The city laid behind her. Janet had escaped by the skin of her teeth. Thankfully authorities were not beyond the walls otherwise she would have been screwed. She bent over to catch her breath when a young man approached her walking with a nap sack and staff.

“Hello, My name is Peter, what is yours?”, she rolled her eyes up and after a deep breath said “Jessica.”, and with that she took another breath. “It looks as though you have been running. If you would like to come with me we can find a place to rest. I’m headed towards the city up…”, Jessica stopped him there and said “You don’t want to go there.” Peter looked at her and asked why.

After a few more deep breaths Jessica began to tell him all about the city of Death she just escaped. “Well, once you are in the walls you aren’t allowed to leave, and they lock you away for the first month. Then you go into a lottery of sorts where they pull you number, literally that is when your number is up.” Peter looked at her shocked and said, “You have to be exagerating. There is no way they could do that. How did you escape?”.

Jessica explained that her number had been up and they were taking her to the gallows when she was able to seduce one of the guards. She had convinced him that she would give him something, but they needed to go to the one place no one would see in the corner of town. Thankfully he agreed.

Once they were in the shadows she had gave him a swift kick in the groin and was able to escape through the water system. She had to go through dirty water and waste, but it was worth it to get out of there because even if your number didn’t come up they would pull five people randomly and torture them with the rack until one of them died from their bones being pulled apart.

Peter laughed at her and said, “I think you are pulling my leg. That can’t happen in this day and age. If you aren’t going to come with me that’s ok. I hope you have safe travels.”, and he turned to leave.

Jessica watched him walk away and pulled her ticket out of her pocket and chased him down to show him. The ticket had the words ‘Death Ticket’ on it. He pulled it from her hand and laughed once more. “Go ahead show this to man at the entrance to the city to see if I’m kidding.” Peter took the ticket and walked to the gate and showed the ticket. The man welcomed him in and smiled towards Jessica.

As she was walking she heard a scream and smiled and said out loud, “I guess his number was up.”