Sign in or 
Share this
Chapter 05 Extract from the Journal of John Connor
Chapter 5
Ghosts From The Past
Extract From the Journal of John Connor
2027, Day 5 continued
It was now late afternoon. I was driving and Kyle was in the back groaning from his wounds. Allison was doing her best to stop the bleeding and keep him comfortable.
The bouncing of the van wasn’t doing him any good. I needed to get to the weapons cache soon. If Kyle wasn’t injured, I would have taken the longer route to the weapons cache to put more distance between us and the machine. I didn’t know how much longer Kyle could survive in the back of this van, so I took the shorter route.
I pulled off the highway onto the dirt track. I drove another five miles then turned off following a dry wash. When I got to the standing rock, I turned south for 150 yards and stopped.
The engine was ticking from the heat. I had no idea how long we had before the terminator caught up with us. There was no time to think just act.
Allison stood up in the van and looked out the front window. “Where are we? There’s nothing here!”
“Just you wait and see.” I leapt out of the truck and walked five paces in front of me until my feet hit the chain. I bent down, grabbed the chain and pulled. With a grating sound so loud I thought it could be heard for miles, the doors slid open.
I turned around. Allison was standing beside the van her mouth gaping open.
“Come on,” I said, “Let’s get Kyle in the hideaway where its cooler, then we can lay in a trap for that machine out there.”
We carried Kyle into the hideaway and placed him on a cot to rest. Allison and I checked his wounds. The bullets that went through his hip and leg were thru-n-thru, the third bullet was lodged in his right arm. He was lucky none had hit a major artery or we would have bled out.
As soon as he was comfortable I put Allison to work. First, I asked her to park the van behind a small dune so it would be out of the way for what I had in mind. There was a roll of steel mesh used to provide extra traction to vehicles on steep hills, soft earth, etc. I pulled it out and had Allison unroll it and bury it in the sand leading up to the hatch.
By the time she was done, I had finished priming the generator and had filled the fuel tank from one of the drums of fuel. I ran a cable from the generator outside, burying it in the sand. I cut off one lead, stripped the insulation off the end and twisted it around one corner of the mesh. The other lead was extra long I attached it to a metal rod that was a diagonal brace from one of the shelf units in the hideaway. I buried the cable but left the rod and the extra length of cable behind some brush.
Allison helped me carry some cases up from the hideaway. We placed a small stack to the left of the bunker and another small stack to the right, next to the brush . We hollowed out a space in the sand behind it for more room. I placed an automatic assault rifle behind each stack. I assigned Allison to the one on the right, I was to take the one on the left. We were almost set.
I went down in the hideaway to speak with Kyle.
“Kyle, how are you holding up?”
“I’m okay now that I’ve been resting. What have you two been up to?”
“We’ve been laying in an ambush for our metal friend out there.”
“Is there something I can do to help?”
“With that bullet in your arm, can you still handle a weapon?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
I pulled out an M79 grenade launcher from a container. “Can you handle this?”
“Just try and stop me. What’s your plan?”
“The idea is to lead the metal straight here. You’ll be down here, with this. As soon as you see it standing at the top of the stairs fire the weapon. You will only have one chance. The grenade may or may not damage it, but the explosion should throw him backwards onto the metal mesh outside in the sand. It is electrically charged. However, he won’t be electrocuted until I complete the link. As soon as I see it get hit, I’ll take off running towards it and make the link. Allison will be covering me with an automatic rifle and another grenade launcher.”
“That sounds pretty good, but why not just take it out with explosives?”
“Two reasons. One, the close proximity of these weapons and ammunition, we may all go up in the explosion; and two, if I can shock it then I can remove the chip and hopefully reprogram it.”
“Now just how the hell are you going to do that Connor?”
“I did it to the other one.” I pulled the chip from my pocket and showed it to him.
He grinned, “You know I think my brother was right, you are going to be famous. But how are you going to make sure you lead the terminator to where you want.?”
“There is something I need to tell you. Allison has agreed to act as bait and lead it here.”
