Chapter 974

I Am At Your Side

Cammy went off on her own. She was still angry at Cameron. She experienced all the emotions and feelings that Cameron experienced. She thought Sheila, Ally and Hanna all actually experienced more. The 'Neural Interface' Cameron perfected allowed them to be more 'human'. That may also have provided them with the added benefit to be able to deal with their feelings and emotions better. Even if their feelings and emotions were greater, they could deal with them at a superior level.

Anna was also this same way, maybe even more so. Savannah made a point of using the 'Neural Interface' with Anna as often as possible. Cammy knew Savannah was trying to create a Metal version of herself. Cammy thought that was ironic as Cameron was trying to create the human version of herself with Savannah and Young Allison. They were each trying to create what the other one was. Maybe at times they wished they could be each other. It was all very complicated.

Cammy was surprised as someone grabbed her at the same time her phone rang. She spun around. A 'homeless looking' female tried to pull her off to the side. The phone message warned her to 'look out'. The message warned her that someone was about to ambush her. She'd previously turned off her com so she didn't have to hear Cameron and Savannah talk. Maybe all of that was a mistake at this point. That was Cameron's fault.

At first Cammy thought it was some type of an attack but instantly realized the 'homeless looking' female was trying to warn of danger. The 'homeless looking' female seemed to endanger herself to do it too. She looked terrified. She was aware that many of the homeless individuals suffered from various forms of mental illness. This could be someone afflicted with one of them.

Cammy broke free and looked around her. She'd lost track of where she was. She was in a dingy looking alley. She was unsure of her current location. She quickly realized that was Cameron's fault as well.

"Quickly, come in here." The 'homeless looking' female said. "They're going to see you."

Cammy was ready to draw her weapon. She hadn't spotted the threat yet.

"Who will see me?" Cammy asked. "Where are they?"

Cammy continued to look around her in all directions. She wondered if some of the Grays were out. Maybe there was a Terminator.

The look of fear on the 'homeless looking' female was unmistakable. It was clear that she was terrified.

"The Ogre will see you." The 'homeless looking' female said. "I saw him earlier down the alley. He's abused me several times. You're beautiful. He will surely abuse you. He does it to all the females."

Cammy looked in the direction that the terrified 'homeless looking' female indicated. It seems like something she should look into at this point. She was just given the description of what would be a future Scavenger. All practical purposes they were a Scavenger in this time line already. She also needed to consider the possibility that it could be a Terminator. Based on the fact that the 'homeless looking' female was previously abused by him, she didn't think that it was. It was still a possibility. That was something that male Terminator would be able to do.

"I doubt that." Cammy said. "I will tremi… - defend myself."

Cammy moved the 'homeless looking' female back into her place of concealment.

The 'homeless looking' female didn't think Cammy understood the severity of the situation. She repeated and elaborated on her earlier statement.

"He will." The 'homeless looking' female said. "He does it to all the women and a few of the younger men too. I've heard it. I've seen it. I've experienced it."

It was clear to Cammy the 'homeless looking' female was reliving those events in her mind. She looked very terrified.

Cammy checked her surroundings with a detailed scan. She didn't like the nature of the threat that was indicated. Nothing was detected. She turned her attention back to the 'homeless looking' female.

"Is this where you live?" Cammy asked.

The 'homeless looking' female appeared to be terrified of her surroundings. She looked off into the distance down the alley.

"No. I live by the old supermarket." The 'homeless looking' female said. "There's food now in the trash to eat there. I can get a good meal in every now and then. The building is occupied again."

Cammy quickly understood the significance of the 'homeless looking' female's' revelation. It sounded like further investigation would be needed. They may get a break on some intel. She turned her attention back to the 'homeless looking' female.

"Why are you here?" Cammy asked.

The 'homeless looking' female looked a little embarrassed.

