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Chapter Four: Consequence
Cameron's Redemption
"Consequence"
Love, if that is what I feel, is a complicated emotion. I would define love as undying devotion. To always protect that which you consider most important. If this is love, why does it cause me so much pain? Cameron was sat on a bench on the other side of the car park, silently mulling over the complexity of her emotions. Up until the explosion, Cameron’s emotional range was severely limited. She couldn’t understand humour, couldn’t fathom affection, and had no knowledge of rage. That explosion had, as John put it; “Shook something loose”, and he was not far from the truth. Her emotional output had lost all boundaries, she could feel everything.
As salty tears began spilling from her eyes, Cameron wondered why she had no control over such a function. While Skynet had originally intended for them to be used as an infiltration technique, Cameron had never figured out how to activate her tear ducts. Yet here they were, working away as if they had a will of their own.
“Cameron.”
Audio Analysis: 98% match, John Connor. He’s found me at last. Cameron slowly rose from her seat and turned to face John as he ran towards her, skidding to a halt in the middle of the road. He was relieved, overjoyed at having found her safe and well. In this moment, Cameron knew that she could never hate him. No matter how he might hurt her, she knew, deep down he would always care.
“Cameron, I’m sorry. Please, I never…..”
As if in slow motion, a car came around the corner and collided with John. His body went limp almost immediately as he rolled over the top of the vehicle and landed in a heap on the hard tarmac. Cameron froze, as true horror took hold, and could only manage one word.
“JOHN!”
The driver slammed on the breaks, poked his head out to see what he’d hit, and, after realising that it was a person, he put his foot down and sped away. Cameron burned his face into her memory before rushing to John’s side. With a care and tenderness antithetical to her design, Cameron lifted his head up onto her lap and gently stroked his blood-soaked hair. Life signs are strong, but erratic. He needs medical attention. Now. She cradled him in her arms and placed a kiss on his forehead, fresh tears running down her face.
“It’s okay, John, it’s okay. You’re alright. We just have to get you home. We just got to get you home. Everything’s going to be alright. Just got to get you home…”
His entire body ached. Arms, legs, upper and lower, especially his head. As silent memories began finding their way back to him, he remembered the car, and the pain. But most of all, he remembered that voice. He forced his eyes to open, though it was no easy task. His vision was blurred; he couldn’t tell where he was. Then his other senses kicked in, and he felt the unmistakeable softness of his bed, and knew he was home. His left hand felt warm and he realised that someone was holding it… Cameron. John’s vision began to clear and he saw her kneeling by the bed, her hand cradling his. She had her mouth pressed to his fingers, her brown eyes were locked on him and, when she saw he was coming too, a bright beaming smile spread across her face.
“Hey. How do you feel?”
“Sore. Did I get eaten by a bear?”
Cameron smiled affectionately. John was in delirium, a side-effect of the morphine she’d injected him with. She decided to play along, to keep him in good spirits.
“Yeah, it was a big brown one.”
“A Grizzly? Did I kick its ass?”
“You gave it hell. It couldn’t stomach you so it spat you back out.”
“Cool. One last question before I pass out: are you an angel?”
Cameron just smiled and kissed his hand. John grinned lazily and closed his eyes.
“I thought so.”
Once John was sound asleep, Cameron collapsed on the side of the bed and let herself go. She was so relieved that he had woken up. By sheer luck, John hadn’t broken anything, but he was heavily bruised and suffered a severe concussion. She wept for what felt like an eternity to her, despite possessing an internal chronometer. She cried so hard and long that she didn’t notice when Sarah and Derek came home, and had to hastily wipe away the tears before they came in the room. The scene was like something out a nightmare. Sarah saw her son lying motionless on his bed while the machine sobbed uncontrollably on the floor. He had deep purple bruises all across his right side. He wasn’t moving…
“John? JOHN! John, John, John, speak to me, please. Please, John, c’mon. Speak to me. What did you do to him? What did you DO?!”
Cameron was curled up in a corner, so much like a grieving daughter that it simultaneously broke her heart and turned it to stone.
