"Return to Mujin?"
"The resume said that you used to work as a teacher there, correct? The Foundation needs someone to do some survey in the area, and I think you are a suitable choice. Airplane ticket and all the necessary equipment are already on standby. You will depart tomorrow morning."
…
"Director, did I do something wrong?"
"No, we simply need to clarify something in that city, that's all."
And here I was, the city of fog. The bus began to roll away, leaving me behind by myself. I could not even see the "Welcome to Mujin" sign on my way here. They should have at least put on some lights for the letters to let visitors know where they were heading at. After all these years, Mujin still did not get any better.
"Ha In-Suk? Are you really Ha In-Suk?! Gosh, it's been a decade isn't it?"
"Yes, I just got here." An old neighbour of mine, Mrs. Lee. She used to talk about her son all the time. At least, until that fateful day happened…
After some chatting, I continued my way to where the Foundation had prepared for me. A beat-up apartment, and a TV that was way too old. I opened the window and- "Haizz…" All I saw was the murky old fog, it made me wonder how the hell could Mujin be classified as a city. Perhaps the government had hoped they could attract some investors?
After a swift look around, I noticed the briefcase of documents that was placed on the table. My mission was simply to gather some data about Mujin. Apparently, the Foundation had discovered that the fog of Mujin was being expanded, and they were concerned that this would not only affect the bordering Gwangyang City, but also air traffic above. Therefore, people like me were sent here to see what was going on.
There was no information regarding the people who were called to work on this matter with me, beside a note that said we would meet up after a few days.
…
Could it be, that I really was in trouble for something with the Foundation. Why was only one researcher sent here? Why was me the one being sent here? Wasn't a team usually sent for this type of task? Could it be that I was under surveillance for some time? For god sake, I wasn't even working in Korea!
I sat down on the bed, it was even shorter than my height. The mattress was also hard and not comfortable at all. The bed frame even created rustic sound, I could only imagine how frightened it would be if the whole thing suddenly collapsed during the night.
Placing the mission file beside me, I glanced outside the window. It was still there, the misty fog. I could not help but wonder if it was also something similar to the Veil that had been maintained by the Foundation and the GOC. Could it be that the fog was also hiding something?
Surrounding Mujin now was an unusual colossal pillar of smoke. The fire had already destroyed most of the city. People were being evacuated to the shore.
"Please remain calm and step onto the ship one at a time. Please give priority to women and children."
Surrounding me were just people crying for their fate…
"Jae-bum, my son!"
"Please stay calm, the Rescue team is trying to search for any civilian who was left behind."
"No, I have to find him! I need to bring him back!"
"It's very dangerous! Please stay calm!"
Or cried for the sake of others. Such an emotion was alien to me. Maybe because I was from elsewhere, so there wasn't really anyone in Mujin for me to worry about.
Something grabbed my shirt, a child. Right, because my teacher's salary here was hardly enough to cover both my expenses and to send back some for my family, I had taken on an additional babysitter job to earn some extra.
"Where are your parents?" I asked, while putting a business smile on my face. No response, the kid only stared in one direction, his eyes shown a weirdly calm and expressionless sight.
I put my eyes to the place where the child was glancing at. Behind the smoke, something was staring directly at me.
The only thought I had at that time, was fear.
"Haizz…" There was nothing to see here, not that I could anyway. Dirt, check; rocks and sand, check; water… - Why did the Foundation want me to pick up all this crap! Shouldn't someone stationed nearby be more suitable for this type of sample collection task? Did my superiors look down on me that much?
Was I… was I that useless?
While I was busy with my thoughts, I suddenly got dragged into the bush nearby by someone.
"Hey-"
"Shhh." A kid - no more than sixteen, seventeen years old - placed a finger on his lip to signal me to stay quiet. I slowly adjusted my sight to where he pointed at.
Flickered behind the mist were shadows of moving humanoid figures. Although I could not see their faces clearly, there was no doubt that their behaviour was quite strange. Such a gathering at this scale never happened in Mujin, and even if the locals decided to organize one, I should still be able to know about it through the gossip of my neighbours.
Since I already had a camera here, I decided to follow and record them so I could report back to the Foundation later on. Who knows, they might be the reason why the Mujin's fog was expanding, thus the reason I was sent here. Neat, let's finish it quickly.
"You don't have to hug me anymore, kiddo." I turned my sight to the boy behind me. He did not answer, not even looking at me. "Hey?"
