Item #: SCP-AAA
Object Class: Safe Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: Due its public location and non-lethal effects, SCP-AAA is not to be secluded or given special status. Standard SCP foundation taps have been installed in the national traffic CCTV systems and emergency services communications systems for monitoring purposes.
Description: SCP-AAA is a 13.5 kilometre stretch of the Rijksweg ██ of the Dutch national highway system connecting the cities of Amsterdam and Almere. SCP-AAA’s effects is localised between Knooppunt █████████ and exit number 5. SCP-AAA’s effects are present equally on both west-bound and east-bound lanes.
Any driver engaging in careless, reckless or aggressive driving behaviour will suffer acute and painful, but non-lethal effects of a random and varying nature. Hereafter follows a synopsis of symptoms cross-referenced with (possible) trigger behaviour.
The following symptoms have been recorded in order of severity: |
---|
• Subconjunctival hemorrhaging (bloodshot eyes) |
• Epistaxis (nosebleeds) |
• Headaches |
• Mild to excruciating muscle cramps |
• Primary otalgia (earpains) |
• Migraines |
• Complete physical failure of either right or left side of the body. |
All symptoms appear to be temporary and are relieved shortly after the driver ceases the triggering behaviour. Afterwards, no physical traces of any pain causing tissue damage or deformation, permanent or transient, could be found, except for heightened levels of cortisol and epinephrine (stress hormones) and adrenaline, consistent with experiencing a (perceived) dangerous situation.
Triggering events for these symptoms have been recorded as: |
---|
• Tailgating |
• Unnecessary driving on the left lane(s) |
• Failing to use indicator lights |
• Rubbernecking |
• Overtaking on the right (illegal in the Netherlands) |
• Speeding |
• Flashing of headlights and/or honking in order to overtake a slower car |
• No wearing a seatbelt |
Symptoms are dramatically aggravated when combined.
From: ██████, ████ – O5 Command
Sent: Thursday, 25 █████████ 2014 13:33
To: ████████, ██████ – Site ██, ███ Office
Cc:
Subject: Case file SCP-AAA
Dr. ████████,
I was informed by Central Archiving about the case file of SCP-AAA. According to the records, this SCP was declared safe and the investigation closed on ██ of █████. Apparently, CA received a personal moving box adressed to a Ms. ██████ █████████ at our local branch in New York. She’s a junior researcher on your team, right?
Well, not only is it marked SCP-AAA: IMPORTANT!, it was sent by ███ ██. To make it even worse – if that is even possible- it was sent from Holland.
I hope I don’t have to repeat myself about the need to keep our administration in anything less then 100% order. This is an outrageous breach of policy and I hold you responsible for your team. I have ordered CA to forward you the box. Have it sorted, filed and resubmitted ASAP.
Regards,
Dr. ██████, O5 Command
Contents Box KB-140924:
PNG met adres & verscholen symbool
From: Beckmeyer, Kinsey – Site 13, EVA Office
Sent: Thursday, 12 December 2013 14:13
To: Angstrom, Harrison – Site 13, EVA Office
Cc:
Subject: New Assignment
Dear Dr. Angstrom,
First of all, thank you so much for this chance to work for you. I promise I won’t let you down, sir. Daniel Peeters at the local Field Office in Brussels already sent me the preliminary survey and you have my personal guarantee to have the first draft ready before the end of the week.
I do have one question: Are you sure you only want a summary of the events as described by the local affected people? Isn’t the protocol to have a level 5 cross check with medical and police records as well? I know we’re pretty backlogged in the department and it may take an extra week or two to compile, but I assure you that it wouldn’t interfere with my other work.
Happy holidays!
Best regards,
Kinsey
From: ████████, ████████ – Site ██, ███ Office
Sent: Tuesday , 10 ████████ 2013 09:44
To: █████████, ██████ – Site ██, ███ Office
Cc:
Subject: SCP-AAA - Initial Report Review
Dear ██████,
So nice to have you on board. I can see you show much promise. We’ll be working very closely together a lot. Pls call me █████.
By the way,it’s all meetings for me again today, so it looks like we’ll have to ███ during lunch. I’ll see you in my office at 12:00.
