入口
Siren lights flooded the hallway with red. There was no alarm. Carlotta, Lucretia, and a few others were silent as they stared at the door on the opposite end. The space seemed almost infinite. Carlotta furrowed her brow, knowing that it was a ridiculous idea. She could even see the door, it was only five or six meters away, but it was the only word that could describe it. Her mind couldn’t help but tell her that she was peering into a bottomless pit.
警报器的红光倾泻在走廊上。听不到警报声。Carlotta，Lucretia和其他几人一言不发地地注视着走廊那端的门。Carlotta皱紧眉头，知道那想法荒唐极了。她甚至能看到那扇门，距离这里也就五六米远，但能描述它的词汇只有一个。她禁不住去想，自己正凝视着一片无底深渊。
She stepped forward — those leadership courses were finally going to pay off — and gestured for the rest of the team to follow. They were all still. Carlotta sighed. Of course they were going to need some kind of speech.
她往前走了一步——那些领导学课程终于派上用场了——并示意队伍的其他人跟上。他们全都一动不动。Carlotta轻叹一声。当然了，他们会需要某种演讲的。
“This is as far as I’m going to take you. That feeling you all have in the back of your head is normal. We don’t know what causes it, but it’s a sign of low-level reality alteration. You’ll feel sick, you’ll probably experience bouts of vertigo and anxiety, and you might start seeing things that… shouldn’t be there.” Carlotta drummed her foot against the floor. Each second she spent with her back turned away from the hallway, more sweat accumulated on her face.
“我只能带你们走这么远了。你们脑袋后面会产生那种感觉是正常的。我们不知道它是由什么造成的，但这的确是低级现实转变的迹象。你们会感到恶心，可能会经历一阵又一阵的眩晕和焦虑，说不定还会看见……不该在那里的东西。”Carlotta用脚敲击着地面。她朝走廊背过身去的每一秒，汗珠都在面颊上越积越多。
“The foretold illusions!” said the caped, masked, and cloaked crusader near the back of the group. “One of the most nefarious enemies of man!”
“是预言中的幻象！”被披肩，面罩与披风包裹得严严实实的斗士在小组后方说。“人类最邪恶的敌人之一！”
“We don’t know if they’re hallucinations,” Carlotta said. “Reality here is flimsy. Things that weren’t real a second ago could suddenly start interacting with the real world like that. And that is why we have the buddy system: you stick with a partner at all times. As far as we can tell, this thing can’t directly influence any of you, only the world around you.”
“我们并不知道它们是不是幻觉，”Carlotta说。“现实在这儿相当薄弱。就算几秒前还不大真实的东西，也可能突然开始以那种方式与现实世界交互。正因如此，我们会采用两人同行制：你们要时刻紧跟一位伙伴。据我们所知，这玩意并不能直接影响到你们，只能影响到你们周身的世界。”
Lucretia was leaning against a wall at the back of the group, the handle for a cage containing a demonic parrot resting in her hand. A large back vest had been draped on top of it. Lucretia had said it was to stop the parrot from becoming nervous, but knowing her, Carlotta couldn’t rule out the possibility that she just wanted to shut it up. She smiled, but a thought crossed her mind and it disappeared.
Lucretia正斜靠在小组后方的一堵墙上，手中稳稳地提着装有恶魔鹦鹉的鸟笼。一件宽大的黑马甲盖在了笼子上方。Lucretia说这是为了防止鹦鹉变得紧张，但Carlotta了解她，要说她其实只是想闭上那只鸟的嘴，也不是没有可能。
She wasn’t talking. Carlotta had expected more from her now that she finally had the chance to do something besides sit in a cell and let her brain rot away. She had seemed so optimistic earlier, but now it was as if a switch had been flipped in her mind and the woman that Carlotta had been so friendly towards had just disappeared. Carlotta averted her gaze. She had more important things to focus on.
她一言不发。Carlotta本来还期待她说些什么，毕竟总算不用坐在牢房里任由脑子烂掉，可以去干些别的事了。早些时候，她看起来是那么乐观，可是现在，仿佛脑子有个开关切换了似的，Carlotta曾友好相待的那个女人就这么消失了。Carlotta移开了目光。她还有更要紧的事得关注呢。
“Alright. Are there any questions? 1360? Rainer? Anyone?”
“好啦。有谁想提问吗？1360？Rainer？哪位都好？”
Nobody had moved a muscle. Carlotta could hear the sound of her own heartbeat. It was like the world itself was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen. She examined each member of the team: the towering android, the quivering kid, the superhero, the Sarkic, and the caged demon. She tried to work out any possible scenario where they all wouldn’t end up dead by the end of this mission.
所有人都纹丝不动。Carlotta听得见她自己的心跳。世界本身仿佛都屏住了呼吸，等待某件事发生。她检查了各个小队成员：高大的机器人，发抖的孩子，超级英雄，欲肉教徒，还有被锁在笼中的恶魔。她努力地去设想任何可能的情景，任何这次任务后全员生还的情景。
Her mind hadn’t come to a conclusion yet. “Before you go,” she said, “I want you all to remember something. Right now, you’re Alpha-9. That means that you’re expected to act like one. A lot of people are betting against you, so I will say this in the kindest way possible: don’t fuck this up.”
而她的思绪没能给出什么结论。“你们动身前，”她叮嘱道，“我想让你们所有人都记住。此时此刻，你们就是Alpha-9。这意味着你们的行为当与身份一致。许多人都指望着你们呢，所以让我尽可能厚道地说吧：别他妈搞砸了。”
Lucretia burst out laughing. Seeing the overly-serious look on Carlotta’s face was enough to break her out of her anxious scowl. For a moment, Carlotta wasn’t sure if Lucretia’s mind had switched to a different personality. But soon the grin on her face faded and the stoic look returned. She laughed because she thought it was funny. There was no other reason.
Lucretia爆发出一阵大笑。看见Carlotta那严肃得过了头的表情，她实在没法继续板着脸了。Carlotta一时间没法确定Lucretia脑子里是不是换了个人格。但很快，后者脸上的笑容就消失了，那副难以捉摸的做派重新取而代之。她笑只是因为被逗乐了而已。并没有别的原因。
Then, without any real cue, the team began to walk. No one in particular led the group. It was just a mob of anomalies marching into the unknown. Carlotta stayed behind for a little while and watched them make their way to the first room. Once the door shut behind them, she turned and briskly walked to her command station.
接着，小队不由自主地走了起来。没有特定的领队。仅仅是一帮踏入未知的异常罢了。Carlotta在他们身后站了一会儿，目送他们抵达第一个房间。那些人一关上身后的门，她就转过身，麻利地走进了她的指挥站。
早些时候
“These…” Carlotta dropped a set of five vests onto the table. “Are going to be our line of communication. They’re each fitted with microphones, about a dozen each. They can capture your voice as well as any noise within a meter or two. That way if you drop your vest, you can still communicate with us.”
“这些装备……”Carlotta将五件背心丢在桌子上。“将会组成我们的通讯线路。它们全都装有麦克风，每件上面都有十几个。它们能捕捉到你的声音，以及附近一两米内的噪声。这样一来，你们脱掉背心后就仍然能与我们通话了。”
The barracks were empty, a sight that was noticeably uncommon. The gun ranges were silent, weapons remained in their racks, and four foldable tables had been arranged in the center of the room for the briefing. They were in a square formation, and Lucretia hopped off the one opposite of Carlotta to examine one of the vests up close.
小屋内空荡荡的，显露出一副不寻常的光景。各式枪械静悄悄地陈列着，支架上还摆放了许多武器，四张折叠桌被安置在房间中央，以供通告会之需。它们呈方阵排列，Lucretia跃过Carlotta对面的那张，近距离地检察起一件背心来。
“How will we be able to hear you?” Despite Lucretia’s large frame, the vest was still slightly too big for her.
“我们该怎么听你说话呢？”尽管Lucretia体格庞大，这背心对她来说也仍然太宽松了点。
“With these.” Carlotta held up a small crescent-shaped object in her fingers. Lucretia squinted at it for a moment.
“用这个。”Carlotta拿出一个新月形的小物件，放到对方指间。Lucretia捏了捏它。
“Are they earpieces?” someone behind her said. Lucretia turned and locked eyes with the kid, Rainer. He was sitting at the far end of the room, still wearing the prisoner uniform the facility had issued to him. Rainer broke eye contact first.
