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Hey, welcome back to Scary Stories and Rain. This podcast was designed to help you sleep or relax. And keep in mind that if you want to get rid of all of the ads for an uninterrupted experience, you can subscribe to this podcast for $2.99 a month. And this is the last two weeks to be automatically entered to win a Nintendo Switch 2 bundle. Sign up as a subscriber today, get rid of all the ads and be entered to win a Nintendo Switch 2. With that said, I really hope you enjoy this episode and thank you so much for being here. Lowes knows to bring your vision to life, it's important to find the right color. That's why Mylo's Rewards members get a free Valspar paint or exterior stain sample to test your look to confidently refresh your space. Offer Valid in store only 87820 limit one per customer while supplies last. Discount taken at time of purchase. See Associate for details. Rewards programs subject to terms and conditions. Details@lowes.com Terms subject to change Put us in a box. Go ahead. That just gives us something to break out of because the next generation 2025 GMC terrain elevation is raising the standard of what comes standard. As far as expectations go, why meet them when you can shatter them? What we choose to challenge, we challenge completely. We are professional grade. Visit gmc.com to learn more. Want to live better? We got a lot of work to do. Join Chris Hemsworth in National Geographic's new Disney plus Original series Limitless Live Better Now. I'm diving headfirst into cutting edge science to uncover three powerful secrets to living better. Right now. The growth that occurs through any challenging experience is really what we see. Chris Hemsworth stars in Limitless Live Better now now streaming on Disney and Hulu It's Showtime Part 1. I live in Casper, Wyoming and have my entire life. Every weekend, I like to hike. After a long week of work, it's the one thing I feel connects me to the universe outside of my glorious job at Walmart two years strong. Hold the applause. I had had a fairly awful Friday getting reamed out by my manager and needed to get out to avoid losing it. Today I had hiked up a ridge near Garden Creek to relax and I decided to photograph the powerful side of the sun sinking red on the horizon. When I lost my grip, I dropped my phone trying to get the perfect angle and it cascaded down the hopefully minimal damage 20 odd feet below. Cursing, I descended the rocks and located the sun's reflection on the screen and fetched it and to my relief it was fine aside from a small ding. I then noticed a rusted square inset in the ground, about 4 square feet in size. I approached the metal plate and handle just outside of the view from the beaten path and realized this was a trap door that was intentionally discreet. I did what any guy with nothing particularly exciting going on in his life would do and opened the hatch, revealing a set of rungs descending into blackness. I took a deep breath and gripped the metal bars and began my descent. I first thought this was a fallout shelter as I held my LED flashlight, strapping my teeth as I climbed down. There had been no label for what this led to, but someone could have easily stolen the sign at any point since Post Apocalyptic came back in style. The echoes in the darkness were spread out and I soon realized the chamber I was entering below was absolutely massive. Eventually, after 20 meters of descending that ladder, I was on the ground and I shined the circular beam of the flashlight around and in absolute amazement. This was a massive facility, seemingly unused for decades. From the telltale orange, red and brown pattern of the floor rug that shouted late 70s, the gaudy green desks confirmed this, on which sat TRS 80 Model 2 computers with their large floppy disk drives and coffee mugs with Cooper font and phrases like Disco is dead and cassettes of Rush and other gems from around 40 years ago. 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. There was paperwork stacked neatly in, in and out trays, rotary phones, and even a few bean bag chairs near the wood paneled walls. I walked through the massive circular space, noticing double doors on a wall, and continued through, my eyes wide in amazement. Past those doors was the longest hallway I had ever seen. I could just make out the end, the light of the LEDs barely able to penetrate the thick darkness. There appeared to be over a hundred tall steel doors lining the walls of the corridor, each locked and containing a small slot for perhaps food and another to allow looking inward. A shiver climbed my spine as I stared at the heavy locks on the doors, and it was then that I caught the faint scent of decay. I raised the beam to the slit and peeked into the first chamber on the left, peering in as my neck hairs raised in fear at what I was seeing. A