Terminator Salvation: Trial by Fire Read Online Free PDF

faced into the bitter iciness of Barnes’s gaze. Then, he exhaled quietly, and the moment had passed.
    “I’ll be sleeping on the right-hand side of the chopper,” he said gruffly. “Shoot anything that comes near that isn’t me.” Turning, he stalked back toward the distant Blackhawk.
    “Right,” Blair called a bit timidly after him. “I’ll take the first watch, then?”
    Barnes didn’t bother to reply.
    Blair gave the new grave a final look. Then she set off after him.
    She had the first watch, all right. And given that it would be her job to wake him up for his turn, chances were very good that she was going to have the only watch.
    She sighed. It was shaping up to be a long, lonely, chilly night.
    Jik had just settled for the night into his chosen tree when he heard the faint whining sound in the distance.

CHAPTER FIVE
    He froze, his ears straining, his eyes trying to pierce the canopy of branches and leaves above him to the glimpses of starry night sky beyond. The sound was growing louder, and for a minute he wondered if it might be a Resistance jet or helo heading across the mountains on some mission.
    But no. As the noise grew louder, it resolved itself into the distinctive hum of Hunter-Killer turbofans.
    He bared his teeth in a scowl, his hands pressed against the rough tree bark. During the long walk from Los Angeles he’d spent his nights off the ground whenever he could, both as a defense against predators and also because he hated the sensation of ants and other ground insects crawling over him.
    But he was only safe from ground-based dangers like wolves and coyotes. Against flying threats like H-Ks, setting himself above the bushes and other ground cover was not only useless but decidedly counterproductive.
    He peered beneath him, trying to recall the details of the terrain. There was a large section of dead log about ten meters away, he remembered, surrounded by a group of thorn bushes. If the log was hollow, he might be able to squeeze himself inside. Surely the infrared signature of a man inside a log would be significantly different from that of a human out in the open?
    But did he dare risk the movement required to climb down the tree? And once he was down, what about the coyotes and wolves he’d heard prowling around earlier?
    The H-K was getting closer. Abruptly, Jik made up his mind. The leaf canopy was no defense if the H-K was hunting humans tonight, and wolves he would at least have a fighting chance against. Better to go with the log.
    He was adjusting his grip on the branches around him, preparing to swing out of his perch, when a new sound came to him across the breeze. Like the H-K’s engines, this one was instantly recognizable: the heavy, steady cadence of large metallic feet.
    The H-K wasn’t alone. It had brought some Terminators with it.
    Jik froze, the bitter irony of it drying his throat. All the way from Los Angeles... and now, with Baker’s Hollow practically in sight, the Terminators had finally caught up with him.
    And pinned between earth and sky, with nowhere to go and no time to get there anyway, Jik literally had no other option but to trust in luck to get him through the next few minutes. Tucking his arms against his chest, he pressed up against the tree bole and tried to look as much like a bear as he could.
    The footsteps swishing through the leaves and thudding against the ground grew louder, and a minute later he caught a glimpse of glowing red eyes through the vegetation to the south, heading northeastward more or less parallel to Jik’s own route. A glint of starlight on dark metal showed that it was a T-700, not one of the rubber-skinned T-600s. A few meters behind it was a second T-700, which was followed by a third and then a fourth. All of them walking in the same path, Jik noted, probably to disguise their numbers should anyone happen across their trail.
    He tensed, waiting for the moment when they spotted him and turned to the kill. But they didn’t.