Chapter 1627

Fight The Darkness

Sarah and Riley headed over to Summer's work station. They would be out of the way. They didn't want to interfere with anything, or influence anyone's decisions.

The current operation wasn't a Resistance operation. They were all more observers than anything.

John and John Henry quickly glanced at each other. They didn't think there would be any problems with Summer involved. She should be able to tone down any opposition by Sarah and Riley.

Summer wanted to reassure Sarah and Riley things were under control. She quickly explained everything which occurred so far. There were some things she chose not to get into the details on. There was no need to make anything problematic.

Sarah was a little concerned as to where the operation currently was at. She was concerned for Kyle.

Riley was a little worried about Derek. It appeared things just heated up some.

Summer tried to keep a lid on everything so nothing would boil over.

Jim went to check on the other person who was abused earlier. Derek went with him. They found the person where they left them. They were unconscious.

"Are they going to make it?" Derek asked.

Jim wasn't sure. They appeared to be suffering from a severe beating as well as a number of drugs.

"I don't know." Jim said. "I don't think so."

Derek was more than a little worried. He wanted to know if there was anything they could do to help them. If there was, he wanted to take action immediately. He was willing to risk a little exposure, if it would aid the person.

"Will any type of medical attention help them?" Derek asked.

Bob left Kyle alone to speak with the female. He moved the two men and the corpse away from the van. He didn't want to traumatize the female anymore than she already was.

Kyle told the female she was rescued. She didn't seem convinced at first. She seemed rather nervous because she was rescued. She was worried they were connected to the police.

"Look, I just wanted to get a few bucks so I could get some food." The female said. "The men said they would help me out. I didn't do anything wrong. I just needed to eat a little food."

Kyle wasn't exactly sure what it meant. The female must have thought they were part of a law enforcement group. They operated outside of the law, even if they represented justice.

"You don't need to worry about us." Kyle said. "We're just here to help. We're not the police. There won't be any issues related to past events. We were actually on another operation when we came across this one by chance. We didn't like what we saw and stopped it."

The female looked a lot less nervous. It didn't appear the men who assisted her belonged to the police. They never identified themselves as such either. She quickly realized she wasn't going to jail. She thought about the explanation the nice man gave her about 'another operation'. There was one interesting possibility she could think of.

"Are you a secret agent?" The female asked.

Kyle suppressed a grin. It was something they encountered before. Sarah told him of a similar incident as well. He wanted it to remain a mystery.

"I'm not at liberty to say." Kyle said. "Our main goal now is to get you away from here."

The female wanted to get away from where she was at. She didn't have anywhere to go. She looked at the van. She didn't think the men who took her would need it anymore.

"Can I have this?" The female asked.

Bob took the two men away who were still alive. He securely bound them and separated them from each other. He began to question one of them.

The first man was very uncooperative and issued the usual threats and curses. He was rewarded with a series of blows. So far no bones were broken. If there was no cooperation soon, there would be.

The man wanted the pain to stop. He gave out some information and what they were up to.

They were low level street punks. They operated on the fringes of some of the gangs. They were a little more than Scavengers. It was what they determined anyway.

He choked the man out and left him next to the terminated man. He went to where the other man was at and started to question him. Everything started out the same way as it did with the other man. The results which followed were the same. He choked him out and was ready to get Derek and Kyle. He knew they wanted a little payback for what they uncovered earlier.

He was a little surprised when he was contacted indirectly by Summer. It was routed through CamNet. She informed him Sarah and Riley were both following the operation. It was clear she knew the events might take a more negative turn for Derek and Kyle. She didn't want them in a questionable situation.

Bob quickly understood what the implication was. Summer didn't want Derek or Kyle to be involved in anything which appeared to be an execution, especially while Sarah and Riley were following everything closely. Combat was one thing, retribution was another.

Summer was his favorite. He understood what she wanted done. He wasn't surprised nor bothered by it. He quickly terminated both of the men and made sure they would be out of sight. He understood the request the female asked of Kyle. It was clear she didn't want to stick around. She certainly didn't want to go to the authorities. More than likely, there were half dozen warrants out for her apprehension. It was doubtful any of them would result in prosecution, and even less likely some type of incarceration. It was still a process she didn't want to go through. It was possible there would be some additional abuse when she was in the system. He was aware there was a lot of sexual violence in the prison system starting from a local jail, and going all the way up to a penitentiary.

