Warehouse (see Addendum 0000.2)
SPECIAL CONTAINMENT PROCEDURES: Extant cases of SCP-0000 are currently believed to have been eradicated. Recovered victims of SCP-0000 are held in a standard biohazardous material containment chamber, and any interaction must be cleared by the on-site HMCL supervisor. Reports of isolated deaths and mangled corpses in the greater Washington state area are to be investigated for possible SCP-0000 resurgence.
DESCRIPTION: SCP-0000 is a virulent anomalous contagion in the Seattle-Washington area. The source, vectors, and incubation period of SCP-0000 are unknown; investigation has discovered that initial victims shared close work or social relations, implying an aspect of physical proximity to transmission. SCP-0000 was first classified in March of 2015 with the discovery of the corpse of Marcus Moskovich.
SCP-0000 begins affecting the human body some time after initial transmission. Progression is divided into two phases.
PHASE I:
- Victims will notice a slight stiffness in their joints, resulting in inhibited and painful motion. However, this is insignificant enough to usually be dismissed as a muscle ache or cramp.
- Victims will continue to go about their daily schedules, unwittingly spreading the contagion to other individuals.
- Victims will also display a desire to remain indoors, and an attraction to fire. The relevance of these behaviors is unclear.
- Victims will send strange, delirious messages to close friends and family via SMS messages or emails (See Addendum 0000.3).
This phase will last for approximately one to two weeks, throughout which the level of pain will slowly increase.
PHASE II:
- Victims will fully retreat to a private location, generally their home but occasionally semi-secluded public areas such as broom closets or ceiling crawlspaces in their workplace. They will remain here for one to two hours in silence, unmoving but shuddering slightly. Minutes before the folding begins, they will remove all of their clothes, shoes, and accessories, neatly fold them, and place them nearby.
- Over the following 12 hours, the victim's body will fold in half ~~one to four times~~. The number of folds appears to be related to the proximity to the index case/patient zero; victims with more folds are higher up in the chain of infection. This process was used to determine the chronological series of infections, and locate the index case (See Addendum 0000.1, 0000.2).
- The folding process results in massive internal trauma, bleeding, and disintegration of bone tissue. Folding occurs across a center axis; the first axis of folding is on the transverse plane across the waist, the second is on the sagittal plane between the legs, etc.
- Despite the immense pain, no coworkers or neighbors reported any strange noises in the timespans when the victims would have been folding.
- It is unknown whether victims remain alive through this process, as all victims have been discovered postmortem.