SCP-6350: Mine Body Aches

Author: Agisuru

Thanks to: SYTYCFanon for some consultation on specific aspects, and CityToast for their Unusual Cargo theme I used part of.

Critter credits: AstersQuill, MaddGasserGaton does not match any existing user name, mothbreathe, J T K C, and Crow-Cat

NOTICE FROM THE RECORDS AND INFORMATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

This anomaly was previously under the jurisdiction of the American Secure Containment Initiative (ASCI) prior to its dissolution and the creation of the Foundation as we know it today. It has been deemed in the Foundation's best interest to include original documentation from the ASCI on the anomaly in order to better understand what transpired.

— Maria Jones, Director, RAISA

Item#: 6350

Containment Class: euclid

Secondary Class: none

Disruption Class: keneq

Risk Class: danger

Lake Fontana, present location of SCP-6350.

Special Containment Procedures

At present, Judson, North Carolina is entirely underwater. Although civilian incursion into SCP-6350's area of effect has shown to be uncommon, individuals are to be deterred from diving near the former location of Judson's mines. Suppression of information regarding Judson's past as a mining town is ongoing and has been largely successful thus far. Falsified information from fake travel blogs created by Foundation agents have been widely circulated online, making it difficult for researchers to find more accurate accounts. With the aid of the United States Fish & Wildlife Service as well as local fishermen, fish populations within Fontana Lake are to be monitored for signs of SCP-6350 infection.

No confirmed SCP-6350 infections have occurred since the completion of the Fontana Dam and subsequent submerging of Judson on November 7th, 1944. Reassignment of containment class to "Neutralized" pending O5 approval.

Description

SCP-6350 is an anomalous airborne disease affecting individuals within the coal mines located near Judson, North Carolina. Initial symptoms of SCP-6350 are difficult to distinguish from other diseases or health hazards that arise due to coal mining, including severe coughing fits, strained respiration, chronic exhaustion, and darkening of produced phlegm. Over a period of two to four weeks1, individuals suffering from SCP-6350 will find it progressively difficult to breathe due to hardening of the lungs, inhibiting them from performing strenuous activities. This process culminates in respiratory failure and subsequent death when the lungs have become too rigid to expand. Autopsies of individuals affected by SCP-6350 have revealed formation of crystals within the chest cavity from the necrotized remains of the lungs. Analysis of the remains of the tissue has found a marked lack of carbon atoms from within cells. It is currently theorized that SCP-6350 operates by stripping carbon from molecules it comes into contact with, causing structural failure of the cell membrane. Freed carbon atoms are then arranged into the crystals found in the chests of individuals affected by SCP-6350.

Original ASCI Documents

Interior of Judson coal mines, circa 2020.

CASE SERIAL:

O-350;NC-SWA-JUD

DATE:

19TH JULY, 1851

FILE:

Outgoing document intercepted by ASCI personnel embedded in Postal Service. Document was a letter written by Theodore Dacier, head of operations of Judson Coal Co. and overseer of the Judson coal mine. Intercepted document has been attached for review.

NOTES:

Coal mining accounts for 90% of Judson, NC's GDP. Southern Railway lines throughout North and South Carolina are reliant on Judson coal for operation. Closure of mines not deemed feasible at present; investigation to be performed while mines remain in operation. Closing Judson coal mine would create far greater issues than this illness has at present.

17th July, 1851

Dearest Abigail,

One of the boys down in the mines was sent up after he fell into a coughing fit that stopped him dead in his tracks. He couldn't even stand upright for how hard the cough was wracking his body. I myself saw him hacking up sputum that, for the life of me, I thought could have been coal tar. Fearing an outbreak of the consumption2, I had him banished from the town. I confess that it may seem a mite cruel, but I was not want for other options. We've no asylum nearby I could send someone with his illness, so the only place that could take him in was the wilderness. I just hope to God that people won't be too up in arms about this. I had an awful tough decision to make, and the burden of sending him off weighs heavy on my mind.

The fact that this comes just following us ending the use of canaries is troubling. They couldn't seem to handle the atmosphere down there. Something about it just wasn't right with them, so the miners couldn't use them to keep an eye on conditions. They would drop almost as soon as they got too far down in the mine. What's more, they still haven't gotten back to singing. I don't quite know how those boys in the mines taught the canaries to play dead so long, but it's frustrating to no end to know those layabouts are spending more time convincing the canaries to go along with their scheme than they are working the coal I hired them for. It's not like anything I've seen previously.

