Safe DraStic .apk download?

I recently got a used surface duo for the sole purpose of emulating nintendo ds and 3ds. I have retroarch running with Desmume but as far as i understand, drastic offers better performance on android.

I know i can get it on the play store (for now at least), but i dont have a google account (and i will not sign up for one). I can see that there are many sites offering downloads of an .apk, but they all seem pretty shady to me.

What would be the best way to get a malware-free .apk for drastic? Am i better of waiting for it to go open source and build it myself?