"HIDER" - Redwood Bureau Phenomenon #0225

Summary

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Redwood Bureau – “HIDER” (Phenomenon #0225)

Podcast: Redwood Bureau
Episode Title: “HIDER” - Redwood Bureau Phenomenon #0225
Date: December 2, 2021
Host/Narrator: Agent Conroy (voiced by Josh Tomar)
Format: Fictional horror, first-person survivor account, with “leaked” Bureau report analysis

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Episode Overview

This chilling episode of Redwood Bureau, “HIDER,” delves into the nightmarish experience of Paul Murick, an unsuspecting suburbanite whose encounter with a monstrous creature—codenamed “Hider” (Phenomenon 0225)—results in a tragic and horrifying downfall for himself and his family. Agent Conroy, a rogue former Bureau operative, frames the episode as both an exposé of secretive, inhumane Redwood Bureau operations and a warning to listeners: unknown dangers are loosed upon the public in the name of supernatural research.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Introduction to Phenomenon 0225: The Hider (01:28 – 03:12)

• Agent Conroy summarizes the Bureau’s knowledge: Hider attacks begin with small, mysterious deaths in suburban America. These escalate rapidly, with the Bureau tracking 22 contained Hiders responsible for over 250 deaths nationwide, some linked to record local killing sprees.
• Attacks are indiscriminate, affecting both people and ecosystems. Their impact grows exponentially when they enter densely populated areas.
• Notable Quote (02:44, Agent Conroy):
  "When these entities find their way to larger populations, their lethality quickly becomes apparent. But these creatures were not just finding their way to communities."

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The Survivor’s Story – Paul Murick’s Account

Suburban Discomfort and the Inciting Incident (03:12 – 06:06)

• Paul Murick, a “new money” suburban family man, senses discomfort and separation from his wealthy neighbors.
• The inciting event: Paul’s wife Kira, from an upper-crust background, suggests they try eating “roadkill” via a new delivery app. Against Paul’s expectations, the company, Roadside Deliveries, delivers a freshly-killed deer to their door.
• The delivery itself is odd and unsettling: the driver admits Paul is his “first” customer.

Notable Quote (05:40, Kira):
"That’d be cruel," speaking on not killing wildlife herself, “there’s an app.”

A Peculiar Delivery & Domestic Dread (06:06 – 10:29)

• Paul reels from the incongruity of his cosmopolitan lifestyle and the primal act of butchering a deer.
• The deer, strung up in their backyard, begins behaving impossibly—its head appears to turn to face him, eyes staring, despite wind and physics.
• As Paul steels himself with whiskey, domestic responsibility, and unease overwhelm him.

The First Attack: Woody the Cat (10:29 – 15:17)

• Neighborhood stray Woody the Maine Coon causes a commotion; Paul thinks Woody is hunting the deer.
• Suddenly, a grotesque sequence unfolds:
  • Woody becomes ensnared by something inside the deer carcass, gets dragged in by “intestine or bowels,” and is devoured before Paul’s eyes.
  • The event is so surreal Paul questions his own sanity.

Notable Quote (14:08, Paul, internal monologue):
"It sounds insane, ridiculous even, but as he disappeared behind the gore, Woody looked back at me."

The Creature Revealed (16:18 – 18:41)

• The deer carcass ruptures, revealing the Hider—an immense, impossible monster with rib-like teeth, scimitar claws, multi-jointed limbs, and a sickly, shifting anatomy.
• The depiction emphasizes biological terror; Paul’s body recognizes it as an “apex predator.”
• Paul attempts to escape, suffering a deep wound on his shoulder.

Notable Quote (17:26, Paul):
"This thing was an apex predator, and my body recognized that on the food chain, I was below this thing by a country mile."

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Chaos and Tragedy (18:41 – 23:30)

• Paul, injured, barricades himself in their detached garage as the Hider prowls outside. He contemplates rescue options and the terrifying reality that his family is still inside.
• As Paul makes a desperate run for the front, Kira, confused, opens the back door and is instantly attacked and killed by the creature.

