Running Out of Time is a novel by Margaret Peterson Haddix, published in 1995. Plot summary Jessie Keyser is a 13-year-old girl from the village of Clifton, Indiana, in the 1840s. During a village-wide outbreak of diphtheria, Jessie's mother reveals it is really 1996, and Clifton Village is a tourist attraction. Also, there are cameras all around watching them, but there are some blind spots. Jessica’s mother takes her to a blind spot for the reveal because all the adults were contracted to not tell the kids. Clifton is a replica of a historical village with the tourists hidden, watching the village's activity by video from under the ground. Originally it was much more lenient with its villagers when a man named Miles Clifton founded it, but is now very strict and prevents anyone from leaving. Her mother asks her to retrieve a cure now that her own sister Katie has taken ill; the owners of the attraction ceased to provide modern medical care to the villagers in order to preserve its authenticity. She tells Jessie to get the cure from a man named Isaac Neeley, who protested the opening of Clifton. Jessie's escape will be difficult because Clifton is guarded to ensure that none of the villagers leave or find out it is 1996. Jessie's mother shows her a hidden escape route that has not been sealed. After Jessie escapes underground, she hides in the bathroom for the night and emerges during the day, posing as a tourist with other visitors. She learns that the Clifton tour guides tell the visitors that the residents get modern medical care and are free to leave whenever they want, something that Jessie knows to be untrue. She then sneaks away to the modern world and attempts to contact Mr. Neeley while discovering that 1996 is quite different from 1840. Jessie experiences somewhat of a culture shock and is frequently confused by the technological advancements of the 1990s. After getting in contact with Neeley, they meet at a KFC, then return to his apartment where he attempts to drug her. After he assures her that he contacted the health department to bring Clifton's residents proper medical care, she overhears a conversation in which he says she knows too much about the outside world and they may need to kill her, and that they should close Clifton Village to tourists immediately. It becomes clear