wound blasted its way to the surface of her consciousness, then just 
as quickly vanished. 


Patricia shook violently, one hand nearly snapping her pen in two, 
the other clinging to the edge of the table for life. She slowly opened 
her eyes and relaxed as the thought faded, realizing that Derek had 
been talking to her the whole time. 


“I’m a goner...” Derek finished. 
“How's that?” She asked. 


“One way or another, we're all dead. The experiment they had you 
help on was a glorified execution. They melted the skin off Haley’s 
face, and | think Donna said that Annette was basically sucked 
molecule by molecule into a hole in the wall, then reassembled 
across the room. You don’t kidnap sixty people, lock them up 2 
miles underground, and just let them go...” 


Patricia grabbed Derek’s hand and squeezed. 


“We’re going to be alright,” she said. “Its just going to take a little 
luck. We'll get out.” 


Derek scoffed. 
“Maybe for you...” 
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” 


“Six of us go into an experiment and all but one of them receive 
serious, if not fatal, gunshot wounds. Your luck is a step above 
mine.” 


Derek looked at her with tired eyes. 
“Can you just... do me a favor?” 
Patricia nodded. Derek handed her a folded piece of paper. 


“If you do make it out... can you give that to my boyfriend... just 
some closure...” 


“Of course.” 


“Thanks,” he replied with a weak smile. He then stood, stretched 
and walked away. Patricia watched him go with a sad frown and 
turned back to her list of names. She wearily scanned them and 
scanned them again. After a while she smiled. At last she 
remembered her daughter's name. 


"Finally get it?" Dr. Tanner asked with a small grin, they were 
completing their weekly counseling session. 


"| did," she replied excitedly, showing him the name Lilly, circled on 
her list. "I finally did." 


"Oh..." Patricia mumbled as this most recent flash danced out of her 
mind. She blinked and quietly looked around. Dr. Tanner was 
approaching the table. 


"Afternoon, D-5111," he said. "Care to join me for your counseling 
session?" 


Day 19: 


Patricia stood in a largely empty testing chamber with two other D- 
class. As of two days prior, the last of the pieces had fallen into 
place within her mindscape, and she recalled who she was, and 
what it meant to be her. 


She recalled her husband, Dr. Nolan Walker, the pediatrician who 
would sometimes affectionately call her Patty-cakes. She 
remembered her son, Blake, the theatre technician who had recently 
been made stage manager. She thought of her daughter, Lilly, and 
how she'd spend hours in the park near their house playing games 
on her Gameboy. The puzzle was complete, and she was terrified 
that it may fall to pieces again. 


“All D-class, please pick up one of the candies on the table.” 


A feminine voice over the intercom shattered Patricia’s self- 
reflection, and brought her attention back to the matter at hand. On 
the table at the center of the room were three bright pink and red 


hard candies. Patricia looked to the others. One was the tall bald 
man who had been shocked by a guard on the first day of their 
confinement. The other was a slender androgynous person with 
short blond hair. Patricia shrugged and took a candy. The others 
followed in kind. 


“Please consume the candy. Make sure to suck on it, and not bite it 
or swallow it whole.” The voice instructed over the intercom. The 
three D-class reluctantly complied. The candy itself tasted alright. 
Some kind of berry flavor that eluded certain description. Patricia ran 
it around the inside of her mouth, only stopping when the entire 
lozenge was gone. From the confused expressions on the faces of 
her peers, the other D-class had finished their candy as well. 


“| mean... is that it?” The man asked. He looked toward the mirror 
along the far wall of the room. “Hello? What now?” 


“Oh shit...” 


Patricia turned to the androgynous D-class to see them looking at 
their hands, their eyes wide in fear. Red bumps had begun to rapidly 
cover their body. Her years of nursing and being married to a 
pediatrician allowed Patricia recognized it at once. Varicella. She 
looked to the bald man to see that he too had begun to break out. 


“Oh fuck! Jesus Christ!” The man began to scratch at himself 
furiously, dancing around the room like a marionette. The 
androgynous D-class was viciously picking at themselves in a 
corner, screams of pain mixing with screams of terror. Patricia 
looked down at her hands. She had yet to break out. 


“Why not you?” The man shouted and began to cross the room 
toward her. “What did you do? Why not you?” 


The man threw her to the ground before she could say “I don’t 
know.” 


Guards entered the room and quickly subdued the man, escorting 
both him and the androgynous d-class out of the testing chamber, 
presumably to quarantine. A woman in a lab coat entered, still 
writing on her clipboard as she looked Patricia over. 


“Immune?” The woman asked as a guard helped Patricia to her feet. 
“Vaccinated, y-yes.” Patricia mumbled. 


