The bottle was white and plastic, with faded markings on the side like skid marks. "Protein?" MK-22 asked, frowning. "Protein." "Like the kind you –" "Yes. Protein the molecule. And carbohydrates and a bunch of other things." Leaving the bottle behind, MK-22 kept rolling down the dirt path, its rotating camera spinning around fast, trying to absorb everything around. It was all green and brown and beautiful. All open and wide. Inside his head, CB's voice continued, "They required a lot of maintenance." "What happened?" MK-22 asked, stopping by a piece of large cobblestone path topping the dirt path, leading all the way in front of him to a maze of ruined towers and skeleton cars. "Organic life," CB replied, "is not meant to last. That's why they built us." MK-22 rolled his way into the phantom city, spinning his camera around. "Why did they need so much space?" he asked, amazed at the towering heights of the structures. "They were each separate creatures," CB replied. "Not like us, able to separate and unify consciousness at will, but permanently separated." "Must have been lonely," MK replied, stopping by a front entrance of a large house. His camera focused on a broken plastic doll with one eye dangling from its face. "It must have," CB replied. Then, after a pause, "Now come on. Log out of the rover, MK. Back to Central." MK didn't answer. This was his first time exploring. His first time projecting himself out of Central into the world. "Are there any left?" MK asked, rolling through broken wood and overgrown grass inside the house. "Any what left, MK?" "Humans…" The sunlight painted strips of dust through the cracked walls inside the house, striping the grey living room in diagonal shapes of soft white. Objects both big and small rested on top of each other all across the furniture and the floor, resting silent like a shipwreck. "No," CB replied, just as MK heard the noise from upstairs. "They died a long time ago. To make way for… a better form of life." MK's camera stopped on the last steps of the stairs. "What happened to them?" "They found out there was no life in the universe apart from them," CB replied. "So they built it." The noise came again, echoed like a memory from behind the upstairs bedroom door. "…and?" MK replied, only half listening as he rolled his way step after step to the top. "Come back now, MK," CB's voice asked. "Enough roaming around." The wooden door opened slow and loudly, a little crack widening a centimeter at a time just as MK turned off his live feed to Central. On the other side of the door, a small face framed in dusty yellow hair eyed MK back. Its eyes were bright blue, and it took a step backwards. "MK?" CB asked, as MK rolled inside the room. The human tumbled back, raising a cloud of dust as his body fell against the wooden floor. "MK?"