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..."

only intensified the

exasperated; these two were making things

humans was inciting the gators' ferocity, and she

you can't beat

the entire shipping container

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

danger in the Arcadia, and everyone, humans and dogs

lights out, Stella and Jasper discussed how to

target, a much tougher fight than dealing with Union Base's troops. After much thought, with no best plan in mind,

and fed by 8 AM, they armed themselves to the teeth.

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

was the round

outside, it was eerily

but saw no sign of the

returned to the sea

and finding nothing, she finally

place was littered with

They resembled pig dung.

prey, had vented their frustration with excrement. Talk about holding a

up the gator droppings

handy, suggested, "Should we dry it

the idea

plenty of fuel stored in the

something still felt off to Stella. Considering the level of the gators' vengeance,

in the sea with ease, so why bother coming ashore

out, she

behold, dozens of gator eggs were buried in the

could tell it was Snowflake and

no wonder the

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

this family, you

sorts of rubbish, see how I deal

matter how many times she said it, it went in one ear

spared, turning the area around the house into a

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

No scolding, no hitting.

by the ear. "And you,

the two had stashed away. This time, instead of

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