Unity had arrived. A grey overcast sky blanketed the air above them, occasionally breaking and letting the soldiers see a glimpse of the greyish-blue sky and the sun over the horizon.

As Hezekiah walked outside of the truck. The first thing he noticed was that it was freezing cold…

The terrain was odd for Florida. They had landed on top of a small hill. Around them was flat grassland and with forests to the north and much larger hills. To their east and west, in the distance, they could see two large rivers wrapped around the landscape and conjoined into a much larger bay behind them. The air was cold, and the trees seemed to have long shed their leaves. Hezekiah could see his own breath in the atmosphere, he could also see snow covering the rolling hills to their north. Making them resemble snowmen, covered in a carpet of brown sticks.

Wherever they were, they weren't in Florida anymore. That's for sure.

Hezekiah figured it was a bit strange how he was issued a winter uniform before heading to deployment. But he thought nothing of it. Maybe they were being deployed somewhere further north? Or maybe it was just in case?

Going from Sunny and warm Florida to…

'Where the hell are we?' Hezekiah asked himself. Less than an hour ago, they were driving through a tunnel entrance in Fort Lauderdale. What the fuck were they doing here?

He had stepped outside the JLTV in pure confusion, as he wiped his red nose free of running snot. His breath formed a tiny cloud as it carried off into the grey atmosphere above him.

"Yo! Hez!" He turned around to see Flint dressed in his winter uniform, walking towards him, "Where- in the absolute fuck- are we?"

Hezekiah sighed, "I don't know, maybe we're in Georgia-"

"Georgia?" Flint asked. His tone almost seemed offended, a tone that was justified in all honesty, "What? Do you think I'm fucking retarded?"

"I don't know, Flint. I swear to God, I don't," Hezekiah told him, "I don't know how we ended up in the middle of Florida to… here."

Flint's angry posture dropped as he read the tone of Hezekiah's voice, his eyebrows softened and his shoulders dropped, "So I guess they ain't telling you huh?" He sighed.

"We gotta ask Lieutenant Buffy."

"Can't," Hezekiah said leaning against the cold metal of the Buffalo, "Remember when we spoke to him last? He was replaced with that new guy."

"Aint he a Major?" Flint asked.

Hezekiah shrugged, "Major or not, he's calling the shots in the Company. I think his name was Jebediah? Or… Jenkins… something with a 'J'."

"How about Jefferson?" Another voice materialized from behind them. It was older and had more of an experienced sound to it. The two men turned to find a man who was senior to them in both age and rank. He had a greying buzz-cut, slight wrinkles in his face. The tag "Major Jefferson" sat on his chest.

Both Hezekiah and Flint stood at a salute to Jefferson, who smiled and nodded, "At ease gentlemen."

"Major Jefferson! I wanted to talk to you!" Hezekiah exclaimed quickly, he had to know what the hell was going on.

"About what Sergeant Brooks?" Jefferson asked.

"Well," He pointed at the mountain range behind them and hinted at the terrain around them, "Where are we? This Terrain looks like Upstate New York. We were in a tunnel for about thirty minutes. How on Earth did we get here so fast?"

Jefferson chortled, looking down at the dirt momentarily and then back up into Hezekiah's eyes, "We're holding a debrief for the entire Battalion in exactly one hour. I was on the way to inform your Company leader just now."

Hezekiah hated how he didn't answer the question, "Can't you tell me now-"

"All will be revealed in due time, Staff Sergeant. Patience, have a bit will ya?" He said with a grin as he turned on his heels, and walked off.

Hezekiah fought the urge to follow after him, forcing his boots to remain on the hardy grass they stepped in. Rather than attempting to disobey the Major himself, who gave him a clear order to shut up and wait, he decided to wait it out.

"Come on, Hez. Ask him!" Flint pressured him.

"I did."

"Only once!"

"And he said to wait, Flint. What do you want me to tell you?"

Flint held his hands up, "Hey look, I wasn't even gonna ask him myself. I'm still thinking about what Q said."

"Oh, but you wanted me to ask so I could get fucked up by the government, right?" Hezekiah cracked a smile.

"That was pretty much the idea," Flint shrugged.

"Wiseass," Hezekiah pushed off of the truck as he walked towards the passenger side of the truck. Lafayette had fallen asleep at the wheel, his head nodded backward as a rogue splinter of saliva fell out of his open jaw. Hezekiah sighed as he pulled the door open, and sat next to him.

