Being close to people had always scared him. But being this close to a human who was possibly a clone…that made his own temperamental fear easier to handle. Everything else that he messed up on today—the mud, his clothing, better notes before going into his experiment—he could fix later on.
The man’s gaze lingered on Ryan, but he soon walked by him on the wooded pathway. Ryan’s heart sunk. He wasn’t sure if he should keep walking into the woods deeper, maybe turn this failed day into a hike, but he turned around.
The man was there again. About Ryan’s age, in his mid-forties, but a touch more athletic, like he ran this pathway in the mornings when he wasn’t cruising in the afternoon.
“Hi,” Ryan said.
The man tilted his head to the side, indicating a spot off the path.
“Should I go with
