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Item #: SCP-4xxx
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: Individuals infected by SCP-4xxx are to be contained inside a standard airtight quarantine cell at all times. To avoid overcrowding and unessecary risk of contact or breach during testing, no more than one dozen infected are to be contained in each cell. Groups of infected larger than this are to be terminated via incineary weaponry. Any individuals that make physical contact with SCP-4xxx are to be quarantined, or if necessary terminated immediately. In the event a group of infected breach containment, mobile task force Epsilon-9 is to be contacted immediately to assist in re-containment.
Description: SCP-4xxx is a fungal species similar to black mold in physical appearance and favored climate. It also shares a nearly identical growth pattern when found on non-biological surfaces. Unlike its counterpart, however, SCP-4xxx will secrete small quantities of a mucous-like substance similar in color to the fungi. The fungi has been shown to be exceedingly susceptible to fire and incendiary weapons.
Individuals that come into physical contact with patches of SCP-4xxx immediately become a carrier for it, and are capable of spreading it to others 1-2 hours after exposure. After 4 hours, the fungi begins to rapidly spread across the upper half of the body, weakening the skin and muscle tissue and giving it a malleable quality. At this stage the infected will become attached to any biological material its skin comes into contact with, the fungi fusing the skin to the surface.
After 8 hours, the fungi begins to grow in the infected's vital organs, redesigning them to better suit its desired environment. The brain undergoes severe trauma, causing dementia and damaging the infected's cognitive imput, speech and movement capabilities, and memory. The digestive tract completely shuts down and the infected no longer requires food or water. The infected usually also develops some sort of dependency disorder, resulting in infected becoming desperate to come into physical contact with an unafflicted individual, inadvertently infecting them.
Due to the nature of SCP-4xxx's symptoms, most people infected with it are fused together, resulting in large groups of infected permanently attached to each other. In groups like this, it is believed that SCP-4xxx creates a hive-mind mentality between all fused infected in the group, allowing them to coordinate their movements and pursue non-infected at high speeds.
Acquisition: SCP-4xxx was first noticed in 1917, after a telegram was intercepted from a British military force stationed in France. The telegram was a request for reinforcements, claiming that something in the trench the soldiers were stationed in had turned part of the contingent into a "mad wave of bodies tearing through the trench". Upon arrival, Foundation personnel found a dead group of over fifty individuals infected by SCP-4xxx, having supposedly been killed by gas weapons used by the opposing side. Several samples of SCP-4xxx were recovered, and any other evidence of its presence incinerated.
