294

The city streets were quieter than anyone could ever remember hearing them.  It was impossible to tell how many people were in their homes this evening because the lights were out and all the curtains drawn.  Lights normally powered by the city hadn't been on in more than a year, but when the sun went down, no one else put their lights on, either; it was easier this way.  There had been warnings, first on television, then announced in the streets, then with the short-lived sirens, to turn off lights.  People obeyed once a quarter of their city had been bombed into oblivion.  The sirens stopped working after just a week, but by then everyone knew not to light the dark.  Lights became targets.  Targets became rubble.

101

What is in room 101? A person who has read George Orwell's 1984 knows the answer is "The worst thing in the world." If I were to ask that person what the worst thing in the world is, he or she would most likely answer, "Rats." He or she would be wrong.

The worst thing in the world is sacrificing those you love to save yourself.

I did that. I did the worst thing in the world. I sacrificed everything I ever loved to save myself, and here I am, and here they're not. I wish the worst thing had been rats.