Realities

by Jose Rodriguez

  Kate shrugged. “He knows you,” she said. “And he knew my name, so.”

  John entered the living room for both men to see each other.

  Quin immediately stood and smiled. “John!” he said excitedly to see who he thought was the same man.

  John walked over to a couch opposite of Quin and sat down. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Who are you?”

  Quin’s mechanical brain then worked out that this John only looked the same, his experiences would be different, but the human part of his brain held on to some type of hope that John at least knew him. “I know things are different,” he said. “But don’t you recognize me?”

  “Did we run into each other at work?” John asked.

  Quin sat back down. “Something like that,” he said. “What is it you do again?”

  “Head of security,” John answered.

  Quin snickered. “Should have guessed,” he said. “Look, I don’t know how to say this so I’m just gonna come out with it. I need your help to stop these cyborgs called Terminators.”

  John felt his body grow ice-cold as he stared blankly at Quin.

  Kate, who had been standing by the doorway, walked over and joined John on the couch and held his hand. “Hon,” she said, beginning to feel John shake. “Are you alright?”

  John slowly looked at her. “You know that doomsday thing we’ve been prepping for,” he said. “It’s here.”

  Kate slightly recoiled. “What,” she said. “You’re joking right. We haven’t seen anything even close to that in the news and you said your boss Danny was working on other things.”

  “I know,” John said. “But no one can predict the future.”

  Quin cleared his throat. “I’m not from the future,” he clarified. “Unfortunately, these Terminators are from another reality. They’re not even from mine. They’re completely new and different from…Hold on, You believe me?”

  “Of course I do,” John said. “My mom and I dealt with them years ago and I’ve never mentioned it to anyone. I told Kate about killer cyborgs, but I never said the word ‘Terminator’. My way I guess of just trying to keep them a bad memory.”

  Quin wasn’t about to say he was a Terminator himself. He expected to have trouble just getting John’s trust. “We have to move then,” he said. “They can track me…”

  “Wait,” John interrupted. “How many of these things are there?”

  “Three are here,” Quin answered. “One is back at my place I guess. Not to worry though, killing you isn’t their objective.”

  “What are they doing then?” John asked.

  “In my reality,” Quin replied. “They want to hack Skynet for their AI, Legion. Here, they’re just trying to get it started. In its reality, you’re not even a factor.”

  John stood with Kate. “You say they can track you,” he said. “Well, far be it we make our stand at my house. We can go to my work, easy.”

  “What’s at your work?” Quin asked.

  “Weapons,” John answered. “Let’s go.”

  8. WEAPONS OF WAR

  A little later that day, in a near-empty parking lot, one car parked next to another. The occupants of both vehicles exited, with only one man getting out of one of the cars. John, Kate, and Quin stepped out the other.

  “Hey, Danny,” John waved. “Thanks for coming..”

  Danny waved back. “Hi, John,” he said. “Kate.” Then noticing Quin and giving him a wave.

  Kate smiled and waved back. “Hi, Mr. Dyson.”

  John, with Quin, approached Danny.

  Danny extended his hand to shake Quins. “Is this the man?” he asked.

  “Danny, Quin,” John said. “Quin, Danny. Gentlemen, let's hurry in please.”

  Kate pulled out a sniper rifle that didn’t look like any regular sniper rifle before walking with the men inside.

  In a low voice, Quin asked. “I don’t usually disagree with you but, are you sure calling your boss was wise?”

  “Yup,” John answered. “Sounds like these Terminators are gonna be a problem whether we make them or not. Might as well make sure the tech falls into our hands rather than someone else.”

  Quin looked over at Danny, who was walking next to them. “So what's your deal? You believe all this?”

  “My mom,” Danny answered. “A few years ago, I thought she was going crazy when she told me this story about killer cyborgs from the future. It’s why my dad died. I never told anyone about it. Then I get this call from the head of my security telling me pretty much the same thing. I still find all of this kind of hard to believe, but I’m also not going to pass up an opportunity to get my hands on technology from the future.”

