"I don't want to leave either," Mathias admits, but it isn't only that he doesn't want to leave. He doesn't think they can, not the people like him or Stacy, the ones who are dead back where they've come from. If it isn't the island for them, it's something else and he's content to think of this place as a deviation from death.

"I think wanting to know is important," he tells her, one corner of his mouth turning up briefly. "It's what keeps life moving forward all the time."