"This dust is not dust," she said. "It's skin. Human skin. Very, very fine, as fine as flour. All the dust in the whole hospital is skin. It's left by those who were corrected. Their bodies are still there, but their skin turns into dust, peeling off bit by bit, like a snake shedding its skin."
Lidya Su walked to her side and looked down at the dust on the chair. It's off-white, very fine, and really doesn't look like ordinary dust. Ordinary dust contains debris of all kinds of things - fabric fibers, pollen, dirt, insect remains. But the dust here is pure, with only one ingredient. She pinched a little with her fingers and rubbed it. It felt smooth, not as rough as dust, but more like the powder of some organic matter.
