Chapter 782

I Bet

Hanna took Claire, Young Allison and Summer out for dinner. Holly came along as well. They noticed two of the Detail outside when they got to the restaurant. The Detail made sure everything was in order before they arrived.

Holly needed to give Allison and Savannah some 'space'. It wasn't what she wanted to do but it was what Allison wanted. She saw Allison's other 'friends' visit earlier. Sometimes love is about sacrifice and she knew Allison needed real people to be with, not just a machine. Cameron told her this as well. It almost seemed like a 'threat' when she did. She knew not to argue with Cameron about it.

She knew she was protective of Allison but all the Metal girls were protective of their human lovers. Like all the Metal girls, she'd learned to share with others, not just one person only. Allison often told her how beautiful it was to share with others. She found out that was true. 'Dessert' went well with the 'meat and potatoes' of a steady partner. She liked to share with others whenever she got the chance. Hanna and her always switched at least two nights a week. Holly loved Allison but she knew Claire was a better lover. It was always more exhilarating and fulfilling to be with Claire. She figured Allison still carried a lot of baggage from the future with her. She was also aware that Future Allison was more like Claire in bed. Future Alison grew up in a different future than the one Allison did. In the future Allison was from all the females suffered horrendously, especially Vanna and Jesse. All of the Metal girls knew that was John's fault but no one ever said anything. Cameron threatened to 'punish' them if they ever did.

The punishment was never specified but they were all aware that Cameron punished Cammy and sent her into the past for eight years with Sheila. That was to keep her away from Savannah for that entire time period. No one was sure what the actual infraction was that Cammy was punished for. Eight years was a long time to be kept away from someone that you loved. For Savannah all she knew was Cammy was gone for two days. That was all the longer it was for Savannah. She didn't need to suffer for eight years like Cammy did. Sometimes Cameron could be very cruel when someone rubbed her the wrong way.

Young Allison was aware her phone received an 'urgent' signal. It was CamNet. She'd asked to be notified when Savannah or Cameron were out on an operation. She didn't expect it would be tonight. She'd left Savannah in Allison's arms and expected her to stay there until they got back. Now this was a new development. New developments often turned out to be bad. She'd been jealous of Allison and Savannah when they wanted to be together earlier. Now there was the threat that Savannah would need to face danger where she could be injured or killed. She wished that Savannah would be in Allison's arms instead. It only took a little perspective to see how quickly things could change for the worse. The girls from the future all told her things happen fast and people need to be able to share whenever they can because they never know when it's going to be the last time. Those words that they told her earlier really resonated right now. She felt very guilty for intervening previously. She hoped that she'd amended that before they left to go out currently. Now it didn't really matter but at least she'd done her part.

CamNet showed her Savannah enter into the bunker naked as she held her clothes. Young Allison smiled seeing that. She always liked to see Savannah naked but they were usually at the pool when that happened. She didn't like others to view Savannah naked.

'You need to respect her privacy.' Young Allison typed.

'Oops!' CamNet responded.

'I bet.' Young Allison typed.

They both knew CamNet did it on purpose.

Holly and Hanna both picked up on Young Allison's activity.

Claire went to the restroom with Summer.

Holly and Hanna both wanted to know what was happening and checked their phones as well. Their phones showed nothing. It was only because she told CamNet what she wanted, that she received the feed. Cameron was responsible for keeping everyone else out of it.

Young Allison quickly filled them in. There was one part of it that troubled her more than the rest. Allison was going with them by her own request.

"Allison went with them." Young Allison said.

Holly instantly became alarmed and agitated. She was very upset.

"I left her alone to 'share' not get killed or hurt." Holly said.

Young Allison didn't think that there would be a problem for Allison.

"Cameron and Savannah will protect her." Young Allison said. "Allison is ME."

Holly thought the same thing many times. She was glad her power cell would last a long time…. She also knew she could replace it with a fresh one.

She was a little calmer now. She still felt if Allison was going into a potential combat zone that she should be the one who accompanied her. Technically there was only one Terminator for Savannah and Allison. That seemed like a very low ratio.

"I should be with her." Holly said.

Young Allison moved over and took Holly's hand. It had begun to glitch. It stopped instantly. Holly looked at Young Allison and smiled at her. Young Allison believed if push came to shove that she would be able to have a few cards to play to fix things if there was a problem.

"It will be OK." Young Allison said with a wink. "I know where there's a time machine. I won't let anything happen to ME."

