“It’s not stupid,” I tell her. She glances at me, clearly not believing me. “I mean, I’ve wondered about that before. If there’s something more to them.”

“There’s not,” she says matter-of-factly. “Noell was my husband. He’s the one who really believed in all of this. There’s nothing left inside him anymore. I’d know if there were.” Her voice sounds so flat, so lifeless. As if everything she’s ever believed has died.

I want to say something to give her comfort. “There could still be something …” I struggle for words and end up lamely offering, “More.”

She shrugs again but doesn’t protest.

“How long have you been here?” I ask, not sure I want to know the answer.

“Weeks? I don’t know. Doesn’t really matter. Noell and I were down in Vista when the town revolted. They wouldn’t let us keep our dead and the Recruiters promised to protect us.” She laughs softly. “They brought us here. Caged us and have slowly been killing us off since. Not enough resources to feed us all—not enough entertainment for them.” She waits a moment before adding, “I guess I’m lucky that they just threw me in here and didn’t do anything else to me.”

Weeks. I press my forehead to the bottom of my cage. I knew about the fights and what the Recruiters were capable of. I knew about the Soulers being used as Sweepers. How many people suffered because I didn’t do anything?

I was too selfish. “I’m sorry,” I tell her again.

She watches the way her husband moans, the way his teeth clack together. “Doesn’t really matter, it’ll be over soon. If there’s something to their belief in Resurrection, then I guess I get to be with them after all. And if there isn’t …” She closes her eyes again and I see that her fingers are trembling as she wipes a tear from her cheek.

For a while we sit in silence.

Eventually, she says, “Do you think people were this cruel before the Return?”

Her question surprises me. “I don’t know.”

“They take so much pleasure in suffering. I don’t understand it.”

I swallow, stare down at my hands. “I don’t either. Maybe they don’t understand.”

“Maybe,” she says. “I just wonder sometimes if that’s why all this happened. If there wasn’t enough good in the world and that’s what caused the Return. People got greedy and selfish with their lives and were unwilling to let it go in the end when it was time.”

“I don’t know what caused the Return,” I say. “If what they wanted was eternal life, they didn’t do a good job of it. Who wants to live like them?” I wave my hands at Noell and Jonah. “And who wants to live like us?”