TTSCC Scenes I’d Like To See (Part 3) – John’s Work Camp Escape
I, like many fans of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, have our own ideas of how things sort of work in the TTSCC timeline(s) we’ve been given. Understandably, we have scenes or stories that we’d like to see. Usually, they never happen because we aren’t privy to the creative plans of the creative staff. This doesn’t mean that we are bound to suffer in silence. I’ve been a part of many fandoms going back to the original Star Trek series, and I’ve never known the imaginative fans to keep quiet about what they are thinking. Given the pieces of fanfic I’ve written in the past, I think it’s safe to say that I’m part of that not-keeping-quiet group.
[WARNING: Should staffers connected with TTSCC be reading this, your legal department will probably want you to abandon this blog now (not that I’d know one way or the other). Creative scenes will be outlined or written below. Frankly, I’d don’t care if you see them or not, but I don’t want you to get into trouble if you do. I’ll view it as a happy coincidence that I stumbled upon anything that has popped up in your meetings.]
So, instead of being all dry and texty as usual, I’m going to revert back to the writing form I’m happiest using: the screenplay. Please, don’t expect anything even remotely good…I haven’t written in this form in years, and like anything else it takes practice to maintain one’s skills.
John’s Work Camp Escape
[ratings id=”1911″]
This outing saw me thinking about how the future might change if Cameron survived Judgment Day. After all, she probably has the best chance of all of John’s allies to make it through.
Enjoy the thought exercise.
INT. CENTURY WORK CAMP QUARTERS -- NIGHT JOHN CONNOR, weathered and scarred, lies on a concrete floor with a dozen other prisoners in the austere room. The prisoner closest to him is JASON PARK. JOHN'S EYES open and dart about. He lifts his head. JOHN (quiet) Time, Jase. John and Jason cautiously get up and start moving through the maze of bodies. EXT. CENTURY WORK CAMP -- NIGHT A pair of shadows moves through the sporadically-lit camp, hugging walls and crawling when necessary. EXT. CENTURY WORK CAMP - RUINS -- CONTINUOUS The ruins of some public building: a library or somesuch, has a rat hole of an opening that John and Jason squeeze through. INT. BASEMENT -- CONTINUOUS Rubble dominates the dark interior. Light from outside spills in through random holes. John leads the way down a well-established path to a vertical slab with a deep depression that's been worn away. John picks up a small hyperalloy piston meant for a cyborg finger and scrapes at the depression. Slowly. Quietly. He blows away some dust and hands the tool to Jase who repeats, who then hand off to John who repeats... FADE OUT: EXT. CENTURY WORK CAMP -- AFTERNOON John picks through an exposed 20th century trash heap. Every piece of metal he finds he holds up so that KYLE REESE can scan it with a hand-held device. JOHN We're close. KYLE To? John's eyes dart about to the T-robots and the Hks. JOHN We're close. John keeps working as if nothing is in the planning. INT. BASEMENT -- NIGHT John is again with Jason, scraping at the slab. It's John's turn when ANGLE ON the finger breaks through the thinned concrete. BACK TO SCENE John and Jase look at each other. Neither smiles, though they want to. John finds a well-worn stick and pokes at the hole, quietly enlarging it to about the size of an orange. JOHN (whispers) 'niter. Jason opens a small box (a generous term) and removes a chicklet-size gadget that looks like dung stuck on a piece of glass. John takes it and places it on the lip of the hole. He places the hyperalloy piston like a nail and then strikes it with the stick. GLASS BREAKS SMOKE emerges from the chicklet. After a couple of seconds it flames and John immediately shoves it into the hole and looks inside. JOHN'S POV Like a caryatid crushed under her stone, CAMERON is collapsed under rubble. BACK TO SCENE John flashes an unexpected smile before he composes himself. Moving back from the hole: JOHN (whisper) Head on back. JASON John... JOHN It's good. We found it. Go back. Jason is hesitant, but leaves. When John hears Jason's exit, he grabs a long stick, guides it through the hole, and gives Cameron a few hard pokes. INT. UNDER SLAB -- MOMENTS LATER After a short wait, Cameron's eyes open and flash blue. Both speak in whispers: JOHN (O.S.) Cameron, you need to be quiet. CAMERON John? INTERCUT BASEMENT and UNDER SLAB JOHN It's 2021, Century Work Camp. CAMERON I'm having trouble moving. JOHN You're under a lot of rubble. Could you move it if you didn't have to worry about making noise? CAMERON I don't know. {beat} I can move my left arm. I'm touching the wall you are behind. JOHN Can you use it as leverage? CAMERON Let me test. INT. BASEMENT -- CONTINUOUS Nothing happens. Nothing at all. When suddenly... CAMERON'S HAND pokes through the thinned area of the slab. It makes a little noise, but not a lot. JOHN Can you enlarge the hole? Cameron's arm moves about, quietly clearing away a fairly large hole, big enough for John to see Cameron. JOHN You look like a pretzel. CAMERON I can get out, but not quietly. John ponders for a moment before: JOHN OK. Let's do this... EXT. CENTURY WORK CAMP -- DAY John is using the hand-held scanner. He walks up to Kyle after Kyle holds up some metal. JOHN Be ready for anything. KYLE Right. John goes over to another HUMAN and scans their metal. John goes over to MARTIN BEDELL to scan his metal. JOHN Anytime. Martin nods. EXT. CENTURY WORK CAMP -- NIGHT Establishing INT. UNDER SLAB -- NIGHT Cameron begins to extricate herself from her prison. INT. CENTURY WORK CAMP QUARTERS -- NIGHT John is on the floor, fully awake. Waiting... Waiting... Sound of RUBBLE COLLAPSING loudly courses over the camp. John sits up. EXT. CENTURY WORK CAMP -- NIGHT Lights are shut off as T-models and HKs go on alert. CAMERON uses a piece of rebar to separate a T-model from its plasma rifle... and its head. CAMERON'S POV With infrared on, Cameron goes on her own personal rampage with the plasma rifle, taking down all enemy combatants in range. BACK TO SCENE John and Kyle reunite with Jason and Bedell. JASON What the hell's happening? JOHN My surprise. We have to hurry. Kyle, you're with me. Jase, you're with Martin. Southeast corner and don't look back. Go. The two pairs of humans make a beeline to the SE corner, doing some slight serpentine, but mostly just heading toward their target. TERMINATOR POV (TERMINATOR VISION) An HK's infrared has locked onto one of the pairs. A shot is fired. BACK TO SCENE Jason goes down from the plasma blast. Bedell doesn't even break stride, he runs like the wind, passing John and Kyle. CAMERON sees the situation and fires two rounds at the HK before her rifle dies. Cameron charges. TERMINATOR POV (TERMINATOR VISION) The HK targets both John and Kyle before Cameron's head fills the screen, causes a loss of target lock. BACK TO SCENE Cameron uses her otherwise useless rifle to batter one of the HK's guns. She gets flung off the HK and hits the ground hard. TERMINATOR POV (TERMINATOR VISION) The HK quickly scans Cameron as an unknown cyborg before re-targeting John and Kyle. BACK TO SCENE As the HK's gun moves into position: CAMERON No... Cameron gets to her feet and charges directly into the path of the HK's gun. She reaches its emitter just as it fires. A SMALL NUCLEAR-LIKE EXPLOSION lights the sky as Cameron and the HK are vaporized. John stops, sees the conflagration...emotions crossing his face. KYLE John! John! What are you doing?!? Come ON!! John turns to Kyle. JOHN Go! They follow Bedell's route and get past the Work Camp perimeter.
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