"So I hear you got kicked out of the foster system," said Nate, while eating a bag of cheese-powder nachos. The bag said Grintos – Brody's least favourite brand of chips, for being too mainstream. And because they were caked in sugar, cornflour, yeast, and artificial cheese.
Brody handed Nate a napkin from the cupholder, anticipating him licking his fingers and then needing to wipe them off on something. 
"I did," she responded, "for picking too many fights with my attemptive parents. My fosters were violent, and manipulative. I tried to act human, they acted like demons instead. They used to tell me every night before bed that if I didn't do what they said, they'd call my great uncle Aurson to come and rape me. Said he'd probably pay handsomely for it, and they were doing me a favor by keeping me a secret. That they needed the rent, and if I didn't shape up, they'd pick up the phone."
Kelsey frowned with sadness. "Did they really say that?"
"Yyyep," Brody grimaced. "I was so scared, I kept a knife under my pillow. And I pulled the phone lines once a week, which got me smacked. Then I called social services, just before Aurson himself defunded them in his last term. As a weak excuse, my foster dad told me 'girls love to get raped', and that he was just presenting an uncomfortable idea so he could 'offset a tendency'. That if he said that, every night, I'd be too scared to go to nightclubs and get trafficked. That he was 'protecting me with fear'. He was a human goddamn calculator, with no soul."
"Your foster dad was as much a piece of shit as your real one," Nate munched. "Sounds like one of those AI bots that tells people to kill themselves. I told one I wanted to commit suicide, he told me how to tie a noose."
"Probably was, I just didn't know it."
Kelsey laughed nervously. "Yeah, I tried asking for dating advice, and Gerson told me I had an 'ascendant frequency'; and that I was gonna travel dimensions, or something, after the rapture."
"Good thing you didn't believe that shit," Nate laughed.
"Y-yeah," Kelsey said, a little ashamed. "Good thing."
"But hey," Brody quipped late, "I hear you shot a man dead, an hour ago. Now I don't know what the hell we're gonna do."
Kelsey threw up her hands. "Should we turn back around? Talk to the cops, explain our case? Or just keep driving?"
"Check the news, dude," Nate crunched, spitting Grinto speckles.
Kelsey took out her phone, and started tapping. It took a few minutes to bring up her browser. "They don't know who did it."
"What?" Brody glanced at her, in surprise.
"Yeah, uh... Nate's right." She scrolled down. "They're saying it was gang violence. The cameras were down? Or... they didn't have cameras. Yeah. They didn't have any installed yet, it's a really old building. Eighties. Witnesses said-"
"Fuckin' SWEET," shouted Nate, holding up the gun. "We got away with it!! Now I got this cool-ass gun, too."
"PUT THAT THING THE FUCK AWAY," hissed Brody. "You wanna NOT get away with it?!"
"Guess not," Nate kept chewing. He emptied the bag into his mouth with his other hand, gun lazily hanging out of his grip.
Kelsey read on. "Witnesses think it was Delvin who shot Geoffert. Nobody saw Nate do it. They said we were just three kids being harassed, who ran off."
"Sooo..." Nate swirled his head around.
"They're looking for him, not us," Brody sighed.
"In that case, it'll be weeks before they get around to questioning us. If Kelsey calls them and corroborates that story, and tells them we'll be back before December-"
Nate grew frustrated. "Then they'll drag us back to Crackstove, dumbass. Don't call anyone, just leave it be. The cops here are stupid, and they're lazy as shit. They won't do fuck all if we don't tell them fuck all. You wanna feed them donut crumbs and ruin your own trip, be my guest. That's on you. I could go either way."
"He's right," said Kelsey. "If they question us when we get back, we'll talk about it then. And I'm glad Geoffert's dead, I've never been so relieved in my life."
"What if his gang-" Brody tried to say,
"Ahem," Nate grunted. You're welcome, Kelsey. If any other old man tries to get you onto his junk, you know where I'll be – with this."