thin naked man was standing there, facing away from the sliver of the window, unmoving. His skin looked almost glossy, reflecting the flashlight in an eerie glow. At first I assumed him long dead, somehow frozen in place, but his hairless head twitched slightly as if disturbed by the light, and I fell backwards in shock, covering my mouth with my hand. My mind raced to understand, but questions sprouted endlessly. I saw a slip of yellowed, brittle paper glued to the door that read 01AR and then noticed all of the doors were numbered as well. I peeked in another window and saw a long empty chamber with what looked like a moving oily substance slowly climbing the walls. I blinked in disbelief. It was like a living liquid moving against the push of gravity. I actually bit my hand to assure I wasn't dreaming. Feeling pain swell in confirmation, I peeked through another window and shouted as a horrific spiral of teeth similar to a lampreys slammed against the plexiglass slit. I stared in revulsion and disbelief. Whatever the thing in there was had to be over 2ft in diameter, its dozens of sharp teeth twirling against the plexiglas. My mind began to spin as I noticed one of the chambers further in looked to be missing a door, before realizing it was open. It was. Then I heard the slam echoing from the large chamber I had come from from that entrance hatch. Something was coming down the ladder with the echoing clicks of the steam steel rungs. I ran down the hall past ungodly nightmares locked behind steel doors. 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 with strong fingers, ripping it to shreds as I ran down that endless hall. The smell of death grew strong as I passed that one open doorway to a massive chamber filled with corpses in various states of decay, some mummified, black and skeletal, others fresh and red, some bloated and white with putrefaction. I coughed, biled, and finally came to another set of doors and burst through. There were flies, cabinets and lockers, giant reels of magnetic tape lined on the faux wood paneling on the walls. It seemed to be a sort of archive and I saw a desk to hide under and dove beneath, clutching my knees. Whoever or whatever is now in that hall is getting closer and I am praying I can hush my breathing when whatever is coming arrives. All I can do now is sit in the consuming blackness of this room and wait. Part Two staggered steps approached, each accompanied by a loud dragging sound. I sat under the desk in the enveloping darkness, breathing as slowly and quietly as my panicked body would allow my Clenched hands on my knees tightened as the metal bang from the door bar being pushed forward rang out inside of the black room I hid in from that hall, the dragging sound approached in my direction, no longer accompanied by steps due to the carpeting. The sound grew closer and closer towards me and I braced myself when a heavy slam rang out directly in front of me. A few seconds later the double doors clacked again and I heard some footsteps in the hole. I sat on the carpeted floor of the chamber containing reels and cabinets, shivering in the complete darkness. Whatever had entered had either left discreetly or was now directly in front of me, and just when I was deliberating, crawling out or making a run for it, my phone vibrated and lit up. As I removed my phone to quickly silence it, the dim light of the screen illuminated the space under the desk and just outside of that chair gap, the horrific face staring in at me. 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. Something had dragged a man's corpse in here and slammed him down on the desk directly across from mine on his back, so his head was hanging in my line of sight. I caught my breath, realizing whatever brought the body here was likely returning soon. I quickly stood and used my flashlight to grab a few handfuls of papers from random cabinets and desk drawers and I used the small circular beam to scan the room. There were eight track players and cassettes, Betamax players and tapes, reel to reel, tape loops and other storage devices that had existed in that era. Nothing beyond. I sneaked slowly past desks and lockers, past the paintings of gray haired men in polyester suits on the faux wood wall paneling, towards the goal I now stared at in slight relief, those two double doors on the opposite end of the room. The realization that there may be another exit brought the optimistic concept of escape back into my mind and I made my way over in silent steps. I clenched my jaws as I opened the other set of doors as quietly as possible. Another hallway of roughly 100 doors stretched down in the dark length of the passage. It was as if the entire massive space was mirrored. This facility was absolutely gargantuan. I looked down the long hall with heavy steel doors, knowing that nightmarish things likely were inside