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.

Cooper and Snowflake

"Bark! Bark! Bark!"

"Howl... Woo..."

noise only intensified the

two

inciting the gators' ferocity, and she didn't

you can't beat

entire shipping container

in the Arcadia tonight, see who could last longer,

was no danger in the Arcadia,

out, Stella

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 to just get

to the teeth. Even Cooper and Snowflake had bulletproof vests, Rosie having altered

Arcadia, weapons loaded and even flamethrowers at the ready, it

this was

it

opened the lookout, but saw no

to

triple-checking and finding nothing, she finally opened

place was littered with

They resembled pig dung.

vented their frustration with excrement.

the trio cleaned up the gator

"Should we dry it

found the idea repulsive. "No

the Arcadia, with no need to

of the gators' vengeance, it couldn't just be a fleeting encounter in the

ease, so why

to figure it out, she checked around

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

with half a brain could tell it

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

last 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

you won't go

of rubbish, see how I deal with

many times she said it, it went in one

a bone spared, turning the area around

had barely reprimanded Snowflake when Cooper came to defend his mate, pushing Stella's hand

No scolding, no hitting.

by the ear. "And you,

had stashed away. This time, instead of tossing them

heat, and a simple