Item #: SCP-7265

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: Due to its large nature and population, SCP-7265 is impossible to fully evacuate. Containment efforts should therefore focus on instances of SCP-7265-1. Instances of SCP-7265-1 are to be immediately evacuated and surrounded by opaque fencing, under the guise of being a sinkhole, construction zone, or similar industrial hazard. Two (2) watchtowers should also be erected at the site. Two (2) Class 2 personnel should be assigned to guard each instance of SCP-7265 from the watchtowers, and should appear to be police officers. If a civilian approaches, the guards should first issue a verbal warning. If the civilian continues to approach, they should then be amnesticized and moved several kilometers away from the area.

All guards assigned to an instance of SCP-7265 are to be rigorously trained and informed of the anomalous nature of SCP-7265. They are to undergo at least one (1) month of training at Training Site 18, and are to undergo Training Protocol Alpha. This involves, primarily, water-deprivation resistance training. Personnel are only allowed to serve as guards for SCP-7265 sites once they have personally been deemed fit by Location Overseer Landon. All guards for SCP-7265 sites should be given four (4) months of vacation for every one (1) month spent guarding SCP-7265, and are entitled to free counselling.

Description: SCP-7265 is used to connote an approximately 150-kilometer-square area of desert in the southwestern United States of America, encompassing parts of Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. This area is presided over by Location 18, a remote research outpost in the Mojave Desert overseen by James Landon. Within SCP-7265 are an indeterminate number of SCP-7265-1. Currently, nine (9) instances of SCP-7265 have been discovered. SCP-7265-1 presents as a cylindrical area (typically 30 to 50 meters in diameter, with apparently no height limit) in which entities will become unnaturally thirsty, and will remain thirsty even if a large amount of water is consumed.

Multiple D-Class personnel who were placed inside an instance of SCP-7265-1 reported being drawn toward the center of the area and have stated that, at the time, they were firmly convinced they would find water there. Subjects inside an instance of SCP-7265-1 also refused to drink any water offered to them from outside the zone of influence, calling it words like "inferior" and "impure." In instances where personnel were forcefully inundated, they became violently ill and continued moving towards the center of the area.

Upon reaching the center, all entities begin to furiously dig in the sand, and continue doing so until death or forceful removal from the area. Once outside of SCP-7265-1, D-Class personnel reported feeling all signs of thirst fade (except for those that would be deemed normal, considering the environment).

After approximately half an hour of digging, entities in SCP-7265-1 will begin to eat the sand and gravel around them, loudly proclaiming it to be the "milk of the gods," among other things. Death typically follows shortly. Autopsies show that death is invariably caused by extreme organ damage, far worse than what would be expected from the ingestion of sand and small pieces of rock.

Entities who remain within an approximately one (1)-kilometer radius of an instance of SCP-7265-1 for longer than approximately four (4) hours report feelings of intense thirst that do not subside after drinking water. Because of this, guards assigned to an instance of SCP-7265-1 typically undergo extreme mental duress. To date, five (5) guards have willfully entered the instance of SCP-7265-1 they were guarding, despite knowing what would happen if they did so, in what seemed to be apparent suicides. Other guards have requested transfer after experiencing recurring dreams of a large oasis of water located in the center of the instance of SCP-7265-1 they were guarding.

To date, SCP-7265 is believed to have caused the deaths of 39 people, 27 of which were in one cohort. See the Private ████████ Bodycam Video Log.

+ Private ████████ Bodycam Video Log

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Private ████████ Bodycam Video Log

Date: [REDACTED]

Unit Documented: [REDACTED] Platoon, [REDACTED] Regiment, United States Marines

The following consists of footage taken from the bodycam of Private ████ ████████, a United States Marine. The footage documents said platoon conducting a routine training exercise. All bodies and footage related to the event have been confiscated by the SCP, and all members of the platoon are currently listed as missing, presumed dead.

For clarity, all Marines excepting Private ████████ and First Lieutenant ████████ will be referred to as A-1 through -25.

[BEGIN LOG, TIMESTAMP 23:51]

Private ████████'s platoon, comprised of 27 Marines, are sitting in a helicopter, hovering approximately 30 feet above the desert floor, at geographic coordinates ████████ ████████. First Lieutenant ████████ kicks two fast-ropes out the open side of the helicopter.

First Lieutenant ████████: Move it, boys! You're on the clock! Let's go, let's go, let's go!

Private ███████: (muttering) Jesus Christ, him and his clock.

