The Apocalypse Survival Manual (Three Days Before Doomsday, I Stockpiled Billions) novel Chapter 61

Chapter 61

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Cola understood people. The way he stared at Jeremy and Hughie sent chills down their spines.

“We’re all animal lovers here. No way we’d eat a dog,” Jeremy said quickly, backing down first. “Nicole, can you get him to stop looking at me like that?”

That look was seriously unsettling.

Beatrice understood how Nicole felt, but she still spoke up.

“Nicole, under normal circumstances, I’d support you. But things are different now. Most of the food’s been ruined in the flood.

“We reacted fast and stocked up, sure, but your share will only last six or seven months at most. After that, who knows what things will look like? And a dog this size eats a lot. You really need to think this through.”

It was better to think ahead now than regret it later when there was nothing left.

“To me, he’s not a dog. He’s family.” Nicole gently soothed Cola, who was still tense. “If I run out of supplies, I’ll find more. I’m not abandoning him.”

Beatrice and the rest didn’t push it further. It wasn’t their place.

Nicole brought Cola into her apartment. She took out some kibble from the storage space and soaked it in goat milk.

The milk was something she had grabbed from a grocery store. She couldn’t stand the taste herself, but it worked perfectly for Cola.

He finished an entire bowl, his hollow belly finally rounding out a little.

Then he stood in front of the couch, staring at her. His eyes welled up. The wariness in them softened, replaced by something fragile.

Hope.

The moment Cola started crying, Nicole broke. She pulled him into her arms and cried with him. All the fear, the anger, the loneliness, the helplessness from her last life came pouring out.

Cola rested his head on her shoulder, letting out soft whimpers.

He was crying, too.

Crying because this human hadn’t abandoned him like the last one. She took him in and fed him good food.

Could he really trust a human again?

The two of them stayed like that for a long time.

When it was over, something inside Nicole settled.

When she first came back, all she wanted was to survive and live a little longer.

Now, it wasn’t enough. She wanted to live very well, very long, and keep Cola safe.

Once Nicole calmed down, she started checking Cola’s body.

The injuries were everywhere. Old wounds, fresh ones, all overlapping. His skin was in terrible shape, patches of

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infection covering him. His head looked dark and raw, almost hard to look at.

She gave him anti-inflammatory medicine, then grabbed clippers and shaved off the rest of his fur.

After that, she disinfected his wounds and applied Hemoguard powder to stop the bleeding. She didn’t have proper pet meds, so she dug through her supplies and used what she could.

Cola didn’t resist, but he kept trying to lick at the wounds.

He was so thin, just skin and bones. Without fur, he looked even worse.

Nicole pulled out one of her old jerseys and slipped it over him, then rubbed his head while saying, “Once you put some weight back on, you’ll look good again.”

She wasn’t worried about supplies. Between what she had stored and the garden she could grow food in, it was enough for both of them.

The floor was damp, and there wasn’t a dog bed, so she laid down some cardboard and pulled out a durable beanbag chair from storage.

She didn’t even need to teach him. Cola immediately understood it was his.

It was soft and warm. He finally had a home now.

He curled up and fell asleep almost instantly.

Nicole grabbed a heavy backpack and went to knock on Zeph’s door, then headed over to Hughie’s apartment.

In front of everyone, she opened the bag.

Jeremy and Hughie stared, counting the stacks again and again.

“Two hundred grand?”

Nicole nodded. “Found it in a cashier’s office in an office building.”

If this had been before everything fell apart, they would’ve gone crazy over it. Now, staring at the pile of cash, all they felt was frustration.

“What’s the point? You can’t even spend it.”

Rice had gone up to about 100 dollars per pound. Even then, you could only buy one pound a day. Half the time, it was stuff pulled out of the flood and dried.

Edible, maybe. But nobody knew whether it was safe.

Two hundred grand didn’t go far anymore.

Nicole didn’t sugarcoat it. “The fact that you can still buy food at all is already lucky. That might not last.”

“You can barely get it now,” Hughie said. “They say it’s limited, but the amount released each day is tiny. People line up all night and still come up empty.”

There was a black market, though. Same flood-soaked, dried food, but selling for 400 dollars per pound. Two hundred grand would only get you 500 pounds.

“Got any connections?” Nicole asked.

The government was cracking down hard on resellers. If you got caught, everything was confiscated. Not everyone

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had access.

“Money’s only getting more worthless,” Nicole said. “Bartering’s already starting. One day, cash won’t mean anything. We need to spend this while we still can.”

“On what? We can’t even buy food.”

“Whatever the department store has, we take,” Nicole said, steering the conversation. “It’s October. We used to wear T-shirts. Now we’re sleeping under blankets. If this rain keeps going into winter, how are we going to survive?”

The three idiots looked at each other.

“Alright. Tomorrow, we hit the department store and grab whatever we can.”

Zeph stayed quiet the whole time. His expression gave nothing away.

He was part of the group, but he kept his distance. His gaze was sharp, like he could see straight through people.

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