你不知道的Anne

看过小Grace吃大Grace的醋之后，小Dani吃起大Dani的醋啦，这俩个小醋缸太可爱了hhhh

Chapter 2

07-13

7

You throw yourself at her, feeling panic and excitement well up at the same time.

"Are you okay?!"

You're squealing. Your voice is so high that your ears are ringing, but you couldn't care less:

"Grace! Are you okay now? Does the reactor work? How are you feeling?!"

She opens her arms to hold you, and carries you off the roof of the pickup truck.

"Not very good."

She knows you too well, knowing that lying will only make you more worried:

"The energy level is not suitable for a human's body, it's a bit um... too strong."

"Then you gotta learn to control it,"

Sarah finally seems to wrap her head around it. She reaches out and high-fives Grace in the air. After going through hell together, the majority of the hostility between them seems to have dissipated:

"Living is a hard thing to do, but we all need you."

"It's not that hard."

Grace mumbles softly. There are rough stitches on the wound in her abdomen, and you can't tell if it was her own doing or Sarah's.

You buy some sandwiches that are near their expiration date, and fill your Coke with ice at the motel's 24-hour café. You know the road ahead is uncertain, but today is worth celebrating.

8

"What next."

Sarah asks straightforwardly, as if it's a statement rather than a question. You're not sure if she's talking to herself or not. Her hair takes on a silver hue under the stars. She crumples the sandwich wrapper into a ball, and tucks her camouflage pants into the boots.

The biggest problem has been solved: Rev-9 is destroyed, at the cost of Carl's life and Grace's power source.

But it also took away your family and forced you out of your ordinary life - right now you are an illegal immigrant, you've got no passport, no ID, and you can't even stay at a regular hotel. You're running for your life with a cyborg and a woman who's wanted in 50 states. You've got a stolen pick-up and the trunk is full of weapons. And you've just ransacked a military base this afternoon - you feel like a protagonist in a bad-ass sci-fi action movie.

You slowly sip Coke through the straw.

Influenced by traditional norms, your father did not like the idea of you going to college, but that doesn't mean that you are any less intelligent than those who do. You know you are currently useless, but according to Carl's calculation, the human race has a 70% chance of destroying itself. And Grace from the future told you that human's Judgement Day will come sooner than you think.

"I know it's going to be difficult, but,"

You set down the Coke, a sign that you're done eating:

"We're going to stop it from happening."

"How?"

Sarah is almost sniggering:

"We are nobodies. I spent my entire life trying to explain to people the link between AI and the Judgement Day. And look at what I get in the end, arrest warrants in 50 states and diagnoses from mental institutes. We are so weak without the T-800, and I can't even figure out where the Terminators are going to appear. "

"But Major Dean believes in you,"

You say, "His trust is definitely not purely based on what you have said. He knows something's happening."

Sarah stays silent, she agrees with your conclusion. Grace doesn't interrupt, it seems she's still trying to tame the energy in her body.

9

"It's safe to assume that the government in this country - and all other countries - must have some confidential information on Artificial Intelligence and Legion."

This is something you've been contemplating:

"They must've discovered something, or have a clear understanding of what Artificial Intelligence is capable of, that must be why they green-lit Major Dean to assist us off the record."

"But they won't necessarily grant us access."

Sarah says:

"They're the government, an institution, even if they did find something, they don't have to share that information with us."

"In the past, maybe they don't,"

You glance at Grace, nodding. She's listening to the conversation, while picking up your cup to finish the rest of the Coke, using the straw you've sipped from. You feel your heart racing slightly - this is not the first time Grace ate your leftovers. She came from a post-apocalyptic world and has a very reverent attitude towards food. You didn't pay much attention to it before, but this time you have to force yourself to look away from this potentially misleading little gesture:

"But now, they have to let us in. We need to understand AI's development process and strangle Legion in the crib if necessary.”

"How?"

