My Ticket Out

Chapter 4: Time to Go!

We continued traveling in the car. The man constantly was staring at me through his rearview mirror. I was thinking that he was checking me out the whole time which made me uncomfortable, but at least we were away from the government. We couldn't die if we were away from them.

"So, what were you running away from?" The man asked.

We stayed completely silent thinking that if we answered we would be in a lot of trouble as well as he would've probably dropped us off immediately and we didn't want that. For a little bit as I looked out the window it looked like his house was in Covington. That was a good thing because that got us closer to where we wanted to go.

"You don't have to answer me if you don't want to... it just looked serious that's all. Like people were trying to kill you."

"Look..." I started, "It was the government."

The man looked at us now as if we were fugitives and was really mad at us. Of course who wouldn't be mad? I would be mad if I picked up a fugitive and someone that the government wanted. This would make me want to hurt myself so I get where he was coming from.

"You're going to have to explain yourself when you get to my place. You're also going to have to give me a lot of information. If I believe you I might help you. But, I can easily turn you in." He warned us in preparation.

"I won't be scared to spill the beans." I replied making sure that I was continuing to build back the little trust we had.

They were finally getting to his house. He had a beautiful wife and a single little girl with beautiful blond hair. Who appeared to be eight years old. She was very curious at what her dad brought home but she easily welcomed the guest but wanted to question us. She seemed more eager to ask us questions than the man did. I was okay with that. At least the questions coming out of the eight year olds mouth weren't going to be questions about our identity and they were going to be more questions geared towards what I liked.

"So, have you had to play for the judges anytime soon?" The girl asked.

"Yes I did, it was fun! Keep the practicing so you can be as good as your father." I replied back to her constructively.

"My dad is good from time to time. I just want to be more consistent." she said.

"Hey Brittney, is it okay if you go in to your room to practice? I need to ask these girls some questions. This is stuff that I don't need you hearing." The man nicely asked his daughter.

"Fine," she smocked. "But I want to be out here." She left to go do the action while rolling her eyes. This infuriated the man but he wasn't the kind of person to yell and scream at his daughter. He kept it all inside.

"So," The man started.

"I'm Jocine Paxton and this is my mother Teresa Paxton." I immediately interrupted.

"Please... don't interrupt me even though you knew what I was going to say." The man said still looking angry at us.

"So Jocine, what were you getting away from." He continued asking.

"The government. They were holding us captive." I replied knowing that it would get a spike out of someone.

His wife got up and I knew that this wasn't going to be good. She started screaming and yelling thigs at her husband like. "YOU BROUGHT FUGITIVES TO THIS PLACE." And "WHY'D YOU PICK UP ANOTHER SET OF HITCHHIKERS! YOU KNOW THAT THAT'S A BAD THING!" "THERE PROBABLY THE LAST ONES ON THE LIST."

All he replied with was a "hold on a second."

He grabbed his cellular device the thing didn't look like a phone at all. It looked like a variation between a phone and a tablet and this continued to have me baffled at all the wonderful thing it could help us with. But on the other hand it had me fantasizing about things that I could be doing and how his instrument could turn the world around in an instant and that worried me as well making it as if he was looking us up on the rankings.

"That's weird." He spoke with a wavering tone.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"There should have been no reason you were trapped in the dungeon by the government. Jocine you were in 3 millionth place. Your mom was third to last still but that wouldn't have kept her in."

"So then what is there big plans? Do you know?" I continued asking the man questions as if he were the one behind this. Even though I knew he wasn't because if he was he never would've saved us.

"Sorry Jocine, But I don't know. By the way call me William."

"Okay William I will. So what are we planning?"

William got out a big map and started drawing a pathway that they could go to avoid potential dangers along the way. The problem was that the path of least resistance required them to go into 2 states but possibly even more if we get lost.

"Were going to be careful of your mom. I don't want a casualty on this trip if we so make it."

"Okay, what do you want me and my mother to do?" I asked awaiting an answer.

"Don't worry all you need to do is sit there and do nothing. Get comfortable, my house is your house too!" William continued to comfort us.

I saw a television remote I wanted to grab I so badly. I heard the tablet like thing buzz. I looked at it and it had a notification for William. I tapped on what appeared to be a news notification telling us to tune into the news. I followed the directions turned the television to the closes news station there was. I saw and unmentionable site, it was he president, but, he was with the man that was in the dungeon with us. His eyes seemed to be heavily glossed over. I didn't know what to think. If it was an exaggeration just to make him look cooler. The thing that had me skeptical is that the president seemed to be fine holding what appeared to be a dead corpse.

"Today!" he started. "Today, something has to change. We have to limit and change the varying rules that we have on traveling! Today, you cannot just enter a certain place after you hit or surpass the goals. So all you Paxton boys, you don't have the free reign freedom that you used to have. Technically, you kind of still do. But you will need to fight harder for it. For your trip you'll have a required number of points you need to get to go to each place. It will be difficult to escape and the routes will continue to become harder. This will make it so a lot out you people in the southern most states will have to work harder to maintain that common goal that you have. For example states like Oklahoma, Kansas, Montana, will be a lot less than places like California, Arizona, and Texas will be a lot higher because there'll be no escape. You live and will forever live in the U.S.

The U.S is a place that will help the world someday. If you can't populate faster than we kill, the population will become sustainable again. This is an advancement that the U.S has to take and it is something that we need. I know that there would and could be sad for families, but we need to stabilize the entire United States, so... you all need to cooperate. With the ability to do so we'll be happy to help with any severe loss cases. This was your president and we thank you for tuning into this important announcement."

William walked in. "I heard we need to go now! This is bad we need to start this before they continue to make the trip before they instate that."

"So you're going to take us?" I asked confused.

"Yea, I have to. I might be able to take you all the way but we need to go. This is lame. Pack up your stuff we've got to go." William said he knew that it was time