Chapter 748

No Response

Moments ago:

Cammy made sure Savannah was inside the concrete culvert. She wanted her as protected as possible. She knew her chassis would shield Savannah. Now it was Cameron they needed to worry about. She looked back at Savannah when everything went from darkness, to a brilliant flash, to blackness.

Savannah was inside of the drainage culvert when the SUV impacted the bunker door. Cammy shielded her with her chassis. At the same time she heard the crash there was a blinding flash of energy right after that. The brilliancy of it hurt her eyes and that was with Cammy blocking most of the culvert entrance. She wondered if it was the flash from a nuclear weapon. She wondered how long it would be until the shock wave and heat arrived. She actually figured in the time for her to have thought that, all of those things would have already happened and she would have been incinerated from the heat. Nothing further happened. There was no shock wave or earth movement, at least not yet. She did experience some white 'spots' in her vision. That was probably due to the brilliance of the flash. She hoped that they would go away quickly and weren't permanent.

Cammy collapsed in front of her as soon as the blinding light occurred. She appeared unresponsive and incapable of movement.

"Cammy." Savannah said as she touched her.

Savannah was well aware what a Terminator offline looked like. Cammy was offline.

Savannah was faced with an even deeper concern.

"Cameron." Savannah said loudly.

There was no response. The coms were down as well. It seemed that everything was down.

Savannah shoved Cammy out of the culvert and into the drainage ditch. She scrambled out over Cammy. She looked quickly around for any movement near her. It was clear right now. She pushed Cammy back up into the culvert to hide her. It seemed to take a lot of effort on her part. She briefly wondered she'd been affected by whatever the flash was.

"Now I know why I'm on top most of the time." Savannah muttered as she struggled to move Cammy.

She shoved Cammy inside the culvert and moved a tumbleweed in front of it. She wedged it in the culvert opening to conceal it. It was doubtful, unless someone was specifically looking for that opening, that they would spot it in the darkness. She didn't know how long Cammy was down for. She couldn't afford to wait for her to reboot. She could only assume that Cameron was in the same condition and she needed to locate her as quickly as possible.

She checked around her again for any immediate threats and went to search for Cameron. Cameron told her that she would try to make it to the drainage ditch before the SUV impacted the bunker door. That was where she would look first. She stayed in the drainage ditch as she moved along. It would give her some cover if she started taking fire from the bunker.

Savannah's M4 was up and ready. It was charged and the safety was off.

She moved along the drainage ditch for a while before she looked over the top. If she was spotted, she didn't want to lead them to Cammy. Savannah thought that might have been an EMP that went off. There was a lot of energy around them with the high tension power transmission lines. At least it seemed to have the same effect that an EMP produced. She wondered what the flash was. Maybe it was the electrical lines arcing and shorting out. She remembered the high tension power lines arcing near the mine from the 'earthquake' caused by whatever blew up inside the mine. Maybe an EMP flashed like that. It was really bright whatever it was. She still could see a few 'spots' in her vision. She was glad to see that her vision rapidly improved.

The barrel of Savannah's came M4 came up slowly over the drainage ditch lip with her eye behind it in the sight.

She needed to search for any targets as well as search for Cameron. What she spotted was worse than she'd imagined it would be.

There were four figures moving towards something on the ground. The SUV was burning behind them. The best thing about that was it back-lit them. They all carried weapons. They didn't look around. Their sole focus seemed to be concentrated on the figure that was on the ground. It was Cameron, she was offline. She wasn't sure if they could make out that the figure was female or not from the position she was in. If they did think that she was a female, it would certainly explain their fixation.

Savannah quickly calculated which location would have the best field of fire and firing angles. It didn't take her long to realize that if she stayed in the spot she was at, the men would pass sideways in front of her. From her angle they would all be bunched together. Savannah flipped the selector to full auto and readied a second magazine. She carried one Thermite grenade. In this instance she wished it would have been a fragmentation grenade. It wasn't.

It was her goal to make sure that none of the men got anywhere near Cameron in the current condition she was in. She'd heard the stories about what happened to captured female Terminators in the future. She didn't even want to think about that. It was time to act. She readied the Thermite grenade. She pulled the pin and held the spoon. She would throw that first and then open up with her M4.

