The Apocalypse Survival Manual (Three Days Before Doomsday, I Stockpiled Billions) novel Chapter 562

Chapter 562

Nicole opened the blackout curtains and switched on every light in the house.

She and Zeph had trained Cola for situations like this. From now on, guarding the villa was his job, and he needed to stay alert to anything happening outside.

The world beyond the windows was unnervingly quiet. Even with the house lit as brightly as day, the silence left everyone on edge.

Nicole picked up the radio and contacted Jeremy and the others.

Diana answered. She and Beatrice were patrolling together.

They were adults. If they had chosen to keep working during polar night, they must have considered the risks.

Nicole spoke with Diana for a few minutes, reminded her to be careful, then ended the call.

They were friends, but their circumstances were completely different. If they had any other choice, none of them would have risked going out. The last thing Nicole wanted to do was lecture them from the safety of her own home

She spent two hours reading a medical textbook, then sparred with Zeph. By the time she was drenched in sweat, some of her tension had finally eased.

She filled the bathtub with hot spring water from her storage space, kept it at a steady temperature, and soaked for 40 minutes.

Zeph stayed busy, too. He trained with Poppy first, then worked with Cola.

The lights in the backyard greenhouse remained on around the clock.

The rabbits had survived extreme cold before, so the falling temperature didn’t seem to bother them much. The chickens, ducks, and geese, however, huddled together for warmth.

Poppy looked disappointed. “Zeph, none of them laid any eggs today.”

“It’s too cold, and there’s no sunlight,” Zeph said. “Give them some time to adjust.”

No matter how cold it got, the animals still needed enough food to keep up their strength. Cutting back on grain wasn’t an option.

Zeph rigged up a heating element and hung it inside the greenhouse. If the temperature dropped any further at night, they could turn it on to help the animals make it through the long darkness.

With little to do during polar night, most people went to bed early, Nicole was about to turn in when the radio suddenly crackled.

“Nicole!”

For a second, she wondered when Weasel had gotten a radio. Then she realized the voice belonged to Marcus.

Nicole frowned. “How did you find this channel?”

“Doesn’t matter. I found it.”

His self-satisfied voice came through the radio.

On the other end, Marcus lounged with one leg crossed over the other, lazily swinging a slipper from his foot.

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+15 Bonus

“Do you need food or anything? I can send some over.”

“No.” She would consider herself lucky if he simply stopped bothering her.

“Why don’t you come over and play cards?” Marcus was so bored that he could have started counting his own toes. “Or I can bring Dumbo over.”

Dumbo was the name of the big, goofy mastiff.

If the dog hadn’t protected him, Marcus would have been torn apart by the cannibals in the mountains.

Nicole had nothing to say to him. “Will you stop bothering me?” 1

“Don’t be like that. I’m bored out of my mind.”

There was nowhere to go during polar night. His family was tired of having him around, the other rich kids in the neighborhood did nothing but flatter him, and Jason had gone back to brooding over the woman he had lost.

Marcus was so restless he felt like climbing the walls. Otherwise, he never would have dared pester Nicole like this.

She couldn’t leave the villa during polar night, so it wasn’t as though she could march over to the Robinsons’ place and beat him up.

“Good thing you warned me. We only finished the wall yesterday, and polar night started today.”

Nicole’s warning had prompted Marcus to speak to his father right away.

Eric had plenty of connections. He donated a shipment of food to the police station, and in return, the station agreed to assign two officers to the Robinsons’ villa.

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