A little help with a sentence and also the meaning of だと

Question

I'm having a small problem with the second line said by a character. (context: the two main protagonists came to look for someone, they reach this person's house, but is not there. The protagonists, very tired decide to wait near the outside. It becomes dark and the person they were looking still did not come back)

One of the characters says "Is he really not here?". I get the first line, but the second not so much.

ここ以外だと

First of all, this means 'except for here' or 'other than here' or 'aside from'. But, what does だと mean in this case? I read about it, but not sure if understand it well. (it can have the meanings of 'if' and 'when, right?)
Then, is it "If it's aside from here..."?

Then is the following part

結構遠くなるし

"it's going to get pretty distant"...? I don't know just what is supposed to become that, I'm stumped, thus I'm kindly asking for opinions/interpretations. Thank you!

Answer 1

～以外 can serve as a noun as well as an adverb. It can mean "something/someone/somewhere other than ～". For example:

• ここ以外は危険です。 It's dangerous except for here.
• 東京以外に住みたい。 I want to live somewhere other than Tokyo.
• リーダーは彼以外がいい。 I want anyone but him as the leader.
• ボス以外を全員倒した。 I defeated everyone except the boss.

Naturally, a noun can be followed by だと because this だ is a copula. Also note that だ/です can directly follow a place name in Japanese (e.g., 彼女は学校です "She is at school."). Thus, the literal translation of ここ以外だと is "If s/he is at somewhere other than here".

As for し, it's used to casually list a reason. See: し grammar question

Answer 2

I think you are right about these two phrases.

1. ここ以外だと means the same thing as ここ以外なら.
   だと and なら mean "if" in this case.

2. 結構 = very/pretty
   遠くなる = "it's going to be a long distance"
   し: We use it at the end of a sentence to express something like "not only... but also" or just simple "and".

Hope this helps．

Answer 3

It is probably related to a situation where the possible locations where the person could possibly be are limited, and either:

a) they know that the person has not had access to any vehicles. So, the 2nd person is saying "[he/she must be here since] unless he/she is here, the other possible location is too far to reach by foot"

OR

b) they themselves don't have access to a vehicle. So, the 2nd person is saying "Oh gosh ;-) he's not here and it's too far of us to go and investigate the alternative place"