Status Updates From Dust (Silo, #3)

Invisible machines rode the winds around the planet, destroying anything human, returning the world to wilderness. The people buried underground were dormant seeds that would have to wait another 200 years before they sprouted. Two hundred years. Donald felt his throat begin to tickle once more and wondered if he had two days in him.

'What lasts forever?' she obliged [...] 'Our decisions,' he said. [...] Lukas turned to face her. 'Yeah. Our actions, you know? They last for ever. Whatever we do, it'll always be what we did. There is no taking them back.'

'It doesn't bother me that I won't be around one day,' Lukas said after a while. 'I don't stress about the fact that I wasn't here 100 years ago. I think death will be a lot like that. 100 years from now my life will be just like it was 100 years ago.'

As she turned, the woman rubbed the cross and kissed it and Juliette thought of Father Wendel and the idea that she was bringing fear, not hope, to the silo. Hope was what he and the church offered, some place to exist after death. Fear came from the chance that changing the world for the better could possibly make it worse.