Allison looked at the people in the cage next to hers. It was scary in the cargo area of the ship. Cages with people and animals left and right. The red-haired teenage girl in the next cage who had drawn her attention, crawled over to her. Only separated by two sets of bars.
“Hi, I’m Savannah,” the red-haired girl introduced herself in a low whisper.
“I’m Allison, but everybody calls me Alley,” she said timidly, looking at the big scary robots that paced back and forth.
“Hi, Alley,” Savannah said friendly. “Do you know Jim?”
“Jim who?”
“From Century?”
She mustered a broad smile. Jim had been such a nice man. He had been very kind to her and had kept her company when she had been in that bad place to be sent here.
“Do you know Tom?” She asked softly.
She thought that Tom was a big scary man, just like those big scary robots. But she felt safe when he was around.
“Tom?” Savannah asked.
“He runned away. He’s a giant and he will kill all the robots,” she explained.
Savannah smiled faintly: “Can’t say that I know him.”

Tyler fought the restraints again, glaring at the traitor. His hands were itching to kill him. The nerve of the man to formally introduce himself to him. The arrogance with which the man conducted experiments on him, like he was nothing more than a disposable lab rat.
Six weeks he had tolerated this, but now he was done with it. His day consisted out of being restrained to the table while the good doctor poked and prodded him mentally and after the tests were done, he was brought back to his small cell where something that could pass for a bed and food awaited him.
It was time to plan his escape from Forrester. He withdrew in his thoughts and memories, picked out the knowledge he would need to escape. In his cage-time he kept up his regime of staying fit and in shape. In his examination-time he build up strength in his wrists by flexing the muscles he would need to break the clasps. It worked like a mantra, soothing his inner thoughts and feelings.
He hated Dr. Peter Silberman like he had hated no one else before. Not because he had chosen the side of the machines but because of what he had done to Sarah. Once every few days, outside Skynet’s hearing range, Dr. Silberman would lean over him and taunt him by summing up Sarah’s patient file. A file that should have stayed confidential, but Dr. Silberman took great delight in divulging the details.
On numerous occasions he wished he had read her patient file, so Dr. Silberman would not tell him something new. He had forgotten all about it after Cromartie had come looking for him and had killed his father.
What fed his hatred for Dr. Silberman the most was that the man took pride in conditioning Sarah’s behaviour. If she had not already suffered enough by the general disbelief in that Skynet would bring out Judgment Day, the doctor had resorted to more desperate measures to conform his patient to accepted behavior. When Dr. Silberman had told him that Sarah had been an excellent subject to undergo electro-convulsive therapy, his hate for the man had reached new heights.
Today was going to be a renewed attempt from Dr. Silberman to rattle his cage. Tyler could already tell by the way the doctor stood looking at him. Just like Dr. Silberman thought that he made an excellent study, he thought that Dr. Silberman made an excellent study case.
There you had it. The traitor checked the wall screen, walked up to him and leant down: “Subject T7840/7, have I told you about how popular Sarah was with the orderlies?”
Instinctively he strained his muscles to get to the source of torment but the restraints held him back.
“She couldn’t get enough of it with Dougie. Normally I would frown upon such things but you and I know that Sarah Connor is very special. So I looked the other way,” Dr. Silberman said with a silky voice.
“I’ll kill you, you goddamn son of a bitch!” Tyler growled furiously.
“I had hoped that she would come to see the light and would dump that fat guy, but you know… Love works in mysterious ways,” Dr. Silberman laughed haughtily before standing straight to face the mirror window. “You see that it’s all about how you bring something to someone’s attention. I told him a lie and he immediately goes on the defense.”
“Fuck you, you conniving pervert!” Tyler howled.
“That brings us to the topic of today. When to tell someone “Fuck you”. The phrase can be uttered in various contents and situations. In subject T7840/7’s case he expressed his displeasure with something I told him. But it can also be used to tell someone off depending on the conditions it is used in.”
Tyler retreated in himself, slowing his breathing down and closing his eyes until it looked like they were close, but through the narrow slits he observed the doctor. He would wait for the perfect opportunity to make his escape.
“As you can see on the monitor, he has gone into a state of rest. His brain activity decreases, just as his heart rate,” Dr. Silberman explained.
Tyler suppressed the need to smile because before he would leave he would make sure that that traitor would never give a lecture about human behaviour and psyche again.
“Now we want him to stay awake and enjoy the rest of the class. So,” Dr. Silberman turned to the wall screen where the pale bluish face grinned demonically. “Skynet, will you be so kind and wake up our subject?”
Tyler gnashed his teeth and almost bit through his tongue when a strong electrical current shot through him. Unwillingly he bucked and flopped when the charge sent his nerves into flames.
“Silberman, you sad excuse for a human,” he panted heavily when Skynet turned off the juice. “I will kill you.”
Dr. Silberman turned to the mirror window again and smiled with the warmth of a reptile: “Notice how the brain activities increased when our guest was woken up from his sleep.”

