March 18, 2078:

    “Transferred?” Eli’s brown haired companion, Hoon, exclaimed. 

    Eli nodded in understanding, “I know right? That’s what I said.” 

    “Why the sudden change? I thought things were going well with the DWT unit.”

    “So did I. All I know is that monday morning I go into work and the chief pulls me aside and tells me that I have been selected for transfer.”

    “Weren’t you just offered a raise though?” Hoon inquired, “Wow, you really got the short end of the stick man.” 

    “You’re tellin’ me.” Eli sighed and sipped his beer. “Now I get to start back at the bottom of the totem pole, again.” 

    “That blows. It’s homicide right? That’s where you are going?”

    Eli nodded and downed the last of his beer. “The exclusive, one and only, homicide unit in Sector Eight.”

    Hoon slapped the island of the bar and signaled the bar tender over. “Get us another round of beers, my friend here is gonna need them.” 

    Two hours and four rounds of beers later Hoon and Eli found themselves stumbling out of the “It’s Always Happy-Time Here Bar”  on the south side of town, twenty eight blocks away from Eli’s apartment building. 

    They hailed a stingy shuttle and drunkenly made their way home, where they promptly passed out.

    Eli woke up with a splitting headache and the sun blaring in his face. He grumbled and rolled over, curling up into his ball of blankets. 

    “Uh, wake up,” Hoon exclaimed as he walked into the room. He was freshly dressed, clearly after a rummage through Eli’s dresser, and his hair was dripping. 

    “You still here?” Eli groaned as he rolled back into a sitting position. 

    “Yeah, I’m heading out now though, I got work in twenty minutes. Thanks for letting me crash here.”

    “You’re welcome for the clothes too.” Eli eyed his favorite purple tie hanging loosely around Hoon’s collar. 

    Hoon chuckled and straightened the tie before making his way to work. 

    “I better get those clothes back,” Eli hollered from his bedroom. 

    Faintly he heard Hoon reply, “We’ll see,” as he made his way out the door. 

    Eli sighed and stretched, cracking his back, before he dragging himself out of the comfort and warmth of his down-comforter. 

    His feet padded against the cold hardwood floor as he made his way into the bathroom to get ready. 

    “,” Eli muttered as he looked at his phone; he was supposed to drop by his sister’s house that day and watch Ali, his niece, while his sister went to a doctors appointment. 

    He threw on some clean clothes and popped an Ibuprofen before stumbling down the stairs and driving over to his sister’s place. 

    When they were kids, Eli was ten and Hannah, his sister, was seven, their parents passed away. Luckily for them some family friends, a nice older couple, Sal and Marry, took them in. 

    “You’re late,” Hannah huffed as he entered the kitchen.

    “Sorry sis, I went out with Hoon last night...” he trailed off.

    “I understand,” she smiled softly at him. “Just don’t let it happen again.” She chided him. 

    “Yes ma’am.” Eli returned her smile and reached out, ruffling her unruly brown hair. 

    “Ah.” She yelped and pushed him away. “Eli,” she whined and pushed his shoulder. He laughed in contentment as he watched her attempt to fix her hair in the kitchen mirror. 

    She turned around and stuck her tongue out at him. “Pigeon.” 

    “Oi!” He pretended to be offended at his old childhood nickname. “Just because I may look like a pigeon doesn’t mean you can call me one.” 

    She laughed again. “Well, I better head out, see you when I get back,” she announced as she grabbed her purse. “Oh, and Eli, behave.” 

    He winked at her and chuckled as she left, then he headed upstairs to find Ali. 

    “Uncle Eli,” cried the petite black haired eight year old. 

    “There’s my favorite niece,” Eli responded as he pulled her up into a hug. “So, your mom is out and we got the house to ourselves, what do you think we should do today?”

    Apparently, Ali was in the mood for coloring; they spent the majority of the morning in the living room drawing pictures together. About an hour after they started Eli suggested that they make something for lunch. 

    Ali’s dimples turned out as she smiled at him. “This is really yummy.”

    “I’m glad you think so, you know, I don’t just go making my famous PB&J sandwiches for anyone.” 

    She giggled and went back to munching at her lunch. Suddenly she corked her head to the side, set her lunch down, and inquired curiously, “Uncle Eli, what do you do for work?” 

    “W-why would you like to know?” Eli responded, slightly puzzled. 

    “In school yesterday we talked about what our parents do for jobs and such and I want to know what you do.” 

    “Well in that case I don’t see any reason not to tell you, cutie.” He smiled widely at her and poked her cheek. He laughed, “Well, I help catch bad buys, I am a police officer.”

    “What kind of bad guys?”

    “I used to catch bad guys who would steal and sell really dangerous things like guns or drugs.” Eli watched as her nose scrunched up in consideration. 

    “Well what do you do now?” 

    “Now, starting on Monday, I am going to help catch the bad guys that hurt or even kill people. I am going to help put them in jail.” 

    “Really?” Her eyes lit up.

    “Yep.” He smiled down at her. 

    “Are you gonna’ use that R... RC thing?” 

    “RC?”

    “Yeah, that thing that the police use to help catch the bad guys.” 

    Eli pondered that for a moment; it had not even crossed his mind. Vaguely he remembered getting the state issued notice about the RCM, but it never occurred to him that he would have to use it. Now that he thought about it though, there was only one homicide unit in sector eight and that was where he was going.

    “I don’t know. How do you know about that?” Even though the issue was posted sector wide, it was still surprising to hear an eight year old talking about it. 

    “My friend’s mommy died and they used it on her.”

    “Really, what happened?”

    “She was killed by a really bad man and they used that RC thing to wake her up again to find out where that bad guy was.”

    “Hm....” 

    “Can we watch a movie now?” 

    “Oh, sure.” Eli smiled at her and cleaned up the dishes.

    Later that night Eli was still thinking about the RCM; he could not believe that it had slipped his mind before. Previously he had only thought about the job transfer and losing his job in the Drugs and Weapons Trafficking Unit, but he did not ponder where he would end up.

    The Homicide Unit of Sector Eight, or the H.U.S.E., had a shady reputation. Even before they were put in charge of testing the RCM they were known for collecting multiple minor charges of reckless endangerment of serial witnesses and police brutality. Still though, they had a very high success rate when it came to collaring criminals. 

    Eli sighed, he could not be sure, but it seemed like things were going to change for him pretty quickly. And he did not yet know if it was a good or bad thing.