The Apocalypse Survival Manual (Three Days Before Doomsday, I Stockpiled Billions) novel Chapter 850

Chapter 850

Chapter 850

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Everything the Ardelonians built reflected their limited ambitions. The vessels were cramped and unimpressive.

Calling some of them warships was generous. Even if Ardelon had the means to build anything larger, Westmeria would never have permitted it.

Beyond the boats, wooden buildings stood above the water.

Piles driven into the seabed supported broad wooden platforms. Buildings crowded together on top, stacked into a rambling maze that resembled a giant wasp nest.

The Ardelonians were lucky to find such a sheltered location. In more exposed waters, storms would have torn the settlement apart long ago.

Nicole estimated that several hundred people lived there.

Clothes for adults and children hung outside the wooden homes, marking them as family quarters. Others lived aboard the vessels, probably the crews who went out on raids.

Years of living on contaminated marine life left visible damage. Even the children had lumps and tumors covering their bodies, and Nicole shuddered at the sight.

Several hundred Ardelonians were far more than the four of them could easily handle.

Blue caught the settlement’s attention. Two boats immediately set out after her, their crews firing guns and harpoons.

Nicole took advantage of the distraction, lowering the periscope as submarine 2688 slipped away.

An attack on a settlement this size would take careful planning.

They withdrew several dozen nautical miles and stopped in calmer water.

The boats and buildings formed a sizable base, and the Ardelonians knew how to fight on the water. With several crews missing, everyone was on alert. A lookout tower rose above the wooden rooftops. Approaching unnoticed would be difficult.

Blue’s distraction probably saved them from being spotted during their first look at the base. The whale seemed to know exactly what she was doing.

They waited below the surface for a little over half an hour before she returned.

By then, Nicole and Zeph finished weighing their options. Close combat, planted explosives, and a direct assault with machine guns all seemed impractical.

Any attack meant leaving the submarine. All three of them had diving gear and could retreat into the storage space if necessary, but that still left Cola.

They had no diving gear for him, and leaving him with Blue was hardly an option. She might swallow him in one gulp.

The Ardelonians also carried infections, and their bodies were badly mutated. A single infected wound could turn the operation into a disaster.

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Chapter 650

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Too much could go wrong in a fight. Nicole’s storage space couldn’t protect them from everything.

After weighing the risks, they narrowed it down to two options: wait for severe weather to leave the base vulnerable, or pick off raiding crews as they ventured out.

Either approach required a better sense of the Ardelonians’ defenses and what they themselves could handle.

For now, they would survey the area around the base and look for a suitable ambush site.

The submarine circled at a distance, mapping the surrounding seabed. Blue followed, though she didn’t seem to understand what they were doing.

They spent about eight hours moving slowly through the depths before the sonar picked up something behind

them.

Among the features on the seabed were what appeared to be living creatures. They were large, and there were a

lot of them.

Nicole studied the readings.