Terminator: Trial By Fire by Zahn Timothy

Author:Zahn, Timothy [Timothy, Zahn,]
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan Books
Published: 2011-04-30T19:43:02+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

For Kyle, the first hour was the hardest.

It wasn’t just the darkness. Darkness was a familiar part of the post-Judgment Day world, and like everyone else he’d learned how to adapt and adjust. Not knowing where they were going, or even if the passageway beneath the Terminators’ tunnel would lead anywhere at all, was also not a big deal. Uncertainty was as much a part of life as darkness.

What set Kyle’s skin crawling was the periodic rhythmic thumping overhead as the lines of T-700s first marched to the face of the excavation to collect rubble, then headed back again with their fresh burdens to wherever they had found to dump them.

Those were the hard moments. Because those were the moments when a careless move on Kyle’s or Callahan’s or Zac’s part—a slip of a foot, an accidental dislodging of one of the jagged pieces of concrete or metal they were crawling over—would alert the Terminators to the human intruders.

And once the machines knew where they were, they would be dead. All of them.

Just like Yarrow.

Kyle thought a lot about Yarrow as they traveled. He thought some about the man’s last big mistake, the mistake that had trapped Kyle and the others down here.

But everyone made mistakes. Mostly, what Kyle thought about was the way Yarrow had done what he could to atone for his error by sending the others to safety.

He also found himself wondering how exactly Yarrow had died.

Kyle hadn’t heard any sounds as the T-700s had reached him. Maybe Yarrow hadn’t had time, or maybe the rolling echo of his last gunshots had covered up whatever screams or moans of agony he’d made before the end. Kyle hoped it had been quick, that the Terminators had simply broken his neck or hammer-crushed his chest or done something that would let their victim die quickly.

But all he actually knew was that the death had involved blood. A lot of blood.

He also knew that if the Terminators found him, he would probably die in very much the same way.

It wasn’t Kyle’s own death that worried him. He’d learned long ago not to focus on that, because it did nothing but freeze his will and paralyze any chance of thinking his way out of a bad situation.

But all the mental discipline in the world couldn’t stop him from worrying about Star.

What would happen to her if he died down here?

It was a question that had forced itself on him many, many times. At the moment, settled as she was into John Connor’s Resistance force, her chances of survival were better than at most of the times in their past together. Certainly better than any place she’d been since they left the Moldering Lost Ashes building.

But things changed. People changed. Connor might be taking a personal interest in the two of them now, though why he would even care about a couple of inexperienced kids Kyle couldn’t guess.

But the Resistance leader had a million other things clamoring for his attention. Sooner or later, he would forget about them.

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