Best regards,
█████
From: Beckmeyer,Kinsey – Site 13, EVA Office
Sent: Thursday, 02 January 2014 09:44
To: Angstrom, Harrison – Site 13, EVA Office
Cc:
Subject: Re: SCP-AAA - Initial Report Review
Dear Harry,
First of all, a happy new year! That was some new year’s eve party. Please forgive me for leaving so sudden. I guess I’m not used to such an informal approach between managers and employees.
Referring to SCP-AAA: did you have a chance to go over my initial report? It’s been on your desk for over three weeks now, even though you made it clear it was needed quite urgently. Also, can you please take my request to perform that level 5 check into account as well? Many thanks!
Best regards,
Kinsey
From: Beckmeyer,Kinsey – Site 13, EVA Office
Sent: Friday, 14 February 2014 08:17
To: Angstrom, Pubert – Site 13, EVA Office
Cc:
Subject: Last weekend
Dear Dr. Angstrom,
Thank you for the valentine’s gift. I’m flattered, really, but I would prefer to keep our relationship strictly professional. I’d hate to think I have been giving you any wrong impressions.
About my re-assignment to SCP-BBB. Can you please tell me why my initial report on SCP-AAA was submitted to O5 and CA as final? Have you read my message that a symptom vs. trigger behaviour correlation needs to be done. There seems to be a mismatch between symptoms and trigger behaviour. Please see my below summary of a Dutch police report on accident of January 19th 2014. If this is related to SCP-AAA, and it seems to be, I’m not sure if “Safe” is the correct classification. This entry should be re-evaluated and maybe upgraded to Euclid.
So I took the liberty of requesting the Brussels field office for the level 5 medical and police records, as should have been done in the first place. Please don’t worry, I did this in my spare time. Also, I have ordered a Deepnet bot sweep for some datamining on this subject. Maybe that will come up with addiitonal information.
Best regards,
Kinsey
On the 27th of January 2014, Mr R. Zondermaat, aged 22, was killed while driving at a speed in excess of 200 kilometres per hour along the east-bound stretch of Rijksweg A6. CCTV recording from Rijkswaterstaat show Mr Zondermaat keeping on the outer left lane at all times, until he suddenly and violently veered to the right and went off road, landing upside down into the ditch running parallel to SCP-AAA.
According to his twitter account, Mr Zondermaat returned from an illegal party in the Amsterdam underground scene.
Technical Police Investigation shows that at the time of the accident:
- Mr. Zondermaat was wearing his seatbelt.
- No malfunction to the vehicle
- No road surface contamination present that could have caused Mr. Zondermaat to lose control of his car.
- Presence of MDMA (XTC pills) in the glove compartment
- Car stereo was on and playing “hardstyle” music being played on extremely loud volume.
Note: investigation seriously hampered by excessive amounts of blood present in the car’s interior. Blood stains found throughout the interior, front to back.
Criminal records show a long history of traffic violations and minor substance abuse. Blood analys from at NFI laboratory shows alcohol and MDMA present in the blood, but not in any amount typically related to overdose.
However, the lab also reported Mr. Zondermaat’s body to be severly aneamic (corresponding with the excessive amount of blood in the car interior), but no physical trauma present to account for such blood loss. Cause of death changed from cranial trauma to debilitating blood loss due to hemorrhaging of unknown type.
From: Beckmeyer,Kinsey – Site 13, EVA Office
Sent: Friday, 28 March 2014 21:13
To: Angstrom, Pubert – Site 13, EVA Office
Cc:
Subject: Re: Mid-term evaluation
Nice try last night, asshole. You know what? Fuck you!
My name is Kinsey, K I N S E Y, not ██████!!! And Kinsey, that’s me, doesn’t care about your problems with your wife, your stress, or that stupid blackboxing fixation of yours, okay? I don’t care about your sorry-ass stories how some stupid SCP melt a bunch of D-class test subjects right in front of your eyes. As if! The rest of the analysis department may believe it, but it’s not working on me.
And don’t think threatening me with a negative review is going to solve your petty problems. I saw all those reminders from CA on your computer when you were busy checking out my chest. I mean, really? That trick with the air conditioning set to sub-zero was old when I was in college.
Don’t bother with submitting to CA what you should have been doing since I started working here three months ago! I’ve got all the data I can from the Deepnet bot and the field office in Brussels. By the time you’re reading this, I’m on a flight to Holland and I’m taking all the data with me. I’m going to that stupid highway and do the tests myself. I know I’m going to find something wrong and when I do, I’m going to mail the results directly to O5 command. I bet their eyes are not glued to the asses of their female staff, so they’ll recognize there IS something dangerous happening on that highway.
