In a remote part of Russia, a mysterious disease
outbreak was tearing through a tiny farming village with terrifying side effects. There was no cure, no clue to where it came
from, and worst of all, the disease’s terrifying impact didn’t end with death. No, it was after those carrying the disease
died, that the real horror started. After an agonizing fever that leaves the victims
writhing in pain, they quickly succumb to the disease, only to rise from their graves
to wreak havoc on the living. The virus continues to spread, until the corpses
outnumber those trying to hide from them, as the world spirals into almost certain ruin. It sounds like the plot of a zombie movie,
but for the SCP Foundation this is anything but fiction, and the terror that unfolded
in that little Siberian town is the first recorded encounter with SCP - 610, also known
as, The Flesh That Hates. First, livestock began to vanish from farms. Theft or wild animals were suspected, but
no suspects could be found, and no mutilated remains turned up. The animals weren’t being stolen, and they
weren’t being eaten, so…what happened to them? With no more animals left to lose, the farmers
themselves then began to disappear, but the authorities refused to take the missing persons
cases seriously. The missing farmers’ families would contact
the police, make a report, and then the whole thing was forgotten. It was written off just as another unsolved
disappearance, which wasn’t uncommon in the wild and unforgiving region. Then the police themselves began to disappear. The families of the missing farmers would
sometimes report strange sounds from the surrounding woods, describing moans and inhuman screeches
of pain. One young boy reported seeing a cow with what
he described as “tentacles” lurking around the edge of the trees. Regional police were dispatched to the location,
and ordered to investigate and report back on their findings within 24 hours. But the units sent to the area didn’t report
back, and were never heard from again. Upon learning of the reports, the Russian
government grew increasingly concerned, fearing domestic insurgency or foreign espionage of
some kind could be at play. They sent a small team of special agents to
the area, and, one by one, those agents disappeared, just like the others before them. It seemed no one who went into the village
after the disappearances started ever came out again. They had all simply vanished. Desperate for answers, the Russian government
contacted the only people in the world who could help - The SCP Foundation. What the Foundation found over the course
of their investigation would shock and unnerve them, going beyond anything they had previously
discovered. Before the investigation officially began,
the affected area was sealed off by the Russian government. Not knowing if it would be safe to send researchers
into the containment perimeter, the Foundation set up a small camera mounted unit, nicknamed
Herbie, to capture footage of whatever remained of the village. The images captured by Herbie revealed what
exactly had become of the people in this doomed village, and the true, nightmarish nature
of SCP-610. SCP-610 is a Keter-class entity, meaning it’s
an anomaly that’s exceedingly difficult to contain consistently or reliably, with
containment procedures often being extensive and complex. 610 is a highly contagious skin disease that
initially manifests like an ordinary allergic reaction, with symptoms including increased
sensitivity, itching, and a rash. But within just three hours of those initial
symptoms appearing, the rash starts to turn into masses of scar tissue on the chest and
arms. These masses spread over the legs and back
of the victim, and completely consume them in thick, rubbery flesh within five hours. Once they’re covered, the victim will cease
all vital functions. Unfortunately for them, and doubly so for
those around them, they do not stay dead. About three minutes after expiring, the victim’s
vitals will restart at a heightened rate, and the masses of flesh encasing their body
will begin to move and multiply, mutating them into a form beyond anything resembling
the human they once were. The specific type of mutation varies from
case to case, but has included the head becoming massive and bulbous, the growth of extra limbs,
and, in especially gruesome cases, the victim’s body splitting apart to allow extra tendrils
of flesh to sprout from the open wound. Occasionally, an infected person will stop
moving and become rooted to the ground in a set location. Once it is settled, their flesh will spread
itself across the ground, encasing all nearby objects in flaps of scar tissue. The infected that maintain their mobility
are highly aggressive, even violent, and will attempt to infect any living thing that comes
into their line of sight. The disease does not only infect humans, and
can take over any living organism within a matter of hours. Due to the highly contagious and dangerous
nature of the disease, safe observation of infected specimens and areas is only possible
with drones and mounted cameras. This brings us back to Herbie, the first such
mounted camera to record footage of the infected area. Herbie was deployed into the infection site,
also known as Site A, without any damage. It remained at the outside perimeter of the
village for two hours, observing several infected humans, and fire damage to many of the homes,
before following an infected into an intact house. Herbie’s camera feed captured the infected
person entering the house and sitting down at the table inside. There were several other infected humans in
