by stormbreath

Item #: SCP-6866

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: Following an agreement with the Australian government, overnight camping within Ash Mountain National Park has been indefinitely suspended. Civilian access to Ash Mountain National Park is to occur under a limited basis only, with no extended stays in the park allowed. All patrols of park rangers inside Ash Mountain National Park are to be conducted alone, not in groups or pairs.

In the event that any individual is believed to disappear in Ash Mountain National Park, the Foundation is to be alerted, rather than local or federal law enforcement. In the event that the disappeared are found deceased as a victim of SCP-6866, the Foundation will obfuscate all evidence of anomalous activity and attribute the disappearance to normal causes, attributed to the rough terrain and isolated location of Ash Mountain National Park.

Description: SCP-6866 is a series of events that repeatedly occurs inside of Ash Mountain National Park in Western Australia. SCP-6866 is triggered when a group of individuals (minimum 3, observed maximum 8) stays overnight inside the boundary of the park, and concludes with the death of all involved individuals.

SCP-6866 events begin with a group discovering corpses that are physically and genetically identical to themselves shortly after sunset, although the exact state of decomposition of the corpses varies between occurrences, and this detail is not always realized, as group members are typically unable to recognize their own skeletons. After the discovery of the corpses, weather patterns will become inclement and prevent the group from leaving Ash Mountain National Park for the duration of the night.

Throughout the course of the night, members of the group will be confronted with anomalous phenomena which either resemble themselves from other periods of time, or anomalous phenomena that force them to confront events or memories from their past. Although the majority of these encounters are nonfatal, by the end of the night, all members of the group will be dead.

Addendum: Testing Log

Limited information had been gathered on SCP-6866, largely based upon home videos and other amateur recordings by previous victims. In order to test the effects of SCP-6866 in a controlled setting, six D-Class individuals were requisitioned by the SCP-6866 HMCL Supervisor. In order to replicate the normal conditions of SCP-6866 occurrence events, all six D-Class were given amnestic drugs to remove memory of their time within the Foundation, and then a second round of amnestic therapy to induce a fugue state, in which they were conditioned to accept the idea they were previously friends.

Each of the D-Class were implanted with subdermal audio recording devices and concealed optical implants, allowing for recording of their experiences. The D-Class were then released into Ash Mountain National Park in a civilian vehicle shortly before sunset, in order to experience the effects of SCP-6866.

OBSERVATION LOG

Participants Involved:

D-9009: Civilian name "Mason Hollice". 27 year-old Australian male. Double homicide.

D-4162: Civilian name "Elias Greenway". 23 year-old American male. Grand larceny.

D-7382: Civilian name "Christoff McArthur". 26 year-old Australian male. Serial homicide.

D-3629: Civilian name "Annette Raynor". 22 year-old Australian female. Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

D-8130: Civilian name "Aaron Owens". 22 year-old Australian male. Arson.

D-0192: Civilian name "Violet Hewitt." 28 year-old Australian female. Homicide.

Traveling in a three-row van, the group enters Ash Mountain National Park approximately one hour before sunset. Several members of the group catch sight of their disguised Foundation handlers at the entrance to the park. Annette briefly makes eye contact with a Foundation agent, and returns to the car for the rest of the excursion at the entrance.

The group arrives to their campground soon after, and begin to set up camp at the reserved campgrounds. No one else is visible in the miles of surrounding Outback brushland. They set up three tents, light a fire between them and begin to cook. During this time they discuss between themselves their relief to finally go on a vacation and their joy at no longer being cooped up.

These preparations, and the process of cooking, eating and cleaning up from dinner last until sunset, when all members of the group hear a loud scream.

Annette: Shit! Is someone out there? We need to go help her!

Aaron rises to his feet, picking up a flashlight.

Aaron: I think that might have been a wild animal. I know that like, foxes and cougars often sound like an injured woman but … nothing like that is in this area, I don't think.

Elias: Did you read into what wildlife is around this area?

Aaron: No, I didn't pick this place out. Who did?

There is a silence and murmuring among the group, as each of them discusses the fact they were not personally responsible for choosing the destination of the camping trip, and suggesting other members of the group they thought might have been.

Annette stands up and grabs a flashlight, waving to Aaron.

Annette: Look, that's weird, but … it sounds like there's a woman out there. We need to help her. C'mon, Aaron, let's go.

Aaron nods and walks off with Annette. The pair leaves the rest of the group — who continues to argue about who was responsible for choosing Ash Mountain as the destination — and walk off into the brush to investigate the source of the scream.