of each of these chambers. I took a moment to shine my light on the papers I'd scavenged from the archives of the previous room and I read slack jawed in both amazement and confusion. The papers I held seemed to be internal communications of whatever organization this had once been. I scanned over many references to thermal and ionizing radiation and experimentation seemingly to prevent lethal radiation poisoning. I flipped through more pages, reading about the threats, but nobody mentioned what the threat was except one page where the threat was referred to more specifically by name by the letters ussr. This massive facility was a relic from the Cold War. Only one document had a company title, name or anything identifying on those green and white banded perforated pages a little logo of three blocky letters under which was ANTI Radiation Kinetics. I stood in the dark hall, beam of light barely illuminating the space, intrigue leading me over to the mirrored first chamber on the left. Unable to stop myself, I lifted the light to the plexiglass slit and peered in. Inside was a thin naked woman with wet skin. She was hairless and had a sheen like the man in the first cell I had looked into. My heart skipped a beat as I heard the metal doors push open in the previous room. Whatever had taken that corpse was heading towards my direction. With the sound of the dragging body getting louder and closer, closer. I removed my hiking boots to soften the sound of my steps, slinging them over my shoulder as I ran down that hallway in my thick socks, seeing glimpses of more horrific faces and forms. Something gray and heavily veined with four large black orbs of spider eyes stared at me, twitching. Another door's window showed a thin figure with a hairless wrinkled head that was one giant mouth similar to a canine's. The scent of death built as I realized this hall had another open cell, one I now was dreading to realize was a food storage unit for feeding the abominations in this forgotten place. I only knew I had no desire to meet who or what was feeding them. I passed that room, noticing human limbs hacked and piled away from the rotted dead, slowing slightly to observe a few lab coats before exiting quietly as possible to the doors at the end. I pushed. I pushed again. My heart spilled heavy pounding from my chest to my throat as I realized an absolute horror. The doors were locked. I ran into the awful stench of the massive room stacked with bodies. Realizing I was completely trapped, I scanned quickly and found a pile of pasty corpses wet with decay and jumped behind the bruised, bloody stack. I pressed my face hard into a hiking boot to filter the rancid stench that was beyond anything I could imagine. I turned my flashlight off and this time my cell phone to await the footsteps and dragging over to the meat locker. I am now trapped inside.
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I waited, my stomach growling, for what must have been a good few hours before there was a good ten minutes of silence. I breathed deeply, mustered my courage, and illuminated the grisly chamber with my flashlight. I walked on the floor, puddled red from the butchered bodies, disgusted at myself for realizing, despite the horrific odor of death, I had been breathing. I myself hadn't eaten in a very long time. I needed food and water soon or I would lose my strength. Whatever was bringing fresh kills down here was back the other way, so I decided to check the pockets of the deceased. I rifled through jeans, camo pants, khakis and shorts. There were dozens of bodies and plenty of wallets and keys. I headed out of the mess of butchery to the locked double doors, flashlight in my teeth and boots strung over my shoulders, trying one key after another for what seemed like an eternity with absolutely no luck. Frustration spilled from a deepening well of despair until I finally felt a key under the door's lock fully and exhaled in relief as it turned. I shined the beam, amazed by the sight before me. Giant vats, large cylinders of compressed gases and glass containers were lined in dozens of rows that stretched out as far as a football field. Wide metallic metallic tanks lined the walls, reflecting the LED beam of my small flashlight in the cavernous space. They were large chambers, maybe six meters in diameter, each containing a door. There were scattered black splashes of ancient blood dried on the cement floors and tossed paperwork on the long desks which divided rows of tanks that told a tale of chaos. I shined my narrow light beam to read the paperwork on the tables and floors and blinked in frozen shock at what I saw. There were countless tests of blood pressure, heart rate and radiation level monitoring, as well as packets containing the names of couples, some of full families. I flipped through a packet labeled 10 AR11 corresponding with