Elizabeth Cutter | Primeval

S2 E3 - What Doesn't Kill You

"He's been ripped to shreds," Dad tells us. 

We're at Blue Sky Theme Park - a place I loved coming to as a kid - because of a creature attack. Connor unveiled the ADD today - Anomaly Detection Device - and apparently it didn't pick up whatever happened here. 

"If I was back at the zoo I'd say it was a lion. See how the bones were gnawed," Abby says.

"All right, big cat then," Dad concludes.

Connor's still pacing with the handheld detector. "No radio interference. No magnetic field. No sign of an anomaly." We all stare at him and he sighs. "You know...I checked. I double-checked every chip and circuit board in that detector. It's working, I'm telling you. If there was an anomaly, it'd have shown up. I'd stake my life on it."

"May have to," Dad mutters. 

I believe Connor, but nobody else seems to. "No, no, maybe he's got a point though," I say. "Perhaps there is another explanation for this. There are thousands of big cats sightings each year. Pumas, Leopards, Lynxes."

"Yeah, but none big enough to do this kind of damage," Dad responds.

"It could have escaped from a private zoo," Abby suggests.

"Yeah, well find out if anything's been reported," Dad says and she nods, walking away.

I turn from Dad to look at Stephen who seems too busy on his phone to pay attention to us. He frowns at the screen.

"Everything okay?" Dad asks him. 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." 

I'm not convinced. As Stephen walks away, I run to catch up with him. "Stephen!" He keeps walking. "Stephen, stop!" I grab his arm, turning him to face me. "What's going on?" I ask. "Why have you been acting so weird lately?" 

He frowns. "I'm not."

"I can see straight through you Stephen, and I know you're lying."

He steps towards me. "Just leave it, okay?" 

I step back, starting to feel uncomfortable with the lack of distance between us. Slowly, I nod, and he walks away.

"Stephen, Beth, I need you two to track this thing!" Dad yells.Great...

*     *     *     *     *

We met a woman named Valerie who told us what she could. Now Dad's gone to interview the man that found the body while I'm left alone to track this creature with Stephen...which would be a lot easier if he would actually talk to me.

"Are you ever gonna talk to me?" 

He's walking ahead, his pace is fast. We're following some sort of trail, but that's about it. We've seen nothing but the awkwardness that's lingering in the air around us.Stephen suddenly stops, pulling out his phone. "Cutter. I've picked up a trail on a farm west of the paintball area." 

I zone out from him as I move forwards, leaving him behind me, but not long later, I stop. I look around, trying to see anything in the bushes, listening out for anything unnatural. My heart rate picks up slightly. 

"Stephen," I say, pointing to the tracks on the ground. 

He swears under his breath before pulling out his phone again. "Fresh tracks. I think it's doubled back on us," he tells Dad. "Looks that way," he says after a moment. When he hangs up, he turns towards me. "We need to get back to the vehicles. I've got some equipment there that might help us out." 

I simply nod. If he doesn't want to talk to me about absolutely anything else besides our job - fine - but two can play at that game.

Once we're all reunited, Dad begins handing out the equipment.