WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.140 --> 00:00:04.520 A prisoner in a striped uniform is led down the central corridor of a penitentiary by 00:00:04.520 --> 00:00:05.830 a pair of guards. 00:00:05.830 --> 00:00:10.140 Wherever he’s being taken, the prisoner is not going peacefully. 00:00:10.140 --> 00:00:14.600 The other inmates stand at their cell doors watching as he is dragged past them. 00:00:14.600 --> 00:00:18.390 The prisoner is begging for the guards to show him mercy, pleading for them not to make 00:00:18.390 --> 00:00:23.539 him go in there, to subject him to anything, anything in the world but that. 00:00:23.539 --> 00:00:26.480 The guards pay no attention to his cries as they force him along. 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:30.759 They reach the end of the corridor and stop in front of the last cell. 00:00:30.759 --> 00:00:32.669 Number 667. 00:00:32.669 --> 00:00:37.800 The prisoner looks into the dark, empty cell and screams, struggling against his captors 00:00:37.800 --> 00:00:43.190 one last time before they overpower him and shove him inside, slamming the door shut behind 00:00:43.190 --> 00:00:44.190 him. 00:00:44.190 --> 00:00:46.860 The prisoner looks around the small, dim cell. 00:00:46.860 --> 00:00:50.230 All that’s inside is a bed with a thin mattress and a filthy toilet. 00:00:50.230 --> 00:00:55.320 He looks extremely scared, his eyes searching around the cell as if a monster is going to 00:00:55.320 --> 00:00:58.170 leap out from a dark corner and grab him. 00:00:58.170 --> 00:01:02.410 The prisoner hears a cracking sound and jumps in fright, spinning around to see a different 00:01:02.410 --> 00:01:04.409 kind of monster. 00:01:04.409 --> 00:01:08.310 Standing between the two guards who led him here, is a third prison guard. 00:01:08.310 --> 00:01:13.390 He’s enormous, and the prisoner watches as he cracks the knuckles of his massive hands. 00:01:13.390 --> 00:01:16.920 The giant guard reaches for something hanging next to the cell door. 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:19.520 It’s a… clipboard. 00:01:19.520 --> 00:01:23.460 He looks at the prisoner’s uniform and notes his name before writing it down. 00:01:23.460 --> 00:01:27.860 The large guard asks over his shoulder “so… what are we thinking? 00:01:27.860 --> 00:01:28.860 One day? 00:01:28.860 --> 00:01:29.860 Two?” 00:01:29.860 --> 00:01:33.290 “For this one?” one of the other guards answers, “he deserves a lot more than that 00:01:33.290 --> 00:01:34.290 for what he did.” 00:01:34.290 --> 00:01:36.691 “Why, what’d he do?” asks the big one. 00:01:36.691 --> 00:01:38.409 “He attacked one of the nurses. 00:01:38.409 --> 00:01:39.840 She’s in pretty bad shape.” 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:44.270 “One of the nurses?” the veins in the larger guard’s head start to bulge out as 00:01:44.270 --> 00:01:45.880 his grip on the pencil tightens. 00:01:45.880 --> 00:01:47.330 “Who was it?” 00:01:47.330 --> 00:01:50.360 “It was… it was Gloria” the guard answers. 00:01:50.360 --> 00:01:53.590 The pencil snaps in the giant guard's hand. 00:01:53.590 --> 00:01:56.360 One of the guards quickly picks it up and hands it back to him. 00:01:56.360 --> 00:01:59.950 Through gritted teeth he answers “I see…” 00:01:59.950 --> 00:02:04.290 As the giant guard stares at him with angry, violent eyes, the prisoner starts to slink 00:02:04.290 --> 00:02:07.909 back into the dark cell, terrified of what’s going to happen to him. 00:02:07.909 --> 00:02:10.209 “You like to attack nurses, do ya? 00:02:10.209 --> 00:02:13.450 Well we’re going to give you plenty of time to think about it. 00:02:13.450 --> 00:02:16.629 I’ll see you… in a year.” 00:02:16.629 --> 00:02:20.590 The two other guards look at each other, clearly thinking that this is extreme even for a crime 00:02:20.590 --> 00:02:21.590 like this. 00:02:21.590 --> 00:02:26.260 “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” one of them asks, but it’s already too late. 00:02:26.260 --> 00:02:29.930 The guard has penciled in the date for exactly one year later. 00:02:29.930 --> 00:02:34.800 “No, please no!” the prisoner screams, rushing towards the bars and reaching out 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:37.110 as if it will somehow help him, but it doesn’t. 00:02:37.110 --> 00:02:42.660 There is a faint rustling of wind that seems to carry the sound of whispers, and then… 00:02:42.660 --> 00:02:43.860 the prisoner vanishes. 00:02:43.860 --> 00:02:46.231 He’s simply gone, blinked out of existence. 