Bob went to where Jim and Derek were at to see what could be done with the individual there. He decided to make another circuit through the building on his way there. He still wasn't convinced there weren't any other individuals concealed within it. If there were, he wanted to take care of the problem so the Reese Brothers wouldn't need to become involved.

Samantha was very pleased to be alone with Precious.

Precious looked at her and smiled.

"Maaa…." Precious said.

Precious attempted to refer to her as her mother again.

Samantha looked around to make sure they were alone. They were.

"Your mother has stepped away for a few minutes." Samantha said. "I'm only your attendant."

Precious reached out for her.

"Maaa…." Precious said.

Samantha was sure it was going to cause a problem. It was definitely going to upset Riley. She heard someone in the hallway.

Earlier:

Vanna and Jesse were on their way to see Precious. They decided to go the back way and avoid the Command Center and the commissary.

They passed by the infirmary and the lab.

Vanna looked over at the lab and frowned.

"I really need to get back to work." Vanna said.

Jesse was aware everyone was rather busy recently. None of it involved any Resistance matters either.

"Let's see what Precious needs first." Jesse said. "I can always assist you."

Vanna appreciated the offer. She decided to look in her room when they passed to see if there were any surprises inside. Maybe someone was in there waiting for her. There wasn't. There hadn't been any in Jesse's room either. They both half expected there would be. They were relatively busy as it was. Some matters were more important than others. They continued on their way. Precious came first, even if they were a little negligent earlier.

Jesse and Vanna arrived at Riley's quarters a few minutes later. The door opened as they approached. Samantha was there to greet them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Temporal Mission:

Past Timeline:

November 26 1963

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Young Allison looked over the Southern Pacific train as they approached the rear of it. There were two more SD9 units cut in just ahead of the caboose. It was the rear end helper.

"I like how they take the extra effort to cut the helpers in ahead of the caboose." Young Allison said.

Cameron understood the reasoning.

"It dates back to the days of wooden cabooses." Cameron said. "No rear end crew, which normally consisted of the conductor and a brakeman, wanted to be crushed by the locomotives behind the caboose if there was some type of mishap or derailment. It happened more than a few time around the nation."

Young Allison could picture it. There would be a lot of effort and force with the locomotive involved. There were thousands of tons of rail cars and their loads which would need to be moved. A wooden caboose wouldn't offer much resistance if the forward movement suddenly stopped. There weren't radios in the steam days. She imagined a wooden caboose would take a beating.

"It would give everyone something to think about." Young Allison said. "No doubt it's the reason why three decades from now, the caboose will all but be eliminated from American railroading. I'm sure there were a lot of lost jobs as a result. I know it affected the head and crews as well. The fireman position was finally eliminated. The conductor assumed the role as a 'second set of eyes' in the cab. I don't think the FRED went over very well with the crews."

Cameron was aware of what FRED was an acronym for. It ended with, 'Rear End Device'. The first letter was open to interpretation. It normally wasn't 'Frustrating'.

"Manned helpers will also be eliminated a decade later after the loss of the caboose." Cameron said. "The remote controlled helpers have allowed CamNet to appropriate locomotives as needed. Savannah and I have used several on different operations for different things. With Centralized Traffic Control, or CTC, CamNet can control the switches as well. She's been able to take more than one set of helpers out of the yard and send them to where we needed them without any problems. Since she is in control of everything, there aren't any questions from anyone."

Young Allison knew it wasn't all CamNet could do. She spotted a familiar site.

"She can also make it look like none of it ever happened." Young Allison said. "I see the station. The condition looks pretty bad, even in 1963."

Cameron glanced over at the Tehachapi station. It was painted a strange green color like the Mojave depot was painted. Most of the other railroad structures on the system were painted a buff color. The fate of the Tehachapi depot disgusted her.

"It will look a lot worse when vagrants start a fire in it to keep warm and burn it down." Cameron said. "The only good which came out of it, was it received a grant from the state to be completely rebuilt. In modern times there's a new building which looks like the original building in its place. Strangely enough, it's painted in the traditional buff color instead of the unsightly green. I suppose at one point in time it may have been like all of the rest of the depots. I don't have any specific data on the subject. It was the same fate which befell the Santa Susana depot as well. It was only damaged by the fire a vagrant started, not totally destroyed as the Tehachapi depot was. The rebuilt Tehachapi depot now serves as a local museum."

