Item: SCP XXXX
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-XXXX is to be kept under surveillance from a distance of approximately 2 Kilometers. When one of the community members happens to die, no one must enter the red zone in a radius of 99 km. In case of civilian approach, they need to be evacuated or terminated based on their awareness of the existence of the community.
Description: SCP-XXXX Is a small community of 99 people currently located in [DATA EXPUNGED]. First trace of this community have been found in an early Mughal era text, which describes them as "a primitive, forgotten by God tribe of heretic pariah" and advised to avoid contact at any cost. Observation of the community has reported no forms of hierarchical order and several unaccustomed religious practices, which shares some islamic symbologies without being related to the latter in no way. The community talks a local variant of the Pashtun language and has proved to be unable to learn any other language. Each member of the community appears to be able to communicate through a vocabulary consisting exactly of 786 words. All members of the community are hosts to a heavy parasite infestation (referred to as SCP-XXXX-01), which causes dramatic physical and mental deficiencies.
SCP-XXXX starts manifesting its nature when one of the members of the community dies. This will only happen when the community is approached by other human beings, either peaceful or aggressive, and it will lead to the suicide of a single member first, usually the one that approaches first the aggressors, if not killed by the invaders. When one of them dies, one of the aggressors will usually show symptoms of infestation by the SCP-XXXX-1 and gradually regress following a defined pattern until he becomes exactly like the other members of the community. Each one of them has a different islamic transcription of the 99 names of god on their chest that will appear on new host too and, in this case, usually replaces the one that has died in the order. The nature of the bulge is unknown, but it is the first symptom SCP-XXXX-1 infestation.
The other states are:
1 - Radical loss of intelligence, inability to speak, slow and clumsy movements, inappetence.
2 - Loss of hair, sepsis on genitalia that will inevitably lead to their complete loss
3 - Rachitism of bones and organs, except heart
4 - Final stage of the infection, in which the host will be completely integrated in the community.
It has never been observed a replacement of members in the community without aggression or contact to the community itself. Since the removal of the parasite would mean the death of the subject and, due to the extreme danger caused by the death of one of the 99, further studies of SCP-XXXX-1 have been impossible, though we suspect it to be transmetted via direct contact and to nest exclusively into the members of the community.
Observation Log This log was found on the site after the loss of the entire expedition team, held by Dr. ███████, at the time head of the expedition. While the team survived, they have reached the final stage of the infection and are to be considered MIA.
Day 1 - The place where the community lives appears to be a large desert plateau located in [DATA EXPUNGED]. The village lies near a natural cave that the inhabitants use as a cult location. Exploration has revealed the presence of a rough nestorian christian portrait of the nativity. No signs of any kind of cultivation or hunting-gathering activities has been observed, even though the presence of mud made houses suggests sedentarism. The routine of the community is very strict and monotonous, as most of the time is spent watching the sky in what gave the idea to be a silent prayer and subsequently reunite inside the cave to gaze the nativity painting, completely motionless and chanting. ADDENDUM: Great part of the words that forms thei vocabulary of the community are integral part of the chant. The community, luckily, demonstrated a peaceful behaviour and allowed us to inspect their village, which held no particular interest. Their houses are completely empty, devoid of any kind of mobilia, including beds, chairs, carpets. The houses are solid mud blocks with a roughly excavated entrance and no windows, and are scattered in no particular order, but it has been noted that a fairly large portion of the village has been left devoid of structures, and acts as a plaza or prayer reunion location. One of the villagers has gave us permission to study him.
Day 2 - Al, as the team has started to call him, is 1.58m high and has a weight of 37 kg. Is roughly capable of speaking some broken pashtun, and various IQ tests have demonstrated he has an average of 47. Further studies have found out he is completely devoid of genitalia, including papilla and any form of hair. On his chest he bears a bulge that reads, in arabic, Al-Rashid. During the test, the subject opposed no form of resistance and complied willingfully.
Day 3 - We started interviewing the subject, with scarce success. When asked about the history, uses and customs of his people he simply stared at me speechless. When inquired about his name, he answered "I am one of the 99". When asked about the meaning of the 99, he did not answer. When asked about his age, the subject simply couldn't grasp the meaning of our words or the concept of age itself.
Day 6 - After the failure of the interviews, we have decided to further study his singular body. The subject seems to be completely immune to the anesthetics we possess, but also doesn't feel any kind of pain. Unsurprisingly enough, he made some bland resistance when confronted with a scalpel. His internal organs appeared to be underdeveloped or recessing. No signs of the existance of any kind of reproductive organ as been found in the subject, having in its place a benign cancerous growth. The most striking retrieval was, howerer, the presence of a parasite community on the subject's heart (SCP-XXXX-1). Any trial of removal of the parasite without eventually ending the life of the subject has proven unlikely as the parasites replaced the Aorta, the Superior Vena Cava, the left pulmonary artery and the totality of the other arteries. We need to study how is possible for the subject to be still alive with such and advanced heart infestation.
