Their Fake World Their Real Tomb

Summary

In the middle of the scorched-earth apocalypse, the impossible happened: I got a video call from myself, ten years in the future.

"When does this end? Are Mom and Dad going to make it back with the water? What about Toby? Is my brother safe?"

The questions poured out of me, desperate and breathless.

But the face staring back at me from the screen didn't look like mine. It was a nightmare. He was covered in weeping, infected sores, his scalp entirely bald and raw. His eyes, sunken deep into a hollow skull, were yellowed and threaded with dark purple veins.