The Apocalypse Survival Manual (Three Days Before Doomsday, I Stockpiled Billions) novel Chapter 257

Chapter 257

That night, the two secretly drank under the blankets.

The deep freeze was miserable, but at least people had gotten used to it. If only things could stay like

this forever.

For Jeremy and Hughie, this job meant more than food or status. It proved they weren’t weak, sickly men anymore. It proved they were real men who could finally stand tall.

They had clawed their way up with so much effort, only for the world to collapse again before they even had the chance to enjoy it. The frustration sat heavily in their chests.

Jeremy took a hard swallow of liquor and immediately started coughing from the burn.

“We’ll rise again someday.”

“Damn right! Real men don’t get crushed by a setback like this.”

The two drank too much and slept like the dead.

The night before Hughie’s group officially left, Nicole stopped by to remind them one last time.

“The weather’s unstable. The state weather agency says around two weeks, but nobody knows exactly when the extreme heat will hit. Why don’t you take an inflatable raft with you? If the ice suddenly melts one day, at least you won’t have to swim all the way back through that water.”

The moment the three of them imagined what floated in that floodwater, their expressions changed instantly. They hurried to drag the inflatable raft back out.

Thankfully, they had listened to Nicole before and wrapped it carefully in insulated materials, so the rubber hadn’t frozen brittle.

Only two days after Hughie’s group left, the temperature suddenly shot up to 14 degrees. 1

Chaos erupted outside all over again.

People had barely started believing life might return to normal after surviving the deep freeze. Now, extreme heat was coming.

Air conditioners, electric fans, and anything similar had long since frozen beyond repair during the -90- degree weather

At least during the deep freeze, people could melt snow for water.

But what were they supposed to do during extreme heat?

Those with spare food rushed everywhere trying to trade for supplies.

Those who had nothing left simply gave up.

Fine. Let the world end. They were exhausted.

+15 Bonus

After lying there half a day, though, most still realized they didn’t actually want to die, so they dragged themselves back up again.

After Beatrice and the others left, Nicole quietly climbed to the rooftop under the cover of darkness and stored the water tanks inside her storage space before filling them completely.

She even brought the older tanks inside and refilled them with fresh, clean water.

Still half asleep, Nicole started kicking blankets off herself. The thick quilt, the comforter, the down

blanket…

By the time she woke up fully, only one thin blanket remained on her body.

Bright light pierced through the gap in the curtains, stabbing painfully into her eyes.

It was blindingly bright.

Nicole pulled the curtains open. The glare almost hurt to look at.

The sun, gone for more than a year, had finally returned. The endless gloomy skies had disappeared.

With the curtains open, dazzling light flooded everything in sight.

Maybe it was her imagination, but Nicole felt like the sunlight looked wrong somehow.

The indoor temperature sat at 68 degrees.

Outside… It was 102 degrees!

Yesterday, it had still been below freezing. Today, it hit 102 degrees.

The weather had gone completely insane.

Nicole stepped onto the balcony and looked down below. Sunlight reflected violently off the frozen

surface.

She was about to head back inside when several idiots suddenly burst out of the apartment building wearing short sleeves, slipping and stumbling across the ice while cheering wildly.

“The sun’s finally back! About damn time!”

During the deep freeze, everyone stayed bundled tightly enough that you couldn’t tell what they looked

like underneath.

Now, wearing only T-shirts, the survivors looked horrifyingly thin. Their faces were hollow, their bodies skinny, their necks so frail that it barely seemed able to support their heads.

Nicole frowned and raised her binoculars toward the people running around on the ice.

23

These idiots had a death wish.

+15 Bonus

The state weather agency had broadcast warnings over the radio just yesterday, saying the extreme heat would accelerate the ice melting process and advising residents to stay off the ice unless absolutely

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