“Did anything exciting happen while I was away?” John asked.
Kate shook her head. “Recon scouts report nothing unusual.” She replied.
John stepped ahead of his wife to open a door. “Any word from your father?” he asked.
Kate walked into the room. “Thank you,” she said, then sitting down on the couch. “The eastern coast has seen little action. Southern border is being secured. The north is still no man's land, and we’re hotly contesting the west. How was your mission?”
John sat down next to Kate and pulled out a USB stick from his pocket. “Got some important info,” he answered. “I’ll debrief everyone in ten minutes.”
“How’d you get back?” Kate then asked. “I know you didn’t come alone.”
“Quin came with,” John answered. “It was easier and quicker that way. Two people are harder to track than an entire squad.”
“He’s back,” Kate asked. “Ryka will be relieved.”
John looked at Kate. “Relieved, why?” he asked. “He’s one of the best.”
“I think she misses him,” Kate said. “Always asking if I heard anything. Did he remember to take this? Did he remember to take that?”
John chucked. “He wants the callsign sext. Probably thinks it's cool with the word sex in there.”
Kate cocked an eyebrow. “You did tell him about sexting, didn’t you?”
John shook his head. “No way,” he laughed. “Not yet at least. I got to have fun with him first.”
Kate smiled and rolled her eyes.
Minutes later, many Resistance leaders met in the command center, standing around a large map displayed on a table. Kate stood by John in the dim room, with much of the light, little as it was, being projected from the map on the table.
Quin walked in and had a seat with a few others looking on.
“Everyone here,” John asked. “Good.”
“Let me first say,” Shawn interrupted. “It’s good to have you back, Sir”
John nodded. “Thank you,” he said. “Mission was a success. I brought back some very important intel.”
“You got the location of Skynet?” Kate asked.
“No,” John answered. “Unfortunately, even though that was what we’re after. We got the location of something it's calling TDE, or time displacement equipment, and its plans.”
“Time displacement,” a female general said curiously before snickering. “What, does Skynet think it’ll travel through time?”
“Doesn’t matter what it thinks,” John said. “What matters is that it’ll try and we have the location.”
“What’s it planning?” Kate asked.
John answered. “Skynet believes that by sending a machine back in time to kill my mother, I will cease to exist.”
Shawn scratched his chin. “Just one of those things will be a nightmare to deal with in the past,” he said ”Skynet’s taking a big risk. No one knows how time travel works. It can either change everything or just create a new branch in the timeline. Skynet must know something we don’t or is very desperate.”
Quin stood up to address everyone. “Who cares,” he said. “We don’t know what’ll happen, but it’s a chance we can’t take.”
“He’s right,” John added. “We must take action. I would hope that even if I suddenly disappear you all would continue the fight.”
“No offense,” Shawn said. “We think it's like a hydra. Even if you just vanish, someone else would take your place. It’s a change we wouldn’t even recognize, you might not even be the first ‘head’, so to speak.”
John shrugged his shoulders. “Well,” he began. “It’ll be the last. The rest of Tech-Com split up and is relaying what we found to other cells. They and others are expected to join us in a multipronged nighttime attack. Saddle up, we move out right away.”
3. FNG
Night had fallen. In a ruined building, abandoned and blown out by the fiery nuclear blast, electricity crackled throughout the room. After a moment, four cold, colorful spheres suddenly appeared. The spheres resembled rotating marbles for a second before just as quickly disappearing as fast as they had appeared.
Standing in the sphere’s place were four individuals, two females and two males. They were fully clothed, dressed like any other Resistance member, and two appeared to be carrying the standard plasma rifle. Without a doubt, each of them appeared like they could a spokesperson for the IFBB. The females, slimmer than the average bodybuilder with beauty to rival any top model, and the males akin to Mr. Olympia.
They immediately scattered around, each taking cover against a wall in opposite directions to look for any threat.
“Does anyone see anything?” A male asked.
A female peeking over the edge used her eyes to spy a distant group of survivors trekking along. Her eyes were able to distinguish that it was a trio of humans scavaging through the wreck of a building, highlighting them as blue.
“Just some humans.” She said.
The other male looked over the edge and spotted five individuals snaking their way around some ruins. His eyes, like the female’s, could also distinguish the humans, highlighting four of them blue. The fifth lit up in a red highlight.
“One-four, I got one.” He said.
One-four, or one of four, was the designation of the other male. A Caucasian with blue eyes, crew cut, dark hair, and over six feet tall. He leaned up against the same wall as his partner to look for himself.
All of them had these weird names. Since only four of them had gone on this particular mission ‘four’ was the highest number any of them could go by. Two-four was a dark-colored woman with short, dark hair and eyes. Three-four was a dark-colored male. There was no hair on his head but he did have a dark soul patch as well as blue eyes. He was now sitting across One-four as he looked on with him. Four-four was the Caucasian woman who’d spotted the trio of humans. She had shoulder-length, blonde hair tied in a ponytail and green eyes.
One-four watched as the survivor hunkered down in a ditch not far from their location. “I got them,” he said. “Let’s move out.”
