Item #: SCP-9337
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: Foundation agents embedded in World Aquatics are to advocate against increasing event distances beyond 1,500 meters. Foundation webcrawler CH1-R0N is to monitor all swim meets for events matching SCP-9337. Should one such event be discovered, MTF Sigma-5 ("Sinkronized Swimmers") is to disqualify one or more competitors by any means necessary.
If preventative procedures fail, Sigma-5 is authorized to deploy a Class-G amnestic-assisted cover story. Winners are considered a low containment risk, but should be administered a Class-A aerosol agent for posterity.
Research into SCP-9337-A must be approved by Officer Thomas Greer.
Description: SCP-9337 is the 2400 Meter IM. When the competitor in last place starts their final lap, all those racing disappear for 0.1 seconds. Operation LEANDER confirmed that competitors are translocated during this time to SCP-9337-A (See Addendum-1). Upon remanifestation, all competitors but one are found to be in advanced stages of rhabdomyolysis. Subjects afflicted expire by renal failure 1 to 2 days post-exposure.
The aforementioned exception is designated the "Winner." They exhibit an extreme reluctance to recount the SCP-9337 race or their experience in SCP-9337-A. Winners are not always the first-place competitor.
Disqualifying one or more competitors prevents SCP-9337's anomalous effect. Sigma-5 field reports show success with the following methods:
- Inducing a false start, assisted by Σ-5 Standard Issue Starter Pistol, or by yelling "start," "go," etc.
- Stopping a competitor during the race
- Jumping in the water as a non-competitor
- Registering as an LSC official and disqualifying a competitor for any reason
Addendum-1: Operation LEANDER is the official and only Foundation inquiry into SCP-9337-A. Information regarding LEANDER is restricted to security level 4/9337 personnel.
- Level 4 Password Protected: ACCESS GRANTED
Operation LEANDER was the previous MTF Sigma-5, consisting of nine members: one Captain, two PO1 and two PO2 rank field agents, with four PO2 rank agents standing in reserve. Sigma-5 was approached by Research Lead [DATA EXPUNGED] during their routine nightly aquatic operative conditioning at the Site-246 Olympic Standard pool. No records exist regarding the purpose of this meeting. Records do indicate that Site-246 EMS were called on standby prior to the meeting.
Of their own accord, Sigma-5 carried out a time trial for SCP-9337. PO1 Thomas Greer, the Winner and only surviving member of Sigma-5, was immediately dispatched post-event to debrief with Dr. Nowak. The following was recorded from Nowak's office surveillance camera.
Two site security officers are lifting a semiconscious Petty Officer Greer by each arm as they enter the office. Greer is dripping wet and still wearing his wetsuit, cap, and goggles.
Nowak: What happened?
Security: Classified.
The officers' voices have been scrubbed, and their faces blurred. Greer is placed in the leather chair opposite Dr. Nowak, soaking the fabric in chlorinated water. He slumps over, head on the desk, until the guard slaps him awake.
Security: He's a Winner. He's got one of those cognito-compulsive… he won't talk. But he's a soldier, so-
Nowak: My work is for therapeutic and tactical purposes only.
Security: Ensuring loyalty is tactical. [DATA EXPUNGED] knows. You make sure compromised agents talk. He's compromised, so make him talk.
Dr. Nowak swings a silver pocket watch like a pendulum in front of a now attentive Petty Officer Greer. Site security sit in folding chairs near the office entrance. Nowak speaks at every other apex.
Dr. Nowak: Follow my voice. Watch the watch. Repeat after me.
Greer: Repeat after me.
Dr. Novak: Sigma-5.
Greer: Sigma-5.
Dr. Nowak: Subset swim subset competition subset report.
Greer: Subset report subset competition subset swim.
Dr. Nowak: A black moon reflects not-
Greer: -not in pools or ponds but upon groundwater. To light the caves from which we came.
Dr. Nowak: You're swimming in the time trial. You're in lane four, you flip turn, what happens next?
Greer: I'm an arm's length behind Captain, but I can hold my breath longer. You're faster underwater, you know. My brother taught me that. So, I kick out past the backstroke flags.
Dr. Nowak: You're trying to win?
Greer: I don't swim to lose.
Dr. Nowak: And then?
Greer: Pulaski's in last, so as soon as he flip turns-
Shock overcomes Officer Greer's face.
Greer: Ok. Anomaly activated. We’re not in the fishbowl anymore. I don't know where we are. Open water. Wait, not water. It's-
Dr. Nowak: Where is everyone else?
Greer: We kept relative position. It feels like we’re still in our lanes. Captain’s still on my left, Pulaski’s on my right. Poor rookie’s drowning out here.
Dr. Nowak: Which one?
Greer: Can't focus on that right now. Gotta catch up to the Captain.
Dr. Nowak: You're losing a man, why are you trying to get to your Captain?
Greer: He's winning.
