SCP: Find Us Alive - 39: While the Door’s Open

Episode Date: March 3, 2023

Medical will soon allow visitors to see Agent Love. It won't be long before surgery starts. This episode was written by Anna Maguire and features the voices of Logan Laidlaw (Harley), Jackson McMurray (Lancaster), Taschia Ritter (Klein), Anna Maguire (Raddagher). Original music by Jackson McMurray. 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! CONTENT WARNINGS: death, hospitalization, human experimentation. 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

Hello, everyone. Anna here, writer and director of Find Us Alive and voice of Officer Radiger. I'm here to thank some new folks joining our Patreon. A very special thanks to Coulter Lemons, Cahillario, Kinesis, Gavin Nudson, Chase Bray, and Hayden Hodges. Thank you for your support. We are glad to have you here. Most of our income is from our supporters at Patreon, so if you like the show and want to check out our rewards and bonus content, consider signing up for a monthly subscription at patreon.com slash Find Us Alive. Thank you for listening and enjoy the episode. Overwatch Command, this is Dr. Harley.

Head of Communications at Foundation Research Site 107, reporting our current status. The state of SCP 632 remains the same as when I reported. No observable changes to the size, shape, or area of effect. Instances of SCP 632-1 continue to form around the site, but renewed efforts at the beheads of acting site director Alves have proved efficient in preventing the full completion of any instances. By this point, we have learned what to look for and how to break them, and we're doing so effectively in spite of...

In spite of, um, something, something that makes it like it's difficult to. There's something else. I'll come back to it when I remember. We have two instances of SCP 632-2 currently in containment. One derived from a potato, one from a golden pathos plant. The former is consistently docile. The latter often proves to be much less cooperative. Testing on both will continue soon. Also, in containment are two instances of SCP 632-3-3, formerly one D.

class individual and one staff psychologist. Research is discussing further testing measures with both. Considering the dash three seems to be more predictable than the dash two is at time of broadcast. Site 107 is experiencing a temporal loop effect inside this sub-dimension. Staff have been using the cycles created by the anomaly as a means to measure time and our progress towards escape. In a recent cycle, a large-scale environmental effect,

altered the gravity of the building, resulting in several injuries and the death of one engineer. The following cycle is suspected to have caused another injury. Site 107 upper management maintains that their current highest priority is keeping as many people in our site alive as possible. On the other hand, though, Director Alves is leaning toward a continuation in human testing, after former Director Klein put an informal freeze on it. As far as I am aware, Dr. Alves is still setting safety parameters in place for subjects, although I do not know how far those go.

She is also putting resources towards ensuring we avoid another event happening toward the end of the cycle. So far, we've had no significant incidents of note except the head of security officer Haldi's clearance badge seems to have gone missing. It unlocks quite a few doors, so men are. Many of us are concerned with finding it as quickly as possible. Psychology has seen an uptick in visits recently. This is Instance SCP 632-3-3B. It's Lancaster.

I'm tired. I can't keep all the numbers straight. They don't even count me as an employee right now. So what's the point of this? Call it a function of my stupid anomaly. Inability to keep this shit up. Sorry. No urges. Still no urges. No urges for almost two months. But who's counting? I am. I'm counting. Can I sue? If it turns out I'm not anomalous? I probably wouldn't anyway. Not that I'd ever win. And who would I even be suing?

All this? I'm proud of so tired. They won't let me talk to anybody. not anybody I know they do let the researchers come in here but Klein never does I don't think it's her fault Alvesa's probably just telling her not to just like she's telling everybody else

they're not allowed to come visit me they gave me a book that was that was not nothing I read it twice already and now what am I supposed to do do I just

I just keep reading the Da Vinci Code until the next person comes in to just give me a vague update on what's happening outside this room to tell me if she's dead or not. All they said was that Gravitt's going to try something. I don't know what the hell that's supposed to mean. They're just going to keep me locked up in here and she's, they're not going to let me up there. It goes like this. Hallway lights on at what we have collectively decided is 5 a.m. Blue white fly. The kitchen subset of maintenance, perfect as they are, have breakfast out by 8 a.m.

Work starts at 9. It looks like it did before the shift. Or at least it's trying to. Maybe we stay out of the hallways during work hours at the behest of our glorious leader, Dr. Alves, but it's not the same. Everybody's experienced what it's like to live in here. And you can't put the cat back in that bag. And then at five, we're more or less done. Free to do what we want.

But not really. No using facility equipment for recreational use. That means no projector, no microphones, no running around the hallways. Personal computers are okay, but how many of us actually have much of our own stuff. Not like anybody expected us to be trapped in here. I have a laptop I've been lending it out to people to screen movies and shows. There are a couple book clubs. People get really into those, I hear.

