August 18 - 4.30pm

 

Dearest James

The end of the world happened for us in a doctor’s office; or perhaps a little before that when you complained of a dull ache in your shoulder, of being so tired all the time. It ended when something showed up in the blood tests that Doctor Byrne organised, prompting him to send you off for an x-ray. It ended when the results of that x-ray prompted an MRI. It ended with a lump in your lung and another in your spine, with the fourth stage of having no hope for the future.

I’m not sure how it ended for everyone else.

Did these things appear overnight, or did they slowly creep in during the two weeks that I had opted out?

The minute I saw them, I knew what they were, although they should have been impossible. How did it happen for everyone else?

Did women wake up beside their husbands, only to see those dead eyes waiting?

Did people try to help them at first?

How exactly did the world end for everyone else?

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