She had returned to the house after dark. But the people returned the next morning. A police officer stood with them.

She leaned that they couldn't enter the house without a warrant or visible evidence of a crime. "Well get a warrant!" The woman demanded. "The lawyer said she was here - alone."
They stood outside for almost an hour. They spoke to neighbors, checked windows and doors, and knocked repeatedly. Sara remained hidden in the house.

After they left Sara packed a few bags. Food, wallet, clothes, pots, pans, her laptop the contents of the medicine cabinet.

She still had the debt card her dad and Gloria had given her for her 13 birthday but she had no idea how much money was still on the card. She had been using it for food and paid her fine at the library. She had been told by her dad that $150 was automatically transferred to the card every month but she had no idea what she had spent since Gloria vanished. She didn't know if money was still being transferred. With Gloria and her father gone she suspected not.

Halfway to the Walmart she started dumping things from her bags. By the time she arrived at Walmart she only had two full backpacks and one empty gym bag instead of the three she started with.

She found the tents in sporting goods. Searching through the isles she found a few things she thought she would need. She placed them all in her buggy. At the checkout the woman smiles as she rang everything through the scanner.

"Looks like you're running away. You're not running away, are you?" She asked looking concerned.

"Um... No. We're going camping next weekend." She said not looking at the woman's face. "It's my birthday." She added. It was going to be her birthday. The thought had her emotions sinking.

She hoped Gloria was back soon. She didn't want to spend her birthday alone.

"Happy birthday." The woman smiled. "It's supposed to rain tomorrow." The lady said. "One hundred forty nine dollars and twenty three cents." She added.

Sara pulled out the debit card from her wallet. "I'm not sure if I have that much." She confided.

"We can run it through." The woman suggested.

Sara swiped the card and pressed in the four digit code.

The cashier smiled as the transaction went through. "See. It worked." As she handed Sara the receipt.

Sara put the bags in the buggy.

"You can check your balance by calling the number on the back of the card." She said pointing to Sara's wallet. "Or get your parents to do it."

Sara nodded. She pushed the buggy all the way to the end of the lot. There were no people or cars there but the parking lot lights glowed faintly in the gathering dark.

She sighed. She knew she couldn't carry all of this around. So she went through the bags again.

She didn't dare leave any of the food behind. She got rid of ⅓ of her clothes, kept ⅜ of the cooking supplies, she kept the picture album, dumped the electronics except the computer and cell phone.

She put the sleeping bag on the bottom of the backpack topped it with blankets, clothes, computer, phone, and the tarps from Walmart. In the other backpack she kept the food, plastic plate, bowl, cup, fork, spoon, small soup pot, frying pan, metal spatula and spoon, kitchen knives, and a few lighters. In the gym bag she kept the album wrapped in a towel, hygiene products and a few personal items.

It took two hours before she gave up looking for a place to set up the tent and went back to the house.

She didn't unpack anything but left a note to Gloria about child services coming to the house.

Gloria,

I hope you're okay. LS reported you missing. Child services keep showing up. I didn't let them inside. But heard them talking about a warrant and a lawyer. I stayed here as long as I could but without you or dad here those people probably won't let me stay. They'll put me in a home or a hospital.

I still have the card and phone. I don't know how much money and time are left on them.

PLEASE send me an email. I need you to be okay. Are you okay? Why didn't you come home?

I'm scared G. You have to come home soon. I don't know if I can do this. But I won't let them lock me up!

I'm learning to cook and camp from the internet. I'll come home when you send me a message. OK?

Please hurry G. You said you'd stay with me. You promised. You promised. Please be OK and come back. I'm sorry if I cried too much because daddy died. I won't do it anymore. Please. I miss you.

I'll check my messages as much as I can so please hurry.

Sara. ♥❇♥

She left the pages on the kitchen table. Then went to sleep on her own bed.

The next morning she left the house before anyone showed up.

She figured out how to wear both backpacks at the same time. It was easier than trying to carry two bags but her shoulders ached by the time she sat at McDonald's charging the phone and computer.

She looked up more survival videos. She called the number on the back of the card and was shocked to find out there was over $349 on the card. She didn't know how to check on the phone. She worried about it though.

At the connected gas station she bought a notebook and pens.

She purchased six dollars' worth of food and ate while watching videos. She made list and notes. She tried to figure out how much money she would need a month. She figured out she wouldn't be able to eat McDonald's every day. Unless she spent about two dollars a day. But eventually the money would still be gone.

She left there after five. An hour later she walked into an abandoned house. The right side of the house had mostly collapsed. The kitchen too. The living room floor was warped and missing in the left corner. The middle room seemed solid except for the wall on the right side of the room had a big hole in it.

She had bought five plain dollar hamburgers.

Hours later she discovered that sleeping in an abandoned house in the dark was terrifying. Even the wind scared her. It was nothing like sleeping in her room alone in the house. At least she understood the sounds her house made. She knew what all the dark shadows were there. She hadn't been scared of people coming in while she slept because there were doors.

Evodin tried to comfort her. Sara listened needing the comfort but she didn't speak to Evodin.

A week later she found her email with one message. Her hope was dashed when she noticed the sender was some lawyer and not Gloria. She deleted it without reading it.

She ended up staying in that house over a month. McDonald's or Ray's Donuts was the first place she went everyday so she could change the phone and computer, and then check her empty email.

Every once in a while she would get an email from that lawyer. She didn't bother opening it.

Money was put on the card every month. But the phone stopped working after six months. She thought about replacing it but didn't want to spend the money.

She found other ways to save money. She found food in dumpsters, cleaned parking lots for a meal, collected cans, one woman even payed her five dollars to watch her dog while she went in the store for thirty minutes.

Sara did it mostly because Evodin growled at the German shepherd. The shepherd kept the leash stretched the whole time the woman was inside the store. But she never pulled. Sara walked her around the lot a few times. Both the shepherd and Evodin growled at a couple in ripped clothes and each carried a backpack and duffel bag. The shepherd shut up as soon as Sara gave the command. "Quite."

By the time winter came Sara seldom spent time in the city. The only went to use the computer or buy supplies. During winter she consumed a lot of Raman Noodles, peanut butter, raisins and biscuits and gravy. Within a year she knew how to make wild 'flour'.

She found her 'hide' by chance. Abandoned it was still in good shape. Whoever had used it left a lot behind. She made a few repairs and moved in. 
She eventually replaced the phone so she could keep up with the amount of money on the card.