SCP-610: "The Flesh That Hates." Disease has affected humanity for thousands of years, from the black plague, to smallpox, to cancer. Causing illness, death, or worse. It's the "or worst part" that we're really going to focus on today. As SCP-610 is certainly one of the most horrifying diseases in the SCP Universe. 610 encapsulates many of the worst aspects of diseases such as pain... physical deformity ...and contagiousness. But it wouldn't be much of an anomaly without turning things up to eleven. It's a fairly old and popular article on the SCP Wiki, but is fairly lengthy due to the number of Exploration Logs. So I'll summarize things for ease of understanding. We see right away that 610 is classed as "Keter", which usually isn't a good sign. And the containment procedures mention the ominous phrase: "Containment is Impossible." We learn that it seems to be currently isolated in Russia. And that any organism seemingly infected with 610, or coming into contact with something infected, should be immediately terminated with small arms and incendiary weapons, from as far away as possible. 610 seems to spread through physical contact, and there is little concern for transmission via water or air. The Foundation first learned about 610 from the Russian government, after a number of farmers in a region in Southern Siberia (Lake Baikal) went missing. Followed by the local police, Regional Police, and a government agent who all looked into the issue. A small military group was dispatched by the Russian government, But managed to quickly withdraw when they found evidence of the infection. At which point the Foundation was notified. Upon first contracting 610... an individual will develop symptoms similar to a contagious skin disease. Such as rashes, itching, and increased skin sensitivity. Within three hours, blemishes resembling heavy scar tissue will break out in the chest and arms, spreading to the back and legs. Eventually covering the entire body. High temperatures greatly increase the speed at which the infection spreads, up to as quickly as five minutes to fully cover an individual. Once an individual is covered in the scar tissue, their life functions will cease for roughly three minutes, and then they will restart at two to three times their normal rate. The scar tissue will begin rapidly moving and growing, warping normal bodily features in largely random ways. Sometimes the infection will appear to grow multiple limbs, or elongate various body parts such as the head. And sometimes parts of the individual will split open entirely, resulting in horrifically misshapen figures. Some infected individuals will immediately, and aggressively seek out human aid, resulting in further infections. Others will find a place to stop moving and root themselves to the ground, Causing their fleshy growths to spread across nearby objects and areas. Creating an area hospitable for continued growth of the infection. The Foundation first sent in remote drones to examine the infected region. But after learning that infected individuals aggressively seek to spread the disease, and are utilizing a network of tunnels underneath the area to move, they sent in humans. There are a number of exploration logs for 610. For both the unmanned drones, as well as the human expeditions. The first exploration was done by small unmanned drone nicknamed "Herbie". Herbie entered into the vicinity of a small village that had been overtaken by the infection named "Site A". There seems to be an estimated 79 infected individuals in "Site A", both mobile ones and immobile ones. But this is only a rough estimation. A number of buildings are still intact, but many of them have suffered significant fire damage After observing the village from a distance, Herbie is moved to enter "Site A"; and follow an infected individual into a home. The home contains multiple infected organisms, and Herbie records the walking infected moving around the small home multiple times, before stopping at another infected sitting on a bed. The infected individual proceeds to assault the bedridden individual with a series of furious punches, causing them to flail their arms and unleash a piercing sound. The individual being beaten then projects a cloud of unknown matter from its chest cavity, and the first infected stops its punches and again moves around the home. It sits at the table, and tendrils from its face extend out and break off onto a few plates. It then leaves the house, and shortly after a group of infected enter the home. And consume the infected material from the plates. Pressing it into whatever orifice they can on their bodies. The group leaves and eventually so does Herbie, who bumps into the first infected individual. Their facial tendrils are intermingling with another infected. But Herbie continues on into a store. Here he finds more infected but also a Russian soldier who doesn't seem to be moving, but his eyes are constantly shifting often focusing on Herbie. In the back room, Herbie finds a pile of bodies. Seemingly, both Russian military and villagers, but an infected sits on top of the pile... flailing and projecting spores into the air. Herbie leaves the store, spotting a group of infected with their arms connected standing around a well. One of the infected, a girl roughly 11 years old, grabs Herbie and stares at the drone. The girl's face suddenly expands and explodes outwards as fleshy flaps grab Herbie, and draw it inside the girl. The video feed ends here, but resumes five hours later as Herbie's cameras pointed straight at the well. With a slimy film boozing across the lens. Herbie responds to no commands, but the camera seems to be moving of its own accord before being destroyed. During the construction of the containment perimeter, Several D-Class personnel were infected and although most of them were put down immediately, a few were put into cold storage, in order to slow the infection. In hopes of finding out more information and