Evan Walker Quotes

“I had it all wrong," he says. "Before I found you, I thought the only way to hold on was to find something to live for. It isn't. To hold on, you have to find something you're willing to die for.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“I am a shark, Cassie," he says slowly, drawing the words out, as if he might be speaking to me for the last time. Looking into my eyes with tears in his, as if he's seeing me for the last time. "A shark who dreamed he was a man.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“His heart, the war.

Her face, the battlefield.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“When I wake up the next morning, there's a Hershey's Kiss sitting on the table beside me.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“You’re the mayfly,' he murmurs.
And then Evan Walker kisses me.
Holding my hand across his chest, his other hand sliding across my neck, his touch feathery soft, sending a shiver that travels down my spine into my legs, which are having a hard time keeping me upright. I can feel his heart slamming against my palm and I can smell his breath and feel the stubble on his upper lip, a sandpapery contrast to the softness of his lips, and Evan is looking at me and I’m looking back at him.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“Evan is the little branch growing out of the cliff that she clings to, and the fact that he's gone makes her hang on even tighter.”
― Rick Yancey, The Infinite Sea

“And far more dangerous than greed or lust or envy or any of those things—or anything—was love.”
― Rick Yancey, The Infinite Sea

“If your job is to kill us, why didn’t you kill me?” I ask.
He answers without hesitating, as if he’s decided long before I asked the question what his answer would be.
“Because I’m in love with you.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“I think that's the way it is. When you love someone. Something happens to them, and it's a punch in the heart. Not like a punch in the heart; a real punch in the heart.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“He lays me on the bed. I say, right before he kisses me again, “If you kiss me again, I’m going to knee you in the balls.”
His hands are incredibly soft, like a cloud touching me.
“I won’t let you just…” He searches for the right word. “…fly away from me, Cassie Sullivan.”
He blows out the candle beside the bed.
I feel his kiss more intensely now, in the darkness of the room where his sister died. In the quiet of the house where his family died. In the stillness of the world where the life we knew before the Arrival died. He tastes my tears before I can feel them. Where there would be tears, his kiss.
“I didn’t save you,” he whispers, lips tickling my eyelashes. “You saved me.”
He repeats it over and over, until we fall asleep pressed against each other, his voice in my ear, my tears in his mouth.
“You saved me.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“I’m about to pee myself with relief that we’re all alive, but mostly because he is.

He drops into the room, landing on the balls of his feet like a cat. I’m in his arms in the time it takes to say “I love you,” which he does, stroking my hair, whispering my name and the words, “My mayfly.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“I had it all wrong. Before I found you, I thought the only way to hold on was to find something to live for. It isn't. To hold on, you have to find something you're willing to die for.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“His other hand finds my cheek, and he wipes away my tears with his thumb. The chocolate scent overwhelms me as he bends over and whispers in my ear, “No, Cassie. No, no, no.”
I throw my arm around his neck and press his dry cheek against my wet one. I’m shaking like an epileptic, and for the first time I can feel the weight of the quilts on the top of my toes because the blinding dark sharpens your other senses.
I’m a bubbling stew of random thoughts and feelings. I’m worried my hair might smell. I want some chocolate. This guy holding me—well, it’s more like I was holding him—has seen me in all my naked glory. What did he think about my body? What did I think about my body? Does God really care about promises? Do I really care about God? Are miracles something like the Red Sea parting or more like Evan Walker finding me locked in a block of ice in a wilderness of white?
“Cassie, it’s going to be okay,” he whispers into my ear, chocolate breath.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“Let’s establish a code for when you want to go all creeper on me. One knock means you’d like to come in. Two means you’re just stopping by to spy on me while I sleep.” His eyes travel from my face to my shirt (which happens to be his shirt) to my bare legs, lingering a breath too long before returning to my face. His gaze is warm. My legs are cold.
Then he knocks once on the jamb. But it’s the smile that gets him in.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“I’ll do whatever you say, Cassie,” he says helplessly. His eyes shine brighter than the stars overhead. “I understand why you have to go. If it were you inside that camp, I would go. A hundred thousand Silencers couldn’t stop me.”
He presses his lips against my ear and whispers low and fierce, as if he’s sharing the most important secret in the world, which maybe he is.
“It’s hopeless. And it’s stupid. It’s suicidal. But love is a weapon they have no answer for. They know how you think, but they can’t know what you feel.”
Not we. They.
A threshold has been crossed, and he isn’t stupid. He knows it’s the kind you can’t cross back over.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“He knocks once against the side. I don’t get it at first, and then I laugh.
Let’s establish a code for when you want to go all creeper on me. One knock means you’d like to come in.
“Yes, Evan.” I’m laughing so hard, it’s starting to hurt. “You can come in.”
― Rick Yancey

