SCP-3062

The Lone and Level Sands Stretch Far Away

One of the first known photographs of SCP-3062, dated to the early 20th century.

Special Containment Procedures

SCP-3062 is currently not containable by any conventional means. Procedures are limited to disinformation and tracking SCP-3062. Surviving victims of SCP-3062 are to be informed that what they experienced were hallucinations caused by dehydration and heat. Should a surviving victim of SCP-3062 refuse to believe this explanation, amnestics are to be administered.

Civilians known to be missing alone in the Sahara are to be located and recovered before SCP-3062 causes major psychological damage or distress. Governments of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia, as well as all external recovery forces, are not to be involved in the recovery of missing individuals so as to minimise knowledge of SCP-3062's existence.

Description

SCP-3062 designates an entity residing in the Sahara. SCP-3062 is frequently described as a male, in their early 20s, of Egyptian descent. SCP-3062 is believed to have an understanding of multiple languages, including English, French, Arabic, Hindi and German. The entity possesses an advanced shape-shifting ability, and can change size and appearance almost instantaneously.

SCP-3062 appears to individuals missing or lost in the Sahara. Subjects must be alone for SCP-3062 to target them, and on the ground. Once targeted, SCP-3062 will seemingly "taunt" the lost individual. Behaviours noted are changing into the subject's loved ones, offering fake food and water, and creating hallucinations of rivers, among other similar actions. SCP-3062 will only leave the individual alone once they have left the Sahara, united with another individual, or perished.

SCP-3062 is also believed to possess minor, localised reality-bending abilities. SCP-3062 can change the state of objects.¹ SCP-3062 uses these abilities to make the "taunting" more severe. Around 93% of subjects exposed to SCP-3062's actions have been severely psychologically damaged.

Addendum: The following is the recovered diary of James ██████, a pilot in the British Air Force. James ██████'s plane crashed in Northern Chad in 1942 due to an unknown technical error. The diary was written in an engine instruction booklet.

+ Recovered Journals

- Close

15th July 1942

My name is James Arthur ██████, and I'm a pilot in the RAF. My plane crashed over the Sahara and I managed to eject before it hit the ground. I managed to salvage a small amount of rations, a water flask, a compass, a pencil and this book. I've made camp with some of the wreckage and am planning to head South tomorrow where the desert will run out.

16th July 1942

I'm not alone here anymore. On my way I found a young man in a rock formation. He speaks English and says his name is Mohammed. He was thin and weary, so I gave him some rations. We've made camp in the formation where I found him. It will be good to have someone else on this trek I suppose.

17th July 1942

We made significant progress today, covering a lot of ground. Mohammed held the compass. The rations and water are running out quicker than I thought, but I expect we'll reach the Sub-Sahara before they go completely. Mohammed is looking wearier than when I found him, I will admit. Walking must have taken its toll on him.

19th July 1942

We've been moving for the last two days. Food ran out on the 18th, we still have some water left. Mohammed's condition hasn't improved, I've had to support him with my shoulder for the last few hours before we set up camp. I'm not sure the boy is going to make it if we don't reach the end of the sands soon.

20th July 1942

I think it's the end for Mohammed. He collapsed today and is struggling to breathe. I've given him water. I've been trying to get a full name from him so I can try and find his family when I escape the desert. It's been unsuccessful so far. I've also been unsuccessful at finding food, there's no insects or lizards or anything.

21st July 1942

Mohammed has passed, it happened this afternoon. There's nothing to bury him with, and I don't know what religion he is, so his corpse is just lying there. I'm not sure what to do with it. I'm not going to last much longer without food in this heat. The water is running dangerously low, too. For the first time, I'm having doubts about my fate.

22nd July 1942

I don't kno

I gave in to a horrible desire. I knew I couldn't go another day without food before I collapsed from exhaustion. I tried to devour Mohammed. I found a sharp rock and tried to dig into his flesh. All that came out was sand. Sand and dust, pouring out. His body collapsed inwards and the sand mixed in with the ground. I don't know what Mohammed was. Go

23rd July 1942

All day. There's been a sound ringing in my ears. A scr a laugh. A visceral, shattering laugh. It conjures something deep inside my being. Mohammed was taking us the wrong way. He was taking us North. I'm probably in Libya now. So it's probably a better idea to head North than South now. I don't know how much water I've got left.

