Chapter 741

Our Duty

Cameron watched Savannah after the female Gray was terminated. She wasn't sure what her reaction was going to be. She was even less sure what Savannah's reaction to her was going to be.

Savannah looked at her but said nothing.

It was the first time Savannah killed someone with her bare hands, even if Cameron helped. It wasn't the first time she'd killed a Gray in cold blood.

Cameron was pleased Savannah was 'hardened'. Savannah would need to be to survive in the Wastelands and not be abused. Survival often meant who killed who first. It was just that simple.

She pulled her clothes out of the pile of weapons and garments. She took off her bikini and dressed in front of the others.

John watched her without watching as did everyone else.

It made no difference to Cameron. She liked how she looked and apparently so did everyone else. She was aware that Ally watched her as intently as did everyone else. Their sheaths were identical.

Cameron was a little concerned about Cammy because she hadn't come to see Savannah earlier. She'd sent Gail in her place instead.

"Savannah, let's go check on Cammy." Cameron said.

She watched Savannah look back at the bathroom one time and then head for the door. She went outside with Savannah to catch up with Cammy.

Savannah still didn't say anything.

The other girls all dressed as well. John tried not to look as the girls put their clothes on around him. It might have been easier for him not to look but they made a point of doing it in front of him. He knew they were messing with him because they all thought that he'd been with Savannah. They probably all had a little extra motivation to be able to do this in front of Cameron even if it wasn't directly in front of her. The Metal girls all liked to show a little independence and wouldn't mind to give Cameron a slap in the face whenever they could. They all needed to adhere to her demands and rules or face deactivation. There were times when the atmosphere could turn very tense. Cameron wasn't always known to wait for voluntary chip extraction. She would just as soon use a Taser first to bring down the potential target.

John needed to refocus on the operation. He coordinated everything with John Henry now. He also followed up on the three teams that were looking for the three trucks. So far they'd turned up nothing. John Henry and CamNet were all over that part of the operation as well.

Bob filled John in on the intel he was able to extract from the interrogations that he'd conducted. His main focus was the property manager from the nuclear power plant. He thought that they'd been able to develop some solid leads, especially from the last two interrogations Cameron conducted. They'd both been a little brutal but proved fruitful for the information gleaned.

"John Henry has all of the Gray's phone data. We have the location the Grays used as a base." Bob said.

John was pleased that they now possessed several starting points to look into. He still wanted to get his hands on the trucks and the HK equipment that was inside of them. He felt that it was his fault for not listening to Cameron and the other Terminators when they told him previously that they should take what they could get, when they could get it.

"I think we'll have a few new leads." John said.

John Henry was also able to free up several more teams of Terminators and dispatch them to the San Luis Obispo region.

"Two additional teams of Metal have arrived in the area." John Henry said.

John was pleased to learn that. He wanted to try to keep his current force with Savannah, Cameron and the Metal girls together.

"Have them recon the area the Grays we terminated used for a base. I want to see what they can turn up." John said.

John Henry was a little surprised at John's decision. He knew that with Cameron there that she normally liked to be the one to lead operations of that nature. He thought that he should stress that point a little. He was sure it would cause John a problem later on if he didn't.

"You don't want Cameron to handle it?" John Henry asked.

John didn't think Cameron should be going into combat right now. She needed to deal with a lot of personal issues. He was glad for the additional Terminators that were sent to the area. They would help take some of that pressure off of Cameron.

"I want some intel first." John said. "Cameron wants action first."

John finished up with John Henry for now.

Ally looked around the room at the dead bodies that were in it.

"We have six stiffs to deal with." Ally said.

Ally wondered about her choice of words and she looked at the terminated property manager from the nuclear power plant. He was anything but 'stiff' at this point. When they'd entered the room earlier, he'd been firmly 'planted' inside the female Gray.

Gail wanted to point out part of her contribution as well. She thought she'd been very effective in bringing down her target.

"Plus the two stiffs in the vehicles." Gail said.

