They didn't stop as the horde kept coming on them from the hallway, charging every zombie they met with their own riot shield. While it may not be enough to kill them, it was effective enough for William and the others to clear out their path.
Until they reached a junction where they could stop for a moment, catching their breath and resting for a moment after hurtling through countless zombies just to go to the maintenance room, they were panting and tired after all the marathon.
William was huffing and looked at one of the guards, "How long do we need to keep going to the maintenance room?"
The guard replied, "We're nearly there, we just need to get through several rooms, go down a stair, and there should be the maintenance room where all the sprinkler systems are located."
"Alright then, we just need to bear with it for a moment until this whole thing is done once and for all."
They prepared once again, grabbing and holding their shield tightly before continuing on the journey. But they heard someone was walking through the hallway.
The footstep was pretty clear and different from the step that a zombie would make. It doesn't have that dragged sounding but more of a synchronized rhythmic click as it echoes through the hallway. They were aware of the sound and realized it was different from a thud that a guard's boots would make.
Their eyes focused on where the sound was coming out and prepared their shield. Seemingly unclear to who might be coming at this time, but it was certain to their mind that it was not an ally.
A shadow can be seen from the corner of the hallway, and the thick black robes can be seen covering that person's whole body, with a silver-white beak pointing out from its face and several pouches on its hips. The figure turned his attention towards William and the others who were holding their shields on.
"Jesus fucking Christ, it's him," said one of the guards who were shocked to see him appear at this moment.
The figure just stands in the middle of the hallway menacingly. He didn't even move an inch and apparently observed them one by one.
"Ah, another patient, it seems." said the figure.
William and the others didn't know what to do nor how to react to the situation, but they needed to keep a distance between themselves and SCP-049, or they'll be turned into one of his minions.
"I sense the pestilence that is plaguing inside of your body." SCP-049 pointed towards one of the guards, but then he moved his finger towards William, "But you. I don't sense any pestilence within your body."
Grace and the others were shocked by what SCP-049 had just said. It was the first time that they had heard about this kind of statement made by him. Because they knew everyone that had been observed by SCP-049 would say they had the "pestilence".
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SCP-049 tilted his head in curiosity, and said, "Are you perhaps, the cure that I've been looking for?"
All of them looked at William in a confused state. Something within William's body was different and made SCP-049 interested in it. Of course, this also made him bewildered by the fact that SCP-049 would say such a thing.
One of the guards looked at Grace and said, "What should we do now? Do we just gun it to the maintenance room as fast as we can, or should we gush him right now with the water?"
"The main thing is we should keep our distance from him, but in this distance, we couldn't just throw it at him." said Grace
William commanded, "We have the upper hand here. As long as we can knock him down together, and then we pour the water on him, then everything will be fine. Get ready with your shield because we're going to run him through together."
Seeing them prepared to take him down, SCP-049 waved his hand in the air. William and the others were confused for a moment and cautious of what he was doing at the moment. But it was clear right at that moment that some of the zombies were coming from behind him and started to line up in front of SCP-049. Body blocking them so that they couldn't advance nor even get close to him.
"Great, now we can't even get close to him." William grunted, knowing that they were the ones who were outnumbered.
William and the others were backing up bit by bit, knowing there were a lot of zombies directly blocking SCP-049. They won't have any chance to fight nor ram through it. The only choice that they have left is to just run for it to the maintenance room.
"We need to get out of here as fast as we can. Get ready on my mark." said Grace.
SCP-049 and the zombies were standing still, none of the both sides made any significant move. William and SCP-049 stared at each other from a distance. For him, SCP-049 was an SCP he would get closer to, but he couldn't just risk it. As for SCP-049, William was an interesting specimen that he would like to inspect closer as to why he doesn't have any influence of the "pestilence".
"Go!" Grace shouted as she started to lunge towards her back and ran away from the scene.
William and the other guards didn't even think of anything other than they had to run from the horde as fast as they could. SCP-049 was commanding the horde to start going for them too, as he walked slowly down through the corridor, taking his time.
They had reached the stairs towards the maintenance room. Grace hurriedly swiped her card once again and let the others go in first before she went in. William and the guards pushed a shelf and some barrels that were in the room to block off the door.
The hordes were getting closer and closer, and they could even tell some of them were banging on the door and trying to break down the door. They could only delay them by blocking the door from opening.
"Quick! Open the tank and just pour the lavender water inside it!" shouted William as he tried to push a desk to add more weight to the door.
One of the guards started to grab a wrench and started to open the tank, while the other tried to go to the control panel for them to manage the sprinkler system. Grace tried to help William with more stuff to hold off the door.
"How long do we have to wait?!" shouted Grace as she tried to hold the door.
"Not sure! The system needs to reboot for a moment since we put the water solution into the tank and needed a bit of time for all the water to be spread equally throughout the pipes!" said one of the guards that were controlling the sprinkler system.
They could only wait until the pump had finally finished its rebooting process while the door kept on banging by the zombies outside. Grace, William, and one of the guards were pushing their bodies against the door to stall the time.
With everyone giving up all of their energies, a voice can be heard from the other side of the door, "Don't be scared, my child. With the cure that is next to you, I can help you remove all of the pestilences within your body."