Tanner lay on on his side on the cold metal floor. Emily got down next to him, her face in front of his. “Hey, Tanner. I got you some food. You haven’t eaten anything since we launched,” she whispered.

Tanner looked into her worried eyes for a moment, and then in a cracked voice he spoke. “Everything is gone. Everything! Why was I spared? So many billions of people died. Billions! A number of incomprehensible immensity… Yet out of that complete and total destruction, I was spared. Why?”

“Why were any of us spared, Tanner? To rebuild and make a future.”

“I know why you were spared, Emily. You are so brimming over with beauty and goodness. I never told you how I felt. Even in this…” and here he faltered, but moved on “you somehow manage to stay positive. The future deserves you, but I might as well be dead.”

“You think that it’s easy for me? That I don’t feel just the same as you? I can’t handle it alone, Tanner. I can’t. Maybe you were spared because… I need you.”

Something lit in Tanner’s eyes.