All Marines in the helicopter fast-rope to the ground. The helicopter overhead leaves.

F.L. ████████: Night goggles on, boys. We're in and out, two hours. Rendezvous is half an hour from our hit point. You should have the coords to memory. Hit point is two miles south. I want eyes up, goggles down, safety off. If any of you sons of bitches so much as coughs, I'll have your ungrateful ass court-martialed. Understand?

ALL: Sir, yes, sir!

F.L. ████████: Good. Move out.

(The platoon walks in silence for the next fifteen minutes. At timestamp 24:12, the platoon stops five meters away from the edge of SCP-7265-1-7.)

F.L. ████████: Alright, boys. You've had an easy enough night. I want tactical formation, two by two, for the next mile. Eyes and ears up. ████ [A-9] and ██ [A-15], head us off.

(The Marines pair off into a predetermined formation and begin to walk in a file, with approximately three meters of space between each pair. At timestamp 24:14, A-9 and A-15 enter SCP-7265-1-7, followed by A-2 and A-20, then Private ███████ and his partner, A-18. A-9 begins to cough.)

F.L. ████████: What the fuck did I say about noise? Who is that?

(All Marines inside SCP-7265-1-7 begin to cough.)

F.L. ████████: You think this is a fucking joke? If you're going to cough, cough into my goddamn face!

(F.L. ████████ enters SCP-7265-1-7. Once inside, he appears to stiffen, then begins coughing. All Marines inside SCP-7265-1-7 break formation and begin to move toward the center of the area. The other Marines remain outside SCP-7265-1-7.)

A-21: (muffled) The hell do we do?

A-7: (muffled) I mean, they're all walking that way. Maybe this is one of those dumbass loyalty tests.

A-3: (muffled) Shit, you think? I've heard about those. I hear that if you fail, they DD [dishonorably discharge] you or something. Screw it, I'm cutting my losses.

A-24: (muffled) I don't know. This is … weird. Aren't loyalty tests supposed to be about bravery under fire or something?

A-19: (muffled) Loyalty is loyalty. C'mon, guys, you know what they say. A Marine can never be too loyal. I'm following.

(All Marines except for A-24 and his partner, A-10, can be heard entering SCP-7265-1-7. They begin to cough and make their way towards the center of the area. Shortly thereafter, Private ███████ reaches the center of SCP-7265-1-7, turns to face A-24 and A-10, and begins to dig.)

A-24: What the fuck, guys?

A-10: Is this supposed to be some kind of sick joke?

(There is no response. Private ███████ and the other Marines continue to dig in silence for the next six minutes. At timestamp 24:23, A-10 suddenly discharges his gun twice into the air. F.L. ████████ looks towards the noise. He appears to be crying silently.)

F.L. ████████: (faintly) So … thirsty.

(A-10 and A-24 begin a heated discussion, out of microphone range of the bodycam. At time stamp 24:25, A-10 throws a canteen filled with water towards the digging Marines. A-8 hurriedly unscrews it and begins drinking from it, but then starts choking and appears to vomit repeatedly.)

A-8: Broken! Broken! Impure filth!

A-24: That's it. I'm radioing this in.

A-8: Beware of false prophets! I know you by your fruits!

A-10: Yeah, call it -

(A-8 fires two bullets into A-10's head, killing him. A-24 begins to run and A-8 fires five more bullets at him, three of which hit. A-24 collapses and writhes on the ground for two minutes before dying. The Marines continue to dig in silence. At timestamp 24:50, the Marines collectively begin to eat the sand.)

A-20: (muttering) Beautiful … golden nectar …

(The Marines in SCP-7265-1-7 continue to ramble, mostly nonsensically, for the next twenty minutes. At timestamp 01:11, A-8 [located directly next to Private ████████] vomits blood, keels over, and appears to die.)

F.L. ████████: He has it! He has it! The nectar! The milk! The honey!

Private ████████: Mine! Mine!

(Private ████████ begins to lap at the vomited blood while panting heavily. A-25 runs toward Private ████████ and is shot by A-2. Private ████████ shoots A-2 in the chest before being shot twice in the back. Ballistics analysis later revealed the bullets to have come from A-9's gun. Private ████████ collapses and dies, burying the bodycam in the sand. Sporadic gunfire continues for thirty seconds. Nineteen Marines are shot to death. The survivors can be heard eating sand for the next fifteen minutes before all vomit blood and die within ten seconds of each other.)

[END LOG]

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