In Chap­ter XXVIII, the jour­ney south from Nebras­ka con­tin­ues as the char­ac­ters remain miles from Sali­na. Despite the Beau­monts urg­ing them to head direct­ly to Sali­na Hope Hos­pi­tal, Lester remains obsti­nate about mak­ing a final detour. The group occu­pies their time eat­ing snacks from the Mega Mega Mart while try­ing to avoid thoughts of Pop­pa, who is in the hos­pi­tal.

As they near Man­hat­tan, a police siren caus­es the chil­dren to tense up, but they soon real­ize it’s not relat­ed to them. They observe Lill and Lester, who are pre­oc­cu­pied with each oth­er. Fish, sens­ing some­thing amiss, announces he can smell water, which prompts con­cern among the kids. Lester con­firms their prox­im­i­ty to Tut­tle Creek Lake, which reas­sures Fish.

In an attempt to boost Fish’s con­fi­dence after his trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ence dur­ing a hur­ri­cane, the nar­ra­tor reminds him he is in con­trol. As they approach their next des­ti­na­tion, Car­lene’s name comes up, which prompts a star­tled reac­tion from Lester. The girl’s unin­tend­ed rev­e­la­tion about Lester’s tat­toos leads to a dis­cus­sion about Car­lene, who has a dubi­ous rep­u­ta­tion for aban­don­ing pets, caus­ing ten­sion with­in the bus.

Lester ini­tial­ly appears con­tem­pla­tive and is affect­ed by the harsh voic­es of Rhon­da and Car­lene echo­ing in his head. Mibs, frus­trat­ed with the neg­a­tive influ­ence, admon­ish­es him. Despite Lester’s dis­com­fort, he real­izes the truth behind his rela­tion­ship with Car­lene, acknowl­edg­ing her decep­tion and rec­og­niz­ing that she was the one who secured his job and the bus.

In a moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, Lester express­es a desire to set­tle his debts with Car­lene before he can focus on Lill. Lill’s sup­port­ive response soft­ens Lester, and he feels as though he has found a guid­ing light in her, bring­ing a sense of hope. The chap­ter cap­tures themes of per­son­al con­flict, the strug­gle against neg­a­tive influ­ences, and redemp­tion as Lester reclaims his sense of self amid his strug­gles with self-doubt and the shad­ows of his past .