Quin spent the entire night jogging in any random direction. He didn't know how he could be found so easily, but he knew it could be done. For that night, he had to avoid trouble at all costs.

For his part, Benny had to mostly sit and wait for Quin to stop moving so much before moving in. With no truck it would take a while to find anything, that or he could go through the trouble of stealing another vehicle.

During the day, around noon, Quin decided it would be safest to make his move. Though, he continued to walk along a beach as he traveled. With lots of people around, not much bad could happen he figured. Everyone was wearing clothes different from his. His Resistance style of clothing didn't seem too far out of place. Some of the people's sense of fashion was weird to him as if it was them who came from another planet.

It was then he remembered that he hadn't showered or brushed his teeth in a month. Surely that would affect the people around him.

"Excuse me," Quin said to a random passerby, a young teenager. "Could you help me? I'm running a test."

"I guess," the teen answered, "What'cha need?"

Quin stood straight, arms to his side. "Smell me, please."

"What," the teen asked. "You testing some new cologne or something?" they said, then leaning in to sniff.

"Among other things," Quin answered, then leaning forward. "Now, my breath, please."

The teen took another sniff. "Your breath smells kinda weird, like metal I'm guessing," he answered. "Pretty strong. Could use a scrub or two. The rest smells kinda normal, or not normal. I don't smell the cologne or anything."

The strange smell could only be the result of the merger, Quin assumed, also noting to himself that he hadn't cut his fingernails in weeks. He grabbed the teen's shoulders. "Thank you," he said. "That's all I needed to know. Run along now." He then continued his walk, away from the beach and more into the city where he was surrounded by lots of people now.

The lights, sounds, and smells were amazing to Quin. Everything and everyone moving so fast and freely made him wonder how such a place could become so desolate. The number of intact buildings was staggering. It was only his mechanical brain that let him pick one sound out of the hundreds bombarding him in all directions. Dozens of food smells were utterly intoxicating.

Quin almost couldn't believe it, it reminded him that the last time he ate was about a month ago. That's when it occurred to him that even though he hadn't eaten, he felt no need to consume anything.

One sound he zeroed in on was that of a woman crying. "Help me!" very loudly. Walking another block, Quin found a small abandoned building, the sound grew clearer but still distant.

'It must be coming from inside!' Quin thought. Everything seemed boarded up except for a doorway he found at the back of an alley.

"I can't hold on!" another female voice said.

Quin stepped into the building, following the cries for help. It was a small office building with one floor and several rooms. 'Even this looks better than many of the buildings back home.' He thought.

Walking down the main hall, he heard another cry for help. It was at the end, in the last room he found two girls, holding each other desperately to keep one from falling through an opening in the floor.

Quin immediately ran over and lifted the girl in danger of falling up and back onto firm ground. Neither of the girls noticed how easily he lifted the girl out, attributing it to adrenaline and him being male.

"Thanks, mister!" the girl said.

The other girl stood. "It's a miracle you showed up when you did. I don't think I could've held on much longer."

"No problem," Quin said. "What in the world were you doing?"

"It was this one website," one of the girls said. "It told us to come here and explore."

"We then report on it," the other girl said. "A lot of times you'll find strange things."

"Website?" Quin asked.

The girls gave each other a funny look. Like 'Do we really have to explain this?', which they certainly didn't want to.

"Sorry," Quin said. "I've been living off the grid for the last twenty years."

"Even if you have," one of the girls said. "Surely you've heard of the internet, haven't you?"

"Internet?" Quin wonderd.

The girls looked at each other again, unsure of how to explain what it was. "You know," one said. "Online?"

Quin's mechanical mind began to 'flash' in an attempt to reconcile what the Terminator part knew versus his organic brain. All of the words the girls had mentioned appeared on his HUD with definitions. "Oh," he realized. "Online, internet, website. Got it."

Both girls were bewildered by Quin's sudden 'understanding' of the words and stepped back. One of them pulled out a cell phone to record. "I think this counts as 'strange'." She said.

Quin saw the cell phone and mouthed the words as his machine brain recognized it, though it only had a rudimentary definition of what was. "Tell me," he said. "What is sexting?"

