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.