18 Floors Above the Apocalypse



Cooper couldn't quite decide if he was feeling guilty or just completely oblivious to the pain as he wagged his tail non-stop at the person cleaning up his mess.

Lying in the snow, he exposed his belly, begging for a rub.

Stella was fuming. She quickly knelt down to check his wounds.

There were two gashes on his leg, clearly from sharp teeth, and his back bore distinct claw marks.

Stella examined the corner of his mouth, where he was hurt, and found a tuft of white fur.

This fur... a polar bear?

Impossible, the size difference was too great.

Jasper surveyed the scene and guessed, "Wolf?"

Stella instinctively thought that couldn't be right. After all, it had been ten years since the calamity, and life was tough even for humans, let alone animals...

But then again, the survival instinct of animals was no less than that of humans. Perhaps some had indeed survived.

A Snowflake?

Had Cooper lost or won?

Without further thought, ensuring there was no danger around, Stella carried him into Arcadia.

After disinfecting and bandaging his wounds, she pointed at his nose and scolded, "Cooper, if you ever dare to be this reckless again, believe me, I'll throw you out, you hear?"

What could Cooper say? He just played the pathetic card and kept wagging his tail.

Reprimanding him for half an hour wasn't enough for Stella; she even vented on Jasper, "Aren't you supposed to be his trainer? Look how you've spoiled him into being so rebellious."

Chasing after an Arctic wolf, truly courting death!

He was lucky to come back alive today, but what about next time?

Jasper took the scolding in silence, "......"

Despite her anger, knowing Cooper couldn't jump around with his injuries, Stella bundled him into a backpack.

They left Arcadia, braving the biting wind as they made their way home.

With all the commotion, it was dark by the time they got back.

Stella was serious this time. She made Cooper sit on the floor for a time-out, and at dinner, he got nothing, not even a whiff of the steamy chicken legs.

Cooper looked pleadingly at Rosie, his doggy eyes spinning.

Rosie didn't dare intercede; his sister-in-law was genuinely furious.

After dinner, Jasper began a two-hour lecture on doggy discipline.

It wasn't until Stella's expression softened that he finally stopped the reeducation.

The next morning, as Stella was enjoying her sleep, Cooper sneaked in, nudging her with his head, "Woof woof woof..."

But his charm offensive was pointless.

Stella turned her back on him.

Cooper sat stubbornly, refusing to leave.

First thing in the morning, Stella knelt down to check Cooper's wounds.

Thankfully, there was no sign of infection.Copyright by Nôv/elDrama.Org.

Dogs have a remarkable ability to heal; the wound had closed up in less than a week.

During this time, he behaved exceptionally well, doing everything to please his human, almost too clingy.

Just when Stella thought he had learned his lesson, he ran off again.

Yes, one moment he was cuddling in her arms, the next he bolted without hesitation...

Wolves are notoriously vengeful pack animals. Worried they might be lurking around, Rosie patrolled the snow mounds periodically but never found any tracks.

Just as they were starting to relax, it happened again.

Like before, by the time anyone could follow, he was already out of sight.

Stella was so frustrated she could feel her liver ache. She sat down on the snow mound, defeated.

If the wolves were really out for group revenge, she wouldn't stand a chance even if she caught up.

If Cooper insisted on seeking his own demise, there was nothing Stella could do.

Rosie was frantic, constantly scanning the horizon with the binoculars.

Half an hour later, a brown shadow appeared in the distance.

Rosie exclaimed in surprise, "It's Cooper, he's coming back."

As expected, he was injured again.

Fretting over him once was love, but twice was foolishness.

Seeing that his injuries were minor, Stella gritted her teeth and gave him a couple of lashes with a switch, even skipping the medicine.

Getting into fights, seeking death-defying challenges, must be the result of having too much energy to burn.

This time, she starved him for a whole day.

The ideological education must continue.

However, the scoundrel dog promised all too well to her face, but as soon as his wounds healed, off he ran again.

This time, Stella was hot on his heels.

She saw a lean white shadow darting across the snow.

Pure white all over, it would have been invisible were it not for its piercing eyes.

Cooper was chasing after it with abandon, as swift as the wind.

The Snowflake was quickly caught up with, and the two tumbled in the snow, scrapping fiercely.

Instinctively, Stella reached for her pistol, aiming to shoot the Snowflake, but it was out of range.

So she switched to a submachine gun, only to find the two were fighting too fiercely, now buried in the snow, now leaping out.

They were moving too fast, entangled together, making it impossible to take aim.

Worried about Cooper's safety, she tossed the gun to Jasper, "Your turn."

His marksmanship was legendary; there was no way he could miss.

Jasper took aim, but the Snowflake was fighting and moving, now more than two hundred meters away.

What was he doing? Such a short distance and still unable to hit the target!

Stella was infuriated, grabbing the sniper rifle.

It wasn't that Jasper was deliberately missing; it was that the Snowflake blended into the snow, making precision shooting extremely difficult.

A dog and a wolf were locked in a tight chase; a careless shot could easily hit Cooper.

If by accident Cooper was injured or killed, Jasper seriously doubted Stella would spare his life.

However, even though the opponent was a wolf, Cooper didn't seem to be at a disadvantage.

As the fight went on, whether from exhaustion or lack of desire to continue, they eventually separated. Snarling and baring their teeth, neither seemed keen on fighting, and they slowly backed away. And in an unexpected turn of events, Cooper was injured again, though less severely than before. Stella was so fed up with the game of "wolf at the door" that she suddenly lost the will to intervene. Cooper seemed in good spirits, so why hadn't he knocked out that wolf?

Despite being a wolf, it looked emaciated.

As her anger and frustration passed, Stella began to reflect. Had she been too strict with Cooper?

He thought of himself as human, but in reality, he was a dog.

She treated him like a dog, but in truth, he was as smart as a person.

Why not just finish off the wolf? Was it loneliness and oppression that drove him to view the wolf as a plaything to pass the time? Stella was somewhat perplexed, "Tell me, why does Cooper keep rebelling?"

He used to be so obedient.

Jasper pondered for a moment, “Maybe he's like us, in need of social interaction and emotional exchange?"

Raising a pet was no different from raising a child, but the calamity had not left them with many options, often neglecting such needs.

A dog is a dog, even if they are humanity's most loyal companions, they are not human.

Stella frowned, wanting to say something, but couldn't find the words.

However, she didn't punish Cooper by withholding his meals anymore.

She decided to act as if nothing had happened and observe for a while.

Sure enough, after a few days, it happened again. Continuing to fight, drifting further and further away.....

Stella was utterly numb to it all.

Perched atop a snowy knoll, she watched intently, her finger far from the trigger of the sniper rifle. As long

as Cooper was out of harm's way, she wouldn't take the shot.

Eventually the figures in the distance blurred into a tangle of movement-whether a brawl or play,

she couldn't tell. It took a full two hours before he returned.

His body bore marks, but no injuries.

The more she observed, the more bizarre his behavior seemed.

The steaming chicken drumstick lay mostly untouched. Stella figured the outdoor escapades had probably chilled him to the bone, perhaps even upset his stomach.

But no, the rascal had snatched it up and stashed it outside.

When Snowflake sauntered back to challenge him, Stella went to dig up the hidden drumstick-only to find it gone.

Vanished without a trace.

She realized then that Cooper had developed a rapport with his adversary through their skirmishes.