6 Chapter 6: Hope for Freedom

"I'm Serena. Serena Burns. Pleased to meet you."

"You can call me Kayden. Although I would like to hear about how you came to be locked in your special cell, I think we should leave that talk until we have successfully escaped from here." Kayden said as he shook Serena's extended hand.

Just then another massive explosion shook the room tremendously.

"You are right. We should leave that for now." Serena said with a frightened expression.

"Some prisoners are waiting for me just outside by the door of this building. They will be accompanying me to escape from this facility. You can join us if you want. Strength in numbers and all that." Kayden said, before walking towards the door of the building with Serena following close behind.

Serena seemed to consider Kayden's invitation for a few seconds while she increased her pace in order to walk beside Kayden.

She soon nodded. "Okay, I will join your group. I think it will be better and safer for me to go with your group instead of trying to escape on my own."

Looking like she had not yet come down from all the excitement she was feeling from having escaped from imprisonment, Serena continued, "Phew! For a second there, I had thought I was going to die! Thankfully, even though I could only hear very faint words, I heard bits of what you said to the prisoners outside, enough to put two and two together and realize that you were trying to free the other captives. Afraid for my life, and having not heard any of the usual warnings from the Terminators that usually kept guard outside my cell, I started pounding on my cell door, hoping that someone outside would hear it and come help me. After pounding for more than ten minutes and not getting any response from anybody outside, with the sounds coming in from outside slowly diminishing, I was about to lose any hope that anybody would hear me. Thankfully, you finally did hear me, and even came and broke me out of my cell. For that, I'm very grateful. Thank you again."

Serena's words were released in quick succession as she chattered on as they walked to the door, not allowing Kayden to get in a word and barely even pausing to take in short breaths. Still Kayden did not have any complaints; she had a pleasant-sounding voice and Kayden had to admit that he was a little smitten with her.

".... They kept me locked up in here for almost a year now. Ah, it still annoys me! Fucking metal!" She pulled at her ponytail, looking like her just remembering her year-long imprisonment was making her angry.

Serena took a few deep breaths and seemed to calm herself down.

"I will have to check up on my comrades in the Resistance. I hope that they are alright. It's been so long since I was captured on that godforsaken mission; I hope they haven't forgotten me yet." Serena chuckled after she had spoken her ending sentence.

Kayden had been walking to the door while thinking about how to safely escape from the facility. He had not paid much attention to Serena's chattering — he had just been enjoying listening to her pleasant-sounding voice.

But just then, something Serena had said struck him and pulled him out of his thoughts.

'The Resistance? Aren't those the group of humans who are fighting against Skynet?' Kayden thought.

When Kayden heard Serena mention the Resistance, a piece of memory floated up in his mind.

This memory was part of the memories that Skynet had not erased from his mind.

He had instantly recognized the name, 'The Resistance', and he also knew that the Resistance were a group of human fighters who fought on the side humanity against Skynet's forces — just some general knowledge and other stuff like that.

Besides the general stuff, he could not remember any member of the Resistance or whether he had ever had any sort contact with the Resistance. But, judging from what he could remember, this 'Resistance' must not like Skynet very much as they seem to be in conflict with it.

Judging from what he remembered, Kayden thought that although he did not know much about the Resistance and their mode of operation, it may be beneficial for him to learn more about the Resistance and maybe even get in contact with them in the future.

As he and the Resistance seem to have the same enemy in Skynet, they should be able to find ways to work with each other to some extent for their mutual benefit.

'The enemy of my enemy' and all that, right?

So, Kayden turned to Serena who was happily chattering while walking beside him and suddenly grabbed her hand in his haste to ask her about the Resistance, shocking her as a result and also ending her chattering.

"Wait, Serena! Hold up! Can you repeat what you just said?"

Frowning, Serena replied. "I said that I hope that my friends have not forgotten about me."

"No, not that. I meant the part about you being in the Resistance."

"Oh. Yes, I was in the Human Resistance. Did I not tell you about that?"

"No, you did not. "

"Oh, sorry." Serena apologized. Then she continued, "Allow me introduce myself properly. I am Serena Burns, Rodriguez's Rangers, Number 17-A440, and a proud soldier of the Human Resistance."

Hoping to get some new information about the Resistance from Serena to add to his existing knowledge about the Resistance, Kayden asked, "First of all, can you explain to me what this 'Human Resistance' is, and what it is exactly that they do."

"What? You don't know about the Resistance? What rock have you been hiding under?" Serena asked, looking surprised by Kayden's question — like she had not expected to find a human who did not know about the Resistance.

Not wanting Serena to become too suspicious of him and his strange circumstances, Kayden quickly thought up some excuses.

Kayden quickly explained, "I obviously have some knowledge about the Resistance, but it's too little. Just a few bits and pieces of information that I had learnt from other survivors who my survivor group and I had encountered before I was captured and imprisoned by the machines."