Sarah raises her eyebrows,this is the second time she's asked this tonight. That's pretty rare.

"We have the strongest cyborg of this time. She's even stronger than most early-series Terminators."

You say with a light voice:

"We're going to create some chaos that the government can't contain, the bigger the better. They'll come to us before we incite panic among the general public."

Sarah lifts her head and exhales softly - you know she's persuaded.

Grace throws the cup with nothing but ice left into a trashcan ten meters away:

"Told you, she's Dani."

She says to Sarah, her eyes filled with pride.

Your cheeks are getting a little warm.

10

In order to save some money, of course you need to save money, the three of you only rent one room. The owner of the motel is a middle-aged man in his forties. After you have paid for the room, he blinks his eyes and asks to see your IDs.

Sarah slides him a twenty, but he doesn't take it, insisting on IDs from all of you - especially you. So Grace pulls out her gun and takes care of this awkward situation.

You blink innocently behind them.

You have to get used to this, you tell yourself. 19 years of normal life have gone out of the window. You robbed a pharmacy, ransacked a military base, so threatening a motel owner is nothing, relatively speaking - although you can't do it as well as Sarah or Grace.

There's only one twin-sized bed in the room, and you and Grace decide to give it to Sarah. You pull off some bedsheets and lay them on the floor, using the cushions from the sofa as pillows, and Grace lays two bath towels over you.

Her thoughtfulness and consideration always comes across as second nature, as if she's done it a thousand times. You lie down facing her. The floor is a little damp, but the towels are thick enough that you don't feel cold.

You are exhausted after a long day. You thought you would fall asleep once your head hits the pillow, but in reality, your eyes remain open without a hint of tiredness.

11

Grace doesn't fall asleep either.

She was in a coma for an extended period of time, so she is full of energy right now. It seems like she is gradually adapting to the new power source in her body. She wiggles her fingers restlessly, stretching her muscles, and rotating her joints at a speed almost imperceptible to your naked eyes.

"Hey." You gently callout to her: "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah," she whispers to you:

"It'll probably take another three to five days for me to fully adjust. I don't know how I'll do during those hyperfunctional bursts, but I don't think I'll be a problem."

"I'm really sorry."

You whisper, you still haven't overcome your own guilt.

"I thought I said It's okay,"

She glances at you:

"Was I already out of power at that time, so maybe I didn't actually say it?"

You look at her blue eyes and stay silent.

"Look, don't ever do this again."

Grace says:

"You're just a regular 19 year-old girl, breaking into a military base and taking a nuclear reactor with no protection whatsoever. If I were there, I would have never let you do that.

"You know you're just wasting your time trying to lecture me,"

You whisper:

"No one can stop me from saving you."

Grace freezes, she looks at you, her eyes flickering.

"You know Dani very well,"

You say, although this name coming out of your mouth sounds a bit weird:

"Tell me about her."

12

Grace tells you a lot about what Dani taught her, from fighting as a soldier to having a life. She knows every little thing about you, all your habits and quirks - she even says you hate basil, and you didn't even know that yourself.

Grace's eyes are soft, looking completely relaxed, which is so different from the Grace you've seen during battle.

You don't pay much attention to what she's talking about. Instead, you stare at her profile, and you notice that her nose is perfectly pointed and elegant, her blonde hair is messy on her forehead, and her lips are full and rosy.

You have no interest in your future self, but you don't want to interrupt her.

Her voice is low, it sounds like waves crashing against a cliff, and you are wrapped up in them.

"So," you're getting a little sleepy:

"You and her, I mean... between the two of you..."

Grace turns her head to look at you. She didn't seem to understand what you are asking.

"Nevermind," you let out a gentle sigh. "It's nothing."

You don't really know what you were trying to ask anyway. Listening to the story of Grace and the future you, you feel like a complete outsider.

You envy the bond between the two of them.

"You are her, and you will do better than her."

Grace comforts you.

But that's not what you want to hear.