Individuals crossing the town boundary are immediately subject to 
its effects, and are unable to break any existing laws within the town, 
either intentionally or accidentally. The most immediately noticeable 
effects, especially for Foundation personnel, are the total inability to 
leave the town and the removal of all firearms. 


into the interview, Assistant C drew his sidearm and destroyed 
the recording devices in the room. Nothing said by either SCP-384-1 
or Assistant C at any time during the interview suggested that 
the latter was about to commit mutiny. Using a speaker installed 
inside Containment Unit-077, on-site security commanded Assistant 
C to stand down; in response, the speaker was destroyed as 
well. An incident report received thirty minutes later revealed that 
Assistant C had broken containment of SCP- and stolen it. 
Based on SCP-_’s properties, it is surmised that Assistant C 

used SCP-___ to unlock and open SCP-384. Fifteen seconds after 
Assistant C destroyed all surveillance devices in the room, large 
amounts of tar began to flow out through SCP-384 from 
Containment Unit-077. The pressure of the tar against SCP-384 
eventually tore it off its hinges, at which point the tar flow ceased. 
Interviewers report no change in SCP-384-1’s behavior. SCP- has 
been successfully retrieved and re-contained, and containment of 
SCP-384 reestablished. AssistantC — ’s corpse has not been 
found. SCP-384-1 has been thoroughly tested for any possible 
telepathic or memetic effects, but all results have been negative. 
There is nothing to suggest that AssistantC —_, one of SCP-384-1’s 
most frequent interviewers, acted out of anything but free will. Dr. 

F  ’s proposal to reclassify SCP-384 as Euclid has been denied. 


That was the best Assistant Researcher I've seen in years and this 
is bull[EXPLETIVE REDACTED]. -Dr. F 


« SCP-383 | SCP-384 | SCP-385 » 


SCP-3088-1 is the tentative classification for Thomas Ronson, the 
Mayor of Cullen and the only person currently known to be within the 
town limits legally empowered to pass laws. Whether he himself 
possesses any anomalous properties is currently unknown. 


SCP-3088 first came to Foundation attention following an 
intercepted call from a civilian trapped within to the Sheriff's Office of 
a nearby town. The call was terminated mid-conversation, at the 
same time that all wired and cellular traffic into or out of the town 
ceased. 


History: Following the initial discovery of SCP-3088, but before the 
specifics of the anomaly were understood, MTF Sigma-9 ("Kansas 
City Hotsteppers") were dispatched to investigate. Following are the 
recovered logs of their investigation. 


+ Show Audio Transcript #1 


Transcript of the first audio message from MTF Sigma-9 
following their entry into SCP-3088, received 
approximately 19 hours after entry. Message from team 
leader Agent Denlen Sorsby ("Stepper-1"). 


[TRANSCRIPT BEGINS] 


All right, let's hope this works. Command, this 
is Agent Denlen Sorsby, Team Leader, MTF 
Sigma Niner. If you're receiving this, you better 
give Agent Peters a raise. OK, from the top. 


Immediately after our entry into Cullen, we 
quickly found that an anomaly is present, and 
encompasses the entire area around the town. 
All of our firearms were immediately removed 
from our persons, as if they just vanished into 
thin air, and all our of phones stopped working, 
cellular and satellite. We also discovered we 
couldn't leave. Whenever one of us made a 
move to leave the area, we'd freeze up and 
become unable to take so much as a step. As 
soon as we tried to do anything else, though, 


we could move just fine. We tried weighting 
down the gas pedal on one of our vehicles, but 
it stopped as if it hit an invisible wall. 


The town itself seems normal enough at first 
glance, but everyone here is on edge. They 
definitely know something is wrong here, 
though it was hard to get anyone to talk with 
us. | mentioned our phones not working to a 
waitress in a diner we stopped at, and she said 
they were out all over town. Had been for 
days, apparently. Internet too. Basically there's 
no way to talk to anyone outside of town. Our 
walkies still work, but they are pretty short 
range. 


Didn't take long to work out that the Mayor of 
this place is behind whatever is going on, or at 
least knows something about it. The way 
people talk about him, they're either terrified or 
in awe, or both. From what little we could 
glean, any laws he makes become fact. 
Apparently a few days ago he passed a law 
banning phones and the internet, and a couple 
weeks ago he wrote a law banning guns. Now 
all our guns are gone and our phones don't 
work. Obvious enough. 


| don't think we are in any immediate danger. 
The people are spooked but not wild, so we're 
going to try and get to the bottom of this. 
Anyway the law said no phones or internet, but 
it didn't say anything about... Peters, what did you 
call it? High-frequency radio data-pulses? Man, 
you made that shit up. Anyway yeah Peters 
has gutted half our radios and a bunch of parts 
from the supply kits in the trucks and whipped 
up something that will apparently get this 
message out to you. And if not, well | guess 
I've just been talking to myself for the last 


three minutes. 


