I often think about the first people who drank the water. I’m reminded of it every time I follow a four-oh-four out into the wasteland of the Sea. It’s a terrible death. Hallucinations, sweats, madness. The pain as each organ fails and shuts down, killing piece by blackening piece. But it’s not the deaths of the first few that haunt me most; it’s the ones who drank just enough to live to watch the first few die. What must that be like, not yet feeling a thing, but knowing that it’s coming, that you’re next, that you too will be overtaken by the hallucinations and the sweats and the madness?
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Great transition from previous chapter. I like the comparison here. I was wondering earlier in the book why they cant just make anything. Why they can't manufacture parts they need. This still hasn't been addressed but I think it's reasonable to argue the OWIs have created an enviroment where they control the resources, combined with the free bots transient nature and desire to hide prevents them from gathering resources or building permanent factories.
