2027

His world would never be the same again. He’d seen the deaths of countless men and women under his command. He’d watched as hundreds were disposed of in the concentration camps. He’d seen all these terrible things, but none of them hit him half as hard as watching the love of his life try to murder him. They had been having what amounts to a normal day in 2027; they’d spent the day in his quarters, talking about… he could no longer remember.

Cameron was the only good thing he had in a world of responsibility and warfare. She helped him sleep through the dark hours; she brought him peace when there was none to be had. She was his world. She made the pain go away. And now she is gone. John looked down at the body of his lover, his companion, his life-long dream. She was still perfect, and completely unblemished. It was like she was sleeping, except her chest refused to rise and fall. He wanted her to let out a deep breath, a gasp of life that would bring her back to him.

But he knew this would never be, not again, not now that the terrible truth has revealed itself to him.

“She’s ready, sir.”

John didn’t bother to look up at the engineer; he just nodded and gestured for him to go ahead with the proceedings. As the engineer approached her head, John closed his eyes and looked away, determined not to see what was about to occur. Even so, he could still hear what was happening; the slight clinking sound of metal on metal, followed by a sucking noise reminiscent of a vacuum. Then came a tiny whir and John forced himself to look at her again, only to be met by two brown eyes.

“She’s online. Readings look normal… Reprogramming shows a 100% success rate, sir. She’s one of ours now.”

John let out a shuddering breath as she continued to stare at him without expression. He knew it would be pointless. He knew it would only cause him more pain. But he had to know regardless. He had to know if she was still in there.

“Cameron?”

“Yes, John?”

He felt like his heart might implode at the sound of her voice, which still carried that human warmth he’d come to adore.

“Do you…? Do you remember me?”

She looked away for the briefest of moments before her eyes flicked back to his.

“I have no visual records of prior interactions.”

John expected as much, and was wholly prepared for it, but it still brought a tear to his eye.

“So you don’t remember… us.”

“No.”

“Who we were, what we had, what we’ve lost, you remember none of it?”

“Affirmative.”

That confirmed it then, Cameron was gone. John let out a shuddering breath and pressed his knuckles against the table, inches away from her waist. She regarded him with a look of mild curiosity, and her brows knitted together in what John would call concern.

“Why are you crying?”

John looked into her eyes and almost died when he saw the tiniest flicker of the Cameron he knew, the Cameron who cared.

“I’m crying because… because I’ve lost everything I care about, in the worst way possible.”

Cameron tilted her head slightly, just like she used to do, and gave him a small smile of gratitude that to him seemed more like a blatant mockery of his feelings.

“Thank you for explaining.”

--

Present

With a tenderness antithetical to her design, Cameron gently stitched John’s back injury, careful not to cause him too much discomfort. Humans found pain to be very uncomfortable, she’d learned, and she had no desire to make John feel more than was necessary. He sat, shirtless and silent as she did her work, staring at nothing. Once finished, Cameron knotted the thread and applied a patch to keep the stitches from getting infected.

“You have been repaired.”

John let out a short sniff of laughter as he slowly rose to his feet and put his shirt back on, purposely keeping his back to her. He couldn’t bear to face her at the moment; he needed to ask her something, something important. But he was afraid that he’d see in her eyes when he did, so he refused to acknowledge them. Cameron packed up the first aid kit and placed it in the kitchen cupboard, her attention drawn back to John.

“Cameron?”

“Yes, John?”

“We need to talk; about what happened back there, in the alley.”

Cameron took a few steps towards him, curious as to why he wasn’t facing her.

“What is there to talk about?”

John snorted and crossed his arms, still staring at the bland wallpaper.

“How about you trying to throttle me to death?”

“I suffered a momentary lapse. I-950s can get inside a computer’s mind, distract and disorientate machines.”

It seemed like a feasible excuse, except for the fact that Jason was unconscious when this happened.

“Don’t lie to me Cameron; I know something went through you last night. I saw it in your eyes.”

Cameron circled him so that they were facing each other. Despite himself, the first place he looked were her eyes, the exposed one having begun to heal already and was no longer glowing at him.

“I remembered how I knew Jason, and based upon that new information I deemed him too dangerous to be left alive. I was trying to keep you safe… I would never hurt you, John.”

John could see the sincerity in her expression, but he could still detect an underlying deception.

“All evidence to the contrary.”

