Todos os capítulos de The APOCALYPSE bows to my FOUR MEN!: Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 10

By the time I reached the motel, I had learned three things about Odette Turner's body.First, it was considerably less cooperative than I wanted.Second, blood loss made even simple decisions feel like complicated mathematics.Third, I was never going to take walking for granted again.The motel stood on a side street several blocks from the service building. Its faded sign advertised cheap rooms, hourly rates, and free parking. The place looked as if it hadn't been renovated in twenty years, but the lobby was open, and the clerk behind the counter barely glanced at me.That suited me perfectly.I had wrapped my injured abdomen with a clean shirt I'd found in the service building's maintenance room. It wasn't proper medical treatment, but it had slowed the bleeding enough for me to move. I kept my jacket closed and my head down as I approached the counter."One night," I said.My voice sounded steadier than I felt.The clerk slid a registration form toward me. "Identification."I han

The first rule of surviving the apocalypse was simple: money meant nothing if I spent it on the wrong things.I wrote that sentence at the top of Odette's notebook, then stared at the balance on my phone.The trust dispute was underway, but the money wasn't going to solve my immediate problems. I had access to a limited amount from Odette's personal account, and every credit I spent now was one I couldn't spend later.Once the outbreak spread, prices would rise, supplies would disappear, and expensive equipment wouldn't guarantee survival.I needed a plan that worked with what I had.I divided the page into food, water, medical supplies, hygiene, power, transportation, and shelter. Then I set a spending limit for each category and left some money untouched for emergencies. Emergencies rarely waited until a person felt prepared.I started with water.My storage capacity was ten cubic meters. That sounded generous until I remembered everything I needed to fit inside it. The system could

If there's any realizatiin I made about preparing for the apocalypse, it was that money could disappear much faster than fear.I stood in the middle of a hardware store, staring at the growing pile of supplies in my shopping cart while my phone displayed the latest total. Water filters, a hand-cranked flashlight, a compact tool kit, duct tape, work gloves, a folding shovel, and a box of heavy-duty trash bags had already pushed the bill higher than I wanted.I hadn't even reached the supermarket."Anything else, ma'am?"The employee's question pulled me out of my calculations. I glanced at the shelves behind him, where coils of rope and portable camping stoves hung in neat rows."Do you have a smaller version of that shovel?"He pointed to a display near the counter. "We have a folding one. Easier to carry, too."I examined it, tested the locking mechanism, and added it to my cart.Twenty-nine days.That was the countdown the system had given me in the motel. Twenty-nine days before th

I saw the black sedan on the security camera before I heard the doorbell.It pulled into the driveway at 9:17 a.m., stopping behind my car and blocking the easiest way out. Three people climbed out: my uncle, my aunt, and the lawyer who had once handled paperwork for my mother’s estate.Of course they had found me.The bell rang again.I saved a screenshot of the visitors and timestamp. My uncle stood closest to the door in the dark suit he wore whenever he wanted to look respectable while making unreasonable demands.“Odette!” he called. “We know you’re home.”I opened the door with the chain still in place.“What do you want?”My aunt looked offended. “Is that how you greet your family?”“Only the family that arrives without calling.”My uncle’s smile tightened. “Take the chain off. We need to talk.”“Then talk.”The lawyer adjusted his glasses. “This concerns a private family matter. It would be better discussed inside.”“No.”My aunt’s expression softened into practiced concern. “

The first scream came from the fruit stall.I turned just as a man stumbled into a stack of crates, sending oranges rolling across the pavement. At first, everyone assumed he was drunk or having a seizure. A woman hurried toward him, calling for someone to fetch water. The vendor leaned over the counter.Then the man’s back arched.His whole body jerked so violently that his shoulder struck the ground. A harsh, wet sound tore out of his throat. His skin had gone gray beneath a sheen of sweat, and dark veins stood out along his neck.“Sir? Can you hear me?” the woman asked.I knew those symptoms.The fever. The twitching. The strange discoloration.No. Not yet.In the story I had written, the first wave was supposed to begin weeks later. I had planned for a month of preparation, a month to gather supplies and secure a place where I could survive the first days. I had believed that knowing the plot would give me an advantage.But the man on the pavement was already changing.“Get back!”