SCP-792 The Body Farm

Dr Bob

If you’re struggling, consider therapy with our sponsor BetterHelp. Click https://BetterHelp.com/drbob for a 10% discount on your first month of therapy with a licensed professional specific to your needs.  If you have questions about the brand relating to how the therapists are licensed, their privacy policy, or therapist compensation, here is an overview written by the YouTube creators behind the channel Cinema Therapy that goes into these topics: https://www.reddit.com/r/cinema_therapy/comments/1dpriql/addressing_the_betterhelp_concerns_headon_deep/  Dr Bob brings you SCP Foundation Euclid Class object, SCP-792 The Body Farm Animation.  Join the DR BOB SQUAD by going to https://www.patreon.com/DrBob and become an Honorary Member of the Dr. Bob Research Staff!  SCP-792 is a wooded area measuring 4 square kilometers. SCP-792 contains, at any given time, between 37 and 4,500 human corpses, hereby designated SCP-792-1. Instances emerge from the ground at apparently random intervals at a rate of roughly ten (10) per day. SCP-792-1 specimens will emerge headfirst in a prone position. After emergence, decomposition will proceed as expected in SCP-792's environment.  Watch ALL of DrBob's videos including SCP 150 The Body Stealing Parasite and SCP 3700 Tides of War here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHxBeJ7z3xRleoXfcoFZxHgqji3jKgWwV  This video, being derived from https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-792 written by rumetzen, is released under Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/  Narrated by Joe Cliff Thompson #drbob #scp #animation

Transcript

00:00Oh yeah, there are plenty of spooky places around here, the bartender said while casually cleaning

00:05a glass with an old rag. The question is, how scary do you kids think you can handle?

00:10Of course, they weren't kids. Johan was 28 and Nina was 26, both backpackers from Dusseldorf,

00:17Germany, paying their way through a once-in-a-lifetime trip across the U.S. of A.

00:22They'd always heard that nowhere on earth does Halloween quite like America, and that was why

00:27they made sure to go in the middle of October. As spooky as you can manage, Johan said as he

00:32slammed a 20 down onto the counter and gestured for another beer. The bartender smiled. That's

00:38what he loved about those Germans. They sure knew how to drink, and always seemed to have

00:41plenty of cold, hard cash to spend on it. Well, Old Lady Maple runs a haunted house

00:47attraction in town, he said. Bunch of the local theater folks dress up as ghosts and ghouls

00:53and killers and like. Heard is pretty fun. Nina drained her beer, laughed, and shook her head.

00:59Seems a little tame, don't you think? Yes, Johan chimed in. He came a long way, and we

01:05want to see something a little more hardcore. He didn't want to dwell on what a German's

01:10idea of hardcore was. Instead, he decided to just play along, giving them a taste of local

01:15history. If they wanted something really frightening, their best bet would be to go to the abandoned

01:20motel on the side of town and sign up for one of the motel's ghost tours.

01:25Ghost tours? Johan said, receiving his next beer. Who's haunting the place? The bartender

01:31chuckled. A better question is, who isn't haunting that place? It's got a long, nasty history,

01:37ever since it opened back in the 1800s. Of course, it was a saloon back then. There was

01:43the famous shootout between Red Ned Hickok and Six Guns Barry. Barry walked right up behind

01:48Ned's brother while he was playing poker, pressed the barrel of his colt to the back of that poor

01:52guy's head, and threw his last thought all over the table. Some nights, you can still hear the clicks

01:58and the hammers being pulled back. Nina raised her eyebrows at this. She was intrigued. What

02:04has happened? The bartender went back to cleaning glasses. There was the case of Mad Johnny in the

02:101930s. He was a banker who fancied himself a novelist. Always figured that the problem was not

02:15enough time and too many distractions, so he sold everything he owned except his old

02:20smith Corona typewriter, rented out a room in that motel for a year to finish his masterpiece.

02:25You won't find any of his books at the local bookstore, of course, but you will find a few

02:30books about him. That piqued their curiosity. He had the time, but he couldn't get away from

02:36the distractions, he said. He'd send down constant complaints to the motel manager about the guests

02:42in other rooms, even rooms that were actually empty at the time. Johnny was going mad as a sack

02:48of turnips trying to write that book, but his money was still good, so there was no reason to turf

02:52him

02:52out. Until one day, he'd had enough, and he went room to room, knocking on the doors and beating the

02:58other guests to death with the claw hammer for being too noisy. He was shot by the cops when they

03:03arrived. It was a decent yard, but the Germans were already getting a little bored. Why go on a ghost

03:09tour if they could hear all the stories from the bartender for free? To them, America was the

03:14land of possibilities, both beautiful and terrifying. And they wanted something just a little more

03:20terrifying than some spooky stories. You kids are some real thrill seekers, huh? The bartender asked.