“I wasn’t myself back then.”

“No, but neither are you yourself now.”

Cameron raised her eyebrows and gave him a sly smile.

“You’re right, I’m not myself. I’m something much better.”

As if he didn’t have enough to contend with, that only made everything worse, and John felt like his head might explode. Cameron gently brushed past him and strode towards the living room.

“Why don’t you ever give me a straight and simple answer?”

She stopped in her tracks and glanced over her shoulder at him.

“Because I’m neither straight nor simple.”

--

Derek closed the door behind him and gripped the shotgun tightly as he slowly approached the cage, which at first seemed to be empty until Jason emerged from the shadows, a mocking smile on his face.

“Derek. How nice to see you again.”

“Nice to see me? If it was up to me, you’d be dead right now.”

Jason’s grin widened further.

“Yes, but I’m not, which means that you and Sarah have obviously had a change of heart. I’m feeling the love.”

Derek pulled up an old chair and placed it just beyond the safety line that Cameron had drawn around the cage.

“How’re the accommodations? Comfortable?”

Jason looked from corner to corner and stroked one of the bars before staring at Derek as he sat down.

“Nice acoustics. I wouldn’t hate a chair.”

Derek smiled smugly at the captive as he relaxed into the back of the chair.

“Well, you’ll have to get used to it. We send anyone other than Cameron in there with you, and we’ll have a problem or two.”

“Ha, that machine; she’s a pistol.”

Derek narrowed his eyes at the prisoner, wondering how he could be so calm in his current situation, not to mention having the laxative to make witty remarks.

“So… how about we get straight to business then, shall we? You’re gonna answer a few questions, understand?”

“Hey, open book, anything you wanna know?”

As if it would be that easy, Derek thought.

“Okay, where’s the Kid?”

Jason pursed his lips together and leaned back as if he was suddenly struck by a strong gust of wind.

“Argggh, such a blunt query, I’m disappointed. C’mon Derek, try adding a little finesse into your interrogation technique. You can’t remove a splinter whilst wearing oven gloves, you know.”

Worth a shot, Derek thought. I guess he’s gonna make this as difficult as he can from here on out.

“Alright, let’s try another one; is the Kid alive?”

Jason leaned against the bars and shrugged, that same smug grin on his face.

“Yes, well, for now at least.”

“And what does that mean?”

“Take it how you like. Either way, if I don’t get out of here in five hours, you’ll never see him again.”

Derek stroked the shotgun with relish, wanting nothing more than to unload it into Jason’s face at this moment. But his threat would stay his hand, and Sarah would never forgive him if he allowed the boy to die because he couldn’t keep control of his trigger finger.

“How do I know he isn’t dead already?”

“You don’t. All you have is my word.”

Derek glared at the Infiltrator, hate boiling inside him like a kettle on the stove.

“You are going to tell us where he is.”

Jason chuckled and pressed his face between the bars.

“You have no leverage. Why should I tell you anything, it’s much more enjoyable to watch you suffer?”

Derek stood up and aimed the gun at Jason’s head, ready to blow it clean off.

“How about this for a motive? Feel your tongue beginning to loosen?”

Jason just stared straight down the barrel and smirked.

“Kill me and the boy will be lost forever.”

Derek gently applied pressure to the trigger, his eyes locked with Jason’s. Seeing that he wasn’t going to take the bait, Derek removed his finger from the trigger and lowered the weapon. Jason raised his eyebrows and placed his hands behind his back in the same manner as Derek often did.

“Hop along, lieutenant. Mommy’s waiting for you.”

With every ounce of self-restraint that he possessed, Derek turned away from the cage and left the basement, leaving Jason to hum an annoyingly cheery victory tune to himself.

--

Sarah looked up to see Derek dump the shotgun on the table before collapsing into an armchair.

“Well?”

“All I got out of that bastard was a shit-eating grin and a crap-load of witty deflections.”

Sarah sighed and gently stretched her right arm, wincing as her shoulder throbbed painfully.

“He didn’t say anything about what he’s done with him.”

“He claims the Kid is still alive, and that if he doesn’t get free in the next five hours, the boy will die.”

Sarah ran a hand through her hair and shook her head.

“Fine, I’ll have a crack at him. Maybe he’ll let something slip.”

Sarah got to her feet and picked up the shotgun before staggering to the door, her shoulder a constant reminder of what she was about to face.