We'll send another message when we have 
more to report. Sorsby out. 


Alright, Peters, hit i- 
[TRANSCRIPT ENDS] 
+ Show Audio Transcript #2 


Transcript of second log received from MTF Sigma-9, 
received approximately three days after initial entry. 


[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT] 


OK, this is Stepper-1 reporting in. First up, 
we're making a number of assumptions here, 
the first of which is that you received our 
previous transmission. With that, we're also 
assuming that at least some form of 
containment would have started, which almost 
certainly would have been focused on public 
roads. So, the fact that we can't see anything 
on the roads past the boundary of the anomaly 
means it's doing more than just stopping us 
from leaving. 


Watkins and Pace tracked the outer edge of 
the anomaly over the last couple of days. It 
surrounds the entire town out a fair ways, and 
seems to stop at the roads right by the 
"Welcome to Cullen" signs, so our best guess 
is that it fills the entire town limits. Apparently if 
you aren't actively trying to leave you can walk 
the edge of it no problem; Pace said it felt like 
a wall made of glass. 


Lets see... it looks likes our initial assumption 
about what's going on here was mostly 
accurate; anyone inside the town is completely 


unable to break any of the laws here. Even low 
level crap that any local council passes on a 
whim counts - there's no litter anywhere in 
town because the Mayor passed an ordinance 
prohibiting littering. We haven't been able to 
get close to this guy yet, Ronson, he's called. 
Goddamn bureaucrats have laws for 
everything, so apparently we can't just bust 
into his office and have a friendly chat. We 
have no idea what his goal here is, whether 
he's doing it intentionally or just wrapped up in 
something he can't control. We have an 
appointment to see him in four days. Fucking 
paper-pushers. 


What else, what else... Oh! Peters says get 
whoever you've got running containment out 
there to set their radio to frequency 457.9Mhz. 
We'll go down there in the morning and see if 
our walkies work. We can't see you out there, 
but we might still be able to talk, especially if 
these data-pulse things are working. 


| think that's it. Sorsby out. 
[END TRANSCRIPT] 
+ Show Audio Transcript #3 


Audio transcript of a conversation between members of 
MTF Sigma-9 and the containment team situated at the 
containment perimeter of SCP-3088. Conversation took 
place via standard-issue two-way radio. 


Sorsby: This is Sigma-Niner, come back. 
Repeat, this is Stepper-One, MTF Sigma- 
Niner. 


Vasquez: We read you, Stepper-One. This is 
Agent Vasquez, 3088-Control. 


Sorsby: Shit, Silvia, that you?! What's going 
on out there? 


Vasquez: Yeah, it's me, Sorsby. Glad to hear 
you're still alive in there. Where are you? 


Sorsby: We're right at the edge of the barrier. 
I've got your drone right here.1 


Vasquez: We don't see you. We're about 20 
meters down the road. Guess this thing blocks 
vision both ways. 


Sorsby: Yeah... wait, 3088? Classified 
already? That was fast. 


Vasquez: | guess losing an MTF team inside a 
town-wide skip gets the ball rolling pretty 
quickly. Alright, report. 


Sorsby: Right. All team members currently 
uninjured and accounted for. Situation in the 
town seems stable for now, though the town 
folks still seem reluctant to talk too much to us. 
There's a bunch of weird laws in this town, we 
can all sort of feel them now. Like, if | even 
think about trying to walk out there to you now, 
| can feel in the back of my head that it's 
against the law. Apparently it's illegal to be 
unemployed too. Not sure on the specifics of 
that one, but there are a few big textile mills in 
town that employ a whole lot of people. 


Vasquez: Records show the mills shut down 
years ago. The town was actually in real 
trouble because of it. 


Sorsby: Well it seems fine now. You know, 
besides the reality-altering anomaly covering 
the entire town and trapping everyone inside. 


Vasquez: Speaking of which. Step back from 
the edge, we're sending something in. 


Approximately 40 seconds of silence as the 
containment team pilots a remote vehicle 
across the barrier carrying a transmitter 
package. 


Vasquez: Our tech boys out here say this 
should do the job of that thing Stepper-3 
whipped up, but a bit more cleanly. The signal 
we were receiving from you was a mess. 


Sorsby: Peters, get over here and look at this 
thing. 


Peters: Right. 


Vasquez: Has a confirmation so you'll know 
it's working, and it should be bespoke enough 
to get around any uh... legal issues. Still only 
one-way, mind you. Saves you walking all the 
way out here for minor shit, though. 


Peters: It'll do. 
Sorsby: Alright, thanks Vasquez. 


Vasquez: One more thing, Sorsby. Mancha? 
wants some progress on getting this under 
wraps. You know how twitchy the higher-ups 
get with skips this big. I'm not sure what else 
we can do from out here, and they are 
reluctant to send in any more "Human Assets", 
so this is all on you jokers. 