Young Allison could feel Holly relax. She sensed Holly's entire mood changed somewhat the more they interacted.

"I won't either." Holly said as she looked at Young Allison. "I promise."

Young Allison was sure there was another button undone on Holly's blouse now. At least there was certainly more cleavage visible than normal. There was another message on her phone. She looked at it.

Hanna leaned over and swatted Holly's other hand. She could see that Holly attempted to hit on Young Allison.

Holly looked a little upset that Hanna interfered but got the message. She didn't want to cause a problem. She didn't know all the details about the problem that was caused by CamNet with Young Allison previously. She knew that it bothered Allison but every time she asked Allison about it, she didn't want to talk about it. She only told her it was about Young Allison and it was very personal. Allison also said it was very personal to her. She knew that Allison was very troubled by it.

When Young Allison looked up from her phone again, Holly's blouse was buttoned like it was earlier. She wondered what that was all about. She wasn't about to ask. She wondered if it would have happened when her mother was at the table. She doubted it.

Both Hanna and Holly looked guilty.

Moments ago:

Cammy didn't look forward to having to face or avoid any HK drones. It would be hard to avoid two of them working together. This didn't appear to be some half baked plan to check out this location by the Grays. It seemed that there was some planning behind it along with some coordination. That wasn't a good thing for them.

Cammy was aware all wasn't 'right' very quickly. She knew she was being hunted. She was getting ready to speak when she saw movement very close by and quickly shut her com off.

She was positive there was a Terminator stalking her. He must have seen her move to the position she was in now. Hopefully he didn't see where she'd come from. She didn't want to endanger Bob or the captured HK drones. She could hear the two HK drones coming to search for her. The Terminator must be directing them. This new development didn't look good for her.

Cammy was sure she could avoid one drone and maybe one drone and a Terminator. If there were two drones searching for her and a Terminator, it was only a matter of time until they would have her zeroed. She wasn't sure if the Terminator would try and 'take' her himself once her position was pinpointed or if he would let the HK drones do their thing and attack her. That would be the safer bet for him. Then again not all Terminators like to play things safe. Some of them liked to be at the center of the action.

The Terminator needed to go around a chain link fence to avoid the noise of climbing it or tearing it apart. That's when Cammy moved. He was close so she needed to be quiet. She was unsure if there was more than one Terminator. If that were the case and there were two of them, she was in real trouble.

She held her Taser ready to fire and readied the 'shocker' in her pocket. She didn't pull her Glock so she would have one free hand. The Taser would be more effective against the Terminator anyway.

It was cat and mouse right now. Cammy didn't plan on being the mouse….

Bob wanted to go help Cammy but one of the HK drones was now very near him. He needed to keep shifting his position to avoid detection. These were the new quieter drones so they could operate much lower and not draw attention, at least as much anyway. Operating lower allowed them to search better and in more places. It made hiding from them more difficult.

Terminators could hear them operating this low but not humans. Maybe the Grays didn't know they were dealing with Terminators. If they'd found any of Sheila's dirty work. They wouldn't suspect a Terminator was behind it. Normally activity like that was only done by deranged human beings. Most groups of humans viewed that as acts of insanity. Terminators weren't known for being insane.

Sheila moved away from the SUV. She knew if there were enemy Terminators on the ground already stalking Cammy that they'd probably identified the SUV as well. It was a target she wanted to get away from. She didn't plan to return to it anytime soon if at all. Once she no longer had eyes on it, it would need to be thoroughly inspected to make sure it hadn't been booby trapped in her absence.

Sheila tried to avoid the drone that arrived in her area. She was able to keep the trees between her and it. If they sent Grays or a Terminator after her, she would be located in short order. She would need to fight her way out. The easiest way for her to do that would be to attack the Grays and avoid the Terminator.

She hoped when the Grays went into the building they would trigger her booby trap. That should create a distraction and give her time to get to a better position. It should also thin the herd on the overall number of Grays that would still be in the fight.

She was simply too exposed where she was. The new HK drones proved their effectiveness by 'sneaking up' on them. They didn't have time to sufficiently react. That would be something to keep in mind going forward with their operations against the Skynet forces.

John wanted more help sent to where his troops were trapped and being stalked. This was a contingency that he hadn't planned for. The Terminators that were in the surrounding areas were all out searching for boxcars. None of them had been directed to be in a position where they could support other groups of Terminators. He was glad that there were more drones on the way including the manned drone with Ally as the pilot.

