Invasion Of The Body-Snatchers

"What is Eve doing now?" Clara asked, taking a seat, completely forgetting about Mabel and Jacob for the moment.

"She's telling me to follow her," Ezekiel said, frowning, "and she wants Cass to find the source."

"So do it then," Clara ordered, "split up and - and do whatever it is you're doing."

"You're not very good at this Guardian shtick are you?" Ezekiel said, brow furrowing further.

"I'm learning on the job," Clara snapped, "now follow Eve!"

"Okay, I'm following," Ezekiel said, following Eve, Cassandra setting off after the source.

Clara got to her feet, before stumbling her way through the stacks, only to stop at the sight in front of her. "What's going on?" she demanded, stalking over to Mabel and Jacob, the former looking guilty, the latter like his world was falling apart.

"She knows about the gas lamps, about what they do," Jacob said brokenly, gesturing to Mabel.

"Well, I didn't see that one coming," Clara said sarcastically, snatching up a map, hastily casting her eye over it. "So there was another town here, then?" she fired at Mabel, raising her gaze from the map.

Mabel just looked away, wringing her hands.

"Clara!" Ezekiel yelled down the line.

"I'm here, Zeke!" she yelled back, turning her back on Mabel and Jacob. "What's going on!?"

"They're possessing people," he explained, "like full on bodysnatching style!"

"What!?"

"They're pointing at me!" he exclaimed. "I think they know I can see them!"

"See who!?"

"They're chasing me now!"

The line suddenly went dead. Clara stared at the screen, feeling like the walls were closing in on her, finally understanding the burden Baird bore. In vain, she tried to dial Ezekiel, but the call wouldn't go through. Ignoring Jacob's demands to know what the hell was going on, she tried calling Cassandra, Jenkins, even Flynn, but the phone remained resolutely dead.

"You okay?" Mabel asked nervously.

"What do you care!?" Clara spat, rounding on her. "I've just lost two, maybe three, of my people because of your damned lies!"

"What!?" Jacob said in disbelief.

"You heard," Clara snapped, rounding on him next, "if you weren't so busy chasing a piece of skirt" -

- "We need to build a barricade!" Ezekiel gasped, startling them all, brandishing a piece of white picket fence at Clara. "The Bodysnatchers are coming!"

~*~

"Okay, I really need you to help me build a barricade," Ezekiel said, detaching himself from Clara's stranglehold.

"I thought you were dead," Clara almost wept.

"Never," Ezekiel said, ruffling up her hair.

"Wait a minute," Jacob said, picking up the map, "you said there was another town here?" he aimed at Clara.

"Yes," Clara snapped, recovering herself. "Get with the programme, Stone."

"It was built a hundred years before Collins Falls," Mabel explained, "originally named Wardenclyffe Falls, an experimental site built by" -

- "And get away from her," Cassandra said, appearing out of nowhere, dragging Clara and Jacob away from Mabel, "she's the wife of Nikola Tesla!"

"Genius inventor, rival of Edison, and pretty much the reason why we have electricity in our homes?" Clara said in a rush, feeling like the wind had been knocked out of her.

"Get with the programme, sugar-lump," Mabel reiterated, shaking back her hair.

"Okay, I'm going to build this barricade on my own," Ezekiel said, taking off, only to come rushing back again. "Bodysnatchers are here!" he trilled, hiding behind Clara as several strangers stalked into the room.

"Norman, don't," Mabel said, stopping Victor from grabbing Jacob.

"Norman?" Clara squeaked.

"Norman Wisdom?" Cassandra said hopefully.

~*~

"What's the score then, Mabel or Mrs. Tesla, or whatever you are," Jacob said, folding his arms across his chest.

"I told you I had family commitments," Mabel said, sighing heavily. "This is it." She gestured around her at the people surrounding them, Ezekiel giving them a nervous wave, looking alternately thrilled and frightened to death. "In 1915, my husband was doing experiments in wireless power transmissions," she explained tiredly, "it was his dream, like Wi-Fi but for electricity, not just the Internet."

"I am beyond confused," Clara said, taking a seat.

"The gas lamps are prototypes of wireless transmitters," Mabel continued, "but something went wrong. We activated the system and everyone got zapped out of sync."

"Out of sync with what?" Jacob asked, brow furrowing dangerously.

"The universe," Victor said, exhaling sharply.

"We were stuck in some interdimensional border," Mabel said, "we could see the world, we were aware of it, but we couldn't interact with it."

"That's what happened to Baird," Cassandra said quietly.

"How many of you are there?" Clara asked. "And how do we get Eve back?"

"There's 87 souls," a stout diner waitress said, speaking up.

"Once my husband realised his mistake, he modified the transmitters to create an energy field that would keep us stable," Mabel said, her voice gaining enthusiasm, "without them we cease to exist."

"But what about Eve?" Clara pressed, standing up.

"And how come you're not possessed?" Ezekiel said, frowning.

"I was in the main control room when it happened," Mabel said, enthusiasm fading, her shoulders slumping. "I was insulated, shielded. Most people were knocked entirely out of phase; I was just blinking in and out. My husband was able to anchor me in my body by turning me into a sort of grounding wire." She turned around, lifting up the back of her hair, revealing a copper wire sticking out the back of her neck.

"Whoa," Jacob said, taking a step back.

"Whoa doesn't even cover it," Clara breathed.

You shut your mouth
how can you say
I go about things the wrong way
I am human and I need to be loved
just like everybody else does...