Stranger and Stranger

956 words
Written for both "The Writer's Cramp" 
For more keep checking "The Great Adventure" 
Prompt: You (or your character) are waiting in a room full of strangers. Where are you and why are you there? Write a story or poem about it.

"Hey, you," Frank felt something hard and sort of round poking into his side. Something had happened. Oh, right, he'd woken up in some girl's room. The girl, her name was Tabitha, just like his little sister, had screamed his eardrums out. After she had waved the funny little gun at him, which had to be a toy, or maybe a BB Gun or something, he'd made a hasty retreat through her heavy stone door. Unfortunately, outside there'd been a whole hall of strange girls and... had he'd fainted?

"I think he's down for the count Catha," both voices were female which didn't bode well, because that had to have been a dream. There was no way he could be in some sort of bizarre place where girls carried all manner of weapons, and wore grey cameo uniforms. Besides, he'd gone to sleep in his own bed. Wasn't that where he should have woken up? If so why had he woken here?

"I think he's already awake," the first voice said, and the hard, round pokey thing rammed into his side so hard it took his breath away.

"Ahgh," Frank sputtered, trying to roll away. He'd been on a stone bench though, so all he did was bury himself in the seat back a bit, sort of. Well, he wasn't so much buried in it as against it.

"See?"

Frank sat up quickly and then regretted it as a wave of dizziness overcame him.

"You know, if you were supposed to be a spy you did a terrible job," he recognized the blond who spoke. She'd offered to castrate him earlier.

"I'm not a spy," Frank denied. "Why would I be a spy?"

"To find our about our defense of course," the blond replied. Frank looked around, they were in a room made completely of cement bricks. All around chains hung or stuck out from the wall. There were handcuffs, ankle restraints and collars, as far as he could tell, all made out of heavy looking black metal.

"What..?" Frank had been about to ask what the chains were for but thought better of it. Someone might try to demonstrate. "What are we doing?" There were five girls in the room with him. He recognized three. One was Tabitha who still held her funny plastic gun. Another was the blond. She had two long, nasty looking knives and a tighter fitting uniform than the rest. The third was the girl with the mace, Catha evidently. Frank knew that was who'd been poking him in the side. Being poked in the side with a mace was not pleasant. Frank could testify to that.

"We're waiting for the enemy," Tabitha replied shortly. She lingered in a small doorway, gun pointed out of it. She didn't look at him as she spoke. Frank was glad to see that everyone was in uniform now, even though the uniform seemed odd. It certainly beat out the negligee Tabitha had worn earlier, which was way too revealing. Frank shook his head, still trying to clear it.

"Okay, but who's the enemy?" Frank still couldn't make sense of the whole thing.

"Any of the other three dorms, moron. What, do you have amnesia?" Catha asked shifting her bulky form and lifting the mace in the air.

"Wait, do you know me?" Ten eyes rested upon him for a moment. All of them seemed to express the same thing. They all thought he was crazy. Then the eyes turned on the door. A bright pink beam of light was emitted from Tabitha's gun and he could just barely see a boy fall over in the outer hall. His cameo uniform was a traditional army green.

"North Quarter," Tabitha hissed, but it meant nothing to Frank. Frank was too busy pointing at the gun.

"It, it..." he didn't understand. Was he trapped on a movie set or something. Were all of these people actors?

"Shhh," the blond hissed, glaring, "there are at least another seven out there. Back off and let a few in."

"B-b-but..." It had looked like a laser gun, but usually those had a blue light and they were on TV, not real. "What is that?" Frank pointed at Tabitha's gun. When no one answered he tried asking more loudly. "What is that?"

The blond slapped him, "I told you to shut up," she hissed. "If you don't know a laser gun when you see one then it's not our problem, but if you keep making noise I'm gonna kill you."

"But there's no such thing as laser guns," Frank objected in muted tones. His voice sounded weak even to him.

"I don't know where you came from," Catha said as Tabitha ducked back and let a couple of guys charge into the room. Both carried swords and they sure did look like they knew how to use them. "But around here that's a stun laser." She swung her mace at one of the boys sword arm. It made a sick sounding thud as it connected. "It hurts a lot to get hit with one and you'll be out eight hours."

Somehow the boy managed to hold onto his sword which he swung. Catha blocked it. The two girls who hadn't spoken were dancing circles around the second boy, dodging his blows without returning them. Catha slammed her mace into her opponent's side. He grunted, dropped his sword and fell to his knees. "So I'd dodge if someone shoots at you with one." Catha finished.

Frank curled up on the bench, held his legs against his chest like some sort of shield, and watched the fight. He hoped he'd wake up soon, but had a terrifying feeling that he was already awake.