the labels on those locked doors and it became clear. I read in disbelief as a promotional packet slid out decorated with eggshell blue, orange and brown squares in an illustration of a smiling family that was oh so 70s titled Ark Anti radiation kinetics and you'd. The informational packet from blew my mind. This was 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. There was a colored pencil illustration of a child with blonde pigtails in a pink bell dress hugging a cat with the caption Sally's cat Tammy is her best friend. That's because Tammy has life saving genes that can help Sally. I turned the pages in complete disbelief, not only that this was actually conceived, but in some horrific manner, possibly even achieved. I read on in amazement. A similar illustration showed an older man smoking a pipe, smiling, holding a test tube. The caption underneath read, Tom chose an entirely new protein our top scientists created to take him beyond immunity, possibly extending his life by decades. I thought of the seemingly living black fluid I saw in the other wing. I flipped through the illustrations of double helixes, diagrams and paragraphs mentioning talents and DNA zippering gene therapy and modification. 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. I scrambled through other notes and urgent memos, one describing rapid, uncontrollable, extreme and seemingly random mutations. I looked at the memo's title, reading what went wrong? I gazed in awe at the massive facility, the ark. The ARK Lab in all its horrific glory, ushering a lucky few to the future to repopulate the world upon the event that never happened. At least not Yet I kept watching, walking through, taking it all in. The small circle beam of my flashlight was barely able to reach the walls and those metal cylinders where couples and families began the nightmarish transformation into what now sat in those cells feeding on human flesh. I kept walking, hunger kicking me as I saw a desk on which sat a bowl of ancient hard candies. I ran over and ate the entire stale clump, nearly chipping a tooth, and then continued past desks of gyroscopes, blood centrifuges, monitoring equipment and the likes. I froze upon hearing keys jingling and a press of the metal bar, and I heard the door behind me open. I heard footsteps slap the floor in pursuit. As I ran, I realized I had no idea where I was running to. I was stuck. I was about to die. I was about to end up on that pile in the other room. My brain screamed run. And I ran. I made it to the other side of the giant room to another door made of wood with a knob and chipped screw holes. My pursuer was nearly upon me as I tried the door, twisting the knob and pushing it open. I entered and slammed the door behind me, scrambling my hands on the brass knob and luckily finding a lock which I turned hastily. Pounding shook the door on which I leaned low to the ground. I shined the light to find a nicely decorated lobby, quaint and ornamented with rounded furniture with peg legs in the usually quirky colors of the seventies, far more sinister. Lit by that single beam of my flashlight, I saw more pamphlets and plastic holders on the desk and finally realized this was where their journey began, greeted by a heavily hair sprayed receptionist. Most importantly, I saw the glowing orange ring on the elevator door's frame. The wooden door I entered from was clearly not going to hold what had discovered my presence for long, so I ran to the elevator, mashing the glowing button. I hadn't even considered the fact that this facility had power, but I realized this could have been my end, had it not. I entered the dim yellow light of the elevator, hearing music and a jiggling of keys from outside the door I had come from. Fuzzy jazz flute Heavy elevator music played on speakers as my pursuer entered through the wooden lobby doors with wide, wide eyes reaching out to me with open hands. A normal looking man, aside from his milky white eyes, perhaps in his mid-60s, ran into the room screaming just as the doors began to close. I slammed the button and watched as the door shut in the nick of time. I breathed deeply and slid to the floor and sat to put my hiking Boots back on, exhausted, I finally registered his muffled voice and what he was screaming. They are loose down there. From higher and farther away, the elevator was moving not up, but down. Part four, an instrumental version of a 70s song I vaguely recognized, fuzzed from the speaker in the elevator as it descended. I stood on a handrail and tried to open the locked ceiling hatch I had read only existed in older cars, shaking it and hitting the lock in vain. There was soon a muffled sniffling, then scratching from the hatch, then the creak of metal bending, and a small black triangle began to appear from its corner. The triangle grew in size to reveal long, malformed teeth in the