“这是耳机吗？”她身后的某人说。Lucretia转身，目光落到那名孩子，Rainer身上。他正坐在房间末端，还没换掉设施分发给他的囚服。Rainer率先移开了视线。
“You’re a smart one.” Carlotta began to place an earpiece on each vest. “Each earpiece is paired to a specific vest, so we’ll be able to talk to you individually or as a group. The vest is the one doing the actual heavy lifting, though. It can send a signal through a dozen floors of messed up reality. You lose it, your earpiece is functionally dead. Lose your earpiece, the vest can still function normally.”
“你很聪明。”Carlotta开始给每件背心安上耳机。“每个耳机都和相应的背心配对了，所以我们单独联络你们，也能向全队通话。话虽这么说，起到主要作用的其实是那件背心。它能跨越层层混乱的现实传输信号。你们如果弄丢了它，你的耳机也会彻底丧失功能。如果你们弄丢了耳机，至少这件背心仍然能正常工作。”
The Specter snapped his focus away from one of the gun ranges. “Ah! But you have failed to account for super-hearing. That renders this technology obsolete!”
Specter将注意力从各种枪械那儿拉了回来。“啊！然而你们没把超级听觉考虑在内。害得整个技术都跟不上时代了！”
“Oh. Do you have super-hearing?”
“哦。你有超级听觉？”
“Well… um… The point is that you failed to account for it! You shouldn’t forget things like that. In situations like this, small details could spell doom for a team.”
“额……这个嘛……关键在于你们没能考虑到这点！你们真不该忘掉那种事的。在这种局面下，小小细节也可能给队伍带来厄运。”
“I’ll… keep that in mind. Thanks.” Carlotta turned back to the group. “Are there any questions?”
“我……会多加注意的。感谢提醒。”Carlotta背过身去。“还有什么问题？”
Rainer perked his head up, but soon he brought it back to the floor. Carlotta’s finger flew up and pointed at him.
Rainer昂起头，但立刻又将它低了下去。Carlotta扬手指了指他。
“Rainer?”
“Rainer？”
He remained fixed to the ground as the rest of the team turned to look at him. There was a stubborn silence for a few seconds, almost long enough to start grating everybody’s nerves.
小队的其他成员纷纷扭头看向他，而他依然死死地盯着地面。寂静顽固地持续了数秒，几乎叫大家烦躁起来。
“Will we be able to hear each other?” His voice was so quiet that the sound was overpowered by the thoughts passing through Carlotta’s mind.
“我们能听见彼此吗？”他的声音相当微弱，以至于被Carlotta脑海里的各种想法盖了过去。
“What was that?” She stepped forward, hand pressed to her ear.
“你说什么？”她向前走了一步，手扶着耳朵。
“Yeah, that’s a good question,” Lucretia interjected. “Will we be able to hear each other? There’s no point to this if we have to go through some Director to speak to one another.”
“对，好问题，”Lucretia插嘴说。“我们能听见彼此吗？要是我们非得通过某个主任才能相互对话，那就没什么意义了。”
“It won’t be a problem,” Carlotta said. “The commanders on this mission have worked for years in situations like this. They knew how to distinguish their own voice from a hallucination. And unless anyone here with experience communicating within reality-warping anomalies has a better idea, we’re going to have to use them.”
“不会有事的，”Carlotta说。“本次任务的指挥官已经在这种情境下工作好多年了。他们清楚怎么从幻像中辨认出自己的声音。而且，除非在座的各位中恰好有人有在现实扭曲异常中进行通讯的经验，而且能想出更好的点子来，我们就还是得用这些装备。”
The room quieted down as Carlotta distributed the vests among the team. The Specter took his after some hesitation, Lucretia threw one to Rainer and slipped on another. A voice peeped up from behind her.
房间静了下来，Carlotta开始给小队分发背心。Specter在接过他那件时犹豫了一下，Lucretia则将一件丢给了Rainer，自己套上另一件。她身后，一个声音吱吱地响了起来。
“Oh, how the question gives me such a migraine, but how would you fit that vest on to my frame?”
“呜呼，杂疑充耳头风犯，衣不称体又怎堪？”
Lucy and Carlotta both turned to the gray parrot that was gripping onto the sides of its iron birdcage. They looked at each other, then the parrot, then back at each other. Lucretia grabbed the final vest and flung it on top of the cage. Carlotta shrugged and yelled at the group to get moving.
Lucy和Carlotta全都看向了那只灰鹦鹉，此刻它正抓住铁鸟笼的一侧。她们对视，然后看了一眼鹦鹉，然后再度相互对视。Lucretia一把抓起最后的背心，把它狠狠抛到鸟笼上方。Carlotta耸耸肩，大喊着催促队伍开始行动。
走廊
Lucretia trailed behind Rainer, her eyes scanning every detail of his tiny frame. There was barely any muscle on his skeleton and the bottom of his drawstring pants dragged against the floor. He kept his eyes straight forward, always looking to the next door, the next room. It had been almost an hour-and-a-half, but nothing had happened yet. It was just more hallways and more red lights and more buzzing in Lucretia’s ears.
Lucretia跟在Rainer身后，眼睛审视他细瘦身躯的每处细节。他瘦骨嶙峋的身体几乎看不出什么肌肉，拉线裤的裤腿耷拉在地上。他直直地望着前方，始终紧盯着下一扇门，下一个房间。已经过去几乎一个半小时了，但还是什么都没发生。只有更多的走廊，更多的红灯，更多在Lucretia的耳畔萦绕的嗡嗡声。
“You’re… approaching… a staircase…” the commander said. It felt like her brain was bleeding a little bit. The sounds around her were scratchy and sometimes didn’t register for some strange reason. She had to use all of her focus to pick out the words.
“你们在……接近……楼梯……”指挥官这样说道。她感觉脑子仿佛在出血。周身的声音夹杂着沙沙声，有时，出于某些古怪的原因，还难以被注意到。她必须聚精会神才能分辨出对方的话。
Rainer nodded as if the commander was right next to him. The edge of Lucretia’s lip curled up in an almost invisible grin. “We’re approaching a staircase,” he said.
Rainer点了点头，好像指挥官就在身旁似的。Lucretia的嘴角微微蜷起，脸上浮现出几乎看不见的笑意。“我们正在接近一处楼梯，”他说。
“You know we also have earpieces?” Lucretia said. Rainer didn’t respond, but she could see a hint of red beginning to appear on his ears.
“你知道我们有耳机么？”Lucretia问他。Rainer没有回话，但她能看到对方的双耳微微泛红。
“You shouldn’t be talking unnecessarily. It’ll draw attention.”
“你不该说这些无关紧要的话。会分散注意的。”
“As will saying things we already know. Let’s call cease fire.”
“也不该说那些我们早就知道的东西。咱们还是先别拌嘴啦。”
Rainer stopped, almost causing Lucretia to bump into him. He turned on a heel and stared at her with stone eyes. He said, “You shouldn’t be making jokes here. This is serious.”
Rainer停住了，Lucretia差点撞到他。他猛地后转，用冷若冰霜的眼神瞪着她。他说，“你不该在这里开玩笑。这是很严肃的事。”
“I am serious,” Lucretia countered. “Did I say anything wrong?”
“我也没有不严肃啊，”Lucretia反驳道。“难道我说错什么了？”
“You…” Rainer groaned, turned, and continued walking forward. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with. I do. So don’t try to play games here, it’ll get you killed.”
“你……”Rainer怨声怨气地说，他扭过头，开始继续向前走。“你根本不知道自己在面对什么。但我知道。所以别再玩文字游戏了，那会害死你的。”
Lucretia really wanted to say something back, but her eyes got to her first. There was a fear in the way that Rainer moved. He never stepped too harshly on the ground, like he was afraid that it was going to disappear beneath him. She sneaked a peek over her shoulder and saw that everyone had slightly frightened eyes. Even the parrot was trembling in its cage.