Catherine Ryan looked at the charts again before glancing at Ethan Scottsdale. A few weeks ago,
Sarah had been late for the shift so she had gone to see where Sarah was. She had found her on the floor next to the bed, curled up in a ball, next to a puddle of sick.
With Tyler and John in Skynet camps, Sarah was the one left in charge of the developing Resistance against Skynet’s tyranny. Because no one outside the unit should know about Sarah’s existence, she acted as the new leader of the Resistance while in the background Sarah pulled all the strings, remaining invisible for all those out to harm her son or Tyler.
At first she had thought that her friend might be with child because it was no secret on the base that Sarah and Tyler were seeing each other. But preliminary examinations by Ethan had ruled that out. He had ordered her to bring Sarah to the infirmary as soon as possible.
“Are you sure it’s just a bug?” Catherine asked in a whisper so she wouldn’t wake Sarah.
Ethan nodded: “Yep, it could be something else simple as the food she ate.”
“But a bug doesn’t last a few weeks,” she objected.
“If it had been the old world, she would have recovered in a few days with the right treatment. But in this new world, we don’t have the medications or the facilities to speed up recovery,” her explained.
She nodded slowly: “You’re right. Four years into this damn war, and things are going from worse to worst.”
“War, diseases, disaster and famine. Nature’s creations to decimate the population,” he muttered. “It’s just not something we can use right now. We’re already with few, an outbreak of any disease, how innocent it may appear can have disastrous consequences,” he looked at the patient again. “The fever is down and she is no longer delirious so I think she has seen the worst.”
“Death is not the worst that can happen to men,” she stated matter-of-factly. “Ask First Sergeant Devlin when he comes back… If he ever comes back,” she added with sadness in her voice.

Allison looked up at the two big scary robots that were looking into the cages. Were they looking for her? She hunched up in the corner farthest away from the door and kept looking at the two robots. They passed her cage and looked into the cage with red-hair pale-skinned green-eyed people. She became utterly scared when she caught the look of fear on her friend Savannah’s face.
One of the robots opened the door to Savannah’s cage and pulled another red-haired teenage girl out. She knew the girl as Elsa. The other robot looked her over from head to toe and pushed her back into the cage. The first robot came up to Savannah and grabbed her roughly by the wrist, taking her out of the cage with it. The other robot scanned her from head to toe before locking the cage again.
“Vannah?!” She cried when the robots grabbed her friend by the upper arms.
Savannah looked over her left shoulder and smiled at her: “Don’t worry. I’ll be okay.”
Tears of sadness welled in her eyes and trickled down her cheeks. She knew as well as anybody else in the cages no one ever came back once the scary robots had picked you out.
By now the tears were streaming down her cheek. A strong feeling of homesickness washed over her. She missed her mother. She missed her father. She missed her stuffed cuddly bear “Mr. Growly”.
“She’ll be back,” the red-haired girl Elsa said in comfort.
“They should’ve taken you!” She wailed in return.