gap. Something powerful was prying the hatch open. I rushed to the front of the elevator car and pounded the open door button as sweat beaded my forehead. The music crackled before squealing with a deafening screech of feedback. The noise stopped that thing's act of ripping open the car like a sardine can, and it seemed to retreat. My palms squeezed over my ears and I slipped, slid to the floor until the sound stopped and a staticky voice spoke to me over the dated speaker system. Listen. You are in very serious danger. The voice spoke as I looked up to see long fingers like articulated drumsticks emerge from the shadow. I watched helplessly as they reached from the black opening and returned to prying the roof hatch open. I yelled for help, asking for the man to make the noise that seemed to repel the thing, but it was clear the speaker was merely that, a speaker. There was no phone or intercom device, just open, close, and the two floors. I was trying to figure out how to make a last ditch makeshift weapon. The elevator stopped and the doors slid open. I looked out in utter confusion, trying to understand what I was looking at. There was a road separating two rows of housing that extended into the space under an eerie domed ceiling that was painted and lit like a sky. More rows of housing units and streets continued to my right. It was like an overly exaggerated nuclear family suburb with actual white picket fences and astroturf lawns. All of the small houses were Easter egg colors, throwback ranch homes from a different era. I walked out of the elevator, feeling the bounce of the black rubber streak beneath my boots, and I hurried to the first house, peering in the windows. It was dimly lit but appeared to be vacant, and I rushed in the door, which was unlocked, twisting the lock as I heard the metal clang of that thing from the elevator roof landing on the floor of the car. I kept as silent as possible as the long horrid shadow of the thing walked by the window to my side. My back was to the door and I stared at the overlapping colored ovals of the wallpaper that opened to a small kitchen. I then noticed the mirror on the wall that revealed a view of outside the window behind me and I finally saw that thing from the elevator. 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. The nose was a small bump above two flaring black slits on the jagged cheeked face. I realized that if I could see it, it could see me, and I stayed as still and silent as possible when a squeal rang out from the speaker system, scaring the thing that ran deeper into the development. The voice crackled on the speaker as the man spoke again. If you're alive, you need to listen closely if you want to stay that way. The man spoke. The area you are in was built to house our clients in case the anti radiation treatment went wrong, which it did. I'm the only one left maintaining this place, but I'm close to making it right again. I'm sure of it this time, he said. I realized he must be insane if he thought he could fix anything about this zoo of nightmares. I crept on the olive green shag carpet towards the kitchen as silently as possible. I was getting farther from the door but could still hear him on the announcement speakers of the enormous fallout shelter. I looked out the kitchen window that was fixed to the massive outer chamber wall. It was like a cutout display that emulated dark depth with a layered set of photos of rolling hills and trees. I shook my head and reached down to open the kitchen drawers, removing a steak knife I found inside. Use the maintenance hatch labeled A13 just a bit forward to the left. You really shouldn't have unlocked that door, the voice said gravely. I gripped the knife and slowly walked to the window, looking out to the street, seeing some emaciated form climb out of a window of one of the houses. It walked on four pale branches of flesh, limbs that twisted and curled like ram horns. Its skin was pocked with patches of sprouting bluish worms that waved slowly, resembling sea anemone. Its narrow head was inhuman and deformed, squeezed in odd place places like a tide roast. The head contained one bulging eye and two quivering circular red orifices underneath, one pea sized that widened as it sniffed the air, one larger and lined with small sharp teeth. It walked in shaky lurching movements as if unaccustomed to its own body. I almost felt sorry for whoever that had once been until I saw it. He he even vomit a red splash of bones to the astroturf grass it stood on. It raised its head and choked up a deep bark of sorts, pacing in twitchy, awkward steps. Feedback squealed from the speaker, sending it bounding out of view behind the houses to my right before the man upstairs spoke again. I've been feeding them cadavers donated to science. I don't know what you saw, but you need to trust me, the voice said. Their body