Chapter 247: The Swamp Lord
The sheltered landmark tucked into the Everglades demanded Coop’s attention. Once he spotted the stained concrete and rusted corrugated metal sheets, the entire structure stuck out like a sore thumb. It might as well have been lit up with runway lights with how it lacked camouflage from above.
Coop aimed to make a soft landing, controlling his descent by repeatedly throwing and catching his spear while he was still high in the sky. Instead of one long throw, he made precise adjustments to better regulate his fall, fully utilizing the improvements to his skills to avoid crashing down like a meteor. Over time, he had become an expert in passing the spear to himself, acting like a quarterback throwing over the shoulder of an imagined wide receiver, and setting himself up to always be in comfortable positions as he reappeared at the end of his mistjumps.
Like most things, mistjumping was a learned skill that had benefited from practice. Even being considerate of his destination was somewhat of an art that required many trials before it worked properly without forcing his body into unexpected contortions to right himself before falling. At this point, the precision of his spear throws and the timing of his mistjumps came naturally, decided more by Coop’s instinct than any conscious calculations.
When his feet met the concrete near the center pool of the hidden sanctuary, he barely made a sound. The days when he had to smash into surfaces and make dramatic entrances were gone, at least unless he was looking to make a certain kind of impression. This time, he wasn’t coming in hot, and there didn’t appear to be an audience, so there was no need for any sort of posturing, though it was still an option. The solid, worn patio beneath his soles was quite a contrast after wading through the submerged swamps. It was smooth and weathered from the elements before the assimilation began. Vines weaved across the surface and patches of grass formed their own belts along the edges of concrete.
Rather than being hidden, the structure was merely overgrown. The camouflage was a natural result of the encroachment of the Everglades and all the pioneering flora that thrived with the environment. There didn’t appear to be any deliberate attempt to mask the landmark’s presence.
Coop concentrated on his aura, checking for potential enemies as routinely as glancing around a room upon entering. Presence of Mind filled his senses, revealing his immediate surroundings more clearly than his own sight, though he combined his natural senses to be more thorough. The sections around the large central pool were empty of potential enemies, no matter how hard he looked. Coop recognized the layout now that he viewed it from a more typical angle rather than from a bird’s eye view.
It seemed like Coop had discovered what was once a kind of specialized petting zoo that had somehow avoided being completely subsumed under the gently flowing expansion of the Everglades. The outer paths were elevated boardwalks, protected by rusted and leaf-stained tin roofs, leading to the edges of the swamp, while Coop had landed in the interior in the largest empty paddock for whatever animals were featured inside. It didn’t take a detective to figure out what the main attraction would be. Judging by the layout of the sloped concrete pools, the sanctuary was meant for alligators.
Coop squeezed his spear, holding it upright, but ready to defend himself. He recognized that the only structure he had seen within the Infestation was likely to hold some significance, especially since it was an alligator habitat in a place inundated with alligator minions.
The carved pools were covered in broad floating leaves and thin-petaled white flowers that obscured anything that might be lurking below. Coop kept his eye on the edge of the water, anticipating an ambush that never came. Instead, he spotted a handful of baby alligators hiding among the aquatic vegetation, staying completely still as if they were rubber bath toys. Coop watched, but they didn’t have much of a reaction, seemingly confident that they were hidden by the surface of water, despite his attention.
Eventually, feeling comfortable enough that he wasn’t in danger of a larger creature’s ambush, he turned his attention to the rest of the paddock. What he had assumed were elaborate camouflage patterns from above turned out to be a series of trophies. The walls that separated the observation decks from the animal pens were lined with python skins, hung over the top edge to dry out. Numerous snakes had been defeated, ranging from enormous monsters exceeding thirty feet in length to smaller, but still intimidating, five to six foot snakes.
If the skins had been hung before the assimilation, Coop expected them to be more deteriorated, either faded by the sun or otherwise eroded by the elements, exposed as they were. Instead, they seemed brand new, as if the collection had been started after the assimilation had begun and was actively growing as time went on.
Coop wandered closer to the wall, checking out the snake skins with a bit of consternation. In a way, the invasive species was almost as much of an invader as the Primal Constructs to the local creatures, but the overall scale of the destruction the two types of non-natives would cause wasn’t exactly comparable. Neither the consequences, nor the motives aligned in a way that would allow Coop to consider the invasive snakes to be as much of a threat as the alien invaders. It wasn’t like he was in any position to judge the morality of reptiles fighting each other, considering the conflicts he had participated in, whether he was justified or not.