In just a few more minutes they were away from all the buildings in 'downtown' Tehachapi. There weren't very many in 1963. There still weren't very many in modern times either. It was a rather rural location. Being bypassed by Highway 58 certainly didn't help matters any.

Route 466 wouldn't follow the railroad tracks for a while. When Highway 58 would be built, it would parallel the railroad tracks through the section Route 466 bypassed.

"We're going to miss most of the tunnels on the route we need to take." Cameron said.

Young Allison always thought it was impressive to see a train pass through four short tunnels one after another. They were all in close proximity next to each other up on the side of the mountain. It was just west of Cable.

"I guess we'll have to wait until more modern times to see Tunnel 14 through Tunnel 17." Young Allison said. "I know Tunnel 11, Tunnel 12 and Tunnel 13 were daylighted."

Cameron thought back to her ride on top of a container train when they sought out a Skynet drone in the area. The Skynet drone originally appeared in front of a railroad webcam near the Tehachapi Loop. It was done in an attempt to draw them out. It was a way for a drone to appear in daylight at a remote location. It was done to see what other AI would pick it up and act on it. It was clearly a probe directed at them. With limited roads in and out of the target location, she used an unconventional method of entry to reach the area. She did it on a container train.

It eventually led them into an ambush which they attempted to avoid. Bob, Holly, and her all received minor damage as a result of it. They were able to capture another female Terminator chassis. She was originally kept as 'Isabel' until her appearance was compromised. Her sheath was then Resequenced as one of her clones.

"We could always make a day trip and hike through the pass on foot." Cameron said. "Most of the tunnels are short. It's only Tunnel 5 where we might have a problem if we encounter a freight working uphill. It can get rather smoky inside of it."

Cameron didn't mention twelve stock cars full of bovines were terminated on one occasion when a steam locomotive stalled in the tunnel. It was a relatively short tunnel, even if it was the longest one on Tehachapi pass. It was only 1,175 feet long. It was actually bypassed by a very sharp 'shoofly' around the side of the mountain after the Tehachapi earthquake. Once repairs were completed, the shoofly was removed and became an access road.

West Tehachapi Boulevard turned into the Woodford-Tehachapi Road. It was still Route 466. The names of the streets it traversed would change from time to time.

Young Allison was aware they weren't going to be able to see much of the rail line for the next few minutes as they traversed through the mountains. The traffic was light and Cameron made good time. She was glad she didn't pass anyone on the narrow road. They weren't in a hurry so there was no need to push it. They passed two trucks earlier when they left the city of Tehachapi. The trucks kept all of the traffic behind them.

"I know we'll be able to see the Tehachapi Loop the next time we're able to see the tracks." Young Allison said. "It won't be too much longer."

Cameron was aware they needed to fight the darkness. There wasn't much they could do about it.

"I wish we had a little more daylight so you could see everything better." Cameron said.

Cameron knew most of the surrounding area was much the same as it was in 1875 and 1876 when the line was constructed. It was the same for thousands of years before.

Young Allison didn't think it would be a problem. The canyon they were in opened up and gave them an overview of the Tehachapi Loop a few minutes later. There was a spot where they could pull off the highway at an overlook.

"I know Tunnel 10 is right on the other side of the hill next to us." Young Allison said. "Tunnel 9 is where the tracks cross over themselves."

Cameron was aware of some double tracking which occurred in modern times. Strangely enough, rather than daylight Tunnel 10, the second track was built around the outside of the tunnel itself through a new cut. She wondered if they used Tunnel 10 as a giant embankment to hold the side of the hill up. It was one of the reasons given for not daylighting the four short tunnels right before Cable. They were Tunnel 14 through Tunnel 17.

"I don't see a train at the loop or approaching from uphill through Woodford." Cameron said. "We can always wait for one of the trains we saw working westward."

Cameron felt it was always a little more impressive to watch a train working uphill go through the loop rather than one coasting downhill through it in 'dynamic brake' mode.

Fight The Darkness

To throw caution to the wind
Would be very dangerous and reckless
It's what some do with forethought
When they cut corners and become careless

They don't seem to care
When they put others in distress
Their actions aren't about strength
They're actually a sign of weakness

Personal pain based on greed
Is nothing short of heartless
It's a failure of character
Which they chose not to suppress

They're short sighted and blinded
What emits from within is a sickness
It eats away at their soul
Driving them further onto madness

The path to success it's not
It's the road to endless nothingness
It's all because they chose
Not to fight the darkness

Nobody