Chap­ter 2 of The Last One at the Wed­ding delves deep­er into the protagonist’s strug­gle as he attempts to push for­ward with his job as a UPS dri­ver while car­ry­ing the weight of recent per­son­al loss. Despite receiv­ing con­do­lences from his super­vi­sor, he forces him­self to con­tin­ue his shift, believ­ing that stay­ing occu­pied will help keep his thoughts from spi­ral­ing. How­ev­er, the region is expe­ri­enc­ing an extreme heat­wave, with record-break­ing tem­per­a­tures prompt­ing offi­cials to issue pub­lic health warn­ings. News reports cau­tion res­i­dents against pro­longed out­door activ­i­ty, advis­ing fre­quent hydra­tion and rest. Still, the pro­tag­o­nist ignores these advi­sories, dis­miss­ing the grow­ing heat as just anoth­er obsta­cle in his already over­whelm­ing day. Unlike his usu­al prepa­ra­tion, he neglects to bring extra water or cool­ing snacks, rely­ing instead on a rushed break­fast and a stan­dard lunch packed with­out much thought. The sun hangs high in the sky, its unfor­giv­ing rays beat­ing down as he steps out­side, but he tight­ens his grip on the day’s respon­si­bil­i­ties, deter­mined to keep mov­ing.

Arriv­ing at the UPS facil­i­ty, he notices the unusu­al­ly somber expres­sions of his col­leagues, many of whom are already sweat­ing before their shifts begin. The lack of air con­di­tion­ing in the load­ing area inten­si­fies the dis­com­fort, and man­age­ment attempts to ease the sit­u­a­tion by dis­trib­ut­ing extra water bot­tles and sun hats. Even with these pre­cau­tions, the oppres­sive heat turns the ware­house into a swel­ter­ing oven, drain­ing ener­gy from the work­ers before they even step into their trucks. When he receives his assigned route, frus­tra­tion sets in—his list is packed with heavy deliv­er­ies, includ­ing mul­ti­ple air con­di­tion­ers, cas­es of bot­tled water, and large bags of dog food, items cus­tomers have ordered to com­bat the relent­less sum­mer weath­er. The irony is not lost on him as he loads the cum­ber­some pack­ages into his truck, already feel­ing the strain in his arms and legs. As he starts his route, the heat becomes suf­fo­cat­ing, his shirt stick­ing to his back, and every move­ment requir­ing more effort than usu­al. With over a hun­dred stops still ahead of him, he fights off the urge to rest, unwill­ing to appear weak or inca­pable.

As the hours drag on, the phys­i­cal toll of the heat and the weight of his thoughts become unbear­able. He finds him­self pre­oc­cu­pied with wor­ries about his daugh­ter, Mag­gie, strug­gling to imag­ine how she will nav­i­gate life after Aidan’s death. His mind drifts between painful mem­o­ries and unspo­ken con­cerns, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to focus. This dis­trac­tion leads him to miss a crit­i­cal turn, forc­ing him to dou­ble back, adding unnec­es­sary miles to his already exhaust­ing day. His body aches, and his breath­ing grows labored, the signs of heat exhaus­tion becom­ing hard­er to ignore. The famil­iar land­scape around him begins to blur, the edges of build­ings and trees shim­mer­ing under the relent­less sun. He wipes sweat from his brow and press­es for­ward, telling him­self he just needs to get through the next few deliv­er­ies. At one point, he pulls into a McDonald’s park­ing lot, hop­ing that sit­ting in the air-con­di­tioned space for a few min­utes will be enough to restore his ener­gy, though he knows it’s only a tem­po­rary fix.

Back on the road, he feels him­self fad­ing, his hands grip­ping the steer­ing wheel with increas­ing dif­fi­cul­ty. His vision wavers slight­ly, but he forces him­self to con­cen­trate. Up ahead, a vehi­cle sits idly on the side of the road, its haz­ard lights flash­ing. Two fig­ures, Dawn Tag­gart and Aidan Gard­ner, are hunched over near a flat tire, their sil­hou­ettes hazy in the shim­mer­ing heat. Recog­ni­tion sparks in his mind, but his slug­gish thoughts fail to process the moment in time. His focus drifts for a frac­tion of a second—just long enough to send his truck careen­ing off course. The sud­den jolt snaps him back to real­i­ty, but it’s too late. The wheels slip over the edge of the pave­ment, and before he can react, the truck plunges into a steep ravine.

Pan­ic surges through his body as grav­i­ty pulls the vehi­cle down­ward, pack­ages fly­ing through the cab as he strug­gles to regain con­trol. His breath catch­es in his throat, and time seems to slow as the world tilts vio­lent­ly around him. Dust and debris swirl in the air, the vio­lent motion of the crash throw­ing him against the seat­belt. The sound of met­al crunch­ing and glass shat­ter­ing fills his ears, each impact send­ing anoth­er wave of force through the vehi­cle. For a fleet­ing moment, his thoughts shift to Mag­gie, to Abi­gail, to the peo­ple he still has left in his life. As the final impact looms, he tight­ens his grip on the wheel, brac­ing for what­ev­er comes next, hop­ing that some­how, he will make it out of this alive.