drlcarter

"I don't like this," said Atfers, picking her way carefully over a husk of a car. Ash fell around them endlessly and was cast up by her movements as she tugged the LS pipe from where it was going to get snagged on the rubble.

"Of course you don't," said Williams, trailing a few steps ahead of her. He was too casual about this, about the atmosphere of death and decay. He'd been on this trip before.

"Unease is part of scp-XXXX's known effects. If this is because of natural human reactions to visual cues or of anomalous nature is unknown," replied the third member of the party, who trailed far behind, taking samples from the ash. A robot, almost four feet in height, quadrupedal. A spindly arm took a scraping of the rusted outside of the car.

"Thanks, GLAE," said Williams.

"Sarcasm is not appreciated," replied GLAE. "If sarcasm is mis-detected it may result in a mission-critical failure."

"Sorry," Williams said, stopping in the middle of the greyed-out street.

Atfers caught up to him. "What is it?" She asked.

"Just waiting on the little guy."
There was a sound.

"What was that?" Atfers asked, in the same was she had asked her previous question.

"At intervals of six point eight hours, according to atomic clock 16-b on the surface, a noise matching a perfect-b flat will sound. There is currently no known origin," said GLAE. There was silence over the comms as the robot calculated and maneuvered over the rubble. "Fun fact. That is the exact sound of a supernova explosion."

"That's not a fun fact," Said Williams, continuing to walk.

"Marked down under 'unfun fact.' Will refrain from using it as a conversation piece."

"I thought you said no sarcasm."

"That was not sarcasm, researcher Williams."

"Oh."

There was quiet for several minutes as the three trekked along to the intersection.

It was always deathly quiet in XXXX, as though the constant ash muted every possible movement. The buzz of the comms was all that kept most from going mad. even amplified, recordings of what should be the creak of rusted rebar and crumbling concrete was silent.

The regular B-flat sound was theorized to be incredibly loud without dampening.
The intersection was a normal landmark, one every scouting party, no matter how small, crossed through. Williams strolled on into it, the four-way crossing as comfortable to him as the bed he slept in each night. To the right and left, crumbling buildings that had been measured and re-measured endlessly until they could be recreated- two high-rises, concrete and steel. suitable for apartments or offices.

"Hey, Williams, GLAE," said Atfers, who had never been within scp-XXXX, "Is that normal?"
She pointed across the street to the left, an empty lot that had lines and marks across the surface, once cleaned, probably a parking lot.

The street-corner held a single lamp, bent slightly at the middle. It flickered.

"Huh," said Williams, staring.

"Researcher Atfers, this is not a usual occurrence," said GLAE, who began to amble closer. Atfers followed. "There should be no electricity within XXXX except for what is brought in or generated by the foundation."

Atfers walked up to the lamp, staring up at it.

"Researcher Atfers, please step back. Unrecorded changes to XXXX are usually-"

Williams screamed.

Atfers turned to find-

Nothing left of him except his LS tube, spitting oxygen and sparking in the ash.

"GLAE-" said Atfers, beginning to panic-

Something hit her in the side, threw her and she felt the LS tube connected to her snap like a tendon. Her body was on fire and she was suffocating and the toxic air was poisoning her and she looked up, towards what was suddenly the only light, into the lamp.
Next to her, barely in the light, was GLAE's broken body. It blinked as it was dying, dimly, dimly she heard the robot- vital components damaged, shutting down- before everything went black.

Atfers woke up face-down in grey ash.

The helmet of her Biosuit was frosted over, but she felt neither warm nor cold. It took her a moment to process that she wasn't dead. It hurt too much.

Slowly, as to not aggravate the pain that was most likely a broken leg, she turned to sit up. There was dark spots, muddy, in the ash, and her Biosuit was torn open in several places. most noticeably her leg. It was painful to look at.

Around her, scattered in the ash, were bits of mechanical parts and Biosuit.

Two LS tubes lay uselessly half-way into the intersection, no longer operational. How the hell was she alive.

It only took her a moment to remember what GLAE was for-

Generates Livable Atmospheres & Environments.

She turned until she found the little robot, who sat, missing three legs and part of its exoskeleton, several feet away.

"GLAE!" she said, to get its attention, despite the fact it was staring directly at her, casting a light across the intersection. "GLAE, are you okay?"
No response. a small red light winked at her.
"GLAE? buddy?"

The light winked again, then she realized it was winking morse code at her.