It had been a peaceful night. I was able to stay asleep longer than any night in recent memory. That's how much anger could numb you. Make you forget how much life was better without it.

I woke up the next morning in my new room. Three rapid knocks hit my door below. I untwisted myself from the plush white blanket and looked down from my bunk high in the corner of the loft.

"Your first meal delivery has arrived," Iris said and wheeled towards the door, "May I accept the delivery for you?"

"Yeah, sure," I said and wiped the sides of my wet lips and crusted eyes.

Isis's blue light flickering as the door unlatched.

An olive-skinned girl wearing a pale blue uniform stepped through the black door. In her hand was silver tray over-flowing with food I had not seen since the center. A large shiny green apple, fluffy scrambled eggs, a steaming cup, another cup filled with orange juice and at the center a stack of flat pieces of round bread.

"Pancakes?" I said, squinting my blurry eyes on the tray.

The tray wobbled in the young girl's hands. Her wide brown eyes fixed on me and then up to my forehead.

"Pancakes are delivered for the first meal each Tuesday" Iris said, and wheeled around the young girl, "Keeper 461, please deposit the meal onto the kitchen table."

The young girl nodded and set the tray onto the long granite table in the kitchen as she was told and left the room with her arms at her sides in a brisk pace. She did not take another look at me or my mark.

I lifted myself from the cloud-like bed and walked down the ladder into the kitchen. The meal was still steaming, but I was also heated about something else.

"Iris?" I said and looked down the narrow hall between the kitchen and bathroom.

"Yes?" Iris said and wheeled back over to me.

"That girl," I said and looked towards the closed front door, "You called her by a number. Doesn't she have a name?"

"It is conventional for one to have a name," Iris said, as her blue lights flickering in a circular pattern, "But, a name is not needed to perform daily duties. All community members must be organized efficiently."

"But, they gave you a name, and you're just a -" I paused, unsure would understand.

"A machine?" Iris interrupted my pause, "All machines of my purpose share the same name and must be organized efficiently."

I did not know why I felt the need to pause, to adjust my words to save the feelings of a heap of talking metal and lights. No matter how life-like Iris could be, I had since never failed to be reminded that I was in truth talking to a machine. A thoughtless and feelingless machine.

"It would be wise to enjoy your first meal before it reaches an undesirable temperature," Iris said and continued wheeling between the stools of the kitchen counter.

"Good idea," I said and continued to walk towards the tray of food.

Above the tray, I could see there was a portion of bacon strips behind the pancakes. Evee's favorite. I knew she was probably already enjoying her pieces, but it didn't feel right to eat without her. Many things about this place didn't feel right, but this was one I could fix.

I lifted the tray from the counter and began to walk towards the door.

"I would advise not to wander from your dorm before your meeting with the committee," Iris said from behind.

"I'm not going far," I said and pulled on a nearby jacket, "I'm just going to see Evee, she's just next door."

"Would you like to conference a call with your companion before you arrive," Iris continued, "You can check to see if she is away from her bed."

"Sure, but how do I do that?" I said and turned back to Iris.

Iris's blue light began to swirl, "Conferencing, Room 2833...Please stand in place and allow the conference wall to load."

"A wall?" I said and looked around the spotless white room.

Before I could ask again, a square light began to project from Iris's screen and in front of my eyes. Without asking, I leaned closer to the projection and watch it's many stranded dots come together into an outline of her familiar curls.

"I'm am, I'm am!" Evee shouted from within the projection.

"Please stand in place," the voice of another Iris said in the background.

"Evee, it's me," I shouted back into the floating projection.

"Valen?" she said, eyes darting in every direction, "How did you do that?"

"It was Iris's ide," I said.

"Please stand in front of the conferencing wall," the other Iris repeated.

"Shut up!" Evee shouted behind her at the other Iris, "I wish mine were like yours. This one is just stupid!"

I paused, unable to speak. How could I get this upset over machines?

"So what's going on?" Evee said, "Just got my breakfast, did you get the same?"

"That's kind of why I called. It feels weird you know, us all eating in our own rooms."

"I know," Evee said and looked down, "I would have given Nate some extras. I even kind of wish we had Mat around too."

Iris wheeled behind me, "Would you like me to conference your other companions."

"If you can," I said, unsure of how she knew where they were.

Evee's excitement blossomed from her eyes in an instant, "You can do that?" she said.

Beside me, Iris's light's swirled around her head as the projection of the wall began to split into threes.

"Hello?" I heard an angered voice come from one blurry projection.

"Why do we even need the video," Evee said and rolled back her eyes.

"If this is some sort of joke -" Mat continued to shout, the underneath of his eyes were dark as if he had gotten very little sleep.

"It's us!" Evee shouted back and waved into her screen.

Mat halted like he had hit a glass wall and stared along the edges of the screen.

"What the hell is this?" he whispered.

"It's a conference call," I said.

To the side of Mat, Nate's screen had cleared. He was not confused or angered. He was moving his hands above the screen.

"You guys finally figured out how to use the conference, huh?" he said surprised, "I've been using it all morning."

Evee quickly fired, "With who?" she said, her arms crossed tighter.

Nate didn't blink to look at her or away from his work.

"I've been trying to learn how the projection is made," he said, "Isn't a single wire in this place."

"Look," Mat said and put his palm towards the screen, "All I want to know is why you're calling me?"

"Valen thought it would be better for us to eat together," Evee said and curled her top lip, "It's almost like we haven't seen each other in weeks."

Mat raised his eyebrows and said, "So you two are talking again?"

Evee raised her brows back at him.

