They make it to the station in fifteen minutes and Lynell follows Daniel through security, her heart beating faster than she thought was possible. She’s thankful for the lack of metal detectors so her gun, tucked at the bottom of her bag, goes unnoticed.

Daniel digs two IDs out of his backpack and hands them to the guard with a big smile on his face and pulls her into his side. Lynell looks to the floor, certain her face is burning with the truth.

But then the guard says, “Have a good trip, Mr. and Mrs. Hunter,” and he’s waving them through. Daniel gives her shoulder a small squeeze and lets her go. Lynell lets out a breath.

It’s not unheard of for people to try and run from their Registration, if they find out they’re Registered, that is. Which is rare. Everyone knows the lists on the black market are fake. The Elysians made sure years ago that the Registration would be too heavily secured to be leaked. So, if they’re lucky, people learn the old-fashioned way: word of mouth. If they don’t find out soon enough to Register their would-be-killer in return, their only choice is to run. You can’t fight back because assaulting or killing the person who Registered you isn’t considered self-defense. That law took the longest for the government to pass, making it nearly impossible for a Registered person to defend themselves without being arrested on the grounds of assault.

Lynell has heard a handful of stories of people trying to survive the Registration. Most don’t end with survival. The only two stories of people who have outrun the Registration are famous among the revolutionists, because rumor has it that the survivors became the first important rebels who fought against the Registration and government. Although they might have survived the Registration, they didn’t survive the battle with the government forces.

“This way,” Daniel says, pulling her to the right down another corridor. The white brick walls are covered in graffiti, posters, and a few screens. One flashes white before showing an image of Eric Elysian shaking hands with a congressman. The words “WE WORK TOGETHER FOR THE GOOD OF THE PEOPLE” cover the bottom half of the screen in big, block letters. The image flies to the left and an advertisement for a bank card takes its place.

A few feet down the corridor hangs a large poster featuring a new boarding school in West Texas. The poster claims to accept students of all religions and that 97 percent of their students go on to achieve a higher education degree. Lynell remembers begging her mom to send her to one of the popular boarding schools in the state, but they were too expensive.

Graffiti of crude drawings and names cover the poster, the most noticeable bright green words saying, “Brainwash your children!” and “Eric Elysian is a fraud!”

“Here we are,” Daniel says when they reach the end of the corridor. They stop in front of platform seventeen and Daniel hands their tickets to the check-in lady. She slides them under a machine and after the ding, she hands them back, now covered in three blurred lines of ink.