Chapter 1639
Disposable Object
The female Fanatic and Jill were both a little relieved to see the black sedan was in front of the delivery van. It went around the corner first. The delivery van followed it. They didn't want to close up on it too quickly. The delivery van was easy to spot from a distance. It blocked the rearward view of the black sedan. If they were going to run into trouble, it would most likely be from the black sedan.
They also needed to consider the possibility there could be a second escort or chase vehicle involved. It was something they would need to keep an eye out for.
Jill looked around the area. She didn't have a clue where they were at. She was a little worried where they might end up at. She looked over at Jackie.
"Is this going to take us back into gang territory?" Jill asked. "I really don't care for those individuals at all."
The female Fanatic wasn't sure where they were headed either. It seemed pretty much most of the surrounding areas were controlled by gangs. She didn't care for them either. She was no fan of the police, but she did find them useful. She wondered at one point, when some of those in society would wake up and realize they needed more police, not fewer. The gang and crime problems wouldn't solve themselves. She didn't want to have a run in with any more gang members. They already left a trail of bodies behind them earlier. If they needed to leave a few more, it would be up to anyone who accosted them, it wouldn't be up to them.
"I hope not." The female Fanatic said. "We'll use our firearms if necessary. Our goal is to find out where the delivery van ends up at. It may be given a new crew and sent out again. I have a feeling they want to look it over first. They're going to try to figure out what happened. Most likely they'll think it was some type of competition who felt they were cutting in on their business."
Jill thought about the blood in the back of the delivery van.
"They're going to know some people were hurt." Jill said.
The female Fanatic knew it was inevitable.
"Since the blood is in the back of the vehicle, and not in the front, they're probably going to think something happened with the cargo." The female Fanatic said. "I used the term cargo, because the females they apprehended were nothing but merchandise to the slavers. It's why I want to find out where the van ends up at."
Jill wanted to go over their objectives. She wanted to help. She also didn't want any innocent people to get caught up in whatever played out.
"If we find a base of operations, I want to destroy it." Jill said. "We need to make sure there are no captives before we do."
The female Fanatic didn't want anyone else to get hurt. She knew the traffickers might try to clean up their own mess. The easiest way to do it was to make sure no one talked.
"We need to make sure they don't try to tie up any 'loose ends'." The female Fanatic said. "If there aren't any survivors, there aren't any witnesses to testify against anyone."
Jill knew it was exactly what the Skynet followers, the Grays, intended to do to her before Jackie freed her. They made it clear what they were going to do to her before they killed her.
"It's really a shame how so many men view females as a disposable object." Jill said.
The female Fanatic knew it hadn't changed much in the future either. SkyMaster didn't tolerate any discrimination or abuse against any females who supported it. It was one of the reasons why she signed up. SkyMaster offered hope of a better future. Skynet was seen as the cause of all the destruction and suffering, especially in the past.
"Everyone has their own agenda." The female Fanatic said. "You know what mine is. I believe what we're doing is a worthy cause. I believe it's something which needs to be done. The people we've killed so far are all those who brought it upon themselves. We've simply reacted to each of the situations as they developed. They're the ones who put themselves where they were at when we encountered them."
They both kept watch on each side of the delivery van to make sure they didn't lose track of the black sedan in front of it. Neither one of them saw it turn left or right. Every now and then the female Fanatic would drift a little to the right so Jill could take a look down the passenger side of the delivery van and make sure the black sedan was still in front of it. It was.
The female Fanatic and Jill tried to stay at least one signal behind the delivery van. Sometimes it was two signals.
They knew the occupants of both of the vehicles were deadly criminals. The thugs were about to meet up with two determined females. They held the advantage in being able to strike back if necessary. Most of the females the thugs rounded up weren't.
The female Fanatic didn't want to get any further behind than two signals.
Lena and Tina didn't follow the white van directly. The drones kept track of everything from a mile high. They monitored the progress of the female Fanatic as well. They were still unsure exactly who controlled the white van now. The initial assumption was it was picked up by one of the gangs. They weren't positive one way or the other.
There were several Skynet related contacts they needed to check out. CamNet tracked the men in the white van initially, as well as the group of Grays who tracked them.
They continued to watch the drone footage as the white van moved along. They weren't too surprised at what they spotted.
Tina showed Lena her phone.
"It looks like the white van just went through an ambush point." Lena said.
Tina looked at the zoomed in image of the vehicle which would serve as the ambush.
"It doesn't look like a crew of gang members." Tina said. "There's a good chance one of the two groups of Grays could be using gangs to do their dirty work. We know they've hired a lot of 'contract employees' before who didn't know who they actually worked for. They did know whatever they were involved in wasn't exactly legal."
