Niko

by Kayti Nika Raet

  ***

  The mysterious Gretchen was gone when she woke up the next morning and Ben was also looking better and he was able to limp short distances. Niko had left him inside to tag along with Lo and Norm as they stepped outside. They walked in silence but it wasn’t an uncomfortable one, being too animated would attract attention to their little group and according to Lo the less attention on them as they reached their destination the better.

  They were armed against trouble; Niko carried her pocketknife while Lo carried a much longer and curved blade. Norm carried a narrow metal pole across her shoulders. They were armed against trouble of the human kind; in the event of a Slither attack Norm’s pole would be the only really effective weapon and only if Niko could get it from her in time. The thought of being unarmed during an attack made her tense and the tension made her back stiffen up which made her less capable of fending off a Slither if one decided to stroll by. She really wished she hadn’t left the bat in the helicopter.

  They trekked past the tree she and Ben had crashed into, other than the pale gashes in the tree there was absolutely no sign of their arrival. It had taken less than a day for the lake to consume the helicopter completely.

  About a mile beyond the lake there was a small cluster of buildings.

  “Here it is.” Lo said and Niko eyed it doubtfully, it looked picked clean by scavengers. It was a place Niko would have passed over back before she met the members of the Black Rose but according to the two girls, one of them contained a load of valuable items. The key was to retrieve them before someone else did.

  Despite her doubts, Niko's heart began to pound in excitement as they entered the cluster. The buildings looked as if they had once been part of a larger community maybe even one of those astonishingly massive cities she once saw pictured in a book. Now they were as dead and obsolete as the metropolis they’d once been connected to.

  “Be careful.” Lo advised as they walked down the crater filled streets. “There were some Slithers last time we were here.”

  Niko nodded, gripped her knife tighter and really wished for a bat.

  Soon they entered a building. While it managed to stay upright and keep all four of its wall it was missing a roof and was absolutely gutted inside. Glass crunched underfoot pieces too small to be resold at the market.

  Norm stopped and brought a finger to her lips. For a moment no one moved, ears straining for anything out of the ordinary, Slither or human, then apparently satisfied that they weren’t being followed she used the pole to shove away a mound of debris.

  There was a door leading underground. Norm grabbed one of the handles and glanced at Lo who was digging into the pocket of her hoodie. “You ready?”

  As Lo nodded Norm yanked open one of the doors, and Lo tossed a handful of something into the dark interior. Norm slammed the door closed again.

  A muffled cacophony of pops sounded from below, if anyone was down there they’d know about it in a few moments, but nobody banged on the door from below and eventually Norm lifted it open again. White smoke drifted upward along with the smell of burnt paper.

  Lo pulled a small glowing tube out of her pocket holding it aloft as she descended down into the smoky hole. Niko followed her, with Norm coming in last. She hesitated by the door. “Open or close?”

  Lo chewed on her bottom lip while Niko stared at the open door uneasily. She would prefer to shut it behind them but they were in a completely unknown territory, it was dark and an unobstructed escape route would be best. Leaving the door open though would leave them exposed to anything and anyone that happened to pass by.

  “Open.” Lo said eventually, a tad reluctantly. “We’ll have to be quiet.”

  With the door left ajar more light entered the room and the smoke produced by the noise makers quickly dissipated revealing everything that the room held. Niko gasped at the sight of it all. “Gods...” She was amazed that Lo and Norm were even able to wait a day before they began clearing the room out. She wouldn’t have been able to sleep worrying that someone might have hauled it all off between one snore and the next, leaving her without an inch of copper wire to sell at the market.

  Norm grinned, stretching out the scars and tats on her cheeks. “Isn’t it?” She agreed gleefully.

  They set to work. First pulling down the wiring that had been stapled along the ceiling, they collected the small metals brackets as well. Lo borrowed Niko’s pocketknife and expertly slit open the black insulation and began peeling it away from the copper within. While she was busy with that Niko and Norm rummaged through the shelves collecting anything that looked like it’d catch a good price, light bulbs, nails, lengths of nylon rope and anything that looked like it was made of bronze or copper. The front of their shirts, which the girls had held away from their bodies as makeshift baskets, hung low with items.

  “We need to find something to put these in,” Norm said. “If we go back outside like this we’ll be robbed for sure.”

