Machine Learning: New and Collected Stories

by Hugh Howey

“Eat something before you start,” he’d said. I didn’t think it was important, but all of a sudden understood why. I salivated uncontrollably and glanced at the missing piece of me sitting on the table. When was the last time I’d eaten? I couldn’t remember. I could hear my dad’s voice, clear as the popping of hot juice on the hot plate. “Nothing goes to waste.”