He then continued, "I know that the Resistance is made up of humans who oppose Skynet. And that's about all I know. Still, I have always admired the bravery and courage of the men and women of the Human Resistance, and since you are the first actual person that I have met who is part of the Resistance, I am a bit curious to learn more about the Resistance from you."

Having heard Kayden's explanation, Serena stood straight upright, chest thrust out in front of Kayden — Uh… bad Kayden, look forward, not downward — obviously looking like she felt some pride in her status as a part of the Resistance, and she said, "I understand. It's perfectly normal to be curious about the Resistance. We are the bastion of hope of humanity and the last defense against humanity's extermination at the hands of the machines. Listen to me as I explain about the glorious Human Resistance to you."

Kayden's mouth twitched repeatedly as he tried to hold in his laughter as he looked at the antics of prideful Serena who was excessively praising the Resistance in a pompous tone. Still, he did not say anything and allowed her to continue with her 'explanation'.

Serena continued her explanation in that 'teacher explaining to her student' tone. She pointed at the badge — it had a symbol on it which looks like a drawing of a red-colored DNA fragment — on her the left sleeve of her black uniform and said, "This is the badge of a Resistance fighter. The Resistance fighters, under the leadership of our great leader John Connor, have fought against Skynet's machine army for many years, and have saved the lives of many human survivors. I was a low-rank soldier in the Resistance and was sent on a recon mission, when I was ambushed and then captured by Skynet's forces. I have been imprisoned here ever since."

Serena had a sad expression on her face when she spoke about how she was captured. She had also paused in her explanation and was walking in silence beside Kayden. Kayden assumed that she was reminiscing and thinking about her experiences when she was captured.

At this point, Kayden and Serena reached the door of the building and Kayden could see the Nadiya and the others who were still waiting outside and would, from time to time, peek into the building anxiously to check whether Kayden was coming out.

When Kayden finally walked out of the prison building with Serena, he saw that the relieved looks on the faces of the members of Nadiya's group and realized that they must have peeked into the building and seen him coming out of the building with Serena.

The members of Nadiya's group looked at Serena with curiosity, obviously surprised that Kayden had found another person in the building which everybody had thought was already empty of prisoners. Kayden also noticed that the older males in the group would frequently glance at Serena before quickly looking away, even though they would soon take another look at her. It seemed like he was not the only one affected by her beauty.

"This is Serena Burns. She was also imprisoned like all of you. The only difference was that she was imprisoned in another part of the building so we all didn't notice her presence earlier on. She will be coming with us to escape."

Kayden introduced Serena to the group of former prisoners.

"Hello everyone, little cuties! You can just call me Serena. I am a member of the Resistance, so don't worry. Kayden and I will help you safely escape from here."

The presence of new people seemed have broken Serena out of her sadness. She waved at the group while smiling and introduced herself.

When group of survivors heard what Serena said, the kids among them did not show any reaction, but the older teens and the adults among the group show facial expressions of shock or happiness.

Nadiya then asked, "Miss Serena is member of the Resistance? Has the Resistance come to rescue us?"

Smiling, Serena answered, "Yes, the Resistance is here."

"What?!" Kayden said in shock.

Kayden who was confused about how Serena knew that the Resistance was here. Skynet had called this place its core facility, so this facility should be its headquarters which should be well defended by Skynet's most powerful forces with powerful and destructive weapons. Resistance fighters shouldn't normally be found anywhere close this facility, and Serena who had been imprisoned here for so long should not have knowledge about recent Resistance activities. Still, Serena seemed so sure about her assumption.

"Serena, all of us, including you, were imprisoned here all this while with no contact to the outside world. So, why do you sound so sure that the Resistance are here to save us prisoners?" Kayden asked.

Wanting Serena to explain why she seemed so sure that the Resistance had come here, Kayden asked the question. At the same time, he conveniently including himself among the prisoners, hoping to make Serena see him as one of the normal human prisoners.

Serena answered, "Everyone can feel the repeating shaking and trembling of this building caused by explosions. All of you must have already heard the sounds of explosions, and other sounds of armed fighting coming in from outside. A fierce battle must currently ongoing outside. And unless Skynet has become so bored that it had pit parts of its forces against each other to battle till death for its entertainment, only one force is powerful and brave enough to attack Skynet's facilities. So, although I don't know the reason why the Resistance would attack this particular Skynet facility, I am pretty sure that it's the Resistance attacking outside right now. They are the only ones who have the balls to do that."

Speaking to this point, Serena paused. She then looked around at the survivors who had been hanging on to her every word, the hope of them successfully escaping burning in their eyes.

And so, with a widening smile, Serena said, "The Human Resistance is fighting outside. All of us here are humans; therefore, as long as we are able to meet up with the Resistance, we will all be saved."