WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.400 There are no streetlights on this stretch of  the old, narrow road, which runs through a rural   00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:09.280 part of West Virginia. A car has gone off the  road into a ditch and needs to be pulled out.   00:00:09.280 --> 00:00:13.600 A common task for this tow truck driver and  he’s often in the area doing similar jobs,   00:00:13.600 --> 00:00:17.120 though he’s never been on this particular  road and he has to keep his eyes peeled for   00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:20.880 any signs or other markers that might give  him an idea of how close he is to his turn. 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:26.080 He spots something up ahead, but as he gets  closer he sees that it isn’t a road sign,   00:00:26.080 --> 00:00:30.880 it’s a billboard. As he passes by he can make  out the weathered lettering advertising a diner   00:00:30.880 --> 00:00:34.640 twenty miles down the road that’s probably  been closed for at least as many years.   00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:38.720 As he continues driving he sees  more dilapidated billboards,   00:00:38.720 --> 00:00:44.080 advertising other long since shuttered  businesses like gas stations and autobody shops. 00:00:44.080 --> 00:00:47.680 But then he sees one on the road ahead  of him that’s nothing like the others.   00:00:47.680 --> 00:00:52.080 This one doesn’t look old at all. In fact  it looks quite new. He drives by and has   00:00:52.080 --> 00:00:57.600 to question if he saw it correctly. It seemed  like all it said was “Get Away” over and over   00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:02.960 and then the name of a road. Is that an  invitation? Or a warning? It wasn’t even clear   00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:07.840 what kind of business it might be advertising. He continues driving, but he can’t quit thinking   00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:12.800 about that strange sign. He even feels compelled  to turn around so he can get another look at it,   00:01:12.800 --> 00:01:18.000 but there’s no need, because as he rounds a  curve there’s another of the same sign. This   00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:23.520 time he slows down as he passes to get a better  look and he was right, it just says “Get Away”   00:01:23.520 --> 00:01:28.880 multiple times with the name of a road. Wagriwa  Road. Must be Native American or something. 00:01:29.600 --> 00:01:33.200 Now he really can’t get the billboard  out of his mind. What does it mean?   00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:36.800 What is it advertising? And why is there  a third one of them just ahead of him?! 00:01:37.520 --> 00:01:40.800 He pulls his truck to the side of the road,  stopping with his headlights illuminating   00:01:40.800 --> 00:01:45.200 the sign. He gets out of the truck and stands  in front of the billboard. It’s just the same   00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:50.400 as the others. Get away written over and  over. Wagriwa Road. He can see now that   00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:53.840 the background of the sign is a picture of  some trees on a gray, cloudy winter day.   00:01:54.800 --> 00:01:58.240 He also notices for the first time that  there’s another line at the bottom.   00:01:58.960 --> 00:02:03.440 Find what you are looking for. What does  it mean? Find what you’re looking for on   00:02:03.440 --> 00:02:08.880 Wagriwa Road? Where even is that? There’s  no directions. No address. No phone number. 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:14.320 He takes a step back from the sign and looks up  and down the darkened road. What is he doing out   00:02:14.320 --> 00:02:18.240 here on the side of the road? Someone is stranded  in a ditch waiting for him and he’s staring at a   00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:23.600 billboard? He gets back into the truck, puts it  in gear, and drives away. As he continues down   00:02:23.600 --> 00:02:28.480 the tree lined rural road though, he inevitably  finds his thoughts turning back to the signs.   00:02:28.480 --> 00:02:33.360 Get away. But find what you’re looking for? It  doesn’t make any sense. Or are you supposed to   00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:39.200 get away to Wagriwa Road? Who would put these  up? And why do they look so new? Everything else   00:02:39.200 --> 00:02:43.920 out here looks like it’s for a business that  shut down years ago? What are they trying to - 00:02:43.920 --> 00:02:48.080 He suddenly slams on his brakes and comes to  a screeching stop in the middle of the road.   00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:51.680 His eyes are locked on what’s in front  of him. His headlights aren’t lighting   00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:57.120 up another billboard though, this time  it is a worn road sign... Wagriwa Road. 00:02:57.920 --> 00:03:00.960 He can’t help it. He has to  know what’s down this road.   00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:05.440 He has to know what these signs are about. The  stuck driver can wait a few minutes longer. 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:10.160 He turns his truck onto the narrow gravel road  and drives for a few hundred yards, following it   00:03:10.160 --> 00:03:15.040 around a couple of bends as it winds through the  trees, until it abruptly ends. There’s nothing   00:03:15.040 --> 00:03:20.160 out here, no buildings, no signs, just what looks  to be a dirt path leading deeper into the woods. 