The Apocalypse Survival Manual (Three Days Before Doomsday, I Stockpiled Billions) novel Chapter 696

After making sure no one was nearby, Nicole took out an inflatable raft and let the current carry her downstream as she paddled.

Dead branches and bloated corpses drifted everywhere. She carefully pushed them aside with the paddle, afraid one might strike the raft and tear it.

About half an hour later, she heard someone shouting. Several survivors were stranded near the foot of the mountain, waving frantically and calling for help, but Nicole didn't stop.

Whenever the water grew shallow enough, she paused and scanned the area through her binoculars.

Again and again, hope flared, only to disappear just as quickly.

No matter how hard she searched, she couldn't find any trace of them in the vast wasteland.

But she refused to give up. She kept paddling through the muddy floodwater, searching as she went.

The currents were unpredictable and full of debris. Before half a day had passed, the inflatable raft was already torn. Nicole couldn't bring herself to throw it away, so she stored it. It could probably be patched up and used again.

She took out a wooden boat and continued searching.

That afternoon, Nicole came across several soldiers rescuing stranded survivors. They waved her over and asked to borrow her boat.

The area fell under Glenmere's jurisdiction. As soon as the sandstorm began to weaken, the authorities had sent troops out on rescue missions, only for the sudden downpour to hit before they could finish.

They had set up a temporary camp at Oxwatch and had already pulled quite a few people out of floods and mudslides, but several inflatable rafts and motorboats had been damaged, leaving them desperately short on equipment.

Nicole thought it over and agreed to let them use the boat.

The wooden boat wasn't very large. They picked up about six stranded survivors, all gaunt and sickly. More than one of them gave Nicole a long, complicated look.

Two soldiers paddled from the front while Nicole sat at the stern.

A skeletal older woman noticed that Nicole still looked relatively healthy and couldn't help asking, "Miss, do you have anything to eat?"

"No."

The woman hadn't eaten in days, and desperation sharpened her cloudy eyes. She glanced at Nicole's bag.

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