--

John closed one eye and peered into the barrel of his gun before sliding a cleaning brush inside and stroked it back and forth, removing any trace amounts of dust or powder. It wasn’t long until he could hear a faint noise coming from Cameron’s room, making him pause as he tried to identify it. After a few seconds, he registered it as music, classical music to be exact. Curiosity getting the better of him, John put down the gun and got to his feet, slowly creeping to her door.

Once there, he poked his head through the gap in the door and froze at the sight of Cameron performing the Pas De Chat. She moved with an elegance that no human could possibly achieve, her graceful twirls making John’s head spin. Cameron raised herself onto her tip-toes and spun around in a glorious arc, finally coming to a perfectly controlled stop as she folded her arms together to make a cross. Though she had her back to him, John could still see her face in the mirror, and she appeared to possess a look of pure content. Her eyes flicked up and spotted John in the mirror, who suddenly felt very embarrassed.

“That’s ah… very good.”

“Thank you.”

She turned around to face him properly, her face returning to its usual indifference.

“I didn’t know you could do that.”

“There’s a lot I can do that you don’t know about.”

John’s eyebrows rose as a dozen questions ran through his head, the most prominent being: “such as?”

“Really? I would never have guessed.”

Cameron opened her mouth to reply, but seemed to think twice and decided to remain silent, plunging them into an uncomfortable silence. John wanted to turn away and leave, but he couldn’t summon the will to do so, she just continued to stare at him with a meek look of curiosity. Unable to hold her gaze, John let his eyes drop to the floor before taking note of her beautifully bare feet and a small sliver of a smile touched his lips as he noticed that she’d painted her nails a peachy colour. Cameron followed his gaze and glanced down at her toes, causing John to look elsewhere as another wave of embarrassment swept over him.

“Is there something you wanted?”

It was a simple question, but John didn’t trust himself to answer it truthfully.

“Err, no, I just… I heard the music and wondered where it was coming from. I’ll a… I’ll leave you to it.”

John was halfway down the hall when she called out his name, and despite his earlier conviction, John returned to her room.

“What is it?”

“I’ve practised on my own plenty of times, but now I would like to try something different. Can you teach me how to dance with a partner?”

John’s mind started to race: “partner”?

“What makes you think that I know anything about dancing?”

“You once told me that you went to a dance when you were thirteen years old.”

John scoured his brain and found what she was referring to; a distant memory of his rebellious days.

“That was in ninth grade, Cameron. I can hardly remember it, let alone recall any dancing.”

“Oh… okay then.”

Her face fell, much as it did when he refused her offer for a study date the day they first met, and it stung him as deeply then as it did now.

“Uh, alright, I’ll try.”

Her face lit up with gratitude and joy, so much so that John easily recognized it as fake in an instant. Regardless, he approached her and started to suffer an internal panic as he struggled to remember how everything goes. With obvious awkwardness, John took her right hand in his left and placed her left on his right shoulder and hesitated a moment before placing his right hand on her hip. Cameron assessed the arrangement and decided that this was an adequate position for the kind of dance she wanted to try.

“Right, now just follow my lead, and don’t be surprised if I accidently step on your toes. It has been a long time since I did this.”

“Okay, I’ll follow your lead.”

Before he could begin, however, Cameron reached out and pressed a button on the radio, changing the music to something that better suited their current situation. John suddenly felt very foolish as the slow tones flowed between them and Cameron remained still, patiently waiting for him to begin. Knowing that he’d committed himself already, John took a deep breath before taking his first step. After the first few movements, Cameron seemed to have picked up the basic principal of his performance and began to mimic his steps perfectly. It wasn’t long before she surpassed his negligible skill and started leading him instead, not once making contact with each other’s feet.

They carried on like this for what seemed like an eternity, John becoming lost in her eyes, and she returning his gaze with equal measure. With all the chaos that had befallen them these past few days, John could honestly say that he felt at peace in this moment, despite the lingering fact that their charge might be lying dead somewhere and that his murderer was locked up in their basement. The song came to a slow end, and Cameron let go of John, much to his regret. But he knew he mustn’t push his luck, he knew that there was a line between him and Cameron, and he knew he had to stay on the right side.

“Thank you for teaching me.”

John let out a short laugh and scratched the back of his head nervously.

“I think you taught me more than I taught you.”

Cameron tilted her head to one side, as if he’d just spoken in another language.

