Fragments

Humanity will destroy itself, body and soul, before it will learn a simple lesson.

Facts are too busy being true to worry about how you feel about them.

You don't get a life until you make one worth living.

It's just one thing after another. Cars that won't run. Planes that will never fly again. Computer systems we can barely use, let alone re-create. It's like...time is flowing backward. We're caveman archeologists in the ruins of the future.

If you have the strength to whine, you have the strength to do something about it.

It's not enough, is it? Just to follow; just to have faith in someone bigger and smarter and better informed. That's how we're built, that's how every Partial is wired - to follow orders and trust in our leaders - but it's not enough. It never has been. We've followed our leaders, and sometimes they win and sometimes they lose; we do what they say and we play our part. But this is our decision. Our mission. And when we're done, it will be our victory, or our defeat. I don't want to fail, but if I do, I want to be able to look back and say, 'I did that. I failed. That was all me.

It's easier to fall back into the same old patterns of hate and retribution, because at least then we're doing something.

None of this is by accident, and we have to figure out what it all means. She paused. We have to. It's the same old argument I used to have with Mkele: the present or the future. Sometimes you have to put the present through hell to get the future you want.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

I chose to follow you," he said, and his voice was deep and rich. "And I'll find you again.

I’ve picked a side,” she said darkly. “And everyone’s on it. And that’s exactly who I’m going to save.

This is the story of the end of the world, the rise and fall of human civilization, the creation of the Partials and the death of everything else.

I’d rather know how you feel than hope and wonder and delude myself for weeks on end…

I’m sorry,” he said again. “I think I’m in love. . . .” He paused. “I don’t think she even knows.

It's not that," said Samm, "it's just... I used to think the world was worse for what we've done, both our species, but out here I don't think the world even cares who we are. Or were. We came and went, and life goes on, and the land that was always here before us will still be here after we're dead and gone. Birds will still fly. Rain will still fall. The world didn't end, it just... reset.

Marcus smiled back at her nervously, eyeing not only the rifle but the pair of knives he now saw clipped to her belt. Not one knife - a pair of knives. Who needs two knives? How many things does she have to cut at once? He was in no hurry to find out.

Enough about body language," said Kira. "I want to practice the link so hit me." "Hitting you won't make the link easier to detect." "It's an expression," said Kira.

A plaque at the door congratulated her for climbing 1,860 individual stairs, and she nodded as she caught her breath. "Just my luck," she gasped. "I'm going to have the best glutes left in the planet, and there nobody here to see them.

It’s like . . . time is flowing backward. We’re caveman archeologists in the ruins of the future.

... if you have the strength to complain, you have the strength to do something about it.

Sometimes you have to put the present through hell to get the future you want.

The books in the library were old, rotted, and there was no one left in the world to read them, but Kira made sure that none of them went into the fire. It seemed wrong.

What's changed is that your high-minded morality is suddenly faced with consequences. Every choice has them. Sometimes with the stakes this high a choice you would never make before, that you would never consider in any other circumstances, becomes the only moral option. The only action you can take and still live with yourself in the morning.

The documents inbox138 described a world in which money was everything- not just the means of sustaining life but the purpose of living it. ... If that was how the old world worked--if that was all they really cared about--maybe it was better that it had fallen apart. Maybe it was inevitable

Manhattan was a no-man's land, empty, an unofficial demilitarized zone between Partials and the human survivors. No one was supposed to be here, not because it was forbidden but because it was dangerous. If something happened to you out here, either side could get you, and neither side could protect you.

If you could do me a favor and not tell anyone I, uh, threw myself at you, that would be very kind as well.

I've been watching you ever since you came into town, and you never gave a single sign that you were interested in her. That's why I made a move. If I couldn't tell, neither can she." "I'm very bad at communi- "I know", said Calix firmly. "I am very quickly becoming an expert in how bad at communicating you are. We've established that, and we're moving past it.

If you have the strength to whine, you have the strength to do something about it.” They

You crossed the entire continent together, and yet neither of you made a move?" She huffed another short hollow laugh. "No wonder you don't have any children.