"-Not even a phone signal here, my God," Brian said, burying his head into the wall as he held his smartphone up.

"Quit complaining," Quinn said, sitting on the turret.

"I'm not complaining! I'm stating a fact!"

"I don't care, smartass. Potato-Potahtoe."

"That isn't relevant to the conversation-"

"Just shut the fuck up, man! I want some peace and quiet!" Quinn snapped at him.

Brian squirmed a bit uncomfortably, pushing his glasses up, "Fine," he said huddling into the corner, still staring at his phone with no service.

"Q, what's wrong with you? What's gotten you mad at Brian?" Hezekiah asked, not terribly interested, but asking took his mind off of the fact that he had no clue what was going on.

"Nothing sir, just tired, confused, and lost," Quinn sighed. He sounded drained of energy like the life had been sucked out of him.

Hezekiah could relate, "Yeah, ain't we all… But tell Brian you're sorry-"

"Come on man, what is this? Daycare?" Quinn whined.

"Quinn," Hezekiah warned, "Squad cohesion, remember."

Quinn sighed, "Hey, B-man. Sorry for yelling atcha. Could ya ever forgive a fella like me?" A hint of sarcasm

Brian shrugged, "It's alright, I'm sorry for being annoying."

"Ha!" Quinn forced a laugh to make his sarcastic point known.

Hezekiah shook his head as he wrote in his notes - a book he used to keep himself organized- writing in the Battalion-wide address in an hour or so, "Fighting isn't gonna help us. Trust me."

"You know where we are?" Brian asked.

Hezekiah shook his head, "No, sorry."

"Oh, man…"

"Look, it's alright. The Major is giving us a status update in about an hour. It just… it doesn't make any sense," Hezekiah said, again going down his rabbit-hole train of thought about how they ended up where they were. He knew he didn't black out again, he somehow managed to stay awake the whole time. Even if he did fall asleep, everybody else knew something was wrong. It just didn't make any sense…

"In an hour? I can't wait. Finally some answers!" Brian exclaimed, "I gotta tell my Dad about this man, I haven't spoken to him since Afghanistan."

Hezekiah took a quick glance at Brian sitting behind him, and then looked back at his notes, "You got a family at home?"

"Yeah, over with my Dad in Seattle," He said, "I wish I coulda talked to him before I left, man. I wish…"

Hezekiah stopped writing as he listened to Brian.

"He must be worrying himself to death, you know. Man, I just wished I coulda told him I'm alright."

Hezekiah thought about his own "family" if he could even really call it that. He had a mother at home, obviously, he called her every now and then to let her know he was alright. And as long as he did, she was happy. And then there was his Uncle who called him rarely. But all of his other family members were far away, haven not talked to them since he was a kid. Did any of them care? Would they show up to his funeral if he had an unfortunate passing here? Would his Mother and Uncle be the only ones sitting in the pews, mourning over a dead relative?

He could tell Brian was worried about the same thing, "Anybody else other than your Dad?"

"Yeah, there's my two sisters. But they all got lives of their own now. Sarah, the youngest, oughtta be graduating University," Brian said, "The oldest, Lynn, is a fucking phycologist."

Both Hezekiah and Brian let out a joking chuckle, lightheartedly.

"Ah, I see," Hezekiah responded to try and keep the conversation going along.

"My Dad is the guy I look up to the most, you know."

"Sounds like a great guy."

"Yeah… he is," Something changed in Brian's posture as if a sudden realization came upon him, "I'm sorry for this mushy dialogue and all. You know, I just start talking and I cant-"

"You're all good," Hezekiah smiled, "Trust me. I miss my folks too. It's natural stuff."

Brian nodded, "Mhm."

"Me, I'm from Albany. I have a pretty unremarkable family, I got people I look out for, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I getcha."

Hezekiah looked at his watch and sighed. Suddenly, his radio crackled to life:

[Eagle Six] "To all of 1st Battalion. This is Major Jefferson, Eagle Six. I'm ordering all units to gather around the mobile command center, we will be holding a debrief on the situation."

"Finally!" Quinn exclaimed.

Hezekiah patted Lafayette on the shoulder, shaking the sleeping man.

"Hey, Laf. Wake up, man! Come on!"

A door opening and then immediately closing signaled that Flint had entered into the truck as well.

Lafayette's breathing became abnormal, his muscles clenched a bit, and his head jerked up. Immediately he wiped away the raging river of spittle running away from his mouth. And looked at Hezekiah.

