Young man seemingly was in his early 20s. His slightly curly brown hair was changing its shape, every time he took a step. His green eyes were watching the traffic while he's running. And then he stopped. After taking a few breaths he fixed his hair and tie. He was wearing a dark blue suit, which looks a bit bigger than his size. His eyes locked into the ruined street. A group of workers were carrying some shattered glass; one of them was giving commands to the others. Repeating "Safety first".
After dozing off for a few seconds, young man started running again. Traffic seems to be flowing with no problems, pointing out people were already used to it. Young man joined the crowd who was waiting to cross the street. A nearby shop's TV could be heard from this distance.
A- So professor, what are your initial thoughts on the cracks? Are they really portals to the other worlds?
B- It's hard to tell. Cracks are like doors that teleport us to different places, which do not exist on earth.
A- So even if we can't tell if it is a different planet or different reality, we can be sure that they are not on our earth.
B- Yes. If we compare the first crack that appeared 11 years ago and yesterday's incident, we can say that cracks work for both sides. This is how the monsters are able to come to our world…
After the police's sign, the crowd started to cross the street. Young man walked with the crowd a bit. After the crowd dispersed; his steps got faster and faster, until he stopped in front of a skyscraper. After fixing his composition he entered. Building itself was a center of various tech companies. After getting on the elevator he dropped to the 26th floor.
"Oh hey, it's David! Good morning!" said by a seemingly young woman.
"Oh, hi Natalie! Good morning."
David's voice was soft. His eyes were shining, he was radiating a friendly aura. He also had a larger build than average, his large shoulders were showing themselves despite the clothes he's been wearing.
"I heard there was work at 42th Street. I hope you didn't face any troubles while coming here"
"No problem for me, you know I can't break my not getting late to the work streak!" He said it with a large smile on his face.
"Still, be careful. You know we need skilled engineers here. Everyone wants to become a crack hunter nowadays since they're making so much money. You know Mr. Widow, right?"
"Oh yeah, I've been working on a project with him since last month."
"Apparently he joined a group of hunters to awaken his talents. After his awakening, he even gained a healing-type skill! I don't know the exact details, but they said that healer-type hunters are rare. After that, he quit his job here."
"This is… I mean I don't know much about them but cracks are dangerous, aren't they? Hundreds of people are dying inside of them."
"Exactly. I'm not going to lie; I'm relieved that you are not interested in them."
"I found a couple of slackers here."
Both of them said "Good morning sir!"
"Good morning, nice to see you still around David." And then he grabbed David holding him from his shoulder, after pressing his head down he played with his already messy hair. He probably was in his early 40s; his black hair has some whites in it. After a little bit of struggle he let David go; fixed his glasses afterwards.
David tried to fix his hair and asked "What do you mean by that sir?"
"I heard you two talking. I'm still mad at that guy; he left us with an unfinished project. We need to find another backend developer because of his sudden quit. Since you are still young, you can change your mind about cracks and be a hunter like him."
"I doubt that." David's face gained a more serious look; his shining eyes lost their light for a moment.
"After all I'm a total nerd, what skill am I gonna get anyways? Skill activate: faster calculation! I can make 1000 calculations in a minute but with a twist. None of them are true!"
"Pffft—hahaha! You don't even need a skill to do that!"
"Hehehe… I want to chat with you two more, but I need to do my job. Have a nice day at work!" after that she leaves.
"See you later! So sir, what job do you have for me today?"
"Just go and sit at your desk first, mister calculator. I will call you when something comes up."
"Okay then, see you later Mr. Green."
"Call me with my name calculator, I'm not that old!"
"I didn't mean that by calling you this way and you know it, sir. Then see you later Mr. Ethan" he gets away with fast steps.
"This kid…"
After greeting other workers, David walked into the office and sat on his desk. He was able to hide his grief thanks to the joke but his mind was elsewhere. His eyes focused on the date on his phone,
"I guess he will not show up this month too…"
He took a deep breath and slapped both of his cheeks with his hands. After that, he took a deep breath and opened his computer. He took out a laptop from his backpack and checked his emails before starting to work.
…
In the Ceo's office, two men were having a heated argument.
"So, you want me to send my engineers to a crack? Are you out of your mind?"
"Sir, you need to listen. They will be joining a group of 15 people. They will be protected by 5 A-Class hunters and an S-Class hunter. Also the boss of the crack is already defeated and most of the monsters are already killed. It is safe…"
"Boss defeated? I'm not a hunter but I know enough of that, cracks get closed after their boss is defeated."