Lots of time spent with the same handful of books. People are rating all sorts of meaning into things. No guarantee that nobody will listen to this, but fuck it. I doubt Alves will do much more than lecture me if she does decide to snoop into my stuff and find this. Hi, by the way. Movies, books, whatever. Those are just the things we're allowed to do. But everybody in upper management knows

there's other forms of entertainment that people are scratching together. I think I might know better than most of them. And God knows we need that boost. I'm sure I could talk to Klein about the details. She'd probably know more than I would. If anyone could find her, Research says

She's been working really hard I don't know if I believe them Throwing yourself into your work isn't effective way of avoiding things But I don't know if Klein is actually working It seems like there have been delays To every step of research's development recently

I think she's finding ways to put off experimenting on Lancaster Does sabotage count as work I suppose it could And I could ask one of the nurses about her That might require extrapolating meaning from whatever weird cult jargon I can get out of them. Worth a shot if I can work up the energy. I could ask them what procedure they're trying.

I don't think I want to know any statistics about the outcome, though. I have to talk to Radiger today. It's been too long since I checked up on her. She's not doing well, obviously. Jesus Christ. She can't be in the room for the procedure, and I don't know how she's going to take that. Somebody has to talk to her about the possible outcomes. I know it has to be me.

Klein is M.A. and Lancaster, well, he's in containment, but she's also still mad at him. And I'm her friend. I'm one of her only friends. But I've been putting it off. I want to talk to her. Of course I do. It's just so hard when she's so closed off. She hasn't spoken to anyone since it happened.

I don't think she's eating or drinking much, or if she is, I haven't seen evidence of it. It seems like every time I see her, she's sitting in the medical wing across from the door. I don't know how she's going to react, and I'm so worried I'm going to make everything worse. I don't want to be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I really don't.

But the doors open. They opened her room. Oh, they opened her room. I gotta go. Observation log. Designation to be determined. According to a review of surveillance footage, the subject does not appear to be engaging in behavior that research or containment would designate as concerning.

Subject does show signs of mental health degradation, but seeing as the population of the site is displaying similar behaviors, research will not be taking measures to improve this anytime soon. The mental health of our staff remains the priority. In theory, research is drawing up plans for invasive testing to be conducted on instances SCP-630-3a and B, at a point when medical personnel are less preoccupied with their current doities. Fuck!

Fucking. Damn it. God damn it. All right. Let me try again. Radiger wasn't there. The door was open. I asked one of the nurses if she was inside.

He said that he didn't know where she was. The moment they opened the door, she all but fled down the hall. Didn't say a word, just left in a hurry. The curtain was drawn across the room inside. I could hear the heartbeat monitor beeping. Most of the lights were off. It was dim inside. The nurse told me I could go in if I wanted, but I just left.

Hey, Radiker, how's it? How's it hanging? All right. So I know. you're in a pretty bad spot right now. That's nothing. I'm sure she'll be fine. Why are you still in there?

Because I've got stuff, all right? I've got stuff to do. Great. You good? No. Is there anything I can do? I know that the door's open. Yeah.

Yeah, it is. So what's happening? Gravit is trying something. Why do you keep saying that? I didn't ask for details. Why not? Because I don't want to know. Well, I do.

What would it take? I think it's something with tubes. I don't know. What would it take for them to let me out? She's going under the knife in like a couple hours, like. I don't think there's anything I could do between now and... Well, what about after? What do they need?

What do they need to let me out? What do I have to do? There's one test containment brought up. They think it would give us a definitive answer about if you're still anomalous, but I want to avoid it if possible. Okay. Lancaster, it's basically, not basically. It's torture. They want to torture you. They want to subject you to extreme pain or emotional distress to see if it evokes the behavior that got you in here. I'll do it.

Hey, Radiger, I saw that they opened loved room. I won't lie, I'm not exactly in the best of place about it myself. Do you need any? Oh, I didn't think it would just... Of course she's not here. It couldn't be that easy, could it? Easily you said that. What do you want for me? She's dying. I want to see her. I made a promise that I wasn't going to hurt anyone for research. You made a promise in your capacity as site director. But you're not site director now,

are you? What else am I going to do in here? It's already torture. Yeah, I'd rather get it all over with at once. Why aren't you up there right now? No. You can't see her on the cameras. Over. Not on Holiday's card yet. Not in the infirmary, not in her room, not in the surveillance office.

Not in my office. Not in psychology. Nor where the cameras can see. At least not recently. To find her. She needs to. I don't know. She needs to see her before the procedure.

She's going to regret it if she doesn't go. It might be her last chance to before she dies. Oh. Hello, listeners. I lied. There is one more place she might be. It's just a matter of getting in there. Because you know who is good at finding things?

You know who has all the answers after all this time. That's right. Dump Truck. But Harley, you might be asking, what answers would Dump Truck possibly have? He doesn't even have a mouth. And to that, I say, neither does Hello Kitty. Think about that.

I am not doing very well. I don't know what I was thinking when I started coming down here. I figured maybe he could find her if I let him out. But how am I going to let him out? My plan so far is to go down to their containment cell and see if my card opens the door. Beyond that, I don't know. We don't have much longer. It's very important that I find.

her. A little light on the door to BH9. It's green. The main containment chamber's open. I... I resent that. Cool. You should be up there. Sh- You should be up there with her. I know, alright. Then why aren't you? How many times you're gonna make me say, I don't know, Lancaster?