The look he gave me was something fierce. His voice register as almost a deep growl. “Connor, you better make **** sure you know what you are doing. If anything happens to Allison, you’d better pray to God that metal takes you down, or I will.”
**
The sun was lower in the horizon. It wouldn’t be much longer before it got here. Allison had left several minutes ago to be in a position to lead the machine here. Kyle was down below, ready to flip the switch to the electric as soon as he saw Allison clear the hatch. Then be ready to fire at the machine. I was ready to pounce on the Terminator and plunge the electrical rod into his body.
The sweat was pouring off me, I didn’t know if it was from the heat or from worry about Allison. I took a swallow from my canteen, and dried my hands on my shirt.
Suddenly, I heard a piercing scream. My heart jumped and I nearly blew my cover, then I saw Allison running towards us. She was running flat out and just fifty yards behind her was the Terminator that we hit on the road. He must have sustained some damage as his gait was awkward as he ran. Allison ran right up to the hatch and in an amazing leap cleared it, and rolled across the ground and into the hollow behind the cases.
I kept out of sight ready to move. The terminator slowed to a walk as he got closer. My throat went dry. The terminator walked towards the hatch. I grabbed the rod. I could feel a slight tingle as the current traveled through me to reach the ground.
The terminator reached the hatch. BOOM! I saw the machine lift off up the ground and go flying backwards. I ran forward and leaped, jamming the rod into its body at the moment it hit the ground. There was a huge burst of sparks and then everything went black.
When I came to, I thought the sun had set. Then I realized there weren’t any stars.
“Hey Allison! He’s waking up!” I heard Kyle shout.
“I must be in the hideaway,” I thought.
A moment later Allison was kneeling beside me crying. “I was so worried. I thought we were going to loose you.”
“What happened?” I said speaking in a low voice.
“The electrical current knocked you out. Your heart had stopped. We managed to resuscitate you with CPR.”
“What happened to the machine?”
“It’s destroyed.”
“What?” That piece of news woke me up.
“The electrical shock threw you into the scrub brush. I thought you were dead.” She wiped her eyes and continued speaking. “The machine was laying there twitching and moving from the electricity going through it. I thought you were dead. I fired repeatedly into its head with my automatic rifle and then it stopped. I’m sorry John, but I destroyed its chip.”
“But you’re okay.”
“I’m okay now John. I thought you had died.” And with that she buried her face in my chest and cried.
I tried to comfort her the best I could. “That’s all right. We’re okay now.” I said , stroking her hair
Kyle said, “We’ll stay here over night and head out tomorrow morning. I’ll take first watch.”
And with that he dragged himself to the hatch opening where he could keep watch. He shouldn’t have done so, because of his injuries. I think he just wanted to give us some space for a few minutes.
He sat down with a groan. “Hey Connor.” he said.
“Yeah.”
“Your one hell of a soldier kid.”
I don’t think he was angry with me any more, and for once, I didn’t mind being called kid.
2027, Day 6
I woke up and I could just see a patch of blueish black sky through the open hatch. Allison was still beside me, her head on my shoulder, and her arm across my chest. If it were any other time, I would have lain there enjoying the moment, but I knew we had to make a move. We had the truck to load, followed by a long trip.
I gently shook Allison. She groaned and stretched and made as if to go back to sleep. I gently shook her again. “Good Morning.” I said.
“Oh John, is it morning all ready?”
“Yeah we need to get up. We’ve got a lot to do today.”
“All right.” She then stood up and proceeded to stretch cat-like. It sent a shiver of arousal through me, but I buried it deep as this wasn’t the time for such things. She then turned and gave me a hand off the floor.
It was then that we noticed Kyle. He had fallen asleep on the steps into the hideaway. He never bothered to wake one of us to relieve him at watch. We hated to wake him, but we couldn’t get out with him on the steps.
We woke him gently and gave him a hand outside. I helped him to a spot behind some scrub where he could relieve himself. Then while he waited, I did the same. Allison had gone off to another location to take care of her needs.