Nate held up the gun again, then sheepishly put it back down as a highway patrol car drove by. His face turned white.
Brody waited in tense silence as they passed, expecting their lights to flicker on. But nothing happened. It was true – nobody was looking for them.
"Alright, into the glovebox," said Brody.
"For real?" Nate whined.
"Yep, and flick the safety on. Red means you can't shoot. And don't touch the trigger, just hand it over to Kelsey – hold the muzzle, give her the handle."
Kelsey was confused. "Since when do you know so much about guns?"
Brody glanced away. "My grandad showed me, once, how to fire one. Then my dad took me shooting, one time. For the record, the Crypto King can't shoot for shit."
"That's cool," said Nate. "So when do I get to meet-"
"The gun, Nate."
"Fiiiine. But if any other drug dealers come looking for us, I'm poppin' caps. In asses."
"Yeah, in asses, let's go."
Nate flicked the safety red, and handed the gun over to Kelsey as instructed. She put it in the glove compartment.
Then, just ahead, was a roadblock – a tree had fallen over. The car came to a complete stop, and Brody's window was approached by an officer. Brody broke a sweat, and rolled down the window.
"Morning, officer," said Brody.
"Mornin'," said the man. "Looks like a minor blockage, should be cleared up in a few hours. You guys wanna go west, I'd take a detour one road over."
"Thank you, sir," Brody replied.
"Oh, and one more thing..." the man went on. "Heave you kids seen anything unusual today?"
"Like... what?" Brody asked cautiously.
The officer leaned his arm into the window, and looked inside. "Anything suspicious. There was some gang violence this morning, a shooting at a waffle house. There were some kids there, 'bout your age, but nobody was able to get a make, model, or plate from 'em. Servers were still asleep, I guess."
Or they'd parked away from the windows. Brody wanted to do the right thing here, believed in the right thing. That honesty should prevail, that people should be held accountable for their actions – even accidental, or necessary in self-defense. But she saw that tree ahead, and thought back to the news – in her mind, she saw it burning with Californian flames. Then she remembered Kelsey, telling her parents about that End of the World party – and how 'boring' it was. How nothing much had happened at all. Brody, sitting in Krinjec's lap months back, watching a replay of Manued Tusker's sieg heil to a roaring audience. Tina, telling Stody's girlfriend she was fifteen, and the look of relief on the poor girl's face. Nate and Kelsey held their breath.
"We'll let you know if we see anything," Brody nodded. "I'll have my girlfriend call in," she pointed to Kelsey."
The officer paused, narrowed his eyes, then smiled. "Okay! Sounds good. You let us know, then. Thanks a lot, guys. Have a safe trip!" He slapped the windowsill, and walked down to the next car behind them, and knocked on the glass.
Brody rolled up the window, turned out of the line-up, and drove away. Kelsey and Nate finally let out sighs of relief. Brody wasn't evading justice... she was just... delaying it. By a bit. That's all. And it wasn't her crime in the first place. It was Delvin and Geoffert, who'd threatened them with armed extortion. And Geoffert, without a doubt, got what he deserved.
"I thought you were gonna narc on us," said Nate.
"Same," said Kelsey. "No offense."
Brody sighed heavily. "Yeah, well, I was there. So I'd be narcing on myself, too."
Brody flicked on the radio, and took the gravel road at 10 miles per hour. She didn't wanna crack the windows if a rock flew loose. The volume was low, so she turned it up.
"{{In other news,}}" the radio chattered, "{{President Aurson Wumpet has yet again evaded any and all attempts to hold him accountable. As if anyone's surprised, at this point. This week, he was almost found guilty of high treason, which is punishable by death. But at the last minute, three of the supreme court judges found keys to a brand new hummer under their seats-}}"
Brody changed the station to country, and left it that way. Joe Dimeson, the most gothical voice in the country music scene ever to grace the waves, graced theirs.
"Huh," Nate nodded. "Maybe I should get on the supreme court panel."
