Entities Abroad

Somewhere on the chilly ground, three surveyors shivered in the centre of the snowstorm. What was visible of the trio in the blanket of darkness were their breaths coiling in the air and immediately dissipating. Around them, thousands of tonnes of freezing rock stretched away into the valley.

The snow was falling quickly now; flakes settled on their hats and made themselves comfortable over their gloves. Any darker, and the air would swallow what was left of them. Two ounces of tuna a day, and many miles in a biting gale on foot had reduced their bodies to frail, walking skeletons, their stomachs caved in, their cheeks shrunken, their eyes heavily blackened as to the same manner in which they might have looked coming out of a fight club.

Hunched together, the warmth they shared served as good a tactic as sharing ten bullets between an army, for the blizzard hampered their senses. Beneath their woolly gloves, the cold was a venomous animal; it began with paralysing its prey, freezing the fingers immobile, so not a thing could be felt as it started to gnaw and feed, consuming the flesh bit by bit.

Yet the surveyors were giddy as hell.

They'd found it! In the name of The Lord, they'd found it!

SCP ████ lay nestled half-buried in the snow, as peaceful as a chick in its roost.

Body trembling violently, the first surveyor knelt down beside the ██████ object. Long since had the group lost the ability of speech. Their lips had been torn to shreds by frostbite, and so the first surveyor's eyes were the only tool he could use to communicate.

But how great they were at it. The object has been found, my friends…

He looked up, peering into the eyes of the second surveyor, who asked, But how are we to inform the Foundation of our finding?

The third surveyor, glancing into the eye of the second, nodded. For alas, we have no way of communicating with the rest of the team. You lost our radio transmitter, and now we ourselves are miles out. In the middle of nowhere

Surely, shivered the second, you have lost your mind, as well as your hands.

But look! goggled the first, gesturing frantically with his blackened stumps to SCP ████. None of that matters anymore, for we have come across our destination!

The second and third surveyors grinned, then turned towards each other. Yes. None of that matters, now that we've found it! The Foundation sent us out. My brain is frozen over, and so I can't remember much, only that it was part of one of their tests. This was our goal.

General [BLANK]: Report, Subjects One, Two and Three have evidently come across the object SCP [DATA EXPUNGED]. Over

Officer [BLANK]: Copy that. What are the current states of the subjects, sir?

General [BLANK]: Sensory monitors show signs of high adrenaline levels in each body, especially Subject One. Group has been travelling for five days and eight hours straight.

Officer[BLANK]: Are there any signs signalling a want to return back to base?

General [BLANK]: Unfortunately not, officer. Subjects have come across SCP [DATA EXPUNGED] and show no desire to go back. Bodies are in a state of morbid malnutrition but all food rations are gone. The seventh attempt at Expedition SCP [DATA EXPUNGED]-J has been a partial success, for the subjects have completed their journey, yet have inevitably ended their own lives in the process. The uncontrollable desire to track down SCP [DATA EXPUNGED] was at its peak five miles from the location, and rendered all three insubordinate. They haven't stopped once until now.

Officer [BLANK]: Copy that. Damn … we'll try again next time …