Guess what, ancient technologies actually more advanced than the products of his time. His old electric car, from 2070, can go faster and further than its successors, which are surprising. It is also a really ordinary car with its grayish color, just right to blend in the slow and colorless traffic of New Greenwich. There is no rush. So, the timekeeper hasn't made the problem public. Well, they would have reported to him his problem, first. Then, to the clown in the regional council, most of them place too much interested in enjoying trivial life - sex, party, racing... Usually, he is the only one who actually does something and stops himself from abusing his power. So the region's body becomes a snake without its head, No one has the nerve to make a decision. And he has more time to revel in his car. Time is no trouble if you have no time. And a car recharges under the sun, he can go, like, forever.

But first and foremost, he chose this car because it doesn't have any GPS. It is the self-driving crash dilemma has stopped the producer to put on the autonomous system and the directing system, or so he remembers. Everyone is just freak out when they realize that the cars can sacrifice their owner. They completely forget that the cars are leaking people most confidential information. The system is his nightmare because it shows route based on the temporary location. As his enemies have full control over the satellites - including the GPS satellites, he would report himself if he drove a more convenient car.

Even the rich do not notice that their arm clocks and cars and phones also are GPS receivers, which provides government bodies information on their whereabouts at any time. He knows that from his own experience that councilor constantly abused the system to get blackmail materials or to get advantages of each other. In fact, Philippe once used his colleague's car's id to track her extramarital affair. The car cleans him from all trouble associated with his personal location. But the video surveillance all over is another problem. Will Salas and his daughter have successfully hidden from them. Unfortunately, his car is too big to hide, and he cannot pay for timezone changing without his transaction chip.

Philippe expected that he had to pass the Los Angeles River by going along the coach through zone 9 and 10. However, his daughter had already broken the border between zone 4 and zone 6 - the North Hollywood, which just happens to be his direction. How grateful he is for the damage Sylvia does. And he thought the only thing she could do is taking off his time! He drives faster and faster in zone 6, praying to god that the Timekeepers are kept busy with 1 million years went off the clock. They should forget every little crime likes changing timezones without paying and going over the speed limit with such a big problem. They should. They must be, he reassures himself.

Philippe passed by blocks of old private houses that he thinks was abandoned because most people cannot afford. Zone 6 was supposed to merge with zone 7 due to its lack of population. Soon, he recognizes the appearance of human with smelly fences everywhere. Without water and electricity, people still live here in horrible condition. He feels some eyes watching intensively at his car. He can help but stare at them. Dirty, and covered in tattered clothes. They are waiting for their death after losing jobs. People in zone 6 reserve more time than the ones in zone 12. It means that after being fired, they have at least a few months, to find a job, or die. It is a long and tormented death. Trapped between hope and despair. Were him in this situation, he would stop renting, and go here like them.

Sympathize or not, his back is burning under their looks. The white of their eyes seems whiter and brighter among their darkened skin. All of them. Fixated on his car.

They want to rob his time or steal his car, or more reasonably, both. They may have guns, his rational voice tries to warn him, and they can shoot the car, or worst, they can kill him. It is enough for him to press the gas, not dare to look back.

At last, he has reached the border. He avoids the barrier by going out of the road. The barrier is only for show. The real obstacle that stops people from going to other zones is the energy field." It is time". He whispers to himself.

"It is."

Philippe stops his car again. Laughing out loud as he has already been on the other side of the barrier, no energy field detected. He is out of his area.

"I am out!" He yells and hits the car horn at the same time. Now he knows for sure that the standard border only stops the chip bringer without enough money, not a machine with no detected human.

"At last." He rubs his eyes to stop his happy tears, but they still fall down. He leans forward, puts his weigh on the steering wheel, covers his face and tries to end both his crying and chortling. Finally, he can calm himself down.

Philippe wastes no more time and starts driving North, diving into the woodland.

As expected, the woodland is expanding. He doesn't remember it was this wide and green. Before, it was called Topanga Park, which was filled with shrub. Now, oak trees stand high and mighty along the street. Even the city is nothing compared to the force of time and nature. The northernmost part of Los Angeles was swallowed, chewed, digested and become part of the wood. Abandoned houses became hills for the shrub to take over. Big trees compete with buildings to get more sunlight. If it had not been for the special poisonous compound that made the street, he would not have a clear way.

Actually, the road isn't clear. It is a bumpy road. There are cracked that lined up on the broken street. Some parts have already fallen out. After all, no people go out of their zone, so why the government has to maintain the useless route? But still, his car can pass through it, and he still moves on.

The scenery turns into something more hilly after the last part of the city. He has to turn right to go west. Philippe almost passes the turn when he recognizes the road sign. He underestimates the change of nature. Well, no police, he can changes lane wherever he likes

Next, he goes to a flat desert, where his location is easiest to compromise. But he has already traveled for over 50 miles. The council just don't know where to look. Good luck, my dear old friends, he thinks. May you have your fun looking for me inside the city.

He travels in solitude and silent. Not dare to open music. It might be too loud, too recognizable. Philippe acknowledges his boredom, but his determination convinces himself to move on. It is begging him not to do anything stupid out of the bore. His thought wandering tries to find an intriguing topic. The desert is so vacant, devoid of any profound idea. What did he expect? It is just a vast wasteland of hot, dry and sand. "Fitting for an exiled beast that nobody like" his traitorous mind seizes the chance to scorn at the nearest object, himself.

Somehow, a poem keeps replaying in his mind.

'In the desert

I saw a creature, naked, bestial,

Who, squatting upon the ground,'

He didn't see any monster here. No ugly, degraded, less than human, stripped off from his wealth, his glory.

Only him here. Alone. Lost in closed walls that extended to infinity.

Held his heart in his hands, He is holding his misery right now. His fate is better than everyone. He is immortal. Stop thinking and it would be ok.

But the poem stucks.

And ate of it.I said:

"Is it good, friend?"

"It is bitter—bitter," he answered;"

But I like it

Because it is bitter,

And because it is my heart."

He is dwelling unnecessarily in the negative. His heart is bitter with something he can explain. It must be the loss of money he spends years working his ass off. Rather than trying to improve his lot, he is literally feeding off his own misery with today's event

Hell, he keeps thinking of Sylvia's words "Although I do wonder father, have you ever live a day in your life." Urgh, what is the difference between living and surviving, stuff like that? He is alive, and he will come back. In her thought, living equals risking her life, but it isn't. That is losing life. But he did risk his life today, more than normal. He knows the risk, he saw it succeed. He decides and he is alive.

What doesn't kill you make you stronger, huh?

But her words imply that he is a monster, who have no remote human emotions, who does not live, does not belong to his own race. The bare creature at his lowest. His thought really going for a loop.

The sun is setting as he reached an old reservation. Human used to be so populated before, so much that you can go anywhere and still found their signs. Manmade objects - car, traffic light, house - were created to serve them. There is an old joke, "9 billion people out there, and you still alone" Philippe is here alone, alone with the old ghosts of 9 billion humans. He can see the phantom of kids running in the street not even turning around when their parent scold. But the people are all dead. Now, the wide street, the cozy house, and the dog are just laying bare under the not so gentle, angry, hot, orange touch of the sun, wasted.

The sun, his last acquaintance, swells, releases everything it has and just vanished. The night shut in.

He will have to find a hidden location in a middle of a forest at night. Tough luck. A 5-hour-driving has turned to 11-hour-drive. He should think of the problem before. But he didn't. And he has to accept the consequences.

Mammoth Lake. 4 miles left. No bear, which is good. He almost hit some wild animals, though.

Here he is, on the side of Lake Mary