Chapter 1

Behind the screen, Hal Crawford was pointing at me as I lay limply, exclaiming in shock, "Hey, Neil passed out! Is he going to be alright?"

Then, turning to Lisa Crawford, he asked, "Didn't you say it was only 122°F? Is he playing dead?"

Lisa glowered right then and grabbed her microphone.

"Neil Crawford!" she bellowed, her cold voice thundering throughout the shelter. "Neil! You can stop pretending now. Get up! Mom, Dad, and Hal were burning under the sun an entire day just to get your medicine! You've already collapsed after only a few minutes have passed?!"

Even so, I stayed silent and motionless under the burning sun.

'I'm already dead, Lisa. How could I do what you say?'

Mother, watching nearby, shook her head. "He's been there for three years but he never learned."

Father promptly agreed. "A leopard never changes its spots! He simply can't see his mistakes and refuses to correct himself even now, after being stuck in that shelter for years!"

See my mistakes? What mistakes?

-

My parents were always doting on me, never letting me out of their sight.

When I couldn't go to school as a child due to my heart condition, they adopted Hal to keep me company.

However, he made me the scapegoat for everything he did and faked an allergy just to screw me over.

When he taunted me that he would replace me and I pushed him, they punished me for three years with a fake apocalypse.

Lisa's voice rang in the shelter again just then, clearly angrier now. "Neil Crawford! Are you trying to make me look bad, when you're the one who wasted our precious water?! Stop playing dead now! How dare you give me the silent treatment! Who made you like this?!"

Meanwhile, the sun was still baking my corpse. If Lisa had looked, she'd see that my face had turned purple after I suffocated.

However, she was snarling through her teeth, "Fine! Jimmy, put on a heat suit and go out there! Make sure he stands for two hours, or no one in the shelter gets to eat!"

The 'survivors' in the shelter were at once groaning and cursing upon hearing her.

"Get up already, Neil! We need to eat!"

"How selfish! He wasted water just because Lisa is our chief, but he's making us pay for his mistakes!"

"Does he even have a conscience?! So many people have died of dehydration! What an ingrate!"

As their complaints sounded genuinely indignant like they were on the brink, I realized they were actors that my parents and Lisa had spent a fortune on, and it was why I never realized that the apocalypse was a hoax.

In no time at all, Jimmy Smith had put on a heat-resistant suit and reached me, staring downward at me for a moment before kicking me. "I'm counting down from three! Get up!"

"Three!"

He kicked my limp corpse right then, hard.

"Two!"

He kicked me again, knocking me over and revealing my bruised and battered face.

He paused when he saw that but soon snickered in disdain. "Well done! You're even better at playing dead these days, huh?! One!"

With that, he arched his back and grabbed my arm, pulling forcefully.

The coarse floor scraped through my skin, leaving a clear, lengthy blood trail.

But I remained limp, not getting up no matter how Jimmy pulled.