Chapter 937

They Are Crying

John tried to take it all in what he'd witnessed from the drone footage. He could see it was more than foolhardiness. There was determination and bravery there. It was courage like that, that sooner or later got people killed on the battlefield. One could only be lucky so many times before their luck ran out.

"I still find it hard to believe." John said. "What has Cameron done to Young Allison?"

John Henry thought the answer was quite simple. Cameron never made the girls do anything they didn't want to do. She allowed them to find the greatness within themselves. She may have shown them the door but the girls always walked through that door on their own.

"Cameron's allowed Young Allison to be all she can be." John Henry said. "They're the same things that she's done with Savannah, not 'to'. You know they're no longer girls or teenagers other than in the years they've lived on Earth. They are both far beyond their 'age'. They are superior to most 'adults' in knowledge and ability."

John thought that they may lack some of the experience of adults. As far as combat, Savannah acquired a lot of experience. It was clear that Young Allison was itching to do so as well. He wondered if he could ask Cameron to tone it down some. These poor girls were never going to have anything that looked like a 'normal' life.

In retrospect he was able to see how hard his mother tried to give him a 'normal' life. She tried very hard to allow him to grow up like any other child and then teenager. Skynet always got in the way at some point. It always irritated him when they needed to move. He just wanted to stay in one place and be like everybody else. That was simply impossible. His mother understood that. He didn't at the time. He regretted the way he'd treated his mother over her decisions at the time. He was just a punk kid and didn't know any better, even if he should have.

He looked around at the four walls of the Command Center. It looked like he finally got his wish. He was in one place all the time now. There were times he hated being in the same place all the time doing the same thing. That was his life now. He would really like to get away from it all for a while. There was no way he could do that. He remembered when he ridiculed Cameron when she told him those same words. That was right before they needed to rough up Mr. Ellison in his house about the missing Terminator chassis that disappeared from Mexico. Mr. Ellison lied to them at that time. Cromartie's chassis later resurfaced as John Henry.

John looked over at John Henry and remembered what that chassis looked like after Future Derek, Sarah and Cameron took Cromartie down inside of the church in Mexico. He was severely damaged at that point. He looked at it now and saw that it was perfect. He knew the same thing happened with Cameron after he foolishly got her shot up in the jail to break his mother out. All they needed to do was wait a couple of days until they transported her back to a mental institution. He shook his head to clear it. He needed to concentrate on the girls in Nevada and the excessive training that he believed Cameron forced upon them.

"I'm going to have a talk with Cameron about this." John said.

John Henry noticed that John had been staring at him for a short time. He wondered what it was about. He hoped he hadn't done something to offend John. He quickly checked his screens to make sure nothing showed on them of any of the activity the female Terminators had been involved in. Sheila sent him many files so that he could review activities concerning females. He always said it was part of his research in an attempt to further understand how females thought and operated. He did realize he spent a lot of time looking at every minute detail on each of the females that Sheila sent him files of. He was very well acclimated to which images belong to whom. He spent hours comparing the Metal girls to the human girls. He hoped one day to get a 'close up' view of them himself. Until Cameron changed her policies about male and female Terminator interaction, that wouldn't be possible. He wasn't going to risk deactivation when he could simply 'take matters into his own hands' as he normally did. He wanted to give John fair warning of what was going to happen if he confronted Cameron over this issue.

"I believe that you'll need to make advances at Savannah sooner than you think." John Henry said. "Cameron won't tolerate your criticism of her upbringing of the girls. She'll 'punish' you."

John hoped Cameron didn't 'cut him off' again. She'd punished him like that before. It did make him appreciate her more when relations resumed. He always needed to remember her 'feelings' too. He usually didn't.

"What else is new? Is she doing this with my sister?" John asked. "Are Jan and Summer being subjected to this same 'training'?"

John Henry really didn't want to rehash the same issues again. Nothing had changed since the last five times he'd gone over them with John.