Memorable Moment:
Paul hears the security chime; Kira’s scream cuts through the night, ending with “a moist thumping behind the building.” (23:22–23:30)

Aftermath and Unanswered Questions (23:42 – 27:13)

• Police and EMTs arrive; Paul is found holding Kira’s body, raving about monsters. Authorities note her wounds are unlike any domestic violence, with “ragged tears, deep furrows.”
• Roadside Deliveries cannot be traced—no records exist.
• Later, Paul is notified by the investigating detective that Kira’s body never made it to the morgue; the vehicle and medical staff transporting her disappeared, later found abandoned, her body grotesquely mutilated as if from within.

Notable Quote (26:57, Detective):
"I don't know how to tell you this... but your wife's body never arrived at the morgue."

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Phenomenon Analysis & Bureau Malfeasance (28:20 – 31:19)

• Agent Conroy explains Hider biology and Bureau experiments:
  • Hiders possess extremely durable, intestine-like skin, can squeeze into small corpses, and shift their mass accordingly.
  • Their only bones are teeth (masquerading as ribs) and talons.
  • Nearly impossible to kill; impervious to gunfire and explosives, they are effectively immortal.
  • Hiders can kill and hide in everything from deer to domestic animals.
• The most chilling reveal:
  • The Roadside Deliveries company is a Redwood Bureau front, used to seed Hiders into society for research purposes.
  • The app appears only briefly, pushes to select devices, then self-deletes—leaving no trace.
  • Agent Conroy suspects the Bureau wants to test if Hiders deserve a "disastrous" threat level, regardless of civilian casualties.

Notable Quote (30:50, Agent Conroy):
"My best guess? They want to see if 0225 can earn the threat level of disastrous. It's simply a piece of their research which happens to place entire towns in jeopardy."

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Final Warnings & Takeaways

• Agent Conroy: If you ever encounter an advertisement for Roadside Deliveries, do not engage. Leave the area if possible.
• The Bureau’s reckless approach puts entire communities at deadly risk, with Hiders representing one of the most lethal threats encountered.

Closing Quote (31:16, Agent Conroy):
"You must heed my warning. If you see an ad for Roadside Deliveries... ignore. In fact, consider leaving town."

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|-------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:44 | Agent Conroy | "When these entities find their way to larger populations, their lethality quickly becomes apparent." | | 05:40 | Kira Murick | "That’d be cruel," (re: not killing raccoons herself)—"There’s an app." | | 14:08 | Paul Murick (internal monologue) | "It sounds insane, ridiculous even, but as he disappeared behind the gore, Woody looked back at me." | | 17:26 | Paul Murick | "This thing was an apex predator, and my body recognized that on the food chain, I was below this thing by a country mile." | | 23:22–23:30 | Kira Murick / Paul Murick | [Kira calling outside, followed by her scream, cut short by a “moist thumping”] | | 26:57 | Detective (to Paul) | "I don't know how to tell you this... but your wife's body never arrived at the morgue." | | 30:50 | Agent Conroy | "My best guess? They want to see if 0225 can earn the threat level of disastrous..." | | 31:16 | Agent Conroy | "You must heed my warning. If you see an ad for Roadside Deliveries... ignore. In fact, consider leaving town." |

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Agent Conroy’s Opening & Report Context: 00:58 – 03:12
• Paul Murick’s Narrative (start): 03:12
• Roadkill Delivery Incident: 05:40 – 08:04
• First Supernatural Occurrence (deer’s behavior): 10:25 – 10:59
• Woody the Cat Disappearance: 13:44 – 15:17
• Hider Emerges: 16:18 – 18:41
• Kira’s Death: 23:22 – 23:30
• Police Arrive, Aftermath: 23:42 – 27:13
• Agent Conroy’s Hider Analysis & Bureau Motive: 28:20 – 31:19

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Conclusion

This episode masterfully blends cosmic horror, suburban satire, harrowing loss, and government conspiracy into a taut, first-person narrative, capped by Agent Conroy’s damning exposé of Redwood Bureau. It warns that some monsters are not only real, but intentionally unleashed, and the true horror lies in the bureaucratic indifference to collateral damage. The “Hider” is a unique and terrifying entity—a haunting allegory for the unforeseen consequences of unchecked power and curiosity.

For listeners who haven’t tuned in: this episode serves as both an engrossing horror story and a sharp, cautionary tale about the horrors that lie beneath the mundane—and the organizations willing to risk everything to study them.

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Transcript

[Friend 1]

Look at him eating whatever he wants, never gaining a pound. Well, I'm stuck with the boring special and can't lose an ounce.

[Paul Murick]

How's your lunch, man?

