He grabbed a pair of jeans, a shirt, and a jacket, and ducked back into the little entryway and stripped. As soon as he was dressed, he began trying to get into the employee lockers to look for money, but they were all locked.

Then he heard voices coming toward the back and ran out into the alley before he got caught, wearing blue jeans, a black pullover shirt, the tan jacket, and his prison-issue black canvas slip-ons.

He dumped the orange jumpsuit in the first trash dumpster he passed and walked out onto the street. His clothes were clean, but he was broke and needed a ride.

Hoover walked for what felt like miles on his way out of the city. He was on the outskirts of Savannah when he saw a parking lot full of cars at a bar and grill.

“Bingo,” he said, and headed into the lot, looking for an unlocked car.

It didn’t take long to find one. When he got inside and shut the door, the first thing he did was check to see if the keys had been left behind the visor, or in the console, but no luck. Then he thought to look beneath the floor mat.

“Yes!” he said as he grabbed the keys and started the car. He guessed they would have security cameras outside, but he’d be long gone before the theft was discovered.

He was a couple of miles outside Savannah when he thought to look at the gas gauge. It had less than a quarter of a tank, which wasn’t enough to get to where he needed to go.

“Son of a bitch!”

He dug through the console as he drove, looking for cash, and found a couple of quarters and a dime. Not close enough for a single gallon of gas, and now the fuel light was on, and had been for some time.

“Oh well, what the hell,” Hoover muttered. “I’ll figure something else out when the need arises.” He kept heading to Blessings, taking care to stay under the speed limit at all times so he wouldn’t be stopped.

He was already congratulating himself about reaching the Blessings city limit when the car began to sputter and jerk.

“Shit,” Hoover said. He guided the car to the shoulder of the road and got out.

He put the key back under the mat, then crossed the road and went up into the trees, still moving toward Blessings. He was going to have to steal another car to get where he needed to go, and he had to do it quickly. If he could just get to Aunt Sugar’s place, he could get some food and blankets. And the woods were nearly impenetrable. A stranger could get lost up in there and never be found. But he’d grown up there and knew where he could lie low until the hunt for him ended. Then he could go down on the other side and disappear. With one last glance toward the highway, he started to run.