"Seems a poor vantage point from which to conduct medical research."

"It was.  But they'd been shut down in the city, so there wasn't really anywhere else."

"The other cities were all united against the idea?"

"There isn't communication between the cities, for normal people.  I guess Maddy was on the Pretty Committee, but... our city had deleted all their data, so they wouldn't have had anything concrete to show the other doctors."

"And they decided not to try walking to another city?"

"Well, hoverboarding," Zane corrects, gesturing with the board slung under his arm.  "They still would have had the data issue.  My point here is somewhat weakened by the fact that they did eventually join up with another city, but - there are reasons they kept to the wild for as long as they did."

"I'm not sure I follow you but that's all right."

...Zane shrugs.  "I spent the last few weeks of my life trekking through the wilderness, aiming for the New Smoke.  And when I got there, it turned out to be another city.  They'd reversed everyone's brain damage there, and - according to Journey, the city I grew up in attacked them.  That's how I died; I was in surgery at the time."

"Are you glad to be here?"

"Instead of staying dead?  Sure.  Instead of keeping the life I was about to have?  No, not really.  Not at all."

"I suppose they're different questions, yes."

"How about you?"

"I haven't had as long as you to decide how I feel about it."

Zane stops walking to look at Kyeo.

...is there an important landmark here?

They're on a path a short way from the top of a hill in a field of wildflowers.  Probably the view will be stop-worthily nice after another 45 seconds of walking.

Which Zane resumes, after a moment.

He didn't even have a rock in his shoe or anything? What was that about. It'd be rude to ask.

"What was your favorite thing about your society?"

What a weird question. "It's hard to pick just one thing. - I can sing again, I had a medical problem but they fixed that after resurrecting me, if you would like to hear a song."

"I would."

Great, that takes care of the next three minutes of filling silence if he doesn't get too uptempo with the Anthem of the Bright Way.

When they get to the top of the hill Zane flomphs back onto some of the flowers to listen.

And then the song concludes! It is not in English so probably he will not be fielding questions about the lyrics.

"That's lovely.  What's it about?"

"It's the planetary anthem."