Chapter 978

Chrome Bumper

A Terminator was spotted when the box truck arrived. He'd emerged from the cargo section when the truck stopped. What was more disturbing was that he looked to be identical to 'The Enforcer'. That was a Terminator they thought they'd destroyed in Nevada with an H-bomb in an underground explosion in a mine.

John glanced over at John Henry. He was afraid it was going to get violent real soon since there with an enemy Terminator spotted. He was sure the Metal girls would see that as a threat that they would want to deal with as soon as possible.

"Things are going to heat up fast with a hostile Terminator there." John said. "I know that Cameron will want to try to take him out now."

John Henry felt their force was superior and would prevail. Cameron would destroy him or capture him.

"You know Cameron is always looking for more 'recruits'." John Henry said. "You know how Cameron thinks."

John thought about that for a few seconds. He didn't believe that he did. In fact, there was an awful lot he didn't know about Cameron. There was much about her that remained an enigma to him.

"I really don't know what Cameron thinks." John said. "I don't think I ever have."

John Henry thought the Terminators were a little more predictable than humans were in their thought process. That wasn't always the case. Sometimes humans did things that were very predictable. Other times anything went.

"Who knows what anyone thinks?" John Henry asked. "I'm still looking for a possible destination when the truck leaves before it returns to the port area."

It seemed to John that the Resistance always needed to play 'catch up' to whatever the Skynet forces tried to do. Almost everything they did was a reaction to what Skynet did. They never knew where Skynet or the Grays were at until they stumbled upon them or picked up some activity that they were responsible for.

"Skynet and the Grays always seemed to be one step ahead of us." John said.

John Henry thought that things could be a lot worse if Skynet was aware of the Resistance and that John Connor and Sarah Connor were still out there. They tried to remain in the shadows as much as possible.

"Be glad they're not trying to hunt us down." John Henry said.

John was aware there was a reason for that. It was Cameron.

"I think Cameron took the heat off of my mother and me." John said. "She placed it on herself."

They both knew Cameron made it a point to let every Skynet she defeated know it was her that terminated it. At least some of this information was passed on so that other versions of Skynet knew who she was when she faced them. Every Skynet was aware that when they faced Cameron, they would be terminated.

"That was her goal." John Henry said.

John and John Henry waited for any additional developments with the truck at the old supermarket. It always seemed they needed to play the waiting game. The only trouble was they didn't know how long the Metal girls would be willing to wait before they acted.

Cammy was with Gail. They were in the alley in back of the truck.

"They're taking something out of the back of the truck." Cammy said. "I'm going to send some cell phone footage."

John began to view the images as they came in. He was unsure what he looked at.

"What is it?" John asked.

Cammy wanted a better look herself. She was unable to do so currently.

"I don't know." Cammy said. "I can't move my position without being spotted by the Terminator."

Savannah didn't want any premature action from any of their Terminators. She wanted that truck to leave so it could be followed. They were two possible destinations it could go to. She wanted both of them identified. The old supermarket wasn't going anywhere.

"Everyone hold your position for now." Savannah said. "We want this truck to leave before we act. It's going to give us at least one more target if we follow it to its destination."

John cut his com. He was thankful Savannah was there with them. She would be the moderating force. The Metal girls would also listen to her and follow her directives. He wasn't so sure that they'd be willing to listen to him if they saw an opportunity to act.

"I'm glad Savannah is the one who said that." John said. "I know the Metal girls want to act."

John Henry understood Savannah's reasoning. It was an effective strategy.

"Savannah does too." John Henry said. "She wants to further the operation first."

John turned his com back on.

"I want to know if the Terminator goes with the truck or stays when it leaves." John said. "How long did the homeless female say the truck normally stays?"

Cam was the one who questioned the homeless female. She possessed the most information from her. She felt her name was important.

"Her name is Susan. She wasn't specific." Cam said. "She said normally it was no longer than a few hours."

Sheila was near Cammy.

