#scp-296

Day 83. Cloudy, with a bit of a breeze.

We’d been tracking that damnable plague doctor for almost a month now. I’m a little impressed by how well he’s-- sorry, it’s-- been able to evade capture. ). Not going to be a problem. At least, not anymore.

We’d sent out Wells to scout around the area at around 900 hours and he radioed in like half an hour later. “I just saw it climbing the fence around ACS-03,” he said. It took me a while to register , and then it hit me. You know that hole in the ground what with the ice sculptures in? The ones that kill “guilty” people? That’s what they keep there. Lairmore and I got his position and hauled ass. 

The three of us got to the entry shaft just in time to see 049 descend. Not entirely sure how Wells was the person to notice the skip get into the site, but it didn’t really matter at the time. No way in hell were those sculptures going to find 049 innocent. We decided to split up: Wells and Lairmore would round up the ACS-03 personnel and I’d go down and get 049 out of there. As I entered the shaft, on thought raced through my mind: I’m too late. It’s dead.

Turns out I was kinda wrong. I found 049 lying on the floor of the amphitheater, convulsing. It was sobbing and lying in a pool of some kind of bodily fluid. Horror, guilt, disgust and awe washed over me like a tidal wave as I watched; I was supposed to protect 049, and I’d failed.

“He murdered all those people, Cervantes. He was guilty.” whispered the voice of “Judgement”. 

“I want to take the body. For necropsy,” I said. 049 had stopped convulsing by now and was lying perfectly still.

“So be it,” replied “Judgement”. I picked up the body -- it was oddly light -- and carried it back into the world above.

Several people were standing around the entrance when I emerged. I laid 049 down on the ground as hushed conversations surrounded me. Lairmore nudged the dead skip’s head with her toe.

“Poor bloke,” she mumbled.