For a while I was scared that meant he would die before me and I would have to be the only human on Erid at some point,
I was wrong.
I underestimated the consequences of what happened to me on the SM-13, my fault really.
I'm not a doctor but I should’ve known that there were more severe consequences of almost drowning in an ocean of blood and getting your arm ripped off and being exposed to an extreme amount of radiation.
Armando says that I have severe radiation poisoning, says I need to be medicated but I'm starting to get concerned.
I don't know if there is enough medication, I've heard Ryland talking with the Eridian’s about trying to make more.
I don't want Ryland to worry, he’s getting older and I don't think it's good for his health to be so stressed all the time.
It's not worth it anyway, I wasn't expecting to live this long anyway so he’s already done more than enough for me, I don't need him to spend his time worrying about me.
My mutations are also starting to get worse, the second mouth on the side of my face has grown and is now connected to my original mouth which has made it a lot harder to talk.
It’s made Ryland even more worried about me, he’s been working at all times when he's awake to try and fix it but I don't think he can.
He’s been really tired lately, sleeping a lot more, I'm worried about him.
“...Ryland?” I struggle to say, he turns away from his whiteboard to look at me “What’s up Simon?”
I walk closer to the whiteboard and grab a marker to write down what I want to say “you need to stop working so hard, it's not worth it”
Ryland frowns as he reads the words, “Simon I'm not just going to give up on you” he says as he grabs his cane and gets off his chair,
“Ryland, please, I know you don't want to but you need to stop” Ryland shakes his head and grabs the marker from my hand “I can't just give up on you Simon, I just can't”
I wrap my arm around him in a hug, I want to say more but I can't, even if I could talk, or if I had the marker, I just don't know how to put what I want to say into words.
I feel horrible for making him feel like he needs to help me when he's already done so much for me, I sniffle a little as tears begin to gather in my eyes, I don't want to die but I don't want Ryland to overwork himself like this, why can't I just live without some horrible thing happening to me, I just want to live, why can't I just get to live for once.
I just found out that apparently in the book epilogue Grace estimates that he's fifty-three years old and it has been seventy-one years on earth for sure since he was born.
I didn't think he was that old! I thought he was like early 40s by the end not in his fifties.