The direction I was going seemed to lead to the poorer parts of the city if my judgment was not failing me. Trash was scattered on the sidewalks and roads while the buildings all needed some level of repair. I would have been scared to walk down this street if I was normal.

Finding a dirty alley nearby, I dipped in and waited. It stank. The dumpster next to me needed to be cleaned out. The thing probably saw very little attention in this dump.

While waiting on Jeanie, I took a look at the sky. It was blue and a little cloudy. There was no sign of the light wall I knew to be there. From where I was standing, this looked like your average city. This part of town was dirty, but I never would have guessed it was in the middle of the mist.

"The place started locking down right as I left." Jeanie popped up out of the ground beside me.

"I must have barely gotten out in time." I sighed while pulling the ID out of my pocket. She jumped right into it.

"Wow!" An immediate exclamation blared out from the card. "This is more than just an ID. It's also a phone and bank card."

I stared at the ID in my hand. The picture of Steven started glitching, and it spread. Soon the whole card was showing a standard smartphone screen. There was no brand with plain square app icons cluttering the space.

Before she got any ideas, I spoke first. "We are not stealing Steven's money." She might not care, but I refused to.

"That's fine. The guy's broke. It wouldn't be worth it." She moved on readily enough.

"Not sure if they can track it, but that should be easy to stop. Let me get a picture of you so I can fake an ID. It won't be in their databases, so don't trust it to hold up to scrutiny." Jeanie rambled.

Jeanie was typically a subdued girl around other people. She could get comfortable with me, but when it came to tech, she became positively chatty.

I had never taken a selfie before today, so I awkwardly held the phone up and smiled. There was no click or flash, but Jeanie said she got it. A minute later, I was looking at my fake ID.

"I'm not sure we should be using my real name." She had kept my first name the same but changed the last one. It read Morgan Adler.

"It'll be easier to remember Morgan than some made-up name. Trust me." I did, so I dropped it.

"Let's see if we can figure out what this place is." Stepping out of the alley, I held the phone up to my ear. A cell phone would make it easy to talk to Jeanie in public.

"Actually. This phone has an internet connection." She stated. That made no sense.

"The mist should be blocking that." Any form of communication typically failed to make it out of the mist. Abilities are the only exceptions.

"Wait, it's not the actual internet. They have their own setup, but it's big. Some of the websites go back, oh." She stopped mid-sentence, then went quiet for a moment.

"What is it? What did you find?" Halting my steps, I focused on the phone. The city around me was not getting any better. The graffiti, at least, was becoming more creative.

"Morgan, the date is 2139." She whispered.

My mind blanked for a second. That was over a hundred years since we left. When we took off for the mission, they projected that the mist would cover the Earth in another 20.

"Did all of the space programs fail?" Clearly, the human race had persevered here on Earth. By now, the mist must have covered every corner of the planet.

"I'm not seeing much on here about our mission. The fact superhumans got sent to the Moon and Mars is known, but any results were never publicly confirmed." Jeanie explained.

"All right, there's no use worrying about what's already passed." I was the team leader. Even if Jeanie is the only one left, I must keep things moving. "We'll dig into what happened later. Right now, let's get to work. We need to establish ourselves here."

Jeanie found a local map showing the city and confirmed it was a cube. Each corner had a tower that generated the protective barrier. There were several districts, each that appeared constructed with specific ideas in mind. The one we were currently in was called Low District and was a slum.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Is this the right place?" I asked Jeanie.

According to Jeanie's investigation, this should be a church acting as a homeless shelter. Their website said they start offering beds at 6:00 PM. It was currently 5:36, and no one was standing around. In fact, the entire street looked a little dead. The building also lacked any signs.

The address she gave me did not have the classic appearance of a church, so I figured it used to be something else. It stood a few floors high with very few windows. I guessed that it used to be a small office building.

"Hello? I'm looking for a place to stay for the night." I called out after stepping through the front door.

The lobby area that had seen better days was the only thing to greet me. The lack of people was making me double-think about coming here.

"Hello!" I yelled out again, and this time, I heard some clattering in the back room. Soon a wirey teen almost stumbled out of a nearby door.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" He questioned me. His appearance told me he did not work here. Probably a street kid.