Up yours,
Kinsey
PS I booked on your personal SCP expense account. Good luck explaing THAT to command.
From: ████████, ████████ – Site ██, ███ Office
Sent: Thursday , 27 █████ 2014 09:44
To: █████████, ██████ – Site ██, ███ Office
Cc:
Subject: Mid-term evaluation
Dear ██████,
I’m afraid I can’t ignore your careless communication any longer. You use no proper blanking and/or redacting. Your ██████ and ███ is not good for the team spirit. Frankly, I’m wondering how serious you’re taking our work here at the foundation. I know you have never been exposed to actual SCP’s like ██████ or ██████████ yet, but count yourself lucky.
Please come over to discuss how you’re going to ██████. You need to convince me that you’re willing to do what it takes to keep your position on the team, or else I will be forced to turn in a very negative evaluation to HR. I can’t be responsible for any transfers after that.
Please trust me, I know that you and I can ██████. So, how about tonight at eight? My office.
Best regards,
██████
SD cards
15:38 LT
B, K: Ok, just went through customs at Schiphol Airport and now I’m in Holland! Or is it the Netherlands? Whatever. I’ve withdrawn as much cash as I could from Harry’s expense account. So, basically, I’m a thief! Crap, I didn’t think this through, did I? Shit, am I still working for the world’s largest covert organisation, or am I on the run from it? Ok, ok, keep breathing, don’t panic. I’ll take the train to city center and see if I can find a hostel or something. Somewhere they don’t ask for my passport. What am I going to do? How the hell am I going to get a car without the Foundation finding out? Christ, I need a coffee.
15:46 LT
B, K: I managed to find some free wifi and will you look at this beautiful little e-mail! Ok, better rent a car quickly and get my ass in gear.
From: ████████, ████████ – Site ██, ███ Office
Sent: Friday, ██ █████ 2014 14:14
To: █████████, ██████ – Site ██, ███ Office
Cc:
Subject: Out of Office AutoReply: Re: Mid-term evaluation
Dear reader,
I'm out of the office and will return on Monday, April █th. For urgent matters, please contact Dr. ██████ at ███-███ ███ ███
Best regards,
█████
15:38 LT
Right, time to gather my thoughts on this. A lot has happened since the last recording I made. I think. I’ve been working so hard; I’m losing track of time. It seems all I do is drive from one fact checking to the next and eat in fastfood restaurants.
Let’s see, where are my notes? Ugh, it’s such a mess in this car! I’ll just record what I need to remember and throw away the rest. If Ron or Eli ever find any of this, I’d have a hell of a time explaining it all.
Oh, that reminds me, I better mention that I left the hostel. Like, no privacy, at all. I had some extremely good luck meeting Ron. He’s an art student here and he and his friend Eli offered that I should stay with them in their student house. I need a place off the radar and they need the rent money. First I thought it was a very bad pickup line, but he and Eli are so close, I don’t think I need to be afraid any of those two going after a girl, if you know what I mean. Eli is doing something in construction, I think. They’re real nice guys, but you know, it’s amazing how everything here in Holland is so small, the houses, the cars, the cities,everything. So how did Dutch people get so damn tall? Ron and Eli are both like six feet two and towering over me when I stand next to them. Anyway, I’m staying with them in Almere, some city the Dutch built on a stretch of reclaimed seabed. Now, where did I…
*rustling paper*
Ok, here goes: I finally had some time to compile that damned correlation report using the Deepnet bot. I’m afraid it raises even more questions instead of making things clear as I had hoped. I made the report in chronological order. The trigger behaviour is obviously random, but if anything the resulting symptoms are defintely escalating. One of the more recent events is minor, but resulted in near fatal symptoms. And it turns out that there was another fatality, after the Zondermaat event. I couldn’t find out what the trigger behaviour was. I think that means it wasn’t anything spectacular, or else it would’ve been mentioned somewhere. The only thing I did find was that the lab found MDMA in the guy’s blood. According to Ron and Eli, XTC pills are a very popular party drug here. That would make some sense, at least. Both were driving home from Amsterdam in the middle of the night in the weekend. I think it’s more of an contributing factor to their driving behaviour.
