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SCP-3274: Nowhere Else To Run

Author: CrystalMonarch

The first SCP-3274 instance contained. Recovered in England in 1941.

Item #: SCP-3274

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: Agents should be assigned to monitor the general population for SCP-3274 instances. Particular focus should be paid to itinerant individuals and groups, refugees and other undocumented populations. Agents should be granted a large degree of autonomy and minimal records should be kept of their activity and methods.

SCP-3274 instances can be identified by their unfamiliarity with their surroundings and more general amnesia, with suspected instances being confirmed by medical and genetic assessment. All instances are to be contained at Site-06-3 under standard humanoid containment protocols.

Gathering information related to SCP-3274-A should be made a high priority. For this purpose all SCP-3274 instances should be interviewed using any and all techniques with a possibility of circumventing the amnestic block. All communication with and experimentation on SCP-3274 is currently prohibited.

Description: SCP-3274 are adult humans who originate from an unknown point in our future timeline. The earliest identified arrival time is 1941 and arrivals are projected to continue to occur into our own future. All known instances have been extremely effectively amnesticised prior to their arrival here with virtually all memory of their point of origin absent. The sole known exception to this is related to SCP-3274-A. The amnestic methods which have been used are significantly more advanced than any currently known to the Foundation and have thus far proven resistant to all anti-amnestic techniques. Access to all information recovered by anti-amnestic techniques is currently prohibited. Personnel of clearance level 3/3274 or higher should view attached Interview Series 872 for further details.

Memories retained by SCP-3274 instances consist primarily of practical information related to their time and place of arrival. This information is typically very limited as well as outdated and geographically inaccurate, suggesting a lack of precision in their transportation method. Additionally, all known instances retain a specific memory relating to their motivation for transportation, with only slight variation between instances. The retained memory consists of the individual speaking to themself, claiming that the world will be unavoidably destroyed along with all human life and that retreat into the past is their only chance of survival. The cause of the destruction referenced here has been designated SCP-3274-A.

Instances report that the message also includes a plea not to attempt to reverse their amnesia or alter future events. All known instances express a certainty of the validity of these memories and they have been verified by all means known to the Foundation of detecting false or artificially generated memories.

SCP-3274 often attempt to evade containment but are usually easily identified due to their lack of social connections and documentation in addition to their general amnesia. In particular, instances display both a complete lack of personal history and ignorance of local customs and recent events. However, the longer instances go before identification the more they assimilate and the harder they can become to identify.

In addition to their abnormal behaviour, suspected SCP-3274 instances can be distinguished from the general population by physiological and genetic abnormalities including fine surgical scarring along the cranium, the absence of the genes involved in most currently known genetic diseases and alterations to gamete formation rendering them incapable of reproduction. See [REDACTED] for the full medical and genetic profile.

There are ███ instances of SCP-3274 currently in Foundation custody, and an unknown number currently uncontained.

Interview Series 872: Access to transcript available only to clearance level 3/3274

Interview Series 872: ACCESS GRANTED

The following transcripts are based on recovered audio recordings and medical data. Access to the full audio and video recordings is currently prohibited as they have not yet been determined to be free of cognitohazards.

Interview 872-17: 12/03/2017

Interviewed: SCP-3274-872. Originally discovered in Baghdad, Iraq in June 2003.

Interviewer: Dr. Shahid.

Foreword: The primary goal of this interview was to establish the exact nature of SCP-3274-A and identify preventative measures which could be taken.

The subject was selected due to displaying high resistance to the negative effects of mnestic therapy1 and unusual willingness to co-operate with the memory retrieval process.

Prior to the interview the subject was administered the newly developed mnestic compound AQUA-RED. This was in the form of an escalating dose regimen delivered over 12 weeks designed to stimulate long term memory recall. See [REDACTED] for the full treatment profile.

<Begin Log>

Dr. Shahid: Hello, my name is Dr Shahid and I will be conducting all interviews for your treatment group from now on. Recently, you and some of the others have indicated you've experienced partial memory recovery, are you able to discuss that with us today?

SCP-3274-872: Yes. I don't know why I chose to forget before but I want to remember now. I'm not one to run from a fight and I hate the idea that I chose this, to abandon everything just to save myself. I need to know why.

Dr. Shahid: I understand. Now please begin by telling us who you were before you arrived here.

SCP-3274-872: My name was Amira Muhammed and I was born in the free state of Texas in 2███. I worked as a Class 3 Technician at Foundation Site Gimel-Thaumiel2.

Dr. Shahid: Yes, that fits with what several of the others reported, it seems that many of you worked for the Foundation in some capacity. We'll return to that subject but for now I'd like you to talk to me about SCP-3274-A, the threat that led to your transportation to this time.

SCP-3274-872:I want to help but it's hard. My memories are coming back but they don't cohere, there are parts missing. There are some things I can remember like they're right here in front of me but when I try to think of what happened at the end there's nothing. Sometimes I feel like I can almost see it but then it slips away, like a dream after waking up.

Dr. Shahid: Any memories are an improvement right now and I'm sure we can help you remember everything with time. What about your work with the Foundation then, do you remember anything that could help us?

SCP-3274-872: I'll tell you all I can but I don't think it will help, not in the way you want it to. The Foundation I worked for wasn't the same as the one that exists now. There'd been too many Keters found and too many close calls so after SCP-█████ metastasised it was clear things had to change. More SCPs got classified Thaumiel and testing became more aggressive. By the time I was recruited we'd began building our own anomalies, really starting to fight back against the chaos.