"I wanted to go by the park and use the restroom to clean up a little." The 'homeless looking' female said. "I spotted the Ogre on the way back and hid here. I didn't want to get abused again. He does it every time he can catch me. It happened. That is why I wanted to get cleaned up at the park. When I spotted you, I didn't want you to get hurt. He is very violent at first. He threatened to cut off my ears before. That wasn't the only part of my body that he's held a knife to. He's very violent. It seems to excite him as much as the other things he does."

Cammy heard more than enough about the future Scavenger. As far as she was concerned his fate was already sealed. She wanted to find him so she could administer justice. She felt that the 'homeless looking' female and the other homeless people could use a break. She intended to give them one, literally. She would bust up the bully before he was Terminated.

"Thanks." Cammy said. "You stay here and I'll go down and have a 'conversation' with the Ogre."

The look of abject terror was back on the 'homeless looking' female's face. She looked at Cammy and tried to plead with her. She knew with absolute certitude what was going to happen to Cammy if she went down by where the Ogre was at.

"You don't understand. He'll take you." The 'homeless looking' female said with concern. "He is very strong. He will abuse you everywhere. There are others with him, they will too. They all will. It's happened to me multiple times. They jumped me earlier today, all three of them."

There was the sound of running feet in the alley. Cammy moved out to confront the threat. It was Savannah and Cameron. They'd come to help her.

There was a look of extreme worry and fear on Savannah's face.

"Are you OK, Cammy?" Savannah asked.

Savannah was very concerned about Cammy.

Cammy checked the surrounding area again and the direction where the Ogre was at.

"I'm fine." Cammy said. "There's going to be a few individuals that won't be very soon."

Cammy quickly explained the story and said the woman lived by the old supermarket. They needed to question her further for intel. She may be able to provide them with the strength of the Grays. She might have some better insight as to what was actually inside of the old supermarket.

There was something that troubled Cameron. She'd heard it on the way up. They'd heard much of the conversation between Cammy and the 'homeless looking' female. Some of the 'homeless looking' female's transmission was garbled

"What was this about someone being abused?" Cameron asked.

The 'homeless looking' female told the story. Cameron was disgusted by it. This would take some immediate corrective action. She'd heard enough to know that the Ogre was a Scavenger by any other name. His fate was sealed as far as she was concerned.

"Cammy, you and Savannah take this nice lady away from here and see if you can get some more information out of her. This isn't the proper setting for that." Cameron said. "I'm going to have a 'talk' with the Ogre."

The 'homeless looking' female was very worried for Cameron.

"He'll take you." The 'homeless looking' female said as Cammy and Savannah led her away. "You can't leave your sister there. We need to bring her back. He will hurt her and scar her. He's bound to do something to her to mar her beauty. He's very mean."

Cammy couldn't really explain to the 'homeless looking' female that a street punk was no match for a Terminator.

"She's dealt with his type before." Cammy said. "She can take care of herself. I wouldn't worry about him anymore if I were you."

Savannah started to calm the 'homeless looking' female as best as she could. She reassured her everything was under control and they could get her some food and clean water.

She'd dealt with homeless individuals previously. She knew to keep her distance and avoid physical contact. She was also aware that many of them suffered from mental illness and could snap at any point in time. Cameron needed to terminate more than one of the individuals that they'd tried to help previously.

Earlier:

John watched Cammy on and off as he looked at the other events going down. He looked back at the monitor with Cammy and saw there was a problem, a big problem.

"Look. Someone is moving to grab Cammy." John said.

John Henry sent out an immediate alert. He wasn't the only one that acted.

"CamNet has dropped the altitude of a drone." John Henry said. "It's preparing for combat."

John knew a bad idea when he heard it. It was still too early in the day for a drone attack.

"It's daylight and in the city." John said. "I want you to issue a recall."

John Henry was able to issue a temporary halt to the attack. He also called for reinforcements on the ground.

"I've alerted the other Metal girls. They've already begun to take action." John Henry said. "The drone is holding at fifteen thousand feet. The 'gun' is hot and the drone is ready to drop down into firing range. I don't know how much longer I can hold it at the higher altitude."

John shook his head in disgust. A drone attack in the city during daylight isn't something that he would condone unless it was under extreme circumstances.

