Dumped My Cheating Ex. Now I'm Sleeping Next to a Billionaire CEO novel Chapter 1569

Coby stumbled from the blast and looked up sharply at the heavily cracked ceiling. "This cave can't withstand heavy artillery," the boy shouted, his face pale. "It's not going to hold much longer. No matter how dangerous it is out there, we have to evacuate to another location tonight."

In a far corner, a woman in rags tightly clutched her emaciated child and finally broke down sobbing. "Where else can we go? They're killing people everywhere. If the soldiers out there don't care about Americans, we're just walking out to become living targets. Are we all going to die here?"

Her child, nothing but skin and bones from starvation, caught his mother's panic and wailed in terror. "Mommy, I don't want to die... I'm so hungry. My tummy hurts so much. I just want something to eat."

That cry was like a switch being flipped. The other children in the shelter also began wailing in absolute terror. The adults who had been desperately holding it together finally broke, covering their faces and weeping in despair.

Emmy leaned quietly against the stone wall, her pale lips pressed tightly together as the sound of crying washed over her. She was pregnant. She had a pair of twins waiting for her at home. She could not die here. She still needed to find James.

Suddenly, she crouched down, feeling around the rubble on the floor until she found a piece of white chalky stone. Without hesitation, she quickly sketched a rough map of the triangular coast on the dust-covered ground. When she finished, she looked up, her gaze locking onto the black teenager. Her voice was ice-cold, yet steady as a mountain.

"Coby, don't panic. Tell me right now... where are we currently located on this map?"

The boy tilted his head, staring at the crude map for a long time. He shook his head, completely bewildered.

Emmy pointed her finger at one of the circles. "This right here is Hector's main inland camp."

Then, she slid her finger along a straight line to another small circle. "And over here is his secondary base."

Hearing those two familiar locations, Coby's eyes lit up. He finally seemed to understand the rough map. He eagerly traced a long path from Emmy's lines, his finger finally pressing down hard on a specific corner. "We're right here."

Emmy studied the spot he indicated. Picking up the white stone, she drew a winding path outward from that corner.

Coby scratched his head, looking totally lost. "I'm really not sure. Right after I managed to escape Hector's base in the chaos and made it to this shelter, I heard other refugees saying the lab over there completely caved in, and the ocean just poured right in. I gathered some courage and took a few guys to scavenge for food in the ruins, and that's when I bumped into you."

Hearing that, Emmy didn't press further. A cave-in with flooding seawater. It most likely wasn't an accident, but rather a manually triggered self-destruct sequence.

She stopped hesitating. Using the wall for support, she stood up and dusted off her hands. "If you trust me, we can leave right now."

Coby was startled and instinctively waved his hands in frantic refusal. "No. Absolutely not. There's an active war zone out there. A stray bullet could kill us at any second. It's way too dangerous."

Emmy looked at him, her gaze crystal clear and carrying an undeniable, persuasive power.

"The route I mapped out is extremely safe. It completely skirts the combat zones. And if we follow this path, we might even run into the people coming to extract me. If we meet them, none of you will have to starve anymore. There will be food for everyone."