18 Floors Above the Apocalypse

Chapter 489

Jasper and Cooper took off like a shot.

As they bolted, the distant red dots started closing in faster, like they had rockets strapped to them.

Inside the house, Snowflake sensed something was off and bared her teeth, ready to charge out the door. Stella and Rosie instinctively grabbed their guns.

The two women and the wolf reached the door just as Jasper and Cooper came barreling back in.

"What's going on?" Stella asked.

Jasper quickly deadbolted the door, securing all three locks. "A pack of gators."

No sooner had he spoken than a series of thuds hit the door.

Bang! Bang! Bang! The impacts were rapid and fierce, shaking the entire shipping container like a tin can in a storm.

Stella was baffled. The gators hadn't bothered them last night when they came ashore to lay eggs. Why were they attacking now?

The banging didn't let up; it only got more intense.

Front, sides...

Even through the container and layers of ice, Stella could imagine the swarming chaos outside.

She approached the lookout point with her gun, trying to get a glimpse.

In the gloomy watchpoint, a pair of red eyes suddenly appeared.

Cold and bloodthirsty.

Holy smokes, red-eyed gators.

If it weren't for the lookout point being just 20cm wide, trapping the gator's head, they'd be flooding in.

Even so, the trapped gator kept wriggling, trying to get inside and devour them.

Could it be because she threw their eggs into the sea?

After a whole day, any traces or scents should have been scattered by the wind and snow by now.

Stella was puzzled, but the eerie red eyes made her quickly close the lookout.

She put on night-vision goggles and peered through a higher watchpoint, spotting a mass of gators outside, easily a few hundred.

If they broke through the container, the three humans and five dogs wouldn't even be enough to pick their teeth with.

by the door, Cooper and Snowflake squared off, fierce

"Bark! Bark! Bark!"

"Howl... Woo..."

noise only intensified the pounding

exasperated; these two were making things

of humans was inciting the gators' ferocity, and

you can't beat 'em,

retracted the entire shipping container

the Arcadia tonight, see who could last longer, and

danger in the Arcadia, and everyone, humans and dogs

shower and lights out, Stella and

land, and their skulls were incredibly tough. Darting through the snow made them hard to target, a much tougher fight than dealing

well-rested and fed by 8 AM, they armed themselves to the teeth. Even Cooper and Snowflake had bulletproof vests, Rosie having altered Snowflake's

loaded and even flamethrowers at the ready, it was time to face the gator

was the round that

outside, it was eerily

saw no sign of the

to the sea

and finding nothing, she

the place was littered

They resembled pig dung.

catch their prey, had vented their frustration with excrement. Talk about holding a

trio cleaned up the gator droppings around

we dry it out and use

idea

in the Arcadia, with no

of the gators' vengeance,

the sea with ease, so why

out, she checked

behold, dozens of gator eggs were buried in the snow,

a brain could tell it was Snowflake

no wonder the red-eyed gators had been

was furious. She called over Snowflake and pointed at her nose, scolding,

this family, you

of rubbish, see

matter how many times she said it, it went in one ear

a bone spared, turning the area

to defend his mate, pushing Stella's hand away with a paw, "Whine...

No scolding, no hitting.

ear.

tirade, she picked up the gator eggs that the two had stashed away. This time, instead of

afraid of heat, and a simple flame probably wouldn't scare them