SCP: Find Us Alive - 24: The Beach Episode

Episode Date: November 5, 2021

Site-107 is full of water and nobody knows how. And this close to a Reset, no one much cares either. This episode was written by Anna Maguire and features the voices of Logan Laidlaw (Harley), Jackson McMurray (Lancaster), Tabi Bardall (Agent Love), Taschia Ritter (Klein) and Anna Maguire (Raddagher). Original music by Jackson McMurray. CONTENT WARNINGS: alarms, sudden loud noises . Follow us on Twitter @Site107 or visit findusalivepodcast.com for updates, info, art, and more. Join us on Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes content! Word of mouth is the best advertising, so be sure to share with your friends if you like the show! This podcast and all content relating to the SCP Foundation are released under a Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0 license. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hey everybody, Anna here, writer and director of Find Us Alive. We've got some new patrons to thank. Etowal, Euclid, Dizzy, Kenneth Keller, Ogre 333, Cherlington Beescoat, and Stefan Sparks, thank you for your support. We appreciate each one of you. Donors on our Patreon get a handful of different rewards from shoutouts to merch to personalized messages, plus access to our exclusive behind-the-scenes content. If you'd like to join them, visit Find Usalivepodcast.com and check out our awards.

Thank you and enjoy the episode. It is day 30 of our current cycle, Overwatch Command. Two more days until we reset once again. By now, we have reason to believe that the large-scale environmental effects the site is experienced are not caused by the resets themselves. The current working theory is that it's still the formation of large dash-1 instances that causes things like blackouts and temperature changes. but proximity to the end of a cycle impacts the severity of the effect.

And I guess it's good that it doesn't work the other way around. Imagine getting stuck with a site-wide anomalous blackout on the fourth day of the cycle and then having to live in the dark for a whole month. Douched a bullet there. Research is planning to do some testing into the increased severity of the environmental effects that occur closer to the end of a cycle, and considering how diligent we've been with watching, out for dash ones, it's likely that they'll have some spare time for it these next few days.

This time, I'm hoping we can experience a reset we're actually ready for. Maybe with some extra anticipation, we'll be better prepared to get back onto our feet even quicker. I won't lie, I'm rather looking forward to the thought of a reset I can relax through. One where I'll be a little less soaked in adrenaline when I wake back up to that all-too-familiar array of alarms and tremors and panic for once. I'd like to not have to worry about something like water coming out of my ceiling tiles. There's water coming out of my ceiling tiles. There's water coming out of my ceiling tiles.

All right, so I'm working in my office. I have to pee more than I ever have in my entire life. I've finished my work. I stand up to go to the bathroom, and you will not believe what happens. Oh, oh, hey, hey, my office is flooding? Is anybody else's office flooding? Oh, the car tower. We were just sitting in the office.

Our shift had just started when all of a sudden, water starts gushing out of the ceiling. Like, it looked like the end of the Titanic movie. It was coming out of everywhere. I tried to clean it up with whatever we had in the office, but it was so much water. Ah! Get it! Get it!

There's too much. Catch it! It's on your sleeping bag! I only have these two cups. Throw it into the hallway! There's more water in the hallway. What's up? All right, site 107.

Calm down. It's starting to slow down. We're very likely not going to drown. Please calmly make your way to the cafeteria so we can do a head count. So far, we've had no reports of anyone getting hurt. Research is testing the water to make sure it isn't dangerous. So until such a time as we know it's safe, please try to come into as little contact as possible with the water.

I know that's nearly impossible, but just stand on top of a table or something. I cannot emphasize this enough, though. don't drink it. I repeat, do not drink the ceiling water. All right, report to the A.B. Floor as soon as possible. What are that in twisted? Reddick, help, help me. Stand up. What, but...

There aren't any sharks. It's an anomaly. There could be sharks, dash two sharks. What caused this one? I don't know. I just want to find something we can use as a boat so we don't have to swim the hallway. It's only about two feet high.

Maybe for you. It was really scary at first. It began so suddenly and there was so much water so quickly. I really thought we were going to flood completely. For several minutes, my most pressing and urgent matter became finding a way to keep from drowning. Like every other large environmental effect, it was terrifying. But unlike the others, it was only scary.

until it wasn't. The time is 1800 hours, and the site is filling up with water. Overwatch Command. Or not filling up exactly. The ceilings mostly stopped pouring down on us about 30 minutes ago, but we are very thoroughly flooded now.

