Run: Day 20

Word Total: 120,035

Year to Date: 390,055

Summary of Events:

Ty landed at the airport and got a taxi driver to take him to the best burger joint in Seattle, as he was quite hungry. DaNiel got off the bus and started to hunt for one of the two roads nearest to the house he'd discerned the person who'd sent the messages from Seattle lived in and ended up being approached by Ty before he'd gone too far; Ty tried to get him to hand over the Latrodectus, but he didn't think that was a safe thing to do on a busy street, so he promised Ty he'd do it if Ty would come with him. Ty did, although reluctantly, and was given the Latrodectus by DaNiel just outside the front door of an old-fashioned house. The man inside left Ty speechless, as the man looked shockingly like an older version of himself, thus DaNiel did the initial talking, which got them brought inside by the man, who was quite alarmed at the news they'd brought him the Latrodectus . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“Does anyone know that you’re in Seattle?” the man asked urgently, locking the door shut behind them with quick movements.

“I don’t think so,” DaNiel replied.

“Does anyone know you have the Latrodectus?” the man asked, looking at both of them searchingly.

“The Army knows,” Ty replied, finally recovering himself from the shock of seeing a man who looked like what he might become in the future.

“And who exactly is the Army, in this case?” the man asked critically, his gaze sharply fixed on Ty.

“The Army in Portland,” Ty replied. “I flew here, but the flight was delayed, and as I was waiting the lady came up to me, and so I ran, but security caught me and, and searched me, and she took me to an army base and screamed at me and hit me and kicked me for ages, but I didn’t tell her, and the General had her arrested anyways.”

“Was her name Sergeant Templeton by any chance?” the man asked.

“Yes,” Ty replied. “She chased me in Alexandria, after I got it from the dying man; she killed him, and then she shot at me and chased me and then I found him and we hid out for the night and–”

“If  I may,” the man interrupted. “Who was the dying man?”

Ty grappled to recall what he looked like. “I don’t know, he was just bleeding and coughing up blood, and I didn’t really want to go up to him but he beckoned me and he gave me this,” Ty withdrew the device from his pocket. “And he told me to guard it with my life, and not tell anyone, and to run. I kind of didn’t do the not tell anyone part, but I didn’t tell the lady.”

Immediately the man took the device from Ty’s hand and pressed it open; he looked at the inside for a moment, then pressed the power button, which lit up, flickered, then went steady.

He stared at it for a moment before pressing it off again and closing it back up.

Ty remembered something else and pulled off his backpack before tearing clothes out of it until he reached the bottom and found what he was looking for; he handed it over to the man.

Pocketing the device into a breast pocket within his coat — or maybe in his shirt — the man then took the wallet and opened it.

He stared for a long time and Ty thought he saw the man’s eyes moist.

“I, um, I launched the beta version, on his laptop,” DaNiel said, sounding like he was making an uncomfortable confession. “It only showed us a message board. I figured out where you lived because it gave coordinates for where the message was sent from, and those led us here. We drove across the whole country to make sure it was safe.”

The man’s head snapped up and toward DaNiel, who was standing a little more into the living room. “Safe? No, no . . . it’s not safe here. It’s less safe than it was before.”

Next Post: 2 May.

Run: Day 19

Word Count: 114,119

Summary of Events:

Ty was actually able to make the flight he'd bought the ticket for — dropped off at the airport by the army personnel, who'd been highly apologetic for the woman's behaviour — but discovered that flying wasn't as luxuriant as he'd expected, so he looked forward to the end of the flight and hopefully being able to find DaNiel somewhere in Seattle. DaNiel was passing through Tacoma on the bus and got to thinking about Ty, although he tried to make himself stop, as he was convinced Seattle was just too big for them to be able to find each other in; in his mind, they'd seen the last of each other . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

They’d known each other for a time, they’d shared a trip to Portland, but now DaNiel was more than certain that he would never, ever see Ty again, and that was supposed to be fine by him.

Maybe it would be yet, he just wasn’t used to it, after all, they’d gone their separate ways acrimoniously and only just over two hours ago, maybe he was just trying to grapple with the fact that he’d failed in his desire to see Ty realise the error of his ways.

It wasn’t like he really even knew why he’d come to the decision that he needed to try and reform Ty; it was probably mostly in hopes that they wouldn’t have been tracked to Portland and all that, but now it didn’t matter, Ty wasn’t here to steal anything and cause any problems, he could just go about his life and hope that at the end of the day he wasn’t back in jail.

Someday they might both be back in Alexandria, but they’d both lived their whole lives there without meeting each other before, who said they were going to meet each other there again?

Sure DaNiel hadn’t succeeded in reforming Ty, but at least he’d been able to survive his time with Ty without being arrested, as that was really probably no small feat, considering the fact that Ty had no regard for the observance of the law.

Still his mind was not at rest. For some reason it was almost as if he wanted to find Ty again, as if he didn’t want to stop trying to get Ty to see the error of his ways until he’d succeeded, but did it really matter?

What was Ty to him? Nothing. He wasn’t a friend, he wasn’t even hardly qualified as an acquaintance, he was just some kid who . . . who knew the secret he hadn’t even revealed under oath in a court of law.

