Thursday April 21st, 2011, 6.15 am
Tyler sat up with a start and gasped for air. For years he had been tormented in dreams by recurring nightmares and he always woke up bathing in cold sweat, trying to catch his breath. Like all the nights before this dream had been almost too real, and yet today was the day it would all become a cruel and painful reality.
He turned a little to his left and watched his girlfriend Nikki sleep soundly. She was beautiful woman but good looks would not save her today. He smiled sadly. In about an hour she would be off to work and he would be getting ready for one hell of a day.
She loved him, he was well aware of that, but he didn’t love her back. At least not in the way she had deserved. Keeping her at a safe distance to shield his heart from all the pain that awaited him in the future. He did care for her in a way but not enough to tell her about his other life, his future destiny. Where she thought he was a brilliant computer scientist, he was learning ways to fight the machines effectively.
Knowledge of computers and robotics would be key in the upcoming war against Skynet and its machines. Despite his overly full schedule the past 4 years he had found the time to live a little so he would not have the regrets the Tyler, he had met and known in the past, had had.
He almost suffered a heart attack when Nikki rolled over and softly touched him on the small of his back: “Hey, you okay?” She asked sleepily.
He rubbed his forehead with his index and middle finger: “Yeah, I’m fine,” he answered slowly. “Just a bad dream.”
“You’ve been havin’ a lot of those the past few days,” she remarked with sincere concern in her voice while she moved closer to him. “You start kickin’ and screamin’. Yellin’ somethin’ about Judgment Day.”
“It’s just stress from work,” he lied. “The boss wasn’t too happy with the delay on the new computer system and as I am team leader he took it out on me.”
“That’s not cool,” she whispered sympathetically.
“That’s life,” he stated wryly while he shrugged his shoulders.
She sat up and leaned her head against his upper arm while she lifted up the sheets and placed her hand on his thigh. Slowly she let it slide up to the crease where his hip met his abdomen.
A low hiss of pleasure escaped him: “We both have to be at work in an hour.”
She laughed warmly: “So we’ll be late… It’s not the end of the world.”
He thought about making a remark about it but refrained: too much explaining, too little time, if she would even believe him that is. She was in the mood and who was he to refuse her. Who knew how long it would be before he would have sex again?
He faked a smile: “I guess it isn’t.” Yet, he added in thoughts.

Friday September 21st, 2007, 5.27 pm
TJ stood looking at the improvised grave of Tyler. A shiver went down his spine when it felt like someone had just walked over his grave. He knew that there was nothing or no one in there. The thermate grenade had incinerated everything.
He remembered walking through the charred remains of the house and finding nothing that was proof of Tyler’s presence in their time. It was like he had disappeared into thin air, like he had never been there.

Thursday April 21st, 2011, 9.47 am
Tyler hoisted the last of the bags into the back of the station wagon and closed the tailgate. He could feel Sarah watch him closely from the kitchen window. She had not been amused that he had gotten up later than planned and she had let him have it. However after living with the Connors for almost 4 years he had gotten used to her ryno-ing him.
Still in this case he did feel guilty. Not because he hadn’t warned Nikki but because he had broken an important promise. He looked over his shoulder, smiled faintly and went over the checklist Sarah had given him the moment he had finally shown up downstairs.
They were ready to leave for the fallout shelter, just north of Santa Clarita near Castaic Lake. Later than planned but if nothing happened underway they should be able to reach it on time.

Saturday February 7th, 2015, 3.54 am
John hugged the wall and looked around the corner. The past few months Skynet had intensified its output of machines. They were everywhere, hunting down the survivors so they could be sent to the Skynet death camps. Bright lights flashed over the walls and John ducked back deeper into the shadows. The search lights of the a.r.u.’s missed him and he let out a sigh of relief. He turned back to see where Tyler was. His heart skipped a beat when he stared down the barrel of a plasma rifle, with on the other end a heavy combat chassis unit. Its eyes were glaring red and he knew that the machine was probably matching his face with his identity. Good luck, metal motherfucker, he thought wryly.
The machine didn't recognize him, only motioned him to get up and start walking towards the prisoner truck. He followed the silent orders and climbed into the truck. A quick glance at the faces of the prisoners told him that Tyler was still out there.
"Be safe, Devlin," he muttered while he looked over his shoulder at the nightly battlefield.

Introduction

Chapter 1: Be Aware Of Hurt Feelings