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.

door, Cooper and Snowflake squared

"Bark! Bark! Bark!"

"Howl... Woo..."

only intensified

was exasperated; these two were making

gators' ferocity,

you can't beat

retracted the entire shipping

Arcadia tonight, see who could

Arcadia, and everyone, humans and dogs alike,

and lights out, Stella and Jasper discussed how to handle

made them hard to target, a much tougher fight than dealing with Union Base's troops. After much thought, with no best plan in mind, they decided

and fed by 8 AM, they armed themselves to the teeth. Even Cooper

flamethrowers at

this was the round

it was

saw no

to the sea

triple-checking and finding nothing, she

was littered with

They resembled pig dung.

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

cleaned up the gator

we dry it out and use it

found the idea repulsive.

in the Arcadia, with no need

felt off to Stella. Considering the level of the gators' vengeance, it couldn't just be a fleeting encounter in the food

the sea with ease, so why bother coming ashore for

to figure it out, she checked

eggs were buried in the snow, and quite deeply at

with half a brain could tell

was no wonder the red-eyed gators had been

danger, Stella was furious. She called over Snowflake and pointed at her nose, scolding, "Don't think just because you're the new

family, you

stashing all sorts of rubbish, see how I deal

said it, it went in one ear and out the

bone spared, turning the area around the house into

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

No scolding, no hitting.

by the ear. "And you,

the gator eggs that the two had stashed away. This time, instead of tossing them into the

and a simple