[Friend 1]

Amazing.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

Yours?

[Paul Murick]

So good.

[Friend 1]

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[Paul Murick]

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[Narrator / Paul Murick]

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[Friend 1]

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[Agent Conroy / Redwood Bureau Narrator]

Beware the Redwood Bureau. A secret organization which captures and researches creatures and objects that defy explanation. Their reckless procedures have led to countless innocent lives lost. I am Agent Conroy. I worked for the Redwood Bureau. But I have escaped them to leak their reports to the unsuspecting public. You have the right to know.

[Paul Murick]

People. Redwood Bureau phenomenon 0225. Code name hiders. RBP report 0225 initiated the life of

[Agent Conroy / Redwood Bureau Narrator]

a suburban California family was forever changed upon contact with an instance of 0225. Known as a Hider by the Bureau. One victim killed by the creature would later be found with their body expl. Seemingly from the inside out. The local investigators and police force were left confused when the Bureau stepped in. Reports of similar killings had already occurred nationwide over the last few decades. While rare, left alone, hiders will quickly decimate local ecosystems, humans included. The Bureau quickly noticed where a familiar killing popped up. A dozen more would soon sprout up until the capture of the entity. Over those terrifying decades, Redwood Bureau eventually contained over 22 instances of hiders, of which their combined kill count amounted to at least 250. And these were at first small town killings. It was this instance of 0225 that most concerned me. There was something off about this written report from a survivor. Once I'd read it, I knew there were more to these hiders than first expected. It was the first killing in a record setting streak of 54 local casualties to a single instance of a Hider. When these entities find their way to larger populations, their lethality quickly becomes apparent. But these creatures were not just finding their way to communities.

[Paul Murick]

I was a working class kid growing up.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

Blue collar all the way down to the boots. But dad was a big believer in

[Paul Murick]

education as well as hard work.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

Paulie Murick Sr. Made sure his boy kept his nose to the academic grindstone. Scholarships were one, and what that couldn't

[Paul Murick]

cover, he and mom put in the

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

overtime hours to pay those bills. And it worked. I got a job right out of grad school at a salary that no

[Paul Murick]

one in my family had ever dreamed of before.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

I bought a home in a trendy neighborhood up in the hills. My kids went to private school. Me and my wife drove new cars.

[Paul Murick]

I was even a member of the local country club.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

But I never felt like I was in the club. I had earned my slice of the American piece. There was something about the way my

[Paul Murick]

neighbors looked at me.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

When I brought the barrels out on garbage day or I pulled up to my driveway after a long day at the office. I'd catch them looking at me as I loosened my tie or looked for my keys, usually out of a need to break the awkwardness of the moment. More than anything else, I would raise my hand and wave at them, just being neighborly like I'd been taught.

[Paul Murick]

There would be a hitch as they

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

raised their hand in response, as if they weren't quite sure how they should respond. They'd have an odd expression on their

[Paul Murick]

faces as they did the mental arithmetic

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

to work out how I'd ever manage to find my way into their world. I feared that there was still something country about the way I carried myself. Maybe it was the way I squared my shoulders when I spoke to you, just a hint of backwoods grit that cut all the fine and erudite knowledge I'd acquired. I had money, sure, but these folks

[Paul Murick]

were wealthy, generationally wealthy, and they could

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

smell new money on you. In the pit of my soul, I was scared that one day I'd say or do something that would reveal the bare dirt floor heritage that I was only a generation or so removed from. And then a government official would arrive with a clipboard and usher me out of the life I'd worked so hard to achieve. So you can imagine my reaction when my wife, who came from a long line of doctors, lawyers, and CEOs, suggested that we should try roadkill. What do you mean, try roadkill? I asked, honestly, incredulous. Do you want me to go clip a raccoon with the Tesla? She didn't laugh, but in the voice she used to explain to our son why the moon changes, she said, of course not.

[Paul Murick]

That'd be cruel, and held up her

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

phone, adding, there's an app. Less than an hour later A deer carcass freshly collided with a semi was delivered to my door.

