Chapter 674

Candy

Cammy received the warning from John in the Command Center. There was a possibility that the 'Metal Bitch' tried to pull a fast one. She was to check it out further. She pulled her Taser and backed away from the female. She scanned her further. She was pretty sure that no Terminator, especially a female one, would look like that.

"She's not Metal." Cammy said.

The female looked at Cammy and wondered what she was talking about.

The female appeared to be in better condition then she'd expected to find her in. She must have been very compliant with the Gray's demands.

The girl felt a little indignant at her appearance, for more than a few reasons.

"What's 'metal'?" The girl asked. "I'm naked and as sore as Hell, both in front and in back…. Look at me. I feel dizzy too."

Cammy offered no further explanation.

Gail joined Cammy with Savannah and Jesse.

Jesse looked at the female and knew exactly how she felt and what she'd been through. It happened to her dozens of times. It was always worse in a Scavenger camp. If someone stopped, they were punished.

Savannah looked at the female even though she tried not to. She couldn't imagine what she'd just been through. She was aware that this happened to 'her' in the future as Vanna. The part about it that troubled her the most was that it started for Vanna at an early age. She felt the bile rise in her throat. She was able to contain it and not vomit. She needed to fight the impulse four different times before she was able to get it under control. She'd never even been with a male yet. She knew that was something she needed to take care of. To look at the female was no motivation at all to give it a try. She felt the bile start to rise again as she watched the female.

When Gail looked at the female she needed to look away. She was afraid her eyes would start to glow red. She was aware that this is what Jesse went through growing up from an early age all through her teenage years. It angered her to no end. She knew she needed to keep it under control. She was able to do so with much difficulty.

Jesse and Savannah found clothes for the female and helped her.

Savannah looked at the female again as she helped her dress. She imagined what was done to her. She only wondered what that must have been like.

Jesse looked with disgust at what was obviously done to the female. She'd been in similar situations in the past, the future. She knew what it was like to be abused. Like Vanna, she felt it was more horrific when a group of men held her down and took turns one after another. Somehow that made it all worse as they would all comment and jeer as each man took his turn one after another. They would constantly grope her, insult her, laugh at her and physically hurt her just to make sure she screamed enough.

She talked to the female. She told her it would be OK. She wanted to tell her she'd been through the same thing, many times. She looked over at Savannah and said nothing. She still felt the shame and embarrassment for what was done to her. She knew she did it to others as well. She felt even more shame and embarrassment for those actions. She'd hurt both men and women who were still alive. She thought it would make the hole in her soul not hurt as much. It only seemed to make it hurt more. Derek made her stop any further 'activity' of that nature. That was the 'price' for Derek to be with her. No more 'Scavenger like' activity. It was a good thing too.

Savannah kept watch as Cammy and Gail went through the computers. She glanced back at Jesse as she comforted the girl. She knew Vanna and Jesse both suffered that way. It was a thought that was very hard to get out of her mind to actually see the results close up as she'd just done. Somehow it made it even more real than it already was.

John wanted to get the operation concluded. They could collect some of their personnel from the top of the mountain as well as the captured HK drones from the old packing house.

"Cam, lift off and get the girl." John said. "Then go down, let her off, and pick up one of the captured drones from the packing house. They've moved them outside. They are ready to lift."

Cam was ready to go. She sat at the temporary desert base with Hanna and two of Cameron's Terminators. The Iroquois was burning and turning and ready to lift off.

"We're off." Cam reported.

John Henry viewed the detainee as a liability. She'd pretty much seen everything that happened and what the resolution of it was upon the mountain. He wanted to know what her final disposition should be.

"What about the girl?" John Henry asked.

John looked at John Henry for a moment before he spoke. He wondered what he was getting at.

"I don't know." John said. "Let me ask Savannah or Jesse."

John spoke with Savannah and she came up with an option. Savannah didn't want her terminated. He wasn't so sure that some of the other Terminators might question her involvement in everything that happened so far. The fact she was still alive showed she'd 'cooperated' to some extent.

Savannah was a little worried about the future of the female. She thought she might have a better chance if she was far away from everything that happened to her recently. She didn't want to give anyone an excuse to terminate her.

