As long as we remember a person, they're not really gone. Their thoughts, their feelings, their memories, they become a part of us. - Justin Cronin

His gaze widened, then taking in the entirety of the camp. All these people: they were trapped. And not merely by the wires that surrounded them. Physical barricades were nothing compared to the wires of the mind. What had truly imprisoned them was one another. Husbands and wives, parents and children, friends and companions: what they believed had given them strength in their lives had actually done the opposite. Guilder recalled the couple who lived across the street from his townhouse, trading off their sleeping daughter on the way to the car. How heavy that burden must have felt in their arms. And when the end swept down upon them all, they would exit the world on a wave of suffering, their agonies magnified a million times over by the loss of her. Would they have to watch her die? Would they perish first, knowing what would become of her in their absence? Which was preferable? But the answer was neither. Love had sealed their doom. Which was what love did. Guilder's father had taught that lesson well enough.

Mankind had built a world that would take a hundred years to die. A century for the last light to go out.

And to you, the sleepers in my keeping: you have lived for countless lifetimes, you shall live for countless more. They will be different from the ones you've always known; your days of idleness and ease are gone. This is not a punishment - far from it. It is my gift to you, that you should be redeemed.
I will give you childhood, so that you might know innocence.
Age, so you will know the prize of youth.
Children, so that you will care for the future.
Toil, so that you will know the value of a day.
The body's failings, so that you will know its worth.
Death, so that you will cherish the bittersweet beauty of life.
We are, each of us, born a sparkling soul, clothed only in our newness; now you will learn to be another.