From: amartin10@juno.com (Ann M Martin)

NEXT LIFE CHALLENGE
Title: Hard Day's Night III by Ann Martin PREQUEL
Spoilers: Current US (season four)
Content: Pendrell/Scully R (Pendrell crush); Pendrell Puppy Angst/Pain
Summary: Prequel to Hard Day's Night I & II. We find out how Pendrell
came to be in power and what happened to the rest of civilization.
Disclaimer: If I owned this, I would be Chris Carter and as you can
plainly see, my name is Ann Martin. But if I WERE Chris Carter, I
wouldn't tease Philes so.

************

Pendrell awoke in the clear dawn. His home was bright and cheery, the
master and mistress arguing in the next room. Like they often did, they
were bantering on about some scientific project they were working on.

He was very happy, bathing in the sunlight of their large, D.C. home. The
master and mistress were scientists, one a genetic biologist and the
other a quantum physicist. They were very well known in their fields,
heralded by those with money and criticized by those without.

Pendrell had come here when he was just a puppy, and he was very happy.
He had never wanted for anything-- food, comfort, even friends. The
neighbors had a beautiful dog, Scully, with red hair that shimmered in
light. He could see her now, through the window, and hoped he'd see her
on their walk that morning.

***

The masters spoke in hushed tones.

Master Pendrell said, as he walked his dog at a high pace, "I still don't
understand how they could *not* see the risks in this situation."

His friend, a politician, replied, "The way things are looking now, in
the woodworking of the government, we're going to be in trouble soon. We
have another case of identical strangers in Wyoming."

"Who reported it?"

"The neighbors. Each of the boys deny looking anything like the other."

"DNA scan?"

"Can't-- they don't want to, and there's no reason to press charges..."

Both walked in silence, their companions listening to every word.

"Listen, Danny-- if you hear anything, *anything* at all, I want you and
Rita to get out of town."

He smiled. "Of course-- don't worry about us... You get out as soon as
Krieg lets you."

"Sure-- I can deal with a crackpot president. Did you hear where he
started his campaign from?"...

***

Pendrell heard it in the night, people rushing around, trying to stay
quiet. He stepped out of the rec room, where he slept near the fire. The
master and mistress had packed their bags hastily. They were dressed for
some sort of outdoor adventure-- heavy boots, warm clothing. Where were
they going this time of night?

They stepped out into the darkness, not even bothering to shut the door.

As the wind howled around him, Pendrell joined the sweet, sorrowful
melody.

***

They never came back. Pendrell waited some days, weeks maybe, eating what
was left in the house, smelling the remaining clothes to be sure to know
them on their return.

But soon the nights got long and lonely, and people started approaching
the house in the night. He couldn't stay any longer, so he said goodbye
to his home and headed out for who knows where.


***

It was hard surviving out there, especially for Pendrell. He had spent
his entire life in a warm home with warm people feeding him warm food,
and now he was out on the cold streets with cold strangers, sleeping in
cold puddles. The world was good to him, he thought, but he had many
things to live through.

***

STARVATION

Only weeks after leaving home, Pendrell was hungry. Scraps in the garbage
weren't enough, and squirrels were too rare and hard to catch. He would
have returned home, but he had told himself to forget the way, and he had
succeeded.

One evening, his stomach ripped open. Hunger overcame him in such a
frenzy he lost control. Dashing around the corner, he found a family of
smaller dogs. With puppies.

He was sick to his stomach the next morning, but it was full and warm. No
matter where it had come from, it was keeping him alive. He couldn't bear
to think about it any more.

***

PAIN

Pendrell wandered the streets through the whole night. He slept in the
day, in public parks, wondering when everything would come back to
normal. He hardly ever saw any other dogs, and he missed Scully deep in
his heart. Pendrell wondered if she would remember him the next time they
saw each other.

One night, Pendrell crossed beneath an overpass, a turkey bone hanging
from his lips. A large Rottweiler jumped out from the shadows to take it.
Pendrell heard his conscious screaming to him to drop it, but his
experiences with hunger made him fight for it. The larger dog's jaw
clawed at his neck, and Pendrell felt a stabbing pain at the base of his
back. The larger dog took a quick swipe at his face with his paw, and
Pendrell mewed away. Angry, the other dog attacked again, backing
Pendrell into a corner. He closed his eyes, grinned, and beared it.

