*the 4 waves you need to know about.*

[Jake]

WAVE 1: electroshock, no power (includes phones-.-)
WAVE2: tsunamis (any places 50 miles from bodies of water were flooded (most that lived near died.))
WAVE3: the bird disease (carried by birds if you aren't immune, you were infected bleeding out of every body opening you have eventually dying or mysteriously getting over it at deaths arrival)
WAVE4:the silencers (they were sent in, looking exactly like humans, to destroy what's left of the humans. Making it impossible to trust anyone.)

[Noah]

In the story it is explained that Cassie suffered so much from the first 4 waves, you would think this extreme loss would drive someone insane, such as the loss of both of her parents and not being able to protect her little brother. Cassie could have been depressed and been harsher on herself, but I guess that would be less of an alien story and more a woman vs self-story. Why do you think Cassie wants to keep going?
Cassie has been battle hardened by those losses, she has almost nothing but her memories and most of them aren’t good ones. It seems that rather than submitting to sadness, she gave in to fear of the unknown and loss of empathy, the question is, what was this specific process? This ultimately led her to kill a helpless man because of trust issues. What would happen if Cassie didn’t kill the man with the crucifix?
It seems too perfect that Cassie happened to just not keep any part of her “old self” around. I know that my will would be damage from an experience like this, so what differentiates Cassie's point of view from somebody like a pessimist. Can you propose an alternative were Cassie was to give in to the sadness and lose her battle-hardened self for one seeking salvation and hope?