The Apocalypse Survival Manual (Three Days Before Doomsday, I Stockpiled Billions) novel Chapter 681

Nicole and Zeph didn't leave right away. They waited another hour or so.

They still had supplies to sort out, and leaving too soon after the others would make it easier to run into someone they knew.

Poppy looked out the car window. "I wanna say goodbye to Brandon."

Zeph nodded. "Go ahead."

There were other kids her age in the neighborhood, but Poppy had always kept her distance. After all these years, Brandon was the only one she had really gotten close to.

But getting attached to someone wasn't always a good thing in the apocalypse. The closer you got, the harder it hurt when you had to say goodbye or lost them for good. Sometimes, that kind of pain was more than a person could bear.

Poppy handed Brandon a drawing.

"I'm leaving. This is for you."

Brandon froze for a second. Then, he handed her a cloth doll.

"When I grow up, I'll come find you."

Poppy paused, then smiled. "Okay."

The years had flown by, and neither of them looked like little kids anymore. Poppy already came up to Nicole's shoulder, while Brandon was only a couple of inches shorter than his father.

Under normal circumstances, people might still have thought of them as kids. But in the apocalypse, they were already old enough to shoulder adult responsibilities.

Brandon knew there was still a big gap between him and Poppy. Right now, he didn't have what it took to get into a military base.

But one day, he would.

Poppy turned to leave, but Brandon suddenly grabbed her hand. He looked anxious and a little lost.

"Will you wait for me?"

Poppy knew perfectly well that the military base might not be the best choice for Zeph and Nicole. None of them knew where they would eventually end up.

But when she saw the hope in Brandon's eyes, she couldn't bring herself to tell him that.

"Sure."

Getting into a military base was still one of the better options out there. If having that goal gave him something to work toward, then maybe it wasn't such a bad thing.

Brandon stood in the doorway and watched until she disappeared from sight.

The numb look on her face vanished, and she suddenly screamed, "Leave me alone! I don't want to live anymore! Just let me die!"

He wrapped his arms around his wife and broke down crying. "If you die, what am I supposed to do? What about the kids?"

"The kids are gone!" The woman pounded her fists against his chest. "All three of our children are dead!"

"Things will get better. They have to." The man sobbed as he held on to her. "I promised your parents I'd take care of you for the rest of my life."

"Things won't get better. I can't do this anymore. Please, just let me go."

Down below, people hurried through the streets. Some traveled alone, while others moved in groups, helping one another along as they left.

No one had time to stop for someone threatening to jump. Most people were still fighting to stay alive.

It was a basic human instinct. Even when they looked like walking corpses, they still clung to life.

The journey stretched for 300 miles. They would just have to go as far as they could.

The authorities hadn't given them much time to prepare, so most people traveled in groups. Families from the same village, neighbors from the same building, anyone who knew each other stuck together.

With natural disasters on one side and desperate people on the other, staying together was their best chance of making it out alive.