The Apocalypse Survival Manual (Three Days Before Doomsday, I Stockpiled Billions) novel Chapter 87

Chapter 87

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Chapter 87

It took two days, but all seven water tanks were finally installed.

Hughie and Jeremy got three, while Nicole and Zeph each took two. Turn the faucet, and water came right out.

Nicole still used water from her storage space, but she made a show of using the tanks every day.

Before they knew it, the flooding had lasted two months.

The second batch of hydroponic vegetables had already been planted. Snowy looked like she was pregnant again, and the first litter of rabbits had grown to over a pound each.

Beatrice couldn’t sit still. As soon as her injury improved, she started heading out again.

Nicole, on the other hand, got lazier by the day. She turned down every outing and fully settled into staying in.

Even Zeph, who used to run nonstop, slowed down. Aside from daily dog training, he spent about two hours sparring with Nicole, then moved on to cooking.

He was excellent at almost everything. Cooking just wasn’t one of them. With Nicole guiding him, his food improved, but “good” was about as far as it went.

“Not bad,” Nicole said. “Congrats, you’ve graduated.”

It felt a little dishonest, but she really wanted to keep the good stuff to herself. She had plenty of great food in her storage space, but she couldn’t exactly pull it out in front of Zeph.

Zeph didn’t say much, just handed her a walkie-talkie. “If anything comes up, use this.”

Nicole blinked, surprised. She hadn’t even thought to stock something like that. Maybe she had never expected to actually team up with anyone.

“Thanks.”

This made things a lot easier. No more knocking on doors and waiting around.

After that, Zeph didn’t come by.

Nicole and Cola went all out on a barbecue feast, washing it down with soda. It felt incredible.

The next morning, the walkie-talkie crackled to life.

“Nicole.” Zeph’s voice came through. “Are you teaching Poppy today?”

“Yeah. Around ten.”

“Why not come over?” he said. “While Poppy’s working on her assignments, I can teach you some infiltration techniques.”

Nicole’s interest spiked immediately.

This was serious combat stuff, built for silent takedowns, whether it was slipping in from behind to cut a throat, striking the windpipe with a sharp blow, snapping a neck, or rushing in to pin someone down and finish them before they could make a sound.

The kind of skills that decided life or death.

Her living room wasn’t really big enough for that, anyway.

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Chooter 87

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“Alright,” she said without hesitation.

Infiltration training meant close contact, involving direct contact and takedowns.

Zeph spread out a crash mat on the floor and started with the first move Nicole had seen the other day, a neck twist.

He stepped in behind her, closing the distance in a flash. One hand reached for her slender neck, the other settling along the side of her jaw.

A sharp, overwhelming presence hit her, and Nicole reacted on instinct, ready to fight back. But he was already close, sweeping the back of her knee as he stepped in. One hand locked onto her neck, the other braced along her jaw. With the slightest twist, he could have snapped it.

The sudden sense of danger dragged her straight back to the edge of death in her past life.

She couldn’t die, not like that. Not at the hands of those cannibals.

Nicole was just about to strike when a voice came from above her.

“Don’t be scared. I’m not going to hurt you.”

It was calm, steady, and certain.

She forced herself to breathe, pushing those memories away.

When she came back to herself, Zeph was pointing out the structure of her neck, guiding her attention.

“Focus. Don’t drift.”

The past still clung to her. Even now, she couldn’t fully shake her discomfort with physical contact.

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