PrologueThis is a featured page

Cameron's Relocation
"Prologue"

A gentle breeze blew her hair across her face, tickling her nose and cheek.

Cameron smiled at the sensation and kept her eyes closed as she listened to the crashing of the waves. She could feel the cold sand beneath her and knew it to be night. They had slept undisturbed for many hours, it seemed. Cameron reached out to touch John, who she knew to be lying inches away. But her hand closed on nothing but sand.

Her eyes snapped open and widened in confusion at John’s absence. Cameron sat up and looked around, but aside from her, the beach was unoccupied. She got to her feet and switched her vision to infra-red, but still found no sign of John. She turned her attention to the waves and felt her metaphorical heart stop; what if he went swimming and got pulled out to sea? No, she told herself, John would not be so stupid to swim in the dark, and even if he did, he would call out for me if something went wrong.

A chilly breeze caused her skin to crawl and Cameron suddenly realised she wasn’t wearing any clothes. She found that odd, seeing as Cameron specifically remembered wearing a bikini before she went into standby. Cameron considered her options and decided to go back home, maybe John was waiting for her there, though she wondered why he would abandon her in the first place.

--

Cameron managed to steal some clothes from an abandoned store and made her way back to the Connor residence, every step making less and less sense. The streets were empty and rubbish littered the road and pavements. Bins burned and benches were smashed to splinters, houses were boarded up and stores were stripped of their products. Every now and then, Cameron would detect a presence out of the corner of her eye, but whenever she tried to get a good look, the presence would melt into the shadows.

She finally reached the Connor residence and gave a gasp of surprise: the house was completely desolate. All of the windows were smashed and the front door had been kicked in, the surrounding garden was a total mess, with weeds and thistles slowly engulfing the building. Cameron slowly entered her home and discovered it to be no better on the inside. The wallpaper was peeling off and most, if not all, of the furniture had been destroyed. She spotted several bullet holes in the walls and door frames; something terrible had happened here.

She slowly approached John’s room, fearing the worst. It was empty, and bare. It held none of the warmth she remembered; even the bed was nothing more than a torn and dirty mattress. Cameron lowered herself onto the bed and closed her eyes; she had to figure this out, but that wasn’t going to be easy. It was like something had swept through the city and changed it all overnight. John was gone, his room was stripped, and the air was cold, despite the fact that just three hours ago she was caught in one the hottest heat waves to ever strike Los Angeles.

The sound of creaking floorboards caught her attention and she quietly crept out of the room to investigate. There was a man in the wrecked living room, his back to her; he seemed to be examining the mess in front of him.

“What are you doing here?”

The man spun around and pointed a gun at her; she had clearly scared the life out of him, his face was hidden in shadow. He just stood there, pistol pointed at her head. Slowly, his hands began to shake and he spoke in an all-too-familiar voice.

“No, that’s impossible.”

Cameron took a step forwards, her apprehension towards the man having melted upon hearing his voice.

“Derek?”

Derek also took a step forwards, his face revealed by a beam of moonlight. He looked like he’d seen a ghost; disbelief lined every feature.

“It can’t be you… It can’t.”

Cameron was confused; couldn’t he see her clearly enough?

“It is me… Cameron. Why don’t you recognise me?”

“I must be going mad, God it’s finally happened; my sanity’s taken a long walk.”

Cameron gave him a tiny poke to show she wasn’t a figment of his imagination. Derek slowly lowered his gun and shook his head, still unable to fully grasp what he was seeing; she looked no different than the day she…

“Derek, what has happened here? Where is John? Where are Sarah and Ethan?”

“You really don’t know, do you?”

Cameron tilted her head quizzically.

“Know what?”

“Three years ago, whilst you and John were on a beach, you suddenly disappeared, never to be seen again.”

Cameron’s jaw dropped in surprise; she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. But then it all made sense; John’s absence, her lack of clothes, the change in the city. She had somehow travelled forward to 2011, leaving John and everyone else behind. She felt hot tears run down her face as she imagined how distraught John must have been when she disappeared.

“Please tell me it’s not true…”


Next: Chapter One: Here One Moment...
Previous: Cameron's Relocation


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Veran
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