couldn’t fight anymore. You fight because your squad needs you to. When the last man standing beside you goes down, you don’t need a bullet to take o… - Hugh Howey

Thank you,” she said, remembering her manners. And then, after some consideration: “I’m sorry I fell asleep.

He awoke each morning with familiar shapes at the edges of his vision, could feel memories nearby, but by the time breakfast came, they were already fading. By dinner, they were lost. It left Troy with a sadness, a cold sensation, and a feeling like a hollow stomach — different from hunger — like rainy days as a child when he didn't know how to fill his time. It was the pain of a chronic boredom mixed with the discomfort of time wasted.

None of us asked to be where we are,” she reminded him coolly.

This gave Lukas pause, thinking of where she was, what she'd been through to get there.

“What we control,” Juliette said, “is our actions once fate puts us there.