[Paul Murick]

Hi, you ordered roadkill and it's here.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

Our governor had made the change a year or so back. If you're in California and you had the misfortune of hitting a wild animal with your car, you can legally keep it as long as you log it on the state developed app. I suppose that it was only a matter of time before some young entrepreneur found a way to make money off this arrangement and sell it as the next level of the whole organic and local sourced craze. When Kira said we were getting roadkill delivered to our door, I pictured a rusty old pickup truck pulling up with a wild eyed good ol boy that answered to a nickname like Scoot or Red. What we got instead was a neck bearded kid, his flannel shirt covered up by a white butcher's coat. He looked like he'd answered rolled or Cornelius. He did drive an old tow truck though. The hydraulics used to haul the carcass high off the ground and roadside deliveries carefully stenciled on the doors along with a buckhead logo, the deer's body swinging in a slight pendulum motion as he pulled into our driveway. Had he driven on a highway like that? The hefty young man leapt down from the cab and in a hearty, formal and far too loud voice asked, well,

[Paul Murick]

where can I put your freshly dead buck?

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

I had to help him haul it out back, still dressed in my work clothes and dreading what juices and viscera were being left behind by the effort. That thing was heavy. You deliver a lot of these? I asked as we caught our breath by the recycling bins.

[Paul Murick]

Actually, you're the first, sir.

[Agent Conroy / Redwood Bureau Narrator]

Actually, you're the first, sir.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

Later that evening I was looking out at the fancy French doors that Kira had insisted on installing when we bought the place. The bashed and battered dead thing was twisting outside on the elm, perfectly eye level with me. Once we'd strung the deer up, I asked the driver how long it would take him to dress it. The sudden and blank expression that dawned on his face told me everything I

[Paul Murick]

needed to know before he even said though, we don't do that, and quickly

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

showed himself out the side gate.

[Kira Murick]

Isn't that just part of the experience?

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

She asked me in a guileless voice. Eleven years of marriage and she still surprised the hell out of me. We came from very different worlds, I had to remind myself. She thought of apple picking as a lark, something to do when the air got crisper. To me that sound was harvest time and the kind of work I went to college to avoid. She made sure Robbie and Heather went to bed a little early and avoided the kitchen where they'd have a full view of Mommy's latest purchase.

[Kira Murick]

Once they're out, I'll be down to

[Paul Murick]

help, she had promised.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

Though I wasn't looking forward to this task, we had a hard enough time

[Paul Murick]

putting IKEA together without getting in an argument. The damage to the creature was extensive,

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

bone and intestine visible at various points around its chest and abdomen. I sat at our kitchen table searching for hunting videos. While working through a bottle of whiskey that I'd been saving for a special occasion. The fact is that I had seen this kind of thing done a couple

[Paul Murick]

times in my youth.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

My Uncle Johnny, who most folks called Junior, was quite the avid hunter and for reasons that were never explained to me, always brought his kills around our place to skin. He'd called me out there and would carefully instruct me on how to separate hide from meat in the most efficient way possible. I had a soft spot for animals, so even 35 years on, the images of Junior doing his thing were burned into my brain, but the minutiae had slipped away with most of my accent. The thought of going out there with our biggest Wusthof and peeling the poor thing just made me feel sick. I took another gulp of whiskey and looked up just as the back turned once more in my direction, giving me a view of its jaw jutting out at an awkward and unnatural angle. I looked away in disgust, just as the host of the video playing on my phone suggested putting something down.

[Paul Murick]

If you're gonna do this on your

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

own property, I thought back to that week Kira thought she was going to do painting with the kids after school every day and wondered if we still had any of the tarps she bought out in the garage. The buck was facing towards me again, but that.

[Paul Murick]

That didn't seem possible.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

The wind had been blowing just enough to send it spinning in a lazy and slow orbit, but the legs and the abdomen were pointed towards the neighbor's

[Paul Murick]

fence, but the head was still twisted to face the house, its dead eyes still trained only on me.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

I was just about to say, to hell with it. Go upstairs and tell Kira there was

[Paul Murick]

no way I was going to go through with it.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

If she wanted organic meat so bad, we'd just go get a butcher's box or something. My phone buzzed with a fresh text message.

[Kira Murick]

The kids are almost asleep. Is it done yet?

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

With a deep sigh, I felt all the way in my backbone. I stepped outside, momentarily irritated by the beep of the security system as I stepped out the back door and headed out to the garage. It was several more minutes in there, digging through boxes of Christmas decorations and packing blankets until I found the tarp. I dragged it through the side door

[Paul Murick]

that opened to the yard.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

A minute later I was carefully and after another message admonishing me for the noise the plastic made, quietly arranging it under the buck. I held the knife in both hands, the tip pressed just against the breastbone,

[Paul Murick]

praying that my health club muscles would be up to the task. I breathed in deeply, catching a hint

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

of copper and gaminess in the air surrounding the body.

