Near the Mountains - SCP Foundation

"It's more desolate than I thought."

"What did you expect?"

L2 and L3 spoke to each other, sitting in the open trunk of the team's pickup truck.

"This part of the country was hit very hard," L2 said, gesturing to the ruined buildings around them. "We should count ourselves lucky there's anything left."

L3 took another look around. "Think anything that big would be left alive in here?" He asked.

"Survive the destruction?" L2 said. "No…"

L2 took a swig from his canteen.

"…I'm more worried about what crawled out of the rubble."

L1 replied from the driver’s seat: "And our job is to find out what did.”

The ham radio on the dashboard crackled to life.

"MTF Lambda-12 ("Pest Control"). this is Site-81. Do you read?"

L1 picked up the receiver. "Site-81. This is MTF Lambda-12 ("Pest Control"). We read you."

"What's your status?"

"Sector is empty,” L1 said. “No encounters with any entities since the incident with four-nine-seven-five. Task Force currently searching for resupply."

"Roger, MTF Lambda-12."

L1 put away the receiver. "I still don't know how that thing escaped us,” He moved the steering wheel slightly, dodging the rusting remains of a van. “Much less escaped after… you know."

"Tick. Tick. Tick." L4 said from the passenger seat, smiling. L2 and L3 laughed.

"Oh shut up." L1 told him.

They continued on down the road. Past the overgrown remains of buildings. Some of them had shadows burned into their walls, the last remnants of their occupants that had disappeared in a flash.

The road was cracked, and rough. As they bounced around, L2 and L3 found it hard to hold their weapons with one hand while gripping the truck with the other. But that wasn't what took their attention.

Few humans had been through here since that fateful day, that much was obvious. The land around them always gave off eerie feelings. Emptiness, solitude, a lack of life.

"Hey!" L3 yelled. "Grocery store!"

He pointed down the road, to where a building sat. It was wide, and covered in vines and cracks.

"Looks sorta intact!"

"Right you are," L1 said, turning the truck towards it. "Let's see if there's any goodies to grab."

L2 kept his eyes forward, looking at L3 seated across from him. He could see L3 look towards the building with hope for something nice inside. Then his expression changed, he squinted his eyes. As he did, he took his hand off the truck, putting it on his gun.

L2 did the same, following L3's gaze. He readied himself, anything could be out here after all.

There was something moving in front of the building. It seemed vaguely orange in color, or possibly pink. It was holding something shiny.

"What the hell…" L1 said, squinting towards it.

As they drew closer, L2 could see it had a long, flat body, with two equally flat arms, all balancing on a long stem.

"Is that a giant fucking leaf?" L3 asked.

The leaf hopped forward by the end of its stem. In one of its arms was a long metal object with spikes on one end.

"That's a weapon," L1 said. "Keep your guard up, it may be hostile." They began to pull into the parking lot of the building, where it was pacing around.

The entity turned to them as they approached. It looked at them from the portion of its body L2 thought was the face, despite having no visible eyes.

Whatever it was, it lifted its weapon as they stopped.

"Hwa gao ware?" It yelled.

What is it saying? L2 thought. It wasn’t like any language he’d heard.

A few loud clanks followed as L2 and L3 hopped off the truck. They lifted their guns, not knowing what this creature’s next move could be.

"Doe na om' nay krosa!" It said, readying its weapon.

L2 held his breath. There was only a moment to think. It was hard to determine its intentions. Especially hard when the creature was speaking another language. Even if it did sound slightly familiar…

"Aye-a rani wit' a-anla da wa-"

BANG!

L3 let out a single blow from his shotgun. It tore through the creature's paper-thin flesh, shredding it to ribbons. It fell to the ground, killed instantly.

L3 looked to L2. Pointing a thumb at himself, he nodded towards the corpse. He then pointed his thumb to L2, nodding towards the open doorway into the building.

L2 nodded back. As L3 stepped towards the corpse, L2 went through the doorway, his gun ready.

The clumps of L2's feet rang out through the ruined interior of the store. Rusting shelves stood, dotted with dusty items. The cash registers sat closed, except for one. It was open, freshly opened. L2 looked to his left.

He spotted it.

This one was taller than the other one, but had no arms, and was a teal green color, lined with small spines. Next to it was a small woven bag, the top of a wine bottle sticking out the top.

It looked back to him with surprise, like it had seen a ghost. It raised up a stick. A stick that was tipped with a sharp, polished stone.

L2 didn’t hesitate when he realized what it was.

BANG!

A hundred metal pellets ripped through the big green leaf. It dropped its spear, then fell. L2 stepped closer, watching the creature wiggle around on the floor. A few moments later, it stopped.

L2 stepped out of the store, back into the light.

L1, L3, and L4 all crowded around the corpse of the first creature.

"Should we get Theta-4 over here?" L4 jokingly asked.

"Yeah," L3 said. "Like they still exist."

L1 looked to L2 as he emerged from the building. "I heard a shot,” he said.

"Found another one," L2 said. "Inside. It's dead.”

L1 looked back down to the corpse.

"Well," he said. "I don't know what to make of these."

He nudged the simple metal weapon the creature had been holding.

"But I don't think they'll get in our way in the future."

L1 walked back to the truck. The other three ventured into the store, picking out anything useful they could find.

L2 returned to the corpse of the creature he’d shot, the creature’s bag was still next to it. He examined it closer, rifling through the items. He found a few old coins, the type they used before the world was blown to bits. But the bottle of wine was the real prize.

Looking closer, the label was torn, and very faded. L2 could barely make out the year 1998 on the bottle.

“Hey guys,” he yelled. “I got us a treat for later.”

L4 gave a small cheer from two aisles over.

L2 took a last look at the body. He couldn’t help but wonder.

Where did they come from? What were they speaking? Why were they here? Where did they come from?

+ Input Site-81 Director Credentials

- Credentials Accepted

Note: On ██/██/20██, routine maintenance work at Site-81 broke into a previously unknown storage room within the Archives Wing. Carbon dating of papers found within the file cabinets returned a result of 200(+/- 20) years of age. A portion of one of the few recovered documents, a log detailing previously unknown activities of Mobile Task Force Lambda-12 (“Pest Control”) has been transcribed below.

5/15/████: Remains of the town of ████████ examined. No abnormal activity.

5/19/████: Remains of the town of ████ examined. No abnormal activity.

5/20/████: Sighting of an unknown flying entity at 0900, possibly a pterosaur.

5/27/████: Encounter with a hostile creature matching the description of SCP-4975. Creature eluded attempt at containment. Current status unknown.

5/31/████: Remains of the town of ██████ examined. No abnormal activity.

6/05/████: Encounter with two unknown hostile creatures, both neutralized during altercation with Task Force. Described as large mobile leaves brandishing simple weapons and speaking an unknown language. No identification could be made with any known entity in Foundation records. Remains were not retrieved.

- Credentials Accepted