"Team, fall back," Adrian ordered. "Masks on. Rally at Conference 
Room Six. Fredrickson, take point." 


He spared Squire one last look as the team retreated. The old man's 
body had dissolved into slime, leaving only a goo-covered skeleton 
behind. The dagger had corroded into a clump of rust, and a few 
moments later, even that had crumbled into reddish-brown dust. 


"All right," Adrian said to his squad leaders, as the rest of the team 
took up rest positions inside the conference room. "Let's review the 
situation. Liquids?" 

"Green all around," Beatrix said. "Untainted, plenty of reserves." 


"Ammunition?" 


"Full loads on my team," Frederickson said. 


"Effie and me are down one mag each. Reloaded from Vince, picked 
up his spares. We're green," Bill said. 


"All right. No injuries, KIAs are leave-in-place. As for mission- 
essential equipment..." Adrian scoffed and shook his head. "At this 
point, guys, I'm not sure what our mission is any more. Team Able is 
down, presumed KIA. The nine of us aren't going to make it much 
further into the site. If this were any other mission, I'd call us combat 
ineffective and scrub it." 


"But it's not any other mission,” Beatrix pointed out. "This is it. We're 
all that's left." 


"Right," Adrian said grimly. "So I'm taking suggestions for ideas on 
what we should do next." 


"Has anyone suggested... you know. Asking the ancient Sumerian 
whatchamacallit?" Frederickson asked. 


All three of them turned to regard SCP-073. He alone had not 
entered the conference room, and was standing in the hallway 
outside, calmly looking down the darkened corridors, his steel hands 
clasped in front of him in an oddly demure fashion. 


Adrian and Beatrix exchanged a look. "It's worth a shot," Beatrix 
admitted. 


"Yes," Cain said. "| do have some advice on what you can do to 
rectify this situation." 


"All right," Adrian said. "Why didn't you say something before?" 


"You did not ask," Cain replied. "An answer is of no use if the 
question is not asked." 


"All right," Adrian repeated. "Well, I'm asking now. What do we do?" 


"That would depend on your definition of the word 'we," Cain said. 
"If by 'we,' you refer to you, the woman, and I... that is an answer | 
do not wish to give. If by 'we,' you refer to your squad in general... 
most of them will be of no use. Aside from you and your lover, the 


rest are irrelevant." 


"... I'm not sure | understood correctly," Frederickson said, after a 
long pause, "But | think Cain just told us to fuck off and let you and 
Beats handle the rest." 


"It would appear so," Adrian said, sighing. "Beats?" 


"The way | see it," Beatrix said, "Cain's the only one who has any 
ideas, which means he's already one step ahead of the rest of us. | 
say we do as he suggests." She gave the tall man a cold glare. 


"All right," Adrian said. "Then we're decided. Beats and | will go with 
Cain. As for the rest of the squad... Frederickson, you're in 
command now. | suggest you take the rest of the team and retreat to 
our starting point. There should be an exit in... about fifteen 
minutes..." 


"Begging your pardon, sir, but all three humvees are fucked. No way 
we can run fast enough to make it outside the mountain before it 
resolidifies," Frederickson pointed out. "Our only way out is through 
the front entrance." 


"That's going to take you through the thickest areas of hostile 
activity," Adrian pointed out. "Odds aren't good." 


"So in that case, we may as well come with you, right?" 
Frederickson said. "We're dead if we try to escape anyway, So we 
may as well join the suicide mission." 


"Look, Frederickson..." 


"Sorry, Adrian," Frederickson said. "You put me in command of the 
squad, remember? This isn't up to you any more. We're coming 
along." 


"All right." Adrian said. "Form up on me and let's get started..." 
And elsewhere in the facility, surrounded by the dead and dying, a 


stone cube opened up, and a tall, naked man with scarlet tattoos all 
over his olive skin emerged once more into the world. 


Incident Zero 
« Part 1 | Part 2| Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 » 


Incident Zero - Part 4 


And as this happened, in another site, a woman 
gasped as she collapsed to the floor. Her arms and 
legs rapidly withered into nothingness as her skin 
hardened into stone. Despite her desperate cries, 
her companions could do nothing but watch in 
horror as her body quickly petrified. . . and then 
they, too, began to scream. 


"Adrian?" 


"Hm?" Andrews tore his eyes away from the monstrous creature 
lurching along the path before them. Part ram, part slug, part flower- 
garden, it tilted its bandaged head from side to side as it glided with 
unnatural grace through the shattered hallways. Three nude women 
danced in slow circles around the horned figure, dressed only in 
copper helmets adorned with ribbons that fluttered in the wind of 
their passage. 


Beatrix sighed. "Give me an honest assessment. Do you really think 
we're going to survive this?" 


