. She blocked the entrance into their hiding place from the outside again and left. The girls could push the barrier out of the way in a specific order the way the rocks were stacked.

She thought about going through the battlefield once again to see if there was anything she missed. She decided it was too risky. With the two downed HK drones, and the third one which investigated the area where the girls were currently hidden, made it seem like too big of a chance.

Cameron slowly worked her way toward the Skynet facility. She didn't have any idea what awaited her or what would happen. Everything was an unknown. She knew she may be terminated as soon as she was spotted. It was a risk she needed to take to see if there was a TDE. She needed to get back to John. She needed to stop John and Riley from starting a relationship. It would be new for Riley, but it would be a continuation in John's mind for him. He would rapidly move events along. She was a number of years in the future from when she left. She could only imagine they must have been together thousands and thousands of times by now. She needed to suppress a glitch impulse.

She passed by the location where the Scavengers took the deceased female, along with the plasma mine. Their bunker complex was blown open. There were the remains, or pieces of remains, of everyone who was inside of the bunker. It was a burnt out mess. She determined the Scavenger she encountered was just about to enter the bunker when the mine went off. It was the only reason he survived. It wasn't for long.

She encountered other things along the way she found 'different'. It seemed the version of Skynet there was in no hurry to collect the terminated Terminators. She was able to collect two chips from destroyed Terminators so far. In her future, Skynet collected them after every battle. She made a point to collect the power cells of the Terminators. They could be used as an energy source, or the power cell itself could be ruptured and used as an explosive device. It always created an extremely powerful explosion when they were ruptured.

Cameron was as relieved as she was surprised to find the remains of a female Terminator. She wanted to make sure there were female Terminators before she arrived at the Skynet facility. It would set off more than a few red flags if she was the only female Terminator there. They would probably think she was a Restorator who attempted to infiltrate their facility. They actually wouldn't be too far off the mark. She was able to remove her chip and power cell as well. She was a little disturbed to see there were several sections of her sheath removed. No doubt it was the work of Scavengers.

She came across an HK Transport which crashed. It must have been shot down or experienced mechanical failure. It was relatively intact. She was able to familiarize herself with the controls and navigation equipment. She removed its transponder. There were the decomposing remains of a dozen humans on board. Three of them were females. All three of them were bottomless with their tops torn open. They were lined up side by side. They were most likely abused after they were deceased. It appeared the Scavenger problem in the current timeline was unchecked and appeared to be more deviant. The commander of the Resistance base told her it was unsafe for any female to be out in the Wastelands. From what she witnessed so far, it may be an understatement. Even in death, a female appeared to be 'fair game'. She planned to terminate any Scavengers she came across.

She found another Terminator in the rear section who was partially crushed. His body was flattened out below his neck and shoulders. There was a beam which crushed his lower legs. It appeared he was abused. She was surprised to see his eyes open. He couldn't move or speak. She was sure someone abused him because he was trapped and aware. She removed his chip and ended his existence. She now possessed four chips. It seemed like a very indignant way for Terminator to go out to her.

She was about to exit from the downed transport when she spotted something. There was some movement off to the side. She wasn't sure if it was a human or an animal. She replayed her file several times. The only thing she was sure of was there was movement. She decided to go out on the other side of the downed transport. She didn't want to go back out the way she went in. There was a good chance someone spotted her and was waiting to ambush her when she came out. She thought it was best to let them think she was still inside of it. She needed to consider it could be a roving patrol of the Resistance. She needed to keep in mind she could be viewed as the enemy by every group.

Cameron made her way out the other side of the transport. She was able to move into a depression in the ground. She needed to stay low to remain hidden. She moved around the front side of the downed transport for several hundred feet. She was able to move behind some bushes. She quickly made her way towards where she spotted the movement earlier. She remained concealed as much as she could.

She reached the area where she spotted the movement. There was no one there. She didn't spot any footprints or any animal tracks. The ground was hard. She couldn't tell what caused the movement she spotted. It was very slight but there was definitely movement. She would need to keep her eyes open as she continued her journey. There was a good chance she may have been acquired by someone. So far they hadn't taken a shot at her. She continued her journey.

