The Difference Between You And Me {Petekey}

Chapter ten

Mikey spent the rest of the day with Thomas, occasionally splitting off to read but always getting bored and going to the chess table, where Thomas would eventually find him and they'd play a game.

Thomas was actually better than him at the game, he had apparently been playing against his dad since he was a kid. Mikey beat him one game out of four, which he didn't consider to be too bad, considering their skill levels.

Eventually, it was the day of their Oath of Enlistment. They had to be woken up at 6 for the ceremony, which Mikey was annoyed about, but he had other things to care about at the moment. They were given clothes to wear for the ceremony and sent to the bathrooms to change. The clothing consisted of a plan shirt with some slacks, which Mikey found way more comfortable than the barely fitting clothes he had from Lindsey's. They were fed and lined up outside at six thirty. Mikey almost forgot the slip of paper with his chess tips, but he was allowed to return to the room to fetch it, for which he was grateful. They were ordered alphabetically by last name, so Mikey was the last in line. At least he would be able to see what it was like before he had to take it. An officer was standing in front of them, with someone beside him holding the flag of the U.S.

"How this oath shall take place is that Officer Jones will recite the Oath. After he has finished, you will repeat those same words back to him," the man holding the flag explained. "We will start this procedure with Thomas Andrews."

Mikey watched Thomas step up, standing in front of the officer and put his hand on his heart. The officer cleared his throat.

"I, Thomas Andrews, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the orders of the  appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

Thomas repeated it to him, forgetting the next line occasionally, upon which the officer would prompt him with the beginning of the part he forgot, and he would carry on. Once he was finished, he was sent back to the building where Mikey met with his recruiter to sign his final contract.

The rest of the enlistees did the same, and Mikey was starting to memorize the Oath. Once it was his turn, he was able to recite it without any mistakes or forgotten sentences, which made him feel superior, even if it was a result of no action he had taken. When he got back to the building he discussed the contract in, the secretary gave him his contract to sign. Mikey noticed that it was rather longer than the others sitting on her desk, but when he scanned over the five paragraphs about the Military Accessions which granted him citizenship when he returned from the war, he understood the extra page to the contact. He signed it, feeling confident in his comprehension of what was written. He was then sent to the train station, where he would board the train to his training camp.

The train was larger than Mikey would deem necessary for the amount of people it was currently picking up, but once he boarded the train with his piece of paper in hand, he realized that they weren't the only ones headed to Camp Wood. There had to be at least a hundred men on the train in total, although Mikey could only see bout thirty from where he was standing. There wasn't much space, if any at all, and the seats didn't look very comfortable, so Mikey decided to do what he thought was the good thing. Some people stared at him in confusion, but ended up realizing that left more free seats for them and accepting it.

What Mikey didn't realize, though, was that the train wasn't made for people to stand on like the monorails from his time were. When the train started moving, Mikey almost fell to the floor because he didn't realize it was going to be so unstable. He thought there was something wrong with the train, that it was off the rails or something, but looking at the others, who didn't seem to be startled, he assumed this was just how the trains were in this time. He understood why the other men stared at him when he chose to stand up. This was horrible. They didn't understand why someone would choose to stand up on a train, unless it was a last resort. He looked into the next car over to see if there were any available seats there. No such luck.