Stan

**“***Ain't that some shit...***”**
— **Stan having a moment with Sara**

**Stan** is a supporting character in *Bloodwash* and a main character in *Night at the Gates of Hell*.

## Description

### Appearance

Stan is a tall, middle-aged black man with a bald head and graying black facial hair. He wears a light blue sweater with a light purple, yellow and dark blue design, dark purple pants with the same pattern, black shoes and a pair of glasses.

During his appearance in the final showdown, Stan appears shirtless, revealing his muscular build and wields an assault rifle in his right hand.

### Personality

First and foremost, Stan is a loyal, genuine, and caring individual, appearing fatherly at times, trying his best to provide aid to those he sees are in need of it. During his interaction with Sara, he is shown to be worried for her and her baby, offering Sara a place to stay should her deadbeat boyfriend ever become physically abusive. Even so, Stan attempts to never seem forceful and leaves the final decision to Sara. Generally, Stan is a source of sage advice in case of crisis and will back his promises up with swift action.

During the uprising of the dead, Stan additionally takes on the role of the de-facto leader of a group of survivors, eventually partnering with David to protect them. Although remaining civil and friendly, always remaining relatively calm and never panicking, Stan shows frustration at the antics of some of his peers, especially Belinda's noisy breast feeding sessions, during which he can raise his voice to get a point across. Similarly, if the situation calls for sacrifice, Stan is the first to offer himself up for the welfare of the group, even if it means almost certain death, which he has been shown to face with an undying fighting spirit to buy his companions as much time as possible.

### History

Much of Stan's background is unknown, except that he lives in a run-down apartment complex in a neighborhood ghetto. He mentions having a sister who was once stuck in an abusive relationship. Likely due to this, Stan has developed a close bond to his new next door neighbor Sara, who is frequently hassled by her live-in baby daddy Liam, a lazy alcoholic, watching out for her in case his drinking problem takes a violent turn.

## *Bloodwash*

Sara can mention Stan when inspecting his apartment door (the one with the cigarette butts) while on her way to the laundry room downstairs, describing him as a "nice man", noting that he is her "one good neighbor".

Stan appears in the door frame of his apartment after Sara returns when she finds the washing machine broken. Stan engages in small talk, inquiring how Liam is treating her and offering shelter at his sister's place should she feel unsafe with him. Sara politely declines and instead talks about her current predicament about having no clean clothes for her job interview tomorrow. Seeing how urgent the situation is, Stan suggests she take her laundry to a 24-hour laundromat on the outskirts of town, which she can still reach with the last bus of the night, but warns her about a serial killer in the area, the Womb Ripper, as the murderer had been targeting pregnant women like her. Sara reassures him that she can handle whatever the city throws at her before she gets the address from Stan, who hopes for a safe journey into the night.

Following the events of *Bloodwash*, Sara, having apparently heeded Stan's advice, decided to break it off with Liam, and moved in with Stan's sister for the time being.

## *Night at the Gates of Hell*

Shortly after the events of Bloodwash, Stan took an ill-timed vacation to a Coastal Village, just as the gates of Hell were opened. Stan was enjoying a day of soaking in the sun when he was rudely interrupted by to a zombie he managed to fight off, picking up a woman named Belinda and her creepy son Charles along the way. The three find safety in a cottage, joining the two men hiding out inside, Cap and Skeeter.

### Coastal Village

When David arrives in town, Stan and his group are trapped in their shelter by a horde of Monk Zombies. After the invaders are repelled by the new arrival, Stan thanks David for giving them a hand and directs him to a nearby music school, saying that he had recently heard a shotgun going off in there and suggests that an upgrade in firepower may be useful for the future. Stan and company are eventually able to use a boat to leave the mainland in search of a undead-free island when David gathers all the necessary items.

### Cap's Boat

Shortly after their departure, Cap reveals, much to the group's outrage, that he was not in fact a sea captain, but a poorly trained cabin boy. Stan keeps a cool head and advises the rest of the survivors to simply wait out the fog and then sail further ahead until they find land. His speech is repeatedly interrupted by the suckling sounds of Charles, being breast-fed by Belinda, until Stan snaps at them, summing up that he just wants the group to stay alert.

Back on deck, Stan can't help shake the feeling that something is lurking in the fog. His intuition is unfortunately proven right when a Zombie Shark leaps aboard and eats Belinda. The remaining survivors decide to abandon ship in the lifeboat, but knowing that the shark won't just let his prey leave and is likely to follow them in their indefensible dinghy, despite Cap's pleas, elects to stay behind and buy the others time, stating that he'll "catch up" with the other once he defeats the monster or at least makes it lose interest in hunting after them, with Skeeter giving him a soldier's goodbye for his sacrifice. The last that is seen of Stan, now wielding a javelin, is calling out for the Zombie Shark, getting jumped by it seconds later in a cut-to-black.

### The Island

Stan is mentioned indirectly by Skeeter, who laments that Stan chose to give his life and that he should have been the one to die in his steed.

### Prepare

After the final stand at the church ends in the death of everyone except David, as he is fighting off the overwhelming waves of zombies, out of nowhere, a portal opens up behind David, with Stan, now bare-chested and holding a machine gun, joining the fray, wiping out all the attackers together. Stan apologizes for "crash[ing] the party" and mentions that he did promise to "catch up" and tells David to come with him if he values his life.

### Post-credits scene

Stan and David are on the other side of the portal, where he asks David to consult the book he had taken from Father Friedstein earlier about getting back home, as it was clear that they were now stuck in Hell. Stan jokes that they "sure as Hell ain't in Kansas anymore", revealing a demonic castle and a ginormous, green-eyed skull looming over it.

## Ding Dong Dead

While Stan does not appear in the game, he is mentioned by another character Hip G, who reveals that Stan is his uncle.

## Trivia

* Stan's closing lines are references to the "Come with me if you want to live" phrase used frequently by various characters throughout the *Terminator* franchise and a paraphrase of the stock phrase originating from *The Wizard of Oz*.