Startled and feeling Kazdar's panic, Vera looked to her father for some sort of signal. She had been hearing the rumors of the day saying that something awful was going to happen, but she was never one to fall into the gossip. Now, she didn't know whether to believe her neighbor or to laugh at him for being so paranoid. Regardless, something about his entire demeanor made her join him in the worry.
Vera approached Kazdar and put a hand on his shoulder, saying, "There's an exit underneath the stairs," she gestured toward the staircase, which had a small, white door. "I'm going to lock it behind me. The key is in the top drawer of my bedroom dresser. Only door on the right upstairs."
Without hesitating, she turned, even though she wanted to say more to him - "good luck" or "be careful" or something. But she didn't. Her father followed her without saying a word. They entered the small, cramped space underneath the staircase and Vera ushered her father out in front of her. He was still a bit fragile from the sickness he'd experienced. Vera locked the first door, and then followed her father out of the second.
It was then that she realized she hadn't grabbed a single thing that they might have needed for survival. Quietly, she cursed underneath her breath. There is no time, she thought, not mentioning it to her father. Where would they go now?
"Outside of the city?" Vera posed the question to her father. He looked at her with an expression she'd never seen him have before: fear and ignorance.
"I-I don't know," he stuttered in a weak and timid voice. Vera stared at him in shock and disgust, unable to believe that her father was really going to let this ordeal scare him so severely.
"Come on," she said. "Just follow me. We'll be alright."
Vera grabbed her father's hand and began leading him toward the edge of the city. The oddness of the situation did not go unnoticed. The two of them realized that it should have been Draenik who was protecting his daughter, not the other way around. But Vera wasn't going to let them get hurt because her father got stunned. Whether the situation was as severe as her neighbor had portrayed or not.