When the Sun Goes Down Hub » SCP-UKG07-511: The Fog
by Ethagon
Division ID : SCP-UKG07
Object no : 511
Risk Type : Pursuer
Threat Level : ●●●
Containment Procedures : Do not go into the fog at night. Especially avoid it if you hear the barking of dogs and the cries for help from inside. We're unsure if it goes into homes, but for now it has behaved like normal fog.
It is slow enough that you can keep a distance while having an eye on it. Just make sure it does not encircle you through alleyways.
Local Containment Procedures : We just need one person (which would be me, the supervisor) to keep an eye on it and warn people not to go near the thing. Don't try any rescue operations without talking to me. We will get them out.
Local Containment Supervisor : Pascal Ward
Description : 511 is a cloud of fog measured to have ranged in size from roughly 10 to 100 meters in diameter. 511 moves through contraction and stretching. No light reaches through the fog; what is inside we only know through the sound that carries through. There are maybe 10 to 20 people trapped in 511. You can hear them walk and you can hear their pleading.
They are still responsive. I've talked to some of them. For all that it helps. It's how I found out they vanish together with 511 at the end of the night. They don't recall what happens wherever these monsters vanish too. Gone for the day often to return to a different spot in the city on the next day.
Even suspended for half a day this only delays the main problem of 511's victims. They are starving. The only food they have is whatever they had on them when they entered. I have tried throwing food into the fog, but it never reaches them.
As close as I'm willing to go to 511.
There is a second thing in the fog, next to its victims. Wolf-like beasts stalk the fog. We know they're there because we can hear them bark and bite.
We know so little about these things, I don't know why they're there. Abigail called it some twisted form of mercy. Killing its victims faster than the slow and painful death of dehydration. I don't think that. She doesn't hear how the people talk of them. They can't sit down, they can't stop walking, sometimes they can't even pick the wrong direction.
The beasts are tormentors.
Without going against the beasts and with the right advice most people make it for three to four days. Taking into account the currently short night length, that's more than a day of slow walking without drinking.
In some ways the fog has optimal conditions for this, I suppose. The air is humid enough that you get just a little out of it, without it actually filling you enough. I remember one guy, his name was Jonathan I believe, who really wanted to piss shortly after he entered 511. It took some convincing but eventually, I talked him out of it. That his body would need every little speck of water it could find. I'm honestly surprised how worried he stayed about that even with the beasts around.
Not that it helped him in the end. Sooner or later they all fall. Be it from dizziness or exhaustion. Lying, for the beasts, is even worse than sitting. They claw and bite at you until you stand up again. Even if you do, it's a death spiral. With those wounds, you can't stand up for long. You go down and they claw you to rise. Until you lay down for the final time.
Only then does the fog release your body.
I don't know if what I'm doing here is the right thing, helping them to stick around as long as possible. Abigail says I should just keep to warning people from going in, everything else is self-torment. It feels wrong not to try at least.
Update 14.07.2023: I don't think I've ever seen it swell up so big. Normally it only changes size by a bit when it swallows up a new person.
This time it took a car.
They were intimidated enough by the wall of fog to slow down, but I still couldn't warn them in time. Now they're inside. And the fog stopped moving.
It's normally pulsating a bit here and there, slowly creeping across town until morning comes and it manifests somewhere else next night.
But now it's entirely stationary.
Update 15.07.2023: It stayed at the same place. If 511 stays here that will make it easy to ward off other people. I haven't been able to reach the people in the car. They must be right in the middle of the fog by now. The beasts are certainly more active at the centre. I can't hear them at the periphery at all.
Update 16.07.2023: Still the same. This is different enough I tried throwing in food and water again. This time it actually reached them. The beasts are still clawing at the car it seems.
Update 17.07.2023: It's over. 511 has turned back to normal behaviour. The car is outside the fog. The doors are dented in a bit and all windows smashed in. All tyres were slashed. Thankfully no corpses though. They must be in the fog.
Of course now the cops show up, as useless as ever. Checked the car and brought it wherever. Not like they'll find a perpetrator.
This can only mean one thing, I need to talk to Abigail.
<Begin Call>
Abigail: You're not going in.
Pascal: Please, just– let me talk you through this.
Abigail: (sighs) Go ahead.
Pascal: The fog isn't trapping them there.
Abigail: Are you sure that's the case?
Pascal: Why else the strange behaviour? 511 couldn't move because otherwise, the car would have been free.
