When the World Ends

BONUS CHAPTER: Epilogue

*This bonus chapter is dedicated to @Patchie_Paws , who has given me feedback on this story and motivated me to improve it and continue on. Thanks! ^_^*

Today I found her phone.
   Phones are things of the past. They don't make calls anymore, obviously, and there's nowhere to charge them. They also break easily, in this destroyed ruin of a world we live in. So, they'd quickly disappeared.
But when I'd found hers in my bag, I'd tried to turn it on anyways. And it had come to life in my hands, the screen lighting up as soon as I hit the button.
She'd had it bubble wrapped and stashed in a separate pocket of her bag. With it was a portable charger and a phone charging cord. A post-it note that was stuck to the phone read: MUSIC FOR MANUEL.
The phone had been off for a long time, but its battery was nearly full. I knew why she'd saved this, though, and so I took the phone and walked out of my little hut and into the sunshine. The warm sand welcomes my feet, but it's not hot. The sky is still a faint shade of grayish-blue. I wonder if it will ever go back to the way it was before.
   There are no doors here, exceptional r the few made of straw and sticks. I call out his name, and he replies, Just a minute! before walking out to meet me. Oh, hey, Keane, he says when he sees me.
   We chat for a bit, and then I hand him the phone. She'd want you to have it, I tell him.
   Oh, he says.
   She knew you loved music, I add.
   Oh, he says.
   There's notes in there, too. That she wrote, I continue.
   Oh, he says.
   He scrolls through the phone. I tell him I'll leave him be now, and I turn to leave, but stops me and says, Wait. Read this.
   He's smiling.i wonder if she wrote something funny, and I ask him, What is it?
   This, he answers, and reads the words aloud:

Dear T.S. Elliot,

You were wrong. The world did, indeed, "end with a bang" after all.