There was that. He’d helped Ty get out of prison the only way he knew how, and as a result Ty knew about his platform, he knew what DaNiel had discovered; if he wanted that to stay secret he might want to find Ty.

But then again, would Ty really be believed if he told anyone? Maybe, especially considering that Ty also knew his name and more other facts about him than he even knew about Ty.

Ty might, thus, disclose that the two of them had travelled together, which could lead to his rearrest and even the exposure of his platform — and it would be believable that he would’ve invented such a thing because of all the other things he’d made over the course of his life — and who knew what else.

Leaning his head back against the seat, DaNiel cringed. It would be just as hard for him to find Ty in Seattle as it would be for Ty to find him, but the way things looked he was going to have to do it now.

Run: Day 18

Word Count: 108,079

Summary of Events:

DaNiel was able to get onto a bus destined for Seattle, and since he had no one behind him or beside him, he elected to use Ty's laptop; to his surprise, the Latrodectus loaded on the laptop again, and he discovered that it was on, but didn't recall turning it on, so he turned it off. Ty, having successfully made it to the airport, was waiting for his flight, which was delayed because of an emergency landing situation in Seattle, when he recognised the face of the woman who'd chased him on the night he'd gotten the Latrodectus; he ran from her, but she got airport security to help her catch him before taking him by taxi to a military base where she viciously demanded the whereabouts of the Latrodectus . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Out his peripheral vision Ty saw something move and turned to see the door into the room opening, which admitted a strongly-built man with golden blonde hair, piercing eyes, a rich tan to his skin, and a perfectly pressed military uniform on. If it weren’t for the military uniform Ty might’ve considered the guy fresh out of the pages of Norse myth and legend, even if he didn’t have long, flowing locks; his hair was the perfect colour for the role.

The woman continued screaming at him even as the man crossed the floor; he even cleared his throat and went ignored.

“Excuse me,” the man finally said in a loud, commanding voice that befitted his appearance.

Immediately the woman silenced, straightened, released Ty’s shirt, and turned to face the man.

“Who are you, and what are you doing?” the man demanded.

“I am Sergeant Kira Templeton, sir, and I am conducting an interrogation,” she replied.

The dark gold eyebrows above the man’s eyes rose with a sceptical arc, pulling his whole face into a thoroughly sceptical expression as they did so.

“An interrogation?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Since when do people from the technological development branch conduct interrogations?” he asked.

“Since–”

“Additionally,” he continued, interrupting her. “Since when do interrogators — even interrogators on television — scream at people, holding their shirts in their fists, calling down fire and brimstone on them?”

She stood straight, looking offended.

“Look at this room!” the man cried. “A chair is destroyed, the table overturned, and this boy is bleeding! This is no interrogation! This is an absolute disgrace and it will cease at once!”

“No!” Sgt. Templeton shrieked. “I do not have my answers and you will not stop me from getting them!”

“No Sergeant speaks to a General like that,” the man spat. “Even if I am not specifically a general in your branch of the army. Lieutenant!”

A second man strode in.

“Take this Sergeant Templeton and book her for insubordination,” the General ordered. “And also see that she personally pays for all of this damage.”

“Yes sir,” the Lieutenant replied.

He seized Sgt. Templeton by the arms and, despite her screams and protests and struggles, ushered her out of the room.

“Son,” the General’s voice sounded tender and kind. Ty looked at him and saw that his expression was softer, he looked almost like a father. “Can you come with me?”

Wearily Ty pushed himself out of the chair and the General put his arm gently around behind Ty, guiding him out of the room and into a different room that looked more like an office, with comfortable chairs, a desk, some bookshelves, and a computer.

“Have a seat,” the General said.

Ty gratefully settled down on the more comfortable chair and was startled when a subsequent scan of the room revealed that the General had left.

Run: Day 17

Word Count: 102,131

Summary of Events:

Ty and DaNiel set out on foot to a bus station, from whence DaNiel had decided they would take a bus to Seattle. Ty, however, wanted to fly instead, and so picked pockets along the way to collect enough money so they could; unfortunately he grabbed a wallet that was chained to its owner and was discovered, thus he and DaNiel fled, eventually ending up in some woods where they argued and fought before separating, both having heard the sounds of dogs and running in different directions. Ty was pursued and knocked down by a dog, who turned out to be a police dog, but the officers apologised for the dog's actions and warned him to leave the woods so he didn't get hurt by the dangerous fugitive they were pursuing . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Ty nodded, picking himself up somewhat wearily, hoping the officers couldn’t see that he was shaking with fear that they were going to suddenly realise he was an escapee who was charged with theft in Nebraska.

The officers bid him farewell and turned back to continue on their manhunt, although the dog whined as if she knew that he was the one who’d left all that money behind that, now, he wasn’t going to be able to collect because the police might see him do it, or this fugitive they were after might attack him for it.

He hated to think he’d left donations for a fugitive; especially $500, that would give the fugitive money enough to get pretty far.

Nonetheless, he walked onward through the trees until he found a road, just like the officers had said.

After checking for traffic both ways, he crossed the road and headed north, following a curve that took him onto a bridge that looked like the Golden Gate bridge, except that it was Statue-of-Liberty green.