Dr. Shahid: Is that related to why you travelled back? Did you create an anomaly that couldn't be contained?

SCP-3274-872: No, I don't think it was something we made but… it does feel connected.

Dr. Shahid: Talk to me about your work then. Is there anything useful you do remember?

SCP-3274-872: I worked on something they called the Retrocausal Transmission Engine. Time travel basically, not that I ever really understood it. I was low level, strictly mechanical operation with no access to the underlying theory. I do know it was supposed to save the world, be the ultimate reset button to fix all our mistakes. But it didn't work right.

The rules were complicated and it seemed no one understood them. We could travel back easily enough but we couldn't change anything on a large scale. Little things sure, but any attempt to alter the big picture ended in failure. Unintended side-effects, the same events happening for different reasons or even just unprovoked mechanical failure. Before, when I said I didn't think what I told you could help? That's what I meant.

Dr. Shahid: I appreciate your concern but we still need information. You said earlier that your work felt connected to SCP-3274-A, was it caused by the time-travel somehow?

SCP-3274-872: I… yes. Yes it… Oh god. I don't think I can talk about this.

Dr. Shahid: What's wrong?

SCP-3274-872: I'm trying to remember but there's something stopping me, I think it has to do with what happened. I remember we sent a probe to the future but when I try to think about it… it hurts. My head's full of walls stopping me from thinking and I know I'm the one who put them there. Why did I do that?

Dr. Shahid: Stay focused Amira. What happened to the probe?

SCP-3274-872: Oh god, my husband. I had a husband and I remember. I remember what it did to him.

Subject undergoes tonic-clonic seizure and the interview is halted.

<End Log>

Interview 872-20: 12/06/2017

Interviewed: SCP-3274-872

Interviewer: Ms Sadana, hypnotherapist. Also present were Dr. Shahid, six medical staff and one security guard.

Foreword: The primary goal of this interview was to establish the exact nature of SCP-3274-A and identify preventative measures which could be taken.

In order to counter the secondary memory block present in SCP-3274 additional methods were authorised. These consisted of multiple sessions of hypnotic priming as well as the usage of mnestic drug AQUA-RED at an elevated dosage of 2500mcg. A craniotomy was also performed to grant greater access for memory enhancing electrostimulation.

<Begin Log>

Induction of the trance state has been removed from this report for brevity

Ms Sadana: That's great Amira, you're doing very well. Now I want you to think back to what we discussed. What happened when you sent the probe to the future?

SCP-3274-872: I hear a countdown. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. The probe is gone. I check the energy readings and they're within levels. Someone cheers. There's another countdown for the return. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. The probe is still gone. Confusion, my supervisor shouting questions. Energy levels are spiking, higher than what's supposed to be possible. I yell out but everyone's yelling now. It's gone beyond the five years it was supposed to, beyond the point where our estimates are useful. The connection is lost.

We try to work out what happened but it doesn't fit with any of the theoretical models. I get frustrated and I leave to call my husband. I lie to him about what I do but he knows something's wrong. He tells a joke that makes me smile and-

Ms Sadana: How does this relate to SCP-3274-A Amira? Try to stay focused, our time is limited. What happened to the probe?

SCP-3274-872: The probe comes back wrong. Wrong time, wrong place, just wrong. Something came back with it, a signal that spreads everywhere. The Site locks down. No-one in, no-one out, endless talking huddled in dark rooms. My husband is trapped outside and I can't speak to him. Nothing we do stops it, even the Retrocausal Engine only makes it worse, moving its arrival further and further back. People outside stop being human.

Ms Sadana: It must have some weakness, some way we can beat it. If it can use time travel to change things so can we. How do we stop it?

SCP-3274-872: Panicked talks in secure rooms. Theories and speculation. Not physical. Not reality altering. Just information, data transmitted from the future, data that wants to replicate and spread. Data that takes control of people's minds, and their bodies. It can't be stopped. It can't be stopped. It can't be stopped.

Dr Shahid authorises an increase in cerebral electrostimulation

Ms Sadana: Focus Amira, don't get distracted. Serve the Foundation and tell us how to stop this thing.

SCP-3274-872: I think… I think that time travel was always a trap. It was never really ours, the signal just needed us to build it. We should never have ran here, we should never have-

Oh god. I remember now. I can't stop the memory, oh god make it stop. The sound, the numbers, the people, all of it. I'm not supposed to remember, no-one was supposed to remember….

Monitoring equipment detects complete shutdown of cerebral activity indicating subject death. Medical staff can be heard attempting to revive the subject but cerebral activity does not resume for the remainder of the recording.

Dr. Shahid: OK, I think we can close the interview here. Excellent work Ms Sadana, the information we've attained here is invaluable. There are several others who've responded well to the mnestic that I want interviews conducted with as soon-

SCP-3274-872: [MEMETIC HAZARD REDACTED]

Dr. Shahid: What the hell was that? Get her sedated now.

Ms Sadana: Amira please, I need you to-

The remainder of the recording is unintelligible, largely consisting of screams of pain and unidentified high frequency sounds. Following the death of all attending staff emergency procedures were activated and the room was flooded with high pressure irradiated ███████████ dihydride which was then ignited, incinerating the room's contents. Termination has been assumed to be successful.

<End Log>

Footnotes

1. Pancreatitis, nausea, seizures, death.

2. No record of Site Gimel-Thaumiel exists in Foundation databases.