"I don't think that will be the case today." Sheila said.

John wanted to know how she was able to make that determination.

"Why's that?" John asked. "Did something happen?"

Sheila was able to observe something removed from the back of the truck.

"From what is visible on our side, I see they're pushing something out of the rear door of the truck." Sheila said. "I can't tell what it is yet."

Ally looked at the strange looking container. She could only come to one conclusion as to what it actually was.

"I see it too." Ally said. "It looks like a cryogenic vat."

John didn't know the nature of the container but he knew that it was capable of reaching absolute zero.

"What needs to be kept that cold?" John asked.

From his past experience John thought of something else. It wasn't a good feeling.

It was when he'd previously encountered a Liquid Metal Terminator. He was temporarily frozen by liquid nitrogen. Unfortunately that incapacitation didn't last very long. He was soon after his mother and him again. He was able to get a hold of her and start to torture her to get him to show himself.

He briefly remembered Cameron also tortured his mother when they were in the LA River. She could have used his mother's voice herself but she didn't. She wanted his mother to cry out in pain for him to come to her aid. It wasn't long after that when he was faced with the choice to let her survive or deactivate her. He still remembered how desperate her face was as she pleaded for her life when she was trapped between the two trucks. That was when she also first told him that she loved him and he loved her.

Savannah saw Cameron sit up with the latest revelation about the cryogenic vat.

"What's wrong, Cameron?" Savannah asked.

Cameron thought of her encounter 'in some future' with a frozen Mrs. Weaver while Duplicate Cameron and Duplicate Allison faced off alone with Skynet. She was sure what this meant. It was bad news.

"I think that they're working on something with Liquid Metal." Cameron said.

That spelled trouble no matter how it was viewed.

"Are you sure?" Savannah asked. "We don't have any facts yet."

Cameron was aware that they didn't have anything factual to back up her suspicions yet. She could only rely on past experience from 'in some future' as well as information she was given by Duplicate Cameron.

"I know what Duplicate Cameron told me from the unknown future." Cameron said. "That was when they inadvertently released the Liquid Metal Terminator that Mrs. Weaver was working on."

That was the Liquid Metal Terminator that tried to 'assault' John as he slept in his room. It was incomplete and not fully functional. It wanted to 'absorb' Allison when it found her.

Savannah looked at the video feed from Sheila and Ally. There was something off here if that were the case. The container didn't look that big.

"Is there enough mass for that to be a full size Terminator?" Savannah asked.

It was clear to Cameron that it wasn't enough material to be a full size functioning Liquid Metal Terminator. That meant it was something else, maybe a test. If someone was conducting tests, the goal was obvious what they wanted to attain.

"I think it's an experiment." Cameron said. "They may want to start out small."

Savannah was as confused by Cameron's statement as she was by what exactly was happening.

"Are you saying it's test material or it's like a child?" Savannah asked.

Cameron tilted her head slightly. She hadn't thought of it as a child.

"I think it's test material." Cameron said. "In my future Skynet planned to make 'Terminator children' and use them as infiltrators. Skynet thought they could slip past the sentries easier to infiltrate the bases, camps, bunkers and tunnel systems. They would have been as deadly as 'full size' Terminators."

Savannah was a little worried at Cameron's latest revelation. She figured if they could have 'children' as infiltrators they could probably have 'animals' as well. If they were to make something of Liquid Metal, it could be anything.

"Maybe that's a girl they have in there and not a young teenager." Savannah said. "Maybe what they have in there isn't even a girl at all…."

Cameron needed to think about Savannah's statement for a few seconds. She wondered if Savannah suggested that the Grays put the grab on a girl so that a Liquid Metal Terminator, of smaller stature, would be able to imprint and copy her to become her.

Gail watched the Terminator from her concealed position.

"The Terminator's entered the building." Gail said. "The door has drop bolts at the bottom and looks like it takes a barricade bar. The door will take some effort to break down."

