Terminator Salvation - From the Ashes

Kate gave him a faint smile. “I know. Thanks for reminding me.”

Connor smiled back, and turned away. Well, that’s them convinced, he thought as he headed over to join the, group at the maps.

Now, the only one he still had to convince was himself.

CHAPTER

ELEVEN

“Kyle?”

The teen started awake, chagrined by the sudden realization that he had, in fact, been asleep.

That hadn’t been his plan, certainly not with Orozco handling guard duty all alone. He must have been more tired than he’d realized.

Way more tired, in fact, he realized as he peered through half-open eyes out into the street.

Nguyen and the other traders were standing outside the archway, and even in the limited sunlight making its way through the overcast sky he could see enough shadow to tell that it was at least a couple of hours past noon. He’d not only slept the morning away, but a good part of the afternoon, too.

He looked over at Star. To his surprise, he saw the same grogginess in her face that he himself was feeling. She must have slept as long and as deeply as he had.

“Come on, Kyle, get it together,” Orozco said.

Kyle looked up at the man kneeling over him. There was a grimness on his face that made Kyle wince even harder. Had he and Star slept straight through the mission Orozco had talked about earlier?

“Sorry,” Kyle apologized as he scrambled to his feet.

“Didn’t mean to sleep so long.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Orozco said, his voice as gruff as his face. “In fact, I’m glad you did.

You’ve got a long day still ahead of you.”

“We’re ready,” Kyle said, checking to make sure the Colt was still riding snugly in his holster.

“What’s the mission?”

“Come over here,” Orozco said. He offered a hand to Star, who ignored it and climbed to her feet without assistance. “You’re going to start by taking Mr. Nguyen and his people to our gasoline supply.”

Kyle felt his eyes widen. The first rule hammered into the skulls of everyone who knew where the gasoline was located was to never, ever take strangers there.

“But—”

“And after that,” Orozco said, “you and Star will be going back to their farm with them. And you won’t come back.”

For a handful of seconds Kyle just stared at him, the words spinning through his brain like moths around a candle.

“What do you mean?” he managed at last. “Are you?—We can’t do that.”

“You have to,” Orozco said, his voice low and earnest and with a pain that Kyle had never heard there before.

“There’s no future for you here. Out there, at least you have a chance.”

And then, abruptly, the circling words fell into place in Kyle’s mind. Into a horrible, terrifying place in a horrible, terrifying reality.

“They’re coming, aren’t they?” he breathed.

“I think so, yes,” Orozco said quietly. “That’s why you and Star need to get out of here.”

“What about the others?” Kyle asked, throwing a look across the empty lobby. “We have to warn them.”

“We will,” Orozco promised. “And we’ll do our best to get them all out. But you and Star are going first.”

Kyle looked at Star. Her eyes were wide, her lower lip trembling. Moldering Lost Ashes was their home, the best and safest they’d ever had. To just throw all that away…

He looked back at Orozco.

“Are you coming with us?” he asked.

“No, but if I can I’ll catch up with you later,” Orozco said. “But whether I do or not, you have to promise me you won’t ever come back here again. Not to look for me, or for anyone else, or to try to collect anything you might leave behind. Once you pass under that archway, you’re gone forever.

Understand?”

Kyle looked again at Star. She was gazing up at Orozco, her face solemn and troubled. Then, lowering her eyes, she silently took Kyle’s hand.

“Yes,” Kyle said for them both.

“Good,” Orozco said. “Then go get anything you have that you want to take. And not a word to anyone else, okay?” He reached down and took Kyle’s Colt from its holster. “Here, I’ll load this for you.”

It took Kyle and Star only about five minutes to collect their few belongings. They returned to the lobby to find Orozco standing beside Nguyen, talking to him in a low voice. Lying on the ground at his feet was a bulky canvas shoulder bag.

“Ready?” Orozco asked briskly as Kyle and Star came up. “Good. Here’s your gun, Kyle, plus an extra clip.”

“You sure you can spare them?” Kyle asked as he hesitantly took the weapon and clip. If the Terminators were coming, Orozco and the others would need all the guns and ammunition they could get their hands on.

“Don’t argue with your sergeant,” Orozco chided, though his tight smile showed he didn’t really mean it. “Yes, we can spare them. We can spare this, too.” He nudged the bag with his foot.

Kyle stooped over and picked it up. It was heavier than it looked.

“What is it?”

“Six pipe bombs,” Orozco said. “I made them up this morning. And don’t worry—I kept plenty for us, too.”

Kyle swallowed hard. So that was what Orozco had been doing that had given him and Star time to sleep so much.

“Thanks,” he said.

“It’s just a precaution,” Orozco added. “Even if we’re in Skynet’s crosshairs, its attacks nearly always come after nightfall. You should be well out of the area by then. There’s a lighter in there with the bombs, too. But it’s stoked with a gasoline mixture and burns really hot, so be careful with it.”

“I will,” Kyle said, looping the bag’s strap over his shoulder. “I…”

He was still searching for a way to say good-bye when Orozco stepped close and wrapped him and Star in a single, massive bear hug. Kyle gripped the man tightly, his eyes squeezed shut, drinking in the warmth and the deepness of human contact.

For a long moment they held each other that way. Then, gently, Orozco disengaged.

“You’d better get going,” he said, and Kyle could see the tears in his eyes. “Take care of yourselves and each other. May you both live long enough to see a world finally at peace.”

Kyle tried to say something. But his throat and voice weren’t working right, and he had to settle for giving his friend a quick nod instead.

A minute later, he and Star were walking down the street beside Nguyen, wrapped in a silence broken only by the crunching of their footsteps and the snuffling of the burros. Kyle had lost many friends and acquaintances over the years, either through death or simple desertion, to the point where he no longer cried over those losses.

But it was a near thing. It was a really near thing.

Nguyen and his men were very impressed by the gasoline stash, commenting several times on both its layered concealment and the booby-traps set up to protect it. Kyle had expected them to take as much of the gasoline as their burros could carry, and was therefore surprised when they quit after siphoning off only thirty gallons.

Still, pulling even that much of the precious liquid took nearly an hour, and by the time the group emerged