A Warm Welcome

Andy didn’t know when he dozed off. He went with Coulson up to a stone courtyard, enclosed by three walls of the castle and a covered walkway. It was empty besides the two of them, so they sat alone on a bench by one of the walls. The next thing he knew, Andy was being shaken awake.

“Hey. Hey, wake up.”

When he blinked himself awake, he found himself greeted by a handsome man with curly hair.

“You awake now?”

Andy nodded. The man handed Andy’s wallet to him. He blinked several times at it before taking it back. Under different circumstances, he might have been upset or angry at having his personal belongings rifled through.

“Wyoming, huh?” he said. “Been there once or twice to visit family. It’s nice up there. I’m from Colorado, myself.” He held out a hand. “They call me Spartan. There’s another one of us here called Viking. I’d introduce you, but he’s out on an assignment.”

Andy shook his hand. “An—”

“Shush. Don’t give me your name. I don’t want your name. The people here share a lot of names with people from back home. There’s a reason I have them call me Spartan. We need to stick together, remind ourselves who we are and where our home really is.” He nodded at Andy’s T-shirt. “Metatron, huh? What’s your favorite song by them?”

“I don’t know,” Andy answered. “I guess I never gave it too much thought.”

“Come on, you’ve got to have a favorite song. At least give me an album.”

Andy shrugged. Even a favorite album was hard to pin down when they had things like “Thy Flesh Consumed” and “Armageddon”. Although, there was one that stuck with him. “‘Secrets of Old Yggdrasil’,” he said.

Spartan repeated the title. “Don’t think I’ve heard of that one. Was it recent?”

Andy nodded. “Released earlier this year.”

Spartan clicked his tongue. “Well there’s the problem. I’ve been here a year.”

Andy’s shoulders dropped. A year? This man has been here a year? Surely, though, there was a way back. There had to be. It only made sense if there was a way here, there was a way back. Andy opened his mouth to ask, but Spartan held up a hand to stop him.

“I have not found a way back. Neither has Viking. Some of the brass in the Alliance have told us they’ve got people looking into it, but I’m not sure if that’s true. Might risk taking too much from the war effort.”

For the first time since he was a kid, Andy felt like breaking down into tears.

“I know it looks bad,” Spartan said. “Believe me, I know. Tell me something. What did you leave behind?”

Andy swallowed back his tears. “What?”

“What did you leave behind? Parents? Kids? Friends? Calhoun here tells me you were with a friend before you fell into the river. Says her name was Suzie?”

Andy nodded.

Spartan smirked. “Was she cute?”

“I... I’m not sure....”

“Oh, come on! You’ve gotta know if your lady friend is cute or not.”

“She was only ever a friend.” It came out slightly harsher than Andy intended.

Spartan raised an eyebrow. “So you’re telling me you only walked along the river with ‘a friend’? Bull.”

“I’m telling the truth.”

“Uh-huh. What were you doing before coming here?”

“Retail.”

“Funny.”

“What’s that?”

“So was I. So was Viking. But we also did some things before all that. What about you?”

“Not really,” Andy said. “I mean, I guess I did always say I wanted to do something with my life, but...”

“Never quite worked out that way, huh?” There was a look of understanding in Spartan’s eyes.

Andy pursed his lips.

Spartan chuckled. “I had a wife back home. Three kids.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Get some rest. We’ll talk more about this in the morning. Coulson, show the crusader here to the barracks.”

“Yes, sir.”

*

Coulson was like a giddy schoolboy the whole way. He kept going on about how he knew Spartan and Viking were from another world, how he always wanted to know more about it. What were the people like? What were the different nations? Did they ever have to experience a war like this before? Unfortunately for him, they were never very conversational about it. The two would equate things they saw here to things back home, but they never did go further than that. He didn’t even know Spartan was married before today. Eventually, Andy told him to stop.

“I don’t want to talk about home right now,” he said.

Coulson couldn’t hide the dejected look on his face. “Oh. That’s okay, I’m sure it’s not easy being here instead of... you know.”

Andy could only bring himself to sigh. He didn’t want to be reminded of home. He wanted to go to sleep, and wake up in the morning in his own bed. He’d even take waking up concussed in a hospital bed. At least then he’d be home, where things were peaceful and the world wasn’t still in the mid-twentieth century. He wasn’t so lucky.

He woke that next morning to a cold stone ceiling, in a room filled cots. Footlockers accompanied them. Again that urge to cry welled up inside. This was some horrendous G.I. nightmare he could only dream of escaping. Sunlight streamed in from high-up windows, and a couple of soldiers were already up. They were also staring at him. He still wore his jeans and T-shirt from yesterday. All Andy managed to do was stare back at them.

“Hey,” said a young kid. “You the guy Sanders and Polski were going on about?”

“I, um....” Andy struggled finding his words.

“We still have some time before formation,” another explained. “Could you tell us where you’re from? Is it the same place as Spartan and Viking?”

“Dude, they’re not even from the same place. How many times have I told you? Spartan’s from Colorado, Viking’s from some other planet called Alaska.”

“Alaska’s not a planet.” Andy’s response was immediate, instinctive. “It’s a state. It’s part of the U.S.”

The men all leaned in close.

“U.S?” one asked.

“Yeah, it’s... it’s a country. Colorado’s a state, too.”

“So where are you from?”

“Wyoming.”

“So is that in this U.S, too?”

Andy nodded.

“U.S. Does that stand for anything? Is that, like, a world government or something?”

“It’s not a world government. There is no world government.”

“Leave him be.” Sarge pushed his way through the curious grunts. “He has an appointment with Spartan. The rest of you need to get ready for formation.”

“Yessir!” they chorused. They ran to their cots and continued their daily routines.

“Spartan wants to see me?”

“Yes he does, Crusader. And he’s a busy man, so we’re not keeping him waiting.”

Andy looked around the room at all the soldiers putting on uniforms and gathering up their equipment. “Do I need to get anything, or....”

“No.”