Lucretia真想说点反击他的话，但她的目光所见占了上风。Rainer走路的方式里蕴含着某种恐惧。他始终没有太使劲地踩在地上，仿佛在害怕脚下的地板会消失似的。她偷偷回头瞄了一眼，发现众人的神色都有些惊恐。就连那只鹦鹉都在笼里打着哆嗦。
She had heard only a little of Rainer’s past, but Lucretia knew that he wasn’t supposed to be here. He wasn’t supposed to be facing down this Site-wide threat that had the potential to span out for kilometers and kill hundreds, if not thousands of more people. But he did it anyway, and Lucretia admired him for that. Despite Rainer’s obvious fear, he continued walking forward.
虽然只听说过一小部分Rainer的过去，但Lucretia明白他本不该来到这里的。他本不该去面对这遍及全站，还可能会再延展好几公里，致使死伤无数的威胁。但无论如何他还是这么做了，Lucretia为此钦佩他。尽管Rainer显然很害怕，但他还是继续往前走着。
But would that bravery matter if he was just walking to his death?
但倘若他仅仅是在送死的话，这份勇气又有什么意义？
Lucretia picked at the question as the team neared the entrance of a stairwell. She didn’t find a question by the time they had gotten there.
小队接近一处楼梯井的入口时，Lucretia还在琢磨这个问题。直到他们抵达那里，她也没能想出答案。
机器人 其一
The room was wrong.
房间有问题。
SCP-1360 could tell instantly. Its eyes, the two yellow screens built into its head, saw the world changing around it. The walls became slightly too dark and too much sludge began dripping down the pipes. The floor rippled and the ceiling never remained still. SCP-1360 looked to its teammates, but not one of them seemed worried by the signs. Not the muscular Russian woman, nor the man with the black cape, nor SCP-4051.
SCP-1360立刻便确定了这件事。它用双眼，嵌进头部的两个黄色屏幕，看到周围的世界在发生变化。墙壁变得有些太暗淡了，太多污泥沿管道流下。地板泛起涟漪，天花板也从未静止过。SCP-1360看了看队友们，但他们似乎没有一人关心这些迹象。健壮的俄罗斯女人没有发现，披着黑披风的男人没有发现，SCP-4051也没有发现。
They descended like a group of blind prisoners. Their footsteps weren’t cautious, almost like they were trying to set something off. SCP-1360 stopped at the top of the staircase and looked down. The stairs spiraled around the perimeter of the room for a few revolutions before leading to a well-lit entranceway. But just a split second ago, that entranceway wasn’t there and the team was walking into an empty room.
他们像一群目盲的囚犯般走了过去。他们的脚步一点也不谨慎，几乎就像在试着引爆什么似的。SCP-1360在楼梯顶端停住步伐，向下望去。楼梯顺着房间边缘螺旋下行，转了几圈后便连上了一处有光亮的入口。但就在不到一秒前，那地方还没有什么入口，而小队走进的只是个空房间。
SCP-1360 should have thought the situation was funny. Reality always being one thread short of reality, never becoming anything until it has to. It was like an animal: it slept, it woke, and it survived. Nothing else was necessary.
SCP-1360本该想到局面会变得很滑稽的。现实总缺乏着一丝真实，除非迫不得已，现实从不会变成任何事物。它就像只动物：睡去，醒来，生存。除此之外，其他所有都漠不关心。
As the group neared the staircase, SCP-1360 realized what the room was going to do. The walls around the Russian woman and SCP-4051 began to bend and contort. They extended out and split apart, forming sharp edges that looked like monstrous teeth. Then the edges bent themselves towards the team like a bear trap that was seconds away from triggering.
正当小队接近楼梯，SCP-1360意识到了接下来房间会发生什么。俄罗斯女人和SCP-4051身旁的墙壁开始扭曲变形。它们向外延展又分裂开来，所形成的尖端恰如骇人巨齿。然后尖端扭转着朝小队袭来，就像一只蓄势待发的捕兽夹。
SCP-4051 and the Russian woman continued to walk, completely blind to the monsters around them. SCP-1360 considered telling them to stop. If it returned alone, what would it gain? Another decade inside of a cell, only to be put back into containment right when the SCP Foundation needed another test subject. Either that or they would order its execution on the spot, believing it had murdered them.
SCP-4051和那名俄罗斯女人继续走着，丝毫没察觉他们四周的怪物。SCP-1360思考要不要叫他们停下。如果就它一个回来了，又会得到什么呢？先在监狱中再关上十年，之后等到基金会需要另一个实验对象时还是会被收容。又或者他们会下令就地处决它，认为是它杀害了其他人。
But then it realized something. If it was being specific, the room showed it something. The walls were made of paper, the floor felt like it was collapsing, and the air became hot. SCP-1360 felt something in its chest. There was something wrong, but its sensors couldn’t seem to understand why. It almost collapsed when it finally understood what was happening.
但紧接着它意识到了什么。确切来说，是房间向它揭示了什么。墙壁如纸糊一般，地板仿佛将要坍塌，空气也变得灼热。SCP-1360胸膛中有种怪异的感觉。某种东西不对劲，但它的传感器似乎没发弄明白那是怎么回事。等它终于意识到发生了什么事，它差点跌倒在地。
It was breathing. For just a moment, something in the room had granted it the ability to draw in a breath. Then, it took away that ability. SCP-1360 was choking. It didn’t have any lungs or any ability to breath, but it was nonetheless. An overwhelming shock caused it to reach out for one of the railings for stability. The room wasn’t reality. It was something different, something that hated it.
它正在呼吸。片刻之间，房间里的某种东西给了它呼吸的能力。然后，那东西便收走了那份能力。SCP-1360窒息了。哪怕它根本就没有肺或任何呼吸的能力，此刻却还是感到喘不过气来。极度震惊下，它伸手去抓栏杆，试图稳住身子。这房间不属于现实。这房间属于某种不同于现实的东西，某种憎恶现实的东西。
And, most importantly, it was something that the SCP Foundation did not know how to contain.
而且，更重要的是，SCP基金会根本就不知道怎么去收容那种东西。
“1360? Are you coming or is there something blocking your way?” SCP-4051 asked. The muscular Russian woman stopped and turned towards it.
“1360？你在跟着吗，还是遇到障碍了？”SCP-4051问道。健壮的俄罗斯女人停下脚步，向它看去。
SCP-1360 extended a tablet out of its abdomen and typed out a message. “Yes. I am following the team, just like the rest of you.”
SCP-1360伸出腹部的平板，在上面打出了一条讯息。“是的。我正在跟随小队，就像其他成员一样。”
“Then why are you all the way up there? Did your creator never let you walk down stairs when you were a kid?” The Russian woman yelled. There was a childish anger in her voice.
“那你为什么待在上面不下来？你的创造者在你小时候从来不叫你下台阶吗？”俄罗斯女人喊道。声音里带着孩子气的愤怒。
“I am capable of walking down the stairs. I was just… thinking about something.”
“我有能力走下台阶。我只是……在想东西”
Then, the bear trap triggered.
然后，捕兽夹触发了。
The walls jutted out like the jaws of a beast. It set its sight on the man in the black cape first. The metal engulfed him, muffling his screams and swallowing him. The voice over SCP-1360’s earpiece began to buzz wildly. SCP-1360 blocked it out. The muscular Russian woman fell through the steps, causing her to drop the birdcage containing the demonic parrot. It banged against the stairs and began to slide down the winding path as if it were made of ice.
墙壁像血盆大口般骤然突出。它先锁定了穿黑斗篷的男人。金属吞噬了他，盖住了他的喊叫，把他整个吞没。SCP-1360耳机中的声音疯狂地嗡鸣。SCP-1360屏蔽了它。健壮的俄罗斯女人从台阶上跌落，没能抓住装有恶魔鹦鹉的鸟笼。它在楼梯间乒乓作响地滚动，像块光滑的冰一般，开始顺着盘旋的道路滑行向下。
SCP-4051 snapped around. Then, a dozen hooks shot out of the wall behind him and impaled his arms and shoulders. He screamed for a moment, then suddenly fell unconscious. The hooks, instead of tearing into his body, melded into it. They lifted SCP-4051’s body off the ground and slowly, carefully pulled it into the wall where it passed straight through and out of sight.