  “Not the future,” Quin corrected. “Different reality.”

  Danny shrugged. “Same difference.”

  They all entered a very large room filled with various assembly lines.

  Quin looked around curiously and asked. “What do you guys do here?”

  “Design and manufacture weapons,” Danny answered.

  “It's ok,” John assured. “We do work mostly for law enforcement and the military. Our civilian department waits for approval and then designs a version for outside use. Me being an employee, I was able to get Kate a specialized sniper rifle.”

  “Specialized,” Kate chuckled. “Try one of a kind. Not even the military can touch this.”

  Danny laughed. “It’s not considered humane,” he said, then turning to Quin. “Her rifle uses our patented Nector rounds. A combination of neural and electrical disruptors causes severe bodywide nerve damage, to the point of being permanent. Problem is, we can’t fix it.”

  Kate chambered a round. “Nice thing is” she started. “It makes hunting easy. One hit anywhere on the body makes the animal drop instantly.”

  John placed a hand on Kate’s shoulder. “Follow me, everyone,” he said, taking them to the facility’s security center. “Danny, you stay here and monitor us, you’re the guardian angel,” he added before grabbing several radio headsets for everyone and handing them out. “Kate, you go hide on the upper level of the assembly room we just passed,” Opening a locker with some fairly high-tech weapons, he handed one to Quin. “You and I are going back to the assembly room to watch the only way in.”

  Kate then seemed confused. “I saw multiple doors though.”

  John smiled. “Yeah,” he replied. “I was talking about from the main entrance. You can get to just about anywhere from the assembly room, but there’s only one way in from the front doors.”

  Quin grew slightly concerned and asked. “How do we know he’ll use the front?”

  John adjusted some controls. “Because,” he said. “We’re gonna leave the front doors wide open.”

  As it was beginning to get late in the day. Lights leading to the front doors from the parking lot certainly appeared inviting.

  John pressed a few more buttons. “Everythings activated,” he said. “Back is locked. A Terminator could easily break in but that’ll set off the alarms.” Equipping the headset and grabbing a gun, he then walked back out to the assembly room.

  Quin placed his headset on and followed John to a spot between two large robotic assemblers. It wasn’t too loud, but there was a lot of movement.

  “My mom said all this moving helps,” John said.

  Quin suddenly looked surprised. “How is your mom?” he asked. “Maybe she can help.”

  John chuckled at the thought and then dismissed the idea. “Nah, she’s fine,” he answered. “She’s on a looong vacation down in Mexico. After what she's been through, dealing with these things, I can’t bother her with this. I’d like to think she taught me well enough anyways.”

  Quin said nothing at first, accepting the answer, then he asked. “Kids? I don’t see any and Kates looking skinny.”

  John looked sad and shook his head. “Can’t,” he replied. “It's not me or for a lack of trying. Kates infertile, unfortunately. We’ve been talking a lot about adoption.”

 
“Ok, everyone,” Danny called. “Headsup looks like we got a visitor,” He watched multiple colored monitors as Benny cautiously checked the door before looking at his tablet. “We got a tall, dark, muscular man with a gun and one of those e-pads.”

  Quin raised his gun. “E-pad?” he said curiously.

  John got ready too. “Electronic pad or notebook,” he said. “You know, like a small handheld computer.”

  “Must be the tablet,” Quin replied. “Try grabbing that. It’s important. It has information I need to get back home.”

  Danny continued to watch as Benny. “He’s entering the building and heading straight for the assembly room.”

  John felt his heart go into overdrive as Benny entered the room, waiting for Quin to make the first move.

  Quin took careful aim and squeezed the trigger.

  Without thinking about it, John joined in also, their guns working like any other rapid-fire machinegun.

  The bullets tore through Benny like a hot knife through butter, several even hitting him in the face just barely missing his brain. Chunks of flesh flew off his body as he bled profusely from the multiple impacts of rounds hitting him.

