SCP-267

SCP-267 SCP-267 is one of those entries where the feeding process gets worse the longer you read it. These are underground rodents related to naked mole rats. They live in colonies, hunt together, and bring prey back alive because a living animal is much more useful to them than a dead one. They don't have eyes. Hearing and touch are reduced, and they navigate and communicate mainly through smell and airborne chemicals. The colony has workers, soldiers, breeders, and nursery attendants, but no queen. Individual animals don't seem to feel pain or demonstrate much interest in their own survival, which makes a territorial swarm particularly difficult to deal with. The venom is the main problem. A group of soldiers attacks together, delivering enough bites to paralyze an animal almost immediately. The victim remains conscious while being dragged back underground. Once inside, workers clean it, check it for parasites, and disable its ability to escape. The venom also causes rapid tumor growth. Within a day, masses begin appearing around the bite sites. The growth preferentially involves skin and fatty tissue rather than immediately destroying vital organs. That produces a renewable supply of tissue the colony can eat while keeping the animal alive. They actively maintain their captives. Workers feed them chewed and regurgitated roots to meet the enormous nutritional demand created by the growths. They clean and tend them, then remove tumors when they reach a suitable size. The file calls these animals larders, which is exactly the role they serve in the colony. Depending on the species, one captive can provide food for weeks or years. The rodents can go months between trips to the surface because their food is already down there, continuously producing more. Keeping the victim alive is part of the feeding system. That becomes much harder to read when the human evidence turns up. Human bones have been found in the waste areas, some dating back thousands of years. Nineteen months after containment begins, researchers realize one of the living larder animals is human. The injuries and extensive growths have made identification difficult. They suspect he may be a missing person who disappeared with his parents on a childhood trip, but that identification remains uncertain. Attempts to interview him reveal that his language abilities have deteriorated during his captivity. The colony also prefers humans over other mammals. The explanation in the file is our combination of lifespan and metabolism. A human produces more usable tissue than a similarly sized pig and can potentially be kept alive for the rest of their natural life. There's preliminary evidence some captives might even live longer than normal, although that hasn't been established. The Foundation supplies livestock to the contained colony and destroys wild populations when discovered. Even rescued human victims can't be rehabilitated according to the containment procedures, and they're retained for research into the possible longevity effect. The thing that makes this so unpleasant is how much attention the rodents put into preserving their food. They protect it from parasites, feed it, and keep it clean because those things help it remain productive. Every bit of that care extends the situation the person is trapped in. Getting found doesn't mean there's an easy recovery waiting on the other side either. Original Entry: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-267