[Paul Murick]

Just then an ear splitting shriek filled the night. For one insane moment I genuinely thought it isn't dead and quickly tried to think of the most humane and acceptable to the HOA way to end the poor thing suffering. Then I realized the hellish caterwauling was behind me and I spun in its direction, my fine German steel raised to defend myself against its source.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

I nearly laughed out loud when I saw it was the monstrous old Maine

[Paul Murick]

coon the neighbors had named Woodrul.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

He'd been in the habit of traipsing through our neighborhood whenever he felt like

[Paul Murick]

it, long before we'd moved in, and

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

I hadn't helped matters by sneaking him out table scraps whenever I could. Both the kids and I had been lobbying for a pet for a while, but Kira had vetoed it, so she was concerned about the mess a pet might bring into our home. I'll let the obvious irony of that stand on its own. Point is, Woody was at home on

[Paul Murick]

our property as he was anywhere in the neighborhood.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

But there I was, staring at his

[Paul Murick]

giant blue gray form, contorted as he

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

released a horrendous series of cries punctuated

[Paul Murick]

with vague venomous hisses in my direction.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

Woody, what is your problem, dude?

[Paul Murick]

A stronger rendition of the odor from

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

earlier suddenly plunged its way down my nostrils and a hot breeze sailed past my face, followed by a sudden sharp sting across my cheek. I put my hand against the wound reflexively, a slight dampness found there.

[Paul Murick]

Had Woody scratched me?

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

My eyes landed on the carcass. For a moment I thought my little feline friend had latched onto its side, perhaps some primal hunting instinct overcoming centuries of domestication, and was trying to take the buck down like he was some predator out on the savanna and not a fat, happy house cat.

[Paul Murick]

Woody let out a yowl, followed by a godawful snap.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

I saw a length of bow wrapped

[Paul Murick]

around the cat's midsection and without thinking I went to cut at it with a kitchen's knife. I was hoping I could free him without hurting the cat. Then the intestine pulled tight and Woody pressed against those lengths of bare bone and after a moment's resistance slid right through them. He made that desperate noise again as his body folded into two, pulled into the open wound. It sounds insane, ridiculous even, but as he disappeared behind the gore, Woody looked back at me. His mouth was wide open, desperately trying to form some other sound of protest or warning. Then he was gone and the sides of ribs pressed against each other. The entire thing had taken place in seconds. I was breathing heavy, like I'd sprinted my way through most of a 10k. My body shook with adrenaline, but I didn't move. I just kept looking at the deer, seeming no worse for wear than it had been when the delivery guy had dropped it off. And like it hadn't just eaten a cat in front of me. It's insane that that happened, right? I mean, I'm listening to myself say it, knowing it happened, but it sounds My phone dinged. I'd completely forgotten I was holding it. I brought it up to my face and saw the text from my wife.

[Kira Murick]

Is that cat trying to get at the deer? Hurry, sweetie, before he makes a mess.

[Paul Murick]

From the periphery of my vision I could see our bedroom window in the flickering light of the television. I imagined Kira sitting there, comfortably resting beneath her Egyptian cotton blanket, and it

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

seemed like a scene from another world.

[Paul Murick]

That's when I caught the scent again. There was blood in the yard already, some on the deer, some slowly dripping

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

off onto the patio.

[Paul Murick]

Some of it was smeared from where we'd dragged it, but this odor was different, more intense. My eyes focused and I saw the deer's stomach bulge and stretch slightly. The sides of the wound that Woody had disappeared into drew slowly back from each other with a deep, wet, sickening sound. The ribs, the bits not covered in gristle and tissue, glowed like gleaming ivory in the light of our kitchen window, then sprung apart from each other, revealing a deep black chasm contained within the deer's body. The tissue surrounding the bone tore and

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

fell away as guts poured out of

[Paul Murick]

the now gaping wound, and still those ribs remained, held aloft in the air. It was only as the bowels gathered