"Yyy-yesss… sssir?" Lafayette, his speech slurred as he barely rose from his sleeping state. Hezekiah took note of the hilarity of seeing Lafayette, a rather professional and to some-- uptight-- person, in a state of complete chaos like this.

"Take us over to the Command truck, will you," Hezekiah asked.

Lafayette strapped his helmet on, still slightly recovering from waking up, "Why? What's going on."

"Battalion leader is telling us where on Earth we are. I hope," Hezekiah told him, his eyes looked off at the hills over in the distance. Wondering. He couldn't help but think that maybe… just maybe…

"They were in another world?"

Hezekiah didn't think it possible, it was impossible, in fact. Only a handful of Humans had the experience of going to space. Fewer still could say that they walked on the surface of another planet. Besides, space launches were billion-dollar operations involving rockets and rocket fuel and countdowns…

They simply drove through a tunnel.

Lafayette lifted off the brakes and pressed down on the gas, sending the truck forward, as Lafayette slowly maneuvered the black rubber-coated wheel driving the truck over the dirt.

They joined the other trucks that pulled up right behind a single larger one. Mobile Command. It resembled a giant fatigue-colored oil tanker. With one truck pulling a large trailer behind it in tow.

In front of the command center was Major Jefferson, as well as the Captains and Lieutenants that led the Companies and Platoons of 1st Battalion. They stood at attention, talking amongst themselves, but some were silent. They wore expressions of confusion mostly, but even more shocking was the face of fear…

"I gotta baaad feelin' about this one, Boss," Quinn told the crew from his turret position.

"I'm with you on that one," Hezekiah told him.

The truck stopped right in front of Mobile Command. After a few minutes, after all the other trucks had gathered around, and their occupants stood outside next to them, Jefferson bellowed to begin his deliberation.

"Thank you 1st Battalion. I'm sure a lot of you have… questions on your minds. In fact, I know that all of you do. And you all probably have one question in common…" Jefferson said. His voice was stern, direct, and unwavering. He must've been in this business for a while, and even then, he seemed to have more experience than most.

"…I assure you. When I first learned the answer to your question, I was equally as shocked as you will be."

'No… it can't be' Hezekiah thought to himself. The Men and Women that made up 1st Battalion moved uneasily in their boots. Trying hard to understand where Jefferson was going with this.

"So I'll put it bluntly. We are in another world."

"What?"

"What did he say?"

"Huh?"

"Where?"

Hezekiah felt his heart sink to his stomach, his face twisted in sheer confusion, his knees wobbled. He needs to sit down. He needed rest. He needed something, what on Earth was happening?

His throwaway idea, a brief line of thought, had come true? They were in another world? Surely, Jefferson wouldn't lie. Maybe he slurred his speech a little and the crowd had misheard? If that was the case, then why wasn't anyone correcting him?

Jefferson held out his hands to calm the crowd, "I know it is strange. You heard me right. All of you did. Here's the 101: A Portal opened in The United States. We were tasked with forming a Battalion to go through and explore. This world… dimension…planet- whatever you want to call it- is completely new and foreign to us. We don't know where we are, the only thing we do know is that this portal," Jefferson pointed to the large tunnel entrance they surrounded, the very same one they traveled through, "Serves as some sort of inter-dimensional tunnel. And it is the only way known to travel between our world and a world unseen."

The crowd began murmuring again, but Jefferson was quick to silence them, "This is secret. The Department of Homeland Security has thought it imperative that both our operations here and the knowledge of the portal itself be kept under tight lips. You are not allowed to tell anyone who isn't authorized about this. You will not have the chance to."

Hezekiah looked back at his squad in a desperate attempt to find comfort in the emotions of his squad, but the boys looked as scared as he did. Brian especially. He looked… heartbroken. In fact, Brian turned to look at him.

Hezekiah quickly corrected his posture, Brian couldn't see him scared. He was a leader, Brian had to take comfort in him. Not the other way around. Right?

Hezekiah suppressed his emotions, and instead gave a nod to Brian before turning to face Jefferson again. He had no idea what the nod was supposed to mean, nor did he know if it worked at all. But, it was something for Brian to hold on to.

"Dear God…" Hezekiah heard Quinn whisper, "It's the end."

"The government will eventually release this information when the time is appropriate. However, you are all expected to remain silent about this. Do you understand?"

Nothing…

"I said. Do you understand?"