“Interesting...” The woman furiously scribbled on her clipboard. 
Then looked to the guard. “Take her back to Tanner and tell him we 
need to have a physical done.” 


The guard nodded, and gestured for Patricia to follow him out of the 
room. 


"You've got some luck, I'll give you that," the guard said, leading her 
back to the D-class dorms. She was covered in a thick paste, the 
remnants of the previous experiment. 


"Guess if you hadn't been standing where you were, you'd have 
suffocated as well." 


Patricia cringed, her hand brushing off a thick paste that was not 
there. When she opened her eyes she found herself standing in 
front of an exam room door. The guard gave her a small nod as he 
watched her pass the threshold. 


Day 24: 


Patricia and Derek stood within an enclosed clear plastic cage within 
a grassy field on the surface, along with nine other D-class. This 
was the final testing of the month for most of them. It was the first 
time any of them had seen the sun or plant life that entire month. 
Before them was a fenced in field. A similar cage of clear plastic sat 
open on the far side. 


“Attention All D-Class,” a masculine voice called from an intercom 
within the cage. “In three minutes the doors to your enclosure will 
open. At that time, cross the field and enter the enclosure on the 
other side.” 


Patricia felt Derek squeeze her hand. 


“We'll be alright.... Right?” 


Date: - -20 

Subject: D14833 

Info: Profile indicates subject suffers from musophobia, and 
possesses low levels of intelligence and imagination. 

Results: As expected, the subject reported perceiving confinement 
in a room with several rodents. When asked if he was being bitten, 
the subject responded "No... wait, now they are." Further 
suggestions as to how the vision could be worse (e.g., larger rats, 
being restrained, being confined in a tiny box filled with rats, the rats 
specifically attacking subject's eyes and genitals) were all 
subsequently introduced into the subject's vision after a short delay. 
Additional Comments: While it may be possible for the sequence 
to be a natural progression similar to that experienced by other 
subjects, there is a significant correspondence in the timing of the 
suggestions to their inclusion. It seems that the visions are related to 
the subject's ability to conceive of the scenario. The escalation may 
be the natural consequence of the subject speculating on ways in 
which their situation could be worse. In the case of D14833, the 
subject was unimaginative enough that such speculation did not 
occur until prompted. 


Date: - -20 

Subject: D14856 

Info: Subject was sedated prior to application. SCP-825 was 
removed before consciousness was regained. 

Results: Subject reported disturbing nightmares, but did not seem 
as affected as previous subjects. Subject did not recognize SCP-825 
and did not resist application. Subject reacted normally and 
displayed the usual reaction to SCP-825 afterward. 

Additional Comments: It seems that the visions still occur during 
unconsciousness, but that the unconscious mind is less affected. 


Date: - -20 

Subject: D148-MSN03 

Info: Subject is mentally subnormal. 

Results: When questioned about his initial experience, subject 
responded that there were people "being mean" to him. Promptings 
and suggestions were able to affect the nature of the visions to a 
degree; however, subject was unable to comprehend anything but 
the simplest suggestions; thus, advanced scenarios did not 


Patricia nodded. “Yeah... we'll be alright.” 


The door slid down and the D-class began to walk across the field, 
the enclosure door snapping up behind them. There was a slight 
breeze and the sun felt warm on their skin. A small, cautious smile 
came to Patricia’s face. 


“So far, So good.” 


When they crossed the halfway point of the field, a loud pinging 
became audible, followed by the sound of a circular saw running. 
Eleven sets of eyes turned to the source, a hovering disk with a 
rotating blade around its circumference. A small green eye could be 
seen watching them from the devices surface. A faded emblem of a 
falcon was printed below this eye. 


“HALT,” the device said in a computerized voice. “RETURN ALONG 
YOUR PREVIOUS COURSE.” 


The D-class looked to one another nervously, then back to the 
device. One of them, a slender girl no older than twenty, took a step 
backwards, crossing into the far half of the field. The devices eye 
turned red and flew forward with a high pitched whine. Patricia 
blinked. There was a sharp gasp and a splatter of blood. The girl’s 
upper and lower halves rested in two different locations. The disk 
flew upwards, taking off a man’s head along the way. The crowd 
quickly became a mob of yelling, flailing people, each scattering and 
sprinting towards the open cage at the end of the field. 


Patricia and Derek zigged and zagged across the field, the two 
sticking together and occasionally looking back. The disk took out a 
man’s legs from under him, sending his upper body sailing 
backwards. A woman near him tripped on the blood, the device 
severing her in length wise upon the grass. Patricia snapped her 
head forward and wheezed as she felt herself losing speed. They 
were closing in on their destination. 


She and Derek then slid to a stop, a young man in front of them who 
nearly made it into the cage was struck from behind and carried for 
several yards before splitting in twain. The device then turned and 
appeared to gaze at the five remaining D-class that stood before it. 