"Beautiful." John said. "This always happens somehow."

John understood there was a threat but he didn't want to lose sight of the overall picture. They were there to deal with Skynet related activity. He didn't need homeless people or street punks to get in the way.

Earlier:

Anna looked at her phone as Young Allison changed.

CamNet alerted her to the impending threat.

"There's been trouble detected." Anna said.

Young Allison picked up her phone. She was only half dressed. She saw the threat for what it was. Cammy was completely exposed and moving down an alley. There was someone waiting to attack her just ahead of her.

"CamNet, alert everyone." Young Allison said. "I want you to assist Cammy, immediately."

Anna knew that the only way that CamNet could assist them directly was with a drone strike. She wanted Young Allison to reconsider that last command.

"We need to see what the threat is first." Anna said. "It may not be Skynet related."

Young Allison could see that Cammy seemed oblivious to her surroundings.

"The threat is that Cammy is in danger." Young Allison said. "Why wasn't she paying attention?"

Anna quickly updated Young Allison with what was about to happen.

"The Metal girls are responding." Anna said. "A drone is descending to initiate a gun attack at close range. Cammy is too close for a missile strike.

Young Allison didn't want that option used yet. It was still daylight. She didn't want events to get away from her.

"Hold the drone for now." Young Allison said. "Keep the 'gun' hot and be ready to drop into effective gun range. Bring the other drone in closer. If this is an attack on our troops we will respond with overwhelming force."

Anna knew Young Allison was stepping on a lot of toes right now.

"We should go through John and John Henry." Anna said. "This is their operation."

The protection of the troops came before hurt feelings to Young Allison. She hadn't seen anyone else move to protect Cammy. They heard most of the conversation between Cammy and the 'homeless looking' female.

"Is the immediate threat over?" Young Allison asked.

Cameron and Savannah arrived at the scene where Cammy was at.

"Yes." Anna said.

They watched as Cammy and Savannah lead the 'homeless looking' female away.

Young Allison didn't want to step on anyone's toes or hurt anyone's feelings. She also wasn't going to sit around and do nothing.

"Turn control back over to John Henry." Young Allison said. "I did what looked like was necessary to protect Cammy."

Anna looked over at Young Allison's topless figure.

"Finish dressing and we'll go to the bunker." Anna said.

Young Allison looked down at herself. She frowned at what she looked at.

"What's there to see?" Young Allison asked. "I look like a boy with long hair and a couple of swollen mosquito bites."

Anna felt Young Allison was much more substantial than that. She felt that she looked like a compact version of Cameron at this point in time. She on the other hand felt that description fit her aptly.

"I know what you mean." Anna said as she glanced down at herself. "I really do."

After seeing Young Allison again, Anna wasn't about to regress her sheath any more with her Resequencing procedure, enough was enough. She decided to add a year back onto her sheath's appearance. She initiated the process immediately. It was a direct violation of Cameron's previous directive to her. Right now, she didn't care.

John was aware CamNet, and most likely Young Allison, intended to hit hard if there was a problem and Cammy would have come under attack. He could almost picture a drone headed down the alley blasting away at everything that wasn't Cammy or one of the Resistance team with its minigun. He didn't disagree with the response if their troops were in danger. He only disagreed with the time of the day that it was. If there would have actually been an attack by the Skynet forces against their troops, he would have let the drone action stand and happen.

John sent Ally and Sheila to assist Cameron. They were actually already on their way.

The Metal girls were alerted as to the nature of the threat. They'd dealt with similar circumstances many times before.

"Finally, we get some action." Sheila said. "It's my favorite kind too."

Ally looked over at Sheila. She could see that Sheila was extremely excited about rendering 'justice' to a future Scavenger. In this case, the future Scavenger appeared to need 'justice' delivered immediately.

"It's nothing we don't already do a few times a week." Ally said.

Sheila and Ally hurried down from the far end of the alley.

"I miss this." Sheila said.

John listened to the Metal girl's conversation as they neared the target area.