the house, and one unidentified infected creature that remained immobile under the table. After viciously assaulting one of the other
infected humans, the infected returned to the table and began to lay out plates on top
of it. Pieces of its flesh began to wriggle and tear
away from its body, before settling onto each plate. Once the plates were filled, the infected
sitting at the table began to grab at the flesh and crush it into their mouths, in a
perverse imitation of a normal mealtime gathering. After capturing this stomach-churning display,
Herbie left the house and continued to explore the village. It recorded footage of a large stack of bodies
that seemed to be made up of both Russian military and civilians, with an infected sitting
on top. As Herbie maneuvered toward the remains of
the town hall, an infected grabbed the rover off of the ground. Herbie’s camera was able to capture the
face of the infected that grabbed the rover. The face was that of a young girl around ten
years old, strangely intact atop a large, distorted body. The final moments of Herbie’s camera feed
captured the infected girl’s face bursting open, revealing tendrils of flesh that pulled
Herbie into the gaping maw. Then, the feed cut to black. Herbie was regarded as lost, but the video
feed briefly resumed five hours later, showing the camera covered with an unidentified slime. After this, the video feed was cut for good,
and Herbie abandoned in Site A. The Foundation has sent several manned expeditions
into Site A, where many expedition forces have fallen victim to the infected. Several operatives were also lost in an earthquake
that revealed a network of underground tunnels. A manned expedition into these tunnels was
attempted, and the video feed that was captured by the researchers on the expedition was deeply
disturbing. There were images of an abandoned church filled
with infected, and a mass of uninfected or partially infected human captives. The final moments of the video feed from this
expedition captured several operatives being murdered by an infected human wielding a farming
scythe, indicating that the infected are capable of using simple weaponry in addition to brute
force. The use of this weapon, paired with the presence
of captives in the underground tunnels, paints a terrifying picture of the kind of organization
the infected are capable of. No more manned expeditions have been attempted,
or, if they have, they have been highly classified. Ordinarily, once a new SCP is discovered,
it is placed in containment at the Foundation, with special procedures in place, so that
it can be studied or even neutralized in the rare occasions where it’s deemed necessary. When it comes to SCP-610 though, containment
might just be impossible. It simply covers too much area, and is too
dangerous to expose to human researchers. Instead, all infected areas have been isolated
with the permission of the Russian government. There is an official perimeter established
around these areas, and any civilians that approach them are told to leave under the
pretense of ongoing military operations. For once, a top secret military project is
the more innocent answer. Armed guards are placed at the perimeter of
every infected area, and any living thing with symptoms of SCP-610 spotted near the
perimeter is to be immobilized, killed, and burned from as far away as possible. Any living thing that comes in contact with
SCP-610, whether a soldier, a scientist, or a civilian, is immediately terminated, and
their remains destroyed. If someone comes within three meters of an
infected organism, they will be quarantined and remotely examined to determine if they
have been infected. While the spread of SCP-610 can be airborne,
it has been determined to be far less contagious when spread through air particles as opposed
to physical contact. The infection sites remain active to this
day, like modern day leper colonies. Though they are isolated from the general
population, and the military is doing everything in their power to contain the infected, SCP-610
is still very much alive. It is rare for an entity to exist that the
Foundation cannot truly contain, but can only try to guard against, and that makes this
infection all the more terrifying. Who knows how much it has mutated over the
years, growing, spreading, hungry for new hosts? There is still so much that the Foundation
does not know about the Flesh That Hates, such as how it works, what it can do, or even
where it came from, since the origin of the first infection is still, at this point, entirely
unknown. It has shown itself to be capable of learning,
planning, and protecting itself, so who is to say that it couldn’t figure out a way
to escape from its isolated area? It is so highly contagious, and spreads so
quickly, that just one tiny, infected rabbit, and one inattentive soldier, could be enough
for SCP-610 to reach the general population. If it did, its violent, destructive nature
and hatred for all life would mean that everything, not just the people but animals, plants, and
the world itself, could be at risk. And no one is ready for this kind of infection. A disease that turns the human body against
itself, turns our skin into a weapon and a tomb, stripping away identity, humanity, and
everything that isn’t made of that same hateful flesh. So, let’s hope that the perimeter holds,
and, the next time you feel a little itchy, try not to think about what might happen next. Now go Check out “SCP-939 - With Many Voices”
and “SCP - 096 - The Shy Guy” for more anomalies that’ll keep you up at night!