seems to crave only proteins they now lack in their current forms, he continued. I mostly believed him, but I have never crossed a bridge that was half completed. I slowly exited that first house on the left, observing the space, noting ladders mostly encased in cement tubes in the far end of the street and one hatch on the left left behind the houses near me in that faux suburban nightmare. The massive space was beyond surreal, magnifying my fear with its attempt to stimulate a pleasant town from the world above, a plastic Disney esque community filled with horrific monstrosities that ate human flesh. The ear worm melody from the elevator looped in my head as I clenched the knife tight and quite quietly walked to the next house on the left. I looked in the window to see a bloated head smushing against the glass, fat as a large pumpkin whose flesh stretched so much that only pulpy red tissue was visible in the holes of a human face inflated by tumorous growth. It teetered back and forth, clearly unable to see the body below, giant and lumped with knobs of ropey varicose veins. I wasn't taking any chances going in there. It was alive and therefore clearly able to eat. I continued to the third house on the left, nearly jumping out of my skin at some deep rattled animalistic yell that seemed to come from my right. I rushed into the house and shut the door quietly, gripping the knob tightly with fear as I looked out the window, seeing no movement. I then heard a dragging sound from behind me that made the hairs on my neck stand on end. I turned to see the manic, smiling pretty face on a bald human head sliding on the floor towards me. Her wide staring eyes looked straight at me above a normal nose and a toothy mouth shivering in spasm, its body dragging behind was a long tube of flesh lined with dozens of small trudging legs resembling those of a human baby. As it slowly emerged from the kitchen, I held out my knife and opened the door as quickly as possible. That thing's mouth stretched open as it charged at me, the skin on its face peeling back entirely from the mouth as a large muzzle of tooth filled gum snapped forward like a goblin shark's attack. I barely slipped out the front door, but those lunging jaws broke, banged against it too loudly. I saw peering eyes of varying size and distance from each other blink and swivel on cocked heads from the sides of the buildings, alerted by the sound. The nightmarish earworm from the elevator looped frantically in my head, and I remembered it now. Abba's SOS Just as dozens of monstrous things emerged from shadows and came charging towards me, all I could do at this point was to run.
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Part 5 the screams alone were enough to drive me to the brink of madness as I sprinted down the rubber street of the hellish suburbia. Animal screams, some high and shrill, others rattle in gravel yells, some hissing, popping, and even an eerie whooping that might have sounded funny in any scenario other than this. I ran from the hideous things beyond nightmares that scuttled, bounded, and loped towards me from nearly every direction, even spilling out from the elevator doors. Dozens of them, massive bony jaws snapping, fat tongues flopping, and shiny wide eyes all fixed on my flesh. I saw the hatch labeled A13 just feet ahead on the left between houses. I glanced at the small crack under the hatch, seeing shadows moving, and I ran past it, untrusting. I twisted the weight of my shoulder in the last second to ram a slender, pale form that charged screaming towards me, clawing with dozens of stacked black talons that echoed all the way down the arm. Pain ignited my bicep as I headed towards the congealing splatter of remains at the end of the street above. It was a concrete tube which housed the steel rungs of a ladder. My feet slammed the rubber road as I sprinted, and as I ran I felt my lower legs sliced and licked and stung by the pursuing horde right behind me, I ran towards the feeding tube until I was tripped by something shiny and black, the shape of a rhinoceros beetle's horn. I began to fall forward as everything slowed to a crawl. I aimed my other foot far left to compensate and miraculously didn't topple, continuing to sprint to the encased ladder, which was painted to match the sky mural of the dome wall. Puddles of blood splashed as I ran, then jumped, gripping the slick steel rungs tightly to climb as fast as my body would allow. The ladder shaft stank horribly from decades of rot. I felt a deformed wide hand yank me down violently, banging my jaw painfully down on a rung. With a stunning blow, I yanked and freed my foot from the boot, and the thing let out a high, gurgling scream as it fell. I heard the falling bodies clang against the metal rungs from the tumbling creatures. I used the few seconds of breathing room to push the kitchen