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..."

noise only intensified

these two were making things

was inciting the gators' ferocity, and she didn't feel confident about

can't beat 'em,

the entire shipping container into

sleep in the Arcadia tonight, see who could last longer, and deal with it

the Arcadia, and everyone, humans

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

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 figure it out

they armed themselves to the teeth. Even Cooper and Snowflake had bulletproof vests, Rosie

even flamethrowers at the ready,

lose, this was the round that

outside, it

lookout, but saw no sign

to the sea at

and finding nothing, she

place was littered with

They resembled pig dung.

their prey, had vented their frustration with excrement.

trio cleaned up the gator

ever thrifty and handy, suggested, "Should we dry it out

idea

had plenty of fuel stored in the Arcadia, with no

the level of the gators' vengeance, it couldn't just be a

the sea with ease, so why bother coming ashore

to figure it out, she checked around

of gator eggs were buried in the

tell it was Snowflake and

was no wonder the red-eyed gators

and pointed at her nose, scolding, "Don't think

family, you

you keep stashing all sorts of rubbish, see how I

it went in one ear and out the

turning

Snowflake when Cooper came to defend his mate,

No scolding, no hitting.

by the ear. "And you,

two had stashed away. This time, instead of tossing

a simple flame probably