Chapter 35 "Another Bullet To The Chamber"

Keith pulled out the bag that was placed on one of the personnel's heads and showed Owen's face that had been beaten up. William was surprised because he hadn't expected Owen to be the one being held hostage down here.

Upon seeing the scene, William attempted to proceed in the direction of where Keith and Owen were standing but was stopped when Keith pulled out his revolver and pointed it at William's head. Keith then shakes his head.

"Calm down there, kiddo. Be careful about your next move, or I'll do the same thing that your friend did to my colleagues here."

Knowing that a revolver was pointed at his head, William couldn't do anything about it other than watch Owen look at him miserably. Looking at the situation, Keith chuckled for a moment. He seemed to understand what was happening.

"So that's how it is. I can see both of you are colleagues as well." said Keith as he looked at William and Owen back to back.

Owen understood that the only way to prevent things from going worse was to follow Keith's instructions. When he realized that Grace, his squad leader, had fallen to the floor and that the only person in the space still capable of saving him was William, he felt a little dejected.

William raised his hand again, "I don't intend on having any quarrel with you, and please, let both of them go."

Keith then raised his eyebrow, "I don't mind letting them go. Let's do a barter. What do you have to offer me?"

Both of them had come to a negotiation phase, but William didn't answer anything. He didn't have anything to offer Keith that would convince him to let go of both Owen and the other researcher from his hands.

"Well, I should have guessed that you don't have anything to offer to me. How about this?" Keith put away his revolver from William, "I let them free and go back to their current life as a Foundation employee. But in return, you'll have to work with me."

The negotiation couldn't be said to be fair as it was trading two of Foundation personnel's lives against his service to the Chaos Insurgency. Even if the offer was in favor, he couldn't just accept it.

"No, I can not accept that offer." replied William boldly.

Keith scratched his head and said, "You can't just waste your potential to be here locked up in the room. I know that you want freedom, and we can absolutely offer that to you."

He was so insistent that he wanted William to be working under his lead, to be part of the Chaos Insurgency members. William himself didn't trust anything coming from that group, Keith may be telling the truth, but he could also be lying.

"I know the reason why you are here right now, because the Foundation gave you the burden of taking care of these problems by yourself because they were so incompetent in handling it on their own." Keith started to walk around the room.

"But what if you don't obey their orders? What would happen to you if you said "No" to them? I'm sure that the reason they put so much trust in you is that they just wanted to use you."

Keith unloaded his revolver ammo from its chamber and started to put it on his hand, "To them, you were nothing but another asset that they could use. Another bullet to the chamber. Do you really want to live your life like that?"

Deep down, William knew that this was true. The Foundation is cold to its SCP, treating them as nothing more than a valuable asset for the organization. If he hadn't followed their order, he very certainly would have received a different treatment.

However, he did this for himself as well. William only obeyed the Foundation for his personal advantage because he believed that by doing so, he would have a better chance of surviving in this new world.

"If you don't want to be part of my crew, that's totally fine, and it's your own choice. But let me tell you this." Keith then put all of the bullets in the revolver's chamber once again and pointed at him. "I won't be so easy on anyone that would disturb my plan."

The atmosphere had changed instantly. The feeling around Keith's characteristics had spiked to an intimidating intensity. William knew that this time he wasn't playing around, and he needed to be careful about his actions.

"Last chance for you to walk away. I'm being reasonable here since you seemed to be someone in the wrong place at the wrong time."

William still didn't say anything, not even moving from his current position to back off from the room. Keith then walked to Owen, where he was tied up the whole time.

Keith asked Owen, "Now, can you open this vault? It seemed like a very important thing that the Foundation tried to hide it deeply."

Hearing this, Owen shakes his head and replies in a whimpering voice, "I can't. My clearance isn't high enough to open the vault. I'm just a normal guard for the Foundation."

Seeing that this was the case, he turned his head and began to open the bag that was on the other Foundation personnel. A person with brown hair and glasses can be seen. He didn't even directly gaze at Keith; instead, his eyes were sharp on the floor.

"Now, Dr. Smith, I heard that you're the Head of Experiments on this site, right? I'm pretty sure you would be able to open the door with your clearance, " Keith said while looking at Dr. Smith.

"I could, but who are you giving orders to me like that?" said Dr. Smith coldly.

Right after Dr. Smith said that Keith shot his thigh with his revolver without even giving him a chance, he groaned in pain, and there was blood flowing through his knees because he had just taken a bullet at a point blank range.

"I can do this all day, but can you? I'll relieve you from the pain if you do me a favor, and that is to open this vault." said Keith as he tried to aim his revolver at Dr. Smith's other thigh.

He reluctantly nodded and gave what Keith wanted. He crawled to the vault as he was unable to stand up because of the wound and started to enter the passcode alongside with a retinal scan.

After doing so, the vault lock mechanism started to unravel, and Dr. Smith leaned on the wall, wringing in pain as he tried to stop the blood from coming out of his body. Seeing this scene, Keith smiled.

"Thank you for your service." Keith just pulled the trigger and blew Dr. Smith's head in one blow.

Keith looked at the vault that was slowly opening its door, but suddenly he got pummeled by William to the ground as his focus was distracted by the vault and knocked out of his revolver.

He was a bit surprised that William would charge on him at this moment. It seemed that William had made up his mind. Keith then pulled out a knife from his pocket and started to stab William on the hips.

The knife pierced through his body deeply, and he was shocked by the amount of injury that he had to take from it. Keith pushed William over as he tried to stand up and picked up his revolver once more.

"I gave you the chance to leave, and you just wasted it." said Keith regaining his posture, "You asked for it."

Keith then moved his revolver to Owen and pulled the trigger, and the bullet straight went to Owen's chest. Leaving him dropped to the floor after taking a blow directly to his body.