Bashfully, the girls looked at one another and began giggling. "Well," one of them began. "You know what texting is, right?"

Quin nodded as its definition appeared on his HUD.

"It's like that," She explained. "Only it's romantic with your boyfriend or girlfriend."

Quin closed his eyes as he blushed with embarrassment. "You girls go," he said. "Be careful will ya?"

Having to walk to a quiet neighborhood, this area was a lot less noisy, populated, and smelly. Most of what could be heard were children playing and dogs barking. The people were either riding bikes or jogging. The aroma of nature filled the nostrils with the occasional waft of someone having a cookout.

Quin finally came upon the house he'd been searching for. Knockin' on the door, he didn't have to wait long for an answer. The door opened, revealing a beautiful red-haired woman with green eyes. "Kate!" he marveled.

Sans pregnancy, it was the same woman, or at least resembled her exactly.

"I'm sorry," Kate said. "Do I know you?"

Quin only grew more excited. "It's me, Quin!"

Kate smiled. "Must be John's friend."

"Yes, that's it," Quin said. "Sorry, he's talked so much about you. Is he around, we need to talk."

Kate opened the door wide enough to let Quin in. "You can have a seat," she said. "I'll go get him."

Quin stepped through as Kate went to get John. He was left standing in the living room. Nearby on the wall, he found a montage of photos of John during his teen years. It was a nice home, much bigger and cleaner than the one he remembered. Taking a seat on the couch, the first thing that struck him was how comfortable it was.

Kate stepped into the kitchen, where John was just getting off the phone.

"Have a good time," John laughed. "Ok, love you, mom. Bye."

"Hon," Kate called, as John hung up the phone. "You have a guest. Some guy named Quin."

John gave her a curious look. "Quin," he wondered. "I don't recall a Quin."

Kate shrugged. "He knows you," she said. "And he knew my name, so."

John entered the living room for both men to see each other.

Quin immediately stood and smiled. "John!" he said excitedly to see who he thought was the same man.

John walked over to a couch opposite Quin and sat down. "I'm sorry," he said. "Who are you?"

Quin's mechanical brain then worked out that this John only looked the same, and his experiences would be different, but the human part of his brain held on to some type of hope that John at least knew him. "I know things are different," he said. "But don't you recognize me?"

"Did we run into each other at work?" John asked.

Quin sat back down. "Something like that," he said. "What is it you do again?"

"Head of security," John answered.

Quin snickered. "Should have guessed," he said. "Look, I don't know how to say this so I'm just gonna come out with it. I need your help to stop these cyborgs called Terminators."

John felt his body grow ice-cold as he stared blankly at Quin.

Kate, who had been standing by the doorway, walked over and joined John on the couch and held his hand. "Hon," she said, beginning to feel John shake. "Are you alright?"

John slowly looked at her. "You know that doomsday thing we've been prepping for," he said. "It's here."

Kate slightly recoiled. "What," she said. "You're joking, right? We haven't seen anything even close to that in the news and you said your boss Danny was working on other things."

"I know," John said. "But no one can predict the future."

Quin cleared his throat. "I'm not from the future," he clarified. "Unfortunately, these Terminators are from another reality. They're not even from mine. They're completely new and different from…Hold on, You believe me?"

"Of course I do," John said. "My mom and I dealt with them years ago and I've never mentioned it to anyone. I told Kate about killer cyborgs, but I never said the word 'Terminator'. My way I guess of just trying to keep them a bad memory."

Quin wasn't about to say he was a Terminator himself. He expected to have trouble just getting John's trust. "We have to move then," he said. "They can track me…"

"Wait," John interrupted. "How many of these things are there?"

"Three are here," Quin answered. "One is back at my place I guess. Not to worry though, killing you isn't their objective."

"What are they doing then?" John asked.

"In my reality," Quin replied. "They want to hack Skynet for their AI, Legion. Here, they're just trying to get it started. In its reality, you're not even a factor."

John stood with Kate. "You say they can track you," he said. "Well, far be it we make our stand at my house. We can go to my work, easy."

"What's at your work?" Quin asked.

"Weapons," John answered. "Let's go."