A road 12km outside of De Jest, Louisiana, the day after a manifestation event. No trace of the ritual can be seen from the road.

Item #: SCP-3402

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-3402 is currently uncontained. Global social media as well as regional news channels within 600 kilometers of De Jest, Meteore Parish1, Louisiana, are continually monitored using machine learning algorithms. Once detected, MTF Sigma 80 "Crimson Permanent Assurance" will be dispatched to seize recordings, dispense amnestic treatment to all witnesses, and attempt to secure as many anomalous individuals as possible in a Foundation humanoid anomaly carrier modified with an asbestos baffle between the containment area and the crew compartment. Fire crew in Meteore Parish have been supplemented by clandestine field agents, and aerial firefighting equipment has been donated to local emergency response teams through a shell company.

Currently, no living individuals involved in SCP-3402 events have been contained due to a phenomenon designated 3402-AA-WICKER. A standard humanoid containment chamber outfitted with fire-retardant panels and an inert gas dispensing system is on standby at Provisional Area 284, in the event that an affected humanoid is successfully detained.

Description: SCP-3402 is a phenomenon local to a group of █ counties in upper Louisiana remarkable for a level of white-collar employment which is unusually low compared to surrounding counties. Although no pattern to the anomaly's manifestation has been found, it occurs exclusively between 0100 and 0500 hours CST2.

When an event occurs, between 4 and ██ anomalous humanoids appear on a public road in an unobserved, rural area. Each humanoid is male and of average height, with a slim-to-average build and unremarkable grooming choices for a young white-collar worker. In all cases, the humanoids register ordinary heat signatures, though they do not manifest where any kind of camera, including infra-red, are currently recording. Each anomaly is outfitted with a complete business suit of navy blue or charcoal grey color, a button-up shirt, patent leather shoes stamped with a brogue pattern, and a tie. The instances will follow the road they materialize upon, walking up to █ kilometers to find a means to leave the road, such as a gate or gap in the fence. If no opportunity to leave the road is found, ██% of the time the anomaly will disperse without a trace. In all remaining cases, the event will progress immediately to its final stage.

Upon leaving the road the anomalies will walk up to three kilometers further, choosing paths which lead further from population centers whenever possible. Upon conclusion of their travel phase, instances of SCP-3402-A turn upon one another, tearing strips of flesh from one another using their own teeth and fingernails. Instances appear to feel pain, as they will scream and beg for mercy as they skin other instances alive, but they make no effort to leave or defend themselves. Once an instance has incurred fatal damage from this process their subcutaneous fat will spontaneously ignite, typically consuming the majority of the instance's body. This frequently results in a chain reaction as additional instances are fatally injured by the fire. This effect, known as 3402-AA-WICKER, also occurs if an instance is restrained from following the group.

3402-AA-TRICAD is a phenomenon observed affecting nearby non-anomalous humans who fit the general profile of anomalous instances. All matching humans within ███ meters of the anomalous group's center will join the group and display mutually murderous characteristics consistent with the manifested anomalies. These humans are thereafter classified as instances of SCP-3402-B.

Instances of SCP-3402-B will, like SCP-3402-A, make no attempt to escape or defend themselves. Their vocalizations will frequently suggest an understanding of what is happening to them, and they may exclaim confusion regarding their situation. In certain rare cases, individuals not matching the profile will be compelled to join the group, invariably resulting in [DATA EXPUNGED].

Non-anomalous humans witnessing the final phase of the ritual will be compelled to join the group regardless of distance or similarity to the profile, but will not take part in the stripping of flesh. Anomalous humans, and humans affected by 3402-AA-TRICAD, will preferentially dismantle these bystanders before turning on each other.

In █% of manifestations POI-3402-ALPHA, an individual wearing a crude paper-mache mask, is part of the group. This individual participates in the ritual skinning of other members, but is ignored by all other participants and is never harmed during the process. Manifestations in which all subjects expire will result in a significantly longer time between manifestations3, and in these cases the following manifestation will never be attended by POI-3402-ALPHA.

+ Contact Experiment 3402-04

- Contact Experiment 3402-04

Meteore, 6/20/2011

D-7928 is a former accountant convicted of double murder and spousal ██████ █████ in 198█. D-7928 matches the profile, although he is in the top 12% of the acceptable BMI range. As part of the test, D-7928 is dressed to fit the profile and stationed in outdoor containment in the affected region for a 30-day window in the hopes of carrying out surveillance of an event. On the fourth night, the following incident was logged on Agent ██████'s mission audio recorder.

(0127) D-7928: I'm tired. Can I go to bed yet?

(0127) Dr. Volk: No, D-7928. You have another… three hours. Or so.

(0127) D-7928: This is bullshit. What kind of work-release program is this, anyway? Go camping with a bunch of armed guards? Talk about how I feel?

