The SCP Experience - The Town By The River | SCP-751

Episode Date: February 18, 2022

SCP Foundation EUCLID class object, SCP-751: The Town by the River Author: Matt Doggett Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/MatthewDoggettAuthor/ Website/Newsletter sign up: matthewdoggettauthor.com This story was derived from https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-751, and is released under Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ DISCLAIMER: This episode contains explicit content. Parental guidance is advised for children under the age of 18. Listen at your own discretion. #thescpexperience #scp #scpfoundation #scpencounters #securecontainprotect #scpstories #scpexplained #whatisscp Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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50 tours on the machine-a-Bass Bonanza. Depos minimum of 10 dollars. Beaux of $10 dollars. conditions, it's applicable. I parked my truck in front of the station house just after 9 a.m. on a Wednesday. I stepped out of the truck, grabbed the revolver I'd never fired at another human, and put it back in my holster. It was uncomfortable to drive with it on my hip. I grabbed the coffee thermos I'd used every day since I'd been elected sheriff of our

sleepy little town six years earlier. I'd been re-elected two years ago. After my first four years, term had ended. But when you're running unopposed, there's not much drama in it. I hoped I could keep my track record of not using my gun going. The thermos? Well, I'd have to replace it sooner rather than later. I stepped through the door of the little station house, located conveniently right on the main drag, and waved to Deputy Donnie, who handled dispatch most of the time. Morning, Sheriff, Donnie said. Had you sleep? I glowered at him, and he chuckled.

I'd been sleeping in a highway motel outside of town ever since my house had been flooded a month earlier. The whole town, which some genius had built right next to a river, had been flooded. And there just weren't enough contractors to go around. So much for the benefits of being sheriff. I couldn't even expedite the work on my house. Much longer on that damn bed, and I'm not going to be so chipper in the mornings, I said, walking past the front desk to get to my office.

This is chipper? Donnie said, smiling. The toilet flushed in the bathroom at the back of the wood-paneled station house and outstepped Deputy Hanks. Hey, Sheriff, he said. I grunted in reply. Uh, Sheriff? Hank said. I wouldn't get too comfortable.

I just got a call from Garrity. He's out at the widow Lenore's place. Says he wants you to come out immediately, says something's wrong. He asked for me specifically, I said. He sure did. Of course, you know how he feels about me, and, well, Donnie can't leave. Garrity ran the town's only contracting business, and he was a pain in my ass. But maybe I could badger him about getting my place fixed up while I was out there.

fine, I said, turning around and heading out the front door. It took me little more than ten minutes to get to Mrs. Lenore's house, situated on a nine parcel of land a good half mile from any neighbors. I parked next to Garrity's old beat-up work truck, looking at the sparkling river just beyond her house that had caused the town so much trouble a month ago. Garrity came waddling out from around the side of the house, moving fast, than I'd ever seen him move on the job. Sheriff, you're finally here, he said, a pale look on his face. I let the subtle insult go, as I was used to it from Garrity by now.

What is it? Garrity gestured for me to follow him. I showed up here just before nine to finish replacing the ruined sheetrock, he said. But Mrs. Lenore didn't answer, which isn't like her. I called her phone and heard it ringing in there, but she never picked up. so I thought maybe she fell down or something and went looking in her windows. We rounded the far side of the house and came to a window. Garrity gestured for me to look, so I did.

The curtains were only open a crack, allowing for a slim view of what I knew was her sitting room. At first I didn't see anything, but then my eyes tracked to the ground, and I saw Mrs. Lenore's legs there. Her old pink house slippers still on her feet. She had fallen down. Did you try the doors? I asked, heading to the front of the house. Garrity nodded.

I tested the front door with my shoulder, seeing if it would give. It wouldn't. It was a sturdy door, but there was a skinny stained glass window next to the door. I brought out my revolver and grabbed the barrel. I swung it like a hammer, breaking the window in. Then I reached my arm carefully through and unlocked the door. I wasn't prepared for the scene in the sitting room. I thought she'd maybe had a heart attack

or had simply fallen and hit her head. But it was immediately clear that neither was the case. I stopped short when I saw the blood on the floor. Gallons of it soaked into the carpet. I put out my arm to stop Garrity from going further into the room. From where we were, there was an old worn chair blocking the bulk of the old woman's body. But the blood was enough of a... sign that something seriously bad had happened. Stay, I told Garrity, before I stepped forward,

scanning the floor to make sure I didn't step on anything that could later be evidence. I moved around to get a full view of Mrs. Lenore and had to force my gorge down as it rose in my throat. Her entire abdomen had been split open, almost as if a stick of dynamite had gone off inside her. Her insides looked almost empty as they glistened with still drying gore. The blood around her body had been smeared here and there on the thick carpet, almost as if Mrs. Lenore had been playing in it herself, reaching out with blood-soaked hands to leave marks on the carpet. I got Garrity back outside and called the county medical examiner and then Deputy Hanks. It was late afternoon by the time I was in the morgue talking to Dr. Daniel Ruth.