00:03:20.880 --> 00:03:24.800 The tow truck driver switches off the ignition  and the road is plunged into darkness.   00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:29.040 He reaches under his seat and takes out a  flashlight before getting out of the truck.   00:03:29.600 --> 00:03:32.880 He shines the light into the woods  surrounding him but there’s nothing to see…   00:03:33.760 --> 00:03:37.600 no wait, there is something, and it’s  coming down the path out of the trees. 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:43.440 “Phil? Phil is that you?” The figure that  stepped out of the woods is talking to him.   00:03:43.440 --> 00:03:47.040 He shines his flashlight at them and they raise  a hand to shade their eyes from the light. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:52.720 “Sharon?! What are you doing out here?”  It’s Sharon, the tow truck driver’s ex-wife,   00:03:52.720 --> 00:03:56.880 but he thought she’d moved to Colorado  after she remarried, why would she be here?   00:03:56.880 --> 00:03:58.720 And what was she doing emerging from the woods? 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:01.360 “Phil, come here. I need to show you something.” 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:06.240 He hesitates for just a moment, but then  finds that he’s walking towards his ex-wife.   00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:11.120 Before he can reach her she turns and starts  walking down the path back into the woods   00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:16.400 and he follows. He walks just behind her, his  flashlight illuminating the path in front of them. 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:19.760 He thinks he hears a rustling  coming from the woods next to him   00:04:19.760 --> 00:04:22.720 and searches the trees with his  flashlight but doesn’t see anything. 00:04:23.280 --> 00:04:25.200 “Come on, it’s just a little further,” she says. 00:04:25.840 --> 00:04:27.840 “Where are we going? What’s  just a little further?” 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:29.440 “What you are looking for.” 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:34.480 The woods suddenly open up and he finds that  they are standing in a clearing. She stops   00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:39.200 walking and he pauses next to her. He opens  his mouth to speak but she quickly shushes him. 00:04:39.840 --> 00:04:40.960 “Quiet, they’re almost here.” 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:45.040 The tow truck driver looks around but  he doesn’t see anything, just the faint   00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:49.440 outline of trees that are barely visible  on this moonless night. But then he watches   00:04:49.440 --> 00:04:54.640 as several creatures begin to emerge out of  the woods into the clearing. They’re… deer? 00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:58.080 He watches as just a few  come towards him at first,   00:04:58.080 --> 00:05:02.080 but then he notices that they have completely  surrounded him. There must be over twenty.  00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:04.320 “Turn off your light” she tells him. 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:10.160 He obeys and in the darkness he can see now that  there is something special about these deer. Their   00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:14.720 eyes are glowing with a pale white light. One  of the smaller deer steps forward and cautiously   00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:19.680 approaches him. He squats down and holds his  hand out, showing it that he means it no harm. 00:05:20.400 --> 00:05:24.240 The deer looks back nervously at a larger  one that he thinks must be its mother.   00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:28.160 It looks like it nods in approval,  and the smaller deer moves closer.   00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:31.920 He can clearly see its big, beautiful  doe eyes glow brightly in the dark.   00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:38.840 “You’re okay” he says, and leans forward  to give it a reassuring pet when -  00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:47.440 Following the mysterious  disappearances of multiple   00:05:47.440 --> 00:05:50.800 people in an area of West Virginia  near the town of Harpers Ferry,   00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:54.880 the SCP Foundation soon became interested in  a particular stretch of road where it appeared   00:05:54.880 --> 00:05:58.560 that many of those who had gone missing  had traveled just prior to their vanishing. 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:04.160 Agents were dispatched to the area and immediately  detected high levels of thaumaturgic energy,   00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:08.800 with the epicenter appearing to be on a plot  of privately owned land. Investigation of local   00:06:08.800 --> 00:06:13.440 records revealed that the land was owned by a  man named Richard Redkinne. The Foundation staff   00:06:13.440 --> 00:06:17.440 contacted Mr. Redkinne under the guise of being  federal agents investigating a crime that had   00:06:17.440 --> 00:06:22.400 been committed on the property while he was away. Mr. Redkinne happily cooperated with the agents,   00:06:22.400 --> 00:06:26.640 explaining to them that had never experienced  any abnormal events on the property while he was   00:06:26.640 --> 00:06:31.200 living there, but that he had not resided on the  land for some time. Strangely he claimed to not   00:06:31.200 --> 00:06:36.160 know the road as Wagriwa Road, insisting that as  far as he knew it had never had an official name,   00:06:36.160 --> 00:06:38.720 being nothing more than a long  driveway out to his property. 