Item #: SCP-2640

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: The rail line that intersects SCP-2640 is to be decommissioned for all commercial or industrial traffic. A 3 m tall electrified fence has been installed in a 1.5 km2 perimeter surrounding SCP-2640.

A total of 4 No fewer that 8 Xyank/Anastasakos Constant Temporal Sinks (XACTS), hereafter referred to as an XACTS Array, are to be placed surrounding the 5500 m2 area. Due to the remote location, the XACTS Array is to be powered by a subterranean miniaturized pressurized water reactor. The array must be failover redundant and maintained by Foundation personnel, stationed on site.

The Disinformation Bureau is to maintain the current dissemination campaign. Witnesses to SCP-2640-1 are to be administered Class-B amnestics.

Description: SCP-2640 is an unstable temporal anomaly centered on a 5000 m2 area near Gurdon, Arkansas. The area is a heavily forested pine thicket, bisected by a Union Pacific Railroad line that runs from northeast to southwest. The railway features one iron trestle bridge, which is the epicenter of SCP-2640. No other vehicular or pedestrian roads enter the area affected by SCP-2640.

Within the area of SCP-2640, SCP-2640-1 may manifest.

SCP-2640-1 is an intangible floating orb of iridescent light. It may manifest alone or in groups; however, no more than 12 have been seen at once. It has been known to manifest at any time; however, it is much more noticeable at night. The light produced by SCP-2640-1 varies in intensity, and has been measured between 75-450 lux. The wavelength of the light measures between 380-490 nm, and appears bluish-white to the human eye. SCP-2640-1 normally float and travel slowly, but have shown the capability to move at speeds approaching 60 kph.

When an instance of SCP-2640-1 measures under 150 lux, it does not show any response to stimuli or environment. In instances measuring over 150 lux, it will interact with human presence, following subjects from a distance of no less than 20 meters, and will not move closer; instead, moving away if approached. Conversely, instances approaching 450 lux are very active, and will often interact with subjects.

In rare instances, SCP-2640-1 has been shown to float through a subject. In these instances, subjects report a feeling described as "being suspended in liquid" or "floating in a swimming pool", although they show no outward changes. The feeling begins as soon as SCP-2640-1 makes physical contact with a subject, and passes as soon SCP-2640-1 is no longer making contact.

Instances of SCP-2640-1 are incapable of leaving the area affected by SCP-2640. When they reach the boundary, instances of SCP-2640-1 will decrease in luminosity until they become invisible.

Addenda: SCP-2640-1 has been colloquially known to local residents as the "Gurdon Light" or the "Spook Light" and, prior to containment, was a tourist attraction—particularly around the holiday of Halloween. Local legends and mythology attribute SCP-2640-1 to the lantern of a railroad worker who was killed when he fell into the path of a train. The legend states that the man's head was separated from his body and was never found, and that the light that people see comes from his lantern as he searches for it.

The Disinformation Bureau's campaign explains that SCP-2640-1 is caused by the discharge of piezoelectricity from the stresses of underground quartz crystals and the New Madrid fault line. Further, the current containment protocols have been enacted for the safety of the general public, as the piezoelectric discharges have proven to be dangerous. SCP personnel on-station for containment of SCP-2640 are explained as scientists employed by the Federal Bureau of Land Management to analyze the phenomenon.

● Documentation Access ●

◎ Documentation Access ◎

Experiment Log Recording- 03/17/1992

Experiment: Testing Xyank and Hume levels within SCP-2640

Purpose: Determine the nature of the anomaly

Personnel: Dr. Connors, D-1423, D-2435, D-3578, Tech staff

Equipment: Comm Radios, Standard low-light body cam, Xyank-Tachyon Constant Spectrometer, Kant Counter, Digital Luxmeter, standard D-class control collars, handheld flashlights

Connors: Gentlemen, can I get a radio check?

D-1423: Uh, check.

D-2435: Yo DJ, check check 1, 2.

D-3578: Hey doc, we hear you. So what the hell are these gadgets we're toting?

Connors: They're scientific instruments. They're measuring some of the things in the environment around you.

D-2435: Ya hear that, ya'll? I'm doin' SCIENCE.

