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A. 8

"You want to get on the high way and walk?" Tina inquired to her husband, "do you think it's people driving? So far, the city streets have been abandoned."

"Let's just go this way, otherwise we may get lost at night so at least on the highway we know the direction and we can take another two miles, that's 30 minutes, then when we get there we can feed Isabella."

Tina giggled, "we can feed everyone. I am so tired of carrying this stuff on my back, I'm exhausted too."

Michael giggled with his wife, "at least we are on the way to the check point, let's just pray nobody left us and there are people there who can help us get to Acosta." Michael turned around behind him, "Girls, we are only 30 more minutes, we got this."

"You said we were 30 minutes away 30 minutes ago," Dori complained, "I feel how Isabella feels, I'm ready to rest for the night and I want to eat."

"We all do!" Tina snapped, "let's just keep moving."

Together, they made their way down the exit ramp and towards the expansive, dark highway.

When they made it off of the exit ramp, there wasn't a tractor trailer, truck, or motorcycle in sight. Michael swallowed hard, fear welling up in the back of his throat, "don't worry, we're going to make it to the next exit and be in Plada." There were some uncertainty seeing as though the trees posed a different threat, would game jump on them as they made their way down the road?

Tina huffed and puffed, "just a few more minutes," she whispered to herself, "just a few more..."

One foot in front of the other she kept moving, Michael turned to his wife, "should we walk a little faster to make this 15 minutes? Do you think it's possible?"

"I feel like we can but I don't know if the girls are going to be able to handle it. I don't want nobody to pass out again, I have fear over heat exhaustion because of how much we're wearing."

"Okay, let's just see what happens."

The family continued on, still placing one foot in front of the other as the rain continued to pour out of the sky.

"One fish, two fish, three fish, more fish," Dori started to sing, "I wish I had some gold fish..." her voice trailed off.

Her sister began to laugh, "Dori, you know well that gold fish aren't a thing right now, we shouldn't be far," Isabella snapped at her.

"I wish I had real fish," Nadia stated, "besides, when we finally get to take a shower, I'm going to sleep so good, this has been the longest night of my life and I can't believe it's still going."

"Shhhh!" Tina hissed, "girls, please hush, we shouldn't be far but if you keep talking you can bring unnecessary attention to us, we are moving as fast we can, just be grateful this blanket and our clothes are holding up."

Before they could really think about how far away they were it didn't take any time to realize the exit sign to Plada was in front of them.

"I think we're about to be where we belong!" Michael was exited, "let's go!"

Faster, the family began to move towards the exit ramp entering Plada.

"I remember this tree!" Dori was excited, "This is the tree that we always claimed to see the alien on top of, remember Nadia?"

Nadia laughed, "Yes! That night when we came back from the rollercoasters, I remember thinking the alien was going to follow us home, he had big eyes, little holes in his nose, a really round head with scales on his face. I remember like it was yesterday."

"GIRLS! I'm not going to tell you again, SHUT UP!" Tina was annoyed, "we don't know who is at the end of this ramp and we have to make our way down without any distractions."

Quietly, the family made it to the end of the ramp. Together, they were all tired, the water managed to moisten their hands and wrists leaving burns behind, but they felt a deep relief that their bodies weren't singing of chemical burns. If their bodies felt the way their hands and wrist did there would be no way they could survive the walk, together, they felt a deep appreciation for the shared resourcefulness.

As they continued along, the family's eyes were wide, they wanted to find other people really bad, they wanted to know there was some type of hope for living.

"Do you think we should go directly to the community center?" Tina was in her husband's ear, careful to not have the girls hear her, "I want to shower really bad Mike, I don't think we should walk on without resetting ourselves, at this point we could survive in a building for a night if we needed to."

"Listen, I don't care about surviving in a building, we have to get to the coast. You all keep thinking about the needs of now, I'm worried about later. Like the politician said, if we don't make it to the fucking ships our lives are grass!" Michael snapped, "I don't want to curse at you Tina but you have to stay to the plan, fuck emotions right now!"

Just when they were about to argue badly Dori screamed out, "Look!"

There was a heavy, steel blimp in the sky telling the family where the first checkpoint was located, the flag read, TO MAKE IT TO THE SUBMARINES HEAD TOWARDS 167 LA PALMA ST.

"La Plama Street, La Palma Street, where the fuck is that shit at?" Michael spat out, "that's where we need to go, but I don't know how to get there!"

Tina began to stress out, "I don't remember La Palma Street, I think it's residential though because Plada is small, it can't be that far away."

"What the fuck are we supposed to do? Walk around with three starving girls until we find La Palma?" Michael was pissed.

"Mommy!" Nadia screamed out, "I know where La Palma Street is! That's where my friend Janari lives, it is residential. Remember, you took me to La Palma street to spend the night at her house, I remember there being a gym right before we entered her community, it was gated, I remember like it was yesterday."

"That's right! What was the name of the gym Nadia?" Tina snapped at her daughter, "think fast so we can go!"

"I believe the name of the gym was something like Body Alliance, it was small, one story, blue and gold with a shack roof that somehow had some straw lining it."

"I remember now!" Tina's memory jogged, "Babe, we have to take a left at the light, that gym is behind this street, it's off of the main road and La Palma is right behind the gym, it's residential, a gated community."

"But why would they put us in a gated community?" Michael was confused, "it doesn't make sense."

"I don't know, but that's where we're headed, it says to head towards it, I'm not sure if that's where the check point is. This is just a start, either way it goes, we need to make our way there because I want to get sleep."