Chapter 14 "The Plague Doctor"

SCP-049, The Plague Doctor, is classified as Euclid.

He is to be contained in a standard humanoid cell. He must be administered sedation before being transferred to another place and wear a Class III Humanoid Restriction Harness while being monitored by two guards or more.

SCP-049 is cooperative most of the time with Foundation personnel, but any sudden violence or change of behavior shown must be handled with force, and no other person is allowed to be near nor make contact with SCP-049 while in this state.

SCP-049 is a humanoid of 1.9 m in height and has the appearance of a medieval plague doctor. He wears a thick black robe, and a ceramic mask, with its clothing, analyzed to have grown from his own body over time. Despite this, SCP-049 is shown to have a skeletal structure beneath his clothing.

While most of the time, his behavior was friendly and cooperative, he can be easily irritated if he feels something around him that he likes to call "Pestilence". Although there was no clear explanation of what could be considered as one, but it seems to be the very thing that SCP-049 has an issue with.

SCP-049 automatically becomes hostile if he sees someone that was being affected by "Pestilence" and will generally attempt to kill that person. SCP-049 was able to disable all functions of any organs and cells on any creature through direct skin contact. The reason for how that happened was unknown.

He will perform surgery on the said person he killed with his own equipment that he always carries at all times. While these surgeries were not always successful with the result will always turn his patients into SCP-049-2.

SCP-049-2 is designated for the corpses that have gone through SCP-049's surgery. Despite their behavior of not recalling any past memories, SCP-049-2 still retain their basic motoric skills. While most of them were generally dormant, they could be aggressive and hostile if provoked or being controlled by SCP-049. Despite the rough and unnatural appearance caused by SCP-049's surgery, he often deemed his patients had been "cured" from the "Pestilence".

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Dr. Erik was stunned by the situation. He doesn't know what to do, and certainly, this is basically a high-risk, high-reward decision. There is a possibility that he does really know how to take care of SCP-049 in this situation. Still, he doesn't want to lose a valuable asset like William with his anomalous properties.

On the other hand, he didn't have a way to contact the other researchers about the information that William had because the whole place was in an emergency procedure. This leaves the only option to William himself to carry out the job, and it would be a great move by both of them if they really succeeded. No more casualties, and the Foundation will finally know how to control SCP-049 in the future with the information he had.

Dr. Erik thought about the pros and cons of the choices he had. There wasn't much he could do, and there was only one obvious answer.

"You must know that the thing we are both trying to do has a great risk on it, and I'll be the one who's taking the responsibility if anything goes out of plan." said Dr. Erik

William could tell that Dr. Erik was hesitant about doing such a thing, "I know, Doc. I just wanted to put myself where I could be useful rather than being locked up here, knowing that I know how to help them."

Dr. Erik made up his mind and took the bet. He then pressed the button for the door on William's cell to be unlocked. The safety mechanism was removed, allowing William to open the door himself.

"You need to be careful about what you're doing because you're going to deal with a lot of them on your way. Tell them that I sent you if you encounter a guard on your way out, and I'll take responsibility for it."

Hearing that Dr. Erik had made his choice and trusted him, William put two fingers on the forehead and saluted him through the camera, "Understood, Doc."

William opened the door and walked out of his cell. Dr. Erik knows that he won't have any way to monitor William's actions from now on and could only hope that everything is going very well.

He made his way through the containment area hallway. He didn't know what SCPs could be contained other than him here, but he wasn't going to try to find out about it since it's not his priority. Though he was tempted to try to obtain as many SCP abilities as he could, but doing so would only make the situation worse.

Besides that, accomplishing his task right now would benefit him. First, he may acquire the anomalous ability that SCP-049 had. He didn't know what he would get, but it could be beneficial for him in the long run. Second, by helping the Foundation in this matter, he could gain the Foundation's trust and may give William a reward for his service.

As he reached up to the junction at the end of the containment area hallway, he found several bodies of SCP-049-2 that had been shot by the guards until they were dead with bullets. There were many of them, and the Foundation guards were having a hard time dealing with it, as shown by the bullet marks on the walls.

Most of the SCP-049-2 were D-Class personnel. He didn't know how SCP-049 could have turned so many of the D-Class to turn them into his own minions. Either way, this is a really troubling situation for the Foundation.

He didn't have much time to waste, so he just went straight to the main hallway on this site. As the bodies of SCP-049-2 kept piling in the hallway, he found several bodies that belonged to the Foundation guard. By the looks of it, the guards were eaten by SCP-049-2 until only some of the flesh remained on the floor.

William was a bit frightened by the horrors that the guard had gone through when facing a horde of SCP-049-2. He then looked next to the body, and there was a gun lying around, the gun that was used by that guard before he died fighting it. William took the submachine gun, which he didn't have any experience at all when it came to firearms. But he needed at least a weapon for him to survive when making contact with any of the zombies.

He kept continuing on his steps to the main hallway, checking every corner and side carefully. Making sure that the coast is clear for him to continue and anticipating for a surprise attack made by the zombie.

He heard that there were gunshots from afar. He knew that he must be near some of the guards that were fighting the zombies. With that in mind, he started to go towards where the gunshot was located.

Just as he expected, there were some personnel shooting and fending off those zombies to clear out the area. They were in a bit of trouble, some of them were shooting with their pistols, and some of them were hitting the zombies with their batons.

"Captain Grace, go! Don't worry about us. We'll take care of them. Just go to the armory and apprehend SCP-049 quickly before it gets worse!" said one of the guards who were hitting a zombie with his baton.

Without any hesitation, William aimed down his gun at the zombies and pulled the trigger one by one, making his shots count. Seeing that the zombies were taken down by another person, Grace gazes her attention toward William.

"What are you doing here, Alpha One?" asked Grace in surprise because of his presence.

William didn't pay his attention to her and kept shooting the zombies around the area, "Isn't that obvious? I'm lending you guys a hand."

"Not that. But why are you out of your own cell?"

Seeing that most of the zombies were taken down, William holstered his gun, "Dr. Erik sent me on a task to help with the situation. Hence why I was allowed to leave my cell so that I could lend you guys a hand."

"Dr. Erik sent you? But why?" asked Grace.

"Because I know how to make SCP-049 stop his aggressiveness that causes this place into chaos and seize him without the use of force."