Podcast Summary: Scary Stories and Rain

Episode 204: Scary Stories For A Rainy Night – Casper, Wyoming
Host: Being Scared
Date: August 21, 2025

Overview

This episode tells a chilling, cinematic tale set in Casper, Wyoming, merging elements of cosmic horror, Cold War paranoia, and body horror. The narrator—an everyday hiker and Walmart employee—stumbles upon a hidden Cold War-era underground facility filled with monstrous remnants of failed scientific experiments. As soothing rain patters in the background, listeners are led through a nightmare maze of locked chambers, mutated horrors, and desperate attempts at escape, all unfolding with the host’s characteristic calm but spine-tingling narration.

Key Discussion Points & Story Breakdown

1. Discovery of the Underground Facility

• [03:00] The narrator, seeking solitude after a rough week, hikes near Garden Creek in Casper, Wyoming.

• Accidentally dropping his phone leads him to uncover a rusted, hidden trap door—clearly concealed from public view.

• Upon opening the hatch, he finds a ladder leading down into a vast, abandoned structure.

  "It was a time warp and I was ecstatic to have discovered the place, albeit a bit creeped out by the dark cavernous space lit solely by the cold beam of my flashlight." (A, 05:35)

2. The Chilling Interior: A 1970s Lab Frozen in Time

• The facility is full of relics: shag rugs, green desks, old TRS-80 computers, and ’70s paraphernalia. Stacked paperwork, rotary phones, and bean bag chairs reveal a lost world.

• Passing through double doors, the narrator discovers a corridor lined with nearly a hundred mysterious locked steel doors, each with food and observation slots.

• As he peers into various cells, he observes grotesque, mutated beings—living liquid, spiral-toothed horrors, and hairless, shimmering humans, each more terrifying than the last.

  "The beam of my flashlight illuminated horrible things in those window slits. Teeth, fangs, claws, stretched limbs and bubbling forms. Things that should not exist, things that dug into the part of my brain that controls logic and rational thought..." (A, 09:32)

3. Panic and Pursuit: The Unseen Caretaker

• The sound of someone (or something) descending the ladder triggers panic.

• The narrator flees through the endless, nightmare-infested hallway, eventually hiding in an archive room filled with ancient audio media—and a horrifyingly presented corpse.

  "There were two bulging eyes under a massive bloody hole filled with teeth, and I was about to scream at the thing before realizing it was an upside down human head." (A, 13:54)

4. History and Purpose of the Facility Revealed

• Hiding, the narrator reads through internal documents and discovers the building is relic of Cold War experimentation under the name Ark—Anti Radiation Kinetics.

• The facility conducted hideous, gene-altering experiments on families and volunteers, meant to create "survivors" for nuclear holocaust—only to result in uncontrollable mutations and atrocities.

  "It became clear. I read in disbelief as a promotional packet slid out... titled Ark Anti radiation kinetics... a service for perhaps volunteers, but more likely paying families to subjugate themselves to a battery of experiments for the purpose of living through an impending nuclear winter." (A, 26:13)

5. Labyrinth, Mutants, and the Search for Escape

• As the unseen pursuer comes closer, the narrator flees first into mirrored chambers of more abominations, then an immense experimental hall with tanks, vats, and blood stains everywhere.

• He discovers locked doors and resorts to checking corpses for keys, finally opening the way to a mock 1970s suburban dome—an underground town built for shelter’s "successful" test subjects.

• The narrator is pursued by ever more surreal mutants—a spider-eyed creature, bloated horrors, contorted humans melding insect and mammalian traits.

  "It was horrific, tall and bony with multiple rows of elongated human teeth, teeth spilling out over each other from a massive gummy mouth under wide white eyes." (A, 40:16)

6. Mad Survivor and Cat-and-Mouse Games

• Over the shelter’s loudspeakers, an old caretaker warns the narrator, revealing he is the last staff and feeds the mutants cadavers ("donated to science").

• He both tries to guide and trap the narrator, who trusts nothing but the knife he finds in a kitchen drawer.

  "I've been feeding them cadavers donated to science... Their body seems to crave only proteins they now lack in their current forms." (A, 42:09)

7. Carnage, Confrontation, and Escape

• A horde of mutant creatures erupts, forcing a desperate sprint and climb up a ladder, where the narrator is nearly overtaken but uses ingenious improvisation (boot-knife, distraction with a light bulb) to fend off the monsters.

• He navigates through a swanky but decaying office, makes bandages from a Cold War flag, and scavenges honey for energy.

• The climax: after a confrontation with the spider-limbed monster, the narrator escapes through a heavy hatch into the night woods, blocks the entrance, and reflects on the horror and secrets he’s uncovered.

  "The moon nearly blinded me as I lay down on the dirt and leaves that covered the thick metal hatch, and to my relief, nothing tried to open it. I caught my breath before searching the dark woods for a small boulder, which I tumbled over to cover that hidden hatch." (A, 61:11)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "I bit my hand to assure I wasn't dreaming. Feeling pain swell in confirmation..." (A, 08:52)
• "Whatever or whoever was feeding the aberrations in those rooms had either memorized every inch of this place or could somehow see in the facility so entirely devoid of light." (A, 17:10)
• "The pamphlet ended showing an illustration of a family smiling, sitting in metal tanks resembling those on the massive chamber's walls. It showed them exiting with a 60 star shine to show improvement on the next frame. It didn't show the things in those chambers." (A, 29:57)
• “You really shouldn’t have unlocked that door.” – Disembodied caretaker, through the loudspeakers, heightening tension (A, 43:23)
• "All I had to do was get by that shadowy shape scuttling low to the ground with far too many limbs." (A, 57:58)

Key Timestamps for Reference

• 03:00: Discovery of the hidden trap door
• 07:10: First glimpse into nightmare cells
• 13:54: Corpse confrontation under the desk
• 26:13: Revelation of Ark facility and its Cold War purpose
• 34:00: Descent into mock suburb, suburban horrors
• 43:00: Caretaker exposition via loudspeaker
• 50:00+: Final mad dash and escape, moonlit coda

Tone and Atmosphere

Calm, immersive narration layered with relentless dread. The rain sound bed, detailed descriptions, and the narrator’s dry, wry asides ("Hold the applause…") ground the escalating cosmic and body horror. There’s a heavy 1970s nostalgia twisted into nightmarish imagery.

Conclusion

This episode offers an expertly-paced descent into an urban legend for the nuclear age—a story as much about lost innocence and hubris as about abominations in the dark. Ideal for horror fans and night owls, it distinguishes itself with vivid detail, authentic voice, and a slow-burn sense of cosmic terror that lingers long after the soothing rain fades out.