D-1423: (laughter)

D-3578: (laughter) Yeah, you're a regular fuckin' Einstein.

Connors: Gentlemen. If you could please walk along the railroad tracks.

D-2435: Roger wilco that good buddy, 10-4.

D-1423: (laughter)

Connors: Can it. Keep moving and keep your eyes on those instruments.

D-3578: So… what are we out here looking for, Doc?

Connors: You might see something a little unusual.

D-1423: Unusual? How unusual?

Connors: Nothing to be worried about actually… in fact, you might even find it quite interesting.

D-2435: (In a mocking tone) You might even find it quite interesting.

Connors: D-2435, shut it. You all should be in the exclusion zone right now. Can you give me some reading off your instruments?

D-1423: Uhhh… looks like… .point-three-two.. C H?

Connors: That's 0.32 centiHumes.

D-1423: Oh… ok.

D-3578: I have… uh… a triangle and… two-point-three-five XT

Connors: Delta 2.35 X-Tachyons, that's pretty significant.

D-3578: Cool.

Connors: D-2435?

D-2435: Thought you told me to shut it.

Connors: (Sighing) Everyone, kill those flashlights, and D-2435, can I have that lux reading?

D-2435: Yeah, it's… fuckin'… uhhh…

Connors: D-2435, the reading?

D-2435: uhhh… zero… dot… t-two… three?

Connors: Are you asking me?

D-2435: Fuck you.

Connors: I'm gonna have you reassigned. Is it 0.23 lux?

D-2435: Fucking… I dunno.

Connor: D-2435, you're testing my patience.

D-2435: WOAH, WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?

(An instance of SCP-2640-1 materializes 6 meters away from the group)

D-2435: ohfuckohfuckohfuck…

D-1423: JESUS CHRIST.

D-3578: WHAT in the HELL…

Connors: CALM DOWN, all of you. I told you you'd see something unusual. Now, the light won't hurt you at all. I just want to get some readings please.

D-1423: T-t-that's a fucking ghost.

D-2435: ….ohfuckfuckohfuck…

D-3578: ….Doc? You seeing this shit?

Connors: Yes, I see it. I need you all to calm down. They don't hurt, they're just… there.

D-1423: What does it want?

Connors: That what we're trying to figure out. If you could please point your instruments towards it and give me some readings please?

D-1423: Okay, I have 0.34 CentiHumes.

D-3578: I have delta 17.78 XT.

Connors: That can't be right.

D-3578: 17.78… 17.79…. 17.80.

Connors: That's very high.

D-3578: Is that bad?

Connors: ….no. D-2435? Lux reading?

Silence.

Connors: D-2435?

D-2435: Man, FUCK this Ghostbuster shit.

(D-2435 begins briskly walking back the way he came. The light follows him quickly.)

D-2435: OH FUCK.

D-3578: Oh shit man…

(D-2435 seems to freeze in place as the orb passes directly through him, then falls to the ground, flailing)

D-2435: AH WHAT TH' HELL, I CAN'T SWIM!

D-3578: OH SHIT.

D-1423: Are you ok?

(D-2435 thrashes on the ground, as if attempting to swim)

D-3578: What do you mean, you can't swim?

D-2435: AHHH SHIT I CAN'T FUCKING SWIM I DON'T WANNA… wait… what…

(D-2435 sits up and quickly pats his chest, his head, his forearms, examining himself.)

D-2435: …th'fuck?

Connors: (suppressing laughter) Did you get that Lux reading?

D-2435: Th'fuck just happened to me?

(The glowing orb bounces around the group as they are trying to collect themselves.)

Connors: We haven't figured it out yet. But we THINK it wants to play.

D-2435: ….play?

D-1423: You fuckin' kidding?

Connors: No. They're harmless.

D-3578: Really?

D-2435: …feel like I just got thrown in the river.

Connors: Yes, that's a side effect of contact. We're trying to figure that out.

D-2435: B-but… I'm not wet…

D-1423: Your pants are.

D-2435: Man, fuck you.

Connors: Ahem… lux reading please?

D-2435: 3… 6… 7.