SCP-4051四处移动。然后，他身后的墙壁射出几十个钩子，贯穿了他的手臂与肩膀。他短暂地发出尖叫，突然便不省人事。那些钩子并没有撕裂他的身体，而是融了进去。它们将SCP-4051的躯体托举到空中，缓慢，仔细地把它推进墙里，而它就这样直直地穿了过去，消失在视野里。
The birdcage continued down step after step, bumping into every wall and causing the animal inside to begin squawking out tongue-twisters. By the time it had reached the bottom, the bird was silent. The cage cover still somehow clinged on, preventing SCP-1360 from seeing its body. The cage slid towards the entrance as if pulled by a ghostly force.
鸟笼还在一阶一阶地向下滚动，在墙壁之间来回碰撞，叫里面的动物尖声叫唤那些诘屈聱牙的句子。在它到达低端时，鸟安静了。不知为何，先前笼子上套着的东西依然附着在那儿，使得SCP-1360没法看清它的身体。笼子滑向入口通道，好像在被某种幽灵般的力量推着走。
Then, SCP-1360 was alone.
然后，就只剩下SCP-1360一个了。
The room settled down, eventually returning to its usual shape. The steps became metal, the pipes became clear of grime, and the sensation in SCP-1360’s chest disappeared. The android stepped forward and began the long journey down the steps.
房间安稳下来，最终恢复了它平常的样子。台阶变回了金属质地，管道摆脱了污垢，SCP-1360胸口的窒息感也消失了。机器人走向前方，沿漫长的阶梯缓缓而下。
舞台工作人员
The lights shot on and the Specter was awake.
灯光亮起，Specter苏醒过来。
Only a few times in its crime-fighting career had it been knocked unconscious, and only one of those were caused by somebody else. He had made a mental note to himself that day: never underestimate the strength of a twelve-foot alligator. Although in his defence, he never knew alligators could be that tall.
在打击犯罪的这段生涯里，他被击晕的战斗只有寥寥几次，而在那些战斗中，他也只有一次是被别人击晕的。那一天，他将教训熟记于心：永远不要低估一只十二足鳄鱼的力气。不过他辩解称，自己从没意识到鳄鱼能长得这么高。
But now was not the time for humor.
但现在可不是开玩笑的时候。
He jumped to his feet. His mind began absorbing the scene around him: wooden flooring, expensive red curtains, large stage lights. The Specter realized that he was on a stage. His cape fluttered behind him as it always did, and he steadied his senses to catch the slightest movement. Evil always made the first move.
他一跃而起。他的思绪开始聚焦于周身的景物：木地板，昂贵的红幕布，巨型舞台灯。Specter意识到他正身处舞台之上。他的披风一如既往地在身后飘扬，他让感官镇定下来，这样才能捕捉到最微小的举动。邪恶总是占据先手。
A bugle call sounded. It came from all around him at once, refusing to let itself be confined to a single source. It blared out three notes, and the Specter knew it couldn’t mean something good. His eyes slowly adjusted to the blinding lights and he made out shapes in the darkness in front of the stage. Rows of theater chairs filled with smiling families who wore suits and dresses were illuminated. There were even children.
号角声响起。它同时从四面八方传来，拒绝让自己被束缚于单一的声源。它刺耳地奏出三个音，Specter明白这肯定不意味着什么好事。他的眼睛逐渐适应了刺眼的灯光，分辨出舞台前方暗处的轮廓。那是好几排剧院椅，上面坐满了家庭，每个人都面带微笑，正装出席。其中甚至还有孩子。
The bugle had to be a taunt. It dared him to take an action, to try and determine who played it. And the Specter always accepted a challenge. He ran forward a few steps before jumping out into the audience. Evil always made the first mistake. If he just kept his eyes peeled, he would be able to…
那号角肯定是在挑衅。它要激他做出行动，揪出它的演奏者。Specter一向对挑战来者不拒。他向前跑了几步，随后跳进观众席。邪恶总是最先犯错。只要他擦亮眼睛，就能……
Thunk.
咚。
The Specter slammed into something and fell. The audience howled in laughter, rolling around in their seats. As he hit the ground, his head began to squeal in pain. He sat up and looked around, but there was nothing in front of him. His hand almost instinctively reached out, and he found his answer. Even though there was nothing in front of him, there was resistance. A wall of air as thick as concrete had stopped him.
Specter猛地撞上了什么，跌倒在地。观众们爆发出一阵笑声，在座位上前仰后合。摔在地上时，他感到头部传来尖锐的疼痛。他坐起来环顾四周，可是前面什么都没有。他的手近乎本能地伸向前方，然后他找到了答案。就算身前空无一物，还是有什么在抵触他。拦住他的是一堵混凝土般坚硬的的空气墙。
“You, audience members! You are all in danger. Do not panic, for the Specter is here to save you.” The audience only laughed. “Hello? You can hear me, can’t you?” There was no answer, only the slapping of knees and the chattering of teeth.
“大家，观众席上的人们！你们的处境都很危险。不要恐慌，Specter来拯救你们了。”观众只是哄笑。“喂？你们能听见的，对不对？”没有回答，只有拍打膝盖和牙齿打颤的声音。
He darted across the stage, searching for any exits, windows, or vents that could bypass the invisible wall. But the stage was like a box. The Specter then tried calling out to the audience again. They continued to laugh until their lungs became sore and red. Finally, after a few more futile attempts, he crossed his arms and just sat in the center of the stage.
他快步冲过舞台，想找到任何能帮他跨越那堵隐形壁障的出口，窗户，或通风口。但这舞台就像个密闭的盒子。Specter接着再次尝试呼唤观众们。他们却不停地大笑，笑得连肺部都酸痛不已。最终，在数次无效的尝试后，他将双手抱在胸前，直接坐在了舞台中央。
“Um… Oh! Evil-doer, show yourself already! Do you think somebody like the Specter can be stopped by a few magic spells and the rejection of others? Because, um, I can’t! So you might as well come face me already.”
“额……哦！现身吧，坏家伙！你难道觉得靠一些魔咒和别人的嫌弃就能挡住Specter这样的人？因为，额，我势不可挡！所以，该是你也来面对我的时候了！”
Nothing happened.
无事发生。
“Okay, I’m throwing out a lot of bones here but it feels like you just keep having people laugh at me which is… y’know, I guess that’s an evil plan, but that’s it? That’s all you have?”
“行吧，我在这儿努力想帮上别人的忙，可是貌似你只是叫那些人一直笑话我，这可太……你知道的，我猜这计划确实挺恶毒的，但这就完啦？你就只有这些伎俩啦？”
A ceiling panel fell and smashed on the floor, revealing a small hole. A rope descended through that hole next to the Specter. He eyed it with suspicion, but he shrugged his shoulders and pulled on it.
一块天花板坠下来砸在地上，露出一个小窟窿。那窟窿中降下了一根绳子，正好落在Specter身旁。他用怀疑地目光盯着它，但还是耸耸肩，拉动了绳子。
Then the floor disappeared.
接着地板消失了。
The audience ceased laughing and leaned in as the Specter leaped up six feet and grabbed onto the rope. Every sense in his body was zapping information to his brain. He looked down and saw a swirling mass of flesh drenched in saliva. The thing pulsated, shedding a thin layer of flesh. An enormous eyeball was underneath. Tentacles writhed around in place of eyelashes and a bright blue parasite acted as its iris.
观众停止了大笑，向前探身，眼瞧着Specter一跃六尺高，抓住了绳子。他体内的每处感官都在将信息强塞给大脑。他向下望去，看到一大团蜷曲、裹满唾液的血肉。那东西在搏动，它蜕下薄薄的一层肉。露出下方硕大无比的眼球。本该是睫毛的地方长满扭动的卷须，一条浅蓝的寄生虫则做了它的虹膜。
The eye drifted towards the Specter, and the tentacles followed. They grew long hooks at the tips and flew towards him. His instincts kicked his body into motion. He scrambled up and down the rope desperately avoiding attack after attack. One of the tentacles recoiled as bubbles began appearing beneath its flesh. A bloodshot eyeball sprouted out. The Specter didn’t waste a second and slammed his foot into the tentacle before it had a chance to orient itself.