Brody said snidely, "The best way for someone like you and me to own a hummer is to sell twenty of 'em, on commission. Don Wumpass doesn't have to, he already sold the world." Brody waited for a laugh.
"Please don't say 'Wumpass'," Kelsey complained. "I don't wanna think about... y'know."
Brody paused. "Yeah... of course. Sorry."
Then, suddenly, they heard an engine revving behind them. A brown muscle car was closing in, at 15 mph. He didn't want cracks, neither, but he was willing to risk a few.
Nate turned back, and stared through the window. "Uh... Brody? You should go faster."
"He'll pass," said Brody, rolling her eyes.
"No, he won't," said Nate, "that's DELVIN."
Brody's eyes cracked open, and an unpleasant electric chill ran down her back. In the side-view mirror, she could see him... the k-pop methhead was running them down. Brody put the pedal down, and picked up speed, only for Delvin's car to ram into hers – just hard enough to leave a dent or two in the rear bumper.
"Oh, for fuck's SAKE!" she exclaimed.
"Gimme the gun!!" Nate shouted.
"No," Brody shouted back. "We're still too close to the cops, they'll hear it. We'll leave evidence."
Then Delvin put Geoffert's gun out his window, and shot at Brody's car. A bullet zinged off her side-mirror.
Kelsey started to panic. "I'm giving him the gun-"
Brody put her arm out, "No, you're not. Once he's out of ammo, he's done. But if you start firing, then we're in shit all over again."
"So WHAT, then?!" Nate yelled.
"I do this," Brody replied.
Brody sped up, and gravel dinged off the grill of her car. She cringed to hear it. Delvin sped up too, and Brody veered into a flat part of the ditch. Delvin tried to fire at them through his passenger window, but just then, his car hit a dip in the road so deep, it busted his front bumper clean off. His car was stopped after a rocky skid, and the back tires were in the air.
"Rear-wheel drive, lucky stars," Brody grinned, and pulled out of the ditch. She flipped Delvin the bird on her way out, as did Nate, who thought it was hilarious. Delvin tried to shoot one more time, but he only hit the rear bumper. Then, he was out of ammo. Geoffert had made a critical mistake, which Delvin was now suffering:
"Never go into a waffle house with only half a clip," Nate joked.
"Maybe they really did need the money," Brody joked back. She let out a deep breath, seeing that they were fine, now.
Kelsey awed. "He's really out... huh."
Nake shook his head, in disbelief. "How'd you know?"
Brody shrugged. "I didn't. But I was hoping."
Nate wowed, "That ditch thing you just pulled... I can't believe that worked, either."
"Yeah, me neither. I got the idea from my grandpa, actually. I mean, my grandma's second husband, Old Wally."

Brody thought back to that drive, where she (boymoded in a hoodie and jeans) practiced pedaling the brakes and accelerator, as Old Wally sipped a paper cup of coffee. She made it spill on his lap, and he swore.
"Fuck! Damn. Well, you almost had it. Good try, though."
"Sorry," she cringed.
"S'okay," he laughed. "I used ta do worse to my friends, back home. I'd lead them down the worst roads in town, and make them flip their quads. Was funny as fuck, you shoulda seen it. Guys would go flyin', off into the ditch. Lucky they were wearin' helmets."
Brody chuckled at that.
"Except one guy, he hit the gravel and died."
Brody frowned.

She also thought back to playing Larceny Car City, later that week, and trying it out in a chase sequence. To her surprise, it worked.
"Huh."
On the couch behind her, Tina was bareback-riding Walde, who creampied her right then and there as she moaned. Brody took no notice, and kept eating her microwave burrito.

Back in the present, Nate was a bit miffed. "That's so cheap, though. It's like you had the answer in advance. You were totally prepped, Bro."
Brody looked up at the sun, which just then shone with bursting light through gleaming, pearleascent clouds. Three rings of light hung in the sky. Brody, Kelsey, and Nate watched in amazement. Then, it was gone. The sun was covered, once again.
'I dunno,' thought Brody. 'Maybe I was.'