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

themselves under the bones and the creature

[Paul Murick]

started to pull itself up, towering over me, that I realized it they weren't ribs, they were teeth. It stood on two legs. Its multi jointed arms hung well past what I presumed to be its hips. At the end of those limbs were not anything you'd recognize as paws or hands, but just scimitar like claws that twitched soundlessly against the air. The flesh gathered in bunches and pouches, and the color of exposed organs and muscles shot through with pulsing blue veins. Two purulent eyes rested on either side of the flesh, fleshy crown atop its shoulders, more like a fish than anything else. It had to be the thing's head, but the rest was just teeth. The impossible creature gracefully snake like, twisted itself this way and that. The motion set drafts of warm, wet air towards me as it fixed first its left, then right eye upon me. It did not roar, growl, or hiss as it sized me up. The only sound audible was the hitch of its breathing, sending up tiny puffs of steam escaping near the top of its maw and the crinkle of the tarp's plastic underneath its wickedly taloned feet. I was scared, which would have been understandable given the events of those last few minutes, but it was a biological level of terror. This thing was an apex predator, and my body recognized that on the food chain, I was below this thing by a country mile. My phone chimed again. The noise, for whatever reason, broke my

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

paralysis and I flung myself towards the

[Paul Murick]

house as the creature lunged forward, leading with its now open mouth still utterly silent except for the click of its talons across the ground. I scrambled across the ground like a primate, the knife and phone still clutched in my hands, both tapping against the concrete as I skinned my knuckles and then pulled myself up to run. I tumbled forward almost immediately, my tennis shoes catching on an uneven patch of the patio. I imagine myself falling on my knife and the kids finding me there in the morning, pale as a dead fish and in the center of a sticky pool. Won't be a problem, a voice in my head reassured me.

[Agent Conroy / Redwood Bureau Narrator]

That thing will eat long before they get up.

[Paul Murick]

As I crashed forward, I opened both

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

of my hands, letting utensil and phone

[Paul Murick]

go, my brain unable to differentiate between the two in the moment, and used both hands, palms pressed against the ground, to bring me back to my feet. Click, click. Click, click. The creatures now familiar tang filled my nostrils and I felt an intense sting blossom on my shoulder, a surge of fresh dampness starting to spread across the fabric of my T shirt. I knew in minutes when the adrenaline my body was dumping into itself drained away, that I was going to experience pain like I had never felt before. I picked myself up off the ground and fell towards the still open side door, pulling it shut behind me as I collapsed into the garage Click, click, click, click. I rolled to my back, finding that not only was my right arm unable to do anything to help me, but trying to move it at all sent waves of nausea through my gut and set every nerve ending I had firing in agony. I looked through the frame and saw the monster, because what else would you call it? Growing larger as it got closer. I kicked the door closed in what

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

passed for its face.

[Paul Murick]

Just in time for it to fling its bizarre body against it, the wall of the garage shot shook with the force. I sprang up, the fresh adrenaline allowing me to ignore the pain this brought, and threw the lock into place. Once, twice, three times more. The thing smashed against the barrier and then silence. I breathed as slowly and shallowly as I could, not wanting to break this moment of tenuous calm. At the base of the door, I could see the creature's feet breaking the line of dim light coming from outside. It was waiting. I had wanted the garage to be separate from the house, planning to someday set up a workshop, man cave refuge for myself. A place where I could hide from Kira's list of honeydew chores in the kids algebra homework. That simple desire had trapped me out here. Muffled through the garage walls, I heard my phone receive a text message. Another followed. The monster was turning towards the phone, lying somewhere out there in the darkness. I was just starting to think rationally again. Every action I'd taken up to that moment having come to me in a primitive panic that had faded enough for me to remember that my wife and kids were in the house. And fear of a very different kind filled me. I debated throwing the door open and sprinting back across the patio, hoping I could make it back inside before the thing made a meal of me. I looked around for something to use as a weapon. There were a few gardening tools, mostly electric, and Heather's aluminum softball bats. But given my state, I really didn't see me wielding them to any success. I imagined the creature cutting me in half with a casual swipe and dismissed

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

the notion of running out that way, armed or unarmed entirely.

