WINDING DOWN

<First Page>

Chapter 1

Toilet Paper

We always joked about how it would end.

Not our relationship. The world. Though, in hindsight, maybe they were the same thing all along.

Aliens, zombies, the usual apocalypse roulette. God knows we watched enough of those movies. When COVID hit, we half-expected corpses to start clawing their way out of the ground between lockdowns. But no. The end came later. And it wasn’t nearly as cinematic.

We were sitting on the couch, hands loosely tangled, watching live news footage like everyone else. The tone was calm. Reassuring. The footage? Not so much.

A meteoroid storm punched through orbit, rips clean through satellites like someone shredding tinsel. Space junk, communications relays, even one of Elon’s show ponies. Gone. Sparks raining into the void. Over Europe, it’s a full-blown light show.

We watched it unfold in real time. Long streaks of fire dragging across the sky like war paint.

“Jesus Christ,” I muttered.

“He might be coming,” Zoe said, deadpan. “Might be a good time to repent.”