Relations

A door opened at the far end of the room where the old guy had been standing and the other kids filed out. The two soldiers moved up to the same doorway and motioned us through. I checked the rifles the two soldiers were holding. A white "HK" was emblazoned just above the magwell on the rifle, and the safety/fire switch had red coloring to it. Very interesting. The two rifles were Heckler and Koch 416 carbines. Very nice rifles. These were the kind of guns that you blew extra money on. "Not exactly standard issue, are they?" I mused, walking out of the room. "Here they are," the soldier replied with a wry smile. Pen Chick and the other soldier followed my guard and I out. My group headed down a new hallway, and I watched the other kids file into rooms in couples. Where was the chaperone on this field trip? I smiled at my own joke and continued down the hallway. "Here you go," my guard said. The door was inscribed with the names JOHN and ALICE in big, stylized font. I opened the door for Alice, and as I did so, my guard said, just as he was about to leave: "John? Fuck you too." I smiled, nodded, and followed Alice into the room. "Incredible" was the first thing that I said when I entered. We were back in the room that was divided into two, but it was redecorated. My side had been adorned with all of the greatest prizes a military enthusiast could dream of. A Luger PO8 resided in a glass case on the wall near my bed and it distracted me from everything else. I went over to the case, opened it, and pulled the legendary handgun out. I pressed the button on the grip, and the magazine came out. "Beautiful." I was in awe. It was such a fascinatingly, needlessly complex and fragile firearm. I pulled back on the awkward charging handle, and the gun took its odd shape. I pushed the magazine back into place and pushed the slide back to its operating position. A chest under my bed revealed a goldmine of history textbooks, firearm studies, military technology, and records of the world's greatest armed struggles. A thumbtack board above my bed was studded in the patches of the world's greatest military organizations, and I suddenly felt ashamed to have them all. I gave myself a moment to pick out the ones I was most familiar with- the SEALs, the SAS, and I pulled away to examine some lesser spoils. A cavalry saber hung on the wall opposite the Luger. A table the size of a ping pong table was set with a battle scene. A firearms locker hung on the wall next to the saber. With schoolgirl excitement, I opened the locker. Nothing was there, and a pit formed in my heart. A suitcase was also under my bed. I opened it, revealing all of my clothes that I had worn for the past year or so. They had this thing in the works for a while. I turned my attention to Alice's side of the room. She also had a chest and suitcase under her bed. She was unpacking the chest, revealing an extensive collection of chemistry equipment- that's at least what it looked like. Cylinders, beakers, all sorts of glassware, she was setting on the new coffee table in the center of the room. A massive periodic table was set up on the wall above her bed, and some lesser chemistry-related trophies adorned her side of the room in a similar fashion to my saber and Luger. I noticed that she also had a firearms locker. I went over to it.

"What are you doing?"

"Seeing if we have any hardware."

"Doubt it."

Nothing in that locker either. I was reminded of the... unruly state of my hair. I checked the clock on the wall. 1130 hours. Half an hour to get ready for teambuilding. I hoped that term meant more than it did in school. I didn't want to ask anyone if they played a sport just to never speak to them again. I went to the door that was halfway between the two sides of the room and opened it. It revealed a large bathroom. The shower was massive. Tiled floor, some kind of nice marbled red color in the shower. Alice came up and peered over my shoulder.

"Wow."

"Exactly. I'm going to go in if you're still fiddling with your stuff."

"Sure."

I pulled a set of clothes from my suitcase: khaki pants, a v-neck t-shirt, underwear, socks, and I pulled off my belt. I went back into the bathroom, shut the door, undressed, and stepped into the shower. The shower really was big. I could lay down in here if I really wanted to. There were dispensers of various soaps and shampoos on the wall. It felt weird to be treated like royalty when we hadn't even done anything yet. The water started washing away the blood from my neck and hand and made the bandages useless. I pulled them off and washed as the dried blood liquified, ran down my legs in a light fruit punch tone, and disappeared in the red marble tiles. I peered through the hole in my hand. Probably going to need to put something else on that. I felt around the small hole at my neck. Not too bad, it only stung when I stuck my finger in the hole. I had finished my hair and was halfway done with my chest when I heard the door open. Fog from the water had rendered the glass walls of the shower opaque. I heard rapping on the glass.

"Can I come in?"

It was Alice.

"What, to the shower?"

"Yeah."

Huh.

"Why?"

"Its already 1150 hours. We're going to be late."

Yeah, okay. Could be 1140 hours max. Pen Chick was going to stab me again. What gives? My alternative would be to bust out of the shower, unarmed, with my vision obscured. I decided to take my chances.

"Sure."

I stood to the side of the opening glass door. It opened outward. I soaped up my hands so I could blind her if she made a move. I leaned up against the glass wall of the shower as she entered.