Without a word, he lowered his head and began to approach those ominous entities. I tried to call him to go back, but it seemed pointless. This annoying brat. No other way, I followed behind. I would continue with my mission, regarding the kid, he would get his memory erased anyway.
That was if he made it alive.
A moment later, those ghosts - I called them that - seemed to be gathering in an empty field. The kid and I decided to climb on a tree for better observation. It appeared that those figures were doing some kind of ritual.
I zoomed in on the video recorder to have a closer look at some of them. Their body was truly made of a cloudy greyness, with the most notable part being the glowing dots where their eyes appeared to be. "Perhaps they really are ghosts." The kid was still kneeling beside me.
And before you asked, I had left those "precious samples" back there. They were rocks, they were not going anywhere.
The ship sailed further away from the coast. With a towel covering my body, I sat at the back, looking to afar. The daily fog had now been replaced with a burning smoke of fire.
Oh, how long it had been since I last left that boring city.
"Citizen Ha In-suk, your request to meet our supervisor has been approved. Please follow me this way." A man in a Republic of Korea Army uniform led me to a room on the top floor of the evacuation ship.
The door opened, and I saw a man already waiting on his seat. "It's been some time since we last met, Ms. Ha."
A familiar yet strange present appeared in front of me. "Nice to see you again, Mr. Yoon." I had met Yoon Hee-jung a few times before. Well, 'met' was not exactly correct. Most of the time when we saw each other, it was just simple nods and greetings. What I knew about Yoon were usually word of mouth from others, talking about how he was an excellent student, or how he was working at some research institution.
Though, I was indeed surprised to see the army escorting him.
"Being a scientist seemed great, huh?"
"Well, not quite. My superiors kept making me go then and there whenever some strange weather phenomenon occurred. You know how annoying climate change can be."
Hearing this, I came closer with a smile. "Your superiors… could it be that they are called 'the O5 Council-"
Yoon immediately stood up, causing his chair to fall, and grabbed my collar. "How did you know this?"
"You are scaring me, Yoon-"
"Talk, or else you won't leave here in one piece. And no, I'm not threatening you, I am trying to protect you."
…
"Some time ago, I came by your house and found them by chance…"
"You searched my briefcase?"
I nodded. He relaxed his hand. "So you want to see me because…?"
I looked down at the floor. "The fire was moving in a very abnormal way, and I believed that I saw a devil hidden inside it. I had thought that I was hallucinating due to tiredness or smoke, but then I saw you. And I remembered what I found in your briefcase. I used to think that those papers were some kind of fiction work that you write to publish. But after what happened, I connected the dot and knew I had to see you."
I moved closer, looked straight at Yoon, and bowed. "Please help me join the Foundation! I also want to know more about these kinds of things, I want to become someone helpful!"
The SCP Foundation has many ways to recruit personnel, from agreements with governments and direct recruitment in pool of scientists, to negotiation with defected members of a GoI, or simply recruit the children of incumbent personnel. The Foundation does not normally seek out to common people, as whenever someone accidentally finds abnormal stuff, we would just give them amnestic and call it a day.
Of course, rare circumstances sometimes happen, when instead of erasing the memory of a regular person, we recruit them - even if the Foundation never cared about that individual before. Obviously, they would still need to pass standard recruitment procedures to confirm that they have the qualifications, as well as to prevent espionage.
"Ms. Ha, could you please grab me a cup of coffee?"
"Yes, sir."
"I know our site has a party today, but would you mind helping me with…"
"No worries, I will finish and submit it to the department manager."
"Hmm, there seems to be some mistakes on this report?"
"I'm truly sorry, I will correct it right away."
However, because the Foundation didn't know what kind of people these individuals were, discrimination is bound to happen, leading to situations where they could not advance despite the amount of effort they have poured in.
"Promotion request?"
"Yes sir, I feel like I can do a better task if I am given more clearance-"
"We will place this in consideration for later. Now, back to the main job. We are about to have an interview with a person of interest. Can you take on this task, Researcher Ha?"
…
"Yes."
This is extremely harmful. Putting the potential of betraying the Foundation aside, personnel treated as such also have a high chance of losing their will for progress. And in a reality where anomalies keep evolving, it is not going to take long before the Foundation no longer has the ability to protect humanity. I only fear that it will be too late by the time people realize the situation. Remember: Secure - Contain - Protect. To fulfill our duty, we need to use every resource we have, that includes people who we do not understand.
.
.
.
"Please cooperate, or we will be forced to use harder means."
