The flight took a total of twenty two hours with a short stop at Vancouver followed by another flight of a hour and a half towards the closest town to the breach, the city was so small that Elliot couldn't find a taxi alone and had to share it with 3 other guys. Amongst them was Elliot's neighbor during the flight, this time however he didn't try to start a conversation at all and it made Elliot happy, he didn't really like conversing, even less with strangers.
After a short drive the taxi driver told them he couldn't go further and pointed the road ahead, the road was locked down completely, military vehicles were parked horizontally to the road to block it and soldiers armed with assault rifles stood in guard waiting for the people to disembark the taxi.
"You'll have to walk from here on, these guys don't allow any vehicle that doesn't belong to them past this point."
"Alright thank you sir."
The 4 guys all stepped out of the taxi and walked forward to talk with the soldiers but having 4 assault rifles pointed at your face really wasn't a good feeling, the most timid of them was too scared to be shot and stayed further behind.
Elliot on the other hand didn't want to be late for the breach's opening and walked the fastest.
'If the breach is opened and the raid start before me I could miss good opportunities to the fastest people, I better make it in time.'
"Name yourself and state the reason you're here."
One of the soldiers said, although this zone has been opened to the civilians it was still extremely secured.
"Evans Elliot, I'm here to explore the breach."
"Garcia Lucas, I'm here for the same reason."
Eliott didn't lose anytime and went first, followed right away by his neighbor on the plane, then the two other guys also presented themselves and the group was assigned a soldier to guide them to the breach.
"I'm Rick, I'll guide you to the breach. Follow me."
"Hey Rick, have you ever been on the other side ?"
Lucas, the very tall guy with loads of tattoos on the head asked the soldier with his very strong accent.
"Once only, we have never been forced to go. It was the same as with you guys, whoever wanted to go could go. After that one time I decided I'll never go back there."
Rick's face obviously went pale when he answered.
"What did you see inside there ?"
Lucas obviously was a talkative guy, first with Elliot and now with this soldier however Elliot was also curious about the answer, the two other guys that were relatively quieter also walked closer.
"If I was you guys I wouldn't go there, that place isn't like the earth we know. I've seen things I didn't think were even possible."
Rick looked solemnly at them and said, his eyes were filled with terror.
'For a soldier to have such eyes after going there... I can't imagine what a normal guy like me will be. I can't give up though, even if I have to leave an arm there I gotta bring back a treasure.'
Elliot's eyes looked more determined than ever, he knew he was risking his life but h believed it was worth it.
"Alright let's go, the breach will be opened later around 3 PM they said."
Rick said and kept walking.
/
Half an hour later they reached a lake, floating above the lake was a pitch black crack the size of of a four-storey building, around it huge machines such as cranes and stuff like that. A wooden bridge had also been built above the lake to make the breach more easily reachable.
'It's a lot bigger than I expected...'
The first thing that caught Elliot's attention was the size of the breach and the constructions around it, then he turned his focus to the people that were present and his mind was blown.
'Fifty thousand ? Maybe a hundred thousand ? That's way too much right ?!'
A rough guess was between fifty and a hundred thousand people who had came, young, middle-aged, elders, women, men, white, black, asians... there was every type of person here !
Small groups had already started building up, Elliot decided to stay as far as he could from them, it was probably due to his solitary life but he had a hard time trusting people.
On the other hand people came towards him to add him to their groups, the first reason was that anyone who came was scouted by parties, the second reason was that he attracted the eye too easily. He was tall, around a meter and ninety centimeters, even through his clothes it was easy to tell that his body was in shape and he practiced some kind of sports.
Another reason was his handsome face, girls were instinctively attracted to him and prioritized inviting him over the others who came with him.
"Hello ! My name is Eric you are ?"
A man around 40 years old followed by two or three young men walked over to Elliot and extended his hand, although Elliot knew that this man came to scout him obviously but he couldn't act disrespectful either. Making enemies now was a bad idea since there was nobody to apply this world's rules in the other world so Elliot shook his hand but didn't give him the time to make his offer.
"My name is Elliot, if you're here to recruit me into your party I'm sorry but I'll refuse. I'm planning to go solo."
"Oh I see, you're not the only one hahah. I hope you'll survive in there alone."
"Thanks."
The man smiled and left, amongst the people he had asked there were quite a few who thought the same way as Elliot so he wasn't surprised to find another one.
"Another one who's seeking death."
"Don't brother and look for new ones coming in, our group is still too small compared to the biggest ones."
"Of course it's small... that guy have been paying everybody to join his group."
The young man behind Eric looked to the right where a huge group of people were packed, from here he couldn't see that guy but he had seen him before, a handsome but short guy dressed in a Louis Vuitton suit with four tall and muscular guards following him everywhere was paying everybody to join his party.
"Don't worry about that, people you get through money won't be loyal to you in dangerous times. We need brothers and sisters, not employees in our group."
/
Back to Elliot who had already refused 3 groups in this short time laps and was now sitting under a tree and resting, he looked to his right where a group of asian soldiers were sitting on the ground playing cards.
'These guys obviously aren't Australians. Chinese maybe ?
So soldiers will also be going in at the same time as us ?
Teaming up with them would be nice but they are obviously here on a mission, there is no way they'd take a civilian in their team.'
Then Elliot just hugged his backpack, closed his eyes and started resting until the breach was opened.