Chapter 5: THE LOST
Two days later, Danny led me through South Bronx streets with the confidence of someone who knew every alley.
My face had progressed from "recent beating" to "healing badly." The black eye was purple-green now. My lip had stopped bleeding but left a scab I kept splitting when I talked. The ribs still hurt but breathing was easier.
I'd spent the day between our meeting reading at the library and panhandling enough for food. Three dollars and forty cents. Combined with what I had left—seven dollars total. Enough to survive another week if I was careful.
Danny stopped in front of a church—stone, old, windows boarded over. Condemned by the look of it. He led me around back to a basement entrance hidden by overgrown weeds.
"This is their place," he said. "Our place. Most nights someone's here. Today I asked them to come."
"How many?"
"Four. Maybe five. They don't all trust each other." He looked at me. "They definitely won't trust you at first. You're human. You're—"
"An outsider. I know."
"But I told them about the subway. About you." He pushed open the door. "Don't make me regret it."
The basement smelled like mildew and old incense. Candles provided light—dozens of them, probably stolen. Four people waited in the space.
A woman blocked the doorway. She was massive—six feet tall, broader than me, muscles visible under her jacket. Scars covered her visible skin—arms, neck, face. Her eyes held the kind of hardness that came from life beating you down until you learned to hit back first.
Behind her, a man maybe fifty. Military bearing. Short grey hair. He stood like someone who'd spent decades being ready for anything.
A young woman sat on an overturned crate, eyes closed, hands pressed to her temples. Every few seconds she flinched.
And a middle-aged man who kept phasing—his hand would go transparent, then solid, then transparent again. Nervous habit.
"This him?" the big woman said.
"Yeah." Danny slipped past her. "Everyone, this is Marcus. Marcus, this is—everyone."
"Who the hell are you?" the woman demanded.
"Marcus Cole."
"I heard your name, human. I'm asking what you want."
"To build something better than this."
She laughed. Harsh. "Better. There's always someone saying they'll make things better for us. Usually right before they make things worse."
"I'm not asking you to trust me yet."
"Good. Because I don't." She crossed her arms. "Danny says you took a beating for him. That true?"
"Three guys. Subway platform. They were going to push him onto the tracks."
"And you stopped them because?"
"Because it was wrong."
"Lot of wrong things in the world. Most people ignore them."
"I'm not most people."
She snorted. "You a mutant?"
"No."
"So what can you do?"
"Organize. Plan. Build infrastructure. Secure resources. Everything that doesn't require powers but makes powers more effective."
The older man spoke up. "You sound like an officer planning a base."
"You military?"
"Was. Long time ago." He extended a hand. "Miles Webb."
I shook it. His grip was firm, testing. "Marcus Cole."
"Danny says you're talking about building territory. Separate from human populations. That right?"
"That's right."
"Heard that before. Never works. You know why?" Miles didn't wait for an answer. "Because it takes resources to build. Takes people. Takes time. And humans don't give mutants any of those things without a fight."
"Then we fight."
The big woman laughed again. "Listen to this guy. Big talk. You have an army hidden somewhere?"
"No. I have a plan."
"A plan." She stepped closer. I held my ground. "You know what I have? Strength. Gamma-class. I can lift a car over my head. Throw it through a building. You know what that's gotten me? Fired from every job when they found out. Hunted when I defended myself. Homeless for three years." She leaned down. "So tell me about your fucking plan."
I met her eyes. "My plan is to find a place defensible enough that attacking it costs more than leaving it alone. Build infrastructure so people have reason to stay. Recruit enough citizens that we're a community, not a gang. Establish enough presence that the world has to acknowledge we exist. Then grow."
"You're insane."
"Maybe. But I'm also committed."
She stared at me. I stared back.
The young woman with her eyes closed spoke. "He believes it." Her voice was soft, strained. "I can feel it. He's not lying. He's not manipulating. He genuinely thinks he can do this."
"Sofia reads thoughts," Danny explained. "Surface stuff. She can't help it."
"Sorry," Sofia said without opening her eyes. "There's five of you and the minds are—it's loud. But I'm trying to only listen to surface thoughts. You're broadcasting pretty clearly though. You really think you can build a mutant nation."
"I know I can."
The phasing man spoke up. "Even if you believe it, belief doesn't make it real. I believed my marriage would survive my mutation. Belief doesn't stop divorce papers."
"Belief is the start," I said. "But you're right—it's not enough alone. That's why I need people. Not followers. Partners. People who can do things I can't."
"Like what?" Miles asked.
"You're a medic. We'll need medical care. Danny has fire—power generation, cooking, defense. Sofia has telepathy—communication, security, early warning." I looked at the big woman. "You have strength. Construction. Heavy labor. Fighting when necessary." To the phasing man: "You can phase through walls. Scouting. Infiltration. Escape routes."
