Pregnant During An Apocalypse [BL]
Chapter 126 - Smell of Agarwood and roses

Chapter 126: Chapter 126 - Smell of Agarwood and roses

The car rumbled through the basement’s winding, whirling pathway, its tires screeching slightly against the cold, smooth concrete. Shao’s knuckles whitened on the steering wheel as he carefully maneuvered the vehicle, eyes darting between the road ahead and the rearview mirror. Every turn felt like a gamble, every shadow a lurking threat.

Muchen sat stiffly in the passenger seat, his fingers curled tightly around the fabric of his pants. His breath was still uneven, his heartbeat a rapid thrum in his chest. The tension in the car was suffocating, the weight of what they had just escaped pressing down on them like a storm cloud waiting to burst.

Then, up ahead—something in the way.

A car was parked awkwardly, its front tilted slightly to the side, as if whoever had driven it last had barely made it this far before abandoning hope. The sight alone was enough to raise alarm bells, but what made Muchen’s stomach turn was what lay inside.

Two figures sat unmoving in the front seats.

At first, they looked disturbingly normal, just people caught in the middle of tragedy, frozen in time. But as the headlights swept across them, the horror became clear.

A mother and daughter.

The woman’s face was locked in a grotesque expression of hunger, her lips pulled back from her teeth, her eyes clouded with the sickly white sheen of the infected.

One of her arms—her own arm—was missing, nothing but a gnawed stump left behind, torn flesh barely clinging to the bone.

In her remaining hand, she still clutched the limb, chewing mechanically, dead eyes staring straight ahead as though this gruesome act meant nothing.

The child—Gods, the child—was even worse.

A tiny girl, no older than four or five, slumped in her seat, her small hands curled lifelessly in her lap.

Half of her delicate face was missing, torn away as if by a savage beast.

The raw, gaping wound exposed the hollow remains of her eye socket, her cheekbone gleaming wet in the dim light. Blood was smeared across her once-pink dress, long dried to an ugly, brown crust.

The mother’s head jerked sharply toward the car, nostrils flaring. A low, guttural growl rumbled from her throat. The child followed suit, her remaining eye locking onto them with unnatural focus.

BANG!

The mother lunged first, her broken, mangled fingers slamming against the glass. The child mirrored her, tiny hands—so much smaller than they should be for something so monstrous—smashing desperately against the window as if trying to get out.

The car jolted slightly as Shao’s foot instinctively pressed on the brake.

Muchen’s entire body stiffened. His breath hitched, his fingers instinctively going to his lower belly, pressing against the slight curve beneath his layers of clothing.

My baby.

His mind swirled in a haze of panic.

His baby was going to be born into this world.

This world of horror, of death, of things that should not exist.

How would he protect it?

How would he keep it safe when even the smallest, most innocent of children could become this?

His stomach lurched violently, bile rising in his throat.

His fingers trembled against his belly, his breath coming in shallow gasps.

Shao carefully maneuvered the car around the abandoned vehicle, making sure not to scrape against it or get too close.

The mother and daughter followed them with their hollow, dead eyes, their hands still clawing at the glass, their snarls growing distant as the car finally passed them.

Muchen exhaled shakily, his gaze fixed on the road ahead, but his mind was still trapped in that car.

How am I going to protect my child in this world?

He had no answer.

And that terrified him the most.

The car rumbled onto the main road, bathed in the golden-orange glow of the setting sun.

Shadows stretched long and haunting across the pavement, flickering eerily against the broken-down cars and abandoned streets.

It was a ghost town.

Vehicles were left haphazardly—some smashed together in chaotic pileups, others with doors hanging open, as if their owners had fled in terror.

Shao let out a shaky breath, gripping the steering wheel tighter.

"I’ll take the smaller roads... We should avoid getting stuck in these pileups." He muttered, half to himself, as he took a sharp right.

Muchen blinked himself back into awareness, his fingers rubbing at his temples. "How far is the school?"

Shao quickly glanced at the navigator. "About an hour."

A heavy silence settled over them. The weight of their reality pressed down like a physical force, suffocating, unrelenting.

Then—

Sniff.

Hana suddenly wrinkled her nose, inhaling deeply. "The scent is too heavy..."

Qiu Yue, sitting beside her, gave her an unimpressed look. "There is no scent. Something’s wrong with your girl."

Hana shot him a glare. "You can’t smell it?" She hesitated before mumbling, "That incense like smell... The kind they burn in temples... Agarwood I think."

Qiu Yue rolled his eyes. "Right, sure."

Muchen, who had been rubbing at his face, suddenly perked up. He sniffed the air, his expression shifting. "Wait... I smell it too." He leaned slightly closer to Shao, sniffing again. "Are you wearing perfume?"

Shao glanced at them through the rearview mirror, his voice flat. "No."

A chill ran through the car.

The scent of agarwood thickened, curling around them. It was overpowering,—a lingering scent, creeping into their senses.

Hana’s fingers dug into her sleeves. "It’s getting stronger."

Muchen’s chest tightened with unease. His stomach turned.

Qiu Yue turned to Shao. "Turn on the AC. Maybe they just need fresh air."

Shao turned on the ac. This made the smell little bit bearable.

Hana leaned forward from the back seat and sniffed Muchen and let out a happy sigh. "Muchen smells the best of all..." she mumbled under her breath.

Muchen sniffed himself. There was no scent on him. "what do I smell like?"

"Roses. Delicious roses. It smells so comforting."

"Its weird... Yunfeng also said that I had that scent on me. But I never use perfumes. Are you sure you smell it?" he glanced back at her.

"I’m darn sure I can. It smells divine and his smell is quite scary.. I don’t know why." Hana silently threw a glance at Shao who was seriously driving.