One shoplifting and a raid of some person's freezer later, we are dressed in dryed clothes and eating ice cream out of the carton in a park. Charlie isn't talking much, but I'm pretty sure that's because he's still scared out of his mind. He said he's only been hunted for two months. He's never shoplifted before. And if the way he is gulping the ice cream down is any indication, he hasn't eaten that much in those two months.
"So what's your name, anyway?" he asks me.
"It's Bill, short for-" I begin.
"Bilbo. As in Bilbo Baggins?" he interrupts.
"No, William. Who?" I ask. It's like I flipped a switch.
"He's only one of the best characters of all time!" he says, then begins telling me about him. Apparently, Charlie is a mini "Lord of the Rings" nerd.
I interrupt him. "Sorry to cut this short but we should probably get moving. They'll start looking for us soon."
"Oh, yeah," he says.
"You still hungry?" I ask.
"Yes," he says, a little too quickly. We shoplift another grocery store and find an unlocked car with keys in the ignition.
"Can you drive?" he asks.
"Yes," I reply. I taught myself. He didn't seem that confident in my driving abilities.
""Come on, I haven't gotten in a car crash in, like, a week," I say. He looks at me funny.
"Joking, joking," I say, "Just get in the car before the owner finds us."
The tank is pretty full and the engine is quiet. We have a long way to go. The signs say that we're in Tacoma, near Seattle and the coast, and I want to be in Idaho before nightfall.
We drive the rest of the day and sneak into a vacant hotel room through the window. There's a small bed and a couch. I take the couch.
The next morning, we climb out through the window. As I walk around the corner of the building, I see a bunch of police cars and officers. I duck back behind the building, running into Charlie who was following me.
"They must've seen that our car was stolen. There's a bunch of cops over there," I whisper. Charlie peaks around the corner.
"We've got to get out of here. They'll be here soon," I say. If the police are here, They're never far behind. Charlie nods and sneak around to the other side of the building and run down an alleyway. We look around for another unlocked car with keys. We're having trouble finding one. This is a smaller town than I'm used to.
I sigh, "We're going to have to hitchhike." He looks at me with wide eyes. He's scared.
"Is that safe?" he asks.
"Safer than staying here. We'll be sitting ducks if we're still here when They get here," I say. Now he's really scared.
I go to a nearby gas station. I'm awful at hitchiking, but I don't want Charlie to know that. I have to seem completely confident.
I watch another hitchiker. After a minute or so, a car pulls up and gets in. I begin copying him.
It takes five or ten minutes, but a truck pulls up with a farmer in it. At least, that's what I think he is. He has a few month's supply of potatoes in the back and is wearing a plaid shirt.
"You heading South?" he asks. I smile with relief.
"Yes we are," I say. He glances at Charlie and raises his eyebrow.
"You're traveling together?" he asks.
"Yes," I say.
"You'll have to squeeze," he says.
"Yessir," I say, "We can squeeze."
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