It’s been twenty years since the first rift appeared in our world. They were shooting a movie on that day, so naturally, people thought it to be a publicity stunt to hype up the fans for another sci-fi flick. What would be more thrilling than to show the sky opening and sucking the protagonists into a foreign dimension?

Sadly, it wasn’t due to outstanding skills of the special effects crew or a genius promotion plan. Many favored actors and members of the production staff died during the incident, when they were the first unlucky souls to be claimed by a rift. Two stuntmen and one actress managed to survive that day, though. They were the first humans who managed to change inside the rifts and returned to the world. In the following weeks, people started to call them “Rifters.”

Rifts are strange places, filled with different types of energy that our world had never known before. These energies can have different impacts on a human body. Some die the instant they are exposed to them, others get irreversible sick. But there is a small portion of people that undergo changes the moment they come in contact with the rifts. 

Honestly, I wished it would be like the stories you see in video games. Heroes, that learn new skills and powers, a menu where you can perceive all the changes that occurred to you. 

Reality is never that convenient. Rifters that undergo transformation receive their abilities based on the place they got sucked into and on sheer luck. If you’re fortunate, you may get a passive effect that comes in handy right away, like a stronger body or better senses. Most of the abilities, however, are harder to grasp and even harder to control.

It’s not like scrolling through stat menus that tell you all you ever need to know. It’s more like rediscovering a new part of yourself, like growing a new limb. Suddenly, it’s there, you can feel and focus on it, but moving it becomes really difficult as your brain never intended for it to be there. 

The sad truth is, most people don’t get used to their abilities fast enough to survive in a rift. How could they? They are thrown into a lion’s den without any preparation or way of knowing how to survive. The hungry lion lies in waiting to enjoy another energy merged meal. The few that manage to use their abilities in time to survive the first attack may reach further into the rift until they can find the rift's connector.

Only if the crystal that connects the rift to our world gets destroyed are people able to return to earth. If left alone, a rift starts to grow and sucks in more and more living beings that shall become food for the rift's monsters. If a rift stays open for too long, beasts may find their way out and right into their new favorite feeding grounds. 

Therefore, the governments developed riftographs to find ripples in the air that occur twenty-four hours before another rift opens. Since it became possible to predict where a rift will occur, rifters can be deployed right on scene and civilians can be evacuated before they become forcibly sucked into a rift.

Basically, there are two types of ways each country came to deal with the problem. While one half of the world decided to forcibly enlist rifters that survived rifts and gained abilities to fight against them, others started to cultivate special army forces that brought people to rifts to create rifter corps. In our case, we serve the BRS, the British Rifter Service.

Officially, every member of the BRS is proud to protect our country and serve the queen. But there wasn’t much of a choice, if it was either enlisting or risking being without government support in case of another rift incident. I don’t know if they really would stop at abolishing assets. People are desperate nowadays, and thus their methods are as desperate. 

In time, strong rifters become too powerful to deal with in conventional methods. A change occurred three years ago, and since then, rifters that survived more than thirty rifts received permission to form private rifter corps in most big countries.

Technology began to thrive with devices and materials that rifters could bring back from rifts with them. Even the medical field changed with the first appearance of healers, rifters with the ability to cure wounds and illnesses. 

I, too, am one of these healers, but my powers couldn’t measure up to the legends that are employed in VIP-hospitals or renowned rifter corps. Gladly, it’s been enough so far to keep me and my friends alive within the rifts. Stopping bleeding and extracting poisons are my specialties, and occasionally, I can even cure the fatigue of my teammates if we have enough time to spare. None of us decided to become a rifter of their accord. It was to kill or to be killed, as humanity tried to survive in a changing world.

But honestly, I couldn’t care less about the government or civilians. Not that I’d wish for people to be killed, but I’d really appreciate them to fend for themselves. I’m just happy that every time I have to fight with my life on the line, I have these three people by my side.