眼睛朝Specter飘去，卷须紧随其后。它们在尖端长出了长长的钩子，直直地飞向他。他的本能迫使身体做出了行动。他拼命地沿绳子爬上爬下，躲避对方的猛烈攻势。一条卷须缩了回去，皮肉下泛起泡沫。一只布满血丝的眼珠从那儿冒了出来。Specter一秒也没浪费，在卷须有机会调整方向前一脚砸向了它。
Blood pooled in the white sphere, causing the tentacle to slowly drift below the others. It fell into the central eye, piercing it and causing a small patch of blood to appear. The Specter focused on that spot as he dealt with the other tentacles. Slowly, steadily, more blood began to flow out. Even the tentacles were starting to be affected. If he could just fend them off for a another minute—
白色的球体血流如注，那只卷须缓缓落到其它卷须的后方。它摔落在中央的那只眼中，将后者刺破，流出一小滩血。Specter瞄准这弱点，用它对付其它卷须。缓慢而稳定地，更多的血液流了出来。就连那些卷须也开始受影响了。他只需要再抵抗它们一分钟——
Snap!
啪！
Time slowed to a crawl. The Specter was plummeting downwards, rope still in hand. The tentacles drifted instead of dancing, the audience only began gasping, and he couldn’t feel the wind in his cape. Before his mind could construct a plan to get out of this situation, something began overpowering it.
时间变得极度缓慢。Specter坠向下方，手中依然握着那截绳子。卷须用飘荡代替了舞动，观众们倒吸一口凉气，而他感受不到风吹动斗篷了。他的思绪还没能构想出计划，叫他摆脱这事态，就有什么东西将它制服了。
Something was watching him. Time froze. Black eyes began appearing in his peripheral vision. They never blinked, they never wavered, they only watched. Was this the evil-doer, the one that was trying to kill the Specter? No, his senses immediately countered. It didn’t have the look of a predator nor a murderer. In fact, the eyes didn’t seem worried at all. It was the look a disappointed father gave to their son.
有东西在看他。时间凝固，黑眼自视野边缘浮现。它们不眨动，它们不游移，它们只是在看。这就是那个作恶者，那名想杀死Specter的人吗？不，他的感观立刻反驳道。它看上去既不像掠夺者，也不像杀人犯。事实上，那些眼睛看上去一点也不关心那些事。那种神情倒像一名看向孩子的失望的父亲。
It was looking right at him, but it didn’t acknowledge its existence.
它直勾勾地望向他，但它并不强调自己的存在。
The Specter’s brain fizzled out and time returned back to normal speed. The audience disappeared as he fell below the stage, only a few feet away from the eye. Still, the only thing on his mind was the thing looking at him. The eyes were still there in his memory, simply looking at him until he nearly forgot his own name. He wasn’t sure if he was afraid.
Specter的大脑停转了，时间的流速恢复正常。观众们消失了，他从舞台之下坠落，距离那只眼仅有数英尺之遥。不过，他的脑海中仍然死死地想着那个正看着他的东西。那些眼睛仍在他的记忆里，仅仅是看着他，直到他将近忘记了自己的名字。他不确定自己是不是在害怕。
As he plunged through the pupil, he heard the sound of ripping paper.
当他下坠着穿透瞳孔时，他听见纸被撕裂的声音。
寒冬
The ground was soft and wet beneath Lucretia. Cold wind stung her face. The air was almost unbreathable. She opened her eyes to a blank sky showering down white snowflakes. Pulling herself to a seated situation, she examined the scenery around her. She was lying in the middle of a pathway that cut through a forest. On either side of her, dead trees that looked like distorted mannequins swayed slightly.
Lucretia身下的地板湿润而柔软。寒风刺痛脸颊。空气冷得几乎没法吸入。她睁开眼，看到了空无一物的天空，白色的雪花纷纷扬扬地飘落。她支撑自己坐起来，环视周围的风景。她正躺在一条横穿森林的小路中央。两侧，枯木形如扭曲的人体模型，微微摇曳着。
“Shit…” Lucretia moaned as she brought herself to her feet. Her head was spinning in confusion, but her memory was still intact. That was good.
“该死……”Lucretia呻吟着想要起身。她在困惑中头晕目眩，不过记忆倒没受损坏。还算不错。
Something roared in the distance. She turned to see the silhouette in the distance the size of a building. The ground rattled like it was splitting apart. The silhouette lumbered forward, causing the rattling to intensify. Lucretia breathing heighted as she realized that the thing in the distance was running towards her.
远处有什么东西发出了咆哮。她扭头去看，远处有个房子大小的身影。地面隆隆作响，仿佛就要四分五裂似的。那个身影向前沉重地挪动着。使得地面的轰鸣声愈发强烈。Lucretia意识到远处的东西正朝她奔来，她急促地喘息着。
She tried to stand but her legs were paralyzed. Yanking them had no effect, neither did yelling at them to work. Eventually, Lucretia resorted to rolling off the path and into a large snow bank. The rumbling was growing louder. It was like an old iron bell was being rung next to her ear every few seconds. She swam through sheets of white snow and grabbed onto a nearby tree.
她尝试站起来，可是双腿不听使唤。猛拉它们毫无作用，大喊着叫它们动起来也一样。最终，Lucretia只得翻滚身子离开道路，扑进一旁大片大片的雪堆里。隆隆声越来越强了。每分每秒，她耳畔都好像有座陈旧的铁钟在轰然作响。她游着穿过连片的白雪，抓住了附近的一棵树。
The silhouette continued to encroach. It was even larger than Lucretia had imagined, towering over the nearby landscape like a living mountain. Her eyes were locked to it for a moment, and she did nothing as it came closer and closer. Then she slapped herself. That desire wasn’t real, it was implanted into her by this thing. Did she forget what she was dealing with?
身影还在逼近。它比Lucretia想象的还要高大，如同一座有生命的山，高耸的山峦遮住了附近的景色。她的目光一时间锁定了它，在它离得越来越近时愣在原地。接着她给了自己一巴掌。那份渴望不是真的，是那家伙把它植入了她心里。难道她忘了自己的对手是什么东西吗？
“Fuck.” Pain swelled through Lucretia’s legs. She reached up and grabbed a sturdy tree branch, hoping to drag herself out of the snow.
“操。”疼痛充斥了Lucretia的腿。她伸手，握住一根结实的树枝，想把自己拽出雪地。
Then, the branch turned to boiling water.
接着，那根树枝变成了沸水。
She didn’t have time to scream. Shock seized her body. She fell into a small puddle of water that seared her flesh. The water began to melt through the snow and soil like it was fire. Lucretia felt something pulling her down as the water dug a deeper and deeper hole. The heat spread to the snow around it, causing the pool to grow larger with every second. She had to start swimming to keep herself at the surface.
她根本没时间尖叫。惊愕攫住了她的躯体。她摔倒在一小滩水中，水灼烧着她的血肉。水开始融化雪和泥土，胜似烈火。水挖出的坑洞越来越深，而Lucretia感觉有什么东西在向下拽着她。热在周围的雪中蔓延，水洼每秒都在扩大。她不得不开始游泳，才能把自己维持在水面上。
Something seized her leg. She couldn’t feel it, but she knew it was there. It wasn’t something physical like a hand or a tentacle. It felt like her own soul was trying to yank her below the surface. She took a deep breath, fully convinced that it would most likely be the last one she took for a while.
有什么抓住了她的腿。她感觉不到，但清楚它在就在那里。那东西没有实体，不像一只手或者卷须。感觉起来，就仿佛是她自己的灵魂在尝试把她拉入水下。她深深地吸了口气，这极有可能是接下来的一段时间里能吸的最后一口气了，对此她深信不疑。
But right then, her legs regained function. An extra wave of pain coursed through her body and forced her to act. She rammed her fist into one of the walls, forming a hole big and sturdy enough for her to hang on for a few seconds. She hoisted herself up as the force pulling her down grew even stronger.
但就在那时，她的腿又能动了。又一阵疼痛传遍身体，迫使她做出行动。她将拳头用力塞进墙中，掘出一个足够宽大结实，能叫她攀住几秒的小洞。她将自己拉出水中，向下拉扯她的力量越来越强了。
Her first breath was a gasp. The skin on her face was bright red and her arms simmered from the cold snow, nearly sending her back into shock. She punched another hole in the wall and shoved her foot into the first one. Slowly, with snow falling around her and something pulling her down, Lucretia managed to climb out of the hole. She laid with her back flat against the ground, her strength completely gone.