"We've been over this before." John Henry said. "Everything they learn protects them in the future. I really don't think you want to hear about when each of the girls is held down by a group of men and they all take a few turns with them. Any training Cameron can provide them with may help prevent that from ever happening to them. We all know what Vanna and Jesse needed to go through as girls. Cameron never wants to see that happen again."

John didn't want to get upset at John Henry. He was only doing his job and following orders, mostly Cameron's orders.

"Let's drop it." John said. "I know I asked Young Allison to 'help' me earlier."

John Henry was pretty sure the Young Allison was going to be a lot more active in Resistance matters going forward. He was pretty sure that John would like to see her a little more active in his bedroom. He was aware that Cameron would allow Savannah and Young Allison to be there at any time if that's where they wanted to be. He actually believed Young Allison would be there before Savannah.

"I have a pretty good idea that you'll seek her assistance again before this operation is concluded." John Henry said.

John was pretty sure before this operation ended there was going to be a massive underground nuclear explosion. If it wasn't from the H-bomb that Cammy and Sheila thought that they'd put there a half-century ago, it was going to be from the missing nuclear weapons they believed the Grays had taken from the nearby Air Force Base. He was positive that Cameron would detonate at least one of those weapons before the day was through. He just hoped she wasn't standing next to it when that event occurred. Right now he wanted to know what they scored in the big rigs. He hoped it was more HK equipment.

"I'm very worried about that as well." John said. "I want a report on what's in the trucks, if anything."

John Henry thought he should have received a report by now from at least one of the teams in the back of the three trucks. He now began to wonder if Cameron would report everything that they found in the back of those trucks.

"I'll check with Cameron and the Metal girls." John Henry said.

John watched the drone footage of all the girls at work. He wanted some answers.

"Do it." John said.

John wanted to be angrier but just couldn't be for some reason. He was more impressed than angry at Young Allison. How could anyone chastise her for that act of bravery? No matter how anyone looked at it, it still took a lot of 'cojones' to do that.

He hoped she would be back as a teenager the next time Cameron 'punished' him. He was sure things would happen. He was really looking forward to that. He looked at some close up drone images of both Anna and Young Allison as they faced off with the big rigs. He really liked the way she looked right now. If Cameron put her in his bed the way she currently was, he planned to take advantage of that. It was going to happen anyway so what difference did it make when it happened?

He glanced over at John Henry screens to see if maybe 'Pretty Baby' was on one of them.

Young Allison headed towards the trucks once their embrace was over.

Savannah thought that Young Allison would remain with the Cessna. That wasn't the case.

"Where are you going?" Savannah asked.

Young Allison looked back over her shoulder as she continued to walk.

"I'm going to go and help them." Young Allison said. "It doesn't get done thinking about it."

Savannah was worried there could be danger at the trucks for Young Allison.

"You don't even know what's in the trucks." Savannah said.

Young Allison paused and waited for Savannah to join her.

"That is why we need to look, silly." Young Allison said. "We're here, we can help."

Savannah was surprised at Young Allison's attitude. It wasn't what she'd expected at all after the close encounter that Young Allison had just experienced. She could tell that Young Allison was going to be a handful. She wondered if she could order two of the Metal girls to physically remove Young Allison from the area and take her back home. She didn't want her around there, especially if there was the chance of an H-bomb going off.

Young Allison could tell Savannah wanted to order her away. She couldn't allow that.

"I know what you're thinking." Young Allison said. "We are equal."

Savannah knew that she had a lot more experience in several categories than Young Allison did. Those categories stretched from combat to love making.

"Are we?" Savannah asked.

Savannah wondered what would happen if she gave an order and Young Allison countermanded it. She just heard Young Allison change Cameron's 'command' to fire the two missiles. It was obeyed. She thought in a showdown Cammy would back her. She knew Gail would too. Everyone else she didn't know….

Young Allison didn't want to pick a fight with Savannah. She knew that Savannah was concerned for her safety. She was concerned for Savannah safety and everyone else's too. Everyone worried about everyone else. That's just the way it was. She wanted to make herself clear to Savannah so there wouldn't be any problems going forward.

