The farther we got from the university, the quieter it was. We entered the suburbs of Stagtail, and what would have normally been a busy street was now empty of life, human or otherwise. I looked around as we walked and saw a flash of something dart behind one of the houses.

"Hey Stan, I think there might be something or someone watching us."

"Bro, that's impossible, I would have seen them. You know my eyes are totally out of this world on account of all the Vitamin A I eat. Gotta keep your body balanced. If any one of the pillars of nutrition was too low, your body's roof could collapse and leave you in the rain." Stanley was making it a point to be as loud as possible, and I didn't want to hear more about his health regimen. Why did the system consider him an advantage again?

"Are you humans?" A voice came from behind the house I had been looking at. A small girl, who couldn't be more than 10 years old peeked out at us, barely showing more than her head. "I'm scared, and I don't know where I am. Mommy told me to run away and hide when the pizza man showed up, but that was over an hour ago. Can you help me find them? This had to be one of the most obvious traps I'd ever seen. A little girl, lost in an area where there is nothing else around? Likely story. Who does that thing think would fall for such a blatant danger?

"Aw it's okay little girl, I'll help you find your Mommy and Daddy. Don't worry." As I considered our options, Stanley began approaching the girl. I didn't realize he had left before he walked behind the house.

"God damn it, Stanley." As much as I disliked him, he was still likely my best bet when it came to an ally I could trust. I ran after him, going behind the house and fully expecting to see him being eaten by some monstrosity. But when I walked around, all I saw was him kneeling in front of a crying girl. Huh, lucky him I guess. He turned as I approached, stood up, and whispered.

"She says her parents live close to the city at 123 Reef Road. I've been nearby there before, it's not too far away from where we are. I know chances are slim that the parents aren't already shapeshifters or just dead, but shouldn't we at least try?"

"No. No, we shouldn't. That sounds like a great way to get us killed. We can't just go gallivanting off to try and find some brat's dead parents when any second we could be attacked by one of the parasites. They are spreading fast, and it's only going to get worse over time."

"My parents are dead?" The girl's eyes began watering up with tears again. "But.... she promised she'd come to find me."

"Look what you did bro.... not cool. It's okay hun. We are going to try and find your parents, and if Greg doesn't want to come, then he can go looking for his safehouse on his own." Stanley looked at me and disappointment was evident on his face. I needed to watch my mouth. The girl might be more trouble than she was worth, but no matter how annoying Stanley might be, I couldn't deny having an extra pair of eyes was useful, and I couldn't exactly afford to lose the only advantage I had been given by the system.

"Fine. We will go look for her parents. You said you knew the way?" I was starting to develop a stress migraine. I knew this was an NPC I was interacting with, but hell if they weren't frustrating.

"Yep, I'll get us there safe and sound. Well, as safe as can be expected given our situation. And besides, it will give us a chance to look around. There are some stores in the area we can grab supplies from for later. I know there's at least one hunting and fishing shop on the way. If no one has looted it so far, we might be able to pick up at least something." That was really good thinking from Stanley.

We made our way to the address the girl had given, avoiding anyone and anything that seemed remotely threatening. We stopped by the hunting and fishing store on the way and found it looted. While Stanley kept the girl, who I heard from Stanley was named Rose, busy looking at the stuffed deer heads and other taxidermy spread throughout I kept an eye out for any way that we could arm ourselves. Both the monsters and eventually people as they got more desperate would need coaxing to leave us alone. I had decided our best bet was to try and get with another group of people, assuming they would let us in and then hunker down until time was up. It was a risk, but one that I hoped would be mitigated with the number of people. There was no way the shapeshifters would form an entire community just to trap people. All we would have to do is convince them that we weren't shapeshifters either and then hope they let us join.

There was still plenty of gear left over, but no obvious weaponry on the walls. I was able to find an old hunting rifle that had been left to the side, similar in make to the one BT had used back in my first game as well as a bit of ammo. I doubted the effectiveness of the rifle given the struggle the officers had been having at the university. We grabbed as much of the snack food that was left in the store along with any water we found, then skedaddled.

After a while, we arrived at Rose's address. Nothing seemed out of place, aside from the lack of people, but it didn't bode well for her mother with how empty it was around us. We opened the front door, and Rose immediately bolted in. "Mommy? I made it back! Where are you?"