This Mortal Coil Quotes
"The only damn thing that makes life worthwhile is people looking after each other."
"The truth is that when you're facing death, there's no telling what you'll do."
"The world keeps spinning when its brightest star is dead."
"Wrestle the pain under your control, wrestle it into a spike."
"You can't program someone's mind, not even with gentech."
"The virus either takes your life, or it takes your humanity."
"When you yield to that instinct, it's like nothing you've known."
"Nature designed this plague as a double-edged sword: it either takes your life, or it takes your humanity."
"Sometimes the only reason either of us is still alive is that we can't bear the thought of leaving the other alone."
"This might have been the closest call I’ve had since the outbreak."
"No matter how careful a mother was, her baby would still be born with hundreds of artificial chemicals floating in its blood."
"The genehackers had glimpsed the future, and they saw a day when people would be defined by the limitations of their imagination, not their DNA."
"Panels changed all that. Mortality rates plummeted."
"I learned the hard way that there are some things in life you’re not supposed to change."
"Cole won’t give me a gun, but that doesn’t mean I can’t bring my own."
"‘There’s nothing here,’ I call out. ‘No notes, at least.’"
"‘Catarina?’ Cole’s voice is a whisper through the roar of the bats."
"‘There are four of them. They might not know you’re here, and they might not be able to get to you through that crack. I need you to stay in there, whatever happens.’"
"‘Keep quiet.’ Cole runs out of the main room, his footsteps echoing through the shafts."
"Cole said there were four of them. Three down, one to go."
"‘I’m coming!’ I shout, scrambling through the gap in the rock."
"‘Oh, Jesus,’ I whisper as his blood bubbles up between my fingers."
"‘You need to get it out and cauterize the wound to stop the spread. It’s interfering with my healing tech.’"
"‘You’re going to have to drive. My tech is glitching out.’"
"‘Where did you get that gun?’ Cole asks. His face is ashen and streaked with sweat."
"‘I’m not giving you orders. I’m trying to protect you, like I’ve been trained to.’"
"‘You’re the jailers, not Cartaxus. If we rounded you all up at gunpoint like we should, pretty soon the virus would be gone, and we could all move back up to the surface in safety again.’"
"‘I’m sorry,’ I say as blood trickles from beneath the gauze, spilling over his belt."
"‘I reckon …’ Cole starts, then groans with pain. He sucks in a breath. ‘I reckon you’re batshit.’"
"‘We’re in something of a minor apocalypse, and the chances of finding a living clonebox on the surface are slim to none.’"
"‘Cole!’ I urge, grabbing his face. ‘You can’t die, dammit!’"
"‘There’s no such thing as neural code – apps that can change the brain – it’s just a myth. Gentech can’t do that, and it can’t turn Lurkers who’ve lost their minds, like Marcus’s wife, back into the people they were before.’"
"I’ve been dying from the inside out, and why? Because my father told me to? Because he said Cartaxus was evil?"
"A ripple of silence spreads through the crowd. Heads turn slowly, until every eye is locked on me."
"‘It matters because your father is the reason we’re doing this. We’re following a couple of his notes to do something we don’t understand, and it might put us all in danger.'"
"‘Your father had a reason for his work, Catarina. He was trying to make a vaccine.’"
"‘That’s right. Hydra only affects humans.’"
"‘She was the strongest of us,’ Cole says. ‘She escaped three years ago. I never found out if she made it or not until you showed me those server results.'"
"‘It’s already dangerous, Cole. My father was experimenting on children. If you’re worried that I’ll hate him for this –’"
"‘I did it,’ I breathe, still staring back as we burst into the wasteland, my entire leg throbbing with pain. ‘It closed the airlocks, Cole.’"
"I did what I had to, I told you we needed to close the airlocks. Eighty thousand people, Cole."
"I didn’t have time to do anything else. I made a decision, and you disagreed. This is what happens when you don’t listen to me."
"No amount of healing tech will save me then."
"It’s not safe to sit here and let Cole look at me like this, sparking something inside me that feels like a window bursting open."
"They were designed to cave in to protect the bunker if a blower got inside and detonated."
"If you die, we’re all doomed. My job is to protect you, and that’s what I was doing."
"It was a long time ago. I’ve dealt with it."
"I want to feel the way I did this morning. Safe, warm, secure."
"We need to hurry, Cole. We need to unlock the vaccine."
"I’m OK. I think my ocular tech is waking up again."
"I don’t want to hurt people any more. I want to help them, like you do."
"This is my mantra. I will be strong; I will be brave."
"Sometimes we need to do awful things to stop worse things from happening."
"This is a hard world, and your father made me hard enough to survive it."
"People would freak out if they saw this."
"We can’t do anything until we get this stuff off our skin."
"It’s going to hurt you, isn’t it? You’re not telling me because you’re worried I won’t let you go through with it."
"He made you feel all those things? But how did he test them?"
"I’ve been through a lot, but so has everyone."
"Sometimes we need to embrace that to survive."
"I’ll handle that. I just need a few minutes to get it out."
"I can do this. I can get the vaccine into every panel, but you’re going to have to do exactly as I say."
"I want his lips on mine. I want to grab his shirt, to pull him to me, to close the distance between us."
"Once the vaccine hits my cells, my body is going to dissolve. That’s not exactly appropriate footage for humanity’s future schoolchildren."
"This bubbling glass box is where I’m going to die. In this room, surrounded by cameras and people I don’t know."
"Be brave, I tell myself, but the words ring hollow."
"The last minutes of my life are ticking down, and I’m still not ready."
"I’m stronger than this. I’m brave, and I don’t need Cole’s light to see it."
"I’m glad I met you. Whatever happens, I want you to know that."
"I know, I just… I don’t know how to say goodbye."
"They don’t have hair on their legs or skin discoloration, not unless they want it."
"I’m taking a look now. I can’t see anything obvious except a lingering dose of ERO-86 in your blood."
"I always thought we’d get married, we’d code together."
"But when you love someone for their mind, you can’t expect that their heart will belong to you too."
"You’re an ass. And it’s your loss. I hope you know that."
"The world was here before I was born, and it will keep spinning after I am dead."
"The universe is continuous; I am the anomaly."
"It’s too much for me to take in. Too much joy, too much confusion."
"I’m not her, I can’t be. I went to boarding school."
"The affection I feel for him is like a light inside me blinking on."
"We don’t have a choice. We have to convince him to let us get close to him, and then we have to kill him."
"I still don’t know what his endgame is, but I think he wanted everything to happen exactly as it did."
"Lachlan didn’t do this to drive everyone crazy."
"If I let myself think about it too long, I might lose the nerve to follow through on the plan I’m formulating."
"We’re all still pieces on his board, and he’s moving us around."
"He left it all in there, waiting to be found."
"I knew I wasn’t normal. I knew my cells were changed and twisted."
"We cannot evolve without shedding our past."
"I’m not arguing for evil – I’m arguing for discussion."