The Future War

newcomers, Sam Varela, said.

'Because it's a gigantic, 'We Are Here' sign,' Tom said. 'I, for one, don't want to end up in those relocation camps you people fled.'

The newcomers glared at him resentfully. 'We have no reason to think they're still doing that,' Sam said through his teeth.

'We have less reason to think they're not,' Tom snapped back.

'They didn't set up those camps to leave them empty.'

'Going was voluntary,' a woman pointed out.

'So why are you here?' Preston challenged. 'Why here? Why not stay in your homes?'

'We're getting into some pretty deep issues here,' his wife, Peggy, said with a frown at her husband. They'd discussed the newcomers in the privacy of their bedroom and his suspicion toward them worried her. 'When what we came here to discuss was a picnic.'

'Maybe we should get into it,' the woman said. 'I'm tired of being treated like an interloper when all I want to do is get back to normal.'

'Things aren't going to go back to normal,' Tom said. Didn't you notice a few little changes? Like the thermonuclear war?

'Things are going to get a lot worse for a long time before we get anywhere close to normal. But one thing that will at least keep us safe is to avoid attracting attention.'

'Exactly whose attention are you afraid of?' Sam gave a light laugh and spread his hands. 'The army? I'm telling you, they're too busy to go chasing down anyone who doesn't want their help.

Who else is there?' He shrugged.

Tom closed his eyes. Sometimes he wondered himself. John Connor had warned that there would be more problems with machines, but with no fuel or electricity, he honestly couldn't see how that could be. Humans, on the other hand…

'I'm worried about gangs,' Tom said. 'I'm afraid that some group of lawless men will come along and take everything we've put together and kill our families.' He stood up and started to pace. 'These aren't civilized times,' he continued. 'We're not protected by multiple law enforcement organizations anymore.

For the foreseeable future, our fate is in our own hands.'

'Oh,' the woman said. 'When you put it that way it makes perfect sense.'

'No fireworks,' said Sam.

Tom sat down and forced a smile, but this didn't feel like victory. Rather it felt like number four hundred of a million more arguments.

I almost wish we'd be attacked so these people would realize what they're facing. Almost.

* * *

'Honey,' Peggy said to him later in bed, 'we're seventy-eight adults here and we're well armed. It's unlikely that we'll be faced by any gang more powerful than we are ourselves. Maybe we could loosen up a bit. Don't you think?'

Tom reached out and drew her into his arms. 'I was so afraid the day the bombs came down that I'd never see you and the kids again,' he said into her sweet-smelling hair. Even now, with no shampoo available, he liked the way her hair smelled. God, but he loved her.

Peggy hugged him tight. 'I love you, too,' she whispered. 'I always did.'

'Tell you what,' he said. 'Let's be extra careful this year, until we've got our feet under us. Then we can talk about loosening up.' He pulled back and looked down into her face, barely visible in the moonlight coming through the cabin window. Tom shook his head. 'But I'm pretty certain that we're gonna have to build a stockade.'

She laughed and buried her head in. his shoulder, tickling him so that he laughed, too.

'It's not funny,' he said. 'I'm serious.'

'You are never gonna sell them on that idea,' she said. 'I can just see their faces.' And she laughed again.

He smiled at her and held her close. But all the while he was thinking that a stockade was something they'd realize was necessary only after they needed it the most. He kissed his wife and prayed that she wouldn't have to suffer for its absence.

SKYNET

It watched the small settlement from the dark beneath the trees; linking with the Terminators' interfaces, Skynet saw the village from multiple angles. This settlement had been surprisingly well hidden for a long time. But the sheer size of the place in an area bereft of any other human activity had eventually brought it to the computer's never-resting attention.

One hundred thirty-two humans, seventy-eight of them adults, no meat animals, lived together here. It was an almost pathologically tidy place; quite unnatural for humans. Their houses were small, built beneath, and with, the surrounding trees; often the lower limbs had been woven more tightly to provide a framework for thatched roofs, while the walls were saplings woven together and smeared with clay mixed with grass. Insubstantial for a permanent dwelling; winter weather would break them down in a short time.

But in summer, if the weather was dry, they should be adequate shelter. Even if the weather was wet, however, they should burn well.

Through a Terminator's sensors Skynet watched the brightly colored silhouettes of the humans through the thin walls of their dwellings. One by one, two by two, they reclined, and the heat images took on the signatures of humans at rest. Its Terminators waited silent and motionless as the moon rose and traversed the night sky.

Many small improvements had made these Terminators more formidable killing machines than the first group, and their weapons were infinitely more powerful than the pellet weapons these humans had at their disposal. Still, Skynet had observed these subjects intensely and knew them to be well schooled in the use of the weapons they did have. This would be a true test, the first of a thousand thousand field terminations, until the final organic pest was hunted down.

Unfortunately, that will require at least another century.

As the last human sank into a dormant state, Skynet gave the signal to attack.

* * *

Peggy woke first. A light sleeper since the children were born, she heard a crackling sound and opened her eyes to the sight of flames.

'Tom!' she shrieked, leaped from the bed, and ran down the loft stairs toward the already engulfed living room. The heat drove her back and she lay down on the floor to look over the edge of the platform. 'Jason! Lisa!' she screamed.

Then Tom was beside her. He looked over the edge and saw his children with their backs against the wall of the cabin, coughing, their eyes wild with fear. 'Take Daddy's hand,' he shouted over the roar of the flames. If he could just get them up here, they could go out the window, down the rope ladder.

Lisa came toward him, but Jason held back, shaking his head frantically. The little girl reached up and Tom squirmed forward, putting slightly more than half his body over the edge. He could feel his hair start to sizzle. Peggy threw herself across his hips to hold him down, and when Lisa's head came over the edge of the platform, she reached forward and caught the girl's hair. Lisa was already screaming by then, so it made little difference in the volume of her distress, but still, her mother felt terrible.

Once Lisa was safe and huddled against her mother, Tom dove over the edge a second time, reaching toward his son and encouraging, ordering, threatening him to come to Daddy.

Suddenly his hair caught fire and Tom reared up in surprise and shock. Peggy caught up the small rag rug at the foot of the bed and threw it over his head.

'I've gotta go down to him, Peg,' Tom said. 'He's too scared to move. Get Lisa out of here.'

She shook her head. 'We've got time. You go get him; we'll lower the rope ladder. Then we'll all go.' Because they sure weren't going out the front door.

Tom did as she suggested, lowering himself from the platform, trying to ignore the fierce heat on his naked shoulders.

He forced himself to move slowly for fear of panicking his son into doing something foolish. 'C'mon, Jason,' he said soothingly.