03:27Just make sure you're staying safe. There's getting scared, and there's actually being in danger.

03:33That's why I'll warn you just this once. Do not go to the woods outside town, you hear?

03:38He regretted it as soon as he'd said it, like telling a kid to keep his hand out of the

03:42cookie

03:42jar that he didn't even previously know existed. It was on the map now. He made it real, and he

03:48knew

03:48on some level that it was now inevitable the two backpackers would find themselves hiking up towards

03:53those woods at dusk. And he was absolutely right. The sun was setting when they began their journey up

04:00towards the thick copse of trees, having already walked a few miles out of town to get here,

04:04feeling every gram of the weight in their large backpacks. The bartender hadn't been responsive

04:10to follow-up questions when they'd inquired about what was so scary and dangerous about the woods,

04:14but that had made them even more curious.

04:17This is like something out of an American horror movie, Johan said, almost shaking with anticipation.

04:23It got darker and darker as they continued into the forest. The air was different here. Despite being

04:29surrounded by trees, the air felt strangely stale, almost moldy. The bartender's warning looped around

04:37in their minds. His vagueness, his refusal to tell them exactly why they shouldn't venture up here and

04:43wander between the pines. He'd been so forthcoming with all the other grisly ghost stories. Why had

04:48this place rendered him silent? Then Nina screamed at the top of her lungs. Johan turned and saw her

04:56pointing at the ground, and what she was pointing at. The nude corpse of an old man, face pointing

05:01down at the ground. No signs of injury, but neither of them needed to check the man's pulse to know

05:06that he was dead.

05:08We should call someone, Johan said, trembling. We can't...

05:11Nina screamed again. She'd pointed to another corpse, laying naked and face down like the first,

05:17near a small cluster of trees. It was as though the floodgates had opened after that.

05:21This deep in the forest, there were corpses everywhere, all laying face down in various

05:27states of undress. Johan and Nina could barely breathe seeing it all.

05:32This must be one of those American death cults I've read about, Nina said. We need to get out of

05:36here,

05:36Johan. Johan didn't disagree, but it was even darker now. Which way did they come in? It was impossible

05:43to tell, and it seemed like there were dead bodies all around them, like it had been the site of

05:47some

05:48terrible massacre. They both already knew that this image would be burned into their minds forever,

05:53if they got out of there alive. But at that moment, that felt like a very big if.

05:59In the truly dead silence of the forest, every sound felt magnified. That's why Johan and Nina

06:05were able to hear the intruders so quickly. When multiple pairs of footsteps rang out through the

06:10forest, they gave each other a panicked look and hid behind the nearest tree, watching and waiting to

06:15see who exactly would turn up. The last thing they expected was a crowd of about 20 men, all wearing

06:22slightly archaic-looking hazmat suits with dark visors that obscured their faces, something that

06:27you'd expect to see in an old Soviet nuclear power plant. The men didn't exchange a word. They went

06:32about their work quietly and methodically, in a way that suggested they'd done this many times before.

06:38Nina and Johan watched in confusion and horror. Some of the men went about picking up the bodies,

06:43often in teams of two, carrying them away to a place that the backpackers could no longer see.

06:48The others went about picking up branches and tinder, arranging them into a large lattice.

06:53One of the men lit a match, and soon, the pile of twigs, dead leaves, and branches was a roaring

06:59bonfire. Some of the other men started piling bodies onto it. Johan and Nina couldn't stay here.

07:05They knew that if they did, they'd need to have a death wish. Surely they'd eventually be found if

07:10they stuck around. With how systematic the search of the forest seemed to be, it was only a matter of

07:15time. They waited for a moment when the hazmat men were out of view, finding more corpses to drag

07:20back and burn. With a signal, they made a mad dash away from the tree and towards what they hoped

07:26would be salvation, but was instead straight into the open arms of one of the men in hazmat suits.

07:33You're interrupting the work, it said in a voice without an ounce of feeling.

