As twi­light set in, the atmos­phere turned frigid as the pro­tag­o­nist and Sol pre­pared to make their escape using a sail­boat. Fol­low­ing Essie’s pre­cise instruc­tions, they stripped the ves­sel of its can­vas and tied the mast down, cam­ou­flag­ing it with muck from the water to escape detec­tion. Ear­li­er, the pro­tag­o­nist ven­tured into Brighton, a haunt­ing ghost town, where the rem­nants of a com­mu­ni­ty con­trast­ed stark­ly with the signs of destruc­tion; many homes were aban­doned or charred. Essie’s home was a somber shrine to her son, who had joined a dubi­ous med­ical pro­gram and returned severe­ly inca­pac­i­tat­ed.

Despite feel­ing that their plan was ten­u­ous due to Alis­tair’s poor eye­sight and the boat’s rig­ging, they resolved to move for­ward, pri­or­i­tiz­ing urgency over cau­tion as they approached the bridge sep­a­rat­ing them from the main­land. From their van­tage point, they observed Alis­tair, the bridge oper­a­tor, and a gath­er­ing of men and boys prepar­ing for some sort of aggres­sive gath­er­ing. When Dou­glas, a fer­vent leader among the men, arrived, he ignit­ed zeal, lead­ing a march across the bridge.

As they wait­ed in the shad­ows, chaos erupt­ed in Brighton, marked by fires and shouts, quick­ly esca­lat­ing into vio­lent con­fronta­tions with the local pop­u­lace. Alis­tair stayed obliv­i­ous in his booth, offer­ing no indi­ca­tion he was aware of the tumult below. Sol and the pro­tag­o­nist pre­pared to maneu­ver their boat, named Flower, but their path was obstruct­ed by the bridge.

With no alter­na­tive but to sub­merge the boat slight­ly to fit beneath, Sol entered the hull to let in water. The act of sink­ing Flower was sim­ple yet har­row­ing, as they risked detec­tion by Alis­tair, who had begun to take notice of their pres­ence. In a tense moment, he near­ly spot­ted them but instead failed to rec­og­nize the dis­guised boat against the back­drop of murky water. After a heart-pound­ing tran­si­tion beneath the bridge that near­ly cost them their chance of escape, they emerged unscathed yet shak­en.

Return­ing to the dock, the pro­tag­o­nist faced dev­as­tat­ing visu­als of the after­math of the night’s vio­lence, with the site of the bridge now alight with flames and the fig­ures of those recent­ly hanged still sus­pend­ed above the water. In the after­math, the pro­tag­o­nist called out for Sol, esca­lat­ing con­cern as she seemed to have van­ished amidst the chaos. His frus­tra­tion and anx­i­ety grew, empha­siz­ing the ten­u­ous hold on fate as he searched for her in the dark­ness .