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 off, fierce

"Bark! Bark! Bark!"

"Howl... Woo..."

intensified

was exasperated; these two were making

was inciting the gators' ferocity, and she didn't

you can't beat

the entire shipping container into

could last longer, and

was no danger in the Arcadia, and everyone, humans

out, Stella and Jasper discussed how to handle

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 thought, with no best plan in mind, they decided to just get some sleep and

day, well-rested and fed by 8 AM, they armed themselves to

weapons loaded and even flamethrowers at the ready, it

was the round

outside, it was eerily

but saw

they returned to the sea at

and finding nothing,

was littered with

They resembled pig dung.

to catch their prey, had vented their frustration

the gator droppings around the

we dry it

the idea repulsive. "No

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

felt off to Stella. Considering the level of the gators'

ease, so why bother coming ashore

she checked

buried in the

a brain could tell it was Snowflake and Cooper's

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

her nose, scolding, "Don't think just because you're the new bride in

this family, you won't

of rubbish, see how I

times she said it, it

spared, turning the area around the house

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

No scolding, no hitting.

ear. "And you, you spineless

that the two had stashed away. This time, instead of tossing them into the ice hole, she placed

weren't afraid of heat, and a