Sheila, like Ally earlier, wanted to mess with John a little. She thought the current drift of the conversation would fit right in with it. With Cameron and Savannah out of the room, she felt a little more emboldened to directly 'confront' John about what they all believed happened.

"We seem to have a lot of 'stiffs' around here today, don't we, John?" Sheila asked.

There were two loud 'clasps' as Sheila and Ally high fived each other up high and then down low.

Gail immediately looked over at Ally and Sheila when they did that. It irritated her immensely.

Bob looked over at them and frowned as well.

Gail and Bob were clearly not amused. Then again, they didn't have the 'Neural Interface' with the human girls, like Ally and Sheila did. They really seemed almost human at times to the other Terminators. The other Terminators all found that somewhat irritating at some of the antics they pulled. There was often quite a bit of back and forth bickering that went on between Sheila and Ally as well. That was because they deeply loved each other but neither one would ever admit it.

"Stick to what we're dealing with now." Gail said.

Ally didn't want Gail or Bob to concern themselves about how far they were willing to play the 'game'.

"Don't worry, we won't 'rib' Savannah." Ally said. "We all love her too. She's officially a woman now. That's more than I can say about myself."

Sheila moved just in the right way and her left breast popped out of her top. The nipple ring was clearly visible. She made no effort to return it to its proper place inside of her clothing. She looked directly at John as she addressed the others. Without being spoken, this was clearly a sexual invitation to him.

"John is fair game." Sheila said. "We can all officially become 'women' now too."

Cameron previously programmed all the Metal girls to 'submit' to John's sexual demands anytime that they were made. So far he'd never used that 'option' even though he knew it was available to him. None of the Metal girls could say 'no' to him. Cammy often tried on her own to seduced him but was unsuccessful so far. No one was sure if it was because she ran Cameron's program or she wanted to make herself available so John wouldn't need to use Savannah. She may have seen it as a way to 'protect' Savannah.

Bob didn't want to see Savannah or John ribbed about whatever they did in their personal lives. He believed everyone should have the right to choose what they wanted to do, when they wanted to do it and who they wanted to do it with.

"You need to respect other's privacy." Bob said. "I don't want to hear it either."

They were all a little surprised when Cameron suddenly reentered the motel room.

"Nobody does." Cameron said.

Sheila and Ally looked at each other quickly. Now they were a little concerned that they may have taken things a little too far earlier and didn't know exactly what Cameron had or hadn't heard.

John was a little worried too for Sheila and Ally. He also noticed that someone was missing.

Savannah wasn't with Cameron.

"Where's Savannah?" John asked.

Cameron briefly wondered if John was ready to go another 'round' with Savannah already.

"Savannah's with her other lover." Cameron said as she looked at John. "We need to be careful we don't attract attention. There are a lot more people around here now."

Gail wasn't too happy about anything related to John and Savannah. She was concerned for Savannah's well being.

"Savannah needs to get some food." Gail said and then added as an afterthought. "And John does too."

Ally looked at some brochures That were on the table next to the telephone.

"If they like 'clam chowder', there's a place called the 'Custom House' that's the best in town." Ally said. "It says so right here."

Sheila referenced an image of the mollusk that Ally indicated. She immediately came back with a perfect match for part of the human female anatomy.

"John may have tried enough for today." Sheila said.

Ally quickly picked up on Sheila's reference and expanded it a little further. She was aware that both of the references were appropriate for the current situation.

"I think he..." Ally said.

Cameron interrupted Ally.

"Enough…." Cameron said as her eyes flashed red.

John didn't like all the implications and attitude of Ally and Sheila. Now Cameron was back and she was clearly upset. He knew her anger would soon be directed at him. He watched Cameron force Savannah to kill the female Gray with her bare hands. He looked around at the dead in the room.

"Do any of these dead people bother any of you?" John asked.

Cameron looked at John. Her head tilted slightly to the side. The question almost seemed absurd to her based upon her past record in dealing was Grays, sex traffickers and drug kingpins.