她喘息着吸入第一口气。她脸上的皮肤变得鲜红，寒冷的雪灼烧双臂，差点又让她昏了过去。她用拳头在墙上开出了另一个洞，把她的脚移到先前的洞中。缓缓地，伴随着身旁飘落的大雪和向下拉扯她的东西，Lucretia成功从坑洞中爬了出来。她仰面躺在地上，精疲力竭。
But still, her brain commanded her to at least look back into the hole. And with no way to fight that urge, she forced herself to her knees and took one final look back down.
可是，她的脑子依然命令她至少再向那坑中回望一眼。实在无法克制住这种冲动，她逼迫自己双膝着地，转头向下看了最后一眼。
There was no bottom, and only a few glints of reflected light let her know where the surface of the water was. That light soon disappeared; the sound of gurgling was the last to leave. As she stared into the black pit, some part of her mind began to whisper things to her. It told her to jump in. It reasoned that this world was an illusion, and the only way to break illusions was to fight back, to break it, to die.
那里没有底端，只有水面反光闪烁着，让她知道水的表面在哪儿。那些光很快消失了；水流的汩汩声最终也平息了下来。当她凝望黑暗的深坑，她思维中的某个部分开始低语。它唆使她跳进去。它解释道这个世界是幻觉，而破除幻觉的唯一办法就是反击，去打破它，去死。
Lucretia took a few steps back, but the feeling remained. Grief entered her heart like she had just abandoned a dying family member. Her legs took an impulsive step forward, but she forced herself away. There was nothing there. This wasn’t an illusion, that force, that voice was the illusion. It was a mindless, soulless thing. It didn’t know what was at the bottom of that pit. It couldn’t speak to her. It couldn’t understand her.
Lucretia向后推了几步，但那种感觉还在。悲伤涌进心中，仿佛她刚刚抛弃了一名即将死去的家人。她的腿在冲动下迈出一步，但她逼迫自己推开。那里什么都没有。这根本就不是幻觉，那股力量，那个心声才是。这个坑洞没有思想，没有灵魂。它根本不知道洞底有什么。它不能和她说话。它也不能理解她。
It was nothing.
它什么都不是。
She continued walking backwards for a few meters, turned, and saw stone. There was a tower on the pathway in front of her. White bricks were stacked hap-hazardly atop one another, eventually fanning out into a small chamber at the top. Lucretia looked up and saw somebody staring back at her. It looked like a person, but she couldn’t be certain here. Their face was an oily black and their arms were longer than they should have been. They were leaning absurdly far out of the window like they had been frozen in the process of diving out of it.
她继续向后方退却数米，转身，看到石头。她身前的道路矗立着一座塔。白砖杂乱地层层堆砌，最终在顶端围成一座小小的房间。Lucretia向上方看去，发现有什么人也在看着她。看上去像是人，不过在这里她没法确定。那人的面孔泛着油腻的黑色，双臂异常地长。那人的身子探出窗外的距离远得近乎荒唐，仿佛被凝固在了在跃出窗外的半途。
Lucretia held her breath. She refused to move a single muscle so as to not disturb the person. Pin and needles spiked across her body and a sweaty wave of anxiety settled around her mind. She couldn’t let herself break the image. Even as her fingers began to tingle and her chest heaved, trying to force some air in, she refused. Right on the verge of fatigue, Lucretia tried to sneak in a tiny breath.
Lucretia屏住呼吸。她拒绝移动一丝一毫，以防惊动那人。长针与尖钉仿佛刺穿了全身，焦虑构成的湿闷浪潮遍布于脑海。她没法叫自己打破这幅图景。即使她的手指感到刺痛，胸口也剧烈地起伏以挤进些空气，她依然不愿那样做。直到快要感到疲惫，Lucretia才试着偷偷地吸了一口气。
The figure roared in fear and confusion as it plummeted towards the ground. The sound rotted Lucretia’s muscles away, causing her to stand still and lock eyes with the figure. The closer it got to the ground, the more detail it gained. Harsh brown skin and a white lab coat were the only details she could pick up before it snapped its neck on the ground. Lucretia blinked.
人影发出一声恐惧而疑惑的咆哮，向地面直直坠去。那声音让Lucretia汗毛倒竖，叫她一动不动，紧紧地盯着人影。它越是接近地面，能看到的细节就越多。粗糙的棕色皮肤，白色长袍，Lucretia只来得及看清这些细节，而后那人影就落到地上，摔断了脖子。Lucretia眨了眨眼。
When she opened her eyes a millisecond later, she was back in the depths of Site-θ.
一毫秒过去，她再度睁开眼时，她已经回到了Site-θ深处。
“What the fuck?” Those were the only words she could get out of her mouth before she keeled over and vomited all over the floor. Her stomach had been flipping the entire time, but adrenaline and fear had prevented her from realizing it.
“什么鬼？”在跪倒在地，大吐特吐之前，这是她唯一能说出来的话了。她的胃全程都在翻腾，只不过肾上腺素和恐惧使得她没意识到这点。
Lucretia wiped her mouth and took in a few deep breaths. If she was lucky, that would be the worst of it. But she was never that lucky. She felt for her earpiece — she let out a fiery groan — and realized it wasn’t there. Her vest was still working. Well, she couldn’t tell exactly, but it didn’t matter. It had to be working. Lucretia demanded it.
Lucretia擦干嘴，坐了几个深呼吸。如果她很幸运，最糟糕的事情应该就已经过去了。但她从来都没幸运过 。她摸索着耳机——发出一声狂躁的低吼——发现耳机消失了。她的背心仍然在正常工作。好吧，其实她也不是很确定，不过无所谓了。它肯定得是正常工作的。Lucretia要求它是。
“This is Lucretia. I’m… I’m somewhere in the Site,” she said. “Don’t try to talk back, I lost earpiece. The whole team got fucked up, but I’m fine. Yeah, I think I’m okay.”
“我是Lucretia。我……我在这个站点中的某处，”她说。“不要尝试回复，我的耳机丢了。整个小队都他妈搞砸了，不过我还好。嗯，我觉得我状态还行。”
Lucretia stared down the hallway. The door on the other end had been broken off. She wanted to tear off the head of the fucking idiot that thought that a few SCPs could stand a chance against a thing like this. But that word, ‘thing’, it made her cringe. It wasn’t a thing, it was a… it was a feeling. It was an experience, a point of view. She sighed. It didn’t matter. Nobody listened to dead people.
Lucretia俯视走廊。另一段的门已经破损断裂了。究竟是哪个操蛋的蠢货觉得这破东西能拦住大部分SCP的，Lucretia真想扯掉那人的头。不过提到“东西”这个词，她有些不安。那并不是什么东西，那是……那是一种感觉。一段经历，一种看法。她叹了口气。无所谓了。死人的话是不会有人听的。
So she would have to keep going.
所以她还是得继续走下去。
“I’m going to start searching for the rest. I didn’t die, so that means that… they might not be dead, too. I’ll start…” Lucretia looked to the other door. It was still standing, and there was a keycard scanner next to it, still functional. “I’ll start now.” Lucretia began to hobble over to the broken door.
“我要去寻找其他队员。我没死，这大概意味着……也许他们也没死。我现在……”Lucretia看向另一扇门。它还在那儿，旁边有个钥匙卡扫描器，仍在运行。“我现在就开始。”Lucretia开始蹒跚地走向损坏的门。
机器人 其二
The ghost was following SCP-1360.
幽灵在尾随SCP-1360
That was the nickname SCP-1360 had given the thing. It didn’t have a body or a face, but it still clung to SCP-1360 like the researchers did. Except the ghost didn’t try to give it orders. It had thrown away its earpiece a long time ago. It wouldn’t be needing it after the ghost was finished. Had SCP-1360 enjoyed concepts like that, it would have even considered the thing an ally.
这是SCP-1360给那东西取的绰号。它没有身体或脸，但依然像那些研究员一样缠着SCP-1360。不同的是，幽灵没有试着下达指令。它老早之前就扔掉了耳机。在解决掉幽灵前，它用不上这个。要是SCP-1360喜欢积极些的想法，它甚至会考虑将那东西认作盟友。
The facility had been gutted. Entire rooms had been upended and desks and computers were strewn across the floor. Some were aflame, others were covered in odd fluids. And, even more strangely, some were left complete untouched. Twice now SCP-1360 had come across a room where every piece of furniture was standing upright and in its proper place. The ghost was strange like that.
