On the bedside table, the cell phone vibrated, creating a small hearth of light in the surrounding darkness of the room with its small screen. After the third vibration, Kate opened her eyes and stared at her gadget with a fixed gaze. She lay there for about ten seconds, not understanding what was happening. It was only Scott's sleepy, disgruntled voice behind her that made Kate flinch and then jump up on the bed.
"What happened?" The young man grumbled through his sleep.
Kate stared at him with a look on her face as if she had seen a ghost.
"Scott?!"
"Of course it's me, honey!" He replied in a friendlier tone.
Turning on the bedside lamp on his part, the guy tried to quip, "Did you expect to see someone else in your bed?"
"What? No... I—" Kate couldn't find the words to describe how she felt.
Her first impulse was to exclaim, "Scott, are you alive?!" but in the back of her mind, Kate was able to figure out that this was not the best option, which would only raise unnecessary questions from her fiancé and that she would have to answer something, and she didn't know what. The girl was stunned, shocked, frightened and still could not understand what it was: a bad dream that lasted God knows how long and which she remembered so clearly, or it was all real, but then what surrounds her now? Images raced through her mind: the terminators, the clinic explosion, John Connor, the graveyard, CRS, Judgment Day, Crystal Peak, the death of her father and Scott himself, and... Here is the same call to the mobile that started it all!
"So you're going to pick up the phone?" Her fiancé asked in bewilderment. "He's been ringing for almost a minute! Kate, you look weird..."
But Catherine had already switched to the phone: she suddenly remembered clearly that it was a signal from Betsy Schneider, who was taking her pneumonia-stricken Hercules to the clinic. Clinic! And there's John! And soon T-X will be there! She can't let Betsy and John die! She must go there immediately! Better yet, call Betsy on the way and persuade her not to come at all, though it probably won't be easy. How hard it would be to persuade Scott to get out of here for a while and sit somewhere so that T-X wouldn't kill him too, especially since she, Kate, couldn't tell him the truth. But never mind, she'll try.
"It's from the clinic. I've got to go!" She said immediately, picking up her cell phone.
Kate pulled off her nightgown and hurriedly put on her panties and bra, then took a t-shirt and pants out of the closet. Scott propped himself up on his elbow and looked at his watch.
"It's half-past five!" The boy's voice became displeased again. He was fully awake.
"Scott, I need you to do something," Catherine said in a serious tone, pulling on her pants and tucking her T-shirt into them. Putting on her shoes, she turned to him and looked him in the eye.
"Yes, what is it?" The anxious expression on the fiancée's face caused him a growing sense of anxiety.
"Please don't ask too many questions, just pack your bags and get out of town for a few days. Go to... parents in Phoenix! I'll call you."
"What?! Kate, what are you talking about?! What happened?" On the part of the young man, there was a predictable misunderstanding and unnecessary questions.
"Listen, do you love me?" She asked a clear question.
"Yes, of course! Why do you ask?"
"Then please do as I ask! Believe me, it's the right thing to do!" Kate felt that she had very little time, especially for bickering, but she couldn't leave Scott to his fate, for example, expecting to be back and take him away before T-X arrived.
It didn't work.
"Kate, I'm not going anywhere until you explain what's going on! Do you have any problems? Are you in trouble? Tell me, I'm your fiancé and I'm worried about you!" Scott had also gotten out of bed and was now standing across from Kate in his underpants and T-shirt.
He was clearly starting to get angry.
"Or maybe you... Have you changed your mind about getting married? Maybe you have... anybody else?"
The last words were clearly spontaneous, but they were no less hurtful. Kate immediately thought of John, of her destiny to be his wife and assistant, but could John Connor be the other John Scott was talking about? As her nerves were on edge, the girl quickly lost her temper.
"How stupid you all are! I mean men! Why don't you just want to listen to me and do as I ask?! Is it really that hard?"
Kate had already realized how absurd and unfair her words sounded, but she didn't have time to apologize now.
"Actually, just imagine, yes! In case you forgot, I've got work to do, my own business, and preparations for this damn wedding! And then: this is my apartment! You moved in with me, not the other way around! So you can get out of here yourself, and I want to get a good night's sleep! Unless, of course, now that you've done it, I can go to sleep."
Breathing heavily, they looked at each other. Thoughts raced through Kate's mind, and she couldn't find a way out. And time was running out rapidly. Something had to be done. It wasn't easy, but the scales in favor of John, her father, and all of humanity tipped the life of her fiancé in her mind.
Catherine felt that she was going to cry, so she quickly rushed to the door, but did not forget to take her cell phone and bag with her, which contained the keys to the car and the clinic. Mechanically, she also took her light jacket from the hanger and disappeared behind the door.
