34. Chalk

"And the good news is, I'm immortal, so nothing will happen to me. I will throw the chalk to you. You have to catcht it and then you have to write on the ground a warning that there is a fucking abyss ahead." Jack laughed.

"No...no...DON'T MOVE!" Hunter saw him putting his hand slowly in the direction of his pocket, and roared. Jack smiled at him "Don't be scared, my foot is broken in the shoe, I will slip through in a minute. You catch the chalk, mark there, then you can go back to the others and wait for me-"

"I will come to you! You wait for me and I come to you!" Hunter yelled.

Jack had reached into the pocket of his pants, where he felt the condom, he had to laugh silently and took the grey chalk out. "Ok, I will wait for you. If I seem dead, just pull everything that stucks in me out, like you did in the hospital, I'll come back, I promise." He put his hand with the chalk slowly down, behind his head. And then before Hunter could say something they heard a 'crack'. The last bone in Jack's foot broke and his foot slipped out of the shoe which was still tightly squeezed he roared "Catch" and threw the chalk while falling. 

When Hunter had heard Jack falling his first instinct was coming after and reaching out, but with that "Stop" his body obeyed on instinct. Then there was no sound anymore because his blood was rushing in his ears and he had gotten dizzy. His heart had sped up. "Jack fell. Jack isn't here. Jack....Jack" repeated in his ears. Hunter had been spiraling down the devastation, near him, calling him, then he had heard Jack's voice again, and had woken up.

Now he had a chalk in one hand and looked after Jack who had fallen, to the spot where he was. Where he only saw blackness of the abyss. "JACK!" he screamed. Only silence came as answer. Hunter woodenly went a few meters away till he had the 2 meter sight again and mechanically drew a fat line on the whole street, writing 'DANGER, ABYSS AHEAD' a few times until no one could overlook it when going ahead. With rain it would wash away, so he took stones laying around to build a little barricade. There hadn't been wind or rain in this place, so the chalk should last.

Maybe it would be more reasonable to go back and inform the others. Maybe searching for a rope, 'but how can a damn rope help with a fucking abyss' he thaught. But he couldn't go back, it would take hours. And Jack was down there. Jack. Not somebody else. He had no other option than to go right now. He walked to the cliff again and looked down. He couldn't find any way to climb down. The earth had split where Jack fell, but this crack closed after a few meters, it was impossible climbing there down. He looked left and right. Hunter chose right. He walked slowly along the abyss and looked out for a climbable wall. After a few minutes he still found nothing. He started to lose his patience, he combed his hand through his hair, imitating what Jack had done. 'It's okay, I will find a way." Climbing was out of question so he searched the side streets, marking the way he took. He found a store with bed sheets. He earnestly thought if he could use a bedsheet to skydive down the abyss. He put that down as a plan B and went through the other stores.

Then finally he found something. He saw a bookstore and wanted to skip that but he had a feeling that he shouldn't. So when he went in, in the corner about sport had a former-glass vitrine with mountaineering equipment displayed. There where he placed on his shoes so he could pierce the wall of the abyss. There were also ropes and carabies and a tiny pickaxe. He pocketed everything and walked as fast as possible back. Looking at the carabiners and rope a little lost he imitated what he saw in movies before.