"This is a special case. Some cracks do not disappear even though their boss has been defeated. We want to build a base inside to do further research. This is why we need engineers. All the phone signals get cut off once we enter a crack. We were hoping that engineers could find a way to communicate with the people inside the crack. If it works, we will be able to save dozens of lives!"
"Still, they are civilians. Even high-rank hunters are dying inside of cracks, you can't guarantee their safety."
"Even though the research wasn't successful, we will pay you a good amount. Please reconsider."
"Hmph… Fine. But I'm not sending my best engineers. You can't even imagine how hard it is to find a decent engineer nowadays. One of my engineers became a hunter recently and I still couldn't find a replacement."
"Thank you, sir. I will start the legal procedure after learning their names."
"Ethan Green and David Blake."
"Tell them to appear at this address tomorrow at 10 pm. It's an honor to do a job with you." The businessman handed over a paper with an address on it and left the room after that.
"What a joke. They are really playing with human lives." After letting out a deep sigh he reached for his phone.
"Natalie. Bring me Ethan and David."
…
"So all I needed to do was restart the device huh? You guys are my savers. See you!" a coworker leaves.
"What a dumb guy, I really can't believe we need to do the jobs that belong to the IT department."
"I don't think like that, they showed up all those things at the uni. It's nice to see that stuff I learned is useful."
Natalie entered a room in a hurry. She had a mixed look on her face. "Ceo wants to see you two."
Both Dave and Ethan looked at each other with a confused look. After that, they followed Natalie to the Ceo's office.
Natalie opened the door and showed them inside. She closed the door after them.
Ceo was sitting at his desk, with a bitter look on his face.
"You two can leave early today. Tomorrow you guys are going to a job outside of the office."
Ethan asked, "Sir, what kind of job is it?"
The ceo slowly changed the way that he was sitting on a chair. And grasped his two hands together. "You two going inside a crack"
"What?" Ethan's face slowly turned white. Meanwhile, his left arm grabbed Dave's shoulder.
"It is safe. They said there will be an S-class hunter that accompanies you. Also, the crack doesn't have a boss."
"Still, I'm going to refuse it. You can't put us in danger without our consent."
"Mr. Green, you are single, right? As far as I know, you don't have older family members that you need to take care of. The same goes for Mr. Blake. He's an orphan who has no family member registered on the emergency call list. I can't send another engineer; all of the others have kids or an old family member to take care of. Sending them also means sending their families. You two are the only suitable ones."
"How can you speak like that? How can you…"
Dave raised his right hand and stopped him. He was shaking, but still collected his thoughts and started speaking.
"Sir, it is not a good move. Accepting the job without our consent. But still, agreement is done and we're already chosen. So coming against it, not going to change the outcome. Also they said it's safe so let's not think about the worst outcome."
After Dave's little speech, Ethan calmed down. He took his glasses off and scrubbed his eyes. After a breath
"Fine. But next time find another person." He left the office after that.
"You're more mature than I anticipated. I was right to give you this job. So take this paper, you two will go to this address tomorrow at 10pm. Send address to Green. You may leave."
"Thanks, have a nice day."
After leaving the room, he rushed to his desk to catch up to Ethan. Collected his stuff, after wishing others a nice day he hopped on an elevator. He started running as soon as he left the elevator and found Ethan outside.
"Sorry, I kinda left you there alone with that bloodsucker."
"Don't say that, I'm sure it will be fine."
"I know. Some of my friends also entered the cracks and they said it was a wonderful experience. Even though I knew that, I acted like a child. I guess I went mad after him saying that we don't have anyone."
"But, that's true. I've been hearing the same thing for years."
"Just, don't get scared. It will be fine. I wanted to say that to you. Even though we don't have anyone, we have each other, right?"
"Yeah, let's stick together until the end."
"See you tomorrow"
"See you"
Two of them smiled and sent each other home.
After a long bus ride, the clock was showing 12 pm. Dave left the bus and walked in the long alley. People around were walking and enjoying their time. Child noises were coming from a nearby park. He was walking but in his mind, there were no thoughts. He stooped as a reflex when he arrived in front of a yellow-painted house. After searching his pockets he found the keys and opened the door.
Inside of the house was dark and cold. Almost like no one was living here. After closing the door, his legs lose all of their strength. His back slid on the door and he sat to the ground. Both of his arms were holding his bag, squeezing it with all of their strength. After taking a few breaths he took his phone out.
"Just a crack… It's just a crack."
He opened the phone's lock and clicked contacts. His hand stopped for a long time on the same contact name. After that, he clicked the number and it started calling. But the only voice coming from the phone was the dial tone.
"Yeah, I should have known. You didn't come home for 2 months, so why would you open the phone now?"