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.

the door, Cooper and

"Bark! Bark! Bark!"

"Howl... Woo..."

only intensified the

two

the scent of humans was inciting the gators' ferocity, and she

you can't

entire shipping

who could last longer, and deal

danger in the Arcadia, and

lights out, Stella and Jasper discussed how to

were vicious by nature, quick on land, and their skulls were incredibly tough. Darting through the snow made them hard to target, a much tougher fight than dealing with Union Base's troops. After much

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

flamethrowers at the ready,

lose, this was the round

outside, it was

saw no sign of

returned to

and finding nothing, she finally opened

was littered

They resembled pig dung.

catch their prey, had vented their frustration with excrement. Talk

trio cleaned up the

"Should we dry it out and use it as

idea repulsive.

plenty of fuel stored in the Arcadia, with no need to

to Stella. Considering the level of the gators' vengeance, it

hunted fish in the sea with ease, so why bother coming ashore

she checked around the

eggs were buried in the

with half a brain could tell it was Snowflake and Cooper's

predators' offspring, it was no wonder the red-eyed gators had

furious. She called over Snowflake and pointed at her nose, scolding, "Don't

you won't

you keep stashing all sorts of rubbish, see how I deal with

she said it, it went in one ear and out

everything, not even a bone spared, turning the area around the house into

defend his mate, pushing Stella's hand away with a paw,

No scolding, no hitting.

ear.

gator eggs that the two had stashed away. This time, instead of tossing them into the ice hole, she placed them not far from

and a simple