"You're building a military base," Miles said.
"I'm building a home that can defend itself."
"Same thing."
"Maybe."
The big woman hadn't moved. "You got a name for this place?"
"Not yet. I'm calling it the start of something."
"Where?"
"Upstate. Abandoned industrial complex. Ten square kilometers. River access. Defensible positions. Remote enough to avoid immediate attention."
"You've scouted it?"
"Spent a week there."
She considered this. "And you came back to the city to recruit people you don't know, who don't trust you, to follow you to the middle of nowhere based on your plan."
"Yes."
"That's either brave or stupid."
"Little of both probably."
She almost smiled. Almost. "I'm Ruth Torres. People call me Mammoth when they're trying to be insulting. I don't correct them—lets them underestimate me."
"Marcus Cole. People call me crazy when I explain what I'm doing. I don't correct them either."
This time she did smile. Small. Brief. But real.
"Your plan's going to fail," Ruth said.
"Maybe."
"You're going to run out of money."
"Probably."
"We'll all end up dead or in custody."
"Possibly."
"But you're going anyway."
"Yes."
Ruth looked at Miles. Some unspoken communication passed between them. Miles shrugged. "I've followed worse plans under worse officers."
"I'm not military," I said.
"Neither are we anymore. But we remember what good leadership looks like." He looked at the others. "Danny's already in. He told me before you got here. Question is whether the rest of us are stupid enough to follow."
"I can't take the city anymore," Sofia said, eyes still closed. "Too many minds. Too much noise. I've been thinking about just walking into the river." She finally opened her eyes. They were brown, exhausted. "So yeah. I'll try your crazy plan. Dying slowly here or maybe dying building something—I'll take the second option."
The phasing man—I still didn't have his name—looked at his translucent hand. "I've got nothing left to lose. Wife took the kids. Boss fired me. Family stopped talking to me. If you're serious—genuinely serious—then I'm in. I'm Tom. Tom Bradley."
Ruth was last. She didn't speak for a full minute. Just studied me with those hard, scarred eyes.
"I'll give it one month," she said finally. "You get one month to prove this isn't bullshit. If it falls apart, I walk. But if you actually pull this off—if you actually build something real—then I'm with you until the end."
One month. Thirty days to prove concept. It wasn't full commitment but it was enough.
"Fair," I said.
"When do we leave?" Miles asked.
"Tomorrow. Dawn. Bring whatever you can carry. Clothes. Supplies. Anything useful."
"How do we get there?"
"Bus. Walk. I'll guide us."
Ruth laughed. "Bus fare for five people. You got that kind of money?"
I checked my pockets. Seven dollars. "I'll figure it out."
"Christ." She pulled a crumpled twenty from her pocket. "I've been saving this for an emergency. Guess this qualifies."
Miles added ten. Sofia had three dollars. Tom had nothing. Danny had a handful of change.
Forty dollars and change. Enough for bus tickets. Maybe food if we were lucky.
"We meet here," I said. "Tomorrow morning. Six AM. Don't be late."
"You better not be lying," Ruth said. "I've killed people for less."
"Noted."
She walked past me toward the exit. Stopped at the door. "Marcus Cole. The human who wants to build a mutant nation. This should be interesting."
The others filed out after her. Sofia lingered, eyes closed again.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "For offering quiet. I haven't had quiet in years."
Then she was gone.
Danny and I stood alone in the candlelit basement.
"You did it," he said. "They're coming."
"They're taking a chance. Big difference."
"Still more than most people would give you."
He was right. Five mutants with nothing to lose willing to follow a human with nothing to offer but ideas. It was insane.
It was perfect.
"Get some sleep," I said. "Tomorrow we walk into something that doesn't exist yet. But by the time we're done, it will."
Danny grinned. "I'll bring extra socks. Miles says that's important for long walks."
"Miles is a smart man."
We left the church separately. I walked back toward the shelter in darkness. The System pulsed in my mind.
[QUEST PROGRESS: FIND YOUR FIRST CITIZEN]
[FIVE CITIZENS RECRUITED (PROVISIONAL)]
[QUEST WILL COMPLETE UPON FORMAL CITIZENSHIP OATHS]
[NEW QUEST AVAILABLE: CLAIM YOUR TERRITORY]
Tomorrow. Tomorrow we'd claim territory. Tomorrow we'd stop talking about building and actually build.
But tonight I went back to the shelter. Claimed my cot. Ate the dinner they served—beans and rice, bland but filling. Lay down and stared at the ceiling while fifty other homeless men snored around me.
In six hours I'd meet five people who'd decided to trust me. We'd take buses north. Walk the last miles. Stand in an abandoned factory and claim it as ours.
The start of something.
The System hummed agreement.
I closed my eyes. Tomorrow, everything changed.
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