Chapter 48 “The Old Man From Nowhere”
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"Look, just let me know if you or any of your guys found an old guy wearing robes in this building. He just walked into the premises knowing that he forcefully tried to get in here."

The event organizer just ran to the first floor after talking to William for a moment, continuing his search to find the old man that they were looking for.

William hurriedly grabbed his walkie-talkie, "Did anybody see an old man, around in his fifties, wearing a robe and carrying a sack around the premises?"

"Negative, no matching appearances regarding what you just described. Shouldn't that be easy to find since everyone was in this Halloween-themed costume and a hobo went to the party?" answered one of the guards through the walkie-talkie.

William continued as he looked at the first floor from above, "I know, but the event crew was having a bit of a problem searching for that old man in this building. His presence could be troubling our operation for containing SCP-2331."

"What's the matter? Is the old man about to do some bombing or anything to the building?" said Grace Through the walkie-talkie. She seemed confused regarding the situation.

William looked back at the barista that was cleaning its counter from the broken wine bottles, "Even worse because that old man is SCP-1440, and his anomalous effects had taken place even though it's just a small scale at the moment." 

SCP-1440, The Old Man From Nowhere, is classified as a Keter class object.

Currently, SCP-1440 is not contained, and its whereabouts are unknown. Due to the anomalous properties that SCP-1440 had, it was considered to be impossible to contain it without wasting a lot of resources and manpower.

Until there was a viable way to contain it, SCP-1440 should always be put under surveillance and minimize its contact with the general public by analyzing its movement patterns.

SCP-1440 is a man whose origin, age, name, and place of birth are unknown; attempts to obtain this information were unsuccessful. Since his first meeting with the Foundation, SCP-1440 has maintained his age and appeared to be in his fifties.

SCP-1440 will only exhibit anomalous properties when in close proximity to people or manmade objects. The more time it spends in the environment, the more apparent the effect will occur.

Any individuals or manmade objects in the vicinity of SCP-1440 will experience chaos and destruction. Over time, the effects grew stronger until SCP-1440 utterly destroyed everything in its vicinity, including people and structures.

SCP-1440 was aware of its own influence on the environment, leaving him the only one unharmed, and he attempted to avoid the general public as best as he could. 

SCP-1440 claimed that it is getting harder for him to avoid the public lately because of the human population's rapid growth and spread into formerly uninhabited places.

Given that their sole objective was to contain SCP-2331, Grace was a little taken aback that an SCP would appear at this particular time and location.

Despite the circumstances and the fact that she understood little about SCP-1440, she was aware that they needed to take care of it as well so that it won't be exposed to the general public, especially at an event full of people.

William continued, "Look, all you guys need to know regarding SCP-1440 is that we need to evacuate the people inside the building first to prevent any casualties caused by its anomalous effect."

"That would be a hard thing to do since there are a lot of people, and I would need a reasonable reason to tell the event organizers in order to evacuate everyone from here." replied Grace.

"The whole building could crumble the more we spend our time not evacuating the guests and the artists that are in this building. SCP-1440's effect has appeared on a small scale. We need to hurry." said William as he walked down to the first floor.

He then continued, "I'll leave it up the whole thing to the event organizers to you, Captain. I'll try to find where SCP-1440 was and try to get him out of here as fast as I can." 

"Alright, understood." Grace started to leave her position and walk her way out to the backstage, "Cal, Vic, leave your station now and prepare to escort SCP-2331 once I stop the party."

"Roger that." replied both of them on the walkie-talkie.

She noticed the lights in the hallway, which led to the main venue, were flickering as she was moving downward through it. A couple of the building's guests were startled when one of them exploded.

She had witnessed firsthand the impending catastrophe of this building and knew that everyone needed to leave right now before the situation worsened. While also securing SCP-2331 from the party.

The main venue was crowded with people partying to the music that SCP-2331 performed. Grace continued to proceed to the backstage and have a talk with Clarence to cancel the party.

The backstage was packed with several artists preparing for their performance. Some of them were still getting dressed and preparing their makeup. Clarence can be seen talking to one of the artists that were there.

She waved to him. Clarence walked up to her and asked, "What's wrong? Is there anything you wanted to talk about?"

"I need you to cancel the party and evacuate everyone out of this building immediately. There's an urgent matter that we can't explain in great detail since we're running out of time." said Grace with a serious look in her eyes.

Clarence was a bit shocked to hear this, "I can't do that if there wasn't any viable reason to stop the show. We're just getting started, and certainly, I couldn't just stop the show midway."

The moment they were talking about stopping the event, a crack on the above floor of the backstage could be seen to the naked eye. All of their eyes were set to the cracks, and Clarence looked at her with worried eyes.

"Either we call off the party to ensure everyone's safety, both the guests and the artists, or we're going to end up in a PR disaster later on the news." said Grace with sharp eyes.

"O-okay, I-I'm on my way now. " Clarence replied as he walked to the front stage.

William searched through the building to find SCP-1440 so that he could report to his containment squad and take care of the problem quickly before the situation worsened. 

He stopped in a hallway. It was pretty empty since it was a hallway leading up to the bathrooms for the guests to use at the party. William caught his breath for a moment as he was a bit overwhelmed by the situation.

There were still no signs of SCP-1440. It should be easy for him to spot the old man since he was wearing something that was different from the other guests attending the party. He thought for a moment about where he should go next. 

Just before he started to continue to search for SCP-1440, he felt someone was standing behind his back and trying to reach for his shoulder. Realizing a presence, William took a few steps forward to dodge the grasp and turned his back. 

To his surprise, a person was standing behind him the whole time with his hand reaching out to William. The same appearance that the event organizer had described, an old man in his fifties wore a black robe and a long white beard.

"Son, I just wanted to ask for your help. Could you please lend me a hand?" said the old man.

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