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

"Bark! Bark! Bark!"

"Howl... Woo..."

noise only intensified

two were making things

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

can't

retracted the entire shipping container

Arcadia tonight, see who could last longer,

no danger in the Arcadia, and

and lights out, Stella and Jasper discussed how to handle

hard to target, a much tougher fight than dealing with Union Base's troops.

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

stepped out of the Arcadia, weapons loaded and even flamethrowers at

was the

outside, it

saw no sign of the

to the

finding nothing, she

place was littered

They resembled pig dung.

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

trio cleaned up the gator droppings around the

and handy, suggested, "Should we

the idea repulsive.

stored in the Arcadia, with no need to burn gator

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

ease, so why bother coming ashore

figure it out, she checked around the

eggs were buried in the snow, and quite deeply at

a brain could tell it was Snowflake and

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

Snowflake and pointed at her nose, scolding, "Don't think just because you're the new

family, you won't go

of rubbish, see how I

said it, it went in

not even a bone spared, turning the

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

No scolding, no hitting.

grabbed Cooper by the ear. "And you,

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

gators weren't afraid of heat, and a simple flame probably wouldn't