“Stop shaking him, he needs rest, please.”
Sarah went over to Cameron and grabbed her by the shoulders as Derek came in, a gun in his hand.
“What did you do? Tell me? Did you do this to him?”
Cameron cried even harder as she forced herself to look Sarah in the eye.
“Yes. It was my fault he was in the road. He didn’t see it coming. The driver just hit him and drove off. I carried him back here. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
Cameron slumped onto Sarah’s shoulder, desperately in need of comforting and for the first time, Sarah relented. She held the machine close and told her it was okay, that she did the right thing by bringing him home. Sarah knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this was not some big farce on Cameron’s part. No machine, not matter how advanced, could possibly act this way without some semblance of a soul. Sarah’s world was turned upside down; she no longer understood how any of it worked.
“His pulse is steady, but he looks like hell. We need to take him to a doctor.”
Derek was examining John’s bruises, determined not to look at Cameron. As was his custom, Derek still suspected her involvement in John’s injuries and was determined to break the mother-daughter bond that he could see starting to form between them. If Sarah began trusting the machine, they would all be dead.
“How fast was he going? The driver. Will John be okay?”
Sarah had let go of Cameron and was now holding John’s hand. Cameron knelt down beside her and stared into John’s face.
“Approximately 23mph. John is structurally intact… umm, I mean; he hasn’t suffered any skeletal damage. But he is heavily bruised and has a severe concussion. I gave him some morphine and he woke up shortly before you arrived.”
“What did he say? Did he say anything?”
Cameron gave her a small smile.
“He thinks he was eaten by a bear.”
Sarah couldn’t help but chuckle; John often asked funny questions like that when he was little, usually whilst he was half-asleep. Derek couldn’t help himself; he had to break this up now, before it was too late.
“How do we really know John was hit by a car, what if she did this and is just covering her tracks with smiles and crocodile tears?”
Cameron’s expression turned from light humour to seething hate in an instant. She stood up, strode over to Derek and slapped him across the face. Though she had held back her full strength it was still enough to send several of Derek’s teeth flying in every direction. He staggered backward and cocked his gun, but Sarah stood between him and Cameron.
“Derek Reese, give me that gun and make yourself and call Charley. NOW!”
He gave Cameron a look of pure contempt before handing Sarah the gun and storming out of the room to make the phone call to Charley. Sarah placed the gun on John’s desk and returned to his side, not noticing as Cameron picked up the gun and hid it in her jacket pocket. Cameron left the room and strolled through the kitchen, Derek had just put the phone down.
“Fwhere’re you froing?”
Cameron took delight in Derek’s slurred speech. Now he sounds as stupid as he looks.
“I’m going on a mission.”
“Thrash”, it was called. A popular night-club and one of Hector’s favourite hang-outs. Cameron had broken into the school and hacked the principal’s computer, which had detailed files on every student. It was not long before she was able to put a name to the face of the boy who almost killed her beloved. Hector Nostrelli, born in Mexico, known for anti-social behaviour. There was a list of his known crimes, most of them minor, but one notation mentioned this location. The club entrance was guarded by a large bouncer, Cameron skipped the queue but was not stopped, the bouncer eyed her suggestively.
“You go ahead, honey. Have a drink on me.”
“Thank you.”
Might as well be courteous, she thought. John was always telling her to be more sociable around others, and she swore to listen to him from now on, for every word he spoke was precious to her. The club was packed with adolescents and couples in their early 20s, the music was horrendously loud and the lighting made it almost impossible to see, except if you’re a Terminator that is. Cameron moved amongst the crowd, scanning each and every face for a match. Finally she found him, he was sitting at the bar having a beer. Cameron sat on the stool next to him and ordered a drink for herself. Hector looked over at her and leered.
“Hey, gorgeous. You here to forget a bad day or enjoy a good night?"
“The first one. You?”
“Hell, every night is a good night. Tell you what, how ‘bout I buy you a couple of drinks and we can talk all about it. Maybe go somewhere private.”
The bartender brought Cameron her drink, but she didn’t touch it.