设施内部已被毁得不成样子，房间整个上下颠倒，桌子和计算机散落在地面上。有的着起了火，其它的表面覆盖着怪异的液体。还有，更古怪的是，有些电脑完全未受损坏。SCP-1360现在已两度碰到每个家具都摆放整齐，各居其位的房间了。幽灵也像它们一样古怪。
SCP-1360 walked through another room, a waiting room for one of the Site’s emergency medical bays. This one hadn’t been spared. Medical beds were stuck in the walls, all of the chairs had disappeared, and the ceiling fans were inside-out.
SCP-1360穿过另一个房间，一间为站点紧急医疗处开设的招待室。这间房也不例外。医用床卡在墙上，所有椅子不知所踪，天花板上的风扇内外翻转。
And yet, as SCP-1360 stepped over the flattened receptionist’s desk, a detail that it had been neglecting came to mind. Despite all of this destruction, there wasn’t a single drop of blood or dead body. There were certainly bodily fluids in places, but none of them were man-made. Maybe something had taken them, a creature or some other animal had eaten them whole.
然而，正当SCP-1360踏上扁平的前台桌时，一个一直被忽略的细节自脑海中浮现。尽管毁伤严重，这儿却连一滴血，一个尸体都没有。许多地方都无疑能看到体液，但它们没有一个来自人类。也许是被什么东西带走了，也可能是被某种生物或者别的什么动物整个吃掉了。
But that theory was ridiculous. Animals, like all mortal things, were imperfect. They would leave evidence behind. Whatever did this, it was precise.
但这个理论是荒唐的。动物们，像其他的肉体凡胎一样，是不完美的。它们总会留下些证据。不管干出这些的是什么，它都做的相当精准。
SCP-1360 stumbled into another hallway that had been left untouched. There wasn’t a single sign of damage or displacement. Two benches and a few bolted doors were the only things within. As SCP-1360 walked past, it felt each of the doors. They were steel, hardened and reinforced from the other side. Glass viewing ports allowed SCP-1360 a view into empty rooms.
SCP-1360跌跌撞撞地走进又一间完好无损的走廊。那里连一丝破坏或位移的迹象都看不到。房间中，只有两个长凳和数个锁住的门。当SCP-1360经过时，它感知着每一扇门。它们由钢铁制成，从另一端被硬化加固。SCP-1360透过上面的玻璃观察口看了看对面空荡的房间。
The ceiling light overhead flickered for a moment. SCP-1360 snapped towards it, ready to flee or kill whatever was causing the disturbance. But only a few seconds later, it returned to normal. The room was filled with pure white light. SCP-1360 looked back down and spotted an open door at the end of the hallway.
上方天花板的灯光闪了闪。SCP-1369立刻向它靠近，准备逃跑或杀死导致干扰的东西。但就在几秒之后，它就恢复了原状。纯白色的灯光洒满房间。SCP-1360回头看去，看到了走廊末端一扇敞开的门。
On the other side was a darkened room that was overflowing with hospital equipment. SCP-1360 was still for a moment. After a few minutes, nothing changed. Therefore, it had to be real. SCP-1360 began to lurk towards the doorway. There was a hospital bed in the room. It was on, something had activated it.
对面是一间昏暗的房间，里面摆满了医疗用具。SCP-1360静止了一会儿。数分钟过去，什么也没改变。所以，它应该是真实存在的。SCP-1360潜行着走向门口。房间中有张医疗用床，有什么触发了它。
As SCP-1360 stepped through, it noticed an oddity within the bed’s sheets. Something was moving. The covers were hiding a large object. SCP-1360 assumed it to be an animal at first, a wild dog or SCP that had gotten loose. But as it got closer, it realized what it was looking at.
正当SCP-1360踏进房间，他注意到床单下有些异样。有东西在动。罩子盖住了一个大的家伙。SCP-1360最开始觉得它一只动物，一只挣脱管束的野狗或SCP。但当它再走近些，它意识到了自己在看什么。
It was a person.
那是一个人。
孩子
Rainer was bathed in a world of color. Purple and blue and white lights surrounded his body, nearly blinding him. He tried to grab onto anything stable, anything that could give him a reprieve from the void that was everywhere else. The air felt like water. He held his breath, refusing to give this place even the air from his lungs. His hands felt something soft and warm like silk. He grasped onto it, but the feeling disappeared in his hands.
“Carlotta…” he whispered into his chest. “Carlotta, I-I need some help. I don’t know what this is, but it’s everywhere and I can’t…” Slumber filled his eyelids, causing them to grow heavy. Rainer stabbed his fingernails into his palm to keep himself awake.
“I think it’s trying to keep me… Please, I just need—”
There was something in the distance.
He squinted, trying to capture a hint of shape in the colors. His eyes never adjusted. Still, he could sense in his bones that there was something out there. And for some reason, that entity was staring directly at him. Rainer’s heart began to beat faster.
His mouth opened as if to speak, but he covered it with his hand. He couldn’t make himself known to this anomaly, to this alien. Not until the Foundation knew how to fight it. Feeling the familiar groove of his earpiece, vest firmly wrapped around his chest, he knew they had to be listening to him.
But why weren’t they giving him any orders? Were they focused on different matters? The other anomalies probably needed more help than he did, Rainer thought. He wasn’t in any direct danger, nor was he being threatened. If he were, the thing in the void wouldn’t be stalking, it would be hunting. This must have been what was happening, Rainer decided.
Just as his train of thought stopped at the station, the thing moved. He could almost feel it travelling across the blank space. It glided across the ground like a ballet dancer at first. Then, it dug its claws into the ground and sprinted towards Rainer. He reached out again, trying to find anything to pull him out of the dream he was trapped in.
He flailed his arms in every direction, causing his body to spin violently in place. Blood rushed to his head, then fell to his feet, then came back to his head every few seconds. The thing was nearly on the horizon. There was nothing else to grab onto. Rainer tapped on his earpiece, but no sound came from it. He brought his legs up and folded his head into his stomach.
“Something’s here. It’s not Lucretia or the bird or… “ His mind tried to kill his voice again. The thing had already seen him, there was no point in staying silent. But if it heard him, it would learn critical information about the mission. It would hurt his teammates, his friends.
Rainer’s throat dried up for a few seconds. Then it exploded.
“Please, I need… I just need somebody to talk to me or just tell me you can hear me. I know you can hear me. Just say so, that’s all I want. You said this would work, Carlotta! I have the earpiece and the vest, you should be hearing me. I know reality here is… weird, but that’s not my fault. I’m just stuck and it’s coming and I really just need to know what I should do and I want to see Lucretia please, please I want to see her and… I don’t know.”
His voice fell. The thing that was once safely away in the distance was now visible. Its head was twice the size of its body, which broke apart and reassembled itself twice as it came closer. Its skin was an ashy white. Fingers, eyes, and faces were all stitched together in a monstrous construct. Its face was behind it.
It towered over Rainer, and each footstep only made it seem bigger. He tried to close his eyes, but the thing had cemented itself in his mind. Even when he wasn’t looking, he could see it.
It came upon him. The thing’s form unraveled itself in front of Rainer. Afterwards, it bent down slowly and laid itself flat on the ground (some of its legs broke off from the impact). It began to twirl its face around. Rainer turned his head away, hoping that that would somehow dispel the thing’s image in his mind. No matter where he looked, he was always looking into the thing’s eyes.
The distortions in reality, the surreal visions and destroyed rooms, weren’t caused by it. They simply appeared there when the thing did. It was the universe’s interpretation of the thing’s existence. And Rainer’s brain realized this. His heart was straining from the rate it was pumping at and sweat drenched his face and chest and back. His brain tried to erase Rainer’s discovery, but it acted a fraction of a moment too late. Rainer waited for his death as he comprehended the thing’s true form.
But suddenly, he understood it.
It could stand, but it didn’t have a body. Seeing it made Rainer realize a few things. He knew instantly that nobody was coming for him. The realization made him chuckle to himself a little. Rainer thought about how cavemen thousands of years ago would look at stars at night and pray for those stars to help them. No matter how loud they chanted or how much they sacrificed, they would still be killed and eaten by the predators of the night.