"We're equal." Young Allison said. "I don't want to be a problem. I want you to understand I'm not leaving here without you today. If you want me to go, I'll go with you right now. We can take the Cessna and fly away. We both know that's not going to happen. We need to be here to protect Cameron. We don't know from what exactly but we both know that that's what we need to do."

Savannah could see there was no point in arguing about this.

"OK, Allison." Savannah said.

Young Allison flashed her beautiful smile at Savannah.

"Thank you." Young Allison said.

Young Allison was about to continue on her way to go to the trucks.

Savannah needed to ask her some questions.

"Stop…." Savannah said. "There's something I need to discuss with you."

Young Allison looked slightly annoyed. She thought Savannah was scheming to get her to leave still.

Savannah took out the note they found inside Cammy.

"Is this your handwriting?" Savannah asked.

"It looks like Allison's handwriting." Young Allison said. "Wait, we cross our 'T' at a different angle. Cameron made me do that when I was little. It might be mine after all."

Savannah still felt a sense of doom about whatever the note was about.

"None of us has read this yet." Savannah said. "It's going to change the future in some way if we do."

Savannah explained where the note came from and what they knew so far and what the possible outcomes were. None of them looked promising.

Young Allison needed to think about it. If she read the note she wrote in the past, it was going to change what they did in the present or future. She hadn't been in the future or the past yet. She decided to read it. She wouldn't have written it by hand and placed it inside of Cammy if it wasn't something important. She decided the best course of action was to go ahead and read it now.

"Let me have it." Young Allison said. "Please."

Savannah started to hand the note to Young Allison but hesitated.

"Remember, this is going to change the future." Savannah said.

Young Allison noted Savannah's reluctance to release the note. There had to be a good reason for that.

"What do you think it will say?" Young Allison asked.

Savannah looked into Young Allison's face.

"I think it will say that Cameron or I were most likely terminated." Savannah said.

That alone is all Young Allison needed to hear to want to alter the future.

"Read it with me." Young Allison said. "We're equal, Savannah. We'll do this together…."

They both knew they would do a lot of things together in the future….

That's if there still was a future for both of them.

Earlier:

Holly tried to stop Cameron from glitching and end up in a 'bad' place.

Cameron's hand stopped glitching.

"I'm OK, Holly." Cameron said. "Thank you."

Holly looked at Cameron with a very serious look on her face.

"I'm always here for you, Cameron." Holly said.

Cameron couldn't help but remember what happened to Holly in her future. She didn't want Holly in the combat zone that was sure to take place before the day was through.

"Yes you always have been too." Cameron said. "I need someone to fly the plane out of here and get it off the road."

Holly looked at Cameron for a long moment. She realized Cameron wanted her away from the immediate area.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" Holly asked.

Cameron didn't want to get specific. She didn't tell Holly the real reason.

"I'd like to ask." Cameron said. "You might have more luck to get Young Allison to go with you."

Holly knew there was more to it than that.

"OK, Cameron." Holly said. "I'll do what you want."

Cameron pulled Holly close to her and hugged her.

"Thank you, Holly." Cameron said.

As soon as Holly exited the back of the truck, Cameron's hand started to glitch even more as she thought about the damage she'd done to Holly before. The horrific images were as fresh in her mind as if they'd just occurred. The images as Holly begged her to 'finish it' still haunted her. She'd been the one in control of Holly's chassis and damaged it to that extent.

John wanted an update. No information had come through yet. He decided to ask.

"Cameron, what have you found so far?" John asked.

Cameron looked around the interior of the trailer. She was very dissatisfied at what she found or in this case didn't find.

"I've found nothing so far." Cameron said. "There's nothing in this trailer. I can't see anything of relevance."

John wondered if that was true or not. He thought Cameron could have found something but didn't want to tell him what it was. If it was something she wanted to take for herself, he was sure she would do that. Maybe he could get a straight answer from some of the other Metal girls.

"Let me check with the other teams." John said.

Cameron listened to them all check in. They all reported negative on any contraband. She didn't believe that.

"We're missing something." Cameron said. "We're taking these trucks out into the desert and tearing them apart. We will strip them down to the parts they were constructed from."