From the radio chatter right here, we have about two feet of water on every floor of the building. By virtue of being employed by the foundation, I am a man of science. And my scientific evaluation is that this water is very clear and surprisingly warm. And I'm only assuming it's water here

because it could, in all likelihood, be something that just looks and feels like water. Oh, we're still waiting for research to determine the safety of the water, but my God, do I want to know what it tastes like so bad? By the time the flooding and mostly stopped, the concern turned to the safety of the water itself. You live in this world long enough

you'd learn not to trust anything at face value. Whatever we were flooded with could have been water. Also could have contained a slow-acting toxin or been carcinogenic. I strongly advise getting onto the tables and completely out of the water. It took a lot longer to get everyone all the way up to AB. The elevators weren't working. It ruined a bunch of my notes, but it's okay. Where did it come from?

But everybody, except the two researchers who were testing the water in the lab, made it up to the AB floor. And I have everyone's attention. Research will have the test results to us soon. Please remain calm until then and try to stay out of the water as much as possible. Could there be sharks? Could there? What? And so, packed like sardines on top of the cafeteria table, we began the next phase of the event.

The waiting. We were in there forever. And, you know, it was actually nice to be out of the office for a little while. And, you know, even if that meant being soaking wet and anxious about the possibility that I had just waited through, what, 10 miles of asbestos water? Wildcard environmental effects don't happen by themselves. All right, everybody, settle down, settle down. I have word from research, listen up. So there's good news and bad news.

The bad news is that the water has damaged some of our equipment. Elevators are down, some of the lights are dead, Bonnie did their best to rescue. what they could, but we might be a little low on crops next cycle. Nothing catastrophic. We'll do what we can. The good news is that our life support systems are adequately flood-proofed and won't be going offline anytime soon. The better news is...

The water was safe. Just regular water. Not potable without filtering, but no more dangerous than something you'd find in a rain barrel in someone's backyard. And it was as warm as a hotel swimming pool. So now it was a matter of what to do with it. All right, 107, let's get to work. It was like almost two whole days until the next reset.

We'd need a little bit of dry land. So we started to clean up as much as we could. Botany went to see about their plants, maintenance and engineering, went to check up on any hazards caused by the flooding. Medical relocated a couple things upstairs. Surveillance went looking for dash ones. And the rest of us got to work, trying to get rid of the water. Why is...

How could this not be overwhelming our pipe system? It is overwhelming our pipe system. Look at my sink. Whoa. You should be wearing your dumb little shorts for this. Well, the shorts were from last cycle. I didn't make them again. Wait, you didn't have them from before?

No, I don't wear jorts to work. I cut up my pants that one time because I thought it would be funny. It was funny. Uh-oh, I think my pipe's backed up too. You know what that means. Do I? There's only one way to. get rid of it. In what way is that?

Open wide. No, no. Knock it off. Stop it. All right, people, she needs a flat bottom and high sides, just like in elementary school. If I'm going to command this cleanup operation, I'm going to need one cool-ass boat. It's all about efficiency. Hand me the duct tape. Looks like most of them are offline.

They're all placed close to where the water initially came out. They must have been damaged when it first started. I need to see. We've got barely 30 hours left. It'll be fine if you clock out for a little while. I need to see. Why? Find out what happened.

I don't know, Radiger. Sometimes anomalous things just... Something happened. Want to call into security? They're sweeping the building for dash ones right now. Or, Klein, and some of the researchers are trying to build a boat. I'm sure they could use some expert help. Fine.

Okay. No, no, get away for, get away from me. No, no, come over here. I just wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I have a secret, I wanna put a secret in your ear. Empty out that bucket, you monster. Okay. God, okay, okay, I need a break.

You think we could try pouring it into the toilets? And a loser, you know that, but I miss you coming around. Yeah, yeah, me too. You gonna start doing stuff with us again after we reset? Yeah, yeah, probably. I feel like I've almost,

crack that thing, that project I'm doing. After that, maybe. But all your notes and papers are going to get, like, reset, put back. Oh, that's okay. The important part's done. So the pipes were overwhelmed almost everywhere. A couple sinks and toilets worked here and there, but not enough for the whole site. Had to tell people that buckets might be it until we reset and all the bathrooms are back in commission.

