Eric Walker, a stout man of middling years and portly stature was currently sitting in a hotel room engrossed in conversation with a pleasant young woman who had introduced herself as Isabel Lloyd. In truth Eric thought that most people who happened to be women, and also happened to not be his wife, tended to be pleasant company.

Isabel had only just finished telling Eric what she did for a living when the door to their room was opened and a naked young man was shoved into the room with a bundle of clothes being thrown after him.

The naked man unbalanced by the shove, managed an ungraceful four steps before he fell over, twisting about himself mid-fall making him land harshly on his back in the middle of the room with bits of clothing raining about him in a messy pile that did little to cover his dignity.

Eric smirked before he said, “You ought to cover up in a lady's company young man”

Laughingly Isabel said, “No matter. Nothing I haven't seen before” although she did courteously avert her gaze to spare the man some of his dignity.

At this point the naked youngster had managed to recover himself and was collecting the clothes from the floor. He did well to seem calm and collected but Eric thought the act seemed a little forced. Best not tease him too much.

“I'm decent now” Alex said, for Isabel's benefit after he had gotten dressed. Eric had seen no reason to offer the youngster the same courtesy Isabel did, and had merely been staring as the youth had scampered into clothes that didn't quite fit him right.

“I'm Isabel, and that over there is Eric” Isabel said as she turned back to face the men again.

“Alex”

“You know, it's none of our business” Eric said

“But A fella is real curious. Why you was naked?”

“They caught me in the shower” Alex said before quickly following up with a question of his own.

“Do either of you know what is going on?”

“Not a clue” Isabel said with forced cheer.

“In the shower! Hah!” Eric said. Obviously he hadn't been told anything either. His one advantage over these young folks was that age had tempered him with more patience so he would play silently for now, rather than prove himself a fool.

Before anyone else had time to say anything more a suit walked in the door. One look at the suit told Eric that he was the exact type of pencil pushing, soft-handed twit he would never like. The suit, either oblivious or uncaring to Eric's scrutiny looked over the trio with consternation.

“Please follow along” the suit said in a flat voice before heading out of the door. Eric cast a helpless glance at his two companions before he got up and made to follow. The others following suit.

Alex felt miserable. Falling on the floor in the hotel room had jostled him, which made his headache flare up again. Having been transported naked in a van all the way to Washington hadn't helped matters either.

On top of this, he was herded into another van, destination unknown, only moments after his arrival which had given him barely enough time to get dressed. The silence in the van was oppressive, but thankfully they had only been underway for a few minutes before they came to a halt.

The door slid open revealing a thin man wearing a cheap looking black suit stood on the other side. It was the same man who had fetched them in their hotel room.

“Please step out of the van” the man said as he stepped away in a manner that seemed to brook no argument and expected absolute obedience. Not surprising, considering the heavy guard that had accompanied them. Alex had no delusions that inspired fantasies of escape in spite of not being cuffed.

Eric who had kept his eyes low for the entire ride grunted as he pushed out of his seat. The car's suspension sprung back up as he left the car. Isabel and Alex followed after him with less effort, Alex making up the rear of the trio.

All three of them were completely stunned by the sight which greeted them. Even their escorts seemed to be made uneasy by it. Not fifty paces away from where they had parked stood a towering arch. The closest thing Alex had seen that resembled it was The Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Except this arch was made completely from Stone and was at least twice as high, tapering off into a sharp point, almost like a soft-edged triangle.

Although the entire area had been cordoned off and was well-lit by construction lights it was impossible to see anything through the arch other than a billowing grey smoke. More alarmingly to Alex was the second perimeter around the Arch where everyone within was wearing hazmat gear.

“What is that thing?” Alex said his gaze still locked on the arch.

“We were hoping you could inform us on the matter” the suited man said matter of factly as he turned his attention over to Alex.

“Why would we know anything about it?” Isabel said before Alex could respond.

“I mean, like, look at it? It's HUGE! It doesn't even make sense to think just three people could be responsible for that thing!”

Silence

“Follow me” the suited man said, walking off towards a canvas tent which had been erected off to the side from where they stood. Eric who had kept silent so far was the first to follow along while Alex and Isabel paused to share a look of incredulity.

Inside the tent was alive with a quiet bustle of energy as several people were seated about the room at various tables, working with expensive looking portable equipment. At the centre of the room was an oddly shaped stone-implement with what appeared to be a tablet screen on top of it which glowed an eerie green.

At its base the stone had bits of metal sticking out of it with a tether coming out at one side as if something was stuck within. Upon noting their arrival the activity within the tent seemed to slowly die down as attention began to focus on the trio and the suited man who had brought them in.

