Arron stepped off the Mag-shoot and passed a door marked Dorms #1, entering a dimly lit hallway with 50 doors. There were 25 doors on each side of the hallway, each of them having a glowing white number.
The hallway was empty and completely silent.
Arron’s new room was number 25 which was at the back of the hallway on the right wall.
When he reached the door he waved his right hand, which had the NerViz cloud chip, over the lock scanner on the door. The lock scanner turned green unlocking the door with a click and a hiss as it opened automatically.
Arron immediately felt the gaze of two people who were sitting on two different beds that were placed next to the right and left walls of the small room. A third unoccupied bed was situated at the far end of the room.
The two young men did not say anything and only looked at Arron.
Arron stepped inside and did a quick scan of the room. It was completely bare of any decorations or any other furniture other than the three beds and three lockers under each bed.
The door closed behind Arron with a click as he walked over to the empty bed and placed his hover suitcase on the bed before he sat down on the bed.
He looked to the man on his right who was quite skinny, had short curly brown hair, and was around Arron’s age.
Before Arron could greet him the man started to audibly mumble loud enough that everyone in the room could hear him.
“He’s looking at me! What should I do? Should I say something? No, it’s best to ignore him and act like I don’t see or hear him,” said the skinny man. After saying this he started to stare at the ceiling light as if it was some great art piece that he was trying to decipher the meaning behind its existence.
“Don’t mind Temid, he’s scared of everyone, even his own shadow,” said a young man who looked to be in his late teens.
“Not scared… not scared…” muttered Temid over and over as he stared at the light.
“I’m Iboi Semore. Nice to meet you,” said Iboi, holding out his hand that had many calluses on it.
Arron shook the offered hand while looking at his eyes. They looked similar to the goggles that Dr. Octy wore but these were permanent. There were no eyes behind them, only the cybernetic implants that glowed blue as they looked over Arron.
“Arron Wynters, I hope we get along in the future,” said Arron politely.
“I was born blind,” explained Iboi after seeing Arron looking at his eyes. “You know, you’re quite lucky to join us when you did. Out of all the other candidates for graduation, we are probably the sanest. That bed you’re sitting on only just became available this morning.”
“Did they graduate?” asked Arron.
Iboi shook his head, “Nope. He flunked out. Agents from the [Office of Reason] took him away kicking and screaming. Apparently, he had massive debts to several powerful people. My guess is he was sent to the Relearning camps to pay it off.”
“Must not fail…” muttered Temid several times.
“What’s your SCS?” asked Iboi, wanting to compare and compete to see who had the best score.
“B,” said Arron, not beating around the bush.
“Whoa… You could be living a comfortable life on the second level. What’s a guy like you doing down here in the slums with us?” asked Iboi.
Temid stopped staring at the light for a second to take a closer look at Arron for a few seconds before returning to pretending not to see him.
“We’re both rank C,” said Iboi, pointing towards himself and Temid. “It will probably take us at least 10 years to get to Rank B.”
Arron continued to talk with Iboi for over ten minutes getting to know him and through him Temid as well. He was able to learn a few things about the training that would help him not screw up.
As he was unpacking his hover case Temid shot to his feet.
Arron looked over to him and saw that in a jerky robotic way he thrust out his arm and extended his hand toward Arron.
His face was blank of any emotion. Out of the corner of Arron’s view, he saw Iboi quickly plugging his ears.
“I’M TEMID SHYMUS! NICE TO MEET YOU!” shouted Temid at the top of his lungs. He had finally mustered the courage to greet Arron almost a half-hour late.
“Ah…yes… nice to meet you,” said Arron, his ears still ringing. He took the man’s hand and shook it lightly to not frighten him.
Temid returned to his bed and continued to stare at the ceiling with a satisfied expression on his face.
Arron looked over to Iboi who just shrugged his shoulders, he had grown used to his outbursts.
He returned to unpacking his clothes into the locker under his bed. As he was finishing a buzzer sounded above the door and a red light turned on.
Both Temid and Iboi stood up and walked to the door.
Iboi looked over his shoulder and said, “We have to go to our afternoon training. We can talk more when we get back.”
“Do I have to go?” asked Arron.
“Nope, you start tomorrow with all the other newbies!” said Iboi with a wave as the door closed, blocking Arron’s view of them.
Arron sat on his bed not knowing what to do to pass the time now that he was here all alone.
Then he remembered he still had something he needed to do. He opened his contact list and found the name. He gave a sigh of relief seeing that it was not grayed out and he was still allowed to call them.
He pressed on the floating name and waited several moments. As he waited for the call to go through he decided to turn on the privacy mode, making it so no one other than him could see or hear his conversation.
Well, Mother and Father as well as the Office of Reason could if they wanted to. But why would they want to spy on him?
Several minutes later a girl with the air of a tomboy appeared floating in front of Arron.
“Hey Mel. Nice to see you. Did you get my message?” asked Arron.
“I saw it this morning but I have been too busy getting everything ready for the heavy workload coming in the next few months,” said Mel, whose face still had some dirt on it. It seemed he had caught her in the middle of working outside.
“Unfortunately we won’t be able to hang out much anymore. I just signed the paperwork today and I am officially part of the M1 probationary trainees,” said Arron.
“M1? I think I heard something about them but it wasn’t good. Everyone was shocked to hear that you just up and left without telling anyone but your parents,” said Mel as she used her sleeve to wipe the sweat off her face. This action also smudged the dirt on her face.
“Yeah, sorry about that. It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing. I was given a chance for a job and I had to leave when I did or I would have lost the opportunity.”
“When do you start training?”
“Tomorrow, I don’t know how long it will be for but I will keep you guys updated if anything changes.”
“Oh, wait! Before you hang up tell me, is the Megacity Neo-Tokeyo like what we see on the dramas and the news?” asked Mel. She was staring intently at Arron waiting for his reply.
“The city?… It’s… far more ‘Interesting’ than anything in those dramas or News clips.”