Adrian glanced at Cain, who was walking about twenty feet ahead of 
them, just a few feet behind the surreal procession. One of the nude 
figures approached the tall, olive-skinned man, her every motion 
speaking of the promise of sensual delights. Cain simply smiled and 
nodded his head in acknowledgement, and the figure retreated, 
head bowed and hands clasped before her bare chest. "If | didn't," 
he said at last, "It wouldn't do us any good to prepare for that. So 
let's say that | do think we're going to survive this, and proceed from 
there?" 


Beatrix nodded slowly, as if this were the response she'd expected. 
"In that case, remember that conversation we had last night? About 


three months in Europe versus ten minutes on the moon?" 
"Yeah." 


"We're probably due a bunch of leave after this," Beatrix said, 
stepping carefully along the carpet of rose petals strewn in the wake 
of the bulbous beast. "Three months in Europe wouldn't be out of 
the question. Want to come with me?" 


"Yeah," Adrian repeated. 
"On our honeymoon?" 


Adrian swallowed hard. "Sure," he said. "Sounds fine to me." His 
hand found hers, and squeezed it tightly. 


Up ahead, the odd procession paused at an intersection, turned 
right, and continued to dance, never missing a beat. Adrian, Beatrix, 
and Cain continued straight on, into the darkness. 


. and somewhere else, a man curled up next to a 
glowing green egg, holding it close to his chest. 
"Fa la ninna, fa la nanna," he crooned, stroking its cold, green shell 
tenderly... 


It was not long before they reached a tall, steel door, with the 
symbol of three inward-pointing arrows within two circles painted 
upon its gunmetal-grey plates. Cain stepped up to a security console 
at one side of the door, pressed his palm against a scanning plate. 
There was a loud click and a series of crunches as the door's 
locking mechanism released. "From here," Cain said, "I will follow 
you. It is necessary that the two of you enter first." 


"Is this a prophecy?" Adrian asked. 
"An inevitability," Cain replied. 


Beatrix nodded. "Then let's get this the fuck over with," she said 
sternly. She walked to the door, placed her hands on the door 
hands, and pushed. 


There was a loud crack. 
A high-pitched whirring sound, like a dentist's drill. 


Two arms made of steel and wires burst through the open door, 
grabbed Beatrix Maddox by the head, and twisted it, hard. 


There was a sickening crack of breaking bone. 


. and somewhere else, a man lay on a butcher's 
table, whimpering softly. Wordlessly, his 
tormentor sliced open his belly, pulled out his 
organs, and began expertly slicing into the 
tenderloin. As the man smiled in delirium, the 
butcher placed a small, paper-wrapped package in 
his hands. 


Beatrix... 


Adrian locked his anguished scream away inside the part of his mind 
that still wept when it sliced open the belly of a living cat. The rest of 
him raised his rifle and fired at the steel doll as it dropped Beatrix's 
broken body to the floor. 


lt was a good, clean, solid burst to center mass. The bullets 
flattened against the steel woman's bare belly and clattered to the 
floor. That high pitched whirring sound grew even louder and higher 
pitched, screaming like a jet engine turbine. 


Adrian's rifle stopped firing, bolt locked back. He let it fall, drew the 
pistol from his holster, fired twice more. His vision was blurring. He 
didn't know why. All he knew was that his hands were moving on 
their own, like a machine. Like the creature Able wanted him to be. 
Like the thing his superiors wanted him to be. 


The steel doll stood. Its joints glowed with bright blue energy. 
Intricate gears within gears spun and whirred in the gaps between 
its plates. It tilted its head to one side and opened a mouth full of 
cogs and wires. 


Adrian dove out of the way. Heat and ripping metal exploded behind 
him. 


Pain tore through his left leg, followed by a sudden numbness. He 
tried to stand, found that he didn't have two legs to stand on any 
more. 


The steel doll slowly got to her feet, from where the backblast had 
hurled it across the room... 


. and somewhere else, a woman screamed as a 
powerful beak tore into her face, ripping open her 
cheek and eyes. She struggled to get free, but her 
attacker was merciless, ripping off an arm with a 
cruel slowness. 


... and Adrian fled. 


He scrabbled away from the steel doll, towards the dusky-skinned 
man who still stood, smiling softly, just outside the doorway of the 
chamber. Something in him screamed that this wouldn't work, that 
this could never work, but he had no other way... 


He turned. Saw the steel doll revving up, joints glowing blindingly 
bright. It streaked towards him, ready to punch through and rip apart 
anything to get to the thing she hated so badly... 


The steel doll's fist smashed into Cain's face with all the force of a 
speeding train. 


The sigil on Cain's forehead flared blue, blindingly bright, 
illuminating the entire corridor like a camera's flash... 


There was an explosion. The gynoid came apart in a shower of steel 
and silicon, shrapnel bursting forth like a detonating shell... 


The last thing he saw was a razor-edged shard hanging in the air. 
His pain-addled mind tracked the course of that deadly little shard of 
metal all the way until it drove itself into his brain. 


