REBOOT ~ rewrite

3.

I grabbed my food tray for lunch and took another glance at the end of the line. That's where twenty-two stood. He look around the canteen and when he saw me he waved. I quickly turned around. I concentrated on the human behind the counter, who put a piece of streak on my plate. There were three humans behind the counter, two women and one man. Back in the days the Reboots would also do the service activities for HARC, but a lot of humans got sick and tired of being unemployed so HARC created new jobs for them. Although I don't think they were fond of serving Reboots. 

I let them scoop food on my plate and walked through the canteen towards my seat next to Hugo. I poked my fork into the perfectly cooked steak and put it in my mouth. HARC told the parents of Reboots that we were better of at HARC than with them (like the parents had a choice). They would make us helpful, they said. We would live a life that would matter. I didn't know if we were really better of, but at least we got better food. A Reboot could live on less food, but we functioned best if we got food on a regular basis. 

'Can I sit here?' I looked up and saw twenty-two standing in front of me with his tray. His white shirt was covered in blood; the ninety's probably fucked with him again. Most of the time that went on for a couple of days, before the guards stopped it. 

'The under-sixty table is right there,' I said, pointing to Evers table. They were talking and laughing, and a boy was waving around with his arms. He looked over his shoulder. 'Is that a rule?' I didn't say anything for a moment. Was it a rule? No, we started it ourselves. 'No,' I answered. 'Well... can I sit here?' I couldn't think of a reason why he couldn't, but it sounded like a bad idea. 'Okay,' I said hesitantly. 

He dropped himself on the chair in front of me. A few people at my table looked at me with a confused look. Mary one hundred thirty-five looked at me and twenty-two with a frown. I ignored her. 'Why do you do this when it's not a rule?' he asked, while he gestured to the canteen. 'The closer the numbers sit next to each other, the more they have in common with each other,' I said. I took a bite of my streak. 'That's dumb.' I frowned. It wasn't dumb. It was the truth. 'I don't see why the amount of minutes you've been dead would have an influence on your personality,' he said. 'That's because you're a twenty-two.' He raised his eyebrows and concentrated on his food. He poked in it like he was scared that it would jump up and bite back when he took a bite. He looked at me strangely when I took a bite. 

'Is it good?' he asked. 'It looks weird.' 'Yes, it's good.' 'What is it?' 'Steak' 'So it's cow?' 'Yes, you have never eaten meat before, have you?' In the slums was meat very rare, except if a human had a job at HARC. 'No,' twenty-two answered. The look on this face told me he didn't want to change that either. 'Try it; you'll like it.' He chewed slowly and swallowed it with a twisted look. After that he kept looking at the steak that was left on his plate. 'I don't know, it's a little weird.' 

'Eat up and stop moaning,' snapped Lizzy, who sat at the other side of the table. 'Is she always cranky like that?' he whispered to me. I almost laughed when I look over at Lizzy and saw her chop her steak like it was trying to run away. Hugo smirked and imitated her. Ross one hundred forty-nine blinked two times at him, which was his version of a smile. 

'Everyone tells me she is going to be my trainer,' twenty-two said. Lizzy's head snapped up and while pointing her fork at him she said: 'Everyone is right. So shut your face hole and eat' Twenty-two's smile didn't disappear, it just changed into a challenging smirk. He put his fork down and leaned back. He didn't have to say it out loud: and what if I don't? Lizzy quickly ate the rest of her food, stood up and when she walked past us and looked at him. 'I hope you die quickly, so I don't have to deal with you for long,' she snapped. 'I think that's the technique she uses with all of her greenies,' Hugo said while giggling a bit.