Poached_Egg

Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: A dedicated task force will search all media sources for possible references to SCP-XXXX. Upon discovery of a possible SCP-XXXX outbreak all available nearby assets are to be immediately diverted to the location to remove evidence and prepare containment procedures. A sample of SCP-XXXX is kept in a Level 5 Anomalous Microbe Containment Unit at Site-██

While work on a cure for SCP-XXXX is ongoing (see Addendum-01 for details), it has not yet been developed. The only currently known way to contain an outbreak of SCP-XXXX is to deprive it of hosts. As such, all living things within a twenty kilometer radius of a verified SCP-XXXX outbreak are to be killed and chemically disintegrated. Contaminated water is to be chemically treated. Before this, a perimeter will be established and human populations within the designated area are to be screened by specialized Foundation personnel. Uninfected humans are to undergo decontamination procedures and have amnestics administered before being evacuated to a civilian hospital. In the case of humans infected with SCP-XXXX, personnel are to take the opportunity to observe and document the effects of SCP-XXXX, as the rapid mortality rate makes it difficult to study living subjects at length. Infected individuals are not to be allowed outside the containment zone.

Description: SCP-XXXX is an anomalous species of microbial life. While it is considered to be in it's own category, SCP-XXXX bares strong resemblance in terms of behavior to infectious diseases, and is capable of infecting all known organisms. The key difference between SCP-XXXX and regular infectious diseases is it's anomalous displays of seemingly intelligent behavior. SCP-XXXX outbreaks do not appear to follow any kind of pattern, and its origin is unknown.

There are two distinct phenotypes of SCP-XXXX, referred to as SCP-XXXX-1 and SCP-XXXX-2. SCP-XXXX-1 is large, unusually so by the standards of single celled organisms. It is slightly smaller than the ovum, the largest human cell. SCP-XXXX-1 instances can be described as the logistical centers of an SCP-XXXX infection. SCP-XXXX-1 does not take part in any fighting, and instead harvests nutrients from the remains of cells killed by SCP-XXXX-2 and uses them to create new instances of either SCP-XXXX-1 or 2. SCP-XXXX-1 instances are also the providers of nutrients to instances of SCP-XXXX-2, as instances of SCP-XXXX-2 have not been observed consuming any of the cells they killed, and it is hypothesized that it is not capable of processing the remains of dead cells on its own.

SCP-XXXX-2 is a small pill-shaped microbe. At first glance, it is not dissimilar to many common species of bacteria. It possesses both flagella and cilia, and is capable of moving through a hosts vascular system at relatively high speeds. It is distinguished from normal bacteria by the large spike at the front of the cell body. SCP-XXXX-2 uses this spike to kill the living cells of it's host, tearing them into pieces and leaving them for SCP-XXXX-1. SCP-XXXX-2 obtains all of it' s nutrients from SCP-XXXX-1 and does not consume any of the cells it kills. After the initial infection takes place, instances of SCP-XXXX-2 will advance in all directions from the infected location, killing very living cell in their path. SCP-XXXX-2 displays an anomalous level of intelligence when killing host cells. It has been observed using military tactics against enemy cells, particularly immune system cells. The tactics that have been observed include:

-Surrounding sections of a mass of white blood cells and defeating them in detail.
-Drawing a large group of white blood cells into their "formation" and then killing them in a double envelopment.
-Targeted strikes against organs critical to the immune system response, such as the spleen and bone marrow(When infecting an organism which possesses those organs).

It is currently unknown if the intelligence displayed by SCP-XXXX is some sort of hivemind or whether each individual cell possesses intelligence.

Once the organism's immune system has been crippled, all instances of SCP-XXXX-2 within the body will converge on the host's vital organs, killing them. Once this final phase of the infection is reached, human victims die within an hour. The total time from infection to death varies based on the organism. Small species of plants can take as little as twenty minutes, while large mammals such as a cow can take as long as eighteen hours. Humans average at about seven hours, with some significant variances based on age, sex, and the strength of the immune system.

Upon the expiration of their host, instances of SCP-XXXX-2 will commit suicide via apoptosis¹. After this has occurred, all instances of SCP-XXXX-1 present in the host will begin rapidly consuming the remains of both the deceased host's cells and of the instances of SCP-XXXX-2 and using the resources to create new instances of SCP-XXXX-1. Over the course of fourty eight hours, the deceased host's entire body mass will be recycled into instances of SCP-XXXX-1, the skin, hair, and bones are the only exceptions². At the end of the recycling process, the deceased host will burst, and instances of SCP-XXXX-2 will spread through the air or ground water. Experiments with animals and plants have revealed that even a single instance of SCP-XXXX-2 is sufficient to start an infection.

Addendum-01: The ongoing effort to develop a cure for SCP-XXXX has been presented difficulties due to it's high resistance to drugs and overall hardiness. While it is not invincible (incineration, chemical sterilization, and other such techniques have proven effective in limiting the spread of the disease) it is very resilient and capable of surviving in any climate on Earth. As SCP-XXXX is capable of infecting all known organisms, an uncontained outbreak of SCP-XXXX represents a potential XK-Class End-of-the-World scenario. Because of this, the anomaly has been marked for neutralization. As such, multiple proposals for neutralizing SCP-XXXX have been considered and attempted.

Proposal	Result	Notes
Create a vaccine for SCP-XXXX	Failure	While test subjects were able to create antibodies designed for SCP-XXXX, the anomalous intelligence of SCP-XXXX makes conventional immune response ineffective, despite the antibodies. The antibodies only managed to prolong the the length of the early phases of the infection by a few hours.
A cure that focuses on eliminating instances of SCP-XXXX-1 only, ignoring SCP-XXXX-2	Ongoing	This is the current strategy employed by all ongoing cure efforts
Genetically modify a new strain of SCP-XXXX that attacks and kills instances of SCP-XXXX-2	Failure	While the new strain did attack the baseline strain, it also attacked the cells of the test subject, killing it as well as the original strain of SCP-XXXX. All attempts at creating a strain that exclusively targets SCP-XXXX have failed.
Use anomalous objects to create a new intelligent microorganism which attacks and kills SCP-XXXX	Accepted by O5 Council, vetoed by Foundation Ethics Committee.	The risk of creating a second anomalous disease by accident was deemed too high.
Remove SCP-XXXX's status as an anomaly3 and release it to authorities so that public resources can be used for work on the cure.	Rejected by O5 Council.	[Redacted]

Footnotes

1. Biologically programmed cell death

2. In infected plants or fungi, the entire mass of the organism is used without exception. In organisms with an exoskeleton, the exoskeleton is usually consumed, but it varies based on the density or strength of the exoskeleton.

3. The proposal argued that SCP-XXXX's intelligence is not inherently anomalous, and as such it should be considered a new form of non-anomalous microbe