Savannah carefully looked around as she gauged her targets. She wanted to make sure that no additional threats presented themselves or even worse, showed up on her flanks. Her preliminary observation showed that the area was still clear. She turned her attention back to the men in front of her.

The Grays were almost in line for her shot. They passed by her and were neatly lined up. She threw the Thermite grenade and fired her entire magazine before the Thermite grenade exploded. She dropped down and moved fifteen feet to her side as she hit the magazine release. The magazine fell free as she moved. She shoved the next magazine in before the first one hit the ground. She hit the bolt release and was ready to fire again before she came back up. She expected that if there was any return fire it would be at her previous position. She was no longer there and would be able to fire on anyone who fired at that spot. She figured it would give her two seconds of surprise.

She popped back up from her new location as she searched for more targets.

All four Grays were down. Two were on fire and screaming. They were barely able to move. The other two lay still. Both of them started to burn as well.

Savannah waited. She could have put the men out of their misery but she was unsure how many more there were. There'd been no return fire at her previous position. She was closer to Cameron now. She ducked down and moved to where she would be at the closest point to Cameron. She came up at her new location. Her M4 was ready.

She'd lost track of the time. It seemed like an hour must have gone by but she knew it was just over a minute from the time of the blinding light. She'd trained under these conditions. She learned how to keep everything straight. She spotted no one else. The screams slowly faded away and stopped. Only the smell of Thermite and burning flesh remained.

Savannah was about to come over the top of the drainage ditch and sprint the fifty feet to Cameron. She was going to try and drag Cameron back to the ditch for cover. Just as she was about to make her move, she spotted trouble. There was a second group of figures that emerged from the battered bunker door.

She fired at them. She drove them back. Three of them fell where they stood. She saw Cameron move. She didn't know how cognizant Cameron would be a first due to the unknown nature of what the blast was. She decided to give her some basic instructions and information.

"Cameron, I'm fifty feet in front of you in the drainage ditch." Savannah said. "There's an armed group that attempted to come out of the bunker. I just drove them back. When I fire again they'll have my position. I need to move."

Cameron's eyes slowly opened. Everything was dark around her. She could hear a voice. It sounded like the voice of an angel. She briefly wondered if there really was an afterlife for machines. In a second she realized that the angelic voice was Savannah. She gave her information and instructions. She saw that her voice modulation was now operational.

"My functions are coming back online." Cameron said.

Savannah knew she couldn't fire from her current position. That would draw everyone's attention towards Cameron. She was going to need to use herself as the target to draw the enemy away from where they would spot Cameron.

"I'm moving away from you for now. I don't want to draw fire towards you until you can move." Savannah said. "Cammy is down too. I'm moving away from both or you."

Cameron was sure that she knew a bad idea when she heard one.

"Savannah, don't." Cameron said but Savannah was already gone.

Cameron knew Savannah made herself the target to protect Cammy and her. Savannah now used herself as bait. It didn't take her long to realize that is exactly what she would've done as well. If she could get to the drainage ditch, she might be able to present herself as an alternate target and take some of the fire off of Savannah. She was pleased that she still had her M4.

The new group of men exited the bunker and fired wildly in all directions. They didn't have any verified targets. Their four burning comrades blocked their view of Cameron. They were unsure of where the attacks came from and already more than half a dozen of them were dead. The large body count racked up by the unknown attack force seemed to indicate it was a large group of individuals. That was why they'd fired wildly in every direction. They didn't know they were fighting one teenage girl.

The new group of Grays headed out from the bunker. Savannah popped up from a new position and fired again. She was able to drop two more of them. The ones who ducked back surely must have seen her position. She dropped down again and changed her position. The drainage ditch began to get shallower as she moved uphill. She continued to draw the Grays away from Cameron and Cammy.

She saw a few rounds hit around where she'd been when she last fired. She saw Cameron was about to make a run for it. She knew she needed to protect Cameron so she could make her move. She decided to try and draw the attention of the men and their fire.

Cameron was on the move. Savannah fired the rest of her magazine at the men. She dropped down. She was sure that at least one if not two men fell with her last volley. She decided to head back the way she'd come. She figured if anyone was tracking her that they would think she would continue along in the same direction as she'd been going. That's why she decided to double back. She wanted to rejoin with Cameron and Cammy. She changed magazines again. She hit the bolt release which sent a fresh round into the chamber. The area where she'd just been began to take heavy fire. She stayed low and kept moving.

