Beginings

Chapter I

Beginnings

Ryan, a red wolf wearing green and gold scrubs, had just exited the transport. In front of him was the most beautiful building he had ever seen. He was absolutely speechless. The building, a hospital, had a courtyard with a garden, topiary, carefully arranged flowers, and a delicately carved fountain. In the middle of the fountain was a delicately and carefully crafted sculpture of a doctor with a scalpel in one hand and a pulse rifle in the other. This indicated that it was a military hospital. On a plaque at the base of the sculpture was an inscription. It read: "In dedication to all medics and doctors who lost their lives on the battlefield trying to save our men and women. We salute you." Around the fountain were wounded soldiers. This beautiful place was where Ryan would live for the next year.

To the side of the hospital were the barracks. Two armed guards, a young fox and an older panther, both in the green and gold Ristarian Defense Corps uniform, escorted him to the bunker. From the outside, it looked like a part of the hospital, but the inside was very plain. Each man or woman had their own room, except for those who opted to have a double's room. Ryan's room was quite a ways into the building. In the room, there was a fridge, a pantry, a stove, an oven, a bathroom that looked like it was out of a sci-fi movie, a dark green queen-sized bed, and a white couch. On the fridge he put a picture of his love, Karin, a beautiful skunk with deep green eyes, soft black fur, and a glossy white stripe that went up the middle of her tail and back. Her picture brought tears to his eyes. " I wish I were at home with you, Karin."

Against the wall was a computer and a desk. He went to the computer and decided to look around the hospital server. All he found were patient files, until he came across a folder labeled personnel. He looked through the folder until he saw his medical file. He knew about his physical exam, but didn't hear what they said about him in his psychological report. He opened it and read the file out loud. "Dr. Ryan Ricarta...Psychological Test results...dedicated, friendly, cautious, caring, loyal, stubborn, detests violence, optimistic, slow to anger...." His tail swayed uneasily. "...is only angered by and will kill for revenge of injury or death of friends and family. Documented occurance of anger on page 16. Suggest relocation to active combat duty as field medic." He went to page 16 of the report and learned why they want him in combat. "Damn, if only I hadn't of gone on that camping trip." As he read through the report, he reminisced about the camping trip.

A few of his buddies at the hospital had asked him to go backpacking with them. Ryan always jumped at these occasions, because he loved nature and quiet almost as he loved to be in the O.R. He had driven to the trail head in the forest near the hospital that he worked at. The others were a bit late, so he decided to go ahead of the others. He called them to tell them that he was going ahead. He got their answering machine. "Hey, just calling to tell you that I'm gonna go ahead and start down the trail. Just meet me at the clearing just past the rope bridge. Ok, see ya later. Bye." He hung up. Ryan began to walk down the trail when, like always, he took out a notebook and began writing about what he saw. He had filled up half of his note book by the time he reached the bridge. He sat down, took off his pack, and took a quick 15 minute nap. When he woke up, he saw the others on the other side of the bridge.