this is so amazingly painful

[Cyan]

Wonder if it will be strange to find that none of the children tried to run? What might that mean?

Instinctual preference for friends lives to be saved over own. (Same reason why animals that starve eat their young)
Or if you want to be really dragon about it;
Lower (more common) forms of life prefer death over risking death of higher forms of life (adults/predators) so children (prey animals or more common animals) freeze and accept death by predators (rarer animals / adults) to save the herd (Evolution).
Thats (biology and reality) is why "we"("lightseekers") are called "of sorrow"(As our instinctual method of thinking is counter evolutionary due to our desire to eliminate suffering) far as I know of, but its only my estimate of course.

Because our real nature (What we wish for) is counter to reality (how things are) thats why we (humans) are against reality (evolution and biology) and thus our road to civilization gets HARDER as time goes by while it also gets smoother so it all seems faster as we spin.

Dunno, i find that a good analogue for the things to be and things that are. Could be wildly wrong though.

For me I just like the Brothers and Sisters of Sorrow metaphor.