When we got back we proceeded to clean up the area around the hatch. The terminator was truly destroyed. There was a hole big enough to put my fist into where its chip once resided.
I looked at her and said, “Remind me never to make you angry.” She laughed and then we dragged the endoskeleton into the desert and buried it in the soft sand.
The mesh, cables, and rod were blackened by the electrical current. I just rolled them all up and set them aside to place back in the hideaway, when we were done moving stuff into the van.
The sand was softer now compared to when I was last here with my mom, so we couldn’t load the van up as much as we would have liked. I pulled out the inventory list my mom had kept in a file cabinet in back. I showed it to Kyle to so he could point out those items he knew were needed. He was quite impressed.
“Your mom must have been quite the woman.” He said writing down those items that were needed.
“If you only knew,” I replied. He gave me a questioning look, but I just laughed.
He handed me the list and I went down inside to find those items required. Allison went to fetch the van. I found the first few items and dragged them to the steps. I peaked outside and could just see her backing the van up to the hatch.
I went and grabbed a case of C4 and some detonators and remote switches. Enough to take down a good sized building. I carried it forward and up the steps. Allison had managed to drag a case of RPG’s and a couple of launchers up the steps all ready. “Wow! She may be lean but she is strong.” I thought.
“That dune I parked the van behind isn’t natural.” she said.
“What is it?”
“It’s an old black truck.” She answered. “There must have been a sandstorm sometime ago. You can see all the loose sand about, but just a few inches down the ground is hard. The vehicle must have acted as a windbreak and all of the sand piled up against it. Eventually some seeds took root adding to the disguise.”
“I’ll check it out. Can you get those other cases up here?”
“Sure.”
I walked around to the other side of the hillock, and sure enough there was a truck there. It looked liked the front passenger side went down in the ditch and got caught in the soft sand. I went forward and peered through the window. It was dark inside. I pulled my flashlight from my pocket and shined it inside. There was the mummified remains of a body, slumped over the steering wheel. That’s when I noticed the key ring.
I tried to pull the door open, but it wouldn’t budge. So, I then took my rifle and smashed the passenger door window with the rifle butt. I leaned inside and pulled out the keys. They were my mom’s.
“Noooooo.” I cried out “Noooooo.” I couldn’t believe this. I collapsed against the vehicle, tears streaming down my face, my system flushed with anger and grief.
Allison came running, rifle at the ready, but seeing I wasn’t in any immediate danger, she slung her rifle back on her shoulder.
“What’s wrong?” she said.
I struggled to come up with the words. How could I explain. But the grief I felt, she could see it on my face. There was no hiding that.
“This vehicle was my mom’s,” I said.
“But what is it doing here? You said you were ambushed just this side of the border and all were killed.”
“I only thought all were killed. But this is her car. This is her key ring I made it for her in shop class for Mother’s Day. See here. Our initials, S C and J C, intertwined."
“Okay, this may be her car but it doesn’t mean she drove it here.”
“No one knew about this place but me and her. The only other ones who knew are dead. If her car is here that means she’s here and she’s dead! There is a corpse behind the wheel.”
I sat on the ground. I was staring at the key ring.
Allison peered inside the vehicle. “How tall was your mom?”
“Huh, What?”
“How tall was your mom?”
“About 5' 5" or 5' 6". Why?”
“Because this body is at least 6' 2" and the hips are too narrow to be a woman’s.”
I got up and looked back inside. She was right. “The body isn’t hers.” I felt elated.
“Take this.” I said handing her my rifle.
I scrambled inside to check out the interior. The back of the truck was empty. So if she brought anything she must have unloaded it first. Or else, she came to pick something up and didn’t get the chance. Her back pack wasn’t here. When coming out here she never traveled without it. Which meant she had left by other means. The answer was in the hideaway.
I ran back, Allison not too far behind still carrying my rifle.
“What’s up Connor?” Kyle said as I ran past and went down into the hideaway.
I could just hear their voices faintly outside, while I began searching.
“What’s up with Connor?”