"Oh, I would be more worried about that if I were you."
"What are you implying?"
"Tell me, what are you afraid of?"
"Please do not change the subject, I need your cooper-"
"Are you afraid of not being able to do anything that worthwide? Is it really because you don't want to be looked down upon? Or is it the fear of causing disappointment? Of making people hurt?"
"You-"
He put his finger between his lips, signalled me not to interrupted, then spoke:
"The fog is still there, and it is calling you. Face it. Or should I say- face the thing that hides behind it."
All the lights suddenly turned bright red, an alarm went off, and I turned my head towards the speaker.
ATTENTION PERSONNEL. THIS IS AN EMERGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT. A CONTAINMENT BREACH HAS OCCURED. ALL PERSONNEL ARE TO EVACUATED TO THE DESIGNATED AREA IMMEDIATELY. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
While the announcement was being repeated, I turned my head back to the interrogated and realized, he was nowhere to be found.
"Ha In-suk!" The door bursted open, "The security has arrived for escort, we are leaving."
"But the PoI-"
"Unimportant! A bunch of things have already breached out, we need to hide first!"
While I was still recording, a ghost suddenly appeared right in front of my camera lens. Caught by surprise, I lost my balance and fell down.
By reflex, I threw the recorder away with all my might. And then I thought, that was it. A person who had been chasing recognition for all her life, just to die in torment, die as a nobody…
It was a helicopter that I sat inside this time, but it did not make the situation any different from the last one. I watched as the facility got further away. When I became a researcher, I thought that I had finally achieved something special.
But just as being a dull teacher in the fog of Mujin, the more I looked up, the more I saw how small I was, like a peck of sand watching a group of birds fly in the sky.
I tried to clear my mind by reminding myself of all the great and important things I had done, that I was saving the world and thus was allowed to forget about it, about my sin.
Is it really because you don't want to be looked down upon?
But whenever I covered my mind with such veil…
Or is it the fear of causing disappointment? Of making people hurt?
…The fire from that day returned, along with all the cries that accompanied it.
As my veil burned, I feared. Fearing that this was my fate. The fate of someone who did nothing meaningful.
A cup of drink appeared right by my cheek. "It's been a long day." I turned around and saw Agent Smith. "Could you believe that Davis actually dragged the espresso machine with him during the evacuation? He even made me help him." Smith laughed.
I took the cup and had a sip, it was hot chocolate. "The ones whose day is longer are you folks, the security team."
Smith stayed silent for a bit before voicing himself again. "You know, when Able appeared out of nowhere and began to attack us, it was not necessary for you to throw that pencil board and anger him. After all, it was expected for security personnel to die for the sake of scientists. Had Iris not been there in time, you would have been screwed. But I still want to say thank you for caring about us."
SCP-105 - Iris. When SCP-076 dashed towards me, a grenade 'as if appearing from the air' flew up to his face and exploded. As 076 was trying to understand what just happened with part of his skull opened, Iris shouted from behind us, urging the group to continue leaving. She then proceeded to shoot bullets from a pistol on her right hand, while simultaneously throwing grenades into the pictures showing 076's location.
She was such a great person…
"You seemed to misunderstand something, Agent Smith."
…and I was such a desperate one.
"What do you mean?"
I did not deserve any praise…
"I did all of those things," because just like the fire tragedy that year, "so that I could impress the management on camera."
I only thought of myself.
I slowly opened my eyes. There was only a greyness surrounding me, as if I was being inside the clouds.
"Huh? I thought that while working in Mujin for a few days, fog would have been the first thing on your mind?"
I turned around to the familiar voice. "You… were the person of interest I used to interview." A male figure was sitting at the table with a chess board on it.
"You could say so, though I would much prefer to be called Messenger of the Mist."
"Messenger? So you're the one that caused Mujin's fog expansion?"
The Messenger laughed. "Hey, why are you blaming me for this? My only mission is to drag you people back home, it is the SCP Foundation that should be blamed."
"What?"
"Mujin wants stability." The Messenger signaled me to sit down on an opposite chair. "He only wishes to shape himself in the framework that the late Kim Seung-ok had set. Unfortunately, the Foundation's existence, along with their mess, had not only altered the original 'plot', but also caused the 'protagonists' to be attached with their organization instead of this beloved land."
"Wait a minute, did you just call Mujin a 'he'? Does that mean that this city is a living creature? And 'drag' the 'protagonists'? Were you implying to us?"