00:06:39.440 --> 00:06:42.880 When asked if he could remember anything  else abnormal about the location,   00:06:42.880 --> 00:06:47.200 he told the agents no, but that his daughter  had written many fictional stories about strange   00:06:47.200 --> 00:06:52.000 happenings on the land, and perhaps those had  somehow turned into rumors and then urban legends,   00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:56.400 though that was a long time ago. When the agents  requested to meet with the daughter he explained   00:06:56.400 --> 00:07:00.800 that it was impossible, she had drowned many  years prior in the nearby Shenandoah River. 00:07:01.520 --> 00:07:05.600 The agents again examined the local records  and found that Mr. Redkinne wasn’t lying,   00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:09.440 his daughter really had passed away  and her body was found in the river.   00:07:09.440 --> 00:07:12.080 The timing of this accident  was quite coincidental though,   00:07:12.080 --> 00:07:16.400 as it had occurred exactly one week before the  first missing person in the area was reported. 00:07:17.200 --> 00:07:20.560 Quickly realizing that something was  not quite right with this piece of land,   00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:25.120 the SCP Foundation authorized the purchase from  Mr. Redknine, who was more than happy to sell,   00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:28.880 and a research outpost was constructed to  further investigate the anomalous events   00:07:28.880 --> 00:07:34.480 which had collectively been dubbed SCP-4434.  While exploring the surrounding area,   00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:39.520 they soon found what so many others had before  - the bizarre billboards imploring one to both   00:07:39.520 --> 00:07:43.840 “get away” as well as come to Wagriwa  Road to “find what you are looking for.” 00:07:44.640 --> 00:07:50.800 The signs, which were designated as SCP-4434-A,  were found on roads across the West Virgina,   00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:54.560 Maryland, Virginia tri-state area, but  their locations would often change,   00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:58.320 with the billboards only manifesting for  short amounts of time before vanishing and   00:07:58.320 --> 00:08:03.280 reappearing elsewhere. Bizarrely, when attempts  were made to photograph or videotape the signs,   00:08:03.280 --> 00:08:06.240 the resulting footage would  show only a blank, white sign. 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:10.720 The Foundation knew that they needed to  investigate further, and several experiments   00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:15.280 were authorized to find just what was happening  on the land at the end of the mysterious road. A   00:08:15.280 --> 00:08:22.080 D-Class personnel, D-84021, was given a radio and  implanted with GPS locators in his neck, torso,   00:08:22.080 --> 00:08:26.320 and thigh, and sent down the road with orders  to report back on what they experienced, though   00:08:26.320 --> 00:08:30.560 unlike the people who had gone missing, he was not  shown the billboard prior to entering the area. 00:08:31.280 --> 00:08:35.840 The D-Class walked to the end of the road where he  reported that a creature was emerging from a path   00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:39.440 leading into the woods. He soon exclaimed  that the creature was a dog that he used   00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:43.600 to own. The researchers monitoring the test  were confused, since the dog had apparently   00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:48.560 been deceased for some time, and yet here it  was standing in front of him. Although the   00:08:48.560 --> 00:08:52.800 D-Class had seemed hesitant at the start of  the mission, once he saw his childhood dog,   00:08:52.800 --> 00:08:56.480 all of his fears were set aside and he  willingly followed it deeper into the forest. 00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:01.840 After 90 seconds, the D-Class reported that he had  entered a clearing and was being surrounded by a   00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:08.000 group of deer. The reports stopped soon after and  were replaced by the sound of screams as D-84021   00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:12.640 was attacked and apparently consumed by the  deer. Two of the three GPS trackers remained   00:09:12.640 --> 00:09:16.800 active for the next forty minutes, and SCP  researchers followed their path as they moved   00:09:16.800 --> 00:09:20.800 to the middle of the clearing and then appeared  to enter into a sinkhole or cave of some sort,   00:09:20.800 --> 00:09:24.640 where they traveled slowly in a winding  pattern downward until contact was lost. 00:09:25.520 --> 00:09:28.320 Following this test, the Foundation  researchers suspected that the   00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:33.600 creature that would emerge from the woods,  which had been designated as SCP-4434-B,   00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:38.640 was able to change forms into one that would  be trusted by those who entered the 4434 area.   00:09:38.640 --> 00:09:42.160 The deer, on the other hand, seemed  to always maintain their appearance,   00:09:42.160 --> 00:09:48.480 and the whole group was designated as  SCP-4434-C. The tests were far from over though. 