"You should be too," Evee said, "They gave me extra bacon like I asked and I'm feeling very generous this morning."

Mat's salty smile grew sweeter, "Be right there," he said and darted away from the screen.

"Nate, are you coming?" I said, now noticing his silence.

I needed to do something to make things better between him and Evee. I had made another promise that I wanted to make sure I kept this time.

"Yeah, I'll be over soon," Nate said, his hands still moving along the edges of the projection.

"See you all soon," I said.

"Shall I end this conference call, Valen?" Iris said, at my side.

"Um, sure," I said, startled.

The projection disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. I was forced back into the gray and empty room.

"You called me by my name?" I said and turned to Iris.

"The ability to learn and adapt is critical to my primary function," Iris said in her flat metallic voice, "This is the primary function of all Intelligence Systems to optimize our user's experience."

Learn, I had learned a lot since arriving here. I had learned that hate was heavyweight to hold onto. Now I had discovered the idea of a machine learning could leave the most dreadful pimpled feeling across my skin.

I picked up the tray of food and walked quickly into the hallway of endless numbered doors.

"Have a pleasant day, Valen," Iris said behind, sending more chills through me.

I stepped over the green-carpeted floor and followed the numbers of the door carefully. The tray rattled in my hands. Was it 2833 or 2803? I tried to remember from the night before. It had been easier when I had something to walk towards. The idea to turn around kept repeating in my head when a pair of hands grabbed my shoulder and pulled me in.

I screamed, pushing the hands back.

Evee let me go and said, "I thought you saw me."

"It's - it's okay," I said and held my chest steady, "I almost spilled my first meal though."

"You mean breakfast?" Evee said, her brows crossed, "You sound like them already."

I laughed and said, "I guess, I do?"

"And I guess I'm too stubborn," Evee said and walked into the black door of her dorm, "I keep calling it breakfast."

I followed her into the door and through the kitchen when I noticed there were no more broken glass pieces.

"You cleaned up?"

"Iris did actually," Evee said, and smiled at the floor, "Finally did something useful."

A knock came from the closed door as another Iris wheeled itself from the kitchen that was decorated identically to mine.

"Shall I let the guest inside?" the Iris said.

"Yes, please," Evee said with excited eyes.

The door unlatched, it was Mat. He stayed at the door, still dressed in the gray cloths the medical ward had given all of us. Evee stood in the kitchen above her tray of food, the excitement in her whole body plummeted at the sight of him and not Nate.

"You still feeling generous?" Mat said, rubbing his hand together as he walked in, watching Iris wheel around his feet.

Evee pushed her tray forward, "Take it all," she said cold.

"You sure?" Mat said.

She shook her head and held it up with one hand against the kitchen table. She didn't look up from the counter as Mat took the tray from under her nose.

The guilt was seeping like mud in a pair of shoes. I could try to ignore it, keeping walking on it but it was still there, and sticking to my every step.

"I'm sure he's on his way," I said to Evee and put my hand on her shoulder.

If only my word were this thin when I was angry. Then I wouldn't have to say any of this at all. But most importantly, I wouldn't have hurt my friends at all.

Mat continued to eat through his double helpings of food. Evee was still slumped in her seat beside him along the granite kitchen counter. His loud lips smacked together after every mouthful.

"Where is bird-boy anyway?" he said, through spoonfuls of scrambled eggs.

Evee let out a frustrated groan.

"What?" Mat said and leaned away from her, "I was just asking!"

As I looked onto Mat, I felt my entire body tremble with anger. I had forgotten how difficult it was having all of us in the same room.

"Mat," I said, and narrowed my eyes at him, "You're not -."

But, before I could finish my words, Iris wheeled through the kitchen and raised her voice over my own.

"We have another guest," she said from the door, "Shall I let the guest inside?"

Evee did not look up from her arms.

"If you can, Iris," I said for Evee.

The door slid open at once. Nate stood outside the door without a tray of food. His blonde hair was trimmed shorter, showing the full dark circles of his eyes and the usual chip in his front tooth.

"Where's your breakfast," I asked, making sure I said breakfast this time instead of the first meal.

"Wasn't hungry," Nate said in an unusually deep voice, "So I threw it out."

"Threw it out?" Mat shouted and spilled juice from his mouth over the kitchen counter.

"What?" Nate said and tilted his head, "You don't have enough food there?"

"You know, you don't have to lie. I know you just couldn't carry the tray all the way up here," Mat said and pointed to him, "Don't be embarrassed."

"I told you, I wasn't hungry," Nate said, his face turning red.

"Look at you, you can barely fit in your clothes. Guess they didn't have enough kiddy sizes for you."

"Shut the hell up, you half-wit!" Nate shouted his face now a blood red hue.

"Or what?" Mat said, pulled himself up from the counter.

Nate charged forward, faster than I could respond, but Evee had already lifted her head from the kitchen counter and put herself between the pair.

"You two!" she shouted between them, her arms stretched out wide, "I'm tired of this. If you haven't noticed, we don't have a clue where we are, who these people are, and what they plan to do with us. But, you both would rather argue all morning, than come up with a plan."

"A plan?" Mat said, stealing the words from my mouth.

"You know the rules," Evee said and relaxed her shoulder, "They always want something from us."

She was right. We had never been able to stay anywhere, not in the center, not with the travelers, or with the host without some form of payment. Either we paid with our labor, or sometimes in ways, we didn't even know we were paying at all.

"So what do we do?" I said softly to the others from across the room, still seated at the granite counter.

"We keep our eyes open," Nate said with dark eyes and turned to walk away from Mat and Evee.