Once he’d crossed the bridge he kept walking, jostling people he encountered on the sidewalks somewhat irregularly.

He decided to follow the widest, busiest looking road, which took him on a right hand curve to the southeast before taking a sharp left northeast and eventually curving around to bring him in more of a southwesterly direction again.

All along the way he jostled people, doing his best to hit the people who looked like they had the most money — as a lot of the people he was passing by actually looked lesser off than he’d expected — while also keeping his eyes peeled for a bank or an ATM where he could glean some more money off of debit cards.

Eventually Ty decided it wasn’t really worth fussing about finding a bank and started emptying and discarding wallets as he continued along the street across a railroad track and around a gentle curve that, after a ways, actually did bring him to a bank.

Since he hadn’t thrown out all of the wallets he went into the bank and hacked into a few cards, but he found it surprisingly challenging; indeed, he only succeeded in hacking into barely a quarter of the cards, the rest he used up all his tries before he was blocked out of them.

A short ways beyond the bank Ty found a familiar fast food chain and elected to stop in for a snack.

First, however, he ducked into the bathroom and checked how much money he had earned since he’d left the bush.

Thanks to the bank cards he’d been able to hack, he had well over $200, which was what DaNiel had said it cost for one person to fly to Seattle.

Satisfied that he had enough, Ty decided he could justify the expense of eating at the restaurant and headed out of the bathroom to order.

Run: Day 16

Word Count: 96,008

Summary of Events:

DaNiel admired the scenery as they continued to drive along the Columbia River, especially as things got more forested and lush the further west that they got. Ty, too, enjoyed the scenery — although he resented that he did because he hadn't wanted to go the way they were going — as they reached Portland finally; as they were entering in, however, they were pursued by a police car, prompting DaNiel to flee until they were able to hide in a parkade. DaNiel was sure the police officer had known the license plate number to be stolen, and so decreed that they were leaving the car behind, despite Ty's upset at abandoning his grandparents' car. Finding a motel to spend the night in, DaNiel settled down to watch the news . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Once the advertisements were finished the screen flashed red with all capitals screaming out: BREAKING NEWS.

After a few moments and a little, intense, edgy tune, the anchor appeared.

“We have breaking news to report,” the anchor said — apparently for all the visually impaired people, or people who just plain couldn’t read. “Police in Portland pursued, but failed to catch, a car on Interstate eighty four identified as bearing a license plate reported stolen in Ontario earlier this morning. They lost it in the downtown core, but succeeded in finding it in a parkade, already abandoned by its occupant. The car was wearing yet a different set of plates, with the plates it was reported to have been wearing before being on the car beside it.”

Wearing? It sounded like clothes, DaNiel would’ve thought bearing would be more the right word, but he wasn’t really actually sure what word to use to describe a car with license plates on, maybe that was the anchor’s conundrum too.

“Police are concerned because the plates stolen in Ontario this morning are part of a string of plate thefts across the country, all the way back to a set of expired plates in Alexandria, Virginia,” the anchor explained. “The plates belonging to the car found with expired plates that weren’t on its registration were found in Ohio, with the Ohioan plates on a car in Iowa, and on across the country, the car in Ontario this morning had Idaho plates on it.”

DaNiel swore. They’d been pieced across the country. He looked over at Ty, who seemed to not realise that his actions had been the cause of their chase today; the fact that he’d stolen any plates after they’d left Virginia had led to this, now their route was marked across the country by the plates they’d taken and left behind.

“The plates in Virginia were discovered stolen mere days after the mysterious escape of DaNiel Sparling, a young man convicted of murdering a postman by the name of Kelvin Robinson two years ago,” the anchor continued. “And based on the location of the vehicle first victimised by the plate thieves, police have reason to believe that his escape and the plate thefts are related.”

A second time DaNiel swore. How could they possibly have come to that conclusion when Ty’s grandparents’ vehicle wasn’t from anywhere’s close to the Test House or his parents’ place?

“As a result, police are advising the public to keep their eyes open for DaNiel Sparling,” the anchor continued, a picture of DaNiel beardless and cornrowed appearing on the screen. “They are warned not to approach him, as police consider him armed and dangerous, but to call police immediately and to remain calm as they walk away from him to somewhere safe and secure.”

DaNiel sat in silence as the reporter shared some more information related to the story before moving on. He then turned and looked at Ty, who seemed nonchalant.

“I told you not to steal plates,” DaNiel said.

Run: Day 15

Word Count: 90,026

Summary of Events:

DaNiel's mind continued to wander as they wound their way through the mountains before finally emerging onto an open plain where Ty spied an exit north onto I-82 that DaNiel elected not to take. This drew Ty's ire and they argued for some time, particularly when Ty discovered the water he'd been spying to the north was a river DaNiel suggested was probably the Columbia, which formed the border between Oregon and Washington, strengthening Ty's argument that they would've been in Washington and closer to Seattle if they would've gone north . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“Nothing guarantees that Interstate would’ve taken any sort of westerly direction,” DaNiel replied.

“Says the guy who put us on the road to Cleveland!” Ty retorted.

“That was in the dark,” DaNiel snapped.

