Page 31 of From the Noblest Motives
Of course Damien understood to a point. He had to deal with copperheads at the cabin from time to time, the ones searching for a warm place to sleep on his porch. But he was used to them and found them far less unsettling than the prehistoric menace of six-foot-long crocodilians.
He was just finding a rhythm to his paddling and ignoring the wildlife when the wake of something huge nearly swamped his coracle on the way past. About to call out a warning, he watched in amazement as Floyd calmly lifted his paddle and used it to push the enormous creature away from his boat. A snout the length of Blaze's truck bed surfaced, its hide a shocking white-pink, and the monster rumbled at Floyd before swimming away and climbing onto a fallen tree to sun.
"Holy fuck," Blaze choked out. "Guess that's Auntie Eunice."
"In all her glory." Floyd laughed as he went back to paddling. "Your face, hunter man."
"She's… impressive."She's a dinosaur. Damien couldn't help staring as they paddled by. She might have been the oldest alligator in the swamp at that size. "But she's albino. How did she get that big?"
"They say she belong to a rich man. She get too big, he have her tossed in the swamp." Floyd turned and shot him a grin. "But Auntie Eunice, she's a smart one. I say she get away all on her own. One or another, long time past. She been here since my own meemaw's girlhood at least."
At least eighty or ninety years old. Canny old thing.
"Is he safe out here?" At least Blaze wasn't snarling anymore. "With monsters like that?"
"So long's he stay where I put him, yeah. Safe as any of us. I told him stay in the cabin, I check on him in a couple days."
Right. Since Auntie Eunice can't climb ladders, he probably took Shudder to a stilt hut. There were quite a few in this part of the swamp, far apart, sometimes barely visible through the trees, but it became more and more obvious that people inhabited this place. A good place to hide, so probably a mix of people—some probably from generations of locals, some out of a need to disappear.
From law enforcement. From the government. Damien wondered how many were variants.
They had no more alarming alligator sightings by the time Floyd headed them toward a stilt hut with a single coracle tied to the ladder. No other signs of life, but with a partly healed break, Shudder was most likely resting. He was here, a beacon in Damien's mind, and definitely alive.
Though not well. A miasma of pain surrounded the hut—not enough to overwhelm him, but a low-level misery that made his stomach roil.
"Blaze, he's—" But twin bellows cut him off, both Blaze and Floyd shouting up at the hut.
"Mr. Bulldozer, you in there?"
"Shuds! You hear me?"
A voice answered, too soft and indistinct to make out the words.
Floyd tied his coracle to the ladder and took hold of the rungs. "You wait until I check with him. He needs a say first."
Blaze shoved his coracle aggressively against the ladder. "Like hell. I'm—"
"Just another minute." Damien bumped his boat more gently against the others. "Blaze, please."
Low voices came from inside the hut, and it was a matter of seconds before Floyd poked his head out, his forehead wrinkled in obvious concern. "You'd best come up."
Since he already had ahold of the ladder, Blaze shot up first, the entire structure shaking under his assault. Damien wondered how much weight the ladders actually could hold, but Blaze made it to the door and Damien followed, worry making his limbs stiff and clumsy.
It took a moment for Damien's eyes to adjust to the relative gloom, and by the time they did, Blaze was on one knee beside Shudder, who had curled up in the far corner, and Floyd was edging back out the door to give them space. In other environments, the hut would barely have qualified as shelter, but here the days and nights were warm enough, and the roof kept both rain and sun at bay.
"Blazey? You're real?" Shudder whispered as Blaze stroked his shoulder.
"I'm here, you maniac." The tremor in Blaze's voice made his smile a lie. "What've you done to yourself now?"
Damien squeezed around Blaze for a better view and hid his shock carefully under a blank expression. While a hat covered Shudder's head, no golden curls escaped anywhere. This should've been trivial alongside his injuries, but the loss of his hair felt spiteful and cruel. His normally sun-touched skin was closer to gray, and his shivering sent little quakes along his blankets. Damien sat on his heels and put a hand on Shudder's forehead.
"He's burning up."
"Hello, beautiful." Shudder tipped his head back to see Damien better. "You're here, too. I was just telling Henri you'd come. Dreamed you would, anyway. Are you dreams?"
Damien took the hand that was trying to free itself of blankets. "We're here, Shudder. Who's Henri?"
"I'm so sorry. Where are my manners?" Shudder struggled to sit up, and Blaze slid an arm around him to assist. "Henri, say hello to my dear friends."