John Henry watched the action at the rear of the building from the drone footage. He wanted to make sure nothing was happening anywhere else in case what was happening at the back was a distraction.

"We still have nothing on the surveillance cameras." John Henry said.

Gail placed one of the surveillance cameras inside part of the old supermarket. She didn't believe that the main part of the old supermarket was still connected with the rear part of the supermarket where the giant refrigerators and freezers would be at.

"We were near the old bakery part when we were by the one side. The meat and frozen food section was on the opposite side." Gail said. "I think they are actually walled off from each other."

Gail thought that was done to further conceal what was really happening inside that structure. It created the illusion of an empty building when that wasn't the case at all. It appeared to be a grand sucker play.

Cameron saw that all the activity was occurring in the back at this point. She wanted to be closer to the action if something happened.

"I'm going to go up and take a look." Cameron said. "We're in the front. We've seen no activity. Surveillance hasn't picked up anything yet."

Savannah didn't want Cameron to go look for a fight. She thought it was too early to act. She'd already told Cameron and the other Metal girls what she wanted to happen first. She would offer an alternative that could have action if needed.

"Cameron, I want to wait until the truck leaves." Savannah said. "If we see a female being taken to the truck, we'll act. Otherwise we need to wait."

Savannah gently put her hand on Cameron's arm to stop her.

Cameron looked at Savannah's hand as it gently held her arm down. It was clear what Savannah wanted. She needed to think this through some more.

"OK, Savannah." Cameron said. "We need to see the bigger picture."

The truck leaving unscathed was key to the next phase of the operation. It was going somewhere. They needed to know where. The best indication was it would stop at an intermediate location before it returned to the port area. Those are two targets that needed to be identified.

"We don't know where that truck goes exactly or where it is kept at near the port when it is there." Savannah said. "We need to see what else is involved. If there are more locations where there are Grays, there are also more locations where other female detainees may be held. We need to identify those locations so that they can all be taken down and any captives freed."

Cameron wanted to act now. She needed to listen to what Savannah said. What Savannah indicated with her last statement was that if there were other locations, there may be other females held at those locations as well. That was a sound possibility.

"I want to make sure there are no female captives at any of those locations." Cameron said. "Thank you for explaining."

Cameron didn't feel that Grays treated females much differently than Scavengers did. They certainly didn't value human life any more than the Scavengers did when it came to the females. They were used and abused and then they were terminated. They were then discarded like so much trash.

Sheila saw that things looked like they were about to wrap up.

"They're about to close the truck up." Sheila said.

John hoped for a more detailed report.

"Did they load anything?" John asked.

Sheila couldn't spot anything from her location. She knew that Cammy and Gail were further down the alley and in back of the truck.

"Nothing has been observed yet." Sheila said. "Cammy, are you able to see anything from behind the truck?"

Cammy continued to look at the back of the truck.

"I spot nothing on my side either." Cammy said.

John was more than a little worried at this point. It looked like the truck was getting ready to leave and there hadn't been any reports about the Terminator. He wanted to make sure that they weren't being set up.

"Where's the Terminator?" John asked. "I want everyone to watch around them and not fixate on the truck."

Gail checked around her position as she moved slightly to get a better look.

"He's inside the building." Gail said. "I have a clear view of the door."

From the drone footage a new threat was detected. It was in the alley and headed towards the girls. It came from the same direction that the truck arrived from. If the truck were to leave now, it would head away from it.

"John, you better take a look at this." John Henry said. "There might be a problem about to happen."

John didn't want any more things to go wrong if they could be avoided.

"Now what happened?" John asked. "Is it the Terminator?"

John Henry thought it was more likely going to spook the Grays or the Terminator if things continued.

"It looks like there are some homeless people moving down the alley." John Henry said. "They may be trying to go to where they sleep or they could be associates of the Ogre. They may have wondered what happened to him and his crew."

John looked at the drone image. He could see it was going to put Sheila and Ally in a bind.