“Fuck off man...” Derek nervously laughed. 


The disk sprang forward again and the D-class resumed their 
scattered sprint. 


Patricia’s breath was ragged as she closed in on the cage. The 
sound of screams behind her indicated at least one of her peers was 
rather unlucky. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Derek 
sprinting in from the other direction. The whirling of the disk grew 
louder. Patricia gave one last push with her legs and jumped toward 
the cage. Derek did the same. She hit the ground with a heavy thud, 
and turned to see Derek had fallen just short, and was crawling 
forward as fast as he could. Patricia reached out a hand, grabbing 
his and began to pull him toward her. 


A heavy metallic whine, and a loud bang. 


Patricia fell backwards into the cage with Derek’s forearms in her 
grip, the young man toppling inside with her, the disk colliding 
outside with the ground.The disk eyed them for several moments, 
hovering in front of the elevator entrance. Its eye then turned green 
and it gently floated away. 


Derek and her crawled to the back of the cage where the looked out 
over the nine corpses left behind in the afternoon sun. Eventually 
Derek began laughing. A shrill nervous laugh. Patricia turned to him 
to see tears in his eyes, as he gestured to the carnage before them. 
A few moments later, she began laughing as well. The elevator 
whined as it carried them back down into the earth. 


Upon their arrival in the facility, Derek and Patricia were swarmed by 
medics. While the two of them could tell that they were being spoken 
to, their laughing drowned out any incoming stimuli. The two of them 
were placed on stretchers and carried away, passing a group of 
horrified looking scientists, some pale with fear, one crying, and a 
last one being yelled at by a furious man in a suit. Patricia could 
make out the words "slaughter" and "ethics" between bouts of 
laughter. 


The laughter eventually turned to tears, as Derek and Patricia were 
carried away to separate exam rooms. 


Day 31: 


Patricia sat in an exam room, having just finished her exit physical. 
Her eyes were slightly glazed over as she stared at the floor. Of the 
60 D-class that had started in her cohort, only 40 remained to see 
the final day. Of those, at least 20 had sustained serious physical or 
mental damage. 


Hidden in her shoe was Derek’s note. He maintained that she 
should hold on to it in the event that something should happen to 
him on the way out. She doubted it would survive whatever it was 
that these people did once they wiped her memory, but she 
promised her friend she would deliver it, and so she had to try. On 
her lap was the notepad with the list of names. 


Dr. Tanner returned to the room, looking at a large folder on his 
clipboard. There were several small vials held tightly in his other 
hand. Patricia watched him tiredly. Eventually he placed the 
clipboard down on a side table and gave her a soft smile. 


“Congratulations D-5111,” he said. “You made it. As we discussed 
during orientation, we are going to inject you with a chemical 
compound called an amnestic. It will remove any memory of this 
month from your mind. Then you'll be free to go.” 


Patricia nodded. 

“Powerful stuff.” 

“Very,” Tanner replied. “It’s not even the most powerful variety.” 
He then handed her the folder. Patricia eyed it curiously. 
"Whats this?" 


"Debriefing," Tanner said with a sigh. "For however brief a time it will 
be, at the end of each month we present the D-class with 
summaries of the outcomes of the experiments they participated in. 
lts a little watered down, and obviously we won't tell you everything. 
Still, you deserve to know what the sacrifice was for." 


Patricia looked through the the folder's contents. A fair amount of it 
went over her head, she was no scientist, but she managed to get 
the gist of what was being said. Important discoveries made in such 
areas as "Anomalous projectile trajectory," "Spontaneous 
virogenisis," and the capabilities of the "Lanner Series Security 
Drone." 


"Got plans on your release?” Tanner eventually asked when she put 
the folder down. 


“Return to my family...” Patricia said softly. “Hope that | never 
remember this horrible month again.” 


“| can assure you that you will not,” said Tanner as he collected the 
notepad off her lap. “I’m afraid I'll need to confiscate this, though.” 


Patricia remained silent as she watched Tanner prepare the syringe 
and clean a spot on her arm. A few seconds later, the various shots 
had been injected, and Tanner had bandaged the wound. 


“So how does this work?” Patricia asked as she rubbed the injection 
site gently with a finger. 


“In about one to five minutes you'll fall asleep. When you wake up 
your memories of the past month will be gone. Pretty simple.” 


“Can | ask you a question then?” 
“Shoot.” 
“I’m not really going back to my family, am |?” 


Dr. Tanner remained silent, he kept his attention on the clipboard on 
which he was writing. 


“| figured as much...” Patricia sighed and laid herself down on the 
table. 


“Humanity thanks you for your service,” Tanner finally answered as 
Patricia felt her eyelids become heavy.