“Even still,” Ty insisted. “Road signs often tell you what direction the road heads, either in the name or in big capitals over top of the destinations.”

“Typically they only say north, south, east, or west,” DaNiel replied. “So on heading to Cleveland I would’ve only seen north spelled out overhead.”

“But you would’ve seen Cleveland too!” Ty exclaimed. “And if you knew Cleveland wasn’t where you wanted to go when we were almost at Cleveland then you should’ve known that Cleveland wasn’t where you wanted to go before we left Columbus!”

“Maybe, then, by doing this, I’m trying to atone for it!” DaNiel bit back.

“Atone?” Ty asked.

“What, you don’t know what that means?” DaNiel asked, sounding almost mirthful.

“I know what it means!” Ty shouted. “But you think that by going west to Portland instead of north to Kennewick is going to atone?”

“I’m being safer,” DaNiel replied.

“Safer?!” Ty demanded. “How is this safer?”

“Because I know Portland is in the right direction!” DaNiel retorted. “I know Portland is west, which is a direction we want to head in. I do not know where Kennewick is.”

“The sign said north,” Ty replied.

“The sign would’ve also said north to Cleveland,” DaNiel replied. “And we’ve already established that Cleveland was a mistake. A mistake we maybe should’ve noticed sooner, yes, nonetheless, it was a mistake under a northbound sign. I know even less about Kennewick than I know about Cleveland, therefore, going potentially north to Kennewick could be more disastrous than going north to Cleveland was!”

Ty sat silent. He hated to admit DaNiel had a point as he watched the tall, thin windmills on the ridges above, which hid the eastbound I-84 from view, their arms rotating lazily, suggesting there wasn’t much of a wind out, but the fact that they stood on the ridge suggested a decent amount of wind came through the area, as otherwise there was no point in having put them in place.

Considering DaNiel’s point, it was probably better that they were headed toward Portland, that they hadn’t taken the I-82 north to Kennewick.

But, surely, if they’d been able to find a way west from Cleveland they would’ve been able to find a way west from Kennewick if Kennewick was in the wrong direction — and since Kennewick wasn’t exactly a place Ty had ever heard of before, it was likely such a westward route wouldn’t be a toll road like the westward way out of Cleveland had been all the way until they got west of Chicago.

Still, it probably didn’t matter now, there was no way for them to turn around and go back, and it wasn’t really worth it at this point either, unfortunately.

Run: Day 14

Word Count: 84,019

Summary of Events:

Ty woke up before DaNiel — which wasn't common — and elected to take advantage of his free time to switch out the Idaho plates he'd stolen for some Oregon ones, as well as turning in a bunch of empty drink containers he'd picked up on the side of the road the day before at a bottle depot he'd seen in town, among other things. Out on the I-84 again, DaNiel mulled over things in his head, fearing that instead of being rewarded for getting the device to Seattle he might get rearrested, and he might even be accused of telling Ty to do all the stealing . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

There was, however, one card in his hand that could do something, as it were, and that was Ty himself.

Although they’d been travelling together for several days — DaNiel had lost count — he and Ty hadn’t become friends; he wasn’t even altogether sure anyone could’ve mistaken them as friends.

Ty didn’t consider himself a kleptomaniac and the animosity between them was not the sort of thing that would go away quickly; so if Ty were to be brought to testify in hopes that he’d tell everyone DaNiel had been the mastermind it wasn’t likely the prosecution was going to get what they were looking for.

After all, Ty was of the belief that stealing things helped him to survive, and DaNiel could see Ty proclaiming that to the court as much as anyone. He would, in a way, nail his own coffin shut by proclaiming that he did what it took to survive despite the opposition from DaNiel.

Indeed, if DaNiel was rearrested and tried for having escaped prison and such, he would almost want to advice his legal team to get Ty to testify for them, as that way DaNiel would be proven to have not been behind the stealing and whatnot, but had been outright opposed to it, which would fly in the face of the persona the prosecution had tried to apply to him last time.

It would be proven not by people testifying that DaNiel was a great guy — as he’d had a whole bunch of character witnesses do in his last trial — but by one person testifying that DaNiel was a jerk who kept accusing him of being a kleptomaniac when he was just fighting to survive that he wasn’t the cold-blooded, conniving, evil person he’d been spun to be.

Not, though, that DaNiel was keen on being rearrested, not only because there was the potential that his sentence could be upgraded, as it were, to a death penalty that would actually be carried out, but because of the fact that he would be back in jail for a crime he hadn’t committed.

He had undertaken this trip with hope that the Army would appreciate the return of their item — and the fact that he’d gone through all the effort to deliver it to the place he was certain it would be safe at — to the extent that they would dedicate all the resources they could offer him to see his name cleared of the foul smear that had been placed upon it by the people in Virginia who were convinced he was guilty purely because he offered no alibi, not because any of the other evidence DaNiel would’ve thought much weightier pointed to him.

DaNiel took a deep breath and let it out to force himself to release the tension he’d felt building and to, in a way, blow the thoughts of those past things out of his mind. He needed to be focused on the present, and on winding his way through all of these mountains to get to Seattle.