Geez, their hamburgers are just as bad on this side of the Atlantic. Defintely not lovin’ it. Time to get going. So much to do and all that.
Date | Subject | Trigger behaviour | Symptoms |
---|---|---|---|
05/23/08 | A. Meersum | Overtaking on right | Epistaxis (nosebleeds) |
08/02/09 | K van Dooren | Tailgating | Subconjunctival hemorrhaging (bloodshot eyes) |
04/15/10 | B.J.Tuinders | Unnecessary LH driving | Epistaxis (nosebleeds) |
02/27/11 | W. Rutten | Speeding | Primary otalgia (earpains) |
09/07/11 | P. Willemstijn | No indicators | Headaches |
03/13/12 | P. de Jager | Unnecessary LH driving | Mild muscle cramps |
07/22/12 | T.H. Grijswijk | Rubbernecking | Migraine |
11/25/12 | A. Fonken | Overtaking on right + no indicators | Mild muscle cramps + epistaxis |
04/06/13 | M. Kaman | Speeding + overtaking on right | Migraine + subconjunctival hemorrhaging |
07/10/13 | D. Poelgeest | Flashing headlights and/or honking | Primary otalgia (earpains) + epistaxis |
10/17/13 | G. van der Gooi | Unnecessary LH driving | Excruciating muscle cramps + epistaxis |
12/26/13 | T.L. Kaya | Tailgating | Complete physical failure of either right or left side of the body + epistaxis + subconjunctival hemorrhaging |
01/27/14 | R. Zondermaat | Speeding + unnecessary LH driving (+ substance abuse?) | Hemorrhaging of unknown type (deceased) |
02/09/14 | E. Dogan | Unknown (+ substance abuse?) | Hemorrhaging of unknown type and/or extreme physical trauma and/or 3rd degree burns (deceased) |
15:38 LT
Let’s see. It’s now four thirty PM and already I’m exhausted. I feel like I haven’t slept for a week. There are some good things to note. I returned the rental car at a local Amsterdam location. I can’t risk them tracking me somehow. Fortunately, Eli and Ron take me anywhere I need to go. Their the best.
You know, Holland is really old-country and brand new cuntry at the same time. There’s still some houses there from before Columbu sailed to America and yet the whole province of Flevoland is formally not even thirty years old! They just dragged that shit up from the water when they needed more space.
Anyway, back to business. I’ve been exploring Zondermaat’s case. You know what I found? That his death actually spared the life of a young mom and her toddler. Yeah, I found that little snipper in her blog. She says her car broke down on the left lane. She was just about to get her kid and herself to safety when she saw Zondermaat coming. Somehow she got this dreadful feeling all of a sudden. That he was out for their blood, or something. She claims everything went ice cold, lights dimmed and then he just ran himself off the road. It was her who called the emergency number to report the accident. She must’ve been just outside the field of view of the highway camera. Still… It definitely suggests a benign non-corporeal possession. I just can figure out how the escalating symptoms fit into this picture. Coincidence after all?
I’m going to see if I can find out anything about the other occurences. It’s going to be a long night again. Meanwhile, Eli and Ron are out all night partying. Damn, I wish I could join them sometime.
15:38 LT
Ok, so it’s, what, two-fortyfive, or something? I just left the house of Mrs van Harlingen in Almere. She’s Mr van Harlingen’s widow. Oh.My.God. Did she have some interesting things to tell me, or what! Get a load of this: Her husband, I can’t even pronounce his name right. It’s Gerard, like in Gerard Butler? But you have to say it like you have a chicken bone stuck in your throat or something. Anyway, he died during the construction of the A6. As far as I can tell, he’s the very first victim - Patient Zero if you will.
The way they build these highways is that, first, they build one half and then the other. That way the traffic can still get past the construction. So, back in 1977, Mr van Harlingen was driving from Amsterdam back to his newly built house in the Dutch outback – that’s what Mrs van Harlingen called it – along the finished half of the A6. Reports on what caused the accident are sketchy, but the results are all the more gruesome. Apparently, he lost control of his car and crashed it straight into a road paving machine. The ones that lay down the layers of asphalt?