She hadn't gone far when there was some movement behind her. She didn't slow down or speed up. There was a group of trees up ahead. She passed by several until she was sure the view behind her was blocked. She quickly moved into the trees and backtracked off to the side. She could hear some running footsteps. There was definitely someone tracking her.

Cameron continued to move through the trees. She made her way in behind the pursuing figure. She wanted to make sure there were no others behind them. There weren't.

The figure was just up ahead of her. They were behind a tree and looked in the direction she last went. They appeared to be a Scavenger to her. It was why he was tracking her. He wouldn't know she was a Terminator for sure, even if he suspected it. If he thought she was human, he would try to capture her. It wasn't going to happen.

She moved up quietly behind him and 'rabbit punched' him in the base of the neck. He was terminated instantly. She searched his body for anything valuable. There was nothing. She was disturbed by a few of the things she did find. There is no doubt he was definitely a Scavenger. She drug his body several hundred feet off to the side and dumped it behind another tree. She made her way back to where she was and made sure there was no one else behind her.

Cameron continued her clandestine trek. After a some time she knew she was close to the Skynet facility. She slowed her progress considerably as she checked around her in all directions. She could hear some noise off in the distance. She moved up to the trunk of a tree and carefully looked around the side of it. She spotted a patrol wearing Skynet uniforms. She closed up on the Skynet Terminators. She was ready to make her move. She previously obtained a complete Skynet uniform on her various forays. She put the rest of it on and checked over her uniform. It appeared to look like the others. She caught up to the patrol.

She lagged behind the returning patrol as they entered the facility. She came in last. So far no alarms were sounded or raised. She blended in better than she thought would happen. She just needed to remember to keep a blank look on her face. The Terminators there all appeared to be emotionless and expressionless. Even the Terminators there were sloppy. Skynet was too confident in all of its victories. Maybe they figure nobody in their right mind would try to sneak into a Skynet facility. There were many times where she wondered if she was sane. She checked everything out and noted where everything was. She didn't want to seem out of place.

There were Grays working around the facility as well as Resistance prisoners at work doing dangerous jobs. They would be worked to death, or until the toxins killed them. Skynet Terminators and Grays didn't care. Other prisoners would have to move the contaminated bodies away.

Cameron carried no weapon currently since most of the Terminators didn't either as they went about their tasks. She stored hers when the others did to blend in. There was an arms locker a short way inside the entrance. All of the other Terminators she followed in dispersed to other areas. She was soon all alone.

She noticed a Terminator look at her. There was a rank emblem on the uniform. It looked like trouble.

The Terminator approached her. She was ready to bolt.

"Why are you away from your post?" The Terminator asked her.

Cameron needed to base her answers on past experience from the two futures she was previously in.

"I need to get some more prisoners. The ones I was supervising have all terminated." Cameron said. "They were cleaning toxic chemicals. They didn't last very long."

The Terminator who questioned her didn't seem to care. It probably happened a few times every day, if not more.

"A new batch will arrive soon. There's a transport on its way from Yuma." The Terminator told her.

Cameron needed to take a gamble. She didn't want to seem out of place.

"Which landing area should I wait at?" Cameron asked. "I can't delay."

The Terminator looked somewhat irritated.

"They are scheduled to arrive at the one on the east side of this facility." The Terminator told her. "It's where it always lands with incoming prisoners."

Cameron didn't want to raise any suspicions. It was probably something she already did.

"Affirmative…." Cameron replied and headed in the proper direction.

The blank look on her face was an old familiar one. It disturbed her so to have it on her face again. She found it hard to believe she once looked the same way all the time. She wondered if it was why they hated her so much at first. It seemed like they hated her for a lot of reasons. Most of them were things she could do nothing about.

Cameron wanted to commandeer the transport once it landed. It was going to be tricky. She knew she needed to get 'help'. There was no time to go back and get the girls. She thought of another way to do it.