"Stay alert." John said. "Don't get target fixation."

Ally wanted to assure John everything was under control.

"Sheila likes to take care of most of this herself." Ally said. "She's quite proficient at it, even if she's a little over dramatic about it."

Sheila only needed to review the files from Jesse and the things done to her to find the motivation and the appropriate response to do to the perpetrators.

The fact it was Cammy that was threatened made this personal to her. No one puts one of her girls in a corner.

Ally glanced over and could see Sheila looked a little more serious than usual. She figured that was because Cammy was directly threatened. It made her wonder if Sheila would show that same level of concern for her under similar circumstances. In other words, did Sheila care more about Cammy or more about her? She didn't think now was the time to ask that question. She wasn't really sure if she would like the answer if she heard it.

The other Metal girls were all on alert. The SUVs were all started and they were ready to roll. Everyone did a weapons check. They still didn't know what they dealt with for sure.

Cammy called for Cam to come and pick up the 'homeless looking' female.

Savannah found out her name was Susan.

Cam was to drive over and pick Susan up along with Savannah. Cammy was to return to the alley to back Cameron up on Savannah's insistence.

Savannah was with Susan. As soon as she saw Cam's SUV, she told Cammy to go help Cameron. She didn't believe Susan was a threat to her. The other Metal girls would be there in seconds anyway.

"Go, Cammy." Savannah said. "I see Cam coming now. I have this."

Cammy looked at Savannah for a second and at Cam's approaching SUV. She took off at a run back towards where Cameron was last at.

Susan was amazed at how quickly Cammy could run.

"Wow! She can run really fast." Susan said as she watched Cammy go. "If I could have run that fast, the Ogre wouldn't have been able to assault me so many times."

Savannah wanted to redirect Susan's attention. She didn't need to see any more than was necessary.

"She works out. Don't worry about it." Savannah said. "We're going to get you out of here and to a safer place."

Cam pulled up with the SUV and stopped next to Savannah.

Savannah went over all the details real quick with Cam.

"This is Susan. Find out what you can about what happens around this location and get her to the shelter." Savannah said. "Get her some healthy food too. I promised her a meal."

Gail got out of the SUV. She knew what Savannah wanted. She was here to back Savannah up.

Savannah looked at Gail and nodded.

"Let's go." Savannah said.

Gail ran alongside of Savannah as they followed Cammy. Cammy pulled away from them. Gail stayed with Savannah. They hurried as fast as Savannah could go.

Cam wanted to protest but Savannah was already gone.

Susan looked Cam over. She was a little confused.

"Did you change?" Susan asked Cam.

Cam tilted her head slightly. She quickly deduced what the question actually meant.

It was clear Susan thought Cam was Cameron.

"It's hot out." Cam said.

Cam hoped that was a good enough explanation as she didn't have a better one to offer. She couldn't exactly explain to Susan that she was a cybernetic organism and that Cammy and her were clones of Cameron. Cameron was a very scary robot from the future and by extension so were Cammy and her. She turned and drove away.

Susan turned back to look in the direction where the girls ran. She was sure all of them were going to be assaulted.

"Your sister and friends are in danger." Susan said. "The Ogre and his crew are very violent."

Cam didn't believe that with five Terminators and Savannah in the alley that the Ogre and his crew would present much of a problem.

"They have it covered. Let's get you something to eat while we talk." Cam said. "Tell me about the old supermarket…."

Susan looked back at the area they just left one more time. She was still worried about the girls who were left there. She began to answer Cam's questions.

Vanna arrived with Allison in the nursery. That's what the new room on the east side of Riley's room was now known as.

There was a knock at the connecting door

It opened and Samantha walked in.

"Hi." Samantha said. "Precious needs you."

Vanna could see Samantha scanned her breasts. She reassured her she was good to go.

"I have plenty." Vanna said.

Samantha wanted to explain herself.

"I'm sorry." Samantha said. "I need to look out for Precious."

Riley entered the room, she carried Precious. She looked down at her breasts.