“Cassie?”
It’s Sammy, holding on to Ben, because he’s feeling the Ben thing a little more than he is the Cassie one at the moment. Who’s this guy falling from the ductwork, and what’s he doing with my sister?
“This must be Sammy,” Evan says.
“This is Sammy,” I say. “Oh! And this is—”
“Ben Parish,” Ben says.
“Ben Parish?” Evan looks at me. That Ben Parish?
“Ben,” I say, my face on fire. I want to laugh and crawl under the counter at the same time. “This is Evan Walker.”
“Is he your boyfriend?” Sammy asks.
I don’t know what to say. Ben looks totally lost, Evan completely amused, and Sammy just damned curious. It’s my first truly awkward moment in the alien lair, and I’d been through my share of moments.
“He’s a friend from high school,” I mutter.
And Evan corrects me, since it’s clear I’ve lost my mind. “Actually, Sam, Ben is Cassie’s friend from high school.”
“She’s not my friend,” Ben says. “I mean, I guess I kind of remember her…” Then Evan’s words sink in. “How do you know who I am?”
“He doesn’t!” I fairly shout.
Cassie told me about you,” Evan says. I elbow him in the ribs, and he gives me a look like What?
“Maybe we can chat about how everybody knows one another later”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“You’re not the only one,” he says through gritted teeth. “My twelve-year-old sister died in my arms. She choked to death on her own blood. And there was nothing I could do. It makes me sick, the way you act as if the worst disaster in human history somehow revolves around you. You’re not the only one who’s lost everything—not the only one who thinks they’ve found the one thing that makes any of this shit make sense. You have your promise to Sammy, and I have you.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“His body is pressed against my back, his arm is wrapped protectively around my waist, his breath a delicious tickle against my neck. The room is very cold; it would be nice to climb under the covers, but I don’t want to move. I don’t want him to move. I run my fingers along his bare forearm, remembering the warmth of his lips, the silkiness of his hair between my fingers. The boy who never sleeps, sleeping. Coming to rest upon the Cassiopeian shore, an island in the middle of a sea of blood. You have your promise, and I have you.
I can’t trust him. I have to trust him.
I can’t stay with him. I can’t leave him behind.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“They were afraid the longer we pretended to be human, the more human we would become.”
“And who would want that?”
“I didn’t think I would,” he admits. “Until I became one.”
“When you…‘woke up’ in Evan?”
He shakes his head and says simply, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world, “When I woke up in you, Cassie. I wasn’t fully human until I saw myself in your eyes.”
And then there are real human tears in his real human eyes, and it’s my turn to hold him while his heart breaks. My turn to see myself in his eyes.
Somebody might say that I’m not the only one lying in the enemy’s arms.
I am humanity, but who is Evan Walker? Human and Other. Both and neither. By loving me, he belongs to no one.
He doesn’t see it that way.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“Aren’t you coming with us?”
I feel his hand on my cheek. I know what this means and I slap his hand away.
“You’re coming with us, Evan,” I say.
“There’s something I have to do.”
“That’s right.” My hand flails for his in the dark. I find it and pull hard. “You have to come with us.”
“I’ll find you, Cassie. Don’t I always find you? I—”
“Don’t, Evan. You don’t know you’ll be able to find me.”
“Cassie.” I don’t like the way he says my name. His voice is too soft, too sad, too much like a good-bye voice. “I was wrong when I said I was both and neither. I can’t be; I know that now. I have to choose.”
“Wait a minute,” Ben says. “Cassie, this guy is one of them?”
“It’s complicated,” I answer. “We’ll go over it later.” I grab Evan’s hand in both of mine and press it against my chest. “Don’t leave me again.”
“You left me, remember?” He spreads his fingers over my heart, like he’s holding it, like it belongs to him, the hard-fought-for territory he’s won fair and square.
I give in. What am I going to do, put a gun to his head? He’s gotten this far, I tell myself. He’ll get the rest of the way.
“What’s due north?” I ask, pushing against his fingers.
“I don’t know. But it’s the shortest path to the farthest spot.”
“The farthest spot from what?”
“From here. Wait for the plane. When the plane takes off, run. Ben, do you think you can run?”
“I think so.”
“Run fast?”
“Yes.” He doesn’t sound too confident about it, though.
“Wait for the plane,” Evan whispers. “Don’t forget.”
He kisses me hard on the mouth, and then the stairwell goes all Evanless.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“Dislodged cobwebs and dust swirled around them. The ceiling was holding for now. He doubted it could withstand another hit. Ben Parish must have been thinking the same thing.
"Oh, that's great." Ben turned to Cassie. "Let's everybody form a prayer circle, quick, because we have just been royally fucked.”
― Rick Yancey, The Last Star