Sorsby: Hah, don't you worry about us. We've 
got the meeting with this Mayor in a couple of 
days, we'll get this whole thing straightened 
out and we'll all be back for poker on Fr- 


Pace: Sorsby! We've got a Peeper! He's 


running! 


Sounds of Agent Sorsby running can be heard 
on the line. 


Sorsby: Shit! We've been made by a civvy. 
Gonna go track 'em down and keep ‘em quiet. 
Sorsby out! 


+ Show Audio Transcript #4 


Transmission received approximately four days after last 
contact, using the supplied data transmitter. 


Sorsby: Alright, sixth time's a charm, right 
Peters? 


Peters: Right. 


Sorsby: Right, so. We didn't catch that civilian 
who was watching us, lost them in the fucking 
trees. | guess there's a pretty big chunk of 
forest within the town limits. Anyway our best 
guess is he was some toady for the Mayor, 
because about an hour later a new law was 
passed. We could feel it happening, like a 
song you haven't heard for years suddenly 
popping into your head. 


Peters: Yeah, fucking weird stuff. 


Sorsby: Seriously. Anyway this new law 
apparently prohibits talking to anyone outside 
of the town at all. Which is why I'm just having 
a nice friendly chat with my compatriot, Agent 
Peters here. And why we've tried to have the 
same conversation six fucking times now! 
Anyway. What were we talking about? 


Peters: The meeting with Ronson. 


Sorsby: Right! The Mayor! Yeah that didn't go 


well. He seems... unhinged. | think meeting 
with him might have been the wrong play, and 
since it's illegal to punch people in the face or 
smash up public property there wasn't much | 
could do. He started rambling on about fixing 
the town or something, and since then we've 
all noticed people following us around. 
Tracking our movements, who we talk to. 


Peters: There's one outside right now. Not 
very subtle. 


Sorsby: Yeah. Amateurs. Anyway | got 
Ronson to agree to another meeting tomorrow, 
so hopefully that one will go better, but he 
doesn't strike me as the kind of person who is 
going to let this shit go. And unless we can find 
some loophole that's going to let us take him 
out, or break into his house or his office or 
something to find some answers, we're going 
to run out of options here pretty quickly. 


Peters: Too bad you ain't a lawyer. 


Sorsby: Mamma always did say | should go to 
law school. Maybe we can just wait him out, 
run for Mayor during the next election? When's 
that happening? 


Peters: Nearly four years. 


Sorsby: Shit, | doubt we have that long. Well, 
we'll think of something. | guess that's about it. 
Nice talking to you, Peters. 


Peters: You too, boss. 


Incident 3088-1 

Approximately three days after the last received transmission from 
MTF Sigma-9, a localised C-Class restructuring event occurred 
within the confines of SCP-3088. Following the event, all anomalous 


activity associated with SCP-3088 ceased and all people, man- 
made structures, and objects within its bounds disappeared, with the 
exception of one house at the approximate centre of the area. Two 
documents of significance were recovered from the structure; official 
documentation regarding newly passed laws in the town of Cullen, 
Nebraska, and the personal diary of Mayor Thomas Ronson. 


The journal is transcribed below, verbatim. 
+ Show Transcribed Journal 


| did it! | won! I've been elected the Mayor of 
Cullen! Well, | say *I* won but | didn't do it 
alone, | had a great team of people to help me 
out. I've lived in this town for over 40 years 
and seen it steadily get worse and worse 
through a combination of corruption and 
ineptitude, but now that I'm Mayor, things are 
going to change! | can get the town back on its 
feet, help the people here improve their lives! 


We had our first open hall today, where | laid 
out my plans for the future to the people of this 
good town. They generally seemed receptive, 
which was heartening. A few people were 
skeptical that I'd be able to re-open the mills, 
which is fair, but | think it will be doable. They 
didn't go out of business, after all, they were 
sold out by that bastard Haystings to line his 
pockets before he left town. Anyway, it looks 
like | have the support of the people. I'm going 
to start small though. I've guaranteed some 
extra funding for the high school so they can 
make some vital repairs, and | passed an 
ordinance banning littering in the town, since 
its starting to look a real mess. May not sound 
like much, but if people are going to believe 
things can change, they need to see tangible 
proof, and quickly. | think small improvements 
like this will go a long way to changing peoples 
attitudes. 


Had some good news today; Omaha Textiles 
are interested in getting the mills running 
again! | like to think it was my incredible sales 
pitch that did the job, but the reality is it was 
probably just good timing - they've apparently 
been looking to expand for a while now. Still, 
not going to question such a good opportunity. 
The people of Cullen are honest, hard-working 
folk, but unemployment has been a real 
problem here. Getting the mills reopened may 
restore the hope people have lost over the 
years. 


Oh, looks like litter ordinance is already paying 
dividends! Only two days and the town is 
almost looking spotless! Must have inspired 
the people to pitch in and clean the place up.