She smiles at them as they go by and continues to play, making it clear that this furnace of a place, full of planes that cannot fly, is more than it seems. It is a womb of redemption for every Unwind, and fora ll those who fought the Heartland War and lost - which was everybody.

When you live a life without questions, you're unprepared for the questions when they come.

...if more people had been organ donors, unwinding never would have happened...but people like to keep what's theirs, even after they're dead.

Sometimes we make our alliances not by the shape and color of our flesh but by the convictions of our heart.

On a hairpin turn, above the dead forest, on no day in particular, a white Toyota crashed into a black Mercedes, for a moment blending into a blur of gray.

But now we've finally taken full possession of what is rightfully ours, because everyone must feel their own pain--and as awful as that is, it's also wonderful.

Perhaps, thought Talon, there was a path in between. A way to shed their ignorance without losing their souls.