“The girl sleeping and the finisher, willing himself to finish her.
Why didn't he finish her?
Why couldn't he finish her?”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“A moment comes in war when the last lines must be crossed. The line that separates what you hold a from what total war demands. If he couldn't cross that line, the battle was over, and he was lost.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“Do you believe in God, Evan?”
“Sure I do.”
“I don’t. I mean, I don’t know. I did before the Others came. Or thought I did, when I thought about it at all. And then they came and…” I have to stop for a second to collect myself. “Maybe there’s a God. Sammy thinks there is. But he also thinks there’s a Santa Claus. Still, every night I said his prayer with him, and it didn’t have anything to do with me. It was about Sammy and what he believed, and if you could have seen him take that fake soldier’s hand and follow him onto that bus…”
I’m losing it, and it doesn’t matter to me much. Crying is always easier in the dark. Suddenly my cold hand is blanketed by Evan’s warmer one, and his palm is as soft and smooth as the pillowcase beneath my cheek.
“It kills me,” I sob. “The way he trusted. Like the way we trusted before they came and blew the whole goddamned world apart. Trusted that when it got dark there would be light. Trusted that when you wanted a fucking strawberry Frappuccino you could plop your ass in the car, drive down the street, and get yourself a fucking strawberry Frappuccino! Trusted…”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“I should have asked, I guess,” he says. “I shouldn’t have assumed.”
“What?”
He rotates around on his butt to face me. Me on the sofa, him on the floor, looking up. “That I was going with you.”
“What? We weren’t even talking about that! And why would you want to go with me, Evan? Since you think he’s dead?”
“I just don’t want you to be dead, Cassie.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“If you leave without me, I’ll just follow you. You can’t stop me, Cassie. How are you going to stop me?”
I shrug helplessly, fighting back tears. “Shoot you, I guess.”
“Like you shot the Crucifix Soldier?”
The words hit me like a bullet between the shoulder blades. I whirl around and fling open the door. He flinches, but stands his ground.
“How do you know about him?” Of course, there’s only one way he could know. “You read my diary.”
“I didn’t think you were going to live.”
“Sorry to disappoint you.”
“I guess I wanted to know what happened—”
“You’re lucky I left the gun downstairs or I would shoot you right now. Do you know how creepy that makes me feel, knowing you read that? How much did you read?”
He lowers his eyes. A warm red blush spreads across his cheeks.
“You read all of it, didn’t you?” I’m totally embarrassed. I feel violated and ashamed. It’s ten times worse than when I first woke up in Val’s bed and realized he had seen me naked. That was just my body. This was my soul.
I punch him in the stomach. There’s no give at all; it’s like I hit a slab of concrete.
“I can’t believe you,” I shout. “You sat there—just sat there—while I lied about Ben Parish. You knew the truth and you just sat there and let me lie!”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“Something's wrong here, Evan. And you know what's going on. We both know you do. Why can't you just tell me? You'll trust me with a gun and to pull shrapnel out of your ass, but you won't trust me with the truth?”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“Thinking about the bacon- the potential of bacon- gives me hope. Not all is lost if bacon isn't.”
― Rick Yancey