00:02:46.231 --> 00:02:51.849 The guard hangs the clipboard back on the wall before turning and quickly walking away. 00:02:51.849 --> 00:02:53.630 He needs to get to the infirmary. 00:02:53.630 --> 00:02:57.040 The two guards can do nothing but shrug at each other and follow after him. 00:02:57.040 --> 00:03:01.880 “Poor guy” one of them whispers as they walk away from the empty cell. 00:03:01.880 --> 00:03:06.010 One year to the day later, the huge guard walks down the same prison corridor. 00:03:06.010 --> 00:03:10.510 It’s late at night, and as he walks along he lets his baton hit against the bars of 00:03:10.510 --> 00:03:12.510 the cells, making a loud clatter. 00:03:12.510 --> 00:03:14.151 “Wake up everyone, wake up. 00:03:14.151 --> 00:03:16.599 It’s a homecoming day.” 00:03:16.599 --> 00:03:20.260 Sleepy prisoners get up out of their beds and stand at the front of their cells, trying 00:03:20.260 --> 00:03:23.540 their best to look through the bars to see the cell at the end of the block. 00:03:23.540 --> 00:03:26.180 “See what happens when you mess with staff. 00:03:26.180 --> 00:03:28.210 Come on, get up, get up. 00:03:28.210 --> 00:03:29.210 Today’s the day. 00:03:29.210 --> 00:03:30.870 It’s a homecoming!” 00:03:30.870 --> 00:03:34.100 The guard gets to the end of the corridor and stops in front of the empty cell with 00:03:34.100 --> 00:03:36.530 the clipboard hanging on the wall next to it. 00:03:36.530 --> 00:03:40.890 The door is open and there’s nothing inside the dark cell except for the same dirty toilet 00:03:40.890 --> 00:03:41.890 and bed. 00:03:41.890 --> 00:03:45.370 The guard takes out his pocket watch and checks the time. 00:03:45.370 --> 00:03:50.590 Everyone, the guard and the prisoners alike, are all focused on the empty cell. 00:03:50.590 --> 00:03:52.080 The guard checks his watch again. 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:57.799 The minute hand ticks over to midnight, and the moment it does the cell door slides shut 00:03:57.799 --> 00:04:00.080 and locks with a loud click. 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:04.760 The prison is completely silent, each inmate waiting with bated breath to see what happens 00:04:04.760 --> 00:04:05.989 next. 00:04:05.989 --> 00:04:10.330 The guard takes out a large, heavy ring of keys and inserts one into the cell door before 00:04:10.330 --> 00:04:11.890 stepping inside. 00:04:11.890 --> 00:04:15.670 He looks around and still it appears that nothing inside is different. 00:04:15.670 --> 00:04:18.640 But then he spots what he’s looking for. 00:04:18.640 --> 00:04:23.640 There in the corner, near the toilet, is a huddled figure in a striped prison uniform. 00:04:23.640 --> 00:04:26.220 “Well well well, there you are.” 00:04:26.220 --> 00:04:30.411 The guard starts to walk towards this person who has somehow appeared in the cell, but 00:04:30.411 --> 00:04:33.760 the huddled figure doesn’t move or react in any way. 00:04:33.760 --> 00:04:37.860 The guard reaches down and puts a hand on the man to flip him over “How’d you enjoy 00:04:37.860 --> 00:04:41.850 your stay?” 00:04:41.850 --> 00:04:46.050 Solitary confinement is one of the most brutal forms of punishment that is still in use across 00:04:46.050 --> 00:04:47.720 much of the world today. 00:04:47.720 --> 00:04:52.730 The psychological and physical distress that comes from days, weeks, months, even sometimes 00:04:52.730 --> 00:04:55.410 years spent alone can be devastating. 00:04:55.410 --> 00:04:59.610 But as horrible as this practice is, there exists a form of retribution that is even 00:04:59.610 --> 00:05:01.610 more terrifying. 00:05:01.610 --> 00:05:06.390 One that even the most hardened of criminals fear and would do anything to avoid. 00:05:06.390 --> 00:05:11.030 This is SCP-2701, also known as… 00:05:11.030 --> 00:05:12.780 True Solitary. 00:05:12.780 --> 00:05:18.680 SCP-2701 is a seemingly standard looking prison cell located in a now condemned Pennsylvania 00:05:18.680 --> 00:05:19.870 state penitentiary. 00:05:19.870 --> 00:05:24.501 The prison, which was built in the early-mid 1800s, was showing its age long before it 00:05:24.501 --> 00:05:29.080 was finally shut down, and the cell contains only an old toilet and bed, with a clipboard 00:05:29.080 --> 00:05:33.550 hanging to the left of the cell with various forms marked as “Intake”. 00:05:33.550 --> 00:05:37.770 The cell’s construction materials appear normal and the contents themselves are non-anomalous. 