The Sanatorium

Chapter Fourteen

"We have to get out of the island, the nurses will never let us go now that they know we escaped," Wolfie whispered.

The two girls were huddled in a cave, still wet and cold and pale with fear. It was morning, so the nurses would be checking for their dead bodies and when they found out that they disappeared, that would be worse.

"How about building a raft?" Jupiter suggested, "I read all about building rafts out of survival. All we need is wood and something to tie the wood together tightly so it won't break in the middle of the lake."

"I guess we have to find logs, and steal the ropes from the village," Wolfie said glumly.

"Let's do that then. Let's go around finding the logs, then steal the ropes from the cafe. I heard they have some for the wagons"

It wasn't too hard before they found some logs located at the beach, big and strong, but it was hard for them to haul them to their cave. When it was afternoon they snuck to the village and leapt in one of the open windows, grabbed a rope, and leapt out. Their theft was successful, as the workers were paying a visit to the Sanatorium and left the cafe. They spent the rest of the day building the raft and during nighttime they were ready. The raft was tested many times and it was confirmed stable and able to get them to the dock.

"We'll leave tomorrow morning," Jupiter said with a satisfied grin as they set the raft in the cave and lit a fire, "It is too dark right now that it's night and we will get lost and be drifting to who-knows-where."

"Alright," Wolfie cast a look into the night, narrowing her eyes, "I think we should sleep and put out the fire, because with this fire anyone can spot us, even from the Sanatorium."

Jupiter grabbed a wooden bucket she stole from the cafe, gathered some water, and splashed it over the fire to make it go out. Then they curled up in the cave and got ready to sleep.

The raft floated over the lake peacefully, carrying two girls, as it drifted to the other dock. Jupiter was guiding the raft around the currents that would take them safely to their destination. Wolfie had gathered many melons in a bag that would be enough for them on their journey. Occasionally they would stop rowing the raft and drank some of the lake water, ate a bit of melon, before continuing on their journey.

Jupiter was sure they were not going back to the Sanatorium. She would miss it, and regretted her choice of sneaking out and throwing herself and Wolfie into a journey against the nurses, who had done so many things for them for the months in the before years at the Sanatorium. She grew up with the Sanatorium style, and had to abandon it.

I will come back, she thought, I will apply as a nurse once all the nurses had retired from the Sanatorium. This place is my home, and I will not leave it.