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A. 8

"Lay her down right here," Michael was standing near the front counter where carpet was located. Together, Tina and Isabella dropped Dori down on the ground and then lifted the blanket off of her face.

She was breathing but her eyes were still shut. Isabella began to smack her sister on the face, "Dori," she called her, "Dori, wake up! You're getting on my nerves. I know you're okay."

Tina came from an aisle and poured water on her daughter's face, with nervousness, she took her daughter's limp body into her arms, "Dori, c'mon baby girl, please don't die on me."

Dori's head began to move side to side before she started to cough, "where... am I?"

"We're at a pharmacy making sure you're okay," Michael began to rub his daughter's arms, "you're fine dear, what happened to you?"

Dori began to sit up out of her mother's arms, "I was walking, but as I was walking I noticed the world changing and I guess everything just got to me.. I knew I hit my head, but I didn't know where." Dori's head had mild blood coming from it.

"I'll get her a bandage," Nadia said before turning to head towards an aisle.

"It's okay, this is a lot to take in," Isabella said to her sister while holding her hand, "I'm glad you're okay."

"We're going to stay here for right now," Michael said assertively.

"No, no we're not, we have to keep walking until we're at Plada, I'm sure we're half way there Michael, if we stop and sleep here we won't know shit about the boats. I'm going to use the bathrooms but we have to keep stepping."

Michael rubbed his head, "at this point I'm starting to think everything is an exaggeration, how bad could this be? I mean think about it, the rain hasn't even destroyed the buildings and we are all evacuating."

Tina folded up her mouth, "Listen, we don't know what the fuck is going to happen next! We have to make some decisions Michael, we have walked about 30-45 minutes already, Plada can't be far from here. I want to use the bathroom but we have to get to stepping."

"Okay baby, whatever you say." Truth was Michael's furrowed eyebrows displayed defeat.

"I wonder where the destination is going to be once we arrived," the words fell from Tina's lips as her mind raced about the uncertainty of the future. They were moving and the blanket was over head, Dori was the reason why the family weren't going at their original pace, they slowed down some to ensure that they were all going to be okay.

"I don't know, I guess when we make it to Plada we're going to have to find out," Michael tugged on his pants some while adjusting the blanket over them.

By now, the blanket had a thousand small holes, some medium ones, and tatters around the edges from the rain, but no water was on them due to the amount of layers that they wrapped them selves under. At times, the rain would hit a hand but they were growing use to the small stings and they knew their walk was coming to a slight end.

"I'm hungry mommy," Isabella was complaining, "we should have ate when we were in the pharmacy, do we have to keep going? How much longer do we have."

Michael sighed, he turned to Tina, "I want to check my phone but I'm almost certain there's not going to be any reception."

"There's not going to be, but the time will tell you," Tina shook her head.

Michael looked around, searching for a sign to tell him where they were and he couldn't believe that it would be hard to locate one. They moved along for another two minutes down a long, vast street when Michael came across an exit sign pointing towards Plada that told him they were only 2 miles away and Plada would be the next exit.