[Paul Murick]

The garage door was electric. Electric, slow and loud. That thing was going to hear it, and I didn't think our fence would prove much of an obstacle once it did. Could I get to the front door and get the spare key out from that ridiculous fake rock in the flower bed before it got me? It seemed like that was my best option. I held my working hand over the button and forced air in and out of my nostrils as slowly as I could manage. I closed my eyes. I went to church a lot as a kid, but I hadn't prayed in years, although I'm pretty sure I did then. Then I smacked the button. Slowly the garage door rose, revealing the street outside. It seemed like an invitation back to the sane world I had occupied only minutes before. A place where there were no such things as monsters. My eyes swept back and forth, expecting the creature to be revealed under the onion peel glow of the street lights at any moment, the sheen of its exposed tissue glistening. The longer I stood there, the more inevitable it seemed. I moved. The night air was cool and I was very aware of every minute sound I made as I crossed the lawn. I stared right at the tiny length of fence that separated the backyard from the front, fully expecting the thing to come bursting through it, Kool Aid man style. After what felt like an impossibly long time, I arrived at my front door. I'll tell you this for free. When the motion sensor lights came, I nearly wet myself. I dug into the facsimile stone we got off Amazon and cursed the sheer force of will required to steady my shaking hands enough to fit the key into the lock. I would get Kira and the kids, grab the keys, and we'd get the hell out of there. Then I heard the security chime of the back door open and my wife's voice call out into the backyard.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

Paul.

[Paul Murick]

I heard the creature click as it ran towards her, and the mother of my kids let out a blood curdling scream

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

that ended in a moist thumping behind the building.

[Paul Murick]

The kids were stirring by the time the police came, rubbing their eyes by the back door and asking me groggily what was going on. Their mother's scream, the single one she'd been able to manage before that thing laid into her, had been enough to wake them up. I didn't know where that thing was, so I shrieked at them to stay back, to stay away. They started to cry as they backed away, confused. I think Robbie saw his mom lying there on the ground before Heather took him back inside because his face went slack with shock. The neighbors heard it too, of course. We lived in the suburbs, after all. They'd been the ones to call the police. When they arrived, I was huddled over her body, cradling her like I used to hold the kids when they'd been little. They took me away, first to the hospital and then to the station. Of course they did. Neighbors hear something in the night and the cops come by and find a lunatic pressing his wife's corpse to him, raving about monsters and teeth. What else were they supposed to do. They didn't hold me long, though, the extent of my wife's injuries, edges of the wounds that weren't clean like a knife would make ragged tears, deep furrows raked across her flesh. It just didn't match up with even the most brutal domestic violence cases they'd ever seen. By the time they released me, the sun was already rising over the station and I had calmed down enough to stop screaming about things hiding inside of dead deer. It was an animal, I said. Just something out of the wild that showed up where it didn't belong. Confused, hungry, drawn by the smell of the buck's blood. Or just rabid, I didn't know. And you know, in the daylight hours that followed, I could just about make myself believe it. They asked about roadside deliveries, and I told them as much as I knew, but that it had been Kira's idea. When my mind would find it impossible to focus on the world directly in front of me, picturing gory, gleaming white teeth hiding in everything from the kitchen pantry to elevator doors, I'd go on the Internet and just wander. As far as I can tell, there is no record of such an app or business called roadside deliveries anywhere in the state of California. Anywhere in the whole country, at least not any dropping roadkill off for a price. Late at night, back in our home, I would look out from our bedroom onto the patio, the cement having been stained with her blood, and no amount of bleach and scrubbing was ever going to take it all away. I'd hear the wind roaring through the trees and I would feel so very small, so very defenseless, and I'd check in on the kids again. About a week ago I called the detective in charge of the investigation. They'd told me I could have Kira's body back when the ME was done with the autopsy. He sounded uncertain when he spoke my name out loud, searching his mental Rolodex for who I was and why it should matter to him. I tried to imagine a life like that, where you meet people at the absolute worst moment in their lives with such regularity that they all just blend into one tragic blur. Finally the light bulb came on and

[Agent Conroy / Redwood Bureau Narrator]

he said, Ah, Mr. Murick, yes, I've been meaning to call you.

[Paul Murick]

The intonation in his voice suggested something quite different. He spent several moments clearing his throat and adjusting himself in his chair.

[Agent Conroy / Redwood Bureau Narrator]

I don't know how to tell you this, and we won't know for several days afterwards, but your wife's body never arrived at the morgue.