24th

I noted my water flask was feeling much heavier. I thought, by some miracle, condensation had perhaps collected in the flask. I took a sip. Gasoline. All of it. So now I have nothing to drink. I need to When I took the sip the laughing started again, only this time it was louder and much more harsh.

25th

I found some dirty water underneath a rock, so I've got some more days until I die of thirst. I saw something on the horizon. A tank, moving faster than a tank ever should. If it wasn't a German tank I would have gone to approach it. I don't want to be killed or taken as a prisoner. The sands are still better than that.

26th

I didn't confront the tank, it found me. I was walking and it rolled up behind me at an unimaginable speed. The hatch opened and a man came out. It was Mohammed, but his face was caved in and burned. He pointed a finger at me and let out a scream not befitting that of a man. If I get out of here I'm never going to forget that scream. He left a live beetle grub which I was forced to devour.

27th

My compass is gone. I was looking at it, and it became encrusted with what I can only assume is rust and the needle stopped turning. The compass is made of aluminium. When I was walking today I suddenly saw a red gash open up in the sky for a few seconds, before it fizzled. This repeated serveral times before an unholy yell rang out, and the event stopped.

28th

There's something sinister in these sands, I know that for a fact now. I was hiding from the sun inside a cave and something started pounding on the outside. Something huge. The cave filled with water and I drunk as much as I could before it turned into fine sand. The laughing started again. That same laughing after Mohammed died. It caused the cave to fill with the most retched stench I have ever been exposed to, like a rotting corpse. I'll be cowering in this cave until I know I'm alone again.

29th

For most of my life, I've never been the most religious man. But I think I've seen the face of s what I can only explain as a devil. I left the cave and wandered, and it stalked over a sand dune. A tall, angular face with eyes sunk into deep craters, and a grin of pure sadism. Arms that tapered off into thin claws supporting a skeletal body. Back legs hunched like an ape’s. Sand fell off the body of the beast in piles, and as it got closer I could smell the same scent as in the cave. It walked over me and collapsed into dust, a red hue radiating. He

30th

I ran for my life from what I thought was a German unit, but I believe it was just another manifestation of the beast. All the soldiers were joined by a bridge of flesh at the hip. I was shot at numerous times, but the bullets turned to sand as they hit my skin. I've had no luck finding water or any more food.

31st

He came to me. The demon, but smaller. Those eyes in craters, that skeletal body. He It was man-sized. He told me he would never let me leave and that I was cursed with him, before leaving a grub and a bowl of stagnant water. I was forced to devour them once again.

The logs abruptly cut out at this point. The book was found bonded to a large boulder. Nearby, a pencil with the graphite inside replaced with sand was discovered. It is unknown what happened to James ██████.

Addendum 2: Following is a summary of the most notable D-Class test. Summary contains notable log extracts.

+ Class-D Personnel Experiment 11

Addendum 3: An unrelated Foundation excursion into the Egyptian Sahara uncovered a structure believed to be around 3000 years old.

The discovered structure

The structure was ancient Egyptian in origin and appeared to be a site of worship at first. Upon entering the subterranean portion of the structure, personnel discovered the scene of an apparent struggle. A large coffin-like structure lay in the centre, surrounded by mummified corpses, which all displayed unusual scarring - for example, one body possessed a rib cage comprised of lead. The lid of the coffin was found several metres across the room.

At one point on the wall, several lines of hieroglyphics were written. A good portion of these hieroglyphics were illegible. Personnel have translated as much as they could, and the translation is found below.

Here is buried [ILLEGIBLE] …from the red gate

[ILLEGIBLE] Caused [ILLEGIBLE] and suffering, across the lands

Vanquished [ILLEGIBLE] armies of the righteous

[ILLEGIBLE] cursed to these sands forevermore.

Shortly after discovery, SCP-3062 manifested outside the structure. Personnel were unable to prevent SCP-3062's advance, and the entity turned the structure into sand, destroying it. Several personnel received severe injuries.