I heard the hiss and felt the blessed numbness spreading. If there is a God, I thought, it’s a painkiller. — Dan Simmons

I began to understand. “A Faustian bargain...,” I said.

“The Faustian bargain,” said the girl. “All the church had to do to gain the universe was sell its soul.”

The universe is indifferent to our fates. This was the crushing burden that the character took with him as he struggled through the surf toward survival or extinction. The universe just does not give a shit.

Why am I seeking logic or sanity here? I'd asked myself at the moment. There hasn’t been any so far.