《Hardcore HELL》Chapter 3: As Long As You Go There on Friday, You Will Not Die
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"How did you find me?"
"We have a system that shows where the cracks open. We cannot force people to go there. At least they tell us where the next crack will come out. We pay them in return."
"Flaming letters," Baran said.
"Yes flaming letters. We are here to make you an offer."
"So there is no complaint about me?"
"No, it does. If we were to pick you up in front of your house, things would get complicated. We are under direct government control. I hope you know what that means."
"I think yes."
"Fine. As long as you help us, we will help you find your brother. Let's get to what happens next. You will continue your daily life. The organization will send someone to you. That person will give you the necessary explanation." He looked at his watch. "The cops will drop you home. It's late."
The men left the room and left him alone. The police escorted him to his home. He was dying of exhaustion when he entered his apartment. It was Sunday the next day. He would spend his only vacation day lying at home. He lay down on the bed without removing his clothes. He fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.
The next day he awoke to the doorbell. Whoever was at the door did not take his hand off the bell. Baran pressed the pillow to his head. The bell did not stop. Finally, he got out of bed. His eyes darkened for a moment. Regained his balance and walked towards the door. His hair and clothes were all messy.
"I came, I came." He said.
It was a man in his fifties who knocked on the door. Half of his hair was gray.
"Who were you looking for?"
"They sent me out of the organization. You must be the new explorer?"
"You mean the scout?" He remembered the men he spoke to yesterday. "Yeah yeah, it's me. Go inside."
The old man started to speak small talk.
"I heard you're an Uber. Does it pay off well?"
This man was no different from normal people on the street. He was calm compared to someone who had been to hell.
"It does," Baran said.
"For someone who lives alone, the house is neat." As they passed into the hall, the door to the messy bedroom was wide open. "Almost. I'm İsmail Tokgöz. Welcome to MIT, lad. You already know how dangerous the job is. I respect the acceptance of this job by a young person like you. Take it. Now you are one of us, The Order."
"Are you calling yourself The Order then?"
"You were expecting a cooler name, lad?"
"N-No, sir. The guy yesterday didn't say its name. They kept saying it was part of the state."
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"To seek their job. Their mouths make too much talk. Just hordes of intelligence shit scared to go to hell."
His jaw constricted while swearing, he said the word more emphatically.
He took what Ismail extended. It looked like some kind of metal symbol and was attached to the chain. The star-shaped piece of metal was engraved with a crescent figure. A red circle filling the interior of the crescent was painted. He saw that Ismail was wearing the same. It hung proudly around his neck, but its inside was not red but blue.
"This is your badge from The Order. Don't lose it. It's best to wear it around your neck. Better never take it off." He said in dead seriousness.
''I never thought I'd meet someone who turns hell into the business."
"Be sure son, there are fewer people like me. The organization is big, but the sub-unit we work with is not crowded and it's not something everyone can do.''
"You're right about that. All right. What plans does The Order have for hell? What's our goal?"
"Hell cracks began to emerge fifty years ago around the world. They started off in the last ten years in Turkey. Foreign countries do not help much in this regard. They are busy with their own cracks. Our aim is to shut them all and find the occur cause of these cracks."
"Has any progress been made?"Asked Baran curiously.
"The results are not heartwarming. The cracks don't close unless someone gets into it. We haven't been able to figure out exactly how they work yet. There are people getting into it by accident. Lack of enough manpower makes things difficult.''
"I'll go back there again this Friday. I can't say that I made much progress too. The place is terrible, and there are lots of creatures. I managed to kill someone, but they hid and someone else took me down behind me. They're very sneaky."
"Going to hell on Friday is the worst. I hate Fridays."
"What's Friday's connection to Hell?"
"Days in Hell matter. It is a great misfortune that you come to Friday. The powers of the creatures reach their peak on Friday, then decrease and rise again until the following Friday."
It didn't matter if he said the other days. His day is Friday. The worst day had come to him.
"Can't I get into other cracks?"