I don't know how familiar you are with the practice, but the canaries don't ordinarily take to mines this poorly even during a crisis. Ordinarily, they would revive after you got them into the fresh air, but that wasn't the case for these poor critters. It became terribly disheartening to the miners and endlessly frustrating on my part, so we had to ban their use in Judson. I'm not happy that if there's some foul miasma down there, we'd have no way of knowing now, but I did what I had to do.

You know well I've no memory for addresses or things of that matter. I need you to send word to your eldest brother, Marvin, and see if he or someone he knows can come down and lend us his aid. He's far more familiar with medical matters than I, what with all the time he spent at university. This seems something he's more equipped to handle, and having his aid would free me up to continue my work with the business side of things.

Signed,

Theodore Dacier

CASE SERIAL:

O-350;NC-SWA-JUD

DATE:

7TH AUGUST, 1851

FILE:

Statement from miner under employ of Judson Coal Co., Thaddeus Fletcher, taken on 5th August, 1851. Statement was transcribed by ASCI Scrivener Esther Anna, as Mr. Fletcher stated he did not know how to read or write.

NOTES:

Statement discusses the collapse of Judson Coal Co. miner Scott Ogilvie during work the day prior. Due to ASCI intervention, Judson Coal Co. cannot be found culpable of any wrongdoing with regard to potential injury suffered by Mr. Ogilvie under legal code 8 ASCI § 42-15-20 (Washington, 1789), Injury due to Oddities Not Presently Explainable by the Sciences:

"Any employee that is found to have suffered significant harm as the result of an oddity not presently explainable by the sciences and thus under jurisdiction of the American Secure Containment Initiative shall not be entitled to physician's fees nor to any compensation which may have accrued under the terms of this title unless it can be shown that the employee suffered substantial harm that would have been caused regardless of the occurrence of any such oddity, such as by work conditions that do not comply with federal safety mandates. Furthermore, employees injured in this manner are barred from seeking through the process of litigation compensation for injuries received under the terms of this title, and attempts to seek compensation for or otherwise make public the conditions of the injury or relative oddity that is under American Secure Containment Initiative jurisdiction shall result in penalty up to but no greater than a fine of $500 and 1 year's imprisonment."

Following standard ASCI operational guidelines, Mr. Ogilvie was informed of pertinent portions of this code, though not of the existence or involvement of the ASCI. As Mr. Ogilvie does not presently have access to legal codes to research, he has been deemed unlikely to discover that ASCI legal code is not publicly available and thus is of little concern to the secrecy of ASCI operations.

Thaddeus Fletcher's residence within Judson, NC, circa 1849.

AFFIDAVIT

(SWORN STATEMENT)

DATE:

6th August, 1851

FULL LEGAL NAME OF AFFIANT:

Thaddeus Arnold Fletcher

AGE:

38

RESIDENT OF:

Judson, Swain County, North Carolina

BEING DULY SWORN, I HEREBY SWEAR UNDER OATH THAT:

I seen Scott crumple earlier this morning. There weren't anything to it when we first got down there today save for him whining about how everything hurt. His eyes, he said, his chest, his back, all of it hurt. Shrugged it off at first. We all felt that way working down there. Something about Judson mine just affects the body worse than any I've been in before. Air seems to hurt just to breathe, every part of you aches, your eyes strain in the lantern light to the point of burning.

I given him some of my tobacco to calm his nerves, but it didn't do nothing. Scott just kept complaining more and more, saying how tired he was. He couldn't quite lift his pickaxe even up as high as his head, I noticed. Weren't sure if he were just being lazy or if he really had some problem. Kept coughing worse and worse until his spit started coming out looking for all the world like the snuff I'd given him. It were filled with black junk and just being near it stung your nose with the smell of blood, so it must have been something horrible going on inside him. Scott hacked up a few like he were a cat that just got done licking its bunghole before dropping to the ground. I threw down my pickaxe where I was standing to rush him up to get some fresh air, even with Dacier barking at me as I climbed out that I ought to leave him and keep working, saying that they'd call for a few fresh bodies from the physician's office to haul him up. Brought him right to get help, and then you folks got me and started asking me to recount all this.

AFFIANT'S SIGNATURE:

T.FLETCHER

Thaddeus Fletcher's residence, circa 2020.

CASE SERIAL:

O-350;NC-SWA-JUD

DATE:

3rd January, 1852

FILE:

Obituary of Thaddeus Fletcher and accompanying transcript of public funeral for Mr. Fletcher held on 26th December, 1851.