"Yes Sir!" The crowd chanted back at him, getting that he was serious this time.

Jefferson wasn't impressed, at all, he surveyed the crowd with a disappointed look, "Let me remind you of why you are even in the Marine Corps, to begin with. You all swore an oath of loyalty to your country. An oath of duty. America expects that you do the bare minimum, and honor the oath that you have made. Otherwise, I will be forced to reprimand you… and my consequences will go even further beyond. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes Sir!" The Marines, when reminded about the potential dangers of non-cooperation, instantly chanted back in unison.

"Good," Jefferson relaxed, "We do not know what this world has in store for us. But what we can say, is to be vigilant. Everything you do and say will have an impact so unimaginably large, since we are the first to ever cross-dimensions. If there is life here, you must be respectful of it. Respect nature, as you would a human being, Another of your comrades. And always obey orders. That is your duty, your job, your call. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir!"

"Perfect. Before dismissal, I request that Echo and Foxtrot Companies stay behind. Your work is cut out for you today. Your Captains will inform you of your tasks. That'll be all," Jefferson said dismissing the Marines.

Many of them began mumbling amongst themselves. Hezekiah picked up on an arrangement of tones from excitement and amusement, to fear and anxiety. Many still were incredibly confused, and who could blame them? But many embraced their new situation, odd as it may be, and thought of the future.

Hezekiah watched as two of the Captains, Bannon from Company E and Newman from Hezekiah's own Company F, stood at the front of them all. Bannon was a big-boned guy with short sandy hair around his head and a thick mustache on his upper lip. His deeply sunken eyes and big cheeks resembled a misshapen ball of dough more than a man.

Newman on the other hand was his opposite. She had black skin, completely clean face, and her hair was neatly pulled back into a bun. Newman looked older in appearance to Bannon, though Hezekiah knew any age difference couldn't be too major due to their equivalent rank.

"You know these two?" Flint asked Hezekiah, who in turn just shook his head.

"Never seen them in my life."

"Hmm."

"Echo Company!" Bannon's voice was nasally and brash and had a thick northeastern tone to it that reminded Hezekiah of Quinn's own Italian-American accent, "I want alla-ya engineers ready and waitin'. Battalion's just given us orders to start construction on a permanent base-facility 'round this hill," He told them.

"A permanent base?" Flint nudged Hezekiah in asking.

Hezekiah shrugged, "I guess High Command plans to stay."

"Yeah…"

"I want dirt walls, sandbags, and machine-gun nests all over the perimeter. You'll be constructing a motor pool, and settin' up command tents. Got it?"

"Yes, Sir!" Said Echo in unison.

"Alright ladies, step to it!" Bannon said as he walked off to his own squad to assist. Before doing so, he looked over at Newman and nodded, letting her instruct Company F.

"Thank you, Captain Bannon," She said in acknowledgment, "Foxtrot. Your work today will be a little different," Newman spoke in a calmer and more direct tone than Bannon before her.

"High Command wants you to survey the areas surrounding this point. Each squad will move out into separate areas to explore this area and see what you can find. We do not require you to find anything, we only need you to see what is there. Got it?"

"Yes Ma'am!" Hezekiah's own lips said in unison with the rest of Foxtrot.

"Your Platoon Sergeants will be handing out planned routes to each squad, we advise but do not require, that you stick to them."

Hezekiah was given a white paper from Staff Sergeant Gates, as he walked to each of the squad leaders.

"I trust each squad leader to leave when they desire to. I also trust that I'll hear good news from each squad. That is all," Newman walked off.

The Marines in Foxtrot began talking amongst each other again. Many were excited to leave this area and to go off and explore the new world, Lafayette for certain wise.

"Incredibly, absolutely incredible!" Lafayette exclaimed, he was shaking with pure excitement, a stupid smile on his face stretched from ear to ear, "I cannot believe we are doing this!"

"You seem happy, Laf," Hezekiah said to him.

"I am! I feel like I've died and gone to heaven!" Lafayette responded, "Exploring a new world! This is a once-in-a-lifetime- no- once in a million lifetimes opportunity! We're like…" Lafayette struggled for a name, but snapped when he got it, "Roald Amundsen! You know him?"

"Yeah, that Norwegian guy, Antarctic explorer."

"Exactly! We're like him! We're going to explore a whole new world, unseen to human eyes!"

"Didn't Amundsen freeze to death in Antarctica?" Hezekiah asked. That made Lafayette pause for a quick second as he thought it over.