  Benny fell to play dead.

  John didn’t see the expected spread of metal. “Oh, God,” he whispered. “What did we just do?” he asked looking at Quin. “You said they were Terminators.”

  Quin looked over and stopped John from exposing himself. “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked.

  “Guys, look out!” Danny called, as a plasma bolt narrowly missed John to strike the machinery next to him instead.

  John fell forward next to Quin. “What kind of Terminator is that,” he asked. “I didn’t see any metal, just blood.”

  Quin sat up and immediately blind fired back, forcing Benny to take cover. “Rev-9.i,” he replied. “I told you they were new and different. Only the brain and nervous system are mechanical. Everything else is organic, and it can instantly regenerate from any damage.”

  “Jesus,” John yelled as another burst of plasma bolts missed their target. “Could’ve said something sooner. What are these purple lasers, what's it shooting?”

  Quin continued to fire back.”Plasma bolts. Weapon from my place.”

  John peeked over between the machinery and fired back. “I thought only living tissue could come through.”

  More plasma bolts struck by Quin as he said. “That’s not the case with these guys.”

  Danny watched in awe and said. “Good lord, this guy is a bullet sponge. Be careful, he's moving around to your left.”

  Quin and John quickly scrambled to their right while keeping their weapons trained to their left. “What are these,” Quin asked. “Don’t you have different ammo?”

  “Our version of the ‘Silver bullet’,” John answered. “Similar to a tank’s depleted uranium rounds, but without the radiation. Basically, we’re using 9mm armor-piercing rounds.”

  Quin pressed John into a hiding place as he then hid in a spot opposite his friend. “Should work,” he said. “When I make a move, you take a point-blank shot to his head.”

  John then gave an understanding nod as he focused extra hard to get his breathing under control.

  Benny searched methodically as he walked slowly down the aisle.

  “Ten feet,” Danny called. “Get ready.”

  Benny focused his gun to one side as he moved forward. Ahead were two spots left to check, but he was only focused on one side. He came upon John, hiding between the machinery. “You gotta tell that guy the radio to shut up,” he said, raising his gun. “And allow me to help you with your breathing problem.”

  Quin suddenly grabbed Benny from behind, pulling him and the gun away from John.

  Benny struggled like mad, using the strength in his legs to force Quin back out into the open. Normally, he wouldn’t be able to do such a thing against a regular size T-800, but Quin was smaller and not as massive.

  “John,” Quin cried out. “Hurry, do it!”

  At that urging, John ran out to place his weapon against Benny’s head.

  The moment the gun touched him, Benny used a leg to kick John hard several feet away and brought his foot down to give himself enough forward momentum to lean forward and toss Quin over to the ground in front of him.

  Unhurt and unfazed at all, Quin was ready to get right back up and fight but, found himself looking back at Benny pointing a plasma rifle at him.

  “I thought I heard another radio transmission,” Benny said. “I’ll give you an A+ for holding your breath.”

  Even Quin, a Terminator, flinched at the sound of a gunshot tearing through flesh and metal. Only it wasn’t him on the receiving end. He was a bit surprised to see it was Benny missing a piece of his head.

  Kate stood, revealing her position on the upper level. Her bullet had torn a hole right through Benny’s brain causing irreversible damage as it attempted to heal.

  All Benny could do, however, was erratically move in place while spouting gibberish as a glowing red cloud of circuity that was once his head sparked with failure.

  Quin unhooked the tablet from Benny’s belt to study before looking up at Kate. “Nice shot!” he said, then joined by John.

  Danny stood to run out and join the group, shouting. “Kate, you’re wonderful!”

  Quin was surprised to see the information on the tablet was in English.

  “You got it?” John asked.

  “Yeah,” Quin replied curiously, working the tablet. “I think I can link this up to that machine there.”

  A robotic arm suddenly stopped working on the assembly line and then swung around.

  Kate ran down a flight of stairs and joined the men with Danny walking up to them a short time later.