While walking around Ash Mountain, Annette's flashlight sweeps over a collection of objects. She freezes, and stops Aaron by grabbing his arm. She slowly moves the flashlight back over the objects, revealing a collection of six human corpses lying face down in the gravel. Aaron breaks from her grasp and slowly walks over to the bodies, coming close to investigate.

He kneels down next to a body and turns it over, revealing the face of Christoff. He recoils back in shock, shouting a profanity in the process. Annette jumps back, surprised at his reaction.

Aaron: It's Christoff…

Annette: What? But we just saw h-… six bodies. Oh my god. Who are the others. Who are the other five bodies, Aaron?

Annette begins to hyperventilate. Aaron turns over three bodies, revealing they are identical to Mason, Elias and Violet. He looks back at Annette in fear, and then turns over the next body to see her own face. She sees the corpse, and begins to gag. He reaches over to the final corpse and pauses before deciding not to turn it over.

Aaron stands and grabs Annette, dragging her back to the rest of the group. He begins to yell at the rest of the group upon arrival at the campfire.

Aaron: Get up. Get the fuck up. Come on. You need to see this. I can't … I … fuck. Christ. Come on. Come on. Go, go, go.

The rest of the group protests Aaron's insistence but ultimately obeys him and stands up, following him to the location of the bodies. The group investigates the bodies, with Mason turning the final corpse over to confirm it is identical to Aaron.

Elias: Okay. Okay. So this is like, a hallucination, right? Shared delusion? Or like. A prank. Whichever one of you decided to come here set this up but then you realized you didn't want to take credit, or maybe it's just another layer of the prank that you claim not to know, and these aren't real bodies, right? Right?

Christoff removes a knife from his belt and begins to cut open the corpse that corresponds to himself. Organs spill out of the incision he makes on the belly.

Christoff: Looks plenty real to me. Real corpse. Dead for. Hmm. Hard to say? Could be a couple days, I'd think.

Annette: What the hell is wrong with you? That's tampering with evidence!

Violet: Since when did you know how to judge how long a body has been dead, Christoff?

Christoff: Oh, since… hmm. Can't actually say. A while.

Elias: Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.

Aaron: So we're calling the cops, right? We have to call the cops.

Mason: No. We can't. I can't … I can't deal with the cops. We can't do that. And now that Christoff pulled that little stunt, man. We're screwed. We need to get out of here, now. Leave. Get out.

Annette: But, they're dead bodies? We're just going to leave them there?

Mason: Our bodies, Annie. Our own corpses. This isn't natural. Ain't right, what's happening here. What are the cops going to do about this? Has anyone actually died? You're still alive, aren't you?

Annette: …right. Let's go.

The group leaves the corpses and rushes back to the campsight. During this time, rainfall begins to pick up. By the time the group makes it back to their cars, the ground has become nearly impassibly muddy. Multiple members of the group fall down repeatedly while trying to make it back to the cars.

Back at the campsite, the group abandons most of their possessions and climbs back into the cars they originally came to the campsite in. They attempt to start the van and leave, but the heavy mud causes the wheels of the van to become stuck and unable to move.

Mason: Unfortunate.

Christoff: Come on, out of the car. Mason, you and me. Let's try to get this out of the mud. Elias, you drive and we'll push.

Elias: Uh, yeah. Sure.

Mason and Christoff exit the car into the rain. Christoff begins to inspect the wheels of the van, while Mason immediately begins to push on the back of the vehicle.

Aaron: Do you think the two of them have been acting weird lately?

Annette: Yeah, both of them, Mostly Christoff. That whole stunt with the knife back there was pretty weird. He's not the same person I … hmm. You know, I don't think I really know him all that well. Or really at all.

Violet: Yeah. I don't know either of them all that well.

Aaron: Neither do I, yeah.

Elias: Yeah, I don't think I really know him well either.

Annette: Then why are we here? How did the four of us end up on a trip with —

Aaron: Hold on. What is that?

Aaron points out the window of the car, where on the horizon, six sets of flashlight are seen through the rain, sweeping through the landscape. The flashlights approach another van and climb into it, turning the headlights and interior lights on.

Violet: There's no road out there, right?

Aaron: No, there's not. We're facing the direction of the only road. And those lights came on out of nowhere, they just popped up. And where did that car come from?

Violet leans down and opens the glove box, rummaging through it.

Elias: Looking for something?