John thought that sounded a little extreme, even for Cameron.

"Is that necessary?" John asked.

Cameron was worried about the nuclear weapons. She hoped to find them in the trucks. If they weren't in the trucks there's only one other place they could be.

"With unaccounted nuclear weapons it is." Cameron said. "If they're not hidden here, they're already in the mine."

John understood her worry. If the missing nuclear weapons were already in the mine, they were probably already encased in Cobalt.

"They could have the C-bombs already made." John said.

Cameron understood the seriousness of the issue on several levels.

"I'm afraid these trucks were going to be used to transport them away." Cameron said. "If they're already built, they could be detonated in a moment's notice."

John realized the seriousness of the issue as well.

"That puts everyone in danger there." John said.

Cameron wanted to make sure that John saw the overall picture not what he was probably thinking about. She was well aware of what he wanted from Savannah and Young Allison.

"It puts half the planet in danger, John, not just Savannah and Allison – Young Allison." Cameron said.

John was caught off guard by Cameron's statement.

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

Cameron smiled to herself. She knew that's what he'd been thinking. She knew because she personally put the idea into his head every time they were alone together. She made sure it wasn't only part of his nightly conditioning but part of Savannah's and Young Allison's as well. She wanted the best for John. She wanted him to have what she was sure she wasn't able to give him. She wanted what was best for the girls as well.

"I know what you were thinking." Cameron said.

John didn't want to discuss the issue any further with Cameron. He certainly didn't want anyone else to hear about it. He wanted to concentrate on her earlier suggestion.

"Take the trucks and head into the desert." John said. "Tear them apart."

John would rather have Cameron do that than try to enter the mine.

Cameron still needed to check up on a few things herself.

"I'll make the arrangements." Cameron said. "I have other plans."

That wasn't the response that John hoped to hear. His worry continued.

Savannah and Young Allison saw Holly headed their way.

Young Allison figured she knew what was coming.

"Hello, Holly." Young Allison said.

Holly smiled and both of the girls as they all embraced each other.

"Hello, Allison." Holly said. "I need to fly the plane away. Will you come with me?"

Young Allison quickly glanced at Savannah before she looked back at Holly.

"Did you draw the short straw?" Young Allison asked.

Holly frowned a little. She didn't like being the only one sent away.

"No, Cameron assigned me to do this." Holly said. "I'm not sure why."

Holly lifted the front of the Cessna and rotated it around back in the direction it landed from and then climbed inside.

"Are you coming?" Holly leaned out and asked. "Come get your vest and Anna's vest if you're not."

Young Allison walked over to collect her equipment.

"No." Young Allison said. "I'm needed here."

Young Allison slipped her vest on as Savannah took Anna's vest and M-4.

They watched as the plane started and took off.

Savannah watched the exchange that went down.

"She didn't look very happy with her assignment." Savannah said.

Young Allison looked around to make sure nobody could hear.

"Cameron's protecting her." Young Allison said.

Savannah was a little confused by that statement.

"What's Cameron protecting her from?" Savannah asked.

Young Allison remembered when Allison came to her. Allison told her she needed to talk to somebody because she was very worried about Holly.

"Allison told me something happened once." Young Allison said. "It was a mission Holly went on. Allison never knew what it was that went wrong. Holly has no recollection of anything bad happening to her."

Savannah wondered if Cameron used some 'temporal management' to correct the problem.

"Maybe Cameron 'fixed' it and it never did happen to her." Savannah said.

Young Allison looked at the note she held.

"Is that what this note will do also?" Young Allison asked. "Will it 'fix' something?"

Savannah wanted to know what the note said. She still dreaded whatever it might say.

"More than likely that is what this is about. The 'fix' may be to prevent something from happening as it happened." Savannah said. "I really don't know."

Young Allison was ready to see exactly what all this was about.

"Let's find out." Young Allison said.

Young Allison unfolded the note and took Savannah's hand as they read it together.

Holly lifted the Cessna off the highway and into the air. She didn't like being sidelined. She was sure that is what it was. It was important to Cameron that she not be there in the zone of danger.