Abigail: The car only couldn't move because they slashed the tyres.
Pascal: Yes! Why slash the tires, if the fog could trap you anyway. They only did that so the car doesn't drive right out again.
Abigail: Or the beasts don't like cars.
Pascal: Apart from the tyres, I bet it was just that the drivers were sitting instead of following the rules these things operate under.
Abigail: I don't know, Pascal. It all sounds like speculation to me.
Pascal: Oh, oh! Don't forget that the food actually reached them this time. So the fog is definitely not an impenetrable wall where nothing reaches its prisoners.
Abigail: That's still only getting in.
Pascal: Or, it's the beasts that kept all food from reaching them.
Abigail: Are you really sure about this.
Pascal: We can never know for sure until we try it. But I'm as sure as can be.
Abigail: You don't know these people.
Pascal: I'm sick of cozying people into their deaths who are just 2 meter aways from help.
Abigail: Sure, but risk your life over strangers?
Pascal: We're the Foundation. Who else is going to do it?
Abigail: How do you want to get out then? You better have something planned that isn't just strolling in and hoping all works out.
Pascal: Do you still have that driving suit?
<End Call>
Update 18.07.2023: I'm going in.
<Begin Call>
Abigail: You stay on the phone the entire time, okay?
Pascal: Yeah.
Abigail: And you go out as soon as you're in danger.
Pascal: All of this is dangerous. But it will be worth it.
Footsteps walking away from Abigail.
Phone|Pascal: I'm on the other side. Left me through without issue. It's all fog. Can't even see my hands.
Abigail: Please test if you can actually leave before you go further in.
Phone|Pascal: I can't do that. Not while they're starving. Walking further in.
Phone: Footsteps.
Phone: Growl.
Phone|Pascal: Don't want me walking in that direction, huh?
Abigail: Pascal?
Phone|Pascal: (loud) Is someone there? I have food and water.
Phone: Weak answer.
Phone|Pascal: Okay, let's do this.
Phone: Barking and running.
Phone|Pascal: Argh.
Phone: Snapping.
Phone|Unknown: How–
Phone|Pascal: No time, just take this.
Phone: More running. The barking and snapping stops. The growling remains.
Abigail: Are you hurt?
Phone|Pascal: Not yet. But they tried.
Phone: The growling stops.
Abigail: You need to get out.
Phone|Pascal: There's still more.
Phone: Running.
Phone: Snapping.
Phone|Pascal: (sucks air) That came through … get this… ugh.
Phone: Running.
Phone: Snapping.
Phone: Crunch.
Phone|Pascal: AAGH!
Abigail: You need to get out.
Phone|Pascal: Stupid… here!
Phone: Barking and Snapping.
Phone: A kick drowned out by barking.
Phone: CRACK.
Abigail: Pascal?
Phone: barking and snapping, more muted than before.
Abigail: Damn it.
Abigail can be heard running. A window breaks. Shortly after a motor starts running.
Phone: Barking stops.
Abigail: That's right, just focus on the car.
Brakes. Gear change. The motor starts running again.
Abigail: Oh no, you're not getting all of me in that damn fog.
Barking and Scratching.
Abigail: (loud) Pascal! They're focused on the car, run out!
Phone: Far away muted barking drowns out all other sound.
Abigail: Pascal?
Barking, Scratching and a running motor.
Abigail: Damn it.
<End Call>
Bit out of it, I'll write a proper summary later. I think including the call will do for now.
Update 19.07.2023: Kind of stupid for me to forget, but this is still Pascal writing. I made it out, thanks to Abigail.
And yeah, it's the actual victims in there, not some phantom conjured up by 511. They have food now, so they should be able to hang in a bit longer.
They will get out. We know they're too stupid to catch on to the car trick. Just repeat it and getting them out one at a time.
We'll ask another division to pitch in for us though, we're a bit indisposed now. Me with my broken arm and Abigail with… Well, let's just say the police still remembers car theft after dawn.
We have confirmation now, it's not the fog keeping them in. Just the beasts. I saw a few glimpses of them. They're just dogs. Or something close to a dog. Something like a bit of enlarged mouth constantly drooling water? Or something like that. They're not even particularly strong ones, I got one good with my kick.
Just herding the victims of 511. Keeping them separate and far enough away from any exit, so they're doomed to walk to their death. Pricks.
I bet they even produce the fog. It just looks so much larger if you can't actually see it.