Item #: SCP-2680

Object Class: Keter Euclid

Containment Protocols: One infected individual is incarcerated within Detention Cell 48 at Site-75, which should be constantly under guard and possess a single slot through which meal rations may be inserted thrice per day. Guards should make all reasonable attempts to avoid physical contact with the individual, and be prepared to shoot and burn the individual's corpse should an escape be attempted. All personnel that might come into contact with SCP-2680 or SCP-2680-1 must be clad in full-piece one-body Mackintoshes over waxed-cotton garments and Hurd respirators; outfits tainted by SCP-2680-1 fluid or discharge must be promptly incinerated.

Infected individuals should be dealt with using long-range weaponry and their bodies cremated, as close-quarters combat is strictly forbidden and no attempts should be made to physically handle infected persons. As locating and eradicating both individuals afflicted by the malady and communities in which SCP-2680 plagues large proportions of the population is a crucial component of containment, Investigative Team I-3 ("Plague Doctors") has been assigned to this task with offensive equipment including .56 caliber Colt Model 1855 revolving carbines, 1-inch caliber Model 1861 Gatling guns, and gelignite and dynamite explosive weaponry.

If more than one-fourth of a community is infected by SCP-2680, the entire population must be quarantined and the community destroyed with explosives, while any and all survivors are to be euthanatized and disposed of in the manner noted above.

Nota Bene 16/07/1900:

Investigative Team K-3 ("Teetotalers") has begun fortifying all commercial alcohol stocks across the continental United States with Compound Jenner at a concentration of one teaspoon per bushel, doubling the proportion of Compound Jenner in such regions where SCP-2680 recurs frequently; for insertion into regions of the United States such as that do not consume commercial alcohol and inoculation of individual residents throughout the United States that abstain from alcohol consumption or otherwise support temperance, thus precluding the insertion of Compound Jenner into alcohol stocks, it should be mixed into smallpox vaccines at 3 drops per vial and then spread through aggressive vaccination campaigning, the process of which is to be overseen by Investigative Team K-4 ("Witch Doctors").

Jenner's efficacy at curing SCP-2680 is to be evaluated every three months; should its efficacy decrease, new variants are to be developed and seeded following the protocols outlined in Document 2680-1.

An investigation is ongoing regarding potential connections between SCP-2680 and GoI #001 ("The Chicago Spirit").

Nota Bene 08/09/1906

Compound Jenner's ubiquity in the residents and citizens of the United States has achieved a level that diminishes further efforts to transmit it through the United States, enabling Overwatch Command to declare a moratorium on its production and the transference of resources and efforts of containment of SCP-2680 on tracking down and eradicating any remaining infected individuals, which shall be overseen by Investigative Team I-3.

First identified instance of SCP-2680-1, photo taken shortly before death

Description: SCP-2680 is an anomalous viral disease that resembles smallpox, possessing similar symptoms such as the formation of irregular pustules, inflamed spots, lassitude, and delirium, though there are three key differences: One, that no known cure for SCP-2680 exists, with all attempts at inoculation resulting in contraction of the anomalous malady. Two, that the irregular pustules form not only on the patients' extremities and outer body, but also on the internal cavities such as the liver and intestines. Three, that the pustules are swelled with a green mixture not merely of turgid pus, but also alcohol otherwise fit for human consumption. Contact with this fluid is the primary method by which SCP-2680 spreads from man to man; while it is theorized that the infectious agent may also be spread though air, a mere one third of all those observed to have been contaminated have contracted the malady while the remainder are afflicted with ordinary pox.

Rather than slowly leaking, SCP-2680 pustules continually swell up with fluid till bursting, thus spraying the immediate area with a fluid discharge up to a three-meter radius; to facilitate this process, patients have been observed to compulsively bite at the sores until they burst, consuming some of the resulting discharge as a form of reward. Despite lacking any will to halt their own self-cannibalism, those indisposed report performing these acts of their own volition, and universally describe these actions as a soothing way of coping with the disease.

