Jake drummed his fingers against the steering wheel of the government-issued sedan. He was stuck in the unbelievably slow, crawling traffic through the Safe Zone as he made his way back to the office. Construction crews worked on yet another apartment complex expansion on the side of the road, and the large machinery caused all the passing vehicles to slow even further.
Ever since the president's announcement two months before, the city had become crowded as people from nearby counties and rural areas flocked to the safety of numbers. A year ago, the street he was driving down was the easiest way for him to cross to this section of the city. However, with the sudden increase in population, people were crammed shoulder to shoulder, and tents were set up on every stretch of grass or available space, waiting for temporary housing units to be completed.
To Jake, the worst part about the drive back from a failed recruitment pitch was sitting in traffic with nothing to think about other than how differently things could've gone. It had been the same since he began working for the Hunters Association—many people had awakened and had an inflated sense of self-importance. The small group of four, and especially the self-proclaimed Azure Flame Guild leader, had been no exception.
The kid couldn't have been more than twenty years old, fresh out of college, and drunk on the power of having a trait and a few skills.
His little group of four had taken over an abandoned convenience store that had been emptied in one of the earlier riots at the edge of the Safe Zone. They were using it as their base of operations and calling themselves a guild.
Jake shifted in his seat and remembered the look on the younger man's face when he realized Jake was there as a recruiter for the Hunters Association, not some kind of enforcer there to make them bend at the knee. He couldn't believe the audacity of some people he was sent to recruit. After only getting a few levels and applying free points to their stats, they thought they were worth their own weight in gold.
A group of children darted between the cars and laughed as they chased each other. Jake had already been moving so slowly it took nothing more than a quick tap of the brakes to stop the sedan. Their parent shouted after them from the sidewalk where a line stretched around the block as people waited to collect from one of the local food distribution centers.
The contrast between the four young would-be adventurers and the desperate people waiting in line for food was clear to Jake. While some people were awakened and had newfound strength, others struggled to adapt to life in the cramped space of the Safe Zone and weren't seeking anything other than safety.
After ten more minutes of driving, the Hunters Association building came into view. It had a faded brick exterior, and he couldn't help but compare it to the gleaming headquarters in DC. Jake pulled into his designated spot and was at least thankful that his position came with it as a perk. The two guards inside the entrance barely glanced up from the phone held between them as Jake badged himself into the building.
Inside, the fluorescent lights lit up the old government building and made the odd pattern of the blue and off-white carpet seem like it hadn't been cleaned in years. It was all a far cry from the marble floors and state-of-the-art facility that he'd gotten the tour of during his own recruitment. Back then, they'd offered him a position in DC with significantly better amenities and his own office. But he'd chosen to stay in Jersey, thinking that it would be best to stick close to his parents and potentially help Alex if he got into any kind of trouble.
Some days… Like that day, he wondered if he'd made the right choice.
"Another successful recruitment?" Linda called from her desk as she leaned back in her office chair. The crotchety old woman didn't even bother to hide her sarcasm, and the laughter followed her statement. Jake's manager had told him she had been working in the building since before the Rifts appeared. Back then, she'd been handling administrative work for what used to be a different government agency and found herself doing much the same thing for the newly established Hunters Association.
"They'll come around," Jake said with a forced smile. He didn't believe it himself, even as he said the words, but he needed to maintain an optimistic attitude. It was part of the job.
The same job that's got me driving around the overcrowded Safe Zone and trying to convince newly awakened to join the cause instead of going off and doing their own thing.
He made his way over to his office, even though it was really just a converted storage closet with a desk crammed inside. Yet another large stack of recruitment files waited for him on the corner of his desk, and he had to restrain a groan.
With the government's recent mandate that all awakened within the city had to be registered and have their skills recorded by the Hunters Association on the pretense of safety, the stack never seemed to end. While he got to pick the order in which he approached the groups and focused on those that he believed to be more important or fit with the Association's ideals, he still had to make his way through almost every one on his own. Some conversations lasted all of two minutes, while others took close to an hour of schmoozing and over-hyping incentives.
The wall-mounted TV in the break room caught his attention as he looked out of the door of his office. He read the banner at the bottom and saw it was another report about the increasing crime rates within the Safe Zone. He shook his head and rubbed his face as he thought about how, even on his drive back to the office, he'd seen a few people huddled around a street corner offering to sell mana stone dust.
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He knew he should probably file a report against those people, but the local law enforcement and even the National Guard that were sent in were already spread thin, with a large amount of their focus being on protecting food depots and distribution centers. In the first two weeks of their being set up, riots and midnight raids by newly awakened had caused several of them to be completely looted, causing supplies to be spread more thinly to the normal population. Of course, the retaliatory military raids on awakened, and even some non-awakened, affiliated with those groups were swift and brutal.
He let out a sigh and rubbed both hands on his face, just happy to know that his workday was coming to an end. He packed up his few belongings and slung the leather cross-shoulder strap bag over his head after filling it with a few more reports to read that evening. He said goodbye to Linda on his way out and received a tired grunt from her in response.
