Just Another Rift

Three years ago the world went to complete shit.

I know, what a blunt way to put it but what else can be said when that's the best way to put it?

Natural disasters, monsters and the collapse of most organised government bodies within the short span of a year as they tried to fight back the tides of monsters.

It wouldn't have been an understatement to have called that time the end of the world, the day of reckoning, 2012, but despite the odds stacked against them the human race miraculously managed to push them back just enough to allow them to build-up safe cities to shelter the general populace from the war raging on outside.

A war still fought by the warriors of the human race as they put their lives on the line to protect those who lived safely within the walls of the cities.

The Hunters.

...

"Jackson!"

"Mmmmm.." A muffled voice came from beneath a pile of blankets as a mass of white dishevelled hair emerged from the bed, "Coming! I'm coming!" He shouted as he freed himself from the prison of quilt he had trapped himself in.

Jackson Helm, eighteen years old, with average looks and even more average grades his only outstanding feature was the head of white hair on his head. It was the first day of the new semester and he was already going to be late as he slowly dragged his feet out of bed and tried to get himself dressed.

Twenty minutes later he was downstairs with a piece of toast in his mouth as he rushed out the door, "Have a good day!" His foster mum shouted behind him with a shake of her head as she watched him disappear into the bustling streets of Mayson City.

Mayson City was one of the few cities that humanity had managed to build during invasion of the monsters, it was one of the original underground bunkers that had been expanded over the past two years with the help of thousands of workers as the cities population grew as more survivors flocked to it daily.

Jackson was half-way to the university when he started to hear muffled screams through his music from somewhere along the street, he looked up only to see a crack in space rippling with purple energy.

A Rift.

Mayson City may have been underground but that didn't mean it was safe in comparison to the other human cities on the planet, just like any place for unknown reasons these rifts seemed to appear every now and then where there were large gatherings of humans. Making them an, almost, daily occurrence but despite how often they appeared it didn't make them any less frightening as Jackson tried not to be stampeded by the crowds of people running away towards the nearest shelters.

They only had a matter of seconds, maybe minutes if they were lucky, before some monster burst through and went on a rampage. "It's coming!" He heard someone shout, his mind began to race as he broke off from the crowd into a side alley,"Shit! Dead end" he cursed, there was no time to get to a shelter so he quickly hid behind a dumpster and tried to calm his breathing.

"Help! Help!" Then the screams started... there were deaths every time a rift opened, it was normal. It was impossible for the Hunters to get to a rift faster than a monster could appear and even when rarely there was a Hunter already present they would be unable to protect themselves and the fleeing civilians.

Jackson glanced out from out of his hiding spot to see a blue tentacle wrapping around someone and dragging them back with it, he couldn't see where it dragged them to but he assumed through the portal from which it had came from.

Minutes passed and more screams began to ring out, more people had begun to dive into the alleyways and were hiding alongside them while they held their breath and prayed that they wouldn't be found as they all waited for a Hunter to appear. Or someone, anyone.

"Cut its left, I'll get its right!" Finally they heard it, the voice of a Hunter appearing and from the sounds of it more than one. Jackson couldn't see what they were doing since he didn't dare to move from behind the dumpster and peek around the corner of the alley but he could hear the clash of weapon against tentacle, "Hold it still for a few seconds." The voice called again, as soon as it had spoken Jackson felt the air begin to heat up around him.

'Fire Magic.' He thought excitedly as he glanced over the dumpster in an attempt to catch even just a glimpse of a Hunter using magic in action, a few others hiding near him had the same idea as some even pulled out their phones to try and record it.

"Get down!"

Jacksons' vision went white as he was blinded by an immense light, he had subconsciously dropped to the ground when he'd heard the Hunter yell.

He suddenly felt something began to wrap around him at his waist but because of the bright light previously he still couldn't make out what it was, it looked like a thin blue thread until he felt it pull...

"What the fuck?! Let go of me!" He screamed as he tried to pull it off his legs as he was dragged across the ground out into the open, it was as if it had been glued to his legs as he tried to pry its grip from his lower body to no avail.

As soon as he was back out on the street he saw an exhausted Hunter staring at him in disbelief as she struggled to stand, on the ground next to her was a man almost charred to death if not for the slow rhythmic movement of his stomach anyone could've mistaken him for a dead person.

There were burnt and dead chunks of the tentacle scattered around the street, the thin one attached to him was barely a quarter of the size of the others yet he still wasn't able to break free from it.

"Hey! Help me!" He called out as his body was scrapped across the concrete street, the female Hunter tried to step forward only to stumble and hit the ground. She looked up from the ground and mouthed, "I'm so sorry..."

Fear began to take over as he began to shout for anyone to help him, it was just a small tentacle. He even want as far as trying to bite it with his teeth to save himself but it didn't work.

He was dragged through the rift kicking and screaming... and it closed behind him.