But we've got a bunch of shit from the bathtub moonshine people that we can use to make enough portable water for the next day. Did you say portable water? Yeah? What? It's potable. I'm going to kill you. The only area of the site that ended up mostly dry was A-B. We put a lot of effort into clearing the cafeteria so there would be at least some space to dry off.

We blocked off the area, sandbagging with whatever we could find that worked. It wasn't a massive space, but it was enough for everyone to be able to sit down. And big enough for some of us to keep building our boat. Hey, I want to build a boat? You have to find your own supplies, then, agent. We are not sharing. I'm going to love steam. What?

Wait, no, you can't change teams. You're so good at boats, Radiger. Supplies. Yeah, let's go. But after a few hours of cleaning, sandbagging, safety checks, and supply gathering, it became apparent that we had everything we needed for the next day, dry and in our safe zone. Maybe we'd be a little hungry, maybe a little damp.

Maybe we wouldn't get any sleep and we'd have to pee in bottles. But we could survive for a day. Easily. Float, float, float, float, float! Now for the ultimate test. Will it support a human being? It's going to be too small. Yeah, duh. It's not for people.

The moment of truth. Fine. You should put him back before someone sees. Are you all right? Fine. It's a beautiful day here in the void. The sun is shun. The sun is shining.

The birds are singing. My imaginary raft is floating. Could life get any better than this? Perhaps if I had an ice cold... Tidal wave. Alves is totally dry right now. Don't. What do you think she'd do if I dumped water on her?

Don't. She'd be real mad, probably. Klein, do not. I need a card to BH9. Hey, Radiger, Love, traitors. How'd your boat work out? It worked out great. Not for people, though. If you know what I mean. I get what you mean.

Because it's for dump truck. Yeah, yeah, I get it, love. Can I have your card? Uh, why? I need it to get into BH9. What's in BH9? Want to check the rift. I don't think I want anyone going all the way down there, no.

We have some people patrolling just to make sure nothing new pops up. Have they found anything? Hard for particles to form into. anything when they're underwater apparently. Relax a little bit. We can worry about it tomorrow. I'm worried about it now. Radiker, I promise the world will not come crashing down around us if you loosen up.

Have some fun for a while. Uh, what's you doing? Sandcastle. What if you got? Pears? Yeah. The tower's all green beans. That can't be good for it.

Eh, who cares? It'll be dry again tomorrow anyway. But play chicken with us. No. Nope, I'm relaxing. Lisa! You even playing chicken. The person on the bottom sits down.

They are so strong. I work out, you nerd. Let's kick some ass. Terror's of the sea. Harley! Nobody is worried. We don't have much longer until the reset. Everyone's fine.

What have you been doing in your office? Well, I've been working on my project. What is your project? I'm trying to find a way to neutralize the memetic effect, remember? But what are you doing? Why are you so concerned about it? You're acting weird. You're acting really weird.

I don't... I... Okay. Do you remember when we talked to chapel together? You said you were trying to be less paranoid, right? Yes. Do you think maybe there's some of that going on here? Because I bet this is a really stressful situation for you, right?

Yes. I'm... I'm sorry that I've been distant. I promise you are not the only one who's anxious about what's happening. It's hard to investigate right now. We just have to wait until the site is back to normal, and we can look into what happened afterwards, right? Right.

Just take her easy for a while. I think it would be good for you. On your marks. Get set. Go! You're cheating! My boat is better than yours! Look it through here.

Uh, like this? No, under this piece here. I'm gonna be such a great pirate. God, I'm starving. I got wet chips. Everybody ready? 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Episode 24 was written and produced by Anna McGuire.

The voice of Harley is Logan Laylaw. The voice of Landcaster is Jackson McMurray. The voice of Klein is Tasha Ritter. The voice of Agent Love is Tabby Bardal. The voice of Radiger is Anna McGuire. If you like our show and want to support us, follow us on Twitter at Site 107 or visit Find Usolifpodcast.com. This podcast, along with all content relating to the SCP Foundation, is released under a Creative Commons share-a-like 3.0 license. Thank you for listening.