Run: Day 13

Word Count: 78,056

Summary of Events:

After having their dine-in brunch without any incidents, Ty and DaNiel continued north and west on I-84; they were passed by a police car that DaNiel had initially feared meant to pull them over; before long another police car, as well as a fire truck and ambulance had passed while traffic had slowed to little more than a crawl, indicating an accident was ahead. Because their car was running low on fuel DaNiel elected to pull onto the shoulder and shut the car off, during which time he slept, while Ty, after having had a brief nap, chose to get out of the car and explore the land decently close by until finally the accident was cleaned up and they were able to continue on at normal speed . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Cultivated land had started to flank the Interstate again — something they’d largely left behind not all that long before traffic had started to slow near the accident — when the car started to slow; Ty didn’t recall having heard the ding, but he looked over at DaNiel, whose expression was grim as he pulled over to the side of the Interstate again, right near an offramp.

“We’re empty?” Ty asked.

“Yes,” DaNiel replied. “We could maybe milk it a little farther, but not far enough.”

“What are we going to do?” Ty asked.

“I don’t know,” DaNiel replied.

Ty sat silent, feeling quite anxious. He didn’t really want to be stuck in Idaho, even if he had wanted to see more of the running water, and he especially didn’t want to be sitting on the side of the Interstate for hours with traffic hurrying by at the regular posted speed limit of 80 miles an hour.

They hadn’t been sitting at the side of the road for too long before Ty noticed a vehicle, a big pickup truck that looked like it was used for hard work, pull up behind them.

Silently he waited, noticing that the driver had gotten out and was walking over to DaNiel’s door. Ty put his hood over his head to disguise himself as the driver stopped at DaNiel’s window, which DaNiel rolled down.

“You need something?” the driver — a man who looked strong and hardworking — asked.

“Yeah, with waiting to get through that accident back there we ended up using up our gas,” DaNiel replied. “So we’re pretty much out.”

“Aw man, and Palisades Corner isn’t even that far away,” the driver said. “I don’t have a can in the back, but there’s a farm up there, I’ll go see if he can spot you a gallon or so, you guys are so close.”

“Thank you,” DaNiel said.

“No problem,” the driver replied.

He walked back to his truck, got in, and took off past them.

“You really think he’s going to get gas for us?” Ty asked.

“We can only hope,” DaNiel replied. “We have no jerry cans to carry any gas that might be found at that Palisades Corner place here.”

“Unless they have a store that sells them,” Ty said.

“Yeah,” DaNiel agreed.

According to the clock on the console nearly a half an hour passed before a small, off-road vehicle — one of those newer ones that could fit two people abreast and had a roll cage on it —  came kicking up a cloud of dust down the ditch until it reached their car.

A different man got out from behind the wheel than had been in the truck, DaNiel got out and went over to him; Ty saw a jerry can in the back and before long the man had hauled it over to the fuel tank and started emptying it inside.

He and DaNiel then shook hands before the man put the jerry can back, got behind the wheel, pulled a tight U-turn, and burned back the way he’d come.

Run: Day 12

Word Count: 72,008

Summary of Events:

Ty and DaNiel spent the night at a rest stop a short way into Idaho, where DaNiel slept fitfully on the backseat of the car before being woken up by Ty getting out of the car to steal the plates off a car parked beside them; DaNiel tried to stop him, but Ty refused to heed him. Later that morning they reached Boise, where the restaurants lining the Interstate made Ty — who'd not really had any breakfast — hungry, so he convinced DaNiel to turn off the Interstate and find them a restaurant to eat at . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

After awhile they came to an interchange and DaNiel headed north. The first restaurant they spied was McDonald’s, but it was followed by several other more appealing restaurants that made Ty’s mouth water as he thought of all the delectable foods they offered, but DaNiel drove by them all and before long they had left the restaurants behind.

“But what about those?” Ty asked. “There was more than just McDonald’s.”

“I didn’t want any of those for breakfast,” DaNiel replied.

“It’s practically lunchtime!” Ty protested.

“Still,” DaNiel replied. “It shouldn’t just be what you want.”

Ty sighed; couldn’t they have gotten him something from one restaurant and DaNiel from another if he didn’t want to have something at the same restaurant.

A couple more restaurants — none of which were part of chains — appeared before the road they were on ended in a T intersection, forcing them to go left or right.

DaNiel elected to turn right and they passed several restaurants that were chain and not chain, most of which looked like they’d sell some pretty good food, but still DaNiel didn’t stop.

Ty spied IHOP ahead. “Well there’s pancakes if you want breakfast food.”

“No,” DaNiel said.

“I thought you wanted breakfast food,” Ty snapped.

“But I don’t want IHOP,” DaNiel replied.

“Well then why don’t we go back to that grocery store we passed and both just grab what we want from there?” Ty asked irritably.

DaNiel didn’t make any moves to do that either, but instead kept driving east, past restaurant after restaurant that called to Ty’s mind the delectable foods he’d eaten at other locations in the past.

Finally DaNiel made a left hand turn  into a parking lot at a pancake restaurant.

“I thought you didn’t want pancakes,” Ty snapped.

“Not IHOP pancakes, no,” DaNiel replied.

“But you still wanted pancakes?” Ty asked.

“No, not necessarily,” DaNiel replied. “I just wanted breakfast food. And I know these guys make great breakfast food.”

