Chapter 28 "All of Them Were Dead"

He turned to gaze at the room Grace had pointed in the center of the junction; it was the control room for the Keter containment area. They had reached their objective at last.

It doesn't appear that anyone was in the control room; they would have assumed that someone or something had killed them because the entire area was abandoned and littered with dead bodies and SCPs.

They arrived at one of the doors on the side of the control room. While William aimed his gun and prepared to storm into the room to make sure all was well, Grace pulled out her ID card and stood to the side.

William nodded his head to her. Grace swiped her card and opened the door with her hands when she saw that both of them were prepared. William then started to burst into the room as Grace trailed behind him.

The room was absent of any enemies or SCPs. However, there were many dead bodies lying around. Based on what they've seen, It appears that none of the guards and researchers who were slain inside the control room were victims of an SCP but were killed by someone from the opposing force.

He noticed a murdered researcher who had holes in his skull that appeared to be caused by bullets, but again, there were no bullet casings nearby or even inside the victim's head. It was clean without any traces at all.

"Captain, take a look at this." said William as she was still examining the room.

She approached the researcher's lifeless body, examined the wound, and briefly hummed. She appeared to be baffled as to what might have caused it, but she was certain that a bullet from a gun could not have done it.

"I have never seen anything like it. Because it feels like he was shot by a gun, but it was too clean for a firearm to cause this wound." said Grace as she looked into the wound with her flashlight.

William continued, "They might have something that we don't have, a non-conventional weapon that they would use to aid them in this infiltration."

They briefly set aside the fact that they were killed in an unusual method in order to concentrate on their primary objective—telling the command control center about the situation.

They then laid their corpses side by side on the floor and began working on the computers there. As soon as they fired it up, they were both relieved to see that the computers were still functional, but a little while later, they were requested for their credentials.

Grace immediately reached for her ID card to be scanned, but the computer rejected it. She was a little taken aback that her credentials weren't sufficient to access the computer, and William gave it some thought.

After thinking on something for a moment and taking a closer look at one of the dead researchers, he began to search into each one of their pockets to see if there was anything he could use.

Grace was confused by his action and said, "What are you doing?"

"Was it not fairly obvious? They had to have their own ID card with a high enough clearance to access the computers in this facility because they were researchers who worked in the Keter containment area." answered William.

Soon after, he discovered one of the researcher's ID cards in a pocket and immediately began to scan it into the computer. They could now access the computer and begin to open a terminal to contact the command control.

He narrowed down his eyes as he was going through some files on the computer, "Uhh, Captain? Are you familiar with these things? I don't know how to use a Foundation computer, and it was pretty confusing for me to find out how to contact them. Mind if you take over the control?"

"I thought you knew about it."

William got out of the chair and handed the computer to Grace. He looked around to see if there was anything that would be beneficial later on while she was trying to contact them. He started to turn on a walkie-talkie he had discovered in one of the guards' pockets.

It was still functional, but all that could be heard was radio buzz; the communication channel must have been disrupted in order to keep them apart.

"I got it!" Grace shouted in excitement as she was able to get a connection through the command control.

She took a microphone that was on the desk and started to reach out to the command control to see if they could hear their message while William glanced over the computer to check on their progress.

"Hello, command control? Can any of you guys receive my message and pick up our connection? This is an emergency. Please report if anyone from the command control hears this." said Grace over the mic. She couldn't see anything nor who was on the other side, and they could only hope someone would respond.

A few seconds later, they could hear someone talking to them through the computer's speaker, "This is technical operator James speaking. We've received your message. Who is this? The command control is currently a bit busy due to a breach caused by a third party. Please identify yourself."

"My name is Grace Atkins, Level 3 Clearance, Site-199 Regional Guard Captain. Alpha One and I are currently in the Keter containment control room, and we can't get out of here. Can you direct our call to Dr. Erik?"

"Keter containment area? How did you guys end up there?"

"Long story, and we don't have enough time to explain it. Just please direct our call to Dr. Erik or anyone that we could talk about the situation here."

"A-alright then, give me a moment."

Grace and William waited for a while; they appeared to be a little busy as a result of having to deal with the current issue. They were unable to reach some of the staff since the site had been compromised.

They then heard the mic had been picked up, "Dr. Erik speaking. Please tell us about your current status and situation there."

Grace then hurriedly picked up the mic once again and said, "There are a lot of casualties within this area. Every guard and researcher we met seemed to be killed by something or someone. A few SCP containment rooms were also breached on purpose by an unknown party to let some of them loose, we only encountered SCP-019 so far, and we're trying to find a way out of here."

Hearing this news, Dr. Erik closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "Copy that. We tried to go to the Keter containment area since the enemy seemed to be heading toward that area, but we couldn't proceed further due to it being blocked by rubbles, and it would take at least an hour for the backup team to drill through."

"Only an hour? We could wait here until the backup team had arrived. We're in a safe room right now."

Dr. Erik paused for a moment. He sighed and continued, "I'm afraid we can't afford for another hour during this time. The third party that breached the facility hasn't yet been found, and it is your duty to finish it."

Both of them were confused by this statement. Grace then replied, "What do you mean by that, Dr. Erik?"

"You said that Alpha One is with you, right?" asked Dr. Erik.

"Correct, he is currently with me in this room. No other survivors were found in the Keter containment area."

"Good to hear that." Dr. Erik looked behind him, and there was an old man in a black suit standing in the control room watching him communicate with Grace, "The Site Director is here, and he had something to say to both of you."