Day 7 - The subject, when informed of the infestation, sported no awareness or care. We suspect that the parasites are the cause of the subject singular state. We deemed unnecessary to study the other community members, as they all showed off the same characteristic and behaviour, and simply keep watching Al and keep the log of the curious religious practices of the community. Addendum: It has been noted that no one of them has drank or eaten anything since our arrival, and refused food when offered.
Day 15 - Al has accidentally killed himself falling from the roof of his house. We don't know how he managed to climb there or why he did it, but the community looked highly shaken by the fact and left us in need of a new specimen. At the hour 9.09 AM they started chanting frantically over the body of the dead subject and kept doing it for approsimately 9 hours and 9 minutes. They simply left the body there afterwards, unguarded.
Day 16 - The body has disappeared and we couldn't be able to film the event despite having a monitoring camera pointed on the place for the whole day. Agent ████████, the responsible of the monitoring, is gone missing. The community has calmed down and has gone back to their normal behaviour.
Day 17 - Agent ████████ has been found inside the temple - That's how the cave was renamed - unconscious. After regaining consciusness, he said he felt the urge to visit the temple the day of the funeral. When asked about the ritual, he told us that he community members simply transported the corpse inside the temple, with the face of the dead facing the nativity. He is unaware about the causes of his loss of conscience. Basic medial test resulted in no anomalies, but I have suggested to make a more deep test of the subject tomorrow.
Day 18 - Agent ████████ happened to have contracted the parasite infestation while in the temple. While not exposing any sign of the symptoms nor deficiency, a bulge on his chest with engraved the word Al-Haqq written in arabic has appeared. Agent ████████ virulently demanded for chirurgical removal of the parasite, and greeted our denial with aggressivity and refusal. As a state of fact, I am completely certain the parasite has already infested the heart past the point of recovery. ADDENDUM: We finally opened Agent ████████, the decision to operate being taken after he tried to remove the bulge with his bare hands, and my initial thought sadly proved to be correct. The parasite had already infested the heart and chirurgical removal proved to be impossible. We decided to not end Agent ████████ life for further studies of the degeneration of the infestation.
Day 25 - Agent ████████ has started to grow unattached to food, has difficulties in remembering our names and is unable to communicate in english or pashtun, his second language. Interestingly, the intelligence decay was the first symptom to show, apart from the bulge on the chest. IQ test has proved the agent has reached an average IQ of 71, well 30 points below his precedently attested average.
Day 34 - Agent ████████ genitalia have started to show trace of sepsis. When asked about the pain, The agent replied he felt "Tickle".
Day 49 - Agent ████████ seem to have completely regressed, reaching the final stadia of the infestation. The only apparent difference is that he isn't capable to speak Pashtun anymore. Today, he took part to the community rituals, with the other members not noting nor caring for the addiction. ADDENDUM: It has been noted that the community has 99 members again. My suggestion is to kill two of them and see what happens.
Day 75 - Prof.███████████ and Agent ███ have taken the place of the missing elements. The community number is yet again 99. I am filling the application for requiring several class-D personnel for testing purposes. It has come to my attention that the process of regression has fastened in the last two cases.
Day 85 - I want to leave, but I can't. 5 members of the team have reverted. The community is still composed by 99 members.
Day 86 - We have explored the cave, but nothing peculiar was found. The nativity painting appears to be just a painting on the rock. I'm running out of ideas. The rest of my team has requested to wipe out the whole community. I deemed that dangerous, but necessary.
Day 90 - Stupid, stupid, STUPID. How could I not figure this out earlier? We were already infected the day we arrived, It happened when we met Al. This is why every time one of them dies, another takes place. They're using us as replacements. God have mercy.
Day 95 - They're killing themselves on purpose. They're doing it to integrate us, it's their way of dealing with a menace and preserve the community. I've seen one of them severing his tongue with a bite and suffocate to death right before me. I want to run but I can't seem to force me to do it. Communication with the base is broken. My team has become an assemble of mumbling idiots.
Day 99 - The word Ad-Darr has appeared on my chest. I cannot kill myself. My finger simply doesn't pull the trigger.
(Several meaningless scribbles are found after retrieval in locus. Among them, the arabian definition of the names of god and the english sentence "I AM ONE OF 99".)
