Canceled Programs Never Die, and They Will Not Fade Away
By
C. J. Miller
A Little Reminder from the Prey For Us Campaign
The strong diagonal line of the rock outcrop cuts a wedge through the stars, blocking the far off glow of the city. It is a dramatic location and has been the scene of many great television moments, but it's quiet tonight. No TV crews, no actors, nothing but a breeze and dust and the quiet sounds of the desert. There is no reason for anyone to be out here tonight.
No reason at all, except that it is Halloween.
A dust devil spins up in the shelter of the rocks, it solidifies and a moment later there is the shape of a man crouched there. In front of him a small fire glows. He is wearing only a loose pair of pants. He is huddled, shoulders hunched and his elbows on his knees, staring into the fire. There is no heat, no crackle of flame, only flickering light
From around the back of the rock a woman comes walking. She is slim with fiery red hair and large eyes that seem to glow in the firelight.
"Tom?" She calls.
"Here, Sloan." He answers without turning his head from the fire.
She walks over to him, crouches down beside him and gently runs her fingers through his short brown hair.
"How are you feeling?" She asks.
He looks at her now, pulling his eyes away from the fire.
"I'll be fine," he answers.
He is sweating and shaking slightly as if from a fever. "It's hard right now. I'm stuck like this until they start playing the series again. But I'll be fine. Scifi still has the option on us, and the rumor is that they'll run one through thirteen again next year."
"It's still playing on Sky One over in the UK." Sloan said hopefully. "And they're supposed to start running it over in Austria soon. Doesn't that help?"
"Yeah." He smiles and reaches out to take her hand. Gripping it tightly he closes his eyes, concentrates, and stands. Sloan helps him up and as he moves reality shifts around his body and a full suit and tie have replaced the pants he had on only a moment before. "Besides," he continues. "It's Halloween. We're a lot more powerful tonight."
Sloan smiles, "We'll make it, Tom. I know we will!"
"Everybody's been waiting for you two to make it since the first episode and you haven't yet!" A teasing voice comes out of the darkness and Sloan looks up to see a long lanky shadow stretched out on the outcrop above them. As she watches it becomes more solid. .
"Hey!" She returns the jibe without hesitation, "I never get on your case about the blond bimbo flipping burgers, Ed!"
"Three minutes in the first episode, and she'll never let me forget it!" Ed groans. He jumps lightly down from the outcropping to stand on the other side of Sloan. He looks Tom up and down and says, "Back to Secret Agent Man for you, huh?"
"I prefer it to the cage." Tom comments dryly.
"Oh. Yeah. Sorry." Ed rubs his face hard and stretches as if he has a crick in his back. "It's just that... well... you know how I get at the beginning of a run. You two making eyes at each other and me tryin' to get Sloan to look at me...."
"I know, Ed." Sloan nods understandingly and pats his arm. "I don't mean to hurt you."
"It's not like we planned it, Ed." Tom adds. "It was the writers that wanted the sexual tension."
"I know. I just wish it could get clearly resolved, you know? I mean, I realize that it isn't as big a deal as Tom getting out of the cage, but I'd like to get over this jonesing for Sloan stuff." Ed chuckled and added, "I'd even just like to know whether I wake up from whatever trank it was they nailed me with in Episode 13." He looks at Tom, grins and adds, "Evolution sucks, y'know?"
"So I've heard." The other man grins back.
"Of course, without it we would still be back in the stone age," A velvety, cultured voice drifts in from the left and where there had been nothing, there very suddenly was a someone. "Lumbering around with thick over hanging foreheads, scavenging the kills of larger predators and surviving mainly off the nuts and berries we gathered. Not an attractive lifestyle."
"Lewis!" Tom spins around and moves protectively between Sloan and this new figure. Sloan says nothing, just trembles and stares at Lewis.
His silver hair and blue eyes shine in the firelight and he chuckles softly. "Come, Tom, You can't have all your friends with you and not have me. Besides," He pauses and runs a finger over his lips. "I am looking forward to having Dr. Parker as my house guest again."
Tom made a low growling noise and took a step towards Lewis, but Sloan grabs his arm. "No, Tom. He's right. He has to be here."
Tom turns back and looks down at her with concern regret and anger warring in his face. "But what he'll force me to do..."
"Is nothing in the end. You're stronger than that." Sloan says looking into his eyes.
Now it is Lewis' turn to growl.
"Sore loser, Lewis?"Comes another new voice from over towards the road.
