Out of the Deep South.

You drive mostly at night, and you take great care to not break any speed limit. Once in a while you refuel, always paying cash with pre-readied amounts.

You don’t stop for the first two days, but in the third day you park at a motel. On the lobby’s computer, you check your town’s local news. A huge fire burned acres of forest, probably started by an old drug addict who seems to have overdosed after starting to prepare his dinner. The police apparently found drug remains on the site, but his body was so damaged they could not prove anything else. The head of police states that the man was a no gooder, and while a death is always to be regretted, youngsters should learn from such terrible events and abstain from lives of sin and drugs.

You chuckle and shudder simultaneously. This is the world you escaped, and soon you will be in New Jersey. Who’d have thought anyone on Earth would someday be glad to get to New Jersey!