Johnny Davis

Johnny Davis is the main protagonist of "Dead Run", the second segment of the 19th episode of the first season of The Twilight Zone's 1985-1989 iteration, the episode airing in 1986. Said episode was based off a short story of the same name, written by Greg Bear in 1985. He is a human trucker hired into an interdimensional "company" that ferries the damned to Hell, soon discovering corruption within the company leading to the damnation of the undeserving, and working to correct it.
In the episode, Johnny Davis was portrayed by Steve Railsback.
==Biography ==
===Early life===
Before the 1980s, Johnny Davis worked as a long-haul trucker, making friends with another trucker named Pete Siekovich, who was a friend of his father, learning that Pete once had a terrible accident back in 1969, yet somehow found work after it. As such, his father advised Johnny to go to Pete if he ever had a problem no one else could solve. Johnny himself grew increasingly reckless on the road, and over the course of four years, racked up four accidents, which forced him to change insurance companies, trying to find one that was willing to take his risk.
===Dead Run===
In the 1980s, Johnny was making another run with his truck, and got exasperated trying to bypass a car in front of him, which would constantly speed up just as he was about to pass it, ultimately leading Johnny to crash into a ditch in order to avoid running over a group of incoming bikers. Sometime after recovering from the accident, Johnny met with Pete in a club, and while glad that no one was hurt, lamented that he just lost the insurance company, which was the last one willing to take him, leaving him in a dead end, as he could not drive without insurance. However, Johnny refused to stop trucking, as it was all he knew, asking Pete about the work he got after the 1969 accident, but Pete tried to protest that his line of work was not one Johnny would want. Johnny insisted, making Pete admit that after that accident, he was a complete dead-ender, the type of person his employers looked for, warning Johnny that if he wanted the job, he had to be utterly certain he had no other options. Johnny insisted again, so Pete offered to bring him on a run the next day, and assured him that the company carried its own insurance.
The next day, Johnny was hired into the company, and accompanied Pete on the run. However, while sitting in Pete's truck, Johnny noticed that the road they were driving down was not on any map, where Pete revealed that they had "crossed over." Johnny tried to ask about it, but Pete simply pulled into the "Annex," a prison-like complex. Stopping the truck, Johnny and Pete exited, where Johnny saw Pete give a guard a cigarette, seeing the guard, a humanoid referred to as an employee, light it with flames summoned in his palm. Pete explained that the employees loved cigarettes, and could be easily bribed with them, advising Johnny to keep a pack on him at all times. Johnny, starting to get confused and thinking they were running a simple transport job, then watched as the employees began herding the prisoners, who appeared human, to be loaded into the cage-like back of the truck, using rather rough methods. Seeing them whip the prisoners, Johnny tried to protest, ordering an employee to stop, only for Pete to clarify that the prisoners weren't even alive, drawing a knife and repeatedly stabbing a prisoner, who did not react. In truth, the prisoners were damned souls, the employees were demons, and the company ferried the damned to Hell. An employee then walked over and demanded to know why Johnny questioned him, burning Johnny's flesh with a poke, until Pete stepped in and gave the employee a cigarette, making him go away. Pete then angrily told Johnny to do as he did and keep his mouth shut.
After the truck was loaded with the damned, Pete and Johnny drove down the interdimensional road, known as the "Low Road," where Pete tried to explain more of the company's background and purpose. He started by saying that when "The Boss" made humanity, he gave humanity free will, which meant that some humans would choose evil. As human souls were immortal, the souls of the damned, unable to move on to Heaven, would remain on Earth. To keep them from overrunning and corrupting Earth, God created Hell to be a waste dump for the damned, and made the company to ferry them there. As a storm brewed, Pete told Johnny about other Hell transportation methods across the world, including trains in China and India, tram lines in Russia, and buses in Mexico. Johnny, hearing the cries of the damned, wanted to put a tarp over them, but Pete said it wasn't necessary, for the damned were just cargo, before pulling into an interdimensional truck stop, the presence of which surprised Johnny. As the two disembarked, Pete asked Johnny to check the fifth wheel, but as he went to it, Johnny was grabbed by a damned man who reached through the bars of the cargo hold, insisting that he didn't belong there. Johnny managed to shove the man off, but some damned women poked through the bars and kept asking him to let them go, insisting that he was their last chance, but Johnny fixed the wheel as asked. Inside the truck stop, the two were serviced by employees who took on the appearances of human diner workers, while other human truckers were present inside, some of whom were talking about unrest within the company and trouble within the outer circles of Hell. The other truckers tried to insist that it would be under control soon, one of them warning Johnny to stay out of it, although Pete thought that unrest from the damned was crazy, advising Johnny to just watch out for number one.
