She taught me all about real sacrifice. That it should be done from love, not misplace disgust for another person's genetics.

Looks like someone had a mood swing.” She rolls her eyes. “Like you don’t want to know what his fears are. He acts so tough that he’s probably afraid of marshmallows and really bright sunrises or something.

Like a wild animal, the truth is too powerful to remain caged.

I shield my eyes from the sun to see her cold look—the expression I saw in my mind even before I looked at her. She looks older to me than she ever has, stern and tough and worn by time. I feel that way, too. “These people have no regard for human life,” she says. “They’re about to wipe the memories of all our friends and neighbors. They’re responsible for the deaths of a large majority of our old faction.” She sidesteps me and marches toward the door. “I think they’re lucky I’m not going to kill them.

Sometimes all I want is to be a few inches taller so the world does not look like a dense collection of torsos.

We don't know what's happened out there since they put us in here, or how many generations have lived and died since they did.We could be the last people left.

I am afraid of her, afraid of what she says-and thrilled by it too, because it means I don't have to accept that I am smaller than I once believed.