Prologue
For John’s mother, fate was an obsession. To her, the universe had to be one way or the other: either she could change the future and Judgement Day could be stopped, or humanity was doomed to destroy itself. Before he met me, her son was the same way.
“If we wait any longer there won’t be anyone left to save.”
John stared at the floor and dipped his spoon back into the can of beans.
“You know I’m right.” Kate pointed toward the blackboard. “Numbers don’t lie.”
“What if our estimate for the coefficient of exposure is too low?”
Her shoulders dropped and the pointed her chin to the ceiling. “Come on, that term is super conservative and you know it.” She placed a hand on John’s back and ran her fingers through his hair. “We can bring the geiger counters and wear the suits if you want. I don’t think we’ll need them, but -“
“Fine.”
She froze. “Fine?” She took a step back and twirled in place. “We’re finally getting out of this goddamned bunker and all you have to say is ‘fine’?” He swiveled his chair to face her. Her eyes widened and she dropped her hands to her sides, fingers splayed.
“What, are you excited or something?”
Kate rushed into his lap, straddling him. The chair wheeled back and clanged into the desk. She kissed him hard on the mouth and slapped him on an oblique. “A little,” she said with a smirk.
John dropped the can of beans to the floor.
A while later, they entered the elevator. Kate grabbed the large copper handle and rotated it counter-clockwise. The cage rattled and began its ascent.
“We haven’t been in this elevator since Judgement Day,” John said staring straight ahead. “We don’t even really know what happened to the TX.”
“WHAT? I’M HAVING A HARD TIME HEARING YOU. WHY DIDN’T THEY THINK TO BUT A COMM SYSTEM IN THESE SUITS?”
“WHAT?! NEVERMIND!”
A minute passed. The elevator finally jolted to a halt.
“What did you say before?”
“I was just saying that we don’t actually know what happened to the Terminatrix.”
“Oh. If she were still alive she’d have come for us years ago.” She pushed on the door, the heavy lead swinging slow. “I’d never tell you ‘don’t worry’. That’s stupid. But we’ve gone through every detail a hundred damned times John.” She gestured for him to go first. “It’s time.”
He didn’t make a move. “You keep saying that like it makes us safe or something.”
She looks him in the eyes. “We’re never safe.”
“That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said all day. Ladies first.” He thrust his hand out, mirroring hers. Kate rolled her eyes and took a few awkward steps forward. “Remind me why we stopped training in these things?”
“Because you almost passed out last time we tried them, and I thought we had at least six more months to prep.”
“Oh. Right.”
The two survivors plodded forward through the destroyed chamber.
“Where are the helicopter wrecks?” John asked. “There should be two in here, one for the TX and one for the 101.”
“They must have been obliterated by the nukes.”
John took a geiger counter out of his suit pocket and switched it on. There were a few faint clicks, but nothing dramatic.
“I don’t think so. It doesn’t look like the bunker took a direct hit.”
“Umm, John. Look around, I think it got hit.”
“No way, not enough rads. There’d be something left.”
Kate walked further from the elevator, out of the shadows. “Oh my god, John look.”
The sky was marble blue, spotted with thick clouds. The sun slid out from one of the clouds, causing John Conner and Katherine Brewster to raise their hands to their foreheads.
“John, the sky-”
“The SKY John.”
“You said there’s no radiation here?”
“Check for yourself.”
Kate’s geiger counter confirmed his previous readings. She clicked off the helmet of her suit and removed it carefully. She took a deep breath in through her nose.
“Oh man, you don’t even know how much you miss it.”
John removed his helmet and drew in.
“Holy shit yes. Fresh fucking air.”
“So if it wasn’t nuked, what cleared out this place?” Kate asked as she climbed out of the lead-lined rad suit. John couldn’t help but glare at her rippling arms, slick with sweat up to the shoulder. “You think you can handle these guns Johnny boy? Remind me why you made me do all those pull-ups?”
“So you’d look extra sexy in that tank top.” This earned a snicker. “So, why weren’t we nuked?” The snicker faded fast. Kate snapped into Dr. Brewster mode.
“Well, same reason they never came to come terminate us in the bunker: TX never bothered to let SkyNet know we came. As far as it knew, this is just some dusty old bunker with no one in it because it had disabled the early warning systems.”
“Fair enough, though I guess that theory assumes machines can be arrogant.” They were both out of their suits now, a hot wind blowing at them across the desert.
“Also explains why there’s no welcoming party up here.” She ducked back into the shadows cast by the remaining structure. “Jesus I’m going to burn to a crisp in like ten seconds out here.”
“Amazing what a giant ball of pure fusion can do to the skin, even from 92 million miles away.”
“Aww, you’re cute when you’re trying to sound smart.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“Oh come on, I’m just teasing.”
“The Terminator.”
“What about him?”
“Remember when we were heading out to my mom’s cemetery and he tossed his damaged fusion core out the window?”
“Yeah, it blew sky high. There was a mini mushroom cloud and everything. Damned near swept us off the road.”
“He must have -“
“That sneaky metal bastard!” She punched John on the shoulder. He winced in what could have been fake pain. “I bet he stuck his other core right into her teeth. What do you think he said right before it went off?”
“Hasta la vista?”
“You ah tuhminated.”
The both chuckled and the impression.
“Levity is guud, releases tenshun,” John quipped.
Kate raised her eyebrows quickly in recognition. As she swept her auburn bangs, matted with sweat, off her forehead, a solemn expression took over her face. “Okay John Connor. Lead on.”
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