All four roadie ran to a spot near the survivors. It was a mound created by the debris of the war. They picked a spot that was about a block away from the ditch, huddling together back to back to check for any threat, before normally convening.
“Four-four,” One-four called, “Do you have the neural remapper?”
Four-four reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like a flashlight to hand over.
“I’ll go get him,” One-four said. “You all wait here till I get back.”
One-four took the neural remapper and left to join the survivors in the ditch moments later.
Aside from the four humans, there was something else with the familiar face of William Candy, a Terminator, T-800 on an infiltration mission. In One-four’s eyes, he lit up clearly with a red highlight as the others showed a blue highlight. All of them were sitting crouched and wrapped in blankets against a wall.
“Welcome,” a survivor said. “My name’s Roach. We’ve been looking for you. Surely, your base must be nearby for you to be out here.”
One-four sat next to the T-800, making himself an easy would-be target.
The T-800 looked at him suspiciously. With its own advanced eyes, it could read One-four’s body heat like that of a regular human. The head however was giving off an unusual amount of heat.
One-four smiled at the T-800. “So, what’s your name?’” he asked.
The T-800 didn’t respond. He simply stared and then looked at Roach.
“He doesn’t speak,” Roach answered. “We found him yesterday while rummaging through a building.” He then chuckled. “We just call him Bob.”
One-four snickered. “Bob, huh,” he said. “I’ll tell you all what. Our base is very close, but for security concerns, I can only take you one at a time.”
Roach looked at ‘Bob’ and the others before looking at One-four with glee and nodding.
/> “I’ll take your silent friend first,” One-four said.
Bob got ready to move out. It was part of his mission anyway and for all he knew he was about to be one step closer to completing it.
One-four led the way, leaving the survivors behind and letting Bob jump over a pile of rubble in front of them.
Bob waited for One-four’s directions before moving on.
“That way,” One-four pointed. “Dead ahead. I’ll be right behind you.”
As Bob ran, he failed to notice One-four equip the neural remapper and place it against his head. Electricity instantly coursed through his body for a moment as he came to an immediate stop.
“Come on,” One-four said. “You’re with us now.”
Bob now knew everything he needed to know and was reprogrammed to carry out a new set of orders. He began to follow One-four without any question and joined up with the others. The large phase plasma rifle he was carrying under his clothes was now visible and resting on the ground beside him.
One-four handed the neural remapper over to Two-four, who then plugged it into another device that resembled a small tablet.
Three-four and Four-four looked at each other perplexed at Bob’s presence.
“What is he doing here?” Three-four asked.
“He is not part of the mission,” Four-four added.
One-four placed a hand on Bob’s shoulder and smiled. “I’ve adjusted the plan to be more efficient. While we take care of things here, he can go on ahead of us to start construction before we arrive. Then we’ll be ahead of schedule for the next one we go to.”
“This is highly unusual,” Four-four said. “We have never deviated from the procedure. Are you sure about this? I know you used the neural remapper on him, but he’s still an inferior model.”
One-four switched his gaze from his teammates to Bob. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Part of the mission involves finding new ways to improve it, and by sending him ahead it’ll be vastly better.”
Three-four turned to Four-four. “Sounds good to me.” He said.
The trusty, all-in-one, tablet Two-four held hummed faintly. “Got it,” she said. “The location of the TDE was in his processor. It’s not too far from here. Our friend here also has Skynet’s location, but I can’t pick up any data waves, however, I am detecting chronotons in the area that he says the TDE is.”
“How far is it?” One-four asked.
Two-four kept her-eyes on the tablet. “We can make it by tomorrow night with no problem if we quad-time it. Skynet's a little farther and slightly in another direction.”
One-four looked around. “Better find a car or something,” he said. “Don’t want anyone seeing us move that fast. Might raise suspicion and ruin everything.”
“Ruin?” Four-four wondered. “Aren’t you taking that chance by bringing this guy?
One-four motioned to Bob. “Everyone,” he began. “Meet Bob. Bob, everyone. Bob, you do know what our mission is and what it entails, right?”
Bob nodded.
“You also know what to do once we send you, huh?” One-four asked.
Bob again nodded.
“See,” One-four said looking at his team. “The neural remapper took care of everything. He knows who we are and what to do. Once we’re done here and move on, everything will be ready.”
Three-four looked back over a small wall. “I think I see a truck.” He said.
“Good,” One-four said. “Take Four-four and go get it.”
Three-four hurried over to the truck, which could certainly use a new paint job. He hopped in as Four-four entered the passenger seat.
“What do you think?” Four-four asked as Three-four leaned over to hotwire the truck.
“About what?” Three-four asked.
“Bob,” Four-four replied. “This is is highly unusual, don’t you think? We’ve been on dozens of missions. I don’t see why this change is necessary.”
Three-four attempted to start the truck several times with no luck. He quickly popped the hood and jumped out to check the engine.
Four-four just sat and waited for several moments till Three-four came around to her side.
“Engine’s shot,” Three-four said. “We got to find something else.” He then looked around and found a jeep not far. “Come on.”
