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Chapter 20 "My Gratitude"

A few days have passed since the last containment breach caused by SCP-049 had happened, and every personnel on the site was cleaning up the mess that was caused by SCP-049 and his zombie minions.

There were only a few casualties on behalf of the Foundation guards that were killed in action when fighting the zombies. Every corpse that was turned into a zombie is to be incarcerated for safety measurements. The Foundation couldn't afford the incident to happen again, so they implemented an even more strict procedure regarding when taking care of an SCP that has hostile tendencies.

After the whole incident, William was being escorted into his cell by the guards. Since everything was back to normal, he wasn't allowed to be wandering around outside of his own containment cell. This was because Dr. Erik made a personal choice regarding William's action, and it wasn't a unanimous decision that would allow William to leave his cell.

It was quite understandable for William that it would end like this, but at least Dr. Erik would've taken the responsibility for all the actions he made at the time of the incident. He could only obey what the guards said since they were just doing an order from someone that has a higher authority than Dr. Erik.

He then continued his normal daily life like the usual in his cell, reading books, eating, and sleeping for the rest of the day. It was nothing out of the ordinary for him, except when he tried to call or talk to Dr. Erik through the camera.

Something must have happened to him since the incident. William wasn't sure what that could be, but he could only hope that nothing terrible is going to happen to Dr. Erik just because he risked letting him out to handle the situation.

Just as he was about to close his book and go to sleep, the door of his cell made a sound, and someone was opening it. William looked at the door and thought, who could it be that wanted to meet him at this time.

A researcher-like figure was walking in his room, but it was a familiar look for William to whom that might be.

"Enjoying your night, Alpha One?" said the researcher.

William could only chuckle for a bit and then continued, "Yeah, and I thought you were turned into one of them."

"I might have, if it's not because your theory of lavender would work. I guess I made the right bet."

William stood up from his bed, "I would be in this room forever if anything goes bad really quickly, and I can't just act like it's none of my business. But thank you for trusting me to make such a risky decision like that."

Dr. Erik patted William's shoulder, "No, I'm the one who should be saying that. Because of you, the Foundation improved their procedures and added your lavender solution just in case SCP-049 tried to break out of his containment cell again."

William could see a small smile on his face, "Although, I just realized something that could've gone wrong badly. You're not immune to sickness, which means I assume that you're not immune to SCP-049's effect."

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He then scratched his head and continued, "That could end up very badly, knowing your anomalous properties help you to regenerate your own body, and we'll be having a hard time fighting what could only be described as Immortal Zombie."

Both of them just laughed it off that something like that didn't actually happen. Seeing that Dr. Erik was just fine all along, William didn't have anything to worry about that he was going to be audited for breaking the protocol just because he let William loose. Maybe the Foundation let it slide this one time just because it was purely as an act of good faith.

"So, what brings you to come to my cell? It's pretty unusual for a personnel like you to come here just to say hi, which you could've done through the camera like the usual." asked William as he was trying to lift up the atmosphere.

"I just came here to say my personal gratitude for what you've done and tell you something regarding the situation after the incident." answered Dr. Erik

William narrowed his eyes, a bit curious about what that could be, "What do you mean by that?"

Dr. Erik held his hand together, "First and foremost. Site-199 Site Director was pleased to know that you, Captain Grace, and the other two guards were able to handle the situation perfectly and helped the researcher to improve their containment procedures for SCP-049."

Hearing this, William was a bit ecstatic. Because what he did regarding the incident caught the attention of the Foundation's upper echelons in a good way. It seems that it was going according to his plan by doing this kind of thing.

"Secondly, because you and the others risked your own life in handling the situation knowing that may or may not work. I took the liberty to ask them to give you guys some sort of reward for your action."

A reward? This was way more than he could have expected. William himself wasn't sure that this type of stuff could happen to him. But he guesses that if it is something that benefits him, then why not?

"Captain Grace and her team members already got their rewards, given personally through me just then. I came here to give your rewards that had been approved by the boards of researchers."

William shows a look of excitement, "Oh, that's amazing. So, what is it, doc?"

Dr. Erik pulled out a small envelope from his pocket and handed it to him. William was confused about what it could be, but Dr. Erik showed a hint that he should open and see it for himself. He opened the envelope. There was an ID Card which has his designated name and a neck strap for him to carry it around.

Seeing his confused face regarding what it could be, Dr. Erik explained, "Because of your good behavior that always obeys and follows our direction, combined with your eagerness to help based on the latest incident. I have asked some of the people on this site to at least give you something, and that is this card."

William was still inspecting the card and puzzled about what it would do, "So, is there anything I could do with it?"

Dr. Erik lends his hand, asking if he could borrow it for a moment. William reluctantly gave the ID Card to Dr. Erik and then walked to his cell door. He swiped William's card on the door lock, and the door was opened.

"You could use this ID Card for you to wander around the site freely, although there are some restrictions to it. You can only go out of your room at a certain time in the evening, in addition, you can only go to all the general areas of this site such as the canteen or the indoor garden. We'll know if you're trying to go to an area where it's off limits for you."

Knowing that he had been given a bit of freedom regarding what he could do and wouldn't be stuck in his room forever, he was excited about his reward. Surely that he'll use this whenever he could just so he could relax and get to know better with the site.

"This is great, Dr. Erik. I don't know what to say but thank you. I will keep in mind that I will be on my best behavior when I'm around." said William in an enthusiastic mood.

Dr. Erik looked at him with a smile on his face, "You're welcome. I hope that we can work together in the future regarding what you could do."