Oh Alice. Another drink that's what I need. I get up and cross the room to the loose floorboard. Lift it and pull out a bottle from my stores. Drink straight from the bottle. Back on the bed with the bottle at my side. Roll a cigarette, trying not to remember. Smoke. Drink. Doesn't help, I'm probably making things worse. God I miss her. How old would she have been now. Forty Eight. Four years my junior. Just feeling sorry for myself. Nothing new. She was so good for me. Tidied me up and made me be somebody I was happy to be and she wasn't even trying, it just sort of happened because of her. Ten years since I lost her. Ten years.
			That's when we lived out in the country. Our own little farm. Nothing fancy. Just enough for the two of us. We were miles from anywhere or anyone. Years went by without us seeing another living soul. We'd seen the fall coming and headed out there before everybody else realised the obvious . God we were so happy. Then Alice fell ill. I was a fair medic and so was she but this was serious. For the first time in years I had to go to town. Find a doctor. Somebody who could help. What I found chilled me. House after house empty. Town after town deserted.
					I reached a city. It was teeming with filth. What had they become? I looked for the better end of the city but there wasn't one. Things just stayed the same. No doctor, no medicine, no help. I turned round and headed back to try and tend to Alice as best I could. It had been days since I left. I arrived back and Alice was nowhere to be found. There was nothing amiss. Everything was where it should be but her bed was made. The fire was lit. So she must have got up and gone somewhere. Not long ago either. I searched for weeks. Going further and further afield. I found no trace. Nothing. In the end I gave it all up. Way too many memories picking at me everyday. I ended up here with everybody else. With all the other sheep.