I've been in a windowless box for a hundred years. I... I only... questions are all I have! Where's Harley? Is he up there? Jesus, Klein. He hasn't been talking to me. I haven't been talking to him. He's just shut up in his office drinking most of the time. Oh, good, good.

Great. Can't say I blame him. The stuff grows on you. Oh my god. It's not supposed to happen this way, all right? What isn't supposed to happen this way? We aren't supposed to die. I actually came down here to talk to Dunk Truck.

Or not talk. You know what I mean. So, you stole Haldi's Clem. stall Haldi's clearance card. Why all the way down here? Seems like a lot of effort. The cameras. They can't see you in this corner, can they?

Well, I'm sorry for finding you when you didn't want to be found. It's kind of beautiful in its own way. The anomaly, I mean? How long now? An hour-ish. You really should go up and see her. I know you don't want to think about it. I don't either.

But this might be your only chance to. But we do have to acknowledge the possibility that she's not going to make it. And I just want you to know that no matter what happens, I'll always... Ingrid. Overwatch Command. Our entire site has been transported to a largely theoretical, extra-dimensional space, through a process unknown to basically every established branch of science. with a plumb?

We shouldn't be alive. I'm serious. So am I? Kind of? But we are. We're alive in this hell. We survived. I mean, Casey went during some huge catastrophe.

Isn't that supposed to be how it happens? All we ever do is survive. Are you asking me? I'm just saying it's not supposed to be like this. We deal in monsters and magic and cracks in the building blocks of our reality. And we die in wormholes and last. and the jaws of creatures mortal men cannot look upon. I think maybe the world is cruel sometimes.

But it's not cruelty though, is it? She survived the shift. She survived every dash to attack. She survived the building literally going sideways. For it to be cruelty, it has to have some kind of intention, like a motivation behind it. You know what I mean. But that's my point. It's not our terrible things.

She did everything right. Our terrible things are like monsters and shit, but this isn't anything like that. She followed all the rules. This is ordinary. We're not supposed to be ordinary. We are ordinary. Yeah, well maybe she wasn't supposed to be. She survived all of that.

And she gets taken down by what? A broken vessel in her brain? All this time spent, making it through the most dangerous job in the world. What kind of a sick joke is that? All this time, and she dies like this? It isn't fair! It isn't fair. This is such bullshit.

And all I ever did was make it worse. Bullshit all the way down. We've only got 40 minutes left and I still haven't gone. I can't do it, like, I can't go up there. And neither can I. If I stay down here, does that make me a bad friend? I wasn't prepared for this. None of us were.

I don't think there's much that could prepare anybody for. What was that? On my way. She was sitting in a cheap plastic chair pulled up right against the bed, curled forward against the mattress, her head resting just beside loves. It sunk in that I hadn't seen love since they brought her in. Tubes attached to her arms in her nose.

no color in her face. I went into that room with every intention to check on Radiger to make sure she was okay. But when I saw love, she was laying in that bed. Underneath a cooling blanket they're using to slow her pulse down. But it wasn't her in there. Nothing that made love, love was in that room.

How was I supposed to feel like she isn't already gone? What if she did? is already gone. Radiger was still in there. So was one extra plastic chair. I said nothing. I pulled it up beside her and I sat down as close as I could. I didn't know what to say. So I didn't. We just sat together listening to the hiss of the oxygen and the beep of the heart monitor. It was hard at first. being so close to the inert body that was supposed to hold my friend. Still alive, but only in the technical sense. I don't know how Radiker could see with her sunglasses on and most of the lights off.

Her four-fingered right hand resting against loves, not quite holding it, like she was afraid to touch her. She leaned her head onto my shoulder. It confused me for a second. It didn't seem comfortable, first of all, but I knew that Radiker doesn't like being touched. and barely tolerates it from anyone other than love. I was still at a loss for why she would initiate it at all.

But I suppose she's always been a strange communicator. I didn't move. Afraid that if I did, she would withdraw again. But it didn't last too long anyway. She moved back to where she had been, as close to love as she could get without the risk of moving her. I don't know if she'll be okay. I don't know if either of them will

But I'm fairly certain one of them will accept help after all Whoever is listening I know you don't care It's been so long I'm sure we've all been mourned out there The foundation moves on too quickly The wheels keep turning I'm sorry if I'm muddying your airwaves with my own life

Our lives are a part of this place are they not Anyway, I'm signing off for now, Overwatch Command. I hope you're still looking. I hope you'll find us alive before we lose anyone else. Episode 39 was written and produced by Anna McGuire. The voice of Harley is Logan Laylaw. The voice of Klein is Tasha Ritter.

The voice of Lancaster is Jackson McMurray. The voice of Radiger is Anna McGuire. Original music by Jackson McMurray. If you like our show and want to support us, follow us on Twitter at site 107 or visit Find Usalivepodcast.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.