"Will I ever understand life?" Lilura says, dramatically falling backwards from her point in sitting on the floor. She looks up at the ceiling. " I'm sorry I didn't believe you. But why don't we all drop it. She will drop it; I have dropped it, you will drop it. We need everything we have if we want to survive, right?" She says from her point in the floor.
Or possibly escape... she thought to herself, though she highly doubted it.

" our chances of survival are lower than you would think. " She said, subtly changing the topic.

The triumphant smile was gone just as fast as it had come on. "You really don't understand, do you? Once they think you have no more use...well..." He drew a line across his neck with his thumb. "We're gone."

"They can't be that cruel. We're as human as they are." Lilura says, getting up into her elbows before sitting upright again. " Ah, the cruelties and unfairness of life..." She hugged her knees to her chest again, breath coming in short gasps. "I don't want to die... But then again, what do I have to live for..." She looks about as low as she ever had been in her life.

"See? This is exactly why I wanted you to keep that book. It hasn't even been that long and I'm pretty sure this place has just broken you."

" This place breaks everyone if they're here long enough. "

He nodded in agreement

"I'm not broken. I'm not." Lilura says, mostly to herself as she takes a deep breath and wipes her face with her hands. "I am not allowing myself to be broken. And... I still have my book. No one has taken it from me." She says slowly, holding it up.

" Don't rely on the book too much. Or they'll take that from you too. "

Liilura made an 'eep' sound and she tucked the book closer to her chest, giving a foolish hope they really wouldn't take it away. It was just another book.