"They are going to come up behind Ally and Sheila soon." John said.

Ally and Sheila were aware of the new threat. They'd received the drone images from John Henry.

Ally didn't want the current part of the operation compromised.

"I'll fall back and engage them." Ally said. "They could be an additional force of Grays connected with this operation. I'll terminate them before they reach the old supermarket to reinforce the Grays there."

John wasn't sure who they were. He didn't want Ally to jump the gun.

"They may be homeless." John said. "We need to find out more before we start any terminations."

Ally would rather err on the side of caution and protect their forces.

"They're Grays until I decide otherwise." Ally said. "They could still be reinforcements. We need to think of everyone involved with our force as well."

John understood Ally's statement to mean they all needed to think about Savannah.

"Use discretion but stay safe." John said. "Remember, the goal is to get the truck to leave and head towards its next destination without any indication that something is wrong or that they're being watched."

Ally planned to handle things her way. She didn't want John to worry.

"'Safe' is my middle name." Ally said.

Cameron didn't want to leave Sheila alone with the Grays and Terminator out. She wanted to implement a new plan.

"Cam, drive over that way and let's cut them off." Cameron said. "Ally, hold your position. I want you to stay with Sheila."

Hanna wanted to reassure everyone that they were still in the front, even though they were across the street.

"We have the front covered." Hanna said. "Go, Cam."

Cam started the SUV and swung around in a wide U-turn.

Cameron checked the drone feed and watched them. They were still east of where Cammy encountered Susan earlier.

Savannah put her vest on.

"I'll get behind the wheel when Cam and you investigate, Cameron." Savannah said.

Cameron went over all the available information. She didn't believe the new arrivals were Grays. Whether they were associates of the Ogre or not was unknown.

"OK." Cameron said. "I don't think these are hard targets. You're armored up and will be in the SUV. I want you to stay there and be ready to move."

Savannah was aware that some type of altercation might be sparked when Cameron confronted them.

"I'll be fine." Savannah said. "They'll want to know who you are. If they're associated with the Ogre, they will be ready to fight."

Cameron wanted to come up with something plausible. She would try to draw their attention and have them focus on her. Cam could box them in from the rear.

"I'll tell them I'm a 'social worker'." Cameron said. "I'll head them off. Cam can come in from behind them. They will be trapped between us at that point. If it's a hostile force of any type, it won't leave that location."

Savannah thought she could be of some assistance if an altercation were about to occur. She was aware that the SUV was a two ton weapon waiting to be unleashed. It was four thousand pounds of unforgiving metal. Any human targets the bumper encountered were going to have a really bad day.

"I'll come barreling down the alley if there's trouble." Savannah said. "The chrome bumper does a number on people. I know. I used one before."

Savannah referred to the time she ran down a patrol of five Skynet operatives at the old helicopter base. She killed all five of them with the high speed impact. One of them was caught underneath the speeding vehicle as their arms and legs were torn off, one at a time as well as their head.

Cam remembered that incident as well. She was in the manned drone and taking fire from that same patrol. Savannah ended that threat to her. She watched as the one Gray was drug underneath the SUV and began to shed their limbs and eventually their head. A shredded torso was all that was left. It finally broke free from under the SUV.

Cameron wanted to go in light for the initial confrontation.

"I don't want to appear as a threat to anyone at this point." Cameron said.

Cam pulled up near the alley and Cameron hopped out.

Cameron only carried her Taser and pistol. She wasn't in full combat gear. It would put her ahead of the direction the homeless people were going.

Cam continued along until she was past where the transients were in the alley and stopped. She got out as Savannah slid over and took the wheel.

"I'll be there in seconds if you need me." Savannah said.

Cam looked back over her shoulder.

"If we run into Grays or a Terminator, we'll try and lure them into the center of the alley." Cam said as she ran to enter the alley.

