Returning to No Applause, Only More of the Same

“Alright, is this the guy?” Adam asked as he stepped into the glass-walled interrogation room. The officer on the other side of the glass who had just finished securing the otherworlder to the table nodded before exiting the room, leaving Adam alone with the guy. “You speak German, don’t you?”

The soldier seemed startled. “You understand my tongue? This world… is unlike my own. Am I to assume that the celestials have moved me?”

“-I’ll take that as a yes, buddy. Now, I just want you to understand that we’re not your enemy, alright? Whatever happened to your friends in the portal is unimportant. The party we sent in had to act that way, otherwise, they would have been killed instead. After all, the only way to escape a portal is to defeat the things that come from the other world. Though, those things usually aren’t human…” Adam explained confidently. He didn’t actually have to explain how the portals worked to this guy, but to build up some trust, he had to speak a little truth.

The guy simply stared at him. “-I do not fear your people.”

That was… an odd thing to say. Surely, since only two of theirs came out of the portal, they must have lost a fair few. “...Is that so. What’s your name?”

“Gerald,” he answered. “...Truly, is this another world?...”

Adam didn’t answer. “Didn’t you enter the portal with other people? You have to have at least five creatures to enter. That’s how it goes. What happened to your buddies?”

Gerald was not a tanned man. He was pale. Pale and thin and he had a child’s face and in that moment it suddenly seemed so much older. So much paler. “They… they were defeated. By War. Three hundred soldiers… Two dozen went into the whirlhole. Only I came out. You even brought him here. Brought War into this very building.”

Adam leaned closer to the bulletproof glass window separating him from Gerald. “-Who do you mean?”

“War,” he said in a whisper. “War of the North. One of the Four.” The boy, so much younger than he should have been, shivered. A white sheen covered his brow and Adam realized that he was dirty. His armour was covered in mud and something even darker. A child soldier. The thought made his insides twist up into a knot, but he had to continue. He nodded. “The man you brought to this building, together with me. He is not a human. He has killed thousands-, too many armies to count. A nation… crumbled. He cannot be kept here. Like Famine of the East, like Pestilence of the West, like Death of the South… he will destroy.”

And in all the mumbled, confusing words that Gerald spoke, a single line stood out to Adam. Something he recognized. Something he could understand.

Famine of the East.

It had attacked like a thundering storm. Before they understood how the portals worked, before truly strong Fighters appeared, Famine emerged. It came from one of the portals. Squeezed its body out of it like a moulting maggot escaping a cocoon. It brought death and starvation upon an entire city, and after nothing else worked, the only way to defeat it had been to destroy it. Completely and utterly. It had only barely died from two nuclear warheads. Famine of the East.

War of the North. If Gerald spoke the truth, if the man that had exited the portal that spawned in the Fielder’s Cross was truly War of the North…

It could very well spell the end of the city as a whole.

Adam rose from his seat and left Gerald where he was. He had to tell someone, anyone about this.

------

“...What’s your name?”

“Krieg… Wiedemann.”

“Age?”

He had no reason to lie. “147.”

“...That so?”

“...”

Krieg had no idea what the need for all this security was. Not only had they brought him down exactly two staircases, they had also placed him a cell with the thickest glass he’d ever seen. It was likely supposed to be a defence of some sort, but Kreig knew he could crack it with a touch. The specially reinforced cuffs they'd placed on his hands just cemented the fact.

And then they sat an interrogating officer of some sort in front of him. They hadn’t gotten very far, but he could tell the officer didn’t much like him. “-Now, apart from the fact that you don’t look a day over 40, people don’t live that long. Not even otherworlders like you.”

“...Otherworlder?” Kreig asked, his voice as dull and monotone as it could be. His face was no more expressive, a fact that seemed to really get to the interrogating officer.

“-Yes, see, ya came from a portal that connects this world, called ‘Earth’, with your world. And since you came from the other world, that makes you an otherworlder,” the interrogating officer helpfully explained. Then, he leaned back in his chair, blowing out a nasal sigh. “See, we know either you or that soldier kid killed our Fighters. But that ain’t a crime. Whatever happens in those portals stays in those portals, but bein’ an otherworlder… Now that we can keep you here for.”

A threat. “-I’m not an otherworlder.”

A scoff dangled on the officer’s lips. “-Hah! Really, now? Alright, let’s hear it. Give me your wittiest quip.”

“I am of the Earth.”

“...You’re shitting me. Really? That’s your excuse? Alright… what’s your social security number, Mr Earthling?” the interrogating officer asked with a smirk that Kreig wanted to remove from his face.

“I cannot remember,” Kreig answered honestly. Though, even without that, he was sure he could prove his identity somehow. There was, after all, one question he still had. “...What year is it?”

For a moment, the interrogating officer clearly considered not answering. “-It’s 2020. What’s it to you?”

2020. Ten years. He’d been gone for ten years.

...Someone must have noticed. Someone must have understood that he went missing, and… as one would do on Earth… they must have filed a missing person’s report. One that must exist within the police registry. Kreig hoped they had it, that this would work. “-Kreig Wiedemann. 2010. Missing people.”

The interrogating officer looked him up and down. Wondering if he should humour the otherworlder or not. In the end, he turned to one of his nearby officers, barked an order at him, and crossed his arms. “-I won’t believe it. There’s no way in hell you came to the other world ten years ago and only returned now. It’d be ludicrous! And from what I’ve heard, you’re supposed to be some sort of high-profile otherworlder, too! Prime to be moved to the Other Island. Even if you’re really an Earthling to begin with it’s not like we’ll just let you go! You get that, right?”

Kreig couldn’t answer. He clenched his jaw and considered his options. He didn’t want to mess this up. If he made an enemy of the government and killed people here, he wouldn’t be able to just escape.

He was home, wasn’t he? So why was it so different?...