Partially cloudy, -58°C/-72°F outside
It had been twenty hours since Dr. Sarah van der Meer disappeared, and two hours since someone found Jerry Hsu dead, strangled in his own office. The weather outside was relatively calm, though patches of clouds were conjoining in the night sky and the winds were picking up speed. The base itself was running smoothly; fuel was plenty, indoor heating was comfortable, and all the scientific apparatuses worked the way their users wanted them to be. However, none of the five remaining occupants were at ease. They gathered in the cafeteria, glancing at the projector that played Jerry Hsu's last message.
"Look, Van der Meer's gone for eighteen hours." The figure of Jerry in the video addressed his webcam. He was still wearing his winter coat and knit cap, likely just arrived inside. "I know she's creepy, observing us like lab rats, but we suppose to keep in touch every day cycle, right? Social well-being and all that. I searched everywhere for her, main buildings, bunkers, astro and weather labs, nothing."
"I'm worried, look, there's something Van der Meer and I discussed." Jerry paused for a second, drinking from his bottle of vitamin water. Then he took off his cap and wiped away a thin layer of sweat from underneath. "The committee's worried that there's a, uh, trouble individual among us. Van der Meer saw the psych report before the committee took it with them on the last plane out. Name's redacted, but she's pretty sure this person is with us, and likely very dangerous."
"Hopefully I'm just overreacting here. If I'm not, then we have to find this problematic individual, and remove them before any harm is done. Let's meet and talk about it in...two hours or so." Jerry brought his watch into view and set it two hours from then. He took off his puffy coat and readjusted the webcam to focus on his face. "Got to watch our backs, but we can't stay awake all the time; have to power down most of the base during night cycles, or we'll run out of fuel before relief comes."
"I'm going upload this video to the base net right now, in case something happens to me." Jerry looked uncertain in the video. He leaned back, revealing that he was sitting in the executive chair of his office. He took his trademark pink fidget spinner from the table and gave it a couple of spins. "Well, ok, wait, who is it?"
Jerry Hsu suddenly glanced back and leaned out of view. There were sounds of door opening, and then, the video stopped.