Violet: Yeah, uh … I never leave the house without… Somebody must have taken my gun. Shit. Probably Christoff. I don't trust that guy at all.

Aaron: Wait, somebody is getting out of the car over there. What are they doing?

Through the heavy rain, the group is able to catch a glimpse of two figures emerging the van on the horizon and begin walking around. Abruptly, the lights in the distance suddenly disappear.

Mason and Christoff reenter the van, sitting down on the seats, despite the fact they are incredibly wet and muddy from the rain.

Aaron: They're gone. What the hell?

Mason: Who is?

Violet: There was like a group of people over there. Might have been like, a reflection on something, I guess. It was a car like ours, six people. So I guess it was just a trick of the light.

Elias: I don't like the idea of a third set of duplicates.

Christoff: No dice on the car. It's looking like we're stuck here for the rest of the night.

Elias: Like, just a fifty meters from our own corpses? They're right over there, I want to get out of here.

Mason: Yeah. I don't want to be here either. But there's not much we can do.

The group briefly discusses their options and inability to leave the situation, before deciding the best thing to do is go back to sleep. Conditions within the van are cramped, and the majority find themselves sleeping leaned against the van doors or windows, unable to properly lay down. Despite the uncomfortable sleeping positions that most of the group find themselves in, all eventually seem to fall asleep.

Some time later, Annette opens her eyes. She is no longer in the van with the rest of the group, but is now in a civilian sedan parked outside of a convenience store. She looks around in confusion, surprised to not be in the van, and then looks at the store. Slowly, she stumbles out of the car, not taking her eyes off the store. She walks forward, entering the store, looking directly at the attendant, who briefly looks at her without interest.

Annette spends some time walking around the store, looking at various items. Throughout, she finds herself looking back and forth at the attendant. She is continually muttering to herself under her breath, but the subdermal audial implants are unable to pick up exactly what she is saying to herself. The little information that is gathered sounds like apologies or introductions.

Annette walks up to the front desk, holding a bag of chips. She looks at the attendant, who turns to her and begins to open their mouth, with an expression of anger beginning to form on their face. Before the attendant speaks, the scene abruptly changes.

Instead of being in a convenience store, Annette finds herself standing outside of the van, in the rain. She looks around in confusion, and then walks back to the vehicle and gets back inside.

At the same time, Violet is awoken by Annette exiting the vehicle. She turns around and prepares to open the door, but is interrupted by a sudden burst of static from the car radio. Nobody else in the van wakes up. Violet engages in an intense conversation with the radio static, which is not intelligible to the subdermal implant. She sounds confused and scared by what she is able to hear. The conversation stops when Annette reenters the van.

Violet: Hey, kid, you're drenched! You okay? I was worried about you, scared the shit out of me there.

Annette: Yeah, I think I just sleepwalked there. I had the weirdest dream, and I guess I just…

Violet: You do that much?

Annette: Not really.

Violet: Hmm. Not great. Okay, Annette, let me ask you a question. I need you to be honest, because I was just thinking about the same thing I'm about to ask you and well, I need the truth here. Okay?

Annette: Sure.

Violet: What's the last thing you remember before coming on this trip? The very last thing you can possibly remember?

Annette: I… I, uh. Well. Okay. Honest? I was in jail. I had a long sentence. I did something bad and I was in jail for a long time.

Violet: Yeah. Me too. I killed somebody and I was in for life. No chance of parole. So. How the fuck am I here? I don't remember getting out. Being released, anything. But I'm not in jail, and neither are you. How are we here?

Annette: Nothing on this trip makes sense. It's … it doesn't add up, none of it adds up.

Elias: We're in hell, obviously.

Elias sits up from the driver's seat, turning to Violet in the passenger seat and Annette behind her.

Elias: I woke up when you were talking to yourself, Violet. I was in jail for multiple counts of grand larceny, consecutive. Same thing as you. That's my last memory. So the conclusion is obvious: we're in hell.

Violet: You really think that?

Elias: Yeah. This is like, some kind of No Exit situation. The corpses that look like us, we're all sinners, we can't remember how we got here, who planned this, why we know each other… The devil did it. This is a whole thing meant to put us through Hell or something.

Annette: You don't know the three of them are sinners.

Elias: Give me a break. You think Christoff isn't?

Annette and Violet both look in the back row of the van, where Christoff and Mason are still asleep. Christoff is loudly snoring, and slouched over in his seat.

Annette: Yeah. You're right about him.

