Elizabeth Cutter | Primeval

S5 E6 - This Is How It Ends

The ARC is silent as I enter and for a moment I wonder why until I remember literally everyone is out in the field.

"What's going on?" I ask, running over to Jess.

"Lizzie!" Her face flashes with relief. "There was an anomaly in the car park. Lester went to deal with it."

My face screws up. "Lester?"

"Oh don't sound so surprised," his voice comes from behind me.

I turn, immediately pulling him into a hug. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Uh, yeah, you too." He pats my shoulder and I pull away. "Now-" Lester doesn't get a chance to finish his sentence as every machine begins powering down, the lights switching off. "What happened?"

"Did Philip not pay the electricity bill?" I joke, smirking.

"It's some kind of electrical surge, everything's dead. We're on emergency power. The system is fried, the detector's offline and I can't get through to anyone on coms," Jess tells us.

I take a deep breath. "Okay, we'll just get someone to fix it," I say.

"Everyone is out in the field. And I don't think the power-out is restricted to the ARC," Jess explains.

"Philip's infernal machine," Lester realises before his phone rings. "Now I've seen it all, mobile phone reception when you really need it. It's Becker."

I can only hear Lester's side of the conversation.

"What's Matt say? ... Get to New Dawn and find out what's going on." Lester glances at me. "No, she's with us." Guess Becker's wondering where I am. "Becker! Now is not the time ... Good man. Good man."

A little while later, I'm sat in Lester's office with a Rubik's Cube - I found it in one of my desk drawers - it's keeping my mind elsewhere...Lester thought it would be a good idea so that I don't start freaking out because I'm pretty close to it.

"Any news?" he asks and I look up to see Jess stood in front of me. How did I not notice her enter?

"No." I take a deep breath. We're completely in the dark. "What if they've failed and this is the beginning of the end, just like Matt said? What if they're all dead?"

"They're not dead, Jess, and it's not the end of the world. If it was, someone would have sent us a memo. You know what my father used to say when things got rough? 'Where's that ruddy whisky?' Oh, no! Don't tell me you're teetotal."

I don't know what Lester is on about until I realise why Jess has frozen.

She steps back. "There's- There's-"

The sound of snarling outside the office throws me into a semi-catatonic state and the Rubik's Cube falls from my hand. It's Lester that speaks.

"Don't- Don't make a sound. Lizzie?"

"I'm fine," I mumble, not taking my eyes away from the door.

"You sure?"

I take a breath, finally looking at him. "No but I'm kinda gonna have to be."

We all get under Lester's desk and I feel him reach for my hand, squeezing it tight. "We'll get out of this," he says and I nod, trying to believe his words.

Jess pulls out her phone and I look from her, to the door and back again. "What are you doing?" I whisper.

"Texting Becker."

I pull out my EMD for comfort but it lets out a low whirring sound and I curse.

"What is it?" Jess asks, looking up from her phone.