Set ten years after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, John Connor and his mother, Sarah Connor, are off-grid and separated in 2005. While Sarah is at Norfolk, Virginia, for matters too personal to tell her own son, John is surviving on his o...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"It's faster if we take the stairs." Reyna says.
"Agreed." I say before turning to the room. "HEY! FOLLOW US!"
Mom covers my mouth. "What are you doing-"
The building begins to quake, and not because of an earthquake.
"They must be hiding in the walls." Reyna says. "Go, go, GO!"
We ran to the back wall leading to the stairs. Reyna kicks the door open and bolts down the stairs fast enough to escape but slow enough for us to catch up to. I hold the door open and help my mom through.
"I'm fine, John," Mom assures, "just go!"
I don't listen. I place an arm around her shoulder and help her down the stairs as fast as she's willing to go. By the time we're on the second floor, Mom can limp along and help herself.
When we reach the third floor after six flights of stairs, Reyna's already waiting for us. The building sits still.
"Whatever happens, your only priority is yourselves." Reyna says firmly before pointing across from her. "This is an emergency exit."
"And you." I add. "You're my priority."
Reyna smiles grimly. "I'll try."
The door to the third floor is locked and needs a special key to enter, which we probably should have stolen from Beischel, but Reyna kicks it down anyways.
We end up on the opposite side of the walkway where Reyna and I first entered. No Terminators. I look over the edge of the railing and it feels like my stomach drops into the vat: the Terminators are gone.
"Where—" I begin, but Reyna drags me and Mom to the floor and a bullet flies from behind us.
Mom begins shooting behind us at a T-800. I pull out my gun and begin shooting as Reyna does the same. When I run out of bullets on my machine gun, I switch to my Glock. There are too many of each Terminator, there's ten T-800s and who knows how many JEM-9s surrounding us and it's too much, even though Mom and I already threw two of the T-800s into the vat of molten metal. Even Reyna's struggling with the continuous onslaught of JEM-9s.
I pull the trigger on an incoming JEM-9, but nothing comes out. "I'm out!"
"Me too!" Reyna yells, switching to her grenades.
"I'm low!" Mom adds.
Just when everything else couldn't get any worse, the floor beneath us begins shifting and separating until we are above the vat. I hold onto a cable supporting a piece of walkway and balance myself on it. Dark metal liquid begins snaking its way downwards on the cables towards me, Mom, and Reyna. The walkway doesn't stop moving.
I continue clicking my Glock and replace it with my empty machine gun. I'll have to use it any way I can. It's not like I can knock over a Terminator with a small gun like a Glock.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a flash of dark silver running away from a panel of buttons.
"Reyna!" I point to the bolting JEM-9 sprinting in front of her.
Reyna swings back and forth on the platform using the cable. When she's close to the panel, she leaps from her piece of the walkway and onto the fragmented one near the panel of buttons. She slaps the stop button, and the walkway fragments stop moving. A T-800 tackles her to the ground, but I can't see what's next. A JEM-9 has fully formed in front of me. When it swings at me with a knifed arm, I push its arm away, reach behind it, and push it into the melting vat below. When I look up, Reyna's on her platform fighting off two JEM-9s and Mom shoves another one into the vat. I brush my hair, damp with sweat, and figure out how to get to Reyna.
There are two pieces of the walkway separating me and Reyna. If I can swing my piece hard enough, I can—
"JOHN!" Mom screams. "What are you doing?! We don't have much time left!"
She's right, but I still don't listen. I begin to rock my walkway back and forth until it's close enough to the next one. I leap and begin to do the same.
"JOHN!" Reyna screams as she pulls her knees to her chest and kicks the JEM-9s off of her. New scratches and a gash on her stomach appear on her body. "Just leave me!"
"NO!" I scream back, rocking the walkway once more. I jump again to the last walkway, but it's more wobbly than the last ones. I look up to see a cable literally on its last thread. I hold out my hand.
"Just jump." I beg. "Please."
Reyna inches towards the edge of the walkway fragment when a JEM-9 grabs her from behind. With a cry, she kicks it behind her and leaps, not caring if the JEM-9 is still on the platform or in the vat.
One of the cables on my walkway snaps, launching me forward and tilting the walkway downwards, but I stop myself by holding onto the railing. With one hand, I hold onto the railing behind me and with the other, hold my hand out to the opposite side.
Reyna holds onto the edge of grating with her remaining strength. I would inch closer, but that would mean letting go of the railing and tumbling into the vat.
"Come on, soldier." I breathe. "Come on."
Suddenly, it seems like the piece of walkway has extended and Reyna is farther from me than I thought. But she grabs on the grating with both hands and begins to climb. I inch toward her as far as I can.
When our fingertips brush, she is dragged backwards. Reyna screams in agony.
I reach for her again, but she moves backwards again even when her fingers hook into the metal grating.
I look beneath us and find a chain of melting JEM-9s holding onto Reyna and dragging her into the vat.
When I look back at her, she's smiling at me through her tears. She opens her mouth to speak.
But the JEM-9 speaks for her: silently, they drag her with them into the vat.