Violet: I hate to say it, but I think he has a point. It's not like we're just jumping to the hell thing here. Why do we know each other? Annette, you're like, a teenager. I'm twenty-seven. We're the only women in this group. Why are we here?

Annette: I'm twenty, actually.

Violet: Close enough. Okay, Elias. I believe you. But where do we go from here? What do we do with this information?

Elias: Repent, I guess. It's probably not going to happen tonight, but it's the most we can do, right.

Suddenly, there is a bang on the side of the driver's side van door. The three awake members of the group whip their heads towards the source of the bang. Annette screams. On the other side of the glass is a double of Christoff, covered in blood. Blood vessels have ruptured in its eyes, causing the appearance of tears made out of blood. Mason, Christoff and Aaron wake up in response. They tense in response to the second Christoff.

Christoff: Huh.

Violet: Do we have weapons on us?

Christoff: I have my knife. I checked the rest of the van and there's not much better options. We didn't seem to come prepared for violence. Mistake, if you ask me.

Violet: For once, I'd agree with you Christoff.

The Christoff double on the outside of the van continues to bang on the glass. It opens its mouth repeatedly but does not speak. It looks through the window of the car, staring at the individual members of the group.

Aaron: Jesus. Why doesn't it speak, at least.

Christoff: It doesn't have a tongue.

Elias: How could you tell that from back there?

Christoff: Educated guess.

Violet: Let me guess, Christoff. That's what you used to do to your victims. You'd cut their tongues out before you killed them, right?

Christoff: After.

Aaron: Wait, what?

Mason: Hold on, what's going on here.

Violet: Elias.

Elias: We're in hell. Violet's a killer, Christoff is a mass killer, I used to be a thief, Annette well. "Did something bad", she said. What'd you do, is the question? And you, Aaron.

Aaron: I burned my family estate down to spite my grandparents and got put in for multiple counts of arson.

Elias: Nice. Mason?

Mason: Killed my wife and her boyfriend.

Violet: Not too terrible, honestly. You had to get into hell somehow and that's at least understandable. Especially in comparison to him.

Violet points at Christoff. She looks back at the Christoff double, which is still standing next to the car door, occasionally hitting it with an closed fist. Upon making eye contact with Violet, it stumbles away into the rain, disappearing from sight of the car.

Christoff: You know, it's rude to point.

Christoff stares at Violet before smirking and beginning to laugh. The rest of the car looks at him, with various expressions of surprise, before joining in and laughing with him.

Violet: Funny.

The group sits in relative silence for the next twenty minutes. Each member of the group presses themselves up against the car door they are closest to, keeping an eye on the rest of the group, in case of any sudden movements. No member goes to sleep or attempts to do so during this time, choosing to stay awake and monitor the others.

Eventually, it stops raining outside. The group looks outside to see the clouds above clearing. Aaron gets out of the car, with the others silently following. The ground outside is covered in mud. Various members of the group find places to sit — Christoff sits down directly in the mud, leaning against a tire. Violet and Elias each sit on nearby rocks, which are wet but not muddy. Annette and Aaron climb on top of the van, and sit apart from each other. Mason remains standing.

In the sky, an aurora australis begins to form. It is is uncharacteristically north for an observation of the aurora australis.

Aaron: Huh.

Annette: Something wrong?

Aaron: I guess. It's the same sky. I recognize it. My grandparents are these rich bastards. They took the whole family on a trip to Antarctica to see the southern lights a few years back, but they didn't like my sister's boyfriend at the time and they didn't invite her on the trip. Only person they excluded, to make a point. Offered to let her come if she broke up with him.

Aaron: I was pissed about that. They've always been shitty like that. Excluding people, whatever, trying to control the rest of the family. When she broke up with him a few months later, they lorded it over her. That really got my goat.

Mason: So you burned their house down?

Aaron: Yeah, I did. I just didn't know my little cousin was staying with them at the time. She survived, but with some nasty burns. I think she'll be alright, but at the end of the day, I hurt her without meaning to, trying get revenge on my grandparents.

Annette: Would you do it again? If you knew you wouldn't hurt anyone you didn't mean to?

Aaron: In a heartbeat. Fuck my grandparents. Look over to the west of us. There's going to be a big red bloom that way.

A red aurora begins to appear to the west of the group, as Aaron predicted. He continues to predict and narrate the appearance and manifestation of the aurora for the next twenty minutes, until it fades away.

The group sits in silence.

