Description[]
SCP-008 is a complex prion, samples of which are stored in each of the known G2 sites. Research into SCP-008 is highly classified and primarily aimed at preventing research that may lead to the synthesis of SCP-008 in the distant future. Traits of the SCP-008 prion include:
- 100% infectiousness.
- 100% lethality.
- Transmission through exposed mucous membranes and all bodily fluids.
- Not airborne or waterborne.
Symptoms of infection with SCP-008 manifest no more than three hours after exposure and include:
- Flu-like symptoms with high fever, plus severe dementia in later stages.
- Coma onset approximately 20 hours after first symptoms appear and 12 hours after noticeable dementia. Coma onset will be considered onset of death.
- A period of sporadic cellular necrosis occurs which comes to resemble gangrene. Surviving tissue assumes its original function and is highly resilient.
- Red blood cells greatly increase oxygen storage capacity, resulting in slower blood flow and increased muscle endurance and strength.
- Nervous and muscular systems are unaffected by total organ failure for several hours.
- Metabolism may decrease to extremely low levels, allowing the subject to survive for over 10 years without nutrition.
- High blood viscosity results in negligible blood flow from gunshot, puncture, and slashing injuries.
- Conditioned behavior, motor controls, and instinctive behavioral mechanisms are damaged, and cognitive abilities are severely retarded and erratic. Animals experience excessive brain necrosis and are inactive.
- The subject can adapt to its damaged nervous system but is limited to basic physical activities, including standing up, balancing on two legs, walking, biting, grabbing, and crawling. Subject will energetically move towards sights, sounds, and smells it associates with living humans. Subjects will attempt to ingest living humans if physical contact is made.
- Neutralizing fully-infected subjects requires significant cranial trauma.
There is strong evidence to suggest SCP-008 itself did not form naturally on Earth, since variants of similar complexity would have displaced much of the ecosystem. In 1959, a short collaborative effort with the USSR to locate G2 sites and eliminate SCP-008 was negotiated following their discovery. The status of SCP-008 in Russian custody since the collaboration ended is unknown.
In-Game[]
In game, the player cannot exactly get infected with SCP-008 yet. However, while evacuating to the surface, the squad and O5-4 will be attacked by several SCP-008 instances in the contaminated sector. Said instances can either be as slow as the player's walking speed or incredibly fast and can wipe out an entire squad if not killed, with their appearance matching those of Class-D and Foundation personnel. The board with the logs of SCP-008 testing in the CI control room suggests that they either turned the Foundation personnel into SCP-008 instances or fed the remainder to the SCP-008 instances.
And in Operation: Clean Out, there was signs of Plant Based Spores growing on parts of the Site, it is suspected to be caused by the Airborne Infection (Suggested by the Board with the SCP-008 Logs), or was caused by something else. The Plant-Based Spores can be shot to be neutralized after two shots.