Jake left his government vehicle and its designated spot, knowing that with the traffic, it was easier for him to walk the mile and a half to his shared apartment than it would be to drive. He zipped up his winter jacket as the late afternoon sun cast long shadows from the nearby buildings. He turned onto the sidewalk and began weaving his way through the packed groups of people.
He walked on for a few blocks before he saw a crowd that was gathered and blocked most of the sidewalk. He considered crossing the street to avoid whatever was causing the holdup, but the sound of passionate shouting drew his attention.
"The creatures aren't invading! We are the destroyers of worlds!" A woman stood on top of several stacked boxes and shouted over the tops of the crowd. "Every Rift we close is another ecosystem that we destroy! These beings have as much right to exist as we do!"
Jake watched as some people in the crowd nodded along, though even more seemed to scoff and shake their heads while continuing to walk past. The woman wore what looked like a hand-painted T-shirt with RRA across the front. If he remembered the flyers he'd seen earlier in the week correctly, the acronym stood for Rift Rights Alliance.
"My brother was killed by one of your precious Rift creatures!" An angry voice shouted from the crowd.
The preacher didn't miss a beat. "And how many have you killed? Not only are we destroying their world every time we close a rift, but the Hunters Association treats them like targets in a shooting gallery!"
Jake kept his face neutral as he worked his way past the crowd. People preaching stuff like this was dangerous—he had seen some of it firsthand. Especially because while most people believed what she was saying was incorrect, there was no actual way to prove that what she was saying was wrong. After a Rift was closed, there was no way for them to know if the world stayed intact or if it completely collapsed. At the end of the day, he'd seen enough recruitment files to know that for every person preaching peace with the Rift creatures, there were dozens more awakened people with combat-focused traits dreaming of becoming hunters.
Jake really didn't understand the appeal people saw with combat, even with the potential power that it could bring. He shook his head and continued walking.
The street opened up past the crowd, and Jake quickened his pace. To his right, he passed another set of construction crews adding floors to an apartment complex that would almost be doubled in height since the creation of the Safe Zone.
"Why can't we go home? I just want my room back." He looked over and saw a girl holding onto her mother's sleeve as they walked in the opposite direction along the sidewalk.
"This is home now, sweetie. Remember what we talked about? We are safe here."
His thoughts were pulled once again to the Azure Flame Guild and their stolen convenience store. While some people were in the Safe Zone simply trying to survive, others were out playing hero. His eyebrows came together as his brother's face popped into his mind. Not the face he'd grown up seeing, slightly chubby and free of facial hair, but the hardened and serious face of a scarred warrior that had appeared on the news almost a week ago. He knew that the gap between awakened and regular citizens grew wider every day, and he wasn't sure if his recruitment efforts were helping or making things worse.
The side of his apartment complex, where both his and his parents' new townhomes were, came into view. He was thankful that he'd at least been able to secure a comfortable living within the Safe Zone. Whether his parents appreciated that effort was another matter altogether.
Jake knocked twice before letting himself into his parents' townhome, positioned directly next to his own. The TV blared from the living room, and he could hear their favorite news station playing and casting a light across the hallway wall of the bottom floor.
"Did you see this?" his mother called out. "They say Alex closed another Rift yesterday. They're calling him a hero on the news."
Jake's chest tightened as he rounded the corner and looked over the half wall behind his parents' reclining chairs. On the screen, Alex stood among a group of hunters, a few even looking familiar to him, but his brother looked nothing like the one he remembered. It wasn't just the scar across his nose and the oddly colored eye, but it was his entire appearance and bearing. They'd seen Alex at Christmas in a sweatshirt; it looked like he'd lost weight, but at the time, Jake assumed it was related to work stress. Seeing him now, standing in what looked to be perfectly tailored white and gold martial arts robes and clearly in charge of a group of other competent-looking people, Jake had a hard time reconciling the two Alexs in his mind: the one he knew and had grown up with, competing in almost all things, and the one he saw praised as a hero on the TV.
"Would be wonderful if he'd stop by soon," his father muttered. "It's been a while since we've seen him."
"I brought dinner," Jake said as he set the takeout bags on the counter. Neither parent moved nor even looked away from the TV.
"You know," his mother said, "the lady next door mentioned her son just awakened. Maybe you could use your sales pitch on him and help him get a position at your work."
Jake's jaw clenched. "I need to review some files tonight. I'll see you tomorrow."
He left without waiting for a response, though he doubted they noticed. In his own townhome next door, Jake dropped his messenger bag and sank down on his couch. The stack of recruitment files spilled out across his coffee table, and he knew that he really should do some work.
Looking up at the small pattern on his ceiling, Jake couldn't get his brother's face out of his head. He'd always been the successful one and the one he felt like his parents could count on, but in the last three weeks, his parents had barely spoken to him other than asking if he'd spoken with his brother. His mind drifted briefly to the kind of life his brother might be living now, compared to the situation he found himself in.
But... Jake knew that tomorrow was another day. Another chance to make a difference in the Safe Zone and for the people who really needed the help.
Even if that difference comes through paperwork and persuasion rather than combat.
Jake kicked up his legs and forced himself to sit up on the couch. He grabbed the first file and began to read.
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