"Jesse, I need you and Gail to accompany the female." Savannah said. "You talk to her and give it to her straight. I want her to have a future of some kind after this but away from this state."

The female hadn't spoken much, she seemed to be in a daze or drugged to some extent. It didn't seem like shock.

Jesse looked the female over one more time. They'd been able to reassure her some.

"OK, love." Jesse said. "Gail…."

Gail reached down and picked up the female. She carried her away from the bunker.

A few minutes later, Cam's UH-1 came over the crest of the mountain and set down. Gail carried the girl over and set her inside the helicopter. Jesse and Gail climbed in. It took off. The UH-1 came and went in less than thirty seconds.

Savannah watched them fly away. It bothered her very much to know that things like that happened to 'her'. Well, to Vanna anyway. A different future version of her but it was still her. She knew they happened to Jesse too. Now she needed to wonder if they would ever happen to her. She was well aware that it happened to all the females in the future regardless of age or what they looked like. All of them were assaulted. For most of them it was multiple times. In the futures that she'd visited every female that she'd talked with suffered from the same fate. Sometimes she wondered if she was the only virgin in either of those two futures she'd been to. It was a very unsettling thought.

Earlier:

Cameron moved through the passageway. She calculated she was headed directly towards the communications array, even though it was underground.

A burst of silenced rounds was fired down the passageway in their direction.

Cameron took some hits. That only furthered her resolve that there needed to be some type of retribution.

Cameron, Bob and Steve all opened up in response. Their Coltan rounds silenced the hostile fire. There was a momentary lull in the shooting.

She crashed through the door at the end of the passageway. There was an extensive array of computer equipment and armed technicians. She and her team killed everyone in seconds. The computer equipment began to smoke and some of it started to burn. The area began to fill with acrid smoke.

Cameron looked around at the dead. All that was there were Grays. There was someone very important that was missing.

"Where's the 'Metal Bitch'?" Cameron asked.

They couldn't find her.

Cameron was very upset that the 'Metal Bitch' was nowhere around. She wanted the area they were in destroyed.

"Pull the hard drives and then use Thermite to destroy everything." Cameron said. "Collapse this room and the passageway with some C-4 when you pull out. Make it fast."

Cameron headed back out the way she'd come, only two of the team stayed behind with Thermite grenades and some C-4. She returned to the bunker entrance.

Cammy already pulled the hard drives out of the equipment in the first room. She looked up as Cameron reentered the area.

"Did you find her?" Cammy asked. "Where's the 'Metal Bitch'?"

"No." Cameron said. "I don't know where she's at or how she escaped."

Cameron directed her team to collect the bodies on the mountain and bring them to the bunker. They would all be sealed in the passageway before the opening to the bunker was blown closed. It would be their tomb.

Cam's UH-1 landed at the old packing house.

Jesse and Gail took the girl away when Cam set down. It was before Cam hooked up to the first drone. They took one of the white vans and drove off as Cam lifted off with the drone slung underneath the Iroquois.

The girl regained her composure. She was still a little distressed. She watched the Iroquois leave with some strange looking object secured below it. She was going to ask about it.

Jesse interrupted her thoughts.

"Do you want medical attention?" Jesse asked her.

The girl thought about her treatment by the abusive group. They'd slapped her around some and beat her. She didn't even know how many times she'd been abused. That was all she'd been 'given' for food and water. She almost gagged again and she thought about it. She'd already vomited once.

"No." The girl said. "They didn't break anything on me yet. I did everything they asked. I saw them kill another girl before. It was at a different place. They laughed when they did it."

Jesse swallowed hard as she tried to console the girl. She felt very guilty even as she did so. She'd abused a few females in the future. She allowed them to live afterwards.

"I've seen that before." Jesse said.

Gail was with Cameron, Sheila an Ally a few times when they freed girls from the sex trade. There was one thing she noted about this girl. She didn't seem very fazed about anything that seems to have happened to her. She'd scanned her several times and determined that she wasn't in shock. She was sure that there was a little more going on here than met the eye.

"You seem to handle all of this abuse well." Gail said.

