Pregnant During An Apocalypse [BL]-Chapter 239 - Running away

Jai slipped out of the broken window of the school gymnasium, careful not to make a sound as glass crunched beneath his soles. The air outside was thick with gunpowder and smoke, a stinging fog that blurred shapes and made the night feel even more suffocating. He crouched low and moved quickly, heart hammering as he dove behind a dense bushel of overgrown shrubs.

Through the foliage, he caught sight of the militants. Lined up with rifles drawn, their fingers rested on triggers as they fired on anyone who emerged from the broken shell of the school in panic. There was no hesitation. Just cold, mechanical violence.

Jai’s breath hitched. He pressed himself deeper into the shadows, fists tightening against the earth. Why... why are they doing this?

Then movement to his right caught his eye.

His breath stilled.

There, leaning back casually against a shattered concrete wall, was Shao.

Calm. Composed. As if they weren’t surrounded by trained killers.

His head tilted slightly as he observed the soldiers, one hand resting on a random metal rod he had picked up. His eyes were sharp, calculating—but his body didn’t carry an ounce of tension.

Jai’s blood simmered.

How can he be like that right now?! Every fiber of Jai’s being was screaming—his pulse, his breath, his thoughts—chaotic and frantic. But Shao just stood there, unbothered, like the gunfire didn’t even exist. Jai clenched his jaw so tightly it hurt. The coldness, the stillness—it unsettled him far more than any soldier ever could.

Fuming, Jai rustled the bush just slightly—just enough to draw attention.

Shao’s gaze flicked his way, slow and unreadable.

"I’ll try to distract them," Shao said flatly, barely loud enough to hear. "Run in the other direction. Stay low. Use the tree trunks for cover."

That was it.

Just cold instructions.

Something inside Jai snapped.

He acts like nothing matters. Like I don’t matter. That calmness—it wasn’t comforting. It felt like a dismissal. And the worst part? Jai didn’t know if it was intentional or just how Shao was. He wanted to scream at him, shake him, ask if he even cared.

But there was no time.

Movement in the distance pulled his attention back to the soldiers. Their formation shifted. A handful of them—likely the best trained—had begun marching toward the front gates of the school. Jai’s eyes widened. They were going in.

That meant...

He turned to Shao sharply. "They’re thinning the line! They’re moving toward the entrance!" he hissed, panic creeping back into his voice.

Shao’s eyes didn’t leave the soldiers. "I see it," he murmured. "That’s our window."

"But—what if someone notices us?" Jai asked, his voice trembling. "What if—"

"They won’t," Shao cut in. Still calm. Still quiet. "I’ll make sure of it."

Jai stared at him. That confidence again. That unshakable composure.

He didn’t know whether to curse him or trust him with his life.

"You... you be careful," he muttered bitterly, then turned and began crawling low through the underbrush, the weight of Shao’s gaze lingering behind him.

Behind that stone-cold expression, Jai couldn’t see the tight grip Shao had on the hilt of his make shift weapon a rod. He couldn’t see the way Shao’s eyes flicked constantly between him and the guards. He didn’t see the slight tremor in his fingers—the tension he forced still, the fear he never let show.

Jai misunderstood him.

But Shao was watching.

And if one bullet even grazed Jai’s direction—

He wouldn’t hesitate to kill every last man standing.

Shao’s eyes were sharp as blades, honed in on every movement around them. His body remained still, but his mind was a flurry of calculations, reading every twitch of the soldiers’ boots, every flick of their rifles.

In front of him, Jai crawled cautiously across the dead grass, limbs shaking slightly. Shao followed closely behind, his steps light, his breaths steady—but his gaze never left Jai.

I have to keep him safe, he told himself. Nothing must hurt him. Nothing....

Jai’s movements were quiet, but not quiet enough. A pebble shifted. A branch cracked beneath his boot. Shao saw it first—the turn of a soldier’s head, the sharp narrowing of eyes. The barrel of a rifle beginning to lift—

Time froze.

Shao’s hand moved before he even thought. With a practiced jerk, he hurled the metal rod he’d been gripping. It sliced through the smoky air like a thrown javelin, a gleam of silver and death. The makeshift weapon struck the soldier clean in the face with a sickening crunch, silencing him before he could even utter a sound.

Jai flinched as the corpse dropped like a sack of stone.

The other soldiers didn’t notice—too focused on the school entrance, too distracted by their own plans.

Shao didn’t wait.

He reached out and yanked Jai up by the collar, dragging him to his feet in one motion. "Move!" he hissed sharply, tone still flat but urgent beneath the surface.

Together, they sprinted—boots pounding the cracked concrete yard, the sharp scent of smoke stinging their lungs. The school wall loomed ahead. With a running jump and a shove, Shao lifted Jai high enough to scramble over. He followed right after, landing hard on the other side.

They didn’t stop.

They ran.

Into the empty streets of City X.

The sky above them was a dull, choked gray, the air heavy with ash and silence. The military had cleared out the perimeter of the city to contain the infection, but the effect was eerie—too quiet, too clean. Shops stood empty with their signs still swinging in the wind. Buses sat idle in the middle of the street, doors wide open like gaping mouths.

Jai stumbled, breath hitching as his legs tried to keep up. "Shao—" he gasped, voice dry, hoarse.

"Keep moving," Shao snapped, though his hand was tight around Jai’s wrist, pulling him forward. "Just a little more."

They ducked into a narrow alley, and finally, Shao came to a stop. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

Jai collapsed to his knees beside him, clutching his chest. His lungs burned. His arms trembled. "I... I can’t..."

"You can," Shao said. He knelt down in front of him, steadying him with a hand on his shoulder. His thumb brushed gently against Jai’s collarbone—intentional or not, Jai wasn’t sure.

He looked up through his bangs, catching the faintest crease in Shao’s brow.