"Thanks, Vanna." Riley said. "I seem to have less and less. I just don't understand it. I really don't."

Samantha wanted to keep everything under control. She wanted to give Riley some positive reassurance.

"You're experiencing high stress levels." Samantha said. "You're performing admirably."

Riley actually felt a little less stressed out with Samantha's calming words.

"Thanks." Riley said. "I'm really trying."

Riley handed Precious to Vanna who'd already opened her top.

Riley and Samantha were both standing there.

Vanna wanted Riley to take it easy for a few minutes. She wanted her to unwind.

"I have this." Vanna said. "Go relax for a few minutes."

Riley wanted to explain herself. She didn't want to seem like a 'Peeping Tom'.

"I was going to change her when she needed it." Riley said.

Vanna thought Riley still looked a little 'high strung'.

"I have it, Riley." Vanna said. "I'll take care of her. Go sit down for a while."

Riley looked concerned and nervous.

Samantha didn't want Riley to get stuck on the wrong path. She wanted to offer her a few suggestions.

"We can work on something else for a little bit." Samantha said.

Riley looked a little nervously at Precious. She tried to think what else she could do.

"Maybe I'll start dinner." Riley said.

Samantha smiled at Riley.

"I'll assist you." Samantha said.

Riley looked at Vanna and Samantha with sincerity.

"Thank you." Riley said. "All of you."

Vanna and Samantha smiled at her.

Riley and Samantha left the Nursery.

Allison joined Vanna at her side. She looked in the direction Riley and Samantha went. She was more than a little concerned about Riley's mental health.

"I think Riley is going to have a nervous breakdown." Allison whispered.

Vanna looked at the door that Riley and Samantha just exited through. She frowned slightly.

"I hope that you're not correct." Vanna whispered. "That's what Samantha is for, to prevent that."

Allison thought it was a little more than that. She thought it was even more of a serious nature.

"I think she is here to protect Precious." Allison whispered.

Vanna was more than a little worried about the same thing.

"I get that feeling also." Vanna whispered. "Derek is helping her too."

Vanna and Allison felt everything was under control where they were.

Vanna sat in the lounge chair and nursed Precious.

Allison felt nervous as she thought about herself with an infant in the future.

"You look so natural doing that, Vanna." Allison said. "I'm probably going to be a nervous wreck like Riley."

Vanna didn't believe that for a second. She believed that Allison would step up to the challenge and meet it. She believed that Riley would be able to do that as well. It just might take her a little longer.

"You'll do fine." Vanna said. "Riley will too."

Allison hoped she would. She wondered if the other 'Allisons' experienced the same fears that she did. At least two of them were taking care of babies, maybe three by now.

With the ability to time travel, they could visit them at any time. There was always the risk of a temporal error so that prevented them from taking 'day trips'.

Allison knew there was a version of Savannah or Vanna with them, the other 'Allisons'. That probably helped them out a lot.

Vanna looked over at Allison and was a little worried about her.

"Your hands are shaking." Vanna said. "Are you alright?"

Allison looked at her hands and wondered if this was where Cameron got her glitch from. Her hands were shaking. In fact her whole body was to some degree.

"I think I was a little nervous or worried." Allison said.

Vanna held Precious firmly as she nursed. She reached out with her other hand and gently touched Allison.

"Don't be." Vanna said. "I'm at your side."

Allison looked at Vanna and knew she always would be too, even if they both shared a little extra. They would still always have each other.

Life was good in Paradise.

Allison looked at Precious. She hoped that nothing changed that. Her hands continued to shake.

I Am At Your Side

Few are willing to lead
Most want to have a free ride
They're more than willing to go
Wherever they're taken by the tide

They don't stand for anything
Through life they cower and hide
They are seldom honest
They act rather snide

Some seldom give praise
It's much easier to chide
Instead of support to unite
They would rather divide

Then there are those
Who will help and guide
They are willing to share
They assist and provide

One need not swallow their pride
When they chose and decide
In their heart who will reside
Seek no more, I am at your side

Nobody