Offred considers this for a while. On the one hand, the idea that there's a way out of this seems like "a hangover from an extinct reality." We believe the system will work for us, because it always has. Until one day, it doesn't. But on the other hand, clear lines have been drawn. There is still a resistance, fighting with the Guardians of the Faithful in "the remains of Chicago." Not everyone has given up. "Now there has to be an us. Because now, there is a them." (Random thought: Can you even imagine Anchorage being the capital of the United States? What a world.)