Images flashed through my brain. The explosion destroying the Collector, the roof of our pods, and Xix's smug face. Xix opened his mouth, and with Stanley's voice said "Greg we have to go, this whole place is coming down around us. Get up! Scaley arms reached out and began shaking me. "Wake up already bro!"

I snapped awake to Stanley leaning over me, a concerned look on his face. He was beginning to drag me towards the door as fire started to consume the walls around me. "Can you walk?" He asked.

"Yah, I think I can probably manage." I pushed myself to my feet, stumbling slightly. Stanley immediately began supporting me as we ran out the building. Pieces of support structure were collapsing around us, and chunks of roof littered the floor, burning slightly still. I coughed, the air getting smoky and hard to breathe. My vision was fading in and out of focus as we finally arrived at the door out. Luckily there was no sign of the spiders around, or else I'm not sure we could have managed them as well.

I looked around at all the people that Stanley had saved. The woman was there, looking slightly worse for wear, pain evident on her face as she held a thick cloth to her hand. There were also three others; two men and another woman, all looking battered and bruised. All of them were in shock except one of the men, who walked up to us.

"I wanted to thank y'all for the save back there. Can't say it was particularly pleasant being trapped in that freak's box for days. The name's Pete. I assume based on the inferno going on behind you we won't be seeing much of him anymore?"

"Thats the hope, but the explosion knocked me unconscious as well, so I couldn't confirm it. He was closer to the tanks than I was though, so chances are decent we won't be seeing them again."

"Well, no matter what, we got out, and I appreciate it. If I could trouble y'all for one more thing. Do you have someplace for us to stay the night? It's starting to get dark out, and I don't trust our ability to survive out here without some sort of shelter. I'm sure I can find some way to repay you, I'm a hard worker, plus I have a decent eye. I could take one of the shifts for guard duty, or whatever else is needed."

That was eager of him, especially given his previous situation minutes ago. It wasn't to say I didn't trust him, but it wasn't something I would have done in his position. We could still use the hands though, so I agreed to his request. The woman also stepped forward.

"Look, I need to you know that I'm not going to be a robot following you around. I don't know what would have happened if you didn't step in, so I appreciate it, I really do. But I have my own goals in mind during this apocalypse, so if they happen to align, I'll work with you, but if not then you are on your own. I'm telling you straight up that you can't fully trust me and if you are okay with that I'll stick around for a bit."

"I think I can be amenable to that. At very least until you are healed up a bit more that you are. It's not exactly like you're in fighting shape right now, and I'd rather we make it through this crisis with everyone we can." I stepped forward to shake her hand and wobbled on my feet slightly, my vision going blurry. It felt as if all the energy had gone out of me at once. My eyes closed and I blacked out a second time. I woke up inside our fortress that we had secured before going scavenging, propped up against the wall that had been padded with some soft blankets that people had gotten from somewhere. I was later told I collapsed to the ground hard and had gotten carried back. The group in shock had snapped out of it, and those that were willing had decided to go scavenge for supplies. One woman from that group had refused to leave, and she had found an office and locked herself inside. The rest had agreed happily. All this was conveyed by Stanley, who walked up after I awoke.

"So, you doing okay? I don't need you collapsing on me again. The first time is free, the second time I have to carry you home I'm gonna need to get paid bro. I'm not a taxi service. "

I laughed. "Wasn't this already the second time? You basically dragged my ass out of the shopping center after I blew it to kingdom come."

"You know... that's a great point, I'll have to put it on your tab, since it's not like you have much to offer me. I might be part parasite, but I'm not interested in eating human flesh, and I think that's currently all you got going for you dude."

"Okay rude, but fair. I'll figure out some way to make it up to you for getting me out of there. Right now I think it's 2 to 1 on saving each other in your favor. Anyway, what's the plan now? We know about the Three, but it's not as if we could win a war against those parasites, even given our successes so far. I want to lock it down here, and see if we can maybe help out others in the area, but we have to try and stay quiet about it. Your parasite radio is useful, but I'd bet it will also attract other parasites to our area before long. We need to be ready for them, since apparently the Three have taken your existence as a personal affront."

"It does seem that way. Totally not cool on their part, but there's not much I can do about it. The others will be back soon, but you need to rest up a bit more before you are healthy. Get some more sleep, and we can figure out the plan once we have everyone around in the morning."

Now that Stanley mentioned it, I was finding it really difficult to keep my eyes open. I fell into a fitful sleep, with dreams of fire, blood and abominations of flesh throughout.