Tyler channelled all his energy to his wrists, slowly building up strength in an attempt to break the clasps. Human behaviour class was over and Dr. Silberman stood talking to the wall screen, like he had done the past five minutes.
Now was the time to kill that rat and escape. He clenched his fists and bundled all his energy. Only one chance, so he had to make it count. If the force he would have to use were to break his wrists, it was a price he was willing to pay if it meant his freedom and death to the traitor.
One last breath, one last moment of pure concentration. He turned his hands with his palms up. Three, two, one, he counted backwards in his mind. After one he strained all the muscles in his upper body. The right restraint band and clasp began to deform under the sheer strength until it snapped. Quickly he sat up and undid only the restraint band around his right ankle. He would get rid of the bands once he was off this ship.
A red light began to flash and sirens began to wail. Dr. Silberman turned to see what was going on behind his back and stared into the chest of his lesson material.
“Please, please. Spare me,” he began to beg immediately. “They made me do it.”
Tyler smiled wryly: “Of course they did. And because of that I will make it short and painless.”
He whirled the doctor, who continued to beg for his life, around, wrapped his left forearm around the man’s throat and twisted the doctor’s head until he heard a sickening soft crack.
He let go off the lifeless body and assessed the situation. He had known that his escape would be noticed immediately, but this thing with Dr. Silberman had been personal.

“What’s happening?” Allison asked the young woman with brown hair and brown eyes who was sitting closest to her.
Bright red lights were flashing, casting their ghostly glow on the cages and walls of the cargo area. Sirens wailed incessantly.
“Break out,” the woman answered.
“Vannah?” She asked hopeful.
“Doubt it. And doubt it that he or she will make it,” the woman replied without a hint of hope in her voice.
The door to the cargo area flew open and a tall man ran past the cages, white bands swirling in the wind of his speed.
“Tom?! Tom?!” She cried excited when she recognized the giant who she had met at Century.
The man stopped running and started looking into the cages. He pointed at her: “Alley, right?” He panted while he looked around for something to break the lock with.
“Stupid girl,” the woman hissed. “He’s the one escaping from this zoo.”
She nodded enthusiastically, happy to see someone else she knew. He looked at the deformed clasp and pin of the white band: “Gimme a sec,” he breathed, jamming the pin into the lock before twisting and turning it until he heard a click.
The door swung open and his hand closed around her wrist gently: “Come with me if you want to live,” he said firmly while he looked around.
The others in the cage began pushing for the open door and she felt fear creep up from her stomach.
“Back!” He ordered when the woman who she had asked her question tried to push past her. “First the girl then the rest.”
One firm pull and she was outside the cage. People in the other cages started to shout and cry for help. The noise was deafening and terrifying.
“Com’on,” he barked, pulling her along with him.

A few minutes later Tyler burst through the last door and they found themselves on the deserted deck of the flight deck ship. Search lights bathed them in hellish bright light. The sirens wailed constantly and another door opened. H.c.c.u.’s ran out onto the deck. He took in his surroundings, no birds, so he decided to jump ship.
He grabbed the little girl by her arm again and pushed her ahead of him: “Run!”
She tripped and he scooped her up, throwing her over his shoulder. They had no time to lose: “Can you swim?” He asked while he ran to the edge of the deck.
“I don’t know,” he heard her squeak shakily.
“Doesn’t matter,” he grumbled, speeding up a little.
A few more feet. With a loud howl he jumped off of the deck, his right arm firmly around the girl’s lower back. It felt like forever before they split the slick surface of the water below. That was higher than expected, he thought to himself while they went under.
Without a moment to lose he swam back to the surface again, using his legs and his free arm, hiding in the looming shadows of the ship.
“Can you swim?” He asked her again.
“I don’t know,” she muttered.
“Guess you will have to learn the hard way,” he sighed while he released her. “Fuck,” he growled when she started to thrash and drown almost immediately.
He grabbed her by her shirt and pulled her up so she wouldn’t drown: “Hold on,” he told her while he hoisted her on his back, putting her arms around his throat so he could swim to shore under the dark cover of the ship and get them both in safety.

“Ma’am,” a Private approached her. “C65 just called in an escape from Forrester. They saw a man and a little girl jump ship literally.”
Catherine looked up from the battlefield reports she was trying to read: “Sounds like the Devil is up to his old tricks,” she smiled.
“Ma’am?” The Private frowned.
“Never mind, Private Hawkins,” she said while she rose to her feet. “Send E.T.[1] 12 and 14 and let’s pray those god damn tin cans don’t find them before we do.”
Private Hawkins nodded and left to pass the orders to Dispatch. Catherine couldn’t help but smile. It had to be First Sergeant Devlin. It had been the best news she had heard in weeks. And she was sure that Sarah would share in that sentiment.