07:38Well, that was unpleasant and disturbing, wasn't it? And here's the part where I tell you it's both

07:44somehow less and also more upsetting than it looks here. That's just the kind of contradiction that you

07:49just need to live with when it comes to SCP-792, lovingly nicknamed the Body Farm. Allow me to give

07:56you

07:56some context about the horrifying things that poor Johan and Nina just experienced.

08:01But first, is something interfering with your happiness? Johan and Nina ignored every warning

08:07sign until their bodies were screaming at them to leave those woods. Real life is rarely that dramatic,

08:13but stress and anxiety can still form patterns that are easy to dismiss. For me, that can mean staying

08:19up late, pushing through one more thing, and not noticing how tense or irritable I've become until

08:24I'm running on empty. Therapy can help you notice those signals earlier, understand what keeps you

08:29stuck in that cycle, and build practices that will help you slow down and reset before reaching that

08:34point. And BetterHelp, the sponsor of today's video, makes it easier to act on those warning signs.

08:39Take a short quiz, get matched with a licensed therapist quickly, and communicate by phone, video,

08:45or text. If the therapist doesn't feel like the right fit, you can switch any time at no extra cost.

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08:56rating.

08:57So click the link in the description or go to BetterHelp.com slash Dr. Bob to get 10% off

09:02your

09:02first month of therapy. Thank you to BetterHelp for supporting the channel. Now, back to the Body Farm.

09:10There's a 4-kilometer space outside of an American town that I'm not permitted to disclose, which contains,

09:15at any given time, between 37 and 4,500 unclothed human corpses laying face down in various states

09:22of decay. We've taken to calling them SCP-792-1. These people didn't die here, nor were their bodies

09:29taken here after death, so to speak. They instead slowly rose out of the ground over the course of a

09:35year, building themselves out of root-like plant structures beneath the ground that's identical in

09:40composition to human flesh and muscle tissue. But why? When you're encountering something this

09:46strange, it's a natural question, and one the Foundation was extremely interested in when they

09:51first discovered it. It didn't take long for a full provisional site to be built around the anomaly,

09:56under the pretense of a dangerous biological element in the woods that had to be avoided by

10:00civilians at all costs. They marveled as more corpses sprung up, wondering if the next one would bring

10:06some kind of answer with it. And I know what you're assuming from our opening case study,

10:11that those men in the hazmat suits that Johan and Nina encountered were Foundation personnel that

10:16scared them away for impeding on their research. That's where you'd be wrong. Those men weren't

10:21really men at all, and in fact, they're part of the anomaly. Most of the year, SCP-792 just generates

10:29bodies, but between September 2nd and October 31st, it generates some entities that we've taken

10:35to calling SCP-792-2, those mysterious men with obscured faces in full hazmat suits that come

10:43crawling out of the muck and mire of the land's pond. Once they've fully risen, they'll begin their

10:48work, which consists of one action with two different possible outcomes. They'll walk around

10:54in seemingly coordinated groups, studying each of the bodies, before carrying them carefully over

11:00to the pond and lowering them in, causing them to sink out of view. That's the more common outcome.

11:05But for around a tenth of the bodies, they'll be left on the ground while the entities in the hazmat

11:10suits collect firewood to build a huge and impressive bonfire. Once the bonfire is burning, they'll load

11:16the remaining corpses onto it and allow them to burn all the way down to ash, leaving nothing in its

11:21place.

11:22A classic annually recurring anomalous ritual, but again, to what end? The second that the Foundation

11:29recognized the sentience of the SCP-792-2 anomalies, they were naturally eager to set up a one-on-one

11:35chat to see what they'd be able to share about their work out on the body farm. One of them

11:40was gently

11:41escorted to a temporary interview chamber on the site by two large and burly Foundation guards with

11:46stun prods attached to their belts. He wisely did not resist, and was soon sitting across from senior

11:51researcher Dr. John Lautner, who had plenty of questions to ask. The first was, interestingly

11:57enough, why did you want to talk to me? You could have said no, could have resisted, you and your

12:02friends certainly outnumber myself and my personnel here, so why open up? The instance paused for a

12:08moment, as though manually putting together its answer before ever letting the words leave what was

12:13presumably its mouth behind that dark visor. It said in a plain, almost toneless voice,

12:20your research is disrupting our work. Well, that was progress. Dr. Lautner smiled and responded,

12:28and your work is? Farming. Just that one word, as though the context was entirely self-evident.

