The night passed, slowly. Frank spent the time thinking. He hadn't had that kind of time needed to really think ahead since he walked down the highway into town. There was always something to be done, or rest required. Even in the dungeon, being alert constantly made it difficult, and he spent his resting time sleeping. His improved stats and the current situation combined to give him the chance to properly organize his thoughts.

There were two loose ends in town. The first was fixable. He'd write down his document tomorrow morning. He'd leave the remaining people here with a copy, as well as a simple explanation of the skinwalkers. Their danger was pretty obvious, and the incredibly low survival rate in the area implied either they were firmly established, or that there was something else similarly threatening in the immediate vicinity. He'd tell them as much. He would also leave them with directions to the dungeon. It was probably a terrible idea for anyone to go there, but that was up to them.

The second was the dungeon itself. He'd have to come back later if circumstances permitted. As it stood now, though, he didn't have the right equipment, nor the companions needed. If the bosses were of a type he could handle, he might make it a few floors deeper, but only at great personal risk. It wasn't worth it. As for the system trying to communicate, it could do so in other places, too.

Frank considered what he was going to write until dawn broke. Then he roused everyone.

"Morning light." He said. He paused for a second. He hadn't meant to say that, it'd just slipped out. It felt nostalgic.

The others woke at the sound of his voice. They all got up promptly, except for Hugo, who took his time. That didn't bother Frank. The man wasn't coming with him so he could do as he pleased. When Rina, Maria, and Bill were all awake and up, Frank addressed them.

"Grab something to eat on the move. We are going to go hunting for bikes. Once that's done, we'll have a few hours before we leave," he said.

A few minutes later, they were ready to go. Hugo tagged along, walking beside Maria as they spoke in a low voice. Frank reminded everyone to stay together and keep an eye on each other, then headed into the town itself. Instead of going down the highway to the main street, he led the group into the residential area, along winding residential streets.

Finding decent bicycles took two hours, but eventually, four mountain bikes were acquired. All of them were quite solidly constructed, on the heavy side. Heavy frames were less of an issue than durability was, so they were all older bikes. They walked them back towards the main street. Frank stopped at the town's general store, grabbing some pens and paper. He called for a stop.

"I'm going to do some writing. It'll probably take two hours. Do whatever, but don't go anywhere," Frank informed the group.

He couldn't wait to get far enough away from here that staying in close proximity wasn't an issue. Skinwalkers either had to be a relatively local phenomenon, or there was an easy way to detect them. Frank leaned towards the former because he'd only encountered them once before. There might also be a way to detect them, but if they were widespread large chunks of humanity would have been ended before that was figured out. Given that that had not happened, at least not in the Pacific Northwest, he discarded that idea. Of course, there were no guarantees things were exactly the same, but a change of that scale was the kind of thing he could neither predict nor prepare for.

He sat down at the shop's counter to write. The words came surprisingly easy. Bill and Rina lounged around awkwardly, while Maria and Hugo convened in a corner of the shop together. Frank kept them all in his peripheral vision, regularly glancing up as he wrote. By the time he was done, there were approximately four pages of straightforward explanation. He then wrote a single page about what was going on in and around Redstone itself. Task finished, he turned to Rina and Bill.

"Could you two come over here?" he asked them. "Remember when I mentioned payment for the weapons? This is what I need." Frank explained to them that he wanted them to make a couple of copies of the document he'd written now, and more whenever time permitted.

Both of them agreed. Rina even looked eager. Writing it took a lot longer than copying it, so it only took half an hour for Rina to make two and Bill to make one. It turned out her penmanship was excellent. She'd signed the ones she'd made 'copied by Rina Leroche'. Bill saw that and signed his as well.

"Well," Frank said. "Time to head to city hall, give this information over to whoever's there and then leave." He got up, gathering together a bunch of stationery supplies and packing them into his stuff. He glanced at the two scrolls and the book. He might have time to look them over later.

All five people walked towards the city hall, wheeling four bikes along. It only took a few minutes to arrive. Jim met them again, this time on the street in front, and far less friendly. He looked at Frank with obvious fear.

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to go inside. A lot of people are terrified of you," he said.

"That's fine," Frank replied. "I just needed to talk to you or Greg for a few minutes."

"About what?" Jim asked.

"The current situation the town is in. I'll keep it brief, because I'm going to leave immediately after." Frank answered, taking off his pack and pulling out one of Rina's copies of his little manual. His eyes never left Jim while he did this. He could see a few people watching him carefully from inside the building.

"This is an explanation of the things I know about the system. If you find it useful, make copies and pass it on to others." Frank handed him some papers. "This is what I've gathered about the situation here." He gave him one more piece of paper.

Jim read over the first one, and the fear evident in his face became worse. "What do we do about that?" he asked.

"Up to you. I'd recommend either trying to find the source of the skinwalkers and exterminating it, or just leaving with a few people you can trust. I've written how to figure out for sure, and what I think might be another effective way to reveal them. They don't seem to be stronger than real people are, relative to their level, so it's not impossible to defeat them, but leaving is safer."

Jim looked down and didn't respond.

"By the way, did anyone find a bike trailer?" Frank asked him.

"No. We did find Sasha though. He's still alive. Turns out that the thing that we thought was Brook swapped his medication." Jim shuddered when he explained that. "How do I even deal with that? If they can imitate someone so perfectly even that person's husband doesn't notice right away."

"I don't have a good answer, which is why I'm not staying," Frank told him. "I'm going to get going though. Good luck."

He turned back to his companions. "Let's get out of here."

Maria hugged her dad and then he left her with a few whispered words, walking into the city hall. They seemed super close. Frank wondered why she was able to leave him so easily. That goodbye given, the four of them secured their packs, then mounted the bicycles. Frank led them out towards the highway, and they left Redstone behind after twenty minutes.