  Niko agreed and cast her eyes about the room for something inconspicuous to put their loot in.

  “There!” Norm said. “That could work.”

  She pointed toward a wheelbarrow piled high with dusty grey bags. Niko had already spotted it but didn’t think it was a good candidate. “It’s not very subtle.” She said. “Everyone would think we found something.”

  “That’s exactly the point.” Norm said. “It’s so obvious that nobody would believe that we’d actually be stupid enough to haul stuff around in it and if one of us sits on the thing then they’ll think we’re playing a game or carting around an invalid.” She clapped her hands at the sheer genius of it all.

  Niko was less enthusiastic. “What if someone thinks we are stupid enough?”

  Norm threw her a look that suddenly reminded her of Ari. “Then we beat them up.” She waved her pole around.

  She went over to the wheelbarrow and tipped it over, spilling the bags onto the floor. They broke open sending up a cloud of grey dust. Norm coughed, waving away the powder.

  She began to back up with the wheelbarrow when she saw something that made her cry out.

  Niko grabbed the screwdriver that sat on top of the pile of items she collected. Whatever it was behind the barrow it couldn’t be a Slither, they were too big, unless this was to be her first time encountering a monster infant. She really wished she had that bat.

  “Lo!” Norm cried. “Lola, come here!”

  She let go of the wheelbarrow and it crashed onto its side sending up another cloud of grime. Apparently, whatever it was wasn’t life threatening because she crouched down and eagerly waved Niko over.

  Lo came running, the half-stripped length of wire coiled over her shoulder and her large knife brandished, “What’s wrong?”

  Instead of answering Norm indicated for her to come over too. Behind the overturned wheelbarrow were two plastic containers. They looked pretty similar to the ones Niko used to carry water except these were bright red under the layer of dust and had an unusual yellow cap.

  “Is that ...?” Lo murmured, sharp fold eyes turning round as she stared at it.

  “I think so.” Niko said.

  “Gasoline.” Norm breathed, completing the trinity.

  Nobody said anything after that. Niko felt like she was about to cry and she could see that Norm’s and Lo’s eyes were wet as well. What was before them was worth more than all the copper wiring in the world could amount to, all the items they gathered seemed paltry in comparison. Hardly anybody could afford to use gasoline only the incredibly wealthy and the military.

  The containers had to have been from Before; anyone else in their right mind would have sold them by now instead of leaving it behind in a handcart to collect dust.

  Norm threw her arms around Lo. “We’re going to make so much money.” She crowed before giving Lo a big kiss.

  “How are we going to get it out of here?” Niko asked. It wasn’t a matter of simply walking out with two red containers. With something like that in their
hands they would not only get robbed, they would be killed.

  “The wheelbarrow –” Norm began but Lo interrupted her. “No, she’s right. We can’t take all of it, that’s too dangerous.” She got to her feet and dashed off. When she came back a few minutes later she carried a thermos in each hand.

  She hurriedly wiped off the filth that had accumulated on them and unscrewed the caps. “We don’t need to take the whole thing, even a little bit would fetch a good price and Gretchen probably knows a few buyers.”

  Norm made a face, now that they’d stumbled across a treasure she obviously didn’t want to take only a fraction of it and have someone else gutsier than them cart off the rest and make a fortune. “Okaaaay.” She finally said poking out her lower lip.

  “We can always come back later and get more.” Lo reassured her. Norm nodded though she didn’t look convinced.

  Lo began to uncap the gasoline container when they heard a crash coming back from where they had entered. All three whirled around. Niko and Lo remained in a crouch, Niko keeping a tight grip on both the screwdriver and her pocketknife. Lo’s eyes narrowed as she stared into the dimness.

  Norm stood upright the pole gripped in both hands. Niko strained to hear hoping for a voice, a muffled curse, anything to indicate that the intruder was human. She couldn’t fight a Slither with the two toothpicks she was carrying, not if she hoped to be alive at the end of it. Norm had the better weapon, but in the hands of someone who couldn’t kill Slithers it would be virtually useless.

  “Norm,” She whispered as a white form began to come into view. “Give me your pole.”

  “No.” Norm took a step forward as the Slither took them in, its multicolored eyes lit with delight.

  “You might get hurt.”