  Quin handed over the tablet. “Seems simple,” he said. “What do you make of this?”

  Danny took the tablet while marveling at Benny’s nonfunctional body. “Incredible,” he said, then looking at the tablet. “It’ll take a detailed breakdown and analysis to see exactly how this works, but we can run it through our x-ray scanner to get a preliminary look at what's inside.”

  A short time later, Quin carefully placed the tablet on an island table just in front of a computer where Danny, John, and Kate waited.

  The table lit up, with scan lines running across the tablet and information being displayed on the computer.

  “Interesting,” Danny said looking at the screen of a rotating circuit board.

  John took a look. He couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was looking at. “Tell me you know what this is,” he said.

  Danny pointed to several parts of the screen. “It looks like what you’d see in a modern phone. A little denser albeit, but very familiar. It's probably using wireless technology like Bluetooth.”

  Quin held the plasma rifle up. “One down, two to go,” he said. “Danny, you should stay here, secure this stuff. It sounds like his friends can make another tablet, which means we don’t have long if they get desperate.”

  John picked up his gun and said. “Sounds like this night is just getting started.”

  9. SPECTRUM

  John, Quin, and Kate began entering the car when Danny ran out of the building with what was essentially a rocket launcher.

  “Here,” Danny said handing Kate the rocket launcher. “Take it. It’s already loaded with our new Spectrum rocket.”

  “Spectrum?” Quin wondered.

  “Mostly EMP.” John replied.

  Danny nodded and said. “In addition to blowing them to Hell, it’ll release an EMP that should fry their circuits.”

  “Thanks, Danny,” John said, entering the driver’s side.

  Kate loaded the rocket in the car before getting in and driving off with John and Quin.

  “Good luck,” Danny whispered before turning back to head inside.

  Sometime later, “Ok,” Quin said. “Stop right here. Once we get out don’t even whisper and above all else try to stay calm,” he then pointed.
“What we’re looking for is in that building. Kate, you should be able to get a good shot from the roof of that single-story building across it. John, you and I will go in and hopefully catch whoever Kate doesn’t get by surprise. Remember, go for the head.”

  Kate got ready to exit. “Don’t worry,” she said. “My rifle uses an IR laser scope with night vision. They’ll never know what hit them.”

  Quin looked back at the rifle and said. “The Terminators back at my place can’t see that and the specs I have on them don’t mention that.”

  John looked over and realized. “Hold on. What specs,” he asked. “I thought you said these guys were from another reality, new, and different. Why would you have specs and know what little you do know? How did you get involved with them anyway?”

  Quin winced in irritation and explained.”I didn’t want to tell you this, but somehow I merged with a Terminator from my reality and was forced to work with them for a month.”

  John quickly raised his gun at Quin. “I’ve teamed up with a Terminator before, and we did take out one of these guys, but why wouldn’t you tell us this?”

  Quin raised his hands and smiled. “To be honest,” he said. “I didn’t expect to get your trust so easily, and I only have a basic idea of how I merged with this thing but I don’t know the specifics or know how to undo it.”

  Kate raised her pistol to Quin’s head. “What are you then?” she asked.

  “I consider myself a human first,” Quin answered. “I grew up hating Terminators and spent my whole life killing them. Do you think I want to be this way? I want to reverse this. I’d rather be dead than live like one of them. I don’t care how long they last.”

  John looked to Kate and nodded while lowering his gun, causing Kate to do the same. He turned the car off and stepped out, along with the others. He was armed with a machinegun from his workplace, Quin had taken the plasma rifle from Benny, and Kate had a knife, pistol, sniper rifle, and rocket launcher.

  Mouthing the words and using a hand signal, Quin indicated for everyone to move out.

  Kate hurriedly snuck off to find a good spot as John and Quin moved in. Quietly, they got closer and made sure to keep an eye on each other to read hand signals as they moved from cover to cover. Just before entering the warehouse, through a broken door, Quin looked up to see Kate getting into position.