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.

by the door, Cooper and Snowflake squared off, fierce and

"Bark! Bark! Bark!"

"Howl... Woo..."

only intensified the

was exasperated; these two were making things

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

you can't beat 'em,

retracted the entire shipping container

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

the Arcadia, and everyone, humans and

room, after a shower and lights out, Stella and Jasper discussed how to handle the

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

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

of the Arcadia, weapons loaded and even flamethrowers at the ready, it was time

this was the round that

outside, it

but saw no

to the sea at

nothing,

place was

They resembled pig dung.

their prey, had vented their frustration with excrement. Talk

trio cleaned up the gator

ever thrifty and handy, suggested, "Should we dry

the idea repulsive. "No

of fuel stored in the Arcadia, with no need

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

hunted fish in the sea with ease, so why bother

she checked around the

dozens of gator eggs were buried in the snow,

brain could tell it

was no wonder

back to 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

you

stashing all sorts of rubbish, see

said it, it went in

even a bone spared, turning the area around the house into a

came to defend his

No scolding, no hitting.

ear.

up the gator eggs that the two had stashed away. This time, instead of tossing them into the ice hole, she placed them not

heat, and a