"What's your ETA, Ally?" John asked.

Ally berated herself for not leaving sooner. It was clear that every minute counted right now. They needed to keep their response to a minimum where the team was currently at. If they didn't, there was bound to be a big investigation as to what exactly had gone on. That was something that they didn't need. That was also something that Skynet knew it didn't need either.

"I'm still a ways out." Ally said. "This thing isn't supersonic or I'd be there already."

John didn't point out the fact that if it was supersonic, there would be a sonic boom to go along with its progress. The sonic boom would be heard far and wide throughout the area. He wanted to give her some positive reinforcement.

"All you can do is your best." John said. "Right now you're doing a great job. You'll be able to help the team out shortly."

Ally was very worried about her fellow Terminators on the ground, especially Sheila. She didn't want them to wait for her if they could see there was going to be a problem. She thought of other ways her drone might be useful, even if it was late to the fight.

"John Henry, if you need to bring down the Skynet drones, don't hesitate." Ally said. "This thing should be able to lift an HK drone, if you shoot one of them down."

John Henry was aware that there were currently two helicopters on the way. Neither one of them would probably arrive before whatever battle was going to take place was over.

"Cameron's bringing a second helicopter now." John Henry said. "She's still more than an hour away. The Blackhawk is ahead of it."

Ally checked her current position.

"I'm over the Central Valley now." Ally said. "I'll hug the foothills up to their location. I should overfly the quarry."

John Henry wanted to make sure that she didn't get trigger happy if she spotted any drones.

"There should be two drones in front of you very soon." John Henry said. "They're ours."

No sooner than John Henry spoke Ally picked up two blips on her equipment.

"I'm receiving their transponder codes." Ally said. "I have them spotted. I'm overtaking them."

John Henry was able to determine that the manned drone was faster than the standard drones.

"That means you'll be faster than the HK drones with the quieter power plants." John Henry said.

Ally wasn't sure yet how she would be able to use that to her advantage. She sure hoped it would be useful at some point if she needed to engage them. She was aware jet fighter pilots viewed 'speed as life'.

"I'll keep that in mind in case I want to 'drag race' one of them." Ally said. "I'm picking up our other two at altitude now as well."

John Henry wanted to make sure she'd be on the lookout for one more drone that belong to them. He figured he'd better give her the direction it would approach from so it didn't get targeted.

"There will be one more of our drones arriving from the north in a few minutes. It is still out a little ways." John Henry said. "They are all squawking our transponder code."

John could see that they were about to have five drones along with the manned drone over the target area in a very short time. He was very worried about collateral damage. He didn't want one of the drones to end up in somebody's living room with the occupants of the house crushed underneath it.

"You need to be careful where you bring anything down at." John said.

Ally thought about what John Henry said with her speed advantage. She'd already passed over a location that they used as a kill zone previously she wanted to run a few thoughts by the Command Center.

"I passed over the granite quarry a few minutes ago." Ally said. "I have an idea since I know I'm faster than the drones with the quiet power plants. I might be able to sucker one or more of the HK drones to follow me. It could be to our advantage if I can get them into this more remote area before they're dealt with."

John Henry was aware of another advantage the Resistance drones should have over the HK drones.

"Bob reported the HK drone stalking him doesn't appear to have air to air missiles." John Henry said. "HK drones were originally designed for ground attack. We changed that with ours."

None of the HK drones that they'd captured were set up for air to air combat, other than being able to use the minigun. It would have to be in fairly close to its target to be effective.

John believed that Skynet focused on the future and provided them with an advantage.

"Maybe this version of Skynet thinks like it does in the future and not in the present or the past to it." John said. "Skynet was confident it ruled the air in the future."

Ally was ready for some cat and mouse action too.

"I guess we'll find out." Ally said. "It's time for the 'cat' to offer the 'mouse' some cheese."

Ally neared the target area.

'I'm coming Sheila. Just hang on a little longer.' Ally thought to herself.

Earlier:

Allison was very pleased that they'd let her come along. She wasn't sure why she insisted or why Cameron agreed. She didn't like the idea of Savannah being pulled from her arms and into danger. She just felt a need to go with Savannah. How could she stay in the safety of her house or her bedroom after that while she knew that Savannah would be out risking her life somewhere? It just wasn't fair. It just wasn't right. She never held back in her future when a patrol was needed or an operation needed to be conducted. She was always the first one to volunteer. That prompted everyone else to volunteer as well. She used to do her part. She felt somewhat ashamed that she was a long way from doing all that now.

