Head down from the house to reach the beach, or exit from either side to explore the island. The overworld music is now 3-05 "Dark World", a somber track that just adds to the gloomy mood. Most of the monsters are depressingly weak, too, to the point that they die on their own within seconds of appearing. Equip something with 'zombie' immunity if entering the desert, though, since an undead Black Dragon will sometimes appear, and aside from being durable enough to put up a fight, it can cause an instant Game Over if you're not protected.

The suicidally weak monsters have surprisingly potent items to steal, but since Celes can't, it doesn't matter yet.

Anyway, head to the beach to catch fish (grab one with A when next to it). There are four types of fish, though not all will appear every time, and they go in the Important Things (Rare) section of the inventory when caught. Feeding them to Cid (automatic when talking to him) will affect his health, and is also the only way to remove them from the inventory. Additionally, talking to Cid resets the fish appearing at the beach.

Interestingly, Cid keeps slipping out of bed when Celes isn't watching. Maybe he's up to something that's more important to him than his own life... Regardless, if his health improves enough, he will recover. If it degrades too much, he will die instead. One or the other must occur for the story to continue, but, perhaps disappointingly, neither has any long-term effects, other than Cid's survival, of course.

The following technical information on Cid's health value comes from Djibriel's walkthrough. Cid's health begins at the value of 120, but drops 1 point for every second spent in a submap (i.e., not on the world map; entering the menu or engaging in combat also pauses it). The fast-moving fish (described as "tasty fish") add 32, the fish moving at normal speed will either add 16 (if "ordinary fish") or subtract 4 (if "unappetizing fish"), and the slow-moving fish (just "fish") subtract 16. Cid recovers (immediately) if his health rises to 256 or above, or dies if it drops to 30 or below (but not until re-entering the room if it was over 30 on arrival).

Cid's line when spoken to gives a general idea of his current health.

231 to 255, where it appears that a verb for boiling or getting excited was mistaken for a similar one for drying up:

201 to 230:

161 to 200:

121 to 160:

91 to 120:

61 to 90:

31 to 60:

He gets up.

Cid shows Celes to a hidden basement, where he's been building a raft.

3-06 "The Day After" starts playing. She drags the raft to the beach, then waves as Cid sees her off on a trip into the unknown world beyond.

0 to 30 health, if in the room when his health drops to this level:

Entering the room when Cid's health is 30 or below finds him still in bed, for a change.

She backs away, falling to her knees as "Celes" begins playing.

She turns away, tears falling, and rushes out of the room. Celes is, to put it mildly, not having a good day. The world was torn apart, she was unconscious for a year, plants, animals, and even monsters are dying off, there may be nothing left of the world but this one little island, and now, right when they were moving toward something resembling a normal family life, her surrogate grandfather—possibly also the only other person alive in the world—just died. She heads to the cliffside on the northern cape, and finding an apparently dead bird lying there, remembers Cid's earlier words.

In case it wasn't obvious why she came here, she throws herself off the cliff, crying as she falls. The music fades out.

Some time later, she comes to on the shoreline, rather less dead than planned. A bird flies in, wearing a bandana.

"Forever Rachel" plays as Celes notices the bandana... remember when Interceptor was wounded...?

The bird flies off, unsurprisingly without answering her questions. She seems certain, though.

Back in the house, Celes finds a letter from Cid.

Celes finds Cid's raft in the basement. She drags it to the beach, and after a long look back...

...sets forth into the unknown world beyond.

Either way, the raft drifts across the ocean, coming ashore near a town on a continent to the east. Maybe there are other survivors after all!