43: THE WRETCH

After his miraculous survival of the highstorm, new captain and his wife arrive to assert stricter control over Bridge Four, assigning them permanent chasm duty as punishment. In despair over the futility of his situation, an encounter with a dead bridgeman in the chasm ultimately moves him to reject apathy and propose a desperate plan: training his men to fight and attempt escape.

After a sleepless night consumed by despair, thinking his men are doomed bait and questioning the point of resistance, newly-promoted Captain-by-marriage arrives with his wife, the lighteyes woman named the new authority over the bridge crews. When their soldier strikes him for insolence, and despite sensing he could defeat them, he refuses to fight. The couple assigns Bridge Four to permanent chasm duty, scavenging bodies from the depths. The assignment devastates the crew's ability to earn money and obtain supplies, making survival even harder.

During their first chasm descent, deep depression grips into full despair. He abandons his men psychologically, telling them there is no point in continuing to resist, that they are bound to die whatever they do. The bridgemen argue about the Lost that they they believe are impossible to overcome. In the darkness of the chasm, alone against a boulder, he grapples with his failure—the deaths of people he tried to save before (I'll lost everything that haunted him. But the phrase "Journey before destination," an old saying of the Lost radiants, begins to restore his perspective. When he returns to the crews, he finds a dead bridgeman among the corpses—one of their own already consumed by the abyss. This crystallizes his resolve. He decides they must try to escape: train in secret, strike a guard post at night, flee, and hope to evade pursuit. When he lays out the impossible plan, most of the men volunteer, choosing the slight chance of freedom over slow certain death.