Dry

...and I realize that this is the true core of human nature: When we've lost the strength to save ourselves, we somehow find the strength to save each other.

People can be monsters. Whether it's just their actions, or whether it's who they really are, it doesn't matter. The result is the same.

Sometimes you have to be the monster to survive

As a kid you idolize your parents. You think they're perfect, because they're the yardstick by which you measure the rest of the world, and yourself. Then as a teenager they just piss you off, because you realize that not only are they not perfect, but they may be even a little more screwed up than you. But there's that moment when you realize they're not superheroes, or villains. They're painfully, unforgivably human. The question is, can you forgive them for being human anyway?

The worst part about doing something inexcusable is that you can never take it back. It's like breaking a glass. It can't unbreak. The best you can do it sweep it up, and hope you don't step on the slivers you left behind.

As far as authority is concerned, calm people quietly dying is a lot easier to deal with than angry people fighting for their lives.

Tomorrow is going to have to take care of itself for a while," Alyssa says. Then she adds, "Yesterday, too.

Wasn't it Jacqui who told us the human body is sity percent water? Well, now I know what the rest is. The rest is dust, the rest is ash, it's sorrow and it's grief... But above all that, in spite of all that, binding us together... is hope. And joy. And a wellspring of all the things that still might be.

There’s this thing that happens with a mob. It’s called “deindividuation.” It’s the kind of thing that happens when a cop puts on a uniform, or when you wear a pair of sunglasses so people can’t quite see your eyes. It’s like you slip out of your normal self—and it makes you feel different. Behave different. So what happens when you’re just another thirsty soul in sea of water-zombies? You become one.

This isn't the same world it was yesterday.

...[s]ometimes doing the right thing means doing the wrong thing first.

Things pass. Even big things. And when they're far behind us, they don't look as big anymore.

(W)hen something drastic happens, there's a lag time. It's not quite denial, and not quite shock, but more like a mental free fall. You're spending so much time wrapping your mind around the problem, you don't realize what you need to do until the window to do it has closed.

It sets me off giggling, which gets everyone else laughing. And it occurs to me that even in these do-or-die moments, there's still space for us to laugh. I guess that means we still have some fight left in us.

when something drastic happens, there’s a lag time. It’s not quite denial, and not quite shock, but more like a mental free fall.

Top Ramen, my favorite comfort food—because it’s comforting to know that in the event of nuclear fallout, my food has enough MSG and preservatives to out-survive all of mankind.

When we've lost the strength to save ourselves, we somehow find the strength to save each other.

Putting me at the forefront of his thoughts drew out what little energy he had left, just as when I had focused on helping him - and I realize this is the true core of human nature: When we've lost the strength to save ourselves, we somehow find the strength to save each other.

Kelton takes the gun back, surprised by the offer. "So you trust me now?" "Absolutely not", Jacqui says. "But at least if you do something stupid, it will be your problem, not mine.

Everyone’s going to remember where they were when the taps went dry, I think. Like when a president is assassinated.

There's no radar image for a water crisis. No storm surges, no debris fields - the Tap-Out is as silent as cancer. There's nothing to see, and so the news is treating it like a sidebar.

Grief can twist people in ways they're not supposed to twist.

When something's out of your control, you bring order to the things you can.

...But I'm not mad at Garrett, because I know this is not about him intentionally wasting water. It's that he's mesmerized by it. Not by the water itself, but by the sheer power to be able to make it flow, and make it stop with the simple flick of the wrist.

Book smarts are nice like heelies are nice: They'll only get you so far, until you have to use your freaking feet. In fight-or-flight situations it's the street smarts that will get you out alive.

When we’ve lost the strength to save ourselves, we somehow find the strength to save each other.

I’m so thankful to be alive right now, he could take credit for the faked lunar landings and I wouldn’t care.

I imagine her to already be animal, without needing three days to get there.

Wasn't it Jacqui who told us the human body is sixty percent water? Well, now I know what the rest is. The rest is dust, the rest is ash, it's sorrow and it's grief... But above all that, in spite of all that, binding us together... is hope. And joy. And a wellspring of all the things that still might be.