When she came back up from a new position she saw that there were six men moving in the direction she'd last fired from. They were spread out now. She knew she needed to act. She would be able to get two pretty quickly but maybe only one of the remaining four before they would concentrate fire on her position. They would have her zeroed at that point.

Savannah sighted on the two closest ones and pulled the trigger.

Before she completed the trigger pull there were a dozen shots fired single shot very rapidly. All six men fell. The shots came from two different positions. Cameron and Cammy were in the fight as well now. They'd both fired a head shot at each of the six men at the same time. All of the men were terminated in just over a half of a second.

Savannah kept moving back in the direction Cameron was at.

"Blue" Cameron said softly.

"Cat." Savannah answered.

Cameron was next to her in an instant.

"Are you injured?" Cameron asked.

Cameron began to touch her as she searched for any wounds.

Savannah was more concerned about Cameron than she was herself.

"No." Savannah said. "Are you fully functional?"

Cameron was unsure of what the nature of the blast was that knocked her offline. She'd been running diagnostics ever since her eyes opened. She felt she was in pretty good condition at this point.

"I'm at ninety seven percent, ninety eight percent." Cameron said. "Cammy is operational as well. She's coming."

Cameron issued the challenge to Cammy at a sound level Savannah couldn't hear.

Cammy responded with the appropriate answer.

Cameron kept her gaze trained on the bunker entrance. No one else emerged. She hadn't spotted anyone else outside of the bunker other than the men that were all dead. She noted that four of the corpses were still burning.

She was aware of the figures that were already down before Cammy and her fired. Savannah scored and scored big on her own. It was clear that Savannah prevented her from being deactivated or terminated – again. She was aware Savannah used herself as bait to draw the attackers away from Cammy and her. It was a bold move and a risk Savannah shouldn't have taken for her, for them. She was afraid Savannah's love was going to get her killed. One thing was more than evident. Savannah was rock solid in a firefight and able to deliver a crippling blow to the enemy. It appeared that the extensive training paid off.

Cameron tried to focus. She was drifting.

She knew she'd almost been able to complete and express her love with Savannah today but she'd substituted John in her place. She wanted it to be her first before John but she yielded to John. It was the 'Natural Order'. The three of them would be together soon enough. She wanted that day to be soon….

Savannah looked at Cameron in the darkness. She was unsure how operational Cameron actually was. Her targeting systems seem to have functioned well as Cammy and her took down the group of Gray's. Right now she looked a little bit out of it.

"…Cameron…?" Savannah asked.

Cameron looked around as she heard Savannah's voice.

"What?" Cameron asked.

Savannah decided to tell it to Cameron straight. She wanted her to know she wasn't back to one hundred percent yet.

"You're not functioning properly." Savannah said. "You may be damaged worse than you know."

Cameron checked her diagnostics. She was nearly recovered. She knew that she'd thought of some previous events that probably could have been thought of at a better time.

"My thoughts drifted a little." Cameron said. "I'm at ninety nine percent now. I'm good now."

Cammy was with them now after she swept the drainage ditch in both directions on either side of them. She hadn't spotted any hostels other than the ones that lay dead between the drainage ditch and the bunker.

"Cammy, how are you and your functionality?" Savannah asked.

Cammy was sure that she was able to make a quicker recovery than Cameron because she'd been protected somewhat better by being inside the culvert when the blast went off, whatever it was. She was thankful Savannah spent the extra time to make sure that she was secured before she'd gone to engage the enemy. Like every female Terminator, she feared being captured and reprogrammed as a 'Metal Whore'.

"I'm at one hundred percent." Cammy said. "Thank you for hiding me in the culvert."

Savannah didn't know the nature of the attack at that juncture. She knew what she would have to do to protect both Cameron and Cammy and that's what she did.

"I didn't know how long you would be offline. I wanted you protected." Savannah said. "My hands were full for a while."

Cammy also spotted the large body count Savannah racked up on her own before Cameron and her were fully operational.

