Chapter 5

In Suomi

Broken apart, tired of war, tired of being in this world.

Fighting for God knows what cause for God knows who

‘‘Right now I am no more than an alive doll, aren’t I?’’

This is the conclusion he came to. After experiencing the otherworldly sensation of death twice, after all he’s been through.

But then there is the other side of him, the passionate side, the one that believes there is a way out of this mess. Right now that is the thing that is keeping him sane, the thing that is driving him forward.

As he rolled over in the snow he gathered his thoughts.

‘‘Bringing aside the obvious question of ,,Why was that guy there,, I need to know where the hell I am and why is it so damn cold here.’’

After rotting in the snow for about 15 cold unforgiving minutes he finally stood up.

His body was stiffened, his legs felt like icicles while his hands felt like the sticks of a snowman.

Jokes aside he could barely move and in order to combat this he did what any man would do-ignite himself on fire and extinguish it afterwards.

After a few seconds of excruciating pain he was back up and ready to go.

Stepping out of the pit that he was in he saw a flag in the distance.

Since it was the middle of the night he couldn’t make out much of it, not that it would help if he could.

Just out of curiosity he clenched his eyes to try and make out a shape of some sort.

Only thing that came out were the colors blue and white.

He was unfamiliar with the flags of nations, though he thought it would be a nice marker of where he has been.

First time he barely got a glance at where he was in, though the uniform was a good indicator it still wasn’t trustworthy enough.

Speaking of uniforms, he is wearing a different one. It was more of a coat, though it should come as no surprise seeing the weather.

Assuming he is welcome around these parts he just continued on towards the flag as it was the only indicator of civilization around.

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As he was coming closer to it the shape became clearer and clearer until it was finally distinguishable.

A blue cross and a white background.

He could now safely exclude Santa’s workshop from the list of possible places he was in. However the North poll was still a plausible option.

Going over a little hill a small town was revealed.

There were some signs close by, but he couldn’t read them.

One interesting thing was that he could speak the language of the country he was in, but he had no clue how to read. And while that may seem like a big throwback there haven’t actually been instances in which he has had to read so far. Well there is a first time for everything.

He continued down the snowy hill up until reaching the outskirts of the town.

Upon reaching the streets some things hit him, first one being the fact that he doesn’t see a soldier anywhere near.

And second one was about to hit him (quite literaly). A snowball was coming towards his face, being the badass that he was he caught it and looked around to see who threw it only to realize that he was in the middle of a snow war.

Some kids were throwing snowballs at each other and Arnold was in the middle, so he did the only thing he could-run.

A few steps further down the street and he was out of the battlefield.

He began to wonder what these kids are doing out in the middle of the night, though it would make sense if it was just dark, not the middle of the night.

It all felt…weird.

He was finally out of the battlefield into a calm place, but it still felt unsettling.

‘‘Why would she send me here? Why am I still here in this world? Just to suffer?’’

‘‘Every night you can feel your leg and your arm, even your fingers, the body you've lost?’’

‘‘And what the hell is that supposed to be?’’

‘‘A little joke. Hey maybe you could do some stunts for me, I am kind of getting bored ya know!’’

‘‘Just talking to you pains me, so please shut up!’’

After that little…chat he continued down the streets to search for some place that was still open so he could know where he was.

A few minutes of walking down the dark streets got him to some sort of bar.

The building was rather nice looking.

Outside you could clearly see it was a bar from the different kinds of alcohol on the menu chart, but overall it gave off a welcoming vibe, one of kindness and modesty.

It was clearly open since a lot of people were talking inside.

Being the only place open at this time Arnold wanted to give it a shot.(pun intended)

Opening the wooden door he was immediately met by a scene, quite unusual for a bar, at least for the bars in his world.

A lot of men and women sitting and chatting quietly.

The least he expected was a punch to the face so that’s a relief.

He then proceeded to walk up to the bartender as he thought he would be the most reliable source of information. Before getting to talk to him he was stopped by a man, presumably in his mid-thirties, also wearing a uniform.

‘‘Hey there! I haven’t seen you around here, are you new?’’

‘‘Uhm, yes actually. I wa-as given orders toooo come to this town. I don’t really know much about it though so would you mind telling me more about it?’’

‘‘Yes sure. Sit down. You know Rautjärvi is in my opinion one of the best towns here in Finland.’’

‘‘Finland eh?’’

‘‘It is a nice place with nice people. Only problem is that we are quite close to the border with the Soviets.’’

‘‘Wait what? Soviets?’’

‘‘I can show you around if you want. Maybe tomorrow, how does that sound?’’

‘‘Sounds great!’’

‘‘And your name is?’’

‘‘I am Arnold.’’

‘‘Interesting, a German sounding name.’’

‘‘Yes my uhhh mother was uhhh actually German. And you are?’’

‘‘Simo Hayha, nice to meet you!’’

They smiled at each other, Arnold’s smile was more one of relief more than anything.

‘‘It’s nice to take some time off the battlefield…’’