Gates

Gates

by Kenneth Gavilan

A flash of light that seeped through the window, a sunrise of scarlet red and bright yellow. A beautiful morning amongst the crowded brick jungle, the light slipping into the city’s roads, illuminating the vehicles that drove. It was loud, people were rushing to get to their destinations, yet it was a peaceful, normal day. But this was not Earth, at least not the Earth we know.

A rumble began to shake the air, the city sirens began to shriek, the sky had turned a velvet purple, there was panic on the streets, everyone rushing, shoving each other to get away. Then the sky began to crack, then from the deepest cracks it shattered. Peering into the cracks, dark crimson swirls and disordered space were seen, it looked as deep as the ocean and as vast as space.

With the rift in the sky and a hollow city, not a sound from the now empty streets but a pitter patter of someone walking, tip tap tip tap. It seems that the city was not empty, a sole person walked amongst the sidewalk, not a care in the world. Was he deaf? Did he not hear the Sirens? Is he blind? Did he not see the people running?

The rift began to shake the sky once more, but erupted in light and sound, what had seemed to be an endless void became a raining jungle, silhouettes of terrors began to peer out of the rift. Why wasn’t he running? Why wasn’t he afraid of such hideous beasts? They rained from the sky, filling the hollow city with their shrieks and pattering of feet. Bloodlusted and crazed, they led a path of sheer destruction. Yet this man did not budge; he continued walking.

The sound of shrieks and running drew closer and closer to the man. Then suddenly, the sounds of shrieks and feet had stopped, hideous green creatures, as small as children and as smelly as a dumpster had laid in front of the man anticipating their pounce on him.

Loud screams, groans of agony, the tearing of flesh, the cracking of bones, then silence. The streets now littered with corpses of monsters, the rift overhead began to close and the sky faded from a velvet purple back to a sky blue. The city filled with people once more

as if nothing had happened.

In this world rifts bend space and time to connect this world to dimensions that are home to monsters, from rainy jungles to blazing deserts, to even stormy oceans, spelling death for the people of this world if the monsters inside come out.

Vrrr vrrr. “Hello? Oh sorry, forgot it was today. Where is it? Okay, see you there,” Sunhwa hung up.

“Who was that?” Janic asked.

“It was the call for the Gate raid.”

“Good luck, don’t come back with a missing limb or anything.”

“Alright, I promise to get some good cores,” Sunhwa grabs his bag and heads for the door.

He runs through the streets, wind blowing through his crimson hair. He arrives at the Gate opening and sees the people that he will be entering the Gate with. The Gate coordinator came in, he gave three loud claps: CLAP, CLAP, CLAP.

“Alright, listen up, we have the green light to go through, it’s a D rank Gate so nothing too bad should happen. Remember we are not responsible for your pay, any monster you kill, you are allowed to take its core. Other than that, support each other so that I don’t have to report casualties to the Hunter Association,” The coordinator began to discuss something in secret with some Association members.

Everyone began to prepare their gear, blades were sharpened, shields were polished, armor was donned, and Sunhwa prepared his daggers. One of the Association members had an airhorn. He held it up in the air, the horn was fired and the Hunters entered the Gate. It was dark, humid, the sounds of small flying mammals. “It’s a cave. Mages, light please.”

The mages had created sources of light at the tip of their staffs, the hunters stopped what they were doing and began to search the walls and measured the width of the caves.

“What are you all doing?”Sunhwa asked.

“Is this your first time in a cave-type Gate?” a mage asked.

“Yes.”

“They are gathering information on what type of monsters we could encounter here.”

“How are they figuring that out?”

“It’s pretty simple, if they find any acid or silk on the walls then we are working with insects, if they find paint then we are working with

goblins or other low intelligence monsters, lastly if they find any claw marks we are working with beasts. Those are the only things that we can find in this cave.”

“Which ones should we be most worried about?”

“Goblins. They set up traps around their nest and they can coordinate attacks.”

This gave Sunhwa chills.

“Hey, I found something!”

A swordsman yelled, the mage drew her attention to the swordsman.

“What is it?”

The swordsman motioned for her to come closer and he whispered something in her ears, she grew pale.

“That shouldn’t be possible . . . Everyone, be on guard! We might not be alone!”

Everyone got into a tight formation, they started to look around frantically.

“What are we so afraid of?”

The mage turned to him and whispered, “Hobgoblins.”