Kayden ran away from the three pursuing Terminators for a short distance before he noticed that his sprinting speed was faster than that of the three T-800 Terminators, and that given some time, he would be able to put enough distance between himself and the Terminators for him to successfully escape from them.

But this was not really what Kayden wanted. If he alone, and he was escaping on his own and by himself, of course he would be happy to take advantage of his superior speed and use it to run and escape from the Terminators’ pursuit, but right now, he had to meet up with the Serena and the others in his group who were normal humans — there were even a few kids among them. They could not run as fast he could, so if he does nothing about the three T-800s who were currently chasing after him, he would ultimately lead them straight to the group’s location. 

So, Kayden decided that he had to eliminate the last three remaining T-800 Terminators in order to ensure that he and his group would have enough time to escape before the other patrolling machines and HKs, who had been alerted by the sounds of his battle with the Terminators, track them down to where they were.

Knowing that he would soon meet up with the rest of the group and not wanting to be asked questions he did not wish to answer any time soon, Kayden took off his coat which had now been turned into tattered rags by the many bullets that had struck him and was now barely hanging on to his body. He used the tattered coat as a bandage to wrap up the large plasma-burn wound on his left arm.

By this time, the wound on Kayden left arm had mostly healed with only the skin cover remaining for his left arm to return to normal. So, Kayden only needed to cover the wound for a little more time. The whole process of the wound healing seemed like it would take only two or three minutes — no, his HUD displayed an estimated remaining time of 2.45 seconds until the wound healed up completely.

Right now, Kayden had decided to destroy the three pursuing T-800 Terminators before meeting up with the rest of the group, but after the previous painful lesson, he did not wish to fight them head-on again. So, he planned to find a good ambush point with a good hiding spot that he could hide behind and from where he could shoot at the Terminators — picking them off one by one — and hopefully destroy them. Therefore, as he ran, he kept looking around, searching for such a good spot.

Luck seemed to be on Kayden’s side because right after he rounded another bend in the maze-like arrangement of walkways in this area, he saw a group of work machines ahead of him. The arrangement of the machines positioned them close to one another but there were enough small spaces between them through which Kayden could aim his plasma rifle at any enemies approaching from behind him while still being able to use the bodies of the machines as cover to protect him from any enemy return fire.

Kayden quickly hid behind the work machines. Taking deep, slow-paced breaths, he calmly waited for the three T-800s to reach his chosen ambush point. He could already hear the faint characteristic metal-on-concrete footsteps of the approaching Terminators. When he placed his hand on the floor, he could feel some small vibrations. So, he knew that would be seeing the Terminators soon.

Just a little more than 10 seconds later, the leading T-800 Terminator entered his line of sight with the other two quickly following.

The three Terminators’ running came to an abrupt halt as soon as they reached the bend in the path. They all paused for a few second and looked at the floor. They seemed to be searching for something, their glowing red eyes focused on the floor and sweeping from side to side. They seemed to have quickly found whatever they were looking for, because they all looked up from the ground and instead of continuing on  and forwards down the walkway, they turned towards the same bend that Kayden had taken, obviously intending to continue chasing him in that direction even though they had not witnessed when he ran in that direction.

‘Just as I expected. These Terminators too can track those former prisoners using their shoe and foot prints.’ Kayden thought as he aimed his plasma rifle through a small space between the machines at the head of the first Terminator. ‘But that all ends here.’

Kayden then pulled the trigger.

Pew!

Following the release of the characteristic plasma-light beam and the characteristic sound that always follows a plasma gunshot, the head of the leading T-800 Terminators was blown to slightly-molten pieces.

The other two T-800s reacted almost immediately, turning their heads — with their glowing-red eyes flashing brighter — towards direction where the plasma shot had come from. They must have detected Kayden who was smiling at them with malice because they immediately tried to raise their own plasma rifles, obviously with the full intention of returning to Kayden the favor of his head being blasted to pieces.

Seeing the actions of the Terminators and guessing their intentions, Kayden snorted in mockery before squeezing out another two quick and accurate plasma shots.

Pew! Pew!

The two remaining Terminators’ heads erupted like tiny volcanoes, and the Terminators went out in the same way as their comrade, their headless bodies dropping to the floor.

‘Phew.’ Kayden sighed in relief.

He was about to turn around and leave when he stopped and then looked at the three phased plasma rifles lying on the floor beside the three T-800 Terminators. Kayden had the strong urge to take the three plasma rifles with him in order to add more weapons to his arsenal and increase his self-defense capabilities.

But as soon as Kayden went ahead and picked up one of the plasma rifles, he realized that if he rejoined the rest of the group while carrying three new plasma rifles, almost everyone in the group would develop some suspicions about his abilities and what had happened to him while he was away from the group. So, even though Kayden did not want to do it, he had to leave these plasma rifles behind.

Still, Kayden did not manage completely contain his desire for the guns, so he chose to take one of the plasma rifles before leaving and continuing on his way to meet up with Serena and the others.

‘I may not be able to explain how I obtained three new plasma rifles, but… I think me returning to the group with a single additional plasma rifle shouldn’t be too suspicious. Right?’ Kayden thought as he hurried along the way towards the rest of the group.

Five minutes later and after leaving the industrial-looking area of the facility, Kayden found himself looking at a large heavy-looking metal door. Standing in front of and around the door were some familiar faces. They were Serena and Nadiya’s group. They seemed to have even picked up a stray. He should be another one of the other former prisoners who he had helped free.

When Serena saw him appear, she smiled and waved at him. “This is the exit I told you about. We decided to wait here for you so that we can all leave this place together.”

Serena then pointed at the new addition to the group, a skinny man who had hidden at the back of the group when Kayden appeared. “This is Joe. We found him on our way here. He told us that after the group of former prisoners left the prison cells, they mostly went their separate ways. Some in groups, others alone. He said that he had a bad feeling about joining any of the groups since he did not know anyone among the former prisoners who he could trust, so he chose to go at it alone and try to escape by himself.

“Because he didn’t know the way out, he chose a random direction to flee in, hoping to get lucky, but unfortunately for him, he ran into an HK patrol. He was lucky and the HK did not notice him, so he ran away and hid himself until we found him.”

Kayden nodded. He was not bothered about adding another person to the group even though this new guy looked like he would only be another burden he would have to protect.

Kayden heard Nadiya whisper to Joe, “Don’t worry, Kayden’s a nice man. He’s been keeping us safe as we escape from here.”

Kayden shook his head, no longer looking at the scared looking man. Instead, he looked at door sign above the large metal door which said ‘Side Exit C’.

With a strange expression on his face, Kayden turned to Serena and said, “Secret exit, huh?”

Serena smiled brightly and shrugged nonchalantly, not even bothering to show the slightest sign that she was embarrassed that she had given out incorrect information. “I guess Skynet found about the secret exit after occupying this place for so long. Anyway, the exit is still here — like I said — and still functional, so there’s no problem, right?”

Kayden gave up even attempting to argue with her. Besides, like she said, the exit was right where she had told them it would be, even though the ‘secret’ exit was not so secret anymore.

“Yeah, no problem.” Kayden said before he moved forward to unlock and pull the door open; Serena and the other grownups in the group assisting him to pull the heavy door open. “Alright, let’s get out of here.”

*****

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