Savannah left the SUV running. She was ready to come to their aid. She made sure she kept track of everything happening around her. She didn't want any surprises to show up behind or alongside of her. If things got hot for the girls, she was coming in full throttle. She planed to let the chrome bumper do the talking for her.

They watched as two Grays entered the truck cab after closing the rear door of the truck.

Gail noted there was a change right away.

"The Terminator isn't getting back in the truck." Gail said. "He went inside the building and closed the door. I can hear he's bolting it from the inside. The door itself will be hard to breach."

John wanted the truck to leave before the altercation took place with Cameron's team.

"We see the truck moving." John said. "He's headed the opposite direction from where Cameron, Cam and Savannah are."

Hanna and Holly were still across the street from the old supermarket. They were ready to take over their assigned function.

"We're ready to trail behind it." Hanna said.

John wanted a drone to track the truck. The Metal girls would only be backup in case any of the personnel exited the truck. They were always mindful that if the enemy detected a threat, they might try to bolt in different directions to avoid apprehension or termination.

"Don't get too close. We have a drone on him." John said.

Savannah sat in the idling SUV. She knew that they currently faced a lot of unknowns. She wanted to make sure that Hanna and Holly were protected.

"Have a missile hot and targeted on the truck." Savannah said.

John looked over at John Henry. He wanted to verify what Savannah just said

"Do you want a missile strike in the city?" John asked.

Savannah didn't know what would happen. She wanted to be prepared for any contingency.

"We don't know what else is in that truck." Savannah said. "I want that as an option."

John gave instructions for the Metal girls to change their positions. Gail and Sheila were to remain in the back. Cammy was to move around to the front.

"Ally, go back and help Cameron. I want Cam and Savannah to follow Holly and Hanna." John said.

Savannah wasn't about to leave Cameron to face the unknown force without all the back up there could be provided.

"I'll pick Cam up once Cameron and Ally have the situation under control." Savannah said. "I'm not going to leave them before that's done."

John was very aware that Savannah would stand up to him. He knew she wanted to protect Cameron and the other Metal girls. It was what he wanted to do for her. He wanted to protect her too.

He would prefer if she were away from that location since they didn't know what was inside the building. They'd speculated earlier that it could be chemical or biological agents. The newest revelation was that it might be something dealing with a Liquid Metal Terminator. Either way he would feel more comfortable with Savannah out on the road and as backup for Hanna and Holly.

Cameron heard running from the west side of the alley. Ally was on her way to assist her.

The homeless trio slowly approached from the east.

Ally arrived next to Cameron. She glanced over at Ally.

"Let's go see if these people need to go to a shelter or join the Ogre and his associates." Cameron said. "There's plenty of room for more bodies where they're at."

Ally wasn't sure what the threat would be.

"That sounds good to me." Ally said.

Cameron reviewed the drone footage. She was sure the trio that approached were homeless individuals. She didn't think that they were Grays unless they were in disguise. She doubted that.

"Cam is behind them and Savannah is in the SUV behind her." Cameron said.

Cameron and Ally stepped out in front of the trio. They could see Cam as she closed in behind the trio. The SUV sat waiting in the distance.

It was clear there was going to be some interaction.

"Nice day for a walk." One of the homeless people said.

Ally and Cameron blocked their path forward.

"Nice day for a walk." Cameron repeated.

The homeless trio looked uneasy.

Ally felt they held the upper hand.

"Now it's a nice day for a talk." Ally said.

Cameron and Ally knew that they would be able to bring down these three targets in seconds. Even if they carried weapons of some type, the most damage they would sustain would be minor.

I Don't Understand

Is there not on my finger
A place for your band
But before I knew it
I was the one banned

A slap to my face
As sure as a backhand
Sending me into a tailspin
Causing me to crash land

Maybe my words
Caused the fire to be fanned
I never expected
To be the one canned

It is time to grow up
Pull your head from the sand
You know when it hits the fan
Who beside you, do you want to stand

It was written in a future past
You know what has been planned
Maybe there's something
I don't understand

Nobody