the medical examiner, with Mrs. Lenore laid out under a sheet near us. Her internal organs are gone, Dr. Ruth said. What? I said. Gone. What do you mean? Gone only has one meaning I'm aware of, Sheriff, he said. It means they're no longer inside her body. And whoever removed them was an expert. They used a tool like none I've ever seen before. It's almost as if the organs weren't just cut out. They were, I don't know. I just don't know.

There's no tool I can think of. They can leave behind essentially no marks inside the body. You think it was a person? I asked. What about the wounds on her abdomen? Was she cut open like that? It's more like she was torn open, Dr. Ruth said. If I didn't know better, I'd say she ate so much she exploded. But that's clearly not the case.

She was a small woman, and someone would have noticed if she'd been putting on that much weight. But the stretch marks on her skin? He trailed off, shaking his head. I left there with more questions than I had when I arrived. I was nearly back to the station when I got a call over the radio from Donnie. Donnie said, sounding not at all like his usual self. Where? I asked. I arrived at Jerry Lipman's house eight minutes after.

after I got the call from Donnie. Lipman's wife, Sharon, was out on her porch crying. Beyond their house, I could see the river through the lush trees. Where is he? I asked, Sharon. She just pointed into the house. I ran inside and, after some searching,

found Lipman in the basement. It looked as if he'd been working on clearing out all the mud and debris that had come in from the flood, because there was a shovel nearby, and a five-gallon bucket, half full of damp dirt. His abdomen was wide open, the bottom of his rib cage flaring out, as if it had been wrenched up. There was blood all over the dirty floor, and smears, similar to the ones I'd seen at Lenore's house. I got up as close to him as I could and looked

inside. There were no organs that I could see in there, none at all. I headed back upstairs, and grabbed Sharon by the shoulders. What happened? I asked, did you see anyone? Still bawling. Sharon shook her head. I just came home. She managed between sobs. And found him like that.

I don't know what happened. I don't know. She leaned forward, and I embraced her, letting her cry on my shoulder. We repeated the whole process again. Hanks and I stood outside while Dr. Ruth and his assistant did their thing. The sun was getting low, reflecting off the river as it flowed past behind the house,

now back to its normal levels. I looked at it as I thought. Were you in town when the river flooded? I asked Hanks. Of course, Hanks said. He lived in town after all. I know you weren't. Lucky for you. I had been on my once-yearly deep-sea fishing trip down in Florida when the flooding had happened. I came back to a half-destroyed house two days after the river had gone back down. Yeah, I said, lucky me.

Why do you ask? Because both of the victims in town live close to the river. It's probably nothing, but I'm trying to think of any and all similarities. All right, Hank said. Here's what we have so far. One was a man and one a woman. Both lived close to the river. one was old, the other middle-aged. Both were killed in the same manner, obviously. What else?

Both were small people, I said. In fact, they were about the same size, wouldn't you say? Yeah, Hanks said. I suppose they were. Lipman had always been pretty small for a man. Very small, I said. Maybe that's how the guy chooses them, so they can't fight back? Maybe. but Sharon's also a small lady. Why not go after her? She was at work, I said. A minivan pulled up and parked behind the official vehicles

crowding the dirt driveway. I watched as Sharon's sister, Linda, got out of the driver's seat and ran to her sister, who was sitting on the porch with her friend Beth, who I'd called after contacting Hanks and Dr. Ruth. The three women came over to us. We're going to take her over to my place, Linda told me. That's fine, I said.

Thank you. I'm so sorry, Sharon. Sharon nodded and tried a polite smile before they all turned to head over to the minivan. I looked over at the river again, thinking. A scream cut the air, and I jerked my head back, looking at the three women. Sharon had her back to me. It looked like she was doubled over gripping her stomach. I ran over and moved around in front of her as the two other women began screaming.