(0128) Dr. Volk: If you will not co-operate, you will be terminated. Your sentence is only suspended while you are of use to the Foundation.

(0128) D-7928: Yeah. You said that. I… you fucker. Can you at least tell me what this is for?

(0128) Dr. Volk: No. That would contaminate the experiment.

(0128) D-7928: God damned asshole.

[Irrelevant dialogue expunged]

(0149) Dr. Volk: Where are you going, D-7928?

(0149) D-7928: To the john. What's it to you?

(0149) Dr. Volk: The portajohn is the other way.

(0149) D-7928: I… what the hell?

(0149) Dr. Volk: Agent ██████, █████, we have a manifestation. Call in MTF-Sigma-Eight-Oh.

(0149) █████: Copy that.

(0150) Dr. Volk: Do you feel any compulsion to go that way, D-7928?

(0150) D-7928: No. No! It's not a fucking compulsion, I'm just going!

(0150) Dr. Volk: Fascinating. Can you stop moving, or go a different direction?

(0150) D-7928: Shit, shit, fuck, no, I can't. Help me! Doctor, you have to stop it!

(0150) Dr. Volk: That would contaminate the experiment, D-7928.

(0151) D-7928: You piece of shit!

[Irrelevant dialogue expunged]

(0225) D-7928: Who are those guys? What's going on? Are they trapped too?

(0226) Dr. Volk: Do you recognize anyone?

(0226) D-7928: No. [inhales sharply] No. I don't know these people. I'm in the middle of some kind of faggy white guy convention, here. Oh, god, where are we going? What's in the woods?

[Irrelevant dialogue expunged]

(0234) D-7928: YOU HAVE TO STOP THEM! I DON'T-

[The sound of crushing, gurgling is heard]

(0234) Unidentified Individual: It empties. There is a light that shines from empty veins.

(0234) D-7928: HELP ME! THE BLOOD IS… I'M, I CAN'T

[D-7928 chokes and gasps, as he tries to scream with his mouth full]

At just before 0300 hours, D-7928 was injured fatally by another instance determined to be one Leonard Jacques, an accountant and member of local firm Jacques & Perrin Financial. Although Mr. Jacques was seriously burned by the resulting fire, he was not himself killed, and was released from SCP-3402's compulsion effect at 0313.

+ Interview: POI 3402-A04/Leonard Jacques

- Interview: Leonard Jacques

Infirmary B, Provisional Area 284, 6/21/2011

Mr. Jacques was brought to the Foundation medical unit at Site 24 and stabilized after receiving emergency surgery and 1.1 square meters of grafted skin.

Dr. Baird: Can you hear me, Mr. Jacques? How do you feel?

Jacques moans.

Dr. Baird: Can you talk?

Jacques: Y-yeah.

Dr. Baird: I need you to tell me about what happened before the fire.

Jacques: Fire?

Jacques laughs, ending in a rattling cough, and a strangled sob.

Jacques: It wasn't no fucking fire. Men were burning, yeah. But it, it weren't. I…

Dr. Baird: Please, take your time. I understand the scene was disturbing.

Jacques: No, it wasn't fuckin' "disturbing". You don't understand a God-damned thing. Do you know what happened? We were… animals, more like, we were tearin' each other up with our mouths an' teeth. I can, I can still… taste it, I.

Jacques coughs again, and falls silent.

Dr. Baird: Were you aware of what was happening?

Jacques: Every God damned second, yeah.

Jacques displays signs of extreme emotional distress.

Dr. Baird: Let's see if we can get you more morphine.

Jacques: He, he, um, he talked to me. As he, uh, as he b-burned.

Dr. Baird: What did he say?

Jacques: That, uh, t-that I'd like the burning. He said I'd like the burning the most.

Dr. Baird: Mr. Jacques, how would you like to forget it ever happened?

Jacques: I don't want those pictures in my head. I don't want to remember the taste. I don't w-want to remember how their skin f-felt on my teeth. I don't want to remember what he said to me.

Dr. Baird: We can help you with that.

Mr. Jacques was amnesticized and transferred to Luther Creek Memorial Hospital, where Foundation operatives planted him as an unidentified patient suffering from smoke inhalation.

Ninety-three days later on 9/20/2011, Jacques disappeared from his home just after 0200 hours, coinciding with a SCP-3402 event 23 kilometers away. As a POI in an open anomalies case, Jacques's home was searched, leading to the discovery of a shredded newspaper, and a bowl of hardened starch glue solution on his kitchen table.

Footnotes

1. A Parish in Louisiana is essentially the same as a county elsewhere.

2. Or CTD, during observation of Daylight Saving Time

3. Attempts to delay recurrence by intentionally preventing POI-3402-ALPHA's manifestation have been [DATA EXPUNGED]