"I was looking for a bed. Heard this place offers them." I kept it simple. The boy was a little off, clearly paranoid, and jumpy. The outline of a gun was also noticeable on his waistband.

He looked confused until a lightbulb seemed to go off. His smile revealed all yellow and stained teeth.

"Oh yeah, the doc will get you all sorted out. Follow me." He gestured for me to follow, so I did. Something suspicious was going on here, but at this point, turning around would get me nothing. Plus, I was a little curious.

The rooms we passed through revealed several more people sleeping on mattresses on the floor. I could tell this was a drug den. We came across passed-out addicts everywhere. They could not make it more obvious if they tried.

"So, who's this doc you mentioned? I thought this was a church." Once again, my question befuddled the man. It took him a minute to answer.

"Church?" His response was quite simple. Not offering any further information, we continued down the hallway.

He failed to notice that I would materialize an eye at each turn. Sending them off to search the areas we passed, I got a good look at the building. My pace slowed to prevent tripping while I was distracted by what the eyes discovered.

What I found suggested that these were more than just addicts. They were also dealers. At least, that's what I assumed from the individually packaged bags of powder I found in a few areas.

It might not mean anything, but each room had a different colored powder. The blue had extra protection, two men armed with machine guns around it. With the way they kept stealing peeks, those drugs were probably in more danger from them.

Right now, I felt a little frustrated that I managed to stumble into a drug operation. It was a terribly organized setup that let a complete stranger walk right in. No one besides this kid bothered to ask who I was. Besides, who would even trust a bunch of druggies to guard their product?

Finally, we made it to a large metal door. It looked like the welder only had a few days of experience and only junk to pick from. A street sign literally made up part of the door. The metal monstrosity was in for a beating as my guide aggressively tried to get someone's attention.

"Hey! Doc!" His yells were almost as loud as the banging. "Someone showed up about the free bed!"

The teen jumped back and covered his mouth with his sleeve when the door eventually creaked open. I understood why a moment later. The stench rolling out from the room made me gag.

"What? I'm busy!" The new arrival screamed. He looked a lot like the rest of the inhabitants of this place, except he wore a ratty lab coat.

"Doc, someone came about that free bed!" The boy yelled again as if it might force the smell away. He pointed at me while backing away.

I decided it was enough when I realized what that scent was. I had come across it during rescue missions many times. That was death.

"You're under arrest." A set of arms appeared behind the doctor before gripping his wrists and slamming him into the ground.

"What the fuck, man! You got powers!" The kid drew his gun and aimed for my head.

I watched the doctor kick the metal door shut while flailing around on the floor. My nose rejoiced when that cut off the stink.

Another hand formed, and this one pointed at the teen's gun. His weapon vanished and reappeared in the new hand. Confusion dominated his expression, but the little guy still managed to turn and flee within a second. I let him go for the moment so that I could deal with the good doctor.

Turning the door's handle, I was annoyed to find it locked. A new, quite muscular arm came into existence and rammed the door. It effortlessly crumpled the metal like a tin can.

It took me a moment to notice the absence of the smell as I entered the room. I also did not find what I was looking for. This door led to the basement, an empty basement.

"There weren't any stairs?" I questioned my memory out loud. When the doctor opened the door, there were no stairs leading down. He was very clearly standing at the entrance on a flat marble floor.

"What are you doing, Morgan?" Jeanie decided to speak out from the phone in my pocket. "You can't arrest these people."

"I can't just walk away from this. Besides, we've taken down plenty of drug dens." I responded to her. "Got any clue what happened to the doctor?"

"Illusions, teleportation? It could be anything. I can't sense any tech around here, so probably a power." She replied.

"I can still feel him squirming in my grip." I voiced to Jeanie. They felt much farther away now, but figuring out where wouldn't be easy. A beat later, I felt both the arms holding him get destroyed.

"I lost him." A curse almost slipped out in frustration. That doctor was, without a doubt, the most important person here. It always sucks when the big fish gets away.

"You're about to have visitors," Jeanie warned me as she sensed the cell phones approaching my location. "At least five."

I sighed and turned around. Maybe one of the mooks had some idea of where their boss went.