You leave the alley, getting a good, deep smell of the car fumes from the traffic jam on the poorly built, narrow road outside the alley. You don't bother trying to cross, and follow the footpath, until you pass an electronics store. Several televisions are on display in the window, showing the news as if somebody actually wants to hear it. President Miller is making yet another ridiculous speech.
"...and while some of you might be losing hope in America, I still believe. If every American citizen believes in our great country, we can get our economy back on track, and repair our foreign relations. We'll show the rest of the world what it means to be the land of the free. America is the only country where..."
You're now mercifully out of earshot. It's all bullshit. There wasn't a single competent candidate running for the 2016 elections, and Miller won by being one of the few that wasn't a lunatic. Two years later, the economy is worse than it ever was to the point where even getting a job is nearly impossible, and your degree amounts to fuck all. Now you've got no way to pay off your insane student debts, so you had to move to the other side of the country, and disappear in New York City.
A few minutes later, you reach the back of a bakery. Somebody steps outside to throw a small bag into the dumpster, and walks back in without looking at you.