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:55.600 For the next, two D-Classes were sent into  SCP-4434 in order to see what form 4434-B would   00:09:55.600 --> 00:10:00.880 take when more than one person was present. Just  like before, an entity emerged from the woods,   00:10:00.880 --> 00:10:05.280 but this time it took the form of a young man  in a suit who immediately offered to clear any   00:10:05.280 --> 00:10:09.360 and all debts the D-Classes held as well as  expunging their criminal records, freeing   00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:13.920 them from their life as test subjects. All they  would need to do is follow him into the woods. 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:18.640 The agents monitoring the test ordered the  D-Classes not to follow the man, but they   00:10:18.640 --> 00:10:24.480 were ignored, and the researchers listened as  they instead began conversing with SCP-4434-B,   00:10:25.040 --> 00:10:29.040 seeming to be quite interested in his offer.  They soon followed him into the woods,   00:10:29.040 --> 00:10:35.200 and just over two minutes later, they too  were attacked and consumed by SCP-4434-C.   00:10:35.920 --> 00:10:40.000 It appeared now that once someone  entered the SCP-4434 area,   00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:45.920 they were all but helpless to resist  the compulsive effects of SCP-4434-B. 00:10:45.920 --> 00:10:50.160 The Foundation researchers wanted to  test the limits of SCP-4434’s power,   00:10:50.160 --> 00:10:53.920 and so they then came up with a rather  creative procedure for the next test.   00:10:53.920 --> 00:10:58.080 Another D-Class personnel was sent down the  road, but this one was wearing a body harness   00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:01.920 that was connected to a pulley system,  as well as being equipped with a camera.   00:11:01.920 --> 00:11:08.160 He was ordered to wait at the edge of the  SCP-4434 area until the 4434-B entity appeared. 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:13.760 The entity soon emerged, taking the form of a  middle aged woman. As soon as the D Class was seen   00:11:13.760 --> 00:11:18.160 conversing with the entity and agreed to follow  it, the pulley was engaged in order to forcibly   00:11:18.160 --> 00:11:23.360 pull him out of the area. This was followed by an  entirely unexpected event. The middle aged woman   00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:27.840 quickly produced a knife, and with a supernatural  speed, severed the rope on the pulley system.   00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:33.120 The now freed D-Class stood up, followed the  woman into the woods, and was consumed soon after. 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:38.160 The researchers were growing frustrated with their  lack of advancement in understanding the anomaly,   00:11:38.160 --> 00:11:43.200 and so for the fourth test, they decided to take  quite extreme measures. A drone was used to fly   00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:47.840 over the area, which identified the mouth of the  cave that the GPS trackers had been taken into.   00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:50.160 It was a three and a half  meter wide hole in the ground,   00:11:50.160 --> 00:11:53.760 too dark to see anything past the entrance,  and the drone installed an anchor point in   00:11:53.760 --> 00:11:57.120 the ground at the mouth of the hole  before flying in to explore further,   00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:01.360 but the signal was almost immediately  lost. Progress had been made though. 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:06.400 Yet another D-Class was selected, this  time one who had climbing experience.   00:12:06.400 --> 00:12:13.680 D-84041 was warned in advance that the SCP-4434-B  entity would appear to her and would have a   00:12:13.680 --> 00:12:18.240 compulsive affect, and that she was to ignore  them no matter what form they took and instead   00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:23.840 proceed as quickly as possible to the cave,  which had been designated as SCP-4434-D. 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:29.360 D-84041 was taken to the road, and she  immediately began running down the path   00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:33.840 into the woods. She was able to reach the mouth  of the cave without seeing any anomalous entities,   00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:39.040 neither 4434-B nor the carnivorous deer. She  quickly attached the rope she had brought   00:12:39.040 --> 00:12:42.560 to the anchor that was installed by the  drone and began rappelling into the hole. 