Love is like nothing else. Without water, it will not wilt. Without food, it will not die. It will languor alone within, awaiting its chance to bloom. Sounds like a virus to me.

Death is just your body running out of ammunition. Slam in a fresh battery and keep fighting!

Life is only as precious as what we will die for.

Thorn grunted and the metal control fell from his spasming fingers. It bounced across the dusty concrete and I stomped down as hard as I could. I felt more than heard the metallic crunch under my boot. Another irreplaceable artifact ruined, courtesy of Julia Reed.

There has to be beauty left in the world, Julia," said Kiyu. "Otherwise we have nothing.

Not many people bothered to look for beauty beyond the greenhouses. They went about life with their heads down, just praying to get through the day, to feed themselves and their family. No one ever did anything to make it better.

These raids didn't usually end in violence, but people got emotional, and emotional people did stupid things.

Nice work," I commented drily. "How old was that littlest one? Five? Did she put up a terrible fight?""I feared for my life," Zach said with a perfectly straight face. "You must be bored, Julia. You usually have a sharper sense of humor than that.""Eat thorns.""Well, it is about lunch time. Let's go grab a bite.

One of these days, I would doubt the Gardeners a little too much and Zach was going to play handball with my head.