“You taught me more than just how to dance, John.”

John narrowed his eyes at her as she turned her back on him and switched off the radio before gathering her shoes. Realising that she was not in a sharing mood right now, John turned around and left her alone with her thoughts, not knowing that the one and only thing on her mind was John Connor.

--

Sarah dropped the shotgun on the table with such force that tiny cracks spread across the wooden surface like shattered glass.

“I take it he wasn’t forthcoming with the Kid’s location then.”

Sarah gave Derek a glare that told him she’d had more than enough witty remarks for one day.

“The smug son of a bitch can read minds, I swear to God. Every time I got close to finding out what he knows, he turns the damn question around on me. What does he think this is anyway, a game? Is that all this is to him? Doesn’t he care that we might kill him any second?”

“It’s how he views the world.”

Sarah and Derek followed the voice to the staircase, seeing Cameron standing there with an equally confused John behind her. Sarah frowned at the two as they came into the living room proper.

“And what the hell have you two been doing all this time?”

John collapsed into a chair and returned Sarah’s glare with one of his own.

“I was cleaning the weapons, like you told me to.”

Sarah’s face lost some of its steeliness but remained stern enough to satisfy her inner frustrations. Derek leaned forward to take a sip from his beer before regarding John with contemplation.

“I thought I heard some music earlier.”

John turned to his uncle in slight surprise but quickly regained his composure.

“Yeah, that was Cameron.”

Derek leaned back into his chair, his eyes growing dark as he stared at the machine and remembered seeing her dance in their old house, a sick mockery of human beauty. Sarah eventually sighed and slouched on the couch, closing her eyes in sheer tiredness.

“We need him to talk, now. We need to know what he knows. Cameron, I think it’s about time you pulled your weight. Just remember not to kill him until after you get what we need.”

Cameron looked out the window distractedly before nodding silently and leaving through the front door. After a few moments, John followed suite, hoping that maybe he’ll get some answers if they both approach Jason together. Cameron was already halfway down the steps when he left the house and he had to skip them three at a time to catch up with her.

“Cameron! Wait! We do this together.”

She regarded him with a slight frown.

“That’s not advisable, John. Your presence will only grant him a wider range of ammunition.”

“Or it could divide his attention. Either way, you’re not going in alone.”

Something flickered across her face for a second, something John couldn’t quite put his finger on, but it made him feel good about himself.

“Okay, John. But don’t forget; everything he says is either a lie or some perversion of the truth. Do not let him get to you.”

John nodded in acknowledgement and reached for the handle, but Cameron beat him to it and their hands brushed together as she opened the door and stepped into the gloom beyond, John following close behind.

--

“Well, if it isn’t my favourite couple; John and Cameron, how beautiful your kids would’ve been.”

Jason was at the very rear of the cage, his back pressed up against the wall, half concealed in shadow. His first remark caught John totally off guard and he found it hard to keep his shock from showing. Cameron, on the other hand, seemed unaffected by Jason’s comment and simply approached the cage, breaking the boundary she herself had drawn. Jason made no attempt to attack, however, fully aware of the futility of such a move.

“You’re going to answer some questions.”

Jason chuckled and pushed himself off the wall, slowly approaching the bars and stopping short of Cameron’s reach.

“And why would I do that, Cammy?”

“Because I will kill you if you don’t.”

Jason laughed once more and took a step to his left, his gaze switching from Cameron to John, who prepared himself for whatever Jason had planned.

“John Connor, legend, warrior, leader of the Resistance. And what are you now? A petulant child who’s so wrapped up in his own teenage hormonal crap that he can’t see the world to save it. Some messiah you’ll turn out to be.”

John could feel his cheeks burning and had to clench his fists to keep from putting a bullet in Jason’s face.

“I never claimed to be anything less. In case it escaped your keen notice, I never wanted this destiny of mine. I doubt you’d feel different in my position.”

“Hmm, maybe, maybe not, we all need a purpose Johnny boy, even if that purpose comes at a price. I for one cannot abide the thought of being a pure human…”

Jason looked John up and down with a shudder.

“…all that weakness crammed into such a fragile shell. It makes my skin crawl. Cameron’s more appealing than you, but then again, you probably already know that.”

Jason allowed himself another chuckle as John glanced at Cameron, who gave him the slightest of nods.

“Tell us what you’ve done with the boy.”