Lena thought they went through a multitude of situations and scenarios involving activity by different groups of Grays, the Fanatics, and several different gangs. There didn't seem to be a shortage of groups to contend with. The gang members were nothing but future Scavengers anyway. All of them needed to be terminated.
"I think everyone uses each other, if they can get away with it." Lena said.
They watch the white van complete a circle of right hand turns and go through the ambush point a second time.
They remained always between a quarter of a mile, to a half of a mile away from the white van. When it started its series of maneuvers, they made sure they kept their distance from it.
The white van continued along in the direction it originally was going. It passed through a second ambush point. It did a reverse maneuver using left hand turns to repeat the earlier process to run through the second ambush point a second time.
It didn't take long before the van stopped at the rear of some industrial buildings. The two vehicles which had conducted the ambush, soon arrived and followed it between the industrial buildings.
Tina looked at the location. It was typical of the type of buildings Skynet and SkyMaster forces like to set up in. Something seemed a little off.
"I don't think this is their base of operations." Tina said.
Lena glanced over at the drone images. It appeared some additional activity was about to take place.
"They're going to tear it apart and search for the tracker." Lena said.
Tina thought it was a good time for them to act. They needed to know a little more information before they did.
"I think we need to chance a low level drone scan. We need to make sure those buildings aren't occupied." Tina said. "This could still all be part of a sucker play as far as we know."
CamNet decided to have one of the drones make a low pass over the surrounding buildings. The other drones, just out of earshot of a Terminator, would be ready to respond with their weapons if anything appeared amiss.
Lena and Tina waited for the results of the drone scans, as they continued to observe the white van and the two ambush vehicles.
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Temporal Mission:
Past Timeline:
November 26 1963
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Cameron and Allison were shown where to park at the half mile line. They would be able to observe the race at its conclusion. The spotter car which was at the quarter mile line would verify which vehicle was ahead when they reached the marker there.
It was Showtime.
Everyone at the half mile marker got out of their vehicles. They didn't stand right next to the road. They remained behind two of the vehicles which were parked there. It would give them a little protection in case there was a high speed incident of some type. It would seem to indicate there may have been one previously. Normally the spectators would stand right alongside of the road.
The two vehicles revved up their engines at the start line.
The driver of the Deuce Coupe was glad he replaced the small block Chevy which he previously used to run. It was a 283 and it gave him good performance. A few months ago, one of his buddies who owned a wrecker and operated on Route 99, notified him about a new type of Fairlane which was involved in a rollover accident. He said there was a special 'high performance engine' inside of it. The engine out of the wrecked Fairlane was now in his car. It was a highly modified HiPo 289. It was the latest refinement from Ford on their new small block. It was estimated he had at least 325 horsepower with the dual quad and dual point setup.
He didn't think it was as much as the 360 horsepower the Corvette put out. He would have to see what his buddy turned up with one of those. He figured it was only a matter of time. There were a lot of wrecks along Route 99. There were a lot of junk yards as well. He was well acquainted with individuals who worked in all of them, if not the owners themselves. Everyone liked to talk to the fastest man in the Valley.
He remembered a while back some actor, who he thought was highly overrated, killed himself in a foreign sports car. He'd yet to see one of those European super machines which could match American made muscle. Their engines simply didn't hold up. They didn't produce any horsepower. Any horsepower they did make was unsustainable. He would have to see how the 'experiment' went with the Cobra. He knew the smartest thing they did was dump the Limey engine. He was pretty sure they would need to modify them a little more extensively than they did so far, if they wanted them to perform better. It was what he needed to do with his 32.
He really didn't understand why they would waste their time putting an underpowered two barrel 164 horsepower 260 in a $5,000 car. The 289 was already available. The 271 horsepower HiPo 289 was already available. The engine in his Deuce Coupe out of the Fairlane was available. From what he gathered, the 'Fly By Night' company making the Cobras used whatever engines they could obtain from local dealers for the majority of the vehicles. It was only the ones slated for racing which got the high performance engines. He figured if some moron could shell out five grand for a European sports car image which didn't really perform, they got exactly what they deserved.
He heard some talk about a 1962 Cougar under development a year ago. He saw some pictures in one of the publications. He didn't think it looked too much different than a Falcon. He knew they were going to need to do some serious restyling and get away from the sedan look if they wanted sales to take off. He thought it looked better than some concept car referred to as the Mustang. It looked more like a cartoon character's vehicle to him than anything.
He looked at the article in Popular Mechanics about it. He knew right away it would be a flop with a European made engine 4 cylinder. Lack of horsepower just wasn't going to cut it. He wondered if any of these people paid attention to what happened in the Second World War. The fact the engine was behind the driver was another worry. Did anyone pay attention to what happened when a P-39 belly landed? The engine could shear loose and crush the pilot since it was behind him, instead of in front of him where it belonged.
