The Apocalypse Survival Manual (Three Days Before Doomsday, I Stockpiled Billions) novel Chapter 406

Chapter 406

There were three people in the well. They got all of them out.

By then, the sky had gone gray, and the rain was coming down in sheets. People threw jackets over their heads and ran for home.

Nicole picked up her bucket, about to lift it over her head, when someone caught her arm.

An umbrella opened above her.

It was Zeph.

“Let’s go.” The weather had turned unpredictable. No one knew if the rain might turn scalding. He pulled her along, angling the umbrella toward her without thinking. “Watch your step.”

They pushed through the downpour, moving as fast as they could.

Poppy was waiting at the building entrance, Cola bouncing around her, tail wagging wildly.

Nicole’s eyes stung.

In her last life, everything had been bleak. She had never imagined that this time, someone would come out into the storm to bring her back, and someone else would be waiting for her at home.

Soaked through, she headed upstairs. Zeph grabbed clean clothes from the closet and draped a dry towel over her hair, rubbing it gently. “Change out of that. Don’t catch a cold.”

After saying that, he didn’t leave.

Nicole pushed him out and shut the door, then changed quickly.

Outside, Zeph stared at the closed door in silence.

When she came out, her hair dry, she took out hot chocolate from the storage space, a cup for herself and one for him.

That was when she noticed he was still drenched.

“You should change, too,” she said.

The loudspeakers in the compound crackled on. Alex urged anyone who could to store as much water as possible.

Zeph came out with a towel draped over his head. “Should we stock up?”

She thought for a moment, then nodded. “Yes.”

The water could be used for irrigation… and renovation.

“Let’s renovate the place.”

To be honest, after everything she had seen, Nicole had learned to stay cautious, even around kindness. She had always kept her distance from Alex because he was a counsellor.

There was no denying he could help people. But someone like that could also influence them.

Still, what she had just witnessed stayed with her.

The small things mattered. If it had been people outside, they would’ve run the moment the hot rain started. But

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here, even afraid, they stayed and pulled everyone out of the well.

The patrol team had done the same.

If they had all left, the people below would’ve drowned.

True selfishness always showed itself in the end. The fact that people here still held onto some decency had a lot to do with Alex.

For the first time, Nicole found herself looking forward to life at Oakhaven Gardens.

Outside, the rain came down harder. The cracked earth finally drank in the relief it had been waiting for.

Watching it, Nicole felt some of the weight lift off her chest.

Call it nature punishing humanity, but it was also leaving them a way to survive.

She put on a raincoat and brought out all the buckets and basins she had traded from Weasel.

The large terrace had a canopy. Water poured off it in steady sheets, easy to collect.

She filled the buckets first, then poured them into the water tank in the storage space once they were full.

Cola tried to help, eager as ever, but Nicole waved him off.

Help? More like extra work. The last thing she needed was a soaked dog to deal with.

What she didn’t expect was Zeph doing the same to her. “Stay inside with Poppy and Cola. I’ll handle it.”

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