The burning smell was about as bad as
seeing the metal parts of me. I knew I was metal and that my humanity had been
tainted, but seeing proof of that was a thing unto itself. Because when I had
proof like this that I wasn’t human, but a hybrid, then I wondered who I had
been before. Was I someone that had sided with Skynet or had I been against it?
I put thoughts of the metal showing
underneath my burnt skin to the back of my mind. Right now I had to look at the
burning chopper wreckage to see if Star and Barnes were there.
“Star! Barnes!” I shouted and looked for
any movements or the slightest sounds of a cry for help.
But I heard and saw nothing.
“John...” Katherine said and I quickly
turned to her.
She wasn’t in good shape and didn’t have
the benefit of being a hybrid to help her. I knelt by her and felt her stomach.
If she survived but her twins died, then John would be distracted from the war.
He wouldn’t be in good shape if just Katherine died so I didn’t want to imagine
his reaction to his unborn children dying.
“Katherine?” I asked and tried to lift
her up.
I stopped after she groaned. Shit. How
was I supposed to get her somewhere safe? Skynet would probably be coming by
soon. Maybe I was trying to carry her the wrong way.
“You need to walk. Can you do that?” I
asked.
“John?” Katherine asked and looked at me.
“I feel like I fell or-“
“You crashed, Katherine.” I told her.
“Skynet will be coming soon and I need to get you to safety.”
“Weren’t there others?”
“Barnes and Star scouted an area ahead
and found somewhere safe. They are
waiting for us there.” I lied and figured the truth could come later. Right now
I needed her to move as quickly as she could.
As I managed to slowly help her up she
said, “John, if I die-“
“You aren’t goin-“ I started to say.
“You never wanted to accept that I could
die. I think that’s why you didn’t want to send me on missions. But if I do die
I just want you to stay away from Jash. You’re a human, John, and you deserve
the love only a human can bring. Promise me.”
“I promise.” I replied since there was no
other option. If Katherine was going to confuse me for John, I didn’t have the
time to correct her.
“And if you’re going to die, want to do
it at another location?” I asked after she didn’t move for a minute.
Katherine’s reply was to smile weakly and
I helped her walk. I didn’t know where to go since I hadn’t gotten a good
layout of the land while I was crashing. I didn’t know if I was even going in
the right direction, but I had no choice. I had to continue going forward.
It was hard work getting anywhere with
Katherine in her current condition. Besides it being a pain in the ass to move
her, she kept confusing me for John. While I didn’t mind the tidbits of gossip
I was able to get from her, some of what she said was a little more personal.
Sexual stuff was included in what she was saying. Sometimes she thought that
they were just starting their relationship and so didn’t know John’s turn-ons
and turn-offs.
While this could’ve been amusing, the fact
was that for three hours I had to go with imagining John and Katherine together
in detail.
As the fourth hour approached, I saw a
broken down building. It seemed to be crumbling but was otherwise stable. Maybe
other people had been here recently and so there would be supplies. Water and
food to last us a few days was all that we needed. I could always give
Katherine my clothes if need be.
“Katherine, we don’t have to go much
further.” I told her and her only response was to nod.
I felt her stepping a little more quickly
as she realized the walking would end shortly.
As we entered the building, I looked around
to make sure that there weren’t any surprises waiting for us. Of course if
there was a Terminator my small handgun wouldn’t do much to it. I would have to
battle the metal hand to hand and hope that hybrids were well built to fight
against other Terminators.
After two minutes nothing came out to get
us so I set Katherine by some stairs. I let her down slowly and allowed her to
choose how fast we went. After she was sitting relatively comfortably by the
stairs, I started looking around in detail.
There was some food and water that would
hold us over for the next few days. I then looked for things I could use to
make a makeshift bed for Katherine, as this building hadn’t been one for
sleeping in before Judgment Day.
As I made Katherine comfortable on the
makeshift bed, I started to fully realize a problem. I had known about the
problem before, but now things were calm and I could reflect on it.
I couldn’t tell if Katherine’s twins were
now dead or if they were going to be born like they should. I stayed up all
night with those thoughts going through my head.
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