Niko Read online

  ***

  “You sure you don’t want to come up front?” Ben’s voice sounded strange coming through the headset he insisted she wear, distant even though his words were being piped right into her ears.

  “I’m sure!” She said back, yelling in spite of his instructions not to. He winced as her voice blared into his ears.

  If she was going to knock him unconscious she thought it would be better to do it from behind.

  “Okay,” he said. “Here we go.”

  With a slight jerk they began to rise straight up in the air leaving Niko’s stomach behind. She moaned pressing a hand to her mouth and belly.

  “Yeah,” Ben’s voice came into her ear. “It’s always like that at first but you get used to it.”

  Niko quickly realized why he wanted her to wear the headset; she could barely hear anything over the rotating blades much less someone trying to speak to her from a foot away.

  They rose higher the concrete buildings on either side sliding past like a grey waterfall. Then they broke free.

  They hovered in the air; the sky above them was a rich jewel colored blue, not a cloud in sight and a new feeling swept through Niko. She wished the sky was a physical thing something she could touch and feel its smooth surface beneath her hand. She laughed out loud.

  Below the city was on display like a market ware, though she didn’t think she’d buy it. It was mostly grey with lines bisecting it forming neat streets and avenues; occasionally she could see the glitter of greenhouses and the behemoth of the water treatment plant. Further away from the center the ramshackle neighborhoods of the Grey-men huddled close to the city wall, beyond that was Outside, where Slithers roamed freely.

  Ben banked left and her stomach swung like a pendulum. She didn’t think she was going to ever get used to it.

  They flew over a new landscape of pitted, crumbling buildings and giant potholes filled with rainwater.

  “We try to distribute fairly.” Ben was saying. “Spread out as much as we can and not hit one place too many times, though I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if we did.” He laughed. “It also keeps gangs from taking over and extorting people. We’re trying to help them not make things worse.”

  Her stomach flipped at the mention of gangs and her mind immediately went to her brother. Was he all right?

  “Has anyone tried to steal the helicopter?” She wouldn’t want him to be without a way back home.

  “I don’t see how.” He said. “It’s not like any of them know how to fly it. Though sometimes things get heated and I think they’re going to attempt to destroy it but they’re smart people. We’re the only ones I know trying to help.”

  Niko breathed a mental sigh of relief; it’d be all right to knock him unconscious then.

  “Sooooo,” Ben began leadingly. “How are things between you and Malik now that you know what’s going to happen to him?”

  “It’s none of your business.” She said abruptly. She hoped he wasn’t going to continue asking questions like that. She’d rather try leaving the city on foot, alone, with no weapons and Slithers prowling around the perimeter. She did not want to talk about it.

  Behind them the city grew smaller and smaller until it was a speck in the distance. Below the ravaged landscape hardly changed though sometimes they flew over small pockets of communities vibrant with color and life. She could sometimes make out children pointing at the wonder flying above them.

  “We should be there in less than ten minutes.” Ben’s voice was in her ear.

  “Great.” She said carefully sliding a bat out of her bag. She tried not to make a sound though if she did she doubted he would be able to hear anything over the roar of the blades.

  She gazed out of the window trying to calm the pounding of her heart. They flew over a neighborhood that had been bombed years before her parents were born in one of the last attempts to wipe out Slithers forever. Now the creatures crawled over the remains, still very much alive.

  Suddenly there was a high-pitched whine followed by a grinding crunch and the rotation of the blades slowed considerably.

  “What was that?” Niko gripped her seat, her knuckles turning white as she stared at the aircraft’s ceiling.

  “I have no idea.” Ben said. “It doesn’t sound---”

  The helicopter dropped. Ben swore and Niko screamed, her stomach crawling up her throat where it decided to take a permanent residence.

  Slithers glanced up as the helicopter slowed then stabilized, the damaged blades struggling gamely to keep them aloft.

  “It’s okay, it’s okay.” Ben said soothingly. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to calm her or himself. “Something must have gotten caught in the blades. Things are difficult but not obscenely impossible. I could probably land this thing.” He concluded with an audible sigh of relief.

  Then as if laughing at his optimism the blades shut down entirely. The nose of the helicopter dipped and bags and bat began to slide across the floor. The seat belt around her waist was the only thing that kept her from joining them.

  It began to spin as it fell, the view outside of the window turning into a blur of blue and grey, like some of the paintings in the hotel, then less blue and more grey entered the picture as they neared the ground. The bags lifted off the floors and hers and Ben’s screams mingled in her ears.

  They crashed into a tree. Branches thrust their barren limbs inside with a shower of sharp glass and the screech of twisting metal. She barely had time to register that she was alive when something tumbled toward her head.

  She blacked out.