"Anything I can do to make it worse for you?" A deeper, gravely voice follows on immediately. Two men appear walking towards the group.
"Walter! Ray!" Sloan runs to them and throws her arms around Ray for a hug and then hugs Walter as well, after some hesitation.
"It's good to see you both." Tom says.
"I guess we're just about all here now..." Ed starts.
"The question is, why?" Lewis breaks in. "Why have you called us here, Tom. What exactly do you want?"
"What we've always wanted." Tom answers, "Closure."
"Do you have a plan?" Asks Walter.
Tom nods. "We need to be heard. Noticed." He says rubbing his hands together pensively. His gaze moves back to the fire. "There are people out there who can help us. Fans around the world, decision-makers at the Scifi channel and Warner Bothers. If we can just make them see that we're still a vital story, a story with places to go, that can attract an audience."
"That's a plan?" Lewis says and snorts in derision. "Go to the Humans and beg for help? How typical of what you finally become in this story, Tom."
"And what would you do, Lewis? Kill everyone?" Sloan asks. "Who'll be left to watch the show?"
Tom and Ed move closer to Sloan. Even knowing that in their current forms, Lewis can do nothing to Sloan, his menace inspires caution.
"I do remember an interesting suggestion from some of your Human friends on the Internet. Something about collecting keys-" Lewis said.
"Yes, the Key Campaign has been quite successful - " Walter starts but Lewis cuts him off.
"... and dropping a ton of them on the Scifi Channel's parking garage." Lewis grins. "That was a plan."
"No, Lewis," Ed says in with weary shake of his head. "That was a joke." The tall doctor glances at Sloan and sighs. "I thought you said the new species had a sense of humor?"
"What none of you seem have," a woman's icy voice cuts through the night. "Is a clear picture of the situation."
Silently a limousine has materialized a few yards in front of the fire and a woman in a perfectly tailored suit is getting out. She shuts the door without so much as a click being heard and walks towards the group slowly.
"You weren't invited." Sloan says in hard voice.
"Sloan..." Tom cautions her.
"No," Sloan continues. "She's the one that took you, I'm sure of it! I saw her outside the apartment building. I know who's responsible for my losing you!"
"I see you managed to walk back to town." Walter says mildly.
"I want my phone back, Walter." She tells him, and then turns to Sloan and Tom. "Maybe I am responsible. Maybe not. You'll never know. Because this story will never be completed. It's a dead issue. We should let it go."
"Afraid you'll be exposed for what you are?" Tom asks. "A small minded racist with too much money to play with? Afraid your political backing will die when they learn you're conducting experiments on another sentient species?"
She chuckles. "Empty threats, Tom. I've already won. You're out of the picture. You'll stay in that cage forever. No one is coming to your rescue. No one is getting you out. Face it. Give up now."
"Never." Tom answered. "We'll fight for our survival. Fight for closure of our story. A sequel, a book series, a resurrection of the TV series. Something. I'll get out of the cage and back to Sloan. We'll get there eventually."
The breeze begins to pick up. The woman's perfect hair is disturbed.
"We won't give up!" Sloan added. "We'll haunt syndication! We'll keep attracting new fans!"
The breeze has built into a strong wind and dust is flying. None of the figures around the fire is disturbed, but the woman from the limo has to shield her eyes and keep one hand on her skirt.
"One day, you'll turn around and find yourself walking down that road again." Walter says.
"And we'll find out what's on that phone." Ray adds.
The woman's shape trembles in the wind. She starts to lose cohesion, to stretch on the wind.
"And I'll escape." Lewis' soft voice carries over the howl of the wind. "I'll find you, and you'll pay."
The wind shrieks and the woman's form holds for one more moment, then she's gone. The wind dies and quiet returns to the desert.
"We'd better go." Walter says. "It's almost midnight and we have a lot of work to do."
First Lewis, then Walter and Ray fade into the darkness. Ed goes, after giving Sloan a quick kiss and clapping Tom on the shoulder. Sloan and Tom take a moment longer. A look. A kiss. And she is gone.
Finally, there is only Tom and the fire. He sinks back to his knees, the suit dissolves. Once again he is dressed in only a pair of pants. He is shivering. The fever is worse.
Then the wind picks up again, and a cloud of dust blows by. When it clears it is dark and there is no one under the shelter of the rock.
But still we feel them.
They possess us as we type at the keyboard, as we slip postcards and keys and letters into the mail.
Stories left on a cliffhanger don't die easily, and characters we care about can haunt us for years.
From all of us at
The Prey For Us Campaign