The Apocalypse Survival Manual (Three Days Before Doomsday, I Stockpiled Billions) novel Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Hughie searched the family and took their keys, then locked the door from the inside. He didn’t forget to grab the inflatable raft, either.

Without it, there was no way out.

The old man clung to the bag like his life depended on it, refusing to let go until Nicole pulled out her bloodstained butcher knife.

That was when the whole family finally broke. Their faces went pale, drained of color, as they backed into the corner, shaking.

Nicole fixed her eyes on the middle-aged woman. “You’re a real piece of work.”

She grabbed the woman by the collar, dragged her to the window, and shoved her out. A sharp scream ripped through the air.

Hughie and Beatrice froze.

The two elderly adults clutched the kids, wailing as if the world had ended.

Nicole didn’t even blink. She turned and headed downstairs.

They got onto the raft and pushed off. Not far away, the woman thrashed in the water, struggling to stay afloat.

Too bad. She could swim.

Jeremy could decide what to do with her. If he kept being an idiot, then even as a friend, he wasn’t worth saving.

This was the end of the world. No one’s life mattered more than your own.

Hughie and Beatrice talked it over and decided to check the Westbridge Hotel.

Nicole didn’t say anything, but she wasn’t sure about that. Then she remembered the time Jeremy had taken a brick for her, and she went along with it.

They paddled over to the Westbridge Hotel. It was packed wall to wall. Staff were surrounded by desperate people who had come looking for shelter.

The city had basically collapsed. Trash floated across the water everywhere. People were starving, their stomachs hollow, with no hot water and barely anything to eat. The air stank so badly that it made your eyes burn.

Hughie forced his way through the crowd. It took over half an hour before he came back, breathing hard. “They’re assigning rooms by district. Jeremy should be on the 14th floor.”

That was all he could find out. The hotel had thousands of people crammed inside, and both the power and the

network were down.

The noise made Nicole’s ears ring. “Let’s just go look.”

The hotel was huge. Each floor had dozens of rooms, and without lights, the hallways were dark and heavy.

Even in the dark, the corridors were packed. If you weren’t careful, you would bump into someone or step on them.

By the time they reached the 14th floor, Nicole pulled out a flashlight.

She thought five or six people in a room would already be too much.

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Chapter 39

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But inside, there were more than a dozen packed together. The sheets and blankets were filthier than rags, and the whole place reeked.

It was so bad that Beatrice almost threw up.

“This place is disgusting!”

But there was nothing anyone could do. There were too many people. Even small factories held hundreds, sometimes thousands. The authorities had done what they could.

Nicole thought they would have to knock on doors one by one.

Instead, every door was open. It was too crowded and suffocating. Some people had even spilled out into the hall just to breathe.

The moment the three of them stepped onto the floor, countless eyes turned toward them.

Even in the dark, Nicole could feel the hostility.

If the military hadn’t stepped in, keeping order downstairs with armed patrols and cracking down on troublemakers, they wouldn’t have dared come in at all.

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