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The suited man moved over towards the stone and gestured the trio closer before saying, “My handle is Mr. Garland. The reason as to why we brought you here is this stone”

Alex looked past Garland towards the stone. He was near enough to tell that it had something written on its surface. “Here is what we know” Garland continued to say.

“A stone tablet, such as this one has appeared at every other gate as well.” Seeing the expressions the trio gave him Garland raised a hand to forestall questions

“Our intel has informed us that each tablet appears to bear the names of three people. Once brought to the arches, the names disappear... along with the people.”

Alex noted how Garland quietly studied each of their reactions as he divulged his information

“You isn't letting us walk out of here are ya?” Eric said with a resigned air about him. It was the first words he had spoken since the hotel, and they hit Alex like a sledgehammer. Of course they weren't going to let them go. They hadn't been read their rights. They were under heavy guard and Mr. Garland was happily telling them what was likely classified information.

“No Mr. Walker. We are not” Garland said. If he felt any remorse for their fate he didn't show it.

“You know more than we do, so why even talk to us?” Isabel said, interjecting herself back into the conversation. Her calm facade was beginning to erode, showing her to be almost as nervous as Alex felt.

“In case you knew something we didn't” Garland said matter of factly.

In that moment Alex could feel himself beginning to lose his nerve as panic began to win over his rational senses. The situation seemed hopeless, but doing nothing seemed a certain doom. If he spun around quickly and grappled for a gun maybe he could...

To his left a sudden commotion startled Alex out of his line of thought. Eric had spun around and tried to attack one of the soldiers guarding the entrance of the tent. The attempt ended almost immediately as a loud gunshot was heard and Eric crumpled to the ground with a scream as he clutched his thigh.

One of the soldiers who had small distance to the scuffle had simply shot Eric to wound him, ending the fight conclusively. Garland barked out an order and minutes later a soldier with a bag of medical implements came into the tent, giving Eric an injection while two other soldiers held him down.

Eric fell unconscious from the injection in quick order, and Garland trained his gaze on Alex and Isabel before he said, “I urge you to stay calm. You are on the list but you are not irreplaceable. A fact your predecessor learned harshly, when your name replaced hers upon her death, Mr. Greene”

Alex lowered his head in defeat, feeling despair as his own cowardice when faced by threat of death as it stopped him from acting. He simply watched silently as four men hoisted Eric onto a wheeled stretcher bringing him outside.

“If you would please follow us outside” Garland said, his tone still completely absent of any discernible emotion. Disgustingly business-like Alex thought as he did as instructed.

Outside they were met with a larger group of soldiers who had heard the gunshot. When approaching the soldiers one of their group stepped forward and saluted Garland before he said, “Your orders, sir?”

Garland didn't spare Eric, Alex or Isabel a single glance as he answered, “Get it done now”

The soldier saluted and turned to Isabel and Alex before he said, “You two, push the stretcher”

Alex glanced at the company of soldiers that formed up behind them before stepping forward to grab hold of one side of the stretcher. His awareness of their weapons trained at their backs made him feel prickly as if stuck by hundreds of needles.

Isabel came up next to him and together they pushed the stretcher closer towards the arch. Alex hesitated as they reached the boundary of the inner perimeter where the hazmats had been prior to them entering the tent.

A Soldier behind them called out, goading them onward. Taking the first step into the inner perimeter felt heavy, but as nothing happened a small spark of Hope sprung up within Alex's chest. Maybe nothing would happen?

Disappointment and dread. Those were the last things Alex felt as they came within ten paces of the swirling mist within the arch and it suddenly billowed out towards them, swallowing them whole. The soldiers who still held their weapons trained towards the arch witnessed as the mist receded, revealing an empty stretcher and no trace of the three people who had just been there.

“Think it will work sir?” A soldier near Garland said.

“I hope so sergeant” Garland answered.

“Although those who were initially exposed to the arch can't speak or write, the diagrams they drew seemed to indicate that the stone artefact and the solar anomaly are related”

Several moments of darkness passed before Isabel realised she was squeezing her eyes shut. Opening her eyes she looked around. She stood on a small podium next to Alex and Eric, whose leg surprisingly seemed fine.

The room she was in was bare apart from the podium, and it appeared indistinctly white with an omni-directional light that cast no shadows, giving everything a flat immaterial appearance with no sense of depth.

A door she hadn't noticed before opened in the far-end wall of the room and an aged bald man wearing nothing but a grey woollen robe entered. Isabel thought he had a distinctly fatherly presence.

The old man stopped a few paces from the podium and looked up at them with a smile before he said, “Welcome to Yggdrasil. I am Waywatcher Cairn”