The Forest Of Hands And Teeth Quotes
"It is the way that it has been and will be and the Sisters will not allow you to presume otherwise. You must not think such things, let alone speak them."
"You must find your place here, Mary. You must give yourself over to God and stop looking for something else."
"We have survived because the Sisterhood has done what was necessary. We keep order in the village."
"That is why you must leave Travis alone. I have watched the way you covet him. But he is not for you."
"We have to continue to survive. And I will allow nothing to jeopardize this."
"Remember where we came from, Mary. Where we all came from. Not the Garden of Eden, but the ashes of the Return."
"This is what happens when you go against God's will. This is His retribution. This is our penance."
"We are our own memory-keepers and we have failed ourselves."
"What is a village without order? Without rules and people to enforce them?"
"Why do you keep such secrets? Why not trust us?"
"Your mother used to tell you stories about life before the Return."
"Here, everyone is fed. Everyone is warm and safe and loved and cared for."
"Love can be cruel and ugly. It can become dark and cause the deepest pain."
"Life in this village is not about love but about commitment."
"It is not an easy life, being one of the keepers of the knowledge of the Sisterhood."
"Marriage is not about love, Mary. It is about commitment and compromise and caring."
"I can feel the whimpers choking me and I clamp a hand over my mouth, knowing not to draw attention to myself."
"The Unconsecrated never hesitate to leave a fresh kill in order to bring down another living victim."
"My fingers feel clumsy as I fumble with the latch on the gate."
"I close my eyes, hold my breath, let the siren pulse through my body."
"But my body screams for air and the stench of death filters through me."
"I stand and face Gabrielle. I look death in the eye."
"Her fingers are all broken; some have bone pushing through the flesh."
"But her eyes are still clear—that clarity of the newly Unconsecrated."
"I want to ask her who she is, where she came from and what she wants from me."
"Harry comes to grab me, to urge me down the path."
"I feel as if I'm ripping apart inside, everything fragmenting at once."
"Looking back at the village, I see figures moving but I can't tell if they are living or Unconsecrated."
"The oddest thing about an Unconsecrated invasion is that no dead litter the ground; they all rise and join ranks with the enemy."
"I pull my knees up to my chest and place my forehead against the wet fabric of my skirt."
"Going down that path would kill us all, Mary."
"We're already dead. We're surrounded by it every day."
"There is an end to the Forest, Cass. There's an Outside—there's more out there."
"Don't you want to know what's on the other side?"
"The ocean has always been your dream, Mary, not mine."
"Believing the village is gone means that everyone we have ever known is dead."
"We shuffle along in our lives just like they shuffle along in theirs."
"We can hear the shuffling of feet growing close."
"Habits die hard and absence doesn't stop my fingers from searching."
"We live most of our lives together upstairs where the windows are left open to the light and to the air."
"Only rarely, when I climb to the platform to look at my brother, my betrothed and my best friend, do I wonder if they are living a life like mine."
"Because we're together now. And I don't want to mar the harmony that we have found."
"The outside world ends at our door and this includes our commitments to other people."
"But then I start to wonder what woman once wore these dresses and why."
"I know that she was taller than I am because her gowns sweep over my bare toes and trail on the dusty floor."
"Who will ever know that I existed? What if we are the only ones left—who will know our stories then?"
"I am filled with emptiness as I nod my head because I cannot bear to tell him the truth."
"I spend the rest of the afternoon watching the others go about their day."
"I try not to think about the book full of photographs hidden in the trunk in the attic."
"I've promised Travis, if not out loud, that I won't take such risks again."
"I wonder what that means for the two of us," I say.
"I realized yesterday that it doesn't matter about the ocean. Because even if we never find it you still no longer need me."
"All I could see was you in that red vest, you tearing against the fences. I couldn't let that happen."
"I haven't been fair to you," he finally says.
"You don't even have a safety rope!" he yells out.
"But I don't let their words distract me—I concentrate only on one hand in front of the other."
"When I reach the other side I let my legs drop, blood beginning to pool back into my feet."
"I look down, my neck straining between my arms. To my left is the Forest of Hands and Teeth, where the Unconsecrated are beginning to gather, beginning to shamble toward us."
"My mouth opens to scream but no sound comes out. I am hanging by my hands, my body heavy, and it's hard to breathe."
"With a whoosh I allow myself to drop and I crawl to him. He's leaning against the trunk of the tree just inside the gate."
""Travis!" I yell as I pull him close to me. I rock him like a small child. "You'll be okay," I tell him."
""Why did you do this, Travis?" I ask. "Why?""
""We'll fix this," I tell him. "Maybe there's another village. Maybe there's a healer."
"His small chuckle stops time, pulls us into our own world back before this village and the breach."
""It wouldn't have mattered if they were scratches or not," he says, his voice like liquid."
""Let me pray for you," I whisper. My nose runs; my eyes are swollen with tears."
""You were never very good at praying," he says with a small laugh."
"I pull him tighter into my lap, wanting to squeeze the infection from his body, to clean his blood with my love."
""I loved him," I whimper. "He was everything. Why couldn't I see that he was everything?""
"For a moment we are one in our grief, and then we hear the shouts."
""Promise me, Mary," he says again. This time his voice is weak, his breath rattling."
""I love you," I tell him. But he does not answer. Because he is dead."
""You would have been a good husband to me," I tell him."
""But we both know you didn't want to be with me," he adds."
""That world no longer exists," I tell him. "We have to find our own way now."
""If we are all that is left," I tell him, "then maybe we weren't meant to survive."
""Cass was right—you're only chasing stupid bedtime stories and it's selfish," he says as he throws his double-bladed ax to the ground."
""Because I figured out the code and it works. Because according to the code this is the first gate," I shout back."
""Because you are all I have left of family," he says."
""We might find another village, a healthy one. We could have a life…." He lets his voice trail off."
""But tomorrow will be too late," I tell Jed, jerking my wrist free."
""I promised Travis that I wouldn't give up hope," I tell him."
""What are your dreams worth if you're dead?" he asks, his voice soft."
"I realize that Jed has been talking to me and I have to strain to hear his voice."
""Because I'm your big brother." He smiles, then laughs. "And I want to believe in hope.""
""The ocean," I whisper. And then the night before breaks fresh into my mind again."
""It's usually not so full of debris," the man says. "Storms like the one last night will cause a lot of timber to pour out of the river."
""The tide will come in and wash them back out again," he says. "In about six hours you'd never know there was anything here other than sand and surf."
""That's just the way life is. Some days you wake up and the beach is clear and you forget about everything that surrounds us."
""I have never seen the ocean," I say. I wonder what Jed would have thought, taking in the expanse of water."
""From the Forest," I say. "The Forest of Hands and Teeth."
""I've always wondered if there were folks in there," he says. "Though I've never heard it called by that name. Apt, though, I guess."