The Apocalypse Survival Manual (Three Days Before Doomsday, I Stockpiled Billions) novel Chapter 461

Chapter 461

Before bed, Nicole took out a blanket for Poppy.

“Use this tonight if you get cold.”

The radio had been broadcasting updates on schedule. They hadn’t heard Alex over the loudspeaker, probably because the radio had died, so Zeph relayed the message.

“The weather agency says polar day’s here. The temperature’s going to swing hard between morning and night.”

A moment later, the loudspeaker crackled back to life, reminding everyone to layer up and use blankets so they wouldn’t get sick.

It wasn’t an empty warning. If someone fell ill and their body gave out, that was it.

Nicole slept through the night. When she woke, a blanket had been tucked over her.

She glanced at the thermometer on the wall. Sixty-eight degrees.

The spot beside her pillow was empty. Zeph was already up.

She pulled the curtains open. As expected, she found him on the terrace working out with Cola. Even Poppy was out there.

Right. She had gotten lazy.

It was 68 in the morning, 99 by noon, and 64 at night. The temperature was all over the place. 1

Sunset had been pushed back again, this time to 9 p.m.

Day after day, Nicole felt like all she did was eat. She was tired of watching TV, while sparring only filled two hours. If she read for too long, she got restless. 1

Even being a couch potato took effort.

Seeing how bored she was, Zeph suggested, “Why don’t we make something?”

The detached houses were spaced far apart now. As long as they kept the flavors light, the smell wouldn’t carry.

Once they moved to the new district, even the villas wouldn’t have this kind of distance.

Nicole had no objection. “Dinner rolls and meat pies?”

They weren’t in a hurry this time. It was just something to pass the time, so they worked whenever they felt like it.

Meat pies, chicken pot pies, dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls…

They kept tweaking their technique, and everything came out looking better each time.

After a month, they had built up quite a stockpile.

By then, it didn’t get dark until 1 a.m., and the sun was back up by 5 a.m. Daytime temperatures hit 68 degrees, but nights dropped to 50.

Polar day forced everyone to change clothes every couple of hours.

Whenever they went out, their backpacks were stuffed with clothes for every season, leaving almost no room for anything else.

1/2

+15 Bonus

One slip, and they could catch a cold.

The wild swings in temperature had Cola confused. He couldn’t decide whether to grow more fur or shed it.

Nicole ended up putting him in temperature-regulating gear.

Even with polar day, they all stuck to a routine. If the sunlight got too harsh, they drew the curtains so their body. clocks wouldn’t fall apart.

If there was any upside to polar day, it was the longer daylight speeding up crop growth. The shorter nights also cut down on crime a little.

None of that mattered to Nicole, who was still lazing around.

Poppy, on the other hand, was thrilled. “Nicole, the peanuts I planted sprouted!”

The girl had taken to gardening. She planted not only peanuts but leafy greens, too.

Cola helped dig nearby. No matter how dramatically Molly howled for him downstairs, he didn’t even look her way.

Nicole shook her head. One was all in, while the other didn’t care at all.

Standing on the terrace, she saw the carpenter from Building 3 making furniture.

Curious, Nicole stopped by when she went to fetch water that evening. “Tom, can you build a boat?”

“A boat?” Tom Bates was a local. He had worked under an old boatbuilder when he was young. “A small one,

, sure.”

Westbridge was full of rivers and lakes, with waterways running in every direction. Back in the day, most local families kept wooden boats and got around by water.

Tom studied her. “Do you need one?”

Nicole nodded. “My inflatable raft froze solid during the deep freeze. With weather like this, who knows if we’ll get a major flood? I don’t want to be stuck with nowhere to go. Can you make me two?”

“You’ll need old cedar, and the hull has to be sealed with tung oil.”

He still had tung oil, but timber was the problem. He also lacked some of the tools, so the boats could only be about six feet wide and ten feet long at most. Anything bigger would be risky.

Nicole was fine with that. If it ever came down to drifting out on open water, inflatables and motorboats could fail too easily. A wooden boat was more reliable.

She still had yachts and cruise ships, but no one ever complained about having too many options.

After talking with Tom for a while, she learned he could also make wooden bathtubs, buckets, and other items. Nicole went ahead and ordered another eight sets.

2/2