The thing before him, Rainer realized, was the world. It wouldn’t kill him — it was far too impersonal to do something like that — but it wouldn’t save him either. In fact, it wouldn’t do much of anything besides sit back and watch from somewhere far away. Rainer knew it had the power to do something, anything to change things, but it didn’t. It let things fade. It let things fall apart and die. He should have realized that earlier; it was doing that to him right now.
Once Rainer realized that, he promptly opened his mouth and screamed until his lungs collapsed.
升温……
The air in Phenex’s cage dried his eyes and created a few more cracks in his beak. He was lying on the floor, it was hot. He felt a slight burning sensation all across his body — the thaumaturgic seal was slowly irritating his flesh. The vest was still strung over his cage, blocking any light from entering.
“Oh dear,” he squawked. “Where has my protector gone? Have I slept all the way through dawn? That assumption must be faulty; aye, I must be wrong. There’s no way they could have wished me begone.” He began the painful process of rising to his feet.
There was a sound nearby. It was soft, almost imperceptible. Phenex froze, ears trained to catch the slightest abnormality in the noise around him. After a few seconds, he found one. There was a soft tap on the ground, something that couldn’t have been caused by a piece of furniture. Phenex’s eyes widened.
It was a footstep.
He couldn’t tell who they belonged to. One moment, they would be soft as if the person were walking on their toes. The next, it was hard and firm. And after, Phenex would have to strain his ears to realize that the thing had even taken another step. Sometimes, the footsteps would be very far away and sometimes…
Tap.
They were very close.
Something lifted his cage. Loud footsteps flooded Phenex’s ears as his weak body was swung back and forth between the walls of his cage. He tried to cling onto the golden perch in the middle, but his mental map of the cage failed him as he slammed into one of the walls, believing it to be the floor. He reached out, trying to grab onto anything.
Eventually, he resorted to screeching out, “Hello!? I ask you to reveal yourself at once! I will not put up with devilish affronts.” The thing carrying him refused to answer.
There was a warmth on the back of Phenex’s neck. He clawed at the darkness, but the only thing he connected with were iron bars. Decisions raced through his mind, causing his head to spin. Did he try to reason with it? Did he call for Lucretia? They were pointless plans, but he had to do something.
“Please, return me to the woman who carried me before. If I am killed, my friends will surely be forlorn. Think of your heart and see that I am not your enemy. Place me down, please, don’t be the death of me,” he pleaded.
The thing shook him, causing Phenex to slam into another wall. His wings ached and his legs were refusing to move. The heat slowly grew and grew until it became overpowering, forcing him to pay attention to it.
Phenex laid down. He didn’t feel his flesh burning from the thaumaturgy anymore. Then he realized that this is what the thing wanted, to get him to give into sleep or exhaustion. Once he did, he would be powerless. He just needed to stay alive for a little longer. The Foundation was coming for him. Lucretia was coming.
“Please… leave…” His words were barren. Phenex wasn’t sure if the thing even heard him. Sweat dripped into his eye, causing it to sting. There were soft crackles and pops in the distance.
He could have stopped this thing if they just let him out of the cage. Without those restrictions, he could have thrown the thing into a wall or made them disappear. He wanted to see Lucretia. Why wasn’t she here yet? Whenever she carried him, she was always careful not to shake his cage too much. Phenex thought that this was because she didn’t want to disturb him. But then he realized why she covered his cage.
She didn’t want him to see what was going to be killing him.
The thing heaved back and threw Phenex’s cage. He began to float. The vest flew off and a gust of wind blasted through his cage. He was in an elevator shaft where the walls had been torn up. Heat torched his back.
Above him, past the ripped remains of the vest, Phenex spotted the thing that had thrown him. It was just an odd bit of color at first, but then it morphed into a shape. And then that shape morphed into a shady and that shadow into a person. It never grew a face, though. Phenex wondered if it had one at all or if it was just a nameless thing.
Flames consumed his vision before he reached an answer.
机器人 其三
SCP-4051 screamed and shook violently in his hospital bed, causing the machines to rapidly begin beeping. His eyes shot open, closed, rolled into the back of his head, then flickered back to life. SCP-1360 watched him silently from a few feet away. It made no noise as SCP-4051 faded in strength.
His face became pale and his arms weak. It looked like he was drowning, almost. Maybe the air inside of his lungs had shifted into a liquid, thus suffocating him from the inside. But that conclusion was faulty, SCP-1360 determined. Why would this change happen so subtly that it would not be able to detect it? It wouldn’t.
A new idea emerged, one that was riskier, but would give SCP-1360 a certain answer. A text-to-speech keyboard emerged from its chest, and SCP-1360 typed out a short message.
“Rainer.”
SCP-4051 shot up to a seated position, staring at the ceiling. Like a puppet, its head fell to level before swiveling towards SCP-1360. He could not be in control of his body. If he were, he wouldn’t be attempting to frighten his savior.
“Who are you?” SCP-4051’s voice was the same, but each word was lifeless. It was as if he had lost the will to say it right as it slipped off of his tongue.
“I am SCP-1360. I am here to help you.”
“I don’t know who you are.” The light above the bed casted long shadows down SCP-4051’s face. SCP-1360 focused on his eyes. They didn’t reflect anything.
"I am like you. I am an SCP. I was assigned to be a part of a team of SCPs with you. We were investigating the lower levels of this facility from a… trap injured you. I am here to help you."
SCP-4051 blinked. It took him several seconds to force each eyelid shut and open. He offered his hand to SCP-1360.
“Can you touch me?”
“Why do you want me to touch you?”
He turned his face away, very ashamed. “Because… because I don’t know if you’re here or if you’re just another vision. I don’t know if I’m really in a bed or if this room is even real. I… I started thinking that maybe, um, I was never even here. That right when we went through that hallway and turned that first corner, I just stopped existing. I don’t know if they’re ever gonna find me.”
SCP-1360 stepped forward. “Who are you worried is not going to find—”
“Please!” SCP-4051 screamed. He was crying. “Just… do this for me, okay?”
SCP-1360 was still. It could tell SCP-4051 still wasn’t in his right mind. He switched tone with every sentence, one minute sounding happy and the next on the verge of tears. For a few seconds, SCP-1360 thought they were on the verge of seeming logical. But then SCP-4051 tossed the lawbook aside and began operating by a different set of rules. Regardless, SCP-1360 had to follow.
It slowly extended its hand out. Centimeter by centimeter, it bridged the gap until it was hovering directly over SCP-4051’s palm. Then, it snatched the human’s hand, careful to make sure that its own grip was dominant.
SCP-4051 snapped his neck back to SCP-1360. His eyes were still wet.
“You’re strange.” SCP-4051 began squirming his hand violently. His voice had returned to its usual dead tone. “Looking at you is strange. You feel different, but you look so… similar to me. Your face, your body. Would they call me an anomaly, then?”
“I do not understand. You are experiencing hallucinations.”
“I like you. I really, really, really, really like you. I still know what you want, but I’ll keep you here at least for a little bit.” SCP-4051 maintained his blank stare for a few more seconds before immediately returning back to screaming and contorting in his bed. All SCP-1360 wanted to do was stare at him a little longer.
“Hey!”
The voice came from the hallway. SCP-1360 dropped SCP-4051’s hand and retracted to the shadows. The voice was female, younger but not as young as SCP-4051. There was a slight tinge on the last letter: a foreign accent. SCP-1360 slinked across the wall to the corner beside the door, hoping that the woman would be so distracted by the sight of SCP-4051 that she wouldn’t think to look around.
It heard loud footsteps as the muscular Russian woman rushed in, taking the bait. She stumbled around for a few seconds but never looked to her left, where SCP-1360 was. She moved to SCP-4051 and began shaking the man who looked like a child next to her.
“Hey, hey, it’s me. Kid, shh… You good, you safe. Holy shit, how did you even get here? It doesn’t matter. I’ll… shit. I’ll figure something, okay? Just don’t die for a few seconds.”
SCP-4051 opened his eyes and looked deep into the Russian woman’s face. The image clouded SCP-1360’s mind. So much in fact that it didn’t realize that it was slowly drifting away from the corner and towards the light for a closer look.
The woman twisted her head towards SCP-1360. Her eyes narrowed for a second due to the light, but she knew what she was looking at. Confusion filled her face for a few seconds. Then she looked down at SCP-4051 and that confusion evolved into anger. Her words made the walls rattle.
“Why didn’t you help him?”
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