00:05:37.770 --> 00:05:43.570 It is only when someone is placed inside of SCP-2701 and the clipboard next to the cell 00:05:43.570 --> 00:05:47.340 is used, that its frightening effects become evident. 00:05:47.340 --> 00:05:50.990 When a human being is locked within the cell, their name is written on the intake form, 00:05:50.990 --> 00:05:56.390 and a date is filled in under the “release date” section, SCP-2701’s anomalous activation 00:05:56.390 --> 00:05:58.910 event is put in motion. 00:05:58.910 --> 00:06:04.060 Thirteen seconds after these conditions have been met, the person inside will disappear, 00:06:04.060 --> 00:06:07.730 completely vanishing from view as if they simply no longer exist. 00:06:07.730 --> 00:06:12.070 Any attempts to better understand the process by which they dematerialize have been unsuccessful, 00:06:12.070 --> 00:06:17.420 as all recording equipment looking into or placed inside the cell will show only static 00:06:17.420 --> 00:06:22.450 or blank images during the thirteen seconds before the subject disappears. 00:06:22.450 --> 00:06:25.870 Researchers observing the effect in person though, have reported the sounds of wind and 00:06:25.870 --> 00:06:31.560 unidentified whispering voices, but it is still unknown what may be producing these. 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:36.390 At 12:00am on the dot on the release date, the cell’s door will somehow close and lock 00:06:36.390 --> 00:06:38.750 itself if it is not already shut. 00:06:38.750 --> 00:06:43.410 At this exact moment, the person who vanished will reappear within the locked cell. 00:06:43.410 --> 00:06:47.700 Unfortunately for the person who was locked inside, while they may have returned to our 00:06:47.700 --> 00:06:51.820 reality, it is unlikely that they will ever be the same. 00:06:51.820 --> 00:06:57.160 Experiments into SCP-2701 have revealed that those who are placed inside and vanish will 00:06:57.160 --> 00:07:02.190 experience a state of complete sensory deprivation, while remaining fully conscious the entire 00:07:02.190 --> 00:07:03.190 time. 00:07:03.190 --> 00:07:06.830 They experience no sounds, smells, or sense of touching anything. 00:07:06.830 --> 00:07:10.660 They do not even see darkness, since that would imply sight. 00:07:10.660 --> 00:07:14.530 Instead they truly experience no senses at all. 00:07:14.530 --> 00:07:18.840 This effect can be disastrous for the human psyche, with subjects reporting that they 00:07:18.840 --> 00:07:23.770 have developed intense fears of both shadows and light, claustrophobia, agoraphobia, and 00:07:23.770 --> 00:07:27.460 a fear of going to sleep following their time within SCP-2701. 00:07:27.460 --> 00:07:33.670 At the same time, they will have experienced no physical changes at all, including aging, 00:07:33.670 --> 00:07:35.560 no matter how much time has passed. 00:07:35.560 --> 00:07:42.300 But the worst part of SCP-2701, is that those who are locked inside do not experience time 00:07:42.300 --> 00:07:43.480 at the same rate as you or I. 00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:48.600 No, tests have revealed that once someone disappears from within the cell, they will 00:07:48.600 --> 00:07:53.020 feel as if time has been significantly stretched out, with the dilation effect causing them 00:07:53.020 --> 00:07:57.150 to perceive time at a rate that has been estimated to be between three and four hundred times 00:07:57.150 --> 00:07:59.020 longer than normal. 00:07:59.020 --> 00:08:03.060 That means that someone placed inside for two hours will experience time as if they 00:08:03.060 --> 00:08:08.570 had been locked away for 25 to 33 days, while someone placed inside for a whole year will 00:08:08.570 --> 00:08:13.730 feel as though they have been floating in a void of nothingness for several centuries. 00:08:13.730 --> 00:08:17.340 Foundation researchers have theorized that the absence of any outside stimulation for 00:08:17.340 --> 00:08:21.860 that long of a period causes the mind to break down rational thought structures in an effort 00:08:21.860 --> 00:08:26.660 to mitigate stress, and that a complete psychological breakdown soon follows. 00:08:26.660 --> 00:08:32.089 In order to better understand the effects of SCP-2701, the SCP Foundation embarked on 00:08:32.089 --> 00:08:35.039 a number of tests using Class D personnel. 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:40.780 In one experiment, which was performed on a D-Class known as D-77391, the event started 00:08:40.780 --> 00:08:45.540 at 11:45pm and the release date was set for the coming midnight. 