Gonzalo, having learned of Isabella’s confession, consults with his 
fellow conspirators. Lodovico confirms that at least three people 
witnessed the Queen’s breakdown — the Duke of Sortino, his 
daughter Alinda, and a priest named Cornari. Gonzalo immediately 
begins to plan the murder or capture of the three in order to cover up 
the truth. He orders Isabella to be locked up in a convent, with the 
story put out that the Queen is mad. Isabella, uncharacteristically, 
meekly accepts Gonzalo’s judgment. The usurper then exits, having 
an appointment with the ambassador from Alagadda. 


Back in their lodgings in the city, Francisco brings Antonio news of 
the Queen’s imprisonment. Together, they begin to plan their 
revenge. 


ACT Ill: 

Petruccio and Gonzalo invite Sortino to dinner. They kill him and 
order the palace cooks to prepare the corpse as a stew. Gonzalo 
orders Alinda, who witnessed the murder, to be locked up in the 

convent. 


Antonio fakes insanity in order to gain admittance to the convent. 
Warned of Antonio’s coming, Isabella and her loyal servant, 
Beatrice, prepare to murder him using a draught of poison. Antonio 
sees through their plan and forces Isabella to drink the poison, killing 
her. Meanwhile, Francisco gets lost within the convent and winds up 
freeing Alinda from her cell by accident. 


ACT IV: 

In the palace, Gonzalo reports to Lodovico that he has, in exchange 
for an unstated ‘tribute,’ obtained a powerful and tasteless poison 
from the ambassador of Alagadda. Gonzalo plans to poison the stew 
made from the Duke of Sortino’s corpse and feed it to the court, thus 
ensuring the suppression of the truth. Lodovico leaves the stage to 
carry out the usurper’s plan. Gonzalo then has a brief moment of 
conscience: in a soliloquy, he describes the regret he carries for his 
sins, but is nonetheless unable to deviate from the path he has set. 


Meanwhile, Francisco introduces Alinda to Antonio, all three having 
escaped the convent. Alinda describes her father’s murder in grisly 
terms; Antonio promises to marry her and make her his queen, as 

soon as his revenge is complete. He then leaves to obtain a blade, 


. and somewhere else, a squad of men struggling 
to get the doors to their chamber open froze as 
they felt a small tickle growing in their noses 
and throats. Within moments, they were laying on 
the floor, gurgling out their last breaths as they 
struggled to breathe. Their deaths were witnessed 
only by a shadowy figure who regarded the dying 
men with something that resembled pity. 


... and somewhere, Agent Frederickson screamed as a razor- 
toothed earthworm fourteen inches long burrowed hungrily into his 
open eye... 


... and somewhere, a man in an orange jumpsuit huddled in a 
hallway full of smoke and gas as a hooded figure in a plague 
doctor's mask glided by, muttering indistinctly about a cure... 


... and somewhere, a woman turned and ran from a blank white 
mask hovering in the darkness of an infinite stairwell, but could not 
escape the death that followed... 


... and somewhere, a man sitting before a computer screen 
depicting a black-and-white map of the world saw the icon located 
over Yellowstone Mountain change from red to black... 


... and in that period of time, Cain finished laying Adrian Andrew's 
bleeding body next to that of his comatose lover's, stepped through 
the steel doors, and entered the chamber of The Bloom. 


It waited for him, resplendent in its infinite colors, iridescent petals 
stretching across the dimensions, slowly fading in and out of view as 
it turned gently in space. The cosmic flower at the heart of the world. 
The thing that had allowed humanity to try and try again when they 
had failed. The fruit of knowledge, the reflection of eternity. 


It had been so, so long since he had last been allowed to witness its 
glory. 


Cain heard an animal growl behind him. He turned, knowing already 


what he would see. 


His brother, the murdered murderer, stood in the doorway. A pair of 
black swords were clutched in his hands. His eyes were cold. Dead. 
Emotionless. Just as they had been after Cain's old hands had 
finished committing their one unspeakable sin. 


Cain's new hands, the ones made of steel and fire, clenched tightly. 
Blue flame erupted from between the joints of his artificial arms. 
They were matched by the crimson flames that burst forth from his 
brother's demonic tattoos. 


Able took a single step forward... 


Incident Zero 
« Part 1 | Part 2| Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 » 


Incident Zero - Part 5 


... and Cain stepped aside, head bowed respectfully. 


Able passed under the gates of pearl and fire and entered the 
chamber of the Bloom. His dead eyes beheld the text inscribed upon 
The Bloom in runes deeper than a man's arm, burning like gold 
upon the glassy petals that spanned universes. 


A cruel smile touched his thin lips. 


He laughed as he raised his hand above his head. The sword that 
burst forth stretched from his fingertips all the way to the stars, and 
beyond. It swallowed up all light that fell upon it, sang of death and 
the silent tomb, smelled of the void between worlds, devoured light 
and heat and life and hope... 


He slashed down once, and the blade sliced through the gleaming 
petals and embedded itself deep into the heart of The Bloom.