Solid effort, but maybe missing a little extra spice and seasoning to really pull me in.
Probably easier to just move right into the breakdown, so spoilers from this point forward.
Implementation of Theme:
It's definitely there, and very explicitly so in the ending. MC is in some very deep darkness from being the sole survivor of the event (whatever that was) and finally being able to move on from his deceased lover is the light that begins to give him a new perspective, even if he's not really moving out of the darkness per se since his situation is still pretty dire. I think there were other takes on the theme that were a little more creative or innovative, and there is still that matter of the MC's situation still being really dark, but the theme was successfully conveyed.
Story:
Don't get me wrong from the top line, the premise is totally serviceable - "character tries to continue as normal while hallucinating their deceased loved one" is a fun idea. Changes to pacing and structure could've helped this one tremendously though. Right now, it kind of just feels like we're aimlessly moving from scene to scene until the end, and I get that that's kind of the point - MC is lost and has no idea what to do anymore. The issue is that this unintentionally kind of makes it feel like the narrative has no idea what to do either. I feel like this may have been stronger if the whole plot was centered around bringing Ned to his final resting place and drip-feeding information to the reader along the way.
With each stop on their journey, we could learn a bit more about each of them, what their relationship was like (more than just he's hot and they're horny), what exactly the event was, how MC reacted when he saw it, why didn't anyone else that MC worked with make it, etc. As others have pointed out, I don't think the timing of the death reveal is the best decision here either - I think for this to be optimally effective, you have to commit to one side or the other. Either have the reveal happen at the end, making the reader initially think Ned also survived the event while dropping hints that not everything is correct, or go full horror and just have the MC talking to himself while carting around a decaying corpse. First option would probably be more appealing, but I'd low-key really admire the audacity of the latter.
Some of the individual scenes we get here are really good, like MC wheeling Ned around the football field, but I guess my main takeaway is that I wish they were tied together in a neater package.
Presentation:
It's fine. No penalty for the stock main sprite obviously, and the dead sprite looked good, if a little cartoony (for some reason the blacked out eyes, slumped pose, and lack of real gore made the reveal a little more comical than horrific for me, but that's a personal issue). Very minimal typos and language errors which is great to see, though the music did get a bit repetitive at times. Middle-of-the-road on this category - it's all sufficient, but not much to elevate it beyond that.
Creativity:
So I'm through 40-something of these at this point, and I think legitimately 20% of them are post-apocalyptic in some way. You don't get any point deductions for this - you can't control what everyone else is submitting, and I think this is the only one where the love interest is already dead for the apocalypse (maybe, don't actually quote me on that). I think there's definitely a good amount of creativity here, it would just be even better if this world and these characters were a little more fleshed out.
Also, nobody else has mentioned this, but I love that the background for the football pitch was WOLFsburg. Others might not have picked up on that detail, but I noticed, GatrGroh. I noticed.
Therefore I rate this entry 36 Jettas out of 28 Passats.