While the fatality rate of SCP-2680 infection is greater than 90 percent, those infected by SCP-2680 only die after at least thirty-to-fifty days, while ordinary smallpox victims usually die after ten-to-sixteen days. Death is caused by the rapid and immediate bursting of all pustules and sores inside and outside the body, causing the body to rupture explosively.

First Contact

This document was transcribed from the post-encounter commentary of Eustace Bagge (Captain of I-3) two weeks after his team confirmed the existence of SCP-2680. Of course we heard the rumors; smallpox that could not be inoculated against, that caused beer to spill from every orifice, that caused men to split open and burst like overfilled balloons. We were the Foundation; we'd heard rumors just like that for years, rumors of bubonic plague that caused men to turn into walking ghouls, of cholera that made men dissolve into the water leaking out of them. And of course we investigated, and of course for every twenty rumors we did so, we found perhaps one anomaly. And so, just like the cholera, or the bubonic plague, we assumed that this was merely the fear-mongering of a few backwater farmers. We were prepared for anomalies of course: we were inoculated; we wore our Hurd masks; we wore our one-piece Mackintoshes and hoods, these thick, stifling coats that were just as likely to suffocate you as protect you; we were armed to the teeth. And so we encountered the damnable plague in the middle of July, in a backwater farm village in the middle of Missouri. It was near the middle of the day when we arrived, exhausted, hungry, hunched over from the weight of our packs and sweating like pigs. The middle of the day and the damn village was deserted, a ramshackle mess of cottages and sheds with nary a man in sight. We slammed on the inn's door for fifteen minutes before someone opened it. It took us an hour to explain why we were there and another hour for him to believe us. Where was the town doctor, we asked? Dead. Popped like a booze-filled balloon, the innkeeper claimed. Where was his body? Burned, naturally. Who else was sick? A girl, quarantined in the clinic. Her family had fled. Surely there were others, we asked? They went up in smoke like their houses. We entered the clinic - what was left of it, it was a hollow gutted shell, burned to the ground. The basement, the trapdoor was locked. We had to kick it open. Inside… Bones everywhere, scorched beyond belief. The air was thick with putrefaction and liquor. Row after row of beds, blown to smithereens. There were still bodies - these bloated, rotting, gutted husks that were popped like balloons. Horrible. The girl…. the girl was in the far corner of the room. Nobody had attended to her for days. They had left her to fester in her own filth! She was riddled with sores, pustules, and rashes. And she was gnawing at them! Pus, alcohol, and blood squirting out of her and she lapped it up like a dog. We got near her - we were careful not to touch her wounds - and tried to talk to her. Interrogate her. And the whole time we did, she kept eating herself alive. We would pull her hands away and within minutes this wretched creature would nibble the pustules off her shoulder. She just would not - could not explain what had happened to her, how she had fallen ill, what had happened to those other damned souls, or her family, where they had gone. Of course this was our greatest fear - where had her family gone? Were they infected? If the plain pox could spread like wildfire… We had been trying to wring something, anything useful out of the child for three hours before she died. She tried to speak and then swelled up. I immediately ordered my men to pull back out of the house. I looked back as we ran, and I saw the fear in her eyes… and then there was a sound like a dozen Gatlings and the room exploded. When we had recovered from the blast, what was left of the room was splattered in blood, pus, and alcohol. We bagged what was left of the body, burned down the house, and left. Two weeks later Campbell collapsed. We never did figure out how he got infected - probably a tear in the Mack - but there was no mistaking what had happened. Thank God we were already under probationary quarantine. He was thrown into his own quarantine then, and through it we could see him eating himself alive. Two weeks after that he exploded.

Nota Bene 18/02/1891: At this time, it is estimated that as much as thirty percent of all smallpox victims are currently infected with SCP-2680, forcing Overwatch to declare a state of emergency regarding this event and mandate that euthanatization of SCP-2680-1 instances be considered the primary method of containment.

Nota Bene 16/06/1896: Testing of the secretions of [REDACTED], combined with minute portions of lead and hydrargyrum, mixed with alcohol, has proven efficacious in eliminating and preventing SCP-2680 infection in 99% of all test subjects. Efforts to scale up production of the substance are underway.