“I don’t know… what did you say your name was again?”
“Hector Nostrelli, but you can call me Heck.”
“Okay then, Heck. My answer is no. You see, I don’t fall very easily for guys who run over my brother and then drive off without a care in the world.”
Hector looked flushed, but was too drunk to fully register what she’d just said.
“What? What are you… wait. You’re that Cameron chick with the metal plate in her head ain’t ya? You think I ran over your brother, maybe you just imagined it. Everybody knows that your damaged goods. Heh, I suppose your brother is too now.”
Action: Terminate! Cameron picked up her drink and threw it in Hector’s face; he cried out in pain as the liquor burned his eyes and stumbled backwards off of his stool. Several people turned around to see what was going on, but before any of them could get a good look the DJ activated the smoke machine and the crowd were engulfed. Cameron punched Hector in the face, knocking him off his feet; she then proceeded to kick him across the floor. Hector staggered to his feet, pulling a knife from his pocket. He stabbed at her blindly, but missed and received another kick for his trouble. Cameron then grabbed a hold of his jacket and threw Hector through the nearest wall, sending him crashing into the girl’s lavatory. Several teenage girls ran out screaming as Cameron casually stepped through the hole and found Hector crawling across the tiled floor. She picked him up and threw him into a corner where he cowered, shielding his face as Cameron took out the gun and pointed it at his head.
“Please… s-stop… please… I-I’ll do anything you want just please… d-don’t kill me.”
She stared at him for several long seconds as he whimpered beneath her gaze. She wanted to kill him, to splatter his brains across the wall, but found herself questioning her actions. It would be all too easy to just pull the trigger and end his life, but she asked herself; what would John do? She considered her options for a moment before lowering the gun and placing her boot on Hector’s throat.
“You will leave this city, tonight. And you will never, ever come back. Do you understand me?”
Hector’s reply was little more than a gurgle, but she took it as a “yes” and put the gun away before leaving the night-club and heading back home.
When she opened the front door, Cameron was greeted by Sarah, who stood there with her arms crossed, waiting.
“Well? Are you going to tell me where you’ve been for the last two and a half hours?”
“I tracked down the boy who ran over John. His name was Hector Nostrelli. I found him in a club called ‘Thrash’, the music was very loud.”
Cameron had adopted her Terminator voice again so that Sarah wouldn’t suspect her of lying.
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Then why take the gun?”
Cameron pulled the gun from her jacket and handed it to Sarah, who checked the magazine, which was still full.
“I was going to kill him, but I decided not to. I convinced him to leave the city instead.”
Sarah nodded slowly, convinced that Cameron was telling the truth.
“How’s John?”
“He’s fine, he’s asleep. Charley had a look at him, said he’d be okay. He has to take some medication though, and he’ll need to stay on the morphine for a day or so.”
“That’s good. What about Derek? How is his jaw?”
Sarah smiled, she was really starting to warm up to Cameron.
“He’s seeing a dentist tomorrow. You’d better stay out of his way.”
Cameron gave a gloating smile and headed towards John’s room, but Sarah called her back.
“Cameron. Just out of curiosity; why didn’t you kill the guy, Hector or whatever his name was? Isn’t that what you do?”
Cameron considered her response carefully, for not even she could fully understand what made her spare him. “I didn’t see the point. He’s going to die in three years anyway, along with everyone else like him.”
Cameron couldn’t tell if Sarah had understood her meaning when she said “everyone else like him”. She had meant people without a conscience, but was afraid that Sarah interpreted it as people in general. Either way, she turned off the kitchen light and went to her bedroom, leaving Cameron in the dark.
Cameron then entered John’s bedroom, closing the door behind her. He’d been cleaned up since and was wearing just his night shirt and boxers. She carefully climbed into bed and snuggled up next to him, just like last night. She gave him a kiss on his cheek then laid her head on his chest, whispering good-night as she entered standby mode.
Next: Chapter Five: Confidence
Previous: Chapter Three: Complication
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, Jun 24 2009, 5:12 PM EDT
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