She passed two Grays who were abusive to the prisoners they watched over. She watched as one of them approached a female. He chided her on her performance. He punched her in the lower back. She doubled over in pain. She said something back to him. He slapped her and knocked her down. He said she was only good for one thing, and she was lousy at it as well. The other prisoners kept working like nothing happened. To do otherwise would invite punishment or death.

The Gray grabbed her by her hair and drug her around in back of some machinery. It seemed the female would most likely be abused. The other workers continued to work as if it was a normal procedure. It probably was. She couldn't stop or help anyone right now. Her priority was to get the girls home and get back to John.

She continued her trek to go to the east side. Several HK drones were parked around the area. She didn't see anyone else around where she was at. She didn't want any of them to be sent after her when she hijacked the Skynet transport. She decided to sabotage all of them. They should malfunction less than a minute into flight. She did it so they would crash in flight, rather than not lift off the ground and be repaired. They would all be damaged in some way as they fell from the sky. The higher the altitude was, the greater the damage would be.

Cameron looked around the area without trying to look like she was looking. There was some type of test area. It was heavily guarded. She didn't know if there was a TDE there are not. Based upon her observation of the location so far, she didn't think so. There were female Terminators there. The area would need further inspection. She saw she might get an opportunity.

She followed behind two Terminators taking a group of prisoners there. One of the prisoners tried to run. She moved in and grabbed him. She put him in a choke hold until he blacked out. She picked him up and carried him in after the others. He regained consciousness very quickly. It was what she wanted to remain there with them. He thrashed and struggled to get away to no avail. She didn't like to do it, but the man's fate was already sealed. He would be tested on, and terminated one way or the other. She felt a slight glitch impulse.

'The girls and John'. Cameron needed to tell herself. She couldn't worry about anyone else now. 'The girls and John'. 'The girls and John'. 'The girls and John'….

She was a little surprised at what the area actually was once she was inside. It was a cloning facility where Terminators were copied after specific humans. They received a sheath which was made based on the DNA of the individual. It appeared they made specific infiltration units there. It was much the same way she was created from Future Allison. It sickened her to even think such a place existed. There was no thinking involved. She was in the room. She turned the man over to another Terminator and quietly moved over to the programming area. She spotted a crude 'Neural Interface' machine. It would most likely kill the individual involved with using it. It was very primitive. The one she created was far superior.

On her way to the Skynet facility, she collected four chips from Terminators she found already terminated on her scouting mission. She was able to modify some electrical equipment to interface with her neck port. It was a standard Skynet connection. She proceeded to erase the four chips. So far she was able to copy her complete program onto three of them. She just started on a fourth when trouble arrived. She was surprised it took so long to happen.

"What are you doing?" A Gray asked her.

She was so busy with her task she didn't see where they came from.

"I'm working." Cameron said. "You may assist me."

The Gray moved closer to where Cameron was at.

Cameron looked quickly around. She reached over and snapped his neck. She hid his body behind some equipment. She was aware she just started a new 'time clock'. There was no way for her to dispose of the body. It would only be a matter of time until someone found it and raised the alarm.

She quickly removed the three chips and the fourth one she just started. She would complete it some other time. She needed to be ready to move.

Cameron removed a live power cable from the back of the machinery where the Gray's body was hidden. She could feel the energy surging through the wire. She didn't have a Taser, so it would have to do. She used a live power cable before on a Terminator to shock him offline. It gave her a hundred and twenty seconds to work. She would need far less time to do what she planned. She thought about calling over the first Terminator she spotted. She decided she didn't want any male chassis yet.

She went and found the closest female Terminator. She brought her over to where the electrical wire waited. She showed her the downed Gray. When the female Terminator bent over to check on him, she shocked the female Terminator.

Cameron quickly removed her chip and replaced it with a copy of her chip. While she waited for her 'program clone' to reboot, she went and found another female Terminator. She did the same thing, and then once again. Now there were three 'program clones' of her with a copy of her chip. All three of them were of a different appearance. There were now four 'Cameron program' Terminators. There were 'four' of 'her' right now in essence.

She searched further. There was no TDE at the location. She didn't find any indication of one either in the computers. It didn't seem like a good thing. Then again, it would be 'Top Secret'.