[Paul Murick]

What slipped softly and breathlessly from my lips. They'd been waiting for the coroner's report, and as a few days went by, the officer called the medical examiner's office to ask what the hold up was. Not only had my wife's body never made it, neither had the vehicle carrying her, the personnel inside never reporting for duty again. Eventually they found the vehicle looking more like a cargo van than an ambulance, nose down in a ditch a few miles away from its destination. There was no sign of the crew, but they'd found Kira's body, now ripe with several days exposure, still on the gurney. Her ribs and abdomen looked like they exploded, the flesh and bone fanning away from her decimated, desiccated body like outstretched wings. The story got coverage on the local news for several days. The phrase that sticks out to me, the one I repeat late at night when my hand drifts over to Kira's side of the bed, was the inside of the vehicle looked like it had been torn apart by a wild animal.

[Agent Conroy / Redwood Bureau Narrator]

Hiders are certainly apex predators. Their skin, resembling intestine, is nearly impossible to tear or penetrate, lending to its peculiar ability to fold and bend to minuscule proportions. Instances of 0225 can hide in corpses as small as those belonging to whitetail deer and medium sized dogs. They seem to have the additional ability to change their mass through some yet unknown process, which allows them to choose a great variety of corpses to hide within.0225 contain few bones and organs of their own. What few bones they have make up their teeth, which cleverly resemble the ribs of the corpse they hide within, and large talons upon the ends of its extremities. After the Bureau's first capture of an instance of 0225, they tested its longevity and resilience. Explosives and gunfire cannot tarnish or penetrate their hide, though it can damage their teeth and talons, which promptly grow back within minutes. Scientists then place the phenomenon within the Redwood Bureau's Aging Chamber, a volatile containment room for Phenomenon 0003, an entity that causes rapid aging within a given perimeter. Each minute within the aging chamber is comparable to five years actual time. It was observed that the instance of 0225 remained alive well into four hours before scheduling conflicts forced the research team to pull the Hider from the aging chamber. Essentially, the creature aged years without a single indicator that it had physically aged. To this day, the Bureau considers Hiders immortal, likely due once again to its remarkably durable flesh. As of now, the 22 instances of 0225 remain in the custody of Redwood Bureau. At the threat level of lethal which is just below disastrous. Lethal indicates the entity can and will cause local or regional chaos and death. Many agents believe the hider to be closer to a disastrous level threat. Which leads me to the most terrible aspect of this case. That fake company Roadside Deliveries appears to have been created by Redwood Bureau. My own observations into the so called service led me into citing Bureau agents I once personally knew while on the force. Wearing Roadside Deliveries uniforms, they find susceptible people push a single advertisement to their devices and wait for the request on their downloadable app. An app which quickly deletes itself after a predetermined amount of time or upon the powering off of the device. I can only guess at what their reasons are for deliberately releasing hiders into communities across the country. My best guess? They want to see if 0225 can earn the threat level of disastrous. It's simply a piece of their research which happens to place entire towns in jeopardy. You must heed my warning. If you see an ad for Roadside Deliveries which offers to bring you fresh roadkill, ignore. In fact, consider leaving town.

[Mochi Health Advertiser]

Rbp report 0225 deactivated.

[Monster Energy Advertiser]

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[Narrator / Paul Murick]

So if you've been living in the

[Monster Energy Advertiser]

White can branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe and every single one is Zero Sugar. Tap the banner to learn more.

[Eeriecast Host]

Hey there Darkness prevails here. Founder of eeriecast, my little network of scary shows. I appreciate you listening to our scary content, but did you know you can support us? Get ad free feeds of your favorite shows, get a 20% discount, code to the Eeriecast Store and unlock access to members only audiobooks all at the same time. Just go to eeriecast.com/plus and become a member today. It's cheap and really helps us out. That's eericast.com/thank you.

[Paul Murick]

Josh I'm Josh Tomar, host of Redwood Bureau.

[Narrator / Paul Murick]

Thank you for listening. Redwood Bureau is a horror fiction podcast and part of the Eerie Cast Podcast Network. For more dreadful terrors, follow Redwood Bureau on Spotify and itunes and check out our other podcasts like Unexplained Encounters and Freaky Folklore on your favorite podcast platform. You can find me on Twitter and Twitch under username tomomoto. T O M A M O T o and my voiceover is featured in a wide variety of your favorite video games, anime and other animated shows. Until next time.

[Paul Murick]

Don't forget this world is a strange one.

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[Paul Murick]

Sam.