Time Engineers

Crack

Zurich Opera House was standing magnificiantly at the side of Sechseläuten square. Overlooking people who are enjoying their time in this large and refreshing area right next to the Zurich lake. Slight warm weather was encouraging people to swim at the illegal parts of the lake and tourists were wandering around acting like they've never seen a building before.

A weird and unusual scene appeared as the man was running like crazy in this peaceful moment. He was soaked in sweat which made him look like he swam in the lake. When he stopped, he wiped the sweat drops off on his forehead.

Atlas looked around to see what he was looking for. It must be a glowing crack hovering up in the air. And, he was hoping, it was not too high.

"Where... where is it..?" he murmured.

As he looked around only to see weirded out people's face silently observing him. Then, he felt a hand right behind him. A kind face of a female officer was standing in front of him. It was enough to distract him from his mission.

"Are you okay, sir?" police officer asked suspiciously.

It was in Swiss German, therefore, it did not make any sense to him. As uneasiness climbed up to his chest, he gave out an unattractive smile by forcing himself.

"S-sorry, police lady" he stuttered as he answered. Weird enough to be sweating like this and now he called someone "police lady." What the hell he was thinking he thought.

"You seem in distress. Are you okay?" she repeated herself again but this time in English.

"Yeah yeah, definetely. I just- Need to look for something. I thought I was about to miss it."

He pulled his weird looking bag upwards to straighten up his back. As she was about to answer him, a flash behind police officer's back appeared and lighten up Atlas' face.

"Oh no..." he silently said as his eyes slided right side to see what was happening behind her.

She saw the panic in his eyes and turned back to see the blue-ish white crack glowing little bit up in the air. It seemed as someone prepared a show for today but she would be informed as she is responsible in the square.

"What is this?"

"It is the thing i thought i missed." Atlas answered and started to run towards it as the crack started to glow stronger. Police officer tired to hold his arm by reflex as he ran but since he was soaked, her hand slipped and could not pull him. Hence, she ran after him.

Peace was alerted as the second unusual event of the day was happening. The crack has gotten few meters wider and lighter. Odd pressure was effecting surroundings and people were getting away from it as their bodies recognised this crack as a threat. Even though, a human mind by itself was not enough to calculate to say that it is extremely dangerous; human body can sometimes recognise a threat with its instincts.

Atlas was gotten closer as his light brownish skin was getting lighter to make him look like a white male. When he was close enough to the crack's danger zone for a normal human, he turned around and kicked the police officer who was running right after him to keep her outside of the zone.

"D-do not try to get close to me! If you do not want to die!" he shouted in panick while stuttering.

Police was on the floor shocked and looking at his face. She did not expect that to happen but as everyone else, she felt the urge to leave the area. She reached her radio to ask for reinforcement as soon as possible.

Atlas turned around and walked closer to the crack. He started to feel the pressure crawling under his skin.

"Why am i the one to do?" he complained.

He kneeled down right before the crack and pulled some weird tools out of his bag. They looked like tools to repair something but they were rather shaped smaller and detailed rather than other general tools. They were just... as odd as the person that was using them.

Atlas gets his hands on the crack with one of the stick-looking tool with some weird shapes on it. He slowly put the tip of the tool on one of the corners that crack has but since it was too bright, he had to put some weirdly huge glasses on his face.

As he hold the tool, some other flashes were appearing at the point where he was putting on and with his other hand, he was trying to get in between the crack.

Reinforcements with anti-terror units rushed into the square. Fairly odd enough, military units were in the scene as well. All the civillians were evacuated without letting them a slight chance to pull out their phones and videos. All the CCTV was turned off and some kind of anti-radiation suits were brought as well.

"This is Mountain Wolf 1-1, positions around the threat are taken. I want to ask again, what is the reason we are given radiation monitoring system?"

Radio of the squad leader was answered by the anonym voice:

"You do not need to know more soldier. Check the radiation values in the area before movement. Tell me how much it is now?"

"Tsk- Monitoring system is not alarmed yet. I don't know anything about how to read these things."

"They are supposed to tell you the radiation units as in rads. However, it will make a lot of noise when there is danger. Just-"

Squad Leader was walking slowly towards the crack, the device went off crazy.

"What is happenning?" the voice sounded concerned.

He stepped back to see the numbers again. It must have been broken.

"Sir? It said that it was 100 rads. It probably means bad right?"

There was no answer for a while on the other side of the radio.

"Keep measuring the radiation level. I will send units to provide better assistance. We will camp around the crack. And, keep yourself away from it. It must be around 0.1 rad."

"Yes, sir! Mountain Wolf 1-1, out."