He had access to all of the junkyards located along Route 99. There were plenty of them. He was able to acquire whatever he needed at a very low cost. The junkyard owners and wrecker drivers would always let him know what became available. There was never a shortage of parts. He figured as long as there was cross traffic on Route 99, they would need bigger junk yards to handle the influx of vehicles which ended up in them daily.
He looked at some of the big blocks. He didn't have any trouble beating them in the cars they came equipped in. He thought about beefing up his suspension and trying one of them a few times but didn't. He might have to move the firewall back a little to accommodate one of them. So far he resisted the urge to do so. It was time to focus.
Normally, the starter would stand between the two vehicles and shine a flashlight, or wave a handkerchief. The driver of the Corvette asked if they could simply pull ahead a half a dozen car lengths and use the lights on their vehicle. They would pull out the parking lights, followed by depressing the brake within approximately one to two seconds.
It indicated the driver of the Corvette intended to get on the gas hard from the beginning. A high performance vehicle had a tendency to slide a little to one side during a burnout when there was a lot of horsepower and torque involved. It was clear they didn't want to be responsible for any injury to the starter. Maybe the individual just didn't want any damage to his vehicle and didn't care what happened to the starter.
The Deuce Coupe and the Corvette sat side by side. They watched the starter pull forward and stop at the side of the road. The lights went out on his vehicle. He sat for approximately twenty seconds. He pulled out the parking lights. The two high performance machines revved their engines in anticipation. The brake lights lit up on the starter vehicle eleven seconds later.
Both of the vehicles did a high performance burn out to get started. The rear ends on both of the cars washed out a little. They were far enough apart, it wouldn't have been a problem for a starter standing between them. He could understand it would cause a little bit of apprehension. The group of guys who tended to follow him all seemed willing to take the risk as long as he was one of the drivers. They all liked being close to his machine. He would give them a ride from time to time and 'hot dog it' a little for them. It was a thrill for most of them.
Moments ago:
The starter looked back as he pulled out the lights and then stepped on the brake. He could see the rear end of both cars dig in as their headlights shined slightly upward as they started out. There was only a slight fishtail from both of them. Two vehicles were side by side as they passed the starter.
Both of the vehicles got off to a good start. He could hear the engines scream as both of them winded out in low. Neither one held the advantage from the starting line.
They were neck and neck as they wound their way up through first gear.
Both of the drivers pushed it up to 6,000 RPM. They normally would have shifted at that point. Both of them stayed on the gas and turned a few hundred more RPM before they shifted into second. Both vehicles got rubber when they went into second.
As the two vehicles wound their way up through second gear the Deuce Coupe slowly started to move ahead. They both pushed the RPM limit a little higher as they shifted into third. They both got rubber again.
The Deuce Coupe continued to slowly pull ahead of the Corvette.
Horsepower to weight was usually the deciding factor. The ability of the person behind the wheel could make or break a race. If they shifted too early, they wouldn't make maximum horsepower. If they shifted too late and over revved the engine, they could throw a rod.
The two vehicles pushed it past the red line as they shifted into fourth gear. They both got rubber when they did. Both of the drivers knew they were in a tough match. They would need to push their equipment to the fullest.
When they reached the quarter mile line, they saw the observer acknowledge them. The Deuce Coupe was clearly ahead by a length and a half.
The driver of the Corvette knew he was in trouble. His engine was all specially modified. Everything was ported and polished. He knew he was putting out every horsepower available. Even if he had a larger engine with more horsepower than the Deuce Coupe, he also carried more weight. If he didn't start to gain on the Deuce Coupe soon, there was no way he would be able to catch him by the half mile point. It soon became evident he wouldn't. He continued to lose ground.
The driver of the Deuce Coupe would have hoped for a little better start. It was OK. He knew he was lighter than the Corvette, even if it put out more horsepower than he did. His vehicle hadn't failed him so far.
The Deuce Coupe continued to move ahead of the Corvette. It was clear it couldn't be caught.
Cameron and Young Allison watched as the two vehicles closed on the finish line. Most of the individuals around them thought it was a close race. There was some concern among a few of them and how close the Corvette was to the Deuce Coupe, even if it was behind it. Normally most vehicles couldn't keep up with the fastest car in the Valley. They all knew the Deuce Coupe was the fastest. Nobody could dethrone the King. Nobody was faster than the yellow Deuce Coupe which roamed the Central Valley.
Disposable Object
It doesn't seem to take too much
To find or create a reason to reject
It makes it even easier
To seek out another to collect
Maybe it all starts out
With more than a little neglect
It's easy to do
When there's nothing to connect
When the accusations start
They are easier to deflect
Everyone knows who they want
To praise and protect
There are many answers for the questions
Few of them are correct
It doesn't take too much
For an effect to affect
No one thinks for long
That the other is perfect
They just don't want to end up
As a disposable object
Nobody