"Are we going to fly in a helicopter?" Allison asked.

Cameron look back and Allison and smiled.

"Yes." Cameron said.

Allison looked forward to the flight but not so much to the danger she knew they were headed into.

They pulled up and parked and entered the airport.

Cameron pointed out which helicopter was theirs.

Allison looked the helicopter over. She'd seen ones like that in war movies.

"That looks big." Allison said.

Savannah knew it wasn't nearly as big as the Blackhawk. It was still a very capable helicopter and 'time proven' on top of that.

"It's not too big." Savannah said. "It will do the job we needed to do."

Cameron, Allison and Savannah arrived at the UH-1 and did the preflight inspection. Savannah quickly checked everything. She told Allison what she was doing as she did it. They noticed Cameron open the engine compartment and make a few adjustments.

Allison knew that Savannah could fly. She didn't know that she could fly this particular helicopter.

"You can fly this thing, Savannah?" Allison asked. "That's impressive."

Savannah knew that she needed to work on her proficiency. In her communications with the Young Jesse she knew that she got in a lot of flight time Down Under. She was very proficient in dozens of aircraft. Young Jesse complain to her that all they did was train Down Under. She told Young Jesse she'd take the training any day over the combat operations.

"Yes, I have before." Savannah said. "I need more practice."

Cameron wanted to make sure the credit was given where it was due.

"Savannah is perfect." Cameron said. "She'll do fine. I'm very proud of her."

Savannah felt a little embarrassed by what Cameron said. She was worried about Allison coming along. She wanted to make sure she was as safe as possible.

She checked over Allison's gear and vest to make sure everything was in order and Allison was protected.

Allison didn't like all the fuss or attention. She knew how to protect herself.

"Oh brother, I used to dress you, now you're dressing me." Allison said.

Savannah moved her mouth close to Allison's ear.

"No, now we undress each other." Savannah whispered as their eyes lingered.

Cameron was in the pilot's seat and got the turbine ready to fire. Savannah made sure Allison was secured and then slipped into the copilot's seat. The rotor was soon spinning.

Savannah put her helmet on and checked the controls and gauges.

"Do you want to lift it off?" Cameron asked.

Savannah checked over all the instruments.

"Yes." Savannah said.

Allison watched Savannah's every move. She was totally fascinated.

"You got it?" Cameron asked.

"I got it." Savannah said.

Savannah made a quick look around her and up as well.

Savannah kicked up the power.

The Iroquois lifted off and swung around as it gained altitude.

As always Savannah wanted Cameron to alert her of any danger the instant it was seen.

"If you see anything I don't see, tell me." Savannah said. "The night vision can mess with my perspective. If you need to take over, just do it. It won't hurt my ego."

Cameron made a quick upgrade to the helicopter during the inspection.

"Roger." Cameron said. "This bird has the governor readjusted. I did it myself."

Savannah was pleased to hear that it would give her two advantages over a standard Huey.

"Good, we'll have more speed and greater lift." Savannah said. "Help me watch the gauges as well. I'm going to push the redline."

Normally Savannah wouldn't push it. She wanted to get to the area to help her team out.

"Roger." Cameron said.

Savannah checked her heading and altitude as well as her GPS.

Everything was dark around them. There were scattered lights here and there on the ground. Every now and then a vehicle could be spotted.

"Is this a long flight?" Allison asked.

Cameron knew they were going to be away for a few hours. Exactly how long everything would take was unknown.

"It will be." Cameron said.

Allison touched her headset.

"We can play some tunes." Allison said.

Cameron looked over at Savannah and she nodded.

"I'll keep my volume down." Savannah said.

Allison could see almost nothing outside as they flew. She watched Savannah and Cameron instead. Right now she was on a rendezvous with the unknown. It didn't really matter to her. It's filled her with a new sense of purpose to know that she may enter a combat zone soon. The music seemed to enhance her sense of awareness.

'Matchbox' by 'The Sunset Trio', blasted through Allison's head set as the Huey thundered across the night sky.

Was That Bad To Say

We know what we feel
We know what we think
We take it to the edge
To the very brink

Sometimes we may get
What is really TMI
Other times we wonder
And just ask why

We hide what is real
Pretend it doesn't exist
As we run from the one
That we can't resist

Open your heart
Open your mind
Be honest with yourself
Embrace what you find

Try being truthful
Each and every day
Don't look so upset
Was that bad to say

Nobody