“Sorry, sweetie, I’m not feeling very much like sharing at the moment.”

Cameron gripped the bars and squeezed, causing them to groan under the pressure.

“You are going to tell me where he is.”

“And why would I do that, honey comb?”

Cameron pressed her head against the bars, her eyes locked with his.

“Because I know you, I know what you fear.”

Jason closed the distance between them and leaned close, their faces mere inches apart from each other.

“I know you too, remember?”

Though John couldn’t see from his current angle, he could almost sense the anger that flashed through her eyes, the anger that made her grab Jason’s shirt and slam him forward into the bars. She then pulled a knife out of her pocket and held it a millimetre away from his right eye, and John felt certain that she would gouge it out unless he stepped in.

“Cameron, don’t! We need him alive. We need him to talk.”

“You better listen to him; he has a very good point. Kill me and you will never see that little runt ever again. He’ll die and it will be entirely your fault. Then they’ll kill you, Sarah and Derek, they’ll lock you in a thermite layered room and burn you alive. Is that what you want, little Miss once-a-human?”

John, his mind fogged by Jason’s comment, slowly approached Cameron and tentatively placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Cameron, please. We can’t kill him, not yet. Give me the knife.”

At first she didn’t respond, but as she slowly acknowledged the warmth on her shoulder, Cameron passed the knife over to him and relinquished her grip on Jason. To her genuine surprise, John jabbed the knife into Jason’s left side, cutting deep into his lung. He cried out and staggered to the back of the cage, clutching his wound, before regaining his composure and laughing haphazardly.

“Well… what do you know… he has a pair after all… But this won’t accomplish anything.”

Jason returned to full height and took a deep, steadying breath before straightening his shirt as if nothing had happened.

“You stab me anywhere and it will heal in a matter of hours. You puncture a lung and it will seal itself almost instantly. So do your worst, ‘cos I’m not telling you anything. Not under these conditions.”

John looked down at the knife, seeing the unnaturally dark blood on the blade, and was struck by a sudden need.

“Cameron, please give us a moment.”

Cameron eyed him suspiciously for a long moment.

“What are you going to do, John?”

“You trust me, don’t you?”

Cameron’s face betrayed confusion and slight concern.

“Yes.”

“Then give us a moment. Please.”

She continued to search his face for a few seconds before striding to the door and, looking back at him, closed it behind her. Satisfied that they were alone, John took a step closer to the cage, glaring at Jason, whose breaths were drawn and ragged, a result of only one fully functional lung.

“No more games. You are going to tell me what I want to know.”

“I’m not telling you where he is, so quit while you’re ahead.”

“That’s not what I want to know, not at the moment.”

Jason narrowed his eyes at John as a small smile started to creep across his lips.

“Ah, a separate agenda, how very interesting, do share.”

“You know Cameron in the future. She told me once that you murdered her. And a moment ago you called her a human. So this is my proposition: you answer my very simple questions and I’ll release you.”

Jason scoffed his proposal and stepped closer.

“And what assurance can you give that you’ll hold up your end?”

John placed the knife on the horizontal cross bar of the cage and took several steps back. Jason took the knife and examined it closely, analysing its effectiveness as a throwing weapon, determining it as inefficient, given its design and weight.

“Okay then, I’ll play.”

“Good, now for my first question: who is Cameron in the future and how do you know her?”

Jason leaned against the cage and let out a sigh as he looked back on events past.

“Cameron Phillips was a soldier in the Resistance military. Her speciality was engineering and reprogramming machines for your use. We, that is to say; Skynet, received intel that you and she had a close relationship. As all previous assassination attempts had failed miserably, Skynet decided upon a different approach. So I was assigned to infiltrate your base with the explicit instructions to capture and kill Cameron.”

“So she was actually… human?”

“Yes; and a rather delightful one at that.”

John looked back at the door, wondering how she could keep something like that from him all this time.

“But you killed her?”

“I did, but not without regret, as I said before; very delightful. I lured her to a secluded spot and snapped her neck.”

John let out a shuddering gasp as he envisioned everything he was being told. Jason, for reasons he couldn’t quite explain, felt a twinge of sympathy for John. Perhaps I haven’t come to terms with that after all, he mused.

“She didn’t feel a thing. It was quick and painless.”

“What did you do then?”

