Montag had been crying just after he killed Captain Beatty. He was in his backyard digging for any books his wife missed after she reported her own husband to the authorities. Beatty made Montag burn his own home; and then taunted Montag so severely that Montag turned the flamethrower on him. Beatty didn't even resist and Montag watched as the body burned right before his eyes. The intensity of the situation was too much to bear, so he cried.
Once he gathered himself together, he popped in a radio seashell and heard that the authorities were looking for him and to be on the lookout for a man on the run. So, that's what he did. After running down six blocks of alleyway, he came upon the ten-lane highway. When he was ready to go across the highway, he realized that he needed to walk instead of run because the authorities were looking for a fugitive running to get away. Now remember that people drive crazy fast in this world. There are no speed limits, so he has to walk across a very wide highway with cars speeding towards him at racetrack speeds. So by deciding to walk across a highway is almost suicide in this world.
Just as Montag walks onto the highway, a car speeds towards him without slowing down. When he realizes that car isn't moving over, he starts to run. The car misses him by less than an inch because he falls down before it gets to him. The car, he could tell by the laughing voices, was filled with children. They would have killed him if he had not fallen down.
"A carful of children, all ages. God knew, from twelve to sixteen, out whistling, yelling, hurrahing, had seen a man, a very extraordinary sight, a man strolling, a rarity, and simply said, 'Let's get him,' not knowing he was the fugitive" (128).
Montag's next goal is to meet up with his friend Faber and find a way to outwit and outrun the Mechanical Hound.
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