Sharon's stomach was suddenly swollen to five times its normal size. The buttons down the front of her blue blouse popped off from the force of the expanding flesh underneath. Her shirt came open, revealing her stretching skin. Her eyes were wide with pain and terror. I heard the skin and cartilage tearing a split second before I saw evidence of it. Whatever was swelling inside her was pushing up against the bottom of a rib cage, causing it to crack. Sharon opened her mouth to scream. but nothing came out. The sounds of cracking bones and ripping skin could be heard over the screams of the other two women as Sharon's abdomen erupted in a fountain of core. She fell down on the grass as the other two women moved quickly away, still screaming.

One of the bloody organs that had flown out of her when she'd exploded started moving, then another and another. More movement came from inside Sharon's body as bloody blobs worked their way out. There were perhaps a doubt dozen of them, about the size of softballs. They looked like amorphous blobs, lacking distinct features. Under the blood, I could see a cloudy gelatin-like substance similar to the body of a jellyfish. Amid that jelly substance, I could see little red veins. One of the blobs moved toward me, and I kicked it away with my boot, sending it skidding across the grass. It didn't try to come at me again. Instead, they all headed toward the river. What in God's name are those things? Hanks said. His eyes wide and face drained of all color. I don't know, I said, but we can't let them get to the

river. I stepped up to one nearest me and stomped on it with the heel of my boot, grinding it into the grass. It split apart like a particularly tough piece of jello. Hanks and I continued to stop on them as they made their slow progress toward the river. As I raised my boot to kill the last one, Dr. Ruth ran up to me with a Tupperware container. Wait, he said, we need to study these to find out how they're doing this. You saw what happened? I asked him. My boot still above the creeping creature. I did, he said. I came out when I heard screaming. I saw it all. My guess is these creatures get into the body and somehow feed off the organs. They tricked the body into accepting them. How the hell would they do that? I asked. Chemicals, natural anesthetics. There are many ways.

But how would these people not know something was wrong? How did Sharon not know? I don't know, which is why we need to study them, Dr. Ruth said. I looked up at the river again. They came in the river during the flood. But that means Hank said. That means the whole damn town is probably infected, I said. Whoever was home during the flood. Oh, Christ, maybe. Dr. Ruth said.

Just maybe. I can find a way to combat them before they kill everyone. But that means you can't kill this one. I lowered my boot and let Ruth carefully collect the creature. Sheriff? Hank said. Does that mean I'm infected? My kids?

My wife? I don't know, Hanks. I don't know. But we're going to get some help here. We'll get some scientists and doctors here. We've got the best scientists in the world in this country. My phone rang. The caller ID telling me that it was Donnie back in the station.

Sheriff? Donnie said, sounding out of breath. I've gotten calls about people. Bursting apart. There are things coming out of them, Sheriff. That's what people are saying. How many, Donnie? How many calls?

Seven in the last ten minutes, Sheriff. God help us all, I said, looking around, thinking of the 1,216 people that lived in our sleepy little river town. SCP-751 is an amorphous parasite that feeds off the organs of humans and other mammals. The majority of SCP-751's mass consists of an unknown substance with a gelatin-like consistency, with red veins running through it. This parasite lives in damp environments such as freshwater bodies of water, swamps, rainforests, and sewers.

It will leave these environments when in search of a host. SCP-751 begins its feeding process by settling on top of a sleeping host's stomach region and begins to enter through the skin by osmosis. Anesthetics in the parasite's veins mix with the host's blood, minimizing the chance of the host awakening during the process. Once within the host's body,

SCP-751 comes to rest inside the stomach, quickly shaping itself to line the gastric walls. Over the course of the next two or three hours, SCP-751 adapts its own composition to closely match that of the host's stomach, maintaining digestive processes. When the host awakens, there is no evidence of any incident.

causing the host to continue under its normal routine. SCP-751 will digest the host's stomach. It will then slowly expand to engulf and digest other organs in the host's body. It will adapt itself to mimic each of the host's organs in turn, maintaining all bodily functions and releasing immunosuppressant chemicals to prevent rejection by the host. The entire process takes approximately one month in a human host and longer and larger hosts.

After its feeding period, SCP-751 reverts back to its original composition in a matter of minutes, causing it to swell to a size that the host's body cannot contain. The host's skin will stretch and then burst, releasing SCP-751. At this point, SCP-751 will reproduce, dividing into 10 to 20 smaller entities, which then moved to the nearest damp area to grow in preparation for hunting their own hosts.