Getting into the jeep was easy and hotwiring it went smoothly.
“Well,” Four-four continued. “Your thoughts on the matter.”
“Relax,” Three-four said. “You’re only voicing your concern ‘cause that’s one of your traits.”
Four-four leered at Three-four for a moment before saying.: “And it’s one of yours to back him up no matter what.”
Three-four then began to drive over to pick up everyone. “That’s right,” he said. “He’s gonna come up with something new from time to time. Two-four will work on improving it and we’ll all sing kumbaya.”
The rest of the team jumped in the jeep. Bob rested his rifle on the mid-support beam.
“Eyes up everyone,” One-four said. “Hopefully, we won’t run into any trouble. Three-four, pretend a bunch of people are around and you just stole this.”
The jeep then took off at high speed in the middle of the night, with no lights, though they weren’t needed as everyone had eyes that could see in the dark perfectly fine.
4. ORDERS
It was already getting dark the next day. John and Quin were in a small APC with other soldiers. There were only a dozen of them sitting, crammed inside one truck.
“Picked a name yet?” Quin asked.
“No,” John answered. “Not really, but if it’s a girl, either Janelle or Kyla. If it’s a boy, probably Todd or Kyle.”
“Excited?” Quin wondered out loud.
John looked over at Quin with eyes like a deer caught in headlights. “Nervous as all hell,” he replied. Even now, I’m questioning if it’s a good idea to bring a kid into a world like this. Then I remind myself that someone has to carry on after all this.”
The APC slowed to a stop in an alley between two large buildings, one half blown to bits, and the other, abandoned. Everyone stepped out, securing the area as John emerged.
“Kinda a small group of soldiers,” Quin said as he stepped out.
Suddenly, the radio on the APC came to life with the sounds of battle. “All DSF teams are engaged. Holding positions.” A voice said.
John looked at Quin. “We’ll be fine,” he said. “As long as the Distraction Strike Force’s do their part, we should be joined by at least five other teams.”
“For just a minute there,” Quin said. “I thought it would just be us, one team.”
John smiled and shook his head. “You should know me by now,” he replied. “I’m not that crazy.”
“You’re the paranoid one,” Quin said. “Always playing your cards close to his chest ‘cause he’s afraid of any intel falling into the machine’s hands.”
John shrugged as he moved from cover to cover with Quin. “Well,” he whispered. “I had to tell someone in order to pull this off.”
Quin looked through his scope to check for any trouble ahead. He looked at John and used a hand gesture to indicate that it was ok to go on.
John motioned for the rest of his team to move up.
“There’s rumor’s, but I always wanted to ask you,” Quin said. “What did you do before the war?”
Looking ahead to the next cover, John answered before moving on. “Nothing.”
It wasn’t the answer Quin was expecting and left him perplexed, and without clarification until he could join up with John at the next cover. “Nothing?” he asked. “I thought you’d tell me something like, you were always a soldier or did security or something.”
John moved on before responding.
At the next cover, both men settled in a bit. Quin again quickly looked through his scope before motioning to the others that everything was clear.
“I didn’t do anything,” John said, almost regretfully. �
�I was a drifter, a hobo, nomad.”
Quin then noticed that John appeared lost in thought. “Nomad sounds kinda cool,” he said.
John scoffed at Quin’s remark. “Trust me,” he said. “It’s not.”
“Could have been worse,” Quin said. “You could have been a straight-up bum.”
John chuckled. “I practically was,” he said. “Sometimes I wonder what kind of life I could’ve given Kate if this war never happened.”
“I think she’s happy with you no matter what,” Quin said. “Ryka talks with her a lot. Talks about having the baby and plans the two of you have.”
John closed his eyes and began whispering to himself. “Focus, focus, focus.”
“Come on,” Quin said. “There are some stairs right over there. Let’s find you a good lookout point.”
John followed Quin to the second floor. He used his binoculars to scan the area outside, as Quin used the scope on his rifle. It would have been a nice building if it was all there.
“I see one,” Quin whispered. “About a hundred yards out, ten o’clock.”
John looked in the direction Quin indicated. He spotted a Terminator holding its position as it monitored the area.
It was an obvious newly constructed building, resembling a trailer home in size.
“Isn’t it obvious,” Quin asked. “Little building like that out in the middle with no other structure around it for a hundred yards?”
“Intel, says it’s there,” John said. “Take’em.”
John continued looking at the Terminator as Quin took aim. He could swear the killing machine turned its head to look directly at him as a bullet tore through its skull, causing it to collapse in a heap of metal.
“Got’em,” Quin said, “Area seems clear now.”
John set the binoculars down in disbelief. “It saw me.” He said.
“Nah,’ Quin said. “It was just looking in your direction.”
John shook his head. “No, it knew I was right here.” He said. The feeling he then had made him so uncomfortable he turned his head to look around. Along the wall near him, he spotted one of those domes that cover security cameras. He quickly spun his rifle around to shoot it while getting up and grabbing Quin to then run back downstairs.
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