"Of course not, why would it?" Cameron asked. "The would all kill you in an instant. They're the enemy. We won and they lost. That's how it should be. We're not the ones who made them choose to serve Skynet. That was their choice. Now they've paid the price."

John looked at Cameron. He was still disturbed by what he saw Savannah do with the female Gray at Cameron's urging. He saw Cameron's hands over Savannah's hands. Savannah couldn't have removed them if she'd tried. Cameron's response didn't sit well with him. He needed to remember the female tried to kill Savannah first. She even said she was going to kill her.

"I saw what you did." John said. "I saw what you MADE Savannah do."

Cameron's earlier actions weren't by chance or only directed at Savannah.

"I know you witnessed everything. I wanted you to see." Cameron said. "It was her decision to act and defend herself. She made the hard choice and carried it out. She's a stronger person because of it now. You should be too by witnessing it. You know all about terminating someone who's helpless and can't defend themselves. I think it's all a matter of perspective."

John was extremely irritated by Cameron's last comment. He knew it was directed at him when he'd pulled her chip, after she told him that she loved him, when she was trapped between the two trucks.

Cameron knew Savannah would need to be able to kill up close and personal. It would help insure her survival. Next time she would have her use a knife. She would go over the areas to stab for a quick kill with Savannah.

Bob took John out of the room. It was now a toxic environment with everyone's comments and emotions.

Ally looked over at Sheila.

Sheila smiled and winked at her.

"It seems Savannah made several 'hard choices' today." Sheila whispered.

"Damn 'straight'." Ally whispered back.

Sheila and Ally were ready to high five again with the last two comments.

Gail moved over and stood in front of them. It was a threat.

Gail didn't like the joking about Savannah.

"Relax, sister." Sheila said.

Gail wanted to make her position clear.

"I'll protect Savannah." Gail said.

Ally thought things became a little over-dramatic.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch." Ally said

Sheila didn't care for the challenge by Gail either. It made her say a few more things that she might not have otherwise.

"Speaking of that, there's a pair of underwear and a bra leftover and they're not the dead girls." Sheila said as she held them up. "

Gail snatched them out of Sheila's hand. They were Savannah's.

That was the final straw for Cameron.

Cameron came over and grabbed Ally and Sheila by their collars. She jerked both of them straight to look at her.

"Let me make it clear what's going to happen if either one of you says one more word about it. I'll deactivate you and crush your chip, right here, right now." Cameron said.

Currently Cameron's eyes glowed bright red.

"RIGHT NOW…." Cameron shouted.

Gail didn't want things to get out of hand.

"I'll handle them, Cameron." Gail said.

Gail was now worried about Sheila's and Ally's safety.

Cameron slowly released them.

They both knew she was serious and at the 'edge'. Neither one of them chose to comment on her known instability.

Ally wanted to drop the previous subject. She changed the focus of the conversation.

"What do we do with this mess?" Ally asked.

Cameron gave Ally and Sheila one last look.

"Clean it up." Cameron said and stormed out.

Cameron closed the door so hard that the wall shook.

It was clear to the Metal girls that they'd pushed Cameron too hard on a sensitive subject. They knew she wasn't done dishing out her retribution. They knew Cameron was going to take her anger out on someone. They were both aware it was most likely them.

Cameron found John with Bob, Cammy and Savannah. She wanted to police the enemy contact site.

"Bob, I need you to back the Gray's SUV up to the back window and help the girls 'load'." Cameron said. "We need to dump the trash."

Bob was more than happy to get back to work and stay away from any further emotional issues.

"Affirmative…." Bob said.

Cammy started to walk away with him.

Cameron was displeased with Cammy's action.

"Cammy, you can stay with Savannah." Cameron said.

Cammy smiled and came back to Savannah as she took her hand.

Savannah gave her a small kiss.

Cameron took John's hand. It was time to move things forward.

"Do you like clam chowder?" Cameron asked. "I hear it's excellent at a local establishment."