possibly an origin for 610. Three infected D-Class were sent into "Site C". Which seems to be possibly the first village that was infected. The D-Class are each given a pistol, some food, and an emergency flare and are also given a gallon of gasoline. They are instructed to enter the site and focus on observing. But if they are attacked or are about to succumb to the infection, they are to cause as much damage as to the site as possible. As the D-Class enter the site, the ambient temperature rises sharply. Reaching 32 degrees Celsius, or 89 degrees Fahrenheit. Keeping in mind, this is Siberia. The primary cause of this seems to be a large number of pylons arrayed around the site, which appear to be two to four infected individuals fused together. Heat vents out of various holes on these pylons, and it's believed that this is an advanced stage of 610, terraforming the environment. The D-Class who was furthest along and their infection begins to have a seizure, with the infection covering their body in 45 seconds. Another D-Class kills them with their pistol, leaving their equipment where it is. While Perimeter Control's giving new instructions to the two remaining D-Class, the ground underneath the dead D-Class opens up. A series of ropey tendrils come from within the gap and pull the corpse inside before closing back up again, in the matter of a few seconds. The remaining two quickly move into the village, and find a fleshy sphere suspended above the community well by other fleshy growths. The sphere is comprised of both infected humans, as well as infected deer and bears, and it continually pulses every five seconds. Causing spores to project outwards and float to the ground. One of the D-Class begins dousing the sphere with gasoline... and lights it on fire with their emergency flare. A tremendous noise is heard from an unknown location, that is described as both explosive and alive. The sound is heard by Perimeter Control near both Sites "A" and "C". And 15 seconds after it stops, a series of explosions occurred at "Site A", and finally the sphere explodes. One of the D-Class dies instantly from the explosion, but the other D-Class manages to stand back up. And the video footage seems to show them getting flung through the air, before an unknown creature smashes the video equipment. When the sphere in "Site C" was destroyed, aerial footage of "Site A" showed the infected of "Site A" going into seizures and convulsions. Immobile infected shriveled up and died along with any fleshy growth is covering objects. And the mobile infected made their way into a single building. This building soon collapsed, revealing a sinkhole underneath it. The sinkhole is the size of three men standing shoulder-to-shoulder, But objects drop do not produce an impact sound. Suggesting a depth of possibly greater than a thousand meters. Research quickly showed that all presence of 610 infection died at "Site A" above ground. Allowing the Foundation to properly set up stations within the village. They quickly gathered what materials they could. But two hours later, seismic activity began to occur... forcing them to retreat back to the perimeter. Immediately after the earthquake stopped, a torrent of spores erupted from the sinkhole, covering a 50 meter radius around it. Right after this, staff members still on site in hazmat suits were attacked by birds infected with 610. Many of these creatures attacked by splitting their heads in half, and clamping them down on individuals ...pulling them into the air and dropping them into the hole. Although only two research staff members were dropped into the hole. The creatures were put down with small arms fire, but a second seismic event occurred causing another eruption of spores. Followed by a new 610 entity emerging from the sinkhole. This entity appeared to be an engorged human head, twenty times larger than normal with no discernible body. The earthquake reached to a seven on the Richter scale before abruptly stopping; at which point, video and radio contact was lost with the on-site team. No trace of the team was found afterwards and they are considered lost. Clearly there were far worse instances of the infection located underground. And so the Foundation sent another unmanned drone to explore the sinkhole and any tunnels or caverns it led to. This drone was quipped with aerial capabilities, and begins to fly down the sinkhole for a couple of minutes. Examination of the sinkhole walls leads the researchers to believe that it was formed due to a single event, rather than dug out over time. Traces of 610 material are found on the walls, and increase in density as the drone continues to descend. Small tunnels branch off from the sinkhole, but 250 meters down, the bottom of the sinkhole comes into view. Sloping sharply into a tunnel heavily coated with 610 material. As the drone continues through the tunnel, it spots a live deer wriggling while being held in place by tendrils. Further on, there are a number of large lumps along the tunnel, which seem to be heavily infected humans. The drone flies past a running stream of water at which point the tunnel splits, with one descending and one ascending. The drone is sent on the ascending path to make it easier to recover, and continues along the path for forty-five minutes. Finally coming out of the tunnel into a windy mountainous region. Here there are the remnants of another village that was once heavily afflicted with SCP-610. And it seems that the buildings still here were constructed entirely out of 610 material. With little else to see here and the high winds making drone recovery impossible, the drone is sent back into the tunnel. A deep roaring sound is heard... and the video feed begins to cut out, but shows the drone quickly descending down the tunnel Finally the feed shows a massive distorted human face filling the tunnel and rushing up towards the drone. The onboard weapons are utilized to fire on the face, but the wounds