Niko Read online

  Chapter 2

  Niko blinked.

  “The rain is coming.” She shouted to Shawn. He stood outside, keeping a careful watch on their solar lamps.

  “But they hardly got any sun.” He complained glaring at the dark clouds roiling overhead.

  Niko sighed, “Then we’ll try again tomorrow, I don’t want you getting burned by the rain.”

  Shawn gave the sky one last glare before lugging the lamps inside. Giving the lamps sun everyday was his sole responsibility and he took it very seriously. He even carrying a little knife as he stood guard.

  As he set the last one on the floor the sky opened up, sending down a wall of acid rain. Niko shut the door and sealed the windows. The house was filled with the soft blue glow of fading solar lamps.

  The rain drummed hard on the roof but the corrosive water would never come inside. Back when they could afford it, an anti-acid cover had been installed on the roof. After their parents died she’d been worried someone would steal it until she learned that the accumulated layer of acid on the cover made it a convenient way to lose a hand.

  The three of them sat in a loose circle on the floor eating a dinner of canned peas, stretched with water, and potatoes.

  “Can you read the story?” Shawn asked, once they wiped clean the dishes and put them away.

  The story was a book that Niko had found scavenging. They didn’t know the title as the book had been stripped. It was missing the first chapter as well as the last few but she and Jared still took turns reading it aloud.

  She looked at Jared and he hurried to the bed with an excited smile and tugged the novel from beneath the mattress. Niko flipped to the bookmarked page. Shawn watched her with rapt eyes as they dived into a world unlike their own.

  ***

  Niko opened her eyes; the world was blurry and white with shapeless shadows hovering above her.

  “Um, she’s waking up.”

  “Crap, that was fast.”

  “Come on, Malik, I can’t pull it out if she’s awake. I need it – now!”

  Something pricked her arm and her eyes closed again.