NOTES:

Casket remained closed for the entirety of the funeral. Theodore Dacier, who had arranged the funeral, appeared at the proceedings to give a speech about the loss of Mr. Fletcher, though the majority of the speech was how the mines remained safe for other employees and that the deaths were no cause for concern. Mr. Dacier remained at the front of the church for the entirety of the funeral and would usher away anyone who approached the casket, interrupting the priest's sermon at one point to loudly berate a child who had wandered too close. Mr. Dacier personally received all mourners following the funeral's conclusion, with the notable exception of Mr. Fletcher's wife and four children, who were not in attendance. ASCI scrivener Esther Anna managed to distract Mr. Dacier at this point by pretending to be the grieving sister of Thaddeus Fletcher, allowing for other ASCI personnel to investigate the casket, which was found to be empty. The body of Mr. Fletcher has yet to be located.

Statements from Mr. Fletcher's wife have indicated that she had no part in preparing the funeral, nor was she even aware one was being held. She stated that she had not seen her husband's body after it was taken by Judson Coal Co. physician Marvin Benner for autopsy. Mrs. Fletcher alleged that she had insisted no autopsy be performed due to their religious beliefs and that her pleas were ignored.

St. Bernadine of Siena Catholic Church, Judson, NC, circa 2020.

CASE SERIAL:

O-350;NC-SWA-JUD

DATE:

11th January, 1852

FILE:

Record of autopsy of Thaddeus Fletcher, performed on 19th December 1851 by Marvin Benner.

NOTES:

Marvin Benner was instated as resident physician of Judson under employment of Judson Coal Co. on 29th August, 1851. Investigation into Mr. Benner's background found him to have little formal training in medicine, though he spent two years abroad in London that he claimed were spent studying anatomy at Oxford. No records of him having formally attended exist, though some staff claim to have seen him sneaking into classes on occasion.

Mr. Benner initially stated to be ignorant of the disappearance of Thaddeus Fletcher's corpse or why such a thing would have occurred. After being informed that ASCI agents had also exhumed Scott Ogilvie's grave and found it similarly lacking a corpse, Mr. Benner became irate and insisted agents depart from his practice.

Following detainment of Marvin Benner on 10th January, 1852, and after several hours of interrogation, Mr. Benner confessed to having been involved in the disappearance of the corpses of both Scott Ogilvie and Thaddeus Fletcher. The autopsy report of Thaddeus Fletcher was found within Marvin Benner's medical practice later that day, hidden away in a safe beneath the floorboards. Report stated that Mr. Fletcher's lungs had been "reduced to naut[sic] greatre[sic] than a bloody pulp resting atop his stomach, from which the esteemed Doctre[sic] produced a numbre[sic] of small diamonds". It is assumed that the "stomach" referenced is actually the diaphragm, not the stomach itself.

Marvin Benner went on to allege the involvement of Theodore Dacier in the scheme, insisting that it was Theodore's idea and he was merely an unwitting participant who had "no other choice". According to ASCI agents involved in the interrogation, when asked why he kept the autopsy report at all instead of destroying it, Mr. Benner looked shocked and mumbled that he had not even considered doing so, and that he had assumed nobody would be suspicious of him at all.

Theodore Dacier was subsequently brought in for questioning, and, once shown the autopsy report, immediately complied with ASCI investigations. He asserted that diamonds had also been found in Scott Ogilvie's corpse, and that he had sold the diamonds in a neighboring town. The profits from this sale were used to pay for the lavish residences of himself and Mr. Benner. ASCI agents are currently investigating the sale in order to track down the diamonds in question.

Marvin Benner and Theodore Dacier were released from ASCI custody on the morning of 11th January, 1852; no charges are being filed against either one due to the clandestine nature of ASCI operations and knowledge of happenings under ASCI jurisdiction.

Home and office of Judson Coal Co. physician Marvin Benner, circa 1854.

CASE SERIAL:

O-350;NC-SWA-JUD

DATE:

21st September, 1852

FILE:

Report from ASCI agent Merriam Hastings on the state of Judson.

NOTES:

Contact with the ASCI was made by Southern Railway officials on 8th September 1852, alleging a sudden and marked decrease in coal from Judson. Agent Merriam Hastings was sent to investigate, having been made familiar with the case prior to his departure. After arriving on 11th September 1852, Hastings sent a letter detailing growing unrest among the population, noting a "palpable" distrust of Judson Coal Co. by residents.