on the entity quickly heal and soon the drone is swallowed. Three hours later the video feed comes back for a few moments, showing a series of structures and a vast number of infected individuals. The camera pans on its own before being destroyed, as if something wanted to show this. You can likely guess what comes next... But now that it's clear that the 610 infection has spread deep underground, and they seem to be capable of creating tunnels. The Foundation approved a manned assault excursion. A total of five teams were sent into the tunnels: two research and three assault. In the hopes of setting up a base of operations, from which a full assault could commence. The teams descended into the sinkhole and quickly set up a base where the tunnels split. After the base was set up and samples were gathered, the expedition continued on into the unexplored descending tunnel. The group walked the tunnel for twenty kilometres without encountering any 610 entities. And so they requested a transport buggy be brought down to aid the exploration. While waiting for it to be delivered the team, was ambushed by a group of large 610 infected life-forms, who were seemingly coming out of the walls, or perhaps being formed from the materials on the walls. These life-forms seems to entirely consist of 610 material instead of an infected organism, and small-arms proved to be nearly useless. Forcing the assault team to rely on incendiary weapons. Unfortunately, a large number of the team were swept away in the water current that ran alongside the tunnel. The assault team now consisted of three members with only a single flamethrower. Although they did each possess their standard firearms and short-range personal incendiary weapons. They are instructed to continue the exploration, and attempt to locate the lost team members that went into the water. Further 20 kilometres in, the river split away from the tunnel forcing the team to abandon the rescue mission, in lieu of continuing along the tunnel. A number of hours later, the team reached the end of the tunnel where they were again ambushed by 610 entities, that seemed to be waiting for them. They managed to eliminate the entities, but used up the rest of the fuel and their flamethrower in the process. The tunnel opens up into a cavern containing a somewhat primitive village; with buildings clearly made by humans. Notably, there is a church with a working clock tower. And surrounding all the buildings is a depression in the ground filled with what looks like liquefied 610 material. The liquid ripples and moves of its own accord, and the team avoids it as they head towards the church. They have so far not seen any living entities as they enter the church which contains four pews and a pulpit. For some reason the inside of the church is immaculately clean, and there is a hole behind the pulpit which contains more of the liquid material. Suddenly the bell in the clock tower tolls, triggering a shuttering and the sound of human screams coming from the ceiling of the church. The team shines their lights on the ceiling, revealing a large mass of 610 material and six wooden circles. Strapped to the circles are live humans coated entirely in 610 material, except for their heads. These humans continued to scream as the wooden circles descend towards the floor. The team hears a creature cry out from outside of the church, and they extinguished their lights and hide behind the pulpit. A figure seen past the doorway the church brings a torch, and lights a series of candles. As well as a rope coated in 610 material that causes the fire to spread up to a chandelier system. The light from the chandelier illuminates the captive humans, showing that they seem to be covered in a different type of material that's red and constantly shifting. A group of infected entities enter the church and begin ripping off the red material from the humans ...causing them to scream even more. It's believed that the red material, is using the humans as a food source and the infected entities then consume the red material. The infected continued feeding for six minutes, before the torchbearer hits a gong and they take a seat in the pews. The torchbearer then suddenly collapses, and a pillar of infected flesh emerges from the hole behind the pulpit... reaching towards the pews. Ten minutes go by with nothing making a sound or moving, including the captive humans. And finally, the flesh retreats back into the hole. The infected entities leave the church, and eventually so do the three team members. As they leave the church however, one of them gets suddenly thrown through the air by a large tentacle, and a flood of infected entities come out towards the remaining tube. The two drive back the horde as best as they can, as they make their way back towards the buggy. But one of them is killed by the torchbearer entity who now wields a large crop scythe. The final team member makes it to the buggy, but finds it half-covered in 610 material and looks desperately for another way out. The scythe wielder approaches them, two shots are fired, and the camera feed goes out. No further expeditions have been sent into the area thus far. SCP-610 is among the highest-rated articles on the SCP Wiki, largely because it's just so incredibly weird. Well, we certainly have behavior altering parasites in our world... such as one species of the Cordyceps fungus. There's nothing nearly as horrific or complex as SCP-610. The original author of 610 wrote it as a standalone article, but over time is the concept of Sarkisism developed on the Wiki. Many in the community have accepted 610 to be an integral part of it. There have been multiple mentions of the Sarkic cults utilizing a disease known as the Red Death, and it's believed that 610 is their ultimate weapon and their goal of reshaping the planet. Whether a standalone SCP or part of something much larger... SCP-610 is a brilliant and terrifying showcase of the ravages of disease.