The girl looked a little nervous at Gail's question. It was clearly uncomfortable territory for her to elaborate.

"I've been abused before." The girl said. "Just not like this. It was never more than a few before. It's always a hazard in my 'line of work'. It happens. Not everyone wants to pay the bill."

Gail understood now that her suspicions were correct about the female. She was some type of prostitute. She seemed to be a very 'low end' one at that. She figured that she was picked up off of the street.

Jesse was away from Savannah. She felt more comfortable telling the female about herself. There was some comfort in shared pain and to 'know' what it was like….

"It's happened to me before too, several times." Jesse said. "At least you survived intact."

Jesse looked at Gail but Gail looked away.

The girl didn't feel threatened currently. She was clearly nervous about her current status and who exactly it was that she was in the 'custody' of.

"Who are you people?" The girl asked.

Gail was afraid that Jesse might be a little too talkative because she felt a 'kinship' to the experience the girl went through.

"We're the people who saved you and gave you your life back." Gail said. "We ask you to leave it at that. We can't divulge any more."

The girl couldn't tell that much but she did want to tell them one thing that she'd heard several times.

"Those people were some kind of terrorists or something like that." The girl said. "I heard them talking about 'taking over'."

Gail wanted to ease her mind and reassure them the situation was taken care of. There was also one other thing that she didn't want her to do.

"They are all dead." Gail said. "You can't go to the police about this."

The girl looked around nervously when Gail mentioned the police.

"I'm not about to go to the police. I have a record." The girl said. "I'm 'wanted' for more than a few things. I jumped bail. There are a few jurisdictions that would like to have a further conversation with me about my 'employment' and some other things."

Jesse understood sometimes a girl needed to do what she needed to do to survive. She'd needed to trade sex for food on quite a few occasions. In reality it was the same thing but the girl did for a living. She'd needed to do it to survive. She shook her head to clear her mind. She didn't want to dwell in the past. The future was an ugly place.

"Do you have a name, love?" Jesse asked.

The girl managed a faint smile. It was clear she felt a little more comfortable right now.

"It's Candy." She said. "I'm a 'working girl'. I'm not proud of it and I certainly wouldn't want my parents to know about it but I need to eat."

The girl's words touched Jesse deeply inside. Survival seemed to come in many forms. Most of them we're just that - survival.

"Well, Candy." Jesse said. "I recommend you get a safer 'profession' and never come back to this part of the country. You don't want those people to find you again. They don't like loose ends."

Candy looked a little confused.

"I thought that you said they were all dead." Candy said.

Jesse wanted to clarify her statement some.

"The men are. They were the ones who assaulted you." Jesse said. "The female got away."

Candy cringed a little when Jesse mentioned the aggressive and cold blooded female leader. She's been very forceful and abusive to her. Somehow she was incredibly strong even though she didn't look like it. It still creeped her out the way the female leader watched her her.

"She's the one behind it all." Candy said. "She was the one who was going to bust me up when the men were done. She said she was going to show them how to make it last for hours. I tried to buy time. I did everything they asked for…."

Jesse wondered why the girl was restrained if she was compliant with the demands of the Grays.

"Why were you tied up?" Jesse asked. "One of our team freed you."

There was a look of contempt on Candy's face.

"That crazy Bitch was going to start on me when she came back." Candy said.

Gail hoped that Candy would reveal a little bit more. She knew that the 'Metal Bitch' was able to escape somehow.

"Where did she go?" Gail asked.

Candy didn't know. She'd already told them everything that she knew when she was untied.

"I showed them where." Candy said. "I saw her go in there."

Gail scanned Candy as she spoke.

She nodded at Jesse to indicate everything that Candy said was true.

Gail relayed the information to John Henry.

They were still left with a big mystery and no answers.

Cameron was very upset the 'Metal Bitch' slipped away. She hoped the 'Metal Bitch' was still inside hiding somewhere when they blew the place up. Somehow she doubted that. the 'Metal Bitch' was able to elude them and that didn't set well with her. She wanted a better answer and to know for sure. This was a loose end she couldn't accept. Maybe it was time to try a new approach.