Agent Hastings found that since the previous report on 11th January, 1852, some 73 additional persons had passed away. Reports by Marvin Benner have indicated the manner of death for 66 of these individuals, all of which were employed within the Judson coal mine, to be identical to those of Scott Ogilvie and Thaddeus Fletcher. As per conditions of his release from ASCI custody, he had kept one diamond recovered from each of the bodies before giving the remainder to Theodore Dacier for sale and presented them to Agent Hastings in three mason jars; only 59 diamonds were found to be contained within.

Theodore Dacier evaded contact by Hastings for a period of five days before finally being cornered in his home on 17th September, 1852. When confronted, Mr. Dacier began to weep uncontrollably, expressing that he had been under an immense amount of stress as of recently. He went on to explain that the source of his dismay was rumblings among the people of Judson departing for neighboring towns. Despite the fact that they would not have any funds or even homes without Judson Coal Co. employment, people had grown so fearful of the mines that many refused to go down at all. Theodore had resorted to purchasing slaves from nearby plantation owners, which was significantly cutting into his profits due to the high cost and increasing turnover rate of all persons sent into the mines. While only 66 miners had been reported deceased due to the Judson affliction, these slaves were not included in that number; if they were, the deaths would be well into the hundreds. Both Mr. Benner and Mr. Dacier begged for ASCI intervention to stem the tide of the affliction. Hastings promised he would return as soon as he found a manner of controlling it.

As there is no known means of controlling the Judson affliction, ASCI efforts are to focus on finding new sources of coal with which to supply Southern Railways. The continued operation of Southern Railways train lines has been deemed far more vital to the economic success of the United States of America than that of Judson Coal Co., and Southern Railways is therefore to take priority when considering courses of action.

Miners of Judson Coal Co., circa September, 1852.

CASE SERIAL:

O-350;NC-SWA-JUD

DATE:

7th April, 1855

FILE:

Report from ASCI agent Merriam Hastings on the state of Judson.

NOTES:

Judson Coal Co. filed for bankruptcy on 23rd November, 1854, stating difficulty in profiting from Judson coal mine as the underlying cause. As the ASCI had succeeded in establishing other mines within the southern United States in order to ensure Southern Railways maintained a steady coal supply, Southern Railways became less willing to purchase from Judson Coal Co., electing instead to turn to the new mines for their cheaper coal. Upon returning to Judson, Agent Hastings found no remaining residents; as all stores within Judson had been established by and remained under the operation of Judson Coal Co., they were closed upon the dissolution of the company. With no resources remaining in town, residents were forced to seek other methods and locations to make a living.

At present, it has been determined that ASCI case O-350;NC-SWA-JUD is unlikely to pose great issue, as there is no reason to go into the Judson coal mine any longer.

CASE SERIAL:

O-350;NC-SWA-JUD

DATE:

17th July, 1888

FILE:

Report from ASCI agent Thomas Lasserty on the state of Judson.

NOTES:

Routine inspection of the Judson coal mine and surrounding area discovered no less than 12 corpses believed to be related to ASCI case O-350;NC-SWA-JUD. Corpses were in varying states; the majority were nothing more than skeletal remains accompanied by a small pile of diamonds situated beneath the ribcage, four of which bore the tattered remains of uniforms of Confederate soldiers. Only three of the deceased are believed to have succumbed to the Judson affliction within the previous year, two of which may have been in the mine together at the time of death. None of the deceased have been identified, but investigation has revealed rumors of unclaimed riches within Judson among residents of surrounding areas. Continued ASCI presence to deter entry is advised.

Fontana Dam, circa 2013.

CASE SERIAL:

O-350;NC-SWA-JUD

DATE:

19th October, 1941

FILE:

Final Report on Judson.

NOTES:

The decision has been made to flood Judson, NC, in order to prevent further intrusion by civilians and thereby bar exposure to the Judson mine affliction. Construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Little Tennessee River has already been proposed by other United States government agencies both state and federal; it has been proposed that water from the Little Tennessee River could be redirected such that Judson is within the bounds of the resultant lake.

Construction on Fontana Dam is to begin 1st January, 1942. Upon completion of the dam and successful submerging of Judson, ASCI case O-350;NC-SWA-JUD will be officially closed.

Footnotes

1. Variable depending on how long individuals have been exposed to the source of SCP-6350 and whether or not exposure has ceased.

2. An antiquated term for the disease caused by Myobacterium tuberculosis infection.