"I'll like it as long as they have some nice rolls to go with it." John said. "That's always a good combination. You know I like to dip the bread in the clam chowder. It tastes great."

The two couples walked along Front Street to the restaurant Ally mentioned.

Cameron and Cammy were side by side with Savannah and John on the outside of them. They kept them as far apart as possible. It didn't seem to be a conscious decision but more of a 'defensive' one on their part.

Savannah and John noticed but didn't say anything. They knew the Metal girls were 'protecting' them.

Cameron stopped.

Cammy did as well. She felt she needed to address the issue and make sure everyone was on the same page.

"I know a 'lot' happened here today." Cameron said. "It's the future. It's my duty, ALL our duty to protect the future. That's what we're doing."

Savannah came over and took John's hand from Cameron.

"It's the 'Natural Order'." Savannah said. "WE will ALL help you with it and the future, Cameron."

Savannah walked ahead, hand in hand with John.

Cameron and Cammy followed behind them.

Cammy was surprised when Cameron took her hand. She knew Cameron needed more support than she did.

The glitching stopped as Cammy held Cameron's left hand. It was clear Cameron needed some support right now.

Cammy knew her place and tried to help Cameron. They were the same program after all. The only difference was that Savannah 'replaced' John in Cammy's programming.

The group entered the restaurant and was quickly taken to a table.

Cameron asked if they could sit at an adjacent table because it gave Cammy and her better 'fields of fire' if an incident were to develop and a better escape route for John and Savannah.

When they were seated, John and Savannah sat together across from Cameron and Cammy.

It seemed Savannah was soon her cheerful self. That was a major relief to Cameron. She was afraid she may have pushed Savannah too hard on the death of the female Gray. She believed Savannah would understand in time.

Cameron and Cammy both thought how natural and 'right' John and Savannah looked together, everyone was relaxed a lot more now.

Cameron didn't notice that John still stole plenty of glances at Savannah. If he didn't look at her face, his gaze would be concentrated on her breasts. She thought that was a good sign. It made her wonder if he only concentrated on the size of her breasts or if he was focused on her super pink nipples.

Cammy reached down and took Cameron's left hand. There was no glitch. Soon all four of them were laughing and talking as they ate their clam chowder with lots of rolls. John would switch his empty bowl for Cameron's and then Cammy's. They both only tried one spoonful. Everything was a lot more relaxed and comfortable with everyone now.

Cameron watched Savannah eat her clam chowder. At one point some of the soup dribbled down from the corner of her mouth and ran towards her chin. She was able to suppress a glitch impulse as it reminded her of herself with John at times. She always did anything sexual that John wanted to do, even if some of the areas contained no pleasure receptors. The area did however contain pain receptors. It never took long for her to be reminded that she was 'alive' as the pain pulsed through her sheath. She always allowed John to use her sheath to satisfy all of his animal desires and human fantasies. She actually hoped he wouldn't do some of those things to Savannah. She would offer to do them more herself so John wouldn't feel the need to subject Savannah to the same 'experience'.

John looked at Savannah and understood the logic of her earlier decision to allow everyone think 'it' actually happened. This would make it easier on all of them when they really did do 'it'. He understood now it really was the 'Natural Order'. Cammy was the 'stand in' for Allison - Young Allison.

John looked at each of the three females as they smiled, laughed and played around. THIS was his future. This was the future and it looked beautiful. THIS is what Future John shared everyday. It was something beautiful.

This is what Future John wanted for him. Maybe Future John wasn't the Jackass he once thought. This was something beautiful.

Young Allison wasn't happy with all the 'dead spaces' in the day's events.

"CamNet has blocked a lot of things from me today." Young Allison said. "Do you really think I don't know what's happening with ALL of them?"

Anna didn't like the question.

"That's their private concern, not yours." Anna said.

Young Allison was ready for her future. She wanted it now. Even if Cameron didn't take her to the past to age a few years, she was ready to step up now and take her place. She honestly didn't see what the big deal was. It was going to happen anyway. What difference did it make as to what her physical age was? Her mental age was far beyond that.

