The Apocalypse Survival Manual (Three Days Before Doomsday, I Stockpiled Billions) novel Chapter 722

As excited as Nicole was, she still remembered to quickly put away the familiar furniture and replace it with older, more worn-out pieces before going downstairs.

After so long apart, Nicole and Hughie's group greeted each other with hugs.

Hughie could barely contain himself. "Did you find Zeph?"

Nicole smiled.

"I did. He was badly hurt, so we stayed outside for a few months while he recovered. We only got to the military base last night and rented this place around noon. I was actually going to look for you guys later, but you beat me to it."

Once they heard Zeph was safe, all four of them finally relaxed. Then someone quickly asked, "What about Cola?"

"He was hurt, too, but he's fine now."

Nicole invited everyone inside, then glanced around the nearly empty first floor and gave an awkward smile.

"We just got here, so we haven't had time to set the place up yet."

Jeremy and the others didn't care. They sat down on the floor.

"Having a roof over our heads is good enough. We're not picky."

Once they started talking, everyone filled Nicole in on what happened after they got separated.

Hughie's group were injured, so they found a relatively safe place and spent a full month recovering.

Without a vehicle, they had to walk more than 60 miles to the military base. Along the way, they ran into several groups of refugees, along with gangs blocking the road and robbing people.

After surviving on their own for years, none of them were easy targets. They dealt with the attackers quickly and even picked up some extra supplies along the way.

The first thing they did after reaching the military base was ask about Nicole and Zeph.

Unfortunately, there was no news of either of them.

The four of them signed up for the assessment, but Beatrice's past came up right away. The military easily found the record showing she had been kicked out of the government base for fighting.

Just when everyone thought that was the end of it and got ready to leave, the military unexpectedly gave her another chance.

Its purpose wasn't just to preserve human civilization and technology. It also had to preserve the human population itself. Without future generations, there would be no civilization left to rebuild.

When the disasters began, people Beatrice's age were still in their physical prime. Many younger people died over the years, while many older survivors had since aged out of their childbearing years and were beginning to decline physically.

The apocalypse had already lasted nine years and could easily last another nine. If the disasters ended sometime during that period, women like Beatrice could still have children.

That was why the base gave some preference to capable women whose character and background didn't raise serious concerns.

None of this was openly stated, and whether people figured it out depended on the individual. But one thing was obvious: the gender ratio at the base was badly skewed.

So, over the past two years, women had a slightly higher acceptance rate than men when their qualifications were otherwise equal.

Nicole was surprised. She didn't expect the government to be planning that far ahead.

Still, one thing puzzled her.

"So why did all of you decide to join the military?"