The Escape

Payne Ripoff's apartment (7:33pm)

The clouds had dispersed, the sky had gone dark, the only noises heard were those of the tireless crickets and the whirring car engine of Mr Payne's range Rover which dominated the compound.

Mr Payne alighted from the vehicle, staggering as he walked towards the entrance door to his house. He was badly drowned in the depths of alcoholism, he believed getting drunk would numb his pains, but little did he know his pains were just getting ignited.

violently opened the door to his bedroom and landed on his bed drunkenly, he closed his eyes and everything went dark for him.

Bright!

The sun rays pierced through the windows of his room, hitting his face, his eyes opened up.

He turned to see Mrs Anne, his wife with a cup of coffee in her hand, he usually preferred to take coffee in the morning before going to work, but today was quite different. He was late for work.

"Good morning darling"

He looked at the wall clock at the other end of the room. [Past eight]

Swoop!

He sprang up, ignoring her greetings, into the bathroom he went.

Mrs Anne sighed. "Thank God, you know you're late"

Twenty minutes later, he was dressed for work, he hurriedly picked his car keys before zooming out of the room.

Skywalk Insurance Company [PLC]

West California, 8:46am

After speeding from his house to his workplace, he walked briskly towards his office, waving his hands in greetings to various workers as he walked past their respective offices.

He entered the office, and met the typist, Gracia, working on her computer.

"Morning Mr Payne, the boss wants to see you" she said, not even looking at him, she was too busy with her work.

"Oh crap!" He muttered, he was in trouble.

It wasn't something good for the boss to summon him this morning, he just prayed silemyoy for it to be something good, he headed towards the managing director's office.

M.D's office

Mr Clifford, the MD was a man in his late thirties, he had a fairly light skin and coiled brown hair. He was clad in a brown Italian suit as well as Mr Payne.

"Good morning Sir" Mr Payne greeted, after summoning courage.

"Mr Payne Ripoff" Clifford called.

"Oh God, just how many times do people have to address me by my full name" he thought.

Clifford gave him the usual 'you've messed up' stern look.

"From the records, this is the eleventh time you're late to work in two weeks, you do realize that punctuality's a quality this company requires from workers right?" Clifford said.

Payne gulped down saliva, "I know sir, I've just been quite busy, I promise it won't...."

"That's enough promises" Clifford stopped him.

"Pack your bags, and get the hell outta my office, you're fired"

'You're fired'....

'Fired'....... 'fired'

*These words kept ringing in Payne's head.

"But sir....."

"Uh uh, no buts, you can use the door when you're done" Clifford concluded and focused on the files on his desk.

Mr Payne wore an extremely sad face, the only hope he had left was gone, how would he pay back Runtown's money without his job? He had the intentions of asking for a loan from the company, but now he had screwed everything up.

He walked out of Clifford's office angrily.

Payne's Apartment,

Living Room.

Mr Payne, and each member of his family were all seated in the living room, an eerie kind of silence dominated the room, after he broke the bad news to them.

'i just hope I did the right thing by telling them' he thought.

"How could you do such, Payne?" Mrs Anne asked, anger in her tone.

Alex was sitting on the same couch with Lucia, while Mrs Anne was sitter beside her husband.

"How do you intend to pay back now dad?" Lucia asked.

Mr Payne broke his silence, "I don't know, I tried all I could, there's nothing I haven't tried!"

"So what happens if you don't pay back?" Alex asked.

Mr Payne sighed, "Then someone in this family does"

"What?"

"Yeah, or we'll all probably die!"

"Hell no, dad! What do we do now?"

"I'm sorry I got y'all into this mess, now we have to leave this city and run far away, for our own safety" he added.

"But where would we go from here?" Mrs Anne asked.

"I'll make arrangements, we leave by Dawn tomorrow!"