Sean slowly opened his eyes. His family was gathered all around his hospital bed. His dad, Roger, looking sleep deprived, with 5 days of stubble and what appeared to be chafing around his wrists. His mum, Betty, sitting in the corner with her knitting needles. Claire’s brother, Stanley, pouting in the background with a massive bandage tied around his head, and her sister, Sophie, watching doe-eyed as he struggled back to consciousness. David and Shirley, his in-laws, were stood arm in arm, their opposite arms suspended in slings across their chests. His brother Danny was there too, playing absent mindedly with the buttons on the life support machine. Finally he looked to Claire. His wife was there, stroking his head and telling him it would be alright. And he relaxed as he realised that this was no nightmare, that it would all be alright. As alright as it could ever be on their endless doomed voyage to nowhere.

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THE END
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