I think we should not be so arrogant as to discount the possibility. If not the denizens of this world, then the next — or the next.

（ death begets death. that knowledge came into roaring awareness in him when he was still a child — and if it's all they leave in their wake, it will find them eventually. ）

We do not know their lives. What has driven them to the existence they have. （ does he pity them? perhaps. his expression is set as he studies the prone form of one of them, the way the man drools on the floor in the throes of catatonia. ） I do not think any of us are qualified to judge them.

（ he would kill them if there was no alternative, but he is tired of feeling like that choice isn't his to make. ）