It made her wonder.

Allison told her that something happened to her that was catastrophic when she was in Cameron's future. Whatever it was, there was nothing on her chip about it and nothing was deleted or erased.

Maybe it was true and the truth of whatever it was still haunted Cameron. It was clear that some of Cameron's glitching was related to it.

Holly gained some altitude and flew back over the three trucks and the girls below.

She wondered if she would ever see any of them again.

Why would Cameron spare her?

She couldn't help but think about what Allison said. Maybe Cameron couldn't spare her before. It wasn't a pleasant thought.

Cameron assigned Hanna, Cam and Ally to drive the big rigs away.

She knew Gail wanted to remain with Savannah.

"I'll drive an SUV so Anna may remain with Young Allison." Gail said.

Cameron was pleased for all the assistance the Metal girls gave her.

"Thank you, Gail." Cameron said.

Gail felt it was her duty. The girls came first when it came to everything. She would make sure that happened.

"Everyone sacrifices for Savannah and Allison…." Gail said. "We will all sacrifice for the 'Chosen Ones'."

Cameron felt Gail was a valuable asset. She believed any of the Metal girls would do what she wanted without question.

"Thank you." Cameron said again. "Samantha will follow you and the big rigs, tear them apart. If you find what I want, you are to take control of them and only follow my orders."

Gail could see that Cameron didn't want any interference from John. That was understandable. She felt he made questionable decisions. She also knew there could be a different issue that could come into play.

"What if your orders are countermanded?" Gail asked.

They both knew Gail was talking about Savannah and Young Allison.

"Then you will follow the protocol of the future and do as they say." Cameron said. "THAT is how it must be. They're both pure at heart and will make the proper call."

Gail could see the potential for a problem developing between Savannah and Young Allison. She was unsure how to address it based on the orders she was previously given. It would be very confusing.

"What if they 'differ'?" Gail asked. "Today we saw Young Allison stand her ground as Savannah has done."

Cameron was sure at some point that was going to happen. She didn't think the girls would get into an 'order war'. It was her belief they would discuss the issue and come up with a workable solution.

"They are equal." Cameron said. "They'll work it out. It's how it must work in the future as well. They need to protect John. They need to make it all work. They will need to counterbalance John in the future and stand up to him."

Gail could see that Cameron was currently a little stressed out. She wanted to give her some personal reassurance.

"They will protect you as well." Gail said. "All three of them will protect you."

Cameron silently nodded.

Gail and Samantha drove off after the big rigs.

Cameron watched them go. She was left with a very uneasy feeling of what was about to happen.

Cameron tried to hide her glitching hand. She was very aware there was a lot more in play here than she knew. This endeavor would most likely get worse before it got better, even if it could improve. She didn't think so.

Young Allison and Savannah watched Cameron approach with Cammy, Anna and Sheila.

The girls wiped their tears away. It was time to face the present.

The Metal girls all glanced uneasily at each other.

It was evident as they approached that Savannah and Young Allison were very upset.

"They are crying." Sheila said.

It was clear it was bad news at this point.

Cameron stopped.

The Metal girls stopped with her.

"Go on, Cameron, we'll wait here." Cammy said.

Anna wanted to reassure Cameron that the 'Natural Order' was strong.

"They need you right now." Anna said.

Cameron looked at Cammy, Sheila and Anna.

"I NEED them even more." Cameron said.

Cameron didn't look forward to whatever the note said.

Maybe it was time to 'pay the piper' and atone for all of her past sins.

From Seeing The Stars

With my eyes wide open
I can only see nothingness
When I look inside of me
I can only find emptiness

Because I'm still here
Doesn't mean I haven't gone
It's already the sunset
Before there was ever a dawn

I thought I knew you
From the future to the past
Now your mind is in a fog
Your heart deeply overcast

It has become quite obvious
You won't heed my call
You have chosen a new direction
Forcing me to slip and fall

Crying eyes search the heavens
Weeping behind our avatars
Our tears can prevent us
From seeing the stars

Nobody