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:48.240 As she descended down, she described a normal,  rocky cave, one that grew wetter the further   00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:52.880 down she went. Surprisingly, she soon reached  the bottom, where she found a spherical room,   00:12:52.880 --> 00:12:57.680 roughly eight meters across, but this was not  anything like the entrance to the cave. The   00:12:57.680 --> 00:13:03.920 floor of this room wasn’t made of rock or dirt,  it was more like flesh, and it appeared… to be   00:13:03.920 --> 00:13:09.040 breathing. And there was something else down there  too, a folded piece of paper with writing on it. 00:13:09.760 --> 00:13:12.960 The D-Class was ordered to pick up the  paper, take a sample of the cave floor,   00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:18.720 and exit the area as soon as possible, as there  was no way to predict if the SCP-4434-B and C   00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:23.520 entities, or something worse, would soon  appear. After taking a sample she began   00:13:23.520 --> 00:13:28.240 climbing out of the cave. When she emerged there  were still no signs of any anomalous creatures   00:13:28.240 --> 00:13:32.480 but she quickly made her way down the  road and out of the SCP-4434 area. 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:38.320 When she reached the waiting Agents at the edge  of the area, D-84041 handed them the sample and   00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:42.800 the paper that she found but then stopped and  turned around. There on the ground roughly   00:13:42.800 --> 00:13:50.080 five meters away was a plate of food. Without any  hesitation she walked back into the SCP-4434 area,   00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:54.000 picked up the plate, and walked back  into the woods. She was never seen again.   00:13:54.640 --> 00:13:59.520 It was now clear that 4434-B could take  forms other than just humanoids and animals. 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:05.120 As the objects that the D-Class had managed  to get out of SCP-4434 were analyzed,   00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:09.760 the area’s former owner, Richard Redkinne,  was again questioned by Foundation agents.   00:14:09.760 --> 00:14:13.120 They asked him if there was anything that he  failed to mention in their previous interview   00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:16.480 and he told them that there was one thing  that he preferred not to normally discuss.   00:14:17.120 --> 00:14:21.120 Just before his daughter’s death, in addition  to her fascination with writing and coming up   00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:25.920 with stories, she had become obsessed with the  occult. When they asked him about the paper   00:14:25.920 --> 00:14:31.280 they had found within SCP-4434-D, he told them  that it was very likely that she had written it. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:36.320 The SCP Foundation now understood why they had  detected so many thaumaturgic particles in the   00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:40.960 area, which is the residual energy left over  from a particular form of ritualistic practice   00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:44.400 that is more commonly known  as “magic” or “witchcraft.” 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:48.800 The contents of the paper found in the cave  seem to add additional weight to the theory   00:14:48.800 --> 00:14:53.840 that his daughter may have been involved in a  ritual that led to the creation of SCP-4434,   00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:56.800 because written on the single  page is a poem which reads: 00:14:57.440 --> 00:15:01.760 The forest is a sea; the wind is the waves and the water is the leaves. 00:15:02.560 --> 00:15:06.320 The streams become undercurrents, the birds become fish,  00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:10.160 and coral finds its home as fungus, growths sprouting as I wish. 00:15:11.040 --> 00:15:13.760 The ground is the shore, pulling me by the feet,  00:15:13.760 --> 00:15:17.840 dragging me down and pulling me back Back and forth on repeat. 00:15:18.640 --> 00:15:20.640 I dove down past the light  00:15:20.640 --> 00:15:24.640 down where I couldn't breathe, and found nature looking for a fight. 00:15:25.520 --> 00:15:29.200 Yes, the forest is a sea, but I've made it barely big enough for me.  00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:33.600 The forest is a sea, so now something's bound to come eat. 00:15:34.400 --> 00:15:38.560 Things only became more mysterious though  when Foundation researchers performed a DNA   00:15:38.560 --> 00:15:44.720 test on the sample taken from the bottom of the  SCP-4434-D cave. What they found was that it was,   00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:51.680 just as D-84041 had described, a flesh-like  substance. And that it was a 78.9% match   00:15:51.680 --> 00:15:56.160 to Melanocetus johnsoni, better  known as the Deep Sea Anglerfish. 00:15:56.960 --> 00:16:01.360 And there was one final discovery to be made  as well. Linguistic teams within the Foundation   00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:06.240 investigated the name of the road that  had appeared on the SCP-4434-A billboards   00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:10.240 and discovered that the word was very similar  to the Native American Tutelo tribe word   00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:14.480 wágriwa, which roughly translates  to the phrase… I have come back. 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:16.960 Now you should come back as well,   00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:21.040 by subscribing and turning on notifications  to make sure you don’t miss a single anomaly,   00:16:21.040 --> 00:16:26.640 like SCP-054, the Water Nymph, another  strange and perhaps misunderstood creature,   00:16:26.640 --> 00:16:35.840 as we delve further and further into the  SCP Foundation’s classified archives.