"Ah…well, they never found his remains so maybe. Bad example anyway. How about, Neil Armstrong!"

"I could see that…" Flint chimed in, "'One small step for man'" He imitated the line, raising his boot high in the air as if he were walking on the surface of the moon.

"When you put it like that, I could see the appeal," said Hezekiah. Immediately after saying that, he realized two people weren't with them in the rather optimistic conversation about the new world. In fact, they even looked as if something terrible had happened. Quinn and Brian. While Lafayette and Flint talked about the possibilities, Hezekiah went over to the silent two to talk to them.

"We're leaving in a bit," Hezekiah said to Quinn first. Brian had seated himself inside the truck, with the door open just in earshot.

"Yeah, I know." Said Quinn, who sighed leaning against the JLTV.

Hezekiah patted his friend on the shoulder, "What's wrong?"

Quinn shrugged a little, brushing back the peach fuzz-like sideburns on his face with a rogue hand. He scanned the sky as if looking for an answer, and when he found none he looked at Hezekiah, "It's just - y'know… this uh… this whole thing about us being another world, you know?"

"Yeah."

Quinn chortled, "I can't be in another world, man! The fuck? I have a pregnant wife at home, the fuck am I doing here?" The man said, "Shit!" His face was red in what looked like both anger and humiliation.

Hezekiah listened as he leaned on the truck next to him, hearing his old friend out.

"I ain't trying to leave my Wife like that, y'know? She's worried about me, and how the fuck am I supposed to lie and tell her that I'm still in Afghanistan? It's fucked, I tell ya." Quinn shook his head as he looked down at the grass underneath his boots.

"She means a lot to you?" Hezekiah thought it was a stupid question to ask, of course, Quinn's wife meant a lot. But He needed something to keep the conversation going.

"Yeah, the center of my universe, y'know. Love of my life…" He held out a photo of himself and a woman wrapped in his arms. They looked like they were at a hotel or restaurant, both he and the woman had huge smiles, living in the moment, "She's worried sick, she has been since I was sent to Afghanistan a few weeks ago. I only found out she was pregnant five days ago."

Hezekiah nodded, "You're homesick?"

"Good lord," Quinn mumbled with an exasperated smile on his face, "What's with the stupid questions today?"

"Conversation fuel, you know how it is."

"Yeah, heh," Quinn chortled, "Imma keep it a buck fifty with you, I wish I had never come here all those years ago. Know what I mean?"

"Preaching to the choir man."

"God, if only I could just… get through that tunnel. And get the hell out of here." Quinn whispered. Hezekiah looked at him in the eye.

"Q, look. We've got basically our entire deployment ahead of us, that's only a few months, right? Hang in there, if you need me, I'm always there to talk. Right?"

"That's fine. You get homesick?" Quinn asked.

"Too much. This isn't my first rodeo though, so you just start to forget about it after a time."

Quinn shook his head, "I don't wanna forget about it, sir. I want it all up here," He pointed to his head, "It's the Marines shit that I wanna forget about."

"Understood, but you cant. You gotta stick around for a bit. We've got a job to do."

Quinn nodded, wordlessly as he stepped back into the truck. Hezekiah turned to Lafayette and Flint who were still talking, "Hey, you two! Come on, we gotta get moving!"

They nodded walking up towards him, as Hezekiah took a seat in the driver's side.

"Where are we headed, sir?" Asked Lafayette, turning on the engine and grabbing the wheel.

Hezekiah read the note he was given by Gates, "Headed up north, We're traveling parallel to that big river over there. Got it?"

"Roger roger. Any clue on how far we are going?"

"One hundred and fifty miles max."

"Jesus, lucky we're on a full tank."

"Yeah, we'll go until we run into something. But according to this note, nothing past that one-fifty mark. We need the gas to come back. Got it?"

"Yep. We'll be going right up through the hillside, like a nice road trip."

Hezekiah kicked back, "I just wished we had a map," he said as the truck got moving.

"When do you think we'll get one?" Asked Flint.

"I dunno, maybe sometime this week? At least a rudimentary one, we gotta have something to navigate around here."

"They could get a few drones to survey the area. They shoulda did that before we came out here," Said Quinn.

"Yeah, but we're asking for common sense from High Command, asking for a sensical operation is like pulling teeth," Hezekiah joked around.

"Hope we don’t die out there…"

"Me too buddy... me too," Hezekiah said as the truck pulled out into its new mission assignment.