$100 Million Before Doomsday: My Doomsday Shelter System

Chapter 1: Reborn

Joshua's eyes snapped open and the scream died somewhere between his lungs and his throat.

His whole body was shaking. The sheets underneath him were soaked through with sweat, sticking to his back like a second skin. His heart was slamming so hard against his ribs that he pressed his palm flat against his chest just to make sure it was still in one piece.

He was alive.

That was the part that didn't make sense. Because he remembered dying. He remembered every second of it. The rope biting into his wrists. Elena standing over him with that look on her face, the same face he had loved for six years, watching him bleed out on the floor like he was nothing. Lorry standing next to her, one arm around her waist, grinning like a man who had already won a long time ago.

And her parents. Her mother turning away so she wouldn't have to watch. Her father spitting on the ground next to his head and saying he should have gotten rid of Joshua years ago.

Then everything had gone black.

Now he was lying in his own bed, in the apartment he had spent three months reinforcing with steel panels and industrial sealant because the toxic rain had started eating through ordinary walls. The same apartment he had poured every dollar into. The same apartment he had turned into a fortress for a family that never loved him.

The memories hit him like a flood breaking through a wall. The cosmic radiation. The sky turning green for three straight days. Animals mutating into things that barely looked like animals anymore. Plants growing teeth. People changing. The world cracking open like an egg and spilling something rotten into every corner of civilization.

Joshua had been a repairman before all of it. He knew how to fix things, how to build things, how to make something broken hold together for one more day. So when the first wave of toxic rain came down and started dissolving rooftops, he was the one who reinforced the house. He was the one who sealed every window, every crack, every gap in the foundation. He was the one who went out into that poison air to scavenge supplies while Elena's family sat inside and ate the food he brought back.

He had done everything for them.

And they killed him for it.

Joshua sat up slowly. His hands were still trembling. He looked down at them and turned them over, studying his palms, his knuckles, the old scar across his left thumb from a job three years ago. This was real. This was his body. Younger, stronger, not yet worn down by months of starvation and overwork.

He had been reborn. Somehow, impossibly, the same cosmic radiation that had destroyed the world had thrown him backward in time.

A sharp electronic tone rang inside his skull. Not from outside. From inside his mind. Joshua flinched and grabbed the phone on his nightstand. The screen was glowing with a faint blue light, and words were scrolling across it that he had never seen before.

DOOMSDAY SHELTER SYSTEM: ACTIVATED.

He stared at the screen. His phone had changed. The radiation must have done something to it, fused it with something that shouldn't exist. A system. Like something out of one of those survival games he used to play on his lunch breaks.

A countdown timer appeared at the top of the screen. Fifteen days. That was how long he had before the first wave of toxic rain would fall. Fifteen days before the apocalypse officially began.

According to the system's description, he could earn points by taking in survivors and assigning them tasks. The more capable the survivors, the more points he could earn. The more points he earned, the more he could upgrade his shelter, unlock supplies, unlock weapons.

Joshua's jaw tightened. His fingers curled slowly around the phone, and something cold and steady settled into the pit of his stomach. Not fear. Not panic.

Purpose.

This time, he would survive. And this time, the people who betrayed him would pay for every single thing they did to him.

The bedroom door flew open so hard it cracked against the wall.

Gerald, his father in law, stood in the doorway with his face all twisted up and red. The old man was still wearing his stained undershirt and boxers, and his thin gray hair was sticking up in every direction. He looked like a rooster that had been woken up too early and was looking for someone to peck.

"What the hell are you still doing in bed?" Gerald's voice came out loud and rough, the way it always did when he talked to Joshua. Like he was yelling at a dog that had pissed on the carpet. "I've been sitting out there for forty minutes waiting for breakfast. You think this family feeds itself? Get your lazy ass up and go cook."

Joshua looked at him.

Something about the way he looked at him made Gerald pause for half a second. But the old man shook it off. He was too used to being obeyed.

"Did you hear what I said? I'm talking to you, boy. Get up."

"No."

The word came out flat and calm. Joshua didn't raise his voice. He didn't need to.

Gerald blinked. His mouth opened and closed twice before words came out again. "What did you just say to me?"

"I said no." Joshua swung his legs off the bed and stood up. He was taller than Gerald by a full head, and for the first time in six years, he didn't hunch his shoulders to make himself smaller. "From today onward, I'm done being this family's servant. I'm done cooking your food, fixing your house, washing your clothes, and bowing my head every time you open your mouth. I'm done serving trash like you."

Gerald's face went from red to purple. A vein in his temple started throbbing so hard it looked like it might burst through his skin.

"You ungrateful dog." His voice shook with fury. "I let you live under my roof. I let you marry my daughter. You should be on your knees thanking me every morning that I didn't throw you out on the street where you belong. You're nothing. You hear me? You're a stray dog my family took pity on, and now you want to bite the hand that feeds you?"

Gerald lunged forward with his hand already raised to strike.

Joshua caught his wrist mid swing. He didn't even think about it. His body moved the way it had learned to move in the months after the apocalypse, when hesitation meant death. He twisted Gerald's arm to the side and shoved the old man backward. Gerald stumbled, his legs tangled together, and he hit the floor with a heavy thud that shook the nightstand.

Gerald lay on his back, gasping, eyes wide with shock. His mouth worked open and shut but nothing came out for a long moment. Then the pain registered and he let out a howl that rattled the walls.

"You hit me! You actually hit me!" He was clutching his shoulder, rolling onto his side, his face crumpled like wet paper. "Elena! Elena, get in here! This dog just attacked me!"

Footsteps came pounding down the hallway. Elena appeared in the doorway within seconds, her hair still messy from sleep, her eyes wide and alarmed. She took one look at her father on the floor and then turned to Joshua with her mouth hanging open.

"What did you do?" Her voice was high and sharp. "Have you lost your mind? Why is my father on the ground?"

"Ask him." Joshua didn't look away from her. "He came in here screaming at me like I'm his pet. He tried to hit me. I put him on the ground. That's what happened."

"This trash actually dared to hit me!" Gerald screamed from the floor, still holding his shoulder. "I want him out of this house! I want him gone! Divorce him, Elena! Divorce this worthless dog right now!"

Elena's shock melted into something harder. She straightened up and crossed her arms, and that cold look settled onto her face. The same look she had worn while watching him die.

"Joshua, kneel down and apologize to my father right now." Her voice dropped low and controlled. "I mean it. Get on your knees, say you're sorry, and maybe we can forget this happened. If you don't, I swear I will divorce you today."

Joshua stared at her. The woman he had given everything to. The woman who had brought another man into his home and called him her cousin. The woman who would one day tie him up and watch him bleed.

A slow smile spread across his face. It wasn't warm. It wasn't kind.

"Then let's get divorced right now." His voice was steady and clear, and he watched the color drain from her face as the words landed. "No one is allowed to regret it later."