"You did a fine job." Cammy said. "There were a lot of dead on the ground before Cameron and I fired."

Cammy too was aware that Savannah used herself as bait to draw away the attacking force from both of them. She wasn't happy about that either. She too worried that Savannah's love would get her terminated one day.

Savannah was worried about Cameron. She'd been out in the open when whatever the blast was went off. It was clear that she'd been impacted by the full effect of it.

"I want you to keep an eye on Cameron." Savannah said.

Cameron looked at Savannah and smiled.

"I'm fine." Cameron said.

Cammy noted Cameron's reaction. She wasn't so sure about that. Cameron was out in the open when whatever went off happened. She'd been totally exposed.

Savannah looked away from Cameron back to Cammy.

"I want it done anyway." Savannah said.

Cammy wanted to point out one of the things that they'd discussed earlier about a second exit. It might be prudent for them to look for a new location that additional Gray's could appear from or at least be extra aware.

"If there is a second entrance or emergency exit, more men could be moving out." Cammy said. "They could appear on either side of us."

Savannah was sure any drones that were in too close would have been knocked out like Cameron and Cammy were. She didn't see any burning wreckage around them so she didn't think that they'd crashed but she didn't know. It was clear she hadn't received any drone support during her engagement.

"Where are our drones?" Savannah asked. "We should have been able to get some support by now."

Cammy wondered where the drones were when Savannah battled the Grays. She figured whatever took Cameron and her offline did the same to the drones.

"They may have lost contact. There might be a jamming field in place as well now." Cameron said. "We've encountered them before. None of my coms are working."

Savannah looked around them again.

"Could the drones have crashed?" Savannah asked.

Cammy looked up into the sky.

"I can hear one." Cammy said. "No, I can hear two."

Savannah wondered if the drones were damaged by the energy release. She would hate for their programming to have been scrambled and their transponder codes not recognized.

"They won't try to target us will they?" Savannah asked.

Cameron didn't believe any of the Resistance equipment would ever attack Savannah even if it malfunctioned.

"They're all infused with my programming and John Henry's." Cameron said. "It's doubtful they would ever attack you, even if they went rouge."

Savannah hoped that same level of protection included all of them. They were all standing together currently.

"What about you or Cammy?" Savannah asked.

Cameron often felt self loathing at times. Savannah worked with her often to overcome the feeling she said was unjustified. Either way the feeling still existed and exerted itself at the most inconvenient times.

"They would like nothing more than to attack and destroy me or Cammy." Cameron said. "They would have a target they 'hate'."

Savannah knew Cameron was troubled by what she thought happened between John and her. It was time to come clean and help Cameron get back to one hundred percent and focused. She decided to just say it. The 'game' clearly had gone on long enough. The adverse effects that she'd suspected were evident in Cameron on multiple occasions. It was time to set the record straight.

"Cameron, nothing happened today." Savannah said. "John didn't touch me."

Cameron's head immediately tilted to the side, her mouth dropped open slightly.

"But you and John…." Cameron said.

Savannah could see that Cameron was totally surprised. She glanced over at Cammy and she looked exactly the same way. That wasn't too surprising to her. She noted that when they took down the six targets earlier that they both targeted the six men in the exact same way at the exact same time. It was clear that the apple didn't fall far from the tree as far as programs went.

"Nothing happened." Savannah said as she lifted Cameron's hand to her neck. "I'm still untouched by a male. I'm still a virgin."

Savannah could see tears form in Cameron's eyes as she scanned her.

Cameron took Savannah in her arms and held her.

Cammy looked a little nervous.

Cameron looked at Cammy and held Savannah even tighter.

"Cammy, I'm claiming Savannah…." Cameron said. "I want her for my own."

Savannah didn't know what to make about Cameron's sudden revelation. She was sure of one thing. Cameron was nowhere close to one hundred percent.

It's Not Working

Within the confines of my mind
What is done is done
It is impossible for me
To make the events undone

It is with myself
That I must live
You have turned my heart
Into a bloody sieve

Am I not still
Who I always was
I will be the same when tomorrow comes
As it always does

So my mind upon itself
Has begun to feed
It is trying to devour
What makes my heart bleed

I try to forget what you have done
In my mind it remains lurking
I have tried to forgive you
It's not working

Nobody