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..."

intensified the

was exasperated; these two

ferocity,

can't beat 'em,

shipping container into the

tonight, see who could last

was no danger in the Arcadia, and everyone, humans

in their room, after a shower and lights out, Stella and Jasper discussed how to handle

the snow 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

by 8 AM, they armed themselves to

they stepped out of the Arcadia, weapons loaded and even flamethrowers at the ready, it was time

lose, this was the round that

it

saw no sign of the

they returned to the sea at

triple-checking and finding nothing, she

was littered with

They resembled pig dung.

damn creatures, unable to catch their prey, had vented their frustration with excrement. Talk

the trio cleaned up the gator droppings

and handy, suggested, "Should we dry it out and use it as

found the idea repulsive.

fuel stored in the Arcadia,

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

to figure it out, she checked

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

tell it was Snowflake and Cooper's

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

night's danger, Stella was furious. She called over Snowflake and pointed at her nose, scolding, "Don't think just because you're the new bride in this house, I

family, you won't go

all sorts of rubbish, see how I deal with

it, it went in one ear and out the

turning the area

Cooper came to defend his mate,

No scolding, no hitting.

ear.

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

afraid of heat, and a simple