BillOReillyAteMySon

Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-XXXX is stored in a 5m3 high security bunker. Access is restricted to research personnel with permission from level 3 personnel or greater. Two guards are stationed at all times to prevent unauthorized access, and one surveillance technician is responsible for temperature and light regulation of the enclosure. Two overhead light fixtures are outfitted with sodium halogen bulbs to replicate sunlight 12 hours a day.

SCP-XXXX is Priority Level 1 in the event of a Code Red facility breach.

Description: SCP-XXXX is a large hour glass, approximately 3 meters in height and 1 meter in width and length. Its silicate-glass body is contained by two square cast iron plates, with four iron rods connecting them at their points. Within the glass is a self-sustaining ecosystem, the lower bulb containing a bed of soil, vegetation, and a large colony of Musca domestica larva (maggot, or common housefly). The upper bulb is inhabited by adult flies. Following its transformation into adulthood, a fly will immediately ascend into the upper bulb. While the vegetation of the lower bulb provides a steady food source for the larval population, a food source for the flies of the upper bulb has yet to be identified.

SCP-XXXX was discovered in a dilapidated cabin outside of Boone, North Carolina on June 7th, 1990. Seen as an odd but valuable piece of art, it was brought to auction a month later and purchased by Appalachian State University. It sat in the lobby of the Rankin Sciences Complex for several years until, in April of 1997, a senior biology student noticed a strange property in the fly colony: very few larvae had transitioned into adulthood, and few, if any of the adults had died. With adult flies numbering in the tens of thousands, a steady supply of the deceased should have been pouring back into the lower bulb. After failing to publish a research paper on SCP-XXXX, the student reached out to Mountain Times Publications with the story. Foundation Agent [blackout] read the article several days later, and after confirming the story confiscated SCP-XXXX and transferred it to the [blackout] Reasearch Vault.

Several months of observation would reveal SCP-XXXX's most anomalous quality. The larval population roughly equated to the population of Boone, NC. Additionally, the death of a Boone resident would occur simultaneously with a larva's metamorphosis. The link between man and fly is still undergoing research.

Fearing the potential for disaster if SCP-XXXX were damaged or destroyed, it was moved to the [blackout] high security bunker complex. Measures are also being considered to prevent colony collapse in the event of resource exhaustion.