After leaving the truck stop, Johnny asked Pete about the outer circles, so Pete clarified that the outer circles of Hell were where the most recently dead were, as the "city" where the damned were held kept expanding. The truck then entered Hell, which did in fact take the form of a giant, run-down city in a dark, barren wasteland, which confused Johnny, who expected fire, lava, and punishments. Pete reminded him that Hell was just a waste dump, its purpose meant to just keep the damned away from the righteous, but as the two pulled into the delivery terminal, located between several buildings holding the damned, they saw hordes of the damned rioting and being chased by whip-wielding employees. Johnny asked what to do, and Pete replied to just dump the cargo and get out. However, Johnny then saw an employee being assaulted by a dozen sinners, who had the employee pinned down. Despite Pete telling him not to, Johnny ran in and shoved the sinners off the employee, only to see the employee's true, demonic visage, before the employee threw him across the area and to the edge of one of the buildings, allowing the damned he and Pete were hauling to break out of their container and run amok. One of the damned, a woman in a white dress, recognized Johnny as a living human and went to him as he stood up, saying that she had only thought of herself in life, crying and pleading for another chance. Another damned soul, a fat man in a suit, pulled Johnny to him and insisted that he his only sin was being dull, not seeing the beauty in life. Johnny tried to get away from the man by ducking through the railings of a staircase, only to be met by another damned woman, who said that she was merely stupid, admitting that she gave no guidance to her children, but insisted that she didn't know any better. Johnny slowly backed away up the stairs, sadly admitting that he couldn't do anything for them. A damned man on the floor above heard him and asked why, admitting that he never believed in God, but demanded to know what sort of supreme being would damn someone just for that. Johnny insisted that he couldn't help the damned, but another damned man came up behind him and helped him up, getting him through the crowd of damned.
The damned man revealed his name to be Gary Frick, and revealed that he used to be a driver in the company, before being kicked upstairs to management and dying. Johnny admitted to Gary that many of the damned seemed just like people he was friends with, saying they didn't deserve to be there. Gary clarified that, in fact, masses of undeserving were being damned, and said that he was instigating the unrest to get God's attention. Johnny, who assumed God was in charge, was then told by Gary that God did not personally run Hell, nor the choosing of who went to Hell. Gary then told Johnny that he seemed like a decent man, and needed his help, informing Johnny that he knew where the "High Road" was, before quickly leaving, just as Pete and an employee walked in. The employee demanded to know who Johnny was talking to, and Johnny tried to brush it off, but the employee took him to see upper management regardless.
Returned to Earth, Johnny met with the manager in an observatory, who first began praising Johnny for his good work on his first day as the two walked together. However, Johnny asked to get right to the point, asking who Gary Frick was. The manager clarified that Gary was in the company until he died in a car crash, but then said that he expected him to get the Low Road for being a "troublemaker." Johnny told the manager that Gary didn't belong, noting how many of the souls he saw didn't seem to deserve damnation either. The manager replied that Johnny seemed to be taken in by "secular intellectual propaganda," saying how he was a religious man who took the position very seriously, quoting Psalms as justification for his actions. He then clarified who he thought sinners were, and while he first named murderers and muggers, he then named off atheists, pagans, and humanists. Johnny, remembering the other undeserving souls he met in Hell, recognized that most of the "sinners" were just people the manager didn't like, but the manager claimed that the standards he used were not his own, but centuries-old standards of God-fearing people, claiming that the "moral realignment" will soon pass. The manager then had to clarify to Johnny that he ran Hell, not "The Boss," musing that humanity had effectively controlled Hell for centuries. Afterwards, the manager said to Johnny that it was important that good men like him stayed on the job, warning him not to leave the job, lest he meet Gary's fate. The manager then asked if Gary said anything else, but Johnny denied being told anything else, and seemingly agreed with the manager, telling him that he believed he had a responsibility to stay on the job.
Unbeknownst to the manager, Johnny met Gary again and agreed to help him, getting the location of the High Road, which led to Heaven. On his next run, Johnny stopped on the intersection of the Low Road and High Road, peering through the gaps in the bars of the cargo hold and began asking the souls he was hauling about what put them on the Low Road. The first man admitted to killing a cop, the second man confessed to rape and arson, but the next soul, an elderly woman, didn't know, saying she was a school librarian who fought against the censorship and removal of certain books. Johnny then asked the next woman what she did, and the woman said that while she was a junkie, she never hurt anyone other than herself, asking if it was right to damn her for that. Another damned man then got closer and said that he also never hurt anyone, revealing that he was a draft dodger who fled to Canada to avoid killing anyone. Johnny then asked a damned young man what he did, and the man could only guess that he was damned because he was gay. Seeing that the elderly librarian, junkie, draft-dodger, and gay man were undeserving, Johnny let them out of the truck, and directed them to the High Road. While he clarified that as Hell wasn't what he expected it to be, Heaven may not be what they expect either, but it was a much better chance than being damned. The librarian asked why Johnny was risking everything for them, and Johnny replied that he was only doing his part, recounting the story of the Harrowing of Hell, where Jesus Christ entered Hell to save the souls of the undeserving, likening himself to Jesus, claiming to merely be continuing the tradition. Saving more souls on each run, Johnny and Gary prepared to start enough trouble to get God's attention, so that order would be restored. 
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