Dr. Nowak: Three lost and they're still racing. I'm comfortable diagnosing parapsychological effects. Can we finish this? Officer Greer is in desperate need of rest.
Security: We need more.
Dr. Nowak: What other information is [DATA EXPUNGED] requesting?
Security: Extract more about the location. It's under a dash A for the time being, but they want to know if it's more. Possible inhabitants, potential geocoordinates, maybe what it's made of.
Greer: It’s fucking blood.
Nowak rushes away from the officers and back to his desk.
Dr. Nowak: What did you say?
Greer: I can taste it now, I tried really hard not to. My left goggle’s filled with it, but I can’t stop. I'll lose if I do.
Greer: They caught us at the end of practice, so I know the rookies are tired. Newbies didn’t do that three hour eggbeater thing that Captain loves so much. Just cuz’ they got out of endurance training doesn’t mean they don’t need it. Hopefully they can hold up.
Dr. Nowak: What is it like around you? Can you see the rest of your Force?
Greer: It’s raining and it’s storming and the water’s too choppy. Those waves got some weight to them. This place reminds me of when I lost Owen. My dad ran down the shore and caught him like a fish, and he yelled at me for not knowing about riptides. We got signed up for swim the next day.
After a thirty-minute-long period of silence.
Greer: There are bodies in this water. I know who they are. It’s everyone. It everyone I ever knew, all here, all dead. Everyone is all cut up. But it’s hands I held and chests I hugged and faces I loved. Everyone is here.
Dr. Nowak: Thomas, what do you mean?
Greer: …
Dr. Nowak: Tommy?
Greer: …
Security: We'll be outside. Call us when he's talking again.
Greer is silent for three hours. Dr. Nowak speaks to him only occasionally, alternating between worlds of reassurance and hypnotic activation phrases, which have no effect. Site security monitors the room in fifteen minute intervals, but are out of the room when Greer finally whispers:
Greer: It's my fault.
Dr. Nowak: Tommy? I'm here, it's alright. Talk quietly.
Greer: They're almost all gone. I could hear Beaudreau cramp up, yell out. Yell for help. I was a Coastie for eight years — all that “leave no man behind” instinct is gone now. There's so few of us now. We're not Sigma-5 anymore. Just… where are they? They said they’d rescue us.
Dr. Nowak: Who… said that to you, Thomas?
Greer: They said they’d find us if we didn’t teleport back. EMS was there to help with the rhabdo. No one’s supposed to die! We agreed to this to help them, not for fucking suicide by charley horse.
Greer: Never trust a lazy-ass swim coach. It’s always “one more, one more” after fifteen goddamn times. It’s always “keep going” after they know you’ve got nothing left. Zero point one seconds, what a fucking joke. Of course there’s some time-dilation garbage. The worst part about swimming is how easy it looks. If you’re not the one in the water, why the hell are you adding yards to the workout.
Greer: Captain leads by example. He asks you to do something, you know he’s done it ten times before. Cap says dive, you say how far. Captain says listen to the eggheads.
Greer: You do.
Greer: But I can't let him win.
After twenty seconds of silence, suddenly.
Greer: It grabbed Pulaski and pulled him under.
Dr. Nowak: What did?
Site security officers enter the room.
Security: What's he saying?
Greer: I was so close but it’s too wet and he slipped through my grip. Riptides. I have to keep moving.
Greer begins hyperventilating, advancing towards hysterics.
Greer: I should have laughed at my recruiter. I should have walked out of that office and never looked back. Why on earth did I believe the bullshit? Why the stupid-ass Coast Guard in the first place? God I could’ve done better. I don’t want to die out here.
Greer: I wanted my name to mean something. I wanted to be wanted but I’m gonna die single. I wanted to be more than this. I can’t even tell people what I really do. No one knows I make a difference in this world and now my only legacy will be a high school record. And even that shouldn’t be mine.
After 0.1 seconds of silence.
Greer: It’s you, is it? You’re here. I see you.
Greer: I’m so sorry.
Greer: I’m sorry I said no so many mornings. It was just so early and I didn’t want to drive you to school.
Greer: I’m sorry I sprayed cooking oil in your water bottle when I was mad. You were so funny running to mom saying I poisoned you. You were so funny. I never meant to hurt you, not when I yelled at you for wearing my jeans, not when I told you about your girlfriend cheating. Not when I didn’t visit you. I just got scared to see you like that.
Greer: I thought you’d get better. They said it was the best kind to have. They said it shrunk and that it wasn’t touching your aorta anymore and that it would be a routine surgery. I thought I’d have more time. I was too caught up with my friends and my grades and college apps and gossip. I thought I’d have more time.
Greer: I swam that last year because of you. I did IM because it was your favorite. It wasn’t serious, I wasn’t gonna swim in college. I didn’t mean to break your record.
Greer: I wish it was still your name up there.