Two more HK drones returned. Several Terminators arrived to rearm them. After they were done, she sabotaged those HK drones as well.

Several other Terminators arrived and waited for the transport to land. They were there to collect prisoners for other tasks and put them to work.

She could soon hear the loud whine of the transport. It came into view less than thirty seconds later and landed. It was a medium size one. It would work for what Cameron wanted. The only drawback was it was unarmed. She was sure once she commandeered it, there would be some HK drones sent after her to force it down, or shoot it down. She figured there would be a lot of confusion at first.

At some point the Gray would be found, and the three missing Terminators would be noticed. It would take a little time before someone was able to put it all together and realize what actually occurred. They wouldn't know exactly what it was. There was no way they could. They would probably think it was the work of an escaped prisoner. She didn't think all of the prisoners would be executed in retaliation. They needed them to work.

Cameron watched as the prisoners were taken off the transport. Most of them were men. There were only a few women and one girl. The blank look on the girl's face worried her. Her mind was 'separate' from her body at this point. It was usually an indication of a traumatic experience. She didn't have to imagine too hard what it probably was.

She entered the transport and removed some electrical components so it couldn't take back off. She could easily fix the problem and commandeer it when she needed it. There were a few things she wanted to take care of first.

Cameron saw the females were separated from the men. Maybe she could help them. She quickly thought of a plausible excuse. She approached the male Terminator who was about to take them away.

"I need small bodies for my work detail." Cameron said. "I'm taking the female prisoners. They won't last long."

Cameron was disturbed by the torn and ripped clothing they wore….

She took the women and the girl. They were all very frightened and crying. She was with her three clones.

Cameron looked around and spoke to the females. She wanted to give them hope.

"If you want to live, come with me." Cameron said.

The women looked up and the crying stopped. It wasn't what they expected.

"Who are you?" A young woman asked.

Cameron smiled at them. It was the first smile they saw on a Terminator since their capture.

"I'm a friend." Cameron said. "I have some other female 'detainees' I need to retrieve."

The blank look on the girl's face came to life. Suddenly there was a ray of hope.

"Are you a Restorator?" The girl asked. "I heard about how they're helping us."

Cameron knew of Mrs. Weaver's force of Terminators. They were known as Restorators.

"Yes." Cameron said. "I'm here to help you. These three female Restorators will assist you. They are 'me'. I mean with me."

Cameron explained to her three clones what she needed them to do….

She left her three clones there and departed to get Allison, Jesse, and Vanna ready to be picked up. It wasn't time for a scheduled communication yet. Everything progressed much more quickly than she anticipated. She would need to return there in person.

Cameron was afraid she would be challenged on the way out but she wasn't. She passed by the location where the Gray drug the one female to earlier. There were several other Grays there now. They appeared to take 'turns'. She felt another glitch impulse and turned away. She couldn't save everyone. Her priorities were very clear about what needed to be done. She pushed what she just viewed from her mind.

'The girls and John'. Cameron needed to tell herself. She couldn't worry about anyone else now. 'The girls and John'. 'The girls and John'. 'The girls and John'….

There was another patrol about to head out. She collected her weapon and followed behind them. They were soon a short distance from the compound. She slipped away from them. She made sure she wasn't followed.

Cameron knew her clones would be able to pull everything off. They were all 'her' at this point, only with a different sheath or appearance. They all ran her program and her program was 'her'.

She knew she needed to hurry to make the rendezvous. She hoped not to encounter any delays. She needed to travel a long distance.

She needed to travel a longer distance to get back to be with John. He was in the company of Riley. She needed to get back and stop him. She knew it wouldn't be the new version of Riley's fault. It would all be on John.

Closing monologue by Cameron:

Lonely Task

You don't need her
It's what I'm for
I too am as real as her
I can be so much more

The punishment for my actions
Led you to the arms of another
You are killing me softly
As surely as if you would smother

Why can you not see
She's a mistake
It's with me that
Your love should partake

I can only watch and cry
I won't do
What I want to do to her
I know it would only hurt you

Here is a gift
You know what it is I really ask
I myself can not do it on my own
PLEASE complete this lonely task

Nobody