Later that evening, Pendrell awoke from a fitful, nightmarish sleep. He
began to drag himself away from his resting place, now rags bathed in
droplets of his blood.  Walking through the streets he had come to know
so well, he stopped in front of a bar. Sitting out front was a young boy,
with tearstained cheeks.

Pendrell whined up close to him.

"Hey, little buddy. What's your name, huh?"

He looked at Pendrell's collar, but the tags had been ripped away.

"Well, I guess you're alone out here, kinda like me, huh? I'm Nicholas
Lea. Can you shake?"

Pendrell feebly lifted up a paw. 

"Hey, you're pretty torn up..."

A man stepped out of the bar, evidently the boy's father.

"Justin," he said, "Let's get home. Now."

The boy stood up reluctantly. "What about him?"

The big man looked down. "Bring him along, I guess. We'll clean 'im up."

They brought Pendrell to their home. Justin gave him a bath, water, and
some food. He spend that night at the foot of the boy's bed, content for
the first time in a long while.

The next morning, Justin and his father brought Pendrell out to the car.
They drove a few blocks, then stopped and lifted Pendrell out of the
backseat. Heading for the door, Pendrell realized they had brought him to
The Place. He'd heard stories about this place, and wasn't going in
himself. He would rather die in the streets than in a cage. Pendrell
jumped out of the boys arms and ran down the street. 

He never saw them again, either. That was the last night Pendrell ever
trusted a human.


***

DEPENDENCE

His months on the street, alone, had left Pendrell tough. Hte pads of his
feet wre roughing up now, and he knew the roads well. Pendrell knew the
restaurants he could go to to get food, the houses that left out scraps,
the places he could sleep.

Late one evening, he settled down for a night's rest in the corner of a
park. He shut his eyes and tried to block out the sounds of the city. One
call, though, reached him-- the bark of another dog. He got up slowly and
cautiously followed it.

Below the trees he found a small family-- three puppies and their mother.
She looked up at him, fear in her eyes.

"I'll help you," he said.

Pendrell led them to a nearby restaurant, where he was able to get them
some food. The puppies mewed and crawled all over him during the meal.
Later, he brought them to an alley where he had often found warmth during
the night.

He stayed with them, to make sure they would be safe. The next morning,
they were gone, but there were two other young dogs waiting for his help.

That was how Pendrell found his calling-- to protect.

***

Pendrell had spent almost two years out in the street when it happened.
The entire city was filled with panic as the government came crashing
down upon them. The men in positions of power now were dangerous.
President Kreig was dead; his weapons left behind for a new age of madmen
to use.

Many families moved out during this stage, but others-- rich families,
families left in fear, men who had a reason to stay and wait for the
politics to balance out, stayed. Pendrell watched this all very
carefully, not betraying his trust to the humans. He would stay; there
may be somebody who would need his help.

One morning, he heard an explosion, many miles away. The entire town
burts into panic for the second tme-- many were left dead from the riots,
but Pendrell saw many others that were sick. The pavilions with the
orange Xes were set up all over the town within hours.

That night, he saw her again for the first time-- Scully. Running over to
her, Pendrell saw that she wasn't alone. Following one another down the
street was a large group, both young and old, families and alone, even
some cats.

"Scully-- what happened?"

She looked at him sadly. "I'm not even sure... but many of the people
have left. There's nowhere to go, Pendrell-- nobody knows what's going
on. What are we going to eat? And there's puppies, they need a place to
sleep--"

Pendrell stopped her, laying a paw on her back. "I'll take care of you."


***********
The end-- mostly, this was written to fill somebody's request to learn
how Pendrell came into power.

Feedbacksies, please.


Ann Martin     QUESTIE, X-Phile
"If I were creating a show based on my life, it would be very different.
It would be a lot more like seaQuest. I have a tremendous amount of
underwater adventures involving alien beings." -Dave Barry
*My name is Scully. You ate my dog. Prepare to die.* My name is Mulder.
You took my sister. Prepare to die.* My name is Skinner. You took my
hair. Prepare to die.*