Retrograde Motion [SCP X Reader]

Chapter 21: Exchange

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|| Something felt wrong. ||

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You still didn't know where to go.

There were places you could go, of course, but the issue was you didn't know where you wanted to go. Ideally, home but that wasn't feasible here and now. Quiet, not quite perfect home but still home all the same. You let that train of thought crash and burn swiftly. There were more pressing issues at hand like where you should actually go.

Maybe you should have asked 035 where people usually evacuated to before you started antagonizing him again. You were sure you could have gotten something from him if you framed it as some sort of exchange. Not that you would have let him out, of course. Whatever, it was too late to go back and ask 035 now since you had already made your dramatic declaration. It would be awkward to go back, really.

So, you were left wandering around Heavy Containment.

In all honesty, wandering around without all the essentials for a containment breach made you jittery. It wasn't as though you couldn't make it through without things like a level 5 keycard or night vision goggles but they were nice to have. You sighed. Maybe you should have just gone the conventional route and tried to escape the facility after all.

You blinked before opening another door. Old habits died hard.

Surprisingly, standing behind the door was a man, not 173, wearing the same blue jacket as you. He had a black sling bag with the number "507" embroidered neatly in white thread on the strap. You had seen him around in the halls at times though you had never talked to him. Ah, the highs and lows of not being particularly social on your own. It seemed he was just as surprised to see you as you were to see him.

"It's you," you commented. "What are you doing wandering Heavy Containment?"

"You're... [----], I think?" he asked hesitantly. His eyes shifted left and right before settling on looking at the floor. "I got lost. What about you?"

"Ran into 106." You neglected to mention that you were in 106's pocket dimension. "Ended up in Heavy Containment."

507 winced sympathetically. "That's some bad luck. Do you think 106 was the reason for the containment breach this time?"

"I... don't think so." There were undoubtedly other SCP milling about but it didn't feel like 106 was the one responsible this time around. There should have been an announcement or something if the "main threat" was taken care of, right? "I just have a feeling there's more to this than just 106."

He nodded. "Are you going to try to escape like when you first appeared?"

You blinked. "You've heard of that?"

"People gossip more than you'd expect." 507 almost sounded sheepish when he said that. If the staff were probably going to die due to circumstances beyond their control due to anomalies, they may as well gossip about said anomalies while they were at it, right?

"I guess it isn't that surprising... I'm not really planning on escaping this time. You?"

He shook his head. "I've been trying to get back to Light Containment but-" He shrugged helplessly. "No luck with directions."

Light Containment. For whatever reason, it caught your attention. "Is there a procedure for skips during containment breaches beyond, you know, waiting for MTF?"