Connors: 367 lux. Thank you. You may all reactivate your flashlights and come back to basecamp now.

D-2435: You goddamn right imma come back to camp.

End Recording

Footnote: The findings of difference between △2.35 XT and △17.8 XT is significant- This may be one of the strongest localized temporal anomalies on the planet. It has proven to be unique in the fact that, while this particular anomaly in the local Rzewski field is quite large, the application of the XACTS array has effectively kept it from geographically spreading further.

I hypothesize that SCP-2640-1 are actually lifeforms from another time period that we can see visually, due to this anomaly, yet cannot interact with without rupturing the Rzewski field, and causing irrepairable damage to the time/space continuum.

Incident Log- 3/01/1997: An EF-4 tornado1 made landfall near the 2640 Exclusion zone, causing a piece of debris to damage the northernmost XACTS. The resultant breach facilitated the installation of a failover system of the XACTS Array.

● ACCESS DENIED ●

◎ ACCESS DENIED- 3/2640 Authorization Required ◎

LOGIN: pcs.noitadnuof|mnodnelccm#pcs.noitadnuof|mnodnelccm

PASSWORD: Twasbryllygandyeslythytoves

.

ACCESS GRANTED

Containment Breach Report, SCP-2640, 3/03/1997

Interview Recording-

Interviewed: Tony Hargrove, Level 03 Tech Support Staff

Interviewer: █████████

Foreword: Staff debrief of 3/01/97 breach incident

<Begin Log, 3/03/1997>

█████████: Sir, I understand you're upset. If you could please just start again, at the beginning.

Tony: Okay… okay. Sorry. I was at the facility with the staff, everything was fine. We were expecting a little weather, but nothing like what hit us. One minute we're just sitting back, monitoring, and the next…

█████████: A tornado hit.

Tony: A BIG tornado. I'd never seen one in my life, and then all of a sudden we're all just in the middle of mother nature's fury. The building started to come apart, trees were snapping all around like toothpicks. To be honest, I didn't give a damn about 2640 at that particular moment. I hid under my desk, the rest of the crew, we just all tried to ride it out as best as we could.

█████████: And the aftermath?

Tony: Everyone was okay. We still had power, and the reactor was alright, but the XACTS sink on the northern boundary was down. So there wasn't really any time to regroup. I sent a maintenance team out to find out what was wrong, I figured the tornado damaged it.

█████████: You said earlier that it did.

Tony: Yeah. One of those big pine trees just fell right on it. Crushed it to bits. We had a backup sitting in storage so they came back to get it. With all the trees down, travel was slow. They came back and got it, and headed right back out. It was dusk, and still raining, so it was very dark.

█████████: Then what happened?

Tony: Trevor, my 01 tech, comes on the radio after a little bit. He says that the Dash-1s were really out, that they were really beautiful tonight. I told him I wasn't surprised. With the array down, they'd probably really be glowing. He said there were dozens of them.

And then he just went quiet. Time passed. He didn't check back in. I thought, maybe his radio just got wet. No big deal. So I sent Butler out with a spare and a camera to reestablish contact.

█████████: But he never made it.

Tony: …no. He didn't.

█████████: What then?

Tony: I had this feeling that something was wrong. That feeling in your gut, that tells you to hunker down and stay put? It was balling up in my gut, like a red-hot coal. But I ignored it. I pushed that down and I grabbed a flashlight and radio, headed out into the storm to find out what was going on.

I got out of the door and took three steps before I even looked up.

There were hundreds- maybe thousands- of them. Floating everywhere. Near the ground, in the sky. It was one of the most surreal things. I could barely process it. The rain was shimmering, light refracting in a thousand liquid prisms, dancing across this ravaged forest. Have you ever seen one of the Dash-1s?

█████████: No, I haven't.

Tony: No picture, no video could ever do them justice. I find it hard to find the words to adequately express… Pure orbs of beautiful, iridescent, shimmering light. They'd float, they'd dance, they'd chase, and then just fade away. We'd all sat around and guessed as to what they really were but no one knew. Trevor always said they were angels. Others said spirits. Doc Connors said they were the Rayleigh-scattered reflections of time-travelling observers. That last one always made me wonder what they were observing.