Ty sighed. He felt supremely frustrated, but at least he was getting food.

DaNiel pulled into a parking stall and shut the car off; without asking Ty what he wanted he got out of the car.

Immediately Ty scrambled out of the car. “Well aren’t you going to ask what I want?”

“No, you can tell the waitstaff yourself,” DaNiel replied, not looking back.

“You mean this is a sit-down restaurant?” Ty asked.

“I’ve never heard of a breakfast restaurant doing drive-through,” DaNiel replied.

“Aren’t you forgetting something important?” Ty asked, hurrying over to DaNiel.

“Don’t look guilty and they won’t think you guilty,” DaNiel replied quietly, not breaking stride.

DaNiel had been so worried about being seen before he’d been arrested, but now it seemed like DaNiel could care less; Ty didn’t get it. Did he really think the beard was that much of a disguise? Or the fact that he’d cut off his cornrows? Ty certainly didn’t think they combined to make DaNiel look that different.

Run: Day 11

Word Count: 66,205

Summary of Events:

Ty, having successfully used the platform to get out of prison, sulked all the way back to Sidney because DaNiel wouldn't apologise as wholly as he wished, but kept trying to justify what he'd done to Ty. The next day DaNiel stopped to get gas in Cheyenne, getting annoyed when Ty took advantage of the stop to steal some Wyoming plates for the car. Later on in the day, while still in Wyoming, they made their second fuel stop, with DaNiel doing the fuelling because the beard he'd grown since escaping and his haircut made him look different, while Ty was now wanted for escaping from police custody mysteriously . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Silently he turned his head and watched DaNiel fuel up the car before going inside and paying for the fuel, returning out with drinks in his hand.

He handed one to Ty, who merely set it in the cupholder unopened and sat silently as DaNiel navigated the car back onto the Interstate and on westward through Evanston, heading on a large curve southward, to wrap around the southern end of the town — passing some baseball diamonds that made Ty feel a pang of longing to get out on one again, even though he hadn’t played baseball in five years — before it headed on just as large of an arc to the north again, only to make a rather sharp curve back south again that straightened out and left buildings behind for a few minutes before things levelled out westward and passed some more buildings, all on the north side of the road.

There was a large checkpoint-like place on the south side of the eastbound highway, which Ty watched go by before DaNiel’s utterance of an expletive of shock turned him to look ahead and see a sign proclaiming that they were entering into Utah.

“Utah’s too far south!” DaNiel exclaimed. “There’d better be a northbound Interstate before we hit Salt Lake City. I don’t want to have to go back.”

Ty said nothing, he merely watched silently as the road, after curving north a bit, turned south; not due south, but a good southwest, even south-southwest.

Both of them were silent as the road continued to take them southwestward for a long time, during which they passed next to no towns — which wasn’t unlike Wyoming — while mountains loomed on all sides.

The mountains were pretty to look at; Ty actually wished he had a camera with him he could use to take pictures because it was just as he’d heard: Utah was exceedingly pretty, its population was just dominated by the weirdest people in the entire country: the Mormons.

Ty didn’t know a lot about the Mormons other than that the greatest number of them were in Utah and they were disturbingly peculiar people. He’d never met any personally, but he’d watched out his bedroom window as two had come to the door to talk to Grandma, who’d told him that was what they were.

They hadn’t looked too strange, other than being men in suits with name tags; people in suits didn’t often wear name tags, but since they’d been professionally-made name tags they hadn’t looked bad.

Nonetheless, Grandma had seemed thoroughly disturbed by the visit of the men, so Ty had never asked any more questions.

From that experience and the few other times Ty had heard about Mormons he’d gotten the impression that everyone thought them largely to be weirdos, but yet also to be somewhat scary and not the sort of people one wanted to be alone with, although he'd heard nothing about what they might do while they were with a person.

Run: Day 10

Word Count: 60,283

Summary of Events:

Ty was taken to see a dislikable court-assigned lawyer whom he fought hard to have nothing to do with, including getting loose of the police and running away, but he wasn't able to escape the building. DaNiel arrived back in Lincoln and was able to rather quickly and easily assemble a means for Ty to get out of jail before masquerading as a charity representative and delivering chocolate bunnies to several prisoners, including Ty, whom he also left the means of escape. Ty managed to steal extra chocolate bunnies from DaNiel and, after eating one, went into the little bathroom in the cell to get a drink of water . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Before he could leave the little washroom, however, Ty noticed something different about the toilet.

Checking to see no police were nearby, Ty squatted down and drew out a strange and primitive-looking thing; it honestly looked like the thing DaNiel had taken from the house in Alexandria, but cruder and more primitive.

On top of it was a piece of paper, filled with a rather straight and tidy print that conveyed masculinity as much as Grandpa’s cursive.

Ty,

READ THIS IF YOU WANT TO GET OUT OF PRISON!

I have given you SDP002 for the purpose of getting out of prison, as you should probably be involved in delivering the Latrodectus to safety, seeing as you were the one whom it was given to.

To Operate: flip the switch on the right-hand side into the ‘on’ position; the indicator light beside it will tell you if it is on by glowing steadily.