"John Henry, see if you can get a hit on any of the phones that showed up at this location before, anywhere." Cameron asked.

John Henry ended the communications block. He replied a few seconds later.

"I have one." John Henry said. "It's at the lodge."

Cameron put it all together. She understood what that meant and what was about to happen.

"Cut the power." Cameron said. "I don't want that 'Metal Bitch' to get away."

As soon as John Henry got the 'ping' from the phone, it was the first thing that he'd done.

"I already have." John Henry said. "They have backup generators. They will be online soon. I can't get to them."

Cameron hoped that there would be some type of time lag before the emergency equipment was turned on.

"How long will that be?" Cameron asked.

"Ten minutes tops." John Henry said. "It will probably sooner."

Cameron immediately took off running.

"I can't make it there that fast." Cameron said.

She increased her speed to her maximum Terminator ability.

John Henry did have some encouraging news to give her.

"The cable cars were at the mid section when I killed the juice. They'll have to finish their trip and dock to unload and load." John Henry said. "I can send Gail and Jesse back to the base station quicker. They're already headed in that direction to get their SUV anyway."

Cameron didn't want anybody else up on the mountain top to get involved, especially Savannah.

"Do it." Cameron said. "I'll tell Cammy and Savannah what I'm doing later on."

Cameron didn't want Savannah to try to follow her. There was going to be a fight to termination for one of them when she caught that 'Metal Bitch'. She hoped that she wasn't the one that was terminated. There is no way to be sure. The 'Metal Bitch' was very elusive.

Savannah looked around. All the other Terminators returned from collecting the bodies scattered about the mountain side.

"Where's Cameron?" Savannah asked.

"She went with the others." Cammy said as she looked over the hard drives.

Savannah tried to contact Cameron.

"She's not answering." Savannah said. "John Henry where's Cameron at?"

John Henry felt justified to tell Savannah where Cameron was. He'd thought it was a bad move on Cameron's part anyway.

"She went after the 'Metal Bitch'." John Henry said.

Savannah felt an immediate sense of alarm.

"When?" Savannah asked. "Where?"

John Henry was only sure of the phone 'ping' and not necessarily who actually had possession of that phone currently.

"Eight minutes ago." John Henry said. "She went to the lodge. It may not be the 'Metal Bitch' but another Gray. I don't know for sure."

The last team returned with the bodies. They dumped them in the passageway.

It looked to Savannah that all their Terminators were now concentrated around the bunker opening.

"Do we have any of our team near Cameron?" Savannah asked.

John Henry doubted that Savannah was going to like the answer.

"No." John Henry said. "Gail and Jesse are headed back to the base station."

Savannah hoped not to put them in danger.

"Cammy, can you go after her?" Savannah asked.

Cammy made a quick distance and time calculation.

"Not before she leaves if she gets on a cable car." Cammy said.

Sheila was tired of sitting on the ground with the rotor turning on the UH-1. Ally and her missed the entire operation. She received a message from CamNet. That was all she needed to take action. She cranked up the power and lifted off with the Iroquois.

"We're airborne." Sheila reported. "Savannah, we're coming to get you and Cammy."

John was dissatisfied with the turn of events as well. He wasn't sure that it was such a good idea to put Savannah in more danger.

"On whose orders?" John asked. "I didn't authorize that."

Sheila felt more than justified by her actions.

"I received the message from CamNet." Sheila said. "We're to take four of our Terminators with us. We're to transport Cammy and Savannah to the base of the mountain where Gail and Jesse will pick them up. The Blackhawk will pick up the remainder of the team. Both helicopters will each take a drone afterwards, like Cam did."

They all knew this was going to get worse, before it got better.

What they didn't know was, is how much worse it would get.

Pretty Little Head

Inside a pretty little head
The mind is a maze
Once you look inside of it
It becomes a daze

There are many things
To ponder and think about
Some we can whisper
Others we may shout

If there's a beginning
There must be an end
Are we part of the equation
Or do we only pretend

Can anyone hear us
Do they even care
We try and reach out
Is it so wrong to share

When our time is up
We all end up dead
Maybe someone will remember
The voice from a pretty little head

Nobody