It was getting dark by the time we had gotten close to the industrial district and we had to find a place to bed down for the night. Luckily, there was a bevy of empty houses around, so Stanley and I grabbed one. He still wasn't looking entirely himself from the events of today, but I could only hope a night's rest would help him snap out of it. I kept catching him looking back where we had come and staring ominously. Hopefully, the kid was doing okay, I'd likely need him before long. I was, however, a tiny bit freaked out by it, so I set my gear nearby and slept sitting in one of the chairs in the living room. He eventually went to grab one of the beds upstairs a couple of hours after. It wasn't that I thought he was a shapeshifter necessarily, but people in shock do weird things sometimes. The only possible time he could have been one of them would have been before he ran into my room. If that was the case, wouldn't he have just killed me? Why help me escape?

It was just starting to get light out when we left the house. Stanley seemed to be back to his old self, or at least, was back to talking about how his body was a temple and he needed us to look for food that wasn't junk so he could maintain it. The gunfire had also died down, which was likely more of a bad thing than anything positive.

I started thinking about how close we had been to getting killed, and why Rose hadn't tried to kill us when she had the chance. It was odd that she was willing to go with us until she reached her parents. Could the parasites be communicating somehow? It was already pretty obvious they had some sort of mental connection with each other, and it was activated when one of them died. What was so important about the parents that she held off on attacking until we had reached them? It showed that these things were intelligent, and while I didn't know what their plan was it seemed they at least had one. That made them infinitely more dangerous than I had originally thought. An enemy that can utilize tactics against you can learn from its mistakes, and use yours against you.

After a bit of walking, we came upon a large fortification that had been built around one of the factories in the industrial district. A fortification was maybe a bit generous, as it was more of a series of steel rebar and beams pointed outwards to prevent easy access. This rebar formed a rudimentary palisade around the factory, and I could make out movement within. I was hopeful that it was still early enough in the apocalypse that people would still be willing to take Stanley and me in. Given the whole shapeshifter issue though, I wasn't as confident as I would have liked to be. The only thing to do was walk up to the front door. I mean, at worst they say no right?

I kept the gun across my back as I approached the only entrance that I could see. I yelled out to get their attention, and then hoped like hell I wasn't making the wrong decision. A man and a woman cracked open the door, then walked out with guns held in their hands. "What do you want kid?" The woman spoke. It seemed like the man was deferring to her in this case.

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"I heard from two scientists that people had set up a safe area here and I wanted to know if my friend and I were able to join you. Safety in numbers and all that."

The man spoke up. "In a normal war maybe, but when anyone that you let in could be a danger to the rest of the people you are protecting, safety in numbers doesn't go that far. So, why should we be letting you in? And I'd hope it's a pretty good reason because I might find that I need to use this gun to convince yall to mosey on out of here." He raised his gun slightly to emphasize the point.

"Rick, I thought we agreed I would handle the talking. And threatening people doesn't set the greatest precedent if they did manage to convince us to let them join." The woman had her head in her right hand as she scolded Rick. "Anyways, Rick is right about one thing. We need to be convinced that you are human before we even consider letting you into our humble abode. Typically we do a DNA test, but that will take a couple of hours at least. So how about you leave us a sample of both of your hair and then go ahead and find a nice little spot to wait. We can come to grab you once it's done." She slid over a small metal container.

"Fine, do what you have to do. In the meantime, my friend and I are going to go scavenge for more supplies. Anything to be more helpful right?" I said, plucking a hair from my head and putting it into the container. "Here's your DNA sample, we will have to catch up with you at a later point.

"Um, Greg? It might be best if they don't test my DNA sample. For both our sakes." Stanley looked at me, then turned and yelled to Rick and the woman "I'm a little bit squeamish when it comes to people testing my DNA. Clones are a real big problem you know?" Stanley laughed nervously and began backing away. "Listen, Greg, I'll catch up with you later. Stay safe because I didn't drag you all the way here just for you to get eaten by a parasite."

Stanley immediately turned and bolted away. The two tried to draw their guns and take him down, but Stanley managed to get around a corner before they could fire a shot. They then turned their guns on me. There was only one reason he didn't want to get his DNA tested, but if that was the case why would he have helped me? I didn't trust Stanley, but I knew for sure given the choice between getting shot and hoping he wouldn't eat me, I'd take the one that doesn't guarantee my death and loss of the game. I ran after Stanley, shots echoing behind me as two bullets slammed into the ground next to me.

"That was a warning shot, get out of here and don't come back you monsters!" Rick raised his gun again, fully intending to shoot me if I didn't comply. I turned and ran after Stanley, hoping I wasn't making one of the biggest mistakes of my life.