On March 15th, 2011, Martin Sims was wandering
down the streets of Carson, California. His clothes were ragged, he was filthy, and
gibbering like a madman with a full beard and long, unkempt hair. His body was covered in scars, but he showed
no signs of malnutrition. What made Martin’s sudden appearance so
remarkable? He’d been missing for three years. When he was interviewed by police, they asked
him where he’d been all this time. They couldn’t believe his answer. He’d been trapped in an Ikea since 2008. But this was no ordinary Ikea – this was
a dangerous anomaly that would come to be known as SCP-3008 .
Martin’s strange answers in his interview were laughed off by his interviewing officers,
who assumed he was either crazy or under the influence of something, but they caught the
attention of an SCP Foundation Field Agent embedded in the precinct. The report was passed up the chain to a local
Site Director, who approved a detachment of Foundation Field Operatives to look into Martin’s
case. While he was reluctant to lead the Foundation
Agents back to the offending Ikea – the Foundation can be extremely persuasive. His screams of “Please, I’m begging you,
don’t take me back! Don’t make me go back!” were noted but
ultimately disregarded. When the SCP Foundation had triangulated the
position of SCP-3008 , which was indeed an active Ikea, the entire retail zone was closed
and barricaded under the pretence of a severe black mold infestation. Armed Foundation Personnel also arrived on
site shortly after, based on Martin’s vague statements that there were creatures of some
kind inside. Due to his deteriorating mental health, Martin
was unable to provide a great deal of lucid information on the specific traits of SCP-3008
, but one phrase he kept repeating was “bigger on the inside.” Once researchers were satisfied that Martin
had delivered all the pertinent information he was able to, he was administered Foundation
Amnestics to erase his memory of the last three years and returned to his family. A cover story was formulated: Martin had been
kidnapped and abused for three years by a mentally-unbalanced stalker in downtown Carson. He’d been able to escape as said stalker
took his own life out of guilt – a suicide that the Foundation expertly fabricated to
make their cover story airtight. With the loose end of Martin Sims taken care
of, the true observation of SCP-3008 could begin. A base set around the perimeter of the mysterious
Ikea kept a 24-hour watch on the building, covering all potential entrances and exits. No exploratory missions had yet been approved
by the Foundation ethics committee, so they first wanted to perform a week of external
observation to see if any of the store’s anomalous properties extended beyond the confines
of the building. After a week of nothing, it appeared they
did not. A local Site Director approved the use of
twenty disposable Class-D Personnel to explore the interior of SCP-3008 .
The D-Class operatives would be split into four squads of five men – Alpha, Bravo,
Charlie, and Delta Squad. Each would be assigned a different quadrant
of the store, and would deliver information back to the control team on site via a live
audio and video link. Three of the four teams, upon entering the
store, reported nothing out of the ordinary. Neither the audio or video they were sending
back indicated anything different from a standard Ikea store – from the flat-pack wardrobes
to the Swedish meatballs. Team Delta, however, suddenly began experiencing
a scrambled audio and video connection. Shortly after, communication with Team Delta
dropped off entirely. They disappeared somewhere inside the store,
and haven’t been seen since – with one notable exception. After the disappearance of the extraction
of teams, Foundation Researchers classified SCP-3008 as Euclid, because its anomalous
properties were at least confined to the interior of the store. And even then, seemingly not the entire interior. The anomalous area within SCP-3008 became
known as SCP-3008-1, and containment appeared to be 100% secure. There was no telling how many people had already
gone missing in the store over the years, but the disappearances must be stopped. The Foundation maintained constant surveillance
around the perimeter of SCP-3008 , but it appeared they could prevent any further “incidents”
by simply preventing other civilians from accessing the Ikea store. Martin’s ravings about monsters were assumed
to just be the product of delirium. Until a surviving member of Delta Team suddenly
reappeared. The date was November 3rd, 2011. It was a cold night, a few hours after what
would have been closing time if the store were still active and seven months after the
extraction teams had disappeared somewhere in the confines of SCP-3008. There had been no anomalous activity outside
the store since the perimeter was first secured, and Foundation researchers hadn’t expected
that to change, until the last surviving member of Delta Team came barging out of the store’s
entrance. Startled Field Operatives were amazed to see
him again, but they were even more amazed to see what was following him out of the store,
repeating the same phrase: “The store is now closed, please exit the building.” Despite the fact that the entity chasing the
Delta Team survivor was wearing the yellow shirt and blue pants of an Ikea store employee,
the being was definitely not human. It was around seven feet tall, with no visible
face. The entity had grossly extended limbs – with
each arm being around five or six feet long, and ending in a huge, oversized hand. The whole process was so sudden that the Field
Agents present at the perimeter weren’t able to save the Delta Team survivor, as the
entity reached forward with its freakishly long arms, grabbed him, and twisted his head
off like a child with a doll. The Field Operatives present drew their weapons
and peppered the entity with bullets. It would later be classified as SCP-3008-2. The being appeared to collapse and die from
the physical trauma, at which point both it and the body of the former Delta Team survivor
were taken for an autopsy by Foundation researchers. There were no biological abnormalities to
the body of the Delta Team survivor, so it did not appear that the anomalous properties
of SCP-3008-1 had any effect on the physiology of its occupants. He was not malnourished despite being missing
for months, and the contents of his stomach looked to be half-digested food consistent
with the menu of a typical Ikea store restaurant. SCP-3008-2, on the other hand, raised a number
