Chapter Six

Day One as a Hunter

John and I reached the residence. Once we finally located the H block we then took the elevator up to the fifth floor. Only a few rooms down from the elevator was room H503. I used my key to open it. John and I went inside. The quarters were quite small, but designed to seem spacious. The main living area had a sofa, a TV, dark brown walls, and a computer terminal. There was one hallway on the end of the room. John started to examine the living room with closer detail while I started down the hallway. There were two bedrooms to the left, and windows on the right. At the end of the hallway was the kitchen/dinning area. John now came down the hall, just glanced around and told me, "I'll take the room next to the kitchen. We don't need you eating all the food."

"Is it that or do you just want to be away from the front door, and thus farther from people?" I joked. John shrugged and walked into his room. Nothing surprised me about that reaction, and I just went to my room. It was decent sized, I'd just have to change the walls from white to dark green later. There was a decent sized bed, as well as a desk, bathroom, and a closet. There was also a bookshelf, which only had one book on it, "The Hunter's Manual" it was called. I made a note to myself, after getting my uniform I should head back to my old house and get my things. I decided to lay down and read the manual.

…

As 18 Sant approached. I put down the book. As I lowered the book I saw John standing in the doorway. "How long have you been there?" I asked.

"Since about 16 Sant, you seem into that book," John replied.

I just shrugged, "It passes the time. Now lets get down to A001 and get our uniforms."

John and I walked down to the A block, the social and business block. In the one basement floor lied the wardrobe area. John and I took the elevator down. The doors opened and into a small room. There was a door next to a desk and that was it. There was a single terminal station on the desk, and lots of books. Behind the desk there was an old lady, clothed in the official light blue uniform of Guild workers. She lowered the newspaper she was reading. She glanced from us to her screen and back. "Kurako, you are permitted to choose any one of the uniforms for a Hunter. Two more of this issue will be sent to your quarters in the morning," she said to me, then she faced John, "John, you are permitted to choose any one of the robes for a Force. Same situation with delivery. The uniforms for both of you must be checked out here, with me." She pressed a button under her desk. The single door in the gray roomed opened.

"Thanks," I said, and I walked through the door. John followed. The old lady shrugged, and pulled the newspaper in front of her face and coughed. I made a mental note to myself, see if I could help this lady out sometime. She sure seemed like she could use a friend.

Once inside there wasn't much to see. The room was white with twelve niches in the walls. Over each niche was a sign reading for that group's designation. I went over to the niche with the sign HUmar while John went over to the FOmar section. In each of the niches was a rack of uniforms. John and I both started looking through our racks. I was first looking for a good color. Orange, no. Red, no. Black, that would suit John but not me, no. Pink, how come that is here? White, worse then black. Brown, that is the best so far.

Then I struck lucky. I found a dark green uniform, my favorite color; my father's too. I pulled the uniform off the rack. To top it all off this color was in my size. I looked back at were John was to ask him what he was choosing. John wasn't there. Then I heard a click as the door to one of the two fitting rooms closed and locked. I smiled and throughout to myself, "John, why am I not surprised." I grabbed the matching boots and gloves and headed for the fitting room. The uniform itself was in six pieces, shirt, pants, two gloves, and two boots. I went in the changing room and closed the door.

…

A few minutes later I was standing in my full uniform. It was dark green with black semi-stripes. The left shoulder pad was a large ball. It was soft on the arm but rock hard on the outside in the left forearm, on the bottom side if I held my hand with palm up, was a circular hole. It didn't extend all the way through, but I did have to wonder what it was for. There was a small, round, flexible as fabric screen in the front, where the section ID would be displayed. There was nothing odd about the right arm. The pants were dark green on the top and changed over to black below the knees. The boots and gloves were both dark green. The uniform was made out of a pretty sturdy yet comfortable material.

I took a step out of the fitting room, and there was John, waiting. No sooner was I out then he said, "You picked a good uniform Kurako."

"I'm not surprised at your selection either," I said. John was dressed in his uniform, the uniform of a Force. He was wearing two layers of robes. He had a blood red rob that came down do his ankles. He wore a black robe over the red one. The flexible screen was on the front of his neck. He wore nothing on his right hand. On his left hand he wore a black gauntlet, with a hole in the back of it, just like my forearm. On top of his head he wore a black hat. He wore black shoes on his feet.

"Well Kurako, I think we have what we need, lets get out of the uniforms and take them to the desk."

…

After John and I were back in our civillian cloths we went to the desk. The old lady there logged our selections and then she placed a device on the screens of the uniforms. On the screens a white circle with a white "T" appeared. "This ID indicates you are hunters in training. You will be issued your training weapons when training classes start. Hunters are issued a wooden saber, Rangers are issued laser handguns, Forces are issued wooden staffs. If you have one of these weapons at home that you'd rather use please let me know now." The lady said. Then she coughed. I said I had my wooden saber I'd rather use. As she finished entering this into the computer she coughed again.

"Are you ok?" I asked. For an answer she kept on coughing, then she collapsed onto her desk.

In a very weak voice she said, "I knew I should have gone to the doctors tod…" Most people I know wouldn't know what to do in this situation, but growing up with a doctor for a mother I knew what I to do. I checked her pulse and checked her breathing. There was still a faint pulse, and some breathing. I picked her up and placed her on my back.

"Tell the Guild what happened and grab our stuff," I told John as I waited for the elevator, "I'm going to take her to the hospital. Meet me at our quarters" After what seemed like an eternity the elevator arrived and I got in. "GROUND FLOOR!" I shouted to the elevator's computer. The elevator began to rise; John would get on it later. Once the elevator stopped I barreled right out, past some hunters in uniform. I continued to run until I got to the Hunter Residence's transporter. There was a line of people waiting to use it. I barreled past them, shouting, "Out of my way, I've got a medical emergency here." The person in the transporter jumped out as I ran in. "MECIAL CENTER!" I shouted. I felt myself devolve as I was transported away. My vision cleared in a moment in the medical center. Fortunately Kasan, my mother, was in the lobby.

"Kurako, what are you doing here?" she asked, then she saw the old lady on my back. "Oh my goodness," she said, and then she ran to the wall intercom. She hit a button and spoke to the open microphone, "This is Kasan, I need a patient bed and life scanners in the lobby ASAP! We have a code blue, repeat code blue!" At that I took a look backwards at the lady I was carrying. Her face and hands had turned a deep blue color. My mother left the intercom and came over. Kasan felt this lady's wrist, "No pulse."

Then the doors flew open and a hover table floated in quickly, followed and preceded by some medics. One of them was my blonde, seventeen-year-old sister Kri; she was doing hands on studying lately. I placed the lady gently on the table. The medics quickly connected some equipment and rushed her deep into the hospital. Kri took a quick glance at me before she went with them. Kasan stayed to ask me questions. All I had to say was she was filling out information on the computer when she collapsed. Kasan then left, following the patient. I sighed; this was defiantly not how I planned on starting my career as a hunter. A familiar voice next to the door spoke, "You did the right thing Kurako."

I spun around, and there was John. "John, I thought I told you to wait for me at our quarters."

John replied simply, "I knew you'd still be here."

"Well John, now that you're here, lets go home." John and I walked home, neither of us drives and we don't like using transporters, we both prefer to walk. I thought to myself "If this is the excitement of one day, imagine a whole career.

…

I learned later that the old lady passed away later that day, tumor in the lungs. At least she had some kindness before she left.