"Maybe not yet but it will be." Young Allison said.

Anna was aware of some of the 'difficulties' that she'd observed among all the different couples.

"Don't be in such a rush to grow up." Anna said. "You know they all have additional problems."

Young Allison was aware it wasn't all fun and games. Savannah made that clear to her multiple times. Maybe the difficulty between the couples that bothered her the most was when she saw Allison and Vanna at odds with each other. That always troubled her deeply. She knew that was actually Savannah and her. She hoped to avoid anything like that in the future with Savannah but maybe it was inevitable.

"That's life." Young Allison said. "I get it. I understand ALL of this. Holly and Hanna have filled me in on ALL the details of the future, the future with Future John, Future Allison, Future Savannah and Duplicate Cameron. I know EVERYTHING that happened the entire time they were there with ALL of them."

Anna thought that it was wrong for Young Allison to probe so deeply. Those were other people's affairs, they weren't hers.

"Those are things you don't need to know." Anna said. "People deserve some privacy. You'll want that too one day."

Young Allison wasn't sure how much privacy she currently had anyway. She was pretty sure that Cameron knew everything about her that there was to know. She figured that Cameron probably knew how long it took her to 'finish' once she went to bed. Strangely enough, there was no rebuke to how often she did that. If anything it seemed that behavior was encouraged along with her ability to 'spy' on Allison and her mother when they shared with others.

"Look at the Savannah in you. Young people know a lot more than you think and I'm a highly educated one." Young Allison said. "I know all my obligations and duties."

Anna didn't want Young Allison to dwell on the personal matters of others. She would have enough of her own problems once she became 'involved' with others on this level. She wanted to refocus Young Allison on the operation.

"Let's stay with the mission." Anna said.

Young Allison suppressed the anger impulse that she felt. She was quite capable of multitasking.

"I am. I need to help my mother too. I need to do the dishes." Young Allison said. "I promised my mother I would help more."

Anna believed that was unnecessary. Young Allison's abilities could be applied to better things.

"There are others who can do those tasks." Anna said.

Young Allison understood Anna's overtones.

"Do you mean the people that 'don't matter'?" Young Allison asked.

Anna quickly reviewed her files. That was what she'd meant but she was careful not to actually state that. She'd wanted to leave herself a little 'wiggle room'.

"I didn't say that." Anna said.

Young Allison viewed everything in a much larger context. Isn't that what she was supposed to do anyway? She needed to be able to provide John with different perspectives and her observations as they moved forward into the future.

"THEY all matter to me." Young Allison said. "Even the people I don't love or even know."

"That's why you've been chosen." Anna said. "You will remind John what's important and what always matters. Savannah and you will keep him focused and sane. You're the real leaders of the Resistance in the background. You're the ones that make it all work. You keep John focused and 'human'. You'll give him the strength to continue when he questions and doubts himself."

Young Allison absent mindedly touched her breasts.

"That's not all we'll do." Young Allison said.

Anna understood what Young Allison indicated

"No, it's not." Anna said. "You're ready."

Young Allison believed she was good to go.

"I am even if this body isn't in the eyes of others." Young Allison said. "I want MY Future."

Anna did not like this developing problem.

"Cameron is working on that." Anna said. "You can't rush her."

Anna was positive that Young Allison was ready to cut to the front of the line. It was clear to her that Young Allison was going to be with John much sooner rather than later.

Respect Honor Trust

No one stopped you BEFORE
When you fell
But YOU crawled out of
Your self made Hell

NOBODY will TRY to HELP you NOW
There is more than our-self
It's ALL happening again
You must stop yourself

I wish not to hinder
Your purest deepest dream
I'm AFRAID of what can happen
How THEY can make you scream

I'm not the model
For I too collapsed and broke
So many OTHERS mangled
Lives still up in smoke

THINK it ALL through
If to LIVE do as you MUST
For YOU I will always
RESPECT, HONOR and TRUST

Nobody