00:08:45.540 --> 00:08:49.520 This led to the D-Class being inside the cell for fifteen minutes, though they experienced 00:08:49.520 --> 00:08:54.200 their time within as having lasted 75 to 100 hours. 00:08:54.200 --> 00:08:59.930 When D-77391 was interviewed six hours after reappearing, they described their time inside 00:08:59.930 --> 00:09:02.290 as being a true hell. 00:09:02.290 --> 00:09:04.600 Experiencing nothing but emptiness, they couldn’t do anything. 00:09:04.600 --> 00:09:09.250 They couldn’t sleep, they couldn’t even scream, they were left alone with only their 00:09:09.250 --> 00:09:10.410 thoughts and memories. 00:09:10.410 --> 00:09:14.410 The only thing that kept them from completely losing their mind was something one of the 00:09:14.410 --> 00:09:16.930 researchers told them before they entered the cell. 00:09:16.930 --> 00:09:20.800 The researcher told them that no matter what they felt, that they had to hold on to the 00:09:20.800 --> 00:09:23.060 idea that they were going to come back. 00:09:23.060 --> 00:09:26.880 They needed to remember they wouldn’t be in there forever. 00:09:26.880 --> 00:09:30.470 While these words of encouragement did seem to stave off the worst of the mental effects 00:09:30.470 --> 00:09:36.090 D-77391 could have suffered, they also impacted the results of the experiment, and the offending 00:09:36.090 --> 00:09:41.170 researcher was later reassigned to a different project following a six-month suspension. 00:09:41.170 --> 00:09:47.050 The SCP Foundation first became aware of SCP-2701 following reports of certain abnormalities 00:09:47.050 --> 00:09:49.370 at a Pennsylvania State Penitentiary. 00:09:49.370 --> 00:09:52.500 There were numerous complaints by lawyers that they were not being allowed to meet with 00:09:52.500 --> 00:09:57.340 their clients, and that they were being denied access to the site by the prison’s warden. 00:09:57.340 --> 00:10:01.030 When police were finally dispatched to the site to investigate, it was discovered that 00:10:01.030 --> 00:10:06.210 the entire prison, which previously housed 137 inmates and employed a number of staff, 00:10:06.210 --> 00:10:09.520 had only one inhabitant - the warden. 00:10:09.520 --> 00:10:13.940 He described the activation procedure for Cell 667, and explained that he had placed 00:10:13.940 --> 00:10:18.290 every single prisoner inside, one by one, and made them disappear. 00:10:18.290 --> 00:10:22.450 He had been keeping the funds that were supposed to be used for the care of the inmates as 00:10:22.450 --> 00:10:26.930 well as to bribe officials and former staff, in order to keep the warden’s scheme secret 00:10:26.930 --> 00:10:28.960 and prevent any official inquiries. 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:33.340 The warden surrendered to the police without incident, and an undercover Foundation agent 00:10:33.340 --> 00:10:38.450 within the Philadelphia police soon alerted SCP agents to the cell’s anomalous effects. 00:10:38.450 --> 00:10:43.420 When a Foundation team arrived on site, they found the cell exactly as described, along 00:10:43.420 --> 00:10:45.040 with the intake forms. 00:10:45.040 --> 00:10:47.290 The prison warden had been telling the truth. 00:10:47.290 --> 00:10:50.950 Over a hundred forms were filled out with inmate’s names, with release dates ranging 00:10:50.950 --> 00:10:55.020 from fifty to over thirteen hundred years in the future. 00:10:55.020 --> 00:11:00.040 The ease with which SCP-2701 is able to be contained, has led to it receiving the Safe 00:11:00.040 --> 00:11:01.190 classification. 00:11:01.190 --> 00:11:07.030 The former prison where SCP-2701 is located is monitored at all times by video and audio 00:11:07.030 --> 00:11:10.970 surveillance, and a security guard equipped with full-body restraints is present at all 00:11:10.970 --> 00:11:15.330 times to both detain any subjects who appear within the cell, as well as prevent any new 00:11:15.330 --> 00:11:21.090 ones from being placed inside, that aren’t a part of an official SCP Foundation experiment. 00:11:21.090 --> 00:11:26.560 Now go and watch another entry from the files of Dr. Bob, like SCP-052 The Time-Traveling 00:11:26.560 --> 00:11:30.170 train, for another anomaly with a direct line to the unknown. 00:11:30.170 --> 00:11:34.480 And make sure you subscribe and turn on notifications, so you don’t miss a single anomaly, as we 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:37.800 delve further and further into the SCP Foundation’s classified archives.