12:36Lautner fired back, yes, we understood that already, but what's the point? Why do you do it? He hoped that

12:42a

12:42slightly more existential question like that might open the floodgates for these unusually plain-spoken

12:48and taciturn anomalies. His hopes were proven to count for very little when it simply replied,

12:53It is our duty. Can you elaborate? Another pause before the instance responded a little more forcefully

13:01this time. Those headed for Isad require guides. We judge who is worthy and who is not. The worthy are

13:10taken to Isad. Those who aren't, we destroy. That was progress, at least. And by conducting our research,

13:19we're preventing you from doing this? It nodded. Yes, the crop cannot be disturbed.

13:25Dr. Lautner was feeling irritated now. This interview was like trying to draw blood from a stone.

13:31With a little more of a defiant tone, he asked,

13:34What will happen if we continue our research? The entity paused again before saying,

13:39Death is not a right. It is a gift that we can deny. Something about the phrasing of that made

13:47all

13:47the hairs on the back of Dr. Lautner's neck stand up on end. He cleared his throat, regained his composure,

13:53and said, Are you threatening us? The entity shook its head. No, you are threatening those who would

14:01otherwise be welcomed into Isad. Your research is preventing them from resting.

14:07Could you not just take them regardless? One more long pause, before the entity stood and simply said,

14:13I would like to leave now. But it's never as simple as just leaving when the SCP Foundation is involved,

14:20especially after you've made what could be interpreted as a vague threat against one of our

14:25members of personnel. The large and burly guards grabbed the struggling entity and dragged it away to

14:30a nearby holding chamber, where it remained for three hours before disappearing completely. No attempts

14:36to search the SCP-792 areas bore fruit, and that particular entity was never found again.

14:42The information was given to me, since I was between cases at the time, and Dr. Lautner wanted a second

14:48opinion on the bizarre ramblings of the entity. But of course, they were only bizarre ramblings to Dr.

14:54Lautner himself. To me, given the context of the rest of the case, it made perfect and complete

15:00sense. You see, what we were dealing with here was a community of psychopomps. For anyone without my

15:06working knowledge of mythology, a psychopomp is an entity that works to transport human souls from

15:11the physical realm to the afterlife. Think the Grim Reaper in popular culture, or the Boatman Charon

15:17from ancient Greek belief. These entities are the membrane between life and what comes after. And in

15:23the entities that populate the SCP-792 zone, we find some that are particularly proactive in their duties.

15:29Based on the words of the one that Dr. Lautner interviewed, the body farm is almost like the

15:34lobby of the true afterlife, where the souls of the recently deceased gather and assume these inert

15:39vegetable dimension forms. From this point, it is up to the entities to make the judgment,

15:44like the gods of ancient Egypt weighing the hearts of hopeful entrants to the field of reeds.

15:49If the psychopomps believed that the person was worthy of going to the paradise of Isad,

15:54then their bodies would be deposited into the pond and disappear into its depths.

15:58But if they judge a soul unworthy, the body would be placed into the bonfire and presumably burned

16:04away forever, or taken somewhere equivalent to hell in most religions. When I relayed this

16:10theory to Dr. Lautner, he took on an oddly pale complexion. His life had been under threat many times

16:16as a senior researcher for the SCP Foundation, and as such, he was a rather difficult man to rattle.

16:21However, something about the possibility of annoying an anomaly that might someday hold the

16:26fate of his immortal soul, he felt a whole different kind of fear. After this, he changed his tune

16:33entirely and gave out the order that nobody should interfere with the actual operations of the SCP-792-2

16:39entities, just in case. Instead, after giving the location the Euclid classification, he worked on an

16:45entirely perimeter-based method for keeping it contained instead. The area is now surrounded by an

16:51electric fence four meters high, with razor wire spooled around the top. There's just a single

16:57entrance to the body farm inside, guarded at all times by multiple armed members of Foundation personnel.

17:02The area is inspected weekly, but during that special period between September 2nd and October 31st,

17:08everything inside is left to its own devices, exactly as the entity had requested from Dr. Lautner.

17:14Much like it's sound advice to treat your children well, since they'll decide what kind of

17:19retirement home you end up in. I also very much recommend being courteous to your local psychopomps,

17:24a few careless minutes to them might just mean an eternity of consequence to you.

17:30Want to know more about the various anomalous corpses that the SCP Foundation keeps tabs on?

17:35You'd be well advised to check out my video file on SCP-3852,

17:40the small town that hides its secrets in the lake, lest you become the next body everyone is dealing with.

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