"If we send you to a crack opened except Friday and you die there, you will really die. The Order lost too many men for this information. Other countries gave us this information after it was too late. This is the reason for the lack of staff. The Order has no luxury to lose even an employee right now. Our priority is to secure your life. As long as you go to Hell on Friday, you will not die."
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Baran still had questions he wanted to ask.
"This meter or the inscription, whatever. The flaming one. It shows when my crack will open. If I want to, I can go into a crack today?"
Old Ismail sighed. He was wondering whether what he had told so far was in vain. He spoke wearily.
"Yes, but The Oder will not allow it. Are you listening to what I say? I warn you, young man. Do not go into one of the cracks except Friday, okay? Our man for Friday does not cross the fingers of my both hands and we have no intention of losing you or someone else immediately when a new Friday explorer has joined us."
"I got it. I got it. Calm down. I just asked out of curiosity. Look, I asked the guys from yesterday, but I did not get a clear answer. Maybe you will answer me. I went to hell to look for my brother but they told me that he may be in heaven as well. Are the cracks of heaven also emerging like hell?"
"I am not authorized to talk about it. I can only tell you this. If you encounter a heavenly crack, you have to run away from it. There is no day condition to enter it, but the danger of death is at an extreme level. No one has yet gone to heaven and returned. That's enough for now. Get ready on Friday. Keep your phone on. We must stay in touch."
They gave each other their phone numbers. He wanted to get his sleep halfway after he left. He put his head on the pillow but could not sleep. He didn't want to do anything on a single day that he wasn't working. He slumbered in bed until the evening after hours of empty returns he got up, staring blankly at the TV. While looking at the TV, he had a strange brief dream of finding his brother in Hell.
His phone vibrated and woke him up from his sleep. It was more like a nightmarish slurry than a dream. He looked at the phone. He was looking for a friend. Answered the phone.
"Yes?"
"Were you sleeping? At this hour?"
It was eight pm.
"Some of us have a day off."
"He's sleeping on his only day off. Great!"
It's not just about work.
"What did you call for? If not important, I'll keep sleeping."
"Wait, wait! It's been a while since we haven't eaten together. Let's eat something."
Baran remembered that there was no food at home. He slept all day. Although he was a little lazy to leave the house, the rumbling of his stomach prevailed.
"You choose the venue, you text me. I'll take a shower."
"All right."
He looked at the message and took a shower.
''I don't like to talk about money issues. That's why I'm sending it as a message. The Oder will pay a thousand liras* every time you go to hell. That's the money except what you find there."
Earning four thousand lira by working just four days a month sounded nice. Except for the fear, the stress, and the final dying sensation, it was fine money. If he continued to progress in this business in the future, he could quit his job as a uber driver and live comfortably.
He smiled properly for the first time in the last two weeks. There was death at the end, of course, he respawned at home, but that pain when he died was terrible. He took a shower.
He quickly dried his hair and reached the place where they would meet with his car. It was a remote part of the city that Baran had never come to before. Ten minutes he searched the side streets for parking. He found a nice place but had to walk along the street. On the one hand, his eye was following his destination in the map application on the phone.
He entered a street food cafe. The tables were half full. There was someone at the back table waving towards him. This was it. Aykut. He would never have thought that seeing someone familiar lately would be so good for him.
He sat down at the table. He felt like his life had not changed. For a moment.
"How's it going? Have you gotten used to your new job?" asked his friend Aykut.
New business? Did Aykut know the whole event? Hell too? What about The Order? Baran was stunned. Seeing that he did not answer, Aykut continued.
"You don't get used to it? You said it wouldn't be hard to drive all day."
Baran took a deep breath. Of course, he didn't know. How would he know? Aykut told him about the Uber job. Although he had complaints at first, he got used to it. The less he stayed at home after his brother died, the better he felt. He avoided feeling trapped.
"While I focus on the roads, I get away from thinking about what happened. Uber job put me at ease."
Aykut smiled.
"I'm glad."
"How's your business going? Are you still selling people things they don't need?"
"Of course! This month I was the first in sales. The boss even made a raise in my salary."
"It's nice to hear that."
At least some of them can live their lives normally.
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