Chapter 5 The Road to Survival

"No living person has ever walked out of there?"

Quinn's sharp, piercing question echoed in Celeste's ears.

So what?

Celeste gritted her teeth hard, suddenly snatched the worn canvas bag from Quinn's hands, and rushed out the door without looking back.

She didn't care about living people or dead people!

Compared to that mental hospital built on an isolated island, Celeste was more afraid of this leaky trailer, more afraid of that bottomless pit of a family!

1:30 AM, at the town's rundown bus station.

The official meeting point in the registration notice was an abandoned gas station at the Nightthicket Road intersection. To reach the hidden facility, they needed to gather at the gas station first, then travel together to Darktide Harbor, and finally take a boat out to sea.

This private severe mental hospital, publicly listed as being located in the suburbs, had its real ward secretly built on an isolated island near the coast. It was completely closed off, with no direct access by land.

"How much money do you actually have in that bag?"

Scarlett leaned against the waiting chair, turning her secondhand jacket pockets inside out.

Only two lint-covered quarters and a crumpled piece of gum foil fell out.

Celeste squatted on the ground, rummaging through the faded canvas bag.

All that came out was a half-broken lip balm and a supermarket coupon that had expired three days ago.

"Zero."

Celeste looked up, blinking those innocent big eyes.

Scarlett irritably ran her hand through her hair, staring hard at the ticket booth glowing with dim yellow light in the distance.

"Tickets to the harbor are fifteen dollars each! Between the two of us, we can't even scrape together enough to buy a rotten hot dog!"

Scarlett ground her teeth, spinning around twice.

"Damn it! I should've gone through my drunk stepfather's pockets before leaving!"

"No, if he found out and called the cops, we'd never get away." Celeste quickly grabbed her sleeve.

"Then what do you suggest? Walk there? It's over ten hours to the harbor, our legs would fall off! And we'd definitely miss the six AM meeting!"

Scarlett took a deep breath, slapping her own cheeks hard.

"We'll have to use the old method, Celeste. Just stand here and don't move. Watch me."

Scarlett took a deep breath and instantly switched to a grief-stricken expression.

She hunched her back and staggered toward the ticket booth with its filthy glass.

Inside sat a red-haired woman chewing gum with a bored expression.

"Please, Ma'am..."

Scarlett pressed her hands against the glass window, her voice trembling heartbreakingly, her eyes instantly reddening, tears coming on command.

"My poor grandmother... she's in the central hospital at Darktide Harbor. The doctor just called and said she won't make it, she won't survive tonight..."

Scarlett sobbed while desperately wiping away tears.

"But I left in such a hurry that my wallet was stolen. Please, have mercy, let me on this bus! I just want to see my grandmother one last time, please!"

Celeste stood a few meters away, watching Scarlett's Oscar-worthy performance, so nervous she held her breath.

Normally, this trick worked perfectly on sympathetic older people.

But the red-haired woman in the ticket booth didn't even lift an eyelid.

The woman popped the pink bubble gum in her mouth and lazily rolled her eyes.

"Oh, really? What a touching story."

The woman's eyes, painted with cheap blue eyeshadow, coldly glanced at Scarlett.

"Last Friday, a freckled boy said his grandpa got bitten by a shark at the harbor. The day before yesterday, a girl cried, saying her house had burned down and she needed to get to the harbor to borrow money from her cousin."

The woman sneered, tapping the glass with her fat fingers.

"Listen, little con artist. You're the tenth person this week telling me a relative is dying. Can't you kids from town come up with some new material?"

Scarlett's crying stopped abruptly.

"No, Ma'am, I swear I'm telling the truth..." Scarlett tried to struggle on.

"Get lost! No money, go back to your slum and sleep! Don't block my window!"

The woman roughly pulled down the ticket window's blinds, cutting off communication entirely.

Scarlett froze in place, the sadness on her face instantly turning to fury.

She kicked the wall below the ticket booth hard, cursing as she walked back to Celeste.

"Cold-hearted old witch! She's definitely going to hell!" Scarlett trembled with anger.

Celeste said nothing.

Their normal escape route was completely cut off.

Without tickets, they couldn't get on that bus at the platform.

Without the bus, they couldn't make the six AM pickup tomorrow morning.

Without the pickup, that twenty-thousand-dollar payment would turn into nothing.

Everything was over.

Scarlett deflated like a punctured balloon, crouching on the ground in defeat, burying her face in her arms.

"Forget it, Celeste. Maybe this is all meant to be. People like us don't deserve any new life."

Scarlett's voice was thick with despair.

"I'll just go back and face that drunk. You go back to washing your dishes."

"No."

Scarlett looked up in shock.

She saw Celeste staring intently at the bus at the platform.

On Celeste's face, usually marked by timidity and retreat, her eyes now shone with startling brightness, like a small wolf spotting prey in the darkness.

"Celeste... are you okay?" Scarlett was startled by this look.

Celeste didn't look at Scarlett, but slowly raised her pale, slender finger, pointing at the side of the bus.

"Scarlett, look there."

Scarlett followed her finger.

It was the luggage compartment at the bottom of the bus.

Because the driver had just gone to the nearby convenience store for coffee, one of the compartment's metal doors was half-open, pitch black inside, like the open mouth of a steel monster.

"Why... why are you looking at that?" Scarlett swallowed, a sense of foreboding rising in her heart.

Celeste turned her head, looking directly into Scarlett's eyes.

"We get inside."

"What!"

Scarlett jumped up from the ground, looking at Celeste like she was looking at a complete lunatic.

"Are you crazy, Celeste! That's the cargo hold for luggage!"

Scarlett lowered her voice, waving her hands excitedly.

"It's dark and stuffy in there, not even a window for air! We'll suffocate like two turkeys in an oven!"

"And if the driver finds us, he'll definitely drag us to the police station! Then we're finished!"

Scarlett couldn't believe this crazy plan was coming from Celeste's mouth.

Celeste, who usually hid behind her when she saw a big spider, now wanted to secretly crawl into the bus's cargo hold!

"Staying in town, we're not even turkeys—at best we're rats waiting to die in the sewers!"

Celeste stared at Scarlett without backing down, those big eyes burning with determined fire.

"Didn't you say you wanted to go to Los Angeles? Didn't you already decide what color secondhand car to buy? Twenty thousand dollars is on that bus!"

Celeste grabbed Scarlett's shoulders.

"Scarlett, this is our only chance. The bus takes only three hours to get to the harbor. The cargo hold isn't completely sealed. We just have to endure these three hours, and we can start over!"

"Do you want to stay here comfortably and be poor forever, or take a gamble with me?"