Violet: Do you think we need to have a confessional or something?

Elias: Do you think that's the point of this? To try to get us to process what we did and move on?

Violet: Maybe it is?

Christoff: You're not getting out anything out of me, that's for sure. I'm not interested in giving you a confession.

Violet: I don't really want to hear your life story, man.

Annette: Yeah, agreed. Not really interested.

Christoff: Works out well for all of us, then.

Violet: Mason?

Mason: What I did was fucked up, I'll admit. You know, in Athens, if you found your wife in bed with another man, you were allowed to kill him on the spot, but only on the spot. Couldn't come back later and plan it, like I did. Found out, plotted for a few weeks, then I snuck home, went into bedroom, shot him and shot her right after.

Annette: Brutal. Did they really deserve that?

Mason: No. They really didn't. I'd say I wasn't thinking straight, but I had a while to change my mind.

Elias: You could've done worse, a lot worse.

Violet: You next, then.

Elias: Ha. That wasn't an admission of guilt on my end. I used to be a carjacker in the states. I was prolific. Stole tons of cars back in the day.

Annette: Any regret for it?

Elias: Not really. Beginning to see a theme here. Mason's the only one who's shown any really regret for what he did. And even then it wasn't a lot.

Mason: Not really, no.

Violet: Annette?

Annette: I'd rather not.

Violet: Suit yourself. I stabbed a guy while trying to mug him. Died out on the street. Not great what I did. Didn't really know him. I knew I shouldn't at the time, but I still did it.

The group sits in silence and continues to look up at the sky, not continuing the conversation. No members of the group speak.

Aaron looks off into the distance and sees flashlights approaching. He stands up to get a better look at the flashlights, seeing a group of three coming closer to the group as he watches. Annette notices next, turning to look at the lights. Given the position of the van, the rest of the group cannot see the lights except through the windows of the car.

Aaron: People from earlier are back, I think.

The four members of the group not standing on top of the van move around the side to look at the flashlights as they approach. The approaching group begins shining their flashlights directly at the members of the original group, momentarily blinding them and causing them to avert their glance and look down, away from the intruders.

A gunshot rings out, followed immediately by another. Mason and Elias drop to the ground, shot in the head. The rest of the group looks at them, then back at the approaching group, which is now close enough to be visible. Looking at the original group are a collection of doppelgangers, each resembling one member of the original group and covered in blood. The double of Mason is holding a handgun out, having just fired.

Christoff: You're back, huh?

The doppelgangers charge the original group. The original group attempts to run, but most are caught quickly. Violet is attacked by her double, who is wielding a long knife, and stabbed multiple times in the stomach. Violet ceases to resist and looks at her double.

Violet: Wh-

Violet's double slashes her throat with the knife before she can finish speaking. It stands over and wipes the blood off the knife. Violet's head falls back and the double falls out of frame.

Annette and Christoff begin to get into a physical altercation with their doubles. The Christoff double is unarmed, attempting to choke the original Christoff. After a violent struggle, he is able to grab Christoff's head and neck and snaps the original's neck. The original drops to the ground, unmoving. Annette's double is carrying a club wrapped in barbed wire, and uses it to attack the original. Eventually, the Annette double backs away, looking to the second Christoff.

Annette Double: Come on. Finish it.

The original Annette is covered in blood, with multiple broken limbs and facial wounds. She tries to crawl away from the second Christoff, but is unsuccessful. He grabs her by the neck and holds her down until her body goes limp.

Aaron is left as the final remaining member of the group. He has fallen off the van and is limping away from the campsite, but is unable to make it far before the doubles of Mason and Elias grab him. The pair drags him back to the van and forces him inside. The interior of the van is wet, and Aaron begins to panic. The double of Violet retrieves the keys to the car, and locks the car with Aaron inside. He struggles with to unlock the door manually, but the lock appears to jam and does not open.

Aaron's double pours gasoline over the car. It lights a match and tosses it onto the car. The car catches fire, and begins to burn. The interior catches on fire, having evidently been doused with gasoline as well. Aaron bangs on the door of the car, screaming until he suffocates from the smoke and collapses.

Several members of the group died with their eyes open and their ocular implants continue to monitor the scene. The doppelgangers walk around the campsite, inspecting their work and talking to each other — although the gain is insufficient to make out any information. Eventually, the doppelgangers lie down, and melt into a black liquid.

The bodies remain in place until an hour after sunrise, when a Foundation clean-up crew arrives.