Part of Declan had always thought it would end this way. This was the fruit that grew from the seeds his father planted. Declan had tried so hard to make the crop something else, to make the outcome not simply Declan Lynch, a man who used to have a family, but it was always meant to be this. He was a hardier strain than the other Lynches, for better or worse, and so he went on as the rest of the orchard perished around him. He had been preparing to be the last man standing his entire life.
