Niko Chapter excerpt

1

She had a baseball bat but she didn’t think that would work on the Slither.

It followed her from a distance but she couldn't see it whenever she glanced over her shoulder. It clung to the shadows, its claws scraping against the concrete. Its heavy, wet breathing caressing the back of her neck, slipping under the collar of her jacket like an invasive hand. She shivered.

Niko hunched deeper into her jacket the zipper grazing her earlobe like hungry teeth or an amorous lover. She resisted the urge to run, only prey ran and no one could outrun a Slither. The remnant of that failure was a common sight Outside, twisted bodies with their chest cracked open and their hearts missing. Niko had no intention of becoming prey.

She walked down the center of the street skirting potholes filled with water from a recent rain. As it had everything else around her the acid had slowly bored its way through the concrete leaving craters that reflected the moonlight in oily smears. Niko adjusted her grip on the bat; she could feel her heartbeat in the press of palm against wood. She shouldn't have been out so late, she should have done like every other sensible person and stayed locked inside but her brothers were hungry and she had promised them that this time, her third day of scavenging through corroded and abandoned building, she'd find them something to eat. It meant she had to go out further than she usually did and now shadow had fallen.

She quickened her pace, not quite a run but she didn't need to make it too easy for the thing. It was still following her, there was no need to glance over her shoulder to confirm it, the Slither's persistent panting was confirmation enough. A sigh puffed past her lips. She really had been hoping for an uneventful night.

She turned around and faced the monster.

What was most disturbing about Slithers was not their glowing, multicolored eyes or the razor-sharp claws that extended from the tips of their hands or even the crooked slithery walk they employed as they stalked their prey. The most disturbing about Slithers was how human they looked, there were even some people who thought that they had been human at one time. Niko didn't bother theorizing about monsters. It made them easier to kill.

The one she faced was a study of contrasts with pale skin and black hair. It pulled up short; its head tilted quizzically as it regarded her. She was not following the usual script long established between Slithers and humans. She was supposed to be running, perhaps while screaming ineffectually, and it was supposed to pursue her in a glorious chase.

She grinned at it lifting her hand in a wave. She let the bat slide free from her sleeve, a week ago she'd driven a large nail through the wood, giving it an extra kick.

The further she diverged from the script the more puzzled the Slither looked its mismatched eyes sliding between her and the weapon in her hand. Then it offered up a jerky shrug, food was food even if it was acting strange.

It attacked.

Detaching itself from the shadows and it ran toward her on all fours. Its claws tore up chunks of the sidewalk. An inhuman shriek blasted out of a mouth full of long narrow teeth. It leapt over rain filled holes, its eyes only on her and the place where her ribs tried to shield her rapidly pounding heart.

Niko stood her ground, eyes narrowed, bat raised. The thing came closer its excited pants the only sound filling her ears.

It neared, came closer, then just close enough. She swung a scream of her own filling the night.

Niko missed.

She stumbled, thrown off balance, and narrowly avoided falling into an acid puddle. She looked about her frantically searching for the Slither.