They lit up what should have been a pitch black night. I didn't need a flashlight.

I picked my way across the terrain, climbing over fallen trees, one after the other, and tried to get to the railroad tracks. I thought, it would be easier to travel on the tracks than to pick my way through this insane coniferous jungle.

I got maybe 300, 350 meters down the tracks when something in the culvert caught my eye. An odd reflection. I went over to look at it.

It was the spare XACTS sink.

There was blood on it.

…

█████████: Go on.

Tony: I was shellshocked. I couldn't understand, for a moment, why it would be here. The more I looked at, the more I saw. This thin, rain-washed blood was on the sink, on my hands, dripping away with the increased saturation. It was on the ground, staining the white gravel of the railroad bed, making thin red puddles in the clay.

I looked around at the Dash-1s. I watched them for a few moments. They were racing back and forth across the sky. Through the trees. Something was different about them, something was off. I couldn't make sense of it. I'd been watching them for years now, but they just looked… different.

I can't remember how I first saw it. Right behind the orbs, there was this spot where the rain just… wasn't. Like it was bending around some invisible mass, some great thing behind each orb. And once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it.

It was too much. I took a step back reflexively as this new information hit me like a impossible, heavy thing. I lost my footing. I slipped down into the ditch, which was rapidly filling with water.

I stayed there. The coal in my gut was white-hot now, and I couldn't ignore it. I clutched that damn sink with both hands and just froze there, trying to suppress the urge to vomit.

One of the orbs, it just cruised right by me. I could feel this enormous thing, this void there the rain ceased to be, as it swam by me, silently. I couldn't explain why, but I knew it was looking for me. I held my breath, stayed as still as I could. I told myself, don't move. Don't fucking move.

It hung in the air next to me, turning, searching… like a shark, circling in a cloud of blood. Then, just as silently, just as smoothly, it started gliding away, into the trees.

I waited for it to get 20 meters or so away before I let myself breathe again.

I think that's when I knew. That's when I knew that the dash-1's weren't what we thought they were. Not even close. That's when I knew that Trevor, and Butler… they didn't make it. They couldn't have made it.

They were hunting us. HAD been hunting us. And we never even knew.

The only thing that had been keeping them at bay while we were testing was this array. I had the sink in my hands. I knew then I had to get to the northern point and get that sink online.

I crawled like a god-damned soldier through that ditch, for hours. Any time one of those things floated within 50 meters of me, I froze, I held my breath, I practically willed my heart to stop pounding for fear that they would hear it. I just moved when I could.

The sun was rising before I finally got there.

…

The old sink was completely crushed. But the power cables and the Dryconn connectors were still there, and still intact. I put the XACTS into place, powered it up, and waited, praying. Praying for the array to do it's work.

I sat and watched the glowing orbs, as the rain stopped, skipping through the sky by the thousands, for miles and miles. If this didn't work…

█████████: But it did.

Tony: It did. I could see the things fading out of existence as the hum from the sink grew louder. The Rzewski field was shrinking again, back into containment, and without a sound, the orbs just… vanished. Like they were never there to start with.

<End Recording>

Closing Statement: The containment breach led to the fatalities of 4 foundation personnel and 6 civilians. The tornado has been used as a cover story for civilian fatalities, and the witnesses to the true nature of SCP-2460-1 have been administered B-class amnestics as per protocol.

Mr. Hargrove has requested reassignment and amnestic treatment- Reassignment and counseling treatment is approved. Amnestic treatment is pending approval by the Ethics committee. Footage recovered from Mr. Butler's camera was damaged. Foundation tech staff are currently trying to recover the data.

Note from █████████: Knowing what we know now, it's easy for us to point out that the XACTS Array must stay up and on maximum power, with failsafes in place. The veil, in layman's terms, is very thin here. If it were pierced, we'd quickly find that 2640-1 wouldn't be our worst problem, we'd have more trouble with Gurdon, Arkansas- and possibly the entire southeast U.S.- suddenly finding itself on the bottom of the ocean floor.

Footnotes

1. The Gurdon Times "A Look Back at the Tornado of 1997", Mar 2, 2012