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not go into those sections. It is unsafe for you if you’re not with me. This is your hall, just this area.”
    “Yellow section, got it,” I said. “What’s in the other sections?”
    “Area guards, managers, and alpha leaders can move between sections. Blue section is the techs. They are to the far right in that area. Between the blue section and the yellow section is the cruncher, red section. All you need to remember is stay in the yellow section.”
    I looked over at Roberts and she was staring in the tech direction.
    “Roberts, yellow section only, remember that,” I told her and touched her arm.
    “Yellow, yeah.” She turned to Bender. “Didn’t you say something about food, I’m starving.”
    Bender grinned. “Come with me, you too, Danbeu.”
    It was a short walk across a crowded area to a long line of men and women. Bender walked up to the next man in line to be served and elbowed the man back, then waved Roberts and me into the line ahead on him. “Demo team here,” Bender told the person dishing out food. He said this loud enough that no one grumbled about us cutting the long line. The fact that these people did not stop us, made me worry a lot about the new job. “Demo team!” Bender repeated louder.
    The person serving, placed a thick piece of yellow bread in a steel dish, and the next person ladled a scoop of a grayish colored stew on top of the bread. He then handed the dish to Roberts. I got the next one and Bender took the one after me.
    With our food in hand, Bender led us to a row of almost empty tables to eat. Around us were heavily filled tables with some people eating standing up. I noticed Bender watching me as he sat down next to me. Roberts sat down across the table from us.
    “This table is for demo teams only,” Bender explained.
    “Like the bread, just a little something more,” Roberts commented which told me she had been paying attention when she seemed distracted by the blue section.
    “Yeah, a little something extra for the special ones.” Bender reached across the table, laid his right hand on her left, and smiled a little wider at her. Roberts did not move her hand and smiled a little smile back at him.
    I hit him across the jaw line with an open fist. It gets a person’s attention, but does not do any real damage. It got Bender’s attention and others around us, including Roberts.
    Bender stared at me. I stared back at him, and after a minute gave him a slight shake of my head. Slowly, he drew his hand back from touching Robert’s hand.
    “Problem, Bender?” I heard someone ask from behind me.
    Bender continued to look at me. “No, no problems. Jenkins, this is Danbeu and Roberts, the new members of your demo team.”
    I glanced at Roberts, who did not look pleased with me. She stood up and extended her right hand to this Jenkins guy behind me. “Mia Roberts.”
    Jenkins shook her hand, and she took her seat again.
    “Danbeu,” I said and turned in my seat to face him. He was skinny, but that did not surprise me with what I had seen of the food, so far. With the exception of Big Chin and his guards, everyone looked like they were slowly starving to death.
    “After dinner, I’m going to show them where to bed down,” Bender told Jenkins.
    “Bender, report to my office. Bender, my office,” came over the loud speaker mounted on a structural load beam near our table. I noticed a large iron hammer hanging there from a chain.
    “Jenkins, after they eat, show them where to bed down. Tomorrow get them working. No free lunches here.” Bender left the table his bowl in hand.
    Jenkins leaned over the table. “Two things you need to know. First, we start early and work long hours, so you are going to want to get your rest. I’m headed to my rack soon, so don’t take long eating.”
    “What’s the second thing we need to know?” Roberts asked.
    “The second thing is, problems for Bender are problems for the crew and the demo crews solve their problems