“So, run out of ideas yet?” I asked the doctors as they stood around my bed. They took their eyes of the heart monitor and looked at me, but didn’t reply.

There were 13 of us in that room, our hearts all beating as one, apparently counting down. There was a timer over the door, but I didn’t need to look at it, I knew there was only a few minutes left.

13 of us, linked by our heartbeats and our date of birth. They reckoned we were born within minutes of each other, if not at the exact same time. It was too much of a coincidence to be ignored, but no one could work out what it meant.

I counted down the last 10 seconds in my head, wondering if I was about to die.

10, 9, the building began to shake, I heard alarms going off outside. 8, 7, 6, the earthquake grew in intensity. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And just as suddenly as it started, it stopped, 0.

The doctors crowded round the patients. “Paul, are you ok?” I heard one ask me.

“I’m fine, I’m great actually.”

“Oh, it’s just your heart…it’s not beating.”