The construction workers said he was driving like a maniac and hit the machine doing at least a hundred kilometres an hour. So that’s… uhm… like, sixty or seventy miles an hour. But the crash didn’t kill him! No, the crash broke the sunroof of the car and the paving machine filled the interior with hot asphalt of a hundred and fifty degrees. Hotter than boiling water and thick as lava. They tried to shut down the machine, but there was fire and chaos and panic and the machine wouldn’t shut down.
According to Mrs Van Harlingen, the reports saying her husband drove like crazy are either mistaking, or lying. As a matter of fact, Mr van Harlingen was president of the Dutch ‘easy Drivers Club’, who promote a more friendly and slower driving style and such. A total mister nice Guy, who’d never even dream of aggressive driving. She’s convinced somebody drove him off the road, probably someone in a hurry and got stuck behind him on the narrow section of the road. She thinks he probably tried to overtake him and they hit, sending Mr Nice Guy into the paving machine. The poor woman got all worked up about it, even after almost forty years.
So here’s my theory: I think she’s right. I think that’s exactly what happened. SCP-AAA is none other than out late Mr van Harlingen, who is now a non-corporeal entity bound to highway A6 and he’s punishing everybody who is committing the same aggressive driving that got him killed!
Damn, the whole thing is benign after all! My only worry is the escalating severity of the symptoms and the recent deaths. Containment may be needed after all. Maybe we can locate the origin point and transfer it to the nearest containment site. Ha, I’d love to study my dear president of the Gentle Drivers Club some more!
But not here. Not in this cold, flat and miserably small country. I need to get back to New York and face the music if I want to get anything done by the Foundation. I hope they’ll go easy on me, but I sure as hell won’t go easy on Angstrom. It’s time to kick his ass and show him and the big shots who the real expert is here.
Going home tomorrow. All paced. Eli and Ron are taking me to visit the spot where van Harlingen died.
At the spot, nothing to see. Case closed. Eli and Ron say there’s an abandoned visitor’s center from when they were still building the highway and the city of Almere next to it.
In the fifties and sixties the entire province ‘Flevoland’ was dredged up from what was one the ocean bottom between the mainland and the peninsula of Noord Holland. First big dyke, then draining the water out. Found many strange things, like shipwrecks, WW2 bombers, even cars that went thry ice. Place where van harlingen died used to be a small island inhabited by a new age sects of self-proclaimed druids, who resisted the draining of the borderwaters. The were ancient protectors / guardians of a sacred grove on the island. One ‘druid’ arrested after attempted murder, two off to the loony bin and then government disowned them. Bulldozers finished off the island, but not before a horrible accident where a guys got smeared across the tracks of his dozer. Leaving now. Eli & Ron are a bit anxious.
Conversation with Ron and Eli in car. Fat guy with the MILF? Crimson King. Thought his name was van Orange, or something. Gets beaten (seemingly). Forced to drive down the wrong side of the road. Smashed into coach, killing 12 people returning from evening shift at the Hoogovens, IJmuiden.
Addendum
From: ████████, ████████ – Site ██, ███ Office
Sent: Tuesday , ██ ████████ ████ 09:44
To: ████████, ████ – Site ██, ███ Office
Cc:
Subject: SCP-AAA - Initial Report Review
Dear Dr. ██████,
Sorry to bother you again, but I haven’t received your feedback on the █████████ case yet. The moving box and all contents have been sent to CA for storage. I also noticed there hasn’t been a change in classification? Is that correct?
Maybe that is for the best, since I have a few last notes I wanted to share with you. If you look at the timestamp in the file name of the last voice recording, you’ll notice it starts at thirteen minutes past midnight and it goes on for exactly thirty-three minutes and 4 seconds. The police recorded the time of the crash at 00:44:55. I’m not sure how to explain it, but apparently Ms. █████████ talked for approximately three additional minutes after she should have been dead.
Another open end is the box’ sender. I had the slip of paper with the address on it analysed. What we do know is this:
- No finger prints are present. At least not human prints anyway. Lab says they found something that could be markings or just smudges. It’s all inconclusive
- The ink is indeed human blood, just as you already suggested. DNA sequencing showed it’s made up of several different humans too and Ms. █████████ is not among them.
- The address of our local office in ███ ████ was known to Ms. █████████, of course and is now considered compromised. Relocation was already issued and performed immediately after reception of the box as per stamdard procedure.
That’s all for now. I look forward to your reply.
Best regards,
████
PS I just got your text message. Of course I don’t mind finalizing the report tonight. I’ll see you then.