of perplexing biological questions. The autopsy revealed that the creature’s
clothes were actually a part of its body, like an additional layer of skin. The creature lacked blood or any kind of vascular
system. Even stranger, the entity didn’t appear
to have any bones or internal organs, not even a brain or nervous system. It was a being made entirely of skin, all
the way to its core. How it was able to move, or even live for
that matter, remains a mystery. Though when you work for The SCP Foundation,
you learn to accept that some things will always remain unexplained. One thing was certain, though: Martin Sims
was right about his monsters. After the incident with Delta Team, the Foundation
deemed that sending manned explorations into the heart of SCP-3008 was too much of a liability,
and planned a series of drone-based reconnaissance missions into the anomaly. The first of these drones experienced connection
issues and failed when attempting to venture into the Ikea’s anomalous zone. However, after a lengthy period of trial and
error, the Foundation was able to establish a more secure connection with its drones,
even when deep into the SCP-3008-1 anomalous zone. It was only then that some of the most extraordinary
discoveries were made. SCP-3008-1 seemed to break the laws of spatial
reality, as the area of the Ikea’s interior was at least an order of magnitude larger
than its exterior. Just as Martin Sims had said: It was bigger
on the inside. But just how much bigger? The Foundation has yet to find evidence of
any physical terminators within the store that might indicate SCP-3008-1 has an “end
point.” While an area of at least ten kilometres squared
has been uncovered in SCP-3008-1, it could – in theory – be infinite. Laser rangefinder tests, which are normally
very reliable, have only given inconclusive results. Interestingly, the anomalous area doesn’t
have any clear, visual differences from the rest of the Ikea store except that it extends
forever. An individual trapped within the confines
of SCP-3008-1 wouldn’t even realize that they’d entered an anomalous zone until they
tried to locate an exit and leave, at which point, they’d find they were already hopelessly
lost. The geography of SCP-3008-1 does at least
appear to be consistent, so people trapped within are theoretically able to retrace their
steps and escape if they hadn’t already ventured too deep. According to data collected during the drone
reconnaissance missions, SCP-3008-2, of which there appeared to be a vast population, would
wander the stores aimlessly during the day. They were unresponsive to the drone’s presence,
and did not appear to be aggressive. While the physical descriptions of these creatures
could vary slightly, they all followed the same overall trend: “Clothes” consistent
with the Ikea uniform, no face, either seemingly too tall or too short, and limbs that are
grossly out of proportion with their bodies. As the Foundation began sending drones deeper
into SCP-3008-1, they found another incredible discovery. There was an unknown population of humans
trapped inside the Ikea’s anomalous zone, and these people had used the Ikea furniture
around them to create entire settlements and towns within the store. There were several of these towns, all of
which seemed to cohabitate peacefully. Even Foundation personnel found this development
in their research to be truly extraordinary. Since SCP-3008 was first identified, there
have been only fourteen civilian escapes. Some had been trapped inside for months, others
had been in there for years – some far longer than Martin’s three-year stint. While every one of these escapees has eventually
been released back to their home, after a liberal application of Amnestics and a proper
cover story has been devised, the Foundation interviewed each of them extensively first. According to these escapees, the people trapped
inside the Ikea have built an entirely new society across the various settlements. Contrary to the “Lord of the Flies” expectations
of a group of people isolated and afraid, there’s immense cooperation between the
trapped civilians. The food in the several Ikea restaurants in
SCP-3008-1 mysteriously replenishes while nobody is there, so there’s no threat of
starving. And the automatic turning on and off of the
lights forms a kind of rudimentary day and night cycle. Night time, however, is when things get dangerous,
as the SCP-3008-2 entities – which are known to the people inside as “The Staff” – become
extremely hostile after dark. Aggressive hordes of the Staff swarm the settlements
at night, repeating “The store is now closed, please exit the building.” The civilians inside are usually able to repel
these attacks with minimal casualties, but the constant war of attrition slowly wears
down those inside. The bodies of the creatures also need to be
removed from the area after each attack, as the presence of corpses or even parts of corpses
has been known to heighten the ferocity of the next night’s attack. During the day, the Staff return to a docile
and unresponsive state, though they’ll still defend themselves violently if anyone dares
to attack. Over the course of the interviews with the
fourteen escapees, Foundation Researchers were able to answer another of their key questions:
How had so many people gone missing in the store for so long without being noticed? But the answer they received only raised many
more unsettling queries. According to the escapees, there were people
inside the settlements that, despite being otherwise of entirely sound mind and standard
intelligence, seemed to lack very common knowledge that even a child should know. For example, some weren’t aware of the International
Space Station orbiting the earth, or stranger still, the existence of the Statue of Liberty. This led the Researchers to a frightening
conclusion: SCP-3008-1 may not only be a nexus point of multiple Ikea stores in our dimension,
it could be connected to Ikeas in every dimension where Ikeas exist. While it only abducts a handful of people
from each store over an extended period of time, it suddenly becomes clear how this SCP
was able to trap so many people without detection over such a long period of time. Which, in turn, led to an even more terrifying
revelation: The SCP Foundation may not have SCP-3008-1 as contained as they thought. It might even be tucked away in an Ikea somewhere
near you, just waiting for you to visit. After all, there’s always room for one more…
