The Future War

'Huh,' she said, eyes on the Terminators on the screen.

'They're not dress dummies, Ninel, honest.'

She looked down at him, her eyes troubled, then away. He turned his chair and pushed himself back to the workstation he'd been using when she entered. Clearly, some people were just incredibly hard to convince.

* * *

Ninel glanced at John, a worried look on her face, then leaned forward, tapping keys to change the view in the storage area.

Behind the rows of robots were boxes, the kind of boxes that looked like they were designed to hold rifles or ammunition. She hissed thoughtfully and put her hands on her hips.

What was going on here? Weapons. This was some kind of weapons factory, probably something set up by the government, and now it was in the hands of John and his friends. These people didn't seem like murderers. Although one or two had come across as paramilitary, antigovernment nut jobs, not one of them had spoken about killing innocent civilians as though it was something they felt they had to do. In fact, she'd heard Luddites more inclined to say socially unacceptable things about killing people.

As she clicked the enter key, the view kept changing, from the storage area to the factory itself, to exterior shots. She paused to watch the wounded being treated by one of the corpsmen. Had these people attacked the transports she'd been sending into Canada? Not one had indicated in any way that they had done such a thing. Not that she supposed they would tell such a thing to a new recruit.

She glanced over at John intensely working the keyboard.

Since that one night they'd never shared that level of intimacy.

He'd made a point of talking to her, and others had noticed and commented on his attentions, but otherwise… Well, otherwise she'd kind of been twisting in the wind, wondering what she meant to him, if anything. Wondering, in fact, if he was capable of using sex to recruit followers. Because it had very quickly become apparent that this resistance thing was John Connor's property. The others looked at him like he was God or something.

Killer or savior? she wondered, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. Time to make up her mind. People that she trusted insisted that he was a mass murderer. And here he was attacking some kind of automated weapons factory. Why would a savior want a weapons factory? She hit enter two more times and thought, Time's up. Time to act.

Hands in her pockets, mouth dry, her heart beating in her throat, she walked back to where John was working. 'What are you doing?' she asked, leaning forward.

He held up one hand. 'Just a second,' he said, preoccupied.

Ninel yanked the sap out of her pocket and smacked him across the back of the head. Goggle-eyed, swaying, he turned to look at her, his mouth open in astonishment. Terrified, she hit him again, this time on the side of the head, and John slid bonelessly out of the chair. She let out her breath in a gasp, reached toward him, then aborted the gesture. Turning, she rushed to the door and opened it.

Balewitch and Dog Soldier came barreling in, Dog with a soldier lying limply across his shoulders. Dog dropped him carelessly in a corner, and together with Balewitch advanced avidly on John as he lay helpless on the floor.

Ninel recognized the soldier as one who'd worked with her, and started toward him, to at least untangle his body from the heap he'd landed in.

'He's dead,' Dog said over his shoulder. 'No need to worry about him.'

'Whaaat?' Ninel said, horrified.

'Uh, had to,' Dog said, annoyed. 'We're slightly outnumbered here, in case you didn't notice.'

'Not for long,' Balewitch muttered. She reached for the keyboard above John's head.

'He said there were robots,' Ninel blurted as she watched Bale-witch type.

'Yeah,' Dog said, nudging John with his toe.

'He said they were designed to kill people.' She heard her own voice sounding wild and desperate and hated it, but something was going wrong here. 'He said a computer called Skynet made them; he said Skynet caused Judgment Day.'

'Well, duh,' Dog said. He looked at her. 'We could hardly let them fall into this guy's hands.'

'What are you doing?' Ninel said, snatching the keyboard away from Balewitch.

'Give me that,' the older woman said calmly.

'Tell me what you're doing!' Ninel insisted. She raised the keyboard as though she meant to smash it. 'I mean it!'

Balewitch took a deep breath and huffed it out. 'I'm activating those robots so that they can take care of these resistance types.'

Ninel could feel herself going pale. 'But they'll kill them.'

'Ye»-ah,' Balewitch said, smiling. 'That's the idea, honey.

Just think of all those innocent, unarmed refugees if you think we're being too tough.'

This didn't seem right, it didn't! Then it hit her. 'How do you know how to wake them up?' she asked, her lips numb.

'Ron gave us the codes,' Dog said. He moved a step closer to her.

'Back off!' she snarled. Furiously thinking, she waved the keyboard; its cord stretched tight in her hand and would go no farther. 'I don't believe that Ron Labane would approve of killing people, even misguided people. He's always preached doing things the legal way. Always!'

Balewitch, clearly annoyed, moved slowly toward her, her hands outstretched for the keyboard. 'Things are different now, honey. You know that. Give me the—'

'How would Ron know the codes?' Ninel shouted. 'How would he know anything about a place like this? He hates the automated factories. No way would he know them well enough to run one!'

Dog laughed. 'She's got you there, Bale.'

'Oh, for cryin' out loud,' Balewitch said in disgust. 'Labane is dead.'

'No!' Ninel shouted.

'Yes, he is,' Dog said, coming another step closer. 'I know because we killed him. I was there.'

Ninel's breath froze in her throat, choking her. Dog launched himself forward to grasp the keyboard and she swung it like a bat, hitting him in the face. He backed off and Balewitch laughed at him.

'Jesus Christ.' She sneered. 'You don't believe in doing anything the easy way, do you?' She pulled a pistol from her pocket, a silencer disfiguring its barrel.

Ninel gasped and backed away, holding the keyboard in front of her like a shield.

Balewitch snapped the fingers of her other hand. 'Gimme,'

she said. 'And you'd better hope you didn't break it.'

Holding the keyboard more tightly, Ninel blinked at her. Did the woman think she was just going to hand it over? 'No,' she said, her voice small but steady. 'I'm not going to help the people who killed Ron Labane.'

With a snarl Dog started forward again, but Balewitch put her arm up like a bar. 'I don't want that keyboard damaged,' she said to him. Then she glared at Ninel. 'If this Skynet wants to kill the human race, well, three cheers for Skynet. The human race is nothing but vermin for the most part, and the rest are too stupid to know they're even alive.

'Look what's been done to this planet! It was beautiful once; now it's shit! Just shit! Everywhere you look. Humanity has to go, or nothing will survive.' She spread her hands. 'So. Are you gonna help, or do we kill you?'

Her eyes wide, Ninel just stared at her, mouth open. 'Y-you're going to kill me anyway, aren't you?'

Dog's grin spread. 'Yeah.'

Balewitch shot him a look, then raised her gun. She tipped her head to the side like a shrug. 'Well, we weren't going to right away. But…'

Ninel's eyes widened as John slowly rose behind her and she took a breath to scream. Something in her chest felt icy cold.

Then hot, and then there was nothing, nothing at all.

'Oh, good job, Bale. Right through the keyboard.' Dog started forward.

'Couldn't let her scream,' Balewitch muttered.