Five Strangers

Five people wake in a room with no idea how they got there.

The five people came awake at the same time. Where were they? What was this strange grey room, and who did the dog belong to? 

The five inhabitants all came to simultaneously in the faceless grey room. Each was lying at a different angle on the floor. The dog sat in the corner of the room on a foam mattress, wagging his tail every time anyone looked at him. 

Dylan was the first to speak, 'What the fuck is going on?'

Lucy looked around. She couldn't remember anything after getting her morning coffee, but still, she ignored the young man in the flash leather coat swearing at the other end of the room.  

Slowly, the other three looked up. They were in a large grey room with no windows; light was coming through the ceiling, but most could not establish whether this was coming from bulbs or the sun as the ceiling looked almost translucent. 

Craig rolled onto his front and did his best to jump to his feet like an Olympic runner. Great, Olivia thought, just what I need, stuck here with Mr. I love myself. She looked around her and offered the woman sitting beside her a smile.

'Hi, I'm Olivia.'

'Carol,' the woman opposite said, averting her eyes. 

Olivia got to her feet and started to look around the room. There were no doors she could see, just the five people and a dog in a strange box.

'I think it might be an idea if we all introduce ourselves and say what we can last remember,' she said.

'Who died and made you Queen?' Dylan asked.

'If you have a better idea, please let me know?'

'No, it sounds like a plan. Hi, I am Craig. I am a personal trainer, as you possibly all realised,' he said, flexing his muscles with a smirk. 'Anyway, the last thing I remember is changing into my work clothes.'

'The last thing I can remember is smoking a joint,' Dylan stated. 'Man, this was some trip.'

'And you?' Olivia said, facing the older woman in the corner.

'I am Lucy. I work in a library; the last thing I remember is sitting with a coffee in the classics section.'

'Love Dickens,' Olivia replied. 'And what about you, Carol, what do you remember?'

'I was at home.'

Olivia waited several seconds before saying, 'So who owns the dog?'

She looked around as four faces shook their head. Strange, she thought, a random dog in the box with them. Her thoughts were interrupted when Craig jumped up and started beating his hand on the wall, followed by Dylan, who gave each wall a good kick.

'So no one knows how we got here,' Olivia said, raising her voice against the banging and shouting. 'Anyone got ideas other than breaking our hands on the wall?'

Craig went red and stopped punching the wall; Dylan, for his part, gave the wall one more kick, just in case, before sliding down the wall and sitting down. As the rest of the group sat down slowly, the dog decided it was time to introduce himself. He went to each of the group, in turn wagging his tail. 

When Dylan pushed him away and told him to fuck off, he tried his luck with Olivia, who gave him a quick pat on the head before pretending he didn't exist. Maybe he would have better luck with Craig, he thought, but Craig also pushed him away. Let me try the quiet one; they always like dogs. As he approached, Carol slid further away, stating she was allergic. 

'Come here, boy,' Lucy said.

He went over and lay beside her whilst she cuddled him, stroking his fur and putting her nose on his. 'You remind me of my first dog,' she whispered into his ear. 

As time ticked on, all five stayed locked in their own heads, all except Lucy, who sat absently stroking the dog. They all jumped when a hole in the ceiling opened, and a bag was lowered between them. 

Olivia was the first to go to the bag. 'Six dinners, water bottles, and a silver bowl,' she said. 'This must be our dinner.' She started distributing the dinner between the five people, giving each a bottle of water. 'Six?'

'One must be for him,' Lucy said, motioning towards the dog. Olivia handed her the extra portion and bottle of water.

'What the fuck, why does she get extra?' Dylan said.

'It is for the dog.' Olivia replied.

'Not likely,' Dylan went to grab the extra plate and bottle of water. He was stopped by Craig stepping in front of him. 

'The dog eats,' he said, smiling at Olivia whilst pushing Dylan back against the wall. 

There was one awkward moment when Craig announced loudly he needed the toilet. An alcove immediately opened in the wall, revealing a small toilet. As soon as he had finished, the panel slid into place as if it had never been moved.

Dylan sat sulking for the rest of the day. When the lights went out, he walked over to the dog, tipped the bed, and threw him on the floor. 'I will be fucked if you get a bed and dinner.' He threw himself onto the bed, staring at the other four, challenging them to stop him.  

Lucy motioned for the dog to come and lay with her. 

The next day was much the same as the previous. The five tried to talk and find out about each other, but each returned to their thoughts. None of them could remember being taken to the room. No other memories returned to them. That evening, there were only five meals when the food was lowered.

'Going to tell me the dog eats now,' Dylan growled.

'It appears not, sorry,' Olivia said, looking at Lucy.

The meals were once again given out by Olivia, with Craig as her security guard. Out of all of them, the two had spoken the most. Olivia got the distinct impression Craig was chatting her up but ignored his innuendos. 

Olivia watched as Lucy separated half of her dinner into the silver bowl and gave it to the dog. 'Here,' Olivia said, sharing some of her dinner with Lucy. 

They all drifted off to sleep as the lights went out. 