knife's blade all the way down between my foot and the inside of my boot. The blade now extended down from under the heel as a makeshift weapon. Just as the horde returned angrier, I felt long fingers wrap around my calf and I stomped before violently down, releasing a squeal from the elongated fanged face of that thing below. There were dozens of them, screaming things with too many black orbs of eyes and gnashing jaws. I jammed the blade into the silhouetted head with a downward stomp and climbed faster and higher into the darkness of the tube. Some of the rungs were slippery with blood, and climbing in the darkness became increasingly difficult. I finally reached the top hatch from which the man had been feeding them, and my beating heart sank down into my stomach. It was locked from the other side. The feedback squeal from the speakers blared not from above but just below me to the right, repelling the pursuing monstrosities a bit away from me once more as the voice on the system continued. I'm sorry. So sorry. You know I can't let you leave knowing what you know. All our work would be completely destroyed for nothing, followed by another feedback squeal as the speaker cut out. The slobbering, howling sounds of the horde below entered the latter well once more, echoing demented screams through the narrow space as they closed in. I stepped down on a few rungs to the source of the speaker sound and reached over in the blackness and felt a large sliding grate that seemed to be the source of the voice. There was one on my left as well, and Neither had locks. I slid open the grate that led to the speaker's sound and turned on my pocket LED flashlight and placed it pointing inward towards the voice in that duct on the right. I realized the passage might lead to that blind madman on the speaker. I slid the left one open and climbed quickly inside, removing the steak knife from my boot and using it to lift up and close the sliding vent cover behind me. I crawled away slowly and silently in the darkness as I heard scuttling, then screams through the access ladder well that had been repurposed as a food hatch. I listened with a slight feeling of vengeance as that man's screams wailed through the blackness of the space as those things devoured him alive. Once I had traveled far enough that I felt confident the light would not be seen, I powered my cell phone on and used it to illuminate the metal passage that seemed to go on forever. I was utterly exhausted and now finally out of immediate danger. My stomach growled with hunger when the grate on the end of the ventilation shaft came came into view. I exhaled heavily and crawled a bit faster. It was the same sliding kind of the others and I listened intently, phone screen off to make sure I wasn't seen content, I turned it back on, startled by the large face in front of me, a massive painted portrait on the opposite wall. It was the familiar face of that man who had left me to die in that suburban shelter, far younger and smiling as he held the test tube, but clearly him. Wood paneling and a groovy rug of swirled hues of blue decorated the space, filled with lava lamps and stereo receivers, speakers and a turntable. His office looked more like a swingers lounge than an office. I spotted the light switch, flicking it on to see the black light lit black velvet paintings of topless women. From the looks of it, his office had been untouched for the past 40 years. I did love that swanky carpet, but the rest was a bit tacky. I shuffled through the papers on his desk, reading a bit before switching off the lights and opening the one wooden door as quietly as possible. I heard saliva filled, heavy breathing in the dim hallway that the door opened to. There was just one small guide light in the hall ahead. Glowing orange rings trailed down a hall of elevators. Hope flooded back into my heart as I saw the sign labeled Ground Exit. Another hatch. All I had to do was get by that shadowy shape scuttling low to the ground with far too many limbs. It was spider like two sets of back legs and two sets of arms, elbows and knees pointed upward as it scampered about rapidly in the hull. The head shivered in twitching ticks that sent a chill up my spine. An open elevator shaft on the left seemed to answer my question of how it got in here. I was starving and headed back to quietly search the lab of Gabe Reverton, the name on the metal plate on his kidney shaped desk. I rummaged through the drawers and shelves of some stashed rotten foods, finding the savior of a honey jar which I once read doesn't spoil. I forced down the entire container, licking my fingers and scouring the shelves for more food, but finding none. I was going to need my strength if I was going to get past that rat rapidly moving thing that occupied the elevator bay. I scanned the room, noticing a standing flag of orange and brown