Stand on the platform straight and even, being careful not to press the raised piece of the platform with your feet as you do so.

When comfortably in position, press one of your feet onto the raised portion.

I would advise you to do all of this as soon as possible so that you reduce the likelihood of the SDP002’s discovery and so we can hopefully make it back to Sidney before it’s too late at night, as I didn’t technically check out of the motel there when I left at 5am, so I’d like to be able to take advantage of it for another night.

As for the safety of SDP002; I promise you it’s safe because SDP001 was constructed even more makeshiftly and still got me out of prison. I was able to use better, more quality materials for SDP002, so it will work for you if the weaker SDP001 worked for me.

IF YOU NOTICE SPARKS, do not be alarmed, if you haven’t figured it out, SDP stands for Self-Destructing Platform. It has the minimum amount of power necessary to send something the size of a human, which is deliberate so that it will fail once it’s sent one person, preventing that person from being followed.

DaNiel.

A self-destructing escape platform? DaNiel was helping him get out of prison without his having to be sentenced for his crime? Ty was confused, as well as a little wary about the idea of using something that was deliberately supposed to self-destruct.

Still, it sounded like he would survive the trip, which would be nice, as he didn’t want to be in prison anymore, and he wouldn’t mind giving DaNiel a good thrashing for leaving him to get locked up by the police anyways.

It would be nice to test and see if it worked before he tried it, maybe it was a big trick DaNiel was playing to get him into more trouble; but what to send?

Ty didn’t have to think long before he hurried over to where he’d left his bunnies, he didn’t want to leave good chocolate — especially chocolate he knew he’d been seen licking — to go to waste.

Run: Day 9

Word Count: 54,027

Summary of Events:

DaNiel felt somewhat badly about the fact that he'd locked Ty out of the car when he'd seen the police officer approaching him, but refused to turn back. Ty, meanwhile, still refused to talk to police, even when an angrier teen they put in the cell with him randomly attacked him and they wanted to ensure he was okay. DaNiel reached Sidney, Nebraska and came to the realisation that he didn't have Ty with him to pay for a motel room, buy food, or fill up the car with gas, all things he wanted to avoid doing so that he wouldn't be recognised . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

DaNiel put his face in his hands and sighed heavily. He needed to go back and get Ty.

But that didn’t solve his problems for tonight. He needed to sleep here and head back in the morning, then spend the night there and come back this way unless the distance between Lincoln and Sidney was short enough that he would be able to come back partway.

Yet he’d need to get Ty out of jail, which wasn’t going to be easy, after all, he didn’t know where exactly Ty was being jailed, and he didn’t even know if he would just be able to break him out and take off.

DaNiel slid his hands over his face, rubbing over the four days’ growth of beard.

Struck by the thought, DaNiel flipped the visor down and looked in the mirror. A thick covering of coarse, curled beard hair covered his face, the moustache over his upper lip, a good coverage of beard over his jaw and up to his lower lip.

When his beard had first started growing when he was in high school he’d resented having to shave regularly, having always preferred a smooth, clean-shaven face; but because Ty hadn’t bought any razors his beard had grown, and even his own brain thought he looked strange and unfamiliar as it beheld his reflection.

Who would know him to be the missing inmate DaNiel Sparling with it on his face?

Only a very shrewd person, or someone who really knew what he looked like — which probably nobody in Nebraska did because all they’d seen was his mug shot for ten or so seconds every evening; that wasn’t the way to get to know a face.

There was only one thing, though, with his beard like it was, his cornrows needed to go — and especially before they became dreadlocks.

Flipping up the visor, DaNiel turned the car around and headed back to the south, right close to the junction with I-80 and pulled into the gas station parking lot. He grabbed the hoodie Ty had gotten him from the backseat and put it on with the hood up — becoming immediately grateful he’d done so when he got out of the car and discovered there was a brisk wind blowing.

Because of the wind he elected against opening the trunk and instead climbed into the backseat, where he folded down part of it and accessed the trunk by that means, searching around in both backpacks until he found the scissors Ty had bought at his request in Ty’s backpack. Perfect.

Hiding the scissors in the pocket on the front of the hoodie, DaNiel flipped up the seat, got out of the car, locked it — with the key safely in his pocket, he double-checked — and headed inside, making sure he looked as cold as possible.

He got a key for the bathroom from the cashier and slipped inside, locking the door before lowering the hood; Mom was going to be disappointed he was cutting them off after all the work she’d done to get them for him in the first place, but they were an identifying feature he had to be rid of.

Run: Day 8

Word Count: 48,042

Summary of Events:

Able to shake the police pursuit because of the change of license plates, Ty and DaNiel continued across Iowa, spending the night near Des Moines before continuing on into Nebraska, where they stopped for fuel — which Ty paid for — at Omaha. Before they got to Lincoln Ty was in need of a bathroom, so DaNiel stopped at the first gas station; as he was leaving the station Ty pinched a wallet from a man going in to pay for his gas, only to have a police officer be near at hand who was alerted to his action, plus DaNiel went and locked the car, leaving Ty outside to get arrested by the officer and booked . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Ty was tempted to bolt out of the back of the police car as soon as the door opened, but the officer positioned himself so as to not give Ty the chance, as a result, he was forced to let himself be grabbed firmly by the upper arm and guided into the building.