The Messenger responded with a smile. "I will leave you Foundies do your own research about all of this. What matters is that, because the 'plot' has been altered too far from the original, Mr. Mujin has decided to leave the framework and create those like me, whose purpose is to make your heart return to this place once again, for him to be more stable." After arranging the chess pieces, he played a pawn up.
I was baffled before those words, but still tried to maintain a calmness and played my move. "So what should I do to stop Mujin from destabilizing?"
We continued to play chess back and forth. "Like I said before, you have to face your problem, the thing that is making you not want to look back here."
"But… even I don't know what to do." In just a few moments, all of my best moves had been blocked by the Messenger.
"You always said you hated the fog, but you were afraid that if it fades away, you will have to confront your problem." The Messenger rearranged the pieces. "However, only when the fog is gone can you clearly see your path. Remember, the problem will always be there, regardless of how you try to cover it."
The scene darkened, and I woke up. The kid was sitting beside me, looking worriedly. Not only that, those dull entities with white eyes were also gathering around, silently watching us.
"You dropped this." The boy handed the video recorder to me. I threw it faraway when I was falling down, but the kid still managed to find it.
the problem will always be there…
"I'm sorry"
"Sorry…?"
"E- Everyone is always helping me, all the way back to when I was still a no name teacher hic. B-But when the fire happened, I only ran away… hic I ignored the cries, I turned away from the begging under the rubble hic. I should have- if I had done something, then maybe more people could have been saved. And maybe Mrs. Lee's son didn't have to die…"
I wiped my eyes with my arm, but the tears just kept dropping. Without a notice, I felt as if there was a hand placed on my shoulder. I turned around, it was one of the ghost-like figures. Despite its soulless bright eyes, I felt a bit lightened in my heart.
Rays of light began to appear, shining through the empty field. The everyday mist of Mujin slowly faded away. And I saw it, a rare sight in this city: the bright light from afar, a beautiful sunset.
.
.
.
.
.
I packed my stuff and prepared to leave. The mission had been accomplished, now I just need to come to Site-64K for reports and to meet those who were also tasked with work in Mujin - or according to the Messenger - the 'protagonists'.
After what happened on that day, the kid - named Hee-sung - helped me bring the sample box back to the apartment because of the injury I had. Fortunately, it was not too serious, so I recovered pretty quickly. "Haizz…" But really, if it weren't Hee-sung, I would have used some kind of an excuse to not take that crap anyway.
"You smile so bright today. I know Mujin is a bit dull, but I hope you will come to visit often."
It seemed that I had failed to maintain my calmness. "Oh no, Mrs. Lee. I was just thinking about all the fun times I have had here. It was sunny yesterday after all." She smiled while nodding back.
We continued our talks until our way was separate. Mrs. Lee came to visit her son's grave, and I walked to the bus station for a stop down South. There would be Foundation personnel there to take me to Site-64K.
As I sat down, I noticed someone outside the window. That kid Hee-sung was waving his hand to me. "That brat…" I chuckled.
Perhaps this is the path that I should have chosen, not a path of tormenting myself for the lost, but to move forward for those who are still here.
Many years later, I returned to Mujin on a mission trip. I had now become a senior researcher with a PhD specialized in Otherworlds. Moreover, I was now a personnel of the Korean branch. After all, working alongside the people who have the same culture is always easier.
Regarding the mission trip. According to Foundation's document, Mujin did not exist originally, and that all of my memories, along with those of Yoon, Park, and Cho, were either fake, or come from a different reality.
Of course, this was not important anymore since Mujin is existing, the people living there are real, and they did not even know about the stuff behind that Veil, so how could one justify treating them as an anomaly?
Furthermore, the existence of Mujin has already been acknowledged by the public due to its nature, so the Foundation saw no reason to waste any more resources into this area. The GOC and the South Korean NPES also thought the same, so the three decided to invest in a joint operation to survey Mujin thoroughly.
We could view this as a way to confirm the information that SCP-8540 put in the Foundation database, as well as a premise for future protection policies of the agencies.
I stepped out of the bus with a coworker of mine. Was it strange for a person who only cared about herself to choose to work with someone else?
"Why do I have to carry all the luggage?"
"Didn't you say you will always help me out?"
"Haizz… If I knew I would end up like this, I would have left you sleeping in that forest- ouch." I knocked his head.
"Alright alright, I will take care of my own stuff. Let's go, Junior Researcher Ko Hee-sung."
"Yes, Doctor Ha In-suk."
