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.

Cooper and Snowflake squared off,

"Bark! Bark! Bark!"

"Howl... Woo..."

only intensified

these two were making things

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

you can't beat

the entire shipping container into

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

was no danger in the Arcadia, and everyone,

lights out, Stella and Jasper discussed how to

tougher fight than dealing with Union Base's troops. After much thought, with no best plan in mind, they decided to just get

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

flamethrowers at the

this was the

it was

but saw no sign of the

to the

finding nothing, she finally opened the

place was

They resembled pig dung.

catch their prey, had vented their frustration with excrement. Talk

up the gator

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

the idea

of fuel stored in the Arcadia, with

felt off to Stella. Considering the level of the gators' vengeance, it couldn't just be a

in the sea with ease, so why bother

it out, she checked around the house

behold, dozens of gator eggs were buried in the snow,

could tell

no wonder the red-eyed gators had

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 new

this family, you won't

stashing all sorts of rubbish,

times she said it, it went in

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

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

No scolding, no hitting.

the ear. "And

unleashing her tirade, she picked up the gator eggs that the two had stashed away. This

afraid of heat, and a simple flame probably