The next day, the occupants of the room awoke. Well, at least most of them thought it was the morning, but it could be any time. All they knew was that the light dimmed and grew bright at times, representing morning and night. 

When the bag arrived this time, there were only four dinners. It wasn't long before Dylan and Craig fought on the floor over the food. Olivia shouted at them until they stopped, then expertly divided the four plates between the five people. Although neither man was pleased, they shut up and took their rations. 

This time, Olivia chose not to share her dinner with Lucy, and as the others observed, the dog was given a far smaller portion than he had the previous day. 

Whether it was the lack of food or the mental anguish of being locked up with four strangers, Olivia did not know. She remembered going to the toilet, but the next thing she knew, she woke in Craig's arms as he lowered her to the dog bed. She was later told that she had passed out whilst sitting, and Craig had dragged her out by her feet, picking her up gently when she appeared to be coming round. 

She blushed at the thought of being caught with her pants down, but no one commented. 

When the bag arrived, the dinners were down to three plates. Olivia again divided the food between all five. The dog got no food this time, but Lucy poured half an inch of water into his bowl from her bottle. 

The inhabitants of the room had lost track of the days. The meals had gone down to two portions a day and stayed there, never dropping any lower. None of the room's inhabitants talked much to each other; they each lived in their section of the room. 

Craig had even given up exercising, which was a relief to most, none more so than Olivia, as he had also given up the attempts at chatting her up. It appeared his libido had dropped at the same rate as his food intake. 

It was one of these days when Lucy exclaimed, 'Which one of you idiots has been hurting the dog? It is covered in sores.' She looked at Dylan when she said this. 

'Hey, don't look at me. That is a potential food source there.'

'Fuck off, you moron, you couldn't kill the dog, let alone eat it.' Lucy shouted as four pairs of eyes stared at her. 

Lucy had been the entertainer of the group, always calm no matter what happened. She had spent days telling them stories from books she had read. Initially, Dylan had moaned and said he wasn't a baby who needed a bedtime story. But, even he had shut up and listened. 

'You okay, Lucy?' Olivia asked.

With this, Lucy got up and said, 'No, I am not. I am stuck in here with you bunch of morons, and now he is hurting the dog. I have had enough. I want out. You hear me, I want out.' She shouted whilst looking up at the ceiling.

With this, she jumped up and started raining blow after blow on the wall, screaming, 'Let me out.'

It took Olivia and Craig to subdue Lucy, pulling her away from the door. When they looked, both her hands looked bruised and swollen. Craig said he didn't think anything was broken. Dylan commented about him being a doctor now, which started Lucy glaring at him. This time, Craig held her whilst she tried to rain the blows down on Dylan.

After what seemed like an age, Lucy slumped as if all the air had escaped her body. Lying down, she turned onto her side and faced the wall, refusing to acknowledge anyone. That night, when the food arrived, the two portions were shared amongst four as Lucy refused to eat.

Sensing that his friend was down, the dog crawled over to her and placed his head on her side, looking at her with big brown eyes. 

Lucy looked over her shoulder at the dog, 'Go away, will you? I told you I am not in the mood.' When he wouldn't leave her, she kicked him. He went back to his corner of the room, limping.

'And I was considered a monster for hurting it.' Dylan quipped. The other four occupants ignored him. 

'The dog disappears,' Carol said. All four turned in shock. It was the first time Carol had spoken without being asked a direct question. 

'You're nuts,' Dylan replied.

'No, I am not, he disappears.'

'Yeah, and I am going to grow wings and fly out of here.'

'No, hang on. I think she is right,' Craig said. 'On the second day, when we got into a fight, can anyone remember the dog being there?'

All four shook their head. 

'Actually, I can't remember the dog being there when I came round from my fall,' Olivia said.

'Or when I lost my shit hitting the wall,' Lucy replied. 

'He wasn't,' said Carol. 

'Maybe it is a different dog each time?' Olivia asked, not sure what difference this would make.

It wasn't,' Said Carol. 'I stuck my fork in its leg every night, and it was always the same dog. I could see the wounds. He disappears. He has disappeared now.'

All four looked around, but the dog was nowhere to be seen. 'What the fuck? How can he get out, and we can't.' Dylan said. 

'Look for a secret door.' Craig said, walking around the room, pushing all the walls and looking for the opening. 

The summit started shortly after the group in room seven discovered that the dog had disappeared. 

'So what do we have to report?' The commander asked those collected around the table that floated in the air. 

The light beside him floated up, so all the other entities turned to face him. 'We can report, Sir, that the same happened in every one of the experiments we conducted. Every room abused the dog to some degree.'

'There has to be one that looked after him?' The commander asked.

He connected his mind to everyone in the room, and each gave him the same answer: out of three million experiments conducted, not one of the humans had looked after the dog. 

The group watched his aura turn as he collected the results from each individual and then studied the data. What would have taken humans several hours to do took him a matter of minutes. 

'Fine,' he said with a sigh. 'Planet marked for extermination due to no entities worth saving.'

The twenty aliens that looked remarkably like the dog nodded in agreement.