The Resistance soldiers had set up barricades on the roads approaching their former battle command HQ which had now been converted into the new survivor gathering camp for the area. Several well-armed soldiers manned the barricades. There were also a few ground-mounted and vehicle-mounted plasma machine guns arranged around the barricades, especially so for the road that approached the area from the direction of the battlefield.

When the soldiers saw Kayden’s truck approach, they shouted and signaled for him to stop the truck. They also aimed their weapons at the unfamiliar truck which also looked like one of Skynet’s transport vehicles. Kayden could see that the soldiers all wore wary looks on their faces and they looked to be about a hair trigger away from firing on the truck at the slightest sign of threat.

“Don’t shoot! We are human survivors!” Kayden shouted, also frantically waving his hands about.

“Stop the truck! Park it over there!” One of the soldiers said, motioning for Kayden to pack the truck by the roadside.

“Okay! Okay, I’ll do that right now. Don’t shoot please!”

Kayden braked and slowed down the truck and following the soldier’s command, he drove the truck off the main road before parking it by the roadside. The lead soldier motioned for three of his colleagues to approach the truck with him. All of the soldiers still had their guns aimed at the truck, still ready for anything.

“All of you, get down from the truck right now. Leave any weapons you have with you in the truck!” The lead soldier shouted.

‘Fuck! These guys aren’t as nice as the other Resistance soldiers we met before. Why do they look so trigger-happy? We haven’t done anything wrong.’ Kayden thought.

“Hey Serena, do you have any suggestions about what we should do?” Kayden asked. 

“Just do what they say. We’ll be okay as long as we don’t do anything suspicious.” Serena answered dully.

Kayden sighed. He did not know what was going on with her. She seemed out of it since that huge explosion had happened, and she had remained silent as they drove along the way till now, only giving single-word responses to all of his attempts to start a conversation with her. She only stared out of the window while wearing a blank expression at the scenery that they passed by along the way. 

Even now, Serena only stared blankly at the soldiers manning the barricade. She did not look the slightest bit bothered by the fact that many guns were pointed at them.

‘Anyways, neither of our weapons still has any ammunition left in them.’ Kayden thought wryly. 

He raised both of his hands to show the four Resistance soldiers who were currently standing in front of the truck that his hands were empty and that he was not armed. Then he turned and banged hard on the truck's metal body behind him in order to alert his other passengers of their present circumstance.

“Everybody, we have reached our destination. You can all come down right now. It’s safe now….” Kayden shouted his words up to this point before he hesitated to complete that sentence, thinking that the sentence was really not too accurate, so, after pausing briefly to take another glance at the Resistance soldiers with their guns aimed at them, he added with a shrug, “… I guess? More or less.”

Kayden and Serena both disembarked from the truck before slowly walking forwards to stand in front of the truck. 

Serena’s beauty caused a little commotion among the soldiers, with the four soldiers and most of the other soldiers standing a little distance away at the barricade taking frequent furtive glances at her face and body, which Serena, with her current seemingly depressed state, did not seem to care about or even notice. Kayden’s own handsome looks also got some reaction from the few female soldiers among the group of soldiers. 

“Is it just you two?” The leading soldier asked Kayden. He seemed to have taken Kayden to be the leader of their duo, probably because Kayden had been the only one actively responding to his commands.

Kayden shook his head. “No, there are many more survivors in the back.”

The leading soldier gave a sign to two soldiers among the three with him for them to go and check it out. 

“Don’t worry we are all just normal people.” Kayden said with a wry smile after he saw how careful the soldiers were with handling them.

The sounds of the former prisoners disembarking from the truck reached Kayden’s ears. Although Kayden heard what sounded like some people having some difficulties getting down from the truck, all of the former prisoners finally came down. It also sounded like the two soldiers had even given them some help.

The two soldiers then marched the haggard-looking former prisoners to where Kayden and Serena were standing at the front of the truck. The soldiers then went back to their leader and then gave him a nod, and the leader’s look became milder.

“Alright. Everything checks out. You guys have now been granted permission to enter the camp. No non-sanctioned vehicles are allowed inside the camp, so you will have to leave your truck here and we will raise the barricade for you. Just pass through the camp’s gate to enter into the camp.

Kayden nodded.

“Everybody, let’s go. I will take you all into the camp. The journey is finally over! Ha-ha! It wasn’t so bad, right?” Kayden said, using a jovial tone when he saw the tired and exhausted looks on the faces of the former prisoners.

Nadiya, who was helping the other survivors settle down, looked at the several people who were trying to stand on their still shaky legs, and a few of the kids who were wiping some remnant vomit stains from their mouth before she turned and gave Kayden a severe glare.

“Sorry about all the rough driving. It was all to save our lives.” Kayden apologized.

Nadiya sighed, her look softening. She said, “You don’t have to apologize. I understand why you did what you did. You have protected all of us till now. It’s just the way kids suffered made me a little angry. Sigh, it’s just the way the world is right now. It’s not a good place for kids.”

“Yeah, I understand what you mean. It’s so hard.” Kayden said, before he added in his mind with a sigh, ‘What about my own childhood. I guess I too must have experienced a difficult childhood. And I don’t even remember it.’

Kayden then led his group of survivors to enter the camp through the camp’s gate. The gate was not really like other gates that can be opened or closed and locked. It only had a large thick rectangular steel gate frame on which many cameras and several other devices were mounted.

Another group of fully-armed soldiers were arranged around the gate. The soldiers maintained careful watch over the area around the camp’s gate.

Under the watchful eyes of the Resistance soldiers, Kayden led the group to enter the camp with no problems.

*****

In a tent hidden deep within camp, a young man typed at a desk on which several computer screens were arranged. He was typing rapidly on his computer keyboard. A small radio device had been placed amidst the clutter on the desk. John Connor’s victory announcement seemed to have been recorded from it and the announcement replayed in a loop on it.

Laz Howard wore a little smile on his face as he listened to the announcement.

“It worked! Ha-ha! I said it! And it really worked! Eat that Skynet! I broke into your network yet again!” 

Beep!

Laz was in the midst of celebrating his great achievement when he was suddenly interrupted by a beeping sound from one of his computer screens. This was the computer that he used to monitor the secret anti-Infiltrator sensors that had been installed in the camp’s gate.

Curious, Laz checked the computer screen, but he did not find anything abnormal. He only saw that there was a small change in the monitoring chart for electromagnetic activity. There was a small sudden spike in the chart that almost immediately returned to normal.

Laz usually used this chart to detect unauthorized wireless communications and data transmissions, but the change that had just occurred had not lasted long enough and had not reached the threshold levels required for suspicion.

Still, following his usual habit, Laz checked his other charts and data received from his sensors, especially the metal detectors, but he did not find anything abnormal there.

‘Maybe it’s just the usual device readings fluctuating.’ Laz thought before putting it out of his mind. He had other things to think about. He could not wait for John Connor to return so that he could learn the details about how effective and useful his devices were for their infiltration mission.

*****

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