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Have you ever been inside a cave? I have. Once. It was a cave within the heart of a rainforest, and so, I expect you've already worked out that this was no ordinary cave. Inside it was a clock, and not a normal clock. It was a rainforest clock; the most suspicious time keeping device known to man. As I crept closer to the ticking I heard a voice echo off the walls of the cave.
"Beware" it said "What you see before you is the Death Clock Perhaps it is best if you do not look upon it. The time it tells can drive a man insane."

I hadn't travelled all the way from Weston Super Mare to turn back now, and so, I picked up the clock. What I saw sent a shiver down my spine. It was digital. The ticking was coming from a digital clock. I checked the time on my watch. Something wasn't right. The time on the Death Clock wasn't right at all. It wasn't even going the right way. Then it hit me; it was a countdown. A countdown to death. I had just 3,456 hours left to live. It felt like I'd been kicked in the stomach with a fist.

I spent most of the next 3,455 hours and 59 minutes alone, often in alleyways, crying. As the last ten seconds of the countdown were washed away by time I let out an almighty scream. I wasn't going without a shout. Then ..... nothing. I was still alive.

To celebrate surviving my death I made my way to the off license, but on my way to booze I discovered something which made the taste of my victory a little less sweeter. The streets were lined with corpses. Everyone was dead. It hadn't been a countdown to my death at all. If I'd known I was going to be spending the rest of my life alive and alone, I would've made a bit more of an effort during the 145 days after I saw the Death Clock. I would have at least played doubles tennis a couple of times while I still had the chance, and I don't even like tennis!

Colin, Alone.