Scott looked at her with bewilderment and anger. The young man didn't know what to think. Up until that point, he had always considered Kate to be a serious and even-tempered girl.
In the early morning, the roads are usually already busy, but today it only took her a few minutes to walk the three-and-a-half-kilometres to work.
Kate got rid of her green Volkswagen Beetle by moving in with Scott and used a Toyota Tundra pickup truck with a tan roof and the clinic's logo on both sides of the body. A great car, especially for trips to pet stores and calls from farms outside the city.
As she got into the car, Catherine suddenly remembered the old movie "Groundhog Day," starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, about a meteorologist stuck on the same day. She grinned bitterly, wiping away the tears that had already come: it was a good movie with a happy ending, but it was difficult to predict what the time paradox promised her, and everyone else.
On the way to the clinic, Kate desperately tried to get through to Betsy, but she couldn't: her cell phone service was broken. She knew that it was Skynet that was gradually taking control of all electronics in the run-up to Judgment day. "If only I could get to the clinic in time!" thought Kate.
Opening his eyes, John found himself sitting, covered with a blanket and his back against what was left of the wall of the building, in his tiny, makeshift camp in a vacant lot full of garbage. It was a couple of blocks away from the construction site where he worked part-time. A small fire lit by the guy was burning nearby.
John stood up, and then stood motionless for a long time, listening to the sounds of the city at night: sirens blaring in the distance, alarms blaring in the next block, gunshots thundering. He determined that the shots were fired from a nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistol. He had heard it all before, and it seemed that he had heard it more than once. Deja vu?
"What the hell?" The guy could only say several times in a row, as could Catherine Brewster, unable to understand at once what had happened to him.
He turned and looked at his camp and his motorcycle, the Triumph-Bonneville. A well-worn bike, but at a good ride. In front and behind the driver were saddlebags and a satchel with various junk: a blanket, a tent and clothes. Equipment for tourists. Or for a man on the run like him.
An inner voice was telling him to leave. Right away! If what he's been through wasn't a dream, the most realistic nightmare he's ever seen, then it's like he's caught in a time loop, and the day he's already experienced once is repeating itself. This means that everything can be changed, and he still has a chance to prevent the end of the world! He needs to go to the clinic where Kate works. He needs to warn her and get out of there before T-X gets there! He wonders if the others — Kate, her father, both terminators — are also in a time loop?
Connor hurriedly gathered his belongings and attached them to the motorcycle. He fell into the night, bumping into a curb. The throttle was pounding wildly. The bike looked like it was about to leave without him, but John leaned forward, throttled, and drove off. The guttural rumble of the exhaust pipe echoed off the buildings.
He ended up on Hollywood Freeway, Highway 101, heading north on a low-traffic highway at 1 a.m. Approaching the turn to the Topanga Canyon, he turned and wound along the winding road into the mountains. A familiar road — just like last time!
Perhaps he will be able to arrive at the clinic first.
John leaned hard to the sides on tight turns, striking sparks with his footpegs and leaving scratches on the road surface.
All he had to do was keep moving. The speedometer needle had reached seventy five miles per hour, and the only evidence of the rider's sanity was the green illumination of the device. The only thing that seemed real to him were the physical laws of the universe. The throttle threshed and the motorcycle raced.
A small doe jumped out into the middle of the road and froze, mesmerized by the light of the headlight, another sudden and immutable fact of reality.
John almost forgot about the one that had caused him to fall the last time. But he managed to hold the steering wheel in time and, having reduced the gas, retained control over the motorcycle. The frightened animal quickly disappeared into the night.
He knew he needed a weapon in case he had to fight T-X — a real weapon, not the cheap paintball toy he was lugging around. Although with a real pistol, he will not be able to inflict any damage on her. He can't do without T-850. He wonders where is he now? Already arrived in 2004 and also moving towards the clinic? If only they could cross paths before that!
Still, for now, he needs to rely only on his own strength. After all, he won't be able to get a gun: if he tries to break into a gun shop, the police will probably grab him, as they arrive quickly when the alarm goes off. He could try to turn it off — he had some hacking skills — and do it quietly, but it would take a lot of time. Which he doesn't have.
Well, then he should do this: drive up to the clinic and park the motorcycle somewhere to the side, in an inconspicuous place, and watch what will happen in the parking lot himself from behind cover, and as soon as Kate appears, intercept her. Theoretically, if T-X is unaware of the time loop, she will act as well and arrive there at the same time, a few minutes after Catherine. Then they have time. But if Catherine didn't get caught in the loop either, then it will be very, very difficult to persuade her to wash away, knowing her stubborn, frankly not angelic, character.
But there is no choice! Now only forward, and then he will act according to the circumstances!