The first thing we noticed was the dark skies were partially blurred by the rain. The atmosphere was beyond gloomy as we pulled ourselves together, toughing out the constant, painful pelting of the rain.

We made sure the door was closed behind us, just incase the house survives the storm.

Then, we began our journey. The road was mostly uphill and it had been touch and go for a while with some of us slipping, but we made it to the first of the checkpoints we made to make sure we're on the right track.

It was a supermarket, the doors were battered but not yet broken, although the hinges looked worse for wear they held up, allowing us into the surprisingly warm area.

The complaints of my siblings and my mom were made known as my dad looked at a map and I looked around. The supermarket itself was pretty big, not the level of a Mall but pretty big nonetheless. There were two floors and a single 2 by 5 meter skylight showcasing the amount of lightning and rain the storm produced.

The overall color scheme was blue and green with white and tan accents across the building's materials. It had a unique combination of an old-timey feel and a modernist structure. We had always loved the place and went here for all our groceries, not many of the stalls were overpriced, nor the permanent shops. Those select few that were are now run-down and have several different wooden parts broken.

From what, is still unknown.

As I began trudging through the slight sleekness across the floor to find some food, my youngest siblings came over to me. One was Cedric, the 'man of the house' as we used to joke about his tough façade... I guess it'll take time before that joke will become valid again. The other twin is Leotri, Cedric's twin sister and the house's 'mouse', well, the other mouse.

They just stayed silent, as did I, while we searched stall after stall for food and brought it back in multiple trips.

It was a few hours of this back and forth before something changed.

Our dad's cousin and his family stopped here.

We were surprised at first, as we thought it'd take longer for us to meet up. Of course, we didn't account for their side as almost as soon as the phones cut, they immediately left to try and meet up with us. It was fine in the end, more bags to pack more food and all.

Eventually, I, who was silent, talked in search of guidance.

"Mom, we don't have much more space so we need to prioritize. Should we bring toiletries or should we bring more drinks? We don't know if the rainwater is safe to drink yet after all."

"Uh... I'll talk to your father and his cousin about it, they know more than me in this department."

What I didn't expect was that as my mom left to go talk to them, they called for us to gather around.

My dad led the new discussion, "Alrighty people, we have two hours to gather more things before we go. After that, we'll be heading over to the community center without pause."

I was extremely confused, "Dad, didn't you say there were four checkpoints we'd stop by?"

"I did, however, we don't have time to visit them all and the storm is getting heavier. None of the other checkpoints are places we'd want to be stuck at and so we'll have to charge through the storm to the center, it's the best option."

I nodded and asked what I asked mom.

He didn't even think, or he did at light speeds, and told me to prioritize the drinks. The community center had toiletry donations a week or so ago. Weird if you ask me. Why not canned food or other things like bedding or toys? How confusing.

So, I went with Cedric and Leotri to grab as many drinks as possible. I specifically made sure to grab teabags, milk and cocoa powder. I can't survive without hot chocolate. Anything else, yes... well, hot chocolate and Specks.

I can't survive without a fluff nearby to calm me.

Gathering drinks didn't take long, mainly because there was a section for only drinks in most of the stores, and we left to go back to the group. Finding all the girls except my eldest sister gone.

When we arrived, she beckoned to Leotri and they left to what I assume was a bath or shower, something they made a makeshift of, no doubt.

I began listing the drinks we found, dad's eyes lighting up at the mention of coffee powder, and he wrote them down on a clipboard that came from who knows where.

Everyone had gone silent, working on their own thing. I went over by the entrance and sat down, dad only taking a glance to make sure I didn't go out. The silence went on for about an hour, edging us into the evening. We probably wouldn't get any sleep tonight. If it was night. No one could be certain anymore, we didn't have any old-timey clocks and we didn't even know if the storm didn't interfere with those too. None of the clocks worked on the phones or devices even though they themselves worked fine.

Currently, my dad was using the Internet, from what I could see, to search up some easy ways to do things. It's good that we haven't completely lost communication. Still, today should be the fifth day from what I can tell. Or rather, fifth evening.

I was about to get up when a flash appeared in the corner of my vision. Not of lightning.'

But an explosion.

It seemed everyone had seen it despite being muddled and muted by the storm.

They began to hurry as the 9 girls got back.

'It's quite weird, there are exactly 9 girls and 9 boys in the group total. Excluding Specks. My dad's cousin is a father to 5 daughters and 2 sons. For our family, I have 4 brothers and 2 sisters for a total of 6:3 including my mum and dad...'

I sighed.

'I'm getting off-track again. I need to... what was I meant to be doing?'

I chalked off my forgetfulness as a short-circuit from stress but it was peculiar, I didn't usually forget easily, even in stressful situations. I overlooked that people were getting ready to go and continued down the idea, entangling myself in an unending thread of thoughts. Eventually, I was awoken from it.

"Brother, get up."

My eyes cleared as I stared at the person who'd gotten so close. It was my littler brother.

I nodded, "Alright."

My brother further clarified that we'd be going to the community center now. I sighed once more.

'The journey continues...'