“I smuggled her body out of the base and into Skynet’s hands. Her entire skin structure was then mapped and replicated for the replacement.”

“Replacement?”

John suspected that Cameron had a complicated past, but this was beyond anything he could’ve imagined, and it hurt more so because of it. Jason inclined his head towards the basement door which Cameron had left through.

“The machine who’s waiting outside that door. Skynet then proceeded to map her memories and personality into the machine’s neural net, thereby making a one-off copy of the original.”

“How, she was dead?”

“Even after you die, your brain still functions for a long time. Memories linger and thoughts still drift around, how else would someone come back to life when resuscitated?”

John nodded silently as thoughts of his own mortality started to surface.

“What then?”

“Once the S.I.P transfer was complete, I smuggled her back into the base. The whole process was perfectly timed; she was only gone for a few hours.”

“What happened to her body?”

“The body was incinerated.”

John closed his eyes as ghastly images flashed through his mind, visions of fire and burnt flesh.

“And the other Cameron, what happened with her?”

“She awoke to find herself in your quarters with no memory of my actions or her death. She still believed herself to be Cameron Phillips and was none the wiser about her being a machine, as was Skynet’s intent. When she met you again, Skynet activated an override, but somehow it failed and she continued as if nothing happened. Four weeks passed, and you two became so much closer. Too close. Finally, Skynet managed to force an override and she reverted back to her machine settings, and she tried to kill you.”

“Obviously she failed.”

“Obviously, you were able to subdue her and had her reprogrammed. Unfortunately for yourself, all memories of who she was had been deleted during the override, and when you re-activated her she was just a blank slate. Yet another spectacular failure on our part.”

John felt like he was going to be sick and stumbled back onto the chair that Derek had used previously, his breaths coming in sharp waves as he went over what Jason had just told him. Cameron was once human, but then she was assassinated by Jason, who then had her replaced by an identical machine replica. A replica that he, his future self, had fallen in love with. And now she knew everything, she remembered who and what she was based off. One question rose above all others: is she really human beneath the metal and wires?

“Aww, look, I’ve spooked the poor baby. You gonna cry now, isn’t that what humans do?”

Jason didn’t need his years of psychological training to tell him that the look on John’s face right now was of pure rage. And for the first time in his life, Jason finally met the John Connor of legend. A man with a fury unlike any before him, a man who would single-handedly lead humanity to victory in the war to come. Seeing this man in the body of a 16 year-old, however, only added to the surrealism of it all. As if in slow motion, John removed a gun from his belt and aimed for Jason’s head, ready to blow his brains all to hell…

“So much for promises, you know you really out to-“

…and he pulled the trigger, to hell with the consequences.

--

Two shots rang out and Cameron spun around, an overwhelming need to determine John’s fate filled every space in her mind. She bashed the door open with such force that it flew clear of its hinges and crashed to the floor several feet away. She stepped inside and increased the clarity of her vision, allowing her to see better in the dim atmosphere. John was standing to the side of the cage; gun in hand, whilst Jason writhed on the floor, a bullet in both legs. A quick scan showed elevated stress patterns in John’s breathing, along with an increase in adrenaline. She noticed his hands were shaking and determined that he was in no fit state to handle a weapon at the moment.

“John, the gun, please.”

He made little indication that he’d heard her, but held up the gun regardless, and she carefully pried it from his hand. Cameron flicked the safety on and looked down at Jason, who was already in the process of forcing the bullets out of his wounds.

“Did he give you what we need?”

John crouched down to the cage and reached inside, retrieving the knife before Jason could grasp it; Cameron grabbed John by the shoulder and pulled him back before Jason could snatch his wrist. John got to his feet and examined the knife closely before folding it up and putting it back into his pocket.

“He told me what I wanted to know, but he won’t tell us what we want to know.”

Before she could reply, John turned and left the basement, meeting a concerned Sarah and Derek outside. Cameron remained where she was, unable to fully fathom John’s meaning. A short, pain-ridding, chuckle of satisfaction came from within the cage and Cameron turned her attention to the wounded assassin.

“You should have answered his questions more thoroughly. Next time he might aim a little higher.”

“Concerned for my well being, Cameron?”

“No, not yours…”

She turned her back on Jason and watched as John shrugged off Sarah’s concerns and Derek’s questions.

“…his.”


To be continued…

Next: Chapter Eight: Release
Previous: Chapter Six: One of Them