(MAIN RANGE): Time Enough At Last
(MAIN RANGE): Time Enough At Last
Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead as The "Cadence" Doctor
It was a while ago that Cam Ashford had moved to America, and he was mostly fine with it. Of course, there was the outsider aspect of anything that had the ability to annoy...if you felt disconnected from anywhere you were sad. But Cam Ashford wasn't sad. He was happy with the world, although it did not always suit him.
The year was 1962, and the world felt peaceful to Cam.
Until he saw the strange man in his apartment.
* * *
His apartment was cheap and quite lived in indeed. The walls were thin, but he had made up for this by covering them with bookshelves. This thickened them immensely, but he had the problem of not knowing what to put in the bookshelves, for he did not care to buy more books.
He as such, made a decorative game of it. Each day, he would find the most appealing thing he could, and place one thing on the shelf. Sometimes it wasn't good at all, say a crumpled up newspaper, and sometimes it was a gorgeous shard of glass that he had found on the road. People laughed at him and called him a Garbage Collector, but everything meant something to him.
The Man in his apartment was not there, previously, and when he saw the man he felt a deep urge within his bones to look away.
The man sat in his rickedy rocking chair at times, or he stood by the door like some deformed hat-stand.
He was always standing there, palm placed in palm in a relaxed position, the rest of him standing upright like a bolt, with a sharp suit and a thin black hairline.
No one else could see him.
Cam Ashford had long ago decided not to mention it. It was the kind of thing mad people mentioned - and he most certainly was not mad. He just had an aesthetic.
The Man was always standing or sitting ominously out of reach, and if you dared to come close to him and try and touch him, your hand would wave through his body like air - and where you touched him would glow like the static on his television.
The Man would disappear and move if you reached through him repeatedly, but if you did so once or twice to grab something he wouldn't mind. If it was purposefully directed towards him he tended to move elsewhere.
The fact that the man was there in itself was more scary than the man was. The man did not intimidate - he felt like an everyman. A showman.
As said, the man had been there for a week or two before he spoke for the first time, voice laced with static. He spoke stiltedly, and sharply. It was a voice that you heard from entertainers, but in your own life - felt strange and out of touch.
"Campbell Ashford. Eccentric. Everyman. The kind of fellow you meet upon the street every day without realization. An immigrant from Europe, and a newly minted proud American. Little does he know of the future that is to come for him. A unique, frightening future. Brought to him by a plane of existence darker than thought and further from humanity than the stars in the night sky. Brought to him...By the Twilight Zone!"
* * *
Cam did not know what to think of the man now, other than he felt that he spoke the truth. He did not like how he knew so much about him - although he had been with the man day in and day out whenever he was at his apartment - so really...the man had been with him for every day for the past two weeks. The more he thought about it, the more it concerned him. He had felt not allowed to notice. The man was practically invisible, he was so useless, and Cam had chalked it off to an enduring hallucination. The Man did not disrupt him at all. Unless he tried to pay a good deal of attention to him - and then Cam's head went all fuzzy and soft and by the time he walked off for a drink of water, the man was somewhere else. Out of sight, and Out of Mind.
* * *
Weeks came by and went. Cam proceeded through his life. The Man appeared less and less, but when he did, he looked more solid. After a long day of work, Cam turned on the television.
A strange vortex appeared before him.
"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. A Dimension as Vast as Space, and Timeless as Infinity. The Middle Ground between Light and Shadow. Between Science and Superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone."
Cam stared, his mouth agape. "What the Hell?..."
* * *
Cam thought deeply about the show from then on. He felt concerned, watching episodes whenever they came on. He never missed one. The narrator was what got him. That's what he had. A Narrator. Rod Serling, the narrator for the show, Rod Serling was in his apartment, sitting there, and he was narrating his life -
He was just at the start of it - he'd only seemed to have done that vague opening monologue - but what would Cam be facing? What kind of unique frightening future did that refer to?
"Campbell's mind is racing. What could the strange narrator be telling him? What could his future be? The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions, but will Campbell Ashton walk it? Find out after the break... on the Twilight Zone!!"
* * *
Cam had to leave his apartment. Whatever the narrator was saying, he didn't like it - he couldn't tolerate it anymore.
He rushed out of the building and as he moved out onto the street, he suddenly saw a woman.
"Oh, hello." The woman said. She was dressed oddly - like a magician with mechanic's goggles and blazing blue hair. "I'm the Doctor. I'm trying to find a psychic worm."
"I'm sorry, lady, I really don't have any time for insects." Cam rambled, rushing out into the street.
"Whatever Campbell is trying to do, he cannot escape the omnipresent narrator that is plaguing him! Will the Madness overtake him? What is the Narrator trying to do? For no matter how he weaves in and out of the bustling traffic of New York City, Campbell Ashton cannot escape the incessant narration of Rod Serling, slow and monotonous, almost like William Shatner took over on a day off!"
"OH MY GOD, STOP IT!" Campbell screamed.
"Huh?" The Doctor said, hearing the yelling in the distance. She turned and followed after Campbell.
* * *
"Campbell Ashton's Day cannot be any worse! For as he tries to escape the inspid tones of the mighty Rod Serling, he crashes into a car!"
Cam fell backwards onto the sidewalk. He had slammed straight into the car's hood when he wasn't looking.
"If only Campbell had made a wrong turn, his miserable pathetic life would be at an end on this dimension of space and sound, this conveyance of the speed of thought that represents the height of humanity and the lows it shall falter to!"
Cam got up from the dirt. "What do you want from me!?!?" He screamed at the Narrator, to the confused gasps of the nearby crowd.
"Imagine an alien made of thought itself, embedding itself into a miserable human's mind to escaepe it's Savage Peers. Forced to find a connection to appear as, only to be disrupted by the radio and television waves criss-crossing the Earth's surface! Imagine an alien forced to appear as a communique itself, a form of entertainment, Something that for the love of god cannot use a short word when a long one will do! Imagine that, this week, on the Twilight Zone!"
The Doctor raised her sonic screwdriver. "Sorry." She said. "Show's cancelled."
* * *
"What was that supposed to be?" Cam muttered.
"Sorry." The Doctor said, removing alien residue from Cam's ear and placing it in a jar. "Hi, I'm Cadence. I mean, The Doctor. I'm the Doctor. Illithica and Miaki and I have been tracking down this psychic worm for ages. You've saved me quite a lot of help, Mister."
"I'm still confused - that was - an alien??"
"Don't go telling anyone. It'll be our little secret. Sorry. I must dash. There's this bit of a thing. Well, two things. Well, two things and Miaki in drag. I hope to see you again sometime, Campbell Ashton."
"Wait, What?! Who are you! How do You know my name!"
* * *
And as Campbell blubbered nonsensically, The Doctor returned to her adventure, carrying the jar containing the most brilliant psychic worm ever to be known! Little did Campbell know of how important his future was to be, soon to be published as a major author in an anthology magazine, and onto famous television series, and one of the Doctor's personal favorite authors! And as the Doctor completed her adventure, she and her friends entered the TARDIS, dematerializing onto places unknown, into Dimensions as Vast as Space, and Timeless as Infinity. Into the extraordinary new universe. Into... The Twilight Zone.
The End
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