hues with ARK written in a white wave of echoed outlines. I only then realized how much I was bleeding and ripped the arc flag from the brass pole, slashing it with scissors from the desk to make bandages to wrap my stinging arm and legs. I stared back now nervously at the trail leading to the duct and realized time could be short if those things followed my bloody trail. I picked up the brass flagpole, slapping the heavy metal against my hand, gauging its stopping power. I searched memos, emergency protocols in the in and out, trays of papers on his desk, reading of elevator reprogramming procedures in case of lockdown, troublesome test test results on recent mice, and other glimpses into secret workings of ark. There were Polaroid photos of small horrifying things in small tanks similar to those I'd seen in larger form, still disturbing in miniature. I found a finances sheet and was amazed at the half million dollar cost of the most basic anti radiation package offered, which grew after shelter, property rental ration packages and water, power and heating fees. This had been a multi billion dollar facility with top scientists of the era as well as clientele from around the world. I put together a dossier of the most fascinating papers, including the maps I had found that showed all of the services, client and employee access, entry entrances and exits. A quick glancing over and I realized I'd be in more risk trying to find another way out. At this point I shoved the paperwork in my pants against my back and tried to mentally ready myself. I removed a blacklight bulb, gripping the flagpole, took a few breaths and slowly opened the door once more. Hearing the wet saliva clicking from the spider like thing's toothy mandibles. I tossed the light bulb into the elevator shaft, hearing it burst and trickle fragments down deep within the creature scuttled over in thumping steps, peering over the edge to look in, and my heart raced as I seized my chance. I ran and jammed the flag pole into that thing's fleshy side, shoving it into the opening as it squealed a horrific sound. Sound. I ran to the ladder and climbed despite the burning in my muscles, higher and higher until I began doubting the shaft would ever end. I heard the squeal behind me then, and it was approaching far too rapidly as it was nearly upon me. I heard the ambiance thicken and I knew I was at the top. I shoved with all my might, expecting it to be locked. It wasn't, but it was extremely heavy. I strained and pushed until dirt spilled in and the light of the sky seeped in. I was free. 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. I turned on my phone's flashlight and breathed deep, the fall air crisp and refreshing after the horrors from below. I glanced with teary eyes at the moonlit trees, the gradients of autumn leaves warming the scene with tranquility just above those unimaginable horrors below. I began the long trek back to my car, listening to the peaceful sounds of crickets and bending trees, trying not to think about what I had read on the paperwork or the horror still lurking. I was only trying to think of a warm bath and a soft bed, not what I'd seen in those notes. Trying not to think about the joint founders Gabe, Barbara and Calvin and their three other facilities.
- [47:35]
B
You say you'll never join the Navy, that living on a submarine would be too hard. You'd never power a whole ship with nuclear energy, never bring a patient back to life.
- [47:49]
A
Or play the national anthem.
- [47:50]
B
For a sold out crowd. Joining the Navy sounds crazy. Saying never actually is. Start your journey@navy.com America's Navy forged by.
- [48:03]
A
The Sea Support for this podcast and the following message comes from America's Navy the Navy offers new graduates hands on training and experience in careers like computer science, aviation and medicine, plus education and sign on bonuses. Parents help your grads start their career today@navy.com youm say you'll never join the Navy, never climb Mount Fuji on a port visit or break the sound barrier. Joining the Navy sounds crazy. Saying never actually is. Learn why at navy.com, america's Navy Forged by the sea, it.
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- [50:36]
A
This episode is brought to you by FX's alien Earth, the official podcast. Each week, host Adam Rogers is joined by guests, including the show's creator, cast and crew. In this exclusive companion podcast. They will explore story elements, deep dive into character motivations, and offer an episode by episode behind the scenes breakdown of each each terrifying chapter in this new series. Search FX's alien Earth wherever you listen to podcasts, mint is still $15 a month for premium wireless. And if you haven't made the switch yet, here are 15 reasons why you should 1. It's $15 a month.
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