He was brought inside a room and frisked by a second officer before a belt was fastened around his hips and his handcuffs chained to it. Ty said nothing as he was guided over to a moulded plastic chair and told to sit down.

A female officer with a kindly personality tried to get Ty to tell her his name and where he was from, but he refused; he just stared at the empty chair across from him, seething with rage at the image his mind played over and over of DaNiel calmly getting out of the car, taking the money, getting back inside, and driving away.

Eventually the female officer gave up and Ty was taken to a room that had benches on three walls and heavy-duty glass windows with fine wire netting between the glass layers making up the fourth.

Ty’s chains were removed and the heavy door behind him was shut and locked. He felt nothing but seething rage to think that DaNiel had betrayed him. He was sure that DaNiel was now going to head back to Alexandria with the Latrodectus and find some way to figure it out. If only Ty had never shown it to him.

The dying — well, now dead — man had told him not to show it to anyone, but he’d showed it to DaNiel and now this was what he got for it. How could DaNiel have done this to him? Why? He’d paid for the gas this time!

Apparently that didn’t matter any more.

How had DaNiel even known? Ty had genuinely needed to go to the bathroom and he’d gone; he’d just taken advantage of the situation to make a little profit off of the deal, only to end up arrested and left with nothing, not even someone he might have hoped would be inclined to defend him.

As if. DaNiel would probably proclaim that he stole the gas in Iowa because he’d been sent in to pay for it and hadn’t; but that would probably get DaNiel in jail too, which was honestly something Ty would’ve liked now, but he was sure that DaNiel wouldn’t be caught if he’d slipped away so easily, he was going to get to Seattle all by himself and be lauded as some sort of hero; he might even claim that he’d freed the Latrodectus from Ty’s evil clutches in order to deliver it to safety and prevent some national crisis.

That was what he got for trusting someone he didn’t know.

Run: Day 7

Word Count: 42,278

Summary of Events:

In their hasty flight from Columbus, Ty and DaNiel got onto the I-71 which carried them nearly to Cleveland before they realised they were being taken east and were able to find a westbound Interstate. The following day they drove through Indiana and Illinois, and as they drove DaNiel found a news station that told them the police at the motel had actually been doing a major drug bust on the other side, which made them both grateful. They stopped for gas at Moline, with Ty electing to go into the store merely to grab some more drinks, but not to pay for anything; unfortunately his thievery was discovered, the police were alerted, and they were pursued on I-80 across the Mississippi into Iowa . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“Did you not pay for the gas?” DaNiel asked.

How did he answer that right? It was one of those questions that sounded like a yes or a no, but either way the answer would have to be explained if he didn’t want to be called guilty.

“You didn’t pay for the gas,” DaNiel said.

“I did,” Ty lied. “I just don’t like those kind of questions where you can’t just say a simple yes or no.”

“You seem too tense to have paid for the gas,” DaNiel mused.

“I did,” Ty repeated harshly.

“And of course you’re not going to be blamed for it,” DaNiel muttered. “I am.”

“I paid for the gas,” Ty repeated; maybe if he said it enough times he’d believe it.

DaNiel expressed his disbelief profanely.

To Ty’s surprise DaNiel exited off the I-80 and headed southward into the city they’d been skirting; spying a movie theatre, Ty got an idea.

“Go in there!” Ty exclaimed. “Find a silver car!”

“What are you going to do?” DaNiel asked dubiously.

“Change plates,” Ty replied.

“I told you I wanted to do this legally because I, as driver, am the one who gets blamed for everything,” DaNiel replied.

“Do you have any other choice?” Ty asked.

“Thanks to you, no, I don’t,” DaNiel replied, the anger in his voice uncomfortably savage as he pulled into the theatre’s parking lot.

Ty was nearly giddy when they found a silver car — albeit with Iowa plates — that looked nearly identical to his grandparents’ car with an open parking spot beside it.

DaNiel had hardly parked the car before Ty was out and fetching the tools; he switched the front plates first, then the rear plates, hoping like crazy that no one would see him, which would reignite the chase all over again.

Quickly Ty got back in and relaxed in his seat before looking over at DaNiel, who looked utterly livid; Ty wondered if he shouldn’t get out of the car and go watch a movie while DaNiel cooled off.

Noticing a slow turn of DaNiel’s head, Ty reached for the door handle, but DaNiel’s hand reached and hit the lock button like a striking snake, even as his head continued to turn slowly toward Ty.

“You do that again and I’m throwing you out of the car,” DaNiel said, his expression still furious. “I don’t care if we’re moving or not. I told you we were going to do this legally, and you’re not doing it that way.”

Ty squirmed uncomfortably under DaNiel’s gaze. He’d never seen someone this angry before; not even the angriest person he’d ever seen before compared with DaNiel’s rage.

“Do you understand!?” DaNiel shouted.

Startling violently at the unexpected volume and wrathful demand, Ty immediately cowered against the passenger door and nodded. He was grateful that DaNiel didn’t know he’d stolen all the drinks so far, as well as anything of his pickpocketing spree in Columbus; DaNiel might murder him if he knew about all that.