Hank's questions draw a bitter laugh from the woman on the platform.
"Do you really believe there is no difference between what the machines can do and what they want to do? Not everyone who dies here makes it back - only the dead that the machines have judged as useful and not a threat to their plans and desires. Look at us," she says, and gestures to her compatriots standing with her, out to the few gathered past the crowd, maybe a dozen black-clad figures holding lit candles in total. They may even be outnumbered by the potential recruits.
"There were not always so few of us - less than a year ago, we had twice as many comrades. They were not sent back to their homes, but to executions, because they were caught and identified as elements that are undesirable." She practically spits the last word.
1/2
"Do you really believe there is no difference between what the machines can do and what they want to do? Not everyone who dies here makes it back - only the dead that the machines have judged as useful and not a threat to their plans and desires. Look at us," she says, and gestures to her compatriots standing with her, out to the few gathered past the crowd, maybe a dozen black-clad figures holding lit candles in total. They may even be outnumbered by the potential recruits.
"There were not always so few of us - less than a year ago, we had twice as many comrades. They were not sent back to their homes, but to executions, because they were caught and identified as elements that are undesirable." She practically spits the last word.