“He’s found his mom’s truck. There was a body inside, but it wasn’t his mom’s”
“So what is he doing now?”
“I guess he’s looking for some clue as to what happened to her.”
She was right. I was searching for some clue. I didn’t know what I would find, if anything. The initial shock was wearing off, but I feared my mom had ended her days here.
I was using my flashlight. We had turned off the generator early to conserve its fuel. I was making my way back through the shelf units looking for something out of place. I got to the very back when I found it.
There were two bags on the floor. One had a tag marked Derek and the other had one marked John. I grabbed Derek’s bag and hid it behind some boxes. I didn’t want any questions as to how a bag with Derek’s name on it got to be in the hideaway.
I opened my bag and inside were my clothes, some of my computer parts. And nestled between two sweatshirts was my laptop. If it still worked, I could use it to reprogram the chips from the terminators. I pulled it out and all of the electronic bits. I used the sweatshirts to line a shoulder bag for padding and placed my computer and parts inside.
While bending over doing this, that’s when I saw the bundle wrapped in plastic on the bottom shelf. There was dust all over it. I tried to shift it, but it was heavy. I brushed the dust and dirt off of it. It looked like a body. My hands were shaking. Could someone have killed my mom and hid her body down here? I had to check.
Laying my flashlight on a box. I used my knife to carefully slit open the bag. Whoever wrapped this with duct tape, I thought, did an excellent job. I had loosened up a piece of plastic and flipped it back. An envelope fell out. I picked it up. My name was on it.
I opened it, and inside was a letter and a photograph. From my mom.
Dear John,
I worry about you. You are my son. I will always worry about you.
You have an important job to do now. Please, don’t worry about me.
I am giving you something you left behind. It is safer with you than with me.
I know you will take care of it. Your gift has been very helpful.
Thank you for the warning about the cops making a security sweep at 10:15 PM.
I got out of there just in time.
Love always,
Mom
I didn’t know what she meant by a gift I had given her, nor the warning. I looked at the photograph. It was the one taken of her on her first trip to Mexico when she was pregnant with me. It was the only photograph she had of herself.
I took another look at the bundle. I grabbed my flashlight and leaned in for a closer look. I swallowed. Then I pulled back that last layer of plastic.
Inside was the last thing I had expected. Cameron! I couldn’t believe it! Her flesh was completely restored! She looked just like she did on that first day I met her. My heart skipped a beat!
“Oh Cameron. Why did you do it? Why did you give up your chip? I could have fixed you. I know I could have.” I didn’t realize I was going to speak or what I was saying until the words left me.
“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. You had lied to me so often. How could I believe that you loved me. By the time I learned it was too late. You had willingly sacrificed yourself to rescue my mom, when we should have left as mom told us. I love you Cameron. I’ll try to get your chip back I promise.”
Tears were running down my face as I kissed her cheek and pulled the plastic closed around her and resealed it the best I could.
I grabbed my bag and got the hell out of there.
I climbed the steps to the surface. Allison had loaded the truck all on her own. I owed her for that.
Kyle was sitting in the shade of the van checking off items on his list.
“Have we got everything?” I managed to croak.
“Yeah.” Kyle looked at me. “Are you okay Connor?”
“I’ll be fine.” I said. I think he could see the tear stains on my face. I threw the bundle of wire mesh below and closed the hatch. I pushed the sand back over it and walked back to the van.
Allison and I helped Kyle into the back, where he had the pleasure of riding on top of the crates. Our bags provided some cushioning for him.
“Allison, can you drive? I need some time to think.”
“Sure.” she said, and took my hand briefly. She could see that I was still upset. She was probably assuming it still had something to do with my mom. I couldn’t tell her about her double in the hideaway. How would she take it? Not well I thought. I had fallen in love with Allison. But right now I was confused. Did I love her for being her, or because she looked like Cameron? I still hadn’t decided when we stopped at the old rest stop to refill our canteens.
Allison backed into the bay where we had found the van. I jumped out and closed the doors.
“We should minimize our visibility and stay indoors as much as possible.” Kyle said.
“What about the bodies of Mike, Lewis and Billy?” I said.
“As soon as its dark, you two will have to go out and collect them and bury them with the others.”
Allison and I pulled out a couple of cases out of the van to make a makeshift bed for Kyle. Once we got him comfortable we cleaned his wounds again and applied fresh bandages. We let him rest quietly while Allison and I took turns refilling the canteens and standing guard.
When we finished filling the canteens, we took refuge from the heat in the service station. I could tell Allison wanted to ask me something, so I decided I should speak first to avoid any awkward questions.
“I found a letter from my mom, in the hideaway.”
Allison came closer. We were standing by a tool bench. There was a window behind it that offered a clear view of the grounds in front of the rest area.
“What does it say?”
“Here, you can read it.” I said and pulled it out of my jacket pocket.
She took the letter out and opened it. She read through it. “It seems she loved you very much.”
“She sacrificed a lot to raise me.”
“It’s clear she expects you to move on with your life, and not worry about her.”
“You see this.” I pulled the key ring from my pocket. “When I gave it to her, she cried. I seldom saw her cry. I told her that it symbolized that no matter where our lives took us we’d always be connected.”
“You know, maybe that’s why she left her key ring, so that when you found it you would remember what you told her. Is this her, in the photograph?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve got her eyes.”
“That’s what she says.”
We stood there for a moment in each other’s company.
“I appreciate you coming over and talking to me about my mom. I’ll come to terms with it in time. I don’t know if she’s dead or not, but she did make it to the desert hideaway and left me that message.”
Allison hugged me.
“Why don’t you get some rest.” I told her, “I’ll take this watch. I’d never sleep now anyways.”
“OK.” she said, then gave me a quick peck on the cheek.
I stood there alone, listening to the quiet snores of Kyle and the gentle breathing of Allison. I wondered what I should do about Cameron’s body back at the hideaway. I thought about how she had given up her chip. My hand rested on my pocket, where I had placed the chip from the triple-8. Maybe there was something that I could do for Cameron I thought, but it will have to wait for the right moment.
And there was still the question of Weaver. Where did she disappear to? She said I would need John Henry to save the world. But what was his task? If I ever ran into Weaver again, there were a lot of questions to ask her.
I took a swig of water and repositioned myself for a better view of the yard. We weren’t out of danger yet. I couldn’t get lax in my duty to protect Kyle and Allison.
As I kept my eyes open for any trouble, I took mom’s key ring from my pocket and put it on a chain I found on the workbench. I slipped the necklace over my head and tucked the key ring under my shirt.
“You’ll be with me always, Mom.”
_____________________________________
Author's Notes:
Updated 06-06-2009
I made a small revision to the reason why John didn't want to use explosives to take out the pursuing Terminator. I added the additional reason of being to close to the hideaway with all the weapons and ammo, they could all go up in the explosion.
-- The1Russter
New 06-05-2009
Some of you will be saying that the desert hideaway wasn't that big in T2. For dramatic purposes I expanded it. I made an allusion to that in an earlier chapter. So before you start sending messages correcting my overly enlarged hideaway, I know. Sometimes a few facts need mild altering to tell a good story. Unlike the writers of the films who seem to think they can rewrite the mythology with every stroke of their pen, I only alter tiny details. -- The1Russter
The1Russter |
Latest page update: made by The1Russter
, Sep 16 2009, 6:02 PM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
i
- The1Russter
5 words added 1 word deleted view changes - complete history) |
|
Keyword tags:
Allison Young
John Connor
Kyle Reese
More Info: links to this page
|
| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FXBOBBY | REUNION | 0 | Jun 6 2009, 9:13 PM EDT by FXBOBBY | ||
|
Thread started: Jun 6 2009, 9:13 PM EDT
Watch
I really enjoyed the first 5 chapters of story and managed to get almost no work done today because of it. Your continuation of the series is mesmerizing. I can't wait to read chapter 6!!! Thanks!!
|
||||
Showing 1 of 1 threads for this page
